[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
XVII.
Maid with Azure Eyes
Sweet maid, sweet maid with azure eyes,
What visions in my soul arise
When those pure orbs their spells devise,
Sweet maid with azure eyes!
Ah! well I love their wistful smile —
Not filled with affectation’s wile,
Not laden deep with flattery’s guile,
Sweet maid with azure eyes,
Not born where pomp with stilted tread
Makes all the living hearts as dead,
But where the sylvan cloisters wed,
Sweet maid with azure eyes.
And mirrors mystic, maid, are they —
Those azure eyes of thine, now gay,
And now as if they sought to pray,
Sweet maid with azure eyes —
Mirrors wherein I sometimes see
A well of love that springs for me;
And then my heart goes out to thee,
Sweet maid with azure eyes.
And half afraid, sweet maid, they seem,
When oft beneath their mystic beam
Strange shadows flit to fill their dream,
Sweet maid with azure eyes.
And should I wander far away,
Sweet maid, they haunt me night and day
Still wielding well their magic sway,
Sweet maid with azure eyes.
Ah, maid, sweet maid with azure eyes,
My heart beneath their magic lies
A captive, yet a willing prize,
Sweet maid with azure eyes!
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 32
Editor’s notes:
azure = the blue of a clear unclouded sky
gay = happy, joyous, carefree (may also mean well-decorated, bright, attractive) (in modern times it may especially refer to a homosexual, especially a male homosexual; may also refer to something which is no good, pathetic, useless)
maid = maiden, young woman, young female (may also refer to a female servant)
oft = (archaic) often
sylvan = regarding a wood or forest (although often a reference to something living within a wood, referring to a person, spirit, or tree)
thee = (archaic) you
thine = (archaic) your; yours
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