Classic Poem

THE SERENADE .

List ! list, lady fair, to a tale of the hill,
If to you, are all mysteries dear;
A tale, that with wonder thy bosom shall fill, —
Not of yore, but of yesterday — hear.

If you think of a spirit — I tried it last night —
And to speak to it freely, you long:
It comes at your bidding, as swiftly as light,
And pours forth a soul-touching song.

Now sweetly it swells on the night breeze; and, hark
The Swiss boy arose with his pail;
The fisherman floats in his beautiful bark,
And the pleadings of love do not fail.

With two sister spirits it came, all in white;
I saw them; I opened the door;
I spoke, and they flitted; again it was night,
And as silent and dark as before.

Like spirits they came, like spirits they went;
They left not a track on the grass;
From the heart's father-land they surely were sent —
So swiftly they vanished, alas!

But the songs that they sang, did not vanish away;
The pleasure we ever may keep:
We shall hear them by night, we shall hear them by day,
Till pleasure and memory sleep.