came To him held dumb for shame:

p. 35

Even so my spirit passed, and won, through fears That trembled nigh despair; through foolish tears, And hope fallen weak in breathless flight, Where beamed in pure entrancing light Love’s beauty on my sight.

For when we reached a hollow, where the stone And scattered fragments of the shells lay strown, By margin of a weedy rill;  “This air,” she said, “feels damp and chill, We’ll go home if you will.”

“Make not my pathway dull so soon,” I cried; “See how yon clouds of rosy eventide p. 36Roll out their splendour: while the breeze Shifts gold from leaf to leaf, as these Lithe saplings move at ease!”

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Grateful, in her deep silence, one loud thrush Startled the air with song; then every bush Of covert songsters all awoke, And all, as to their leader’s stroke, Into full chorus broke.

A lonely wind sighed up the pines, and sung Of woes long past, forgot. My spirit hung O’er awful gulfs: and loathly dread So bitter was I wished me dead, And from a great void said;

“Wait till its glory fade; the sun but burned To light your loveliness!” The Lady turned To me, flushed by its lingering rays, Mute as a star. My frantic praise Fixed wide her brightened gaze:

p. 37When, rapt in resolution, I told all The mighty love I bore her; how would pall My very breath of life, if she For ever breathed not hers with me:—  Could I a spirit be,

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How, vainly hoping to enrich her grace, What gems and wonders would I snatch from space; Would back through the vague distance beat, Glowing with joy her smile to meet, And heap them round her feet!

Her waist shook to my arm. She bowed her head To mine in silence, and my fears had fled:  (Just then we heard a tolling bell.)  Ah no; it is not right to tell; But I remember well

How dear the pressure of her warm young breast Against my own, her home; how proud and blessed p. 38I stood and felt her trickling tears, While proudly murmuring in her ears The hope of distant years.

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The rest I keep: a holy charm, a source Of secret strength and comfort on my course. Her 

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