count
可选
默认: 5
Number of poems (1-10)
| 名称 | 必填 | 默认值 | 描述 |
|---|---|---|---|
count |
否 | 5 | Number of poems (1-10) |
curl "https://nordapi.ee/api/v1/poetry/collection?count=3"
{
"data": [
{
"author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron",
"line_count": "16",
"lines": [
"Thy verse is \"sad\" enough, no doubt:",
" A devilish deal more sad than witty!",
"Why we should weep I can't find out,",
" Unless for _thee_ we weep in pity.",
"",
"Yet there is one I pity more;",
" And much, alas! I think he needs it:",
"For he, I'm sure, will suffer sore,",
" Who, to his own misfortune, reads it.",
"",
"Thy rhymes, without the aid of magic,",
" May _once_ be read--but never after:",
"Yet their effect's by no means tragic,",
" Although by far too dull for laughter.",
"",
"But would you make our bosoms bleed,",
"And of no common pang complain--",
"If you would make us weep indeed,",
"Tell us, you'll read them o'er again."
],
"title": "To the Author of a Sonnet"
},
{
"author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley",
"line_count": "4848",
"lines": [
"Osais de Broton ethnos aglaiais aptomestha",
"perainei pros eschaton",
"ploon nausi d oute pezos ion an eurois",
"es Uperboreon agona thaumatan odon.",
"",
"Pind. Pyth. x.",
"",
"DEDICATION.",
"",
"There is no danger to a man that knows",
"What life and death is: there's not any law",
"Exceeds his knowledge; neither is it lawful",
"That he should stoop to any other law.--CHAPMAN.",
"",
"TO MARY -- --.",
"",
"So now my summer-task is ended, Mary,",
"And I return to thee, mine own heart's home;",
"As to his Queen some victor Knight of Faery,",
"Earning bright spoils for her enchanted dome;",
"Nor thou disdain, that ere my fame become",
"A star among the stars of mortal night,",
"If it indeed may cleave its natal gloom,",
"Its doubtful promise thus I would unite",
"With thy beloved name, thou Child of love and light.",
"",
"The toil which stole from thee so many an hour,",
"Is ended,--and the fruit is at thy feet!",
"No longer where the woods to frame a bower",
"With interlaced branches mix and meet,",
"Or where with sound like many voices sweet,",
"Waterfalls leap among wild islands green,",
"Which framed for my lone boat a lone retreat",
"Of moss-grown trees and weeds, shall I be seen;",
"But beside thee, where still my heart has ever been.",
"",
"Thoughts of great deeds were mine, dear Friend, when first",
"The clouds which wrap this world from youth did pass.",
"I do remember well the hour which burst",
"My spirit's sleep. A fresh May-dawn it was,",
"When I walked forth upon the glittering grass,",
"And wept, I knew not why; until there rose",
"From the near schoolroom, voices that, alas!",
"Were but one echo from a world of woes--",
"The harsh and grating strife of tyrants and of foes.",
"",
"And then I clasped my hands and looked around--",
"--But none was near to mock my streaming eyes,",
"Which poured their warm drops on the sunny ground--",
"So without shame I spake:--'I will be wise,",
"And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies",
"Such power, for I grow weary to behold",
"The selfish and the strong still tyrannise",
"Without reproach or check.' I then controlled",
"My tears, my heart grew calm, and I was meek and bold.",
"",
"And from that hour did I with earnest thought",
"Heap knowledge from forbidden mines of lore;",
"Yet nothing that my tyrants knew or taught",
"I cared to learn, but from that secret store",
"Wrought linked armour for my soul, before",
"It might walk forth to war among mankind;",
"Thus power and hope were strengthened more and more",
"Within me, till there came upon my mind",
"A sense of loneliness, a thirst with which I pined.",
"",
"Alas, that love should be a blight and snare",
"To those who seek all sympathies in one!--",
"Such once I sought in vain; then black despair,",
"The shadow of a starless night, was thrown",
"Over the world in which I moved alone:--",
"Yet never found I one not false to me,",
"Hard hearts, and cold, like weights of icy stone",
"Which crushed and withered mine, that could not be",
"Aught but a lifeless clod, until revived by thee.",
"",
"Thou Friend, whose presence on my wintry heart",
"Fell, like bright Spring upon some herbless plain;",
"How beautiful and calm and free thou wert",
"In thy young wisdom, when the mortal chain",
"Of Custom thou didst burst and rend in twain,",
"And walked as free as light the clouds among,",
"Which many an envious slave then breathed in vain",
"From his dim dungeon, and my spirit sprung",
"To meet thee from the woes which had begirt it long!",
"",
"No more alone through the world's wilderness,",
"Although I trod the paths of high intent,",
"I journeyed now: no more companionless,",
"Where solitude is like despair, I went.--",
"There is the wisdom of a stern content",
"When Poverty can blight the just and good,",
"When Infamy dares mock the innocent,",
"And cherished friends turn with the multitude",
"To trample: this was ours, and we unshaken stood!",
"",
"Now has descended a serener hour,",
"And with inconstant fortune, friends return;",
"Though suffering leaves the knowledge and the power",
"Which says:--Let scorn be not repaid with scorn.",
"And from thy side two gentle babes are born",
"To fill our home with smiles, and thus are we",
"Most fortunate beneath life's beaming morn;",
"And these delights, and thou, have been to me",
"The parents of the Song I consecrate to thee.",
"",
"Is it that now my inexperienced fingers",
"But strike the prelude of a loftier strain?",
"Or, must the lyre on which my spirit lingers",
"Soon pause in silence, ne'er to sound again,",
"Though it might shake the Anarch Custom's reign,",
"And charm the minds of men to Truth's own sway",
"Holier than was Amphion's? I would fain",
"Reply in hope--but I am worn away,",
"And Death and Love are yet contending for their prey.",
"",
"And what art thou? I know, but dare not speak:",
"Time may interpret to his silent years.",
"Yet in the paleness of thy thoughtful cheek,",
"And in the light thine ample forehead wears,",
"And in thy sweetest smiles, and in thy tears,",
"And in thy gentle speech, a prophecy",
"Is whispered, to subdue my fondest fears:",
"And through thine eyes, even in thy soul I see",
"A lamp of vestal fire burning internally.",
"",
"They say that thou wert lovely from thy birth,",
"Of glorious parents thou aspiring Child.",
"I wonder not--for One then left this earth",
"Whose life was like a setting planet mild,",
"Which clothed thee in the radiance undefiled",
"Of its departing glory; still her fame",
"Shines on thee, through the tempests dark and wild",
"Which shake these latter days; and thou canst claim",
"The shelter, from thy Sire, of an immortal name.",
"",
"One voice came forth from many a mighty spirit,",
"Which was the echo of three thousand years;",
"And the tumultuous world stood mute to hear it,",
"As some lone man who in a desert hears",
"The music of his home:--unwonted fears",
"Fell on the pale oppressors of our race,",
"And Faith, and Custom, and low-thoughted cares,",
"Like thunder-stricken dragons, for a space",
"Left the torn human heart, their food and dwelling-place.",
"",
"Truth's deathless voice pauses among mankind!",
"If there must be no response to my cry--",
"If men must rise and stamp with fury blind",
"On his pure name who loves them,--thou and I,",
"Sweet friend! can look from our tranquillity",
"Like lamps into the world's tempestuous night,--",
"Two tranquil stars, while clouds are passing by",
"Which wrap them from the foundering seaman's sight,",
"That burn from year to year with unextinguished light.",
"",
"CANTO 1.",
"",
"When the last hope of trampled France had failed",
"Like a brief dream of unremaining glory,",
"From visions of despair I rose, and scaled",
"The peak of an aerial promontory,",
"Whose caverned base with the vexed surge was hoary;",
"And saw the golden dawn break forth, and waken",
"Each cloud, and every wave:--but transitory",
"The calm; for sudden, the firm earth was shaken,",
"As if by the last wreck its frame were overtaken.",
"",
"So as I stood, one blast of muttering thunder",
"Burst in far peals along the waveless deep,",
"When, gathering fast, around, above, and under,",
"Long trains of tremulous mist began to creep,",
"Until their complicating lines did steep",
"The orient sun in shadow:--not a sound",
"Was heard; one horrible repose did keep",
"The forests and the floods, and all around",
"Darkness more dread than night was poured upon the ground.",
"",
"Hark! 'tis the rushing of a wind that sweeps",
"Earth and the ocean. See! the lightnings yawn",
"Deluging Heaven with fire, and the lashed deeps",
"Glitter and boil beneath: it rages on,",
"One mighty stream, whirlwind and waves upthrown,",
"Lightning, and hail, and darkness eddying by.",
"There is a pause--the sea-birds, that were gone",
"Into their caves to shriek, come forth, to spy",
"What calm has fall'n on earth, what light is in the sky.",
"",
"For, where the irresistible storm had cloven",
"That fearful darkness, the blue sky was seen",
"Fretted with many a fair cloud interwoven",
"Most delicately, and the ocean green,",
"Beneath that opening spot of blue serene,",
"Quivered like burning emerald; calm was spread",
"On all below; but far on high, between",
"Earth and the upper air, the vast clouds fled,",
"Countless and swift as leaves on autumn's tempest shed.",
"",
"For ever, as the war became more fierce",
"Between the whirlwinds and the rack on high,",
"That spot grew more serene; blue light did pierce",
"The woof of those white clouds, which seem to lie",
"Far, deep, and motionless; while through the sky",
"The pallid semicircle of the moon",
"Passed on, in slow and moving majesty;",
"Its upper horn arrayed in mists, which soon",
"But slowly fled, like dew beneath the beams of noon.",
"",
"I could not choose but gaze; a fascination",
"Dwelt in that moon, and sky, and clouds, which drew",
"My fancy thither, and in expectation",
"Of what I knew not, I remained:--the hue",
"Of the white moon, amid that heaven so blue,",
"Suddenly stained with shadow did appear;",
"A speck, a cloud, a shape, approaching grew,",
"Like a great ship in the sun's sinking sphere",
"Beheld afar at sea, and swift it came anear.",
"",
"Even like a bark, which from a chasm of mountains,",
"Dark, vast and overhanging, on a river",
"Which there collects the strength of all its fountains,",
"Comes forth, whilst with the speed its frame doth quiver,",
"Sails, oars and stream, tending to one endeavour;",
"So, from that chasm of light a winged Form",
"On all the winds of heaven approaching ever",
"Floated, dilating as it came; the storm",
"Pursued it with fierce blasts, and lightnings swift and warm.",
"",
"A course precipitous, of dizzy speed,",
"Suspending thought and breath; a monstrous sight!",
"For in the air do I behold indeed",
"An Eagle and a Serpent wreathed in fight:--",
"And now, relaxing its impetuous flight,",
"Before the aerial rock on which I stood,",
"The Eagle, hovering, wheeled to left and right,",
"And hung with lingering wings over the flood,",
"And startled with its yells the wide air's solitude.",
"",
"A shaft of light upon its wings descended,",
"And every golden feather gleamed therein--",
"Feather and scale, inextricably blended.",
"The Serpent's mailed and many-coloured skin",
"Shone through the plumes its coils were twined within",
"By many a swoln and knotted fold, and high",
"And far, the neck, receding lithe and thin,",
"Sustained a crested head, which warily",
"Shifted and glanced before the Eagle's steadfast eye.",
"",
"Around, around, in ceaseless circles wheeling",
"With clang of wings and scream, the Eagle sailed",
"Incessantly--sometimes on high concealing",
"Its lessening orbs, sometimes as if it failed,",
"Drooped through the air; and still it shrieked and wailed,",
"And casting back its eager head, with beak",
"And talon unremittingly assailed",
"The wreathed Serpent, who did ever seek",
"Upon his enemy's heart a mortal wound to wreak.",
"",
"What life, what power, was kindled and arose",
"Within the sphere of that appalling fray!",
"For, from the encounter of those wondrous foes,",
"A vapour like the sea's suspended spray",
"Hung gathered; in the void air, far away,",
"Floated the shattered plumes; bright scales did leap,",
"Where'er the Eagle's talons made their way,",
"Like sparks into the darkness;--as they sweep,",
"Blood stains the snowy foam of the tumultuous deep.",
"",
"Swift chances in that combat--many a check,",
"And many a change, a dark and wild turmoil;",
"Sometimes the Snake around his enemy's neck",
"Locked in stiff rings his adamantine coil,",
"Until the Eagle, faint with pain and toil,",
"Remitted his strong flight, and near the sea",
"Languidly fluttered, hopeless so to foil",
"His adversary, who then reared on high",
"His red and burning crest, radiant with victory.",
"",
"Then on the white edge of the bursting surge,",
"Where they had sunk together, would the Snake",
"Relax his suffocating grasp, and scourge",
"The wind with his wild writhings; for to break",
"That chain of torment, the vast bird would shake",
"The strength of his unconquerable wings",
"As in despair, and with his sinewy neck,",
"Dissolve in sudden shock those linked rings--",
"Then soar, as swift as smoke from a volcano springs.",
"",
"Wile baffled wile, and strength encountered strength,",
"Thus long, but unprevailing:--the event",
"Of that portentous fight appeared at length:",
"Until the lamp of day was almost spent",
"It had endured, when lifeless, stark, and rent,",
"Hung high that mighty Serpent, and at last",
"Fell to the sea, while o'er the continent",
"With clang of wings and scream the Eagle passed,",
"Heavily borne away on the exhausted blast.",
"",
"And with it fled the tempest, so that ocean",
"And earth and sky shone through the atmosphere--",
"Only, 'twas strange to see the red commotion",
"Of waves like mountains o'er the sinking sphere",
"Of sunset sweep, and their fierce roar to hear",
"Amid the calm: down the steep path I wound",
"To the sea-shore--the evening was most clear",
"And beautiful, and there the sea I found",
"Calm as a cradled child in dreamless slumber bound.",
"",
"There was a Woman, beautiful as morning,",
"Sitting beneath the rocks, upon the sand",
"Of the waste sea--fair as one flower adorning",
"An icy wilderness; each delicate hand",
"Lay crossed upon her bosom, and the band",
"Of her dark hair had fall'n, and so she sate",
"Looking upon the waves; on the bare strand",
"Upon the sea-mark a small boat did wait,",
"Fair as herself, like Love by Hope left desolate.",
"",
"It seemed that this fair Shape had looked upon",
"That unimaginable fight, and now",
"That her sweet eyes were weary of the sun,",
"As brightly it illustrated her woe;",
"For in the tears which silently to flow",
"Paused not, its lustre hung: she watching aye",
"The foam-wreaths which the faint tide wove below",
"Upon the spangled sands, groaned heavily,",
"And after every groan looked up over the sea.",
"",
"And when she saw the wounded Serpent make",
"His path between the waves, her lips grew pale,",
"Parted, and quivered; the tears ceased to break",
"From her immovable eyes; no voice of wail",
"Escaped her; but she rose, and on the gale",
"Loosening her star-bright robe and shadowy hair",
"Poured forth her voice; the caverns of the vale",
"That opened to the ocean, caught it there,",
"And filled with silver sounds the overflowing air.",
"",
"She spake in language whose strange melody",
"Might not belong to earth. I heard alone,",
"What made its music more melodious be,",
"The pity and the love of every tone;",
"But to the Snake those accents sweet were known",
"His native tongue and hers; nor did he beat",
"The hoar spray idly then, but winding on",
"Through the green shadows of the waves that meet",
"Near to the shore, did pause beside her snowy feet.",
"",
"Then on the sands the Woman sate again,",
"And wept and clasped her hands, and all between,",
"Renewed the unintelligible strain",
"Of her melodious voice and eloquent mien;",
"And she unveiled her bosom, and the green",
"And glancing shadows of the sea did play",
"O'er its marmoreal depth:--one moment seen,",
"For ere the next, the Serpent did obey",
"Her voice, and, coiled in rest in her embrace it lay.",
"",
"Then she arose, and smiled on me with eyes",
"Serene yet sorrowing, like that planet fair,",
"While yet the daylight lingereth in the skies",
"Which cleaves with arrowy beams the dark-red air,",
"And said: 'To grieve is wise, but the despair",
"Was weak and vain which led thee here from sleep:",
"This shalt thou know, and more, if thou dost dare",
"With me and with this Serpent, o'er the deep,",
"A voyage divine and strange, companionship to keep.'",
"",
"Her voice was like the wildest, saddest tone,",
"Yet sweet, of some loved voice heard long ago.",
"I wept. 'Shall this fair woman all alone,",
"Over the sea with that fierce Serpent go?",
"His head is on her heart, and who can know",
"How soon he may devour his feeble prey?'--",
"Such were my thoughts, when the tide gan to flow;",
"And that strange boat like the moon's shade did sway",
"Amid reflected stars that in the waters lay:--",
"",
"A boat of rare device, which had no sail",
"But its own curved prow of thin moonstone,",
"Wrought like a web of texture fine and frail,",
"To catch those gentlest winds which are not known",
"To breathe, but by the steady speed alone",
"With which it cleaves the sparkling sea; and now",
"We are embarked--the mountains hang and frown",
"Over the starry deep that gleams below,",
"A vast and dim expanse, as o'er the waves we go.",
"",
"And as we sailed, a strange and awful tale",
"That Woman told, like such mysterious dream",
"As makes the slumberer's cheek with wonder pale!",
"'Twas midnight, and around, a shoreless stream,",
"Wide ocean rolled, when that majestic theme",
"Shrined in her heart found utterance, and she bent",
"Her looks on mine; those eyes a kindling beam",
"Of love divine into my spirit sent,",
"And ere her lips could move, made the air eloquent.",
"",
"'Speak not to me, but hear! Much shalt thou learn,",
"Much must remain unthought, and more untold,",
"In the dark Future's ever-flowing urn:",
"Know then, that from the depth of ages old",
"Two Powers o'er mortal things dominion hold,",
"Ruling the world with a divided lot,",
"Immortal, all-pervading, manifold,",
"Twin Genii, equal Gods--when life and thought",
"Sprang forth, they burst the womb of inessential Nought.",
"",
"'The earliest dweller of the world, alone,",
"Stood on the verge of chaos. Lo! afar",
"O'er the wide wild abyss two meteors shone,",
"Sprung from the depth of its tempestuous jar:",
"A blood-red Comet and the Morning Star",
"Mingling their beams in combat--as he stood,",
"All thoughts within his mind waged mutual war,",
"In dreadful sympathy--when to the flood",
"That fair Star fell, he turned and shed his brother's blood.",
"",
"'Thus evil triumphed, and the Spirit of evil,",
"One Power of many shapes which none may know,",
"One Shape of many names; the Fiend did revel",
"In victory, reigning o'er a world of woe,",
"For the new race of man went to and fro,",
"Famished and homeless, loathed and loathing, wild,",
"And hating good--for his immortal foe,",
"He changed from starry shape, beauteous and mild,",
"To a dire Snake, with man and beast unreconciled.",
"",
"'The darkness lingering o'er the dawn of things,",
"Was Evil's breath and life; this made him strong",
"To soar aloft with overshadowing wings;",
"And the great Spirit of Good did creep among",
"The nations of mankind, and every tongue",
"Cursed and blasphemed him as he passed; for none",
"Knew good from evil, though their names were hung",
"In mockery o'er the fane where many a groan,",
"As King, and Lord, and God, the conquering Fiend did own,--",
"",
"'The Fiend, whose name was Legion: Death, Decay,",
"Earthquake and Blight, and Want, and Madness pale,",
"Winged and wan diseases, an array",
"Numerous as leaves that strew the autumnal gale;",
"Poison, a snake in flowers, beneath the veil",
"Of food and mirth, hiding his mortal head;",
"And, without whom all these might nought avail,",
"Fear, Hatred, Faith, and Tyranny, who spread",
"Those subtle nets which snare the living and the dead.",
"",
"'His spirit is their power, and they his slaves",
"In air, and light, and thought, and language, dwell;",
"And keep their state from palaces to graves,",
"In all resorts of men--invisible,",
"But when, in ebon mirror, Nightmare fell",
"To tyrant or impostor bids them rise,",
"Black winged demon forms--whom, from the hell,",
"His reign and dwelling beneath nether skies,",
"He loosens to their dark and blasting ministries.",
"",
"'In the world's youth his empire was as firm",
"As its foundations...Soon the Spirit of Good,",
"Though in the likeness of a loathsome worm,",
"Sprang from the billows of the formless flood,",
"Which shrank and fled; and with that Fiend of blood",
"Renewed the doubtful war...Thrones then first shook,",
"And earth's immense and trampled multitude",
"In hope on their own powers began to look,",
"And Fear, the demon pale, his sanguine shrine forsook.",
"",
"'Then Greece arose, and to its bards and sages,",
"In dream, the golden-pinioned Genii came,",
"Even where they slept amid the night of ages,",
"Steeping their hearts in the divinest flame",
"Which thy breath kindled, Power of holiest name!",
"And oft in cycles since, when darkness gave",
"New weapons to thy foe, their sunlike fame",
"Upon the combat shone--a light to save,",
"Like Paradise spread forth beyond the shadowy grave.",
"",
"'Such is this conflict--when mankind doth strive",
"With its oppressors in a strife of blood,",
"Or when free thoughts, like lightnings, are alive,",
"And in each bosom of the multitude",
"Justice and truth with Custom's hydra brood",
"Wage silent war; when Priests and Kings dissemble",
"In smiles or frowns their fierce disquietude,",
"When round pure hearts a host of hopes assemble,",
"The Snake and Eagle meet--the world's foundations tremble!",
"",
"'Thou hast beheld that fight--when to thy home",
"Thou dost return, steep not its hearth in tears;",
"Though thou may'st hear that earth is now become",
"The tyrant's garbage, which to his compeers,",
"The vile reward of their dishonoured years,",
"He will dividing give.--The victor Fiend,",
"Omnipotent of yore, now quails, and fears",
"His triumph dearly won, which soon will lend",
"An impulse swift and sure to his approaching end.",
"",
"'List, stranger, list, mine is an human form,",
"Like that thou wearest--touch me--shrink not now!",
"My hand thou feel'st is not a ghost's, but warm",
"With human blood.--'Twas many years ago,",
"Since first my thirsting soul aspired to know",
"The secrets of this wondrous world, when deep",
"My heart was pierced with sympathy, for woe",
"Which could not be mine own, and thought did keep,",
"In dream, unnatural watch beside an infant's sleep.",
"",
"'Woe could not be mine own, since far from men",
"I dwelt, a free and happy orphan child,",
"By the sea-shore, in a deep mountain glen;",
"And near the waves, and through the forests wild,",
"I roamed, to storm and darkness reconciled:",
"For I was calm while tempest shook the sky:",
"But when the breathless heavens in beauty smiled,",
"I wept, sweet tears, yet too tumultuously",
"For peace, and clasped my hands aloft in ecstasy.",
"",
"'These were forebodings of my fate--before",
"A woman's heart beat in my virgin breast,",
"It had been nurtured in divinest lore:",
"A dying poet gave me books, and blessed",
"With wild but holy talk the sweet unrest",
"In which I watched him as he died away--",
"A youth with hoary hair--a fleeting guest",
"Of our lone mountains: and this lore did sway",
"My spirit like a storm, contending there alway.",
"",
"'Thus the dark tale which history doth unfold",
"I knew, but not, methinks, as others know,",
"For they weep not; and Wisdom had unrolled",
"The clouds which hide the gulf of mortal woe,--",
"To few can she that warning vision show--",
"For I loved all things with intense devotion;",
"So that when Hope's deep source in fullest flow,",
"Like earthquake did uplift the stagnant ocean",
"Of human thoughts--mine shook beneath the wide emotion.",
"",
"'When first the living blood through all these veins",
"Kindled a thought in sense, great France sprang forth,",
"And seized, as if to break, the ponderous chains",
"Which bind in woe the nations of the earth.",
"I saw, and started from my cottage-hearth;",
"And to the clouds and waves in tameless gladness",
"Shrieked, till they caught immeasurable mirth--",
"And laughed in light and music: soon, sweet madness",
"Was poured upon my heart, a soft and thrilling sadness.",
"",
"'Deep slumber fell on me:--my dreams were fire--",
"Soft and delightful thoughts did rest and hover",
"Like shadows o'er my brain; and strange desire,",
"The tempest of a passion, raging over",
"My tranquil soul, its depths with light did cover,",
"Which passed; and calm, and darkness, sweeter far,",
"Came--then I loved; but not a human lover!",
"For when I rose from sleep, the Morning Star",
"Shone through the woodbine-wreaths which round my casement were.",
"",
"''Twas like an eye which seemed to smile on me.",
"I watched, till by the sun made pale, it sank",
"Under the billows of the heaving sea;",
"But from its beams deep love my spirit drank,",
"And to my brain the boundless world now shrank",
"Into one thought--one image--yes, for ever!",
"Even like the dayspring, poured on vapours dank,",
"The beams of that one Star did shoot and quiver",
"Through my benighted mind--and were extinguished never.",
"",
"'The day passed thus: at night, methought, in dream",
"A shape of speechless beauty did appear:",
"It stood like light on a careering stream",
"Of golden clouds which shook the atmosphere;",
"A winged youth, his radiant brow did wear",
"The Morning Star: a wild dissolving bliss",
"Over my frame he breathed, approaching near,",
"And bent his eyes of kindling tenderness",
"Near mine, and on my lips impressed a lingering kiss,--",
"",
"'And said: \"A Spirit loves thee, mortal maiden,",
"How wilt thou prove thy worth?\" Then joy and sleep",
"Together fled; my soul was deeply laden,",
"And to the shore I went to muse and weep;",
"But as I moved, over my heart did creep",
"A joy less soft, but more profound and strong",
"Than my sweet dream; and it forbade to keep",
"The path of the sea-shore: that Spirit's tongue",
"Seemed whispering in my heart, and bore my steps along.",
"",
"'How, to that vast and peopled city led,",
"Which was a field of holy warfare then,",
"I walked among the dying and the dead,",
"And shared in fearless deeds with evil men,",
"Calm as an angel in the dragon's den--",
"How I braved death for liberty and truth,",
"And spurned at peace, and power, and fame--and when",
"Those hopes had lost the glory of their youth,",
"How sadly I returned--might move the hearer's ruth:",
"",
"'Warm tears throng fast! the tale may not be said--",
"Know then, that when this grief had been subdued,",
"I was not left, like others, cold and dead;",
"The Spirit whom I loved, in solitude",
"Sustained his child: the tempest-shaken wood,",
"The waves, the fountains, and the hush of night--",
"These were his voice, and well I understood",
"His smile divine, when the calm sea was bright",
"With silent stars, and Heaven was breathless with delight.",
"",
"'In lonely glens, amid the roar of rivers,",
"When the dim nights were moonless, have I known",
"Joys which no tongue can tell; my pale lip quivers",
"When thought revisits them:--know thou alone,",
"That after many wondrous years were flown,",
"I was awakened by a shriek of woe;",
"And over me a mystic robe was thrown,",
"By viewless hands, and a bright Star did glow",
"Before my steps--the Snake then met his mortal foe.'",
"",
"'Thou fearest not then the Serpent on thy heart?'",
"'Fear it!' she said, with brief and passionate cry,",
"And spake no more: that silence made me start--",
"I looked, and we were sailing pleasantly,",
"Swift as a cloud between the sea and sky;",
"Beneath the rising moon seen far away,",
"Mountains of ice, like sapphire, piled on high,",
"Hemming the horizon round, in silence lay",
"On the still waters--these we did approach alway.",
"",
"And swift and swifter grew the vessel's motion,",
"So that a dizzy trance fell on my brain--",
"Wild music woke me; we had passed the ocean",
"Which girds the pole, Nature's remotest reign--",
"And we glode fast o'er a pellucid plain",
"Of waters, azure with the noontide day.",
"Ethereal mountains shone around--a Fane",
"Stood in the midst, girt by green isles which lay",
"On the blue sunny deep, resplendent far away.",
"",
"It was a Temple, such as mortal hand",
"Has never built, nor ecstasy, nor dream",
"Reared in the cities of enchanted land:",
"'Twas likest Heaven, ere yet day's purple stream",
"Ebbs o'er the western forest, while the gleam",
"Of the unrisen moon among the clouds",
"Is gathering--when with many a golden beam",
"The thronging constellations rush in crowds,",
"Paving with fire the sky and the marmoreal floods.",
"",
"Like what may be conceived of this vast dome,",
"When from the depths which thought can seldom pierce",
"Genius beholds it rise, his native home,",
"Girt by the deserts of the Universe;",
"Yet, nor in painting's light, or mightier verse,",
"Or sculpture's marble language, can invest",
"That shape to mortal sense--such glooms immerse",
"That incommunicable sight, and rest",
"Upon the labouring brain and overburdened breast.",
"",
"Winding among the lawny islands fair,",
"Whose blosmy forests starred the shadowy deep,",
"The wingless boat paused where an ivory stair",
"Its fretwork in the crystal sea did steep,",
"Encircling that vast Fane's aerial heap:",
"We disembarked, and through a portal wide",
"We passed--whose roof of moonstone carved, did keep",
"A glimmering o'er the forms on every side,",
"Sculptures like life and thought, immovable, deep-eyed.",
"",
"We came to a vast hall, whose glorious roof",
"Was diamond, which had drunk the lightning's sheen",
"In darkness, and now poured it through the woof",
"Of spell-inwoven clouds hung there to screen",
"Its blinding splendour--through such veil was seen",
"That work of subtlest power, divine and rare;",
"Orb above orb, with starry shapes between,",
"And horned moons, and meteors strange and fair,",
"On night-black columns poised--one hollow hemisphere!",
"",
"Ten thousand columns in that quivering light",
"Distinct--between whose shafts wound far away",
"The long and labyrinthine aisles--more bright",
"With their own radiance than the Heaven of Day;",
"And on the jasper walls around, there lay",
"Paintings, the poesy of mightiest thought,",
"Which did the Spirit's history display;",
"A tale of passionate change, divinely taught,",
"Which, in their winged dance, unconscious Genii wrought.",
"",
"Beneath, there sate on many a sapphire throne,",
"The Great, who had departed from mankind,",
"A mighty Senate;--some, whose white hair shone",
"Like mountain snow, mild, beautiful, and blind;",
"Some, female forms, whose gestures beamed with mind;",
"And ardent youths, and children bright and fair;",
"And some had lyres whose strings were intertwined",
"With pale and clinging flames, which ever there",
"Waked faint yet thrilling sounds that pierced the crystal air.",
"",
"One seat was vacant in the midst, a throne,",
"Reared on a pyramid like sculptured flame,",
"Distinct with circling steps which rested on",
"Their own deep fire--soon as the Woman came",
"Into that hall, she shrieked the Spirit's name",
"And fell; and vanished slowly from the sight.",
"Darkness arose from her dissolving frame,",
"Which gathering, filled that dome of woven light,",
"Blotting its sphered stars with supernatural night.",
"",
"Then first, two glittering lights were seen to glide",
"In circles on the amethystine floor,",
"Small serpent eyes trailing from side to side,",
"Like meteors on a river's grassy shore,",
"They round each other rolled, dilating more",
"And more--then rose, commingling into one,",
"One clear and mighty planet hanging o'er",
"A cloud of deepest shadow, which was thrown",
"Athwart the glowing steps and the crystalline throne.",
"",
"The cloud which rested on that cone of flame",
"Was cloven; beneath the planet sate a Form,",
"Fairer than tongue can speak or thought may frame,",
"The radiance of whose limbs rose-like and warm",
"Flowed forth, and did with softest light inform",
"The shadowy dome, the sculptures, and the state",
"Of those assembled shapes--with clinging charm",
"Sinking upon their hearts and mine. He sate",
"Majestic, yet most mild--calm, yet compassionate.",
"",
"Wonder and joy a passing faintness threw",
"Over my brow--a hand supported me,",
"Whose touch was magic strength; an eye of blue",
"Looked into mine, like moonlight, soothingly;",
"And a voice said:--'Thou must a listener be",
"This day--two mighty Spirits now return,",
"Like birds of calm, from the world's raging sea,",
"They pour fresh light from Hope's immortal urn;",
"A tale of human power--despair not--list and learn!",
"",
"I looked, and lo! one stood forth eloquently.",
"His eyes were dark and deep, and the clear brow",
"Which shadowed them was like the morning sky,",
"The cloudless Heaven of Spring, when in their flow",
"Through the bright air, the soft winds as they blow",
"Wake the green world--his gestures did obey",
"The oracular mind that made his features glow,",
"And where his curved lips half-open lay,",
"Passion's divinest stream had made impetuous way.",
"",
"Beneath the darkness of his outspread hair",
"He stood thus beautiful; but there was One",
"Who sate beside him like his shadow there,",
"And held his hand--far lovelier; she was known",
"To be thus fair, by the few lines alone",
"Which through her floating locks and gathered cloak,",
"Glances of soul-dissolving glory, shone:--",
"None else beheld her eyes--in him they woke",
