Whilest thus I looked, loe! adowne the lee*
I sawe an Harpe, stroong all with silver twyne,
And made of golde and costlie yvorie, 605
Swimming, that whilome seemed to have been
The harpe on which Dan Orpheus was seene
Wylde beasts and forrests after him to lead,
But was th’harpe of Philisides** now dead.
[* _Lee_, surface of the stream.]
[** _Phili-sid-es_, Sir Philip Sidney]
At length out of the river it was reard, 610
And borne above the cloudes to be divin’d,
Whilst all the way most heavenly noyse was heard
Of the strings, stirred with the warbling wind,
That wrought both ioy and sorrow in my mind:
So now in heaven a signe it doth appeare, 615
The Harpe well knowne beside the Northern Beare.