Her looks would hunt them, and with outspread hand, From the swift lights which might that fountain pave, She would mark one, and laugh when, that command It laid its fingers as now rest on Slighting, it lingered there, and could mine not understand. XXI "Methought her looks began to talk with me: And no articulate sounds but something sweet Her lips would frame,-so sweet it could not be That it was meaningless; her touch would meet Mine, and our pulses calmly flow Vexed the inconstant waves with my When he so swiftly sunk, as once Vexed the inconstant waves with my And I became at last even as a Like mind while yet it mocks the allshade, A smoke, a cloud on which the winds have preyed Till it be thin as air; until, one even, A Nautilus upon the fountain played, Spreading his azure sail where breath of Heaven Descended not, among the waves and whirlpools driven. XXVII "And, when the Eagle came, that lovely thing, Oaring with rosy feet its silver boat, Fled near me as for shelter; on slow wing The Eagle hovering o'er his prey did float; But, when he saw that I with fear did note His purpose, proffering my own food to him, The eager plumes subsided on his throat He came where that bright child of sea did swim, And o'er it cast in peace his shadow broad and dim. XXVIII "This wakened me, it gave me human strength; And hope, I know not whence or wherefore, rose, But I resumed my ancient powers at length; My spirit felt again like one of those, Like thine, whose fate it is to make the woes Of humankind their prey-what was this cave? Its deep foundation no firm purpose knows, Immutable, resistless, strong to save, devouring grave. |