Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/61

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Of love, that fairest joys give most unrest; That things of delicate and tenderest worth Are swallow'd all, and made a seared dearth, By one consuming flame: it doth immerse And suffocate true blessings in a curse. Half-happy, by comparison of bliss, Is miserable. 'Twas even so with this Dew-dropping melody, in the Carian's ear; First heaven, then hell, and then forgotten clear, Vanish'd in elemental passion.
 * And down some swart abysm he had gone,

Had not a heavenly guide benignant led To where thick myrtle branches, 'gainst his head Brushing, awaken'd: then the sounds again Went noiseless as a passing noontide rain Over a bower, where little space he stood; For as the sunset peeps into a wood, So saw he panting light, and towards it went Through winding alleys; and lo, wonderment! Upon soft verdure saw, one here, one there, Cupids a-slumbering on their pinions fair.


 * After a thousand mazes overgone,

At last, with sudden step, he came upon A chamber, myrtle-wall'd, embower'd high, Full of light, incense, tender minstrelsy, And more of beautiful and strange beside: For on a silken couch of rosy pride, In midst of all, there lay a sleeping youth Of fondest beauty; fonder, in fair sooth, Than sighs could fathom, or contentment reach: