of upper air Which whirl the earth in its diurnal round, 490 She would ascend, and win the spirits there To let her join their chorus.  Mortals found That on those days the sky was calm and fair, And mystic snatches of harmonious sound Wandered upon the earth where’er she passed, 495 And happy thoughts of hope, too sweet to last.

57.  But her choice sport was, in the hours of sleep, To glide adown old Nilus, where he threads Egypt and Aethiopia, from the steep Of utmost Axume, until he spreads, 500 Like a calm flock of silver-fleeced sheep, His waters on the plain:  and crested heads Of cities and proud temples gleam amid, And many a vapour-belted pyramid.

58.  By Moeris and the Mareotid lakes, 505 Strewn with faint blooms like bridal chamber floors, Where naked boys bridling tame water-snakes, Or charioteering ghastly alligators, Had left on the sweet waters mighty wakes Of those huge forms—­within the brazen doors 510 Of the great Labyrinth slept both boy and beast, Tired with the pomp of their Osirian feast.

59.  And where within the surface of the river The shadows of the massy temples lie, And never are erased—­but tremble ever 515 Like things which every cloud can doom to die, Through lotus-paven canals, and wheresoever The works of man pierced that serenest sky With tombs, and towers, and fanes, ’twas her delight To wander in the shadow of the night. 520

60.  With motion like the spirit of that wind Whose soft step deepens slumber, her light feet Passed through the peopled haunts of humankind.  Scattering sweet visions from her presence sweet, Through fane, and palace-court, and labyrinth mined 525 With many a dark and subterranean street Under the Nile, through chambers high and deep She passed, observing mortals in their sleep.

61.  A pleasure sweet doubtless it was to see Mortals subdued in all the shapes of sleep. 530 Here lay two sister twins in infancy; There, a lone youth who in his dreams did weep; Within, two lovers linked innocently In their loose locks which over both did creep Like ivy from one stem;—­and there lay calm 535 Old age with snow-bright hair and folded palm.

62.  But other troubled forms of sleep she saw, Not to be mirrored in a holy song—­ Distortions foul of supernatural awe, And pale imaginings of visioned wrong; 540 And all the code of Custom’s lawless law Written upon the brows of old and young:  ‘This,’ said the wizard maiden, ’is the strife Which stirs the liquid surface of man’s life.’

63.  And little did the sight disturb her soul.—­ 545 We, the weak mariners of that wide lake Where’er