That orbèd Maiden, with white fire laden, Whom mortals call the Moon, Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor, By the midnight breezes strewn; And wherever the beat of her unseen feet, Which only the angels hear, May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof, The stars peep behind her, and peer! And I laugh to see them whirl and flee, Like a swarm of golden bees, When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas, Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high, Are each paved with the moon and these. I bind the sun's throne with a burning zone, And the moon's with a girdle of pearl; The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim, When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl. From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape, Over a torrent of sea, Sun-beam proof, I hang like a roof, The mountains its columns be. The triumphal arch through which I march With hurricane, fire, and snow, When the powers of the air are chained to my chair, Is the million-colored bow; The sphere-fire above its soft colors wove, While the moist earth was laughing below. I am the daughter of earth and water, And the nursling of the sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I can not die. For after the rain, when, with never a stain, The pavilion of heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams, with their convex gleams, Build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, Like a sprite from the gloom, like a ghost from the tomb, I rise and unbuild it again. HELPS TO STUDY. Notes and Questions. In this poem Shelley personifies the Cloud. Why? What does the second stanza mean to you? The third stanza relates to the sun; what comparisons are made? What comparisons are found in the fourth stanza? Read the last stanza and tell what lesson the poem teaches. What line tells you? What pictures do you get from the fifth stanza? Which stanza is most musical and pleasing? Words and Phrases for Discussion. "sanguine sunrise" "pavilion of heaven" "reel and swim" "meteor eyes" "caverns of rain" "million-colored bow" "burning plumes" "fleece-like floor" "sphere-fire" "orbed maiden" "wind-built tent" "cenotaph" * * * * * APOSTROPHE TO THE OCEAN (From "Childe Harold," Canto IV.) LORD BYRON There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not man the less, but nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the universe, and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.