EPILOGUE. So, Lady Flora, take my lay, And, if you find a meaning there, O whisper to your glass, and say, "What wonder, if he thinks me fair?" What wonder I was all unwise, To shape the song for your delight, Like long-tailed birds of Paradise, That float through Heaven, and cannot light? Or old-world trains, upheld at court Nor finds a closer truth than this All-graceful head, so richly curled, And evermore a costly kiss, The prelude to some brighter world. For since the time when Adam first And every bird of Eden burst In carol, every bud to flower, What eyes, like thine, have wakened hopes? Yet sleeps a dreamless sleep to me; That lets thee neither hear nor see: But break it. In the name of wife, Are clasped the moral of thy life, EPILOGUE. So, Lady Flora, take my lay, And, if you find a meaning there, To shape the song for your delight, Like long-tailed birds of Paradise, That float through Heaven, and cannot light? Or old-world trains, upheld at court By Cupid-boys of blooming hueBut take it earnest wed with sport, And either sacred unto you. Nor finds a closer truth than this All-graceful head, so richly curled, And evermore a costly kiss, The prelude to some brighter world. For since the time when Adam first And every bird of Eden burst In carol, every bud to flower, What eyes, like thine, have wakened hopes? Yet sleeps a dreamless sleep to me; That lets thee neither hear nor see: Are clasped the moral of thy life, EPILOGUE. So, Lady Flora, take my lay, And, if you find a meaning there, To shape the song for your delight, Like long-tailed birds of Paradise, That float through Heaven, and cannot light? Or old-world trains, upheld at court By Cupid-boys of blooming hue But take it earnest wed with sport, And either sacred unto you. |