Canto CI
On that last night before we wentFrom out the doors where I was bred,I dream’d a vision of the dead,Which left my after morn content.
Methought I dwelt within a hall,And maidens with me: distant hillsFrom hidden summits fed with rillsA river sliding by the wall.
The hall with harp and carol rang.They sang of what is wise and goodAnd graceful. In the centre stoodA statue veil’d, to which they sang;
And which, tho’ veil’d, was known to me,The shape of him I loved, and loveFor ever: then flew in a doveAnd brought a summons from the sea:
And when they learnt that I must goThey wept and wail’d, but led the wayTo where a little shallop layAt anchor in the flood below;
And on by many a level mead,And shadowing bluff that made the banks,We glided winding under ranksOf iris, and the golden reed;
And still as vaster grew the shore,And roll’d the floods in grander space,The maidens gather’d strength and graceAnd presence, lordlier than before;
And I myself, who sat apartAnd watch’d them, waxt in every limb;I felt the thews of Anakim,The pulses of a Titan’s heart;
As one would sing the death of war,And one would chant the historyOf that great race, which is to be,And one the shaping of a star;
Until the forward-creeping tidesBegan to foam, and we to drawFrom deep to deep, to where we sawA great ship lift her shining sides,
The man we loved was there on deck,But thrice as large as man he bentTo greet us. Up the side I went,And fell in silence on his neck:
Whereat those maidens with one mindBewail’d their lot; I did them wrong:‘We served thee here,’ they said, ‘so long,And wilt thou leave us now behind?’
So rapt I was, they could not winAn answer from my lips, but heReplying, ‘Enter likewise yeAnd go with us:’ they enter’d in,
And while the wind began to sweepA music out of sheet and shroud,We steer’d her toward a crimson cloudThat landlike slept along the deep.