III.

The virgin rose; the gazer quick withdrew; The favouring thicket closed her form from view. Slow went she homeward up the sunlit ground; Unseen he followed, where the woodlands wound; The spell that first arrested now lured on, And in that spell a frown from earth seem'd gone. As in the languid noon of summer day Birds fold the pinion and suspend the lay-- So hopes lie silent in the human heart Till all at once the choirs to music start, From the long hush rejoicing wings arise, Sport round the blooms, or glance into the skies.