The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Arethusa
ARETHUSA
[Published by Mrs. Shelley. Posthumous Poems, 1824, and dated by her 'Pisa, 1820.' There is a fair draft amongst the Shelley MSS. at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C. D. Locock's Examination, &c, 1903, p. 24.]
I Arethusa arose From her couch of snowsIn the Acroceraunian mountains,— From cloud and from crag, With many a jag, 5Shepherding her bright fountains. She leapt down the rocks, With her rainbow locksStreaming among the streams;— Her steps paved with green 10 The downward ravineWhich slopes to the western gleams; And gliding and springing She went, ever singing,In murmurs as soft as sleep; 15 The Earth seemed to love her, And Heaven smiled above her,As she lingered towards the deep.
II Then Alpheus bold, On his glacier cold, 20With his trident the mountains strook; And opened a chasm In the rocks—with the spasmAll Erymanthus shook. And the black south wind 25 It unsealed[1] behindThe urns of the silent snow, And earthquake and thunder Did rend in sunderThe bars of the springs below. 30 And the[2] beard and the hair Of the River-god wereSeen through the torrent's sweep, As he followed the light Of the fleet nymph's flight 35To the brink of the Dorian deep.
III 'Oh, save me! Oh, guide me! And bid the deep hide me,For he grasps me now by the hair!' The loud Ocean heard, 40 To its blue depth stirred,And divided at her prayer; And under the water The Earth's white daughterFled like a sunny beam; 45 Behind her descended Her billows, unblendedWith the brackish Dorian stream:— Like a gloomy stain On the emerald main 50Alpheus rushed behind,— As an eagle pursuing A dove to its ruinDown the streams of the cloudy wind.
IVUnder the bowers55Where the Ocean PowersSit on their pearlèd thrones;Through the coral woodsOf the weltering floods,Over heaps of unvalued stones;60Through the dim beamsWhich amid the streamsWeave a network of coloured light;And under the caves,Where the shadowy waves65Are as green as the forest's night:—Outspeeding the shark,And the sword-fish dark,Under the Ocean's[3] foam,And up through the rifts70Of the mountain cliftsThey passed to their Dorian home.
VAnd now from their fountainsIn Enna's mountains,Down one vale where the morning basks,75Like friends once partedGrown single-hearted,They ply their watery tasks.At sunrise they leapFrom their cradles steep80In the cave of the shelving hill;At noontide they flowThrough the woods belowAnd the meadows of asphodel,And at night they sleep85In the rocking deepBeneath the Ortygian shore;—Like spirits that lieIn the azure skyWhen they love but live no more.90