At the moment of thy birth, From old well-heads of haunted rills, And shadow'd coves on a sunny shore, To deck thy cradle, Eleänore. 2. Or the yellow-banded bees, Fed thee, a child, lying alone, With whitest honey in fairy gardens cull'd A glorious child, dreaming alone, In silk-soft folds, upon yielding down, With the hum of swarming bees Into dreamful slumber lull'd. 3. Who may minister to thee? Summer herself should minister To thee, with fruitage golden-rinded With many a deep-hued bell-like flower Of fragrant trailers, when the air Sleepeth over all the heaven, All along the shadowy shore, Crimsons over an inland mere, Eleanore ! 4. How may full-sail'd verse express, How may measured words adore The full-flowing harmony Of thy swan-like stateliness, Eleanore? The luxuriant symmetry Of thy floating gracefulness, Eleanore? Every turn and glance of thine, Eleänore, And the steady sunset glow, From one censer, in one shrine, Mingle ever. Motions flow They were modulated so To an unheard melody, Which lives about thee, and a sweep Drawn from each other mellow-deep; 5. I stand before thee, Eleänore; I see thy beauty gradually unfold, Slowly, as from a cloud of gold, The languors of thy love-deep eyes Float on to me. I would I were So tranced, so rapt in ecstacies, To stand apart, and to adore, Serene, imperial Eleänore! 6. Sometimes, with most intensity Gazing, I seem to see Thought folded over thought, smiling asleep, Slowly awaken'd grow so full and deep G In thy large eyes, that, overpower'd quite, But am as nothing in its light : As tho' a star, in inmost heaven set, Should slowly round his orb, and slowly grow To a full face, there like a sun remain Fix'd-then as slowly fade again, And draw itself to what it was before; Thought seems to come and go 7. As thunder-clouds that, hung on high, Roof'd the world with doubt and fear, Floating thro' an evening atmosphere, Grow golden all about the sky; In thee all passion becomes passionless, In a silent meditation, Falling into a still delight, And luxury of contemplation: As waves that up a quiet cove Shadow forth the banks at will: Or sometimes they swell and move, With motions of the outer sea: And the self-same influence His bow-string slacken'd, languid Love, 8. But when I see thee roam, with tresses unconfined, While the amorous, odorous wind Breathes low between the sunset and the moon; Or, in a shadowy saloon, On silken cushions half reclined; I watch thy grace; and in its place Thro' my veins to all my frame, Dissolvingly and slowly soon From thy rose-red lips My name G 2 |