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,
When a dread waterspout had rear'd aloft
Its hungry hugeness, seeming ready ripe
To burst with hoarsest thunderings, and
wipe

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 left me tossing safely. But the crown
Of all my life was utmost quietude:
More did I love to lie in cavern rude,
Keeping in wait whole days for Neptune's
voice,

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,
But I beheld its birth upon the brine:
For I would watch all night to see unfold
Heaven's gates, and Æthon snort his morn-
ing gold

Wide o'er the swelling streams: and con

379

To feel distemper'd longings: to desire
The utmost privilege that ocean's sire
Could grant in benediction: to be free
Of all his kingdom. Long in misery
I wasted, ere in one extremest fit
I plunged for life or death. To interknit
One's senses with so dense a breathing stuff
Might seem a work of pain; so not enough
Can I admire how crystal-smooth it felt,
And buoyant round my limbs. At first I
dwelt

Whole days and days in sheer astonishment;
Forgetful utterly of self-intent;

Moving but with the mighty ebb and flow. Then, like a new-fledged bird that first doth show

390

His spreaded feathers to the morrow chill,
I tried in fear the pinions of my will.
'T was freedom! and at once I visited
The ceaseless wonders of this ocean-bed.
No need to tell thee of them, for I see
That thou hast been a witness - it must be
For these I know thou canst not feel a
drouth,

By the melancholy corners of that mouth.
So I will in my story straightway pass
To more immediate matter. Woe, alas!
That love should be my bane! Ah, Scylla
fair!

The fairest face that morn e'er look'd upon Push'd through a screen of roses. Starry Jove!

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

It could not be so fantasied. Fierce, wan,
And tyrannizing was the lady's look,
As over them a gnarled staff she shook.
Ofttimes upon the sudden she laugh'd out,
And from a basket emptied to the rout 510
Clusters of grapes, the which they raven'd
quick

And roar'd for more; with many a hungry lick

About their shaggy jaws. Avenging, slow,
Anon she took a branch of mistletoe,
And emptied on 't a black dull-gurgling
phial:

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

Came waggish fauns, and nymphs, and satyrs stark,

With dancing and loud revelry, and went Swifter than centaurs after rapine bent. Sighing an elephant appear'd and bow'd Before the fierce witch, speaking thus aloud In human accent: "Potent goddess! chief

541

Of pains resistless! make my being brief,
Or let me from this heavy prison fly:
Or give me to the air, or let me die!
I sue not for my happy crown again;
I sue not for my phalanx on the plain;
I sue not for my lone, my widow'd wife:
I sue not for my ruddy drops of life,
My children fair, my lovely girls and boys!
I will forget them; I will pass these joys;
Ask nought so heavenward, so too-too
high:

591

Immortal, for thou art of heavenly race:
But such a love is mine, that here I chase
Eternally away from thee all bloom
Of youth, and destine thee towards a tomb.
Hence shalt thou quickly to the watery
vast;

And there, ere many days be overpast, Disabled age shall seize thee; and even then

Thou shalt not go the way of aged men;
But live and wither, cripple and still breathe
Ten hundred years: which gone, I then be-
queath

Thy fragile bones to unknown burial.
Adieu, sweet love, adieu!" As shot stars