Over heaps of unvalued stones; Through the dim beams Which amid the streams Weave a net-work of coloured light; Where the shadowy waves Are as green as the forest's night: And the sword-fish dark, Under the ocean foam, And up through the rifts Of the mountain clifts They passed to their Dorian home. V. And now from their fountains In Enna's mountains, Down one vale where the morning basks, Like friends once parted Grown single-hearted, They ply their watery tasks. At sunrise they leap From their cradles steep In the cave of the shelving hill; And the meadows of Asphodel; Beneath the Ortygian shore; Like spirits that lie In the azure sky When they love but live no more. 75 80 85 90 TO I. I FEAR thy kisses, gentle maiden, Ever to burthen thine. II. I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion, With which I worship thine. 1820. THE QUESTION. I. I DREAMED that, as I wandered by the way, Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream. II. There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flower that never sets; Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets (Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth) Its mother's face with heaven's collected tears, 15 III. And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured May, With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray; IV. And nearer to the river's trembling edge There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prankt with white, And starry river-buds among the sedge, And floating water-lilies, broad and bright, With moonlight beams of their own watery light; 20 25 30 V. Methought that of these visionary flowers I made a nosegay, bound in such a way 35 40 SONG OF PROSERPINE, WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA. I. SACRED Goddess, Mother Earth, Thou from whose immortal bosom Gods and men and beasts have birth, Leaf and blade and bud and blossom, Breathe thine influence most divine On thine own child, Proserpine. I. THE sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie, Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes, - 5 II. Then I arise, and climbing Heaven's blue dome, I walk over the mountains and the waves, Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam; My footsteps pave the clouds with fire; the caves 10 Are filled with my bright presence, and the air Leaves the green earth to my embraces bare. III. The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill Fly me, and from the glory of my ray Good minds and open actions take new might, 15 IV. I feed the clouds, the rainbows and the flowers Are cinctured with my power as with a robe; 20 V. I stand at noon upon the peak of Heaven, Into the clouds of the Atlantic even; 25 For grief that I depart they weep and frown: 30 |