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ORPHEUS
The veil of us falling
On snow-height and heather,
Or hovering and scrawling
Strange signs in the «ther.
We hear the still voice, and we know him .
we come !
We are sightless and dumb.
ORPHEUS.
More frail than your friends,
The clouds borne above,
The light of thee blends
With the moon and her love.
Thy spirit descends
As a white-throated dove.
Come forth! I invoke thee, O mist, and
make me a sharer thereof !
THE MIsT.
From valleys of violet
My shadow hath kissed,
From low-lying islet,
A vision of mist,
The voice of my pilot
Steals soft to insist.
O azure of sky, let
Me pass to the tryst !
I hear the low voice of my love ; and I rest
A maid on his breast.
ORPHEUS.
Thou child of soft wind
And the luminous air,
Thou, stealing behind
As a ghost, as a rare
Soft dew, as a blind
Fierce lion from his lair,
Come forth! I invoke thee, O rain, look
forth with thy countenance fair !
THE RAIN.
From highland far drifted,
From river-fed lawn,
From clouds thunder-rifted,
I leap as a fawn.
The voice is uplifted,
The lord
of my dawn;
My spirit is shifted,
My love is withdrawn,
I hear the sweet feet of my God; I know
him; I fall
In tears at his call.
ORPHEUS.,
Cold lips and chaste eyes
Of frost-fall that leap,
That shake from the skies
On the earth in her sleep
Kiss nuptial, arise
As the lyre-strings sweep !
Come forth! I invoke thee, O frost, the
valleys await thee and weep.
THE FRosr.
So silent and wise
In her cerement clothes,
So secretly lies
My soul in my snows ;
I awake, I arise,
For my spirit now knows
The first time in her eyes
That a voice may unclose
My petals: I hear it; I come; I clasp the
warm ground
In my passion profound.
ORPHEUS.
In valleys heaped high,
In drifts lying low,
Swift slopes to the sky,
Come forth to me, snow !
Thy beauty and I
Are of old even so
As lover and lover. Come forth! I invoke
thee ! the hills are aglow.
THE SNOW.
Bright breasts I uncover,
Heart's heart to thy gaze ;
O lyre of my lover,
I know thee, thy praise.