Each baron at the banquet sleeps, 6. All round a hedge upshoots, and shows And grapes with bunches red as blood; 7. When will the hundred summers die, Come, Care and Pleasure, Hope and Pain, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. 1. YEAR after year unto her feet, The maiden's jet-black hair has grown, On either side her tranced form Forth streaming from a braid of pearl : The slumbrous light is rich and warm, And moves not on the rounded curl. 2. The silk star-broider'd coverlid Unto her limbs itself doth mould Languidly ever; and, amid Her full black ringlets downward roll'd, Glows forth each softly shadow'd arm With bracelets of the diamond bright: Her constant beauty doth inform Stillness with love, and day with light. 3. She sleeps her breathings are not heard : In palace chambers far apart. The fragrant tresses are not stirr'd That lie upon her charmed heart. She sleeps on either hand upswells The gold-fringed pillow lightly prest : She sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwells A perfect form in perfect rest. THE ARRIVAL. 1. ALL precious things, discover'd late, His mantle glitters on the rocks 2. -- The bodies and the bones of those Or scatter'd blanching on the grass. They perish'd in their daring deeds." This proverb flashes thro' his head, "The many fail: the one succeeds." 3. He comes, scarce knowing what he seeks: He breaks the hedge: he enters there: The color flies into his cheeks: He trusts to light on something fair; For all his life the charm did talk About his path, and hover near With words of promise in his walk, And whisper'd voices at his ear. 4. More close and close his footsteps wind: The Magic Music in his heart Beats quick and quicker, till he find The quiet chamber far apart. His spirit flutters like a lark, He stoops — to kiss her on his knee. "Love, if thy tresses be so dark, How dark those hidden eyes must be!" THE REVIVAL. 1. 'A TOUCH, a kiss! the charm was snapt. A breeze thro' all the garden swept, 2. The hedge broke in, the banner blew, The parrot scream'd, the peacock squall'd, The maid and page renew'd their strife, The palace bang'd, and buzz'd, and clackt, And all the long-pent stream of life Dash'd downward in a cataract. 3. And last with these the king awoke, And in his chair himself uprear'd, And yawn'd, and rubb'd his face, and spoke, 'By holy rood, a royal beard! How say you? we have slept, my lords. The barons swore, with many words, 4. "Pardy," return'd the king, "but still My joints are somewhat stiff or so. My lord, and shall we pass the bill I mention'd half an hour ago?" The chancellor, sedate and vain, In courteous words return'd reply: But dallied with his golden chain, And, smiling, put the question by. THE DEPARTURE. 1. AND on her lover's arm she leant, Beyond their utmost purple rim, 2. "I'd sleep another hundred years, O love, for such another kiss;" "O wake forever, love," she hears, "O love, 't was such as this and this." And o'er them many a sliding star, And many a merry wind was borne, And, stream'd thro' many a golden bar, The twilight melted into morn. “O happy kiss, that woke thy sleep!" "O love, thy kiss would wake the dead!" And o'er them many a flowing range Of vapor buoy'd the crescent-bark, And, rapt thro' many a rosy change, 4. "A hundred summers! can it be? And whither goest thou, tell me where?" "O seek my father's court with me, For there are greater wonders there." And o'er the hills, and far away Thro' all the world she follow'd him. MORAL. So, Lady Flora, take my lay, What moral is in being fair. The wildweed-flower that simply blows? And is there any moral shut Within the bosom of the rose? 2. But any man that walks the mead, In bud or blade, or bloom, may find, According as his humors lead, A meaning suited to his mind. And liberal applications lie In Art like Nature, dearest friend; So 't were to cramp its use, if I Should hook it to some useful end. L'ENVOI 1. A random string You shake your head. Your finer female sense offends. Well were it not a pleasant thing To fall asleep with all one's friends; To pass with all our social ties To silence from the paths of men; And every hundred years to rise And learn the world, and sleep again; To sleep thro' terms of mighty wars, And wake on science grown to more, On secrets of the brain, the stars, As wild as aught of fairy lore; And all that else the years will show, The Poet-forms of stronger hours, The vast Republics that may grow, The Federations and the Powers; Titanic forces taking birth In divers seasons, divers climes; For we are Ancients of the earth, And in the morning of the times. |