Triformis Diana

So pure her forehead's dazzling white,
So swift and clear her radiant eyes,
Within the treasure of whose light
Lay undeveloped destinies, —
Of thoughts repressed such hidden store
Was hinted by each flitting smile,
I could but wonder and adore,
Far off, in awe, I gazed the while.
I gazed at her, as at the moon,
Hanging in lustrous twilight skies,
Whose virgin crescent, sinking soon,
Peeps through the leaves before it flies:
Untouched Diana, flitting dim,
While sings the wood its evening hymn.
ii.
Again we met. O, joyful meeting!
Her radiance now was all for me,
Like kindly airs her kindly greeting,
So full, so musical, so free;
Within Kentucky forest aisles,
Within romantic paths, we walked,
I bathed me in her sister smiles,
I breathed her beauty as we talked.
So full-orbed Cynthia walks the skies,
Filling the earth with melodies;
Even so she condescends to kiss
Drowsy Endymion, coarse and dull,
Or fills our waking souls with bliss,
Making long nights too beautiful.
O fair, but fickle, lady-moon,
Why must thy full form ever wane?
O love! O friendship! why so soon
Must your sweet light recede again?
I wake me in the dead of night,
And start — for through the misty gloom
Red Hecate stares — a boding sight! —
Looks in — but never fills my room.
Thou music of my boyhood's hour!
Thou shining light on manhood's way!
No more dost thou fair influence shower,
To move my soul by night or day.
O strange! that while in hall and street
Thy hand I touch, thy grace I meet,
Such miles of polar ice should part
The slightest touch of mind and heart !—
But all thy love has waned, and so,
I gladly let thy beauty go.