TO HELEN.

I saw thee once-once only-years ago :

I must not say how many-but not many.

It was a July midnight; and from out

A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,

Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,
Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand

Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe--

Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses,
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death-
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses

That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.

LAD all in white, upon a violet bank

I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd-alas, in sorrow!

Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight—
Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses ?
No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven!-oh, God!
How
my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused-I looked-
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)

The pearly lustre of the moon went out :

The mossy banks and the meandering paths,

The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odours
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.