Orpheus

The morning shakes its ocean-bathéd tresses, The bright sun broadens over all the earth. The green leaves fall, fall into his caresses, And all the world’s heart leaps, again addresses Its life, and girds it in the golden girth. Then noon full-fashioned lies upon the steep. The large sun sighs and turns his bridle-rein, Thinks of the ocean, turns his heart to sleep, Laughing no longer, not yet prone to weep, Feeling the prelude of the coming pain. The hills and dales are dumb beneath the heat, And all the world lies tranced or mutely dreaming, Save some low sigh caught up where pulses beat Of warm love waiting in the arboreal seat Till the shade lengthen on the lawn light-gleaming. Now all the birds change tune, and all the light Glows lowlier, musing on departed day. Strange wings and sombre, heralding the night, Fleet far across the woods; and gleaming bright The evening star looks from the orient way. Shadow and silence deepen: all the woods Take on a tenderer phrase of musical Breezes: the stream-sought homes and solitudes Murmura little where the maiden moods Are sadder as the evening’s kisses fall. 74