"Memories which found a tongue as thus he silence broke.",
"",
"CANTO 2.",
"",
"The starlight smile of children, the sweet looks",
"Of women, the fair breast from which I fed,",
"The murmur of the unreposing brooks,",
"And the green light which, shifting overhead,",
"Some tangled bower of vines around me shed,",
"The shells on the sea-sand, and the wild flowers,",
"The lamp-light through the rafters cheerly spread,",
"And on the twining flax--in life's young hours",
"These sights and sounds did nurse my spirit's folded powers.",
"",
"In Argolis, beside the echoing sea,",
"Such impulses within my mortal frame",
"Arose, and they were dear to memory,",
"Like tokens of the dead:--but others came",
"Soon, in another shape: the wondrous fame",
"Of the past world, the vital words and deeds",
"Of minds whom neither time nor change can tame,",
"Traditions dark and old, whence evil creeds",
"Start forth, and whose dim shade a stream of poison feeds.",
"",
"I heard, as all have heard, the various story",
"Of human life, and wept unwilling tears.",
"Feeble historians of its shame and glory,",
"False disputants on all its hopes and fears,",
"Victims who worshipped ruin, chroniclers",
"Of daily scorn, and slaves who loathed their state",
"Yet, flattering power, had given its ministers",
"A throne of judgement in the grave:--'twas fate,",
"That among such as these my youth should seek its mate.",
"",
"The land in which I lived, by a fell bane",
"Was withered up. Tyrants dwelt side by side,",
"And stabled in our homes,--until the chain",
"Stifled the captive's cry, and to abide",
"That blasting curse men had no shame--all vied",
"In evil, slave and despot; fear with lust",
"Strange fellowship through mutual hate had tied,",
"Like two dark serpents tangled in the dust,",
"Which on the paths of men their mingling poison thrust.",
"",
"Earth, our bright home, its mountains and its waters,",
"And the ethereal shapes which are suspended",
"Over its green expanse, and those fair daughters,",
"The clouds, of Sun and Ocean, who have blended",
"The colours of the air since first extended",
"It cradled the young world, none wandered forth",
"To see or feel; a darkness had descended",
"On every heart; the light which shows its worth,",
"Must among gentle thoughts and fearless take its birth.",
"",
"This vital world, this home of happy spirits,",
"Was as a dungeon to my blasted kind;",
"All that despair from murdered hope inherits",
"They sought, and in their helpless misery blind,",
"A deeper prison and heavier chains did find,",
"And stronger tyrants:--a dark gulf before,",
"The realm of a stern Ruler, yawned; behind,",
"Terror and Time conflicting drove, and bore",
"On their tempestuous flood the shrieking wretch from shore.",
"",
"Out of that Ocean's wrecks had Guilt and Woe",
"Framed a dark dwelling for their homeless thought,",
"And, starting at the ghosts which to and fro",
"Glide o'er its dim and gloomy strand, had brought",
"The worship thence which they each other taught.",
"Well might men loathe their life, well might they turn",
"Even to the ills again from which they sought",
"Such refuge after death!--well might they learn",
"To gaze on this fair world with hopeless unconcern!",
"",
"For they all pined in bondage; body and soul,",
"Tyrant and slave, victim and torturer, bent",
"Before one Power, to which supreme control",
"Over their will by their own weakness lent,",
"Made all its many names omnipotent;",
"All symbols of things evil, all divine;",
"And hymns of blood or mockery, which rent",
"The air from all its fanes, did intertwine",
"Imposture's impious toils round each discordant shrine.",
"",
"I heard, as all have heard, life's various story,",
"And in no careless heart transcribed the tale;",
"But, from the sneers of men who had grown hoary",
"In shame and scorn, from groans of crowds made pale",
"By famine, from a mother's desolate wail",
"O'er her polluted child, from innocent blood",
"Poured on the earth, and brows anxious and pale",
"With the heart's warfare, did I gather food",
"To feed my many thoughts--a tameless multitude!",
"",
"I wandered through the wrecks of days departed",
"Far by the desolated shore, when even",
"O'er the still sea and jagged islets darted",
"The light of moonrise; in the northern Heaven,",
"Among the clouds near the horizon driven,",
"The mountains lay beneath one planet pale;",
"Around me, broken tombs and columns riven",
"Looked vast in twilight, and the sorrowing gale",
"Waked in those ruins gray its everlasting wail!",
"",
"I knew not who had framed these wonders then,",
"Nor had I heard the story of their deeds;",
"But dwellings of a race of mightier men,",
"And monuments of less ungentle creeds",
"Tell their own tale to him who wisely heeds",
"The language which they speak; and now, to me",
"The moonlight making pale the blooming weeds,",
"The bright stars shining in the breathless sea,",
"Interpreted those scrolls of mortal mystery.",
"",
"Such man has been, and such may yet become!",
"Ay, wiser, greater, gentler even than they",
"Who on the fragments of yon shattered dome",
"Have stamped the sign of power--I felt the sway",
"Of the vast stream of ages bear away",
"My floating thoughts--my heart beat loud and fast--",
"Even as a storm let loose beneath the ray",
"Of the still moon, my spirit onward passed",
"Beneath truth's steady beams upon its tumult cast.",
"",
"It shall be thus no more! too long, too long,",
"Sons of the glorious dead, have ye lain bound",
"In darkness and in ruin!--Hope is strong,",
"Justice and Truth their winged child have found--",
"Awake! arise! until the mighty sound",
"Of your career shall scatter in its gust",
"The thrones of the oppressor, and the ground",
"Hide the last altar's unregarded dust,",
"Whose Idol has so long betrayed your impious trust!",
"",
"It must be so--I will arise and waken",
"The multitude, and like a sulphurous hill,",
"Which on a sudden from its snows has shaken",
"The swoon of ages, it shall burst and fill",
"The world with cleansing fire; it must, it will--",
"It may not be restrained!--and who shall stand",
"Amid the rocking earthquake steadfast still,",
"But Laon? on high Freedom's desert land",
"A tower whose marble walls the leagued storms withstand!",
"",
"One summer night, in commune with the hope",
"Thus deeply fed, amid those ruins gray",
"I watched, beneath the dark sky's starry cope;",
"And ever from that hour upon me lay",
"The burden of this hope, and night or day,",
"In vision or in dream, clove to my breast:",
"Among mankind, or when gone far away",
"To the lone shores and mountains, 'twas a guest",
"Which followed where I fled, and watched when I did rest.",
"",
"These hopes found words through which my spirit sought",
"To weave a bondage of such sympathy,",
"As might create some response to the thought",
"Which ruled me now--and as the vapours lie",
"Bright in the outspread morning's radiancy,",
"So were these thoughts invested with the light",
"Of language: and all bosoms made reply",
"On which its lustre streamed, whene'er it might",
"Through darkness wide and deep those tranced spirits smite.",
"",
"Yes, many an eye with dizzy tears was dim,",
"And oft I thought to clasp my own heart's brother,",
"When I could feel the listener's senses swim,",
"And hear his breath its own swift gaspings smother",
"Even as my words evoked them--and another,",
"And yet another, I did fondly deem,",
"Felt that we all were sons of one great mother;",
"And the cold truth such sad reverse did seem",
"As to awake in grief from some delightful dream.",
"",
"Yes, oft beside the ruined labyrinth",
"Which skirts the hoary caves of the green deep,",
"Did Laon and his friend, on one gray plinth,",
"Round whose worn base the wild waves hiss and leap,",
"Resting at eve, a lofty converse keep:",
"And that this friend was false, may now be said",
"Calmly--that he like other men could weep",
"Tears which are lies, and could betray and spread",
"Snares for that guileless heart which for his own had bled.",
"",
"Then, had no great aim recompensed my sorrow,",
"I must have sought dark respite from its stress",
"In dreamless rest, in sleep that sees no morrow--",
"For to tread life's dismaying wilderness",
"Without one smile to cheer, one voice to bless,",
"Amid the snares and scoffs of human kind,",
"Is hard--but I betrayed it not, nor less",
"With love that scorned return sought to unbind",
"The interwoven clouds which make its wisdom blind.",
"",
"With deathless minds which leave where they have passed",
"A path of light, my soul communion knew;",
"Till from that glorious intercourse, at last,",
"As from a mine of magic store, I drew",
"Words which were weapons;--round my heart there grew",
"The adamantine armour of their power;",
"And from my fancy wings of golden hue",
"Sprang forth--yet not alone from wisdom's tower,",
"A minister of truth, these plumes young Laon bore.",
"",
"An orphan with my parents lived, whose eyes",
"Were lodestars of delight, which drew me home",
"When I might wander forth; nor did I prize",
"Aught human thing beneath Heaven's mighty dome",
"Beyond this child; so when sad hours were come,",
"And baffled hope like ice still clung to me,",
"Since kin were cold, and friends had now become",
"Heartless and false, I turned from all, to be,",
"Cythna, the only source of tears and smiles to thee.",
"",
"What wert thou then? A child most infantine,",
"Yet wandering far beyond that innocent age",
"In all but its sweet looks and mien divine;",
"Even then, methought, with the world's tyrant rage",
"A patient warfare thy young heart did wage,",
"When those soft eyes of scarcely conscious thought",
"Some tale, or thine own fancies, would engage",
"To overflow with tears, or converse fraught",
"With passion, o'er their depths its fleeting light had wrought.",
"",
"She moved upon this earth a shape of brightness,",
"A power, that from its objects scarcely drew",
"One impulse of her being--in her lightness",
"Most like some radiant cloud of morning dew,",
"Which wanders through the waste air's pathless blue,",
"To nourish some far desert; she did seem",
"Beside me, gathering beauty as she grew,",
"Like the bright shade of some immortal dream",
"Which walks, when tempest sleeps, the wave of life's dark stream.",
"",
"As mine own shadow was this child to me,",
"A second self, far dearer and more fair;",
"Which clothed in undissolving radiancy",
"All those steep paths which languor and despair",
"Of human things, had made so dark and bare,",
"But which I trod alone--nor, till bereft",
"Of friends, and overcome by lonely care,",
"Knew I what solace for that loss was left,",
"Though by a bitter wound my trusting heart was cleft.",
"",
"Once she was dear, now she was all I had",
"To love in human life--this playmate sweet,",
"This child of twelve years old--so she was made",
"My sole associate, and her willing feet",
"Wandered with mine where earth and ocean meet,",
"Beyond the aereal mountains whose vast cells",
"The unreposing billows ever beat,",
"Through forests wild and old, and lawny dells",
"Where boughs of incense droop over the emerald wells.",
"",
"And warm and light I felt her clasping hand",
"When twined in mine; she followed where I went,",
"Through the lone paths of our immortal land.",
"It had no waste but some memorial lent",
"Which strung me to my toil--some monument",
"Vital with mind; then Cythna by my side,",
"Until the bright and beaming day were spent,",
"Would rest, with looks entreating to abide,",
"Too earnest and too sweet ever to be denied.",
"",
"And soon I could not have refused her--thus",
"For ever, day and night, we two were ne'er",
"Parted, but when brief sleep divided us:",
"And when the pauses of the lulling air",
"Of noon beside the sea had made a lair",
"For her soothed senses, in my arms she slept,",
"And I kept watch over her slumbers there,",
"While, as the shifting visions over her swept,",
"Amid her innocent rest by turns she smiled and wept.",
"",
"And, in the murmur of her dreams was heard",
"Sometimes the name of Laon:--suddenly",
"She would arise, and, like the secret bird",
"Whom sunset wakens, fill the shore and sky",
"With her sweet accents, a wild melody!",
"Hymns which my soul had woven to Freedom, strong",
"The source of passion, whence they rose, to be;",
"Triumphant strains, which, like a spirit's tongue,",
"To the enchanted waves that child of glory sung--",
"",
"Her white arms lifted through the shadowy stream",
"Of her loose hair. Oh, excellently great",
"Seemed to me then my purpose, the vast theme",
"Of those impassioned songs, when Cythna sate",
"Amid the calm which rapture doth create",
"After its tumult, her heart vibrating,",
"Her spirit o'er the Ocean's floating state",
"From her deep eyes far wandering, on the wing",
"Of visions that were mine, beyond its utmost spring!",
"",
"For, before Cythna loved it, had my song",
"Peopled with thoughts the boundless universe,",
"A mighty congregation, which were strong",
"Where'er they trod the darkness to disperse",
"The cloud of that unutterable curse",
"Which clings upon mankind:--all things became",
"Slaves to my holy and heroic verse,",
"Earth, sea and sky, the planets, life and fame",
"And fate, or whate'er else binds the world's wondrous frame.",
"",
"And this beloved child thus felt the sway",
"Of my conceptions, gathering like a cloud",
"The very wind on which it rolls away:",
"Hers too were all my thoughts, ere yet, endowed",
"With music and with light, their fountains flowed",
"In poesy; and her still and earnest face,",
"Pallid with feelings which intensely glowed",
"Within, was turned on mine with speechless grace,",
"Watching the hopes which there her heart had learned to trace.",
"",
"In me, communion with this purest being",
"Kindled intenser zeal, and made me wise",
"In knowledge, which, in hers mine own mind seeing,",
"Left in the human world few mysteries:",
"How without fear of evil or disguise",
"Was Cythna!--what a spirit strong and mild,",
"Which death, or pain or peril could despise,",
"Yet melt in tenderness! what genius wild",
"Yet mighty, was enclosed within one simple child!",
"",
"New lore was this--old age with its gray hair,",
"And wrinkled legends of unworthy things,",
"And icy sneers, is nought: it cannot dare",
"To burst the chains which life for ever flings",
"On the entangled soul's aspiring wings,",
"So is it cold and cruel, and is made",
"The careless slave of that dark power which brings",
"Evil, like blight, on man, who, still betrayed,",
"Laughs o'er the grave in which his living hopes are laid.",
"",
"Nor are the strong and the severe to keep",
"The empire of the world: thus Cythna taught",
"Even in the visions of her eloquent sleep,",
"Unconscious of the power through which she wrought",
"The woof of such intelligible thought,",
"As from the tranquil strength which cradled lay",
"In her smile-peopled rest, my spirit sought",
"Why the deceiver and the slave has sway",
"O'er heralds so divine of truth's arising day.",
"",
"Within that fairest form, the female mind,",
"Untainted by the poison clouds which rest",
"On the dark world, a sacred home did find:",
"But else, from the wide earth's maternal breast,",
"Victorious Evil, which had dispossessed",
"All native power, had those fair children torn,",
"And made them slaves to soothe his vile unrest,",
"And minister to lust its joys forlorn,",
"Till they had learned to breathe the atmosphere of scorn.",
"",
"This misery was but coldly felt, till she",
"Became my only friend, who had endued",
"My purpose with a wider sympathy;",
"Thus, Cythna mourned with me the servitude",
"In which the half of humankind were mewed",
"Victims of lust and hate, the slaves of slaves,",
"She mourned that grace and power were thrown as food",
"To the hyena lust, who, among graves,",
"Over his loathed meal, laughing in agony, raves.",
"",
"And I, still gazing on that glorious child,",
"Even as these thoughts flushed o'er her:--'Cythna sweet,",
"Well with the world art thou unreconciled;",
"Never will peace and human nature meet",
"Till free and equal man and woman greet",
"Domestic peace; and ere this power can make",
"In human hearts its calm and holy seat,",
"This slavery must be broken'--as I spake,",
"From Cythna's eyes a light of exultation brake.",
"",
"She replied earnestly:--'It shall be mine,",
"This task,--mine, Laon!--thou hast much to gain;",
"Nor wilt thou at poor Cythna's pride repine,",
"If she should lead a happy female train",
"To meet thee over the rejoicing plain,",
"When myriads at thy call shall throng around",
"The Golden City.'--Then the child did strain",
"My arm upon her tremulous heart, and wound",
"Her own about my neck, till some reply she found.",
"",
"I smiled, and spake not.--'Wherefore dost thou smile",
"At what I say? Laon, I am not weak,",
"And, though my cheek might become pale the while,",
"With thee, if thou desirest, will I seek",
"Through their array of banded slaves to wreak",
"Ruin upon the tyrants. I had thought",
"It was more hard to turn my unpractised cheek",
"To scorn and shame, and this beloved spot",
"And thee, O dearest friend, to leave and murmur not.",
"",
"'Whence came I what I am? Thou, Laon, knowest",
"How a young child should thus undaunted be;",
"Methinks, it is a power which thou bestowest,",
"Through which I seek, by most resembling thee,",
"So to become most good and great and free;",
"Yet far beyond this Ocean's utmost roar,",
"In towers and huts are many like to me,",
"Who, could they see thine eyes, or feel such lore",
"As I have learnt from them, like me would fear no more.",
"",
"'Think'st thou that I shall speak unskilfully,",
"And none will heed me? I remember now,",
"How once, a slave in tortures doomed to die,",
"Was saved, because in accents sweet and low",
"He sung a song his Judge loved long ago,",
"As he was led to death.--All shall relent",
"Who hear me--tears, as mine have flowed, shall flow,",
"Hearts beat as mine now beats, with such intent",
"As renovates the world; a will omnipotent!",
"",
"'Yes, I will tread Pride's golden palaces,",
"Through Penury's roofless huts and squalid cells",
"Will I descend, where'er in abjectness",
"Woman with some vile slave her tyrant dwells,",
"There with the music of thine own sweet spells",
"Will disenchant the captives, and will pour",
"For the despairing, from the crystal wells",
"Of thy deep spirit, reason's mighty lore,",
"And power shall then abound, and hope arise once more.",
"",
"'Can man be free if woman be a slave?",
"Chain one who lives, and breathes this boundless air,",
"To the corruption of a closed grave!",
"Can they whose mates are beasts, condemned to bear",
"Scorn, heavier far than toil or anguish, dare",
"To trample their oppressors? in their home",
"Among their babes, thou knowest a curse would wear",
"The shape of woman--hoary Crime would come",
"Behind, and Fraud rebuild religion's tottering dome.",
"",
"'I am a child:--I would not yet depart.",
"When I go forth alone, bearing the lamp",
"Aloft which thou hast kindled in my heart,",
"Millions of slaves from many a dungeon damp",
"Shall leap in joy, as the benumbing cramp",
"Of ages leaves their limbs--no ill may harm",
"Thy Cythna ever--truth its radiant stamp",
"Has fixed, as an invulnerable charm,",
"Upon her children's brow, dark Falsehood to disarm.",
"",
"'Wait yet awhile for the appointed day--",
"Thou wilt depart, and I with tears shall stand",
"Watching thy dim sail skirt the ocean gray;",
"Amid the dwellers of this lonely land",
"I shall remain alone--and thy command",
"Shall then dissolve the world's unquiet trance,",
"And, multitudinous as the desert sand",
"Borne on the storm, its millions shall advance,",
"Thronging round thee, the light of their deliverance.",
"",
"'Then, like the forests of some pathless mountain,",
"Which from remotest glens two warring winds",
"Involve in fire which not the loosened fountain",
"Of broadest floods might quench, shall all the kinds",
"Of evil, catch from our uniting minds",
"The spark which must consume them;--Cythna then",
"Will have cast off the impotence that binds",
"Her childhood now, and through the paths of men",
"Will pass, as the charmed bird that haunts the serpent's den.",
"",
"'We part!--O Laon, I must dare nor tremble,",
"To meet those looks no more!--Oh, heavy stroke!",
"Sweet brother of my soul! can I dissemble",
"The agony of this thought?'--As thus she spoke",
"The gathered sobs her quivering accents broke,",
"And in my arms she hid her beating breast.",
"I remained still for tears--sudden she woke",
"As one awakes from sleep, and wildly pressed",
"My bosom, her whole frame impetuously possessed.",
"",
"'We part to meet again--but yon blue waste,",
"Yon desert wide and deep, holds no recess,",
"Within whose happy silence, thus embraced",
"We might survive all ills in one caress:",
"Nor doth the grave--I fear 'tis passionless--",
"Nor yon cold vacant Heaven:--we meet again",
"Within the minds of men, whose lips shall bless",
"Our memory, and whose hopes its light retain",
"When these dissevered bones are trodden in the plain.'",
"",
"I could not speak, though she had ceased, for now",
"The fountains of her feeling, swift and deep,",
"Seemed to suspend the tumult of their flow;",
"So we arose, and by the starlight steep",
"Went homeward--neither did we speak nor weep,",
"But, pale, were calm with passion--thus subdued",
"Like evening shades that o'er the mountains creep,",
"We moved towards our home; where, in this mood,",
"Each from the other sought refuge in solitude.",
"",
"CANTO 3.",
"",
"What thoughts had sway o'er Cythna's lonely slumber",
"That night, I know not; but my own did seem",
"As if they might ten thousand years outnumber",
"Of waking life, the visions of a dream",
"Which hid in one dim gulf the troubled stream",
"Of mind; a boundless chaos wild and vast,",
"Whose limits yet were never memory's theme:",
"And I lay struggling as its whirlwinds passed,",
"Sometimes for rapture sick, sometimes for pain aghast.",
"",
"Two hours, whose mighty circle did embrace",
"More time than might make gray the infant world,",
"Rolled thus, a weary and tumultuous space:",
"When the third came, like mist on breezes curled,",
"From my dim sleep a shadow was unfurled:",
"Methought, upon the threshold of a cave",
"I sate with Cythna; drooping briony, pearled",
"With dew from the wild streamlet's shattered wave,",
"Hung, where we sate to taste the joys which Nature gave.",
"",
"We lived a day as we were wont to live,",
"But Nature had a robe of glory on,",
"And the bright air o'er every shape did weave",
"Intenser hues, so that the herbless stone,",
"The leafless bough among the leaves alone,",
"Had being clearer than its own could be,",
"And Cythna's pure and radiant self was shown,",
"In this strange vision, so divine to me,",
"That if I loved before, now love was agony.",
"",
"Morn fled, noon came, evening, then night descended,",
"And we prolonged calm talk beneath the sphere",
"Of the calm moon--when suddenly was blended",
"With our repose a nameless sense of fear;",
"And from the cave behind I seemed to hear",
"Sounds gathering upwards!--accents incomplete,",
"And stifled shrieks,--and now, more near and near,",
"A tumult and a rush of thronging feet",
"The cavern's secret depths beneath the earth did beat.",
"",
"The scene was changed, and away, away, away!",
"Through the air and over the sea we sped,",
"And Cythna in my sheltering bosom lay,",
"And the winds bore me--through the darkness spread",
"Around, the gaping earth then vomited",
"Legions of foul and ghastly shapes, which hung",
"Upon my flight; and ever, as we fled,",
"They plucked at Cythna--soon to me then clung",
"A sense of actual things those monstrous dreams among.",
"",
"And I lay struggling in the impotence",
"Of sleep, while outward life had burst its bound,",
"Though, still deluded, strove the tortured sense",
"To its dire wanderings to adapt the sound",
"Which in the light of morn was poured around",
"Our dwelling; breathless, pale and unaware",
"I rose, and all the cottage crowded found",
"With armed men, whose glittering swords were bare,",
"And whose degraded limbs the tyrant's garb did wear.",
"",
"And, ere with rapid lips and gathered brow",
"I could demand the cause--a feeble shriek--",
"It was a feeble shriek, faint, far and low,",
"Arrested me--my mien grew calm and meek,",
"And grasping a small knife, I went to seek",
"That voice among the crowd--'twas Cythna's cry!",
"Beneath most calm resolve did agony wreak",
"Its whirlwind rage:--so I passed quietly",
"Till I beheld, where bound, that dearest child did lie.",
"",
"I started to behold her, for delight",
"And exultation, and a joyance free,",
"Solemn, serene and lofty, filled the light",
"Of the calm smile with which she looked on me:",
"So that I feared some brainless ecstasy,",
"Wrought from that bitter woe, had wildered her--",
"'Farewell! farewell!' she said, as I drew nigh;",
"'At first my peace was marred by this strange stir,",
"Now I am calm as truth--its chosen minister.",
"",
"'Look not so, Laon--say farewell in hope,",
"These bloody men are but the slaves who bear",
"Their mistress to her task--it was my scope",
"The slavery where they drag me now, to share,",
"And among captives willing chains to wear",
"Awhile--the rest thou knowest--return, dear friend!",
"Let our first triumph trample the despair",
"Which would ensnare us now, for in the end,",
"In victory or in death our hopes and fears must blend.'",
"",
"These words had fallen on my unheeding ear,",
"Whilst I had watched the motions of the crew",
"With seeming-careless glance; not many were",
"Around her, for their comrades just withdrew",
"To guard some other victim--so I drew",
"My knife, and with one impulse, suddenly",
"All unaware three of their number slew,",
"And grasped a fourth by the throat, and with loud cry",
"My countrymen invoked to death or liberty!",
"",
"What followed then, I know not--for a stroke",
"On my raised arm and naked head, came down,",
"Filling my eyes with blood.--When I awoke,",
"I felt that they had bound me in my swoon,",
"And up a rock which overhangs the town,",
"By the steep path were bearing me; below,",
"The plain was filled with slaughter,--overthrown",
"The vineyards and the harvests, and the glow",
"Of blazing roofs shone far o'er the white Ocean's flow.",
"",
"Upon that rock a mighty column stood,",
"Whose capital seemed sculptured in the sky,",
"Which to the wanderers o'er the solitude",
"Of distant seas, from ages long gone by,",
"Had made a landmark; o'er its height to fly",
"Scarcely the cloud, the vulture, or the blast,",
"Has power--and when the shades of evening lie",
"On Earth and Ocean, its carved summits cast",
"The sunken daylight far through the aerial waste.",
"",
"They bore me to a cavern in the hill",
"Beneath that column, and unbound me there;",
"And one did strip me stark; and one did fill",
"A vessel from the putrid pool; one bare",
"A lighted torch, and four with friendless care",
"Guided my steps the cavern-paths along,",
"Then up a steep and dark and narrow stair",
"We wound, until the torch's fiery tongue",
"Amid the gushing day beamless and pallid hung.",
"",
"They raised me to the platform of the pile,",
"That column's dizzy height:--the grate of brass",
"Through which they thrust me, open stood the while,",
"As to its ponderous and suspended mass,",
"With chains which eat into the flesh, alas!",
"With brazen links, my naked limbs they bound:",
"The grate, as they departed to repass,",
"With horrid clangour fell, and the far sound",
"Of their retiring steps in the dense gloom was drowned.",
"",
"The noon was calm and bright:--around that column",
"The overhanging sky and circling sea",
"Spread forth in silentness profound and solemn",
"The darkness of brief frenzy cast on me,",
"So that I knew not my own misery:",
"The islands and the mountains in the day",
"Like clouds reposed afar; and I could see",
"The town among the woods below that lay,",
"And the dark rocks which bound the bright and glassy bay.",
"",
"It was so calm, that scarce the feathery weed",
"Sown by some eagle on the topmost stone",
"Swayed in the air:--so bright, that noon did breed",
"No shadow in the sky beside mine own--",
"Mine, and the shadow of my chain alone.",
"Below, the smoke of roofs involved in flame",
"Rested like night, all else was clearly shown",
"In that broad glare; yet sound to me none came,",
"But of the living blood that ran within my frame.",
"",
"The peace of madness fled, and ah, too soon!",
"A ship was lying on the sunny main,",
"Its sails were flagging in the breathless noon--",
"Its shadow lay beyond--that sight again",
"Waked, with its presence, in my tranced brain",
"The stings of a known sorrow, keen and cold:",
"I knew that ship bore Cythna o'er the plain",
"Of waters, to her blighting slavery sold,",
"And watched it with such thoughts as must remain untold.",
"",
"I watched until the shades of evening wrapped",
"Earth like an exhalation--then the bark",
"Moved, for that calm was by the sunset snapped.",
"It moved a speck upon the Ocean dark:",
"Soon the wan stars came forth, and I could mark",
"Its path no more!--I sought to close mine eyes,",
"But like the balls, their lids were stiff and stark;",
"I would have risen, but ere that I could rise,",
"My parched skin was split with piercing agonies.",
"",
"I gnawed my brazen chain, and sought to sever",
"Its adamantine links, that I might die:",
"O Liberty! forgive the base endeavour,",
"Forgive me, if, reserved for victory,",
"The Champion of thy faith e'er sought to fly.--",
"That starry night, with its clear silence, sent",
"Tameless resolve which laughed at misery",
"Into my soul--linked remembrance lent",
"To that such power, to me such a severe content.",
"",
"To breathe, to be, to hope, or to despair",
"And die, I questioned not; nor, though the Sun",
"Its shafts of agony kindling through the air",
"Moved over me, nor though in evening dun,",
"Or when the stars their visible courses run,",
"Or morning, the wide universe was spread",
"In dreary calmness round me, did I shun",
"Its presence, nor seek refuge with the dead",
"From one faint hope whose flower a dropping poison shed.",
"",
"Two days thus passed--I neither raved nor died--",
"Thirst raged within me, like a scorpion's nest",
"Built in mine entrails; I had spurned aside",
"The water-vessel, while despair possessed",
"My thoughts, and now no drop remained! The uprest",
"Of the third sun brought hunger--but the crust",
"Which had been left, was to my craving breast",
"Fuel, not food. I chewed the bitter dust,",
"And bit my bloodless arm, and licked the brazen rust.",
"",
"My brain began to fail when the fourth morn",
"Burst o'er the golden isles--a fearful sleep,",
"Which through the caverns dreary and forlorn",
"Of the riven soul, sent its foul dreams to sweep",
"With whirlwind swiftness--a fall far and deep,--",
"A gulf, a void, a sense of senselessness--",
"These things dwelt in me, even as shadows keep",
"Their watch in some dim charnel's loneliness,",
"A shoreless sea, a sky sunless and planetless!",
"",
"The forms which peopled this terrific trance",
"I well remember--like a choir of devils,",
"Around me they involved a giddy dance;",
"Legions seemed gathering from the misty levels",
"Of Ocean, to supply those ceaseless revels,",
"Foul, ceaseless shadows:--thought could not divide",
"The actual world from these entangling evils,",
"Which so bemocked themselves, that I descried",
"All shapes like mine own self, hideously multiplied.",
"",
"The sense of day and night, of false and true,",
"Was dead within me. Yet two visions burst",
"That darkness--one, as since that hour I knew,",
"Was not a phantom of the realms accursed,",
"Where then my spirit dwelt--but of the first",
"I know not yet, was it a dream or no.",
"But both, though not distincter, were immersed",
"In hues which, when through memory's waste they flow,",
"Make their divided streams more bright and rapid now.",
"",
"Methought that grate was lifted, and the seven",
"Who brought me thither four stiff corpses bare,",
"And from the frieze to the four winds of Heaven",
"Hung them on high by the entangled hair;",
"Swarthy were three--the fourth was very fair;",
"As they retired, the golden moon upsprung,",
"And eagerly, out in the giddy air,",
"Leaning that I might eat, I stretched and clung",
"Over the shapeless depth in which those corpses hung.",
"",
"A woman's shape, now lank and cold and blue,",
"The dwelling of the many-coloured worm,",
"Hung there; the white and hollow cheek I drew",
"To my dry lips--what radiance did inform",
"Those horny eyes? whose was that withered form?",
"Alas, alas! it seemed that Cythna's ghost",
"Laughed in those looks, and that the flesh was warm",
"Within my teeth!--a whirlwind keen as frost",
"Then in its sinking gulfs my sickening spirit tossed.",
"",
"Then seemed it that a tameless hurricane",
"Arose, and bore me in its dark career",
"Beyond the sun, beyond the stars that wane",
"On the verge of formless space--it languished there,",
"And dying, left a silence lone and drear,",
"More horrible than famine:--in the deep",
"The shape of an old man did then appear,",
"Stately and beautiful; that dreadful sleep",
"His heavenly smiles dispersed, and I could wake and weep.",
"",
"And, when the blinding tears had fallen, I saw",
"That column, and those corpses, and the moon,",
"And felt the poisonous tooth of hunger gnaw",
"My vitals, I rejoiced, as if the boon",
"Of senseless death would be accorded soon;--",
"When from that stony gloom a voice arose,",
"Solemn and sweet as when low winds attune",
"The midnight pines; the grate did then unclose,",
"And on that reverend form the moonlight did repose.",
"",
"He struck my chains, and gently spake and smiled;",
"As they were loosened by that Hermit old,",
"Mine eyes were of their madness half beguiled,",
"To answer those kind looks; he did enfold",
"His giant arms around me, to uphold",
"My wretched frame; my scorched limbs he wound",
