Page:Orion, an epic poem - Horne (1843, 3rd edition).djvu/17

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Canto I.]
Orion.
11
Scooped out the bay of Zankle, framed its port;
Banked up the rampire that forbids the surge
To break o'er Sicily; and a temple built
To the sea-deities." "I had forgot;"
Orion said: "These things, long since, were done."

"Hunter, I pardon thee, and from my Nymphs
All memory of thy late offence I take,
As though they ne'er had seen thee:" Artemis said,
With a sweet voice and look. "Retire awhile,
Ye sylvan troop, to yonder deep-mossed dell;
And thou, Orion, henceforth in my train
Thy station take." More had the Goddess said,
But o'er the whiteness of a neck that ne'er
One tanned kiss from the ardent sun received,
A soft suffusion came; and waiting not
Reply, her silver sandals glanced i' the rays,
As doth a lizard playing on a hill,
And on the spot where she that instant stood
Nought but the bent and quivering grass was seen.

Above the isle of Chios, night by night,
The clear moon lingered ever on her course,
Covering the forest foliage, where it swept
In its unbroken breadth along the slopes,