Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/25



A firmament reflected in a sea; An element filling the space between; An unknown—but no more: we humbly screen With uplift hands our foreheads, lowly bending, And giving out a shout most heaven-rending, Conjure thee to receive our humble Pæan, Upon thy Mount Lycean!"


 * Even while they brought the burden to a close,

A shout from the whole multitude arose, That lingered in the air like dying rolls Of abrupt thunder, when Ionian shoals Of dolphins bob their noses through the brine, Meantime, on shady levels, mossy fine, Young companies nimbly began dancing To the swift treble pipe, and humming string Ay, those fair living forms swam heavenly To tunes forgotten—out of memory: Fair creatures! whose young children's children bred Thermopylæ its heroes—not yet dead, But in old marbles ever beautiful. High genitors, unconscious did they cull Time's sweet first-fruits—they danced to weariness, And then in quiet circles did they press The hillock turf, and caught the latter end Of some strange history, potent to send A young mind from its bodily tenement. Or they might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent On either side; pitying the sad death Of Hyacinthus, when the cruel breath Of Zephyr slew him,—Zephyr penitent, Who now, ere Phoebus mounts the firmament,