Hero And Leander. - To S. T. Coleridge Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCBCCDCDEE FBFBGG G G HH IGIGJJ H K L MM H GNGOPP QPQPPP PJPJ PRPSTT G UVUVWW G JXJXWW G RGSGPP G PIPIYY G GZGZPP EA2EA2WW G GPP PWPWPP PPA2PPP WB2WB2PP G C2PC2PPP G GJGJ G D2 D2E2E2 G F2GF2GWW G PPPPGG G GPGPPP G CGCG G G2GG2GH2H2 G WI2WI2GG G P P YY G WGWGJ2J2 G PWPWGG G PWPWPP G VK2VK2YY G PGPGPP G GGGGWW G PPPPPP G PPPPPP G IPIPL2L2 G B2PB2PWW G PGPGM2M2 M2 GPGPWW M2 GGGGN2N2 M2 O2PO2PP2P2 M2 PM2PM2WW G Q2PQ2PGG G WGWGGG G GR2GR2WW G S2PS2PGG G WPWPO2O2 G PPPPPP M2 PJPJPP M2 GPPPII G WPWPGG G WGWGPP G PT2PT2PP G PGPGPP G U2GU2GGG G GGGGPP G FI2FI2GG G R2PR2PPP G GGGGGG G WGWGII G GPGPGG G S2YS2YWW G GE2GN2GG G E2PV2PGG G GGGGPP G GI2GI2WW G PGPGWW G GGGGU2U2 G GGGGGG G W2PW2PPP G GGGGPP G PWPWX2X2 G PGPGGG G GPGPPP G PGPGUU G GWGWI2I2 G WGWGV2V2 G WPWPGG G GWGWGG G S2Y2S2Y2I2I2 G GGGGPP G WZ2WZ2GG G PGPGPP G PGPGUU G PGPGI2I2 G S2WS2WWW G GGGGPP G GPGPPP S2 IS2IS2GG G GWGWGG G I2II2IPP G PPPPWW G GWGWWW G GPGPPP G S2PS2PGG G GGGGGG G GWGWPP G GPGPPP G PPPPPP G W2WW2WS2S2 G GGGGGG G GGGGPP G PPPPGG G GGGGEE G GPGPWW G WGWGS2S2 G GPGPGG G GN2GN2PP G S2GS2GPP G S2PS2PGG G WGWGPP G PGPGGG G GGGGPP G GYGYW2W2 G L2E2L2E2PP G PGPGS2S2 G GS2GS2GG G S2GS2GGG G I2WI2WS2S2 G S2ES2EII G A3PA3PPP G PGPGPP G GPGPL2L2 G PGPGWW G GGGGGG G GPGPPP G GPGPGG G L2PL2PI2I2 G GPGPPPIt is not with a hope my feeble praise | A |
Can add one moment's honor to thy own | B |
That with thy mighty name I grace these lays | A |
I seek to glorify myself alone | B |
For that some precious favor thou hast shown | B |
To my endeavor in a bygone time | C |
And by this token I would have it known | B |
Thou art my friend and friendly to my rhyme | C |
It is my dear ambition now to climb | C |
Still higher in thy thought if my bold pen | D |
May thrust on contemplations more sublime | C |
But I am thirsty for thy praise for when | D |
We gain applauses from the great in name | E |
We seem to be partakers of their fame | E |
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I | - |
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Oh Bards of old What sorrows have ye sung | F |
And tragic stories chronicled in stone | B |
Sad Philomel restored her ravish'd tongue | F |
And transform'd Niobe in dumbness shown | B |
Sweet Sappho on her love forever calls | G |
And Hero on the drown'd Leander falls | G |
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II | - |
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Was it that spectacles of sadder plights | G |
Should make our blisses relish the more high | - |
Then all fair dames and maidens and true knights | G |
Whose flourish'd fortunes prosper in Love's eye | - |
Weep here unto a tale of ancient grief | H |
Traced from the course of an old bas relief | H |
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III | - |
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There stands Abydos here is Sestos' steep | I |
Hard by the gusty margin of the sea | G |
Where sprinkling waves continually do leap | I |
And that is where those famous lovers be | G |
A builded gloom shot up into the gray | J |
As if the first tall watch tow'r of the day | J |
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IV | H |
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Lo how the lark soars upward and is gone | K |
Turning a spirit as he nears the sky | - |
His voice is heard though body there is none | L |
And rain like music scatters from on high | - |
But Love would follow with a falcon spite | M |
To pluck the minstrel from his dewy height | M |
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V | H |
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For Love hath framed a ditty of regrets | G |
Tuned to the hollow sobbings on the shore | N |
A vexing sense that with like music frets | G |
And chimes this dismal burthen o'er and o'er | O |
Saying Leander's joys are past and spent | P |
Like stars extinguish'd in the firmament | P |
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VI | - |
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For ere the golden crevices of morn | Q |
Let in those regal luxuries of light | P |
Which all the variable east adorn | Q |
And hang rich fringes on the skirts of night | P |
Leander weaning from sweet Hero's side | P |
Must leave a widow where he found a bride | P |
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VII | - |
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Hark how the billows beat upon the sand | P |
Like pawing steeds impatient of delay | J |
Meanwhile their rider ling'ring on the land | P |
Dallies with love and holds farewell at bay | J |
A too short span How tedious slow is grief | - |
But parting renders time both sad and brief | - |
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VIII | - |
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Alas he sigh'd that this first glimpsing light | P |
Which makes the wide world tenderly appear | R |
Should be the burning signal for my flight | P |
From all the world's best image which is here | S |
Whose very shadow in my fond compare | T |
Shines far more bright than Beauty's self elsewhere | T |
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IX | G |
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Their cheeks are white as blossoms of the dark | U |
Whose leaves close up and show the outward pale | V |
And those fair mirrors where their joys did spark | U |
All dim and tarnish'd with a dreary veil | V |
No more to kindle till the night's return | W |
Like stars replenish'd at Joy's golden urn | W |
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X | G |
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Ev'n thus they creep into the spectral gray | J |
That cramps the landscape in its narrow brim | X |
As when two shadows by old Lethe stray | J |
He clasping her and she entwining him | X |
Like trees wind parted that embrace anon | W |
True love so often goes before 'tis gone | W |
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XI | G |
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For what rich merchant but will pause in fear | R |
