1. ۱ENDYMION.
2. ۲
3. ۳A Poetic Romance.
4. ۴
5. ۵"THE STRETCHED METRE OF AN AN ANTIQUE SONG."
6. ۶INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS CHATTERTON.
7. ۷
8. ۸
9. ۹Book I
10. ۱۰
11. ۱۱
12. ۱۲A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
13. ۱۳Its loveliness increases; it will never
14. ۱۴Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
15. ۱۵A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
16. ۱۶Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
17. ۱۷Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
18. ۱۸A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
19. ۱۹Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
20. ۲۰Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
21. ۲۱Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
22. ۲۲Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
23. ۲۳Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
24. ۲۴From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
25. ۲۵Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
26. ۲۶For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
27. ۲۷With the green world they live in; and clear rills
28. ۲۸That for themselves a cooling covert make
29. ۲۹'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake,
30. ۳۰Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
31. ۳۱And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
32. ۳۲We have imagined for the mighty dead;
33. ۳۳All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
34. ۳۴An endless fountain of immortal drink,
35. ۳۵Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.
36. ۳۶
37. ۳۷ Nor do we merely feel these essences
38. ۳۸For one short hour; no, even as the trees
39. ۳۹That whisper round a temple become soon
40. ۴۰Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
41. ۴۱The passion poesy, glories infinite,
42. ۴۲Haunt us till they become a cheering light
43. ۴۳Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast,
44. ۴۴That, whether there be shine, or gloom o'ercast,
45. ۴۵They alway must be with us, or we die.
46. ۴۶
47. ۴۷ Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
48. ۴۸Will trace the story of Endymion.
49. ۴۹The very music of the name has gone
50. ۵۰Into my being, and each pleasant scene
51. ۵۱Is growing fresh before me as the green
52. ۵۲Of our own vallies: so I will begin
53. ۵۳Now while I cannot hear the city's din;
54. ۵۴Now while the early budders are just new,
55. ۵۵And run in mazes of the youngest hue
56. ۵۶About old forests; while the willow trails
57. ۵۷Its delicate amber; and the dairy pails
58. ۵۸Bring home increase of milk. And, as the year
59. ۵۹Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
60. ۶۰My little boat, for many quiet hours,
61. ۶۱With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
62. ۶۲Many and many a verse I hope to write,
63. ۶۳Before the daisies, vermeil rimm'd and white,
64. ۶۴Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees
65. ۶۵Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
66. ۶۶I must be near the middle of my story.
67. ۶۷O may no wintry season, bare and hoary,
68. ۶۸See it half finished: but let Autumn bold,
69. ۶۹With universal tinge of sober gold,
70. ۷۰Be all about me when I make an end.
71. ۷۱And now at once, adventuresome, I send
72. ۷۲My herald thought into a wilderness:
73. ۷۳There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress
74. ۷۴My uncertain path with green, that I may speed
75. ۷۵Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed.
76. ۷۶
77. ۷۷ Upon the sides of Latmos was outspread
78. ۷۸A mighty forest; for the moist earth fed
79. ۷۹So plenteously all weed-hidden roots
80. ۸۰Into o'er-hanging boughs, and precious fruits.
81. ۸۱And it had gloomy shades, sequestered deep,
82. ۸۲Where no man went; and if from shepherd's keep
83. ۸۳A lamb strayed far a-down those inmost glens,
84. ۸۴Never again saw he the happy pens
85. ۸۵Whither his brethren, bleating with content,
86. ۸۶Over the hills at every nightfall went.
87. ۸۷Among the shepherds, 'twas believed ever,
88. ۸۸That not one fleecy lamb which thus did sever
89. ۸۹From the white flock, but pass'd unworried
90. ۹۰By angry wolf, or pard with prying head,
91. ۹۱Until it came to some unfooted plains
92. ۹۲Where fed the herds of Pan: ay great his gains
93. ۹۳Who thus one lamb did lose. Paths there were many,
94. ۹۴Winding through palmy fern, and rushes fenny,
95. ۹۵And ivy banks; all leading pleasantly
96. ۹۶To a wide lawn, whence one could only see
97. ۹۷Stems thronging all around between the swell
98. ۹۸Of turf and slanting branches: who could tell
99. ۹۹The freshness of the space of heaven above,
100. ۱۰۰Edg'd round with dark tree tops? through which a dove
101. ۱۰۱Would often beat its wings, and often too
102. ۱۰۲A little cloud would move across the blue.
103. ۱۰۳
104. ۱۰۴ Full in the middle of this pleasantness
105. ۱۰۵There stood a marble altar, with a tress
106. ۱۰۶Of flowers budded newly; and the dew
107. ۱۰۷Had taken fairy phantasies to strew
108. ۱۰۸Daisies upon the sacred sward last eve,
109. ۱۰۹And so the dawned light in pomp receive.
110. ۱۱۰For 'twas the morn: Apollo's upward fire
111. ۱۱۱Made every eastern cloud a silvery pyre
112. ۱۱۲Of brightness so unsullied, that therein
113. ۱۱۳A melancholy spirit well might win
114. ۱۱۴Oblivion, and melt out his essence fine
115. ۱۱۵Into the winds: rain-scented eglantine
116. ۱۱۶Gave temperate sweets to that well-wooing sun;
117. ۱۱۷The lark was lost in him; cold springs had run
118. ۱۱۸To warm their chilliest bubbles in the grass;
119. ۱۱۹Man's voice was on the mountains; and the mass
120. ۱۲۰Of nature's lives and wonders puls'd tenfold,
121. ۱۲۱To feel this sun-rise and its glories old.
122. ۱۲۲
123. ۱۲۳ Now while the silent workings of the dawn
124. ۱۲۴Were busiest, into that self-same lawn
125. ۱۲۵All suddenly, with joyful cries, there sped
126. ۱۲۶A troop of little children garlanded;
127. ۱۲۷Who gathering round the altar, seemed to pry
128. ۱۲۸Earnestly round as wishing to espy
129. ۱۲۹Some folk of holiday: nor had they waited
130. ۱۳۰For many moments, ere their ears were sated
131. ۱۳۱With a faint breath of music, which ev'n then
132. ۱۳۲Fill'd out its voice, and died away again.
133. ۱۳۳Within a little space again it gave
134. ۱۳۴Its airy swellings, with a gentle wave,
135. ۱۳۵To light-hung leaves, in smoothest echoes breaking
136. ۱۳۶Through copse-clad vallies,--ere their death, oer-taking
137. ۱۳۷The surgy murmurs of the lonely sea.
138. ۱۳۸
139. ۱۳۹ And now, as deep into the wood as we
140. ۱۴۰Might mark a lynx's eye, there glimmered light
141. ۱۴۱Fair faces and a rush of garments white,
142. ۱۴۲Plainer and plainer shewing, till at last
143. ۱۴۳Into the widest alley they all past,
144. ۱۴۴Making directly for the woodland altar.
145. ۱۴۵O kindly muse! let not my weak tongue faulter
146. ۱۴۶In telling of this goodly company,
147. ۱۴۷Of their old piety, and of their glee:
148. ۱۴۸But let a portion of ethereal dew
149. ۱۴۹Fall on my head, and presently unmew
150. ۱۵۰My soul; that I may dare, in wayfaring,
151. ۱۵۱To stammer where old Chaucer used to sing.
