| |
| CLOUDLESSLY burning in sapphire aloft, | |
| Eve touches the grove with an orange light, | |
| And a sea-born zephyr, whispering soft | |
| To me as I stroll in the shade to-night, | |
| Balmily wooing me, kissing my cheeks | 5 |
| With a moist and perfumed breath so dear, | |
| Of billow and blossom deliciously speaks, | |
| For with both it hath dallied in journeying here. | |
| |
| And, leisurely sauntering to and fro | |
| In a magical day-dream all my own, | 10 |
| I gaze at the beautiful dames that go | |
| In their open volantes up and down; | |
| Bewitchingly floating, by threes and by twos, | |
| In their gauzy cloudlets of silk and of lace, | |
| That seem to have robbed the sky of its hues, | 15 |
| And seem to have robbed the swan of his grace; | |
| |
| Bright rosy-lipped creatures with opaline smiles, | |
| That slowly in ripples of light expire, | |
| Or wanton with arch and womanish wiles, | |
| Or flit with a faint and delicate fire; | 20 |
| With their tresses more dusk than the raven’s plume, | |
| Wavily parting and flowing from cheeks | |
| Aglow with the ripe and luxuriant bloom | |
| In which their tropical nature speaks. | |
| |
| In a gaudy procession they pass and return, | 25 |
| Voluptuous beauties in manner and mould, | |
| With their black Spanish eyes that languish and burn, | |
| Now temptingly tender now tauntingly bold; | |
| Or, borne in an indolent semi-repose, | |
| Beguiled by the sensuous charm of the hour, | 30 |
| Go dreamily on, as the white swan goes | |
| O’er waters that wander by hamlet and bower. | |
| |
| And, lazily loitering here and there, | |
| Under the shadow of murmuring limes, | |
| Puffing a redolent smoke in the air, | 35 |
| Lulled by the peal of the vesper chimes, | |
| By the fountain’s trill, by the ocean’s roll, | |
| By the languor and calm of the eventide,— | |
| To all its sweet ravishment yielding the soul, | |
| There lounges many a group by my side; | 40 |
| |
| Till the lingering glory wavers and wanes | |
| From shadowy slope and from glimmering height | |
| And the tall royal palm alone retains | |
| In the sheaf of its leaves a roseate light, | |
| Till the marvellous night steals into the skies, | 45 |
| And white in the moon lie the land and the sea, | |
| And the women are gone with their beautiful eyes, | |
| And the luminous stars are blinking o’er me. | |
| |
| And lonely musing under the limes, | |
| The wandering breeze, like a friend at my ear, | 50 |
| Doth hum an old music that hints of old times, | |
| Old faces, old friends, and old memories dear; | |
| And my vision is blurred, and my heart is afar | |
| In the land that it loves where the snow still lies, | |
| In the home that it loves with a lady rare, | 55 |
| And blest in the light of her soft northern eyes. | |
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