IV.

And their eyes met--one moment and no more; Moment in time that centred years in feeling. As when to Thetis, on her cavern'd shore, Knelt her young King,--he rose, and murmur'd, kneeling. Low though the murmur, it dissolved the charm Which had in silence chain'd the modest feet; And maiden shame and woman's swift alarm Crimson'd her cheek and in her pulses beat: She turn'd, and, as a spell that leaves the place It fill'd with phantom beauty cold and bare, She fled;--and over disenchanted space Rush'd back the common air!