Canto II.]
Orion.
21
But chief of all, in accents nobly sad,
She told of kindness by Poseidon done,
His ocean sire, when swan-necked Leto bearing
Twins of bright destiny and heirs of heaven—
Herself and Phoibos—cruelly was driven
Through the bleak ways of earth, and found no rest,
Pursued by serpent jealousy, for Zeus
Had loved fair Leto; how Orion's sire
A floating isle that sometimes 'neath the waves
Drifted unseen, sometimes shewed watery rocks,
Smote with his trident, and majestical
Delos arose—stood fast—and gave a home
To fainting Leto,—and a place of birth
For deities—the Sun, and his loved Orb.
The mysteries, worship, and the sacrifice
Of her Ephesian Temple, she displayed
Before his wondering thought, and oft he knelt
In solitude, when of its hundred columns,
Each reared by kingly hands, wakeful he dreamed,
And felt his Goddess love too high removed.
The ocean realm below, and all its caves
And bristling vegetation, plant and flower,
And forests in their dense petrific shade
Where the tides moan for sleep which never comes;
She told of kindness by Poseidon done,
His ocean sire, when swan-necked Leto bearing
Twins of bright destiny and heirs of heaven—
Herself and Phoibos—cruelly was driven
Through the bleak ways of earth, and found no rest,
Pursued by serpent jealousy, for Zeus
Had loved fair Leto; how Orion's sire
A floating isle that sometimes 'neath the waves
Drifted unseen, sometimes shewed watery rocks,
Smote with his trident, and majestical
Delos arose—stood fast—and gave a home
To fainting Leto,—and a place of birth
For deities—the Sun, and his loved Orb.
The mysteries, worship, and the sacrifice
Of her Ephesian Temple, she displayed
Before his wondering thought, and oft he knelt
In solitude, when of its hundred columns,
Each reared by kingly hands, wakeful he dreamed,
And felt his Goddess love too high removed.
The ocean realm below, and all its caves
And bristling vegetation, plant and flower,
And forests in their dense petrific shade
Where the tides moan for sleep which never comes;
