| TRIFORMIS. |
| So pure her forehead's dazzling white, |
| So swift and clear her radiant eyes, |
| Within the treasure of whose light |
| Lay undeveloped destinies, — |
| Of thoughts repressed such hidden store |
| Was hinted by each flitting smile, |
| I could but wonder and adore, |
| Far off, in awe, I gazed the while. |
| I gazed at her, as at the moon, |
| Hanging in lustrous twilight skies, |
| Whose virgin crescent, sinking soon, |
| Peeps through the leaves before it flies. |
| Untouched Diana, flitting dim, |
| While sings the wood its evening hymn. |
| II. |
| Again we met. O joyful meeting! |
| Her radiance now was all for me, |
| Like kindly airs her kindly greeting, |
| So full, so musical, so free. |
| Within romantic forest aisles, |
| Within romantic paths we walked, |
| I bathed me in her sister smiles, |
| I breathed her beauty as we talked. |
| So full-orbed Cynthia walks the skies, |
| Filling the earth with melodies, |
| Even so she condescends to kiss |
| Drowsy Endymions, coarse and dull, |
| Or fills our waking souls with bliss, |
| Making long nights too beautiful. |
| |
| III. |
| O fair, but fickle lady-moon, |
| Why must thy full form ever wane? |
| O love! O friendship! why so soon |
| Must your sweet light recede again? |
| I wake me in the dead of night, |
| And start, — for through the misty gloom |
| Red Hecate stares — a boding sight! — |
| Looks in, but never fills my room. |
| Thou music of my boyhood's hour! |
| Thou shining light on manhood's way! |
| No more dost thou fair influence shower |
| To move my soul by night or day. |
| O strange! that while in hall and street |
| Thy hand I touch, thy grace I meet, |
| Such miles of polar ice should part |
| The slightest touch of mind and heart! |
| But all thy love has waned, and so |
| I gladly let thy beauty go. |
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