My Beautiful Lady. Nelly Dale

My Lady walks as I have seen a swan
Swim where a glory on the water shone:

There ends of willow branches ride,
Quivering in the flowing tide,

By the deep river's side.

Fresh beauties, howsoe'er she moves, are stirred:
As the sunned bosom of a humming bird

At each pant lifts some fiery hue,
Fierce gold, bewildering green or blue;

The same, yet ever new.

What time she walks beneath the flowering May,
Quite sure am I the scented blossoms say,

"O Lady with the sunlit hair!
Stay and drink our odorous air,

The incense that we bear:

"Thy beauty, Lady, we would ever shade;
For near to thee, our sweetness might not fade."

And could the trees be broken-hearted,
The green sap surely must have smarted,

When my Lady parted.

How beautiful she is! A glorious gem
She shines above the summer diadem

Of flowers! And when her light is seen
Among them, all in