Hollow smile and frozen sneer Come not here. Holy water will I pour Into every spicy flower Of the laurel-shrubs that hedge it around. The flowers would faint at your cruel cheer. In your eye there is death, The wild-bird's din. In the heart of the garden the merry bird chants. It would fall to the ground if you came in. With a low melodious thunder; And it sings a song of undying love; And yet, tho' its voice be so clear and full, You never would hear it, your ears are so dull; So keep where you are; you are foul with sin; It would shrink to the earth if you came in. THE SEA-FAIRIES First printed in 1830, but suppressed until 1853, when it appeared, with many changes, in the 8th edition of the Poems.' SLOW Sail'd the weary mariners and saw, Betwixt the green brink and the running foam, Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms prest To little harps of gold; and while they mused, Whispering to each other half in fear, sea. Whither away, whither away, whither away? fly no more. Whither away from the high green field, and the happy blossoming shore? |