Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/460

418 CXVIII.

Here didst thou dwell, in this enchanted cover

Egeria! thy all heavenly bosom beating

For the far footsteps of thy mortal lover;

The purple Midnight veiled that mystic meeting

With her most starry canopy —and seating

Thyself by thine adorer, what befel?

This cave was surely shaped out for the greeting

Of an enamoured Goddess, and the cell

Haunted by holy Love—the earliest Oracle!

CXIX.

And didst thou not, thy breast to his replying,

Blend a celestial with a human heart;

And Love, which dies as it was born, in sighing,

Share with immortal transports? could thine art

Make them indeed immortal, and impart

The purity of Heaven to earthly joys,

Expel the venom and not blunt the dart—

The dull satiety which all destroys—

And root from out the soul the deadly weed which cloys?