43. 
’And said:  “A Spirit loves thee, mortal maiden, 505
How wilt thou prove thy worth?” Then joy and sleep
Together fled; my soul was deeply laden,
And to the shore I went to muse and weep;
But as I moved, over my heart did creep
A joy less soft, but more profound and strong 510
Than my sweet dream; and it forbade to keep
The path of the sea-shore:  that Spirit’s tongue
Seemed whispering in my heart, and bore my steps along.

44. 
’How, to that vast and peopled city led,
Which was a field of holy warfare then, 515
I walked among the dying and the dead,
And shared in fearless deeds with evil men,
Calm as an angel in the dragon’s den—­
How I braved death for liberty and truth,
And spurned at peace, and power, and fame—­and when 520
Those hopes had lost the glory of their youth,
How sadly I returned—­might move the hearer’s ruth: 

45. 
’Warm tears throng fast! the tale may not be said—­
Know then, that when this grief had been subdued,
I was not left, like others, cold and dead; 525
The Spirit whom I loved, in solitude
Sustained his child:  the tempest-shaken wood,
The waves, the fountains, and the hush of night—­
These were his voice, and well I understood
His smile divine, when the calm sea was bright 530
With silent stars, and Heaven was breathless with delight.

46. 
’In lonely glens, amid the roar of rivers,
When the dim nights were moonless, have I known
Joys which no tongue can tell; my pale lip quivers
When thought revisits them:—­know thou alone, 535
That after many wondrous years were flown,
I was awakened by a shriek of woe;
And over me a mystic robe was thrown,
By viewless hands, and a bright Star did glow
Before my steps—­the Snake then met his mortal foe.’ 540

47. 
‘Thou fearest not then the Serpent on thy heart?’
‘Fear it!’ she said, with brief and passionate cry,
And spake no more:  that silence made me start—­
I looked, and we were sailing pleasantly,
Swift as a cloud between the sea and sky; 545
Beneath the rising moon seen far away,
Mountains of ice, like sapphire, piled on high,
Hemming the horizon round, in silence lay
On the still waters—­these we did approach alway.

48. 
And swift and swifter grew the vessel’s motion, 550
So that a dizzy trance fell on my brain—­
Wild music woke me; we had passed the ocean
Which girds the pole, Nature’s remotest reign—­
And we glode fast o’er a pellucid plain
Of waters, azure with the noontide day. 555
Ethereal mountains shone around—­a Fane
Stood in the midst, girt by green isles which lay
On the blue sunny deep, resplendent far away.