O dear Deceit! I see the Maiden rise, Chaste Joyance dancing in her bright-blue eyes! When first the lark high-soaring swells his throat, 25 Mocks the tir'd eye, and scatters the loud note, I trace her footsteps on the accustom'd lawn, I mark her glancing mid the gleam of dawn. When the bent flower beneath the night-dew weeps And on the lake the silver lustre sleeps, 30 Amid the paly radiance soft and sad, She meets my lonely path in moon-beams clad. With her along the streamlet's brink I rove; With her I list the warblings of the grove; And seems in each low wind her voice to float 35 Lone-whispering Pity in each soothing note! Spirits of Love! ye heard her name! Obey The powerful spell, and to my haunt repair. Whether on clust'ring pinions ye are there, Where rich snows blossom on the Myrtle-trees, 40 Or with fond languishment around my fair Sigh in the loose luxuriance of her hair; O heed the spell, and hither wing your way, Like far-off music, voyaging the breeze! Spirits! to you the infant Maid was given 45 Form'd by the wond'rous Alchemy of Heaven! No fairer Maid does Love's wide empire know, No fairer Maid e'er heav'd the bosom's snow. A thousand Loves around her forehead fly; A thousand Loves sit melting in her eye; 50 Love lights her smile--in Joy's red nectar dips His myrtle flower, and plants it on her lips. She speaks! and hark that passion-warbled song-- Still, Fancy! still that voice, those notes prolong. As sweet as when that voice with rapturous falls 55 Shall wake the soften'd echoes of Heaven's Halls! [52:1]O (have I sigh'd) were mine the wizard's rod, Or mine the power of Proteus, changeful God! A flower-entangled Arbour I would seem To shield my Love from Noontide's sultry beam: 60 Or bloom a Myrtle, from whose od'rous boughs My Love might weave gay garlands for her brows. When Twilight stole across the fading vale, To fan my Love I'd be the Evening Gale; Mourn in the soft folds of her swelling vest, 65 And flutter my faint pinions on her breast! On Seraph wing I'd float a Dream by night, To soothe my Love with shadows of delight:-- Or soar aloft to be the Spangled Skies, And gaze upon her with a thousand eyes! 70