They led on first, bent to her meek surprise,
Through portal columns of a giant size
Into the vaulted, boundless emerald.
Joyous all follow'd, as the leader call'd,
Down marble steps; pouring as easily

As hour-glass sand,-and fast, as you might see
Swallows obeying the south summer's call,
Or swans upon a gentle waterfall.

Thus went that beautiful multitude, not far, Ere from among some rocks of glittering spar, Just within ken, they saw descending thick Another multitude. Whereat more quick Moved either host. On a wide sand they met, And of those numbers every eye was wet; For each their old love found. A murmuring rose, Like what was never heard in all the throes Of wind and waters: 'tis past human wit To tell; 'tis dizziness to think of it.

This mighty consummation made, the host Moved on for many a league; and gain'd, and lost Huge sea-marks; vanward swelling in array, And from the rear diminishing away,

Till a faint dawn surprised them. Glaucus cried, Behold! behold, the palace of his pride!

God Neptune's palace!" With noise increased,
They shoulder'd on towards that brightening east.
At every onward step proud domes arose
In prospect,-diamond gleams and golden glows
Of amber 'gainst their faces levelling.
Joyous, and many as the leaves in spring,
Still onward; still the splendor gradual swell'd.
Rich opal domes were seen, on high upheld
By jasper pillars, letting through their shafts
A blush of coral. Copious wonder-draughts
Each gazer drank; and deeper drank more near:
For what poor mortals fragment up, as mere
As marble was there lavish, to the vast
Of one fair palace, that far far surpass'd,
Even for common bulk, those olden three,
Memphis, and Babylon, and Nineveh.

As large, as bright, as color'd as the bow Of Iris, when unfading it doth show Beyond a silvery shower, was the arch Through which this Paphian army took its march, Into the outer courts of Neptune's state: Whence could be seen, direct, a golden gate, To which the leaders sped; but not half raught Ere it burst open swift as fairy thought, And made those dazzled thousands veil their eyes Like callow eagles at the first sunrise. Soon with an eagle nativeness their gaze Ripe from hue-golden swoons took all the blaze, And then, behold! large Neptune on his throne Of emerald deep: yet not exalt alone; At his right hand stood winged Love, and on His left sat smiling Beauty's paragon.

Far as the mariner on highest mast Can see all round upon the calmed vast, So wide was Neptune's hall; and as the blue Doth vault the waters, so the waters drew Their doming curtains, high, magnificent, Awed from the throne aloof;-and when storm-rent

Disclosed the thunder-gloomings in Jove's air;
But soothed as now, flash'd sudden everywhere,
Noiseless, submarine cloudlets, glittering
Death to a human eye: for there did spring
From natural west, and east, and south, and north,
A light as of four sunsets, blazing forth

A gold-green zenith 'bove the Sea-God's head.
Of lucid depth the floor, and far outspread
As breezeless lake, on which the slim canoe
Of feather'd Indian darts about, as through
The delicatest air: air verily,

But for the portraiture of clouds and sky:
This palace floor breath-air,—but for the amaze
Of deep-seen wonders motionless,-and blaze
Of the dome pomp, reflected in extremes,
Globing a golden sphere.

They stood in dreams
Till Triton blew his horn. The palace rang;
The Nereids danced; the Syrens faintly sang;
And the great Sea-King bow'd his dripping head.
Then Love took wing, and from his pinions shed
On all the multitude a nectarous dew.
The ooze-born Goddess beckoned and drew
Fair Scylla and her guides to conference;
And when they reach'd the throned eminence
She kist the sea-nymph's cheek,-who sat her down
A toying with the doves. Then,-" Mighty crown
And sceptre of this kingdom!" Venus said,
"Thy vows were on a time to Nais paid:
Behold!"-Two copious tear-drops instant fell
From the God's large eyes; he smiled delectable,
And over Glaucus held his blessing hands.-
Endymion! Ah! still wandering in the bands
Of love? Now this is cruel. Since the hour
I met thee in earth's bosom, all my power
Have I put forth to serve thee. What, not yet
Escaped from dull mortality's harsh net?
A little patience, youth! 'twill not be long,
Or I am skilless quite an idle tongue,
A humid eye, and steps luxurious,
Where these are new and strange, are ominous.
Ay, I have seen these signs in one of heaven,
When others were all blind; and were I given
To utter secrets, haply I might say

Some pleasant words; but Love will have his day,
So wait awhile expectant. Pr'ythee soon,
Even in the passing of thine honey-moon,
Visit my Cytherea: thou wilt find
Cupid well-natured, my Adonis kind;

And pray persuade with thee-Ah, I have done,
All blisses be upon thee, my sweet son!”-
Thus the fair goddess: while Endymion
Knelt to receive those accents halcyon.

