31. 
In silence which doth follow talk that causes 2605
The baffled heart to speak with sighs and tears,
When wildering passion swalloweth up the pauses
Of inexpressive speech:—­the youthful years
Which we together passed, their hopes and fears,
The blood itself which ran within our frames, 2610
That likeness of the features which endears
The thoughts expressed by them, our very names,
And all the winged hours which speechless memory claims,

32. 
Had found a voice—­and ere that voice did pass,
The night grew damp and dim, and, through a rent 2615
Of the ruin where we sate, from the morass
A wandering Meteor by some wild wind sent,
Hung high in the green dome, to which it lent
A faint and pallid lustre; while the song
Of blasts, in which its blue hair quivering bent, 2620
Strewed strangest sounds the moving leaves among;
A wondrous light, the sound as of a spirit’s tongue.

33. 
The Meteor showed the leaves on which we sate,
And Cythna’s glowing arms, and the thick ties
Of her soft hair, which bent with gathered weight 2625
My neck near hers; her dark and deepening eyes,
Which, as twin phantoms of one star that lies
O’er a dim well, move, though the star reposes,
Swam in our mute and liquid ecstasies,
Her marble brow, and eager lips, like roses, 2630
With their own fragrance pale, which Spring but half uncloses.

34. 
The Meteor to its far morass returned: 
The beating of our veins one interval
Made still; and then I felt the blood that burned
Within her frame, mingle with mine, and fall 2635
Around my heart like fire; and over all
A mist was spread, the sickness of a deep
And speechless swoon of joy, as might befall
Two disunited spirits when they leap
In union from this earth’s obscure and fading sleep. 2640

35. 
Was it one moment that confounded thus
All thought, all sense, all feeling, into one
Unutterable power, which shielded us
Even from our own cold looks, when we had gone
Into a wide and wild oblivion 2645
Of tumult and of tenderness? or now
Had ages, such as make the moon and sun,
The seasons, and mankind their changes know,
Left fear and time unfelt by us alone below?

36. 
I know not.  What are kisses whose fire clasps 2650
The failing heart in languishment, or limb
Twined within limb? or the quick dying gasps
Of the life meeting, when the faint eyes swim
Through tears of a wide mist boundless and dim,
In one caress?  What is the strong control 2655
Which leads the heart that dizzy steep to climb,