CYDIPPE. 273 



miss its capture. So lovely a creature is worthy of a 

 poet's description : it has received it. 



"Now o'er the stern the fine-mesh'd net-bag fling, 

 And from the deep the little Beroe bring ; 

 Beneath the sunlit wave she swims conceal'd 

 By her own brightness ; only now reveal'd 

 To sage's eye, that gazes with delight 

 On tilings invisible to vulgar sight. 

 When first extracted from her native brine, 

 Behold a small round mass of gelatine, 

 Or frozen dew-drop, void of life and limb : 

 But round the crystal goblet let her swim 

 'Midst her own element ; and lo ! a sphere 

 Banded from pole to pole ; a diamond clear, 

 Shaped as bard's fancy shapes the small balloon 

 To bear some sylph or fay beyond the moon. 

 From all her bands see lucid fringes play, 

 That glance and sparkle in the solar ray 

 With iridescent hues. Now round and round 

 She wheels and twirls ; now mounts, then sinks profound. 

 Now see her like the belted star of Jove, 

 Spin on her axis smooth, as if she strove 

 To win applause a thing of conscious sense 

 Quivering and thrilling with delight intense. 

 Long silvery cords she treasures in her sides, 

 By which, uncoil'd at times, she moors and rides ; 

 From these, as hook -hairs on a fisher's line, 

 See feathery fibrils hang in graceful twine, 

 Graceful as tendrils of the mantling vine 

 These swift as angler by the fishy lake 

 Projects his fly the keen-eyed trout to take, 

 She shoots with rapid jerk to seize her food, 

 The small green creatures of crustaceous brood ; 

 S 



