Here is the empire of thy perfect bliss, And here thou art a god indeed divine. Here shall no forms abridge, no hours confine The views, the walks, that boundless joy inspire! Nor, blind with ecstasy's celestial fire, Shall love behold the spark of earth-born time expire. II. Three little moons, how short, amidst the grove And pastoral savannahs, they consume! While she, beside her buskin'd youth to rove, Delights, in fancifully wild costume, Her lovely brow to shade with Indian plume ; But not to chase the deer in forest gloom ; 'Tis but the breath of heav'n-the blessed air And interchange of hearts unknown, unseen to share. III. What though the sportive dog oft round them note, Or fawn, or wild bird bursting on the wing; Yet who, in love's own presence, would devote To death those gentle throats that wake the spring; Or writhing from the brook its victim bring? Nonor let fear one little warbler rouse ; But, fed by Gertrude's hand, still let them sing, Acquaintance of her path, amidst the boughs, That shade e'en now her love, and witness'd first her vows. IV. Now labyrinths, which but themselves can pierce, Methinks, conduct them to some pleasant ground, And pines their lawny walk encompass round ; That come what may, while life's glad pulses roll, V. And in the visions of romantic youth, When where of yesterday a garden bloom'd, Death overspread his pall, and black'ning ashes gloom'd! |