Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: INDIAN LOVE SONG, by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: INDIAN LOVE SONG, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: My body sleeps: my heart awakes
Last Line: Through mist and darkness moves toward thee.
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Owen; Lytton, 1st Earl Of; Lytton, Robert
Subject(s): Italy; Travel; Italians; Journeys; Trips


MY body sleeps: my heart awakes.
My lips to breathe thy name are moved
In slumber's ear: then slumber breaks;
And I am drawn to thee, beloved.
Thou drawest me, thou drawest me,
Through sleep, through night. I hear the rills,
And hear the leopard in the hills,
And down the dark I feel to thee.

The vineyards and the villages
Were silent in the vales, the rocks.
I followed past the myrrhy trees,
And by the footsteps of the flocks.
Wild honey, dropt from stone to stone,
Where bees have been, my path sug gests.
The winds are in the eagles' nests.
The moon is hid. I walk alone.

Thou drawest me, thou drawest me
Across the glimmering wildernesses,
And drawest me, my love, to thee,
With dove's eyes hidden in thy tresses
The world is many: my love is one.
I find no likeness for my love.
The cinnamons grow in the grove:
The Golden Tree grows all alone.

O who hath seen her wondrous hair!
Or seen my dove's eyes in the woods?
Or found her voice upon the air?
Her steps along the solitudes?
Or where is beauty like to hers?
She draweth me, she draweth me.
I sought her by the incense-tree,
And in the aloes, and in the firs.

Where art thou, O my heart's delight,
With dove's eyes hidden in thy locks?
My hair is wet with dews of night.
My feet are torn upon the rocks.
The cedarn scents, the spices, fail
About me. Strange and stranger seems
The path. There comes a sound of streams
Above the darkness on the vale.

No trees drop gums; but poison flowers
From rifts and clefts all round me fall;
The perfumes of thy midnight bowers,
The fragrance of thy chambers, all
Is drawing me, is drawing me.
Thy baths prepare; anoint thine hair:
Open the window: meet me there:
I come to thee, to thee, to thee!

Thy lattices are dark, my own.
Thy doors are still. My love, look out.
Arise, my dove with tender tone.
The camphor-clusters all about
Are whitening. Dawn breaks silently.
And all my spirit with the dawn
Expands; and, slowly, slowly drawn,
Through mist and darkness moves toward thee.





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