Of distant lawns about their fountain cold,

A living whiteness stirs like a lazy wave,

And at the first slow notes my panpipes gave

These flocking swans, these naiads rather, fly

Or dive.

Noon burns inert and tawny-dry,

Nor marks how clean that Hymen slipped away

From me who seek in song the real A.

Wake, then, to your first ardour and the sight,

O lonely faun, of the old fierce white light,