Classic Poem

XXI.

And dreams whispered to him, the tongues of sweet flowers,
Striking the chimes of the uncounted hours;
And, as though he were sinless, the wood-haunting creatures
Bent o'er the sleeper with love in their features.

XXII.

Sleeping or waking, his vision was one, —
That the knots of the world might by him be undone,
That the Natures below and the Spirits above
Might with man be confused in one Eden of love.

XXIII.

Beautiful dreamer! how far hadst thou strayed
From the love at thy doors by the pensive earth laid,
And the household chains of our true love rent,
Which were forged for the soul's enfranchisement!

XXIV.

The day drifted out, like the ebb of the ocean,
From the havens of earth with a quiet motion;
And a cool flapping breeze grew out of the air,
Which the mallow-leaves fanned to the sleeper there.

XXV.

Prince Amadis rose from the flowery brake,
While, imaged serenely down in the lake,
The roseate sky, with gold bars freaked,
By a flight of wild swans was duskily streaked.

XXVI.

In a stiff-bending line through the rich sunset
They wavered like cloud-spots of glossy jet,
And with rude piping they marshalled their rear
In a phalanx above the tranquil mere.

XXVII.

There for one moment their huge wings they shake,
Then in wide spiral circuits drop down to the lake;
The dark water gurgles, thus suddenly cloven,
In wakes of white bubbles interwoven.

XXVIII.

Are there deep instincts that lurk below
In those dipping breasts of driven snow?
Or why do they steer their conscious way
To the Prince in the mallow-curtained bay?

XXIX.

A pale-feathered cygnet was with them, and he
Swam centre of all the company,
And round him they anchored in that calm pool,
A vision solemn and beautiful.

XXX.

He wore on his head a black diadem,
Looped to a clasp of orange gem;
His plumage gleamed in the dusk star-bright,
Of purple but faintly muffled with white.