Canto I.]
Orion.
7
Permission sought full oft to lead the chase
Among these echoes and these fleeting shades.
Thee have they seen, as now, bounding beyond
Their swiftest hounds to bear the stag away,
As thou once more hadst surely done this morn,
But for my presence. Say, then, whence thou spring'st;
Where dwell'st thou—how art called—and wherefore thus
Dar'st thou the sports of these my Wood-nymphs mar?"
Among these echoes and these fleeting shades.
Thee have they seen, as now, bounding beyond
Their swiftest hounds to bear the stag away,
As thou once more hadst surely done this morn,
But for my presence. Say, then, whence thou spring'st;
Where dwell'st thou—how art called—and wherefore thus
Dar'st thou the sports of these my Wood-nymphs mar?"
"Goddess!" the Giant answered "I am sprung
From the great Trident-bearer, who sustains
And rocks the floating earth, and from the nymph—
A huntress joying in the dreamy woods—
Euryale. Little I use to speak,
Save to my kindred giants, who in caves
Amid yon forest dwell, beyond the rocks,
Or to my Cyclop friends; nor know I what words
Best suit a Goddess' ear. I and the winds
Do better hold our colloquies, when shadows,
After long hunting, vanish from my sight
Into some field of gloom. I am called 'Orion,'—
And for the sports I have so often marred,
'T was for my own I did it, but without
A thought of whose the Nymphs, or least design
From the great Trident-bearer, who sustains
And rocks the floating earth, and from the nymph—
A huntress joying in the dreamy woods—
Euryale. Little I use to speak,
Save to my kindred giants, who in caves
Amid yon forest dwell, beyond the rocks,
Or to my Cyclop friends; nor know I what words
Best suit a Goddess' ear. I and the winds
Do better hold our colloquies, when shadows,
After long hunting, vanish from my sight
Into some field of gloom. I am called 'Orion,'—
And for the sports I have so often marred,
'T was for my own I did it, but without
A thought of whose the Nymphs, or least design
