The Argonauts

ACTUS QUARTUS That song of swimming when thy love lost sense Before the passion of the Infinite. JASON. The more so as my master warns me oft Of late how near that island is, where dwell The alluring daughters of Melpomene. ORPHEUS. Light shed from seaward over breakers bending Kiss-wise to the emerald hollows: light divine Whereof the sun is God, the sea his shrine; Light in vibrations rhythmic; light unending, Light sideways from the girdling crags extending Unto this lone and languid head of mine; Light, that fulfils creation as with wine, Flows in the channels of the deep: light, rending The adamantine columns of the night, Is laden with the love-song of the light. Light, pearly-glimmering through dim gulf and hollow, Below the foam-kissed lips of all the sea; Light shines from all the sky and up to me From the amber floors of sand: Light calls Apollo! The shafts of fire fledged of the eagle follow The crested surf, and strike the shore, and flee Far from green cover, nymph-enchanted lea, Fountain, and plume them white as the sea-swallow, And turn and quiver in the ocean, seeming The glances of a maiden kissed, or dreaming. I