With starlight gems: aye, all so huge and Through unknown things; till exhaled as strange, The solitary felt a hurried change Working within him into something dreary, Vex'd like a morning eagle, lost, and weary, And purblind amid foggy, midnight wolds. But be revives at once: for who beholds New sudden things, nor casts his mental slough? phodel, And rose, with spicy fannings interbreathed, Came swelling forth where little caves were wreathed So thick with leaves and mosses, that they seem'd Large honeycombs of green, and freshly teem'd With airs delicious. In the greenest nook Forth from a rugged arch, in the dusk be- The eagle landed him, and farewell took. Of sudden exaltation: but, Alas!' Abrupt in middle air? Yet earthward My breath of life, where art thou? High Its powerless self: I know this cannot be. To her entrancements: hither sleep awhile! Thus spake he, and that moment felt endued With power to dream deliciously; so wound Through a dim passage, searching till he found Question that thus it was; long time they Fondling and kissing every doubt away; 739 "O known Unknown! from whom my be- Why not for ever and for ever feel The smoothest mossy bed and deepest, Away from me again, indeed, indeed 710 where He threw himself, and just into the air Stretching his indolent arms, he took, O bliss! A naked waist: Fair Cupid, whence is this?' A well-known voice sigh'd, 'Sweetest, here am I!' At which soft ravishment, with doting cry These sorry pages; then the verse would soar And sing above this gentle pair, like lark 730 That there is no old power left to steep Speak, delicious fair No! Thou wilt be gone away, and wilt not heed Who will dare 750 My soul of any rest: yet must I hence: Uplift thee; nor for very shame can own At my lost brightness, my impassion'd wiles, Had waned from Olympus' solemn height, And from all serious Gods; that our delight Was quite forgotten, save of us alone! And wherefore so ashamed? 'Tis but to OI do think that I have been alone I was as vague as solitary dove, Nor knew that nests were built. Now a soft kiss Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss, Lispings empyrean will I sometime teach Thine honey'd tongue lute-breathings, which I gasp 820 To have thee understand, now while I clasp Thee thus, and weep for fondness — I am pain'd, Endymion: woe! woe! is grief contain'd In the very deeps of pleasure, my sole life?' Hereat, with many sobs, her gentle strife Melted into a languor. He return'd Entranced vows and tears. Ye who have yearn'd With too much passion, will here stay and pity, 831 For the mere sake of truth; as 't is a ditty A poet caught as he was journeying His weary limbs, bathing an hour's space, Yon sentinel stars; and he who listens to it Must surely be self-doom'd or he will rue it: For quenchless burnings come upon the heart, Made fiercer by a fear lest any part A resting-place, thus much comes clear and plain; Anon the strange voice is upon the wane Thus the tradition of the gusty deep. Now turn clers. 851 we to our former chroni Against an endless storm. Moreover too, Endymion sat down, and 'gan to ponder He stept upon his shepherd throne: the look With every friend and fellow-woodlander Pass'd like a dream before him. Then the spur Of the old bards to mighty deeds: his plans To nurse the golden age 'mong shepherd clans: That wondrous night: the great Pan-festi blight 910 The Olympian eagle's vision, is dark, Though it be quick and sharp enough to Circling about her waist, and striving how Or they are but the ghosts, the dying swells tone Came louder, and behold, there as he lay, 920 flow: see how painfully I 'O, Oread-Queen! would that thou hadst a pain Like this of mine, then would I fearless turn And be a criminal.' 'Alas, I burn, I shudder- gentle river, get thee hence. woods. |