After water and water's caress,
Was the young bronze-orange leaf,

That clung to the tree as a tress,
Shooting lucid tendrils to wed

With the vine-hook tree or pole,
Like Arachne launched out on her thread.

Then the maiden her dusky stole
In the span of the black-starred zone,

Gathered up for her footing fleet.
As one that had toil of her own

She followed the lines of wheat
Tripping straight through the fields, green blades,

To the groves of olive grey,
Downy-grey, golden-tinged: and to glades

Where the pear-blossom thickens the spray
In a night, like the snow-packed storm:

Pear, apple, almond, plum:
Not wintry now: pushing, warm!

And she touched them with finger and thumb,
As the vine-hook closes: she smiled,

Recounting again and again,
Corn, wine, fruit, oil! like a child,

With the meaning known to men.
For hours in the track of the plough

And the pruning-knife she stepped,
And of how the seed works, and of how

Yields the soil, she seemed adept.
Then she murmured that name of the dearth,

The Beneficent, Hers, who bade
Our husbandmen sow for the birth

Of the grain making earth full glad.
She murmured that Other's: the dirge

Of life-light: for whose dark lap
Our locks are clipped on the verge

Of the realm where runs no sap.
She said: We have looked on both!

And her eyes had a wavering beam
Of various lights, like the froth

Of the storm-swollen ravine stream
In flame of the bolt. What links

Were these which had made him her friend?
He eyed her, as one who drinks,

And would drink to the end.
VII

Now the meadows with crocus besprent,
And the asphodel woodsides she left,

And the lake-slopes, the ravishing scent
Of narcissus, dark-sweet, for the cleft

That tutors the torrent-brook,
Delaying its forceful spleen

With many a wind and crook
Through rock to the broad ravine.

By the hyacinth-bells in the brakes,
And the shade-loved white windflower, half hid,

And the sun-loving lizards and snakes
On the cleft's barren ledges, that slid

Out of sight, smooth as waterdrops, all,
At a snap of twig or bark

In the track of the foreign foot-fall,
She climbed to the pineforest dark,

Overbrowing an emerald chine
Of the grass-billows. Thence, as a wreath,

Running poplar and cypress to pine,
The lake-banks are seen, and beneath,

Vineyard, village, groves, rivers, towers, farms,
The citadel watching the bay,

The bay with the town in its arms,
The town shining white as the spray

Of the sapphire sea-wave on the rock,
Where the rock stars the girdle of sea,

White-ringed, as the midday flock,
Clipped by heat, rings the round of the tree.

That hour of the piercing shaft
Transfixes bough-shadows, confused

In veins of fire, and she laughed,
With her quiet mouth amused

To see the whole flock, adroop,
Asleep, hug the tree-stem as one,

Imperceptibly filling the loop
Of its shade at a slant of sun.

The pipes under pent of the crag,
Where the goatherds in piping recline,

Have whimsical stops, burst and flag
Uncorrected as outstretched swine:

For the fingers are slack and unsure,
And the wind issues querulous:- thorns

And snakes!--but she listened demure,
Comparing day's music with morn's.

Of the gentle spirit that slips
From the bark of the tree she discoursed,

And of her of the wells, whose lips
Are coolness enchanting, rock-sourced.

And much of the sacred loon,
The frolic, the Goatfoot God,

For stories of indolent noon
In the pineforest's odorous nod,

She questioned, not knowing: he can
Be waspish, irascible, rude,

He is oftener friendly to man,
And ever to beasts and their brood.

For the which did she love him well,
She said, and his pipes of the reed,

His twitched lips puffing to tell
In music his tears and his need,

Against the sharp catch of his hurt.
Not as shepherds of Pan did she speak,

Nor spake as the schools, to divert,
But fondly, perceiving him weak

Before Gods, and to shepherds a fear,
A holiness, horn and heel.

All this she had learnt in her ear
From Callistes, and taught him to feel.

Yea, the solemndivinity flushed
Through the shaggy brown skin of the beast,

And the steeps where the cataract rushed,
And the wilds where the forest is priest,

Were his temple to clothe him in awe,
While she spake: 'twas a wonder: she read

The haunts of the beak and the claw
As plain as the land of bread,

But Cities and martial States,
Whither soon the youth veered his theme,

Were impervious barrier-gates
To her: and that ship, a trireme,

Nearing harbour, scarce wakened her glance,
Though he dwelt on the message it bore

Of sceptre and sword and lance
To the bee-swarms black on the shore,

Which were audible almost,
So black they were. It befel

That he called up the warrior host
Of the Song pouring hydromel

In thunder, the wide-winged Song.
And he named with his boyish pride

The heroes, the noble throng
Past Acheron now, foul tide!

With his joy of the godlike band
And the verse divine, he named

The chiefs pressing hot on the strand,
Seen of Gods, of Gods aided, and maimed.

