Sleep, quiet with his poppy coronet : For what there may be worthy in these rhymes I partly owe to him: and thus, the chimes 350 Of friendly voices had just given place 355 Then there were fauns and satyrs taking aim 360 At swelling apples with a frisky leap And reaching fingers, 'mid a luscious heap Of vine leaves. Then there rose to view a fane Of liny marble, and thereto a train Of nymphs approaching fairly o'er the sward : 365 One, loveliest, holding her white hand toward The dazzling sun-rise : two sisters sweet And some are hearing, eagerly, the wild 370 See, in another picture, nymphs are wiping A fold of lawny mantle dabbling swims At the bath's edge, and keeps a gentle motion 375 380 At nothing; just as though the earnest frown Great Alfred's too, with anxious, pitying eyes, Of out-spread wings, and from between them shone 385 390 395 400 STANZAS. IN a drear-nighted December Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne'er remember ASLEEP! O sleep a little while, white pearl! And let me breathe into the happy air, That doth enfold and touch thee all about, Vows of my slavery, my giving up, My sudden adoration, my great love! 5 Where the maidens sweet Of the Market Street Do meet in the dusk to revel. 5. There's the Barton rich With dyke and ditch And hedge for the thrush to live in, And the hollow tree For the buzzing bee, And a bank for the wasp to hive in. 6. And Oh, and Oh, The daisies blow And the primroses are awaken'd, And the violets white Sit in silver plight, And the green bud's as long as the spike end. 7. Then who would go Into dark Soho, And chatter with dack'd hair'd critics, When he can stay For the new-mown hay, And startle the dappled prickets? 25 30 35 40 |