152. ۱۵۲
153. ۱۵۳ Leading the way, young damsels danced along,
154. ۱۵۴Bearing the burden of a shepherd song;
155. ۱۵۵Each having a white wicker over brimm'd
156. ۱۵۶With April's tender younglings: next, well trimm'd,
157. ۱۵۷A crowd of shepherds with as sunburnt looks
158. ۱۵۸As may be read of in Arcadian books;
159. ۱۵۹Such as sat listening round Apollo's pipe,
160. ۱۶۰When the great deity, for earth too ripe,
161. ۱۶۱Let his divinity o'er-flowing die
162. ۱۶۲In music, through the vales of Thessaly:
163. ۱۶۳Some idly trailed their sheep-hooks on the ground,
164. ۱۶۴And some kept up a shrilly mellow sound
165. ۱۶۵With ebon-tipped flutes: close after these,
166. ۱۶۶Now coming from beneath the forest trees,
167. ۱۶۷A venerable priest full soberly,
168. ۱۶۸Begirt with ministring looks: alway his eye
169. ۱۶۹Stedfast upon the matted turf he kept,
170. ۱۷۰And after him his sacred vestments swept.
171. ۱۷۱From his right hand there swung a vase, milk-white,
172. ۱۷۲Of mingled wine, out-sparkling generous light;
173. ۱۷۳And in his left he held a basket full
174. ۱۷۴Of all sweet herbs that searching eye could cull:
175. ۱۷۵Wild thyme, and valley-lilies whiter still
176. ۱۷۶Than Leda's love, and cresses from the rill.
177. ۱۷۷His aged head, crowned with beechen wreath,
178. ۱۷۸Seem'd like a poll of ivy in the teeth
179. ۱۷۹Of winter hoar. Then came another crowd
180. ۱۸۰Of shepherds, lifting in due time aloud
181. ۱۸۱Their share of the ditty. After them appear'd,
182. ۱۸۲Up-followed by a multitude that rear'd
183. ۱۸۳Their voices to the clouds, a fair wrought car,
184. ۱۸۴Easily rolling so as scarce to mar
185. ۱۸۵The freedom of three steeds of dapple brown:
186. ۱۸۶Who stood therein did seem of great renown
187. ۱۸۷Among the throng. His youth was fully blown,
188. ۱۸۸Shewing like Ganymede to manhood grown;
189. ۱۸۹And, for those simple times, his garments were
190. ۱۹۰A chieftain king's: beneath his ..., half bare,
191. ۱۹۱Was hung a silver bugle, and between
192. ۱۹۲His nervy knees there lay a boar-spear keen.
193. ۱۹۳A smile was on his countenance; he seem'd,
194. ۱۹۴To common lookers on, like one who dream'd
195. ۱۹۵Of idleness in groves Elysian:
196. ۱۹۶But there were some who feelingly could scan
197. ۱۹۷A lurking trouble in his nether lip,
198. ۱۹۸And see that oftentimes the reins would slip
199. ۱۹۹Through his forgotten hands: then would they sigh,
200. ۲۰۰And think of yellow leaves, of owlets cry,
201. ۲۰۱Of logs piled solemnly.--Ah, well-a-day,
202. ۲۰۲Why should our young Endymion pine away!
203. ۲۰۳
204. ۲۰۴ Soon the assembly, in a circle rang'd,
205. ۲۰۵Stood silent round the shrine: each look was chang'd
206. ۲۰۶To sudden veneration: women meek
207. ۲۰۷Beckon'd their sons to silence; while each cheek
208. ۲۰۸Of virgin bloom paled gently for slight fear.
209. ۲۰۹Endymion too, without a forest peer,
210. ۲۱۰Stood, wan, and pale, and with an awed face,
211. ۲۱۱Among his brothers of the mountain chase.
212. ۲۱۲In midst of all, the venerable priest
213. ۲۱۳Eyed them with joy from greatest to the least,
214. ۲۱۴And, after lifting up his aged hands,
215. ۲۱۵Thus spake he: "Men of Latmos! shepherd bands!
216. ۲۱۶Whose care it is to guard a thousand flocks:
217. ۲۱۷Whether descended from beneath the rocks
218. ۲۱۸That overtop your mountains; whether come
219. ۲۱۹From vallies where the pipe is never dumb;
220. ۲۲۰Or from your swelling downs, where sweet air stirs
221. ۲۲۱Blue hare-bells lightly, and where prickly furze
222. ۲۲۲Buds lavish gold; or ye, whose precious charge
223. ۲۲۳Nibble their fill at ocean's very marge,
224. ۲۲۴Whose mellow reeds are touch'd with sounds forlorn
225. ۲۲۵By the dim echoes of old Triton's horn:
226. ۲۲۶Mothers and wives! who day by day prepare
227. ۲۲۷The scrip, with needments, for the mountain air;
228. ۲۲۸And all ye gentle girls who foster up
229. ۲۲۹Udderless lambs, and in a little cup
230. ۲۳۰Will put choice honey for a favoured youth:
231. ۲۳۱Yea, every one attend! for in good truth
232. ۲۳۲Our vows are wanting to our great god Pan.
233. ۲۳۳Are not our lowing heifers sleeker than
234. ۲۳۴Night-swollen mushrooms? Are not our wide plains
235. ۲۳۵Speckled with countless fleeces? Have not rains
236. ۲۳۶Green'd over April's lap? No howling sad
237. ۲۳۷Sickens our fearful ewes; and we have had
238. ۲۳۸Great bounty from Endymion our lord.
239. ۲۳۹The earth is glad: the merry lark has pour'd
240. ۲۴۰His early song against yon breezy sky,
241. ۲۴۱That spreads so clear o'er our solemnity."
242. ۲۴۲
243. ۲۴۳ Thus ending, on the shrine he heap'd a spire
244. ۲۴۴Of teeming sweets, enkindling sacred fire;
245. ۲۴۵Anon he stain'd the thick and spongy sod
246. ۲۴۶With wine, in honour of the shepherd-god.
247. ۲۴۷Now while the earth was drinking it, and while
248. ۲۴۸Bay leaves were crackling in the fragrant pile,
249. ۲۴۹And gummy frankincense was sparkling bright
250. ۲۵۰'Neath smothering parsley, and a hazy light
251. ۲۵۱Spread greyly eastward, thus a chorus sang:
252. ۲۵۲
253. ۲۵۳ "O THOU, whose mighty palace roof doth hang
254. ۲۵۴From jagged trunks, and overshadoweth
255. ۲۵۵Eternal whispers, glooms, the birth, life, death
256. ۲۵۶Of unseen flowers in heavy peacefulness;
257. ۲۵۷Who lov'st to see the hamadryads dress
258. ۲۵۸Their ruffled locks where meeting hazels darken;
259. ۲۵۹And through whole solemn hours dost sit, and hearken
260. ۲۶۰The dreary melody of bedded reeds--
261. ۲۶۱In desolate places, where dank moisture breeds
262. ۲۶۲The pipy hemlock to strange overgrowth;
263. ۲۶۳Bethinking thee, how melancholy loth
264. ۲۶۴Thou wast to lose fair Syrinx--do thou now,
265. ۲۶۵By thy love's milky brow!
266. ۲۶۶By all the trembling mazes that she ran,
267. ۲۶۷Hear us, great Pan!
268. ۲۶۸
269. ۲۶۹ "O thou, for whose soul-soothing quiet, turtles
270. ۲۷۰Passion their voices cooingly 'mong myrtles,
271. ۲۷۱What time thou wanderest at eventide
272. ۲۷۲Through sunny meadows, that outskirt the side
273. ۲۷۳Of thine enmossed realms: O thou, to whom
274. ۲۷۴Broad leaved fig trees even now foredoom
275. ۲۷۵Their ripen'd fruitage; yellow girted bees
276. ۲۷۶Their golden honeycombs; our village leas
277. ۲۷۷Their fairest-blossom'd beans and poppied corn;
278. ۲۷۸The chuckling linnet its five young unborn,
279. ۲۷۹To sing for thee; low creeping strawberries
280. ۲۸۰Their summer coolness; pent up butterflies
281. ۲۸۱Their freckled wings; yea, the fresh budding year
282. ۲۸۲All its completions--be quickly near,
283. ۲۸۳By every wind that nods the mountain pine,
284. ۲۸۴O forester divine!
