West of the waves, and just beyond their sound;
’Tis larger than the rest, and whence, indeed, 80
You might expect a lady to proceed;
But O! this creature, far as I could trace,
Will soon be carried to another place.
“‘Fair, fragile thing!’ I said, when first my eye
Caught hers, ‘wilt thou expand thy wings and fly?
Or wilt thou vanish? beauteous spirit, stay!—
For will it not’ (I question’d) ‘melt away?’
No! it was mortal—I unseen was near,