Gebir by Walter Savage Landor
page 45 of 66 (68%)
page 45 of 66 (68%)
|
She was afraid her parents should suspect
They had caught childhood from her in a kiss; She blushed for shame, and feared--for she believed. Yet was not courage wanting in the child. No; I have often seen her with both hands Shake a dry crocodile of equal height, And listen to the shells within the scales, And fancy there was life, and yet apply The jagged jaws wide open to her ear. Past are three summers since she first beheld The ocean; all around the child await Some exclamation of amazement here: She coldly said, her long-lashed eyes abased, 'Is this the mighty ocean? is this all!' That wondrous soul Charoba once possessed, Capacious then as earth or heaven could hold, Soul discontented with capacity, Is gone, I fear, for ever. Need I say She was enchanted by the wicked spells Of Gebir, whom with lust of power inflamed The western winds have landed on our coast? I since have watched her in each lone retreat, Have heard her sigh and soften out the name, Then would she change it for Egyptian sounds More sweet, and seem to taste them on her lips, Then loathe them--Gebir, Gebir still returned. Who would repine, of reason not bereft! For soon the sunny stream of youth runs down, And not a gadfly streaks the lake beyond. Lone in the gardens, on her gathered vest |
|