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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3a27b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #68531 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68531) diff --git a/old/68531-0.txt b/old/68531-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9346d4a..0000000 --- a/old/68531-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3650 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Elfin land: and other poems, by -Benjamin West Ball - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Elfin land: and other poems - -Author: Benjamin West Ball - -Release Date: July 15, 2022 [eBook #68531] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELFIN LAND: AND OTHER -POEMS *** - - - - - - -POEMS. - - - - - ELFIN LAND: - AND - OTHER POEMS. - - BY - BENJAMIN WEST BALL. - - BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE: - JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. - MDCCCLI. - - Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by - JAMES MUNROE & COMPANY, - In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of - Massachusetts. - - THURSTON, TORRY & EMERSON, PRINTERS. - - - - - TO - D. S. H., - THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, - AS A TESTIMONIAL - OF AFFECTIONATE REGARD. - - - - -TO D. S. H. - - - I. - - Ere thou wert seen, and ere I knew - Such loveliness on earth unfolded, - A morning dream revealed to view - That shape in perfect beauty moulded; - Around thy graceful waist, methought, - The fabled Zone of Love was glowing, - The cestus with enchantment fraught, - A charm, that vanquished all, bestowing— - The phantom fled, but evermore - Until thyself I might discover, - Its memory in my heart I bore, - Of shade impalpable the lover. - - II. - - When Eastward thou wert long sojourning, - From me divided and afar, - Though sunset in the West was burning, - I turned where shone my being’s star; - Beyond the woods, the village spires, - Adown the broadly flowing river - My glances winged by wild desires - To pierce the distance, would endeavor; - Each bickering train which eastward rolled, - Each trailing cloud that thither flew, - As long as eyesight could behold, - I followed, musing still of you;— - - III. - - Of you, the magnet of my heart, - The vision of my nightly slumber, - Of all my thoughts the central part, - And source of fancies without number. - The stars are not more dear to Night, - To scented winds the bursting blossom, - To Day its floods of golden light, - Than thou art, gentlest, to my bosom. - The beauty of the North is thine, - Its auburn tress, its eye of azure, - Its rose-hued cheek, whose freshness Time - Leaves blooming long without erasure. - - IV. - - Incarnate in thy graceful form, - I see that sweet Göthéan vision, - That dream of beauty soft and warm, - Which folded Faust in joy elysian. - Though clouds disturb the blue serene, - And storm and darkness round me lower, - Thy presence is a sunny gleam, - A bow of promise ’mid the shower; - Though from me fortune fall away, - By Hope itself disowned, forsaken, - Whilst thou art spared by pale decay, - I rest in peace, secure, unshaken. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PROEM 9 - - DISENCHANTMENT 12 - - ELFIN LAND. Part I. 17 - - Part II. 28 - - INSCRIPTION 37 - - THE TEUTONIC MINSTREL’S TOMB 38 - - INVOCATION 40 - - IONIA 41 - - THRENODY 46 - - CONCETTO 49 - - THE LAY OF THE CONDEMNED SPIRIT IN DANTE 50 - - LOVE’S LABOR LOST 51 - - THE PLAGUE IN SUMMER 55 - - EUTHANASIA 57 - - THE FORGOTTEN 58 - - TO W. P. R. 60 - - THE SONG OF ENEAS’ MEN 62 - - THE AUTHORESS OF THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO 64 - - MONODY OF THE COUNTESS OF NETTLESTEDE 65 - - CLOSE, CLOSE BY AIDENN 69 - - PAN AND LAÏS 71 - - ATHENS 76 - - ACHILLES’ SONG 77 - - ANASTASIUS 78 - - CYMINDIS 82 - - THE CEMETERY IN SUMMER 85 - - ALL HAIL, MY GENTLE, ETC. 88 - - THE SINGING MASONS AT CROCUSBURG 90 - - AGIMUR FATIS 92 - - A HERMITAGE 94 - - I SAW A SNAKE-GIRT, ETC. 95 - - LUCIFER REDUX 97 - - ANSALDO’S GARDEN 100 - - THE DYING MOSLEM 102 - - MDCCCXLVIII-IX 104 - - THE AUTUMNAL RIDE 110 - - TO —— 113 - - SUGGESTED BY A HEAD OF ACHILLES, IN SIR WM. GELL’S POMPEII 115 - - PSYCHE 117 - - THE SERAPH’S HOLIDAY 118 - - MORNING 121 - - AUTUMN 123 - - O POWER OF MUSIC 125 - - DREAMS 127 - - THE PENITENT 129 - - OCEAN, THOU ART DISENCHANTED 131 - - TWILIGHT IN EGYPT 133 - - ARIEL’S SONG 135 - - WHERE ABID’ST THOU, PROPHET MIGHTY 137 - - ON HER MONUMENTAL SCROLL 139 - - THE INDIAN SUMMER 141 - - HYMN TO PHOSPHOR 143 - - TO THE CRICKET 145 - - BOOTH’S RICHARD 147 - - L’ENVOI 149 - - - - -POEMS. - - - - -PROËM. - - - A gleaner in the fields of song, - I follow where the great have gone, - The wise, the beautiful, the strong, - An humble garland weaving. - Their harmonies enchant mine ears, - Unseal the fontal depths of tears, - And lift my spirit to the spheres, - Each sense of pain bereaving. - - Muse of the West! upon thy shrine - I lay this votive wreath of mine, - Though many an offering there may shine, - With brighter blossoms gleaming. - For, even now, though wild and young, - By cunning hands thy harp is strung, - And lips, with bees in clusters hung, - Thy fame are fast redeeming. - - But late thy heart was pierced with pain, - Still o’er thee flows of raven grain - A vestment dun; thine eyelids rain - Their tears o’er one departed. - The harp of Israfel no more - Is heard below—some brighter shore - Receives him, and his lost Lenore - He clasps, the fiery hearted. - - His were the wingéd words, that bear - Imaginations rich and rare, - As pinions’ seeds through all the air, - And sow them in each bosom. - Thoughts’ shadows lowered about his eye; - His forehead was a temple high, - Fit haunt for Dædal Poesy; - For flowers divine to blossom. - - His spirit stalked in joyless gloom - Through autumn wolds, where never bloom - Was seen. Above, a sullen moon - Through flying rack was beaming; - The sighing winds their dirges blew, - The withered leaves in eddies flew, - Upon his brow the nightshade’s dew - In venomed drops was gleaming. - - Sad heart, thy fiery throbs are o’er! - Thy soul has gained the eternal shore! - There mayst thou find the loved of yore, - Who went before thee thither! - Reknit to them by cords, which ne’er - The Parcæ dark again can shear, - Mayst thou enjoy ambrosial cheer - In regions of unclouded weather! - - - - -DISENCHANTMENT. - - - I. - - Glides the shadow round the dial, - Youth and Hope have almost flown, - Vainly fade my days like water, - On the sandy desert thrown. - On the Tree of Life the verdure, - Leaf by leaf decaying, dies; - And a low prophetic murmur - In its waving branches sighs. - At its roots the Nornas sitting, - Chant, by turns, their solemn hymn; - In its shadow dreams are brooding, - As at old Dodona dim. - - II. - - Once like trodden vintage foaming, - Through my veins the life-blood rolled, - Fiery visions flashed around me, - Such as blinded prophets old. - Cold and dark the golden mountains, - Which of yore environed me; - From the star its sheen has faded, - From the blossom and the tree. - Gazing westward in the sunset, - I no longer can descry - Tents of Paladins, in clusters, - Pitched against the darkening sky. - - III. - - They have furled their gorgeous banners, - And their oriflammes uprolled, - They have struck their far pavilions, - Rich with purple and with gold. - In the galley of Ulysses - I no more at random sail, - On each tenth returning sunrise - Sure some stranger port to hail. - Now the regions of the Lotos - O’er the waters disappear; - Now the meadows of the Sirens - Starred with blossoms glitter near; - - IV. - - Now the golden ether leaving, - We to lampless glooms descend, - Where the Shadows of the Weary - Through the umbered spaces wend. - With “the blind old man” I wandered - On the soft Ionian shore, - Danced at harvest feasts in autumn, - While the oak tree arched me o’er; - Through the streets of Asian cities, - Lit with nuptial tapers trod, - Where in star-light flamed the altars - Of the yellow-buskined god. - - V. - - All the dark-eyed tribes of Hellas - I could visit, one by one, - In their _agorai_ I gossipped - With the idlers in the sun; - At the school of old Crotona - Heard the Samian recite, - How the eternal Monad flowers - Into blossoms infinite; - How from shape to shape forever - Silent, serpent-like it glides, - On a starred, unresting circle, - In its pilgrimages rides. - - VI. - - At the city of Glaucopis, - ’Neath the olive trees I lay, - While the bird of Itys warbled - Through the livelong summer day, - And at moon-rise, decked with garlands, - Lay