A PRAYER. GOD! do not let my loved-one die, That I am grown in purity Enough to enter thy pure clime, Then take me, I will gladly go, So that my love remain below! O, let her stay! She is by birth What I through death must learn to be, We need her more on our poor earth, Than thou canst need in heaven with thee: She hath her wings already, I Must burst this earth-shell ere I fly. 1841. Then, God, take me! We shall be near, More near than ever, each to each : My heavenly than my earthly speech; Her soul and mine shall closer be. FANTASY. ROUND and round me she waved swinging, Like a wreath of smoke, In a clear, low gurgle singing What may ne'er be spoke ; Her white arms floated on the air, So stately fair, beyond compare, Their gracefulness did seem, And I knew, by the splendor of her hair, That all must be a dream; For round her limbs it went and came, Hither and thither, I knew not whither, Fitfully like a wind-waved flame, But bright and golden as flame was never, And it flowed back and forth, Like the lights of the north, Round her and round her forever and ever! She filled the cup of melody With madness to the brim, And wild, wild songs she sang to me Like those that throng the traveller's mind, How may I tell The sea-like swell Of ever-growing melody, That drifted her words, Like white sea-birds, Swinging and heaving on to me? Her song came like a sudden breeze; It wound through my heart 1842. With a flashing dart, As a bird winds through the trees; "T was like a wind blowing, 'T was like a star and like a river, "T was like all things that weary never, It rhymed with the grass and the open sky, It flooded my soul, And thrilled it with fearful ecstasy; It was calm as music e'er can be, But an inward might was in its motion, A consciousness of majesty, Like the heart of the unruffled ocean, Which, clear and still, by breeze unshent, With a world-wide throe, Heaves to and fro From continent to continent. |