Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/884

 LORD TENNYSON

7/5 Summer Night

fOW sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;

Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font: The firefly wakens waken thou with me.

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost, And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars, And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, And slips into the bosom of the lake: So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip Into my bosom and be lost in me.

��7 14 Come down, O Maid

COME down, O maid, from yonder mountain height What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang), In height and cold, the splendour of the hills ? But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine, To sit a star upon the sparkling spire; And come, for Love is of the valley, come, For Love is of the valley, come thou down And find him; by the happy threshold, he, Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize, Or red with spirted purple of the vats,

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