Page:Sibylline Leaves (Coleridge).djvu/153

 Who ne'er henceforth may see an aspen-grove Shiver in sunshine, but his feeble heart Shall flow away like a dissolving thing.


 * Sweet breeze! thou only, if I guess aright,

Liftest the feathers of the robin's breast, Who swells his little breast, so full of song, Singing above me, on the mountain-ash. And thou too, desert Stream! no pool of thine, Though clear as lake in latest summer-eve, Did e'er reflect the stately virgin's robe, Her face, her form divine, her downcast look Contemplative! Ah see! her open palm Presses her cheek and brow! her elbow rests On the bare branch of half-uprooted tree, That leans towards its mirror! He, meanwhile, Who from her countenance turn'd, or look'd by stealth, (For fear is true love's cruel nurse,) he now, With stedfast gaze and unoffending eye, Worships the watery idol, dreaming hopes Delicious to the soul, but fleeting, vain, E'en as that phantom-world on which he gazed. She, sportive tyrant! with her left hand plucks The heads of tall flowers that behind her grow, Lychnis, and willow-herb, and fox-glove bells;