I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me- who knows how?-
To thy chamber-window, sweet!
The wandering airs they faint
On the dark the silent stream-
The champak odors fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart,
As I must die on thine,
O, beloved as thou art!
O, lift me from the grass!
I die, I faint, I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast:
O, press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last.
Very few perhaps are familiar with these lines- yet no less a poet
than Shelley is their author. Their warm, yet delicate and ethereal
imagination will be appreciated by all, but by none so thoroughly as
by him who has himself arisen from sweet dreams of one beloved to
bathe in the aromatic air of a southern midsummer night.
One of the finest poems by Willis- the very best in my opinion which
he has ever written- has no doubt, through this same defect of undue
brevity, been kept back from its proper position, not less in the
critical than in the popular view:-
The shadows lay along Broadway,
'Twas near the twilight-tide-
And slowly there a lady fair
Was walking in her pride.
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