Juan, and shuddering o'er his frame would creep;
230 And Haidee's sweet lips murmur'd like a brook
A wordless music, and her face so fair
Stirr'd with her dream as rose-leaves with the air;
3?
Or as the stirring of a deep clear stream
Within an Alpine hollow, when the wind
235 Walks o'er it, was she shaken by the dream,
The mystical usurper of the mind?
O'erpowering us to be whate'er may seem
Good to the soul which we no more can bind;
Strange state of being! (for 'tis still to be)
240 Senseless to feel, and with seal'd eyes to see.
31
She dream'd of being alone on the sea-shore,
Chain'd to a rock; she knew not how, but stir
5. An echo of Romeo's words to the impoverished apothecary: 'The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law' (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 5.1.72).
.
728 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
She could not from the spot, and the loud roar
Grew, and each wave rose roughly, threatening her;
And o'er her upper lip they seem'd to pour,
Until she sobb'd for breath, and soon they were
Foaming o'er her lone head, so fierce and high?
Each broke to drown her, yet she could not die.
32
Anon?she was released, and then she stray'd
O'er the sharp shingles0 with her bleeding feet, loose pebbles
And stumbled almost every step she made;
And something roll'd before her in a sheet,
Which she must still pursue howe'er afraid;
'Twas white and indistinct, nor stopp'd to meet
Her glance nor grasp, for still she gazed and grasp'd,
And ran, but it escaped her as she clasp'd. 33
The dream changed; in a cave she stood, its walls
Were hung with marble icicles; the work
Of ages on its water-fretted halls,
Where waves might wash, and seals might breed and lurk;
Her hair was dripping, and the very balls
Of her black eyes seemed turn'd to tears, and murk
The sharp rocks look'd below each drop they caught,
Which froze to marble as it fell, she thought. 34
And wet, and cold, and lifeless at her feet,
Pale as the foam that froth'd on his dead brow,
Which she essay'd in vain to clear, (how sweet
Were once her cares, how idle seem'd they now!)
Lay Juan, nor could aught renew the beat
Of his quench'd heart; and the sea dirges low
Rang in her sad ears like a mermaid's song,
