Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/31

   And the cypress did expand,
   Slow and gradual, branch and head;
   And the cedar's strong black shade
   Fluttered brokenly and grand!—
   Grove and forest bowed aslant
   In emotion jubilant.

Voice of the same, but softer.
   Which divine impulsion cleaves
   In dim movements to the leaves
   Dropt and lifted, dropt and lifted
   In the sunlight greenly sifted,—
   In the sunlight and the moonlight
   Greenly sifted through the trees.
   Ever wave the Eden trees
   In the nightlight, and the noonlight,
   With a ruffling of green branches
   Shaded off to resonances;
   Never stirred by rain or breeze!
     Fare ye well, farewell!
  The sylvan sounds, no longer audible,
     Expire at Eden's door!
     Each footstep of your treading
  Treads out some murmur which ye heard before:
     Farewell! the trees of Eden
     Ye shall hear nevermore.

River-Spirits.
   Hark! the flow of the four rivers—
     Hark the flow!
   How the silence round you shivers,
   While our voices through it go,
     Cold and clear.

A softer voice.
   Think a little, while ye hear,—
     Of the banks
   Where the green palms and red deer
   Crowd in intermingled ranks,