Versos English Aubrey De Vere VIII.

English poem

VIII.

by (1788–1846)

Listen in the reader

"Behold! the wintry rains are past; The airs of midnight hurt no more: The young maids love thee. Come at last: Thou lingerest at the garden-door.

"Blow over all the garden; blow, Thou wind that breathest of the south, Through all the alleys winding low, With dewy wing and honeyed mouth.

"But wheresoever thou wanderest, shape Thy music ever to one Name:— Thou too, clear stream, to cave and cape Be sure thou whisper of the same.

"By every isle and bower of musk Thy crystal clasps, as on it curls, We charge thee, breathe it to the dusk; We charge thee, grave it in thy pearls."

The stream obeyed. That Name he bore Far out above the moon-lit tide. The breeze obeyed. He breathed it o'er The unforgetting pines; and died.