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IN A GARDEN BY MOONLIGHT
Veronica. COME then, a song; a winding gentle song, | |
| To lead me into sleep. Let it be low | |
| As zephyr, telling secrets to his rose, | |
| For I would hear the murmuring of my thoughts; | |
| And more of voice than of that other music | 5 |
| That grows around the strings of quivering lutes; | |
| But most of thought; for with my mind I listen, | |
| And when the leaves of sound are shed upon it, | |
| If there ’s no seed remembrance grows not there. | |
| So life, so death; a song, and then a dream! | 10 |
| Begin before another dewdrop fall | |
| From the soft hold of these disturbed flowers, | |
| For sleep is filling up my senses fast, | |
| And from these words I sink. | |
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SONG
How many times do I love thee, dear? | 15 |
| Tell me how many thoughts there be | |
| In the atmosphere | |
| Of a new-fall’n year, | |
| Whose white and sable hours appear | |
| The latest flake of Eternity: | 20 |
| So many times do I love thee, dear. | |
| |
| How many times do I love again? | |
| Tell me how many beads there are | |
| In a silver chain | |
| Of evening rain, | 25 |
| Unravell’d from the tumbling main, | |
| And threading the eye of a yellow star: | |
| So many times do I love again. | |
| |
| Elvira. She sees no longer: leave her then alone, | |
| Encompass’d by this round and moony night. | 30 |
| A rose-leaf for thy lips, and then goodnight: | |
| So life, so death; a song, and then a dream! | |
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