So fearlessly my gaze repelled his own
I charmed this wary dragon of the North;
The eyes that erst had sparkled goldenly
With a malicious and infatuous brightness,
Grew lost and dreaming in a vacant splendor;
The rainbow lustre of his lengthening folds
Faded to harmless green, till, prone, he lay,
A floating dream of dread, upon the deep;
Then, with the noiseless current drifting on,
I passed your subtle guardian swiftly by;
While only one faint sparkle, green and gold,
Broke from his sluggish sides as I swept past.

"The grandeur of your floating towers of ice
Stole on my sight; the sea rolled rough; the air
Was sharp and clear; and yet this delicate robe
Was all sufficient to resist its power.
Soon, upon every side, I saw tall bergs.
A child of fragrant airs and sunny skies,
Enervate with the South's soft luxuries,
These icebergs burst upon me like a sense
Newly received, revealing God anew.
While in the distance, calmly floating on
Through the broad sunlight, then I loved to dream
That they were palaces upreared by gnomes,
With glittering towers and silver pinnacles,--
That in them were expanded halls of light--
Vast chambers--with such gorgeous, fretted roofs
And shining floors, as wearied human sight;
That fountains filled them with a slumberous sound;