High in the opposèd west the wondering moon All silvery green in flying green was fleec't; And round the blazing South the splendour soon Caught all the heaven, and ran to North and East; And Aphrodite knew the thing was wrought By cunning of Poseidon, and she thought She would go see with whom he kept his feast. 27 Swift to her wish came swimming on the waves His lovely ocean nymphs, her guides to be, The Nereids all, who live among the caves And valleys of the deep, Cymodocè, Agavè, blue-eyed Hallia and Nesæa, Speio, and Thoë, Glaucè and Actæa, Iaira, Melitè and Amphinomè, 28 Apseudès and Nemertès, Callianassa, Cymothoë, Thaleia, Limnorrhea, Clymenè, Ianeira and Ianassa, Doris and Panopè and Galatea, Dynamenè, Dexamenè and Maira, Ferusa, Doto, Proto, Callianeira, Amphithoë, Oreithuia and Amathea. 29 And after them sad Melicertes drave His chariot, that with swift unfellied wheel, By his two dolphins drawn along the wave, Flew as they plunged, yet did not dip nor reel, But like a plough that shears the heavy land Stood on the flood, and back on either hand O'erturn'd the briny furrow with its keel. 30 Behind came Tritons, that their conches blew, Greenbearded, tail'd like fish, all sleek and stark; And hippocampi tamed, a bristly crew, The browzers of old Proteus' weedy park, Whose chiefer Mermen brought a shell for boat, And balancing its hollow fan afloat, Push'd it to shore and bade the queen embark: 31 And then the goddess stept upon the shell Which took her weight; and others threw a train Of soft silk o'er her, that unfurl'd to swell In sails, at breath of flying Zephyrs twain; And all her way with foam in laughter strewn, With stir of music and of conches blown, Was Aphrodite launch'd upon the main. APRIL 1 But fairest Psyche still in favour rose, Nor knew the jealous power against her sworn; And more her beauty now surpass't her foe's, Since 'twas transfigured by the spirit forlorn, That writeth, to the perfecting of grace, Immortal question in a mortal face, The vague desire whereunto man is born. 2 Already in good time her sisters both, Whose honest charms were never famed as hers, With princes of the isle had plighted troth, And gone to rule their foreign courtiers; But she, exalted evermore beyond Their loveliness, made yet no lover fond, And gain'd but number to her worshippers. 3 To joy in others' joy had been her lot, And now that that was gone she wept to see How her transcendent beauty overshot The common aim of all felicity. For love she sigh'd; and had some peasant rude For true love's sake in simple passion woo'd, Then Psyche had not scorn'd his wife to be. 4