cry

Plaining discrepant between sea and sky. Dolphins were still my playmates; shapes

unseen

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

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

379

Cruel enchantress! So above the water

I rear'd my head, and look'd for Phoebus' daughter.

Eæa's isle was wondering at the moon:It seem'd to whirl around me, and a swoon Left me dead-drifting to that fatal power.

O let me pluck it for thee!" Thus she link'd

Her charming syllables, till indistinct Their music came to my o'er-sweeten'd soul;

And then she hover'd over me, and stole So near, that if no nearer it had been

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

tell

How specious heaven was changed to real hell.

'One morn she left me sleeping: half awake

I sought for her smooth arms and lips, to slake

My greedy thirst with nectarous cameldraughts;

But she was gone. Whereat the barbed shafts 480

Of disappointment stuck in me so sore, That out I ran and search'd the forest o'er. Wandering about in pine and cedar gloom Damp awe assail'd me; for there 'gan to boom

A sound of moan, an agony of sound, Sepulchral from the distance all around. Then came a conquering earth-thunder, and rumbled

That fierce complain to silence: while I stumbled

Down a precipitous path, as if impell'd. I came to a dark valley. - Groanings swell'd

490

Poisonous about my ears, and louder grew, The nearer I approach'd a flame's gaunt blue,

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

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:

Only I pray, as fairest boon, to die,

550

Or be deliver'd from this cumbrous flesh, From this gross, detestable, filthy mesh, And merely given to the cold bleak air. Have mercy, Goddess! Circe, feel my prayer!"

'That curst magician's name fell icy numb Upon my wild conjecturing: truth had

come

Naked and sabre-like against my heart.
I saw a fury whetting a death-dart;
And my slain spirit, overwrought with
fright,

Fainted away in that dark lair of night. 560
Think, my deliverer, how desolate

My waking must have been! disgust, and hate,

And terrors manifold divided me

A spoil amongst them. I prepared to flee
Into the dungeon core of that wild wood:
I fled three days when lo! before me
stood

Glaring the angry witch. O Dis, even now,
A clammy dew is beading on my brow,
At mere remembering her pale laugh, and

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

She fled ere I could groan for mercy.
Stung

And poisoned was my spirit: despair sung
A war-song of defiance 'gainst all hell.
A hand was at my shoulder to compel
My sullen steps; another 'fore my eyes
Moved on with pointed finger. In this

guise

Enforced, at the last by ocean's foam

610

I found me; by my fresh, my native home.
Its tempering coolness, to my life akin,
Came salutary as I waded in;
And, with a blind voluptuous rage, I gave
Battle to the swollen billow-ridge, and
drave