reclined in that alcove, - Where harangued the Man-Silenus - On the genesis of Love. - Fast the wine and wit were flowing, - Mid the banquet’s joyous din; - At the door, the son of Clinias, - Crowned and drunken, gazing in. - - VII. - - Or at morning, in some _stoa_, - Heard the Sage, as in his toils - He immeshed the wordy sophists - Come to dazzle from the Isles. - In the house of Thespis sitting, - On upæthric seats of stone, - Saw the tribes of birds collected - In a kingdom of their own; - In a quaint ethereal city, - Full of many-tinted plumes, - Which in mid-air intercepted - Jove’s refection, altar-fumes. - - VIII. - - But the portals of Athenæ - I no longer wander through, - To her Owl and to her _Bema_ - I have bid a long adieu. - Cities thronged with breathing beings— - Not the pavements of the dead— - For the future I must frequent, - For the future I must tread. - Though their streets have not the glory, - Which the towns of Hellas wore, - In them I must toil and battle, - Till the fret and din are o’er. - - IX. - - Till the clamor of the Present - In the eternal silence dies, - And my frame, but dust and ruin, - In its final chamber lies, - With the vanished and forgotten, - With the lovely and the brave, - Who have sunken through the Ages, - To the quiet of the grave. - There the eye of love shall vainly - Through the red earth seek to pry, - There the grass and night winds only - True to sorrow ever sigh. - - - - -Elfin Land - -PART I. - - - _Into the fabled Fairy land_ - _My portals open wide,_ - _Where life is all a holiday_ - _From morn till eventide._ - - A soft and dreamy atmosphere - Above its plains is hung, - A summer noon and twilight fused - And mingled into one. - - From all its bounds the turbaned cock - Is banished far away, - As erst he was from Sybaris, - Where drowsy people lay, - Indulging drowsy phantasies, - Long after break of day. - - The cricket’s wiry song by night, - By day the humblebee’s, - The loudest noises are, that float - Upon the Elfin breeze. - - The Welsh king, Arthur, and his court - Have dwelt long ages here— - Sir Launcelot still whispers sly - To faithless Guenevere. - - Here Jacques and his gay compeers - In forests still carouse, - Pavilioned by a network green - Of melancholy boughs. - - Removed beyond the Sabbath chime, - Far in the shady wold, - Unvexed by care they fleet the time, - As in the Age of Gold. - - Still in the limpid runnels’ waves, - Which round their lodges wind, - And in the stones and in the trees, - Monitions deep they find. - - That merry knot is also here - Of fabling Florentines, - Who revelled while the Avenger hung - O’er Arno and its vines. - - The love of story, dance, and song, - They had in Tuscan land, - Still warms their breasts, though ferried o’er - Unto the Fairy strand. - - Here too La Mancha’s cavalier - Reposes ’neath his bays, - Who roamed the wilds of tawny Spain - In quest of knightly praise. - - O’er river, vale, and mountain lone, - He ne’er shall wander more,— - His steed is in the self-same stall - With Roland’s Brigliadore. - - Stretched on the banks of Elfin streams, - With antique knights he lies, - And talks through all the livelong day, - Of many an old emprize. - - Here sages dwell, whose names adorn - The mediæval time, - In lonely turrets, whence at night - Their ruddy tapers shine. - - Aquinas, dialectic sage, - Endowed with subtlest wits— - Beneath a cobweb canopy - The saintly sophist sits. - - And he, who in his wizard glass - To Surry’s eye displayed - His gentle lady o’er the sea, - With lilied pallor spread. - - Brave Surry, knightly bard, who cull’d, - Where Tuscan summers shine, - Ambrosial flowers of heavenly song - To deck a colder clime. - - Those cloistral lovers far renowned, - The sage and nun, are here, - Whose quenchless passion yielded not - To penances austere. - - In vain the serge, the flinty bed, - The eremital glooms— - The boy-god flashed his fire-tipt reed - Athwart the censer’s fumes. - - Ficino, mighty Platonist, - Hath here his dwelling-place; - No sphingal countenance more calm - Than his majestic face. - - Among the starry flock was he, - Whose holy toils unsealed - The fountains of Hellenic lore, - And all their wealth revealed. - - From Plato’s thoughts their Attic dress, - To charm an era rude, - He tore away, and in its stead - A meaner garb indued. - - But unto eyes, o’er which no film - By ignorance is thrown, - His dreams those garments only grace - In which at birth they shone. - - Of bright Cadmean rune he wove - A rich asbestic web; - Sometimes its woof like sunset glows, - Of gold and purple thread; - - Sometimes with rosy spring it vies— - Then flowers inwoven shine; - Sometimes diaphonous as oil; - Than Coan gauze more fine. - - And thus each imaged thought, that sprung - From his sciential brain, - A fluent drapery received, - To make its beauty plain. - - Here pilgrims dwell, strange sights that saw - On many a foreign strand— - He born beneath the Doge’s rule, - Beloved of Kubla Khan, - - And Mandeville, who journeyed far - Against the Eastern wind, - The sacred Capital to see, - And miracles of Ind. - - None ever wore the sandal shoon - More marvellous than he; - For then the world had far away - Its realms of mystery. - - The giant Roc then winnowed swift - The morning-cradled breeze, - And happy islands glittered o’er - The Occidental seas. - - Upon Saint Michael’s happy morn - How throbbed his glowing brow, - When towards the ancient Orient - His galley turned her prow! - - Already in the wind he smells - Hyblæan odors blown - From isles invisible, afar - Amid the Indian foam. - - The turbaned millions, dusky, wild, - Already meet his eyes— - The domes of Islam crescent-crowned - In long perspective rise, - - Mid waving palms, o’er level sands, - With skyey verges low, - Where from his eastern tent, the Sun - Spreads wide a saffron glow. - - The golden thrones of Asian kings, - Their empery supreme, - Their capitals Titanic, laved - By many a famous stream; - - The cities, desolate and lone, - Where desert monsters prowl, - Where spiders film the royal throne, - And shrieks the nightly owl; - - Enormous Caf, the mountain wall - Of ancient Colchian land— - Where dragon-drawn Medea gave - The Argonaut her hand; - - Nysæan Meros, mid whose rifts - The viny God was born,— - The empyreal sky its summit cleaves, - In shape a golden horn; - - And o’er its top reclining swim - In zones of windless air - The slumbrous deities of Ind, - Removed from earthly care; - - The Ammonian phalanx round its base - In festal garments ranged, - Their brows with ivied chaplets bound, - Their swords to _thyrsi_ changed; - - The ravenous gryphons, brooding o’er - The desert’s gleaming gold, - The auroral Chersonese, that shines - With treasures manifold; - - The groves of odorous scent, that line - The green Sabæan shore, - Whence wrapped in cerements dipt in balm, - His sire the Phœnix bore; - - The Persian valley famed in song, - Where gentle Hafiz strayed; - The Indian Hollow far beyond, - By mountains tall embayed; - - Whose virgins boast a richer bloom - Than peaches of Cabool, - And nymph-like fall their marble urns - With fountain-waters cool; - - Whose looms produce a gorgeous web, - That with the rainbow vies, - So delicate its downy woof, - So deep its royal dyes. - - The motionless Yogee, who stands - In wildernesses lone, - His sleepless eye forever fixed - On Brahma’s airy throne, - - In blue infinity to melt - His troubled soul away, - And of the sunny Monad form - A portion and a ray. - - The tales, Milesian-like, that charm - The vacant ear at eve, - Wherein the Orient fabulists - Their marvels interweave; - - Of wondrous realms beyond the reach - Of mortal footstep far, - Whose maidens, winged with pinions light, - Outstrip the falling star; - - Whose forests bear a vocal fruit, - With human tongues endowed, - That mid the autumn-laden boughs - Are querulous and loud; - - Of sparry caves in musky hills, - Which sevenfold seas surround, - Where ancient kings enchanted lie, - In dreamless slumber bound; - - Of potent gems, whose hidden might - Can thwart malignant star; - Of Eblis’ pavement saffron-strewn - ’Neath fallen Istakhar; - - All these in long succession rose, - Illumed by fancy’s ray, - As swiftly towards the Morning lands - His galley ploughed her way. - - - - -Elfin Land. - -PART II. - - - But far the greatest miracle - Which Elfin land can show, - A hostel is, like that which stood - In Eastcheap long ago. - - Before the entrance, in the blast - There swings a tusky sign; - And when at night the Elfin moon - And constellations shine, - - A ruddy glow illumes the panes, - And looking