ery spell;

And, sitting down close by, began to muse What it might mean. Perhaps, thought I, Morpheus,

roll

Through clear and cloudy, even when she

went

At last into a dark and vapoury tent-
Whereat, methought, the lidless-eyed train
Of planets all were in the blue again.
To commune with those orbs, once more I
raised

spring,

cavern

Could figure out and to conception bring
All I beheld and felt. Methought I lay
Watching the zenith, where the milky way
Among the stars in virgin splendour pours;
And travelling my eye, until the doors 581
Of heaven appear'd to open for my flight,
I became loth and fearful to alight
From such high soaring by a downward
glance :

So kept me steadfast in that airy trance,
Spreading imaginary pinions wide.
When, presently, the stars began to glide,
And faint away, before my eager view:
At which I sigh'd that I could not pursue,
And dropt my vision to the horizon's verge;
And lo! from opening clouds, I saw

dazed

600

By a bright something, sailing down apace, Making me quickly veil my eyes and face: Again I look'd, and, O ye deities,

Who from Olympus watch our destinies ! Whence that completed form of all completeness?

Whence came that high perfection of all sweetness?

Speak, stubborn earth, and tell me where, O where

Hast thou a symbol of her golden hair? Not oat-sheaves drooping in the western

Not thy soft hand, fair sister! let me

shun

Such follying before thee yet she had, Indeed, locks bright enough to make me mad;

And they were simply gordian'd up and braided,

Leaving, in naked comeliness, unshaded, Her pearl round ears, white neck, and orbed brow;

The which were blended in, I know not how,

With such a paradise of lips and eyes, Blush-tinted cheeks, half smiles, and faintest sighs,

That, when I think thereon, my spirit clings

620

And plays about its fancy, till the stings
Of human neighbourhood envenom all.
Unto what awful power shall I call ?
To what high fane?- Ah! see her hover-
ing feet,

More bluely vein'd, more soft, more whitely sweet

Full in the middle of this pleasantness There stood a marble altar, with a tress 90 Of flowers budded newly; and the dew Had taken fairy phantasies to strew Daisies upon the sacred sward last eve, And so the dawned light in pomp receive. For 't was the morn: Apollo's upward fire Made every eastern cloud a silvery pyre Of brightness so unsullied, that therein A melancholy spirit well might win Oblivion, and melt out his essence fine Into the winds: rain-scented eglantine Gave temperate sweets to that well-wooing

sun;

100

The lark was lost in him; cold springs had

run

To warm their chilliest bubbles in the grass; Man's voice was on the mountains; and the

mass

Of nature's lives and wonders pulsed ten

fold,

To feel this sun-rise and its glories old.

Now while the silent workings of the dawn

Were busiest, into that self-same lawn
All suddenly, with joyful cries, there sped
A troop of little children garlanded;
Who gathering round the altar seem'd to pry
Earnestly round as wishing to espy
Some folk of holiday: nor had they waited
For many moments, ere their ears were
sated

With a faint breath of music, which ev'n then

Fill'd out its voice, and died away again.
Within a little space again it gave
Its airy swellings, with a gentle wave,
To light-hung leaves, in smoothest echoes
breaking

Through copse-clad valleys, -
death, o'ertaking

ere their

The surgy murmurs of the lonely sea.

120

Bearing the burden of a shepherd song; Each having a white wicker, overbrimm'd With April's tender younglings: next, well trimm'd,

A crowd of shepherds with as sunburnt looks

As may be read of in Arcadian books; 140 Such as sat listening round Apollo's pipe,

Than those of sea-born Venus, when she

rose

From out her cradle shell. The wind outblows

Her scarf into a fluttering pavilion ;

'T is blue, and over-spangled with a million Of little eyes, as though thou wert to shed, Over the darkest, lushest bluebell bed, 631 Handfuls of daisies.'-'Endymion, how strange!

Dream within dream!'-' She took an airy range,

And then, towards me, like a very maid,
Came blushing, waning, willing, and afraid,
And press'd me by the hand: Ah! 't was
too much;

Methought I fainted at the charmed touch,
Yet held my recollection, even as one
Who dives three fathoms where the waters

run

640

Gurgling in beds of coral: for anon,
I felt upmounted in that region
Where falling stars dart their artillery forth,
And eagles struggle with the buffeting
north

That balances the heavy meteor-stone; ·
Felt too, I was not fearful, nor alone,
But lapp'd and lull'd along the dangerous
sky.

Soon, as it seem'd, we left our journeying high,

And straightway into frightful eddies swoop'd;

Ah, desperate mortal! I ev'n dared to press
Her very cheek against my crowned lip,
And, at that moment, felt my body dip
Into a warmer air: a moment more,
Our feet were soft in flowers. There was
store

Of newest joys upon that alp. Sometimes
A scent of violets, and blossoming limes,
Loiter'd around us; then of honey cells,
Made delicate from all white-flower bells;
And once, above the edges of our nest, 670
An arch face peep'd, an Oread as I
guess'd.