Page:Prometheus Unbound - Shelley.djvu/95

SCENE V. Alas! it could not.

O Spirit! pause, and tell whence is the light Which fills the cloud? the sun is yet unrisen.

The sun will rise not until noon. Apollo Is held in heaven by wonder; and the light Which fills this vapour, as the aerial hue Of fountain-gazing roses fills the water, Flows from thy mighty sister.

Yes, I feel—

What is it with thee, sister? Thou art pale.

How thou art changed! I dare not look on thee; I feel but see thee not. I scarce endure The radiance of thy beauty. Some good change Is working in the elements, which suffer Thy presence thus unveiled. The Nereids tell That on the day when the clear hyaline Was cloven at thy uprise, and thou didst stand Within a veined shell, which floated on Over the calm floor of the crystal sea, Among the Egean isles, and by the shores Which bear thy name,—love, like the atmosphere Of the sun's fire filling the living world, Burst from thee, and illumined earth and heaven And the deep ocean and the sunless caves