Unto the wanderers' ships, or as day fills
The brazen sky, so blaze the daffodils;
As Argive Clytemnestra saw out-burn
The flagrant signal of her lord's return,
Afar, clear-shining on the herald hills,
In vale and dell so blaze the daffodils;
As when upon her cloud-o'er-muffled steep
Œnone saw the fires of Troia leap,
And laugh'd, so, so along the bubbling rills
In lemon-tinted lines, so blaze the daffodils.
Come forth, come forth, my music flows for thee,
A quenchless grieving of love melody.
Thernot. [Sings] Now her sheep all browsing meet
By the singing waters' edge,
Tread and tread their cloven feet
On the ruddy river sedge,
For the dawn the foliage fingereth,
And the waves are leaping white,
She alone, my lady, lingereth
While the world is roll'd in light.
Colin. Shepherd, to mar the morning hast thou come?
Hear me, and, shepherd, hearing me, grow dumb.
[Sings] Where is the owl that lately flew
Flickering under the white moonshine?
She sleeps with owlets two and two,
Sleepily close her round bright eyne;
O'er her nest the lights are blending:
Come thou, come, and to this string—
Though my love-sick heart is rending,
Not a sad note will I sing.
Thernot. I am not dumb: I'd sooner silent wait
Within the fold to hear the creaking gate—
[Sings] The wood and the valley and sea
Awaken, awaken to new-born lustre;
A new day's troop of wasp and bee
Hang on the side of the round grape-cluster;
Blenching on high the dull stars sicken
Morn-bewildered, and the cup
Of the tarn where young waves quicken
Hurls their swooning lustre up.
Colin. I'll silence this dull singer—
[Sings] Oh, more dark thy gleaming hair is
Than the peeping pansy's face,
And thine eyes more bright than faery's,
Dancing in some moony place,
And thy neck's a poisèd lily;
See, I tell thy beauties o'er,
As within a cellar chilly
Some old miser tells his store;
And thy memory I keep,
Till all else is empty chaff,
Till I laugh when others weep,
Weeping when all others laugh.
Thernot. I'll quench his singing with loud song—
[Sings wildly] Come forth, for in a thousand bowers
Blossoms open dewy lips;
Over the lake the water-flowers
Drift and float like silver ships;
Ever ringing, ringing, ringing,
With unfaltering persistence,
Hundred-throated morn is singing,
Joy and love are one existence.
Colin. [Sings] Lone, and wanting thee, I weep;
Love and sorrow, one existence,
Sadness, soul of joy most deep,
Is the burthen and persistence
Of the songs that never sleep.
Love from heaven came of yore
As a token and a sign,
Singing o'er and o'er and o'er
Of his death and change malign.
Thernot. With fiery song I'll drown yon puny voice.
[Sings] Passeth the moon with her sickle of light,
Slowly, slowly fadeth she,
Weary of reaping the barren night
And the desolate shuddering sea.
Colin. [Sings] Loud for thee the morning crieth,
And my soul in waiting dieth,
Ever dieth, dieth, dieth.
Thernot. [Sings] Far the morning vapours shatter,
As the leaves in autumn scatter.
Colin. [Sings] In the heart of the dawn the rivers are singing,
Over them crimson vapours winging.
Thernot. [Sings] All the world is ringing, ringing;
All the world is singing, singing.
Colin. [Sings] Lift my soul from rayless night—
Thernot. [Sings] Stricken all the night is past—
Colin. [Sings] Music of my soul and light—
Thernot. [Sings] Back the shadows creep aghast—
Enter Naschina.
Naschina. Oh, cease your singing! wild and shrill and loud,
On my poor brain your busy tumults crowd.
Colin. I fain had been the first of singing things
To welcome thee, when o'er the owlet's wings
And troubled eyes came morning's first-born glow;
But yonder thing, yon idle noise, yon crow,
Yon shepherd
Thernot.Came your spirit to beguile
With singing sweet as e'er round lake-lulled isle
Sing summer waves. But yonder shepherd vile,
All clamour-clothed
