"And ye with them will perish one by one: If I must sigh to think that this shall be, If I must weep when the surviving Sun Shall smile on your decay-Oh, ask not me To love you till your little race is run; I cannot die as ye must-over me [ye dwell Your leaves shall glance-the streams in which Shall be my paths henceforth, and so farewell!" XXV. She spoke and wept: the dark and azure well Sparkled beneath the shower of her bright tears, And every little circlet where they fell, Flung to the cavern-roof inconstant spheres And intertangled lines of light :—a knell Of sobbing voices came upon her ears From those departing Forms, o'er the serene Of the white streams and of the forest green. XXVI. All day the wizard lady sat aloof, Spelling out scrolls of dread antiquity, Of some high tale upon her growing woof XXVII. While on her hearth lay blazing many a piece Of sandal-wood, rare gums, and cinnamon; Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is, Each flame of it is as a precious stone Dissolved in ever-moving light, and this Belongs to each and all who gaze upon The Witch beheld it not, for in her hand She held a woof that dimmed the burning brand. XXVIII. This lady never slept, but lay in trance All night within the fountain-as in sleep. Like fireflies and withal did ever keep XXIX. And when the whirlwinds and the clouds descended Where, in a lawn of flowering asphodel xxx. Within the which she lay when the fierce war Of wintry winds shook that innocuous liquor In many a mimic moon and bearded star, O'er woods and lawns-the serpent heard it flicker In sleep, and dreaming still, he crept afar And when the windless snow descended thicker Than autumn leaves, she watched it as it came Melt on the surface of the level flame. ΧΧΧΙ. She had a Boat which some say Vulcan wrought And gave it to this daughter: from a car Of spirits passing through the streets; and heard The listening soul in my suspended blood; I felt that Earth out of her deep heart spoke- EPODE II. a. Then gentle winds arose, With many a mingled close Of wild Æolian sound and mountain odour keen; And where the Baian ocean Welters with airlike motion, Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, It bore me like an Angel, o'er the waves I sailed where ever flows Of the dead kings of Melody.* Whilst from all the coast, Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered STROPHE a. 1. NAPLES! thou Heart of men, which ever pantest Naked, beneath the lidless eye of heaven! Elysian City, which to calm enchantest The mutinous air and sea! they round thee, even Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained! Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice, Which armed Victory offers up unstained Homer and Virgil. |