Page:Poems - Tennyson (1843) - Volume 2 of 2.djvu/225



a vision when the night was late: A youth came riding toward a palace-gate. He rode a horse with wings, that would have flown. But that his heavy rider kept him down. And from the palace came a child of sin, And took him by the curls, and led him in. Where sat a company with heated eyes, Expecting when a fountain should arise: A sleepy light upon their brows and lips— As when the sun, a crescent of eclipse, Dreams over lake and lawn, and isles and capes— Suffused them, sitting, King, languid shapes, By heaps of gourds, and skins of wine, and piles of grapes.

Then methought I heard a mellow sound. Gathering up from all the lower ground;