A Forest Idyl

I.     Beneath an old beech-tree     They sat together,     Fair as a flower was she     Of summer weather.     They spoke of life and love,     While, through the boughs above,     The sunlight, like a dove,     Dropped many a feather. II.     And there the violet,     The bluet near it,     Made blurs of azure wet     As if some spirit,     Or woodland dream, had gone     Sprinkling the earth with dawn,     When only Fay and Faun     Could see or hear it. III.     She with her young, sweet face     And eyes gray-beaming,     Made of that forest place     A spot for dreaming:     A spot for Oreads     To smooth their nut-brown braids,     For Dryads of the glades     To dance in, gleaming. IV.     So dim the place, so blest,     One had not wondered     Had Dian's moond breast     The deep leaves sundered,     And there on them awhile     The goddess deigned to smile,     While down some forest aisle.     The far hunt thundered. V.     I deem that hour perchance     Was but a mirror     To show them Earth's romance     And draw them nearer:     A mirror where, meseems,     All that this Earth-life dreams,     All loveliness that gleams,     Their souls saw clearer. VI.     Beneath an old beech-tree     They dreamed of blisses;     Fair as a flower was she     That summer kisses:     They spoke of dreams and days,     Of love that goes and stays,     Of all for which life prays,     Ah me! and misses.