FIORDISPINA
625
But thou art as a planet sphered above;
But thou art Love itself—ruling the motion
Of his subjected spirit: such emotion
Must end in sin and sorrow, if sweet May
Had not brought forth this morn—your wedding-day. 30
·······
'Lie there; sleep awhile in your own dew,
Ye faint-eyed children of theHours,'
Fiordispina said, and threw the flowers
Which she had from the breathing—
·······
A table near of polished porphyry. 35
They seemed to wear a beauty from the eye
That looked on them—a fragrance from the touch
Whose warmthchecked their life; a light such
As sleepers wear, lulled by the voice they love,
which did reprove 40
The childish pity that she felt for them,
And aremorse that from their stem
She had divided such fair shapesmade
A feeling in thewhich was a shade
Of gentle beauty on the flowers: there lay 45
All gems that make the earth's dark bosom gay.
rods of myrtle-buds and lemon-blooms,
And that leaf tinted lightly which assumes
The livery of unremembered snow—
Violets whose eyes have drunk— 50
·······
Fiordispina and her nurse are now
Upon the steps of the high portico;
Under the withered arm of Media
She flings her glowing arm
·······
step by step and stair by stair, 55
That withered woman, gray and white and brown—
More like a trunk by lichens overgrown
Than anything which once could have been human.
And ever as she goes the palsied woman
·······
'How slow and painfully you seem to walk, 60
Poor Media! you tire yourself with talk.'
'And well it may,
Fiordispina, dearest—well-a-day!
You are hastening to a marriage-bed;
I to the grave!'—'And if my love were dead, 65
Unless my heart deceives me, I would lie
Beside him in my shroud as willingly
As now in the gay night-dress Lilla wrought.'
'Fie, child! Let that unseasonable thought
Not be remembered till it snows in June; 70
Such fancies are a music out of tune
But thou art Love itself—ruling the motion
Of his subjected spirit: such emotion
Must end in sin and sorrow, if sweet May
Had not brought forth this morn—your wedding-day. 30
·······
'Lie there; sleep awhile in your own dew,
Ye faint-eyed children of theHours,'
Fiordispina said, and threw the flowers
Which she had from the breathing—
·······
A table near of polished porphyry. 35
They seemed to wear a beauty from the eye
That looked on them—a fragrance from the touch
Whose warmthchecked their life; a light such
As sleepers wear, lulled by the voice they love,
which did reprove 40
The childish pity that she felt for them,
And aremorse that from their stem
She had divided such fair shapesmade
A feeling in thewhich was a shade
Of gentle beauty on the flowers: there lay 45
All gems that make the earth's dark bosom gay.
rods of myrtle-buds and lemon-blooms,
And that leaf tinted lightly which assumes
The livery of unremembered snow—
Violets whose eyes have drunk— 50
·······
Fiordispina and her nurse are now
Upon the steps of the high portico;
Under the withered arm of Media
She flings her glowing arm
·······
step by step and stair by stair, 55
That withered woman, gray and white and brown—
More like a trunk by lichens overgrown
Than anything which once could have been human.
And ever as she goes the palsied woman
·······
'How slow and painfully you seem to walk, 60
Poor Media! you tire yourself with talk.'
'And well it may,
Fiordispina, dearest—well-a-day!
You are hastening to a marriage-bed;
I to the grave!'—'And if my love were dead, 65
Unless my heart deceives me, I would lie
Beside him in my shroud as willingly
As now in the gay night-dress Lilla wrought.'
'Fie, child! Let that unseasonable thought
Not be remembered till it snows in June; 70
Such fancies are a music out of tune
