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In mosses mixt with violet
Her cream-white mule his pastern set:
And fleeter now she skimm'd the plains
Than she whose elfin prancer springs
By night to eery warblings,

When all the glimmering moorland rings
With jingling bridle-reins.

As she fled fast thro' sun and shade,
The happy winds upon her play'd,
Blowing the ringlet from the braid:
She look'd so lovely, as she sway'd

The rein with dainty finger-tips,
A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips.

A FAREWELL.

FLOW down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
No more by thee my steps shall be,

For ever and for ever.

Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
A rivulet then a river:

No where by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

But here will sigh thine alder tree,

And here thine aspen shiver; And here by thee will hum the bee, For ever and for ever.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

THE BEGGAR MAID.

HER arms across her breast she laid;
She was more fair than words can say:
Bare-footed came the beggar maid

Before the king Cophetua.

In robe and crown the king stept down,
To meet and greet her on her way;
"It is no wonder," said the lords,

"She is more beautiful than day."

As shines the moon in clouded skies,
She in her poor attire was seen :
One praised her ankles, one her eyes,
One her dark hair and lovesome mien.

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I HAD a vision when the night was late:
A youth came riding toward a palace-gate.
He rode a horse with wings, that would
have flown,

But that his heavy rider kept him down.
And from the palace came a child of sin,
And took him by the curls, and led him in,
Where sat a company with heated eyes,
Expecting when a fountain should arise:
A sleepy light upon their brows and lips --
As when the sun, a crescent of eclipse,
Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and

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Suffused them, sitting, lying, languid shapes,

By heaps of gourds, and skins of wine, and piles of grapes.

II.

Then methought I heard a mellow sound,
Gathering up from all the lower ground;
Narrowing in to where they sat assembled
Low voluptuous music winding trembled,
Wov'n in circles: they that heard it
sigh'd,

Panted hand in hand with faces pale,
Swung themselves, and in low tones re-
plied;

Till the fountain spouted, showering wide
Sleet of diamond-drift and pearly hail;
Then the music touch'd the gates and
died;

Rose again from where it seem'd to fail,
Storm'd in orbs of song, a growing gale;
Till thronging in and in, to where they
waited,

As 't were a hundred-throated nightin-
gale,

The strong tempestuous treble throbb'd
and palpitated;

Ran into its giddiest whirl of sound,
Caught the sparkles, and in circles,
Purple gauzes, golden hazes, liquid mazes,
Flung the torrent rainbow round:
Then they started from their places,
Moved with violence, changed in hue,
Caught each other with wild grimaces,

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IV.

Wrinkled ostler, grim and thin!
Here is custom come your way;
Take my brute, and lead him in,
Stuff his ribs with mouldy hay.
"Bitter barmaid, waning fast!
See that sheets are on my bed;
What the flower of life is past :
It is long before you wed.
"Slip-shod waiter, lank and sour,
At the Dragon on the heath!
Let us have a quiet hour,

Let us hob-and-nob with Death.

"I am old, but let me drink; Bring me spices, bring me wine; I remember, when I think,

That my youth was half divine.

"Wine is good for shrivell'd lips, When a blanket wraps the day, When the rotten woodland drips,

And the leaf is stamp'd in clay.

"Sit thee down, and have no shame, Cheek by jowl, and knee by knee : What care I for any name?

What for order or degree?

"Let me screw thee up a peg: Let me loose thy tongue with wine: Callest thou that thing a leg?

Which is thinnest ? thine or mine?

"Thou shalt not be saved by works: Thou hast been a sinner too : Ruin'd trunks on wither'd forks, Empty scarecrows, I and you!

"Fill the cup, and fill the can :

Have a rouse before the morn: Every moment dies a man,

Every moment one is born.

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"Let her go! her thirst she slakes

Where the bloody conduit runs : Then her sweetest meal she makes On the first-born of her sons.

"Drink to lofty hopes that coolVisions of a perfect State : Drink we, last, the public fool,

Frantic love and frantic hate.

"Chant me now some wicked stave, Till thy drooping courage rise, And the glow-worm of the grave Glimmer in thy rheumy eyes.

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And I desire to rest.

BREAK, break, break,

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where And I would that my tongue could utter

I lie :

Go by, go by.

THE EAGLE.

FRAGMENT.

HE clasps the crag with hooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.

MOVE eastward, happy earth, and leave
Yon orange sunset waning slow:
From fringes of the faded eve,

O, happy planet, eastward go;
Till over thy dark shoulder glow
Thy silver sister-world, and rise
To glass herself in dewy eyes
That watch me from the glen below.

Ah, bear me with thee, smoothly borne,

Dip forward under starry light, And move me to my marriage-morn, And round again to happy night.

The thoughts that arise in me.

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