through you see, - With merry faces seated round, - A famous company. - - Prince Hal the royal wassailer, - And that great fount of fun, - Diana’s portly forester, - The merry knight Sir John, - - With all their losel servitors, - Mirth-shaken cheek by cheek; - Cambysean Pistol, Peto, Poins, - And Bardolph’s fiery beak. - - A grove there is in Elfin land, - Where closely intertwine - The Grecian myrtle’s branches light - With Gothic oak sublime. - - Beneath its canopy of shade, - Their temples bound with bays, - Are grouped the minstrels, that adorn - The mediæval days. - - The laurelled Ghibelline, who saw - The Stygian abyss, - The fiery mosques and walls, that gird - The capital of Dis; - - The realms of penance, and the rings - Of constellated light, - Whose luminous pavilions hold - The righteous robed in white; - - Uranian groves and spheral vales, - Saturnian academes, - Where sainted theologues abide, - Discoursing mystic themes; - - The Paradisal stream, that winds - Through Heaven’s unfading bowers, - And on its banks the beauteous maid, - Who culled celestial flowers. - - Him next the sweet Vauclusian swan, - Love’s Laureate, appears, - Who bathed his mistress’ widowed urn - With Heliconian tears; - - Certaldo’s storied sage,—a bard, - Though round his genius rare - The golden manacles of verse - He did not choose to wear. - - Those rosy morns, that usher in - Each festal-gladdened day, - His prose depicts in hues as bright - As could the poet’s lay. - - His ultramontane brother, born - In Albion’s shady isle; - Dan Chaucer, of his tameless race - Apollo’s eldest child; - - The Medecean banqueter, - Whose Fescennines unfold - The deeds of heathen Anakim - Restored to Peter’s fold; - - Ferrara’s Melesigenes, - Who o’er a wide domain - Of haunted forests, mounts, and seas, - Exerts his magic reign; - - A glowing Mœnad, with her locks - Dishevelled in the wind, - His fancy wantons far and near, - From Thule unto Ind; - - Now from her griffin steed alights - Alcina’s palace near, - Now in the Patmian prophet’s car - Ascends the lunar sphere; - - Or with Rinaldo wanders through - The Caledonian wood, - Amid whose shades and coverts green - Heroic trophies glowed; - - Or paints the mighty Paladin - Transformed to monster gross, - Whose mistress drank in Ardennes lone - The lymph of Anterōs. - - Next hapless Tasso, pale and wan, - Released from dungeon grates; - The sacred legions of the cross - His genius celebrates; - - Armida’s mountain paradise - Amid the western seas; - Her dragon-yoke, whose nimble hooves - Could run upon the breeze. - - The sombre forest, where encamped - Dark Eblis’ minions lay, - With shapes evoked from Orcus’ gloom - To fright his foes away. - - Lo, marble pontifices spring, - To arch illusive streams, - And swans and nightingales rehearse - Their moist melodious threnes! - - The centuried trees are cloven wide, - And forth from every plant - A maiden steps, whose tears might melt - A heart of adamant. - - A sudden darkness veils the sky, - And fortresses of fire, - With ruddy towers of pillared flame, - Above the woods aspire. - - Transfigured in the morning beam. - On Zion’s holy height - Rinaldo puts the dusky swarms - Of Erebus to flight. - - Nor absent from the shining throng - That dainty bard, I ween, - Who hung the maiden empress throne - With garlands ever green. - - The Elfin Court’s Demodocus, - His lay he carols light, - His fancy’s unexhausted urns - Still brimmed with waters bright. - - Far distant from the minstrel’s bower, - Another group is seen, - Who ruled of yore a sylvan race - In western forests green. - - Manhattan’s sleepy potentates— - Of ox-like girth are they; - In ages gone the Hudson rolled - Beneath their gentle sway. - - A hazy _nimbus_ sleeps about - Their smooth unwrinkled brows; - Like ripened melon through its folds - Each mottled visage glows. - - The ponderous Twiller dozes still, - Benignant, voiceless, deep; - His council-board, rotund and grave, - Unbroken silence keep. - - And still Van Winkle snores and dreams - Upon the mountain side, - Unwakened by the ebbless flow - Of time’s unwearied tide. - - And Sleepy Hollow’s pedagogue, - In smoky autumn air, - Lies musing of his faithless love, - His Katarina fair. - - Those knights are here who wandered through - The forests of the south, - And vast savannas green and lone, - To find the fount of youth. - - The towers and fanes they likewise sought - Of Eldorado bright; - Amid magnolian woods and palms - Uprose its turrets light. - - Glittered its roofs with golden tiles— - All things of gold were wrought; - Its burghers wore a jaundiced hue - From yellow pavements caught. - - But who shall number all that haunt - King Oberon’s domains? - His lieges are the airy shapes - Conceived in poet’s brains. - - Their limbs are cast in fairer mould - Than those of common earth; - Their ladies are more beautiful - Than dames of mortal birth. - - This work-day world perchance will show, - In epochs yet to be, - As goodly men and lovely maids - As those in Faërie. - - - - -INSCRIPTION. - - - Lithe ivy, let thy gliding foliage shade - This urn, where Shelley’s sacred dust is laid, - Whose fire was quenched beneath the angry sea, - That laves the sunny shores of Italy! - The Elements did moan around his bier. - In him they lost their best interpreter— - For his most subtile, sympathizing frame - Was as a sweet melodious instrument, - Through all whose pores and million channels went - The Universe into his heart and brain - In musical influxes, that ebbed amain - From out his lips, in verse of power to tame - A tiger’s heart, or suage an angel’s pain. - Through his well-jointed reeds the circling gyres - Of planets poured in song their soft desires, - And glad ovations, while their vernal dreams - The leaves did whisper, and the clouds and streams - And winds their fluent exultations pour, - With sky-pavilioned ocean’s organ-roar. - - - - -THE TEUTONIC MINSTREL’S TOMB. - - - Far north they say there lies a wizard land, - Which has above it all the changeless year, - A silver-shining, milk-warm atmosphere, - Amid whose windless calm the forests stand - As still as clustered obelisks. A bland - Delight is shed o’er all who enter here; - And by a lonely path their way they steer - Through dreamy hollows, under forests grand - Of larch and fir, round many a placid mere, - O’er silver streams and level barrens drear. - At length they come unto a mossy gate, - And find within a city desolate; - Its streets knee-deep with yellow leaves are strown, - And stiller than the Ephesian Sleeper’s cave. - The watchman’s horn at midnight lies unblown,— - The ivy-muffled bells hang dumb, and save - The noise of summer flies, sound there is none. - Wide open stands the Kaiser’s palace door, - And here and there, upon the dusty floor, - Swords, helms, and spears, and empty wine-cups lie - Between whose golden lips black spiders ply - Their filmy looms in bright security. - Within this city, reared by Elfin hands, - A huge and mouldering mausoleum stands. - These words are graved upon its portals gray,— - _The Singer of the Nibelungen Lay_. - - - - -INVOCATION. - - - O, placid Death! O, lotos-circled king! - Parent of rest and endless slumbering! - With downy-sandalled pace approach me now, - And bathe my lips and palpitating brow - From flagons full of cool Lethean spray, - For I am weary of the light of day. - Or call to Sleep, thy mild dejected twin, - And when the rosy-fingered Morn shall rise, - Will ye aloft upon the healthy wind, - That blows from out her dewy balconies, - Waft me to those calm isles, whose tribes obey - Sky-fallen Saturn’s ever peaceful sway? - - - - -IONIA. - - - Ye lands and immemorial isles, that bear - The name of Ion, who with besom made - Of laurel-boughs the Sun-god’s temple swept— - Ye golden climes, to poesy and love - Most dear, oases mid the wastes of Eld, - Where, in her lonely retrospective flight, - Bright-haired Mnemosyne delights to pause, - By matchless shapes of loveliness beguiled! - Within your bounds the plastic hand of art - First made the mountain’s marble entrails teem - With images of beauty, lining all - Your sea-washed strand with fair columnar cities, - Built high of glossiest sun-enamelled stone. - Forever o’er your myrtle-shaded vales, - Reclined on summer clouds, did Aphrodite - And golden Eros lean, kindling the air - With passion’s rosy glow. In all the earth - Beside, did visible nature never wear - Robes so resplendent. Through the luminous folds - Of your transparent atmosphere appeared - Unequalled prospects to enchant the eye; - Marmorean cities rising o’er the verge - Of halcyon seas, and promontories