AN AUTUMNAL EXTRAVAGANZA

With a sweeter voice than birds

Dare to twitter in their sleep,

Pipe for me a tune of words,

Till my dancing fancies leap

Into freedom vaster far

Than the realms of Reason are!

Sing for me with wilder fire

Than the lover ever sung,

From the time he twanged the lyre

When the world was baby-young.

O my maiden Autumn, you —

You have filled me through and through

With a passion so intense,

All of earthly eloquence

Fails, and falls, and swoons away

In your presence. Like as one

Who essays to look the sun

Fairly in the face, I say,

Though my eyes you dazzle blind

Greater dazzled is my mind.

So, my Autumn, let me kneel

At your feet and worship you!

Be my sweetheart; let me feel

Your caress; and tell me too

Why your smiles bewilder me —

Glancing into laughter, then

Trancing into calm again,

Till your meaning drowning lies

In the dim depths of your eyes.

Let me see the things you see

Down the depths of mystery!

Blow aside the hazy veil

From the daylight of your face

With the fragrance-ladened gale

Of your spicy breath and chase

Every dimple to its place.

Lift your gipsy finger-tips

To the roses of your lips,

And fling down to me a bud —

But an unblown kiss — but one —

It shall blossom in my blood,

Even after life is done —

When I dare to touch the brow

Your rare hair is veiling now —

When the rich, red-golden strands

Of the treasure in my hands

Shall be all of worldly worth

Heaven lifted from the earth,

Like a banner to have set

On its highest minaret.