| |
| THE MAIDEN caught me in the wild, | |
| Where I was dancing merrily; | |
| She put me into her Cabinet, | |
| And lock’d me up with a golden key. | |
| |
| This Cabinet is form’d of gold | 5 |
| And pearl and crystal shining bright, | |
| And within it opens into a world | |
| And a little lovely moony night. | |
| |
| Another England there I saw, | |
| Another London with its Tower, | 10 |
| Another Thames and other hills, | |
| And another pleasant Surrey bower, | |
| |
| Another Maiden like herself, | |
| Translucent, lovely, shining clear, | |
| Threefold each in the other clos’d— | 15 |
| O, what a pleasant trembling fear! | |
| |
| O, what a smile! a threefold smile | |
| Fill’d me, that like a flame I burn’d; | |
| I bent to kiss the lovely Maid, | |
| And found a threefold kiss return’d. | 20 |
| |
| I strove to seize the inmost form | |
| With ardour fierce and hands of flame, | |
| But burst the Crystal Cabinet, | |
| And like a weeping Babe became— | |
| |
| A weeping Babe upon the wild, | 25 |
| And weeping Woman pale reclin’d, | |
| And in the outward air again | |
| I fill’d with woes the passing wind. | |
| |