285. ۲۸۵
286. ۲۸۶ "Thou, to whom every fawn and satyr flies
287. ۲۸۷For willing service; whether to surprise
288. ۲۸۸The squatted hare while in half sleeping fit;
289. ۲۸۹Or upward ragged precipices flit
290. ۲۹۰To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw;
291. ۲۹۱Or by mysterious enticement draw
292. ۲۹۲Bewildered shepherds to their path again;
293. ۲۹۳Or to tread breathless round the frothy main,
294. ۲۹۴And gather up all fancifullest shells
295. ۲۹۵For thee to tumble into Naiads' cells,
296. ۲۹۶And, being hidden, laugh at their out-peeping;
297. ۲۹۷Or to delight thee with fantastic leaping,
298. ۲۹۸The while they pelt each other on the crown
299. ۲۹۹With silvery oak apples, and fir cones brown--
300. ۳۰۰By all the echoes that about thee ring,
301. ۳۰۱Hear us, O satyr king!
302. ۳۰۲
303. ۳۰۳ "O Hearkener to the loud clapping shears,
304. ۳۰۴While ever and anon to his shorn peers
305. ۳۰۵A ram goes bleating: Winder of the horn,
306. ۳۰۶When snouted wild-boars routing tender corn
307. ۳۰۷Anger our huntsman: Breather round our farms,
308. ۳۰۸To keep off mildews, and all weather harms:
309. ۳۰۹Strange ministrant of undescribed sounds,
310. ۳۱۰That come a swooning over hollow grounds,
311. ۳۱۱And wither drearily on barren moors:
312. ۳۱۲Dread opener of the mysterious doors
313. ۳۱۳Leading to universal knowledge--see,
314. ۳۱۴Great son of Dryope,
315. ۳۱۵The many that are come to pay their vows
316. ۳۱۶With leaves about their brows!
317. ۳۱۷
318. ۳۱۸ Be still the unimaginable lodge
319. ۳۱۹For solitary thinkings; such as dodge
320. ۳۲۰Conception to the very bourne of heaven,
321. ۳۲۱Then leave the ... brain: be still the leaven,
322. ۳۲۲That spreading in this dull and clodded earth
323. ۳۲۳Gives it a touch ethereal--a new birth:
324. ۳۲۴Be still a symbol of immensity;
325. ۳۲۵A firmament reflected in a sea;
326. ۳۲۶An element filling the space between;
327. ۳۲۷An unknown--but no more: we humbly screen
328. ۳۲۸With uplift hands our foreheads, lowly bending,
329. ۳۲۹And giving out a shout most heaven rending,
330. ۳۳۰Conjure thee to receive our humble Paean,
331. ۳۳۱Upon thy Mount Lycean!
332. ۳۳۲
333. ۳۳۳ Even while they brought the burden to a close,
334. ۳۳۴A shout from the whole multitude arose,
335. ۳۳۵That lingered in the air like dying rolls
336. ۳۳۶Of abrupt thunder, when Ionian shoals
337. ۳۳۷Of dolphins bob their noses through the brine.
338. ۳۳۸Meantime, on shady levels, mossy fine,
339. ۳۳۹Young companies nimbly began dancing
340. ۳۴۰To the swift treble pipe, and humming string.
341. ۳۴۱Aye, those fair living forms swam heavenly
342. ۳۴۲To tunes forgotten--out of memory:
343. ۳۴۳Fair creatures! whose young children's children bred
344. ۳۴۴Thermopylæ its heroes--not yet dead,
345. ۳۴۵But in old marbles ever beautiful.
346. ۳۴۶High genitors, unconscious did they cull
347. ۳۴۷Time's sweet first-fruits--they danc'd to weariness,
348. ۳۴۸And then in quiet circles did they press
349. ۳۴۹The hillock turf, and caught the latter end
350. ۳۵۰Of some strange history, potent to send
351. ۳۵۱A young mind from its bodily tenement.
352. ۳۵۲Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent
353. ۳۵۳On either side; pitying the sad death
354. ۳۵۴Of Hyacinthus, when the cruel breath
355. ۳۵۵Of Zephyr slew him,--Zephyr penitent,
356. ۳۵۶Who now, ere Phoebus mounts the firmament,
357. ۳۵۷Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain.
358. ۳۵۸The archers too, upon a wider plain,
359. ۳۵۹Beside the feathery whizzing of the shaft,
360. ۳۶۰And the dull twanging bowstring, and the raft
361. ۳۶۱Branch down sweeping from a tall ash top,
362. ۳۶۲Call'd up a thousand thoughts to envelope
363. ۳۶۳Those who would watch. Perhaps, the trembling knee
364. ۳۶۴And frantic gape of lonely Niobe,
365. ۳۶۵Poor, lonely Niobe! when her lovely young
366. ۳۶۶Were dead and gone, and her caressing tongue
367. ۳۶۷Lay a lost thing upon her paly lip,
368. ۳۶۸And very, very deadliness did nip
369. ۳۶۹Her motherly cheeks. Arous'd from this sad mood
370. ۳۷۰By one, who at a distance loud halloo'd,
371. ۳۷۱Uplifting his strong bow into the air,
372. ۳۷۲Many might after brighter visions stare:
373. ۳۷۳After the Argonauts, in blind amaze
374. ۳۷۴Tossing about on Neptune's restless ways,
375. ۳۷۵Until, from the horizon's vaulted side,
376. ۳۷۶There shot a golden splendour far and wide,
377. ۳۷۷Spangling those million poutings of the brine
378. ۳۷۸With quivering ore: 'twas even an awful shine
379. ۳۷۹From the exaltation of Apollo's bow;
380. ۳۸۰A heavenly beacon in their dreary woe.
381. ۳۸۱Who thus were ripe for high contemplating,
382. ۳۸۲Might turn their steps towards the sober ring
383. ۳۸۳Where sat Endymion and the aged priest
384. ۳۸۴'Mong shepherds gone in eld, whose looks increas'd
385. ۳۸۵The silvery setting of their mortal star.
386. ۳۸۶There they discours'd upon the fragile bar
387. ۳۸۷That keeps us from our homes ethereal;
388. ۳۸۸And what our duties there: to nightly call
389. ۳۸۹Vesper, the beauty-crest of summer weather;
390. ۳۹۰To summon all the downiest clouds together
391. ۳۹۱For the sun's purple couch; to emulate
392. ۳۹۲In ministring the potent rule of fate
393. ۳۹۳With speed of fire-tailed exhalations;
394. ۳۹۴To tint her pallid cheek with bloom, who cons
395. ۳۹۵Sweet poesy by moonlight: besides these,
396. ۳۹۶A world of other unguess'd offices.
397. ۳۹۷Anon they wander'd, by divine converse,
398. ۳۹۸Into Elysium; vieing to rehearse
399. ۳۹۹Each one his own anticipated bliss.
400. ۴۰۰One felt heart-certain that he could not miss
401. ۴۰۱His quick gone love, among fair blossom'd boughs,
402. ۴۰۲Where every zephyr-sigh pouts and endows
403. ۴۰۳Her lips with music for the welcoming.
404. ۴۰۴Another wish'd, mid that eternal spring,
405. ۴۰۵To meet his rosy child, with feathery sails,
406. ۴۰۶Sweeping, eye-earnestly, through almond vales:
407. ۴۰۷Who, suddenly, should stoop through the smooth wind,
408. ۴۰۸And with the balmiest leaves his temples bind;
409. ۴۰۹And, ever after, through those regions be
410. ۴۱۰His messenger, his little Mercury.
