Would melt at thy sweet breath. By For thou shalt hear this secret all display'd, Now as we speed towards our joyous task.' Dian's hind Feeding from her white fingers, on the wind I see thy streaming hair! and now, by I care not for this old mysterious man!' 280 He spake, and walking to that aged form, Look'd high defiance. Lo! his heart 'gan warm With pity, for the gray-hair'd creature wept. Had he then wrong'd a heart where sorrow kept? Had he, though blindly contumelious, brought Rheum to kind eyes, a sting to human Convulsion to a mouth of many years? 290 But hollow rocks, — and they were palaces Of silent happiness, of slumberous ease: About his large dark locks, and faltering Long years of misery have told me so. spake: Aye, thus it was one thousand years ago. To breathe away as 't were all scummy 330 And craggy isles, and sea-mew's plaintive Had been my dreary death? Fool! I began cry Plaining discrepant between sea and sky. Dolphins were still my playmates; shapes unseen Would let me feel their scales of gold and green, Nor be my desolation; and, full oft, My life away like a vast sponge of fate, 349 Some friendly monster, pitying my sad state, Has dived to its foundations, gulf'd it down, And if it came at last, hark, and rejoice! There blush'd no summer eve but I would steer My skiff along green shelving coasts, to hear The shepherd's pipe come clear from aery steep, Mingled with ceaseless bleatings of his sheep: 360 And never was a day of summer shine, Wide o'er the swelling streams: and constantly At brim of day-tide, on some grassy lea, 370 379 To feel distemper'd longings: to desire Whole days and days in sheer astonishment; Moving but with the mighty ebb and flow. Then, like a new-fledged bird that first doth show Cruel enchantress! So above the water I rear'd my head, and look'd for Phoebus' daughter. Exa's isle was wondering at the moon:It seem'd to whirl around me, and a swoon Left me dead-drifting to that fatal power. O let me pluck it for thee!" Thus she link'd Her charming syllables, till indistinct Their music came to my o'er-sweeten'd soul; And then she hover'd over me, and stole So near, that if no nearer it had been 'When I awoke, 't was in a twilight This furrow'd visage thou hadst never seen. The fairest face that morn e'er look'd upon Push'd through a screen of roses. Starry Jove! 'Who could resist? Who in this universe? She did so breathe ambrosia; so immerse With tears, and smiles, and honey-words My fine existence in a golden clime. I am so oppress'd with joy! Why, I have shed An urn of tears, as though thou wert cold dead; And now I find thee living, I will pour From these devoted eyes their silver store, Until exhausted of the latest drop, So it will pleasure thee, and force thee stop Here, that I too may live: but if beyond Such cool and sorrowful offerings, thou art fond Of soothing warmth, of dalliance supreme; If thou art ripe to taste a long love-dream; If smiles, if dimples, tongues for ardour mute, Hang in thy vision like a tempting fruit, 441 She took me like a child of suckling time, And cradled me in roses. Thus con These uttering lips, while I in calm speech It could not be so fantasied. Fierce, wan, And tyrannizing was the lady's look, And roar'd for more; with many a hungry lick About their shaggy jaws. Avenging, slow, Groan'd one and all, as if some piercing trial Was sharpening for their pitiable bones. She lifted up the charm: appealing groans From their poor breasts went sueing to her ear In vain; remorseless as an infant's bier 520 She whisk'd against their eyes the sooty oil. Whereat was heard a noise of painful toil, Increasing gradual to a tempest rage, Shrieks, yells, and groans of torture-pilgrimage; Until their grieved bodies 'gan to bloat And puff from the tail's end to stifled throat: Then was appalling silence: then a sight More wildering than all that hoarse affright; For the whole herd, as by a whirlwind writhen, Went through the dismal air like one huge Python 530 Antagonizing Boreas, and so vanish'd. Yet there was not a breath of wind: she banish'd These phantoms with a nod. Lo! from the dark Laughing, and wailing, grovelling, serpent- Came waggish fauns, and nymphs, and 54I Of pains resistless! make my being brief, 550 Only I pray, as fairest boon, to die, |