And when night came the isle was lighted up
With myriads of glowing natural lamps,
A beautiful green brilliance, which the moon
Veined with pure crystal, and the many stars
Like glories scattered o'er the midnight sky.
Just in the middle of the sunny Isle,
Lonely and fragrant, stood one graceful tree,
A rose accacia, whose pink boughs were linked
By silver fetters of the jessamine:
Together they had formed a perfumed bower,
A green turf, dropped with violets, the floor.
And there a radiant creature dwelt, a Girl
Lovely as love's first likeness, innocent
As the white antelope, whose large dark eyes,
Or the dove's softer blue ones, gave alone
Her own deep looks of tenderness again.
She dwelt a fairy in a fairy Isle:
Her only knowledge, that she knew the Spring
Brought blossoms, and the Summer fruit; that night
Was beautiful with stars and with the moon;
That the sun rose over the hill of palms,
And sank in the red billows of the sea;
No other language than some soft sweet sounds
She had caught from the voices of the birds
When singing to the morning, and the notes
Sent from the waterfall, when, like a harp,
It held discourse in music with the wind.
- - - But a tall ship came over the far sea,
And bore the Maiden of the sunny Isle
Away from her sweet home, to other lands.
And there she dwell, 'mid pleasure and surprise,
The loveliest amid the many lovely.
To what may youth's first joyance be compared?
To daylight, and the glad song of the lark
Bursting together,—to a sudden gush
Of perfume, till the giddy senses link
With overmuch delight,—a dream,—a tale,
Of Paradise, told in fair poesy.
