Though they call'd- and perchance but to ask, had I seen Their loves, or to tell the vile wrongs that had been: But I stay'd not to hear, lest the story should hold Some hell-form of words, some enchantment once told, Might translate me in flesh to a brute; and I dreaded To gaze on their charms, lest my faith should be wedded With some pity, and love in that pity perchance To a thing not all lovely; for once at a glance Methought, where one sat, I descried a bright wonder That flow'd like a long silver rivulet under The long fenny grass, with so lovely a breast, Could it be a snake-tail made the charm of the rest? So I roam'd in that circle of horrors, and Fear Walk'd with me, by hills, and in valleys, and near Cluster'd trees for their gloom not to shelter from heat But lest a brute-shadow should grow at my feet; Could see, like invisible flames in the sun;) But grew to one monster that seized on the light, Vile shapes without shape, and foul bats of the West, Many-handed, that blent in one phantom of fight And wrestling of arms to the flight at the close, When the dust of the earth startled upward in rings,. And flew on the whirlwind that follow'd their wings. Thus they fled not forgotten but often to grow Like fears in my eyes, when I walk'd to and fro In the shadows, and felt from some beings unseen I knew not, nor whether the love I had won Was of heaven or hell - till one day in the sun, In its very noon-blaze, I could fancy a thing - Those fond earnest eyes that were ever uplifted Towards me, and wink'd as the water-weed drifted Between; but the fish knew that presence, and plied Their long curvy tails, and swift darted aside. There I gazed for lost time, and forgot all the things That once had been wonders the fishes with wings, And the glimmer of magnified eyes that look'd up From the glooms of the bottom like pearls in a cup, And the huge endless serpent of silvery gleam, Slow winding along like a tide in the stream. Held me dear in the pearl of her eye and I brought - My wish to that fancy; and often I dash'd My limbs in the water, and suddenly splash'd The cool drops around me, yet clung to the brink, - That now, even now,-may-be, - clasp'd in a dream, That form which I gave to some jilt of the stream, And gaz'd with fond eyes that her tears tried to smother On a mock of those eyes that I gave to another! Then I rose from the stream, but the eyes Still full of the tempter, kept gazing behind of my mind, On her crystalline face, while I painfully leapt To the bank, and shook off the curst waters, and wept With my brow in the reeds; and the reeds to my ear Bow'd, bent by no wind, and in whispers of fear, Growing small with large secrets, foretold me of one but oh to fly from her, and shun That loved me, Her love like a pest-though her love was as true To mine as her stream to the heavenly blue; For why should I love her with love that would bring All misfortune, like Hate, on so joyous a thing? Because of her rival, even Her whose witch-face I had slighted, and therefore was doom'd in that place His shrill-screaming woe through a woodpecker's beak. Then they ceased -- I had heard as the voice of my star That told me the truth of my fortunes thus far I had read of my sorrow, and lay in the hush Of deep meditation, when lo! a light crush |