216 THE BEGGAR MAID. So sweet a face, such angel grace, In all that land had never been: Cophetua sware a royal oath : 66 This beggar maid shall be my queen!" THE VISION OF SIN. I HAD a vision when the night was late: A youth came riding toward a palace-gate. A sleepy light upon their brows and lips— As when the sun, a crescent of eclipse, Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and capes- By heaps of gourds, and skins of wine, and piles of grapes. Then methought I heard a mellow sound, Gathering up from all the lower ground; Narrowing in to where they sat assembled Wov'n in circles: they that heard it sigh'd, Swung themselves, and in low tones replied; Till thronging in and in, to where they waited, As 'twere a hundred-throated nightingale, The strong tempestuous treble throbb'd and palpitated ; Ran into its giddiest whirl of sound, Caught the sparkles, and in circles, Purple gauzes, golden hazes, liquid mazes, Flung the torrent rainbow round: Then they started from their places, Moved with violence, changed in hue, Caught each other with wild grimaces, Wheeling with precipitate paces THE VISION OF SIN. 219 To the melody, till they flew, Hair, and eyes, and limbs, and faces, Twisted hard in fierce embraces, Like to Furies, like to Graces, Dash'd together in blinding dew: Till, kill'd with some luxurious agony, Flutter'd headlong from the sky. And then I look'd up toward a mountain-tract, That girt the region with high cliff and lawn : Beyond the darkness and the cataract, God made himself an awful rose of dawn, From those still heights, and, slowly drawing near, Came floating on for many a month and year, and I thought I would have spoken, And warn'd that madman ere it grew too late : But, as in dreams, I could not. Mine was broken, |