She wound her way within a heavy shade Of arching boughs, in broad-spread leaves arrayed; Which, clustering close and thick, shut out the light, And tinged with black the shadowy robe of night; Save here and there a melancholy spark Of flickering moonshine glimmered through the dark, Cheerless and dim, as when upon a pall, Through suffering tears, the looks of sorrow fall; But opening farther on, on either side A wider space the severing trees divide; And longer gleams upon the pathway meet, And the soft grass is wet beneath her feet. And now emerging from the darksome shade, She pressed the silken carpet of the glade. Beyond the green, within its western close, A little vine-hung, leafy arbor rose, Where the pale lustre of the moony flood Dimm'd the vermillion'd woodbine's scarlet bud; And glancing through the foliage fluttering round, In tiny circles gemm'd the freckled ground. Beside the porch, beneath the friendly screen Of two tall trees, a mossy bank was seen; And all around, amid the silvery dew, The wild-wood pansy rear'd her petals blue; And gold cups and the meadow cowslip red, Upon the evening air their odours shed. Unheeded all the grove's deep gloom had been, Unseen the moonlight brightness of the green; In vain the stream's blue burnish met her eye, Lovely its wave, but pass'd unnoticed by: The airs of heaven had breath'd around her brow Their cooling sighs--she felt them not--but now That lonely bower appeared, and with a start Convulsive shudders thrill'd her throbbing heart. For there, in days, alas! for ever gone, When love's young torch with beams of rapture shone, When she had felt her heart's impassioned swell, And almost deem'd her Leon loved as well; There had she sat, beneath the evening skies, Felt his warm kiss and heard his murmur'd sighs; Hung on his breast, caressing and carest, Her husband smiled, and Ellinor was blest. And when his injured country's rights to shield, Blazed his red banner on the battle field, There had she lingered in the shadows dim, And sat till morning watch and thought of him; And wept to think that she might not be there, His toils, his dangers, and his wounds to share. And when the foe had bowed beneath his brand, And to his home he led his conquering band, There she first caught his long-expected face, And sprung to smile and weep in his embrace.