Iii

White as a lily molded of Earth's milk That eve the moon bloomed in a hyacinth sky; Soft in the gleaming glens the wind went by, Faint as a phantom clothed in unseen silk: Bright as a Naiad's limbs, from shine to shade The runnel twinkled through the shaken brier; Above the hills one long cloud, pulsed with fire, Flashed like a great enchantment-welded blade. And when the western sky seemed some weird land, And night a witch's spell, at whose command One sloping star fell green from heav'n; and deep The warm rose opened, for the moth to sleep; Then she, consenting, laid her hands in his, And lifted up her lips for their first kiss.