STRANGE ENCHANTMENT
''THROUGH tranced hours the meadowsweet with summer-burdened plumes
Had lulled the day to drowsiness—only the bee presumes
To ripple through the stillness, as yonder dragonfly
Will kiss the pool to dimples, then zoom toward the sky.
In quiet mid-stream a lily fleet, new-launched by summer glee,
Now slept becalmed beneath the boughs of one lone alder tree ;
While like the youth Narcissus the brooklime on the marge
Peered, blue-eyed, in the mirror framed by water-lily targe.
From further bank rose willowherb and iris torch aglow —
And spearmint, where the waterhen plied softly to and fro :
Till these, with mazy motion of beetles on the stream,
Wove o'er me strange enchantment; I heard as in a dream
The sound of tiny voices
As when a wood rejoices
Upon Midsummer Eve.
Or willow-wren who poises
Low piping pixie noises
That body-fastness cleave :—
(One voice)
"Alder tree, alder tree,
June has set in with pageantry,
All that you saw now tell to me
On the brink of your lily lagoon."
(Another)
"Clover white, clover red,
Wing with me to the clover bed :
Heriesthe lark high overhead
Bird happy hours of June."
(Another)
" Filmy the mist on the high mountain tarn
Veiling the sombre hue,
And sedges aglimmer with attercop yarn
Spangled with midsummer dew."
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(Another)
" Deep lay the valley of moon-bright lake
Lapping an island dim—
Spell which the dipping swallows break
With sunrise on far sea-brim."
With downward plop a water-rat ferried across the stream ;
And I being ferried with it, losing the magic dream,
Felt—landed on the earthward side—still cadenced in the heart
E25icing tunes un trafficked-in by any earthly mart.
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ENVOI
THERE came in sight a treasure cove
With foam-lipped shore ;
And with delight my galleon strove
To reive that ore—
Rathe daffodil and bluebell grove
From springs of yore,
Gay tormentil whose tresses rove
On forest floor.
Upon Time's marge prevailing mist
Of Lethe dew
O'erlies the charge of amber-kissed
Moments that flew—
The gentian flowers, like skies, untwist
Soul-piercing blue,
The leafy towers of spring enlist
Their birdchimes new.
The thoughts that flit through Nature's mind
As seasons go
Their bodies quit—we do not find
Their essence so.
Unfading flower, with magic signed,
Inlybestow,
Bright fairy power who laughed behind
That moving show.
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