A SEA-SPELL (FOR A PICTURE)

A SEA-SPELL

(FOR A PICTURE)

Her lute hangs shadowed in the apple-tree,

      While flashing fingers weave the sweet-strung spell

      Between its chords; and as the wild notes swell,

The sea-bird for those branches leaves the sea.

But to what sound her listening ear stoops she?

      What netherworld gulf-whispers doth she hear,

      In answering echoes from what planisphere,

Along the wind, along the estuary?

She sinks into her spell: and when full soon

      Her lips move and she soars into her song,

      What creatures of the midmost main shall throng

In furrowed surf-clouds to the summoning rune:

Till he, the fated mariner, hears her cry,

      And up her rock, bare-breasted, comes to die?

Dante Gabriel Rossetti A SEA-SPELL Oil on canvas. 1877 Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University

Данте Габриэль Россетти МОРСКИЕ ЧАРЫ Холст, масло. 1877 Художественный музей Фогга при Гарвардском университете