THE LOST BOWER.
225
Or could this same bower (I fancied)
Be the work of Dryad strong;
Who, surviving all that chanced
In the world's old pagan wrong,
Lay hid, feeding in the woodland, on the last true poet's song?
Be the work of Dryad strong;
Who, surviving all that chanced
In the world's old pagan wrong,
Lay hid, feeding in the woodland, on the last true poet's song?
Or was this the house of fairies,
Left, because of the rough ways,
Unassoiled by Ave Marys
Which the passing pilgrim prays,—
And beyond St. Catherine's chiming, on the blessed Sabbath days?
Left, because of the rough ways,
Unassoiled by Ave Marys
Which the passing pilgrim prays,—
And beyond St. Catherine's chiming, on the blessed Sabbath days?
So, young muser, I sate listening
To my Fancy's wildest word—
On a sudden, through the glistening
Leaves around, a little stirred,
Came a sound, a sense of music, which was rather felt than heard.
To my Fancy's wildest word—
On a sudden, through the glistening
Leaves around, a little stirred,
Came a sound, a sense of music, which was rather felt than heard.
Softly, finely, it inwound me—
From the world it shut me in,—
Like a fountain falling round me,
Which with silver waters thin
Clips a little marble Naiad, sitting smilingly within.
From the world it shut me in,—
Like a fountain falling round me,
Which with silver waters thin
Clips a little marble Naiad, sitting smilingly within.
Whence the music came, who knoweth?
I know nothing. But indeed
Pan or Faunus never bloweth
So much sweetness from a reed,
"Which has sucked the milk of waters, at the oldest riverhead.
I know nothing. But indeed
Pan or Faunus never bloweth
So much sweetness from a reed,
"Which has sucked the milk of waters, at the oldest riverhead.
Never lark the sun can waken
With such sweetness! when the lark,
The high planets overtaking
In the half-evanished Dark,
Casts his singing to their singing, like an arrow to the mark.
With such sweetness! when the lark,
The high planets overtaking
In the half-evanished Dark,
Casts his singing to their singing, like an arrow to the mark.