III

'Tis said, she first was changed into a And first the spotted cameleopard came, And then the wise and fearless elephant ;

Then the sly serpent, in the golden flame

Of his own volumes intervolved ;-all gaunt

And sanguine beasts her gentle looks made tame.

vapour,

And then into a cloud, such clouds as flit, Like splendour-winged moths about a taper,

Round the red west when the sun dies in it :

And then into a meteor, such as caper On hill-tops when the moon is in a fit:

Then, into one of those mysterious stars And every beast of beating heart grew
Which hide themselves between the
Earth and Mars.

With that bright sign the billows to indent

The sea-deserted sand-like children chidden,

At her command they ever came and

VI

IV

VII

Ten times the Mother of the Months had | The brinded lioness led forth her young, bent That she might teach them how they should forego

Her bow beside the folding-star, and bidden

Their inborn thirst of death; the pard

went

Since in that cave a dewy splendour hidden

They drank before her at her sacred fount;

Took shape and motion with the living form

Of this embodied Power, the cave grew

warm.

bold,

Such gentleness and power even to behold.

unstrung

His sinews at her feet, and sought to know

With looks whose motions spoke without a tongue

How he might be as gentle as the doe.

The magic circle of her voice and eyes
All savage natures did imparadise.

VIII

And old Silenus, shaking a green stick

Of lilies, and the wood-gods in a crew Came, blithe, as in the olive copses thick

V

A lovely lady garmented in light

From her own beauty-deep her eyes, as are

Two openings of unfathomable night
Seen through a Temple's cloven roof
-her hair

Dark-the dim brain whirls dizzy with
delight,
Picturing her form; her soft smiles
shone afar,

IX

And her low voice was heard like love, And universal Pan, 'tis said, was there, and drew And though none saw him,-through the adamant

All living things towards this wondernew.

Cicada are, drunk with the noonday dew:

And Dryope and Faunus followed quick,
Teasing the God to sing them some-
thing new;

Till in this cave they found the lady lone,
Sitting upon a seat of emerald stone.

Of the deep mountains, through the Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade: No thought of living spirit could abide, And through those living spirits, like Which to her looks had ever been be

trackless air,

a want

trayed,

He past out of his everlasting lair

Where the quick heart of the great world doth pant,

And felt that wondrous lady all alone,— And she felt him, upon her emerald throne.

X

And every nymph of stream and spreading tree,

On any object in the world so wide, On any hope within the circling skies, But on her form, and in her inmost eyes.

And twined three threads of fleecy mist, and three

And every shepherdess of Ocean's Long lines of light, such as the dawn flocks,

Who drives her white waves over the

Stirred by the air under a cavern gaunt: Pigmies, and Polyphemes, by many a

name,

Centaurs and Satyrs, and such shapes as haunt Wet clefts, and lumps neither alive nor dead, Dog-headed, bosom-eyed, and birdfooted.

XIII

Which when the lady knew, she took her spindle

may kindle

The clouds and waves and mountains with; and she

green sea,

And Ocean with the brine on his gray As many star-beams, ere their lamps locks,

could dwindle

And quaint Priapus with his company, All came, much wondering how the enwombed rocks Could have brought forth so beautiful A shadow for the splendour of her love. a birth;

wove

Her love subdued their wonder and their

mirth.

XII

For she was beautiful-her beauty made The bright world dim, and everything beside

In the belated moon, wound skilfully; And with these threads a subtle veil she

XI

The herdsmen and the mountain maidens

Were stored with magic treasuressounds of air,

came,

And the rude kings of pastoral Gara- Which had the power all spirits of com

mant

Their spirits shook within them, as a flame

XIV

The deep recesses of her odorous dwelling

pelling,

Folded in cells of crystal silence there; Such as we hear in youth, and think the

feeling

Will never die—yet ere we are aware, The feeling and the sound are fled and

Whose heart adores the shrine which holiest is,

Even Love's-and others white, green, gray, and black,

And of all shapes-and each was at her beck.

Of gold and blood-till men should live

and move

Harmonious as the sacred stars above;

XVI

And odours in a kind of aviary

Of ever-blooming Eden-trees she kept, Clipt in a floating net, a love-sick Fairy Had woven from dew-beams while the moon yet slept;

Time, earth, and fire-the ocean and the wind,

As bats at the wired window of a dairy, | And all their shapes—and man's imperial They beat their vans; and each was

will;

And other scrolls whose writings did unbind

sleep,

And change eternal death into a night
Of glorious dreams-or if eyes needs
must weep,
Could make their tears all wonder and
delight,

She in her crystal vials did closely
keep:

If men could drink of those clear vials, 'tis said

The living were not envied of the dead.

