Canto CI

On that last night before we went

      From 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 hills

      From hidden summits fed with rills

A river sliding by the wall.

The hall with harp and carol rang.

      They sang of what is wise and good

      And graceful. In the centre stood

A statue veil'd, to which they sang;

And which, tho' veil'd, was known to me,

      The shape of him I loved, and love

      For ever: then flew in a dove

And brought a summons from the sea:

And when they learnt that I must go

      They wept and wail'd, but led the way

      To where a little shallop lay

At anchor in the flood below;

And on by many a level mead,

      And shadowing bluff that made the banks,

      We glided winding under ranks

Of 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 grace

And presence, lordlier than before;

And I myself, who sat apart

      And 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 history

      Of that great race, which is to be,

And one the shaping of a star;

Until the forward-creeping tides

      Began to foam, and we to draw

      From deep to deep, to where we saw

A great ship lift her shining sides,

The man we loved was there on deck,

      But thrice as large as man he bent

      To greet us. Up the side I went,

And fell in silence on his neck:

Whereat those maidens with one mind

      Bewail'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 win

      An answer from my lips, but he

      Replying, 'Enter likewise ye

And go with us:' they enter'd in,

And while the wind began to sweep

      A music out of sheet and shroud,

      We steer'd her toward a crimson cloud

That landlike slept along the deep.