It trembled to the orb of EARTH again. “Iante, dearest, see! how dim that ray! How lovely ’tis to look so far away! * There be tears of perfect moan Wept for thee in Helicon.—_Milton._ She seem’d not thus upon that autumn eve I left her gorgeous halls—nor mourn’d to leave. That eve—that eve—I should remember well— The sun-ray dropp’d, in Lemnos, with a spell On th’Arabesque carving of a gilded hall Wherein I sate, and on the draperied wall— And on my eye-lids—O the heavy light! How drowsily it weigh’d them into night! On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan: But O that light!—I slumber’d—Death, the while, Stole o’er my senses in that lovely isle So softly that no single silken hair Awoke that slept—or knew that it was there. The last spot of Earth’s orb I trod upon *Was a proud temple call’d the Parthenon— More beauty clung around her column’d wall **Than ev’n thy glowing bosom beats withal, And when old Time my wing did disenthral Thence sprang I—as the eagle from his tower, And years I left behind me in an hour. What time upon her airy bounds I hung One half the garden of her globe was flung Unrolling as a chart unto my view— Tenantless cities of the desert too! Ianthe, beauty crowded on me then, And half I wish’d to be again of men.” “My Angelo! and why of them to be? A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee— * It was entire in 1687—the most elevated spot in Athens. ** Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love.—_Marlowe._ And greener fields than in yon world above, And women’s loveliness—and passionate love.” “But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft *Fail’d, as my pennon’d spirit leapt aloft, Perhaps my brain grew dizzy—but the world I left so late was into chaos hurl’d— Sprang from her station, on the winds apart, And roll’d, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart. Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar And fell—not swiftly as I rose before, But with a downward, tremulous motion thro’ Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto! Nor long the measure of my falling hours, For nearest of all stars was thine to ours— Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth, A red Dædalion on the timid Earth.” “We came—and to thy Earth—but not to us Be given our lady’s bidding to discuss: We came, my love; around, above, below, Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,