the shallow road Of white and dancing waters, all besprent With sand and polished pebbles:—­mortal boat 375 In such a shallow rapid could not float.

42.  And down the earthquaking cataracts which shiver Their snow-like waters into golden air, Or under chasms unfathomable ever Sepulchre them, till in their rage they tear 380 A subterranean portal for the river, It fled—­the circling sunbows did upbear Its fall down the hoar precipice of spray, Lighting it far upon its lampless way.

43.  And when the wizard lady would ascend 385 The labyrinths of some many-winding vale, Which to the inmost mountain upward tend—­ She called ’Hermaphroditus!’—­and the pale And heavy hue which slumber could extend Over its lips and eyes, as on the gale 390 A rapid shadow from a slope of grass, Into the darkness of the stream did pass.

44.  And it unfurled its heaven-coloured pinions, With stars of fire spotting the stream below; And from above into the Sun’s dominions 395 Flinging a glory, like the golden glow In which Spring clothes her emerald-winged minions, All interwoven with fine feathery snow And moonlight splendour of intensest rime, With which frost paints the pines in winter time. 400

45.  And then it winnowed the Elysian air Which ever hung about that lady bright, With its aethereal vans—­and speeding there, Like a star up the torrent of the night, Or a swift eagle in the morning glare 405 Breasting the whirlwind with impetuous flight, The pinnace, oared by those enchanted wings, Clove the fierce streams towards their upper springs.

46.  The water flashed, like sunlight by the prow Of a noon-wandering meteor flung to Heaven; 410 The still air seemed as if its waves did flow In tempest down the mountains; loosely driven The lady’s radiant hair streamed to and fro:  Beneath, the billows having vainly striven Indignant and impetuous, roared to feel 415 The swift and steady motion of the keel.

47.  Or, when the weary moon was in the wane, Or in the noon of interlunar night, The lady-witch in visions could not chain Her spirit; but sailed forth under the light 420 Of shooting stars, and bade extend amain Its storm-outspeeding wings, the Hermaphrodite; She to the Austral waters took her way, Beyond the fabulous Thamondocana,—­

48.  Where, like a meadow which no scythe has shaven, 425 Which rain could never bend, or whirl-blast shake, With the Antarctic constellations paven, Canopus and his crew, lay the Austral lake—­ There she would build herself a windless haven Out of the clouds whose moving turrets make 430 The bastions of the storm, when through the sky The