Meantime a glorious revelry began Before the Water-Monarch. Nectar ran In courteous fountains to all cups out-reach'd; And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless, bleach'd New growth about each shell and pendent lyre; The which, in entangling for their fire, Pull'd down fresh foliage and coverture For dainty toy. Cupid, empire-sure, Flutter'd and laugh'd, and oft-times through the throng Made a delighted way. Then dance, and song, And garlanding grew wild; and pleasure reign'd. In harmless tendril they each other chain'd,

And strove who should be smother'd deepest in Fresh crush of leaves.

O'tis a very sin

For one so weak to venture his poor verse In such a place as this. O do not curse, High Muses! let him hurry to the ending.

All suddenly were silent. A soft blending Of dulcet instruments came charmingly; And then a hymn.

"King of the stormy sea!
Brother of Jove, and co-inheritor
Of elements! Eternally before

Thee the waves awful bow. Fast, stubborn rock,
At thy fear'd trident shrinking, doth unlock
Its deep foundations, hissing into foam.
All mountain-rivers lost, in the wide home
Of thy capacious bosom ever flow.
Thou frownest, and old Eolus thy foe
Skulks to his cavern, 'mid the gruff complaint
Of all his rebel tempests. Dark clouds faint
When, from thy diadem, a silver gleam
Slants over blue dominion. Thy bright team
Gulfs in the morning light, and scuds along
To bring thee nearer to that golden song
Apollo singeth, while his chariot

Waits at the doors of Heaven. Thou art not
For scenes like this: an empire stern hast thou;
And it hath furrow'd that large front: yet now,
As newly come of heaven, dost thou sit
To blend and interknit

Subdued majesty with this glad time.
O shell-borne King sublime!

We lay our hearts before thee evermore-
We sing, and we adore!

"Breathe softly, flutes;

Be tender of your strings, ye soothing lutes;
Nor be the trumpet heard! O vain, O vain!
Not flowers budding in an April rain,

Nor breath of sleeping dove, nor river's flow,-
No, nor the Eolian twang of Love's own bow,
Can mingle music fit for the soft ear

Of goddess Cytherea!

Yet deign, white Queen of Beauty, thy fair eyes On our soul's sacrifice.

"Bright-wing'd Child!

Who has another care when thou hast smiled? Unfortunates on earth, we see at last

All death-shadows, and glooms that overcast
Our spirits, fann'd away by thy light pinions.
O sweetest essence! sweetest of all minions!
God of warm pulses, and dishevell❜d hair,
And panting bosoms bare!

Dear unseen light in darkness! eclipser
Of light in light! delicious poisoner!
Thy venom'd goblet will we quaff until
We fill-we fill!

And by thy Mother's lips

For clamor, when the golden palace-door

Open'd again, and from without, in shone
A new magnificence. On oozy throne
Smooth-moving came Oceanus the old,
To take a latest glimpse at his sheep-fold,
Before he went into his quiet cave
To muse for ever-Then a lucid wave,
Scoop'd from its trembling sisters of mid-sea,
Afloat, and pillowing up the majesty
Of Doris, and the Egean seer, her spouse-
Next, on a dolphin, clad in laurel boughs,
Theban Amphion leaning on his lute :
His fingers went across it-All were mute
To gaze on Amphritite, queen of pearls,
And Thetis pearly too.-

The palace whirls
Around giddy Endymion; seeing he
Was there far strayed from mortality.
He could not bear it-shut his eyes in vain ;
Imagination gave a dizzier pain.

"OI shall die! sweet Venus, be my stay!
Where is my lovely mistress? Well-away!
I die-I hear her voice-I feel my wing-"
At Neptune's feet he sank. A sudden ring
Of Nereids were about him, in kind strife
To usher back his spirit into life:
But still he slept. At last they interwove
Their cradling arms, and purposed to convey
Towards a crystal bower far away.

