| |
| I SEE the star-lights quiver, | |
| Like jewels in the river; | |
| The bank is hid with sedge; | |
| What if I slip the edge? | |
| I thought I knew the way | 5 |
| By night as well as day: | |
| But how a lover goes astray! | |
| |
| The place is somewhat lonely— | |
| I mean for just one only; | |
| I brought the boat ashore | 10 |
| An hour ago or more. | |
| Well, I will sit and wait; | |
| She fixed the hour at eight: | |
| Good angels! bring her not too late! | |
| |
| To-morrow’s tongues that name her | 15 |
| Will hardly dare to blame her: | |
| A lily still is white | |
| Through all the dark of night: | |
| The morning sun shall show | |
| A bride as pure as snow, | 20 |
| Whose wedding all the world shall know. | |
| |
| O God! that I should gain her! | |
| But what can so detain her? | |
| Hist, yelping cur! thy bark | |
| Will fright her in the dark. | 25 |
| What! striking nine? that ’s fast! | |
| Is some one walking past? | |
| —Oho! so thou art come at last! | |
| |
| But why thy long delaying? | |
| Alack! thy beads and praying! | 30 |
| If thou, a saint, dost hope | |
| To kneel and kiss the Pope, | |
| Then I, a sinner, know | |
| Where sweeter kisses grow— | |
| Nay, now, just once before we go! | 35 |
| |
| Nay, twice, and by St. Peter | |
| The second was the sweeter! | |
| Quick now, and in the boat! | |
| Good-by, old tower and moat! | |
| May mildew from the sky | 40 |
| Drop blindness on the eye | |
| That lurks to watch our going by! | |
| |
| O saintly maid! I told thee | |
| No convent-walls could hold thee. | |
| Look! yonder comes the moon! | 45 |
| We started none too soon. | |
| See how we pass that mill! | |
| What! is the night too chill? | |
| —Then I must fold thee closer still! | |
| |