"In linen moist and balmy, and as cold",
"As dew to drooping leaves;--the chain, with sound",
"Like earthquake, through the chasm of that steep stair did bound,",
"",
"As, lifting me, it fell!--What next I heard,",
"Were billows leaping on the harbour-bar,",
"And the shrill sea-wind, whose breath idly stirred",
"My hair;--I looked abroad, and saw a star",
"Shining beside a sail, and distant far",
"That mountain and its column, the known mark",
"Of those who in the wide deep wandering are,",
"So that I feared some Spirit, fell and dark,",
"In trance had lain me thus within a fiendish bark.",
"",
"For now indeed, over the salt sea-billow",
"I sailed: yet dared not look upon the shape",
"Of him who ruled the helm, although the pillow",
"For my light head was hollowed in his lap,",
"And my bare limbs his mantle did enwrap,",
"Fearing it was a fiend: at last, he bent",
"O'er me his aged face; as if to snap",
"Those dreadful thoughts the gentle grandsire bent,",
"And to my inmost soul his soothing looks he sent.",
"",
"A soft and healing potion to my lips",
"At intervals he raised--now looked on high,",
"To mark if yet the starry giant dips",
"His zone in the dim sea--now cheeringly,",
"Though he said little, did he speak to me.",
"'It is a friend beside thee--take good cheer,",
"Poor victim, thou art now at liberty!'",
"I joyed as those a human tone to hear,",
"Who in cells deep and lone have languished many a year.",
"",
"A dim and feeble joy, whose glimpses oft",
"Were quenched in a relapse of wildering dreams;",
"Yet still methought we sailed, until aloft",
"The stars of night grew pallid, and the beams",
"Of morn descended on the ocean-streams,",
"And still that aged man, so grand and mild,",
"Tended me, even as some sick mother seems",
"To hang in hope over a dying child,",
"Till in the azure East darkness again was piled.",
"",
"And then the night-wind steaming from the shore,",
"Sent odours dying sweet across the sea,",
"And the swift boat the little waves which bore,",
"Were cut by its keen keel, though slantingly;",
"Soon I could hear the leaves sigh, and could see",
"The myrtle-blossoms starring the dim grove,",
"As past the pebbly beach the boat did flee",
"On sidelong wing, into a silent cove,",
"Where ebon pines a shade under the starlight wove.",
"",
"CANTO 4.",
"",
"The old man took the oars, and soon the bark",
"Smote on the beach beside a tower of stone;",
"It was a crumbling heap, whose portal dark",
"With blooming ivy-trails was overgrown;",
"Upon whose floor the spangling sands were strown,",
"And rarest sea-shells, which the eternal flood,",
"Slave to the mother of the months, had thrown",
"Within the walls of that gray tower, which stood",
"A changeling of man's art nursed amid Nature's brood.",
"",
"When the old man his boat had anchored,",
"He wound me in his arms with tender care,",
"And very few, but kindly words he said,",
"And bore me through the tower adown a stair,",
"Whose smooth descent some ceaseless step to wear",
"For many a year had fallen.--We came at last",
"To a small chamber, which with mosses rare",
"Was tapestried, where me his soft hands placed",
"Upon a couch of grass and oak-leaves interlaced.",
"",
"The moon was darting through the lattices",
"Its yellow light, warm as the beams of day--",
"So warm, that to admit the dewy breeze,",
"The old man opened them; the moonlight lay",
"Upon a lake whose waters wove their play",
"Even to the threshold of that lonely home:",
"Within was seen in the dim wavering ray",
"The antique sculptured roof, and many a tome",
"Whose lore had made that sage all that he had become.",
"",
"The rock-built barrier of the sea was past,--",
"And I was on the margin of a lake,",
"A lonely lake, amid the forests vast",
"And snowy mountains:--did my spirit wake",
"From sleep as many-coloured as the snake",
"That girds eternity? in life and truth,",
"Might not my heart its cravings ever slake?",
"Was Cythna then a dream, and all my youth,",
"And all its hopes and fears, and all its joy and ruth?",
"",
"Thus madness came again,--a milder madness,",
"Which darkened nought but time's unquiet flow",
"With supernatural shades of clinging sadness;",
"That gentle Hermit, in my helpless woe,",
"By my sick couch was busy to and fro,",
"Like a strong spirit ministrant of good:",
"When I was healed, he led me forth to show",
"The wonders of his sylvan solitude,",
"And we together sate by that isle-fretted flood.",
"",
"He knew his soothing words to weave with skill",
"From all my madness told; like mine own heart,",
"Of Cythna would he question me, until",
"That thrilling name had ceased to make me start,",
"From his familiar lips--it was not art,",
"Of wisdom and of justice when he spoke--",
"When mid soft looks of pity, there would dart",
"A glance as keen as is the lightning's stroke",
"When it doth rive the knots of some ancestral oak.",
"",
"Thus slowly from my brain the darkness rolled,",
"My thoughts their due array did re-assume",
"Through the enchantments of that Hermit old;",
"Then I bethought me of the glorious doom",
"Of those who sternly struggle to relume",
"The lamp of Hope o'er man's bewildered lot,",
"And, sitting by the waters, in the gloom",
"Of eve, to that friend's heart I told my thought--",
"That heart which had grown old, but had corrupted not.",
"",
"That hoary man had spent his livelong age",
"In converse with the dead, who leave the stamp",
"Of ever-burning thoughts on many a page,",
"When they are gone into the senseless damp",
"Of graves;--his spirit thus became a lamp",
"Of splendour, like to those on which it fed;",
"Through peopled haunts, the City and the Camp,",
"Deep thirst for knowledge had his footsteps led,",
"And all the ways of men among mankind he read.",
"",
"But custom maketh blind and obdurate",
"The loftiest hearts;--he had beheld the woe",
"In which mankind was bound, but deemed that fate",
"Which made them abject, would preserve them so;",
"And in such faith, some steadfast joy to know,",
"He sought this cell: but when fame went abroad",
"That one in Argolis did undergo",
"Torture for liberty, and that the crowd",
"High truths from gifted lips had heard and understood;",
"",
"And that the multitude was gathering wide,--",
"His spirit leaped within his aged frame;",
"In lonely peace he could no more abide,",
"But to the land on which the victor's flame",
"Had fed, my native land, the Hermit came:",
"Each heart was there a shield, and every tongue",
"Was as a sword of truth--young Laon's name",
"Rallied their secret hopes, though tyrants sung",
"Hymns of triumphant joy our scattered tribes among.",
"",
"He came to the lone column on the rock,",
"And with his sweet and mighty eloquence",
"The hearts of those who watched it did unlock,",
"And made them melt in tears of penitence.",
"They gave him entrance free to bear me thence.",
"'Since this,' the old man said, 'seven years are spent,",
"While slowly truth on thy benighted sense",
"Has crept; the hope which wildered it has lent",
"Meanwhile, to me the power of a sublime intent.",
"",
"'Yes, from the records of my youthful state,",
"And from the lore of bards and sages old,",
"From whatsoe'er my wakened thoughts create",
"Out of the hopes of thine aspirings bold,",
"Have I collected language to unfold",
"Truth to my countrymen; from shore to shore",
"Doctrines of human power my words have told,",
"They have been heard, and men aspire to more",
"Than they have ever gained or ever lost of yore.",
"",
"'In secret chambers parents read, and weep,",
"My writings to their babes, no longer blind;",
"And young men gather when their tyrants sleep,",
"And vows of faith each to the other bind;",
"And marriageable maidens, who have pined",
"With love, till life seemed melting through their look,",
"A warmer zeal, a nobler hope, now find;",
"And every bosom thus is rapt and shook,",
"Like autumn's myriad leaves in one swoln mountain-brook.",
"",
"'The tyrants of the Golden City tremble",
"At voices which are heard about the streets;",
"The ministers of fraud can scarce dissemble",
"The lies of their own heart, but when one meets",
"Another at the shrine, he inly weets,",
"Though he says nothing, that the truth is known;",
"Murderers are pale upon the judgement-seats,",
"And gold grows vile even to the wealthy crone,",
"And laughter fills the Fane, and curses shake the Throne.",
"",
"'Kind thoughts, and mighty hopes, and gentle deeds",
"Abound, for fearless love, and the pure law",
"Of mild equality and peace, succeeds",
"To faiths which long have held the world in awe,",
"Bloody and false, and cold:--as whirlpools draw",
"All wrecks of Ocean to their chasm, the sway",
"Of thy strong genius, Laon, which foresaw",
"This hope, compels all spirits to obey,",
"Which round thy secret strength now throng in wide array.",
"",
"'For I have been thy passive instrument'--",
"(As thus the old man spake, his countenance",
"Gleamed on me like a spirit's)--'thou hast lent",
"To me, to all, the power to advance",
"Towards this unforeseen deliverance",
"From our ancestral chains--ay, thou didst rear",
"That lamp of hope on high, which time nor chance",
"Nor change may not extinguish, and my share",
"Of good, was o'er the world its gathered beams to bear.",
"",
"'But I, alas! am both unknown and old,",
"And though the woof of wisdom I know well",
"To dye in hues of language, I am cold",
"In seeming, and the hopes which inly dwell,",
"My manners note that I did long repel;",
"But Laon's name to the tumultuous throng",
"Were like the star whose beams the waves compel",
"And tempests, and his soul-subduing tongue",
"Were as a lance to quell the mailed crest of wrong.",
"",
"'Perchance blood need not flow, if thou at length",
"Wouldst rise, perchance the very slaves would spare",
"Their brethren and themselves; great is the strength",
"Of words--for lately did a maiden fair,",
"Who from her childhood has been taught to bear",
"The Tyrant's heaviest yoke, arise, and make",
"Her sex the law of truth and freedom hear,",
"And with these quiet words--\"for thine own sake",
"I prithee spare me;\"--did with ruth so take",
"",
"'All hearts, that even the torturer who had bound",
"Her meek calm frame, ere it was yet impaled,",
"Loosened her, weeping then; nor could be found",
"One human hand to harm her--unassailed",
"Therefore she walks through the great City, veiled",
"In virtue's adamantine eloquence,",
"'Gainst scorn, and death and pain thus trebly mailed,",
"And blending, in the smiles of that defence,",
"The Serpent and the Dove, Wisdom and Innocence.",
"",
"'The wild-eyed women throng around her path:",
"From their luxurious dungeons, from the dust",
"Of meaner thralls, from the oppressor's wrath,",
"Or the caresses of his sated lust",
"They congregate:--in her they put their trust;",
"The tyrants send their armed slaves to quell",
"Her power;--they, even like a thunder-gust",
"Caught by some forest, bend beneath the spell",
"Of that young maiden's speech, and to their chiefs rebel.",
"",
"'Thus she doth equal laws and justice teach",
"To woman, outraged and polluted long;",
"Gathering the sweetest fruit in human reach",
"For those fair hands now free, while armed wrong",
"Trembles before her look, though it be strong;",
"Thousands thus dwell beside her, virgins bright,",
"And matrons with their babes, a stately throng!",
"Lovers renew the vows which they did plight",
"In early faith, and hearts long parted now unite,",
"",
"'And homeless orphans find a home near her,",
"And those poor victims of the proud, no less,",
"Fair wrecks, on whom the smiling world with stir,",
"Thrusts the redemption of its wickedness:--",
"In squalid huts, and in its palaces",
"Sits Lust alone, while o'er the land is borne",
"Her voice, whose awful sweetness doth repress",
"All evil, and her foes relenting turn,",
"And cast the vote of love in hope's abandoned urn.",
"",
"'So in the populous City, a young maiden",
"Has baffled Havoc of the prey which he",
"Marks as his own, whene'er with chains o'erladen",
"Men make them arms to hurl down tyranny,--",
"False arbiter between the bound and free;",
"And o'er the land, in hamlets and in towns",
"The multitudes collect tumultuously,",
"And throng in arms; but tyranny disowns",
"Their claim, and gathers strength around its trembling thrones.",
"",
"'Blood soon, although unwillingly, to shed",
"The free cannot forbear--the Queen of Slaves,",
"The hoodwinked Angel of the blind and dead,",
"Custom, with iron mace points to the graves",
"Where her own standard desolately waves",
"Over the dust of Prophets and of Kings.",
"Many yet stand in her array--\"she paves",
"Her path with human hearts,\" and o'er it flings",
"The wildering gloom of her immeasurable wings.",
"",
"'There is a plain beneath the City's wall,",
"Bounded by misty mountains, wide and vast,",
"Millions there lift at Freedom's thrilling call",
"Ten thousand standards wide, they load the blast",
"Which bears one sound of many voices past,",
"And startles on his throne their sceptred foe:",
"He sits amid his idle pomp aghast,",
"And that his power hath passed away, doth know--",
"Why pause the victor swords to seal his overthrow?",
"",
"'The tyrant's guards resistance yet maintain:",
"Fearless, and fierce, and hard as beasts of blood,",
"They stand a speck amid the peopled plain;",
"Carnage and ruin have been made their food",
"From infancy--ill has become their good,",
"And for its hateful sake their will has wove",
"The chains which eat their hearts. The multitude",
"Surrounding them, with words of human love,",
"Seek from their own decay their stubborn minds to move.",
"",
"'Over the land is felt a sudden pause,",
"As night and day those ruthless bands around,",
"The watch of love is kept:--a trance which awes",
"The thoughts of men with hope; as when the sound",
"Of whirlwind, whose fierce blasts the waves and clouds confound,",
"Dies suddenly, the mariner in fear",
"Feels silence sink upon his heart--thus bound,",
"The conquerors pause, and oh! may freemen ne'er",
"Clasp the relentless knees of Dread, the murderer!",
"",
"'If blood be shed, 'tis but a change and choice",
"Of bonds,--from slavery to cowardice",
"A wretched fall!--Uplift thy charmed voice!",
"Pour on those evil men the love that lies",
"Hovering within those spirit-soothing eyes--",
"Arise, my friend, farewell!'--As thus he spake,",
"From the green earth lightly I did arise,",
"As one out of dim dreams that doth awake,",
"And looked upon the depth of that reposing lake.",
"",
"I saw my countenance reflected there;--",
"And then my youth fell on me like a wind",
"Descending on still waters--my thin hair",
"Was prematurely gray, my face was lined",
"With channels, such as suffering leaves behind,",
"Not age; my brow was pale, but in my cheek",
"And lips a flush of gnawing fire did find",
"Their food and dwelling; though mine eyes might speak",
"A subtle mind and strong within a frame thus weak.",
"",
"And though their lustre now was spent and faded,",
"Yet in my hollow looks and withered mien",
"The likeness of a shape for which was braided",
"The brightest woof of genius, still was seen--",
"One who, methought, had gone from the world's scene,",
"And left it vacant--'twas her lover's face--",
"It might resemble her--it once had been",
"The mirror of her thoughts, and still the grace",
"Which her mind's shadow cast, left there a lingering trace.",
"",
"What then was I? She slumbered with the dead.",
"Glory and joy and peace, had come and gone.",
"Doth the cloud perish, when the beams are fled",
"Which steeped its skirts in gold? or, dark and lone,",
"Doth it not through the paths of night unknown,",
"On outspread wings of its own wind upborne",
"Pour rain upon the earth? The stars are shown,",
"When the cold moon sharpens her silver horn",
"Under the sea, and make the wide night not forlorn.",
"",
"Strengthened in heart, yet sad, that aged man",
"I left, with interchange of looks and tears,",
"And lingering speech, and to the Camp began",
"My war. O'er many a mountain-chain which rears",
"Its hundred crests aloft, my spirit bears",
"My frame; o'er many a dale and many a moor,",
"And gaily now meseems serene earth wears",
"The blosmy spring's star-bright investiture,",
"A vision which aught sad from sadness might allure.",
"",
"My powers revived within me, and I went,",
"As one whom winds waft o'er the bending grass,",
"Through many a vale of that broad continent.",
"At night when I reposed, fair dreams did pass",
"Before my pillow;--my own Cythna was,",
"Not like a child of death, among them ever;",
"When I arose from rest, a woful mass",
"That gentlest sleep seemed from my life to sever,",
"As if the light of youth were not withdrawn for ever.",
"",
"Aye as I went, that maiden who had reared",
"The torch of Truth afar, of whose high deeds",
"The Hermit in his pilgrimage had heard,",
"Haunted my thoughts.--Ah, Hope its sickness feeds",
"With whatsoe'er it finds, or flowers or weeds!",
"Could she be Cythna?--Was that corpse a shade",
"Such as self-torturing thought from madness breeds?",
"Why was this hope not torture? Yet it made",
"A light around my steps which would not ever fade.",
"",
"CANTO 5.",
"",
"Over the utmost hill at length I sped,",
"A snowy steep:--the moon was hanging low",
"Over the Asian mountains, and outspread",
"The plain, the City, and the Camp below,",
"Skirted the midnight Ocean's glimmering flow;",
"The City's moonlit spires and myriad lamps,",
"Like stars in a sublunar sky did glow,",
"And fires blazed far amid the scattered camps,",
"Like springs of flame, which burst where'er swift Earthquake stamps.",
"",
"All slept but those in watchful arms who stood,",
"And those who sate tending the beacon's light,",
"And the few sounds from that vast multitude",
"Made silence more profound.--Oh, what a might",
"Of human thought was cradled in that night!",
"How many hearts impenetrably veiled",
"Beat underneath its shade, what secret fight",
"Evil and good, in woven passions mailed,",
"Waged through that silent throng--a war that never failed!",
"",
"And now the Power of Good held victory.",
"So, through the labyrinth of many a tent,",
"Among the silent millions who did lie",
"In innocent sleep, exultingly I went;",
"The moon had left Heaven desert now, but lent",
"From eastern morn the first faint lustre showed",
"An armed youth--over his spear he bent",
"His downward face.--'A friend!' I cried aloud,",
"And quickly common hopes made freemen understood.",
"",
"I sate beside him while the morning beam",
"Crept slowly over Heaven, and talked with him",
"Of those immortal hopes, a glorious theme!",
"Which led us forth, until the stars grew dim:",
"And all the while, methought, his voice did swim",
"As if it drowned in remembrance were",
"Of thoughts which make the moist eyes overbrim:",
"At last, when daylight 'gan to fill the air,",
"He looked on me, and cried in wonder--'Thou art here!'",
"",
"Then, suddenly, I knew it was the youth",
"In whom its earliest hopes my spirit found;",
"But envious tongues had stained his spotless truth,",
"And thoughtless pride his love in silence bound,",
"And shame and sorrow mine in toils had wound,",
"Whilst he was innocent, and I deluded;",
"The truth now came upon me, on the ground",
"Tears of repenting joy, which fast intruded,",
"Fell fast, and o'er its peace our mingling spirits brooded.",
"",
"Thus, while with rapid lips and earnest eyes",
"We talked, a sound of sweeping conflict spread",
"As from the earth did suddenly arise;",
"From every tent roused by that clamour dread,",
"Our bands outsprung and seized their arms--we sped",
"Towards the sound: our tribes were gathering far.",
"Those sanguine slaves amid ten thousand dead",
"Stabbed in their sleep, trampled in treacherous war",
"The gentle hearts whose power their lives had sought to spare.",
"",
"Like rabid snakes, that sting some gentle child",
"Who brings them food, when winter false and fair",
"Allures them forth with its cold smiles, so wild",
"They rage among the camp;--they overbear",
"The patriot hosts--confusion, then despair,",
"Descends like night--when 'Laon!' one did cry;",
"Like a bright ghost from Heaven that shout did scare",
"The slaves, and widening through the vaulted sky,",
"Seemed sent from Earth to Heaven in sign of victory.",
"",
"In sudden panic those false murderers fled,",
"Like insect tribes before the northern gale:",
"But swifter still, our hosts encompassed",
"Their shattered ranks, and in a craggy vale,",
"Where even their fierce despair might nought avail,",
"Hemmed them around!--and then revenge and fear",
"Made the high virtue of the patriots fail:",
"One pointed on his foe the mortal spear--",
"I rushed before its point, and cried 'Forbear, forbear!'",
"",
"The spear transfixed my arm that was uplifted",
"In swift expostulation, and the blood",
"Gushed round its point: I smiled, and--'Oh! thou gifted",
"With eloquence which shall not be withstood,",
"Flow thus!' I cried in joy, 'thou vital flood,",
"Until my heart be dry, ere thus the cause",
"For which thou wert aught worthy be subdued--",
"Ah, ye are pale,--ye weep,--your passions pause,--",
"'Tis well! ye feel the truth of love's benignant laws.",
"",
"'Soldiers, our brethren and our friends are slain.",
"Ye murdered them, I think, as they did sleep!",
"Alas, what have ye done? the slightest pain",
"Which ye might suffer, there were eyes to weep,",
"But ye have quenched them--there were smiles to steep",
"Your hearts in balm, but they are lost in woe;",
"And those whom love did set his watch to keep",
"Around your tents, truth's freedom to bestow,",
"Ye stabbed as they did sleep--but they forgive ye now.",
"",
"'Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,",
"And pain still keener pain for ever breed?",
"We all are brethren--even the slaves who kill",
"For hire, are men; and to avenge misdeed",
"On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed",
"With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven!",
"And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed",
"And all that lives, or is, to be hath given,",
"Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven!",
"",
"'Join then your hands and hearts, and let the past",
"Be as a grave which gives not up its dead",
"To evil thoughts.'--A film then overcast",
"My sense with dimness, for the wound, which bled",
"Freshly, swift shadows o'er mine eyes had shed.",
"When I awoke, I lay mid friends and foes,",
"And earnest countenances on me shed",
"The light of questioning looks, whilst one did close",
"My wound with balmiest herbs, and soothed me to repose;",
"",
"And one whose spear had pierced me, leaned beside",
"With quivering lips and humid eyes;--and all",
"Seemed like some brothers on a journey wide",
"Gone forth, whom now strange meeting did befall",
"In a strange land, round one whom they might call",
"Their friend, their chief, their father, for assay",
"Of peril, which had saved them from the thrall",
"Of death, now suffering. Thus the vast array",
"Of those fraternal bands were reconciled that day.",
"",
"Lifting the thunder of their acclamation,",
"Towards the City then the multitude,",
"And I among them, went in joy--a nation",
"Made free by love;--a mighty brotherhood",
"Linked by a jealous interchange of good;",
"A glorious pageant, more magnificent",
"Than kingly slaves arrayed in gold and blood,",
"When they return from carnage, and are sent",
"In triumph bright beneath the populous battlement.",
"",
"Afar, the city-walls were thronged on high,",
"And myriads on each giddy turret clung,",
"And to each spire far lessening in the sky",
"Bright pennons on the idle winds were hung;",
"As we approached, a shout of joyance sprung",
"At once from all the crowd, as if the vast",
"And peopled Earth its boundless skies among",
"The sudden clamour of delight had cast,",
"When from before its face some general wreck had passed.",
"",
"Our armies through the City's hundred gates",
"Were poured, like brooks which to the rocky lair",
"Of some deep lake, whose silence them awaits,",
"Throng from the mountains when the storms are there",
"And, as we passed through the calm sunny air",
"A thousand flower-inwoven crowns were shed,",
"The token flowers of truth and freedom fair,",
"And fairest hands bound them on many a head,",
"Those angels of love's heaven that over all was spread.",
"",
"I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision:",
"Those bloody bands so lately reconciled,",
"Were, ever as they went, by the contrition",
"Of anger turned to love, from ill beguiled,",
"And every one on them more gently smiled,",
"Because they had done evil:--the sweet awe",
"Of such mild looks made their own hearts grow mild,",
"And did with soft attraction ever draw",
"Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law.",
"",
"And they, and all, in one loud symphony",
"My name with Liberty commingling, lifted,",
"'The friend and the preserver of the free!",
"The parent of this joy!' and fair eyes gifted",
"With feelings, caught from one who had uplifted",
"The light of a great spirit, round me shone;",
"And all the shapes of this grand scenery shifted",
"Like restless clouds before the steadfast sun,--",
"Where was that Maid? I asked, but it was known of none.",
"",
"Laone was the name her love had chosen,",
"For she was nameless, and her birth none knew:",
"Where was Laone now?--The words were frozen",
"Within my lips with fear; but to subdue",
"Such dreadful hope, to my great task was due,",
"And when at length one brought reply, that she",
"To-morrow would appear, I then withdrew",
"To judge what need for that great throng might be,",
"For now the stars came thick over the twilight sea.",
"",
"Yet need was none for rest or food to care,",
"Even though that multitude was passing great,",
"Since each one for the other did prepare",
"All kindly succour--Therefore to the gate",
"Of the Imperial House, now desolate,",
"I passed, and there was found aghast, alone,",
"The fallen Tyrant!--Silently he sate",
"Upon the footstool of his golden throne,",
"Which, starred with sunny gems, in its own lustre shone.",
"",
"Alone, but for one child, who led before him",
"A graceful dance: the only living thing",
"Of all the crowd, which thither to adore him",
"Flocked yesterday, who solace sought to bring",
"In his abandonment!--She knew the King",
"Had praised her dance of yore, and now she wove",
"Its circles, aye weeping and murmuring",
"Mid her sad task of unregarded love,",
"That to no smiles it might his speechless sadness move.",
"",
"She fled to him, and wildly clasped his feet",
"When human steps were heard:--he moved nor spoke,",
"Nor changed his hue, nor raised his looks to meet",
"The gaze of strangers--our loud entrance woke",
"The echoes of the hall, which circling broke",
"The calm of its recesses,--like a tomb",
"Its sculptured walls vacantly to the stroke",
"Of footfalls answered, and the twilight's gloom",
"Lay like a charnel's mist within the radiant dome.",
"",
"The little child stood up when we came nigh;",
"Her lips and cheeks seemed very pale and wan,",
"But on her forehead, and within her eye",
"Lay beauty, which makes hearts that feed thereon",
"Sick with excess of sweetness; on the throne",
"She leaned;--the King, with gathered brow, and lips",
"Wreathed by long scorn, did inly sneer and frown",
"With hue like that when some great painter dips",
"His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse.",
"",
"She stood beside him like a rainbow braided",
"Within some storm, when scarce its shadows vast",
"From the blue paths of the swift sun have faded;",
"A sweet and solemn smile, like Cythna's, cast",
"One moment's light, which made my heart beat fast,",
"O'er that child's parted lips--a gleam of bliss,",
"A shade of vanished days,--as the tears passed",
"Which wrapped it, even as with a father's kiss",
"I pressed those softest eyes in trembling tenderness.",
"",
"The sceptred wretch then from that solitude",
"I drew, and, of his change compassionate,",
"With words of sadness soothed his rugged mood.",
"But he, while pride and fear held deep debate,",
"With sullen guile of ill-dissembled hate",
"Glared on me as a toothless snake might glare:",
"Pity, not scorn I felt, though desolate",
"The desolator now, and unaware",
"The curses which he mocked had caught him by the hair.",
"",
"I led him forth from that which now might seem",
"A gorgeous grave: through portals sculptured deep",
"With imagery beautiful as dream",
"We went, and left the shades which tend on sleep",
"Over its unregarded gold to keep",
"Their silent watch.--The child trod faintingly,",
"And as she went, the tears which she did weep",
"Glanced in the starlight; wildered seemed she,",
"And, when I spake, for sobs she could not answer me.",
"",
"At last the tyrant cried, 'She hungers, slave!",
"Stab her, or give her bread!'--It was a tone",
"Such as sick fancies in a new-made grave",
"Might hear. I trembled, for the truth was known;",
"He with this child had thus been left alone,",
"And neither had gone forth for food,--but he",
"In mingled pride and awe cowered near his throne,",
"And she a nursling of captivity",
"Knew nought beyond those walls, nor what such change might be.",
"",
"And he was troubled at a charm withdrawn",
"Thus suddenly; that sceptres ruled no more--",
"That even from gold the dreadful strength was gone,",
"Which once made all things subject to its power--",
"Such wonder seized him, as if hour by hour",
"The past had come again; and the swift fall",
"Of one so great and terrible of yore,",
"To desolateness, in the hearts of all",
"Like wonder stirred, who saw such awful change befall.",
"",
"A mighty crowd, such as the wide land pours",
"Once in a thousand years, now gathered round",
"The fallen tyrant;--like the rush of showers",
"Of hail in spring, pattering along the ground,",
"Their many footsteps fell, else came no sound",
"From the wide multitude: that lonely man",
"Then knew the burden of his change, and found,",
"Concealing in the dust his visage wan,",
"Refuge from the keen looks which through his bosom ran.",
"",
"And he was faint withal: I sate beside him",
"Upon the earth, and took that child so fair",
"From his weak arms, that ill might none betide him",
"Or her;--when food was brought to them, her share",
"To his averted lips the child did bear,",
"But, when she saw he had enough, she ate",
"And wept the while;--the lonely man's despair",
"Hunger then overcame, and of his state",
"Forgetful, on the dust as in a trance he sate.",
"",
"Slowly the silence of the multitudes",
"Passed, as when far is heard in some lone dell",
"The gathering of a wind among the woods--",
"'And he is fallen!' they cry, 'he who did dwell",
"Like famine or the plague, or aught more fell",
"Among our homes, is fallen! the murderer",
"Who slaked his thirsting soul as from a well",
"Of blood and tears with ruin! he is here!",
"Sunk in a gulf of scorn from which none may him rear!'",
"",
"Then was heard--'He who judged let him be brought",
"To judgement! blood for blood cries from the soil",
"On which his crimes have deep pollution wrought!",
"Shall Othman only unavenged despoil?",
"Shall they who by the stress of grinding toil",
"Wrest from the unwilling earth his luxuries,",
"Perish for crime, while his foul blood may boil,",
"Or creep within his veins at will?--Arise!",
"And to high justice make her chosen sacrifice!'",
"",
"'What do ye seek? what fear ye,' then I cried,",
"Suddenly starting forth, 'that ye should shed",
"The blood of Othman?--if your hearts are tried",
"In the true love of freedom, cease to dread",
"This one poor lonely man--beneath Heaven spread",
"In purest light above us all, through earth--",
"Maternal earth, who doth her sweet smiles shed",
"For all, let him go free; until the worth",
"Of human nature win from these a second birth.",
"",
"'What call ye \"justice\"? Is there one who ne'er",
"In secret thought has wished another's ill?--",
"Are ye all pure? Let those stand forth who hear",
"And tremble not. Shall they insult and kill,",
"If such they be? their mild eyes can they fill",
"With the false anger of the hypocrite?",
"Alas, such were not pure!--the chastened will",
"Of virtue sees that justice is the light",
"Of love, and not revenge, and terror and despite.'",
"",
"The murmur of the people, slowly dying,",
"Paused as I spake, then those who near me were,",
"Cast gentle looks where the lone man was lying",
"Shrouding his head, which now that infant fair",
"Clasped on her lap in silence;--through the air",
"Sobs were then heard, and many kissed my feet",
"In pity's madness, and to the despair",
"Of him whom late they cursed, a solace sweet",
"His very victims brought--soft looks and speeches meet.",
"",
"Then to a home for his repose assigned,",
"Accompanied by the still throng, he went",
"In silence, where, to soothe his rankling mind,",
"Some likeness of his ancient state was lent;",
"And if his heart could have been innocent",
"As those who pardoned him, he might have ended",
"His days in peace; but his straight lips were bent,",
"Men said, into a smile which guile portended,",
"A sight with which that child like hope with fear was blended.",
"",
"'Twas midnight now, the eve of that great day",
"Whereon the many nations at whose call",
"The chains of earth like mist melted away,",
"Decreed to hold a sacred Festival,",
"A rite to attest the equality of all",
"Who live. So to their homes, to dream or wake",
"All went. The sleepless silence did recall",
"Laone to my thoughts, with hopes that make",
"The flood recede from which their thirst they seek to slake.",
"",
"The dawn flowed forth, and from its purple fountains",
"I drank those hopes which make the spirit quail,",
"As to the plain between the misty mountains",
"And the great City, with a countenance pale,",
"I went:--it was a sight which might avail",
"To make men weep exulting tears, for whom",
"Now first from human power the reverend veil",
"Was torn, to see Earth from her general womb",
