Within a huge tree’s steady shade,
    When resting from our walk,
    How pleasant was her talk! 
  Elegant deer leaped o’er the glade,
    Or stood with wide bright eyes,
    Staring a short surprise: 
  Outside the shadow cows were laid,
    Chewing with drowsy eye
    Their cuds complacently: 
  Dim for sunshine drew near a milking-maid.

  Rooks cawed and labored thro’ the heat;
    Each wing-flap seemed to make
    Their weary bodies ache: 
  The swallows, tho’ so very fleet,
    Made breathless pauses there
    At something in the air:—­
  All disappeared:  our pulses beat
    Distincter throbs:  then each
    Turned and kissed, without speech,—­
  She trembling, from her mouth down to her feet.

  My head sank on her bosom’s heave,
    So close to the soft skin
    I heard the life within. 
  My forehead felt her coolly breathe,
    As with her breath it rose: 
    To perfect my repose
  Her two arms clasped my neck.  The eve
    Spread silently around,
    A hush along the ground,
  And all sound with the sunlight seemed to leave.

  By my still gaze she must have known
    The mighty bliss that filled
    My whole soul, for she thrilled,
  Drooping her face, flushed, on my own;
    I felt that it was such
    By its light warmth of touch. 
  My lady was with me alone: 
    That vague sensation brought
    More real joy than thought. 
  I am without her now, truly alone.

  We had no heed of time:  the cause
    Was that our minds were quite
    Absorbed in our delight,
  Silently blessed.  Such stillness awes,
    And stops with doubt, the breath,
    Like the mute doom of death. 
  I felt Time’s instantaneous pause;
    An instant, on my eye
    Flashed all Eternity:—­
  I started, as if clutched by wild beasts’ claws,

  Awakened from some dizzy swoon: 
    I felt strange vacant fears,
    With singings in my ears,
  And wondered that the pallid moon
    Swung round the dome of night
    With such tremendous might. 
  A sweetness, like the air of June,
    Next paled me with suspense,
    A weight of clinging sense—­
  Some hidden evil would burst on me soon.

  My lady’s love has passed away,
    To know that it is so
    To me is living woe. 
  That body lies in cold decay,
    Which held the vital soul
    When she was my life’s soul. 
  Bitter mockery it was to say—­
    “Our souls are as the same:” 
    My words now sting like shame;
  Her spirit went, and mine did not obey.

  It was as if a fiery dart
    Passed seething thro’ my brain
    When I beheld her lain
  There whence in life she did not part. 
    Her beauty by degrees,
    Sank, sharpened with disease: 
  The heavy sinking at her heart
    Sucked hollows in her cheek,
    And made her eyelids weak,
  Tho’ oft they’d open wide with sudden start.