To trust his wealth to the unsafe abyss | G |
So Hero dotes upon her treasure here | S |
And sums the loss with many an anxious kiss | G |
Whilst her fond eyes grow dizzy in her head | P |
Fear aggravating fear with shows of dread | P |
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XII | G |
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She thinks how many have been sunk and drown'd | P |
And spies their snow white bones below the deep | I |
Then calls huge congregated monsters round | P |
And plants a rock wherever he would leap | I |
Anon she dwells on a fantastic dream | Y |
Which she interprets of that fatal stream | Y |
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XIII | G |
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Saying That honied fly I saw was thee | G |
Which lighted on a water lily's cup | Z |
When lo the flower enamor'd of my bee | G |
Closed on him suddenly and lock'd him up | Z |
And he was smother'd in her drenching dew | P |
Therefore this day thy drowning I shall rue | P |
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XIV | - |
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But next remembering her virgin fame | E |
She clips him in her arms and bids him go | A2 |
But seeing him break loose repents her shame | E |
And plucks him back upon her bosom's snow | A2 |
And tears unfix her iced resolve again | W |
As steadfast frosts are thaw'd by show'rs of rain | W |
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XV | - |
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O for a type of parting Love to love | - |
Is like the fond attraction of two spheres | G |
Which needs a godlike effort to remove | - |
And then sink down their sunny atmospheres | G |
In rain and darkness on each ruin'd heart | P |
Nor yet their melodies will sound apart | P |
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XVI | - |
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So brave Leander sunders from his bride | P |
The wrenching pang disparts his soul in twain | W |
Half stays with her half goes towards the tide | P |
And life must ache until they join again | W |
Now wouldst thou know the wideness of the wound | P |
Mete every step he takes upon the ground | P |
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XVII | - |
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And for the agony and bosom throe | P |
Let it be measured by the wide vast air | P |
For that is infinite and so is woe | A2 |
Since parted lovers breathe it everywhere | P |
Look how it heaves Leander's laboring chest | P |
Panting at poise upon a rocky crest | P |
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XVIII | - |
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From which he leaps into the scooping brine | W |
That shocks his bosom with a double chill | B2 |
Because all hours till the slow sun's decline | W |
That cold divorcer will be 'twixt them still | B2 |
Wherefore he likens it to Styx' foul tide | P |
Where life grows death upon the other side | P |
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XIX | G |
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Then sadly he confronts his twofold toil | C2 |
Against rude waves and an unwilling mind | P |
Wishing alas with the stout rower's toil | C2 |
That like a rower he might gaze behind | P |
And watch that lonely statue he hath left | P |
On her bleak summit weeping and bereft | P |
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XX | G |
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Yet turning oft he sees her troubled locks | G |
Pursue him still the furthest that they may | J |
Her marble arms that overstretch the rocks | G |
And her pale passion'd hands that seem to pray | J |
In dumb petition to the gods above | - |
Love prays devoutly when it prays for love | - |
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XXI | G |
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Then with deep sighs he blows away the wave | - |
That hangs superfluous tears upon his cheek | D2 |
And bans his labor like a hopeless slave | - |
That chain'd in hostile galley faint and weak | D2 |
Plies on despairing through the restless foam | E2 |
Thoughtful of his lost love and far off home | E2 |
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XXII | G |
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The drowsy mist before him chill and dank | F2 |
Like a dull lethargy o'erleans the sea | G |
When he rows on against the utter blank | F2 |
Steering as if to dim eternity | G |
Like Love's frail ghost departing with the dawn | W |
A failing shadow in the twilight drawn | W |
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XXIII | G |
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And soon is gone or nothing but a faint | P |
And failing image in the eye of thought | P |
That mocks his model with an after paint | P |
And stains an atom like the shape she sought | P |
Then with her earnest vows she hopes to fee | G |
The old and hoary majesty of sea | G |
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XXIV | G |
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O King of waves and brother of high Jove | G |
Preserve my sumless venture there afloat | P |
A woman's heart and its whole wealth of love | G |
Are all embark'd upon that little boat | P |
Nay but two loves two lives a double fate | P |
A perilous voyage for so dear a freight | P |
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XXV | G |
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If impious mariners be stain'd with crime | C |
Shake not in awful rage thy hoary locks | G |
Lay by thy storms until another time | C |
Lest my frail bark be dash'd against the rocks | G |
O rather smooth thy deeps that he may fly | - |
Like Love himself upon a seeming sky | - |
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XXVI | G |
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Let all thy herded monsters sleep beneath | G2 |
Nor gore him with crook'd tusks or wreath d horns | G |
Let no fierce sharks destroy him with their teeth | G2 |
