For, set in agate, translucent, blue,
A starry circle of amber hue,
Spread intricate traceries fair;
Choanite-sponge-give name as you will,
For ages dead, yet beautiful still,
It opened again to the air.
Whose hand embalmed its delicate form?
What gave it power to withstand the storm?
I mused as I wandered alone.
I, who feared the future, mourned the past,
Found a pebble-broke it-read at last
A sermon, God-written, on stone.
WAKE, lady, wake, the glowworm's light,
On mossy banks is shining bright;
The dew with pearls has decked the flowers,
The nightingale from rosy bowers
Chants lays of love, and everywhere
The musky may perfumes the air.
Wake, lady, wake!
The breeze is whispering fairy spells,
Faint music rings from pale blue-bells,
The merry elves in robes of green
Are dancing in the starlight's sheen;
While rising from earth's purple bloom,
The moon makes silvery all the gloom.
Wake, lady, wake
Wake, lady, wake, the woodbine sweet
Will bow its blossoms to thy feet,
The rose, when thy fair form appears,
Bend down and blush 'mid envious tears;
The moon wax pale, and with surprise,
The stars grow dim before thine eyes.
Wake, lady, wake!
Wake, lady, wake, the glare of day
Too quickly drives night's joys away;
The cruel sun will quench too soon
The tender glances of the moon.
I linger, longing; love, arise,
For with the dawn my daylight dies.
Wake, lady, wake!
WHERE silvery birches branches wave,
And rippling streamlets fern-roots lave,
I found her;
And half in earnest, half in jest,
I cast my arm with thorough zest,
Around her.
A start, a bound, a frightened cry,
A fair flushed face, a flashing eye,
Half weeping,
Beneath a coil of tangled hair,
Where glimmering gold-lights glittered fair
I trembled then- -a sudden thrill
Deadened my voice, benumbed my
I faltered;
And I was caught while she ran free,
And all my life thenceforth in me
Was altered.
She deftly wove a potent spell,
With words and looks remembered well, Around me ;
That I no more her charms can fly,
And to her heart till I shall die,
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