Poems of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in The Cabinet of Modern Art, 1837/The Gipsy
A GIPSY
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THE GIPSY.
BY MISS LANDON.
I.
I live by the side of the greenwood tree,
The elm and the ash are companions to me;
Through the shadowy lanes with the summer I roam,
And the hedge with the hawthorn in bloom is my home!
II.
I know where the primrose first welcomes the south,
Like a love-kiss—the last from a pale and sweet mouth,
Which dies in its sorrow, and dying reveals,
Too late and too vainly, the love which it feels!
III.
The earliest violets breathe, through the grass,
A message that woos me to stay as I pass;
For I am the first, in the spring, to discover
Their blue eyes, that laugh as they welcomed a lover.
IV.
The morning is glad and the morning is fair,
Song, sunshine, and fragrance awake in the air;
I feel like a flower that rejoices in light—
Yet dearer to me is the presence of night.
V.
For then I am conscious of knowledge and power,—
I see the clear planets, each bright in its hour,—
I look in the depth of their light for a sign,—
I ask of the future, and know it for mine.
VI.
I trace on the cards what the stars of night tell;
The past is before me—the heart is my spell:
To me, the sweet hope—the fond secret—is known,
The feelings of others are read by my own.
VII.
Nay, fear not, fair lady! your life’s coming hours,
They are clear as the stars, and as fair as the flowers;
There is one for whose sake to the greenwood you came;—
Oh! lady—you blush!—shall I whisper his name?