The fleetfoot and ireful; the King;
Him, the prompter in stratagem,

Many-shifted and masterful: Sing,
O Muse! But she cried: Not of them

She breathed as if breath had failed,
And her eyes, while she bade him desist,

Held the lost-to-light ghosts grey-mailed,
As you see the grey river-mist

Hold shapes on the yonder bank.
A moment her body waned,

The light of her sprang and sank:
Then she looked at the sun, she regained

Clear feature, and she breathed deep.
She wore the wan smile he had seen,

As the flow of the river of Sleep,
On the mouth of the Shadow-Queen.

In sunlight she craved to bask,
Saying: Life! And who was she? who?

Of what issue? He dared not ask,
For that partly he knew.

VIII
A noise of the hollow ground

Turned the eye to the ear in debate:
Not the soft overflowing of sound

Of the pines, ranked, lofty, straight,
Barely swayed to some whispers remote,

Some swarming whispers above:
Not the pines with the faint airs afloat,

Hush-hushing the nested dove:
It was not the pines, or the rout

Oft heard from mid-forest in chase,
But the long muffled roar of a shout

Subterranean. Sharp grew her face.
She rose, yet not moved by affright;

'Twas rather good haste to use
Her holiday of delight

In the beams of the God of the Muse.
And the steeps of the forest she crossed,

On its dry red sheddings and cones
Up the paths by roots green-mossed,

Spotted amber, and old mossed stones.
Then out where the brook-torrent starts

To her leap, and from bend to curve
A hurrying elbow darts

For the instant-glancing swerve,
Decisive, with violent will

In the action formed, like hers,
The maiden's, ascending; and still

Ascending, the bud of the furze,
The broom, and all blue-berried shoots

Of stubborn and prickly kind,
The juniper flat on its roots,

The dwarf rhododaphne, behind
She left, and the mountain sheep

Far behind, goat, herbage and flower.
The island was hers, and the deep,

All heaven, a golden hour.
Then with wonderful voice, that rang

Through air as the swan's nigh death,
Of the glory of Light she sang,

She sang of the rapture of Breath.

• maiden [´meidn] n.少女 a.未婚的 (初中英语单词)
• barren [´bærən] a.贫瘠的；不生育的 (初中英语单词)
• thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
• sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
• knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
• learnt [lə:nt] learn 的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
• solemn [´sɔləm] a.严肃的；隆重的 (初中英语单词)
• temple [´tempəl] n.庙宇；寺院；太阳穴 (初中英语单词)
• scarce [skeəs, skers] a.缺乏的；稀有的 (初中英语单词)
• warrior [´wɔriə] n.勇士，战士 (初中英语单词)
• thunder [´θʌndə] n.雷 vi.打雷 vt.吼出 (初中英语单词)
• divine [di´vain] a.神圣的 v.预言 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
• sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
• partly [´pɑ:tli] ad.部分地；不完全地 (初中英语单词)
• holiday [´hɔlidi] n.假日，假期，节日 (初中英语单词)
• violent [´vaiələnt] a.强暴的；猛烈的 (初中英语单词)
• girdle [´gə:dl] n.腰带 vt.用带束(缠) (高中英语单词)
• frolic [´frɔlik] n.&v.嬉戏 a.嬉戏的 (高中英语单词)
• stubborn [´stʌbən] a.顽固的；坚持的 (高中英语单词)
• rapture [´ræptʃə] n.着迷；全神贯注 (高中英语单词)
• almond [´ɑ:mənd] n.杏核，杏仁；扁桃 (英语四级单词)
• ravine [rə´vi:n] n.沟壑；深谷 (英语四级单词)
• emerald [´emərəld] n.纯绿宝石；翠绿色 (英语四级单词)
• poplar [´pɔplə] n.白杨；杨木 (英语四级单词)
• cypress [´saipris] n.丝柏(枝) (英语四级单词)
• sapphire [´sæfaiə] n.蓝宝石 a.深蓝色的 (英语四级单词)
• midday [´middei] n.中午 (英语四级单词)
• fondly [´fɔndli] ad.喜爱地；愚蠢地 (英语四级单词)
• divinity [di´viniti] n.神性，神；神学 (英语四级单词)
• shaggy [´ʃægi] a.蓬乱的；多粗毛的 (英语四级单词)
• cataract [´kætərækt] n.大瀑布；白内障 (英语四级单词)
• martial [´mɑ:ʃəl] a.战争的；象军人的 (英语四级单词)
• audible [´ɔ:dibəl] a.听得见的 (英语四级单词)
• boyish [´bɔiiʃ] a.少年的；幼稚的 (英语四级单词)
• footing [´futiŋ] n.立脚点；基础；地位 (英语六级单词)
• wintry [´wintri] a.冬天的；荒凉的 (英语六级单词)
• citadel [´sitədl] n.城堡；堡垒；避难所 (英语六级单词)
• piercing [´piəsiŋ] a.刺(贯)穿的；尖刻的 (英语六级单词)
• outstretched [,aut´stretʃt] a.扩张的；伸长的 (英语六级单词)
• coolness [´ku:lnis] n.凉，凉爽；冷静 (英语六级单词)
• holiness [´həulinis] n.神圣 (英语六级单词)
• godlike [´gɔdlaik] a.神似的 (英语六级单词)