The general gladness: awfully he stands; A sovereign quell1 is in his waving hands; No sight can bear the lightning of his bow; His quiver is mysterious, none can know 540 What themselves think of it; from forth his eyes There darts strange light of varied hues A scowl is sometimes on his brow, but who 'Tis a concealment needful in extreme: And if I guess'd not so, the sunny beam Thou shouldst mount up to with me. Now adieu! Here must we leave thee."-At these words upflew 580 The impatient doves, uprose the floating car, Up went the hum celestial. High afar A vivid lightning from that dreadful bow. Of his fair eyes run liquid through their 585 When all was darken 'd, with Ætnean throe souls. 545 Endymion feels it, and no more controls The burning prayer within him; so, bent low, He had begun a plaining of his woe. Favor this gentle youth; his days are wild 550 With love-he-but alas! too well I see The earth clos'd-gave a solitary moanAnd left him once again in twilight lone. He did not rave, he did not stare aghast, For all those visions were o'ergone, and past, 590 And he in loneliness: he felt assur'd Thou know'st the deepness of his misery. rue The endless sleep of this new-born Adon', 555 This stranger aye I pitied. For upon A dreary morning once I fled away Me even to tears: thence, when a little 560 Down-looking, vacant, through a hazy wood, I saw this youth as he despairing stood: Those same dark curls blown vagrant in the wind; Those same full fringed lids a constant blind Over his sullen eyes: I saw him throw 565 Himself on wither'd leaves, even as though Death had come sudden; for no jot he mov'd, Yet mutter'd wildly. I could hear he lov'd 600 Of happy times, when all he had endur'd Would seem a feather to the mighty prize. So, with unusual gladness, on he hies Through caves, and palaces of mottled ore, Gold dome, and crystal wall, and turquois floor. Black polish'd porticos of awful shade, And, at the last, a diamond balustrade, Leading afar past wild magnificence, Spiral through ruggedest loopholes, and thence Stretching across a void, then guiding o'er Enormous chasms, where, all foam and roar, Streams subterranean tease their granite beds; Then heighten'd just above the silvery heads Of a thousand fountains, so that he could dash 605 The waters with his spear; but at the splash, Done heedlessly, those spouting columns rose Sudden a poplar's height, and 'gan to enclose His diamond path with fretwork, streaming round Alive, and dazzling cool, and with a sound, Haply, like dolphin tumults, when sweet shells Welcome the float of Thetis. Long he dwells On this delight; for, every minute's space, trees, Forth from a rugged arch, in the dusk below, 640 Came mother Cybele! alone-alone 675 So thick with leaves and mosses, that they seem'd Large honey-combs of green, and freshly teem'd3 With airs delicious. In the greenest nook The eagle landed him, and farewell took. It was a jasmine bower, all bestrown With golden moss. His every sense had grown Ethereal for pleasure; 'bove his head Flew a delight half-graspable; his tread Was Hesperean; to his capable ears Silence was music from the holy spheres;* A dewy luxury was in his eyes; The little flowers felt his pleasant sighs And stirr'd them faintly. Verdant cave and cell He wander'd through, oft wondering at such swell Of sudden exaltation: but, "Alas," Dancing before the morning gates of heaven? Or keeping watch among those starry One of shell-winding Triton's bright- 735 Fondling and kissing every doubt away; hair'd daughters? Or art, impossible! a nymph of Dian's, Into thine arms; to scare Aurora's train, Long time ere soft caressing sobs began "O known Unknown! from whom my Such darling essence, wherefore may I not These toying hands and kiss their smooth Why not forever and forever feel 745 That breath about my eyes? Ah, thou wilt steal 750 Away from me again, indeed, indeed- Full well I feel thou wouldst not leave me. Let me entwine thee surer, surer-now Who, that thou canst not be forever here, 755 Or lift me with thee to some starry sphere? Enchantress! tell me by this soft embrace, By the most soft completion1 of thy face, Those lips, O slippery blisses, twinkling 715 At which soft ravishment, with doting cry 760 They trembled to each other.-Helicon! O fountain'd hill! Old Homer's Helicon ! That thou wouldst spout a little streamlet o'er These sorry pages; then the verse would soar 720 And sing above this gentle pair, like lark 765 730 These lovers did embrace, and we must That there is no old power left to steep Question that thus it was; long time they lay Was quite forgotten, save of us alone! And wherefore so ashamed? 