Voicelessly the forest Virgin
Vanished! but one look she gave -

Keen as Niobean arrow
Thro' the maiden's heart it drave.

Thus toward that throning bosom
Where all earth is warmed,--each spot

Nourished with autumnal blessings -
Icy chill was Daphne caught.

Icy chill! but swift revulsion
All her gentler self renewed,

Even as icy Winter quickens
With bud-opening warmth imbued.

Even as a torpid brooklet,
That to the night-gleaming moon

Flashed in turn the frozen glances,
Melts upon the breast of noon.

But no more--O never, never,
Turns she to that bosom bright,

Swiftly all her senses counsel,
All her nerves are strung to flight.

O'er the brows of radiant Pindus
Rolls a shadow dark and cold,

And a sound of lamentation
Issues from its mournful fold.

Voice of the far-sighted Muses!
Cry of keen foreboding song!

Every cleft of startled Tempe
Tingles with it sharp and long.

Over bourn and bosk and dingle,
Over rivers, over rills,

Runs the sad subservient Echo
Toward the dim blue distant hills!

And another and another!
'Tis a cry more wild than all;

And the hills with muffled voices
Answer 'Daphne!' to the call.

And another and another!
'Tis a cry so wildly sweet,

That her charmed heart turns rebel
To the instinct of her feet;

And she pauses for an instant;
But his arms have scarcely slid

Round her waist in cestian girdles,
And his low voluptuous lid

Lifted pleading, and the honey
Of his mouth for hers athirst,

Ruby glistening, raised for moisture -
Like a bud that waits to burst

In the sweet espousing showers -
And his tongue has scarce begun

With its inarticulate burthen,
And the clouds scarce show the sun

As it pierces thro' a crevice
Of the mass that closed it o'er,

When again the horror flashes -
And she turns to flight once more!

And again o'er radiant Pindus
Rolls the shadow dark and cold,

And the sound of lamentation
Issues from its sable fold!

And again the light winds chide her
As she darts from his embrace -

And again the far-voiced echoes
Speak their tidings of the chase.

Loudly now as swiftly, swiftly,
O'er the glimmering sands she speeds;

Wildly now as in the furzes
From the piercing spikes she bleeds.

Deeply and with direful anguish,
As above each crimson drop

Passion checks the god Apollo,
And love bids him weep and stop. -

He above each drop of crimson
Shadowing--like the laurel leaf

That above himself will shadow -
Sheds a fadeless look of grief.

Then with love's remorseful discord,
With its own desire at war,

Sighing turns, while dimly fleeting
Daphne flies the chase afar.

But all nature is against her!
Pan, with all his sylvan troop,

Thro' the vista'd woodland valleys
Blocks her course with cry and whoop!

In the twilights of the thickets
Trees bend down their gnarled boughs,

Wild green leaves and low curved branches
Hold her hair and beat her brows.

Many a brake of brushwood covert,
Where cold darkness slumbers mute,

Slips a shrub to thwart her passage,
Slides a hand to clutch her foot.

Glens and glades of lushest verdure
Toil her in their tawny mesh,

Wilder-woofed ways and alleys
Lock her struggling limbs in leash.

Feathery grasses, flowery mosses,
Knot themselves to make her trip;

Sprays and stubborn sprigs outstretching
Put a bridle on her lip;

Many a winding lane betrays her,
Many a sudden bosky shoot,

And her knee makes many a stumble
O'er some hidden damp old root,

Whose quaint face peers green and dusky
'Mongst the matted growth of plants,

While she rises wild and weltering,
Speeding on with many pants.

Tangles of the wild red strawberry
Spread their freckled trammels frail;

In the pathway creeping brambles
Catch her in their thorny trail.

All the widely sweeping greensward
Shifts and swims from knoll to knoll;

Grey rough-fingered oak and elm wood
Push her by from bole to bole.

Groves of lemon, groves of citron,
Tall high-foliaged plane and palm,

Bloomy myrtle, light-blue olive,
Wave her back with gusts of balm.

Languid jasmine, scrambling briony,
Walls of close-festooning braid,

Fling themselves about her, mingling
With her wafted looks, waylaid.

Twisting bindweed, honey'd woodbine,
Cling to her, while, red and blue,

On her rounded form ripe berries
Dash and die in gory dew.

Running ivies dark and lingering
Round her light limbs drag and twine;

Round her waist with languorous tendrils
Reels and wreathes the juicy vine;

Reining in the flying creature
With its arms about her mouth;

Bursting all its mellowing bunches
To seduce her husky drouth;

Crowning her with amorous clusters;
Pouring down her sloping back

Fresh-born wines in glittering rillets,
Following her in crimson track.

Buried, drenched in dewy foliage,
Thus she glimmers from the dawn,

Watched by every forest creature,
Fleet-foot Oread, frolic Faun.

Silver-sandalled Arethusa
Not more swiftly fled the sands,

Fled the plains and fled the sunlights,
Fled the murmuring ocean strands.

