Page:Hero and Leander - Marlowe and Chapman (1821).pdf/54

xliv Myself the ship of love, I'll hail from far The torch of Hero, my directing star; But, dear one! watch, lest blasts should quench the fire, My gleaming guide of life, and darkling I expire. Know, that Leander is the name I bear; The spouse of Hero with the flower-wreath'd hair.—" Thus fix'd their night-long wedlock's wakeful hour, They part reluctant: Hero sought her tower; The youth pass'd darkling forth; but lest he stray, Noted whence high should blaze the signal ray. He swimming through th'unfathomable main, In populous Abydos rose again. Night came, and cowl'd in sable mantle, ran And shook deep slumber o'er the eyes of man, All but Leander's: he long tarrying stood Where the shores echoed to the roaring flood; And looked, impatient, till the angel sign Of his bright wedlock should, discover'd, shine. But when with wary eyes th' expectant maid The rayless gloom of gathering night survey'd, She show'd the torch on high; Leander gazed: As the torch kindled, so his passion blazed: Hastening he rush'd; but, lingering on the shore, The maddening waves with hoarse reechoing roar Burst on his ear: he shudder'd as they roll'd, Then, in high courage, thus his heart consoled: "Dreadful is love: ungentle is the sea; Mere waters these; a burning fire is he;