Explore "In Mythic Seas" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ 'Neath saffron stars and satin skies, dark-blue, / Between dim sylvan isles, a happy two. / We sailed, and from the siren-haunted shore, / All mystic in its mist, the soft gale bore / The Siren's song, while on the ghostly steeps / Strange foliage grew, deeps folding upon deeps, / That hung and beamed with blossom and with bud, / Thick-powdered, pallid, or like urns of blood / Dripping, and blowing from wide mouths of blooms / On our bare brows cool gales of sweet perfumes. / While from the yellow stars that splashed the skies / O'er our light shallop dropped soft mysteries / Of calm and sleep, until the yellower moon / Rose full of fire above a dark lagoon; / And as she rose the nightingales on sprays / Of heavy, shadowy roses burst in praise / Of her wild loveliness, with boisterous pain / Wailing far off around a ruined fane. / And 'round our lazy keel that dipped to swing / The spirits of the foam came whispering; / And from dank Neptune's coral-columned caves / Heard the Oceanids rise thro' the waves; / Saw their smooth limbs cold-glimmering in the spray, / Tumultuous bosoms panting with their play; / Their oozy tresses, tossed unto the breeze, / Flash sea-green brightness o'er the tumbled seas.
/ 'Mid columned isles, glance vaguely thro' the trees, / We watched the Satyrs chase the Dryades; / Heard Pan's fierce trebles and the Triton's horn / Sound from the rock-lashed foam when rose the Morn / With chilly fingers dewing all the skies, / That blushed for love and closed their starry eyes. / The Naiad saw sweet smiling, in white mist, / Half hidden in a bay of amethyst / Her polished limbs, and at her hollow ear / A shell's pink labyrinth held up to hear / Dim echoes of the Siren's haunting strains / Emprisoned in its chords of crimson veins. / And stealing wily from a grove of pines / The Oread in cincture of green vines, / One twinkling foot half buried in the red / Of a deep dimpled, crumpled poppy bed -- / Like to the star of eve, when, lapsing low, / Faint clouds that with the sunset colors glow / Slip down in scarlet o'er its crystal white, / It shining, tear-like, partly veils its light. / Her wine-red lips half-parted in surprise, / And expectation in her bright blue eyes, / While slyly from a young oak coppice peers / The wanton Faun with furry, pointed ears.