No, no, you have dismiss'd me; and I go From your breast houseless: aye, it must be 80.'

He answer'd, bending to her open eyes,
Where he was mirror'd small in paradise,
'My silver planet, both of eve and morn!
Why will you plead yourself so sad forlorn,
While I am striving how to fill my heart 50
With deeper crimson, and a double smart?
How to entangle, trammel up and snare
Your soul in mine, and labyrinth you
there,

Like the hid scent in an unbudded rose ?
Aye, a sweet kiss
- you see your mighty

woes.

-

My thoughts! shall I unveil them? Listen then!

To change his purpose. He thereat was stung,

Perverse, with stronger fancy to reclaim 70
Her wild and timid nature to his aim;
Besides, for all his love, in self despite,
Against his better self, he took delight、
Luxurious in her sorrows, soft and new.
His passion, cruel grown, took on a hue
Fierce and sanguineous as 't was possible
In one whose brow had no dark veins to
swell.

Fine was the mitigated fury, like
Apollo's presence when in act to strike
The serpent-Ha! the serpent! certes,

Whispering in midnight silence, said the youth,

'Sure some sweet name thou hast, though, by my truth,

I have not ask'd it, ever thinking thee
Not mortal, but of heavenly progeny,
As still I do. Hast any mortal name,
Fit appellation for this dazzling frame?
Or friends or kinsfolk on the citied earth,
To share our marriage feast and nuptial
mirth ?'

tical,

And triumph, as in thee I should rejoice 60 Amid the hoarse alarm of Corinth's voice.

one;

91

My presence in wide Corinth hardly known: My parents' bones are in their dusty urns

So canopied, lay an untasted feast
Teeming with odours. Lamia, regal drest,
Silently paced about, and as she went,
In pale contented sort of discontent,
Mission'd her viewless servants to enrich
The fretted splendour of each nook and
niche.

Between the tree-stems, marbled plain at first,

Came jasper panels; then, anon, there burst Forth creeping imagery of slighter trees, 140 And with the larger wove in small intricacies.

Approving all, she faded at self-will, And shut the chamber up, close, hush'd and still,

Complete and ready for the revels rude, When dreadful guests would come to spoil her solitude.

Of powerful instruments: the gorgeous dyes,

The space, the splendour of the draperies, The roof of awful richness, nectarous cheer, Beautiful slaves, and Lamia's self, appear, Now, when the wine has done its rosy deed,

And every soul from human trammels freed,

210

thought

Of every guest: that each, as he did please, Might fancy-fit his brows, silk-pillow'd at

his ease.

220

touch,

As pale it lay upon the rosy couch:

250