And wiles made ravenous prey of passers-by,

Were throated with the liquid pipe of birds:

Of love they sang; and none, who sail’d anigh

Through the grey hazes of the cyanine sea,

Had wit the whirlpool of that song to flee,

Nor fear’d the talon hook’d and feather’d thigh.

4

But them the singers of the gods o’ercame,

And pluck’d them of their plumage, where in fright

They vainly flutter’d off to hide their shame,