crowned - With tombs heroical, or glistening shrines; - And breezy mountains swathed with silver clouds, - The watchtowers blue of broad-eyed Jove; whence he - The limitless low-lying earth surveyed, - The towns of mortal men, their fights and toils. - Oft from your shore the fisherman descried - The smoke of conflagration climbing slow, - In graceful spires, far up the summer air, - From some beleaguered city of the isles; - And white-robed argosies from wealthy Tyre, - Rising and falling on the sparkling waves, - Voyaging with orient merchandise to towns, - Whose turrets glittered in the western beam. - Within your cities, villages, and fields, - Abode a graceful populace, with rites - And manners beautiful as e’er adorned - The imagined landscape of a poet’s dream; - The captive maid, descending with her urn - To shady spring, or cistern scooped from stone, - And flowing with cool water to the brim; - The royal virgin, seated far within - Some gorgeous recess of the kingly dome, - Plying with busy hand her dædal loom; - The wandering minstrel, slumbering fast at noon - By fountain-side or stream, or harping loud - In palace hall, and crowded market-place; - The frequent song of Hymen, saffron-robed, - Resounding through the torchlit street, what time - The star of love, thrice welcome Hesper, rose - Above some immemorial mountain’s brow; - The youthful vintagers, by moonlight pale - Bearing the grapes in osier talarisks, - While on his lute some beardless minstrel played - The Lay of Linus, regal boy, of all - The sons of men most musical, whose bloom - Was scorched and withered by the solar beam; - The rustic temple, hidden deep in groves - And pleasant solitudes, beneath whose dome - The village youth their glowing pæans sang; - And over all the dark blue heavens sublime, - Where from their sky-pavilions brightest shone - The ancient stars and constellations, hymned - By eldest bards—the sworded Titan named - Orion, with the starry sisterhoods, - Hyads and Pleïades in clusters bright. - Cradled amid your kindly influences, - The soft Ionian fancy wantoned wild - In warm voluptuous dreams of loveliness, - Pouring its inspirations in a tongue - Inimitable—a honeyed dialect— - Protean, flexible, all various, - Whose vowelled cadences could flow as smooth - As amber streams, or raise and modulate - Their intonations to the ocean’s deep - Sonorous surges chafing with the strand. - Indelible and burning Rune, its words - Upon the scroll of blind Meonides - Survive, and with their fluent numbers shame - The harsher languages of later days. - Nor in the Carian’s golden chronicle, - Though not arranged in metrical array, - Sound they less sweet. Alas! the glorious tribes, - Over whose chiselled lips they wont to roll - In honeyed song and fiery eloquence, - Have vanished. Hushed the lyres of Ibycus, - Bacchylides, and Sappho[1] starry-eyed, - And that delicious lute the Teian played - Within the halls of King Polycrates, - While round him, bound with leafed and roseal wreaths, - Mid fountain spray and snowy columns, danced - Ionia’s raven-tressed voluptuous girls. - Minstrel of beauty, love, and vinous joy, - Thy festal spirit yet survives on earth, - Clad in a garment of enduring verse, - The asbestine robe of all-immortal song! - -[1] Sappho was an Æolian, but she is commonly included in this cluster -of poets. - - - - -THRENODY. - - - Though my boyhood scarce is over, - Yet the dark Plutonian tide - Many a friend and loyal lover - From my bosom doth divide. - - In the cypress-shaded valleys - Of the solemn nether realm, - They in draughts from Lethe’s chalice, - Every mortal memory whelm. - - While above, the pensive willow - Droops forever o’er their urns, - And around their earthy pillow - Glide the many-footed worms. - - In the race with me they started - From the East with visions gay, - Vehement and hero-hearted, - Fearless of the coming fray. - - Brightly flowed their golden tresses - In the soft auroral wind, - And, like falcons from their jesses, - Upward bore they unconfined. - - Bathed their spirits in the splendor - Of the Scian bard sublime, - And of Maro’s lay more tender - Heard the symphony divine. - - Felt their hearts with love unbounded - For their country running o’er, - While they read the words that sounded - In the Attic Pnyx of yore. - - But the frosts of death descended, - Ere was gone the morning’s dew, - And their joyful being ended, - While the world was fresh and new. - - Though the rose and lily wither - On their garden beds awhile, - Soon the gentle vernal weather - Shall restore their former smile. - - But for man august and splendid, - Than the angels little lower, - When his dreamlike life is ended, - Blooms his withered frame no more. - - Shades of friendship, gliding slowly - On Cocytus’ farther brink, - In this cup of nectar holy - Once again to you I drink. - - Ye have crossed the languid river, - Ye have paid the last obole; - Day for you has set forever, - Ye have won the mystic goal! - - - - -CONCETTO. - - - Ammon’s solar fount congeals - In the heat and glare of noon; - But its waters it unseals - ’Neath the kisses of the moon. - So the heart is often found - In the smiles of fortune cold; - But afflictions lowering round, - All its charities unfold. - - - - -THE LAY OF THE CONDEMNED SPIRIT IN DANTE. - - —— nel dolce mondo.—_Inferno._ - - - When o’er the threshold of the drear abyss, - Whose portals stern shall never ope for me, - Thy feet regain that upper world of bliss, - These shadowy orbs may never hope to see; - - Wilt thou to kindred hearts, that linger yet - By Arno’s stream, my hapless name recall? - For mortals soon the dearest face forget, - When blanched by death it lies beneath the pall. - - An exile in the realms of endless pain, - In dreams I see my pleasant earthly home; - Oh, bid them there resyllable my name, - Forgetful of the sins that make me moan! - - Sweet world of bliss, forever lost to me, - For your blue heavens and pleasant sun I pine! - For grass, and flower, and stream, and rustling tree, - I mourn forever in the nether clime! - - - - -LOVE’S LABOR LOST. - - - I. - - This royal gate, thou quivered sprite, - Shall ope to thee no more! - Mere Hymen’s torch is quenched and cold, - His burning lay is o’er. - The potentate, whose sceptre bright - This goodly realm obeys, - An anchoret in scholar’s weeds - Has vowed to pass his days. - - II. - - His palace is an academe, - As hushed as summer noon; - No festal sound is heard therein, - Beneath the sun or moon. - The palace-yard with rankest weeds - Is thickly overgrown, - And moss begins to carpet o’er - Each long untrodden stone. - - III. - - Bees swarm within the rifted walls, - And store their golden dew; - The livelong day with drowsy hum - They cleave the ether blue. - The yellow beams of summer sleep - In silence on the floors; - A muffled tread is sometimes heard - Along the corridors. - - IV. - - Within a vast and shady room, - With antique volumes piled, - In studious mood the monarch sits, - From passion’s lures exiled. - A skylight in the roof is made, - Through which at night are seen - The ancient stars in clusters bright, - Amid the blue serene. - - V. - - Around the king three famous lords, - Bound by the self-same vow, - In silence sit, and o’er the scrolls - Of starry Plato bow. - Above them gaze from lofty stands - The high-browed kings of thought, - Their furrowed lineaments divine - In placid marble wrought. - - VI. - - Beyond the blazoned window lies - A far-stretched prospect grand; - Lakes, emerald lawns, and rustling woods - O’erlooking all the land. - There in the sunshine, to and fro - Slow stalks a solemn wight, - Attended by a tiny page, - A pert and saucy sprite. - - VII. - - A blue pavilion farther on - Is pitched beneath the trees; - Begirt by tents, whose pennons float - And dally with the breeze. - A bevy fair of dark-eyed girls - Beneath their folds abide; - Unto the vows of yonder lords - What fortune will betide! - - VIII. - - Sometimes they scour the flowery meads, - On nimble palfreys white; - Sometimes they dance beneath the shade - Through all the balmy night. - Their merry songs, their jocund notes, - Are borne from grove to grove; - Fill up your ears with molten wax, - Ye enemies of love! - - IX. - - Short was the siege those damsels laid— - The king has gone away, - In lonely woods his lady’s wrath - By penance to allay. - The famous lords, who round him sat, - Each, at his maid’s command, - Attend a year the couch of death, - Ere he can win her hand. - - - - -THE PLAGUE IN SUMMER. - - - Oh golden hours! Elysian day, - Adorned with all things bright and gay; - Green boughs, and winds, and