Nor spine fish wound him with their venom'd thorns | G |
But if he faint and timely succor lack | H2 |
Let ruthful dolphins rest him on their back | H2 |
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XXVII | G |
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Let no false dimpling whirlpools suck him in | W |
Nor slimy quicksands smother his sweet breath | I2 |
Let no jagg'd corals tear his tender skin | W |
Nor mountain billows bury him in death | I2 |
And with that thought forestalling her own fears | G |
She drowned his painted image in her tears | G |
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XXVIII | G |
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By this the climbing Sun with rest repair'd | P |
Look'd through the gold embrasures of the sky | - |
And ask'd the drowsy world how she had fared | P |
The drowsy world shone brighten'd in reply | - |
And smiling off her fogs his slanting beam | Y |
Spied young Leander in the middle stream | Y |
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XXXI | G |
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His face was pallid but the hectic morn | W |
Had hung a lying crimson on his cheeks | G |
And slanderous sparkles in his eyes forlorn | W |
So death lies ambush'd in consumptive streaks | G |
But inward grief was writhing o'er its task | J2 |
As heart sick jesters weep behind the mask | J2 |
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XXX | G |
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He thought of Hero and the lost delight | P |
Her last embracings and the space between | W |
He thought of Hero and the future night | P |
Her speechless rapture and enamor'd mien | W |
When lo before him scarce two galleys' space | G |
His thoughts confronted with another face | G |
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XXXI | G |
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Her aspect's like a moon divinely fair | P |
But makes the midnight darker that it lies on | W |
'Tis so beclouded with her coal black hair | P |
That densely skirts her luminous horizon | W |
Making her doubly fair thus darkly set | P |
As marble lies advantaged upon jet | P |
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XXXII | G |
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She's all too bright too argent and too pale | V |
To be a woman but a woman's double | K2 |
Reflected on the wave so faint and frail | V |
She tops the billows like an air blown bubble | K2 |
Or dim creation of a morning dream | Y |
Fair as the wave bleached lily of the stream | Y |
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XXXIII | G |
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The very rumor strikes his seeing dead | P |
Great beauty like great fear first stuns the sense | G |
He knows not if her lips be blue or red | P |
Nor of her eyes can give true evidence | G |
Like murder's witness swooning in the court | P |
His sight falls senseless by its own report | P |
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XXXIV | G |
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Anon resuming it declares her eyes | G |
Are tint with azure like two crystal wells | G |
That drink the blue complexion of the skies | G |
Or pearls outpeeping from their silvery shells | G |
Her polish'd brow it is an ample plain | W |
To lodge vast contemplations of the main | W |
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XXXV | G |
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Her lips might corals seem but corals near | P |
Stray through her hair like blossoms on a bower | P |
And o'er the weaker red still domineer | P |
And make it pale by tribute to more power | P |
Her rounded cheeks are of still paler hue | P |
Touch'd by the bloom of water tender blue | P |
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XXXVI | G |
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Thus he beholds her rocking on the water | P |
Under the glossy umbrage of her hair | P |
Like pearly Amphitrite's fairest daughter | P |
Naiad or Nereid or Syren fair | P |
Mislodging music in her pitiless breast | P |
A nightingale within a falcon's nest | P |
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XXXVII | G |
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They say there be such maidens in the deep | I |
Charming poor mariners that all too near | P |
By mortal lullabies fall dead asleep | I |
As drowsy men are poison'd through the ear | P |
Therefore Leander's fears begin to urge | L2 |
This snowy swan is come to sing his dirge | L2 |
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XXXVIII | G |
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At which he falls into a deadly chill | B2 |
And strains his eyes upon her lips apart | P |
Fearing each breath to feel that prelude shrill | B2 |
Pierce through his marrow like a breath blown dart | P |
Shot sudden from an Indian's hollow cane | W |
With mortal venom fraught and fiery pain | W |
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XXXIX | G |
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Here then poor wretch how he begins to crowd | P |
A thousand thoughts within a pulse's space | G |
There seem'd so brief a pause of life allow'd | P |
His mind stretch'd universal to embrace | G |
The whole wide world in an extreme farewell | M2 |
A moment's musing but an age to tell | M2 |
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XL | M2 |
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For there stood Hero widow'd at a glance | G |
The foreseen sum of many a tedious fact | P |
Pale cheeks dim eyes and wither'd countenance | G |
A wasted ruin that no wasting lack'd | P |
Time's tragic consequents ere time began | W |
A world of sorrow in a tear drop's span | W |
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XLI | M2 |
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A moment's thinking is an hour in words | G |
An hour of words is little for some woes | G |
Too little breathing a long life affords | G |
For love to paint itself by perfect shows | G |
Then let his love and grief unwrong'd lie dumb | N2 |