411. ۴۱۱Some were athirst in soul to see again
412. ۴۱۲Their fellow huntsmen o'er the wide champaign
413. ۴۱۳In times long past; to sit with them, and talk
414. ۴۱۴Of all the chances in their earthly walk;
415. ۴۱۵Comparing, joyfully, their plenteous stores
416. ۴۱۶Of happiness, to when upon the moors,
417. ۴۱۷Benighted, close they huddled from the cold,
418. ۴۱۸And shar'd their famish'd scrips. Thus all out-told
419. ۴۱۹Their fond imaginations,--saving him
420. ۴۲۰Whose eyelids curtain'd up their jewels dim,
421. ۴۲۱Endymion: yet hourly had he striven
422. ۴۲۲To hide the cankering venom, that had riven
423. ۴۲۳His fainting recollections. Now indeed
424. ۴۲۴His senses had swoon'd off: he did not heed
425. ۴۲۵The sudden silence, or the whispers low,
426. ۴۲۶Or the old eyes dissolving at his woe,
427. ۴۲۷Or anxious calls, or close of trembling palms,
428. ۴۲۸Or maiden's sigh, that grief itself embalms:
429. ۴۲۹But in the self-same fixed trance he kept,
430. ۴۳۰Like one who on the earth had never stept.
431. ۴۳۱Aye, even as dead-still as a marble man,
432. ۴۳۲Frozen in that old tale Arabian.
433. ۴۳۳
434. ۴۳۴ Who whispers him so pantingly and close?
435. ۴۳۵Peona, his sweet sister: of all those,
436. ۴۳۶His friends, the dearest. Hushing signs she made,
437. ۴۳۷And breath'd a sister's sorrow to persuade
438. ۴۳۸A yielding up, a cradling on her care.
439. ۴۳۹Her eloquence did breathe away the curse:
440. ۴۴۰She led him, like some midnight spirit nurse
441. ۴۴۱Of happy changes in emphatic dreams,
442. ۴۴۲Along a path between two little streams,--
443. ۴۴۳Guarding his forehead, with her round elbow,
444. ۴۴۴From low-grown branches, and his footsteps slow
445. ۴۴۵From stumbling over stumps and hillocks small;
446. ۴۴۶Until they came to where these streamlets fall,
447. ۴۴۷With mingled bubblings and a gentle rush,
448. ۴۴۸Into a river, clear, brimful, and flush
449. ۴۴۹With crystal mocking of the trees and sky.
450. ۴۵۰A little shallop, floating there hard by,
451. ۴۵۱Pointed its beak over the fringed bank;
452. ۴۵۲And soon it lightly dipt, and rose, and sank,
453. ۴۵۳And dipt again, with the young couple's weight,--
454. ۴۵۴Peona guiding, through the water straight,
455. ۴۵۵Towards a bowery island opposite;
456. ۴۵۶Which gaining presently, she steered light
457. ۴۵۷Into a shady, fresh, and ripply cove,
458. ۴۵۸Where nested was an arbour, overwove
459. ۴۵۹By many a summer's silent fingering;
460. ۴۶۰To whose cool bosom she was used to bring
461. ۴۶۱Her playmates, with their needle broidery,
462. ۴۶۲And minstrel memories of times gone by.
463. ۴۶۳
464. ۴۶۴ So she was gently glad to see him laid
465. ۴۶۵Under her favourite bower's quiet shade,
466. ۴۶۶On her own couch, new made of flower leaves,
467. ۴۶۷Dried carefully on the cooler side of sheaves
468. ۴۶۸When last the sun his autumn tresses shook,
469. ۴۶۹And the tann'd harvesters rich armfuls took.
470. ۴۷۰Soon was he quieted to slumbrous rest:
471. ۴۷۱But, ere it crept upon him, he had prest
472. ۴۷۲Peona's busy hand against his lips,
473. ۴۷۳And still, a sleeping, held her finger-tips
474. ۴۷۴In tender pressure. And as a willow keeps
475. ۴۷۵A patient watch over the stream that creeps
476. ۴۷۶Windingly by it, so the quiet maid
477. ۴۷۷Held her in peace: so that a whispering blade
478. ۴۷۸Of grass, a wailful gnat, a bee bustling
479. ۴۷۹Down in the blue-bells, or a wren light rustling
480. ۴۸۰Among seer leaves and twigs, might all be heard.
481. ۴۸۱
482. ۴۸۲ O magic sleep! O comfortable bird,
483. ۴۸۳That broodest o'er the troubled sea of the mind
484. ۴۸۴Till it is hush'd and smooth! O unconfin'd
485. ۴۸۵Restraint! imprisoned liberty! great key
486. ۴۸۶To golden palaces, strange minstrelsy,
487. ۴۸۷Fountains grotesque, new trees, bespangled caves,
488. ۴۸۸Echoing grottos, full of tumbling waves
489. ۴۸۹And moonlight; aye, to all the mazy world
490. ۴۹۰Of silvery enchantment!--who, upfurl'd
491. ۴۹۱Beneath thy drowsy wing a triple hour,
492. ۴۹۲But renovates and lives?--Thus, in the bower,
493. ۴۹۳Endymion was calm'd to life again.
494. ۴۹۴Opening his eyelids with a healthier brain,
495. ۴۹۵He said: "I feel this thine endearing love
496. ۴۹۶All through my bosom: thou art as a dove
497. ۴۹۷Trembling its closed eyes and sleeked wings
498. ۴۹۸About me; and the pearliest dew not brings
499. ۴۹۹Such morning incense from the fields of May,
500. ۵۰۰As do those brighter drops that twinkling stray
501. ۵۰۱From those kind eyes,--the very home and haunt
502. ۵۰۲Of sisterly affection. Can I want
503. ۵۰۳Aught else, aught nearer heaven, than such tears?
504. ۵۰۴Yet dry them up, in bidding hence all fears
505. ۵۰۵That, any longer, I will pass my days
506. ۵۰۶Alone and sad. No, I will once more raise
507. ۵۰۷My voice upon the mountain-heights; once more
508. ۵۰۸Make my horn parley from their foreheads hoar:
509. ۵۰۹Again my trooping hounds their tongues shall loll
510. ۵۱۰Around the breathed boar: again I'll poll
511. ۵۱۱The fair-grown yew tree, for a chosen bow:
512. ۵۱۲And, when the pleasant sun is getting low,
513. ۵۱۳Again I'll linger in a sloping mead
514. ۵۱۴To hear the speckled thrushes, and see feed
515. ۵۱۵Our idle sheep. So be thou cheered sweet,
516. ۵۱۶And, if thy lute is here, softly intreat
517. ۵۱۷My soul to keep in its resolved course."
518. ۵۱۸
519. ۵۱۹ Hereat Peona, in their silver source,
520. ۵۲۰Shut her pure sorrow drops with glad exclaim,
521. ۵۲۱And took a lute, from which there pulsing came
522. ۵۲۲A lively prelude, fashioning the way
523. ۵۲۳In which her voice should wander. 'Twas a lay
524. ۵۲۴More subtle cadenced, more forest wild
525. ۵۲۵Than Dryope's lone lulling of her child;
526. ۵۲۶And nothing since has floated in the air
527. ۵۲۷So mournful strange. Surely some influence rare
528. ۵۲۸Went, spiritual, through the damsel's hand;
529. ۵۲۹For still, with Delphic emphasis, she spann'd
530. ۵۳۰The quick invisible strings, even though she saw
531. ۵۳۱Endymion's spirit melt away and thaw
532. ۵۳۲Before the deep intoxication.
533. ۵۳۳But soon she came, with sudden burst, upon
534. ۵۳۴Her self-possession--swung the lute aside,
535. ۵۳۵And earnestly said: "Brother, 'tis vain to hide
536. ۵۳۶That thou dost know of things mysterious,
537. ۵۳۷Immortal, starry; such alone could thus
538. ۵۳۸Weigh down thy nature. Hast thou sinn'd in aught
539. ۵۳۹Offensive to the heavenly powers? Caught
540. ۵۴۰A Paphian dove upon a message sent?
