SERIO-COMIC VERSE. 635 



IV. 



This crystal tube the electric ray 



Shows optically clean, 

 No dust or haze within, but stay ! 



All has not yet been seen. 

 What gleams are these of heavenly blue ? 



What air-drawn form appearing, 

 What mystic fish, that, ghostlike, through x 



The empty 2 space is steering ? 



v. 



I light this sympathetic flame, 



My faintest wish that answers, 

 I sing, it sweetly sings the same, 



It dances with the dancers. 

 I shout, I whistle, clap my hands, 



And 3 stamp upon 4 the platform, 

 The flame responds 5 to my commands, 



In this form and in that form. 



VI. 



What means that thrilling, drilling scream, 



Protect me ! 'tis the siren : 

 Her heart is fire, her breath is steam, 



Her larynx is of iron. 

 Sun ! dart thy beams ! in tepid streams, 



Eise, viewless exhalations ! 

 And lap me round, that no rude sound 



May mar my meditations. 



VII. 



Here let me pause. These transient facts, 



These fugitive impressions, 

 Must be transformed by mental acts, 



To permanent possessions. 



v.r. What fish, what whale is this, that through. 2 v.r. vacuous. 



3 v.r. I. 4 v.r. about. 5 v.r. bows down. 