Whilst Fear and that it fears together come | N2 |
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XLII | M2 |
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As when the crew hard by some jutty cape | O2 |
Struck pale and panick'd by the billow's roar | P |
Lay by all timely measures of escape | O2 |
And let their bark go driving on the shore | P |
So fray'd Leander drifting to his wreck | P2 |
Gazing on Scylla falls upon her neck | P2 |
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XLIII | M2 |
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For he hath all forgot the swimmer's art | P |
The rower's cunning and the pilot's skill | M2 |
Letting his arms fall down in languid part | P |
Sway'd by the waves and nothing by his will | M2 |
Till soon he jars against that glossy skin | W |
Solid like glass though seemingly as thin | W |
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XLIV | G |
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Lo how she startles at the warning shock | Q2 |
And straightway girds him to her radiant breast | P |
More like his safe smooth harbor than his rock | Q2 |
Poor wretch he is so faint and toil opprest | P |
He cannot loose him from his grappling foe | G |
Whether for love or hate she lets not go | G |
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XLV | G |
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His eyes are blinded with the sleety brine | W |
His ears are deafen'd with the wildering noise | G |
He asks the purpose of her fell design | W |
But foamy waves choke up his struggling voice | G |
Under the ponderous sea his body dips | G |
And Hero's name dies bubbling on his lips | G |
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XLVI | G |
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Look how a man is lower'd to his grave | G |
A yearning hollow in the green earth's lap | R2 |
So he is sunk into the yawning wave | G |
The plunging sea fills up the watery gap | R2 |
Anon he is all gone and nothing seen | W |
But likeness of green turf and hillocks green | W |
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XLVII | G |
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And where he swam the constant sun lies sleeping | S2 |
Over the verdant plain that makes his bed | P |
And all the noisy waves go freshly leaping | S2 |
Like gamesome boys over the churchyard dead | P |
The light in vain keeps looking for his face | G |
Now screaming sea fowl settle in his place | G |
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XLVIII | G |
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Yet weep and watch for him though all in vain | W |
Ye moaning billows seek him as ye wander | P |
Ye gazing sunbeams look for him again | W |
Ye winds grow hoarse with asking for Leander | P |
Ye did but spare him for more cruel rape | O2 |
Sea storm and ruin in a female shape | O2 |
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XLIX | G |
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She says 'tis love hath bribed her to this deed | P |
The glancing of his eyes did so bewitch her | P |
O bootless theft unprofitable meed | P |
Love's treasury is sack'd but she no richer | P |
The sparkles of his eyes are cold and dead | P |
And all his golden looks are turn'd to lead | P |
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L | M2 |
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She holds the casket but her simple hand | P |
Hath spill'd its dearest jewel by the way | J |
She hath life's empty garment at command | P |
But her own death lies covert in the prey | J |
As if a thief should steal a tainted vest | P |
Some dead man's spoil and sicken of his pest | P |
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LI | M2 |
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Now she compels him to her deeps below | G |
Hiding his face beneath her plenteous hair | P |
Which jealously she shakes all round her brow | P |
For dread of envy though no eyes are there | P |
But seals' and all brute tenants of the deep | I |
Which heedless through the wave their journeys keep | I |
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LII | G |
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Down and still downward through the dusky green | W |
She bore him murmuring with joyous haste | P |
In too rash ignorance as he had been | W |
Born to the texture of that watery waste | P |
That which she breathed and sigh'd the emerald wave | G |
How could her pleasant home become his grave | G |
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LIII | G |
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Down and still downward through the dusky green | W |
She bore her treasure with a face too nigh | G |
To mark how life was alter'd in its mien | W |
Or how the light grew torpid in his eye | G |
Or how his pearly breath unprison'd there | P |
Flew up to join the universal air | P |
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LIV | G |
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She could not miss the throbbings of his heart | P |
Whilst her own pulse so wanton'd in its joy | T2 |
She could not guess he struggled to depart | P |
And when he strove no more the hapless boy | T2 |
She read his mortal stillness for content | P |
Feeling no fear where only love was meant | P |
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LV | G |
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Soon she alights upon her ocean floor | P |
And straight unyokes her arms from her fair prize | G |
Then on his lovely face begins to pore | P |
As if to glut her soul her hungry eyes | G |
Have grown so jealous of her arms' delight | P |
It seems she hath no other sense but sight | P |
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LVI | G |
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But O sad marvel O most bitter strange | U2 |
What dismal magic makes his cheek so pale | G |
Why will he not embrace why not exchange | U2 |
Her kindly kisses wherefore not exhale | G |
Some odorous message from life's ruby gates | G |
