Illileo, the moonlight seemed lost across the vales-- <br />The stars but strewed the azure as an armor's scattered scales; <br />The airs of night were quiet as the breath of silken sails, <br />And all your words were sweeter than the notes of nightingales. <br /> <br />Illileo Legardi, in the garden there alone, <br />With your figure carved of fervor, as the Psyche carved of stone, <br />There came to me no murmur of the fountain's undertone <br />So mystically, musically mellow as your own. <br /> <br />You whispered low, Illileo-- so low the leaves were mute, <br />And the echoes faltered breathless in your voice's vain pursuit; <br />And there died the distant dalliance of the serenader's lute: <br />And I held you in my bosom as the husk may hold the fruit. <br /> <br />Illileo, I listened. I believed you. In my bliss, <br />What were all the worlds above me since I found you thus in this--? <br />Let them reeling reach to win me-- even Heaven I would miss, <br />Grasping earthward--! I would cling here, though I clung by just a kiss. <br /> <br />And blossoms should grow odorless-- and lilies all aghast-- <br />And I said the stars should slacken in their paces through the vast, <br />Ere yet my loyalty should fail enduring to the last--. <br />So vowed I. It is written. It is changeless as the past. <br /> <br />IIlileo Legardi, in the shade your palace throws <br />Like a cowl about the singer at your gilded porticos, <br />A moan goes with the music that may vex the high repose <br />Of a heart that fades and crumbles as the crimson of a rose.<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/illileo/