summer beams, - Lovely as Eden’s transient gleams! - But ah! the glorious robes ye wear - Deride the depths of man’s despair, - Since, lurking mid your gladsome rays, - The Plague of Ganges stalks and slays. - For he from Indian vales has come, - Following the circle of the sun; - Through Balk, and over Oxus’ stream, - Gliding as soundless as a dream, - Into the cities of the West, - That quail before the giant pest. - The stir of life in silence dies, - Where’er the mighty vampyre flies; - The voice of mirth is hushed and mute; - The viol shrill, the festal lute; - Alike o’er towns and hamlets brood - Silence, and Death, and Solitude; - While in the shadow of the pall - The busy worms hold carnival! - - - - -EUTHANASIA. - - - In the dawn of her life and the bloom of her spring, - Dark Asrael fanned her to sleep with his wing; - And her form, when the spirit had flown from its shrine, - Lay like marble, that’s moulded by chisel divine. - - Oh, why was she garnered in life’s early bloom - To grace with her beauty the clods of the tomb? - There were victims for death, who were weary and old, - And who longed for the slumber unbroken and cold. - - But her loveliness lives, for escaped from its urn, - In blossoms and odors her dust shall return— - And the Hesper-like glory, that shone in her eye, - To-night will be beaming a star in the sky. - - - - -THE FORGOTTEN. - - - Many a sword hath nobly wrought, - Many a warrior bravely fought, - Whose name the lyre hath never taught - To swell his nation’s minstrelsy. - In lonely woods their ashes sleep, - Whose dewy leaves above them weep, - And wild birds chant their dirges sweet— - But none e’er list their melody. - - Oh, when we pledge our father’s fame, - One flowing goblet let us drain - To those, the long forgotten slain - Whose relics moulder silently; - And o’er their foes, the warriors red, - Who for their fenceless acres bled, - Let none a tear refuse to shed— - ’Tis due to Nature’s chivalry. - - What more becomes a noble foe, - Than o’er the brave, his sword laid low, - To let the tears of sorrow flow? - They glorify his victory. - No deathless bard their valor blest, - Or Paugus, Ajax of the West, - And Philip had not sunk to rest, - Enfolded in obscurity. - - - - -TO W. P. R. - - - The links of amity that bind - Our souls together evermore, - Are forged as strong as those that joined - The brave and beautiful of yore. - - Though many a valley-darkening hill - And ocean billow may divide, - My heart retains thine image still, - Through every change of time and tide. - - Though lapsing years are friendship’s bane, - And absence brings forgetfulness, - Yet these exert their might in vain, - They cannot make our love the less. - - Across the billows of the sea, - Where rolls the legend-haunted river, - My dreaming spirit flies to thee, - Like arrow drawn from Phœbus’ quiver. - - About thy hearth-stone, dim and cold, - Forsaken Lares droop and moan; - They miss the faces, that of old - Within their joyous precincts shone. - - Full soon the halls of Dis shall hide - Both thee and me and all we love, - For, bubbles on a rushing tide, - Our evanescent beings move. - - While yet the stars above us shine, - And youth and hope and love remain, - O, pilgrim seek thy natal clime, - And glad my heart and eyes again! - - - - -THE SONG OF ENEAS’ MEN. - - - Joy to us, for yonder river - Opens up a pathway calm - To the green and silent inland, - Under forests dropping balm. - Wandering Lares, ye shall nestle - In the hearth-light once again— - Ye shall drift no more at random, - Sport of tempest and of rain. - Though the gentle household voices, - Wont of old your ears to thrill, - By the banks of far Scamander - Are forever hushed and still; - - Kindred hands shall heap your altars, - Kindred knees before you bow, - In the country of the stranger, - Into which we enter now. - Woodland carols bid us welcome - From the Siroc and the foam; - Safe escaped from moaning surges - We at length have found a home. - Shepherds’ fires on mountain headlands, - We shall watch your gleams no more, - Gazing wildly from the billows, - To the wished-for, tranquil shore. - - Twins of Leda, on our quarters - Ye shall never flame again; - We shall bow to rustic altars, - Not the trident of the main. - Softly rolls the yellow river - Eddying to the briny sea, - Soon upon his waves to carry - Battle-ship and argosy; - Soon to change his rippling murmur - Into ocean’s clangor wild, - And be mingled with the waters - In which nations are inisled. - Joy to us, his gentle current - Opens up a pathway calm - To the green and silent inland, - Under forests dropping balm. - - - - -THE AUTHORESS OF THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO. - - - Her genius had its dwelling in the light - Of setting suns, and the deserted halls - Of ivy-clad chateaux, where, undisturbed, - Arachne plies her gossamer loom, filming - The sumptuous tapestries, embroidered o’er - With flowers and gay Ovidian phantasies, - And the refulgent mirrors, long ago - Wafted in argosies from the lagunes - Of wealthy Venice. Through the silent night, - The rippling shadows of the ancient trees - Dapple the floors, and ’neath the fireless hearths, - The crickets chirrup shrill—while from the walls - The painted semblance of some Lady Blanche, - Or rose-lipped Maude, or Eleanore looks down, - Long since enveloped in the robes of death. - In summer, when the luscious peach is ripe, - Through the great windows opening westward lie - Delicious prospects; lawns and wooded slopes, - Orchards of grapes—and o’er the tree-tops high - The glittering ocean backed by sunset skies, - With gold and amethystine vapors hung. - - - - -MONODY OF THE COUNTESS OF NETTLESTEDE. - - - Oh vernal sun, how cold thy beams to me! - Since they can never more illume - His face, my heart’s idolatry, - That now, alas! immersed in urnal gloom, - Far, far below thy golden glances lies, - Wrapt from these yearning arms and weeping eyes! - In vain for me, sweet flowers, ye reassume - Your vestments rare of oriental dyes; - Your subtle fragrance and your glorious bloom - But call to mind a sweeter far than you— - My Prince and Lord, my Beautiful and True, - Whose cheek was burnished with as bright a hue - As decks your leaves, whose eyes were wont to shine - Upon my glowing face like stars benign. - Again I hear the South wind’s murmurs low - Making the earth with life and beauty glow, - But now more icy than the Sarsar’s breath, - In deserts old the minister of death, - Around my worn and wasted frame it sighs, - Recalling soft Elysian memories. - How oft engraven in the oaken rind, - My hapless name with his I see entwined. - Dear hand, that carved these love knots, ’neath the mould - Thou now alas! art shrunken, pulseless, cold! - And has he left the world forevermore, - That still contains his ill-starred paramour? - Oh, woe is me! Oh sickening, keen distress! - Oh solemn, strange, and mighty loneliness! - That makes to issue from my riven breast - Sob after sob of anguish unrepressed - And irrepressible, till, nerveless down - My cold limbs sink upon the sun-warm ground.— - Thence up aloft I gaze with yearning eyes - Into the vast and azure-flowing skies, - Far, far beyond whose airy curtains stand - The many mansions of the angel land. - There, girt with seraphs sits the mother mild, - And there in glory reigns her sinless child. - Oh, Holy One! Thy countenance benign - Unto thy weary worshipper incline! - My lonely spirit quickly call away - From earth, and its pale tenement of clay! - The sunlit hills, woods, vales, and waters clear, - And home and household faces once so dear— - All these fair sights since his departure seem - Mournful and strange,—a vision and a dream. - Oh, Saviour merciful! whate’er his fate - Beyond the grave, let me participate. - If garmented in light, he walks serene - By thy still waters, through thy pastures green, - My soul make pure so long by sin defiled, - And, raised to heaven, acknowledge me thy child! - But if, Erinnys-like, the bloody Doom, - That here on earth pursued him to the tomb, - Lured by his sins relentless pass beyond, - And hunt him to the gulfs of woe profound, - Together let our erring sprites be hurled - Afar into some sad autumnal world— - Some land of withered leaves and sighing winds, - Where twined in one we may bewail our sins! - Father in Heaven, forgive this impious prayer! - Thou know’st it rises from my deep despair, - Be merciful unto my wretched state— - Indeed, indeed, I am unfortunate! - Far, far from me the loved one buried lies— - His sepulchre unknown to these dim eyes— - In that sad chapel, whose dark aisles contain - Full many a haughty heart and guilty brain, - Beauty and strength resolved to dust again. - There languish now henceforth in dull decay - Those eyes, that glistened with a star-like ray. - From his blanched lip and cheek forevermore - Fades the fresh rose which blossomed there before. - Gory and dank, bereft of all their grace - His tresses hang about his marble face— - Not as of old, when flowing unconfined, - Their odors wooed the amorous summer wind. - Livid and blue those beauteous lips, whose kiss, - The seal of love, imparted perfect bliss. - The rosy twilights and the moons of May, - Beneath whose beams we loved the hours away, - Are gone—and gone the ruddy ember-gloom, - That filled with lurid light our silent room, - When o’er our hall the wintry tempest flew, - And love our yearning hearts together drew. - My stay, my life, my hope, my star is gone— - And I am left in sorrow and alone; - The oak is stricken from the vine’s embrace, - And on the earth its tendrils run to waste! - - - - - Close, close by Aidenn’s happy portals - My tent is pitched forevermore,[2] - Through which to join the bright immortals, - My loved and lost have gone before. - - In noontide trance and starry dream - Their forms transfigured oft I see; - Though Death’s cold river flows between, - Their gentle whispers come to me. - - And Aidenn’s walls I see in dreams, - Its shining turrets golden-tiled; - But swiftly fade their lovely gleams, - And leave behind a longing wild. - - There cleansed and pure from earthly stain, - Full many a martyred spirit dwells, - Through fire and wrong that did attain - Those far celestial citadels. - - Ye white-robed warders, strong and bright, - That on those shining summits stand, - Entreat for me the Prince of Light, - That I may reach his happy land. - -[2] The idea in the first four lines of this piece was borrowed from -a beautiful passage occurring in a biographical sketch of a late -distinguished poet. - - - - -PAN AND LAÏS. - - - I. - - Once on a time, grown tired of shepherd’s fare, - From hilly Arcady with swift descent, - Rough Pan in tunic wove of subtile air, - Invisible to sacred Corinth went; - Through his aerial vesture vision-proof, - No mortal eye could see or horn or hoof. - - II. - - With soundless tread he passed from street to street, - Through which as arteries the sea-winds blew; - And gorgeous shows the mighty rustic greet, - Where’er from right to left his glance he threw; - Poor seem his pastoral hills and forests all, - Matched with the Isthmus’ peerless capital. - - III. - - For now its rampires, palaces, and shrines, - Lit up by morning’s golden glances stood; - A pillared labyrinth, through which there winds - With ceaseless flow a various multitude. - Nobles and merchants swiftly roll along, - On radiant cars by Thracian coursers drawn. - - IV. - - And hoary priests, in robes of purest white, - Lead slowly up the pomp of sacrifice - To stately fanes, where wreaths of incense light - From fuming altars climb the purple skies; - While slender pipes by youthful minions blown, - With softest melodies the rites make known. - - V. - - From foam-born Aphrodite’s voluptuous seat - On Acrocorinth’s lofty summit pour, - Their raven tresses dropping unguents sweet, - Her thousand handmaids to the busy shore, - Where they entangle in their wanton wiles - The voyagers come from continents and isles. - - VI. - - As on he passed, the Arcadian god admires, - Between tall sculptured piles that line the way, - Cool lymph in crystal jets, and sheaf-like spires, - From marble gorges spouted ceaselessly; - Whose myriad drops with charmed eyes he sees, - Bestrode by interwoven Irides. - - VII. - - Weary at length of wandering here and there, - His eyes sore dazzled by the eternal gleam - Of sun-kissed marbles, on a shady stair, - Near which uprose a fountain’s liquid sheen, - Pan sought repose, and heard a minstrel tell - In plastic verse of Here’s potent spell; - - VIII. - - Which, on a mountain-couch of vernal flowers, - Lulled by its might the Thunderer to sleep, - Who lay, regardless of the ebbing powers - Of Ilion’s champion, locked in swoonings deep. - Here, while he sat, a sudden silence fell - On all the street, that, quiet as the cell - - IX. - - Of Indian saint by Ganges’ marge afar, - Within a moment’s interval became; - For on a rose-ensanguined ivory car, - Of swanlike shape, and lovelier than the wain - Of Dawn, came Laïs, Eros’ idol fair, - Delicious, soft, and warm as vernal air. - - X. - - A golden tiar begirt her forehead white, - Which flashed with many an orient amethyst, - With jacinth, pearl, and opal’s fire-red light; - Each gem the guerdon of a burning kiss - On Asian lords bestowed, who wore the crowns - Of those voluptuous Ionian towns— - - XI. - - Miletus, Smyrna, and the rest, that line - The eastern margin of the central sea; - Whence many a burnished galley o’er the brine - To Corinth crosses, drawn by witchery - Of laughter-swimming eyes and rosy lips, - Wherein she doth all other towns eclipse. - - XII. - - Slow rolled proud Laïs’ wheels—while here and there, - On warrior, bard, and sage, who spell-bound stood, - She showered familiar smiles, that flushed the air, - And thrilled each heart in all the multitude; - Her partial glances raised a prouder glow - Than all the wreaths that glory could bestow. - - XIII. - - Pan, at her presence, felt his cloud-robe turn - Fire-red, like vapors round the sinking sun; - Not thus for dreamy Dian did he burn; - And how a kiss might from her lips be won, - He of his horn-clad brain assistance sought, - Which, full of schemes, struck out a subtle thought. - - XIV. - - For swift as light, from some far river’s meads, - A hornet flying drove his venomed sting - Into the foreheads of her glossy steeds; - They, bolting upward, made a sudden spring, - That snapped, like gossamer threads, each leathern trace, - And dashed the chariot on a statue’s base. - - XV. - - By arms invisible the falling dame - Was held unwounded in the yielding air; - And on her brow there fell a fiery rain - Of kisses, caught from lips in ambush there; - Then gently to the earth her form declined, - While rose a reed-like murmur on the wind. - - - - -ATHENS. - - - She sits in glory on her eyrie high, - Far seen, the Pharos of antiquity; - And, through the dusky-woven veil of time, - She vents her sun-bright shafts, that pierce and shine - Like lightning, from the golden quivers drawn - Of high philosophy and Sophoclean song. - Around her feet in lucid currents wind - Two streams, through marble-paven channels, lined - By temples pillar-propt, whose snowy sheen - Glistens like silver through the olive’s green. - - - - -ACHILLES’ SONG. - - - I. - - Glory is in the balance laid, - An early doom and endless praise; - ’Gainst these in adverse scale are weighed - The joys of peace and length of days. - Give me the grave—the glory give, - The field of honor, and the tomb! - What boots it like a hind to live, - And sink at last in lampless gloom? - - II. - - The soft embrace of love I yield, - The pleasures of the Sybarite; - And, rushing to the gory field, - With battle’s carnage feast my sight. - Though meteor-like my course may be, - Through blood and slaughter quickly run; - A growing fame remains to me, - While rivers flow, and shines the sun. - - - - -ANASTASIUS. - - - Lands of the burning East, adieu! - I bid your Sun farewell! - To colder climates, strange and new, - My bark the winds impel. - From olives of the Grecian vale - To northern firs I go; - To darkness, snow, and rain, and hail, - From skies that ever glow. - - There memories gloomy as the clime, - Like vulture-beaks will gnaw; - The ruined maid, the plundered shrine, - The violated law— - The life-blood, which my gory hand - From friendship’s bosom drew— - These drive me from my native land, - To regions cold and new. - - Isle of my birth, I never more - Will seek thee o’er the wave; - For fast beside thy lovely shore - Is Helen’s early grave. - The billows of the ocean roll, - And murmur softly there; - To Mary Mother for her soul - Is uttered many a prayer. - - Old Stamboul’s halls I ne’er again - In pleasure’s train shall tread, - Nor sauntering view, with slackened rein, - Her City of the dead; - Nor o’er the yellow desert far - The dome of Ali spy, - Which in the distance, like a star, - Salutes the pilgrim’s eye. - - Sole solace of my dark career, - A lovely boy is left; - My ruthless lust his mother dear - Of home and joy bereft. - Her phantom hovers ever nigh, - In sunshine and in shade, - Forevermore her gentle sigh - My bosom doth upbraid. - - She loved me long, she loved me true, - I trampled on her heart, - My