XIX

XVIII

Her cave was stored with scrolls of strange device,

The works of some Saturnian Arch

And how all things that seem untameable,

Not to be checked and not to be confined,

an adept, When loosed and missioned, making wings of winds,

The inmost lore of Love-let the profane To stir sweet thoughts or sad, in destined Tremble to ask what secrets they con

minds.

tain.

XVII

XX

And liquors clear and sweet, whose And wondrous works of substances unhealthful might

known,

Could medicine the sick soul to happy

To which the enchantment of her father's power

Had changed those ragged blocks of savage stone,

Were heaped in the recesses of her bower;

Carved lamps and chalices, and vials which shone

Too lightly lost, redeeming native vice; And which might quench the Earthconsuming rage

Obey the spells of wisdom's wizard skill;

In their own golden beams- each like a flower,

Out of whose depth a fire-fly shakes his

light
Under a cypress in a starless night.

XXI

At first she lived alone in this wild home, And her own thoughts were each a minister, Which taught the expiations at whose Clothing themselves, or with the ocean

image,

price

Men from the Gods might win that happy age

foam,

Or with the wind, or with the speed of fire,

To work whatever purposes might come
Into her mind; such power her mighty
Sire

Had girt them with, whether to fly or Shall be my paths henceforth, and so— farewell!"

run,

Through all the regions which he shines upon.

XXII

The Ocean-nymphs and Hamadryades, Oreads and Naiads, with long weedy locks,

Offered to do her bidding through the

seas,

Under the earth, and in the hollow rocks, And far beneath the matted roots of trees,

And in the gnarlèd heart of stubborn
oaks,

So they might live for ever in the light
Of her sweet presence-each a satellite.

Their latest leaf upon the mountains wide;

The boundless ocean like a drop of

dew

must

Be scattered, like a cloud of summer dust.

XXIV

"And ye with them will perish, one by

one;

If I must sigh to think that this shall be,

If I must weep when the surviving Sun
Shall smile on your decay-oh, ask

XXV

She spoke and wept :-the dark and azure well

not me

To love you till your little race is run;
I cannot die as ye must-over me
Your leaves shall glance-the streams
in which ye dwell

Sparkled beneath the shower of her bright tears,

XXIII

All day the wizard lady sate aloof, Spelling out scrolls of dread antiquity, "This may not be," the wizard maid Under the cavern's fountain-lighted replied;

roof;

"The fountains where the Naiades bedew

Or broidering the pictured poesy Of some high tale upon her growing woof,

Their shining hair, at length are drained and dried;

The solid oaks forget their strength, and strew

Which the sweet splendour of her smiles could dye In hues outshining Heaven--and ever she Added some grace to the wrought poesy.

And every little circlet where they fell Flung to the cavern-roof inconstant spheres

And intertangled lines of light :-a knell

Of sobbing voices came upon her ears From those departing Forms, o'er the

XXVII

Will be consumed-the stubborn centre While on her hearth lay blazing many

a piece

Of sandal wood, rare gums, and cinnamon;

Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is

serene

Of the white streams and of the forest green.

XXVI

Each flame of it is as a precious stone Dissolved in ever-moving light, and

this

Belongs to each and all who gaze upon. The Witch beheld it not, for in her hand

She held a woof that dimmed the burning brand.

XXVIII

This lady never slept, but lay in trance

All night within the fountain

as in

And gave it to this daughter: from a

sleep.

car

Its emerald crags glowed in her beauty's Changed to the fairest and the lightest glance;

boat

Through the green splendour of the water Which ever upon mortal stream did deep

float.

She saw the constellations reel and dance
Like fire-flies-and withal did ever

keep

The tenour of her contemplations calm, With open eyes, closed feet and folded palm.

XXIX

And when the whirlwinds and the clouds descended

From the white pinnacles of that cold Stole a strange seed, and wrapt it up in hill,

mould,

And sowed it in his mother's star, and
kept

Watering it all the summer with sweet
dew,
And with his wings fanning it as it grew.

She past at dewfall to a space extended,
Where in a lawn of flowering asphodel
Amida wood of pines and cedars blended,

There yawned an inextinguishable well
Of crimson fire-full even to the brim,
And overflowing all the margin trim.

XXXII

And others say, that, when but three hours old,

The first-born Love out of his cradle leapt,

And clove dun Chaos with his wings of gold,

And like an horticultural adept,

wrought

For Venus, as the chariot of her star;
But it was found too feeble to be fraught
With all the ardours in that sphere
which are,
And so she sold it, and Apollo bought

XXXI

XXXIV

She had a Boat, which some say Vulcan This boat she moored upon her fount,

and lit

A living spirit within all its frame, Breathing the soul of swiftness into it. Couched on the fountain like a panther tame,

One of the twain at Evan's feet that sit