The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme The witch of Shiloh, the last of the Wampanoags, the gentle earl, the enchanted voyage |
 |
| 1. |
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
| 4. |
| 5. |
| 6. |
| 7. |
| 8. |
| 9. |
| 10. |
| 11. |
| 12. |
| 13. |
| 14. |
| 15. |
| 16. |
| 17. |
| 18. |
| 19. |
| 20. |
| 21. |
| 22. | XXII |
| 23. |
| 24. |
| 25. |
| 26. |
| 27. |
| 28. |
| 29. |
| 30. |
| 31. |
| 32. |
| 33. |
| 34. |
| 35. |
| 36. |
| 37. |
| 38. |
| 39. |
| 40. |
| 41. |
| 42. |
| 43. |
| 44. |
| 45. |
| 2. |
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
| 4. |
| 5. |
| 6. |
| 7. |
| 8. |
| 9. |
| 10. |
| 11. |
| 12. |
| 13. |
| 14. |
| 15. |
| 16. |
| 17. |
| 18. |
| 19. |
| 20. |
| 21. |
| 22. |
| 23. |
| 24. |
| 25. |
| 26. |
| 27. |
| 28. |
| 29. |
| 30. |
| 31. |
| 32. |
| 33. |
| 34. |
| 35. |
| 36. |
| 37. |
| 38. |
| 39. |
| 40. |
| 41. |
| 42. |
| 43. |
| 44. |
| 45. |
| 46. |
| 47. |
| 48. |
| 49. |
| 50. |
| 51. |
| 52. |
| 53. |
| 54. |
| 55. |
| 3. |
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
| 4. |
| 5. |
| 6. |
| 7. |
| 8. |
| 9. |
| 10. |
| 11. |
| 12. |
| 13. |
| 14. |
| 15. |
| 16. |
| 17. |
| 18. |
| 19. |
| 20. |
| 21. |
| 22. |
| 23. |
| 24. |
| 25. |
| 26. |
| 27. |
| 28. |
| 29. |
| 30. |
| 31. |
| 4. |
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
| 4. |
| 5. |
| 6. |
| 7. |
| 8. |
| 9. |
| 10. |
| 11. |
| 12. |
| 13. |
| 14. |
| 15. |
| 16. |
| 17. |
| 18. |
| 19. |
| 20. |
| 21. |
| 22. |
| 23. |
| 24. |
| 25. |
| 26. |
| 27. |
| 28. |
| 29. |
| 30. |
| 31. |
| 32. |
| 33. |
| 34. |
| 35. |
| 36. |
| 37. |
| 38. |
| 39. |
| 40. |
| 41. |
| 42. |
| 43. |
 | The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme |  |
XXII
Thus came the fairies oftentime,
As visible to mortal gaze
As phosphor-sheen of tropic clime,
Or waves of borealis rays.
And those who sentried from above
Affirmed that they were sweet to see
As any shape that painters love,
Or poets dream, or hermits flee;
While others, watching from below,
Half blinded by telluric air,
(Or viewing clearly; who can know?)
Spied nothing holy, nothing fair.
As visible to mortal gaze
As phosphor-sheen of tropic clime,
Or waves of borealis rays.
And those who sentried from above
Affirmed that they were sweet to see
As any shape that painters love,
Or poets dream, or hermits flee;
While others, watching from below,
Half blinded by telluric air,
(Or viewing clearly; who can know?)
Spied nothing holy, nothing fair.
They said the radiances of night
Endured an evil second birth
And shed their garniture of light
Whenever they approached the earth;
That each renounced his pearly guise
For ugliness as black as soot
And looked the villain Sire of lies
From horned head to cloven foot.
And like enow our fallen star
Has potency to soil and mar
The sheen of whatsoever plume
Adventures through its sinful brume;
For well we know that long ago
Gods made the Syrian welkin glow,
Who lost anon their hallowed fame
To find Avernian name and shame.
26
And shed their garniture of light
Whenever they approached the earth;
That each renounced his pearly guise
For ugliness as black as soot
And looked the villain Sire of lies
From horned head to cloven foot.
And like enow our fallen star
Has potency to soil and mar
The sheen of whatsoever plume
Adventures through its sinful brume;
For well we know that long ago
Gods made the Syrian welkin glow,
Who lost anon their hallowed fame
To find Avernian name and shame.
| The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme | |