65 Came, as through bubbling honey, for Love's sake, And thus; while Hermes on his pinions0 lay, wings Like a stoop'd falcon4 ere he takes his prey.
'Fair Hermes, crown'd with feathers, fluttering light, I had a splendid dream of thee last night:
70 I saw thee sitting, on a throne of gold, Among the Gods, upon Olympus old, The only sad one; for thou didst not hear The soft, lute-finger'd Muses chaunting clear, Nor even Apollo when he sang alone,
75 Deaf to his throbbing throat's long, long melodious moan. I dreamt I saw thee, robed in purple flakes, Break amorous through the clouds, as morning breaks, And, swiftly as a bright Phoebean dart,5 Strike for the Cretan isle; and here thou art!
so Too gentle Hermes, hast thou found the maid?' Whereat the star of Lethe6 not delay'd His rosy eloquence, and thus inquired: 'Thou smooth-lipp'd serpent, surely high inspired! Thou beauteous wreath, with melancholy eyes,
85 Possess whatever bliss thou canst devise, Telling me only where my nymph is fled,? Where she doth breathe!' 'Bright planet, thou hast said,' Return'd the snake, 'but seal with oaths, fair God!' 'I swear,' said Hermes, 'by my serpent rod,
90 And by thine eyes, and by thy starry crown!' Light flew his earnest words, among the blossoms blown. Then thus again the brilliance feminine: 'Too frail of heart! for this lost nymph of thine, Free as the air, invisibly, she strays 95 About these thornless wilds; her pleasant days She tastes unseen; unseen her nimble feet Leave traces in the grass and flowers sweet;
9. Rather dark. 2. 'Pearls' had become almost a synonym for 1. Ariadne's jeweled wedding crown, or tiara teeth in Elizabethan love poems. ('tiar'), was given to her by the god Bacchus, who 3. Proserpine had been carried off to Hades by took her as his wife after she was abandoned by Pluto from the field of Enna, in Sicily. her faithless mortal lover Theseus. The crown, 4. Stoop is the term for the plunge of a falcon on transformed into a constellation of stars in the sky, his prey. is represented in Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne, 5. A ray of Phoebus Apollo, god of the sun. which Keats had seen when the painting was 6. Hermes, when he appeared like a star on the exhibited in London in 1816. Keats's memories of banks of Lethe, in the darkness of Hades. (One of this painting may also inform his reference to Bac-Hermes' offices was to guide the souls of the dead chus's chariot and leopards in 'Ode to a Nightin-to the lower regions.) gale,' line 32.
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LAMIA / 913
From weary tendrils, and bow'd branches green, She plucks the fruit unseen, she bathes unseen: IOO And by my power is her beauty veil'd To keep it unaffronted, unassail'd By the love-glances of unlovely eyes, Of Satyrs, Fauns, and blear'd Silenus'7 sighs. Pale grew her immortality, for woe 105 Of all these lovers, and she grieved so I took compassion on her, bade her steep Her hair in weird' syrops, that would keep magical Her loveliness invisible, yet free To wander as she loves, in liberty, no Thou shalt behold her, Hermes, thou alone, If thou wilt, as thou swearest, grant my boon!' Then, once again, the charmed God began An oath, and through the serpent's ears it ran Warm, tremulous, devout, psalterian.' us Ravish'd, she lifted her Circean head, Blush'd a live damask,9 and swift- lisping said, 'I was a woman, let me have once more A woman's shape, and charming as before. I love a youth of Corinth?O the bliss! 120 Give me my woman's form, and place me where he is. Stoop, Hermes, let me breathe upon thy brow, And thou shalt see thy sweet nymph even now.' The God on half-shut feathers sank serene, She breath'd upon his eyes, and swift was seen 125 Of both the guarded nymph near-smiling on the green. It was no dream; or say a dream it was, Real are the dreams of Gods, and smoothly pass Their pleasures in a long immortal dream. One warm, flush'd moment, hovering, it might seem 130 Dash'd by the wood-nymph's beauty, so he burn'd; Then, lighting on the printless verdure, turn'd To the swoon'd serpent, and with languid arm, Delicate, put to proof the lythe Caducean charm.1 So done, upon the nymph his eyes he bent 135 Full of adoring tears and blandishment, And towards her stept: she, like a moon in wane, Faded before him, cower'd, nor could restrain Her fearful sobs, self-folding like a flower That faints into itself at evening hour: 140 But the God fostering her chilled hand, She felt the warmth, her eyelids open'd bland,0 softly And, like new flowers at morning song of bees, Bloom'd, and gave up her honey to the lees.? dregs Into the green-recessed woods they flew; 145 Nor grew they pale, as mortal lovers do.
7. Satyr, a tutor of Bacchus, usually represented pink rose). 'Circean': like that of Circe, the as a fat, jolly drunkard. enchantress in the Odyssey. 8. Either 'like a psalm' or 'like the sound of the I. I.e., put to the test the magic of the flexible psaltery' (an ancient stringed instrument). Caduceus (the name given to Hermes' wand). 9. The color of a damask rose (large and fragrant
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91 4 / JOHN KEATS
Left to herself, the serpent now began To change; her elfin blood in madness ran, Her mouth foam'd, and the grass, therewith besprent,0 sprinkled Wither'd at dew so sweet and virulent;
150 Her eyes in torture fix'd, and anguish drear, Hot, glaz'd, and wide, with lid-lashes all sear, Flash'd phosphor and sharp sparks, without one cooling tear. The colours all inflam'd throughout her train, She writh'd about, convuls'd with scarlet pain:
155 A deep volcanian yellow took the place Of all her milder-mooned body's grace;2 And, as the lava ravishes the mead, Spoilt all her silver mail, and golden brede;3 Made gloom of all her frecklings, streaks and bars,
160 Eclips'd her crescents, and lick'd up her stars: So that, in moments few, she was undrest Of all her sapphires, greens, and amethyst,
And rubious-argent:0 of all these bereft, silvery red Nothing but pain and ugliness were left.
165 Still shone her crown; that vanish'd, also she Melted and disappear'd as suddenly; And in the air, her new voice luting soft, Cried, 'Lycius! gentle Lycius!'?Borne aloft With the bright mists about the mountains hoar? white
170 These words dissolv'd: Crete's forests heard no more.
Whither fled Lamia, now a lady bright, A full-born beauty new and exquisite? She fled into that valley they pass o'er Who go to Corinth from Cenchreas' shore;4
175 And rested at the foot of those wild hills, The rugged founts of the Peaeran rills, And of that other ridge whose barren back Stretches, with all its mist and cloudy rack, South-westward to Cleone. There she stood
180 About a young bird's flutter from a wood, Fair, on a sloping green of mossy tread, By a clear pool, wherein she passioned5 To see herself escap'd from so sore ills, While her robes flaunted with the daffodils.
