Alicia's Bonnet

Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. I sat beside Alicia at the play;   Her violet eyes with tender tears were wet (The diamonds in her ears less bright than they)   For pity of the woes of Juliet:   Alicia’s sighs a poet might have set To delicate music in a dainty sonnet. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. And yet to me her graceful ready words   Sounded like tinkling silver bells that jangled, For on her golden hair the humming-birds   Were fixed as if within a sunbeam tangled,   Their quick life quenched, their tiny bodies mangled, Poor pretty birds upon Alicia’s bonnet. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. Caught in a net of delicate creamy crêpe,   The dainty captives lay there dead together; No dart of slender bill, no fragile shape   Fluttering, no stir of any radiant feather:   Alicia looked so calm, I wondered whether She cared if birds were killed to trim her bonnet. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. If rubies and if sapphires have a spirit,   Though deep they lie below the weight of earth, If emeralds can a conscious life inherit   And beryls rise again to wingëd birth—   Being changed to birds but not to lesser worth— Alicia’s golden head had such upon it. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. Perhaps I dreamed—the house was very still—   But on a sudden the Academy Of Music seemed a forest of Brazil,   Each pillar that supports the balcony   Took form and stature of a tropic tree With scarlet odorous flowers blooming on it. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. A fragrance of delicious drowsy death   Was in the air; the lithe lianas clung About the mighty tree, and birds beneath   More swift than arrows flashed and flew among   The perfumed poisonous blossoms as they swung, The heavy-honeyed flowers that hung upon it. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. Like rain-drops when the sun breaks up the shower,   Or weavers’ shuttles carrying golden thread, Or flying petals of a wind-blown flower,   Myriads of humming-birds flew overhead—   Purple and gold and green and blue and red— Above each scarlet cup, or poised upon it. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. What rapid flight! Each one a wingëd flame,   Burning with brilliant joy of life and all Delight of motion; to and fro they came,   An endless dance, a fairy festival;   Then suddenly I saw them pause and fall, Slain only to adorn Alicia’s bonnet. Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it. My mind came back from the Brazilian land;   For, as a snowflake falls to earth beneath, Alicia’s hand fell lightly on my hand;   And yet I fancied that a stain of death,   Like that which doomed the lady of Macbeth, Was on her hand: could I perhaps have won it? Last night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, And many humming-birds were fastened on it.