Dusketha, so enchantingly Freckle-wing'd and lizard-sided! Dus. By thee, Sprite, will I be guided! Frost and flame, or sparks, or sleet, To my essence are the same;- Sprite of Fire, I follow thee To the torrid spouts and fountains, Touch the very pulse of fire With my bare unlidded eyes. Sal. Sweet Dusketha! paradise! Off, ye icy Spirits, fly! Frosty creatures of the sky! Dus. Breathe upon them, fiery sprite! Zep.) Bre. Away! away to our delight! Sal. Go, feed on icicles, while we Bedded in tongue-flames will be. Dus. Lead me to those feverous glooms, Sprite of Fire! Bre. Me to the blooms, Blue-eyed Zephyr, of those flowers Far in the west where the May-cloud lowers; And the beams of still Vesper, when winds are all wist, Are shed thro' the rain and the milder mist, And twilight your floating bowers. ODE ON INDOLENCE. "They toil not, neither do they spin." 1819. I. ONE morn before me were three figures seen, With bowed necks, and joined hands, side-faced; And one behind the other stepp'd serene, In placid sandals, and in white robes graced; They pass'd, like figures on a marble urn, When shifted round to see the other side; They came again; as when the urn once more Is shifted round, the first seen shades return; And they were strange to me, as may betide With vases, to one deep in Phidian lore. II. How is it, Shadows! that I knew ye not? To steal away, and leave without a task My idle days? Ripe was the drowsy hour; The blissful cloud of summer-indolence Benumb'd my eyes; my pulse grew less and less; Pain had no sting, and pleasure's wreath no flower: O, why did ye not melt, and leave my sense Unhaunted quite of all but-nothingness? III. A third time pass'd they by, and, passing, turn'd And ached for wings, because I knew the three ; The last, whom I love more, the more of blame Is heap'd upon her, maiden most unmeek,I knew to be my demon Poesy. IV. They faded, and, forsooth! I wanted wings: For Poesy!-no,-she has not a joy,- O, for an age so shelter'd from annoy, V. T And once more came they by ;-alas! wherefore? With flowers, and stirring shades, and baffled The morn was clouded, but no shower fell, O Shadows! 'twas a time to bid farewell! So, ye VI. three Ghosts, adieu! Ye cannot raise Fade softly from my eyes, and be once more And for the day faint visions there is store; |