 | Silenus |  |
From that deep river-bed dream-borne she passed
Straightway again to happy infancy,
When danced the butterflies to laughing flowers;
When merry music in tumultuous froth
The maidens milked from kine at evenfall;
When cheery reapers sheared the standing corn,
And danced at twilight in the jocund hour
When sunshine waned into the harvest moon
Lighting the chase, the capture, and the kiss!
Straightway again to happy infancy,
When danced the butterflies to laughing flowers;
When merry music in tumultuous froth
The maidens milked from kine at evenfall;
When cheery reapers sheared the standing corn,
And danced at twilight in the jocund hour
When sunshine waned into the harvest moon
Lighting the chase, the capture, and the kiss!
Then shone that day of glory when her fate
Surrendered to Silenus on the hills!
Surrendered to Silenus on the hills!
That day when tempted by the forest gloom
She rambled where huge over-clambered trees
Immeshed in trailers showered bright blossoms down
In odorous stars at every passing breeze.
Where twisting freshets sparkled from the rock,
And birds atwitter by the shallow pools
Curtseyed and sipped, or bathed their fluttering wings.
Where brooding splendour lay athwart the grass
Her feet must traverse ere she could ascend
The blessed pathway winding through the cliff
Toward regions trodden by Immortals' feet!
She rambled where huge over-clambered trees
Immeshed in trailers showered bright blossoms down
In odorous stars at every passing breeze.
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And birds atwitter by the shallow pools
Curtseyed and sipped, or bathed their fluttering wings.
Where brooding splendour lay athwart the grass
Her feet must traverse ere she could ascend
The blessed pathway winding through the cliff
Toward regions trodden by Immortals' feet!
O what a far-off world in one long stretch
Of lustrous mist and azure mountain-range
Floating on foam of oceanic light!
Of lustrous mist and azure mountain-range
Floating on foam of oceanic light!
Heedless of distance, onward eagerly
She drank new joy with every quickened breath,
And every breath winged onward her desire
Beyond the beauty seen; transcending all
She hitherto had known.
She drank new joy with every quickened breath,
And every breath winged onward her desire
Beyond the beauty seen; transcending all
She hitherto had known.
But hark! Alarmed,
Her sense awoke to harsh reality;
Hearing hard by a roaring, as of clouds
Bursting in horror. Lo, a raging bull,
Stupendous, tearing the scorned earth to dust,
Lowering his horns, made at the nymph direct;
When, conscious was she of a shadowy hand
Casting her swiftly on a heap of bines
That sinking bounded with her as in sport;
Of some great mighty Shape hurling a spear
Slantwise against the brute, that checked, then turned,
And charged again: and thereupon the Shape,
Lifting a splintered fragment of the rock,
Struck his curled brow and crushed the monster's life;
Her sense awoke to harsh reality;
Hearing hard by a roaring, as of clouds
Bursting in horror. Lo, a raging bull,
Stupendous, tearing the scorned earth to dust,
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When, conscious was she of a shadowy hand
Casting her swiftly on a heap of bines
That sinking bounded with her as in sport;
Of some great mighty Shape hurling a spear
Slantwise against the brute, that checked, then turned,
And charged again: and thereupon the Shape,
Lifting a splintered fragment of the rock,
Struck his curled brow and crushed the monster's life;
And dragging the dark carcase to a cliff
He thrust it down among the crags below.
Then calmly smiling on her thus he spoke,
He thrust it down among the crags below.
Then calmly smiling on her thus he spoke,
“How came a nymph so young in these rough wilds
With no protection rambling here alone?
With no protection rambling here alone?
“Syrinx am I; I dwell in lower lands:
The forest wonders opening as I came
Lured me from space to space to ramble here.
But whence art thou who saved me, slaying death
With snatched-up fragment of the splintered rock?”
The forest wonders opening as I came
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But whence art thou who saved me, slaying death
With snatched-up fragment of the splintered rock?”
| Silenus | |