85 Picturing her form; her soft smiles shone afar, And her low voice was heard like love, and drew All living things towards this wonder new.

6.  And first the spotted cameleopard came, And then the wise and fearless elephant; 90 Then the sly serpent, in the golden flame Of his own volumes intervolved;—­all gaunt And sanguine beasts her gentle looks made tame.  They drank before her at her sacred fount; And every beast of beating heart grew bold, 95 Such gentleness and power even to behold.

7.  The brinded lioness led forth her young, That she might teach them how they should forego Their inborn thirst of death; the pard unstrung His sinews at her feet, and sought to know 100 With looks whose motions spoke without a tongue How he might be as gentle as the doe.  The magic circle of her voice and eyes All savage natures did imparadise.

8.  And old Silenus, shaking a green stick 105 Of lilies, and the wood-gods in a crew Came, blithe, as in the olive copses thick Cicadae are, drunk with the noonday dew:  And Dryope and Faunus followed quick, Teasing the God to sing them something new; 110 Till in this cave they found the lady lone, Sitting upon a seat of emerald stone.

9.  And universal Pan, ’tis said, was there, And though none saw him,—­through the adamant Of the deep mountains, through the trackless air, 115 And through those living spirits, like a want, He passed out of his everlasting lair Where the quick heart of the great world doth pant, And felt that wondrous lady all alone,—­ And she felt him, upon her emerald throne. 120

10.  And every nymph of stream and spreading tree, And every shepherdess of Ocean’s flocks, Who drives her white waves over the green sea, And Ocean with the brine on his gray locks, And quaint Priapus with his company, 125 All came, much wondering how the enwombed rocks Could have brought forth so beautiful a birth;—­ Her love subdued their wonder and their mirth.

11.  The herdsmen and the mountain maidens came, And the rude kings of pastoral Garamant—­ 130 Their spirits shook within them, as a flame Stirred by the air under a cavern gaunt:  Pigmies, and Polyphemes, by many a name, Centaurs, and Satyrs, and such shapes as haunt Wet clefts,—­and lumps neither alive nor dead, 135 Dog-headed, bosom-eyed, and bird-footed.

12.  For she was beautiful—­her beauty made The bright world dim, and everything beside Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade:  No thought of living spirit could abide, 140 Which to her looks had ever been betrayed, On any object in the world so wide, On any hope within the circling skies, But on her form,