Idyllic
To lie beneath a cloudless sky
On moss beneath a shallow brook
Where smells of wild-flowers in the dells
Make me forgetful of my book,—
To dream of shepherd with his crook,
Of sheep on grassy slopes asleep,—
To catch a visionary look
Of shepherdess, and hear her step
Fall like a whisper on the ground,—
To watch her sunny smiles, and see
Her dainty garments, soft and snowy,
Fold gracefully her form around,—
’Tis like a day in Sicily
With Daphnis and his sweetheart Chloë.
From Madrigals and Catches (White, Stokes & Allen, 1887) by Frank Dempster Sherman. This poem is in the public domain.
Frank Dempster Sherman
Poet, architect, genealogist, and mathematician Frank Dempster Sherman was born in Peekskill, New York, on May 6, 1860. He attended Peekskill Military Academy. He studied architecture at Columbia University, where he earned a PhB in 1884. He then studied classical literature at Harvard University as a postgraduate for a year.