lay playing with the covering of the bed
with his left hand about his knees-the right
held his belovéd tortoise-lyre tight.-

-The Goddess, his fair mother, unbeguiled
knew all that he had done, being abroad;
'Whence come you and from what adventure wild,
you cunning rogue, and where have you abode
all the long night, clothed in your impudence?
what have you done since you departed hence?
Apollo soon will pass within this gate,
and bind your tender body in a chain
inextricably tight, and fast as fate,
unless you can elude the God again,
even when in his arms-ah, runagate!

a pretty torment both for gods and men

your father made when he made you!' 'Dear mother,'

replied sly Hermes-' wherefore scold and bother?'

P. H. SHELLEY

1299

MY

MOLOCH'S SPEECH

Of wiles,

Y sentence is for open war.
more unexpert, I boast not: them let those
contrive who need, or when they need, not now.
For while they sit contriving, shall the rest,
millions that stand in arms, and longing wait
the signal to ascend, sit lingering here
heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
the prison of his tyranny who reigns
by our delay? No, let us rather choose
armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once
o'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way,
turning our tortures into horrid arms

against the torturer: when to meet the noise
of his almighty engine he shall hear

infernal thunder, and for lightning see
black fire and horror shot with equal rage
among his Angels, and his throne itself

mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire,
his own invented torments.

J. MILTON

1300

"COUR

THE LOTOS-EATERS

"

OURAGE!" he said, and pointed toward the land, "this mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.' In the afternoon they came unto a land,

in which it seeméd always afternoon.

All round the coast the languid air did swoon,
breathing like one that hath a weary dream:
full-faced above the valley stood the moon;
and like a downward smoke, the slender stream
along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem.
A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke,
slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go;
and some thro' wavering lights and shadows broke,
rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below.
They saw the gleaming river seaward flow

from the inner land: far off, three mountain-tops,
three silent pinnacles of aged snow,

stood sunset-flushed: and, dewed with showery drops, up-clomb the shadowy pine above the woven copse.

The charméd sunset lingered low adown

in the red West: thro' mountain clefts the dale
was seen far inland, and the yellow down
bordered with palm, and many a winding vale
and meadow, set with slender galingale;

a land where all things always seemed the same!
and round about the keel with faces pale,
dark faces pale against that rosy flame,
the mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came.
Branches they bore of that enchanted stem,
laden with flower and fruit, whereof they gave
to each, but whoso did receive of them,
and taste, to him the gushing of the wave
far far away did seem to mourn and rave
on alien shores; and if his fellow spake,
his voice was thin, as voices from the grave;
and deep-asleep he seemed, yet all awake,
and music in his ears his beating heart did make.

They sat them down upon the yellow sand,
between the sun and moon upon the shore;
and sweet it was to dream of Father-land,
of child, and wife, and slave; but evermore
F. S. III

34

most weary seem'd the sea, weary the oar,
weary the wandering fields of barren foam.
Then some one said, “We will return no more;"
and all at once they sang,
"Our island home
is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam.”

A. TENNYSON

1301

ON THE DEATH OF SHELLEY

HIS morn thy gallant bark

THIS

sailed on a sunny sea,

'tis noon and tempests dark
have wrecked it on the lee.
Ah woe! Ah woe!

By spirits of the deep
thou'rt cradled on the billow
to thy eternal sleep.

Thou sleep'st upon the shore
beside the knelling surge,
and sea-nymphs evermore
shall sadly chant thy dirge.
They come! they come!

The spirits of the deep,
while near thy sea-weed pillow
my lonely watch I keep.
From far across the sea

I heard a loud lament,
by echo's voice for thee

from ocean's caverns sent.
O list! O list,

the spirits of the deep,

they raise a wail of sorrow,

while I for ever weep.

M. SHELLEY

1302

THE SHEPHERD ENTANGLED IN LOVE

T was upon a

Iwhen shepherds groomes have leave to play,

I cast to go a shooting;

long wandring up and downe the land,

with bow and bolts in either hand,

for birdes in bushes tooting,

1303

at length within the yvie todde,
(there shrowded was the little god)
I heard a busie bustling;
I bent my bolt against the bush
listning if anie thing did rush,

but then heard no more rustling.
Tho, peeping close into the thicke,
might see the moving of some quicke,
whose shape appeared not;

but were it faerie, feend or snake,
my courage earnd it to awake,
and manfully thereat shotte:
with that sprang forth a naked swayne
with spotted winges like peacocks trayne,
and laughing lope to a tree;

his gylden quiver at his backe,
and silver bowe, which was but slacke,
which lightly he bent at me:

that seeing, I leveld againe,

and shotte at him with might and maine,
as thicke as it had hayled.

So long I shott, that all was spent;
tho pumie stones I hastly hent,
and threw: but nought avayled:

he was so wimble and so wight,
from bough to bough he lepped light,
and oft the pumies latched:
therewith affrayd I ranne away;
but he that earst seemd but to play,
a shaft in earnest snatched
and hit me running in the heele:
for then I little smart did feele
but soone it sore increased;

and now it ranckleth more and more,
and inwardly it festreth sore,

ne wote I how to cease it.

E. SPENSER

VAIN

ALEXIS AND DORA

AIN were the days of my youth, most vain were my dreams of the future;

they all crumble apace; nothing endures but one hour.

Yes, it endures, my bliss is enduring: I hold thee, my Dora:

hope has one image to shew; Dora, that image is thine.

Oft had I seen thee repair in thy maidenly garb to the temple,

whilst thy mother would walk solemnly close by thy side.

Early thou hastenedst ever to carry thy fruit to the market.

O how nobly thy head bore up the pitcher on high, when from the fountain thou camest! how stately thy throat and thy neck rose!

every motion thou madest, harmony guided them all. Often I watcht with uneasy alarm lest the pitcher should tumble;

but on the round striped cloth steadily onward it sailed.

Thus, my beautiful neighbour, I daily was wont to behold thee,

as one beholdeth the stars, or as one looks at the

moon.

Gladly we see them again and again; but the bosom

is quiet,

joying contentedly;-no wish to possess them is felt. Year after year rolled past me: but twenty paces asunder

stood our dwellings; and yet ne'er have I entered her door.

Now divides us the wide blank sea. False mirror of Heaven,

Ocean, thy glorious blue is but the colour of night. All were already in motion; the boy came hastily running

up to my father's house, bidding me hie to the shore. Come, they are hoisting the sail, and it flaunts with

the breezes, thus spake he;

now too the anchor mounts, tearing its fangs from the sand.

Cries of impatience resound from the shore: my feet as if fastened

cling to the ground; I exclaim, Dora, and art thou then mine?