Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/56

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With immortality, who fears to follow Where airy voices lead: so through the hollow The silent mysteries of earth, descend!"


 * He heard but the last words, nor could contend

One moment in reflection: for he fled Into the fearful deep, to hide his head From the clear moon, the trees, and coming madness.
 * 'Twas far too strange, and wonderful for sadness;

Sharpening, by degrees, his appetite To dive into the deepest. Dark, nor light, The region; nor bright, nor sombre wholly, But mingled up; a gleaming melancholy; A dusky empire and its diadems; One faint eternal eventide of gems. Ay, millions sparkled on a vein of gold, Along whose track the prince quick footsteps told, With all its lines abrupt and angular: Out-shooting sometimes, like a meteor-star, Through a vast antre; then the metal woof, Like Vulcan's rainbow, with some monstrous roof Curves hugely: now, far in the deep abyss, It seems an angry lightning, and doth hiss Fancy into belief; anon it leads Through winding passages, where sameness breeds Vexing conceptions of some sudden change; Whether to silver grots, or giant range Of sapphire columns, or fantastic bridge Athwart a flood of crystal. On a ridge Now fareth he, that o'er the vast beneath Towers like an ocean cliff, and whence he seeth