A FAREWELL FLOW down, cold rivulet, to the sea, Thy tribute wave deliver : No more by thee my steps shall be, For ever and for ever. Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea, No where by thee my steps shall be, But here will sigh thine alder tree, And here thine aspen shiver ; And here by thee will hum the bee, For ever and for ever. A thousand suns will stream on thee, A thousand moons will quiver; But not by thee my steps shall be, For ever and for ever. THE BEGGAR MAID. HER arms across her breast she laid ; In robe and crown the king stept down, As shines the moon in clouded skies, So sweet a face, such angel grace, In all that land had never been: Cophetua sware a royal oath: "This beggar maid shall be my queen THE VISION OF SIN. 1. I HAD a vision when the night was late : A youth came riding toward a palace-gate. He rode a horse with wings, that would have flown, Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and capes- By heaps of gourds, and skins of wine, and piles of grapes. 2. Then methought I heard a mellow sound, Wov'n in circles: they that heard it sigh'd, Till thronging in and in, to where they waited, As 'twere a hundred-throated nightingale, The strong tempestuous treble throbb'd and palpitated; Ran into its giddiest whirl of sound, Caught the sparkles, and in circles, Purple gauzes, golden hazes, liquid mazes, Flung the torrent rainbow round : Then they started from their places, Hair, and eyes, and limbs, and faces, Like to Furies, like to Graces, Dash'd together in blinding dew: The nerve-dissolving melody Flutter'd headlong from the sky. And then I look'd up 3. toward a mountain-tract, That girt the region with high cliff and lawn : I saw that every morning, far withdrawn God made himself an awful rose of dawn, 4. "Wrinkled ostler, grim and thin! Here is custom come your way; "Bitter barmaid, waning fast! See that sheets are on my bed; |