A FOREST IDYL

Beneath an old beech-tree

They sat together,

Fair as a flower was she

Of summer weather.

They spoke of life and love,

While, through the boughs above,

The sunlight, like a dove,

Dropped many a feather.

And there the violet,

The bluet near it,

Made blurs of azure wet —

As if some spirit,

Or woodland dream, had gone

Sprinkling the earth with dawn,

When only Fay and Faun

Could see or hear it.

She with her young, sweet face

And eyes gray-beaming,

Made of that forest place

A spot for dreaming:

A spot for Oreads

To smooth their nut-brown braids,

For Dryads of the glades

To dance in, gleaming.

So dim the place, so blest.

One had not wondered

Had Dian's mooned breast

The deep leaves sundered,

And there on them awhile

The goddess deigned to smile.

While down some forest aisle

The far hunt thundered.

I deem that hour perchance

Was but a mirror

To show them Earth's romance

And draw them nearer:

A mirror where, meseems.

All that this Earth-life dreams,

All loveliness that gleams,

Their souls saw clearer.

Beneath an old beech-tree

They dreamed of blisses;

Fair as a flower was she

That summer kisses:

They spoke of dreams and days,

Of love that goes and stays,

Of all for which life prays,

Ah me! and misses.