541. ۵۴۱Thy deathful bow against some deer-herd bent,
542. ۵۴۲Sacred to Dian? Haply, thou hast seen
543. ۵۴۳Her ... limbs among the alders green;
544. ۵۴۴And that, alas! is death. No, I can trace
545. ۵۴۵Something more high perplexing in thy face!"
546. ۵۴۶
547. ۵۴۷ Endymion look'd at her, and press'd her hand,
548. ۵۴۸And said, "Art thou so pale, who wast so bland
549. ۵۴۹And merry in our meadows? How is this?
550. ۵۵۰Tell me thine ailment: tell me all amiss!--
551. ۵۵۱Ah! thou hast been unhappy at the change
552. ۵۵۲Wrought suddenly in me. What indeed more strange?
553. ۵۵۳Or more complete to overwhelm surmise?
554. ۵۵۴Ambition is no sluggard: 'tis no prize,
555. ۵۵۵That toiling years would put within my grasp,
556. ۵۵۶That I have sigh'd for: with so deadly gasp
557. ۵۵۷No man e'er panted for a mortal love.
558. ۵۵۸So all have set my heavier grief above
559. ۵۵۹These things which happen. Rightly have they done:
560. ۵۶۰I, who still saw the horizontal sun
561. ۵۶۱Heave his broad shoulder o'er the edge of the world,
562. ۵۶۲Out-facing Lucifer, and then had hurl'd
563. ۵۶۳My spear aloft, as signal for the chace--
564. ۵۶۴I, who, for very sport of heart, would race
565. ۵۶۵With my own steed from Araby; pluck down
566. ۵۶۶A vulture from his towery perching; frown
567. ۵۶۷A lion into growling, loth retire--
568. ۵۶۸To lose, at once, all my toil breeding fire,
569. ۵۶۹And sink thus low! but I will ease my ...
570. ۵۷۰Of secret grief, here in this bowery nest.
571. ۵۷۱
572. ۵۷۲ "This river does not see the ... sky,
573. ۵۷۳Till it begins to progress silverly
574. ۵۷۴Around the western border of the wood,
575. ۵۷۵Whence, from a certain spot, its winding flood
576. ۵۷۶Seems at the distance like a crescent moon:
577. ۵۷۷And in that nook, the very pride of June,
578. ۵۷۸Had I been used to pass my weary eves;
579. ۵۷۹The rather for the sun unwilling leaves
580. ۵۸۰So dear a picture of his sovereign power,
581. ۵۸۱And I could witness his most kingly hour,
582. ۵۸۲When he doth lighten up the golden reins,
583. ۵۸۳And paces leisurely down amber plains
584. ۵۸۴His snorting four. Now when his chariot last
585. ۵۸۵Its beams against the zodiac-lion cast,
586. ۵۸۶There blossom'd suddenly a magic bed
587. ۵۸۷Of sacred ditamy, and poppies red:
588. ۵۸۸At which I wondered greatly, knowing well
589. ۵۸۹That but one night had wrought this flowery spell;
590. ۵۹۰And, sitting down close by, began to muse
591. ۵۹۱What it might mean. Perhaps, thought I, Morpheus,
592. ۵۹۲In passing here, his owlet pinions shook;
593. ۵۹۳Or, it may be, ere matron Night uptook
594. ۵۹۴Her ebon urn, young Mercury, by stealth,
595. ۵۹۵Had dipt his rod in it: such garland wealth
596. ۵۹۶Came not by common growth. Thus on I thought,
597. ۵۹۷Until my head was dizzy and distraught.
598. ۵۹۸Moreover, through the dancing poppies stole
599. ۵۹۹A breeze, most softly lulling to my soul;
600. ۶۰۰And shaping visions all about my sight
601. ۶۰۱Of colours, wings, and bursts of spangly light;
602. ۶۰۲The which became more strange, and strange, and dim,
603. ۶۰۳And then were gulph'd in a tumultuous swim:
604. ۶۰۴And then I fell asleep. Ah, can I tell
605. ۶۰۵The enchantment that afterwards befel?
606. ۶۰۶Yet it was but a dream: yet such a dream
607. ۶۰۷That never tongue, although it overteem
608. ۶۰۸With mellow utterance, like a cavern spring,
609. ۶۰۹Could figure out and to conception bring
610. ۶۱۰All I beheld and felt. Methought I lay
611. ۶۱۱Watching the zenith, where the milky way
612. ۶۱۲Among the stars in virgin splendour pours;
613. ۶۱۳And travelling my eye, until the doors
614. ۶۱۴Of heaven appear'd to open for my flight,
615. ۶۱۵I became loth and fearful to alight
616. ۶۱۶From such high soaring by a downward glance:
617. ۶۱۷So kept me stedfast in that airy trance,
618. ۶۱۸Spreading imaginary pinions wide.
619. ۶۱۹When, presently, the stars began to glide,
620. ۶۲۰And faint away, before my eager view:
621. ۶۲۱At which I sigh'd that I could not pursue,
622. ۶۲۲And dropt my vision to the horizon's verge;
623. ۶۲۳And lo! from opening clouds, I saw emerge
624. ۶۲۴The loveliest moon, that ever silver'd o'er
625. ۶۲۵A shell for Neptune's goblet: she did soar
626. ۶۲۶So passionately bright, my dazzled soul
627. ۶۲۷Commingling with her argent spheres did roll
628. ۶۲۸Through clear and cloudy, even when she went
629. ۶۲۹At last into a dark and vapoury tent--
630. ۶۳۰Whereat, methought, the lidless-eyed train
631. ۶۳۱Of planets all were in the blue again.
632. ۶۳۲To commune with those orbs, once more I rais'd
633. ۶۳۳My sight right upward: but it was quite dazed
634. ۶۳۴By a bright something, sailing down apace,
635. ۶۳۵Making me quickly veil my eyes and face:
636. ۶۳۶Again I look'd, and, O ye deities,
637. ۶۳۷Who from Olympus watch our destinies!
638. ۶۳۸Whence that completed form of all completeness?
639. ۶۳۹Whence came that high perfection of all sweetness?
640. ۶۴۰Speak, stubborn earth, and tell me where, O Where
641. ۶۴۱Hast thou a symbol of her golden hair?
642. ۶۴۲Not oat-sheaves drooping in the western sun;
643. ۶۴۳Not--thy soft hand, fair sister! let me shun
644. ۶۴۴Such follying before thee--yet she had,
645. ۶۴۵Indeed, locks bright enough to make me mad;
646. ۶۴۶And they were simply gordian'd up and braided,
647. ۶۴۷Leaving, in ... comeliness, unshaded,
648. ۶۴۸Her pearl round ears, white neck, and orbed brow;
649. ۶۴۹The which were blended in, I know not how,
650. ۶۵۰With such a paradise of lips and eyes,
651. ۶۵۱Blush-tinted cheeks, half smiles, and faintest sighs,
652. ۶۵۲That, when I think thereon, my spirit clings
653. ۶۵۳And plays about its fancy, till the stings
654. ۶۵۴Of human neighbourhood envenom all.
655. ۶۵۵Unto what awful power shall I call?
656. ۶۵۶To what high fane?--Ah! see her hovering feet,
657. ۶۵۷More bluely vein'd, more soft, more whitely sweet
658. ۶۵۸Than those of sea-born Venus, when she rose
659. ۶۵۹From out her cradle shell. The wind out-blows
660. ۶۶۰Her scarf into a fluttering pavilion;
661. ۶۶۱'Tis blue, and over-spangled with a million
662. ۶۶۲Of little eyes, as though thou wert to shed,
663. ۶۶۳Over the darkest, lushest blue-bell bed,
664. ۶۶۴Handfuls of daisies."--"Endymion, how strange!
