The Haunted Shadow

Fair Trees, O keep from chattering so When I with my more fair do go Beneath your branches; For if I laugh with her your sigh Her rare and sudden mirth puts by, Or your too noisy glee will take Persuasion from my lips and make Her deaf as winter.

O be not as the pines--that keep The shadow-charmèd light asleep-- Perverse and sombre! For when we in the pinewood walked And of young love and far age talked, Their solemn haunted shadow broke Her peace--ah, how the sharp sob shook Her shadowed bosom!