Page:A lover's tale (Tennyson, 1879).djvu/70

66 In mute and glad remembrance, and each heart Grew closer to the other, and the eye Was riveted and charm-bound, gazing like The Indian on a still-eyed snake, low-couch'd— A beauty which is death; when all at once That painted vessel, as with inner life, Began to heave upon that painted sea; An earthquake, my loud heart-beats, made the ground Reel under us, and all at once, soul, life And breath and motion, past and flow'd away To those unreal billows: round and round A whirlwind caught and bore us; mighty gyres Rapid and vast, of hissing spray wind-driven Far thro' the dizzy dark. Aloud she shriek'd; My heart was cloven with pain; I wound my arms About her: we whirl'd giddily; the wind Sung; but I clasped her without fear: her weight Shrank in my grasp, and over my dim eyes,