665. ۶۶۵Dream within dream!"--"She took an airy range,
666. ۶۶۶And then, towards me, like a very maid,
667. ۶۶۷Came blushing, waning, willing, and afraid,
668. ۶۶۸And press'd me by the hand: Ah! 'twas too much;
669. ۶۶۹Methought I fainted at the charmed touch,
670. ۶۷۰Yet held my recollection, even as one
671. ۶۷۱Who dives three fathoms where the waters run
672. ۶۷۲Gurgling in beds of coral: for anon,
673. ۶۷۳I felt upmounted in that region
674. ۶۷۴Where falling stars dart their artillery forth,
675. ۶۷۵And eagles struggle with the buffeting north
676. ۶۷۶That balances the heavy meteor-stone;--
677. ۶۷۷Felt too, I was not fearful, nor alone,
678. ۶۷۸But lapp'd and lull'd along the dangerous sky.
679. ۶۷۹Soon, as it seem'd, we left our journeying high,
680. ۶۸۰And straightway into frightful eddies swoop'd;
681. ۶۸۱Such as ay muster where grey time has scoop'd
682. ۶۸۲Huge dens and caverns in a mountain's side:
683. ۶۸۳There hollow sounds arous'd me, and I sigh'd
684. ۶۸۴To faint once more by looking on my bliss--
685. ۶۸۵I was distracted; madly did I kiss
686. ۶۸۶The wooing arms which held me, and did give
687. ۶۸۷My eyes at once to death: but 'twas to live,
688. ۶۸۸To take in draughts of life from the gold fount
689. ۶۸۹Of kind and passionate looks; to count, and count
690. ۶۹۰The moments, by some greedy help that seem'd
691. ۶۹۱A second self, that each might be redeem'd
692. ۶۹۲And plunder'd of its load of blessedness.
693. ۶۹۳Ah, desperate mortal! I ev'n dar'd to press
694. ۶۹۴Her very cheek against my crowned lip,
695. ۶۹۵And, at that moment, felt my body dip
696. ۶۹۶Into a warmer air: a moment more,
697. ۶۹۷Our feet were soft in flowers. There was store
698. ۶۹۸Of newest joys upon that alp. Sometimes
699. ۶۹۹A scent of violets, and blossoming limes,
700. ۷۰۰Loiter'd around us; then of honey cells,
701. ۷۰۱Made delicate from all white-flower bells;
702. ۷۰۲And once, above the edges of our nest,
703. ۷۰۳An arch face peep'd,--an Oread as I guess'd.
704. ۷۰۴
705. ۷۰۵ "Why did I dream that sleep o'er-power'd me
706. ۷۰۶In midst of all this heaven? Why not see,
707. ۷۰۷Far off, the shadows of his pinions dark,
708. ۷۰۸And stare them from me? But no, like a spark
709. ۷۰۹That needs must die, although its little beam
710. ۷۱۰Reflects upon a diamond, my sweet dream
711. ۷۱۱Fell into nothing--into stupid sleep.
712. ۷۱۲And so it was, until a gentle creep,
713. ۷۱۳A careful moving caught my waking ears,
714. ۷۱۴And up I started: Ah! my sighs, my tears,
715. ۷۱۵My clenched hands;--for lo! the poppies hung
716. ۷۱۶Dew-dabbled on their stalks, the ouzel sung
717. ۷۱۷A heavy ditty, and the sullen day
718. ۷۱۸Had chidden herald Hesperus away,
719. ۷۱۹With leaden looks: the solitary breeze
720. ۷۲۰Bluster'd, and slept, and its wild self did teaze
721. ۷۲۱With wayward melancholy; and r thought,
722. ۷۲۲Mark me, Peona! that sometimes it brought
723. ۷۲۳Faint fare-thee-wells, and sigh-shrilled adieus!--
724. ۷۲۴Away I wander'd--all the pleasant hues
725. ۷۲۵Of heaven and earth had faded: deepest shades
726. ۷۲۶Were deepest dungeons; heaths and sunny glades
727. ۷۲۷Were full of pestilent light; our taintless rills
728. ۷۲۸Seem'd sooty, and o'er-spread with upturn'd gills
729. ۷۲۹Of dying fish; the vermeil rose had blown
730. ۷۳۰In frightful scarlet, and its thorns out-grown
731. ۷۳۱Like spiked aloe. If an innocent bird
732. ۷۳۲Before my heedless footsteps stirr'd, and stirr'd
733. ۷۳۳In little journeys, I beheld in it
734. ۷۳۴A disguis'd demon, missioned to knit
735. ۷۳۵My soul with under darkness; to entice
736. ۷۳۶My stumblings down some monstrous precipice:
737. ۷۳۷Therefore I eager followed, and did curse
738. ۷۳۸The disappointment. Time, that aged nurse,
739. ۷۳۹Rock'd me to patience. Now, thank gentle heaven!
740. ۷۴۰These things, with all their comfortings, are given
741. ۷۴۱To my down-sunken hours, and with thee,
742. ۷۴۲Sweet sister, help to stem the ebbing sea
743. ۷۴۳Of weary life."
744. ۷۴۴
745. ۷۴۵ Thus ended he, and both
746. ۷۴۶Sat silent: for the maid was very loth
747. ۷۴۷To answer; feeling well that breathed words
748. ۷۴۸Would all be lost, unheard, and vain as swords
749. ۷۴۹Against the enchased crocodile, or leaps
750. ۷۵۰Of grasshoppers against the sun. She weeps,
751. ۷۵۱And wonders; struggles to devise some blame;
752. ۷۵۲To put on such a look as would say, Shame
753. ۷۵۳On this poor weakness! but, for all her strife,
754. ۷۵۴She could as soon have crush'd away the life
755. ۷۵۵From a sick dove. At length, to break the pause,
756. ۷۵۶She said with trembling chance: "Is this the cause?
757. ۷۵۷This all? Yet it is strange, and sad, alas!
758. ۷۵۸That one who through this middle earth should pass
759. ۷۵۹Most like a sojourning demi-god, and leave
760. ۷۶۰His name upon the harp-string, should achieve
761. ۷۶۱No higher bard than simple maidenhood,
762. ۷۶۲Singing alone, and fearfully,--how the blood
763. ۷۶۳Left his young cheek; and how he used to stray
764. ۷۶۴He knew not where; and how he would say, nay,
765. ۷۶۵If any said 'twas love: and yet 'twas love;
766. ۷۶۶What could it be but love? How a ring-dove
767. ۷۶۷Let fall a sprig of yew tree in his path;
768. ۷۶۸And how he died: and then, that love doth scathe,
769. ۷۶۹The gentle heart, as northern blasts do roses;
770. ۷۷۰And then the ballad of his sad life closes
771. ۷۷۱With sighs, and an alas!--Endymion!
772. ۷۷۲Be rather in the trumpet's mouth,--anon
773. ۷۷۳Among the winds at large--that all may hearken!
774. ۷۷۴Although, before the crystal heavens darken,
775. ۷۷۵I watch and dote upon the silver lakes
776. ۷۷۶Pictur'd in western cloudiness, that takes
777. ۷۷۷The semblance of gold rocks and bright gold sands,
778. ۷۷۸Islands, and creeks, and amber-fretted strands
779. ۷۷۹With horses prancing o'er them, palaces
780. ۷۸۰And towers of amethyst,--would I so tease
781. ۷۸۱My pleasant days, because I could not mount
782. ۷۸۲Into those regions? The Morphean fount
783. ۷۸۳Of that fine element that visions, dreams,
784. ۷۸۴And fitful whims of sleep are made of, streams
785. ۷۸۵Into its airy channels with so subtle,
786. ۷۸۶So thin a breathing, not the spider's shuttle,
787. ۷۸۷Circled a million times within the space
788. ۷۸۸Of a swallow's nest-door, could delay a trace,
789. ۷۸۹A tinting of its quality: how light
790. ۷۹۰Must dreams themselves be; seeing they're more slight
791. ۷۹۱Than the mere nothing that engenders them!
