XVIII + 

Noon + 

Noon! and in the garden bower + 

The hot air quivers o’er the grass + 

The little lake is smooth as glass + 

And still so heavily the hour + 

Drags, that scarce the proudest flower + 

Pressed upon its burning bed + 

Has strength to lift a languid head: + 

—Rose and fainting violet + 

By the water’s margin set + 

Swoon and sink as they were dead + 

Though their weary leaves be fed + 

With the foam-drops of the pool + 

Where it trembles dark and cool + 

Wrinkled by the fountain spraying + 

O’er it. And the honey-bee + 

Hums his drowsy melody + 

And wanders in his course a-straying + 

Through the sweet and tangled glade + 

With his golden mead o’erladen + 

Where beneath the pleasant shade + 

Of the darkling boughs a maiden + 

—Milky limb and fiery tress, + 

All at sweetest random laid⁠— + 

Slumbers, drunken with the excess + 

Of the noontide’s loveliness. + 