Creole Serenade

Under moss-draped oak and pine, Murmuring, falls the fountained stream; In its pool the lilies shine, Silvery, each a glimmering gleam.

Roses bloom and roses die In the warm rose-scented dark, Where the firefly, like an eye, Winks and glows, a golden spark.

Amber-belted through the night Drifts the alabaster moon, Like a big magnolia white On the fragrant heart of June.

With a broken syrinx there, With bignonia overgrown, Is it Pan in hoof and hair?-- Or his image carved from stone?

See! her casement’s jessamines part;-- Through their stars and swooning scent Like the moon she leans. O heart, ’T is another firmament!

Sings:

The dim verbena drugs the dusk With lemon odors; everywhere Wan heliotropes breathe drowsy musk Into the jasmine-heavy air; The moss-rose bursts its dewy husk And spills its attar there.

The orange 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, Like blossoms there,-- That dew and fragrance weep,-- Will fill the night with prayer. Awake, awake from sleep!

And dreaming here it seems to me A dryad’s bosom grows confessed, Nude in the dark magnolia tree, That rustles with the murmurous West-- Or is it but some bloom I see, White as thy virgin breast?

Through Southern heavens above are rolled A million feverish stars, that burst, Like gems, from out the caskets old Of night, with fires that throb and thirst: An oleander, showering gold, The heav’n seems, star-immersed.

Unseal, unseal thine eyes!-- Too long her rod Queen Mab sways o’er their skies In realms of Nod!-- Their starry majesties Will fill the night with God. Unseal, unseal thine eyes!