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THE WITCH OF ATLAS.

 

 1.
 

 Before those cruel Twins, whom at one birth
 

 Incestuous Change bore to her father Time,      50
 

 Error and Truth, had hunted from the Earth
 

 All those bright natures which adorned its prime,
 

 And left us nothing to believe in, worth
 

 The pains of putting into learned rhyme,
 

 A lady-witch there lived on Atlas' mountain     55
 

 Within a cavern, by a secret fountain.
 

2.
Her mother was one of the Atlantides:
The all-beholding Sun had ne’er beholden
In his wide voyage o’er continents and seas
So fair a creature, as she lay enfolden 60
In the warm shadow of her loveliness;–
He kissed her with his beams, and made all golden
The chamber of gray rock in which she lay–
She, in that dream of joy, dissolved away.

3.
‘Tis said, she first was changed into a vapour, 65
And then into a cloud, such clouds as flit,
Like splendour-winged moths about a taper,
Round the red west when the sun dies in it:
And then into a meteor, such as caper
On hill-tops when the moon is in a fit: 70
Then, into one of those mysterious stars
Which hide themselves between the Earth and Mars.

4.
Ten times the Mother of the Months had bent
Her bow beside the folding-star, and bidden
With that bright sign the billows to indent 75
The sea-deserted sand–like children chidden,
At her command they ever came and went–
Since in that cave a dewy splendour hidden
Took shape and motion: with the living form
Of this embodied Power, the cave grew warm. 80

5.
A lovely lady garmented in light
From her own beauty–deep her eyes, as are
Two openings of unfathomable night
Seen through a Temple’s cloven roof–her hair
Dark–the dim brain whirls dizzy with delight. 85
Picturing her form; her soft smiles shone afar,
And her low voice was heard like love, and drew
All living things towards this wonder new.

6.
And first the spotted cameleopard came,
And then the wise and fearless elephant; 90
Then the sly serpent, in the golden flame
Of his own volumes intervolved;–all gaunt
And sanguine beasts her gentle looks made tame.
They drank before her at her sacred fount;
And every beast of beating heart grew bold, 95
Such gentleness and power even to behold.

7.
The brinded lioness led forth her young,
That she might teach them how they should forego
Their inborn thirst of death; the pard unstrung
His sinews at her feet, and sought to know 100
With looks whose motions spoke without a tongue
How he might be as gentle as the doe.
The magic circle of her voice and eyes
All savage natures did imparadise.