cold neglect the sweet one slew, - Like Asrael’s venomed dart. - Ah! white-robed saint, bend down on me - Thy features sad and mild; - My life a flowerless desert see, - All save thy gentle child. - - The haughty Scian’s heart is riven, - His buoyant spirits flown; - For him there is no hope in heaven, - Below, no rest nor home. - Forgive me, O my slighted love! - Wert thou on earth again, - Believe me, thou shouldst not reprove— - My heart would own thy reign. - - Already in my breast I feel - The immedicable ill, - The fell disease no art can heal, - Beyond the leech’s skill. - Sapped by its power my frame shall lie, - Mixed with its parent mould; - Once with those statues it could vie, - Which Hellas loved of old. - - Its day of splendor and of power - Even in my youth is past; - Its Phidian symmetry no more - Shall beauty’s promise blast. - Apostate to my father’s creed, - I from their heaven am banned; - How o’er Jehennan shall I speed, - By light Al Serat spanned? - - The infernal surge, which moans below - Its gossamer arches frail, - Me, plunging to the gulfs of woe, - Will whelm in endless bale. - Would that my soul might share a part - Of perfect bliss with thee! - O, dark-eyed Smyrniote of my heart, - My wronged Euphrosynè! - - - - -CYMINDIS. - - Ορνιθι λιγυρη εναλιγκιος, ην τ’ εν ορεσσι - Χαλκιδα κικλησκουσι Θεοι, ανδρες δε Κυμινδιν.—_Homer._ - - - Beside my lattice cool at dead of night, - As I sat musing on unnumbered things, - With startled glance I saw a figure bright, - - No larger than a star, on luminous wings - Borne towards me with a swift continuous flight, - From some green island in the Occident. - - At first, methought that Hesper from his throne - Upon the forehead of the firmament - Had parted, and was gliding o’er the foam - - Of ocean towards me; but my error soon - Became apparent—for a gorgeous bird, - Apparelled in full many a splendid plume - - Of green, and gold, and purple, came and stirred - An olive’s foliage with its flutterings; - Where, perching on a slender flexile bough, - - It stayed its flight and furled its weary wings. - Voiceless awhile, against a dark green spray - It leaned its breast; then making prelude low, - - From its dim throat poured out a lengthened flow - Of moist Memnonian melody—a lay - More soft and sweet than ancient Pan could play - - Through all the wild Circean realm of sound, - Did range this feathered minstrel’s dulcet tongue; - So that no note, or high or low is found, - - That by its tuneful throat was left unsung. - Sometimes I heard a flute’s low silvery plaining, - And then anon a shepherd’s reed was blown; - - And then a far-off clarion’s exclaiming - Aroused my spirit with its martial tone; - Which died ere long into a tender moan— - - The wail of Indian lover, languishing - Beneath a guarded princess’ lattice high. - This ceased; and next a music rivalling - - The spheral chime that fills the starry sky, - An intervolved Æolian harmony, - Stole through the porch of sound into the hall - - Where my delighted spirit sat enthroned, - And from their cells the loftiest thoughts, that woned - Therein, rapt into ecstasy, did call— - - A sudden shriek of keenest anguish broke - My breathless rapture, and the silver chain - Of that wild song, alas! Cymindis’ note - - (Such was that Iris-feathered warbler’s name) - Was stilled forever. Him within the beak - Of a relentless vulture dead I saw, - - That, swooping from the clouds, his descant sweet - Had hushed to silence, to appease the maw - Of famine in his eyrie on the steep. - - - - -THE CEMETERY IN SUMMER. - - - The west wind in the piny bough - A low eternal threne - Weaves o’er the dead that sleep below - The sleep without a dream. - The night-leaved cypress’ shadow glooms, - The flexile willow sighs, - While gorgeous summer glows and blooms - In florid earth and skies. - - On marble shaft and urnal stone - Glimmers the sunny beam, - And squirrels chirp and wild bees drone - About the alleys green. - Through leafy vistas, long and dim, - Where slanting sunlights fall, - I see a troop of spectres thin, - In cerement, shroud, and pall. - - Shades insubstantial gliding slow, - The harvest of the years, - Above whose narrow dwellings flow - Bereaved affection’s tears. - The din of life from yonder towers - Is but a murmur here; - A bee-like hum amid the flowers, - It falls upon mine ear. - - Ye tranquil sleepers, stretched below, - How pleasant is your rest! - Your pulseless hearts no longer know - The cares which life infest. - The silent Hours no longer bring - Or good or ill to you; - And slander’s shaft no more can sting - The slumberer ’neath the yew. - - In cool seclusion dark and deep, - Beneath the teeming mould, - Ye reck not of the summer’s heat, - The sleety winter’s cold. - The constellated stars at night - Through waving branches gleam, - And Titan’s arrows, swift and bright, - Across your couches stream. - - Sepulchral Eros, mourning here - Forgetful of thy bow, - With torch reversed and falling tear, - And pinion-shaded brow! - The eyes are dim beneath your tread, - That sunned you with their light; - The lips, where you on kisses fed, - Are cold and lily-white. - - - - - All hail, my gentle household Lar! - My silent mansion ’mid the trees! - My devious steps have wandered far, - O’er lands of Eld beyond the seas. - - Amid thine autumn fields I hear, - Prophet of rain, the whistling quail; - While from its sheaf the wheaten ear - Is beaten by the sounding flail. - - In other climes this quiet home - Has risen star-like to my view, - When tired, dejected, and alone, - No friendly heart my sorrows knew. - - ’Twas years ago the passion came, - A vague desire, a longing wild - To visit lands, whose wondrous fame - Had charmed my fancy when a child. - - When dreamy south winds softly blew - In spring time o’er the misty glebe, - And birds of passage wedge-like flew - To distant lake and arctic mead, - - I felt the longing uncontrolled, - The yearning wish to be away, - Where splendid cities rich and old - In happier climates glittering lay. - - Their towers have filled my sated eyes, - Their sins and follies all are known, - With quickened step the pilgrim hies - To greet once more his long-left home. - - O silent house! O breezy shade! - Haven of rest and refuge sweet! - The great world’s din can ne’er invade - Thy lonely courts, my green retreat! - - Like Sirmio’s minstrel travel-worn, - My own soft couch at length I press, - And thinking o’er the toils I’ve borne, - Forget in sleep my weariness. - - - - - The singing masons - Building roofs of gold.—SHAKESPEARE. - - - Pilgrim! within the hollow of this oak - Once hummed and toiled a commonwealth of bees. - And in all honeydom there were no folk, - Of swifter wing or sharper sting than these. - The waxen fragments, round the fountain strown, - With more than dædal artifice ywrought, - Once formed the structures of their fragrant town, - Which hung embosomed in this oaken grot. - Its name was Crocusburg. ’Twas built, they say, - By queen Iophile, whose early home - Was in a mountain cleft of Attica. - She with her bees was often wont to roam - The Ægean isles, in quest of flowery prey; - And so it fell one summer afternoon, - As she led thence her train, each wing and thigh - Clogged with the sweets of many an island-bloom, - Just off Mount Sunium’s marble forehead high, - A sudden rain-gust blew them all awry - A thousand leagues into the western sky. - Beneath their flight, a waste of surges wild, - Shoreless and gray the vast Atlantic rolled; - And o’er its waves no Tyrian galley toiled, - Whereon they might their gauzy pinions fold. - But they escaped, a saffron-scented wind, - Which blew from meads below the horizon’s rim, - Into this blossom-tessellated vale - They swiftly traced, a thin aerial clue - By their keen muzzles in the trackless blue - Of heaven detected, and they builded here - A honey mart, that grew without a peer. - Its cells and waxen magazines ran o’er - With brimful floods of lucent yellow dew, - The choicest sweets of every gold-eyed flower, - That on the earth’s green bosom ever grew. - Whether its leaves and scented buds expand, - At morn and eve by spicy breezes fanned, - Above the tropics’ hot volcanic mould, - O’er sunless magazines of gems and gold; - Or nature weaves it with less gaudy dyes, - In moister looms, upon a colder shore— - Each flower-clad vale beneath the purple skies - Its tribute yielded to their fragrant store. - - - - -AGIMUR FATIS. - - - We are as wrecks upon a stormy sea, - The winds and currents bear us where they will; - Or dry leaves, that before the tempest flee, - Borne on to good or unevaded ill. - - Ere weeping