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. Who may 3. minister to thee? Summer herself should minister To thee, with fruitage golden-rinded On golden salvers, or it may be, Youngest Autumn, in a bower Grape-thicken'd from the light, and blinded With many a deep-hued bell-like flower Of fragrant trailers, when the air Sleepeth over all the heaven, And the crag that fronts the Even, Crimsons over an inland mere, Eleänore! 4. How may How full-sail'd verse express, may measured words adore The full-flowing harmony Of thy swan-like stateliness, Eleänore? 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, Thought and motion mingle, Mingle ever. Motions flow To an unheard melody, Which lives about thee, and a sweep 5. I stand before thee, Eleänore; I see thy beauty gradually unfold, Slowly, as from a cloud of gold, Comes out thy deep ambrosial smile. muse, as in a trance, whene'er The languors of thy love-deep eyes To stand apart, and to adore, 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, I cannot veil, or droop my sight, But am as nothing in its light: As tho' a star, in inmost heaven set, Should slowly round his orb, and slowly grow 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, 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: Controlleth all the soul and sense Droops both his wings, regarding thee, 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, From thy rose-red lips MY name Floweth; and then, as in a swoon, |