A boy came up the valley driving the grey flocks which tumbled before him in the darkness.  He lifted his young face for the shepherd to kiss.  It was alight with ecstasy.  Tithonius looked at him with wonder.  A light golden and silvery rayed all about the him so that his delicate ethereal beauty seemed set in a star which followed his dancing footsteps.

“How bright your eyes!” the old man said, faltering with sudden awe.  “Why do your white limbs shine with moonfire light?”

“Oh, father,” said the boy Apollo, “I am glad, for everything is living tonight.  The evening is all a voice and many voices.  While the flocks were browsing night gathered about me:  I saw within it and it was living everywhere; and all together, the wind with dim-blown tresses, odour, incense and secret-falling dew, mingled in one warm breath.  They whispered to me and called me ’Child of the Stars,’ ‘Dew Heart,’ and ‘Soul of Fire.’  Oh, father, as I came up the valley the voices followed me with song; everything murmured love; even the daffodils, nodding in the olive gloom, grew golden at my feet, and a flower within my heart knew of the still sweet secret of the flowers.  Listen, listen!”

There were voices in the night, voices as of star-rays descending.

“Now the roof-tree of the midnight spreading
Buds in citron, green, and blue: 
From afar its mystic odors shedding,
        Child, on you.”

Then other sweet speakers from beneath the earth, and from the distant waters and air followed in benediction, and a last voice like a murmur from universal Nature: 

“Now the buried stars beneath the mountains
And the vales their life renew,
Jetting rainbow blooms from tiny fountains,
        Child, for you.

“As within our quiet waters passing
Sun and moon and stars we view,
So the loveliness of life is glassing,
        Child, in you.

“In the diamond air the sun-star glowing
Up its feathered radiance threw;
All the jewel glory there was flowing,
        Child, for you.

“And the fire divine in all things burning
Yearns for home and rest anew,
From its wanderings far again returning,
        Child, to you.”

“Oh, voices, voices,” cried the child, “what you say I know not, but I ray back love for love.  Father, what is it they tell me?  They embosom me in light and I am far away even though I hold your hand.”

“The gods are about us.  Heaven mingles with the earth,” said Tithonius trembling.  “Let us go to Diotima.  She has grown wise brooding for many a year where the great caves lead to the underworld.  She sees the bright ones as they pass by where she sits with shut eyes, her drowsy lips murmuring as nature’s self.”