Polyphemus, the most dreadful and hideous of the Cyclops, loved Galatea,
one of the beautiful race of the sea-nymphs. Day by day, did the giant sit
by the side of a fountain, neglecting his flocks, and murmuring love songs
the most touching and impassioned; while he adorned his person and
endeavoured to render himself as agreeable, by these and other means, to
his nymph as possible. {256}
Galatea treated all his attentions with disrespect, and bestowed her
affections upon Acis; meeting him in secret in a grotto, there enjoying the
sweet society of one another, unsuspicious of the danger which threatened
them.
------------------"Acis knelt
At Galatea's feet. She gazed awhile,
One delicate hand was pressed against her cheek,
That flushed with pleasure, and her dark hair streamed
Shadowing the brightness of her fixed eye,
Which on the young Sicilian shepherd's face
Shone like a star--
'Twas strange that she, a high sea-nymph should leave,
Her watery palaces, and coral caves,
Her home, and all immortal company,
To dwell with him, a simple shepherd boy."