Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
It Was A Sultry Summer Noon, The Hottest...
A vigorous oak , its branches wide , Stretched thickly overhead ;
And all below the grass was green , Through which a runlet , heard—not seen ,
It modest journey sped . There Lysiasthrown upon the ground ,
, Looks upwards to the skies , And idly marks the leafy screen ,
_^ _The bright blue struggling through the green , With sleepy half-closed eyes .
The heat he'd borne—the present shade ,
The murmur of the rill ; Conspired to wrap his soul in sleep ,
Though that rare song , with meaning deep , : Shall haunt him sleeping still .
The noon-day heat had passed away , Before the rising breeze ;
When Lysias waking , where he lies , Through the long lashes of his eyes ,
A glorious vision sees . Was it the spirit of the tree ,
That presence so divine V Which from the canopy above ,
Breath'd down with looks of heavenly love" Be virtuous and be niine . "
Lysias sprang up with outstretched arms , Eagerly gazing round ;
The sun was slanting to the west , And earth awakening from her rest ,
Was filled with pleasant sound . The ringdoves coo'd , the small birds chirped ,
The thrush his song _trill'd out ; Bees hummed ; a glittering dragon . fly ,
With a whirring sound , was darting by , And blind daws buzzed about .
But the vision had melted into air , The voice—was it stilled for ever ?
And the fiery longing in Lysias' breast , Shall it never be quenched , nor his soul know rest ?
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1864, page 228, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061864/page/12/