The Snow-Drop

  1. 1Fear no more, thou timid Flower!
  2. 2Fear thou no more the winter's might,
  3. 3The whelming thaw, the ponderous shower,
  4. 4The silence of the freezing night!
  5. 5Since Laura murmur'd o'er thy leaves
  6. 6The potent sorceries of song,
  7. 7To thee, meek Flowret! gentler gales
  8. 8And cloudless skies belong.
  1. 9Her eye with tearful meanings fraught,
  2. 10She gaz'd till all the body mov'd
  3. 11Interpreting the Spirit's thought--
  4. 12The Spirit's eager sympathy
  5. 13Now trembled with thy trembling stem,
  6. 14And while thou droopedst o'er thy bed,
  7. 15With sweet unconscious sympathy
  8. 16Inclin'd the drooping head.
  1. 17She droop'd her head, she stretch'd her arm,
  2. 18She whisper'd low her witching rhymes,
  3. 19Fame unreluctant heard the charm,
  4. 20And bore thee to Pierian climes!
  5. 21Fear thou no more the Matin Frost
  6. 22That sparkled on thy bed of snow;
  7. 23For there, mid laurels ever green,
  8. 24Immortal thou shalt blow.
  1. 25Thy petals boast a white more soft,
  2. 26The spell hath so perfuméd thee,
  3. 27That careless Love shall deem thee oft
  4. 28A blossom from his Myrtle tree.
  5. 29Then, laughing at the fair deceit,
  6. 30Shall race with some Etesian wind
  7. 31To seek the woven arboret
  8. 32Where Laura lies reclin'd.
  1. 33All them whom Love and Fancy grace,
  2. 34When grosser eyes are clos'd in sleep,
  3. 35The gentle spirits of the place
  4. 36Waft up the insuperable steep,
  5. 37On whose vast summit broad and smooth
  6. 38Her nest the Phœnix Bird conceals,
  7. 39And where by cypresses o'erhung
  8. 40The heavenly Lethe steals.
  1. 41A sea-like sound the branches breathe,
  2. 42Stirr'd by the Breeze that loiters there;
  3. 43And all that stretch their limbs beneath,
  4. 44Forget the coil of mortal care.
  5. 45Strange mists along the margins rise,
  6. 46To heal the guests who thither come,
  7. 47And fit the soul to re-endure
  8. 48Its earthly martyrdom.
  1. 49The margin dear to moonlight elves
  2. 50Where Zephyr-trembling Lilies grow,
  3. 51And bend to kiss their softer selves
  4. 52That tremble in the stream below:--
  5. 53There nightly borne does Laura lie
  6. 54A magic Slumber heaves her breast:
  7. 55Her arm, white wanderer of the Harp,
  8. 56Beneath her cheek is prest.
  1. 57The Harp uphung by golden chains
  2. 58Of that low wind which whispers round,
  3. 59With coy reproachfulness complains,
  4. 60In snatches of reluctant sound:
  5. 61The music hovers half-perceiv'd,
  6. 62And only moulds the slumberer's dreams;
  7. 63Remember'd LOVES relume her cheek
  8. 64With Youth's returning gleams.