FullReads

“My Angelo! and why of them to be ?
A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee –

[* It was entire in 1687 – the most elevated spot in Athens.]

[� Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love. – Marlowe.]

And greener fields than in yon world above,
And women’s loveliness – and passionate love.”

“But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft
*Fail’d, as my pennon’d spirit leapt aloft,
Perhaps my brain grew dizzy – but the world
I left so late was into chaos hurl’d –
Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,
And roll’d, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.
Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar
And fell – not swiftly as I rose before,
But with a downward, tremulous motion thro’
Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!
Nor long the measure of my falling hours,
For nearest of all stars was thine to ours –
Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,
A red Dædalion on the timid Earth.

“We came – and to thy Earth – but not to us
Be given our lady’s bidding to discuss:
We came, my love; around, above, below,
Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,
Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod
She grants to us, as granted by her God –
But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl’d
Never his fairy wing o’er fairier world !
Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes
Alone could see the phantom in the skies,
When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be
Headlong thitherward o’er the starry sea –
But when its glory swell’d upon the sky,
As glowing Beauty’s bust beneath man’s eye,

* Pennon – for pinion. – Milton.

We paus’d before the heritage of men,
And thy star trembled – as doth Beauty then !”

Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away
The night that waned and waned and brought no day.
They fell : for Heaven to them no hope imparts
Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.