Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/246

 IMITATION OF SPENSER.


 * And her first footsteps touch'd a verdant hill:
 * Crowning its lawny crest with amber flame,
 * Silvering the untainted gushes of its rill;
 * Which, pure from mossy beds, did down distil,
 * And after parting beds of simple flowers,
 * By many streams a little lake did fill,
 * Which round its marge reflected woven bowers,

And, in its middle space, a sky that never lowers.


 * There the kingfisher saw his plumage bright,
 * Vying with fish of brilliant dye below;
 * Whose silken fins' and golden scales' light
 * Cast upward, through the waves, a ruby glow:
 * There saw the swan his neck of arched snow,
 * And oar'd himself along with majesty:
 * Sparkled his jetty eyes; his feet did show
 * Beneath the waves like Afric's ebony,

And on his back a fay reclined voluptuously.


 * Ah! could I tell the wonders of an isle
 * That in that fairest lake had placed been,
 * I could e'en Dido of her grief beguile;
 * Or rob from aged Lear his bitter teen
 * For sure so fair a place was never seen
 * Of all that ever charm'd romantic eye:
 * It seem'd an emerald in the silver sheen
 * Of the bright waters; or as when on high,

Through clouds of fleecy white, laughs the cœrulean sky.