The Wind in the Clearing; And Other Poems (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HYLAS. Beneath the waters of the Mysian spring, The sacred spring whose guardians are we, My sisters and myself sat dreamily. Through the clear water far above our heads We saw the floating water-grasses dark Against the cloudless sky, and shadows stretched In the long afternoon, across the pool, From tall reeds dozing by the sedgy marge. Silent we sat, and watched the sacred fish, Swift gleams of amber in the sunlit pool, And with deft fingers, nimbly twining, wove Fillets of green from lissom water weed. Mid-afternoon had come?when low and clear Along the slender channel which the spring HYLAS 19 Sends timidly unto the unquiet deep, We heard strange voices on the distant beach; And grating of stout keels upon the sand, And sound of sailors wading through the surf, And shouts and singing in the Argive tongue. Then for a season all was still again Till, while we marvelled, plashing through the sedge Came eager footsteps, and a shadow fell Across the pool, and we beheld a face Stooped to the surface of the spring to drink, Bright curling hair that swam upon the pool And framed a face that Artemis had loved, Blue eyes, and all the features of a god. And god we deemed him, never having seen The short-lived mortal children of the gods. E'en now I know not how it came, but ere His lips had more than stirred the pool they met My lips, and all of us together flung Our arms about him, dragging him below 20 HYLAS To the soft couches of the sacred spring. Quiet at last he lay, and on his brow We set the wreaths that all day we had spun, And with caresses strove to waken him, Though but in vain; so still he lay we drew In terror back, not knowing what had come, Yet fearing we had done a grievous wrong. Now night drew near...