The night-wind and the water sighed: And through the leaves, that stirred above, The moonbeams swooned with music of The dance--soft things in league with love: I never dreamed that you had lied. How all comes back now, Geraldine! The melody; the glimmering scene; Your angel face; and ev'n,--between Your lawny breasts,--the heart-shaped jewel,-- To which your breath gave fluctuant fuel,-- A rosy star of stormy fire; The snowy drift of your attire, Lace-deep and fragrant: and your hair, Disordered in the dance, held back By one gemmed pin,--a moonbeam there, Half-drowned within its night-like black.-- And I who sat beside you then Seemed blessed above all mortal men.
I loved you for the way you sighed; The way you said, "I love but you;" The smile with which your lips replied; Your lips, that from my bosom drew The soul; your looks, like undenied Caresses, that seemed naught but true: I loved you for the violet scent That clung about you as a flower; Your moods, where grief and gladness blent, An April-tide of sun and shower; You were my creed, my testament, Wherein I met with God's high power. Was it because the loving see Only what they desire shall be There in the well-belovéd's soul, Passion and heart's affinity, That I beheld in you the whole Of my love's image? and believed You loved as I loved? nor perceived Yours was a mask, a mockery!
Ah, Geraldine, lost Geraldine, That night of love, when last we met, You have forgotten, Geraldine-- I never dreamed you would forget.
_The young advocate Don Sebastian Lopez, between three pinches of snuff, lays the facts of the case before his friend, Don Emanuel de Cordova, chief magistrate of the City of Valladolid._
To Don Odora said Donna De Vine, "I yield to thy long endeavor!-- At my balcony be on the stroke of nine, And, Señor, I'm thine forever!"...
This beauty at first had the Don descried As she quit the confessional: followed: "What a face! what a form! what a foot!" he sighed, And more that he, smiling, swallowed.
And with vows as soft as his oaths were sweet Her heart he barricaded; And pressed this point with a present meet, And that point serenaded.
What else could the enemy do but yield To such handsome importuning? A gallant blade with a lute for shield All night at her lattice mooning!