form And perfect face, my sins are swept away, As is the unclean wrack, upon the shore, Swept by the ocean. Ay! and in its place Are left pure pearls and shells and wonders such As only dwell where man can never go— Thy thoughts, Virginia, pure as virgin snow. Virg. Last night I lay awake amid the dark, Hearing the music of the fount without My window; sharply, trebly sweet it broke The heavy, voiceless gloom of slumbering Nature and sleeping men. Awake, I dreamed Of all the bliss the gentle gods have placed Within my hold. Then, like a swelling sea, High in my bosom rose the newborn love.[24] I thought of how it grew, so shy, so slow, At first like faltering breeze that lightly stirs And lifts the tiny feather o'er the heart Of nesting bird, then gaming courage, grows Into a gentle wind until the soul Within leaps up, and mighty, strong, and free, Soars on celestial wings above the raving sea.

[22]

  Virginia,

    Icilius,

[23]

[24]

[A silence falls, during which a light begins to break in the eastern sky.

Icilius. We have outsighed the day; the rising moon Her benediction smiles upon this spot, Where breathes and hopes and loves Virginia. Virg. She signals faintly, from the brightening east, To thee, my hero and my love. Icilius. One kiss, One kiss in honor of fair Cynthia. May blessings come to thee with every ray From yonder orb which rises o'er the hills Of Rome and lights a glory in thy hair. Elusive soul! this moment dost thou seem A chaste, pale spirit of the lonely moon, A white Diana of nocturnal glades, Yet in the magic of the ardent sun I've seen thee flame into an Aphrodite, A glowing type of passion and desire. My love, my full and perfected ideal, My Helen and my delicate Ænone. My nymph and my incomparable queen In one. Come closer to my arms, beloved! I would not lose in any sense or thought A moment spent with thee, Virginia. Virg. (in his arms). Closer, ay, closer, as the days go by, Deeper and deeper, stronger and more strong,[25] Each in the other till we are not two, A man and maid, but one, but one. Oh! say How close I am to thee, Icilius? Icilius. As close as vein to leaf, or leaf to stem; As close as is the rose-flush in the heart Of ocean's shell unto the shell itself; Close as 

 Prev. P 17/46 next