Classic Poem

A BIOGRAPHY .

I.

Prince Amadis lay in a flowery brake,
By the side of Locarno's silver lake:
It seems a very long while ago,
Or else it may be that time goes slow.

II.

Those were the days when the world of spirit
Filled the old earth to the brim, or near it;
And marvels were wrought by wizard elves,
Which happen but rarely among ourselves.

III.

The heart of Prince Amadis did not pant
With an indwelling love, or blameless want
Of chivalrous friendship, or thirst of power;
His youth was enough for its own bright hour.

IV.

He floated o'er life like a noon-tide breeze,
Or cradled vapor on sunny seas,
Or an exquisite cloud, in light arrayed,
Which sails through the sky and can throw no shade.

V.

Wishes he had, but no hopes and no fears;
He smiled, but his smiles were not gendered of tears:
Like a beautiful mute he played his part,
Too happy by far in his own young heart!

VI.

His twentieth summer was well nigh past,
Each was more golden and gay than the last;
The glory of earth, which to others grows dim,
Through his unclouded years glittered fresher to him.

VII.

And oh how he loved! From the hour of his birth,
He was gentle to all the bright insects of earth;
He sate by the green gilded lizards for hours,
And laughed, for pure love, at the shoals of pied flowers.

VIII.

As he walked through the woods in the cool of the day,
He stooped to each blossom that grew by the way;
He tapped at the rind of the old cedar trees,
When its weak breath had sweetened the evening breeze.

IX.

He knew all the huge oaks, the wide forest's gems,
By their lightning-cleft branches or sisterly stems;
He knew the crowned pines where the starlight is best,
And the likeliest banks where the moon would rest.

X.

He studied with joy the old mossy walls,
And probed with his finger their cavernous halls,
Where the wren builds her nest, and the lady-bird slumbers,
While winter his short months of icy wind numbers.