'Tis but to atone For endless pleasure, by some coward blushes: Yet must I be a coward!-Honor rushes 790 Too palpable before me-the sad look Thee thus, and weep for fondness I am pain 'd, Endymion: woe! woe! is grief contain'd In the ver 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, For the mere sake of truth; as 'tis a ditty 830 Not of these days, but long ago 'twas told By a cavern wind unto a forest old;1 And then the forest told it in a dream To a sleeping lake, whose cool and level gleam A poet caught as he was journeying Of Jove-Minerva's start-no bosom 835 To Phoebus' shrine: and in it he did fling shook With awe of purity-no Cupid pinion In reverence veil'd-my crystalline do minion Half lost, and all old hymns made nullity! 840 795 But what is this to love? O I could fly With thee into the ken of heavenly powers, hours, Press me so sweetly. Now I swear at once 800 Perhaps her love like mine is but unknown OI do think that I have been alone 805 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, An immortality of passion 's thine: Ere long I will exalt thee to the shine 810 Of heaven ambrosial; and we will shade Ourselves whole summers by a river glade; And I will tell thee stories of the sky, And breathe thee whispers of its min strelsy. My happy love will overwing all bounds! 815 O let me melt into thee; let the sounds Of our close voices marry at their birth; speech! Lispings empyrean will I sometime teach 820 Thine honied tongue-lute-breathings, which I gasp To have thee understand, now while I clasp His weary limbs, bathing an hour's space, Yon sentinel stars; and he who listens to it For quenchless burnings come upon the heart, 845 Made fiercer by a fear lest any part 850 855 860 Should be engulfed in the eddying wind. As much as here is penn'd doth always find A resting-place, thus much comes clear and plain; Anon the strange voice is upon the waneAnd 'tis but echo'd from departing sound, That the fair visitant at last unwound Her gentle limbs, and left the youth asleep. Thus the tradition of the gusty deep. Now turn we to our former chroniclers.Endymion. awoke, that grief of hers Sweet paining on his ear: he sickly guess'd How lone he was once more, and sadly press'd His empty arms together, hung his head, And most forlorn upon that widow'd bed Sat silently. Love's madness he had known: Often with more than tortured lion's groan Moanings had burst from him; but now that rage Had pass'd away: no longer did he wage 1 Cf. the means by which Midas's secret concerning the ass's ears on his head became known. See Ovid's Metamorphoses, II, 17493. A rough-voic'd war against the dooming stars. 865 No, he had felt too much for such harsh jars: The lyre of his soul Æolian tun’d Drunken from pleasure's nipple; and his 870 Henceforth was dove-like.-Loth was he to move From the imprinted couch, and when he did, 'Twas with slow, languid paces, and face hid In muffling hands. So temper'd, out he stray'd Half seeing visions that might have dismay'd Until into the earth's deep maw he rush'd: 900 Then all its buried magic, till it flush'd High with excessive love. "And now," thought he, 905 910 875 Alecto's serpents; ravishments more keen 915 Than Hermes' pipe,1 when anxious he did lean Över eclipsing eyes: and at the last 880 And crimson mouthed shells with stubborn curls, Of every shape and size, even to the bulk Against an endless storm. Moreover too, Fish-semblances, of green and azure hue, 885 Ready to snort their streams. In this cool 925 wonder Endymion sat down, and 'gan to ponder He stept upon his shepherd throne: the 890 Of his white palace in wild forest nook, And all the revels he had lorded there: With every friend and fellow-woodlander- spur 895 Of the old bards to mighty deeds: his plans "How long must I remain in jeopardy Of blank amazements that amaze no more? Now I have tasted her sweet soul to the core All other depths are shallow essences, The Olympian eagle's vision, is dark, Or they are but the ghosts, the dying swells Among the conchs and shells of the lofty grot, Leaving a trickling dew. At last they shot Down from the. ceiling's height, pouring a noise As of some breathless racers whose hopes poise Upon the last few steps, and with spent force Along the ground they took a winding course. Endymion follow 'd-for it seem'd that one Ever pursued, the other strove to shunFollow'd their languid mazes, till well nigh 930 He had left thinking of the mystery,- His dream away? What melodies are They sound as through the whispering of trees, To nurse the golden age 'mong shepherd 935 Not native in such barren vaults. Give ear! clans: |