And under the water The Earth's white daughter Fled like a sunny beam; Behind her descended Her billows, unblended With the brackish Dorian stream: Like a gloomy stain On the emerald main Alpheus rushed behind,— As an eagle pursuing A dove to its ruin Down the streams of the cloudy wind. IV. Under the bowers Where the Ocean Powers Sit on their pearlèd thrones, Through the coral woods Of the weltering floods, Over heaps of unvalued stones; Through the dim beams Which amid the streams Weave a net-work of coloured light; And under the caves, Where the shadowy waves Are as green as the forest's night : Outspeeding the shark, And the sword-fish dark, Under the ocean foam, And up through the rifts Of the mountain clifts V. And now from their fountains In Enna's mountains, Down one vale where the morning basks, Like friends once parted Grown single-hearted, They ply their watery tasks. At sunrise they leap From their cradles steep And the meadows of Asphodel; And at night they sleep In the rocking deep Beneath the Ortygian shore ; Like spirits that lie In the azure sky When they love but live no more. THE QUESTION. I. I DREAMED that, as I wandered by the way, Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, II. There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flower that never sets; Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets- III. And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray; IV. And nearer to the river's trembling edge There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prankt with white, And starry river buds among the sedge, And floating water-lilies, broad and bright, With moonlight beams of their own watery light; V. Methought that of these visionary flowers I made a nosegay, bound in such a way Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours GOOD NIGHT. 1. GOOD night? ah! no; the hour is ill Which severs those it should unite ; Let us remain together still, Then it will be good night. II. How can I call the lone night good, III. To hearts which near each other move From evening close to morning light, |