In The South. [Serenade.]

The dim verbena drugs the dusk             With heavy lemon odors rare;         Wan heliotropes Arabian musk             Exhale into the dreamy air;         A sad wind with long wooing husk             Swoons in the roses there.         The jasmine at thy casement flings             Star-censers oozing rich perfumes;         The clematis, long petaled, swings             Deep clusters of dark purple blooms;         With flowers like moons or sylphide wings             Magnolias light the glooms.         Awake, awake from sleep!             Thy balmy hair,         Unbounden deep on deep,             Than blossoms fair,         Who sweetest fragrance weep,             Will fill the night with prayer.         Awake, awake from sleep!         And dreaming here it seems to me             Some dryad's bosoms grow confessed         Nude in the dark magnolia tree,             That rustles with the murmurous West,--         Or is it but a dream of thee             That thy white beauty guessed?         In southern heavens above are rolled             A million feverish gems, which burst         From night's deep ebon caskets old,             With inner fires that seem to thirst;         Tall oleanders to their gold             Drift buds where dews are nursed.         Unseal, unseal thine eyes,             Where long her rod         Queen Mab sways o'er their skies             In realms of Nod!         Confessed, such majesties             Will fill the night with God.         Unseal, unseal thine eyes!