DREAM
Follow!  Follow!

PANTHEA: 
It is mine other dream.

ASIA: 
It disappears.

PANTHEA: 
It passes now into my mind.  Methought
As we sate here, the flower-infolding buds
Burst on yon lightning-blasted almond tree, 135
When swift from the white Scythian wilderness
A wind swept forth wrinkling the Earth with frost: 
I looked, and all the blossoms were blown down;
But on each leaf was stamped, as the blue bells
Of Hyacinth tell Apollo’s written grief, 140
O, FOLLOW, FOLLOW!

ASIA: 
As you speak, your words
Fill, pause by pause, my own forgotten sleep
With shapes.  Methought among these lawns together
We wandered, underneath the young gray dawn,
And multitudes of dense white fleecy clouds 145
Were wandering in thick flocks along the mountains
Shepherded by the slow, unwilling wind;
And the white dew on the new-bladed grass,
Just piercing the dark earth, hung silently;
And there was more which I remember not:  150
But on the shadows of the morning clouds,
Athwart the purple mountain slope, was written
FOLLOW, O, FOLLOW! as they vanished by;
And on each herb, from which Heaven’s dew had fallen,
The like was stamped, as with a withering fire; 155
A wind arose among the pines; it shook
The clinging music from their boughs, and then
Low, sweet, faint sounds, like the farewell of ghosts,
Were heard:  O, FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW ME! 
And then I said, ‘Panthea, look on me.’ 160
But in the depth of those beloved eyes
Still I saw, FOLLOW, FOLLOW!

NOTE: 
143 these B; the 1820.

ECHO: 
Follow, follow!

PANTHEA: 
The crags, this clear spring morning, mock our voices
As they were spirit-tongued.

ASIA: 
It is some being
Around the crags.  What fine clear sounds!  O, list! 165

ECHOES, UNSEEN: 
Echoes we:  listen! 
We cannot stay: 
As dew-stars glisten
Then fade away—­
Child of Ocean! 170

ASIA: 
Hark!  Spirits speak.  The liquid responses
Of their aereal tongues yet sound.

PANTHEA: 
I hear.

ECHOES: 
Oh, follow, follow,
As our voice recedeth
Through the caverns hollow, 175
Where the forest spreadeth;
[MORE DISTANT.]
Oh, follow, follow! 
Through the caverns hollow,
As the song floats thou pursue,
Where the wild bee never flew, 180
Through the noontide darkness deep,
By the odour-breathing sleep
Of faint night-flowers, and the waves
At the fountain-lighted caves,
While our music, wild and sweet, 185
Mocks thy gently falling feet,
Child of Ocean!