"Pour forth her swarming sons to a fraternal doom:",
"",
"To see, far glancing in the misty morning,",
"The signs of that innumerable host;",
"To hear one sound of many made, the warning",
"Of Earth to Heaven from its free children tossed,",
"While the eternal hills, and the sea lost",
"In wavering light, and, starring the blue sky",
"The city's myriad spires of gold, almost",
"With human joy made mute society--",
"Its witnesses with men who must hereafter be.",
"",
"To see, like some vast island from the Ocean,",
"The Altar of the Federation rear",
"Its pile i' the midst; a work, which the devotion",
"Of millions in one night created there,",
"Sudden as when the moonrise makes appear",
"Strange clouds in the east; a marble pyramid",
"Distinct with steps: that mighty shape did wear",
"The light of genius; its still shadow hid",
"Far ships: to know its height the morning mists forbid!",
"",
"To hear the restless multitudes for ever",
"Around the base of that great Altar flow,",
"As on some mountain-islet burst and shiver",
"Atlantic waves; and solemnly and slow",
"As the wind bore that tumult to and fro,",
"To feel the dreamlike music, which did swim",
"Like beams through floating clouds on waves below",
"Falling in pauses, from that Altar dim,",
"As silver-sounding tongues breathed an aerial hymn.",
"",
"To hear, to see, to live, was on that morn",
"Lethean joy! so that all those assembled",
"Cast off their memories of the past outworn;",
"Two only bosoms with their own life trembled,",
"And mine was one,--and we had both dissembled;",
"So with a beating heart I went, and one,",
"Who having much, covets yet more, resembled;",
"A lost and dear possession, which not won,",
"He walks in lonely gloom beneath the noonday sun.",
"",
"To the great Pyramid I came: its stair",
"With female choirs was thronged: the loveliest",
"Among the free, grouped with its sculptures rare;",
"As I approached, the morning's golden mist,",
"Which now the wonder-stricken breezes kissed",
"With their cold lips, fled, and the summit shone",
"Like Athos seen from Samothracia, dressed",
"In earliest light, by vintagers, and one",
"Sate there, a female Shape upon an ivory throne:",
"",
"A Form most like the imagined habitant",
"Of silver exhalations sprung from dawn,",
"By winds which feed on sunrise woven, to enchant",
"The faiths of men: all mortal eyes were drawn,",
"As famished mariners through strange seas gone",
"Gaze on a burning watch-tower, by the light",
"Of those divinest lineaments--alone",
"With thoughts which none could share, from that fair sight",
"I turned in sickness, for a veil shrouded her countenance bright.",
"",
"And neither did I hear the acclamations,",
"Which from brief silence bursting, filled the air",
"With her strange name and mine, from all the nations",
"Which we, they said, in strength had gathered there",
"From the sleep of bondage; nor the vision fair",
"Of that bright pageantry beheld,--but blind",
"And silent, as a breathing corpse did fare,",
"Leaning upon my friend, till like a wind",
"To fevered cheeks, a voice flowed o'er my troubled mind.",
"",
"Like music of some minstrel heavenly gifted,",
"To one whom fiends enthral, this voice to me;",
"Scarce did I wish her veil to be uplifted,",
"I was so calm and joyous.--I could see",
"The platform where we stood, the statues three",
"Which kept their marble watch on that high shrine,",
"The multitudes, the mountains, and the sea;",
"As when eclipse hath passed, things sudden shine",
"To men's astonished eyes most clear and crystalline.",
"",
"At first Laone spoke most tremulously:",
"But soon her voice the calmness which it shed",
"Gathered, and--'Thou art whom I sought to see,",
"And thou art our first votary here,' she said:",
"'I had a dear friend once, but he is dead!--",
"And of all those on the wide earth who breathe,",
"Thou dost resemble him alone--I spread",
"This veil between us two that thou beneath",
"Shouldst image one who may have been long lost in death.",
"",
"'For this wilt thou not henceforth pardon me?",
"Yes, but those joys which silence well requite",
"Forbid reply;--why men have chosen me",
"To be the Priestess of this holiest rite",
"I scarcely know, but that the floods of light",
"Which flow over the world, have borne me hither",
"To meet thee, long most dear; and now unite",
"Thine hand with mine, and may all comfort wither",
"From both the hearts whose pulse in joy now beat together,",
"",
"'If our own will as others' law we bind,",
"If the foul worship trampled here we fear;",
"If as ourselves we cease to love our kind!'--",
"She paused, and pointed upwards--sculptured there",
"Three shapes around her ivory throne appear;",
"One was a Giant, like a child asleep",
"On a loose rock, whose grasp crushed, as it were",
"In dream, sceptres and crowns; and one did keep",
"Its watchful eyes in doubt whether to smile or weep;",
"",
"A Woman sitting on the sculptured disk",
"Of the broad earth, and feeding from one breast",
"A human babe and a young basilisk;",
"Her looks were sweet as Heaven's when loveliest",
"In Autumn eves. The third Image was dressed",
"In white wings swift as clouds in winter skies;",
"Beneath his feet, 'mongst ghastliest forms, repressed",
"Lay Faith, an obscene worm, who sought to rise,",
"While calmly on the Sun he turned his diamond eyes.",
"",
"Beside that Image then I sate, while she",
"Stood, mid the throngs which ever ebbed and flowed,",
"Like light amid the shadows of the sea",
"Cast from one cloudless star, and on the crowd",
"That touch which none who feels forgets, bestowed;",
"And whilst the sun returned the steadfast gaze",
"Of the great Image, as o'er Heaven it glode,",
"That rite had place; it ceased when sunset's blaze",
"Burned o'er the isles. All stood in joy and deep amaze--",
"--When in the silence of all spirits there",
"Laone's voice was felt, and through the air",
"Her thrilling gestures spoke, most eloquently fair:--",
"",
"51.1.",
"'Calm art thou as yon sunset! swift and strong",
"As new-fledged Eagles, beautiful and young,",
"That float among the blinding beams of morning;",
"And underneath thy feet writhe Faith, and Folly,",
"Custom, and Hell, and mortal Melancholy--",
"Hark! the Earth starts to hear the mighty warning",
"Of thy voice sublime and holy;",
"Its free spirits here assembled",
"See thee, feel thee, know thee now,--",
"To thy voice their hearts have trembled",
"Like ten thousand clouds which flow",
"With one wide wind as it flies!--",
"Wisdom! thy irresistible children rise",
"To hail thee, and the elements they chain",
"And their own will, to swell the glory of thy train.",
"",
"51.2.",
"'O Spirit vast and deep as Night and Heaven!",
"Mother and soul of all to which is given",
"The light of life, the loveliness of being,",
"Lo! thou dost re-ascend the human heart,",
"Thy throne of power, almighty as thou wert",
"In dreams of Poets old grown pale by seeing",
"The shade of thee;--now, millions start",
"To feel thy lightnings through them burning:",
"Nature, or God, or Love, or Pleasure,",
"Or Sympathy the sad tears turning",
"To mutual smiles, a drainless treasure,",
"Descends amidst us;--Scorn and Hate,",
"Revenge and Selfishness are desolate--",
"A hundred nations swear that there shall be",
"Pity and Peace and Love, among the good and free!",
"",
"51.3.",
"'Eldest of things, divine Equality!",
"Wisdom and Love are but the slaves of thee,",
"The Angels of thy sway, who pour around thee",
"Treasures from all the cells of human thought,",
"And from the Stars, and from the Ocean brought,",
"And the last living heart whose beatings bound thee:",
"The powerful and the wise had sought",
"Thy coming, thou in light descending",
"O'er the wide land which is thine own",
"Like the Spring whose breath is blending",
"All blasts of fragrance into one,",
"Comest upon the paths of men!--",
"Earth bares her general bosom to thy ken,",
"And all her children here in glory meet",
"To feed upon thy smiles, and clasp thy sacred feet.",
"",
"51.4",
"'My brethren, we are free! the plains and mountains,",
"The gray sea-shore, the forests and the fountains,",
"Are haunts of happiest dwellers;--man and woman,",
"Their common bondage burst, may freely borrow",
"From lawless love a solace for their sorrow;",
"For oft we still must weep, since we are human.",
"A stormy night's serenest morrow,",
"Whose showers are pity's gentle tears,",
"Whose clouds are smiles of those that die",
"Like infants without hopes or fears,",
"And whose beams are joys that lie",
"In blended hearts, now holds dominion;",
"The dawn of mind, which upwards on a pinion",
"Borne, swift as sunrise, far illumines space,",
"And clasps this barren world in its own bright embrace!",
"",
"51.5",
"'My brethren, we are free! The fruits are glowing",
"Beneath the stars, and the night-winds are flowing",
"O'er the ripe corn, the birds and beasts are dreaming--",
"Never again may blood of bird or beast",
"Stain with its venomous stream a human feast,",
"To the pure skies in accusation steaming;",
"Avenging poisons shall have ceased",
"To feed disease and fear and madness,",
"The dwellers of the earth and air",
"Shall throng around our steps in gladness,",
"Seeking their food or refuge there.",
"Our toil from thought all glorious forms shall cull,",
"To make this Earth, our home, more beautiful,",
"And Science, and her sister Poesy,",
"Shall clothe in light the fields and cities of the free!",
"",
"51.6",
"'Victory, Victory to the prostrate nations!",
"Bear witness Night, and ye mute Constellations",
"Who gaze on us from your crystalline cars!",
"Thoughts have gone forth whose powers can sleep no more!",
"Victory! Victory! Earth's remotest shore,",
"Regions which groan beneath the Antarctic stars,",
"The green lands cradled in the roar",
"Of western waves, and wildernesses",
"Peopled and vast, which skirt the oceans",
"Where morning dyes her golden tresses,",
"Shall soon partake our high emotions:",
"Kings shall turn pale! Almighty Fear,",
"The Fiend-God, when our charmed name he hear,",
"Shall fade like shadow from his thousand fanes,",
"While Truth with Joy enthroned o'er his lost empire reigns!'",
"",
"51.52.",
"Ere she had ceased, the mists of night entwining",
"Their dim woof, floated o'er the infinite throng;",
"She, like a spirit through the darkness shining,",
"In tones whose sweetness silence did prolong,",
"As if to lingering winds they did belong,",
"Poured forth her inmost soul: a passionate speech",
"With wild and thrilling pauses woven among,",
"Which whoso heard was mute, for it could teach",
"To rapture like her own all listening hearts to reach.",
"",
"Her voice was as a mountain stream which sweeps",
"The withered leaves of Autumn to the lake,",
"And in some deep and narrow bay then sleeps",
"In the shadow of the shores; as dead leaves wake,",
"Under the wave, in flowers and herbs which make",
"Those green depths beautiful when skies are blue,",
"The multitude so moveless did partake",
"Such living change, and kindling murmurs flew",
"As o'er that speechless calm delight and wonder grew.",
"",
"Over the plain the throngs were scattered then",
"In groups around the fires, which from the sea",
"Even to the gorge of the first mountain-glen",
"Blazed wide and far: the banquet of the free",
"Was spread beneath many a dark cypress-tree,",
"Beneath whose spires, which swayed in the red flame,",
"Reclining, as they ate, of Liberty,",
"And Hope, and Justice, and Laone's name,",
"Earth's children did a woof of happy converse frame.",
"",
"Their feast was such as Earth, the general mother,",
"Pours from her fairest bosom, when she smiles",
"In the embrace of Autumn;--to each other",
"As when some parent fondly reconciles",
"Her warring children, she their wrath beguiles",
"With her own sustenance, they relenting weep:",
"Such was this Festival, which from their isles",
"And continents, and winds, and oceans deep,",
"All shapes might throng to share, that fly, or walk or creep,--",
"",
"Might share in peace and innocence, for gore",
"Or poison none this festal did pollute,",
"But, piled on high, an overflowing store",
"Of pomegranates and citrons, fairest fruit,",
"Melons, and dates, and figs, and many a root",
"Sweet and sustaining, and bright grapes ere yet",
"Accursed fire their mild juice could transmute",
"Into a mortal bane, and brown corn set",
"In baskets; with pure streams their thirsting lips they wet.",
"",
"Laone had descended from the shrine,",
"And every deepest look and holiest mind",
"Fed on her form, though now those tones divine",
"Were silent as she passed; she did unwind",
"Her veil, as with the crowds of her own kind",
"She mixed; some impulse made my heart refrain",
"From seeking her that night, so I reclined",
"Amidst a group, where on the utmost plain",
"A festal watchfire burned beside the dusky main.",
"",
"And joyous was our feast; pathetic talk,",
"And wit, and harmony of choral strains,",
"While far Orion o'er the waves did walk",
"That flow among the isles, held us in chains",
"Of sweet captivity which none disdains",
"Who feels; but when his zone grew dim in mist",
"Which clothes the Ocean's bosom, o'er the plains",
"The multitudes went homeward, to their rest,",
"Which that delightful day with its own shadow blessed.",
"",
"CANTO 6.",
"",
"Beside the dimness of the glimmering sea,",
"Weaving swift language from impassioned themes,",
"With that dear friend I lingered, who to me",
"So late had been restored, beneath the gleams",
"Of the silver stars; and ever in soft dreams",
"Of future love and peace sweet converse lapped",
"Our willing fancies, till the pallid beams",
"Of the last watchfire fell, and darkness wrapped",
"The waves, and each bright chain of floating fire was snapped;",
"",
"And till we came even to the City's wall",
"And the great gate; then, none knew whence or why,",
"Disquiet on the multitudes did fall:",
"And first, one pale and breathless passed us by,",
"And stared and spoke not;--then with piercing cry",
"A troop of wild-eyed women, by the shrieks",
"Of their own terror driven,--tumultuously",
"Hither and thither hurrying with pale cheeks,",
"Each one from fear unknown a sudden refuge seeks--",
"",
"Then, rallying cries of treason and of danger",
"Resounded: and--'They come! to arms! to arms!",
"The Tyrant is amongst us, and the stranger",
"Comes to enslave us in his name! to arms!'",
"In vain: for Panic, the pale fiend who charms",
"Strength to forswear her right, those millions swept",
"Like waves before the tempest--these alarms",
"Came to me, as to know their cause I lept",
"On the gate's turret, and in rage and grief and scorn I wept!",
"",
"For to the North I saw the town on fire,",
"And its red light made morning pallid now,",
"Which burst over wide Asia;--louder, higher,",
"The yells of victory and the screams of woe",
"I heard approach, and saw the throng below",
"Stream through the gates like foam-wrought waterfalls",
"Fed from a thousand storms--the fearful glow",
"Of bombs flares overhead--at intervals",
"The red artillery's bolt mangling among them falls.",
"",
"And now the horsemen come--and all was done",
"Swifter than I have spoken--I beheld",
"Their red swords flash in the unrisen sun.",
"I rushed among the rout, to have repelled",
"That miserable flight--one moment quelled",
"By voice and looks and eloquent despair,",
"As if reproach from their own hearts withheld",
"Their steps, they stood; but soon came pouring there",
"New multitudes, and did those rallied bands o'erbear.",
"",
"I strove, as, drifted on some cataract",
"By irresistible streams, some wretch might strive",
"Who hears its fatal roar:--the files compact",
"Whelmed me, and from the gate availed to drive",
"With quickening impulse, as each bolt did rive",
"Their ranks with bloodier chasm:--into the plain",
"Disgorged at length the dead and the alive",
"In one dread mass, were parted, and the stain",
"Of blood, from mortal steel fell o'er the fields like rain.",
"",
"For now the despot's bloodhounds with their prey",
"Unarmed and unaware, were gorging deep",
"Their gluttony of death; the loose array",
"Of horsemen o'er the wide fields murdering sweep,",
"And with loud laughter for their tyrant reap",
"A harvest sown with other hopes; the while,",
"Far overhead, ships from Propontis keep",
"A killing rain of fire:--when the waves smile",
"As sudden earthquakes light many a volcano-isle,",
"",
"Thus sudden, unexpected feast was spread",
"For the carrion-fowls of Heaven.--I saw the sight--",
"I moved--I lived--as o'er the heaps of dead,",
"Whose stony eyes glared in the morning light",
"I trod;--to me there came no thought of flight,",
"But with loud cries of scorn, which whoso heard",
"That dreaded death, felt in his veins the might",
"Of virtuous shame return, the crowd I stirred,",
"And desperation's hope in many hearts recurred.",
"",
"A band of brothers gathering round me, made,",
"Although unarmed, a steadfast front, and still",
"Retreating, with stern looks beneath the shade",
"Of gathered eyebrows, did the victors fill",
"With doubt even in success; deliberate will",
"Inspired our growing troop; not overthrown",
"It gained the shelter of a grassy hill,",
"And ever still our comrades were hewn down,",
"And their defenceless limbs beneath our footsteps strown.",
"",
"Immovably we stood--in joy I found,",
"Beside me then, firm as a giant pine",
"Among the mountain-vapours driven around,",
"The old man whom I loved--his eyes divine",
"With a mild look of courage answered mine,",
"And my young friend was near, and ardently",
"His hand grasped mine a moment--now the line",
"Of war extended, to our rallying cry",
"As myriads flocked in love and brotherhood to die.",
"",
"For ever while the sun was climbing Heaven",
"The horseman hewed our unarmed myriads down",
"Safely, though when by thirst of carnage driven",
"Too near, those slaves were swiftly overthrown",
"By hundreds leaping on them:--flesh and bone",
"Soon made our ghastly ramparts; then the shaft",
"Of the artillery from the sea was thrown",
"More fast and fiery, and the conquerors laughed",
"In pride to hear the wind our screams of torment waft.",
"",
"For on one side alone the hill gave shelter,",
"So vast that phalanx of unconquered men,",
"And there the living in the blood did welter",
"Of the dead and dying, which in that green glen,",
"Like stifled torrents, made a plashy fen",
"Under the feet--thus was the butchery waged",
"While the sun clomb Heaven's eastern steep--but when",
"It 'gan to sink--a fiercer combat raged,",
"For in more doubtful strife the armies were engaged.",
"",
"Within a cave upon the hill were found",
"A bundle of rude pikes, the instrument",
"Of those who war but on their native ground",
"For natural rights: a shout of joyance sent",
"Even from our hearts the wide air pierced and rent,",
"As those few arms the bravest and the best",
"Seized, and each sixth, thus armed, did now present",
"A line which covered and sustained the rest,",
"A confident phalanx, which the foes on every side invest.",
"",
"That onset turned the foes to flight almost;",
"But soon they saw their present strength, and knew",
"That coming night would to our resolute host",
"Bring victory; so dismounting, close they drew",
"Their glittering files, and then the combat grew",
"Unequal but most horrible;--and ever",
"Our myriads, whom the swift bolt overthrew,",
"Or the red sword, failed like a mountain river",
"Which rushes forth in foam to sink in sands for ever.",
"",
"Sorrow and shame, to see with their own kind",
"Our human brethren mix, like beasts of blood,",
"To mutual ruin armed by one behind",
"Who sits and scoffs!--That friend so mild and good,",
"Who like its shadow near my youth had stood,",
"Was stabbed!--my old preserver's hoary hair",
"With the flesh clinging to its roots, was strewed",
"Under my feet!--I lost all sense or care,",
"And like the rest I grew desperate and unaware.",
"",
"The battle became ghastlier--in the midst",
"I paused, and saw, how ugly and how fell",
"O Hate! thou art, even when thy life thou shedd'st",
"For love. The ground in many a little dell",
"Was broken, up and down whose steeps befell",
"Alternate victory and defeat, and there",
"The combatants with rage most horrible",
"Strove, and their eyes started with cracking stare,",
"And impotent their tongues they lolled into the air,",
"",
"Flaccid and foamy, like a mad dog's hanging;",
"Want, and Moon-madness, and the pest's swift Bane",
"When its shafts smite--while yet its bow is twanging--",
"Have each their mark and sign--some ghastly stain;",
"And this was thine, O War! of hate and pain",
"Thou loathed slave! I saw all shapes of death",
"And ministered to many, o'er the plain",
"While carnage in the sunbeam's warmth did seethe,",
"Till twilight o'er the east wove her serenest wreath.",
"",
"The few who yet survived, resolute and firm",
"Around me fought. At the decline of day",
"Winding above the mountain's snowy term",
"New banners shone; they quivered in the ray",
"Of the sun's unseen orb--ere night the array",
"Of fresh troops hemmed us in--of those brave bands",
"I soon survived alone--and now I lay",
"Vanquished and faint, the grasp of bloody hands",
"I felt, and saw on high the glare of falling brands,",
"",
"When on my foes a sudden terror came,",
"And they fled, scattering--lo! with reinless speed",
"A black Tartarian horse of giant frame",
"Comes trampling over the dead, the living bleed",
"Beneath the hoofs of that tremendous steed,",
"On which, like to an Angel, robed in white,",
"Sate one waving a sword;--the hosts recede",
"And fly, as through their ranks with awful might,",
"Sweeps in the shadow of eve that Phantom swift and bright;",
"",
"And its path made a solitude.--I rose",
"And marked its coming: it relaxed its course",
"As it approached me, and the wind that flows",
"Through night, bore accents to mine ear whose force",
"Might create smiles in death--the Tartar horse",
"Paused, and I saw the shape its might which swayed,",
"And heard her musical pants, like the sweet source",
"Of waters in the desert, as she said,",
"'Mount with me, Laon, now'--I rapidly obeyed.",
"",
"Then: 'Away! away!' she cried, and stretched her sword",
"As 'twere a scourge over the courser's head,",
"And lightly shook the reins.--We spake no word,",
"But like the vapour of the tempest fled",
"Over the plain; her dark hair was dispread",
"Like the pine's locks upon the lingering blast;",
"Over mine eyes its shadowy strings it spread",
"Fitfully, and the hills and streams fled fast,",
"As o'er their glimmering forms the steed's broad shadow passed.",
"",
"And his hoofs ground the rocks to fire and dust,",
"His strong sides made the torrents rise in spray,",
"And turbulence, as of a whirlwind's gust",
"Surrounded us;--and still away! away!",
"Through the desert night we sped, while she alway",
"Gazed on a mountain which we neared, whose crest,",
"Crowned with a marble ruin, in the ray",
"Of the obscure stars gleamed;--its rugged breast",
"The steed strained up, and then his impulse did arrest.",
"",
"A rocky hill which overhung the Ocean:--",
"From that lone ruin, when the steed that panted",
"Paused, might be heard the murmur of the motion",
"Of waters, as in spots for ever haunted",
"By the choicest winds of Heaven, which are enchanted",
"To music, by the wand of Solitude,",
"That wizard wild, and the far tents implanted",
"Upon the plain, be seen by those who stood",
"Thence marking the dark shore of Ocean's curved flood.",
"",
"One moment these were heard and seen--another",
"Passed; and the two who stood beneath that night,",
"Each only heard, or saw, or felt the other;",
"As from the lofty steed she did alight,",
"Cythna, (for, from the eyes whose deepest light",
"Of love and sadness made my lips feel pale",
"With influence strange of mournfullest delight,",
"My own sweet Cythna looked), with joy did quail,",
"And felt her strength in tears of human weakness fail.",
"",
"And for a space in my embrace she rested,",
"Her head on my unquiet heart reposing,",
"While my faint arms her languid frame invested;",
"At length she looked on me, and half unclosing",
"Her tremulous lips, said, 'Friend, thy bands were losing",
"The battle, as I stood before the King",
"In bonds.--I burst them then, and swiftly choosing",
"The time, did seize a Tartar's sword, and spring",
"Upon his horse, and swift, as on the whirlwind's wing,",
"",
"'Have thou and I been borne beyond pursuer,",
"And we are here.'--Then, turning to the steed,",
"She pressed the white moon on his front with pure",
"And rose-like lips, and many a fragrant weed",
"From the green ruin plucked, that he might feed;--",
"But I to a stone seat that Maiden led,",
"And, kissing her fair eyes, said, 'Thou hast need",
"Of rest,' and I heaped up the courser's bed",
"In a green mossy nook, with mountain flowers dispread.",
"",
"Within that ruin, where a shattered portal",
"Looks to the eastern stars, abandoned now",
"By man, to be the home of things immortal,",
"Memories, like awful ghosts which come and go,",
"And must inherit all he builds below,",
"When he is gone, a hall stood; o'er whose roof",
"Fair clinging weeds with ivy pale did grow,",
"Clasping its gray rents with a verdurous woof,",
"A hanging dome of leaves, a canopy moon-proof.",
"",
"The autumnal winds, as if spell-bound, had made",
"A natural couch of leaves in that recess,",
"Which seasons none disturbed, but, in the shade",
"Of flowering parasites, did Spring love to dress",
"With their sweet blooms the wintry loneliness",
"Of those dead leaves, shedding their stars, whene'er",
"The wandering wind her nurslings might caress;",
"Whose intertwining fingers ever there",
"Made music wild and soft that filled the listening air.",
"",
"We know not where we go, or what sweet dream",
"May pilot us through caverns strange and fair",
"Of far and pathless passion, while the stream",
"Of life, our bark doth on its whirlpools bear,",
"Spreading swift wings as sails to the dim air;",
"Nor should we seek to know, so the devotion",
"Of love and gentle thoughts be heard still there",
"Louder and louder from the utmost Ocean",
"Of universal life, attuning its commotion.",
"",
"To the pure all things are pure! Oblivion wrapped",
"Our spirits, and the fearful overthrow",
"Of public hope was from our being snapped,",
"Though linked years had bound it there; for now",
"A power, a thirst, a knowledge, which below",
"All thoughts, like light beyond the atmosphere,",
"Clothing its clouds with grace, doth ever flow,",
"Came on us, as we sate in silence there,",
"Beneath the golden stars of the clear azure air;--",
"",
"In silence which doth follow talk that causes",
"The baffled heart to speak with sighs and tears,",
"When wildering passion swalloweth up the pauses",
"Of inexpressive speech:--the youthful years",
"Which we together passed, their hopes and fears,",
"The blood itself which ran within our frames,",
"That likeness of the features which endears",
"The thoughts expressed by them, our very names,",
"And all the winged hours which speechless memory claims,",
"",
"Had found a voice--and ere that voice did pass,",
"The night grew damp and dim, and, through a rent",
"Of the ruin where we sate, from the morass",
"A wandering Meteor by some wild wind sent,",
"Hung high in the green dome, to which it lent",
"A faint and pallid lustre; while the song",
"Of blasts, in which its blue hair quivering bent,",
"Strewed strangest sounds the moving leaves among;",
"A wondrous light, the sound as of a spirit's tongue.",
"",
"The Meteor showed the leaves on which we sate,",
"And Cythna's glowing arms, and the thick ties",
"Of her soft hair, which bent with gathered weight",
"My neck near hers; her dark and deepening eyes,",
"Which, as twin phantoms of one star that lies",
"O'er a dim well, move, though the star reposes,",
"Swam in our mute and liquid ecstasies,",
"Her marble brow, and eager lips, like roses,",
"With their own fragrance pale, which Spring but half uncloses.",
"",
"The Meteor to its far morass returned:",
"The beating of our veins one interval",
"Made still; and then I felt the blood that burned",
"Within her frame, mingle with mine, and fall",
"Around my heart like fire; and over all",
"A mist was spread, the sickness of a deep",
"And speechless swoon of joy, as might befall",
"Two disunited spirits when they leap",
"In union from this earth's obscure and fading sleep.",
"",
"Was it one moment that confounded thus",
"All thought, all sense, all feeling, into one",
"Unutterable power, which shielded us",
"Even from our own cold looks, when we had gone",
"Into a wide and wild oblivion",
"Of tumult and of tenderness? or now",
"Had ages, such as make the moon and sun,",
"The seasons, and mankind their changes know,",
"Left fear and time unfelt by us alone below?",
"",
"I know not. What are kisses whose fire clasps",
"The failing heart in languishment, or limb",
"Twined within limb? or the quick dying gasps",
"Of the life meeting, when the faint eyes swim",
"Through tears of a wide mist boundless and dim,",
"In one caress? What is the strong control",
"Which leads the heart that dizzy steep to climb,",
"Where far over the world those vapours roll",
"Which blend two restless frames in one reposing soul?",
"",
"It is the shadow which doth float unseen,",
"But not unfelt, o'er blind mortality,",
"Whose divine darkness fled not from that green",
"And lone recess, where lapped in peace did lie",
"Our linked frames, till, from the changing sky",
"That night and still another day had fled;",
"And then I saw and felt. The moon was high,",
"And clouds, as of a coming storm, were spread",
"Under its orb,--loud winds were gathering overhead.",
"",
"Cythna's sweet lips seemed lurid in the moon,",
"Her fairest limbs with the night wind were chill,",
"And her dark tresses were all loosely strewn",
"O'er her pale bosom:--all within was still,",
"And the sweet peace of joy did almost fill",
"The depth of her unfathomable look;--",
"And we sate calmly, though that rocky hill,",
"The waves contending in its caverns strook,",
"For they foreknew the storm, and the gray ruin shook.",
"",
"There we unheeding sate, in the communion",
"Of interchanged vows, which, with a rite",
"Of faith most sweet and sacred, stamped our union.--",
"Few were the living hearts which could unite",
"Like ours, or celebrate a bridal night",
"With such close sympathies, for they had sprung",
"From linked youth, and from the gentle might",
"Of earliest love, delayed and cherished long,",
"Which common hopes and fears made, like a tempest, strong.",
"",
"And such is Nature's law divine, that those",
"Who grow together cannot choose but love,",
"If faith or custom do not interpose,",
"Or common slavery mar what else might move",
"All gentlest thoughts; as in the sacred grove",
"Which shades the springs of Ethiopian Nile,",
"That living tree which, if the arrowy dove",
"Strike with her shadow, shrinks in fear awhile,",
"But its own kindred leaves clasps while the sunbeams smile;",
"",
"And clings to them, when darkness may dissever",
"The close caresses of all duller plants",
"Which bloom on the wide earth--thus we for ever",
"Were linked, for love had nursed us in the haunts",
"Where knowledge, from its secret source enchants",
"Young hearts with the fresh music of its springing,",
"Ere yet its gathered flood feeds human wants,",
"As the great Nile feeds Egypt; ever flinging",
"Light on the woven boughs which o'er its waves are swinging.",
"",
"The tones of Cythna's voice like echoes were",
"Of those far murmuring streams; they rose and fell,",
"Mixed with mine own in the tempestuous air,--",
"And so we sate, until our talk befell",
"Of the late ruin, swift and horrible,",
"And how those seeds of hope might yet be sown,",
"Whose fruit is evil's mortal poison: well,",
"For us, this ruin made a watch-tower lone,",
"But Cythna's eyes looked faint, and now two days were gone",
"",
"Since she had food:--therefore I did awaken",
"The Tartar steed, who, from his ebon mane",
"Soon as the clinging slumbers he had shaken,",
"Bent his thin head to seek the brazen rein,",
"Following me obediently; with pain",
"Of heart, so deep and dread, that one caress,",
"When lips and heart refuse to part again",
"Till they have told their fill, could scarce express",
"The anguish of her mute and fearful tenderness,",
"",
"Cythna beheld me part, as I bestrode",
"That willing steed--the tempest and the night,",
"Which gave my path its safety as I rode",
"Down the ravine of rocks, did soon unite",
"The darkness and the tumult of their might",
"Borne on all winds.--Far through the streaming rain",
"Floating at intervals the garments white",
"Of Cythna gleamed, and her voice once again",
"Came to me on the gust, and soon I reached the plain.",
"",
"I dreaded not the tempest, nor did he",
"Who bore me, but his eyeballs wide and red",
"Turned on the lightning's cleft exultingly;",
"And when the earth beneath his tameless tread,",
"Shook with the sullen thunder, he would spread",
"His nostrils to the blast, and joyously",
"Mock the fierce peal with neighings;--thus we sped",
"O'er the lit plain, and soon I could descry",
"Where Death and Fire had gorged the spoil of victory.",
"",
"There was a desolate village in a wood",
"Whose bloom-inwoven leaves now scattering fed",
"The hungry storm; it was a place of blood,",
"A heap of hearthless walls;--the flames were dead",
"Within those dwellings now,--the life had fled",
"From all those corpses now,--but the wide sky",
"Flooded with lightning was ribbed overhead",
"By the black rafters, and around did lie",
"Women, and babes, and men, slaughtered confusedly.",
"",
"Beside the fountain in the market-place",
"Dismounting, I beheld those corpses stare",
"With horny eyes upon each other's face,",
"And on the earth and on the vacant air,",
"And upon me, close to the waters where",
"I stooped to slake my thirst;--I shrank to taste,",
"For the salt bitterness of blood was there;",
"But tied the steed beside, and sought in haste",
