The Lotos blooms below the barren peak:[13] The Lotos blows by every winding creek: All day the wind breathes low with mellower tone: Thro’ every hollow cave and alley lone Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust is blown. We have had enough of action, and of motion we, Roll’d to starboard, roll’d to larboard, when the surge was seething free, Where the wallowing monster spouted his foam-fountains in the sea. Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind, In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind. For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl’d Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl’d Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world: Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands, Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery sands, Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships and praying hands. But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong, Like a tale of little meaning tho’ the words are strong; Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil, Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil, Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil; Till they perish and they suffer—some, ’tis whisper’d—down in hell Suffer endless anguish, others in Elysian valleys dwell, Resting weary limbs at last on beds of asphodel. Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore Than labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar; Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.[14] [1] 1883. Above the valley burned the golden moon. [2] 1883. River’s seaward flow. [3] 1833. Three thunder-cloven thrones of oldest snow. [4] _Cf._ Virgil, Æn., iv., 451:— Tædet cæli convexa tueri. Paraphrased from Moschus, _Idyll_, v., 11-15. [5] For climbing up the wave _cf._ Virgil, _Æn._, i., 381: “Conscendi navilus æquor,” and _cf._ generally Bion, _Idyll_, v., 11-15. [6] From Moschus, _Idyll_, v.,_passim_. [7] 1833. The. [8] The little isle, _i. e._, Ithaca. [9] 1863 By. [10] Added in 1842. [11] 1833. Or, propt on lavish beds. [12] 1833 to 1850 inclusive. Hear. [13] 1833 to 1850 inclusive. Flowery peak. [14] In 1833 we have the following, which in 1842 was excised and the present text substituted:—