"Yet, since I first could cast a shade, Did never creature pass So slightly, musically made, So light upon the grass: "For as to fairies, that will flit Oh, hide thy knotted knees in fern, And from thy topmost branch discern But thou, whereon I carved her name, That oft hast heard my vows, Declare when last Olivia came To sport beneath thy boughs. "O yesterday, you know, the fair "And with him Albert came on his. I look'd at him with joy : As cowslip unto oxlip is, So seems she to the boy. "An hour had past—and, sitting straight Within the low-wheel'd chaise, Her mother trundled to the gate "But, as for her, she stay'd at home, And down the way you use to come, "She left the novel half-uncut "Then ran she, gamesome as the colt, She sent her voice thro' all the holt "A light wind chased her on the wing, As close as might be would he cling "But light as any wind that blows So fleetly did she stir, The flower, she touch'd on, dipt and rose, And turn'd to look at her. "And here she came, and round me play'd, And sang to me the whole Of those three stanzas that you made About my 'giant bole;' "And in a fit of frolic mirth She strove to span my waist : "I wish'd myself the fair young beech That round me, clasping each in each, "Yet seem'd the pressure thrice as sweet As woodbine's fragile hold, Or when I feel about my feet O muffle round thy knees with fern, But tell me, did she read the name When last with throbbing heart I came "O yes, she wander'd round and round These knotted knees of mine, And found, and kiss'd the name she found, And sweetly murmur'd thine. "A teardrop trembled from its source, My sense of touch is something coarse, "Then flush'd her cheek with rosy light, "Her kisses were so close and kind, "And even into my inmost ring Like those blind motions of the Spring, 66 Thrice-happy he that may caress The ringlet's waving balm— The cushions of whose touch may press The maiden's tender palm. "I, rooted here among the groves, But languidly adjust My vapid vegetable loves With anthers and with dust: "For ah! my friend, the days were brief Whereof the poets talk, When that, which breathes within the leaf, Could slip its bark and walk. "But could I, as in times foregone, "She had not found me so remiss ; I would have paid her kiss for kiss, O flourish high, with leafy towers, Pursue thy loves among the bowers O flourish, hidden deep in fern, A thousand thanks for what I learn |