Lo! while slow carried through the pitying crowd,
To his inward senses these words spake aloud;
Written in starlight on the dark above:
"Dearest Endymion! my entire love!
How have I dwelt in fear of fate: 'tis done-
Immortal bliss for me too hast thou won.
Arise then! for the hen-dove shall not hatch
Her ready eggs, before I'll kissing snatch
Thee into endless heaven. Awake! awake!"

The youth at once arose: a placid lake
Came quiet to his eyes; and forest green,
Cooler than all the wonder he had seen,
Lull'd with its simple song his fluttering breast.
How happy once again in grassy nest!

BOOK IV.

MUSE of my native land! loftiest Muse!
O first-born on the mountains! by the hues
Of heaven on the spiritual air begot:
Long didst thou sit alone in northern grot,
While yet our England was a wolfish den;
Before our forests heard the talk of men;
Before the first of Druids was a child;-
Long didst thou sit amid our regions wild,
Rapt in a deep prophetic solitude.

There came an eastern voice of solemn mood:
Yet wast thou patient. Then sang forth the Nine,
Apollo's garland:-yet didst thou divine

Such home-bred glory, that they cried in vain,
"Come hither, Sister of the Island!" Plain

66

Thee to thy native hopes. O thou hast won
A full accomplishment! The thing is done,
Which undone, these our latter days had risen
On barren souls. Great Muse, thou know'st what prison,
Of flesh and bone, curbs, and confines, and frets
Our spirit's wings: despondency besets
Our pillows; and the fresh to-morrow morn
Seems to give forth its light in very scorn
Of our dull, uninspired, snail-paced lives.
Long have I said, How happy he who shrives
To thee! But then I thought on poets gone,
And could not pray :-nor can I now—so on
I move to the end in lowliness of heart.

"Ah, woe is me! that I should fondly part From my dear native land! Ah, foolish maid! Glad was the hour, when, with thee, myriads bade Adieu to Ganges and their pleasant fields! To one so friendless the clear freshet yields A bitter coolness; the ripe grape is sour:

Yet I would have, great gods! but one short hour Of native air-let me but die at home."

Endymion to heaven's airy dome Was offering up a hecatomb of vows, When these words reach'd him. Whereupon he bows His head through thorny-green entanglement Of underwood, and to the sound is bent, Anxious as hind towards her hidden fawn.

"Is no one near to help me? No fair dawn Of life from charitable voice? No sweet saying To set my dull and sadden'd spirit playing? No hand to toy with mine? No lips so sweet That I may worship them? No eyelids meet To twinkle on my bosom? No one dies Before me, till from these enslaving eyes Redemption sparkles!-I am sad and lost."

Thou, Carian lord, hadst better have been tost Into a whirlpool. Vanish into air,

Warm mountaineer! for canst thou only bear
A woman's sigh alone and in distress?
See not her charms! Is Phoebe passionless?
Phoebe is fairer far-O gaze no more :-
Yet if thou wilt behold all beauty's store,
Behold her panting in the forest grass!
Do not those curls of glossy jet surpass
For tenderness the arms so idly lain
Amongst them? Feelest not a kindred pain,
To see such lovely eyes in swimming search
After some warm delight, that seems to perch
Dove-like in the dim cell lying beyond
Their upper lids ?-Hist!

"O for Hermes' wand,
To touch this flower into human shape!
That woodland Hyacinthus could escape
From his green prison, and here kneeling down
Call me his queen, his second life's fair crown!
Ah me, how I could love!-My soul doth melt
For the unhappy youth-Love! I have felt
So faint a kindness, such a meek surrender

To what my own full thoughts had made too tender,
That but for tears my life had fled away!—
Ye deaf and senseless minutes of the day,

And thou, old forest, hold ye this for true,
There no lightning, no authentic dew
But in the eye of love: there's not a sound,
Melodious howsoever, can confound

The heavens and earth in one to such a death
As doth the voice of love: there's not a breath
Will mingle kindly with the meadow air,
Till it has panted round, and stolen a share
Of passion from the heart!"-

Upon a bough

He leant, wretched. He surely cannot now
Thirst for another love: O impious,
That he can even dream upon it thus!—
Thought he, "Why am I not as are the dead,
Since to a woe like this I have been led
Through the dark earth, and through the wondrous sen?
Goddess! I love thee not the less: from thee
By Juno's smile I turn not-no, no, no-
While the great waters are at ebb and flow.-
I have a triple soul! O fond pretence-
For both, for both my love is so immense,
I feel my heart is cut in twain for them."

