As imperceptibly as Grief 1
The Summer lapsed away－
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy－
A Quietness distilled 5
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon－
The Dusk drew earlier in－9
The Morning foreign shone－
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone－
And thus, without a Wing 13
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.
The Summer lapsed away－
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy－
A Quietness distilled 5
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon－
The Dusk drew earlier in－9
The Morning foreign shone－
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone－
And thus, without a Wing 13
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.
(F.935/J.1540)
[1] As, Grief:: drinking slowly in one's grief (the woman in line 15).
[2] Summer:: summer-ale, meaning both a light alcohol and festival of much summer-ale. lapsed:: flowed.
[3] imperceptible:: too drunk to feel anything.
[4] Perfidy:: a betray of the grief in line one.
[5] distilled:: a hint on summer-ale.
[12] Guest:: a guest of the Summer game.
[15] Summer, escape:: summer-ale made her dizzy, a kind of escape.
[16] Into the Beautiful:: into a light drunk state.
A merry world the while! My boy and I make one hermaphrodite, and now next midsummer-ale, I may serve for a fool, and he for a maid-marrion. ─ The Ancient British Drama (1810)