Classic Poem

Great dragon-flies in blazing blue
Across the shimmering river flew;
A dreamy fount of carol played
Thro' calm and ripple, shine and shade.

And all was joyous, all was fair,
Because the golden girl was there;
Her loving eyes illumed that day
The pine-clad winding waterway.

Until it seemed that charmed erelong
By incantation of her song
The broadening deep would flood and flow
From heights of Himalayan snow: —

Her face, in that enchanted hour,
Among the lotos-flowers a flower,
Her whisper mingling, tale for tale,
With roses in the Orient vale.

Then bloomy palms would wave and shed
Their magic slumber overhead,
And Ganges' everlasting stream
Sigh thro' the hushed and holy dream.