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| LAST night Alicia wore a Tuscan bonnet, | |
| And many humming-birds were fastened on it. | |
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| I sat beside Alicia at the play; | |
| Her violet eyes with tender tears were wet | |
| (The diamonds in her ears less bright than they) | 5 |
| 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. | 10 |
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| 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, | 15 |
| 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; | 20 |
| 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, | 25 |
| 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— | 30 |
| 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— | 35 |
| 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. | 40 |
| |
| 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 | 45 |
| 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. | 50 |
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| 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— | 55 |
| 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 | 60 |
| 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, | 65 |
| 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, | 70 |
| 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. | |
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