And oh how happy wilt thou be, If thou, while thus with vows deceiving, Hast half the bliss that flows to me, While hearing thee, and while believing. THE IVY-SEAT. Tamen ego illa moveor exedra.......a sedeque ipsa desiderari illam vocem puto. CICERO, Lib. v. de Finibus. Proem. Ан what may be the secret spell While lingers my reverted eye About those beeches, wherefore fly The life-drops through my frame with quickening beat? Is not that seat like others made, Like others fenced with ivy round? Are not those trees like other trees? Pour through their branches an unusual sound? Yes....other seats like that I've seen Their crooked arms with ivy bound; Those beeches are like other trees, And, as it passes by, the breeze Pours through their branches no unusual sound. Then wherefore, when I pass that seat, There is a maid, a gentle maid, A dweller in the woodland shade, Who loves that seat with ivy bound: Her arm has many a time reclined Upon that branch so intertwined With tangled wreaths, and stems that curl around. And once, it was a pleasant day, The sweetest of a jocund May, And thousand blossoms bloomed the whi When, on that ivy-seat reclined, To peace and softness all my mind I rendered up, most happy in her smile. Then, as the gentle maid stood near And that sweet warbling, in her face That warbling moulded every look; And all her frame with sweet emotion shook. Then in each feature I could see The silent joy that o'er her stole. That might disturb the quiet of her soul. And when the bird had sung his lay, And as he flew he chattered shrill; As though the bird sat there and warbled still.. Smiling, her rosy lips she stirred, My voice her trance of pleasure broke, And then her eyes she turned from yon tall beech. And oh, the look! when from that tree At length she turned her eyes on me! That look may never pass away; E'en now it works upon my mind, And in its magic I shall find Subject and food for many a future day. Therefore though many a silent nook When there I sit, some secret power When I would rise, some winning thought, Fixes me down, and holds me with its sway. |