Treachery.

I.     Came a spicy smell of showers      On the purple wings of night,     And a pearl-encrusted crescent      On the lake looked still and white,     While a sound of distant singing      From the vales rose sad and light.              II.     Dripped the musk of sodden roses      From their million heavy sprays,     And the nightingales were sobbing      Of the roses amorous praise     Where the raven down of even      Caught the moonlight's bleaching rays.              III.     And the turrets of the palace,      From its belt of ancient trees,     On the mountain rose romantic      White as foam from troubled seas;     And the murmur of an ocean      Smote the chords of ev'ry breeze.              IV.     Where the moon shone on the terrace      And its fountain's lisping foam;     Where the bronzen urns of flowers      Breathed faint perfume thro' the gloam,     By the alabaster Venus      'Neath the quiet stars we'd roam.              V.     And we stopped beside the statue      Of the marble Venus there     Deeply pedestaled 'mid roses,      Who their crimson hearts laid bare,     Breathing out their lives in fragrance      At her naked feet and fair.              VI.     And we marked the purple dingles      Where the lazy vapors lolled,     Like thin, fleecy ribs of moonlight      Touched with amethyst and gold;     And we marked the wild deer glimmer      Like dim specters where they strolled....              VII.     But from out those treach'rous roses      Crept a serpent and it stung,     Poisoned him who'd tuned my heart-strings      Till for him alone they sung,     Froze the nerves of hands that only      From its chords a note had wrung.              VIII.     Now the nightingales in anguish      To cold, ashen roses moan;     Now a sound of desolate wailing      In the darkened palace lone     From a harp olian quavers      Broken on an empty throne.