Page:Summer on the lakes, in 1843.djvu/81

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TRIFORMIS.
71


 
TRIFORMIS.
 
So pure her forehead's dazzling white,
 So swift and clear her radiant eyes,
Within the treasure of whose light
 Lay undeveloped destinies, —
Of thoughts repressed such hidden store
 Was hinted by each flitting smile,
I could but wonder and adore,
 Far off, in awe, I gazed the while.
 
I gazed at her, as at the moon,
 Hanging in lustrous twilight skies,
Whose virgin crescent, sinking soon,
 Peeps through the leaves before it flies.
Untouched Diana, flitting dim,
 While sings the wood its evening hymn.
 
II.
Again we met. O joyful meeting!
 Her radiance now was all for me,
Like kindly airs her kindly greeting,
 So full, so musical, so free.
Within romantic forest aisles,
 Within romantic paths we walked,
I bathed me in her sister smiles,
 I breathed her beauty as we talked.
 
So full-orbed Cynthia walks the skies,
 Filling the earth with melodies,
Even so she condescends to kiss
 Drowsy Endymions, coarse and dull,
Or fills our waking souls with bliss,
 Making long nights too beautiful.