LAST night I looked into a dream; 'twas drawn On the black midnight of a velvet sleep, And set in woeful thoughts; and there I saw A thin, pale Cupid, with bare, ragged wings Like skeletons of leaves, in autumn left, That sift the frosty air. One hand was shut, And in its little hold of ivory Fastened a May-morn zephyr, frozen straight, Made deadly with a hornet's rugged sting, Gilt with the influence of an adverse star. Such was his weapon, and he traced with it, Upon the waters of my thoughts, these words: 'I am the death of flowers, and nightingales, And small-lipped babes, that give their souls to summer To make a perfumed day with: I shall come, A death no larger than a sigh to thee, Upon a sunset hour.'—And so he passed Into the place where faded rainbows are, Dying along the distance of my mind; As down the sea Europa's hair-pearls fell When, through the Cretan waves, the curly bull Dashed, tugging at a stormy plough, whose share Was of the northern hurricane _____ | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VAIN TEARS, FR. THE QUEEN OF CORINTH by JOHN FLETCHER THE TEACHER by LESLIE PINCKNEY HILL A MATCH by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE SOLITUDE OF SPACE by FLORA CECILE ALLISON THE STORY OF ZERBIN AND ISABELLA, FR. ORLANDO FURIOSO by LUDOVICO (LODOVICO) ARIOSTO |