Jephthah and Other Mysteries

LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. 8% Encircle it with silver, and the moon Strikes into tune The ripples as they break. For here it was Their steps did pass, Dreamy Endymion’s and Artemis’, Who bent to kiss Across the moss-grown rocks that build the well : And here they tell Of one beneath the hoary stone who hid And watched unbid When one most holy came across the glade, Who saw a maid So bright that mists were dim upon his eyes, And yet he spies So sweet a vision that his gentle breath Sighed into death: And others say that here the fairies bring The fairy king, And crown him with a flower of eglantine, And of the vine Twist him a throne made perfect with wild roses, And gathered posies From all the streams that wander through the vale, And crying, “ Hail! “ All hail, most beautiful of all our race!” Cover his face With blossoms gathered from a fairy tree Like foam from séa, So delicate that mortal eyes behold Ephemeral gold G