SONG OF IN-THE-WATER.
When the summer night descended,
Sleepy, on the White-witch water,
Came a lithe and lovely maiden,
Gazing on the silent water—
Gazing on the gleaming river,
With her azure eyes and tender,—
On the river glancing forward,
Till the laughing wave sprang upward,
Upward from his reedy hollow,
With the lily in his bosom,
With his crown of water-lilies—
Curling ev'ry dimpled ripple
As he sprung into the starlight,
As he clasped her charmed reflection
Glowing to his crystal bosom—
As he whispered, "Fairest, fairest,
Rest upon this crystal bosom!"
* * *
In the new version the title has been changed, and some of the opening lines altered, but from the point where the above extract closes to the end of the poem, the two versions are very similar, and the later one is quoted in full:—