Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/70

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This shadowy queen athwart, and faints away In another gloomy arch.
 * Wherefore delay,

Young traveller, in such a mournful place? Art thou wayworn, or canst not further trace The diamond path? And does it indeed end Abrupt in middle air? Yet earthward bend Thy forehead, and to Jupiter cloud-borne Call ardently! He was indeed wayworn; Abrupt, in middle air, his way was lost; To cloud-borne Jove he bowed, and there crost Towards him a large eagle, 'twixt whose wings, Without one impious word, himself he flings, Committed to the darkness and the gloom: Down, down, uncertain to what pleasant doom, Swift as a fathoming plummet down he fell Through unknown things; till exhaled asphodel, And rose, with spicy fannings interbreathed, Came swelling forth' where little caves were wreathed So thick with leaves and mosses, that they seem'd Large honeycombs of green, and freshly teem'd With airs delicious. In the greenest nook The eagle landed him, and farewell took.
 * It was a jasmine bower, all bestrown

With golden moss. His every sense had grown Ethereal for pleasure; 'bove his head Flew a delight half-graspable; his tread Was Hesperean; to his capable ears Silence was music from the holy spheres; A dewy luxury was in his eyes;