"O last days of the year!" she whispered low, "You fly too swiftly past. Ah, you might stay A while, a little while. Do you not know What tender things you bear with you away? ...
O happy time of youthful lovers (thus My story may begin) O balmy time, In which a love-knot on a lady's brow Is fairer than the fairest star in heaven! To such inheritance of blessed fancy...
Ah, Wind, I have always loved thee Since those far off nights When I lay beneath the vines A prey to strange delights, For among my tresses Thy soft caresses Were sweet as a lover's to me. ...
Veils, everywhere float veils; veils long and black, Framing white faces, oft-times young and fair, But, like a rose touched by untimely frost, Showing the blighting marks of sorrow's track. ...
Come, come to me, love! Come, love!--Arise And shame the bright stars With the light of thine eyes; Look out from thy lattice-- Oh, lady-bird, hear! A swan on the water-- My gondola's near!...
Let it sink, let it sink On the pungent-petaled pink By those poppy puffs; Fairy-fashioned downiness, Light, weak moth in furry dress Of white fluffy stuffs.
When I was young I longed for Love, And held his glory far above All other earthly things. I cried: "Come, Love, dear Love, with me abide;" And with my subtlest art I wooed,...
White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest So wonderfully built among the reeds Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds, As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest! White water-lily, cradled and caressed...
Night in her dark array Steals o'er the ocean, And with departed day Hushed seems its motion. Slowly o'er yon blue coast Onward she's treading, 'Till its dark line is lost,...
'Tis midnight - but it is not dark Within thy spacious place, St. Mark! The Lights within, the Lamps without, Shine above the revel rout. The brazen Steeds are glittering o'er...