II.
    A bird, of pinions strong, wondrously fair,
inhabiteth this wood; Phœnix it is hight.
The lonely bird holdeth its dwelling there,
its brave existence; ne'er shall death scathe it           88
in that winsome plain, while the world standeth.
'Tis said it doth observe the sun's career,
and goeth to meed that gladsome gem,
God's candle, and watcheth eagerly,                        92
until the noblest of the stars, the Father's work of old,
God's radiant token, doth rise up
o'er the billowy main, shining from the east,
gleaming in all its glory.                                 96

                           The stars are hid,              96
sunk 'neath the ocean into western parts,
obscured amid the dawn, and murky night
darkling departeth; then, strong in flight,
the bird, proud of plumage, looketh longingly              100
into the mountain-stream o'er the waters 'neath the sky,
until the light of heaven cometh up,
gliding from the east, o'er the spacious sea.

Thus the noble bird, resting in all its beauty             104
at the water-spring, haunteth the welling streams;
twelve times the glorious creature there
batheth in the brook, ere the coming of that beacon,
of the heaven's candle, and e'en as oft, at every bath,    108
cold as ocean's surge, it tasteth
of those pleasant springs of welling water.