O, that now the earth would open!
O, that now the shades would hide!

O, that now the gods would shelter!
Caverns lead and seas divide!

Not more faint soft-lowing Io
Panted in those starry eyes,

When the sleeplessmidnight meadows
Piteously implored the skies!

Still her breathlessflight she urges
By the sanctuary stream,

And the god with golden swiftness
Follows like an eastern beam.

Her the close bewildering greenery
Darkens with its duskiest green, -

Him each little leaflet welcomes,
Flushing with an orient sheen.

Thus he nears, and now all Tempe
Rings with his melodious cry,

Avenues and blue expanses
Beam in his large lustrous eye!

All the branches start to music!
As if from a secret spring

Thousands of sweet bills are bubbling
In the nest and on the wing.

Gleams and shines the glassy river
And rich valleys every one;

But of all the throbbing beauty
Brightest! singled by the sun!

Ivy round her glimmering ancle,
Vine about her glowing brow,

Never sure was bride so beauteous,
Daphne, chosen nymph, as thou!

Thus he nears! and now she feels him
Breathing hot on every limb;

And he hears her own quick pantings -
Ah! that they might be for him.

O, that like the flower he tramples,
Bending from his golden tread,

Full of fair celestial ardours,
She would bow her bridal head.

O, that like the flower she presses,
Nodding from her lily touch,

Light as in the harmless breezes,
She would know the god for such!

See! the golden arms are round her -
To the air she grasps and clings!

See! his glowing arms have wound her -
To the sky she shrieks and springs!

See! the flushing chace of Tempe
Trembles with Olympian air -

See! green sprigs and buds are shooting
From those white raised arms of prayer!

In the earth her feet are rooting! -

• warmth [wɔ:mθ] n.温暖；热情；激动 (初中英语单词)
• frozen [´frəuzn] freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• instinct [´instiŋkt] n.本能；直觉；天资 (初中英语单词)
• moisture [´mɔistʃə] n.潮湿；温度；水份 (初中英语单词)
• scarce [skeəs, skers] a.缺乏的；稀有的 (初中英语单词)
• horror [´hɔrə] n.恐怖；战栗 (初中英语单词)
• flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
• embrace [im´breis] vt.&n.拥抱；采纳；信奉 (初中英语单词)
• swiftly [´swiftli] ad.迅速地，敏捷地 (初中英语单词)
• clutch [klʌtʃ] v.抓住 n.爪子；控制 (初中英语单词)
• hidden [´hid(ə)n] hide 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中英语单词)
• radiant [´reidiənt] a.发光的 n.光源(体) (高中英语单词)
• tidings [´taidiŋz] n.消息，音信 (高中英语单词)
• crimson [´krimzən] a.&n.深(紫)红(的) (高中英语单词)
• laurel [´lɔrəl] n.月桂树(叶)；桂冠 (高中英语单词)
• woodland [´wudlənd] n.树林，林地 (高中英语单词)
• stubborn [´stʌbən] a.顽固的；坚持的 (高中英语单词)
• bridle [´braidl] n.(马)笼头；束缚 (高中英语单词)
• quaint [kweint] a.离奇的；奇妙的 (高中英语单词)
• sweeping [´swi:piŋ] a.掠过的 n.扫除；清除 (高中英语单词)
• frolic [´frɔlik] n.&v.嬉戏 a.嬉戏的 (高中英语单词)
• breathless [´breθlis] a.屏息的 (高中英语单词)
• orient [´ɔ:riənt] n.东方 a.东方的 (高中英语单词)
• celestial [si´lestiəl] a.天空的，天的 (高中英语单词)
• harmless [´hɑ:mləs] a.无害的，无恶意的 (高中英语单词)
• mournful [´mɔ:nful] a.令人沮丧的 (英语四级单词)
• thwart [θwɔ:t] vt.阻挠 a.横(断的) (英语四级单词)
• flowery [´flauəri] a.多花的 (英语四级单词)
• freckled [´frekld] a.有雀斑的，有斑点的 (英语四级单词)
• pathway [´pɑ:θwei] n.小路 (英语四级单词)
• starry [´stɑ:ri] a.星光照耀的，闪亮的 (英语四级单词)
• sanctuary [´sæŋktʃuəri] n.圣殿；寺院；避难所 (英语四级单词)
• leaflet [´li:flit] n.小叶；散页印刷品 (英语四级单词)
• bridal [´braidl] a.&n.婚礼(的) (英语四级单词)
• daphne [´dæfni] n.瑞香 (英语六级单词)
• piercing [´piəsiŋ] a.刺(贯)穿的；尖刻的 (英语六级单词)
• thorny [´θɔ:ni] a.多刺的，棘手的 (英语六级单词)
• myrtle [´mə:tl] n.桃金娘科 (英语六级单词)
• sleepless [´sli:pləs] a.失眠的；寂静的 (英语六级单词)
• glassy [´glɑ:si] a.光滑的；无神的 (英语六级单词)