University of Virginia Library

SORCERY.

I.

You're a Princess of the water:
I'm a Genius of the air.
We have both been metamorphosed,
But our spirits still are fair.
For a deed, untold, unwritten,
That was done an age ago,
I have lost my wings, and wander
In the wilderness below.
For a wizard's wicked pleasure,
In a palace by the sea,
You were changed to a white panther,
Till the time for meeting me.
No white lamb are you, my panther,
And no shepherd swain am I!
Did you hear the wild horn blowing,
When I heard the wild beast cry?
You have lain, with lynx and lion,
In the jungle and the fen.
I have roam'd the wild with robbers,
Pariahs, outlaws, ruin'd men.
The black elephants of Delhi
Are the wisest of their kind,
And the libbards of Sumatra
Have a hundred eyes behind:
But they guess'd not, they divined not,
They believed me of the earth,
When I moved among them, mourning
For the region of my birth,
Till I found you in the moonlight.
Then, at once, I knew it all!
You were coil'd in sullen slumber,
But you started at my call.
To my lips your name came leaping
When you open'd your wild eyes.
At my feet you fawn'd, you knew me
In despite of all disguise.
Sure I am why in your slumber
You were moaning! 'Twas for me,
And a dream of harpers harping
From a palace by the sea.
Thro' the wilderness together
We must wander everywhere,
Till we find the magic berry
That shall make us what we were.
Then your crown shall you recover,
And my wings shall I regain,
And we two shall then reenter
Our inherited domain.
'Tis a fruit of bitter savour,
By few pilgrims sought or found:
And the palm whence we must pluck it
Grows on far enchanted ground.
Bitter is it, yet benignant,
Since of power to cleanse and cure;
Like the godhood of the Ganges
Purifying things impure.
By its virtue, if we find it,
Shall our forms again be fair:
Yours, with beauty of the water,
Mine, with beauty of the air.
All the ways are wild before us,
And the night is in the skies,
And the dæmons of the desert
Are against us. Yet arise!