Canto 28Vision
Book 3. Part Three - Baroda and Bengal Circa 1900 – 1909
Who art thou that roamest
Over mountains dim
In the haunts of evening,
Sister of the gleam!
5Whiter than the jasmines,
Roses dream of thee;
Softly with the violets
How thine eyes agree!
As thy raven tresses
10Night is not so black,
From thy moonbright shoulders
Floating dimly back.
Feet upon the hilltops,
Lilies of delight,
15With their far-off radiance
Tinge the evening bright.
In the vesper calmness
Lightly like a dove,
With thy careless eyelids
20Confident of love,
As of old thou comest
Down the mountains far,
Smiling from what gardens,
Glowing from what star?
25Racing from the hilltops
Like a brilliant stream,
Burning in the valleys
Marble-bright of limb,
Singing in the orchards
30When the shadows fall,
With thy crooning anklets
To my heart that call,
By the darkening window
Like a slender fire,
35With the night behind thee,
Daughter of desire!
Open wide the doorway,
Bid my love come in
With the night behind her
40And the dawn within.
Take, O radiant fingers,
Heart and hands of me,
Hide them in thy bosom,
O felicity!