ISABEL. As the leaf upon the tree, Her heart was fed with love-springs sweet, She knew it not, but she was fair, Her heart and tongue were scarce apart, And love came gushing from her heart, So pure her flesh-garb, and like dew, A sunbeam struggling through thick leaves, Less gladsome were;- my spirit grieves I know not when I loved thee first; With silent tears my cheeks are wet, The winds mourn for thee, Isabel, They fell as lovingly as thou At dead of night I seem to see MUSIC. I. I SEEM to lie with drooping eyes, Half longings and half memories, With trembling shades and whirling gleams, In song and light, Are ever, ever flowing; While the wind, if we list to the rustling grass, Which numbers his footsteps as they pass, Seems scarcely to be blowing; And the far-heard voice of Spring, That bound them under snow-drifts deep, Of Acheloüs' silver-voiced daughters Rose and fell with the heaving sea, Whose great heart swelled with ecstasy The song of many a floating bird, Is dreamily half-heard — A sister stream of melodies Rippled by the flutterings II. And now beside a cataract Through the darkness all compact, Downward from its floating home, Lighting up the precipice And the never-resting foam III. Now listening to a woman's tone, Alone because our souls are one; I fear to speak, I fear to move, Into my inmost soul it goes, IV. Now in a fairy boat, On the bright waves of song, Full merrily I float, My helm is veered, I care not how, Before, behind, They feel the wind, And they are dancing joyously While, faintly heard, along the far-off shore The surf goes plunging with a lingering roar; Or anchored in a shadowy cove, Entranced with harmonies, Slowly I sink and rise As the slow waves of music move. V. Now softly dashing, Bubbling, plashing, Mazy, dreamy, Faint and streamy, Ripples into ripples melt, While the heart beats thick, As if the spirit's ears Had caught the anthem of a star Chanting with his brother-spheres In the midnight dark and deep, When the body is asleep And wondrous shadows pour in streams From the twofold gate of dreams; Now onward roll the billows, swelling With a tempest-sound of might, As of voices doom foretelling To the silent ear of Night; I have drunk of the drink of immortals, I have drunk it through mine ears When mine eyes would fill with tears And now around my soul it lies, I can flutter, I can rise, Like a new life gushing through me Sweep the heavenly harmonies! SONG. O! I MUST look on that sweet face once more before I die; God grant that it may lighten up with joy when I draw nigh; God grant that she may look on me as kindly as she seems In the long night, the restless night, i' the sunny land of dreams! I hoped, I thought, she loved me once, and yet, I know not why, There is a coldness in her speech, and a coldness in her eye. Something that in another's look would not seem cold to me, And yet like ice I feel it chill the heart of memory. She does not come to greet me so frankly as she did, |