792. ۷۹۲Then wherefore sully the entrusted gem
793. ۷۹۳Of high and noble life with thoughts so sick?
794. ۷۹۴Why pierce high-fronted honour to the quick
795. ۷۹۵For nothing but a dream?" Hereat the youth
796. ۷۹۶Look'd up: a conflicting of shame and ruth
797. ۷۹۷Was in his plaited brow: yet his eyelids
798. ۷۹۸Widened a little, as when Zephyr bids
799. ۷۹۹A little breeze to creep between the fans
800. ۸۰۰Of careless butterflies: amid his pains
801. ۸۰۱He seem'd to taste a drop of manna-dew,
802. ۸۰۲Full palatable; and a colour grew
803. ۸۰۳Upon his cheek, while thus he lifeful spake.
804. ۸۰۴
805. ۸۰۵ "Peona! ever have I long'd to slake
806. ۸۰۶My thirst for the world's praises: nothing base,
807. ۸۰۷No merely slumberous phantasm, could unlace
808. ۸۰۸The stubborn canvas for my voyage prepar'd--
809. ۸۰۹Though now 'tis tatter'd; leaving my bark bar'd
810. ۸۱۰And sullenly drifting: yet my higher hope
811. ۸۱۱Is of too wide, too rainbow-large a scope,
812. ۸۱۲To fret at myriads of earthly wrecks.
813. ۸۱۳Wherein lies happiness? In that which becks
814. ۸۱۴Our ready minds to fellowship divine,
815. ۸۱۵A fellowship with essence; till we shine,
816. ۸۱۶Full alchemiz'd, and free of space. Behold
817. ۸۱۷The clear religion of heaven! Fold
818. ۸۱۸A rose leaf round thy finger's taperness,
819. ۸۱۹And soothe thy lips: hist, when the airy stress
820. ۸۲۰Of music's kiss impregnates the free winds,
821. ۸۲۱And with a sympathetic touch unbinds
822. ۸۲۲Eolian magic from their lucid wombs:
823. ۸۲۳Then old songs waken from enclouded tombs;
824. ۸۲۴Old ditties sigh above their father's grave;
825. ۸۲۵Ghosts of melodious prophecyings rave
826. ۸۲۶Round every spot where trod Apollo's foot;
827. ۸۲۷Bronze clarions awake, and faintly bruit,
828. ۸۲۸Where long ago a giant battle was;
829. ۸۲۹And, from the turf, a lullaby doth pass
830. ۸۳۰In every place where infant Orpheus slept.
831. ۸۳۱Feel we these things?--that moment have we stept
832. ۸۳۲Into a sort of oneness, and our state
833. ۸۳۳Is like a floating spirit's. But there are
834. ۸۳۴Richer entanglements, enthralments far
835. ۸۳۵More self-destroying, leading, by degrees,
836. ۸۳۶To the chief intensity: the crown of these
837. ۸۳۷Is made of love and friendship, and sits high
838. ۸۳۸Upon the forehead of humanity.
839. ۸۳۹All its more ponderous and bulky worth
840. ۸۴۰Is friendship, whence there ever issues forth
841. ۸۴۱A steady splendour; but at the tip-top,
842. ۸۴۲There hangs by unseen film, an orbed drop
843. ۸۴۳Of light, and that is love: its influence,
844. ۸۴۴Thrown in our eyes, genders a novel sense,
845. ۸۴۵At which we start and fret; till in the end,
846. ۸۴۶Melting into its radiance, we blend,
847. ۸۴۷Mingle, and so become a part of it,--
848. ۸۴۸Nor with aught else can our souls interknit
849. ۸۴۹So wingedly: when we combine therewith,
850. ۸۵۰Life's self is nourish'd by its proper pith,
851. ۸۵۱And we are nurtured like a pelican brood.
852. ۸۵۲Aye, so delicious is the unsating food,
853. ۸۵۳That men, who might have tower'd in the van
854. ۸۵۴Of all the congregated world, to fan
855. ۸۵۵And winnow from the coming step of time
856. ۸۵۶All chaff of custom, wipe away all slime
857. ۸۵۷Left by men-slugs and human serpentry,
858. ۸۵۸Have been content to let occasion die,
859. ۸۵۹Whilst they did sleep in love's elysium.
860. ۸۶۰And, truly, I would rather be struck dumb,
861. ۸۶۱Than speak against this ardent listlessness:
862. ۸۶۲For I have ever thought that it might bless
863. ۸۶۳The world with benefits unknowingly;
864. ۸۶۴As does the nightingale, upperched high,
865. ۸۶۵And cloister'd among cool and bunched leaves--
866. ۸۶۶She sings but to her love, nor e'er conceives
867. ۸۶۷How tiptoe Night holds back her dark-grey hood.
868. ۸۶۸Just so may love, although 'tis understood
869. ۸۶۹The mere commingling of passionate breath,
870. ۸۷۰Produce more than our searching witnesseth:
871. ۸۷۱What I know not: but who, of men, can tell
872. ۸۷۲That flowers would bloom, or that green fruit would swell
873. ۸۷۳To melting pulp, that fish would have bright mail,
874. ۸۷۴The earth its dower of river, wood, and vale,
875. ۸۷۵The meadows runnels, runnels pebble-stones,
876. ۸۷۶The seed its harvest, or the lute its tones,
877. ۸۷۷Tones ravishment, or ravishment its sweet,
878. ۸۷۸If human souls did never kiss and greet?
879. ۸۷۹
880. ۸۸۰ "Now, if this earthly love has power to make
881. ۸۸۱Men's being mortal, immortal; to shake
882. ۸۸۲Ambition from their memories, and brim
883. ۸۸۳Their measure of content; what merest whim,
884. ۸۸۴Seems all this poor endeavour after fame,
885. ۸۸۵To one, who keeps within his stedfast aim
886. ۸۸۶A love immortal, an immortal too.
887. ۸۸۷Look not so wilder'd; for these things are true,
888. ۸۸۸And never can be born of atomies
889. ۸۸۹That buzz about our slumbers, like brain-flies,
890. ۸۹۰Leaving us fancy-sick. No, no, I'm sure,
891. ۸۹۱My restless spirit never could endure
892. ۸۹۲To brood so long upon one luxury,
893. ۸۹۳Unless it did, though fearfully, espy
894. ۸۹۴A hope beyond the shadow of a dream.
895. ۸۹۵My sayings will the less obscured seem,
896. ۸۹۶When I have told thee how my waking sight
897. ۸۹۷Has made me scruple whether that same night
898. ۸۹۸Was pass'd in dreaming. Hearken, sweet Peona!
899. ۸۹۹Beyond the matron-temple of Latona,
900. ۹۰۰Which we should see but for these darkening boughs,
901. ۹۰۱Lies a deep hollow, from whose ragged brows
902. ۹۰۲Bushes and trees do lean all round athwart,
903. ۹۰۳And meet so nearly, that with wings outraught,
904. ۹۰۴And spreaded tail, a vulture could not glide
905. ۹۰۵Past them, but he must brush on every side.
906. ۹۰۶Some moulder'd steps lead into this cool cell,
907. ۹۰۷Far as the slabbed margin of a well,
908. ۹۰۸Whose patient level peeps its crystal eye
909. ۹۰۹Right upward, through the bushes, to the sky.
910. ۹۱۰Oft have I brought thee flowers, on their stalks set
911. ۹۱۱Like vestal primroses, but dark velvet
912. ۹۱۲Edges them round, and they have golden pits:
913. ۹۱۳'Twas there I got them, from the gaps and slits
914. ۹۱۴In a mossy stone, that sometimes was my seat,
915. ۹۱۵When all above was faint with mid-day heat.
