University of Virginia Library

So wended we with mirth and minstrelsy
Throughout the morning hours, and presently
Emerging from the pleasant wood, we rode
By many a long stretch of level plains,
Waved fields of rainbow grasses and wide moors
Bejewelled thick with white and azure bells,
And saw rich flowercups, all ablaze with gold
And purple, lie and swelter in the sun,
And others, blue as is the sky at noon
Unclouded, trail and crawl along the grass
And star the green with sudden sapphire blooms.
And then we came to where the frolic brook
Swelled into manhood and its silver thread
Was woven out into a river's stretch
Of broad, unruffled crystal. Here a boat,
Wide bowed and long, lay rocking on the stream,
Among great lazy lilies, white and red
And regal purple, lolling in the sun.

Dismounting here, we floated up the tide,
Propelled by one that stood upon the prow
And spurned the sanded bottom with his pole,
Along wide sunny lapses of the stream,
Now breasting rushes, purple as the tips
Of fair Aurora's fingers, when she parts
The veils of daybreak, now embowered in green
And blue of floating iris. Through long rifts
Of wooded cliffs we passed, where here and there
The naked rock showed white as a swan's breast,
Riven through and through by veins of virgin gold,
Or haply cleft with gaping crevices,
Wherethrough the jewelled riches of its heart
Did force themselves from out their treasury
And staunched the cloven wound with precious salve
Of living diamond. Here the water showed,
Through its clear lymph, great crystals in the bed
And nuggets of bright metal, water-worn
To strange fantastic shapes; and now and then,
As we did paddle idly with our hands,
Letting the clear stream ripple through the chinks
Of our obstructing fingers, with a sound
Of soft melodious plaining for the check,
A great gold-armoured fish, with scales of pearl
And martlets of wine-red upon his back,
Rose slowly to the surface, waving all
The pennons of his fins, and gazed at us
With fearless eyes. And there the wrinkled bed
Shelved súddenly into a deep clear pool,
Whose brink was fringed with waving water-bells;
And at the bottom lay gold-colured shells
And silver pearls embedded in brown sand,
And many a fish and harmless water-snake
Floated and crawled along the river-weeds.

But nothing harmful seemed to us to dwell
Within that fair clear water; — pike nor coil
Of deadly worm, nor on the verging banks
In field or copse, as far as eye could see,
Was any lynx or wolf or brindled beast,
To stir the lovely stillness of the land
With whisper of disquiet. As we went,
Much wondering at the goodly peace that reigned
In all and at the marvellous fair things
That glided by us, Perez took a lute
(Full featly could he turn a stately song,)
And praised the place and its serene delights.