Classic Poem

Come, my loved one, to the feast
Ere the rosy fringe of dawn
Steal into the slumbering east
And the last faint stars are gone.
Holy, holy is the night,
Blazing with its jewels bright.

Elfin lanterns gem the sea;
Thou than heaven more beauteous art;
Lo, I bring the gift to thee
Wonder-flaming in my heart.
Come, my loved one, ere the light
Banishes the lingering night.

Not where sultry southern skies
Languish over lilied bowers;
Where the artist Nature dyes
Scarlet the pomegranate flowers,
Nor where tangled vines are drest
In the valleys of the West.

Far into the wilds we'll go
In a faith forever true;
There a sturdier life shall glow,
Fresh and clear as silver dew.
Joy doth quiver, being caught
In the arms of such a thought.

There to beauty, light and love,
All the patient centuries bow;
Never did the stars above
Glisten more serene than now.
Come and let us drink delight
From the goblet of the night.

Where the tiny bluebells are
Only faeries hear the chime;
Breezes bend the daisy's star
And the bracken beats the time;
Come, my loved one, fare we forth,
To the far and fragrant North.

Soothing fingers of the breeze
Stir the fronds upon the wall;
Sweet aromas from the trees
O'er our subtle senses fall,
And the faintest music stirs
In the softly breathing firs.

Never tuneful thrush at even
In his lonely forest fane,
Nor the seraph in his heaven
Thrilled to such enchanting strain;
Love is godlike when it sips
Wine of rapture from thy lips.

Till our souls dissolved in one,
Pure and purposeful and free
As the goings of the sun
O'er his empire of the sea,
Consecrate their visioned power
To that love-creative hour.

Oh for life, ye thrones above,
Potent as the central fires!
Would that I might speak my love
Strongly as my soul desires
Till the night shall swoon away
Into palpitating day.