Canto II.]
Orion.
19
Aloft, and with expanding energies
Tingled, and for immortal fruit prepared.
Tingled, and for immortal fruit prepared.
She met him in her beauty. Oft when dawn
With a grave red looked through the ash-pale woods,
And quick dews singing fell, while with a pulse
As quick, Orion stood beneath the trees,
And gazed upon the uncertain scene,—his heart
Forewarned his senses with a rapturous thrill.
He turned, and from the misty green afar,
In silence did the Goddess' train appear
Rounding a thicket. Slow the crowding hounds
Tript circling onward; Nymphs with quivered backs,
And clear elastic limbs of nut-brown hue,
Or like tanned wall-fruit, ripening and compact;
And short-horned Fauns down gazing on their pipes;
And Oceanides with tresses green
Plaited in order, or by golden nets
In various device confined, each bearing
Shell lyres and pearl-mouthed trumpets of the sea;
Dryads and Oreads decked with oak-leaf crowns
And heath-bells, dancing in the fragrant air;
And Sylvans, who, half Faun, half shepherd, lead
A grassy life, with cymbals in each hand
With a grave red looked through the ash-pale woods,
And quick dews singing fell, while with a pulse
As quick, Orion stood beneath the trees,
And gazed upon the uncertain scene,—his heart
Forewarned his senses with a rapturous thrill.
He turned, and from the misty green afar,
In silence did the Goddess' train appear
Rounding a thicket. Slow the crowding hounds
Tript circling onward; Nymphs with quivered backs,
And clear elastic limbs of nut-brown hue,
Or like tanned wall-fruit, ripening and compact;
And short-horned Fauns down gazing on their pipes;
And Oceanides with tresses green
Plaited in order, or by golden nets
In various device confined, each bearing
Shell lyres and pearl-mouthed trumpets of the sea;
Dryads and Oreads decked with oak-leaf crowns
And heath-bells, dancing in the fragrant air;
And Sylvans, who, half Faun, half shepherd, lead
A grassy life, with cymbals in each hand
