Caroline: Part II (To the Evening Star)

Gem of the crimson-coloured Even,
Companion of retiring day,
Why at the closing gates of Heaven,
Belovèd star dost thou delay?

So fair thy pensile beauty burns,
When soft the tear of twilight flows;
So due thy plighted love returns,
To chambers brighter than the rose,

To Peace, to Pleasure, and to Love,
So kind a star thou seem’st to be,
Sure some enamoured orb above
Descends and burns to meet with thee.

Thine is the breathing, blushing hour,
When all unheavenly passions fly,
Chased by the soul-subduing power
Of Love’s delicious witchery.

O! sacred to the fall of day,
Queen of propitious stars appear,
And early rise and long delay,
When Caroline herself is here!

Shine on her chosen green resort,
Whose trees the sunward summit crown,
And wanton flowers that well may court
An angel’s feet to tread them down.

Shine on her sweetly-scented road,
Thou star of evening’s purple dome,
That lead’st the nightingale abroad,
And guid’st the pilgrim to his home.

Shine, where my charmer’s sweeter breath
Embalms the soft exhaling dew,
Where dying winds a sigh bequeath
To kiss the cheek of rosy hue.

Where, winnowed by the gentle air,
Her silken tresses darkly flow,
And fall upon her brow so fair,
Like shadows on the mountain snow.

Thus, ever thus, at day’s decline,
In converse sweet, to wander far,
O bring with thee my Caroline,
And thou shalt be my ruling star!