Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/202

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198
ANGELS.

Still to-morrow and to-morrow
Drooping willows weep in sorrow—
Yet where glancing waves are leaping.
Softly sleeping, softly sleeping,
Lella lies.


ANGELS.

I dreamed that I was floating in a tiny boat and fair—
Floating—floating—softly floating through the blue and dreamy air!
And my boat was but a shining cloud of pure and pearly white,
With its sails and graceful curvings tinted with a golden light.
And the gentle breath of heaven moved it murmuringly along,
With a ripple and a motion soft as swelling of a song.
Sweetly, sweetly rose the music from the undulating air ;
Softly to its rise and falling moved the snowy boat and rare;
While, within its bosom resting did I dreaming float along.
Till my heart kept time in beating to the motion and the song.
Ah, how dizzily delicious! my wild pulse would not be still!
Floating—floating—every motion through ray being sent a thrill!
Loosened were my flowing tresses, and they streamed upon the air
Till they seemed to catch the glory that was glowing everywhere;
And my form was draped in tissue, half the lily, half the rose—
Just the color that the sunset through a pearly vapor throws!
And a wreath like shining starlight was around my forehead flung.
And my lips were softly singing what the azure ripples sung.
How I wondered why I floated through the ether's dizzy height—
Why my garments and my tresses grew so beautifully bright!
And the more and more I wondered all the music had a sound
As if "angel—angel—angel!" was murmuring all around.
Half delighted and half trembling, full of sweet, uncertain dread,
I unconsciously repeated what the whisper round me said.
Angel? murmured I, inquiring, when I saw, with sudden start,