Though averted with wonder and dread; Such a carpet as, this summer-time,
Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and Looking as if she were alive. I call
Since words are only words. Give o'er!
Unless you call me, all the same,
Familiarly by my pet name,
Which if the Three should hear you call, And carry thee, farther than friends can
And me reply to, would proclaim
At once our secret to them all.
Ask of me, too, command me, blame,— 25 Do, break down the partition-wall 'Twixt us, the daylight world beholds Curtained in dusk and splendid folds! What's left but-all of me to take? I am the Three's: prevent them, slake Your thirst! 'Tis said, the Arab sage, In practising with gems, can loose Their subtle spirit in his cruce1 And leave but ashes: so, sweet mage, Leave them my ashes when thy use Sucks out my soul, thy heritage!
Past we glide, and past, and past! What's that poor Agnese doing
Where they make the shutters fast?
Gray Zanobi's just a-wooing
To his couch the purchased bride: Past we glide!
Past we glide, and past, and past! Why's the Pucci Palace flaring
Like a beacon to the blast?
Guests by hundreds, not one caring
If the dear host's neck were wried: Past we glide!
Where they need thee to bribe
Of the staidness and reserve, And formal lines without a curve, In the same child's playing-face? No two windows look one way O'er the small sea-water thread Below them. Ah, the autumn day I, passing, saw you overhead! First, out a cloud of curtain blew, Then a sweet cry, and last came you— 140 To catch your lory2 that must needs Escape just then, of all times then, To peck a tall plant's fleecy seeds, And make me happiest of men.
I scarce could breathe to see you reach 145 So far back o'er the balcony
To catch him ere he climbed too high Above you in the Smyrna peach, That quick the round smooth cord of gold,
This coiled hair on your head, unrolled, 150 Fell down you like a gorgeous snake The Roman girls were wont, of old, When Rome there was, for coolness' sake To let lie curling o'er their bosoms. Dear lory, may his beak retain Ever its delicate rose stain
As if the wounded lotus-blossoms Had marked their thief to know again!
Stay longer yet, for others' sake Than mine! What should your chamber do? -With all its rarities that ache In silence while day lasts, but wake At night-time and their life renew, Suspended just to pleasure you Who brought against their will together These objects, and, while day lasts, weave Around them such a magic tether That dumb they look: your harp, believe, With all the sensitive tight strings Which dare not speak, now to itself Breathes slumberously, as if some elf Went in and out the chords, his wings Make murmur wheresoe'er they graze, As an angel may, between the maze Of midnight palace-pillars, on And on, to sow God's plagues, have gone Through guilty glorious Babylon. And while such murmurs flow, the nymph Bends o'er the harp-top from her shell As the dry limpet for the lymph3 Come with a tune he knows so well. And how your statues' hearts must swell! 'spring.
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