So fairy-quick, was strange! Bewildered, Endymion sought around, and shook each

bed

Of covert flowers in vain; and then he flung Himself along the grass. What gentle

tongue,

What whisperer, disturb'd his gloomy rest? It was a nymph uprisen to the breast

In the fountain's pebbly margin, and she stood

brood.

100

To him her dripping hand she softly kist, And anxiously began to plait and twist Her ringlets round her fingers, saying: 'Youth!

Too long, alas, hast thou starved on the ruth,

The bitterness of love: too long indeed, Seeing thou art so gentle. Could I weed Thy soul of care, by heavens, I would offer All the bright riches of my crystal coffer To Amphitrite; all my clear-eyed fish, Golden, or rainbow-sided, or purplish, Vermilion-tail'd, or finn'd with silvery gauze;

110

Whether to weeds or flowers; but for me, There is no depth to strike in: I can see Naught earthly worth my compassing; so stand

Upon a misty, jutting head of land-
Alone? No, no; and by the Orphean lute,
When mad Eurydice is listening to 't,
I'd rather stand upon this misty peak,
With not a thing to sigh for, or to seek,

borne

air

Will gulf me - help!'

madden'd stare,

stood;

At this, with

A dusky empire and its diadems;
One faint eternal eventide of gems.
Aye, millions sparkled on a vein of gold,

Like old Deucalion mountain'd o'er the

flood,

Or blind Orion hungry for the morn.

steps told,

With all its lines abrupt and angular:
Out-shooting sometimes, like a meteor-star,
Through a vast antre; then the metal woof,

With deep-drawn sighs was quieting, he went

Into a marble gallery, passing through
A mimic temple, so complete and true
In sacred custom, that he well nigh fear'd
To search it inwards; whence far off ap-
pear'd,

Through a long pillar'd vista, a fair shrine,
And, just beyond, on light tiptoe divine, 261
A quiver'd Dian. Stepping awfully,
The youth approach'd; oft turning his
veil'd eye

Down sidelong aisles, and into niches old: And when, more near against the marble cold

He had touch'd his forehead, he began to thread

All courts and passages, where silence dead, Roused by his whispering footsteps, murmur'd faint:

And long he traversed to and fro, to acquaint

Himself with every mystery, and awe; 270
Till, weary, he sat down before the maw
Of a wide outlet, fathomless and dim,
To wild uncertainty and shadows grim.
There, when new wonders ceased to float
before,

And thoughts of self came on, how crude and sore

The journey homeward to habitual self!
A mad pursuing of the fog-born elf,
Whose flitting lantern, through rude nettle-
brier,

Cheats us into a swamp, into a fire,
Into the bosom of a hated thing.

280

waste

Thy loveliness in dismal elements;

But, finding in our green earth sweet con

tents,

There livest blissfully. Ah, if to thee
It feels Elysian, how rich to me,
An exiled mortal, sounds its pleasant name!
Within my breast there lives a choking
flame-

O let me cool 't the zephyr-boughs among!
A homeward fever parches up my tongue —
O let me slake it at the running springs! 320
Upon my ear a noisy nothing rings -

O let me once more hear the linnet's note ! Before mine eyes thick films and shadows float

O let me 'noint them with the heaven's light!

Dost thou now lave thy feet and ankles

white?

O think how sweet to me the freshening

sluice!

Dost thou now please thy thirst with berryjuice?

O think how this dry palate would rejoice! If in soft slumber thou dost hear my voice, O think how I should love a bed of flowers! 330

Young goddess! let me see my native

bowers!

Deliver me from this rapacious deep!'