Lays of ancient Virginia, and other poems
Chapter 1
SUNRISE--ENTER LOVER SOLUS.
This is my fair resort, the Summer Sun Is rising there, the ocean gleams like gold, On which his rolling chariot burns like fire. Ten thousand birds are up in branch and air, To hail this coronation, every day Repeated from the first to last of time. It is a glorious sight, and worthy all That has been said or sung of it in verse. But yet 'tis dim to me, Odora's eyes Have cast that glory in a dull eclipse, Oh! sweet Odora! I am mad with love Of thy sweet eyes. Would they might rain their rays Upon me, as yon orb, rains rays on earth. Oh, sweetest eyes of love! they set on fire My tinder heart. Odora! come to me! Upon this mountain's green and glittering brow, Where now I stand and gaze down earth and main, O'er which that God's all gladdening glory soars. Come, sweet Odora! thine eyes outshine that God. Thy speech's music so transcends these birds, They'll pine for grief and die. Oh sweet, come, come.
ENTER ODORA IN THE DRESS OF A WOODNYMPH.
Transcendant vision! Even now I thought of thee, My mind, o'erheated, called--and thou art here. What blissful fate hath brought thee? Dost thou roam The scented hills at morn, to gather flowers; To gaze into the fountain's glassy mirror, Or list the sweet birds sigh on every bough, Thou art a woodnymph, speaks thy fair attire. Sweet fancy of a sweeter maidenhood, That thou dost walk at dawn a woodnymph wild. Here will I seal upon thy foam-white brow My flame again, which burns like yonder orb. Odora! speak to me! thy voice is sweet, As sounds of rescue to a ship-wrecked soul.