A centaur, who a woman in embrace
Naked and swooning, bears at frenzied pace.
In mist they pass. . . The din fades . . Earth's aglow.
2. THE SYRENS.
Ocean, green ocean in its endless maze:
The milky moon above in azure skies;
From far away the gleaming waves arise
Snowy with foam, with lightning sparks ablaze.
From the black rocks ascend the syrens' lays.
They rest and view the moon with tearful eyes;
From hair and maiden-breasts the water flies,
With scales their hips are bright as rainbow-rays.
They sing; their song soars upward, wanes, grows dim,
Like to their bodies, strange, rare, full of woes,
Born in a coral-wood 'neath ocean's brim.
Suddenly, pointing past the crag, one rose:
A sail upon the sea's dull, silvery rim;
They sing. The sail flows,—straight to the rock it flows.
