Chapter I

Night bade me rest. I left the street,
Its faces fair and banter sweet;
And oh, how human seem’d the town
Beside which I had laid me down!
But, ere I slept, the rising moon,
From skies as blue as if ’twere noon,
Pour’d forth her light in silvery streams,
Eclipsing all my light of dreams.
And soon, as if some power would shake
My drowsy eyes, and make them wake,
The walls were spray’d with showers of light,
Whose flickerings left a fountain bright
That toss’d the moonbeams in its play,
And dash’d and flash’d their gleams away.
I just could see the fountain flow
Within a marble court[1] below.
It seem’d a spirit, clothed in white,
But half reveal’d to mortal sight,
Whose glancing robes would lift and glide
O’er dainty limbs that danced inside,
And touched the ground with throbbing sweet
As if the tread of fairy feet;
While round about the fount-sent shower,
That strung with pearls each grateful flower,
Rare fragrance rose from bush and bower.