66 6 MAGNIFICENT HYMN TO PAN. What time thou wanderest at eventide By every wind that nods the mountain pine, 'Thou, to whom every fawn and satyr flies The squatted hare while in half sleeping fit; To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw; Bewilder'd shepherds to their path again; "O Hearkener to the loud clapping shears, That come a swooning over hollow grounds, And wither drearily on barren moors!'"-p. 114–117. 379 The enamoured youth sinks into insensibility in the midst of the solemnity, and is borne apart and revived by the care of his sister; and, opening his heavy eyes in her arms, says― "I feel this thine endearing love All through my bosom! Thou art as a dove 380 KEATS ENDYMION HIS VISIONS OF LOVE. Such morning incense from the fields of May, Alone and sad. No! I will once more raise To hear the speckled thrushes, and see feed "Hereat Peona, in their silver source "Twas a lay Shut her pure sorrow drops, with glad exclaim; He then tells her all the story of his love and madness; and gives this airy sketch of the first vision he had, or fancied he had, of his descending goddess. After some rapturous intimations of the glories of her goldburnished hair, he says Indeed, locks bright enough to make me mad! Her pearl round ears, white neck, and orbed brow; Blush-tinted cheeks, half smiles, and faintest sighs, And melts into the vision!" "And then her hovering feet! More bluely veined, more soft, more whitely sweet 'Tis blue; and overspangled with a million VENUS AND ADONIS. Of little eyes; as though thou wert to shed 381 Overpowered by this "celestial colloquy sublime," he sinks at last into slumber-and on wakening finds the scene disenchanted; and the dull shades of evening deepening over his solitude: "Then up I started - Ah! my sighs, my tears! and sigh-shrilled Adieus!" Soon after this he is led away by butterflies to the haunts of Naiads; and by them sent down into enchanted caverns, where he sees Venus and Adonis, and great flights of Cupids; and wanders over diamond terraces among beautiful fountains and temples and statues, and all sorts of fine and strange things. All this is very fantastical: But there are splendid pieces of description, and a sort of wild richness in the whole. We cull a few little morsels. This is the picture of the sleeping Adonis:— In midst of all, there lay a sleeping youth Of fondest beauty. Sideway his face repos'd On one white arm, and tenderly unclos'd, By tenderest pressure, a faint damask mouth To slumbery pout; just as the morning south Disparts a dew-lipp'd rose. Above his head, Four lily stalks did their white honours wed To make a coronal; and round him grew All tendrils green, of every bloom and hue, Together intertwin'd and trammel'd fresh: The vine of glossy sprout; the ivy mesh, Shading its Ethiop berries; and woodbine, Of velvet leaves and bugle-blooms divine. Hard by, Stood serene Cupids watching silently. One, kneeling to a lyre, touch'd the strings, Muffling to death the pathos with his wings! And, ever and anon, uprose to look At the youth's slumber; while another took 382 KEATS CYBELE ENCHANTED WATERWORKS. A willow-bough, distilling odorous dew, In through the woven roof, and fluttering-wise Rain'd violets upon his sleeping eyes."-p. 72, 73. Here is another, and more classical sketch, of Cybelewith a picture of lions that might excite the envy of Rubens, or Edwin Landseer! "Forth from a rugged arch, in the dusk below, With turrets crown'd. Four maned lions hale Uplifted drowsily, and nervy tails Cowering their tawny brushes. Silent sails This shadowy queen athwart, and faints away The following picture of the fairy waterworks, which he unconsciously sets playing in these enchanted caverns, is, it must be confessed, "high fantastical;" but we venture to extract it, for the sake of the singular brilliancy and force of the execution: "So on he hies Through caves and palaces of mottled ore, Cover'd with crystal vines: then weeping trees Spangled, and rich with liquid broideries SUBMARINE ADVENTURES, Of Flowers, Peacocks, Swans, and Naiads fair! 383 There are strange melodies too around him; and their effect on the fancy is thus poetically described: "Oh! when the airy stress Of Music's kiss impregnates the free winds, In ev'ry place where infant Orpheus slept!" In the midst of all these enchantments he has, we do not very well know how, another ravishing interview with his unknown goddess; and when she again melts away from him, he finds himself in a vast grotto, where he overhears the courtship of Alpheus and Arethusa; and as they elope together, discovers that the grotto has disappeared, and that he is at the bottom of the sea, under the transparent arches of its naked waters! The following is abundantly extravagant; but comes of no ignoble lineage -nor shames its high descent: "Far had he roam'd, With nothing save the hollow vast, that foam'd But those of Saturn's vintage; mould'ring scrolls, |