Sit down beside me, Isabel,
\nHere, dearest, where the moonbeam fell
\nJust now so fairy-like and well.
\nNow thou art dress’d for paradise!
\nI am star-stricken with thine eyes!
\nMy soul is lolling on thy sighs!
\nThy hair is lifted by the moon
\nLike flowers by the low breath of June!
\nSit down, sit down \u00e2\u20ac\u201d how came we here?
\nOr is it all but a dream, my dear?
\n
\nYou know that most enormous flower \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nThat rose \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that what d’ye call it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that hung
\nUp like a dog-star in this bower \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nTo-day (the wind blew, and) it swung
\nSo impudently in my face,
\nSo like a thing alive you know,
\nI tore it from its pride of place
\nAnd shook it into pieces \u00e2\u20ac\u201d so
\nBe all ingratitude requited.
\nThe winds ran off with it delighted,
\nAnd, thro‘ the opening left, as soon
\nAs she threw off her cloak, yon moon
\nHas sent a ray down with a tune.<\/p>\n
And this ray is a fairy ray \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nDid you not say so, Isabel?
\nHow fantastically it fell
\nWith a spiral twist and a swell,
\nAnd over the wet grass rippled away
\nWith a tinkling like a bell!
\nIn my own country all the way
\nWe can discover a moon ray
\nWhich thro‘ some tatter’d curtain pries
\nInto the darkness of a room,
\nIs by (the very source of gloom)
\nThe motes, and dust, and flies,
\nOn which it trembles and lies
\nLike joy upon sorrow!
\nO, when will come the morrow?
\nIsabel ! do you not fear
\nThe night and the wonders here?
\nDim vales ! and shadowy floods !
\nAnd cloudy-looking woods
\nWhose forms we can’t discover
\nFor the tears that drip all over !<\/p>\n
Huge moons \u00e2\u20ac\u201d see! wax and wane
\nAgain \u00e2\u20ac\u201d again \u00e2\u20ac\u201d again \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nEvery moment of the night \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nForever changing places!
\nHow they put out the starlight
\nWith the breath from their pale faces!<\/p>\n
Lo! one is coming down
\nWith its centre on the crown
\nOf a mountain’s eminence!
\nDown \u00e2\u20ac\u201d still down \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and down \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nNow deep shall be \u00e2\u20ac\u201d O deep!
\nThe passion of our sleep!
\nFor that wide circumference
\nIn easy drapery falls
\nDrowsily over halls \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nOver ruin’d walls \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nOver waterfalls,
\n(Silent waterfalls!)
\nO’re the strange woods \u00e2\u20ac\u201d o’er the sea \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\nAlas! over the sea! <\/p>\n