76 The Poets and Nahire. 



exposition in Keats' deathless verse. Mercury, roaming in 

 the pinewood in search of a nymph whom he loves, hears a 

 mournful voice bewailing itself, and searching among the 

 bushes finds 



" A palpitating snake, 



Bright and cirque-couchaut, in a dusky brake ; 

 She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, 

 Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; 

 Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard, 

 Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd ; 

 And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed, 

 Dissolved, or brighter shone, or interwreathed 

 Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries 

 So rainbow-sided, touch'd with miseries, 

 She seemed at once some penanced lady-elf, 

 Some demon's mistress, or the demon's self. 

 Upon her crest she wore a wannish fire, 

 Sprinkled with stars, like Ariadne's tiar ; 

 Her head was serpent, but ah, bitter sweet ! 

 She had a woman's mouth, with all its pearls complete. 

 And for her eyes what could such eyes do there 

 But weep, and weep, that they were born so fair, 

 As Proserpine still weeps for her Sicilian air? 

 Her throat was serpent, but the words she spake 

 Came, as through bubbling honey, for love's sake." 



He asks the cause of its woe, and the Lamia then says that if 

 Hermes will restore her to her human shape she will make 

 his love who is invisible appear before him. The compact 

 is faithfully adhered to. The god flies away with his 

 nymph into " the green-recessed " woods, and the snake is 

 alone. 



" Left to herself, the serpent now began 

 To change ; her elfin blood in madness ran ; 

 Her mouth foam'd, and the grass, therewith besprent, 

 Wither'd at dew so sweet and virulent ; 

 Her eyes in torture fix'd, and anguish drear, 

 Hot, glazed, and wide, with lid-lashes all sear, 

 Flash'd phosphor and sharp sparks, without one cooling tear. 

 The colours all inflamed throughout her train, 

 She writhed about, convulsed with scarlet pain ; 

 A deep volcanian yellow took the place 

 Of all her milder-mooned body's grace, 



