Straight sprang she to her lover on the bed, And kisst his cheek, and was not satisfied: When, O the lamp, held ill-balanced o'erhead, One drop of burning oil spill'd from its side On Eros' naked shoulder as he slept, Who waken'd by the sudden smart uplept Upon the floor, and all the mischief eyed. 27 With nervous speed he seized his bow, and past Out of the guilty chamber at a bound; But Psyche, following his flight as fast, Caught him, and crying threw her arms around: Till coming to the court he rose in air; And she, close clinging in her last despair, Was dragg'd, and then lost hold and fell to ground. 28 Wailing she fell; but he, upon the roof Staying his feet, awhile his flight delay'd: And turning to her as he stood aloof Beside a cypress, whose profoundest shade Drank the reflections of the dreamy night In its stiff pinnacle, the nimble light Of million stars upon his body play'd: 29 'O simple-hearted Psyche,' thus he spake, And she upraised her piteous eyes and hands, 'O simple-hearted Psyche, for thy sake I dared to break my mother's stern commands; And gave thee godlike marriage in the place Of vilest shame; and, not to hurt thy grace, Spared thee my arrows, which no heart withstands. 30 'But thou, for doubt I was some evil beast, Hast mock'd the warnings of my love, to spy Upon my secret, which concern'd thee least, Seeing that thy joy was never touch'd thereby. By faithless prying thou hast work'd thy fall, And, even as I foretold thee, losest all For looking on thy happiness too nigh: 31 'Which loss may be thine ample punishment. But to those fiends, by whom thou wert misled, Go tell each one in turn that I have sent This message, that I love her in thy stead; And bid them by their love haste hither soon.' Whereat he fled; and Psyche in a swoon Fell back upon the marble floor as dead. AUGUST 1 When from the lowest ebbing of her blood The fluttering pulses thrill'd and swell'd again, Her stricken heart recovering force to flood With life the sunken conduits of her brain, Then Psyche, where she had fallen, numb and cold Arose, but scarce her quaking sense control'd, Seeing the couch where she that night had lain. 2 The level sunbeams search'd the grassy ground For diamond dewdrops. Ah! was this the place? Where was the court, her home? she look'd around And question'd with her memory for a space. There was the cypress, there the well-known wood, That wall'd the spot: 'twas here her palace stood, As surely as 'twas vanish'd without trace. 3