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THE DISCOVERY

James Russell Lowell

I watched a moorland torrent run

Down through the rift itself had made,

Golden as honey in the sun,

Of darkest amber in the shade.

 

In this wild glen at last, methought,

The magic's secret I surprise;

Here Celia's guardian fairy caught

The changeful splendors of her eyes.

 

All else grows tame, the sky's one blue,

The one long languish of the rose,

But these, beyond prevision new,

Shall charm and startle to the close.