LIX.

Meanwhile she sits unconscious of her hap,
Nursing Death’s marble effigy, which there
With heavy head lies pillow’d in her lap,
And elbows all unhinged;—­his sleeking hair
Creeps o’er her knees, and settles where his hand
Leans with lax fingers crook’d against the sand;

LX.

And there lies spread in many an oozy trail,
Like glossy weeds hung from a chalky base,
That shows no whiter than his brow is pale;
So soon the wintry death had bleach’d his face
Into cold marble,—­with blue chilly shades,
Showing wherein the freezy blood pervades.

LXI.

And o’er his steadfast cheek a furrow’d pain
Hath set, and stiffened like a storm in ice,
Showing by drooping lines the deadly strain
Of mortal anguish;—­yet you might gaze twice
Ere Death it seem’d, and not his cousin, Sleep,
That through those creviced lids did underpeep.

LXII.

But all that tender bloom about his eyes,
Is Death’s own violets, which his utmost rite
It is to scatter when the red rose dies;
For blue is chilly, and akin to white: 
Also he leaves some tinges on his lips,
Which he hath kiss’d with such cold frosty nips.

LXIII.

“Surely,” quoth she, “he sleeps, the senseless thing,
Oppress’d and faint with toiling in the stream!”
Therefore she will not mar his rest, but sing
So low, her tune shall mingle with his dream;
Meanwhile, her lily fingers task to twine
His uncrispt locks uncurling in the brine.

LXIV.

“O lovely boy!”—­thus she attuned her voice,—­
“Welcome, thrice welcome, to a sea-maid’s home,
My love-mate thou shalt be, and true heart’s choice;
How have I long’d such a twin-self should come,—­
A lonely thing, till this sweet chance befell,
My heart kept sighing like a hollow shell.”

LXV.

“Here thou shalt live, beneath this secret dome,
An ocean-bow’r, defended by the shade
Of quiet waters, a cool emerald gloom
To lap thee all about.  Nay, be not fray’d,
Those are but shady fishes that sail by
Like antic clouds across my liquid sky!”

LXVI.

“Look how the sunbeam burns upon their scales,
And shows rich glimpses of their Tyrian skins;
They flash small lightnings from their vigorous tails,
And winking stars are kindled at their fins;
These shall divert thee in thy weariest mood,
And seek thy hand for gamesomeness and food.”

LXVII.