LILIAN. AIRY, fairy Lilian, Flitting, fairy Lilian, When I ask her if she love me, Laughing all she can; She 'll not tell me if she love me, When my passion seeks Pleasance in love-sighs, She, looking through and through me Thoroughly to undo me, Smiling, never speaks: So innocent-arch, so cunning-simple, From beneath her gathered wimple Glancing with black-beaded eyes, Till the lightning laughters dimple The baby-roses in her cheeks; Then away she flies. Prithee weep, May Lilian! Gayety without eclipse Wearieth me, May Lilian: Through my very heart it thrilleth When from crimson-threaded lips Silver-treble laughter trilleth : Like a rose-leaf I will crush thee, Fairy Lilian. ISABEL. EYES not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent fane Revered Isabel, the crown and head, The stately flower of female fortitude, Of perfect wifehood and pure lowlihead. The intuitive decision of a bright And thorough-edged intellect to part Error from crime; a prudence to withhold; The laws of marriage charactered in gold Upon the blanched tablets of her heart; A love still burning upward, giving light To read those laws; an accent very low In blandishment, but a most silver flow Of subtle-paced counsel in distress, A hate of gossip parlance, and of sway, The mellowed reflex of a winter moon; With swifter movement and in purer light The vexed eddies of its wayward brother: A leaning and upbearing parasite, Clothing the stem, which else had fallen quite, With clustered flower-bells and ambrosial orbs |