"If any yet survived amid that ghastly waste.",
"",
"No living thing was there beside one woman,",
"Whom I found wandering in the streets, and she",
"Was withered from a likeness of aught human",
"Into a fiend, by some strange misery:",
"Soon as she heard my steps she leaped on me,",
"And glued her burning lips to mine, and laughed",
"With a loud, long, and frantic laugh of glee,",
"And cried, 'Now, Mortal, thou hast deeply quaffed",
"The Plague's blue kisses--soon millions shall pledge the draught!",
"",
"'My name is Pestilence--this bosom dry,",
"Once fed two babes--a sister and a brother--",
"When I came home, one in the blood did lie",
"Of three death-wounds--the flames had ate the other!",
"Since then I have no longer been a mother,",
"But I am Pestilence;--hither and thither",
"I flit about, that I may slay and smother:--",
"All lips which I have kissed must surely wither,",
"But Death's--if thou art he, we'll go to work together!",
"",
"'What seek'st thou here? The moonlight comes in flashes,--",
"The dew is rising dankly from the dell--",
"'Twill moisten her! and thou shalt see the gashes",
"In my sweet boy, now full of worms--but tell",
"First what thou seek'st.'--'I seek for food.'--''Tis well,",
"Thou shalt have food. Famine, my paramour,",
"Waits for us at the feast--cruel and fell",
"Is Famine, but he drives not from his door",
"Those whom these lips have kissed, alone. No more, no more!'",
"",
"As thus she spake, she grasped me with the strength",
"Of madness, and by many a ruined hearth",
"She led, and over many a corpse:--at length",
"We came to a lone hut where on the earth",
"Which made its floor, she in her ghastly mirth,",
"Gathering from all those homes now desolate,",
"Had piled three heaps of loaves, making a dearth",
"Among the dead--round which she set in state",
"A ring of cold, stiff babes; silent and stark they sate.",
"",
"She leaped upon a pile, and lifted high",
"Her mad looks to the lightning, and cried: 'Eat!",
"Share the great feast--to-morrow we must die!'",
"And then she spurned the loaves with her pale feet,",
"Towards her bloodless guests;--that sight to meet,",
"Mine eyes and my heart ached, and but that she",
"Who loved me, did with absent looks defeat",
"Despair, I might have raved in sympathy;",
"But now I took the food that woman offered me;",
"",
"And vainly having with her madness striven",
"If I might win her to return with me,",
"Departed. In the eastern beams of Heaven",
"The lightning now grew pallid--rapidly,",
"As by the shore of the tempestuous sea",
"The dark steed bore me; and the mountain gray",
"Soon echoed to his hoofs, and I could see",
"Cythna among the rocks, where she alway",
"Had sate with anxious eyes fixed on the lingering day.",
"",
"And joy was ours to meet: she was most pale,",
"Famished, and wet and weary, so I cast",
"My arms around her, lest her steps should fail",
"As to our home we went, and thus embraced,",
"Her full heart seemed a deeper joy to taste",
"Than e'er the prosperous know; the steed behind",
"Trod peacefully along the mountain waste;",
"We reached our home ere morning could unbind",
"Night's latest veil, and on our bridal-couch reclined.",
"",
"Her chilled heart having cherished in my bosom,",
"And sweetest kisses past, we two did share",
"Our peaceful meal:--as an autumnal blossom",
"Which spreads its shrunk leaves in the sunny air,",
"After cold showers, like rainbows woven there,",
"Thus in her lips and cheeks the vital spirit",
"Mantled, and in her eyes, an atmosphere",
"Of health, and hope; and sorrow languished near it,",
"And fear, and all that dark despondence doth inherit.",
"",
"CANTO 7.",
"",
"So we sate joyous as the morning ray",
"Which fed upon the wrecks of night and storm",
"Now lingering on the winds; light airs did play",
"Among the dewy weeds, the sun was warm,",
"And we sate linked in the inwoven charm",
"Of converse and caresses sweet and deep,",
"Speechless caresses, talk that might disarm",
"Time, though he wield the darts of death and sleep,",
"And those thrice mortal barbs in his own poison steep.",
"",
"I told her of my sufferings and my madness,",
"And how, awakened from that dreamy mood",
"By Liberty's uprise, the strength of gladness",
"Came to my spirit in my solitude;",
"And all that now I was--while tears pursued",
"Each other down her fair and listening cheek",
"Fast as the thoughts which fed them, like a flood",
"From sunbright dales; and when I ceased to speak,",
"Her accents soft and sweet the pausing air did wake.",
"",
"She told me a strange tale of strange endurance,",
"Like broken memories of many a heart",
"Woven into one; to which no firm assurance,",
"So wild were they, could her own faith impart.",
"She said that not a tear did dare to start",
"From the swoln brain, and that her thoughts were firm",
"When from all mortal hope she did depart,",
"Borne by those slaves across the Ocean's term,",
"And that she reached the port without one fear infirm.",
"",
"One was she among many there, the thralls",
"Of the cold Tyrant's cruel lust; and they",
"Laughed mournfully in those polluted halls;",
"But she was calm and sad, musing alway",
"On loftiest enterprise, till on a day",
"The Tyrant heard her singing to her lute",
"A wild, and sad, and spirit-thrilling lay,",
"Like winds that die in wastes--one moment mute",
"The evil thoughts it made, which did his breast pollute.",
"",
"Even when he saw her wondrous loveliness,",
"One moment to great Nature's sacred power",
"He bent, and was no longer passionless;",
"But when he bade her to his secret bower",
"Be borne, a loveless victim, and she tore",
"Her locks in agony, and her words of flame",
"And mightier looks availed not; then he bore",
"Again his load of slavery, and became",
"A king, a heartless beast, a pageant and a name.",
"",
"She told me what a loathsome agony",
"Is that when selfishness mocks love's delight,",
"Foul as in dream's most fearful imagery,",
"To dally with the mowing dead--that night",
"All torture, fear, or horror made seem light",
"Which the soul dreams or knows, and when the day",
"Shone on her awful frenzy, from the sight",
"Where like a Spirit in fleshly chains she lay",
"Struggling, aghast and pale the Tyrant fled away.",
"",
"Her madness was a beam of light, a power",
"Which dawned through the rent soul; and words it gave,",
"Gestures and looks, such as in whirlwinds bore",
"Which might not be withstood--whence none could save--",
"All who approached their sphere,--like some calm wave",
"Vexed into whirlpools by the chasms beneath;",
"And sympathy made each attendant slave",
"Fearless and free, and they began to breathe",
"Deep curses, like the voice of flames far underneath.",
"",
"The King felt pale upon his noonday throne:",
"At night two slaves he to her chamber sent,--",
"One was a green and wrinkled eunuch, grown",
"From human shape into an instrument",
"Of all things ill--distorted, bowed and bent.",
"The other was a wretch from infancy",
"Made dumb by poison; who nought knew or meant",
"But to obey: from the fire isles came he,",
"A diver lean and strong, of Oman's coral sea.",
"",
"They bore her to a bark, and the swift stroke",
"Of silent rowers clove the blue moonlight seas,",
"Until upon their path the morning broke;",
"They anchored then, where, be there calm or breeze,",
"The gloomiest of the drear Symplegades",
"Shakes with the sleepless surge;--the Ethiop there",
"Wound his long arms around her, and with knees",
"Like iron clasped her feet, and plunged with her",
"Among the closing waves out of the boundless air.",
"",
"'Swift as an eagle stooping from the plain",
"Of morning light, into some shadowy wood,",
"He plunged through the green silence of the main,",
"Through many a cavern which the eternal flood",
"Had scooped, as dark lairs for its monster brood;",
"And among mighty shapes which fled in wonder,",
"And among mightier shadows which pursued",
"His heels, he wound: until the dark rocks under",
"He touched a golden chain--a sound arose like thunder.",
"",
"'A stunning clang of massive bolts redoubling",
"Beneath the deep--a burst of waters driven",
"As from the roots of the sea, raging and bubbling:",
"And in that roof of crags a space was riven",
"Through which there shone the emerald beams of heaven,",
"Shot through the lines of many waves inwoven,",
"Like sunlight through acacia woods at even,",
"Through which, his way the diver having cloven,",
"Passed like a spark sent up out of a burning oven.",
"",
"'And then,' she said, 'he laid me in a cave",
"Above the waters, by that chasm of sea,",
"A fountain round and vast, in which the wave",
"Imprisoned, boiled and leaped perpetually,",
"Down which, one moment resting, he did flee,",
"Winning the adverse depth; that spacious cell",
"Like an hupaithric temple wide and high,",
"Whose aery dome is inaccessible,",
"Was pierced with one round cleft through which the sunbeams fell.",
"",
"'Below, the fountain's brink was richly paven",
"With the deep's wealth, coral, and pearl, and sand",
"Like spangling gold, and purple shells engraven",
"With mystic legends by no mortal hand,",
"Left there, when thronging to the moon's command,",
"The gathering waves rent the Hesperian gate",
"Of mountains, and on such bright floor did stand",
"Columns, and shapes like statues, and the state",
"Of kingless thrones, which Earth did in her heart create.",
"",
"'The fiend of madness which had made its prey",
"Of my poor heart, was lulled to sleep awhile:",
"There was an interval of many a day,",
"And a sea-eagle brought me food the while,",
"Whose nest was built in that untrodden isle,",
"And who, to be the gaoler had been taught",
"Of that strange dungeon; as a friend whose smile",
"Like light and rest at morn and even is sought",
"That wild bird was to me, till madness misery brought.",
"",
"'The misery of a madness slow and creeping,",
"Which made the earth seem fire, the sea seem air,",
"And the white clouds of noon which oft were sleeping,",
"In the blue heaven so beautiful and fair,",
"Like hosts of ghastly shadows hovering there;",
"And the sea-eagle looked a fiend, who bore",
"Thy mangled limbs for food!--Thus all things were",
"Transformed into the agony which I wore",
"Even as a poisoned robe around my bosom's core.",
"",
"'Again I knew the day and night fast fleeing,",
"The eagle, and the fountain, and the air;",
"Another frenzy came--there seemed a being",
"Within me--a strange load my heart did bear,",
"As if some living thing had made its lair",
"Even in the fountains of my life:--a long",
"And wondrous vision wrought from my despair,",
"Then grew, like sweet reality among",
"Dim visionary woes, an unreposing throng.",
"",
"'Methought I was about to be a mother--",
"Month after month went by, and still I dreamed",
"That we should soon be all to one another,",
"I and my child; and still new pulses seemed",
"To beat beside my heart, and still I deemed",
"There was a babe within--and, when the rain",
"Of winter through the rifted cavern streamed,",
"Methought, after a lapse of lingering pain,",
"I saw that lovely shape, which near my heart had lain.",
"",
"'It was a babe, beautiful from its birth,--",
"It was like thee, dear love, its eyes were thine,",
"Its brow, its lips, and so upon the earth",
"It laid its fingers, as now rest on mine",
"Thine own, beloved!--'twas a dream divine;",
"Even to remember how it fled, how swift,",
"How utterly, might make the heart repine,--",
"Though 'twas a dream.'--Then Cythna did uplift",
"Her looks on mine, as if some doubt she sought to shift:",
"",
"A doubt which would not flee, a tenderness",
"Of questioning grief, a source of thronging tears;",
"Which having passed, as one whom sobs oppress",
"She spoke: 'Yes, in the wilderness of years",
"Her memory, aye, like a green home appears;",
"She sucked her fill even at this breast, sweet love,",
"For many months. I had no mortal fears;",
"Methought I felt her lips and breath approve,--",
"It was a human thing which to my bosom clove.",
"",
"'I watched the dawn of her first smiles; and soon",
"When zenith stars were trembling on the wave,",
"Or when the beams of the invisible moon,",
"Or sun, from many a prism within the cave",
"Their gem-born shadows to the water gave,",
"Her looks would hunt them, and with outspread hand,",
"From the swift lights which might that fountain pave,",
"She would mark one, and laugh, when that command",
"Slighting, it lingered there, and could not understand.",
"",
"'Methought her looks began to talk with me;",
"And no articulate sounds, but something sweet",
"Her lips would frame,--so sweet it could not be,",
"That it was meaningless; her touch would meet",
"Mine, and our pulses calmly flow and beat",
"In response while we slept; and on a day",
"When I was happiest in that strange retreat,",
"With heaps of golden shells we two did play,--",
"Both infants, weaving wings for time's perpetual way.",
"",
"'Ere night, methought, her waning eyes were grown",
"Weary with joy, and tired with our delight,",
"We, on the earth, like sister twins lay down",
"On one fair mother's bosom:--from that night",
"She fled,--like those illusions clear and bright,",
"Which dwell in lakes, when the red moon on high",
"Pause ere it wakens tempest;--and her flight,",
"Though 'twas the death of brainless fantasy,",
"Yet smote my lonesome heart more than all misery.",
"",
"'It seemed that in the dreary night the diver",
"Who brought me thither, came again, and bore",
"My child away. I saw the waters quiver,",
"When he so swiftly sunk, as once before:",
"Then morning came--it shone even as of yore,",
"But I was changed--the very life was gone",
"Out of my heart--I wasted more and more,",
"Day after day, and sitting there alone,",
"Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan.",
"",
"'I was no longer mad, and yet methought",
"My breasts were swoln and changed:--in every vein",
"The blood stood still one moment, while that thought",
"Was passing--with a gush of sickening pain",
"It ebbed even to its withered springs again:",
"When my wan eyes in stern resolve I turned",
"From that most strange delusion, which would fain",
"Have waked the dream for which my spirit yearned",
"With more than human love,--then left it unreturned.",
"",
"'So now my reason was restored to me",
"I struggled with that dream, which, like a beast",
"Most fierce and beauteous, in my memory",
"Had made its lair, and on my heart did feast;",
"But all that cave and all its shapes, possessed",
"By thoughts which could not fade, renewed each one",
"Some smile, some look, some gesture which had blessed",
"Me heretofore: I, sitting there alone,",
"Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan.",
"",
"'Time passed, I know not whether months or years;",
"For day, nor night, nor change of seasons made",
"Its note, but thoughts and unavailing tears:",
"And I became at last even as a shade,",
"A smoke, a cloud on which the winds have preyed,",
"Till it be thin as air; until, one even,",
"A Nautilus upon the fountain played,",
"Spreading his azure sail where breath of Heaven",
"Descended not, among the waves and whirlpools driven.",
"",
"'And, when the Eagle came, that lovely thing,",
"Oaring with rosy feet its silver boat,",
"Fled near me as for shelter; on slow wing,",
"The Eagle, hovering o'er his prey did float;",
"But when he saw that I with fear did note",
"His purpose, proffering my own food to him,",
"The eager plumes subsided on his throat--",
"He came where that bright child of sea did swim,",
"And o'er it cast in peace his shadow broad and dim.",
"",
"'This wakened me, it gave me human strength;",
"And hope, I know not whence or wherefore, rose,",
"But I resumed my ancient powers at length;",
"My spirit felt again like one of those",
"Like thine, whose fate it is to make the woes",
"Of humankind their prey--what was this cave?",
"Its deep foundation no firm purpose knows",
"Immutable, resistless, strong to save,",
"Like mind while yet it mocks the all-devouring grave.",
"",
"'And where was Laon? might my heart be dead,",
"While that far dearer heart could move and be?",
"Or whilst over the earth the pall was spread,",
"Which I had sworn to rend? I might be free,",
"Could I but win that friendly bird to me,",
"To bring me ropes; and long in vain I sought",
"By intercourse of mutual imagery",
"Of objects, if such aid he could be taught;",
"But fruit, and flowers, and boughs, yet never ropes he brought.",
"",
"'We live in our own world, and mine was made",
"From glorious fantasies of hope departed:",
"Aye we are darkened with their floating shade,",
"Or cast a lustre on them--time imparted",
"Such power to me--I became fearless-hearted,",
"My eye and voice grew firm, calm was my mind,",
"And piercing, like the morn, now it has darted",
"Its lustre on all hidden things, behind",
"Yon dim and fading clouds which load the weary wind.",
"",
"'My mind became the book through which I grew",
"Wise in all human wisdom, and its cave,",
"Which like a mine I rifled through and through,",
"To me the keeping of its secrets gave--",
"One mind, the type of all, the moveless wave",
"Whose calm reflects all moving things that are,",
"Necessity, and love, and life, the grave,",
"And sympathy, fountains of hope and fear,",
"Justice, and truth, and time, and the world's natural sphere.",
"",
"'And on the sand would I make signs to range",
"These woofs, as they were woven, of my thought;",
"Clear, elemental shapes, whose smallest change",
"A subtler language within language wrought:",
"The key of truths which once were dimly taught",
"In old Crotona;--and sweet melodies",
"Of love, in that lorn solitude I caught",
"From mine own voice in dream, when thy dear eyes",
"Shone through my sleep, and did that utterance harmonize.",
"",
"'Thy songs were winds whereon I fled at will,",
"As in a winged chariot, o'er the plain",
"Of crystal youth; and thou wert there to fill",
"My heart with joy, and there we sate again",
"On the gray margin of the glimmering main,",
"Happy as then but wiser far, for we",
"Smiled on the flowery grave in which were lain",
"Fear, Faith and Slavery; and mankind was free,",
"Equal, and pure, and wise, in Wisdom's prophecy.",
"",
"'For to my will my fancies were as slaves",
"To do their sweet and subtile ministries;",
"And oft from that bright fountain's shadowy waves",
"They would make human throngs gather and rise",
"To combat with my overflowing eyes,",
"And voice made deep with passion--thus I grew",
"Familiar with the shock and the surprise",
"And war of earthly minds, from which I drew",
"The power which has been mine to frame their thoughts anew.",
"",
"'And thus my prison was the populous earth--",
"Where I saw--even as misery dreams of morn",
"Before the east has given its glory birth--",
"Religion's pomp made desolate by the scorn",
"Of Wisdom's faintest smile, and thrones uptorn,",
"And dwellings of mild people interspersed",
"With undivided fields of ripening corn,",
"And love made free,--a hope which we have nursed",
"Even with our blood and tears,--until its glory burst.",
"",
"'All is not lost! There is some recompense",
"For hope whose fountain can be thus profound,",
"Even throned Evil's splendid impotence,",
"Girt by its hell of power, the secret sound",
"Of hymns to truth and freedom--the dread bound",
"Of life and death passed fearlessly and well,",
"Dungeons wherein the high resolve is found,",
"Racks which degraded woman's greatness tell,",
"And what may else be good and irresistible.",
"",
"'Such are the thoughts which, like the fires that flare",
"In storm-encompassed isles, we cherish yet",
"In this dark ruin--such were mine even there;",
"As in its sleep some odorous violet,",
"While yet its leaves with nightly dews are wet,",
"Breathes in prophetic dreams of day's uprise,",
"Or as, ere Scythian frost in fear has met",
"Spring's messengers descending from the skies,",
"The buds foreknow their life--this hope must ever rise.",
"",
"'So years had passed, when sudden earthquake rent",
"The depth of ocean, and the cavern cracked",
"With sound, as if the world's wide continent",
"Had fallen in universal ruin wracked:",
"And through the cleft streamed in one cataract",
"The stifling waters--when I woke, the flood",
"Whose banded waves that crystal cave had sacked",
"Was ebbing round me, and my bright abode",
"Before me yawned--a chasm desert, and bare, and broad.",
"",
"'Above me was the sky, beneath the sea:",
"I stood upon a point of shattered stone,",
"And heard loose rocks rushing tumultuously",
"With splash and shock into the deep--anon",
"All ceased, and there was silence wide and lone.",
"I felt that I was free! The Ocean-spray",
"Quivered beneath my feet, the broad Heaven shone",
"Around, and in my hair the winds did play",
"Lingering as they pursued their unimpeded way.",
"",
"'My spirit moved upon the sea like wind",
"Which round some thymy cape will lag and hover,",
"Though it can wake the still cloud, and unbind",
"The strength of tempest: day was almost over,",
"When through the fading light I could discover",
"A ship approaching--its white sails were fed",
"With the north wind--its moving shade did cover",
"The twilight deep; the mariners in dread",
"Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread.",
"",
"'And when they saw one sitting on a crag,",
"They sent a boat to me;--the Sailors rowed",
"In awe through many a new and fearful jag",
"Of overhanging rock, through which there flowed",
"The foam of streams that cannot make abode.",
"They came and questioned me, but when they heard",
"My voice, they became silent, and they stood",
"And moved as men in whom new love had stirred",
"Deep thoughts: so to the ship we passed without a word.",
"",
"CANTO 8.",
"",
"'I sate beside the Steersman then, and gazing",
"Upon the west, cried, \"Spread the sails! Behold!",
"The sinking moon is like a watch-tower blazing",
"Over the mountains yet;--the City of Gold",
"Yon Cape alone does from the sight withhold;",
"The stream is fleet--the north breathes steadily",
"Beneath the stars; they tremble with the cold!",
"Ye cannot rest upon the dreary sea!--",
"Haste, haste to the warm home of happier destiny!\"",
"",
"'The Mariners obeyed--the Captain stood",
"Aloof, and, whispering to the Pilot, said,",
"\"Alas, alas! I fear we are pursued",
"By wicked ghosts; a Phantom of the Dead,",
"The night before we sailed, came to my bed",
"In dream, like that!\" The Pilot then replied,",
"\"It cannot be--she is a human Maid--",
"Her low voice makes you weep--she is some bride,",
"Or daughter of high birth--she can be nought beside.\"",
"",
"'We passed the islets, borne by wind and stream,",
"And as we sailed, the Mariners came near",
"And thronged around to listen;--in the gleam",
"Of the pale moon I stood, as one whom fear",
"May not attaint, and my calm voice did rear;",
"\"Ye are all human--yon broad moon gives light",
"To millions who the selfsame likeness wear,",
"Even while I speak--beneath this very night,",
"Their thoughts flow on like ours, in sadness or delight.",
"",
"'\"What dream ye? Your own hands have built an home,",
"Even for yourselves on a beloved shore:",
"For some, fond eyes are pining till they come,",
"How they will greet him when his toils are o'er,",
"And laughing babes rush from the well-known door!",
"Is this your care? ye toil for your own good--",
"Ye feel and think--has some immortal power",
"Such purposes? or in a human mood,",
"Dream ye some Power thus builds for man in solitude?",
"",
"'\"What is that Power? Ye mock yourselves, and give",
"A human heart to what ye cannot know:",
"As if the cause of life could think and live!",
"'Twere as if man's own works should feel, and show",
"The hopes, and fears, and thoughts from which they flow,",
"And he be like to them! Lo! Plague is free",
"To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and Snow,",
"Disease, and Want, and worse Necessity",
"Of hate and ill, and Pride, and Fear, and Tyranny!",
"",
"'\"What is that Power? Some moon-struck sophist stood",
"Watching the shade from his own soul upthrown",
"Fill Heaven and darken Earth, and in such mood",
"The Form he saw and worshipped was his own,",
"His likeness in the world's vast mirror shown;",
"And 'twere an innocent dream, but that a faith",
"Nursed by fear's dew of poison, grows thereon,",
"And that men say, that Power has chosen Death",
"On all who scorn its laws, to wreak immortal wrath.",
"",
"'\"Men say that they themselves have heard and seen,",
"Or known from others who have known such things,",
"A Shade, a Form, which Earth and Heaven between",
"Wields an invisible rod--that Priests and Kings,",
"Custom, domestic sway, ay, all that brings",
"Man's freeborn soul beneath the oppressor's heel,",
"Are his strong ministers, and that the stings",
"Of death will make the wise his vengeance feel,",
"Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with tenfold steel.",
"",
"'\"And it is said, this Power will punish wrong;",
"Yes, add despair to crime, and pain to pain!",
"And deepest hell, and deathless snakes among,",
"Will bind the wretch on whom is fixed a stain,",
"Which, like a plague, a burden, and a bane,",
"Clung to him while he lived; for love and hate,",
"Virtue and vice, they say are difference vain--",
"The will of strength is right--this human state",
"Tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate.",
"",
"'\"Alas, what strength? Opinion is more frail",
"Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moon",
"Even while we gaze, though it awhile avail",
"To hide the orb of truth--and every throne",
"Of Earth or Heaven, though shadow, rests thereon,",
"One shape of many names:--for this ye plough",
"The barren waves of ocean, hence each one",
"Is slave or tyrant; all betray and bow,",
"Command, or kill, or fear, or wreak, or suffer woe.",
"",
"'\"Its names are each a sign which maketh holy",
"All power--ay, the ghost, the dream, the shade",
"Of power--lust, falsehood, hate, and pride, and folly;",
"The pattern whence all fraud and wrong is made,",
"A law to which mankind has been betrayed;",
"And human love, is as the name well known",
"Of a dear mother, whom the murderer laid",
"In bloody grave, and into darkness thrown,",
"Gathered her wildered babes around him as his own.",
"",
"'\"O Love, who to the hearts of wandering men",
"Art as the calm to Ocean's weary waves!",
"Justice, or Truth, or Joy! those only can",
"From slavery and religion's labyrinth caves",
"Guide us, as one clear star the seaman saves.",
"To give to all an equal share of good,",
"To track the steps of Freedom, though through graves",
"She pass, to suffer all in patient mood,",
"To weep for crime, though stained with thy friend's dearest blood,--",
"",
"'\"To feel the peace of self-contentment's lot,",
"To own all sympathies, and outrage none,",
"And in the inmost bowers of sense and thought,",
"Until life's sunny day is quite gone down,",
"To sit and smile with Joy, or, not alone,",
"To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of Woe;",
"To live, as if to love and live were one,--",
"This is not faith or law, nor those who bow",
"To thrones on Heaven or Earth, such destiny may know.",
"",
"'\"But children near their parents tremble now,",
"Because they must obey--one rules another,",
"And as one Power rules both high and low,",
"So man is made the captive of his brother,",
"And Hate is throned on high with Fear her mother,",
"Above the Highest--and those fountain-cells,",
"Whence love yet flowed when faith had choked all other,",
"Are darkened--Woman as the bond-slave dwells",
"Of man, a slave; and life is poisoned in its wells.",
"",
"'\"Man seeks for gold in mines, that he may weave",
"A lasting chain for his own slavery;--",
"In fear and restless care that he may live",
"He toils for others, who must ever be",
"The joyless thralls of like captivity;",
"He murders, for his chiefs delight in ruin;",
"He builds the altar, that its idol's fee",
"May be his very blood; he is pursuing--",
"O, blind and willing wretch!--his own obscure undoing.",
"",
"'\"Woman!--she is his slave, she has become",
"A thing I weep to speak--the child of scorn,",
"The outcast of a desolated home;",
"Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn",
"Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn,",
"As calm decks the false Ocean:--well ye know",
"What Woman is, for none of Woman born",
"Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe,",
"Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow.",
"",
"'\"This need not be; ye might arise, and will",
"That gold should lose its power, and thrones their glory;",
"That love, which none may bind, be free to fill",
"The world, like light; and evil faith, grown hoary",
"With crime, be quenched and die.--Yon promontory",
"Even now eclipses the descending moon!--",
"Dungeons and palaces are transitory--",
"High temples fade like vapour--Man alone",
"Remains, whose will has power when all beside is gone.",
"",
"'\"Let all be free and equal!--From your hearts",
"I feel an echo; through my inmost frame",
"Like sweetest sound, seeking its mate, it darts--",
"Whence come ye, friends? Alas, I cannot name",
"All that I read of sorrow, toil, and shame,",
"On your worn faces; as in legends old",
"Which make immortal the disastrous fame",
"Of conquerors and impostors false and bold,",
"The discord of your hearts, I in your looks behold.",
"",
"'\"Whence come ye, friends? from pouring human blood",
"Forth on the earth? Or bring ye steel and gold,",
"That Kings may dupe and slay the multitude?",
"Or from the famished poor, pale, weak and cold,",
"Bear ye the earnings of their toil? Unfold!",
"Speak! Are your hands in slaughter's sanguine hue",
"Stained freshly? have your hearts in guile grown old?",
"Know yourselves thus! ye shall be pure as dew,",
"And I will be a friend and sister unto you.",
"",
"'\"Disguise it not--we have one human heart--",
"All mortal thoughts confess a common home:",
"Blush not for what may to thyself impart",
"Stains of inevitable crime: the doom",
"Is this, which has, or may, or must become",
"Thine, and all humankind's. Ye are the spoil",
"Which Time thus marks for the devouring tomb--",
"Thou and thy thoughts and they, and all the toil",
"Wherewith ye twine the rings of life's perpetual coil.",
"",
"'\"Disguise it not--ye blush for what ye hate,",
"And Enmity is sister unto Shame;",
"Look on your mind--it is the book of fate--",
"Ah! it is dark with many a blazoned name",
"Of misery--all are mirrors of the same;",
"But the dark fiend who with his iron pen",
"Dipped in scorn's fiery poison, makes his fame",
"Enduring there, would o'er the heads of men",
"Pass harmless, if they scorned to make their hearts his den.",
"",
"'\"Yes, it is Hate, that shapeless fiendly thing",
"Of many names, all evil, some divine,",
"Whom self-contempt arms with a mortal sting;",
"Which, when the heart its snaky folds entwine",
"Is wasted quite, and when it doth repine",
"To gorge such bitter prey, on all beside",
"It turns with ninefold rage, as with its twine",
"When Amphisbaena some fair bird has tied,",
"Soon o'er the putrid mass he threats on every side.",
"",
"'\"Reproach not thine own soul, but know thyself,",
"Nor hate another's crime, nor loathe thine own.",
"It is the dark idolatry of self,",
"Which, when our thoughts and actions once are gone,",
"Demands that man should weep, and bleed, and groan;",
"Oh, vacant expiation! Be at rest.--",
"The past is Death's, the future is thine own;",
"And love and joy can make the foulest breast",
"A paradise of flowers, where peace might build her nest.",
"",
"'\"Speak thou! whence come ye?\"--A Youth made reply:",
"\"Wearily, wearily o'er the boundless deep",
"We sail;--thou readest well the misery",
"Told in these faded eyes, but much doth sleep",
"Within, which there the poor heart loves to keep,",
"Or dare not write on the dishonoured brow;",
"Even from our childhood have we learned to steep",
"The bread of slavery in the tears of woe,",
"And never dreamed of hope or refuge until now.",
"",
"'\"Yes--I must speak--my secret should have perished",
"Even with the heart it wasted, as a brand",
"Fades in the dying flame whose life it cherished,",
"But that no human bosom can withstand",
"Thee, wondrous Lady, and the mild command",
"Of thy keen eyes:--yes, we are wretched slaves,",
"Who from their wonted loves and native land",
"Are reft, and bear o'er the dividing waves",
"The unregarded prey of calm and happy graves.",
"",
"'\"We drag afar from pastoral vales the fairest",
"Among the daughters of those mountains lone,",
"We drag them there, where all things best and rarest",
"Are stained and trampled:--years have come and gone",
"Since, like the ship which bears me, I have known",
"No thought;--but now the eyes of one dear Maid",
"On mine with light of mutual love have shone--",
"She is my life,--I am but as the shade",
"Of her,--a smoke sent up from ashes, soon to fade.",
"",
"'\"For she must perish in the Tyrant's hall--",
"Alas, alas!\"--He ceased, and by the sail",
"Sate cowering--but his sobs were heard by all,",
"And still before the ocean and the gale",
"The ship fled fast till the stars 'gan to fail;",
"And, round me gathered with mute countenance,",
"The Seamen gazed, the Pilot, worn and pale",
"With toil, the Captain with gray locks, whose glance",
"Met mine in restless awe--they stood as in a trance.",
"",
"'\"Recede not! pause not now! Thou art grown old,",
"But Hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth",
"Are children of one mother, even Love--behold!",
"The eternal stars gaze on us!--is the truth",
"Within your soul? care for your own, or ruth",
"For others' sufferings? do ye thirst to bear",
"A heart which not the serpent Custom's tooth",
"May violate?--Be free! and even here,",
"Swear to be firm till death!\" They cried, \"We swear! We swear!\"",
"",
"'The very darkness shook, as with a blast",
"Of subterranean thunder, at the cry;",
"The hollow shore its thousand echoes cast",
"Into the night, as if the sea and sky,",
"And earth, rejoiced with new-born liberty,",
