| |
From “The Fire-Worshippers”
“HOW sweetly,” said the trembling maid, | |
| Of her own gentle voice afraid, | |
| So long had they in silence stood, | |
| Looking upon that moonlight flood,— | |
| “How sweetly does the moonbeam smile | 5 |
| To-night upon yon leafy isle! | |
| Oft in my fancy’s wanderings, | |
| I ’ve wished that little isle had wings, | |
| And we, within its fairy bowers, | |
| Were wafted off to seas unknown, | 10 |
| Where not a pulse should beat but ours, | |
| And we might live, love, die alone! | |
| Far from the cruel and the cold,— | |
| Where the bright eyes of angels only | |
| Should come around us, to behold | 15 |
| A paradise so pure and lonely! | |
| Would this be world enough for thee?”— | |
| Playful she turned, that he might see | |
| The passing smile her cheek put on; | |
| But when she marked how mournfully | 20 |
| His eyes met hers, that smile was gone; | |
| And, bursting into heartfelt tears, | |
| “Yes, yes,” she cried, “my hourly fears, | |
| My dreams, have boded all too right,— | |
| We part—forever part—to-night! | 25 |
| I knew, I knew it could not last,— | |
| ’T was bright, ’t was heavenly, but ’t is past! | |
| O, ever thus, from childhood’s hour, | |
| I ’ve seen my fondest hopes decay; | |
| I never loved a tree or flower | 30 |
| But ’t was the first to fade away. | |
| I never nursed a dear gazelle, | |
| To glad me with its soft black eye, | |
| But when it came to know me well, | |
| And love me, it was sure to die! | 35 |
| Now, too, the joy most like divine | |
| Of all I ever dreamt or knew, | |
| To see thee, hear thee, call thee mine,— | |
| O misery! must I lose that too?” | |
| |
