To sing for thee; low creeping strawberries Their summer coolness; pent up butterflies Their freckled wings; yea, the fresh budding year 260 By every wind that nods the mountain pine, ee 'Thou, to whom every faun and satyr flies For willing service; whether to surprise The squatted hare while in half sleeping fit; 265 To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw ; Bewildered shepherds to their path again; Or to tread breathless round the frothy main, 270 For thee to tumble into Naiads' cells, "O Hearkener to the loud clapping shears, 275 280 285 Leading to universal knowledge — see, Great son of Dryope, 290 Then leave the naked brain: be still the leaven, That spreading in this dull and clodded earth Be still a symbol of immensity; A firmament reflected in a sea; 300 An element filling the space between ; An unknown but no more: we humbly screen Even while they brought the burden to a close, A shout from the whole multitude arose, That lingered in the air like dying rolls Of dolphins bob their noses through the brine. To the swift treble pipe, and humming string. to 315 Aye, those fair living forms swam heavenly Fair creatures! whose young children's children bred But in old marbles ever beautiful. High genitors, unconscious did they cull 320 Time's sweet first-fruits they danc'd to weariness, And then in quiet circles did they press The hillock turf, and caught the latter end Of some strange history, potent to send A young mind from its bodily tenement. Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent Who now, ere Phœbus mounts the firmament, 325 330 Beside the feathery whizzing of the shaft, And the dull twanging bowstring, and the raft Branch down sweeping from a tall ash top, 335 Call'd up a thousand thoughts to envelope Those who would watch. Perhaps, the trembling knee And frantic gape of lonely Niobe, By one, who at a distance loud halloo'd, 345 Uplifting his strong bow into the air, Many might after brighter visions stare: There shot a golden splendour far and wide, 350 A heavenly beacon in their dreary woe. Who thus were ripe for high contemplating, 355 Might turn their steps towards the sober ring Where sat Endymion and the aged priest 'Mong shepherds gone in eld, whose looks increas'd 360 365 To tint her pallid cheek with bloom, who cons A world of other unguess'd offices. 370 Anon they wander'd, by divine converse, Into Elysium; vieing to rehearse Each one his own anticipated bliss. 375 380 One felt heart-certain that he could not miss His quick gone love, among fair blossom'd boughs, Who, suddenly, should stoop through the smooth wind, Some were athirst in soul to see again Their fellow huntsmen o'er the wide champaign 385 Comparing, joyfully, their plenteous stores 390 Benighted, close they huddled from the cold, And shar'd their famish'd scrips. Thus all out-told Whose eyelids curtain'd up their jewels dim, 395 To hide the cankering venom, that had riven His senses had swoon'd off: he did not heed Aye, even as dead-still as a marble man, Who whispers him so pantingly and close? Peona, his sweet sister, of all those, His friends, the dearest. Hushing signs she made, A yielding up, a cradling on her care. 400 405 410 415 420 |