64
THE IMPROVISATRICE.
I saw a youth beside me kneel;
I heard my name in music steal;
I felt my hand trembling in his;—
Another moment, and his kiss
Had burnt upon it; when, like thought
So swift it past, my hand was thrown
Away, as if in sudden pain.
Lorenzo like a dream had flown!
We did not meet again:—he seemed
To shun each spot where I might be:
And, it was said, another claimed
The heart—more than the world to me!
I loved him as young Genius loves,
When its own wild and radiant heaven
Of starry thought burns with the light,
The love, the life, by passion given.