Then rising, with a sudden-ceasing sound Of wateriness, he stood on the firm ground, With jutting myrtles mixed, and verdure dank, With darkness; yet he guessed who stood behind; A breathless welcome finds, and words that die for joy. CANTO II. THUS passed the summer shadows in delight : And when the morning woke upon the sea, It saw him not, for back at home was he. Sometimes, when it blew fresh, the struggling flare The people round the country, who from far To mark the favourite maiden who slept under. With reverence kept aloof, cutting their silent way. But autumn now was over; and the crane And peevish winds ran cutting o'er the sea, The gentle girl, before he went away, Would look out sadly toward the cold-eyed day, One evening, as she sat, twining sweet bay And myrtle garlands for a holiday, And watched at intervals the dreary sky, In which the dim sun held a languid eye, She thought with such a full and quiet sweetness Of all Leander's love and his completeness, All that he was, and said, and looked, and dared, His form, his step, his noble head full-haired, And how she loved him, as a thousand might, And yet he earned her still thus night by night, That the sharp pleasure moved her like a grief, And tears came dropping with their meek relief. Meantime the sun had sunk; the hilly mark, Across the straits, mixed with the mightier dark, And night came on. All noises by degrees Were hushed, the fisher's call, the birds, the trees, All but the washing of the eternal seas. Hero looked out, and trembling augured ill, The darkness held its breath so very still. The storm began, or not be far from shore; And crying, as she stretched forth in the air, "Bless him!" she turned, and said a tearful prayer, And mounted to the tower, and shook the torch's flare. But he, Leander, almost half across, Threw his blithe locks behind him with a toss, And hailed the light victoriously, secure Of clasping his kind love, so sweet and sure; Sheer from the hills, came headlong on his path; The youth at once was thrust beneath the main And with a smile at heart, and stouter pride, Surmounted, like a god, the rearing tide. But what? The torch gone out! So long too! See, He thinks it comes! Ah, yes,-'tis she! 'tis she! Again he springs; and though the winds arise Fiercer and fiercer, swims with ardent eyes; |