How warm this woodland wild recess! Love surely hath been breathing here; And this sweet bed of heath, my dear! Swells up, then sinks with faint caress, As if to have you yet more near.
Eight springs have flown, since last I lay On sea-ward Quantock's heathy hills, Where quiet sounds from hidden rills Float hear and there, like things astray, And high o'er head the sky-lark shrills.
As when a mother doth explore The rose-mark on her long-lost child, I met, I loved you, maiden mild ! As whom I long had loved before-- So deeply had I been beguiled.
You stood before me like a thought, A dream remembered in a dream. But when those meek eyes first did seem To tell me, Love within you wrought-- O Greta, dear domestic stream!
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