And so he groan'd, as one by beauty slain.
The lady's heart beat quick, and he could see
Her gentle bosom heave tumultuously.

He sprang from his green covert: there she lay,
Sweet as a musk-rose upon new-made hay;
With all her limbs on tremble, and her eyes
Shut softly up alive. To speak he tries:
"Fair damsel, pity me! forgive me that I
Thus violate thy bower's sanctity!

O pardon me, for I am full of grief-
Grief born of thee, young angel! fairest thief!
Who stolen hast away the wings wherewith
I was to top the heavens. Dear maid, sith
Thou art my executioner, and I feel
Loving and hatred, misery and weal,
Will in a few short hours be nothing to me,
And all my story that much passion slew me:
Do smile upon the evening of my days:
And, for my tortured brain begins to craze,
Be thou my nurse; and let me understand
How dying I shall kiss thy lily hand.-
Dost weep for me? Then should I be content.
Scowl on, ye fates! until the firmament
Out-blackens Erebus, and the full-cavern'd earth
Crumbles into itself. By the cloud girth

Of Jove, those tears have given me a thirst
To meet oblivion."-As her heart would burst

The maiden sobb'd awhile, and then replied:

Why must such desolation betide

As that thou speakest of? Are not these green nooks
Empty of all misfortune? Do the brooks

Utter a gorgon voice? Does yonder thrush,
Schooling its half-fledged little ones to brush
About the dewy forest, whisper tales ?—
Speak not of grief, young stranger, or cold snails
Will slime the rose to-night. Though if thou wilt,
Methinks 't would be a guilt-a very guilt-
Not to companion thee, and sigh away

The light-the dusk-the dark-till break of day!””
"Dear lady," said Endymion, " 'tis past:
I love thee! and my days can never last.
That I may pass in patience, still speak:
Let me have music dying, and I seek

No more delight-I bid adieu to all.

Didst thou not after other climates call,

And murmur about Indian streams?"-Then she,
Sitting beneath the midmost forest tree,
For pity sang this roundelay-

Heart's lightness from the merriment of May ?

A lover would not tread

A cowslip on the head,

"6

To our wild minstrelsy!'

Nor any drooping flower

Held sacred for thy bower,

Wherever he may sport himself and play.

Beneath my palm-trees, by the river-side, I sat a-weeping: in the whole world wide There was no one to ask me why I wept,And so I kept

Brimming the water-lily cups with tears
Cold as my fears.

"Beneath my palm-trees, by the river-side,
I sat a-weeping: what enamor'd bride,
Cheated by shadowy wooer from the clouds,
But hides and shrouds

Beneath dark palm-trees by a river-side?

"And as I sat, over the light-blue hills There came a noise of revellers: the rills Into the wide stream came of purple hue"T was Bacchus and his crew!

The earnest trumpet spake, and silver thrills

So many, and so many, and such glee?
Why have ye left your forest haunts, why left
Your nuts in oak-tree cleft?-

For wine, for wine we left our kernel tree: For wine we left our heath, and yellow brooms,

And cold mushrooms;

For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth;
Great god of breathless cups and chirping mirth!-
Come hither, lady fair, and joined be
To our mad minstrelsy!'

"Over wide streams and mountains great we went,
And, save when Bacchus kept his ivy tent,
Onward the tiger and the leopard pants,
With Asian elephants:

Onward these myriads-with song and dance,
With zebras striped, and sleek Arabians' prance,
Web-footed alligators, crocodiles,

Bearing upon their scaly backs, in files,
Plump infant laughters mimicking the coil
Of seamen, and stout galley-rowers' toil :
With toying oars and silken sails they glide,
Nor care for wind and tide.

I saw parch'd Abyssinia rouse and sing
To the silver cymbals' ring!

I saw the whelming vintage hotly pierce
Old Tartary the fierce!

