Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/186

172 Well do I know deep in thine inmost folds, Within an opal hollow, there abides The lady of the mist, The Undine of the air A slender, winged, ethereal, lily form, Dove-eyed, with fair, free-floating, pearl-wreathed hair, In waving raiment swathed Of changing, irised hues. Where her feet, rosy as a shell, have grazed The freshened grass, a richer emerald glows : Into each flower-cup Her cool dews she distills. She knows the tops of jagged mountain-peaks, She knows the green soft hollows of their sides, And unafraid she floats O er the vast-circled seas. She loves to bask within the moon s wan beams, Lying, night-long, upon the moist, dark earth, And leave her seeded pearls With morning on the grass. Ah ! that athwart these dim, gray outer courts Of her fantastic palace I might pass, And reach the inmost shrine Of her chaste solitude,