Poems (Bushnell)/The Golden Prime

by Frances Louisa Bushnell

XL
THE GOLDEN PRIME

"—the golden prime of this sweet prince."

Never so fair a May was seen,
 Never an evening half so fair;
Then first I knew what Maytimes mean,
 First deeply breathed the vernal air,
First looked through Nature's sylvan screen,
And saw herself in robe of green.

The breathing dusk, the dreaming sky,
 Were with a thousand meanings fraught;
But all my thoughts were scented by
 The sweetness of a single thought.
Wide flew my heart, yet circled nigh,
As happy swallows wheel and fly.

The world, for me, was newly made,
 And given unto my heart for food;
And scent and blossom, bud and blade,
 Were in its waking understood.
All things the inward mood obeyed,
For life its spell upon them laid.

Behind the budding sycamore
 I saw the new moon's golden boat,
Without a sail, without an oar,
 Adown the leafy lattice float,
And touch the ether's rosy shore.
Never was moon so new before.

Nor far, Love's star looked trembling through,
 As if but then it learned to shine;
And Love's first smiles shone heavenly true,
 They were so newly, freshly mine.
And in that hour my soul outgrew
Itself, and found itself anew.