Where she his first sweet embassy awaits | G |
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LVII | G |
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Her eyes poor watchers fix'd upon his looks | G |
Are grappled with a wonder near to grief | G |
As one who pores on undecipher'd books | G |
Strains vain surmise and dodges with belief | G |
So she keeps gazing with a mazy thought | P |
Framing a thousand doubts that end in nought | P |
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LVIII | G |
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Too stern inscription for a page so young | F |
The dark translation of his look was death | I2 |
But death was written in an alien tongue | F |
And learning was not by to give it breath | I2 |
So one deep woe sleeps buried in its seal | G |
Which Time untimely hasteth to reveal | G |
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LIX | G |
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Meanwhile she sits unconscious of her hap | R2 |
Nursing Death's marble effigy which there | P |
With heavy head lies pillow'd in her lap | R2 |
And elbows all unhinged his sleeking hair | P |
Creeps o'er her knees and settles where his hand | P |
Leans with lax fingers crook'd against the sand | P |
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LX | G |
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And there lies spread in many an oozy trail | G |
Like glossy weeds hung from a chalky base | G |
That shows no whiter than his brow is pale | G |
So soon the wintry death had bleach'd his face | G |
Into cold marble with blue chilly shades | G |
Showing wherein the freezy blood pervades | G |
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LXI | G |
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And o'er his steadfast cheek a furrow'd pain | W |
Hath set and stiffened like a storm in ice | G |
Showing by drooping lines the deadly strain | W |
Of mortal anguish yet you might gaze twice | G |
Ere Death it seem'd and not his cousin Sleep | I |
That through those creviced lids did underpeep | I |
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LXII | G |
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But all that tender bloom about his eyes | G |
Is Death's own violets which his utmost rite | P |
It is to scatter when the red rose dies | G |
For blue is chilly and akin to white | P |
Also he leaves some tinges on his lips | G |
Which he hath kiss'd with such cold frosty nips | G |
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LXIII | G |
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Surely quoth she he sleeps the senseless thing | S2 |
Oppress'd and faint with toiling in the stream | Y |
Therefore she will not mar his rest but sing | S2 |
So low her tune shall mingle with his dream | Y |
Meanwhile her lily fingers task to twine | W |
His uncrispt locks uncurling in the brine | W |
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LXIV | G |
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O lovely boy thus she attuned her voice | G |
Welcome thrice welcome to a sea maid's home | E2 |
My love mate thou shalt be and true heart's choice | G |
How have I long'd such a twin self should come | N2 |
A lonely thing till this sweet chance befell | G |
My heart kept sighing like a hollow shell | G |
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LXV | G |
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Here thou shalt live beneath this secret dome | E2 |
An ocean bow'r defended by the shade | P |
Of quiet waters a cool emerald gloom | V2 |
To lap thee all about Nay be not fray'd | P |
Those are but shady fishes that sail by | G |
Like antic clouds across my liquid sky | G |
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LXVI | G |
- | |
Look how the sunbeam burns upon their scales | G |
And shows rich glimpses of their Tyrian skins | G |
They flash small lightnings from their vigorous tails | G |
And winking stars are kindled at their fins | G |
These shall divert thee in thy weariest mood | P |
And seek thy hand for gamesomeness and food | P |
- | |
- | |
LXVII | G |
- | |
Lo those green pretty leaves with tassel bells | G |
My flow'rets those that never pine for drouth | I2 |
Myself did plant them in the dappled shells | G |
That drink the wave with such a rosy mouth | I2 |
Pearls wouldst thou have beside crystals to shine | W |
I had such treasures once now they are thine | W |
- | |
- | |
LXVIII | G |
- | |
Now lay thine ear against this golden sand | P |
And thou shalt hear the music of the sea | G |
Those hollow tunes it plays against the land | P |
Is't not a rich and wondrous melody | G |
I have lain hours and fancied in its tone | W |
I heard the languages of ages gone | W |
- | |
- | |
LXIX | G |
- | |
I too can sing when it shall please thy choice | G |
And breathe soft tunes through a melodious shell | G |
Though heretofore I have but set my voice | G |
To some long sighs grief harmonized to tell | G |
How desolate I fared but this sweet change | U2 |
Will add new notes of gladness to my range | U2 |
- | |
- | |
LXX | G |
- | |
Or bid me speak and I will tell thee tales | G |
Which I have framed out of the noise of waves | G |
Ere now I have communed with senseless gales | G |
And held vain colloquies with barren caves | G |
But I could talk to thee whole days and days | G |
Only to word my love a thousand ways | G |
- | |
- | |
LXXI | G |
- | |
But if thy lips will bless me with their speech | W2 |
Then ope sweet oracles and I'll be mute | P |
I was born ignorant for thee to teach | W2 |
Nay all love's lore to thy dear looks impute | P |
Then ope thine eyes fair teachers by whose light | P |
I saw to give away my heart aright | P |
- | |
- | |
LXXII | G |
- | |
But cold and deaf the sullen creature lies | G |
Over her knees and with concealing clay | G |
Like hoarding Avarice locks up his eyes | G |
And leaves her world impoverish'd of day | G |
Then at his cruel lips she bends to plead | P |
But there the door is closed against her need | P |
- | |
- | |
LXXIII | G |
- | |
Surely he sleeps so her false wits infer | P |
Alas poor sluggard ne'er to wake again | W |