"For in that name they swore! Bolts were undrawn,",
"And on the deck, with unaccustomed eye",
"The captives gazing stood, and every one",
"Shrank as the inconstant torch upon her countenance shone.",
"",
"'They were earth's purest children, young and fair,",
"With eyes the shrines of unawakened thought,",
"And brows as bright as Spring or Morning, ere",
"Dark time had there its evil legend wrought",
"In characters of cloud which wither not.--",
"The change was like a dream to them; but soon",
"They knew the glory of their altered lot,",
"In the bright wisdom of youth's breathless noon,",
"Sweet talk, and smiles, and sighs, all bosoms did attune.",
"",
"'But one was mute; her cheeks and lips most fair,",
"Changing their hue like lilies newly blown,",
"Beneath a bright acacia's shadowy hair,",
"Waved by the wind amid the sunny noon,",
"Showed that her soul was quivering; and full soon",
"That Youth arose, and breathlessly did look",
"On her and me, as for some speechless boon:",
"I smiled, and both their hands in mine I took,",
"And felt a soft delight from what their spirits shook.",
"",
"CANTO 9.",
"",
"'That night we anchored in a woody bay,",
"And sleep no more around us dared to hover",
"Than, when all doubt and fear has passed away,",
"It shades the couch of some unresting lover,",
"Whose heart is now at rest: thus night passed over",
"In mutual joy:--around, a forest grew",
"Of poplars and dark oaks, whose shade did cover",
"The waning stars pranked in the waters blue,",
"And trembled in the wind which from the morning flew.",
"",
"'The joyous Mariners, and each free Maiden",
"Now brought from the deep forest many a bough,",
"With woodland spoil most innocently laden;",
"Soon wreaths of budding foliage seemed to flow",
"Over the mast and sails, the stern and prow",
"Were canopied with blooming boughs,--the while",
"On the slant sun's path o'er the waves we go",
"Rejoicing, like the dwellers of an isle",
"Doomed to pursue those waves that cannot cease to smile.",
"",
"'The many ships spotting the dark blue deep",
"With snowy sails, fled fast as ours came nigh,",
"In fear and wonder; and on every steep",
"Thousands did gaze, they heard the startling cry,",
"Like Earth's own voice lifted unconquerably",
"To all her children, the unbounded mirth,",
"The glorious joy of thy name--Liberty!",
"They heard!--As o'er the mountains of the earth",
"From peak to peak leap on the beams of Morning's birth:",
"",
"'So from that cry over the boundless hills",
"Sudden was caught one universal sound,",
"Like a volcano's voice, whose thunder fills",
"Remotest skies,--such glorious madness found",
"A path through human hearts with stream which drowned",
"Its struggling fears and cares, dark Custom's brood;",
"They knew not whence it came, but felt around",
"A wide contagion poured--they called aloud",
"On Liberty--that name lived on the sunny flood.",
"",
"'We reached the port.--Alas! from many spirits",
"The wisdom which had waked that cry, was fled,",
"Like the brief glory which dark Heaven inherits",
"From the false dawn, which fades ere it is spread,",
"Upon the night's devouring darkness shed:",
"Yet soon bright day will burst--even like a chasm",
"Of fire, to burn the shrouds outworn and dead,",
"Which wrap the world; a wide enthusiasm,",
"To cleanse the fevered world as with an earthquake's spasm!",
"",
"'I walked through the great City then, but free",
"From shame or fear; those toil-worn Mariners",
"And happy Maidens did encompass me;",
"And like a subterranean wind that stirs",
"Some forest among caves, the hopes and fears",
"From every human soul, a murmur strange",
"Made as I passed; and many wept, with tears",
"Of joy and awe, and winged thoughts did range,",
"And half-extinguished words, which prophesied of change.",
"",
"'For, with strong speech I tore the veil that hid",
"Nature, and Truth, and Liberty, and Love,--",
"As one who from some mountain's pyramid",
"Points to the unrisen sun!--the shades approve",
"His truth, and flee from every stream and grove.",
"Thus, gentle thoughts did many a bosom fill,--",
"Wisdom, the mail of tried affections wove",
"For many a heart, and tameless scorn of ill,",
"Thrice steeped in molten steel the unconquerable will.",
"",
"'Some said I was a maniac wild and lost;",
"Some, that I scarce had risen from the grave,",
"The Prophet's virgin bride, a heavenly ghost:--",
"Some said, I was a fiend from my weird cave,",
"Who had stolen human shape, and o'er the wave,",
"The forest, and the mountain, came;--some said",
"I was the child of God, sent down to save",
"Woman from bonds and death, and on my head",
"The burden of their sins would frightfully be laid.",
"",
"'But soon my human words found sympathy",
"In human hearts: the purest and the best,",
"As friend with friend, made common cause with me,",
"And they were few, but resolute;--the rest,",
"Ere yet success the enterprise had blessed,",
"Leagued with me in their hearts;--their meals, their slumber,",
"Their hourly occupations, were possessed",
"By hopes which I had armed to overnumber",
"Those hosts of meaner cares, which life's strong wings encumber.",
"",
"'But chiefly women, whom my voice did waken",
"From their cold, careless, willing slavery,",
"Sought me: one truth their dreary prison has shaken,--",
"They looked around, and lo! they became free!",
"Their many tyrants sitting desolately",
"In slave-deserted halls, could none restrain;",
"For wrath's red fire had withered in the eye,",
"Whose lightning once was death,--nor fear, nor gain",
"Could tempt one captive now to lock another's chain.",
"",
"'Those who were sent to bind me, wept, and felt",
"Their minds outsoar the bonds which clasped them round,",
"Even as a waxen shape may waste and melt",
"In the white furnace; and a visioned swound,",
"A pause of hope and awe the City bound,",
"Which, like the silence of a tempest's birth,",
"When in its awful shadow it has wound",
"The sun, the wind, the ocean, and the earth,",
"Hung terrible, ere yet the lightnings have leaped forth.",
"",
"'Like clouds inwoven in the silent sky,",
"By winds from distant regions meeting there,",
"In the high name of truth and liberty,",
"Around the City millions gathered were,",
"By hopes which sprang from many a hidden lair,--",
"Words which the lore of truth in hues of flame",
"Arrayed, thine own wild songs which in the air",
"Like homeless odours floated, and the name",
"Of thee, and many a tongue which thou hadst dipped in flame.",
"",
"'The Tyrant knew his power was gone, but Fear,",
"The nurse of Vengeance, bade him wait the event--",
"That perfidy and custom, gold and prayer,",
"And whatsoe'er, when force is impotent,",
"To fraud the sceptre of the world has lent,",
"Might, as he judged, confirm his failing sway.",
"Therefore throughout the streets, the Priests he sent",
"To curse the rebels.--To their gods did they",
"For Earthquake, Plague, and Want, kneel in the public way.",
"",
"'And grave and hoary men were bribed to tell",
"From seats where law is made the slave of wrong,",
"How glorious Athens in her splendour fell,",
"Because her sons were free,--and that among",
"Mankind, the many to the few belong,",
"By Heaven, and Nature, and Necessity.",
"They said, that age was truth, and that the young",
"Marred with wild hopes the peace of slavery,",
"With which old times and men had quelled the vain and free.",
"",
"'And with the falsehood of their poisonous lips",
"They breathed on the enduring memory",
"Of sages and of bards a brief eclipse;",
"There was one teacher, who necessity",
"Had armed with strength and wrong against mankind,",
"His slave and his avenger aye to be;",
"That we were weak and sinful, frail and blind,",
"And that the will of one was peace, and we",
"Should seek for nought on earth but toil and misery--",
"",
"'\"For thus we might avoid the hell hereafter.\"",
"So spake the hypocrites, who cursed and lied;",
"Alas, their sway was past, and tears and laughter",
"Clung to their hoary hair, withering the pride",
"Which in their hollow hearts dared still abide;",
"And yet obscener slaves with smoother brow,",
"And sneers on their strait lips, thin, blue and wide,",
"Said that the rule of men was over now,",
"And hence, the subject world to woman's will must bow;",
"",
"'And gold was scattered through the streets, and wine",
"Flowed at a hundred feasts within the wall.",
"In vain! the steady towers in Heaven did shine",
"As they were wont, nor at the priestly call",
"Left Plague her banquet in the Ethiop's hall,",
"Nor Famine from the rich man's portal came,",
"Where at her ease she ever preys on all",
"Who throng to kneel for food: nor fear nor shame,",
"Nor faith, nor discord, dimmed hope's newly kindled flame.",
"",
"'For gold was as a god whose faith began",
"To fade, so that its worshippers were few,",
"And Faith itself, which in the heart of man",
"Gives shape, voice, name, to spectral Terror, knew",
"Its downfall, as the altars lonelier grew,",
"Till the Priests stood alone within the fane;",
"The shafts of falsehood unpolluting flew,",
"And the cold sneers of calumny were vain,",
"The union of the free with discord's brand to stain.",
"",
"'The rest thou knowest.--Lo! we two are here--",
"We have survived a ruin wide and deep--",
"Strange thoughts are mine.--I cannot grieve or fear,",
"Sitting with thee upon this lonely steep",
"I smile, though human love should make me weep.",
"We have survived a joy that knows no sorrow,",
"And I do feel a mighty calmness creep",
"Over my heart, which can no longer borrow",
"Its hues from chance or change, dark children of to-morrow.",
"",
"'We know not what will come--yet, Laon, dearest,",
"Cythna shall be the prophetess of Love,",
"Her lips shall rob thee of the grace thou wearest,",
"To hide thy heart, and clothe the shapes which rove",
"Within the homeless Future's wintry grove;",
"For I now, sitting thus beside thee, seem",
"Even with thy breath and blood to live and move,",
"And violence and wrong are as a dream",
"Which rolls from steadfast truth, an unreturning stream.",
"",
"'The blasts of Autumn drive the winged seeds",
"Over the earth,--next come the snows, and rain,",
"And frosts, and storms, which dreary Winter leads",
"Out of his Scythian cave, a savage train;",
"Behold! Spring sweeps over the world again,",
"Shedding soft dews from her ethereal wings;",
"Flowers on the mountains, fruits over the plain,",
"And music on the waves and woods she flings,",
"And love on all that lives, and calm on lifeless things.",
"",
"'O Spring, of hope, and love, and youth, and gladness",
"Wind-winged emblem! brightest, best and fairest!",
"Whence comest thou, when, with dark Winter's sadness",
"The tears that fade in sunny smiles thou sharest?",
"Sister of joy, thou art the child who wearest",
"Thy mother's dying smile, tender and sweet;",
"Thy mother Autumn, for whose grave thou bearest",
"Fresh flowers, and beams like flowers, with gentle feet,",
"Disturbing not the leaves which are her winding-sheet.",
"",
"'Virtue, and Hope, and Love, like light and Heaven,",
"Surround the world.--We are their chosen slaves.",
"Has not the whirlwind of our spirit driven",
"Truth's deathless germs to thought's remotest caves?",
"Lo, Winter comes!--the grief of many graves,",
"The frost of death, the tempest of the sword,",
"The flood of tyranny, whose sanguine waves",
"Stagnate like ice at Faith the enchanter's word,",
"And bind all human hearts in its repose abhorred.",
"",
"'The seeds are sleeping in the soil: meanwhile",
"The Tyrant peoples dungeons with his prey,",
"Pale victims on the guarded scaffold smile",
"Because they cannot speak; and, day by day,",
"The moon of wasting Science wanes away",
"Among her stars, and in that darkness vast",
"The sons of earth to their foul idols pray,",
"And gray Priests triumph, and like blight or blast",
"A shade of selfish care o'er human looks is cast.",
"",
"'This is the winter of the world;--and here",
"We die, even as the winds of Autumn fade,",
"Expiring in the frore and foggy air.",
"Behold! Spring comes, though we must pass, who made",
"The promise of its birth,--even as the shade",
"Which from our death, as from a mountain, flings",
"The future, a broad sunrise; thus arrayed",
"As with the plumes of overshadowing wings,",
"From its dark gulf of chains, Earth like an eagle springs.",
"",
"'O dearest love! we shall be dead and cold",
"Before this morn may on the world arise;",
"Wouldst thou the glory of its dawn behold?",
"Alas! gaze not on me, but turn thine eyes",
"On thine own heart--it is a paradise",
"Which everlasting Spring has made its own,",
"And while drear Winter fills the naked skies,",
"Sweet streams of sunny thought, and flowers fresh-blown,",
"Are there, and weave their sounds and odours into one.",
"",
"'In their own hearts the earnest of the hope",
"Which made them great, the good will ever find;",
"And though some envious shade may interlope",
"Between the effect and it, One comes behind,",
"Who aye the future to the past will bind--",
"Necessity, whose sightless strength for ever",
"Evil with evil, good with good must wind",
"In bands of union, which no power may sever:",
"They must bring forth their kind, and be divided never!",
"",
"'The good and mighty of departed ages",
"Are in their graves, the innocent and free,",
"Heroes, and Poets, and prevailing Sages,",
"Who leave the vesture of their majesty",
"To adorn and clothe this naked world;--and we",
"Are like to them--such perish, but they leave",
"All hope, or love, or truth, or liberty,",
"Whose forms their mighty spirits could conceive,",
"To be a rule and law to ages that survive.",
"",
"'So be the turf heaped over our remains",
"Even in our happy youth, and that strange lot,",
"Whate'er it be, when in these mingling veins",
"The blood is still, be ours; let sense and thought",
"Pass from our being, or be numbered not",
"Among the things that are; let those who come",
"Behind, for whom our steadfast will has bought",
"A calm inheritance, a glorious doom,",
"Insult with careless tread, our undivided tomb.",
"",
"'Our many thoughts and deeds, our life and love,",
"Our happiness, and all that we have been,",
"Immortally must live, and burn and move,",
"When we shall be no more;--the world has seen",
"A type of peace; and--as some most serene",
"And lovely spot to a poor maniac's eye,",
"After long years, some sweet and moving scene",
"Of youthful hope, returning suddenly,",
"Quells his long madness--thus man shall remember thee.",
"",
"'And Calumny meanwhile shall feed on us,",
"As worms devour the dead, and near the throne",
"And at the altar, most accepted thus",
"Shall sneers and curses be;--what we have done",
"None shall dare vouch, though it be truly known;",
"That record shall remain, when they must pass",
"Who built their pride on its oblivion;",
"And fame, in human hope which sculptured was,",
"Survive the perished scrolls of unenduring brass.",
"",
"'The while we two, beloved, must depart,",
"And Sense and Reason, those enchanters fair,",
"Whose wand of power is hope, would bid the heart",
"That gazed beyond the wormy grave despair:",
"These eyes, these lips, this blood, seems darkly there",
"To fade in hideous ruin; no calm sleep",
"Peopling with golden dreams the stagnant air,",
"Seems our obscure and rotting eyes to steep",
"In joy;--but senseless death--a ruin dark and deep!",
"",
"'These are blind fancies--reason cannot know",
"What sense can neither feel, nor thought conceive;",
"There is delusion in the world--and woe,",
"And fear, and pain--we know not whence we live,",
"Or why, or how, or what mute Power may give",
"Their being to each plant, and star, and beast,",
"Or even these thoughts.--Come near me! I do weave",
"A chain I cannot break--I am possessed",
"With thoughts too swift and strong for one lone human breast.",
"",
"'Yes, yes--thy kiss is sweet, thy lips are warm--",
"O! willingly, beloved, would these eyes,",
"Might they no more drink being from thy form,",
"Even as to sleep whence we again arise,",
"Close their faint orbs in death: I fear nor prize",
"Aught that can now betide, unshared by thee--",
"Yes, Love when Wisdom fails makes Cythna wise:",
"Darkness and death, if death be true, must be",
"Dearer than life and hope, if unenjoyed with thee.",
"",
"'Alas, our thoughts flow on with stream, whose waters",
"Return not to their fountain--Earth and Heaven,",
"The Ocean and the Sun, the Clouds their daughters,",
"Winter, and Spring, and Morn, and Noon, and Even,",
"All that we are or know, is darkly driven",
"Towards one gulf.--Lo! what a change is come",
"Since I first spake--but time shall be forgiven,",
"Though it change all but thee!'--She ceased--night's gloom",
"Meanwhile had fallen on earth from the sky's sunless dome.",
"",
"Though she had ceased, her countenance uplifted",
"To Heaven, still spake, with solemn glory bright;",
"Her dark deep eyes, her lips, whose motions gifted",
"The air they breathed with love, her locks undight.",
"'Fair star of life and love,' I cried, 'my soul's delight,",
"Why lookest thou on the crystalline skies?",
"O, that my spirit were yon Heaven of night,",
"Which gazes on thee with its thousand eyes!'",
"She turned to me and smiled--that smile was Paradise!",
"",
"CANTO 10.",
"",
"Was there a human spirit in the steed,",
"That thus with his proud voice, ere night was gone,",
"He broke our linked rest? or do indeed",
"All living things a common nature own,",
"And thought erect an universal throne,",
"Where many shapes one tribute ever bear?",
"And Earth, their mutual mother, does she groan",
"To see her sons contend? and makes she bare",
"Her breast, that all in peace its drainless stores may share?",
"",
"I have heard friendly sounds from many a tongue",
"Which was not human--the lone nightingale",
"Has answered me with her most soothing song,",
"Out of her ivy bower, when I sate pale",
"With grief, and sighed beneath; from many a dale",
"The antelopes who flocked for food have spoken",
"With happy sounds, and motions, that avail",
"Like man's own speech; and such was now the token",
"Of waning night, whose calm by that proud neigh was broken.",
"",
"Each night, that mighty steed bore me abroad,",
"And I returned with food to our retreat,",
"And dark intelligence; the blood which flowed",
"Over the fields, had stained the courser's feet;",
"Soon the dust drinks that bitter dew,--then meet",
"The vulture, and the wild dog, and the snake,",
"The wolf, and the hyaena gray, and eat",
"The dead in horrid truce: their throngs did make",
"Behind the steed, a chasm like waves in a ship's wake.",
"",
"For, from the utmost realms of earth came pouring",
"The banded slaves whom every despot sent",
"At that throned traitor's summons; like the roaring",
"Of fire, whose floods the wild deer circumvent",
"In the scorched pastures of the South; so bent",
"The armies of the leagued Kings around",
"Their files of steel and flame;--the continent",
"Trembled, as with a zone of ruin bound,",
"Beneath their feet, the sea shook with their Navies' sound.",
"",
"From every nation of the earth they came,",
"The multitude of moving heartless things,",
"Whom slaves call men: obediently they came,",
"Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings",
"To the stall, red with blood; their many kings",
"Led them, thus erring, from their native land;",
"Tartar and Frank, and millions whom the wings",
"Of Indian breezes lull, and many a band",
"The Arctic Anarch sent, and Idumea's sand,",
"",
"Fertile in prodigies and lies;--so there",
"Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill.",
"The desert savage ceased to grasp in fear",
"His Asian shield and bow, when, at the will",
"Of Europe's subtler son, the bolt would kill",
"Some shepherd sitting on a rock secure;",
"But smiles of wondering joy his face would fill,",
"And savage sympathy: those slaves impure,",
"Each one the other thus from ill to ill did lure.",
"",
"For traitorously did that foul Tyrant robe",
"His countenance in lies,--even at the hour",
"When he was snatched from death, then o'er the globe,",
"With secret signs from many a mountain-tower,",
"With smoke by day, and fire by night, the power",
"Of Kings and Priests, those dark conspirators,",
"He called:--they knew his cause their own, and swore",
"Like wolves and serpents to their mutual wars",
"Strange truce, with many a rite which Earth and Heaven abhors.",
"",
"Myriads had come--millions were on their way;",
"The Tyrant passed, surrounded by the steel",
"Of hired assassins, through the public way,",
"Choked with his country's dead:--his footsteps reel",
"On the fresh blood--he smiles. 'Ay, now I feel",
"I am a King in truth!' he said, and took",
"His royal seat, and bade the torturing wheel",
"Be brought, and fire, and pincers, and the hook,",
"And scorpions, that his soul on its revenge might look.",
"",
"'But first, go slay the rebels--why return",
"The victor bands?' he said, 'millions yet live,",
"Of whom the weakest with one word might turn",
"The scales of victory yet;--let none survive",
"But those within the walls--each fifth shall give",
"The expiation for his brethren here.--",
"Go forth, and waste and kill!'--'O king, forgive",
"My speech,' a soldier answered--'but we fear",
"The spirits of the night, and morn is drawing near;",
"",
"'For we were slaying still without remorse,",
"And now that dreadful chief beneath my hand",
"Defenceless lay, when on a hell-black horse,",
"An Angel bright as day, waving a brand",
"Which flashed among the stars, passed.'--'Dost thou stand",
"Parleying with me, thou wretch?' the king replied;",
"'Slaves, bind him to the wheel; and of this band,",
"Whoso will drag that woman to his side",
"That scared him thus, may burn his dearest foe beside;",
"",
"'And gold and glory shall be his.--Go forth!'",
"They rushed into the plain.--Loud was the roar",
"Of their career: the horsemen shook the earth;",
"The wheeled artillery's speed the pavement tore;",
"The infantry, file after file, did pour",
"Their clouds on the utmost hills. Five days they slew",
"Among the wasted fields; the sixth saw gore",
"Stream through the city; on the seventh, the dew",
"Of slaughter became stiff, and there was peace anew:",
"",
"Peace in the desert fields and villages,",
"Between the glutted beasts and mangled dead!",
"Peace in the silent streets! save when the cries",
"Of victims to their fiery judgement led,",
"Made pale their voiceless lips who seemed to dread",
"Even in their dearest kindred, lest some tongue",
"Be faithless to the fear yet unbetrayed;",
"Peace in the Tyrant's palace, where the throng",
"Waste the triumphal hours in festival and song!",
"",
"Day after day the burning sun rolled on",
"Over the death-polluted land--it came",
"Out of the east like fire, and fiercely shone",
"A lamp of Autumn, ripening with its flame",
"The few lone ears of corn;--the sky became",
"Stagnate with heat, so that each cloud and blast",
"Languished and died,--the thirsting air did claim",
"All moisture, and a rotting vapour passed",
"From the unburied dead, invisible and fast.",
"",
"First Want, then Plague came on the beasts; their food",
"Failed, and they drew the breath of its decay.",
"Millions on millions, whom the scent of blood",
"Had lured, or who, from regions far away,",
"Had tracked the hosts in festival array,",
"From their dark deserts; gaunt and wasting now,",
"Stalked like fell shades among their perished prey;",
"In their green eyes a strange disease did glow,",
"They sank in hideous spasm, or pains severe and slow.",
"",
"The fish were poisoned in the streams; the birds",
"In the green woods perished; the insect race",
"Was withered up; the scattered flocks and herds",
"Who had survived the wild beasts' hungry chase",
"Died moaning, each upon the other's face",
"In helpless agony gazing; round the City",
"All night, the lean hyaenas their sad case",
"Like starving infants wailed; a woeful ditty!",
"And many a mother wept, pierced with unnatural pity.",
"",
"Amid the aereal minarets on high,",
"The Ethiopian vultures fluttering fell",
"From their long line of brethren in the sky,",
"Startling the concourse of mankind.--Too well",
"These signs the coming mischief did foretell:--",
"Strange panic first, a deep and sickening dread",
"Within each heart, like ice, did sink and dwell,",
"A voiceless thought of evil, which did spread",
"With the quick glance of eyes, like withering lightnings shed.",
"",
"Day after day, when the year wanes, the frosts",
"Strip its green crown of leaves, till all is bare;",
"So on those strange and congregated hosts",
"Came Famine, a swift shadow, and the air",
"Groaned with the burden of a new despair;",
"Famine, than whom Misrule no deadlier daughter",
"Feeds from her thousand breasts, though sleeping there",
"With lidless eyes, lie Faith, and Plague, and Slaughter,",
"A ghastly brood; conceived of Lethe's sullen water.",
"",
"There was no food, the corn was trampled down,",
"The flocks and herds had perished; on the shore",
"The dead and putrid fish were ever thrown;",
"The deeps were foodless, and the winds no more",
"Creaked with the weight of birds, but, as before",
"Those winged things sprang forth, were void of shade;",
"The vines and orchards, Autumn's golden store,",
"Were burned;--so that the meanest food was weighed",
"With gold, and Avarice died before the god it made.",
"",
"There was no corn--in the wide market-place",
"All loathliest things, even human flesh, was sold;",
"They weighed it in small scales--and many a face",
"Was fixed in eager horror then: his gold",
"The miser brought; the tender maid, grown bold",
"Through hunger, bared her scorned charms in vain;",
"The mother brought her eldest born, controlled",
"By instinct blind as love, but turned again",
"And bade her infant suck, and died in silent pain.",
"",
"Then fell blue Plague upon the race of man.",
"'O, for the sheathed steel, so late which gave",
"Oblivion to the dead, when the streets ran",
"With brothers' blood! O, that the earthquake's grave",
"Would gape, or Ocean lift its stifling wave!'",
"Vain cries--throughout the streets thousands pursued",
"Each by his fiery torture howl and rave,",
"Or sit in frenzy's unimagined mood,",
"Upon fresh heaps of dead; a ghastly multitude.",
"",
"It was not hunger now, but thirst. Each well",
"Was choked with rotting corpses, and became",
"A cauldron of green mist made visible",
"At sunrise. Thither still the myriads came,",
"Seeking to quench the agony of the flame,",
"Which raged like poison through their bursting veins;",
"Naked they were from torture, without shame,",
"Spotted with nameless scars and lurid blains,",
"Childhood, and youth, and age, writhing in savage pains.",
"",
"It was not thirst, but madness! Many saw",
"Their own lean image everywhere, it went",
"A ghastlier self beside them, till the awe",
"Of that dread sight to self-destruction sent",
"Those shrieking victims; some, ere life was spent,",
"Sought, with a horrid sympathy, to shed",
"Contagion on the sound; and others rent",
"Their matted hair, and cried aloud, 'We tread",
"On fire! the avenging Power his hell on earth has spread!'",
"",
"Sometimes the living by the dead were hid.",
"Near the great fountain in the public square,",
"Where corpses made a crumbling pyramid",
"Under the sun, was heard one stifled prayer",
"For life, in the hot silence of the air;",
"And strange 'twas, amid that hideous heap to see",
"Some shrouded in their long and golden hair,",
"As if not dead, but slumbering quietly",
"Like forms which sculptors carve, then love to agony.",
"",
"Famine had spared the palace of the king:--",
"He rioted in festival the while,",
"He and his guards and priests; but Plague did fling",
"One shadow upon all. Famine can smile",
"On him who brings it food, and pass, with guile",
"Of thankful falsehood, like a courtier gray,",
"The house-dog of the throne; but many a mile",
"Comes Plague, a winged wolf, who loathes alway",
"The garbage and the scum that strangers make her prey.",
"",
"So, near the throne, amid the gorgeous feast,",
"Sheathed in resplendent arms, or loosely dight",
"To luxury, ere the mockery yet had ceased",
"That lingered on his lips, the warrior's might",
"Was loosened, and a new and ghastlier night",
"In dreams of frenzy lapped his eyes; he fell",
"Headlong, or with stiff eyeballs sate upright",
"Among the guests, or raving mad did tell",
"Strange truths; a dying seer of dark oppression's hell.",
"",
"The Princes and the Priests were pale with terror;",
"That monstrous faith wherewith they ruled mankind,",
"Fell, like a shaft loosed by the bowman's error,",
"On their own hearts: they sought and they could find",
"No refuge--'twas the blind who led the blind!",
"So, through the desolate streets to the high fane,",
"The many-tongued and endless armies wind",
"In sad procession: each among the train",
"To his own Idol lifts his supplications vain.",
"",
"'O God!' they cried, 'we know our secret pride",
"Has scorned thee, and thy worship, and thy name;",
"Secure in human power we have defied",
"Thy fearful might; we bend in fear and shame",
"Before thy presence; with the dust we claim",
"Kindred; be merciful, O King of Heaven!",
"Most justly have we suffered for thy fame",
"Made dim, but be at length our sins forgiven,",
"Ere to despair and death thy worshippers be driven.",
"",
"'O King of Glory! thou alone hast power!",
"Who can resist thy will? who can restrain",
"Thy wrath, when on the guilty thou dost shower",
"The shafts of thy revenge, a blistering rain?",
"Greatest and best, be merciful again!",
"Have we not stabbed thine enemies, and made",
"The Earth an altar, and the Heavens a fane,",
"Where thou wert worshipped with their blood, and laid",
"Those hearts in dust which would thy searchless works have weighed?",
"",
"'Well didst thou loosen on this impious City",
"Thine angels of revenge: recall them now;",
"Thy worshippers, abased, here kneel for pity,",
"And bind their souls by an immortal vow:",
"We swear by thee! and to our oath do thou",
"Give sanction, from thine hell of fiends and flame,",
"That we will kill with fire and torments slow,",
"The last of those who mocked thy holy name,",
"And scorned the sacred laws thy prophets did proclaim.'",
"",
"Thus they with trembling limbs and pallid lips",
"Worshipped their own hearts' image, dim and vast,",
"Scared by the shade wherewith they would eclipse",
"The light of other minds;--troubled they passed",
"From the great Temple;--fiercely still and fast",
"The arrows of the plague among them fell,",
"And they on one another gazed aghast,",
"And through the hosts contention wild befell,",
"As each of his own god the wondrous works did tell.",
"",
"And Oromaze, Joshua, and Mahomet,",
"Moses, and Buddh, Zerdusht, and Brahm, and Foh,",
"A tumult of strange names, which never met",
"Before, as watchwords of a single woe,",
"Arose; each raging votary 'gan to throw",
"Aloft his armed hands, and each did howl",
"'Our God alone is God!'--and slaughter now",
"Would have gone forth, when from beneath a cowl",
"A voice came forth, which pierced like ice through every soul.",
"",
"'Twas an Iberian Priest from whom it came,",
"A zealous man, who led the legioned West,",
"With words which faith and pride had steeped in flame,",
"To quell the unbelievers; a dire guest",
"Even to his friends was he, for in his breast",
"Did hate and guile lie watchful, intertwined,",
"Twin serpents in one deep and winding nest;",
"He loathed all faith beside his own, and pined",
"To wreak his fear of Heaven in vengeance on mankind.",
"",
"But more he loathed and hated the clear light",
"Of wisdom and free thought, and more did fear,",
"Lest, kindled once, its beams might pierce the night,",
"Even where his Idol stood; for, far and near",
"Did many a heart in Europe leap to hear",
"That faith and tyranny were trampled down;",
"Many a pale victim, doomed for truth to share",
"The murderer's cell, or see, with helpless groan,",
"The priests his children drag for slaves to serve their own.",
"",
"He dared not kill the infidels with fire",
"Or steel, in Europe; the slow agonies",
"Of legal torture mocked his keen desire:",
"So he made truce with those who did despise",
"The expiation, and the sacrifice,",
"That, though detested, Islam's kindred creed",
"Might crush for him those deadlier enemies;",
"For fear of God did in his bosom breed",
"A jealous hate of man, an unreposing need.",
"",
"'Peace! Peace!' he cried, 'when we are dead, the Day",
"Of Judgement comes, and all shall surely know",
"Whose God is God, each fearfully shall pay",
"The errors of his faith in endless woe!",
"But there is sent a mortal vengeance now",
"On earth, because an impious race had spurned",
"Him whom we all adore,--a subtle foe,",
"By whom for ye this dread reward was earned,",
"And kingly thrones, which rest on faith, nigh overturned.",
"",
"'Think ye, because ye weep, and kneel, and pray,",
"That God will lull the pestilence? It rose",
"Even from beneath his throne, where, many a day,",
"His mercy soothed it to a dark repose:",
"It walks upon the earth to judge his foes;",
"And what are thou and I, that he should deign",
"To curb his ghastly minister, or close",
"The gates of death, ere they receive the twain",
"Who shook with mortal spells his undefended reign?",
"",
"'Ay, there is famine in the gulf of hell,",
"Its giant worms of fire for ever yawn.--",
"Their lurid eyes are on us! those who fell",
"By the swift shafts of pestilence ere dawn,",
"Are in their jaws! they hunger for the spawn",
"Of Satan, their own brethren, who were sent",
"To make our souls their spoil. See! see! they fawn",
"Like dogs, and they will sleep with luxury spent,",
"When those detested hearts their iron fangs have rent!",
"",
"'Our God may then lull Pestilence to sleep:--",
"Pile high the pyre of expiation now,",
"A forest's spoil of boughs, and on the heap",
"Pour venomous gums, which sullenly and slow,",
"When touched by flame, shall burn, and melt, and flow,",
"A stream of clinging fire,--and fix on high",
