114 GLAUCUS ; OR, 



back into their native element, was seized on the 

 spot with a strange longing to follow them under 

 the waves, and became for ever a companion of 

 the fair semi-human forms with which the Hel- 

 lenic poets peopled their sunny bays and firths, 

 feeding his " silent flocks " far below on the green 

 Zostera beds, or basking with them on the sunny 

 ledges in the summer noon, or wandering in the 

 still bays on sultry nights amid the choir of Am- 

 phitrite and her sea-nymphs, 



" Joining tlie bliss of the gods, as they waken the coves with 

 their laugliter," 



in nightly revels, whereof one has sung, — 



" So they came up in their .joy; and before them the roll of 

 the surges 



Sank, as the breezes sank dead, into smooth green foam-flecked 

 marble 



Awed ; and the crags of the cUffs and the pines of the moun- 

 tains were silent. 



So they came up in their joy, and around them the lamps of 

 the sea-nymphs, 



Myriad fiery globes, swam heaving and panting, and rain- 

 bows, 



Crimson and azure and emerald, were broken in star-showers, 

 lighting, 



Far in the wine-dark depths of the crystal, the gardens of 

 Nereus, 



Coral and sea-fan and tangle, tlie blooms and the palms of the 

 ocean. 