Surely he sleeps yet without any stir | P |
That might denote a vision in his brain | W |
Or if he does not sleep he feigns too long | X2 |
Twice she hath reach'd the ending of her song | X2 |
- | |
- | |
LXXIV | G |
- | |
Therefore 'tis time she tells him to uncover | P |
Those radiant jesters and disperse her fears | G |
Whereby her April face is shaded over | P |
Like rainy clouds just ripe for showering tears | G |
Nay if he will not wake so poor she gets | G |
Herself must open those lock'd up cabinets | G |
- | |
- | |
LXXV | G |
- | |
With that she stoops above his brow and bids | G |
Her busy hands forsake his tangled hair | P |
And tenderly lift up those coffer lids | G |
That she may gaze upon the jewels there | P |
Like babes that pluck an early bud apart | P |
To know the dainty color of its heart | P |
- | |
- | |
LXXVI | G |
- | |
Now picture one soft creeping to a bed | P |
Who slowly parts the fringe hung canopies | G |
And then starts back to find the sleeper dead | P |
So she looks in on his uncover'd eyes | G |
And seeing all within so drear and dark | U |
Her own bright soul dies in her like a spark | U |
- | |
- | |
LXXVII | G |
- | |
Backward she falls like a pale prophetess | G |
Under the swoon of holy divination | W |
And what had all surpass'd her simple guess | G |
She now resolves in this dark revelation | W |
Death's very mystery oblivious death | I2 |
Long sleep deep night and an entranced breath | I2 |
- | |
- | |
LXXVIII | G |
- | |
Yet life though wounded sore not wholly slain | W |
Merely obscured and not extinguish'd lies | G |
Her breath that stood at ebb soon flows again | W |
Heaving her hollow breast with heavy sighs | G |
And light comes in and kindles up the gloom | V2 |
To light her spirit from its transient tomb | V2 |
- | |
- | |
LXXIX | G |
- | |
Then like the sun awaken'd at new dawn | W |
With pale bewilder'd face she peers about | P |
And spies blurr'd images obscurely drawn | W |
Uncertain shadows in a haze of doubt | P |
But her true grief grows shapely by degrees | G |
A perish'd creature lying on her knees | G |
- | |
- | |
LXXX | G |
- | |
And now she knows how that old Murther preys | G |
Whose quarry on her lap lies newly slain | W |
How he roams all abroad and grimly slays | G |
Like a lean tiger in Love's own domain | W |
Parting fond mates and oft in flowery lawns | G |
Bereaves mild mothers of their milky fawns | G |
- | |
- | |
LXXXI | G |
- | |
O too dear knowledge O pernicious earning | S2 |
Foul curse engraven upon beauty's page | Y2 |
Ev'n now the sorrow of that deadly learning | S2 |
Ploughs up her brow like an untimely age | Y2 |
And on her cheek stamps verdict of death's truth | I2 |
By canker blights upon the bud of youth | I2 |
- | |
- | |
LXXXII | G |
- | |
For as unwholesome winds decay the leaf | G |
So her cheeks' rose is perish'd by her sighs | G |
And withers in the sickly breath of grief | G |
Whilst unacquainted rheum bedims her eyes | G |
Tears virgin tears the first that ever leapt | P |
From those young lids now plentifully wept | P |
- | |
- | |
LXXXIII | G |
- | |
Whence being shed the liquid crystalline | W |
Drops straightway down refusing to partake | Z2 |
In gross admixture with the baser brine | W |
But shrinks and hardens into pearls opaque | Z2 |
Hereafter to be worn on arms and ears | G |
So one maid's trophy is another's tears | G |
- | |
- | |
LXXXIV | G |
- | |
O foul Arch Shadow thou old cloud of Night | P |
Thus in her frenzy she began to wail | G |
Thou blank Oblivion blotter out of light | P |
Life's ruthless murderer and dear love's bale | G |
Why hast thou left thy havoc incomplete | P |
Leaving me here and slaying the more sweet | P |
- | |
- | |
LXXXV | G |
- | |
Lo what a lovely ruin thou hast made | P |
Alas alas thou hast no eye to see | G |
And blindly slew'st him in misguided shade | P |
Would I had lent my doting sense to thee | G |
But now I turn to thee a willing mark | U |
Thine arrows miss me in the aimless dark | U |
- | |
- | |
LXXXVI | G |
- | |
O doubly cruel twice misdoing spite | P |
But I will guide thee with my helping eyes | G |
Or walk the wide world through devoid of sight | P |
Yet thou shalt know me by my many sighs | G |
Nay then thou should'st have spared my roses false Death | I2 |
And known Love's flow'r by smelling his sweet breath | I2 |
- | |
- | |
LXXXVII | G |
- | |
Or when thy furious rage was round him dealing | S2 |
Love should have grown from touching of his skin | W |
But like cold marble thou art all unfeeling | S2 |
And hast no ruddy springs of warmth within | W |
And being but a shape of freezing bone | W |
Thy touching only turn'd my love to stone | W |
- | |
- | |
LXXXVIII | G |
- | |
And here alas he lies across my knees | G |
With cheeks still colder than the stilly wave | G |
The light beneath his eyelids seems to freeze | G |
Here then since Love is dead and lacks a grave | G |
O come and dig it in my sad heart's core | P |
That wound will bring a balsam for its sore | P |
- | |
- | |
LXXXIX | G |
- | |
For art thou not a sleep where sense of ill | G |
Lies stingless like a sense benumb'd with cold | P |
Healing all hurts only with sleep's good will | G |
So shall I slumber and perchance behold | P |
My living love in dreams O happy night | P |
That lets me company his banish'd spright | P |
- | |
- | |
XC | S2 |
- | |
O poppy Death sweet poisoner of sleep | I |
Where shall I seek for thee oblivious drug | S2 |
That I may steep thee in my drink and creep | I |
Out of life's coil Look Idol how I hug | S2 |
Thy dainty image in this strict embrace | G |
And kiss this clay cold model of thy face | G |
- | |
- | |
XCI | G |
- | |
Put out put out these sun consuming lamps | G |
I do but read my sorrows by their shine | W |
O come and quench them with thy oozy damps | G |
And let my darkness intermix with thine | W |
Since love is blinded wherefore should I see | G |
Now love is death death will be love to me | G |
- | |
- | |
XCII | G |
- | |
Away away this vain complaining breath | I2 |
It does but stir the troubles that I weep | I |
Let it be hush'd and quieted sweet Death | I2 |
The wind must settle ere the wave can sleep | I |