"A net of iron, and spread forth below",
"A couch of snakes, and scorpions, and the fry",
"Of centipedes and worms, earth's hellish progeny!",
"",
"'Let Laon and Laone on that pyre,",
"Linked tight with burning brass, perish!--then pray",
"That, with this sacrifice, the withering ire",
"Of Heaven may be appeased.' He ceased, and they",
"A space stood silent, as far, far away",
"The echoes of his voice among them died;",
"And he knelt down upon the dust, alway",
"Muttering the curses of his speechless pride,",
"Whilst shame, and fear, and awe, the armies did divide.",
"",
"His voice was like a blast that burst the portal",
"Of fabled hell; and as he spake, each one",
"Saw gape beneath the chasms of fire immortal,",
"And Heaven above seemed cloven, where, on a throne",
"Girt round with storms and shadows, sate alone",
"Their King and Judge--fear killed in every breast",
"All natural pity then, a fear unknown",
"Before, and with an inward fire possessed,",
"They raged like homeless beasts whom burning woods invest.",
"",
"'Twas morn.--At noon the public crier went forth,",
"Proclaiming through the living and the dead,",
"'The Monarch saith, that his great Empire's worth",
"Is set on Laon and Laone's head:",
"He who but one yet living here can lead,",
"Or who the life from both their hearts can wring,",
"Shall be the kingdom's heir--a glorious meed!",
"But he who both alive can hither bring,",
"The Princess shall espouse, and reign an equal King.'",
"",
"Ere night the pyre was piled, the net of iron",
"Was spread above, the fearful couch below;",
"It overtopped the towers that did environ",
"That spacious square; for Fear is never slow",
"To build the thrones of Hate, her mate and foe;",
"So, she scourged forth the maniac multitude",
"To rear this pyramid--tottering and slow,",
"Plague-stricken, foodless, like lean herds pursued",
"By gadflies, they have piled the heath, and gums, and wood.",
"",
"Night came, a starless and a moonless gloom.",
"Until the dawn, those hosts of many a nation",
"Stood round that pile, as near one lover's tomb",
"Two gentle sisters mourn their desolation;",
"And in the silence of that expectation,",
"Was heard on high the reptiles' hiss and crawl--",
"It was so deep--save when the devastation",
"Of the swift pest, with fearful interval,",
"Marking its path with shrieks, among the crowd would fall.",
"",
"Morn came,--among those sleepless multitudes,",
"Madness, and Fear, and Plague, and Famine still",
"Heaped corpse on corpse, as in autumnal woods",
"The frosts of many a wind with dead leaves fill",
"Earth's cold and sullen brooks; in silence, still",
"The pale survivors stood; ere noon, the fear",
"Of Hell became a panic, which did kill",
"Like hunger or disease, with whispers drear,",
"As 'Hush! hark! Come they yet?--Just Heaven! thine hour is near!'",
"",
"And Priests rushed through their ranks, some counterfeiting",
"The rage they did inspire, some mad indeed",
"With their own lies; they said their god was waiting",
"To see his enemies writhe, and burn, and bleed,--",
"And that, till then, the snakes of Hell had need",
"Of human souls:--three hundred furnaces",
"Soon blazed through the wide City, where, with speed,",
"Men brought their infidel kindred to appease",
"God's wrath, and, while they burned, knelt round on quivering knees.",
"",
"The noontide sun was darkened with that smoke,",
"The winds of eve dispersed those ashes gray.",
"The madness which these rites had lulled, awoke",
"Again at sunset.--Who shall dare to say",
"The deeds which night and fear brought forth, or weigh",
"In balance just the good and evil there?",
"He might man's deep and searchless heart display,",
"And cast a light on those dim labyrinths, where",
"Hope, near imagined chasms, is struggling with despair.",
"",
"'Tis said, a mother dragged three children then,",
"To those fierce flames which roast the eyes in the head,",
"And laughed, and died; and that unholy men,",
"Feasting like fiends upon the infidel dead,",
"Looked from their meal, and saw an Angel tread",
"The visible floor of Heaven, and it was she!",
"And, on that night, one without doubt or dread",
"Came to the fire, and said, 'Stop, I am he!",
"Kill me!'--They burned them both with hellish mockery.",
"",
"And, one by one, that night, young maidens came,",
"Beauteous and calm, like shapes of living stone",
"Clothed in the light of dreams, and by the flame",
"Which shrank as overgorged, they laid them down,",
"And sung a low sweet song, of which alone",
"One word was heard, and that was Liberty;",
"And that some kissed their marble feet, with moan",
"Like love, and died; and then that they did die",
"With happy smiles, which sunk in white tranquillity.",
"",
"CANTO 11.",
"",
"She saw me not--she heard me not--alone",
"Upon the mountain's dizzy brink she stood;",
"She spake not, breathed not, moved not--there was thrown",
"Over her look, the shadow of a mood",
"Which only clothes the heart in solitude,",
"A thought of voiceless depth;--she stood alone,",
"Above, the Heavens were spread;--below, the flood",
"Was murmuring in its caves;--the wind had blown",
"Her hair apart, through which her eyes and forehead shone.",
"",
"A cloud was hanging o'er the western mountains;",
"Before its blue and moveless depth were flying",
"Gray mists poured forth from the unresting fountains",
"Of darkness in the North:--the day was dying:--",
"Sudden, the sun shone forth, its beams were lying",
"Like boiling gold on Ocean, strange to see,",
"And on the shattered vapours, which defying",
"The power of light in vain, tossed restlessly",
"In the red Heaven, like wrecks in a tempestuous sea.",
"",
"It was a stream of living beams, whose bank",
"On either side by the cloud's cleft was made;",
"And where its chasms that flood of glory drank,",
"Its waves gushed forth like fire, and as if swayed",
"By some mute tempest, rolled on HER; the shade",
"Of her bright image floated on the river",
"Of liquid light, which then did end and fade--",
"Her radiant shape upon its verge did shiver;",
"Aloft, her flowing hair like strings of flame did quiver.",
"",
"I stood beside her, but she saw me not--",
"She looked upon the sea, and skies, and earth;",
"Rapture, and love, and admiration wrought",
"A passion deeper far than tears, or mirth,",
"Or speech, or gesture, or whate'er has birth",
"From common joy; which with the speechless feeling",
"That led her there united, and shot forth",
"From her far eyes a light of deep revealing,",
"All but her dearest self from my regard concealing.",
"",
"Her lips were parted, and the measured breath",
"Was now heard there;--her dark and intricate eyes",
"Orb within orb, deeper than sleep or death,",
"Absorbed the glories of the burning skies,",
"Which, mingling with her heart's deep ecstasies,",
"Burst from her looks and gestures;--and a light",
"Of liquid tenderness, like love, did rise",
"From her whole frame, an atmosphere which quite",
"Arrayed her in its beams, tremulous and soft and bright.",
"",
"She would have clasped me to her glowing frame;",
"Those warm and odorous lips might soon have shed",
"On mine the fragrance and the invisible flame",
"Which now the cold winds stole;--she would have laid",
"Upon my languid heart her dearest head;",
"I might have heard her voice, tender and sweet;",
"Her eyes, mingling with mine, might soon have fed",
"My soul with their own joy.--One moment yet",
"I gazed--we parted then, never again to meet!",
"",
"Never but once to meet on Earth again!",
"She heard me as I fled--her eager tone",
"Sunk on my heart, and almost wove a chain",
"Around my will to link it with her own,",
"So that my stern resolve was almost gone.",
"'I cannot reach thee! whither dost thou fly?",
"My steps are faint--Come back, thou dearest one--",
"Return, ah me! return!'--The wind passed by",
"On which those accents died, faint, far, and lingeringly.",
"",
"Woe! Woe! that moonless midnight!--Want and Pest",
"Were horrible, but one more fell doth rear,",
"As in a hydra's swarming lair, its crest",
"Eminent among those victims--even the Fear",
"Of Hell: each girt by the hot atmosphere",
"Of his blind agony, like a scorpion stung",
"By his own rage upon his burning bier",
"Of circling coals of fire; but still there clung",
"One hope, like a keen sword on starting threads uphung:",
"",
"Not death--death was no more refuge or rest;",
"Not life--it was despair to be!--not sleep,",
"For fiends and chasms of fire had dispossessed",
"All natural dreams: to wake was not to weep,",
"But to gaze mad and pallid, at the leap",
"To which the Future, like a snaky scourge,",
"Or like some tyrant's eye, which aye doth keep",
"Its withering beam upon his slaves, did urge",
"Their steps; they heard the roar of Hell's sulphureous surge.",
"",
"Each of that multitude, alone, and lost",
"To sense of outward things, one hope yet knew;",
"As on a foam-girt crag some seaman tossed",
"Stares at the rising tide, or like the crew",
"Whilst now the ship is splitting through and through;",
"Each, if the tramp of a far steed was heard,",
"Started from sick despair, or if there flew",
"One murmur on the wind, or if some word",
"Which none can gather yet, the distant crowd has stirred.",
"",
"Why became cheeks, wan with the kiss of death,",
"Paler from hope? they had sustained despair.",
"Why watched those myriads with suspended breath",
"Sleepless a second night? they are not here,",
"The victims, and hour by hour, a vision drear,",
"Warm corpses fall upon the clay-cold dead;",
"And even in death their lips are wreathed with fear.--",
"The crowd is mute and moveless--overhead",
"Silent Arcturus shines--'Ha! hear'st thou not the tread",
"",
"'Of rushing feet? laughter? the shout, the scream,",
"Of triumph not to be contained? See! hark!",
"They come, they come! give way!' Alas, ye deem",
"Falsely--'tis but a crowd of maniacs stark",
"Driven, like a troop of spectres, through the dark,",
"From the choked well, whence a bright death-fire sprung,",
"A lurid earth-star, which dropped many a spark",
"From its blue train, and spreading widely, clung",
"To their wild hair, like mist the topmost pines among.",
"",
"And many, from the crowd collected there,",
"Joined that strange dance in fearful sympathies;",
"There was the silence of a long despair,",
"When the last echo of those terrible cries",
"Came from a distant street, like agonies",
"Stifled afar.--Before the Tyrant's throne",
"All night his aged Senate sate, their eyes",
"In stony expectation fixed; when one",
"Sudden before them stood, a Stranger and alone.",
"",
"Dark Priests and haughty Warriors gazed on him",
"With baffled wonder, for a hermit's vest",
"Concealed his face; but when he spake, his tone,",
"Ere yet the matter did their thoughts arrest,--",
"Earnest, benignant, calm, as from a breast",
"Void of all hate or terror--made them start;",
"For as with gentle accents he addressed",
"His speech to them, on each unwilling heart",
"Unusual awe did fall--a spirit-quelling dart.",
"",
"'Ye Princes of the Earth, ye sit aghast",
"Amid the ruin which yourselves have made,",
"Yes, Desolation heard your trumpet's blast,",
"And sprang from sleep!--dark Terror has obeyed",
"Your bidding--O, that I whom ye have made",
"Your foe, could set my dearest enemy free",
"From pain and fear! but evil casts a shade,",
"Which cannot pass so soon, and Hate must be",
"The nurse and parent still of an ill progeny.",
"",
"'Ye turn to Heaven for aid in your distress;",
"Alas, that ye, the mighty and the wise,",
"Who, if ye dared, might not aspire to less",
"Than ye conceive of power, should fear the lies",
"Which thou, and thou, didst frame for mysteries",
"To blind your slaves:--consider your own thought,",
"An empty and a cruel sacrifice",
"Ye now prepare, for a vain idol wrought",
"Out of the fears and hate which vain desires have brought.",
"",
"'Ye seek for happiness--alas, the day!",
"Ye find it not in luxury nor in gold,",
"Nor in the fame, nor in the envied sway",
"For which, O willing slaves to Custom old,",
"Severe taskmistress! ye your hearts have sold.",
"Ye seek for peace, and when ye die, to dream",
"No evil dreams: all mortal things are cold",
"And senseless then; if aught survive, I deem",
"It must be love and joy, for they immortal seem.",
"",
"'Fear not the future, weep not for the past.",
"Oh, could I win your ears to dare be now",
"Glorious, and great, and calm! that ye would cast",
"Into the dust those symbols of your woe,",
"Purple, and gold, and steel! that ye would go",
"Proclaiming to the nations whence ye came,",
"That Want, and Plague, and Fear, from slavery flow;",
"And that mankind is free, and that the shame",
"Of royalty and faith is lost in freedom's fame!",
"",
"'If thus, 'tis well--if not, I come to say",
"That Laon--' while the Stranger spoke, among",
"The Council sudden tumult and affray",
"Arose, for many of those warriors young,",
"Had on his eloquent accents fed and hung",
"Like bees on mountain-flowers; they knew the truth,",
"And from their thrones in vindication sprung;",
"The men of faith and law then without ruth",
"Drew forth their secret steel, and stabbed each ardent youth.",
"",
"They stabbed them in the back and sneered--a slave",
"Who stood behind the throne, those corpses drew",
"Each to its bloody, dark, and secret grave;",
"And one more daring raised his steel anew",
"To pierce the Stranger. 'What hast thou to do",
"With me, poor wretch?'--Calm, solemn and severe,",
"That voice unstrung his sinews, and he threw",
"His dagger on the ground, and pale with fear,",
"Sate silently--his voice then did the Stranger rear.",
"",
"'It doth avail not that I weep for ye--",
"Ye cannot change, since ye are old and gray,",
"And ye have chosen your lot--your fame must be",
"A book of blood, whence in a milder day",
"Men shall learn truth, when ye are wrapped in clay:",
"Now ye shall triumph. I am Laon's friend,",
"And him to your revenge will I betray,",
"So ye concede one easy boon. Attend!",
"For now I speak of things which ye can apprehend.",
"",
"'There is a People mighty in its youth,",
"A land beyond the Oceans of the West,",
"Where, though with rudest rites, Freedom and Truth",
"Are worshipped; from a glorious Mother's breast,",
"Who, since high Athens fell, among the rest",
"Sate like the Queen of Nations, but in woe,",
"By inbred monsters outraged and oppressed,",
"Turns to her chainless child for succour now,",
"It draws the milk of Power in Wisdom's fullest flow.",
"",
"'That land is like an Eagle, whose young gaze",
"Feeds on the noontide beam, whose golden plume",
"Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze",
"Of sunrise gleams when Earth is wrapped in gloom;",
"An epitaph of glory for the tomb",
"Of murdered Europe may thy fame be made,",
"Great People! as the sands shalt thou become;",
"Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade;",
"The multitudinous Earth shall sleep beneath thy shade.",
"",
"'Yes, in the desert there is built a home",
"For Freedom. Genius is made strong to rear",
"The monuments of man beneath the dome",
"Of a new Heaven; myriads assemble there,",
"Whom the proud lords of man, in rage or fear,",
"Drive from their wasted homes: the boon I pray",
"Is this--that Cythna shall be convoyed there--",
"Nay, start not at the name--America!",
"And then to you this night Laon will I betray.",
"",
"'With me do what ye will. I am your foe!'",
"The light of such a joy as makes the stare",
"Of hungry snakes like living emeralds glow,",
"Shone in a hundred human eyes--'Where, where",
"Is Laon? Haste! fly! drag him swiftly here!",
"We grant thy boon.'--'I put no trust in ye,",
"Swear by the Power ye dread.'--'We swear, we swear!'",
"The Stranger threw his vest back suddenly,",
"And smiled in gentle pride, and said, 'Lo! I am he!'",
"",
"CANTO 12.",
"",
"The transport of a fierce and monstrous gladness",
"Spread through the multitudinous streets, fast flying",
"Upon the winds of fear; from his dull madness",
"The starveling waked, and died in joy; the dying,",
"Among the corpses in stark agony lying,",
"Just heard the happy tidings, and in hope",
"Closed their faint eyes; from house to house replying",
"With loud acclaim, the living shook Heaven's cope,",
"And filled the startled Earth with echoes: morn did ope",
"",
"Its pale eyes then; and lo! the long array",
"Of guards in golden arms, and Priests beside,",
"Singing their bloody hymns, whose garbs betray",
"The blackness of the faith it seems to hide;",
"And see, the Tyrant's gem-wrought chariot glide",
"Among the gloomy cowls and glittering spears--",
"A Shape of light is sitting by his side,",
"A child most beautiful. I' the midst appears",
"Laon,--exempt alone from mortal hopes and fears.",
"",
"His head and feet are bare, his hands are bound",
"Behind with heavy chains, yet none do wreak",
"Their scoffs on him, though myriads throng around;",
"There are no sneers upon his lip which speak",
"That scorn or hate has made him bold; his cheek",
"Resolve has not turned pale,--his eyes are mild",
"And calm, and, like the morn about to break,",
"Smile on mankind--his heart seems reconciled",
"To all things and itself, like a reposing child.",
"",
"Tumult was in the soul of all beside,",
"Ill joy, or doubt, or fear; but those who saw",
"Their tranquil victim pass, felt wonder glide",
"Into their brain, and became calm with awe.--",
"See, the slow pageant near the pile doth draw.",
"A thousand torches in the spacious square,",
"Borne by the ready slaves of ruthless law,",
"Await the signal round: the morning fair",
"Is changed to a dim night by that unnatural glare.",
"",
"And see! beneath a sun-bright canopy,",
"Upon a platform level with the pile,",
"The anxious Tyrant sit, enthroned on high,",
"Girt by the chieftains of the host; all smile",
"In expectation, but one child: the while",
"I, Laon, led by mutes, ascend my bier",
"Of fire, and look around: each distant isle",
"Is dark in the bright dawn; towers far and near,",
"Pierce like reposing flames the tremulous atmosphere.",
"",
"There was such silence through the host, as when",
"An earthquake trampling on some populous town,",
"Has crushed ten thousand with one tread, and men",
"Expect the second; all were mute but one,",
"That fairest child, who, bold with love, alone",
"Stood up before the King, without avail,",
"Pleading for Laon's life--her stifled groan",
"Was heard--she trembled like one aspen pale",
"Among the gloomy pines of a Norwegian vale.",
"",
"What were his thoughts linked in the morning sun,",
"Among those reptiles, stingless with delay,",
"Even like a tyrant's wrath?--The signal-gun",
"Roared--hark, again! In that dread pause he lay",
"As in a quiet dream--the slaves obey--",
"A thousand torches drop,--and hark, the last",
"Bursts on that awful silence; far away,",
"Millions, with hearts that beat both loud and fast,",
"Watch for the springing flame expectant and aghast.",
"",
"They fly--the torches fall--a cry of fear",
"Has startled the triumphant!--they recede!",
"For, ere the cannon's roar has died, they hear",
"The tramp of hoofs like earthquake, and a steed",
"Dark and gigantic, with the tempest's speed,",
"Bursts through their ranks: a woman sits thereon,",
"Fairer, it seems, than aught that earth can breed,",
"Calm, radiant, like the phantom of the dawn,",
"A spirit from the caves of daylight wandering gone.",
"",
"All thought it was God's Angel come to sweep",
"The lingering guilty to their fiery grave;",
"The Tyrant from his throne in dread did leap,--",
"Her innocence his child from fear did save;",
"Scared by the faith they feigned, each priestly slave",
"Knelt for his mercy whom they served with blood,",
"And, like the refluence of a mighty wave",
"Sucked into the loud sea, the multitude",
"With crushing panic, fled in terror's altered mood.",
"",
"They pause, they blush, they gaze,--a gathering shout",
"Bursts like one sound from the ten thousand streams",
"Of a tempestuous sea:--that sudden rout",
"One checked, who, never in his mildest dreams",
"Felt awe from grace or loveliness, the seams",
"Of his rent heart so hard and cold a creed",
"Had seared with blistering ice--but he misdeems",
"That he is wise, whose wounds do only bleed",
"Inly for self,--thus thought the Iberian Priest indeed,",
"",
"And others, too, thought he was wise to see,",
"In pain, and fear, and hate, something divine;",
"In love and beauty, no divinity.--",
"Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine",
"Like a fiend's hope upon his lips and eyne,",
"He said, and the persuasion of that sneer",
"Rallied his trembling comrades--'Is it mine",
"To stand alone, when kings and soldiers fear",
"A woman? Heaven has sent its other victim here.'",
"",
"'Were it not impious,' said the King, 'to break",
"Our holy oath?'--'Impious to keep it, say!'",
"Shrieked the exulting Priest:--'Slaves, to the stake",
"Bind her, and on my head the burden lay",
"Of her just torments:--at the Judgement Day",
"Will I stand up before the golden throne",
"Of Heaven, and cry, \"To Thee did I betray",
"An infidel; but for me she would have known",
"Another moment's joy! the glory be thine own.\"'",
"",
"They trembled, but replied not, nor obeyed,",
"Pausing in breathless silence. Cythna sprung",
"From her gigantic steed, who, like a shade",
"Chased by the winds, those vacant streets among",
"Fled tameless, as the brazen rein she flung",
"Upon his neck, and kissed his mooned brow.",
"A piteous sight, that one so fair and young,",
"The clasp of such a fearful death should woo",
"With smiles of tender joy as beamed from Cythna now.",
"",
"The warm tears burst in spite of faith and fear",
"From many a tremulous eye, but like soft dews",
"Which feed Spring's earliest buds, hung gathered there,",
"Frozen by doubt,--alas! they could not choose",
"But weep; for when her faint limbs did refuse",
"To climb the pyre, upon the mutes she smiled;",
"And with her eloquent gestures, and the hues",
"Of her quick lips, even as a weary child",
"Wins sleep from some fond nurse with its caresses mild,",
"",
"She won them, though unwilling, her to bind",
"Near me, among the snakes. When there had fled",
"One soft reproach that was most thrilling kind,",
"She smiled on me, and nothing then we said,",
"But each upon the other's countenance fed",
"Looks of insatiate love; the mighty veil",
"Which doth divide the living and the dead",
"Was almost rent, the world grew dim and pale,--",
"All light in Heaven or Earth beside our love did fail.--",
"",
"Yet--yet--one brief relapse, like the last beam",
"Of dying flames, the stainless air around",
"Hung silent and serene--a blood-red gleam",
"Burst upwards, hurling fiercely from the ground",
"The globed smoke,--I heard the mighty sound",
"Of its uprise, like a tempestuous ocean;",
"And through its chasms I saw, as in a swound,",
"The tyrant's child fall without life or motion",
"Before his throne, subdued by some unseen emotion.--",
"",
"And is this death?--The pyre has disappeared,",
"The Pestilence, the Tyrant, and the throng;",
"The flames grow silent--slowly there is heard",
"The music of a breath-suspending song,",
"Which, like the kiss of love when life is young,",
"Steeps the faint eyes in darkness sweet and deep;",
"With ever-changing notes it floats along,",
"Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep",
"A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap.",
"",
"The warm touch of a soft and tremulous hand",
"Wakened me then; lo! Cythna sate reclined",
"Beside me, on the waved and golden sand",
"Of a clear pool, upon a bank o'ertwined",
"With strange and star-bright flowers, which to the wind",
"Breathed divine odour; high above, was spread",
"The emerald heaven of trees of unknown kind,",
"Whose moonlike blooms and bright fruit overhead",
"A shadow, which was light, upon the waters shed.",
"",
"And round about sloped many a lawny mountain",
"With incense-bearing forests and vast caves",
"Of marble radiance, to that mighty fountain;",
"And where the flood its own bright margin laves,",
"Their echoes talk with its eternal waves,",
"Which, from the depths whose jagged caverns breed",
"Their unreposing strife, it lifts and heaves,--",
"Till through a chasm of hills they roll, and feed",
"A river deep, which flies with smooth but arrowy speed.",
"",
"As we sate gazing in a trance of wonder,",
"A boat approached, borne by the musical air",
"Along the waves which sung and sparkled under",
"Its rapid keel--a winged shape sate there,",
"A child with silver-shining wings, so fair,",
"That as her bark did through the waters glide,",
"The shadow of the lingering waves did wear",
"Light, as from starry beams; from side to side,",
"While veering to the wind her plumes the bark did guide.",
"",
"The boat was one curved shell of hollow pearl,",
"Almost translucent with the light divine",
"Of her within; the prow and stern did curl",
"Horned on high, like the young moon supine,",
"When o'er dim twilight mountains dark with pine,",
"It floats upon the sunset's sea of beams,",
"Whose golden waves in many a purple line",
"Fade fast, till borne on sunlight's ebbing streams,",
"Dilating, on earth's verge the sunken meteor gleams.",
"",
"Its keel has struck the sands beside our feet;--",
"Then Cythna turned to me, and from her eyes",
"Which swam with unshed tears, a look more sweet",
"Than happy love, a wild and glad surprise,",
"Glanced as she spake: 'Ay, this is Paradise",
"And not a dream, and we are all united!",
"Lo, that is mine own child, who in the guise",
"Of madness came, like day to one benighted",
"In lonesome woods: my heart is now too well requited!'",
"",
"And then she wept aloud, and in her arms",
"Clasped that bright Shape, less marvellously fair",
"Than her own human hues and living charms;",
"Which, as she leaned in passion's silence there,",
"Breathed warmth on the cold bosom of the air,",
"Which seemed to blush and tremble with delight;",
"The glossy darkness of her streaming hair",
"Fell o'er that snowy child, and wrapped from sight",
"The fond and long embrace which did their hearts unite.",
"",
"Then the bright child, the plumed Seraph came,",
"And fixed its blue and beaming eyes on mine,",
"And said, 'I was disturbed by tremulous shame",
"When once we met, yet knew that I was thine",
"From the same hour in which thy lips divine",
"Kindled a clinging dream within my brain,",
"Which ever waked when I might sleep, to twine",
"Thine image with HER memory dear--again",
"We meet; exempted now from mortal fear or pain.",
"",
"'When the consuming flames had wrapped ye round,",
"The hope which I had cherished went away;",
"I fell in agony on the senseless ground,",
"And hid mine eyes in dust, and far astray",
"My mind was gone, when bright, like dawning day,",
"The Spectre of the Plague before me flew,",
"And breathed upon my lips, and seemed to say,",
"\"They wait for thee, beloved!\"--then I knew",
"The death-mark on my breast, and became calm anew.",
"",
"'It was the calm of love--for I was dying.",
"I saw the black and half-extinguished pyre",
"In its own gray and shrunken ashes lying;",
"The pitchy smoke of the departed fire",
"Still hung in many a hollow dome and spire",
"Above the towers, like night,--beneath whose shade",
"Awed by the ending of their own desire",
"The armies stood; a vacancy was made",
"In expectation's depth, and so they stood dismayed.",
"",
"'The frightful silence of that altered mood,",
"The tortures of the dying clove alone,",
"Till one uprose among the multitude,",
"And said--\"The flood of time is rolling on;",
"We stand upon its brink, whilst THEY are gone",
"To glide in peace down death's mysterious stream.",
"Have ye done well? They moulder, flesh and bone,",
"Who might have made this life's envenomed dream",
"A sweeter draught than ye will ever taste, I deem.",
"",
"'\"These perish as the good and great of yore",
"Have perished, and their murderers will repent,--",
"Yes, vain and barren tears shall flow before",
"Yon smoke has faded from the firmament",
"Even for this cause, that ye who must lament",
"The death of those that made this world so fair,",
"Cannot recall them now; but there is lent",
"To man the wisdom of a high despair,",
"When such can die, and he live on and linger here.",
"",
"'\"Ay, ye may fear not now the Pestilence,",
"From fabled hell as by a charm withdrawn;",
"All power and faith must pass, since calmly hence",
"In pain and fire have unbelievers gone;",
"And ye must sadly turn away, and moan",
"In secret, to his home each one returning;",
"And to long ages shall this hour be known;",
"And slowly shall its memory, ever burning,",
"Fill this dark night of things with an eternal morning.",
"",
"'\"For me that world is grown too void and cold,",
"Since Hope pursues immortal Destiny",
"With steps thus slow--therefore shall ye behold",
"How those who love, yet fear not, dare to die;",
"Tell to your children this!\" Then suddenly",
"He sheathed a dagger in his heart and fell;",
"My brain grew dark in death, and yet to me",
"There came a murmur from the crowd, to tell",
"Of deep and mighty change which suddenly befell.",
"",
"'Then suddenly I stood, a winged Thought,",
"Before the immortal Senate, and the seat",
"Of that star-shining spirit, whence is wrought",
"The strength of its dominion, good and great,",
"The better Genius of this world's estate.",
"His realm around one mighty Fane is spread,",
"Elysian islands bright and fortunate,",
"Calm dwellings of the free and happy dead,",
"Where I am sent to lead!' These winged words she said,",
"",
"And with the silence of her eloquent smile,",
"Bade us embark in her divine canoe;",
"Then at the helm we took our seat, the while",
"Above her head those plumes of dazzling hue",
"Into the winds' invisible stream she threw,",
"Sitting beside the prow: like gossamer",
"On the swift breath of morn, the vessel flew",
"O'er the bright whirlpools of that fountain fair,",
"Whose shores receded fast, while we seemed lingering there;",
"",
"Till down that mighty stream, dark, calm, and fleet,",
"Between a chasm of cedarn mountains riven,",
"Chased by the thronging winds whose viewless feet",
"As swift as twinkling beams, had, under Heaven,",
"From woods and waves wild sounds and odours driven,",
"The boat fled visibly--three nights and days,",
"Borne like a cloud through morn, and noon, and even,",
"We sailed along the winding watery ways",
"Of the vast stream, a long and labyrinthine maze.",
"",
"A scene of joy and wonder to behold",
"That river's shapes and shadows changing ever,",
"Where the broad sunrise filled with deepening gold",
"Its whirlpools, where all hues did spread and quiver;",
"And where melodious falls did burst and shiver",
"Among rocks clad with flowers, the foam and spray",
"Sparkled like stars upon the sunny river,",
"Or when the moonlight poured a holier day,",
"One vast and glittering lake around green islands lay.",
"",
"Morn, noon, and even, that boat of pearl outran",
"The streams which bore it, like the arrowy cloud",
"Of tempest, or the speedier thought of man,",
"Which flieth forth and cannot make abode;",
"Sometimes through forests, deep like night, we glode,",
"Between the walls of mighty mountains crowned",
"With Cyclopean piles, whose turrets proud,",
"The homes of the departed, dimly frowned",
"O'er the bright waves which girt their dark foundations round.",
"",
"Sometimes between the wide and flowering meadows,",
"Mile after mile we sailed, and 'twas delight",
"To see far off the sunbeams chase the shadows",
"Over the grass; sometimes beneath the night",
"Of wide and vaulted caves, whose roofs were bright",
"With starry gems, we fled, whilst from their deep",
"And dark-green chasms, shades beautiful and white,",
"Amid sweet sounds across our path would sweep,",
"Like swift and lovely dreams that walk the waves of sleep.",
"",
"And ever as we sailed, our minds were full",
"Of love and wisdom, which would overflow",
"In converse wild, and sweet, and wonderful,",
"And in quick smiles whose light would come and go",
"Like music o'er wide waves, and in the flow",
"Of sudden tears, and in the mute caress--",
"For a deep shade was cleft, and we did know,",
"That virtue, though obscured on Earth, not less",
"Survives all mortal change in lasting loveliness.",
"",
"Three days and nights we sailed, as thought and feeling",
"Number delightful hours--for through the sky",
"The sphered lamps of day and night, revealing",
"New changes and new glories, rolled on high,",
"Sun, Moon and moonlike lamps, the progeny",
"Of a diviner Heaven, serene and fair:",
"On the fourth day, wild as a windwrought sea",
"The stream became, and fast and faster bare",
"The spirit-winged boat, steadily speeding there.",
"",
"Steady and swift, where the waves rolled like mountains",
"Within the vast ravine, whose rifts did pour",
"Tumultuous floods from their ten thousand fountains,",
"The thunder of whose earth-uplifting roar",
"Made the air sweep in whirlwinds from the shore,",
"Calm as a shade, the boat of that fair child",
"Securely fled, that rapid stress before,",
"Amid the topmost spray, and sunbows wild,",
"Wreathed in the silver mist: in joy and pride we smiled.",
"",
"The torrent of that wide and raging river",
"Is passed, and our aereal speed suspended.",
"We look behind; a golden mist did quiver",
"When its wild surges with the lake were blended,--",
"Our bark hung there, as on a line suspended",
"Between two heavens,--that windless waveless lake",
"Which four great cataracts from four vales, attended",
"By mists, aye feed; from rocks and clouds they break,",
"And of that azure sea a silent refuge make.",
"",
"Motionless resting on the lake awhile,",
"I saw its marge of snow-bright mountains rear",
"Their peaks aloft, I saw each radiant isle,",
"And in the midst, afar, even like a sphere",
"Hung in one hollow sky, did there appear",
"The Temple of the Spirit; on the sound",
"Which issued thence, drawn nearer and more near,",
"Like the swift moon this glorious earth around,",
"The charmed boat approached, and there its haven found."
