02.03.2008, 16:02
Diana and Endymion
It was a learned fancy, that bestowed
A living spirit and a human will
On those far lights that, whether fixt and still,
Or moving visibly along their road,
Were mighty to predestine, rule, forebode;
Yea, to disclose, to long observant skill,
Not season's course alone, but good and ill,
For aye appointed in no changeful code.
A freer, yet a gentler wit, devised
That quaint old Fable, that beheld the Moon
Gazing for hours on her Endymion,
Till she turned pale, by jocund morn surprised;
While he, wrapped up in trance or vision dim,
Sleeps in her sight that ever wakes for him.
It was a learned fancy, that bestowed
A living spirit and a human will
On those far lights that, whether fixt and still,
Or moving visibly along their road,
Were mighty to predestine, rule, forebode;
Yea, to disclose, to long observant skill,
Not season's course alone, but good and ill,
For aye appointed in no changeful code.
A freer, yet a gentler wit, devised
That quaint old Fable, that beheld the Moon
Gazing for hours on her Endymion,
Till she turned pale, by jocund morn surprised;
While he, wrapped up in trance or vision dim,
Sleeps in her sight that ever wakes for him.