Since love is silent I would fain be mute | P |
O death be gracious to my dying suit | P |
- | |
- | |
XCIII | G |
- | |
Thus far she pleads but pleading nought avails her | P |
For Death her sullen burthen deigns no heed | P |
Then with dumb craving arms since darkness fails her | P |
She prays to heaven's fair light as if her need | P |
Inspired her there were Gods to pity pain | W |
Or end it but she lifts her arms in vain | W |
- | |
- | |
XCIV | G |
- | |
Poor gilded Grief the subtle light by this | G |
With mazy gold creeps through her watery mine | W |
And diving downward through the green abyss | G |
Lights up her palace with an amber shine | W |
There falling on her arms the crystal skin | W |
Reveals the ruby tide that fares within | W |
- | |
- | |
XCV | G |
- | |
Look how the fulsome beam would hang a glory | G |
On her dark hair but the dark hairs repel it | P |
Look how the perjured glow suborns a story | G |
On her pale lips but lips refuse to tell it | P |
Grief will not swerve from grief however told | P |
On coral lips or character'd in gold | P |
- | |
- | |
XCVI | G |
- | |
Or else thou maid safe anchor'd on Love's neck | S2 |
Listing the hapless doom of young Leander | P |
Thou would'st not shed a tear for that old wreck | S2 |
Sitting secure where no wild surges wander | P |
Whereas the woe moves on with tragic pace | G |
And shows its sad reflection in thy face | G |
- | |
- | |
XCVII | G |
- | |
Thus having travell'd on and track'd the tale | G |
Like the due course of an old bas relief | G |
Where Tragedy pursues her progress pale | G |
Brood here awhile upon that sea maid's grief | G |
And take a deeper imprint from the frieze | G |
Of that young Fate with Death upon her knees | G |
- | |
- | |
XCVIII | G |
- | |
Then whilst the melancholy Muse withal | G |
Resumes her music in a sadder tone | W |
Meanwhile the sunbeam strikes upon the wall | G |
Conceive that lovely siren to live on | W |
Ev'n as Hope whisper'd the Promethean light | P |
Would kindle up the dead Leander's spright | P |
- | |
- | |
XCIX | G |
- | |
'Tis light she says that feeds the glittering stars | G |
And those were stars set in his heavenly brow | P |
But this salt cloud this cold sea vapor mars | G |
Their radiant breathing and obscures them now | P |
Therefore I'll lay him in the clear blue air | P |
And see how these dull orbs will kindle there | P |
- | |
- | |
C | G |
- | |
Swiftly as dolphins glide or swifter yet | P |
With dead Leander in her fond arms' fold | P |
She cleaves the meshes of that radiant net | P |
The sun hath twined above of liquid gold | P |
Nor slacks till on the margin of the land | P |
She lays his body on the glowing sand | P |
- | |
- | |
CI | G |
- | |
There like a pearly waif just past the reach | W2 |
Of foamy billows he lies cast Just then | W |
Some listless fishers straying down the beach | W2 |
Spy out this wonder Thence the curious men | W |
Low crouching creep into a thicket brake | S2 |
And watch her doings till their rude hearts ache | S2 |
- | |
- | |
CII | G |
- | |
First she begins to chafe him till she faints | G |
Then falls upon his mouth with kisses many | G |
And sometimes pauses in her own complaints | G |
To list his breathing but there is not any | G |
Then looks into his eyes where no light dwells | G |
Light makes no pictures in such muddy wells | G |
- | |
- | |
CIII | G |
- | |
The hot sun parches his discover'd eyes | G |
The hot sun beats on his discolor'd limbs | G |
The sand is oozy whereupon he lies | G |
Soiling his fairness then away she swims | G |
Meaning to gather him a daintier bed | P |
Plucking the cool fresh weeds brown green and red | P |
- | |
- | |
CIV | G |
- | |
But simple witted thief while she dives under | P |
Another robs her of her amorous theft | P |
The ambush'd fishermen creep forth to plunder | P |
And steal the unwatch'd treasure she has left | P |
Only his void impression dints the sands | G |
Leander is purloin'd by stealthy hands | G |
- | |
- | |
CV | G |
- | |
Lo how she shudders off the beaded wave | G |
Like Grief all over tears and senseless falls | G |
His void imprint seems hollow'd for her grave | G |
Then rising on her knees looks round and calls | G |
On Hero Hero having learn'd this name | E |
Of his last breath she calls him by the same | E |
- | |
- | |
CVI | G |
- | |
Then with her frantic hands she rends her hairs | G |
And casts them forth sad keepsakes to the wind | P |
As if in plucking those she plucked her cares | G |
But grief lies deeper and remains behind | P |
Like a barb'd arrow rankling in her brain | W |
Turning her very thoughts to throbs of pain | W |
- | |
- | |
CVII | G |
- | |
Anon her tangled locks are left alone | W |
And down upon the sand she meekly sits | G |
Hard by the foam as humble as a stone | W |
Like an enchanted maid beside her wits | G |
That ponders with a look serene and tragic | S2 |
Stunn'd by the mighty mystery of magic | S2 |
- | |
- | |
CVIII | G |
- | |
Or think of Ariadne's utter trance | G |
Crazed by the flight of that disloyal traitor | P |
Who left her gazing on the green expanse | G |
That swallowed up his track yet this would mate her | P |
Ev'n in the cloudy summit of her woe | G |
When o'er the far sea brim she saw him go | G |
- | |
- | |
CIX | G |
- | |
For even so she bows and bends her gaze | G |
O'er the eternal waste as if to sum | N2 |
Its waves by weary thousands all her days | G |
Dismally doom'd meanwhile the billows come | N2 |
And coldly dabble with her quiet feet | P |
Like any bleaching stones they wont to greet | P |
- | |
- | |
CX | G |
- | |
And thence into her lap have boldly sprung | S2 |
Washing her weedy tresses to and fro | G |
That round her crouching knees have darkly hung | S2 |
But she sits careless of waves' ebb and flow | G |
Like a lone beacon on a desert coast | P |
Showing where all her hope was wreck'd and lost | P |
- | |
- | |
CXI | G |
- | |
Yet whether in the sea or vaulted sky | S2 |
She knoweth not her lover's abrupt resort | P |
So like a shape of dreams he left her eye | S2 |
Winking with doubt Meanwhile the churls' report | P |
Has throng'd the beach with many a curious face | G |
