Unfurled the sail, unchained the oar, As verdant slope and barren cliff The flowers, whose faint tips, here and there, Breathed out such fragrance, you might swear soundless gale that fanned That every The tide came fresh from fairy land ; The music of the mountain rill, Leaping in glee from hill to hill, To which some wild bird, now and then, You will not wonder that Count Otto Left Lady Hildegonde's ridotto. What melody glides o'er the star-lit stream? "Lurley! Lurley!" Angels of grace! does the young Count dream? "Lurley! Lurley!" Or is the scene indeed so fair That a nymph of the sea or a nymph of the air Has left the home of her own delight, To sing to our roses or rocks to-night? "Lurley! Lurley !" Words there are none; but the waves prolong The notes of that mysterious song: He listens, and listens, and all around No form appears on the river side; As fades one murmur on the ear, There comes another, just as clear; And the present is like to the parted strain Whether the voice be sad or gay, 'T were very hard for the Count to say; His pulse is quick and his heart is wild, Oh mighty music! they who know The witchery of thy wondrous bow, Forget, when thy strange spells have bound them, The visible world that lies around them. When Lady Mary sings Rosini, Or stares at spectral Paganini, To Lady Mary does it matter Who laugh, who love, who frown, who flatter? Reason or rhyme from prince or peer: As a bride might doff her bridal dress To don her funeral shroud; And over flood, and over fell, With a wild and wicked shout, From the secret cell, where in chains they dwell, The joyous winds rushed out; And the dark hills through, the thunder flew, And down the fierce hail came; And from peak to peak the lightning threw Its shafts of liquid flame. The boat went down; without delay, The luckless boatman swooned away; And when, as a clear Spring morning rose He woke in wonder from repose, The river was calm as the river could be, And the thrush was awake on the gladsome tree, On the margin of the tranquil wave, And wet, poor fellow, to the skin. He looked to the left and he looked to the right— Why hastened he not, the noble knight, To dry his aged nurse's tears, To calm the hoary butler's fears, A maiden lay in her loveliness! Lived she?-in sooth 't were hard to tell, A shelf of the rock was all her bed; A ceiling of crystal was o'er her head; Silken robe, nor satin vest, Shrouded her form in its silent rest; Only her long, long golden hair About her lay like a thin robe there; He leaned to look upon her face; Never was form of such fine mould But the hands and the face were as white and cold On her fair neck there seemed no stain, Where the pure blood coursed thro' the delicate vein; And her breath, if breath indeed it were, Flowed in a current so soft and rare, It would scarcely have stirred the young moth's wing Count Otto stares till his eyelids ache, Whence came she hither?-what doth she here? Be registered on this our earth, Why hath she fled from her father's halls? And where hath she left her cloaks and shawls? There was no time for Reason's lectures, |