VALDEMAR
329
The acacia's golden gloom amid;
Where starry jasmines climbed, and where,
Serenely calm, divinely fair,
Like a white lily, straight and tall,
The loveliest flower among them all,
His sweet young wife, Hermione,
Sang to the child upon her knee!
Where starry jasmines climbed, and where,
Serenely calm, divinely fair,
Like a white lily, straight and tall,
The loveliest flower among them all,
His sweet young wife, Hermione,
Sang to the child upon her knee!
Here beauteous visions haunted him,
Peopling the shadows soft and dim;
Here the old gods around him cast
The glamour of their splendors past.
Jove thundered from the awful sky;
Proud Juno trod the earth once more;
Pale Isis, veiled in mystery,
Her smile of mystic meaning wore;
Apollo joyed in youth divine,
And )Bacchus wreathed the fragrant vine,
Here chaste Diana, crescent-crowned,
With virgin footsteps spurned the ground;
Here rose fair Venus from the sea,
And that sad ghost, Persephone,
Wandered, a very shade of shades,
Amid the moonlit myrtle glades.
Nor they alone. The Heavenly Child,
The Holy Mother, meek and mild,
Angels on glad wing soaring free,
Pale, praying saints on bended knee,
Martyrs with palms, and heroes brave
Who for their guerdon won a grave,
Earth's laughing children, rosy sweet,
And the soul's phantoms, fair and fleet—
All these were with him night and day,
Charming the happy hours away!
Oh, who so rich as Valdemar?
Peopling the shadows soft and dim;
Here the old gods around him cast
The glamour of their splendors past.
Jove thundered from the awful sky;
Proud Juno trod the earth once more;
Pale Isis, veiled in mystery,
Her smile of mystic meaning wore;
Apollo joyed in youth divine,
And )Bacchus wreathed the fragrant vine,
Here chaste Diana, crescent-crowned,
With virgin footsteps spurned the ground;
Here rose fair Venus from the sea,
And that sad ghost, Persephone,
Wandered, a very shade of shades,
Amid the moonlit myrtle glades.
Nor they alone. The Heavenly Child,
The Holy Mother, meek and mild,
Angels on glad wing soaring free,
Pale, praying saints on bended knee,
Martyrs with palms, and heroes brave
Who for their guerdon won a grave,
Earth's laughing children, rosy sweet,
And the soul's phantoms, fair and fleet—
All these were with him night and day,
Charming the happy hours away!
Oh, who so rich as Valdemar?