],
"title": "The Revolt of Islam. a Poem in Twelve Cantos"
},
{
"author": "Robert Browning",
"line_count": "916",
"lines": [
"You're my friend:",
" I was the man the Duke spoke to;",
" I helped the Duchess to cast off his yoke, too;",
"So here's the tale from beginning to end,",
"My friend!",
"",
"Ours is a great wild country:",
" If you climb to our castle's top,",
" I don't see where your eye can stop;",
"For when you've passed the cornfield country,",
"Where vineyards leave off, flocks are packed,",
"And sheep-range leads to cattle-tract,",
"And cattle-tract to open-chase,",
"And open-chase to the very base",
"Of the mountain where, at a funeral pace,",
"Round about, solemn and slow,",
"One by one, row after row,",
"Up and up the pine-trees go,",
"So, like black priests up, and so",
"Down the other side again",
" To another greater, wilder country,",
"That's one vast red drear burnt-up plain,",
"Branched through and through with many a vein",
"Whence iron's dug, and copper's dealt;",
" Look right, look left, look straight before--",
"Beneath they mine, above they smelt,",
" Copper-ore and iron-ore,",
"And forge and furnace mould and melt,",
" And so on, more and ever more,",
"Till at the last, for a bounding belt,",
" Comes the salt sand hoar of the great sea shore",
"--And the whole is our Duke's country.",
"",
"I was born the day this present Duke was--",
" (And O, says the song, ere I was old!)",
"In the castle where the other Duke was--",
" (When I was happy and young, not old!)",
"I in the kennel, he in the bower:",
"We are of like age to an hour.",
"My father was huntsman in that day;",
"Who has not heard my father say",
"That, when a boar was brought to bay,",
"Three times, four times out of five,",
"With his huntspear he'd contrive",
"To get the killing-place transfixed,",
"And pin him true, both eyes betwixt?",
"And that's why the old Duke would rather",
"He lost a salt-pit than my father,",
"And loved to have him ever in call;",
"That's why my father stood in the hall",
"When the old Duke brought his infant out",
" To show the people, and while they passed",
"The wondrous bantling round about,",
" Was first to start at the outside blast",
"As the Kaiser's courier blew his horn",
"Just a month after the babe was born.",
"\"And,\" quoth the Kaiser's courier,\" since",
"The Duke has got an heir, our Prince",
" Needs the Duke's self at his side:\"",
"The Duke looked down and seemed to wince,",
" But he thought of wars o'er the world wide,",
"Castles a-fire, men on their march,",
"The toppling tower, the crashing arch;",
" And up he looked, and awhile he eyed",
"The row of crests and shields and banners",
"Of all achievements after all manners,",
" And \"ay,\" said the Duke with a surly pride.",
" The more was his comfort when he died",
"At next year's end, in a velvet suit,",
"With a gilt glove on his hand, his foot",
"In a silken shoe for a leather boot,",
"Petticoated like a herald,",
" In a chamber next to an ante-room,",
" Where he breathed the breath of page and groom,",
" What he called stink, and they, perfume:",
"--They should have set him on red Berold",
"Mad with pride, like fire to manage!",
"They should have got his cheek fresh tannage",
"Such a day as to-day in the merry sunshine!",
"Had they stuck on his fist a rough-foot merlin!",
"(Hark, the wind's on the heath at its game!",
"Oh for a noble falcon-lanner",
"To flap each broad wing like a banner,",
"And turn in the wind, and dance like flame!)",
"Had they broached a white-beer cask from Berlin",
"--Or if you incline to prescribe mere wine",
"Put to his lips, when they saw him pine,",
"A cup of our own Moldavia fine,",
"Cotnar for instance, green as May sorrel",
"And ropy with sweet--we shall not quarrel.",
"",
"So, at home, the sick tall yellow Duchess",
"Was left with the infant in her clutches,",
"She being the daughter of God knows who:",
" And now was the time to revisit her tribe.",
"Abroad and afar they went, the two,",
" And let our people rail and gibe",
"At the empty hall and extinguished fire,",
" As loud as we liked, but ever in vain,",
"Till after long years we had our desire,",
" And back came the Duke and his mother again.",
"",
"And he came back the pertest little ape",
"That ever affronted human shape;",
"Full of his travel, struck at himself.",
" You'd say, he despised our bluff old ways?",
"--Not he! For in Paris they told the elf",
" Our rough North land was the Land of Lays,",
" The one good thing left in evil days;",
"Since the Mid-Age was the Heroic Time,",
" And only in wild nooks like ours",
"Could you taste of it yet as in its prime,",
" And see true castles, with proper towers,",
"Young-hearted women, old-minded men,",
"And manners now as manners were then.",
"So, all that the old Dukes had been, without knowing it,",
"This Duke would fain know he was, without being it;",
"'Twas not for the joy's self, but the joy of his showing it,",
"Nor for the pride's self, but the pride of our seeing it,",
"He revived all usages thoroughly worn-out,",
"The souls of them fumed-forth, the hearts of them torn-out:",
"And chief in the chase his neck he perilled",
"On a lathy horse, all legs and length,",
"With blood for bone, all speed, no strength;",
"--They should have set him on red Berold",
"With the red eye slow consuming in fire,",
"And the thin stiff ear like an abbey-spire!",
"",
"Well, such as he was, he must marry, we heard:",
"And out of a convent, at the word,",
"Came the lady, in time of spring.",
"--Oh, old thoughts they cling, they cling!",
"That day, I know, with a dozen oaths",
"I clad myself in thick hunting-clothes",
"Fit for the chase of urochs or buffle",
"In winter-time when you need to muffle.",
"But the Duke had a mind we should cut a figure,",
" And so we saw the lady arrive:",
"My friend, I have seen a white crane bigger!",
" She was the smallest lady alive,",
"Made in a piece of nature's madness,",
"Too small, almost, for the life and gladness",
" That over-filled her, as some hive",
"Out of the bears' reach on the high trees",
"Is crowded with its safe merry bees:",
"In truth, she was not hard to please!",
"Up she looked, down she looked, round at the mead,",
"Straight at the castle, that's best indeed",
"To look at from outside the walls:",
"As for us, styled the \"serfs and thralls,\"",
"She as much thanked me as if she had said it,",
" (With her eyes, do you understand?)",
"Because I patted her horse while I led it;",
" And Max, who rode on her other hand,",
"Said, no bird flew past but she inquired",
"What its true name was, nor ever seemed tired--",
"If that was an eagle she saw hover,",
"And the green and grey bird on the field was the plover.",
"When suddenly appeared the Duke:",
" And as down she sprung, the small foot pointed",
"On to my hand,--as with a rebuke,",
" And as if his backbone were not jointed,",
"The Duke stepped rather aside than forward",
" And welcomed her with his grandest smile;",
" And, mind you, his mother all the while",
"Chilled in the rear, like a wind to Nor'ward;",
"And up, like a weary yawn, with its pullies",
"Went, in a shriek, the rusty portcullis;",
"And, like a glad sky the north-wind sullies,",
"The lady's face stopped its play,",
"As if her first hair had grown grey;",
"For such things must begin some one day.",
"",
"In a day or two she was well again;",
"As who should say, \"You labour in vain!",
"This is all a jest against God, who meant",
"I should ever be, as I am, content",
"And glad in his sight; therefore, glad I will be.\"",
"So, smiling as at first went she.",
"",
"She was active, stirring, all fire--",
"Could not rest, could not tire--",
"To a stone she might have given life!",
" (I myself loved once, in my day)",
"--For a shepherd's, miner's, huntsman's wife,",
" (I had a wife, I know what I say)",
"Never in all the world such an one!",
"And here was plenty to be done,",
"And she that could do it, great or small,",
"She was to do nothing at all.",
"There was already this man in his post,",
" This in his station, and that in his office,",
"And the Duke's plan admitted a wife, at most,",
" To meet his eye, with the other trophies,",
"Now outside the hall, now in it,",
" To sit thus, stand thus, see and be seen,",
"At the proper place in the proper minute,",
" And die away the life between.",
"And it was amusing enough, each infraction",
" Of rule--(but for after-sadness that came)",
"To hear the consummate self-satisfaction",
" With which the young Duke and the old dame",
"Would let her advise, and criticise,",
"And, being a fool, instruct the wise,",
" And, child-like, parcel out praise or blame:",
"They bore it all in complacent guise,",
"As though an artificer, after contriving",
"A wheel-work image as if it were living,",
"Should find with delight it could motion to strike him!",
"So found the Duke, and his mother like him:",
"The lady hardly got a rebuff--",
"That had not been contemptuous enough,",
"With his cursed smirk, as he nodded applause,",
"And kept off the old mother-cat's claws.",
"",
"So, the little lady grew silent and thin,",
" Paling and ever paling,",
"As the way is with a hid chagrin;",
" And the Duke perceived that she was ailing,",
"And said in his heart, \"'Tis done to spite me,",
"But I shall find in my power to right me!\"",
"Don't swear, friend! The old one, many a year,",
"Is in hell, and the Duke's self... you shall hear.",
"",
"Well, early in autumn, at first winter-warning,",
"When the stag had to break with his foot, of a morning,",
"A drinking-hole out of the fresh tender ice",
"That covered the pond till the sun, in a trice,",
"Loosening it, let out a ripple of gold,",
" And another and another, and faster and faster",
"Till, dimpling to blindness, the wide water rolled:",
" Then it so chanced that the Duke our master",
"Asked himself what were the pleasures in season,",
" And found, since the calendar bade him be hearty,",
"He should do the Middle Age no treason",
" In resolving on a hunting-party.",
"Always provided, old books showed the way of it!",
" What meant old poets by their strictures?",
"And when old poets had said their say of it,",
" How taught old painters in their pictures?",
"We must revert to the proper channels,",
"Workings in tapestry, paintings on panels,",
"And gather up woodcraft's authentic traditions:",
"Here was food for our various ambitions,",
"As on each case, exactly stated--",
" To encourage your dog, now, the properest chirrup",
" Or best prayer to Saint Hubert on mounting your stirrup--",
"We of the household took thought and debated.",
"Blessed was he whose back ached with the jerkin",
"His sire was wont to do forest-work in;",
"Blesseder he who nobly sunk \"ohs\"",
"And \"ahs\" while he tugged on his grandsire's trunk-hose;",
"What signified hats if they had no rims on,",
" Each slouching before and behind like the scallop,",
" And able to serve at sea for a shallop,",
"Loaded with lacquer and looped with crimson?",
"So that the deer now, to make a short rhyme on't,",
" What with our Venerers, Prickers and Verderers,",
" Might hope for real hunters at length and not murderers,",
"And oh the Duke's tailor, he had a hot time on't!",
"",
"Now you must know that when the first dizziness",
" Of flap-hats and buff-coats and jack-boots subsided,",
" The Duke put this question, \"The Duke's part provided,",
"Had not the Duchess some share in the business?\"",
"For out of the mouth of two or three witnesses",
"Did he establish all fit-or-unfitnesses:",
"And, after much laying of heads together,",
"Somebody's cap got a notable feather",
"By the announcement with proper unction",
"That he had discovered the lady's function;",
"Since ancient authors gave this tenet,",
" \"When horns wind a mort and the deer is at siege,",
"Let the dame of the castle prick forth on her jennet,",
" And with water to wash the hands of her liege",
"In a clean ewer with a fair toweling,",
"Let her preside at the disemboweling.\"",
"Now, my friend, if you had so little religion",
" As to catch a hawk, some falcon-lanner,",
" And thrust her broad wings like a banner",
"Into a coop for a vulgar pigeon;",
"And if day by day and week by week",
" You cut her claws, and sealed her eyes,",
"And clipped her wings, and tied her beak,",
" Would it cause you any great surprise",
"If, when you decided to give her an airing,",
"You found she needed a little preparing?",
"--I say, should you be such a curmudgeon,",
"If she clung to the perch, as to take it in dudgeon?",
"Yet when the Duke to his lady signified,",
"Just a day before, as he judged most dignified,",
"In what a pleasure she was to participate,--",
" And, instead of leaping wide in flashes,",
" Her eyes just lifted their long lashes,",
"As if pressed by fatigue even he could not dissipate,",
"And duly acknowledged the Duke's fore-thought,",
"But spoke of her health, if her health were worth aught,",
"Of the weight by day and the watch by night,",
"And much wrong now that used to be right,",
"So, thanking him, declined the hunting--",
"Was conduct ever more affronting?",
"With all the ceremony settled--",
" With the towel ready, and the sewer",
" Polishing up his oldest ewer,",
" And the jennet pitched upon, a piebald,",
" Black-barred, cream-coated and pink eye-balled--",
"No wonder if the Duke was nettled!",
"And when she persisted nevertheless,--",
"Well, I suppose here's the time to confess",
"That there ran half round our lady's chamber",
"A balcony none of the hardest to clamber;",
"And that Jacynth the tire-woman, ready in waiting,",
"",
"Stayed in call outside, what need of relating?",
"And since Jacynth was like a June rose, why, a fervent",
"Adorer of Jacynth of course was your servant;",
"And if she had the habit to peep through the casement,",
" How could I keep at any vast distance?",
" And so, as I say, on the lady's persistence,",
"The Duke, dumb-stricken with amazement,",
"Stood for a while in a sultry smother,",
" And then, with a smile that partook of the awful,",
"Turned her over to his yellow mother",
" To learn what was held decorous and lawful;",
"And the mother smelt blood with a cat-like instinct,",
"As her cheek quick whitened thro' all its quince-tinct.",
"Oh, but the lady heard the whole truth at once!",
"What meant she?--Who was she?--Her duty and station,",
"The wisdom of age and the folly of youth, at once,",
" Its decent regard and its fitting relation--",
"In brief, my friend, set all the devils in hell free",
"And turn them out to carouse in a belfry",
"And treat the priests to a fifty-part canon,",
"And then you may guess how that tongue of hers ran on!",
"Well, somehow or other it ended at last",
"And, licking her whiskers, out she passed;",
"And after her,--making (he hoped) a face",
" Like Emperor Nero or Sultan Saladin,",
"Stalked the Duke's self with the austere grace",
" Of ancient hero or modern paladin,",
"From door to staircase--oh such a solemn",
"Unbending of the vertebral column!",
"",
"However, at sunrise our company mustered;",
" And here was the huntsman bidding unkennel,",
"And there 'neath his bonnet the pricker blustered,",
" With feather dank as a bough of wet fennel;",
"For the court-yard walls were filled with fog",
"You might have cut as an axe chops a log--",
"Like so much wool for colour and bulkiness;",
"And out rode the Duke in a perfect sulkiness,",
"Since, before breakfast, a man feels but queasily",
" And a sinking at the lower abdomen",
" Begins the day with indifferent omen.",
"And lo, as he looked around uneasily,",
"The sun ploughed the fog up and drove it asunder",
"This way and that from the valley under;",
" And, looking through the court-yard arch,",
"Down in the valley, what should meet him",
" But a troop of Gipsies on their march?",
"No doubt with the annual gifts to greet him.",
"",
"Now, in your land, Gipsies reach you, only",
" After reaching all lands beside;",
"North they go, South they go, trooping or lonely",
" And still, as they travel far and wide,",
"Catch they and keep now a trace here, a trace there,",
"That puts you in mind of a place here, a place there.",
"But with us, I believe they rise out of the ground,",
"And nowhere else, I take it, are found",
"With the earth-tint yet so freshly embrowned:",
"Born, no doubt, like insects which breed on",
"The very fruit they are meant to feed on.",
"For the earth-not a use to which they don't turn it,",
" The ore that grows in the mountain's womb,",
" Or the sand in the pits like a honeycomb,",
"They sift and soften it, bake it and burn it--",
"Whether they weld you, for instance, a snaffle",
"With side-bars never a brute can baffle;",
"Or a lock that's a puzzle of wards within wards;",
"Or, if your colt's fore-foot inclines to curve inwards,",
"Horseshoes they hammer which turn on a swivel",
"And won't allow the hoof to shrivel.",
"Then they cast bells like the shell of the winkle",
"That keep a stout heart in the ram with their tinkle;",
"But the sand-they pinch and pound it like otters;",
"Commend me to Gipsy glass-makers and potters!",
"Glasses they'll blow you, crystal-clear,",
"Where just a faint cloud of rose shall appear,",
"As if in pure water you dropped and let die",
"A bruised black-blooded mulberry;",
"And that other sort, their crowning pride,",
"With long white threads distinct inside,",
"Like the lake-flower's fibrous roots which dangle",
"Loose such a length and never tangle,",
"Where the bold sword-lily cuts the clear waters,",
"And the cup-lily couches with all the white daughters:",
"Such are the works they put their hand to,",
"The uses they turn and twist iron and sand to.",
"And these made the troop, which our Duke saw sally",
"Toward his castle from out of the valley,",
"Men and women, like new-hatched spiders,",
"Come out with the morning to greet our riders.",
"And up they wound till they reached the ditch,",
"Whereat all stopped save one, a witch",
"That I knew, as she hobbled from the group,",
"By her gait directly and her stoop,",
"I, whom Jacynth was used to importune",
"To let that same witch tell us our fortune.",
"The oldest Gipsy then above ground;",
"And, sure as the autumn season came round,",
"She paid us a visit for profit or pastime,",
"And every time, as she swore, for the last time.",
"",
"And presently she was seen to sidle",
"Up to the Duke till she touched his bridle,",
"So that the horse of a sudden reared up",
"As under its nose the old witch peered up",
"With her worn-out eyes, or rather eye-holes",
" Of no use now but to gather brine,",
" And began a kind of level whine",
"Such as they used to sing to their viols",
"When their ditties they go grinding",
"Up and down with nobody minding",
"And then, as of old, at the end of the humming",
"Her usual presents were forthcoming",
"--A dog-whistle blowing the fiercest of trebles,",
"(Just a sea-shore stone holding a dozen fine pebbles)",
"Or a porcelain mouth-piece to screw on a pipe-end--",
"And so she awaited her annual stipend.",
"But this time, the Duke would scarcely vouchsafe",
" A word in reply; and in vain she felt",
" With twitching fingers at her belt",
" For the purse of sleek pine-martin pelt,",
"Ready to put what he gave in her pouch safe--",
"Till, either to quicken his apprehension,",
"Or possibly with an after-intention,",
"She was come, she said, to pay her duty",
"To the new Duchess, the youthful beauty.",
"No sooner had she named his lady,",
"Than a shine lit up the face so shady,",
"And its smirk returned with a novel meaning--",
"For it struck him, the babe just wanted weaning;",
"If one gave her a taste of what life was and sorrow,",
"She, foolish today, would be wiser tomorrow;",
"And who so fit a teacher of trouble",
"As this sordid crone bent well-nigh double?",
"So, glancing at her wolf-skin vesture,",
" (If such it was, for they grow so hirsute",
" That their own fleece serves for natural fur-suit)",
"He was contrasting, 'twas plain from his gesture,",
"The life of the lady so flower-like and delicate",
"With the loathsome squalor of this helicat.",
"I, in brief, was the man the Duke beckoned",
" From out of the throng, and while I drew near",
"He told the crone-as I since have reckoned",
" By the way he bent and spoke into her ear",
"With circumspection and mystery--",
"The main of the lady's history,",
"Her frowardness and ingratitude:",
"And for all the crone's submissive attitude",
"I could see round her mouth the loose plaits tightening,",
"And her brow with assenting intelligence brightening",
" As though she engaged with hearty goodwill",
" Whatever he now might enjoin to fulfil,",
"And promised the lady a thorough frightening.",
"",
"And so, just giving her a glimpse",
"Of a purse, with the air of a man who imps",
"The wing of the hawk that shall fetch the hernshaw,",
" He bade me take the Gipsy mother",
" And set her telling some story or other",
"Of hill or dale, oak-wood or fernshaw,",
"To wile away a weary hour",
"For the lady left alone in her bower,",
"Whose mind and body craved exertion",
"And yet shrank from all better diversion.",
"",
"Then clapping heel to his horse, the mere curveter,",
" Out rode the Duke, and after his hollo",
"Horses and hounds swept, huntsman and servitor,",
" And back I turned and bade the crone follow.",
"And what makes me confident what's to be told you",
" Had all along been of this crone's devising,",
"Is, that, on looking round sharply, behold you,",
" There was a novelty quick as surprising:",
"For first, she had shot up a full head in stature,",
" And her step kept pace with mine nor faltered,",
"As if age had foregone its usurpature,",
" And the ignoble mien was wholly altered,",
"And the face looked quite of another nature,",
"And the change reached too, whatever the change meant,",
"Her shaggy wolf-skin cloak's arrangement:",
"For where its tatters hung loose like sedges,",
"Gold coins were glittering on the edges,",
"Like the band-roll strung with tomans",
"Which proves the veil a Persian woman's:",
"And under her brow, like a snail's horns newly",
" Come out as after the rain he paces,",
"Two unmistakeable eye-points duly",
" Live and aware looked out of their places.",
"So, we went and found Jacynth at the entry",
"Of the lady's chamber standing sentry;",
"I told the command and produced my companion,",
"And Jacynth rejoiced to admit any one,",
"For since last night, by the same token,",
"Not a single word had the lady spoken:",
"They went in both to the presence together,",
"While I in the balcony watched the weather.",
"",
"And now, what took place at the very first of all,",
"I cannot tell, as I never could learn it:",
"Jacynth constantly wished a curse to fall",
"On that little head of hers and burn it",
"If she knew how she came to drop so soundly",
" Asleep of a sudden and there continue",
"The whole time sleeping as profoundly",
" As one of the boars my father would pin you",
"'Twixt the eyes where life holds garrison,",
"--Jacynth forgive me the comparison!",
"But where I begin my own narration",
"Is a little after I took my station",
"To breathe the fresh air from the balcony,",
"And, having in those days a falcon eye,",
"To follow the hunt thro' the open country,",
" From where the bushes thinlier crested",
"The hillocks, to a plain where's not one tree.",
" When, in a moment, my ear was arrested",
"By--was it singing, or was it saying,",
"Or a strange musical instrument playing",
"In the chamber?--and to be certain",
"I pushed the lattice, pulled the curtain,",
"And there lay Jacynth asleep,",
"Yet as if a watch she tried to keep,",
"In a rosy sleep along the floor",
"With her head against the door;",
"While in the midst, on the seat of state,",
"Was a queen-the Gipsy woman late,",
"With head and face downbent",
"On the lady's head and face intent:",
"For, coiled at her feet like a child at ease,",
"The lady sat between her knees",
"And o'er them the lady's clasped hands met,",
"And on those hands her chin was set,",
"And her upturned face met the face of the crone",
"Wherein the eyes had grown and grown",
"As if she could double and quadruple",
"At pleasure the play of either pupil",
" --Very like, by her hands' slow fanning,",
"As up and down like a gor-crow's flappers",
"They moved to measure, or bell-clappers.",
" I said, \"Is it blessing, is it banning,",
"Do they applaud you or burlesque you--",
" Those hands and fingers with no flesh on?\"",
"But, just as I thought to spring in to the rescue,",
" At once I was stopped by the lady's expression:",
"For it was life her eyes were drinking",
"From the crone's wide pair above unwinking,",
"--Life's pure fire received without shrinking,",
"Into the heart and breast whose heaving",
"Told you no single drop they were leaving,",
"--Life, that filling her, passed redundant",
"Into her very hair, back swerving",
"Over each shoulder, loose and abundant,",
" As her head thrown back showed the white throat curving;",
"And the very tresses shared in the pleasure,",
"Moving to the mystic measure,",
"Bounding as the bosom bounded.",
"I stopped short, more and more confounded,",
"As still her cheeks burned and eyes glistened,",
"As she listened and she listened:",
"When all at once a hand detained me,",
"The selfsame contagion gained me,",
"And I kept time to the wondrous chime,",
"Making out words and prose and rhyme,",
"Till it seemed that the music furled",
" Its wings like a task fulfilled, and dropped",
" From under the words it first had propped,",
"And left them midway in the world:",
"Word took word as hand takes hand",
"I could hear at last, and understand,",
"And when I held the unbroken thread,",
"The Gipsy said:",
"\"And so at last we find my tribe.",
" And so I set thee in the midst,",
"And to one and all of them describe",
" What thou saidst and what thou didst,",
"Our long and terrible journey through,",
"And all thou art ready to say and do",
"In the trials that remain:",
"I trace them the vein and the other vein",
"That meet on thy brow and part again,",
"Making our rapid mystic mark;",
" And I bid my people prove and probe",
" Each eye's profound and glorious globe",
"Till they detect the kindred spark",
"In those depths so dear and dark,",
"Like the spots that snap and burst and flee,",
"Circling over the midnight sea.",
"And on that round young cheek of thine",
" I make them recognize the tinge,",
"As when of the costly scarlet wine",
" They drip so much as will impinge",
"And spread in a thinnest scale afloat",
"One thick gold drop from the olive's coat",
"Over a silver plate whose sheen",
"Still thro' the mixture shall be seen.",
"For so I prove thee, to one and all,",
" Fit, when my people ope their breast,",
"To see the sign, and hear the call,",
" And take the vow, and stand the test",
" Which adds one more child to the rest--",
"When the breast is bare and the arms are wide,",
"And the world is left outside.",
"",
"For there is probation to decree,",
"And many and long must the trials be",
"Thou shalt victoriously endure,",
"If that brow is true and those eyes are sure;",
"Like a jewel-finder's fierce assay",
" Of the prize he dug from its mountain tomb--",
"Let once the vindicating ray",
" Leap out amid the anxious gloom,",
"And steel and fire have done their part",
"And the prize falls on its finder's heart;",
"So, trial after trial past,",
"Wilt thou fall at the very last",
"Breathless, half in trance",
"With the thrill of the great deliverance,",
" Into our arms for evermore;",
"And thou shalt know, those arms once curled",
" About thee, what we knew before,",
"How love is the only good in the world.",
"Henceforth be loved as heart can love,",
"Or brain devise, or hand approve!",
"Stand up, look below,",
"It is our life at thy feet we throw",
"To step with into light and joy;",
"Not a power of life but we employ",
"To satisfy thy nature's want;",
"Art thou the tree that props the plant,",
"Or the climbing plant that seeks the tree--",
"Canst thou help us, must we help thee?",
"If any two creatures grew into one,",
"They would do more than the world has done:",
"Though each apart were never so weak,",
"Ye vainly through the world should seek",
"For the knowledge and the might",
"Which in such union grew their right:",
"So, to approach at least that end,",
"And blend,--as much as may be, blend",
"Thee with us or us with thee--",
"As climbing plant or propping tree,",
"Shall some one deck thee, over and down,",
" Up and about, with blossoms and leaves?",
"Fix his heart's fruit for thy garland-crown,",
" Cling with his soul as the gourd-vine cleaves,",
"Die on thy boughs and disappear",
"While not a leaf of thine is sere?",
"Or is the other fate in store,",
"And art thou fitted to adore,",
"To give thy wondrous self away,",
"And take a stronger nature's sway?",
"I foresee and could foretell",
"Thy future portion, sure and well:",
"But those passionate eyes speak true, speak true,",
"Let them say what thou shalt do!",
"Only be sure thy daily life,",
"In its peace or in its strife,",
"Never shall be unobserved;",
" We pursue thy whole career,",
" And hope for it, or doubt, or fear--",
"Lo, hast thou kept thy path or swerved,",
"We are beside thee in all thy ways,",
"With our blame, with our praise,",
"Our shame to feel, our pride to show,",
"Glad, angry--but indifferent, no!",
"Whether it be thy lot to go,",
"For the good of us all, where the haters meet",
"In the crowded city's horrible street;",
"Or thou step alone through the morass",
"Where never sound yet was",
"Save the dry quick clap of the stork's bill,",
"For the air is still, and the water still,",
"When the blue breast of the dipping coot",
"Dives under, and all is mute.",
"So, at the last shall come old age,",
"Decrepit as befits that stage;",
"How else wouldst thou retire apart",
"With the hoarded memories of thy heart,",
"And gather all to the very least",
"Of the fragments of life's earlier feast,",
"Let fall through eagerness to find",
"The crowning dainties yet behind?",
"Ponder on the entire past",
"Laid together thus at last,",
"When the twilight helps to fuse",
"The first fresh with the faded hues,",
"And the outline of the whole,",
"As round eve's shades their framework roll,",
"Grandly fronts for once thy soul.",
"And then as, 'mid the dark, a gleam",
" Of yet another morning breaks,",
"And like the hand which ends a dream,",
"Death, with the might of his sunbeam,",
" Touches the flesh and the soul awakes,",
"Then--\"",
" Ay, then indeed something would happen!",
" But what? For here her voice changed like a bird's;",
" There grew more of the music and less of the words;",
"Had Jacynth only been by me to clap pen",
"To paper and put you down every syllable",
" With those clever clerkly fingers,",
" All I've forgotten as well as what lingers",
"In this old brain of mine that's but ill able",
"To give you even this poor version",
" Of the speech I spoil, as it were, with stammering",
" --More fault of those who had the hammering",
" Of prosody into me and syntax",
" And did it, not with hobnails but tintacks!",
"",
"But to return from this excursion--",
"Just, do you mark, when the song was sweetest,",
"The peace most deep and the charm completest,",
"There came, shall I say, a snap--",
" And the charm vanished!",
" And my sense returned, so strangely banished,",
"And, starting as from a nap,",
"I knew the crone was bewitching my lady,",
"With Jacynth asleep; and but one spring made I",
"Down from the casement, round to the portal,",
" Another minute and I had entered--",
"When the door opened, and more than mortal",
" Stood, with a face where to my mind centred",
"All beauties I ever saw or shall see,",
"The Duchess: I stopped as if struck by palsy.",
"She was so different, happy and beautiful,",
" I felt at once that all was best,",
" And that I had nothing to do, for the rest",
"But wait her commands, obey and be dutiful.",
"Not that, in fact, there was any commanding;",
" I saw the glory of her eye,",
"And the brow's height and the breast's expanding,",
" And I was hers to live or to die.",
"As for finding what she wanted,",
"You know God Almighty granted",
"Such little signs should serve wild creatures",
" To tell one another all their desires,",
" So that each knows what his friend requires,",
"And does its bidding without teachers.",
"I preceded her; the crone",
"Followed silent and alone;",
"I spoke to her, but she merely jabbered",
" In the old style; both her eyes had slunk",
" Back to their pits; her stature shrunk;",
" In short, the soul in its body sunk",
"Like a blade sent home to its scabbard.",
"We descended, I preceding;",
"Crossed the court with nobody heeding;",
"All the world was at the chase,",
"The courtyard like a desert-place,",
"The stable emptied of its small fry;",
"I saddled myself the very palfrey",
"I remember patting while it carried her,",
"The day she arrived and the Duke married her.",
"And, do you know, though it's easy deceiving",
"Oneself in such matters, I can't help believing",
"The lady had not forgotten it either,",
"And knew the poor devil so much beneath her",
"Would have been only too glad for her service",
"To dance on hot ploughshares like a Turk dervise,",
"But, unable to pay proper duty where owing",
"Was reduced to that pitiful method of showing it:",
"For though the moment I began setting",
"His saddle on my own nag of Berold's begetting,",
"(Not that I meant to be obtrusive)",
" She stopped me, while his rug was shifting,",
" By a single rapid finger's lifting,",
"And, with a gesture kind but conclusive,",
"And a little shake of the head, refused me--",
"I say, although she never used me,",
"Yet when she was mounted, the Gipsy behind her,",
"And I ventured to remind her",
"I suppose with a voice of less steadiness",
" Than usual, for my feeling exceeded me,",
"--Something to the effect that I was in readiness",
" Whenever God should please she needed me--",
"Then, do you know, her face looked down on me",
"With a look that placed a crown on me,",
"And she felt in her bosom--mark, her bosom--",
"And, as a flower-tree drops its blossom,",
"Dropped me... ah, had it been a purse",
"Of silver, my friend, or gold that's worse,",
"Why, you see, as soon as I found myself",
" So understood,--that a true heart so may gain",
" Such a reward,--I should have gone home again,",
"Kissed Jacynth, and soberly drowned myself!",
"It was a little plait of hair",
" Such as friends in a convent make",
" To wear, each for the other's sake--",
"This, see, which at my breast I wear,",
"Ever did (rather to Jacynth's grudgment),",
"And ever shall, till the Day of Judgment.",
"And then-and then--to cut short--this is idle,",
" These are feelings it is not good to foster--",
"I pushed the gate wide, she shook the bridle,",
" And the palfrey bounded--and so we lost her.",
"",
"When the liquor's out why clink the cannikin?",
"I did think to describe you the panic in",
"The redoubtable breast of our master the mannikin,",
"And what was the pitch of his mother's yellowness,",
" How she turned as a shark to snap the spare-rib",
" Clean off, sailors say, from a pearl-diving Carib,",
"When she heard, what she called the flight of the feloness",
"--But it seems such child's play,",
"What they said and did with the lady away!",
"And to dance on, when we've lost the music,",
"Always made me--and no doubt makes you--sick.",
"Nay, to my mind, the world's face looked so stern",
"As that sweet form disappeared through the postern,",
"She that kept it in constant good humour,",
"It ought to have stopped; there seemed nothing to do more.",
"But the world thought otherwise and went on,",
"And my head's one that its spite was spent on:",
"Thirty years are fled since that morning,",
"And with them all my head's adorning.",
"Nor did the old Duchess die outright,",
"As you expect, of suppressed spite,",
"The natural end of every adder",
"Not suffered to empty its poison-bladder:",
"But she and her son agreed, I take it,",
"That no one should touch on the story to wake it,",
"For the wound in the Duke's pride rankled fiery,",
"So, they made no search and small inquiry--",
"And when fresh Gipsies have paid us a visit, I've",
"Notice the couple were never inquisitive,",
"But told them they're folks the Duke don't want here,",
"And bade them make haste and cross the frontier.",
"Brief, the Duchess was gone and the Duke was glad of it,",
" And the old one was in the young one's stead,",
" And took, in her place, the household's head,",
"And a blessed time the household had of it!",
"And were I not, as a man may say, cautious",
"How I trench, more than needs, on the nauseous,",
"I could favour you with sundry touches",
"Of the paint-smutches with which the Duchess",
"Heightened the mellowness of her cheek's yellowness",
"(To get on faster) until at last her",
"Cheek grew to be one master-plaster",
"Of mucus and fucus from mere use of ceruse:",
"In short, she grew from scalp to udder",
"Just the object to make you shudder.",
"",
"You're my friend--",
"What a thing friendship is, world without end!",
"How it gives the heart and soul a stir-up",
" As if somebody broached you a glorious runlet,",
" And poured out, all lovelily, sparklingly, sunlit,",
"Our green Moldavia, the streaky syrup,",
"Cotnar as old as the time of the Druids--",
"Friendship may match with that monarch of fluids;",
"Each supples a dry brain, fills you its ins-and-outs,",
"Gives your life's hour-glass a shake when the thin sand doubts",
"Whether to run on or stop short, and guarantees",
"Age is not all made of stark sloth and arrant ease.",
"I have seen my little lady once more,",
" Jacynth, the Gipsy, Berold, and the rest of it,",
"For to me spoke the Duke, as I told you before;",
" I always wanted to make a clean breast of it:",
"And now it is made-why, my heart's blood, that went trickle,",
" Trickle, but anon, in such muddy driblets,",
"Is pumped up brisk now, through the main ventricle,",
" And genially floats me about the giblets.",
"",
"I'll tell you what I intend to do:",
"I must see this fellow his sad life through--",
"He is our Duke, after all,",
"And I, as he says, but a serf and thrall.",
"My father was born here, and I inherit",
" His fame, a chain he bound his son with;",
"Could I pay in a lump I should prefer it,",
" But there's no mine to blow up and get done with:",
"So, I must stay till the end of the chapter.",
"For, as to our middle-age-manners-adapter,",
"Be it a thing to be glad on or sorry on,",
"Some day or other, his head in a morion",
"And breast in a hauberk, his heels he'll kick up,",
"Slain by an onslaught fierce of hiccup.",
"And then, when red doth the sword of our Duke rust,",
"And its leathern sheath lie o'ergrown with a blue crust,",
"Then I shall scrape together my earnings;",
" For, you see, in the churchyard Jacynth reposes,",
" And our children all went the way of the roses:",
"It's a long lane that knows no turnings.",
"One needs but little tackle to travel in;",
" So, just one stout cloak shall I indue:",
"And for a staff, what beats the javelin",
" With which his boars my father pinned you?",
"And then, for a purpose you shall hear presently,",
" Taking some Cotnar, a tight plump skinful,",
"I shall go journeying, who but I, pleasantly!",
" Sorrow is vain and despondency sinful.",
"What's a man's age? He must hurry more, that's all;",
" Cram in a day, what his youth took a year to hold:",
" When we mind labour, then only, we're too old--",
"What age had Methusalem when he begat Saul?",
"And at last, as its haven some buffeted ship sees,",
" (Come all the way from the north-parts with sperm oil)",
" I hope to get safely out of the turmoil",
"And arrive one day at the land of the Gipsies,",
"And find my lady, or hear the last news of her",
"From some old thief and son of Lucifer,",
"His forehead chapleted green with wreathy hop,",
"Sunburned all over like an AEthiop.",
"And when my Cotnar begins to operate",
"And the tongue of the rogue to run at a proper rate,",
"And our wine-skin, tight once, shows each flaccid dent,",
"I shall drop in with--as if by accident--",
"\"You never knew, then, how it all ended,",
"What fortune good or bad attended",
"The little lady your Queen befriended?\"",
"--And when that's told me, what's remaining?",
"This world's too hard for my explaining.",
"The same wise judge of matters equine",
" Who still preferred some slim four-year-old",
" To the big-boned stock of mighty Berold",
"And, for strong Cotnar, drank French weak wine,",
"He also must be such a lady's scorner!",
" Smooth Jacob still robs homely Esau:",
" Now up, now down, the world's one see-saw.",
"--So, I shall find out some snug corner",
"Under a hedge, like Orson the wood-knight,",
"Turn myself round and bid the world good night;",
"And sleep a sound sleep till the trumpet blowing",
" Wakes me (unless priests cheat us laymen)",
"To a world where will be no further throwing",
" Pearls before swine that can't value them. Amen!"
],
"title": "The Flight of the Duchess"
}
],
"success": true
}