916. ۹۱۶And there in strife no burning thoughts to heed,
917. ۹۱۷I'd bubble up the water through a reed;
918. ۹۱۸So reaching back to boy-hood: make me ships
919. ۹۱۹Of moulted feathers, touchwood, alder chips,
920. ۹۲۰With leaves stuck in them; and the Neptune be
921. ۹۲۱Of their petty ocean. Oftener, heavily,
922. ۹۲۲When love-lorn hours had left me less a child,
923. ۹۲۳I sat contemplating the figures wild
924. ۹۲۴Of o'er-head clouds melting the mirror through.
925. ۹۲۵Upon a day, while thus I watch'd, by flew
926. ۹۲۶A cloudy Cupid, with his bow and quiver;
927. ۹۲۷So plainly character'd, no breeze would shiver
928. ۹۲۸The happy chance: so happy, I was fain
929. ۹۲۹To follow it upon the open plain,
930. ۹۳۰And, therefore, was just going; when, behold!
931. ۹۳۱A wonder, fair as any I have told--
932. ۹۳۲The same bright face I tasted in my sleep,
933. ۹۳۳Smiling in the clear well. My heart did leap
934. ۹۳۴Through the cool depth.--It moved as if to flee--
935. ۹۳۵I started up, when lo! refreshfully,
936. ۹۳۶There came upon my face, in plenteous showers,
937. ۹۳۷Dew-drops, and dewy buds, and leaves, and flowers,
938. ۹۳۸Wrapping all objects from my smothered sight,
939. ۹۳۹Bathing my spirit in a new delight.
940. ۹۴۰Aye, such a breathless honey-feel of bliss
941. ۹۴۱Alone preserved me from the drear abyss
942. ۹۴۲Of death, for the fair form had gone again.
943. ۹۴۳Pleasure is oft a visitant; but pain
944. ۹۴۴Clings cruelly to us, like the gnawing sloth
945. ۹۴۵On the deer's tender haunches: late, and loth,
946. ۹۴۶'Tis scar'd away by slow returning pleasure.
947. ۹۴۷How sickening, how dark the dreadful leisure
948. ۹۴۸Of weary days, made deeper exquisite,
949. ۹۴۹By a fore-knowledge of unslumbrous night!
950. ۹۵۰Like sorrow came upon me, heavier still,
951. ۹۵۱Than when I wander'd from the poppy hill:
952. ۹۵۲And a whole age of lingering moments crept
953. ۹۵۳Sluggishly by, ere more contentment swept
954. ۹۵۴Away at once the deadly yellow spleen.
955. ۹۵۵Yes, thrice have I this fair enchantment seen;
956. ۹۵۶Once more been tortured with renewed life.
957. ۹۵۷When last the wintry gusts gave over strife
958. ۹۵۸With the conquering sun of spring, and left the skies
959. ۹۵۹Warm and serene, but yet with moistened eyes
960. ۹۶۰In pity of the shatter'd infant buds,--
961. ۹۶۱That time thou didst adorn, with amber studs,
962. ۹۶۲My hunting cap, because I laugh'd and smil'd,
963. ۹۶۳Chatted with thee, and many days exil'd
964. ۹۶۴All torment from my ...;--'twas even then,
965. ۹۶۵Straying about, yet, coop'd up in the den
966. ۹۶۶Of helpless discontent,--hurling my lance
967. ۹۶۷From place to place, and following at chance,
968. ۹۶۸At last, by hap, through some young trees it struck,
969. ۹۶۹And, plashing among bedded pebbles, stuck
970. ۹۷۰In the middle of a brook,--whose silver ramble
971. ۹۷۱Down twenty little falls, through reeds and bramble,
972. ۹۷۲Tracing along, it brought me to a cave,
973. ۹۷۳Whence it ran brightly forth, and white did lave
974. ۹۷۴The nether sides of mossy stones and rock,--
975. ۹۷۵'Mong which it gurgled blythe adieus, to mock
976. ۹۷۶Its own sweet grief at parting. Overhead,
977. ۹۷۷Hung a lush screen of drooping weeds, and spread
978. ۹۷۸Thick, as to curtain up some wood-nymph's home.
979. ۹۷۹"Ah! impious mortal, whither do I roam?"
980. ۹۸۰Said I, low voic'd: "Ah whither! 'Tis the grot
981. ۹۸۱Of Proserpine, when Hell, obscure and hot,
982. ۹۸۲Doth her resign; and where her tender hands
983. ۹۸۳She dabbles, on the cool and sluicy sands:
984. ۹۸۴Or 'tis the cell of Echo, where she sits,
985. ۹۸۵And babbles thorough silence, till her wits
986. ۹۸۶Are gone in tender madness, and anon,
987. ۹۸۷Faints into sleep, with many a dying tone
988. ۹۸۸Of sadness. O that she would take my vows,
989. ۹۸۹And breathe them sighingly among the boughs,
990. ۹۹۰To sue her gentle ears for whose fair head,
991. ۹۹۱Daily, I pluck sweet flowerets from their bed,
992. ۹۹۲And weave them dyingly--send honey-whispers
993. ۹۹۳Round every leaf, that all those gentle lispers
994. ۹۹۴May sigh my love unto her pitying!
995. ۹۹۵O charitable echo! hear, and sing
996. ۹۹۶This ditty to her!--tell her"--so I stay'd
997. ۹۹۷My foolish tongue, and listening, half afraid,
998. ۹۹۸Stood stupefied with my own empty folly,
999. ۹۹۹And blushing for the freaks of melancholy.
1000. ۱۰۰۰Salt tears were coming, when I heard my name
1001. ۱۰۰۱Most fondly lipp'd, and then these accents came:
1002. ۱۰۰۲‘Endymion! the cave is secreter
1003. ۱۰۰۳Than the isle of Delos. Echo hence shall stir
1004. ۱۰۰۴No sighs but sigh-warm kisses, or light noise
1005. ۱۰۰۵Of thy combing hand, the while it travelling cloys
1006. ۱۰۰۶And trembles through my labyrinthine hair."
1007. ۱۰۰۷At that oppress'd I hurried in.--Ah! where
1008. ۱۰۰۸Are those swift moments? Whither are they fled?
1009. ۱۰۰۹I'll smile no more, Peona; nor will wed
1010. ۱۰۱۰Sorrow the way to death, but patiently
1011. ۱۰۱۱Bear up against it: so farewel, sad sigh;
1012. ۱۰۱۲And come instead demurest meditation,
1013. ۱۰۱۳To occupy me wholly, and to fashion
1014. ۱۰۱۴My pilgrimage for the world's dusky brink.
1015. ۱۰۱۵No more will I count over, link by link,
1016. ۱۰۱۶My chain of grief: no longer strive to find
1017. ۱۰۱۷A half-forgetfulness in mountain wind
1018. ۱۰۱۸Blustering about my ears: aye, thou shalt see,
1019. ۱۰۱۹Dearest of sisters, what my life shall be;
1020. ۱۰۲۰What a calm round of hours shall make my days.
1021. ۱۰۲۱There is a paly flame of hope that plays
1022. ۱۰۲۲Where'er I look: but yet, I'll say 'tis naught--
1023. ۱۰۲۳And here I bid it die. Have not I caught,
1024. ۱۰۲۴Already, a more healthy countenance?
1025. ۱۰۲۵By this the sun is setting; we may chance
1026. ۱۰۲۶Meet some of our near-dwellers with my car."
1027. ۱۰۲۷
1028. ۱۰۲۸ This said, he rose, faint-smiling like a star
1029. ۱۰۲۹Through autumn mists, and took Peona's hand:
1030. ۱۰۳۰They stept into the boat, and launch'd from land.