Page:Florence Earle Coates Poems 1898 20.jpg

 PERDITA

(ON SEEING MISS ANDERSON IN THE RÔLE)

dances,

And I seem to be

In primrose vales of Sicily,

Beside the streams once looked upon

By Thyrsis and by Corydon:

The sunlight laughs as she advances,

Shyly the zephyrs kiss her hair,

And she seems to me as the wood-fawn, free,

And as the wild rose, fair.

Dance, Perdita! and shepherds, blow!

Your reeds restrain no longer!

Till weald and welkin gleeful ring,

Blow, shepherds, blow! and, lasses, sing,

Yet sweeter strains and stronger!

Let far Helorus softer flow

'Twixt rushy banks, that he may hear;

Let Pan, great Pan himself, draw near!

Stately

She moves, half smiling

With girlish look beguiling,—

20