For Ruggiero & Angelica, rescued from the Sea-Mon-

ster , by Ingres , in the Luxembourg.    

• A remote sky, prolonged to the sea's brim.
• One rock-point standing buffeted alone,
• Vexed at its base with a foul beast
• unknown,
• Hell- spurge birth of geomaunt & teraphim.
• A knight, & a winged creature bearing him,
• Reared at the rock. A woman fettered there,
• Leaning into the hollow, with loose hair,
• And throat let back, & heartsick trail of
• limb.

• The sky is harsh, & the sea shrewd & salt.
• 10 Under his lord the griffin-horse ramps
• blind,
• With rigid wings & tail. The spear's
• lithe stem
• Thrills in the roaring of those jaws: behind,
• That evil length of body chafes at fault.
• She doth does not see nor hear hear nor see—she
• knows of them.

   

• Clench thine eyes now,—'tis the last instant,
• girl!
page: [2]  
• Draw in thy senses, set thy knees, & take
• One breath for all: thy life is keen awake.
• Thou mayst not swoon. Was that the
• scattered whirl
• Of its foam drenched thee? or the waves that
• curl
• And split, bleak spray wherein thy temples
• ache?
• Or was it his the champion's blood, to
• flake
• Thy flesh? or thine own blood's anointing,
• girl? . . .

• Now, silence: for the sea's is such a sound
• 10 As irks not silence, & except the sea
• All now is still. Now the dead thing ¹
• doth cease
• To writhe, & drifts. He turns to her: & she,
• Cast from the jaws of d Death, remains there
• bound,
• Again a woman in her nakedness.

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