The kings of Ind their jewel-sceptres vail,
And from their treasures scatter pearled hail;
Great Brahma from his mystic heaven groans,
And all his priesthood moans,

Before young Bacchus' eye-wink turning pale.
Into these regions came I, following him,
Sick-hearted, weary-so I took a whim
To stray away into these forests drear,
Alone, without a peer:

And I have told thee all thou mayest hear.

O what a sight she gave in finishing, And look, quite dead to every worldly thing! Endymion could not speak, but gazed on her: And listen'd to the wind that now did stir About the crisped oaks full drearily, Yet with as sweet a softness as might be Remember'd from its velvet summer song. At last he said: "Poor lady, how thus long Have I been able to endure that voice? Fair Melody! kind Syren! I've no choice; I must be thy sad servant evermore : I cannot choose but kneel here and adore. Alas, I must not think-by Phobe, no! Let me not think, soft Angel! shall it be so? Say, beautifullest, shall I never think? O thou couldst foster me beyond the brink Of recollection! make my watchful care Close up its bloodshot eyes, nor see despair! Do gently murder half my soul, and I Shall feel the other half so utterly!— I'm giddy at that cheek so fair and smooth; O let it blush so ever let it soothe My madness! let it mantle rosy-warm With the tinge of love, panting in safe alarm. This cannot be thy hand, and yet it is; And this is sure thine other softling-this Thine own fair bosom, and I am so near! Wilt fall asleep? O let me sip that tear! And whisper one sweet word that I may know This is the world-sweet dewy blossom!"--WOE!

:

WOE! WOE TO THAT ENDYMION! WHERE IS HE!—
Even these words went echoing dismally
Through the wide forest-a most fearful tone,
Like one repenting in his latest moan;
And while it died away a shade pass'd by,
As of a thunder-cloud. When arrows fly
Through the thick branches, poor ring-doves sleek
forth

Their timid necks and tremble; so these both
Leant to each other trembling, and sat so
Waiting for some destruction-when lo!
Foot-feather'd Mercury appear'd sublime
Beyond the tall tree-tops; and in less time
Than shoots the slanted hail-storm, down he drop
Towards the ground; but rested not, nor stopt
One moment from his home: only the sward
He with his wand light touch'd, and heavenward
Swifter than sight was gone-even before
The teeming earth a sudden witness bore
Of his swift magic. Diving swans appear
Above the crystal circlings white and clear;
And catch the cheated eye in wild surprise,
How they can dive in sight and unseen rise-
So from the turf outsprang two steeds jet-black,
Each with large dark-blue wings upon his back.
The youth of Caria placed the lovely dame
On one, and felt himself in spleen to tame
The other's fierceness. Through the air they flew,
High as the eagles. Like two drops of dew
Exhaled to Phoebus' lips, away they are gone,
Far from the earth away-unseen, alone,
Among cool clouds and winds, but that the free,
The buoyant life of song can floating be
Above their heads, and follow them untired.
Muse of my native land! am I inspired?
This is the giddy air, and I must spread
Wide pinions to keep here; nor do I dread
Or height, or depth, or width, or any chance
Precipitous: I have beneath my glance
Those towering horses and their mournful freight.
Could I thus sail, and see, and thus await
Fearless for power of thought, without thine aid!-
There is a sleepy dusk, an odorous shade
From some approaching wonder, and behold
Those winged steeds, with snorting nostrils bold
Snuff at its faint extreme, and seem to tire,
Dying to embers from their native fire!

There curl'd a purple mist around them; soon,
It seem'd as when around the pale new moon
Sad Zephyr droops the clouds like weeping willow:
"Twas Sleep slow journeying with head on pillow
For the first time, since he came nigh dead-born
From the old womb of night, his cave forlorn
Had he left more forlorn; for the first time,
He felt aloof the day and morning's prime-
Because into his depth Cimmerian
There came a dream, showing how a young man.
Ere a lean bat could plump its wintery skin,
Would at high Jove's empyreal footstool win
An immortality, and how espouse

Jove's daughter, and be reckon'd of his house.
Now was he slumbering towards heaven's gate,
That he might at the threshold one hour wait
To hear the marriage melodies, and then
Sink downward to his dusky cave again.