ly could stand upright,
For the whole isle shudder'd and shook, like a man in a mortal affright;
We were giddy, besides, with the fruits we had gorged, and so crazed that
at last,
There were some leap'd into the fire; and away we sail'd, and we past
Over that undersea isle, where the water is clearer than air:
Down we look'd: what a garden! Oh, bliss, what a Paradise there!
Towers of a happier time, low down in a rainbow deep
Silent palaces, quiet fields of eternal sleep!
And three of the gentlest and best of my people, whate'er I could say,
Plunged head down in the sea, and the Paradise trembled away.

And we came to the Bounteous Isle, where the heavens lean low on the
land,
And ever at dawn from the cloud glitter'd o'er us a sun-bright hand,
Then it opened, and dropped at the side of each man, as he rose from his
rest,
Bread enough for his need till the labourless day dipt under the West;
And we wandered about it, and thro' it. Oh, never was time so good!
And we sang of the triumphs of Finn, and the boast of our ancient blood,
And we gazed at the wandering wave, as we sat by the gurgle of springs,
And we chanted the songs of the Bards and the glories of fairy kings;
But at length we began to be weary, to sigh, and to stretch and yawn,
Till we hated the Bounteous Isle, and the sun-bright hand of the dawn,
For there was not an enemy near, but the whole green isle was our own,
And we took to playing at ball, and we took to throwing the stone,
And we took to playing at battle, but that was a perilous play,
For the passion of battle was in us, we slew and we sail'd away.

And we passed to the Isle of Witches, and heard their musical cry--
"Come to us, Oh, come, come," in the stormy red of a sky
Dashing the fires and the shadows of dawn on the beautiful shapes,
For a wild witch, naked as heaven, stood on each of the loftiest capes,
And a hundred ranged on the rocks, like white sea-birds in a row,
And a hundred gambled and pranced on the wrecks in the sand below,
And a hundred splashed from the ledges, and bosomed the burst of the
spray.
But I knew we should fall on each other, and hastily sail'd away.

And we came in an evil time to the Isle of the Double Towers,
One was of smooth-cut stone, one carved all over with flowers,
But an earthquake always moved in the hollows under the dells,
And they shock'd on each other and butted each