Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/81

Rh

Follow'd their languid mazes, till wellnigh He had left thinking of the mystery,— And was now wrapt in tender hoverings Over the vanish'd bliss. Ah! what is it sings His dream away? What melodies are these? They sound as through the whispering of trees, Not native in such barren vaults. Give ear!


 * "O Arethusa, peerless nymph! why fear

Such tenderness as mine? Great Dian, why, Why didst thou hear her prayer? O that I Were rippling round her dainty fairness now, Circling about her waist, and striving how To entice her to a dive! then stealing in Between her luscious lips and eyelids thin. O that her shining hair was in the sun, And I distilling from it thence to run In amorous rillets down her shrinking form! To linger on her lily shoulders, warm Between her kissing breasts, and every charm Touch raptured!—See how painfully I flow: Fair maid, be pitiful to my great woe Stay, stay thy weary course, and let me lead, A happy wooer, to the flowery mead Where all that beauty snared me."—" Cruel god, Desist! or my offended mistress' nod Will stagnate all thy fountains:—tease me not With syren words—Ah, have I really got Such power to madden thee? And is it true— Away, away, or I shall dearly rue My very thoughts: in mercy then away, Kindest Alpheus, for should I obey