That peeps upon her from its hiding place | G |
- | |
- | |
CXII | G |
- | |
And here a head and there a brow half seen | W |
Dodges behind a rock Here on his hands | G |
A mariner his crumpled cheeks doth lean | W |
Over a rugged crest Another stands | G |
Holding his harmful arrow at the head | P |
Still check'd by human caution and strange dread | P |
- | |
- | |
CXIII | G |
- | |
One stops his ears another close beholder | P |
Whispers unto the next his grave surmise | G |
This crouches down and just above his shoulder | P |
A woman's pity saddens in her eyes | G |
And prompts her to befriend that lonely grief | G |
With all sweet helps of sisterly relief | G |
- | |
- | |
CXIV | G |
- | |
And down the sunny beach she paces slowly | G |
With many doubtful pauses by the way | G |
Grief hath an influence so hush'd and holy | G |
Making her twice attempt ere she can lay | G |
Her hand upon that sea maid's shoulder white | P |
Which makes her startle up in wild affright | P |
- | |
- | |
CXV | G |
- | |
And like a seal she leaps into the wave | G |
That drowns the shrill remainder of her scream | Y |
Anon the sea fills up the watery cave | G |
And seals her exit with a foamy seam | Y |
Leaving those baffled gazers on the beach | W2 |
Turning in uncouth wonder each to each | W2 |
- | |
- | |
CXVI | G |
- | |
Some watch some call some see her head emerge | L2 |
Wherever a brown weed falls through the foam | E2 |
Some point to white eruptions of the surge | L2 |
But she is vanish'd to her shady home | E2 |
Under the deep inscrutable and there | P |
Weeps in a midnight made of her own hair | P |
- | |
- | |
CXVII | G |
- | |
Now here the sighing winds before unheard | P |
Forth from their cloudy caves begin to blow | G |
Till all the surface of the deep is stirr'd | P |
Like to the panting grief it hides below | G |
And heaven is cover'd with a stormy rack | S2 |
Soiling the waters with its inky black | S2 |
- | |
- | |
CXVIII | G |
- | |
The screaming fowl resigns her finny prey | G |
And labors shoreward with a bending wing | S2 |
Rowing against the wind her toilsome way | G |
Meanwhile the curling billows chafe and fling | S2 |
Their dewy frost still further on the stones | G |
That answer to the wind with hollow groans | G |
- | |
- | |
CXIX | G |
- | |
And here and there a fisher's far off bark | S2 |
Flies with the sun's last glimpse upon its sail | G |
Like a bright flame amid the waters dark | S2 |
Watch'd with the hope and fear of maidens pale | G |
And anxious mothers that upturn their brows | G |
Freighting the gusty wind with frequent vows | G |
- | |
- | |
CXX | G |
- | |
For that the horrid deep has no sure path | I2 |
To guide Love safe into his homely haven | W |
And lo the storm grows blacker in its wrath | I2 |
O'er the dark billow brooding like a raven | W |
That bodes of death and widow's sorrowing | S2 |
Under the dusky covert of his wing | S2 |
- | |
- | |
CXXI | G |
- | |
And so day ended But no vesper spark | S2 |
Hung forth its heavenly sign but sheets of flame | E |
Play'd round the savage features of the dark | S2 |
Making night horrible That night there came | E |
A weeping maiden to high Sestos' steep | I |
And tore her hair and gazed upon the deep | I |
- | |
- | |
CXXII | G |
- | |
And waved aloft her bright and ruddy torch | A3 |
Whose flame the boastful wind so rudely fann'd | P |
That oft it would recoil and basely scorch | A3 |
The tender covert of her sheltering hand | P |
Which yet for Love's dear sake disdain'd retire | P |
And like a glorying martyr braved the fire | P |
- | |
- | |
CXXIII | G |
- | |
For that was love's own sign and beacon guide | P |
Across the Hellespont's wide weary space | G |
Wherein he nightly struggled with the tide | P |
Look what a red it forges on her face | G |
As if she blush'd at holding sucha light | P |
Ev'n in the unseen presence of the night | P |
- | |
- | |
CXXIV | G |
- | |
Whereas her tragic cheek is truly pale | G |
And colder than the rude and ruffian air | P |
That howls into her ear a horrid tale | G |
Of storm and wreck and uttermost despair | P |
Saying Leander floats amid the surge | L2 |
And those are dismal waves that sing his dirge | L2 |
- | |
- | |
CXXV | G |
- | |
And hark a grieving voice trembling and faint | P |
Blends with the hollow sobbings of the sea | G |
Like the sad music of a siren's plaint | P |
But shriller than Leander's voice should be | G |
Unless the wintry death had changed its tone | W |
Wherefore she thinks she hears his spirit moan | W |
- | |
- | |
CXXVI | G |
- | |
For now upon each brief and breathless pause | G |
Made by the raging winds it plainly calls | G |
On Hero Hero whereupon she draws | G |
Close to the dizzy brink that ne'er appals | G |
Her brave and constant spirit to recoil | G |
However the wild billows toss and toil | G |
- | |
- | |
CXXVII | G |
- | |
Oh dost thou live under the deep deep sea | G |
I thought such love as thine could never die | P |
If thou hast gain'd an immortality | G |
From the kind pitying sea god so will I | P |
And this false cruel tide that used to sever | P |
Our hearts shall be our common home forever | P |
- | |
- | |
CXXVIII | G |
- | |
There we will sit and sport upon one billow | G |
And sing our ocean ditties all the day | P |
And lie together on the same green pillow | G |
That curls above us with its dewy spray | P |
And ever in one presence live and dwell | G |
Like two twin pearls within the selfsame shell | G |
- | |
- | |
CXXIX | G |
- | |
One moment then upon the dizzy verge | L2 |
She stands with face upturn'd against the sky | P |
A moment more upon the foamy surge | L2 |
She gazes with a calm despairing eye | P |
Feeling that awful pause of blood and breath | I2 |
Which life endures when it confronts with death | I2 |
- | |
- | |
CXXX | G |
- | |
Then from the giddy steep she madly springs | G |
Grasping her maiden robes that vainly kept | P |
Panting abroad like unavailing wings | G |
To save her from her death The sea maid wept | P |
And in a crystal cave her corse enshrined | P |
No meaner sepulchre should Hero find | P |
Thomas Hood
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