through the gates of life we came, - Our lots were fixed, each act and thought decreed: - In vain we strive—we stem the tide in vain;— - Alike the idiot’s brain, the sage’s rede. - - Powerless before the unimpassioned Doom - The form of beauty and the lofty mind; - The shuttle speeds athwart the fatal loom— - Our lots are woven as the threads unwind. - - Sorrow and gladness intertwined are ours, - Or woe unmixed, or pleasure undefiled; - Exult not, though thy path be strewn with flowers, - Oft mid their bloom the venomed asp lies coiled. - - On the dark billows of the sea of fate - Full many a glorious shape floats wrecked and pale; - While meaner beings, haughty and elate, - A festal throng before the zephyrs sail. - - And star-like eyes and lovely cheeks are dewed - With ceaseless tears, an unextinguished rain; - And youth and strength, and kingly fortitude - With dotard weakness struggle oft in vain. - - - - -A HERMITAGE. - - - A Saxon eremite of old did rear - My mossy walls beneath this pine-clad slope; - From learned Iona, armed with clerkly lere, - He went in youth, and dealt a deadly stroke - Through all the lonely Arctic Cyclades - On Pagan creeds; and o’er the misty seas - In Suevia with Odin’s might did cope, - The chief of blue Valhalla’s deities; - Nor ceased, till from his forest temple dark - Had fled each white-stoled oaken hierarch. - His mission done, beneath my lowly roof - His days he passed, from all the world aloof. - - - - - I saw a snake-girt embryon, crowned and dumb, - Its rigid finger, pointed towards the sky; - From whence the fiery breath of life must come, - That kindles unborn lip and rayless eye. - - I saw a demon beagle dark as night, - A shadowy maiden, hounding through the air; - And as she fled she shrieked with wild affright, - And, Mœnad-like, behind her streamed her hair. - - The bridal couch of sad Proserpina - In grim Hephæstus’ realm mine eyes beheld; - The ravished bride bewailed her home afar— - Her temples bound with Stygian asphodel. - - I saw the vast Plutonian gardens, where - That cursed pomegranate shed its deadly bloom, - Whose fatal fruitage, banned from upper air - Sad Ceres’ daughter till the seventh moon. - - I saw the Pleiads, in their skyey tent, - Bemoan their starry sister, dead and cold; - His bow against her fierce Orion bent— - Orion zoned with belt of fretted gold. - - I saw the Avengers with viperean hair - Above the palace roofs at Argos fly; - The matricide Orestes shuddered there, - Obscene with matted locks and haggard eye. - - I saw the loaded tables of the Sun, - By ancient Nilus’ orbëd fountains spread; - Where wont of old the happy gods to come, - Twelve days by long-lived Ethiops richly fed. - - Phantoms of air exhaled by dark madjoon, - And visionary fabrics dim and vast; - Like vapors gliding o’er the autumnal moon, - Before imagination’s eye they passed. - - - - -LUCIFER REDUX. - - - Prince of the fallen stars, - Thy front shall lose its scars! - The fires shall cease to burn, - Thy legions shall return! - - A ray shall pierce the gloom, - A voice dissolve the doom; - The victor shall relent, - The brazen chains be rent! - - The demon’s crown of woe - No more shall gird thy brow; - The fires shall cease to burn. - Thy legions shall return. - - The dark pavilions spread - Within thy kingdom dread; - The palaces of pain, - Like dreams, shall melt and wane. - - And Eden’s flag unrolled, - Again thy helm enfold; - The fires shall cease to burn, - Thy legions shall return! - - The mystic feud shall end, - Thy willing knees shall bend; - Once more the central throne - Thy homage bright shall own. - - In heaven thy starred domain - Shall greet its chief again; - The fires shall cease to burn, - Thy legions shall return! - - Thine ancient halls of state, - So long left desolate, - Shall ring with joy once more, - Shall bloom with wreath and flower. - - The constellations bright, - The torches of the night, - Around thy steps shall chant - A pæan jubilant. - - The wheels that o’er thee drove, - The sword thy mail that clove, - Shall lead thy glad return, - Before thy march shall burn! - - - - -ANSALDO’S GARDEN. - - - Beautiful the hearts that keep - ’Neath the frosts of age - Something of their youthful heat, - Tempered in its rage. - - Teian-like, they laugh and sing, - Though the shadows gather; - For they feel the warmth of spring - In the wintry weather. - - Minstrels ’neath the snows of time - Feel their bosoms glowing, - With a fervor as sublime - As when flowers were blowing. - - Like to tomb-lamps’ beams, that spread - Lustre round decay, - To the last their hearts will shed - Sunlike haloes, fancies gay. - - Thus Ansaldo’s garden bloomed, - June in January set, - While the frosty stars illumed - Orange leaf and mignonette. - - - - -THE DYING MOSLEM. - - - Jannat al Aden’s towers I see, - I know my fate is nigh— - The Hûr al Oyun beckon me, - Their waving arms I spy. - - Sweet maids of Heaven, I come, I come! - Mine eyes in darkness swim— - The chills of death my heart benumb, - And creep through every limb. - - My trophies see around me piled— - The unbeliever’s blood - My dripping garments has defiled, - Has slaked my falchion good. - - More soft to me than beds of flowers - The gory battle plain; - For thence I mount to Eden’s bowers, - And joys immortal gain. - - The Houri’s kiss is sweeter far - Than whispers of the South; - Her eyes are like the evening star, - Her lot eternal youth! - - - - -MDCCCXLVIII-IX. - - - O torrid August—sun-emblazoned asp! - Reluctantly thy days, like coils, unclasp - And leave the worn and heat-enfeebled frame - Its wonted strength in cooler hours to gain. - - O months with ruin fraught! O years of fate! - What stars malign o’er you predominate! - The seals of death are broke—the wide earth moans, - A lazar-house of pain through all her zones. - - The seeds of swift decay broadcast impregn - The wave, the air, the land, the summer beam; - Is there no Tuscan garden as of old, - Where, to beguile the heart, sweet tales are told? - - Where youth and beauty, weaving fables gay, - With dance and music keep the cares at bay? - No pangless isolation, green and fair, - Above whose fields are charms of taintless air? - - O, vaunted Epoch! that look’st back with scorn - Upon thy brother ages elder-born— - That mak’st the lightning’s withering glance thy scribe, - And on the hissing cauldron’s breath dost ride— - - With all thy boasted sciences, must thou - Before the sworded angel veil thy brow? - Art _thou_, too, vulnerable with all thine arts? - Hast _thou_ no shield to ward the lethal darts? - - No potent balm, whose virtues can expel - The lurking venom from its citadel? - Must _thou_, too, pray for some Araunah’s floor, - Whereon the wasting vengeance may give o’er? - - Cease, then, to vaunt—for know that ages gone - Have had a wisdom mightier than your own. - The globe, a ruined palace, still will be - To Death, Disease, and War, a mansion free,— - - A mighty park, wherein, Orion-like, - The ghastly hunters unevaded strike; - Their hounds, the passions, which no arts can tame— - The ruthless beagles still pursue their game. - - No sop, that puny science can devise, - Will hush their yells, or drowse their dragon eyes; - The melancholy Asia mourns afar, - Drooping in sorrow ’neath the Plague’s red star. - - Beneath her palms the giant mother see, - Her turret-girded brow upon her knee! - The elephantine tusk, that stays her hand, - Lies unregarded in the yellow sand. - - Not thus she mourned, when Iran’s king forlorn - Fled pale and vanquished towards the realms of morn. - The mystic Brahmin, roofed by groves sublime, - Lies grovelling before his pagod shrine; - - In vain adores the monstrous shapes, that fill - The peaks of Meru’s golden-hornëd hill; - Poisoned with death the stream of Indus flows, - The baleful air a lurid furnace glows. - - The spotted pard in sultry jungle cowers, - His nerves unstrung and withered all his powers; - The glistering scales, which clothe the serpent, wane, - Their splendors darkened by the touch of pain; - Flickers no more his tongue like cloven flame; - - His crushing coils and horrent length unrolled, - Cumber the heated dust relaxed and cold. - On Himmalaya’s topmost summit lone - The Plague’s Red Fiend ascends his mountain throne,— - - In shape an Afrite, or a gloomy Djinn, - Where, underneath the brows of Heaven, begin - The Ganges’ waters, that devolving pour - Through gates of ice and starlit arches hoar. - - His bow is bent—the viewless arrows fall - On desert, ocean, vale, and capital; - The lonely ship, that ploughs the barren sea, - Is filled with shapes of writhing agony. - - The desert trains of turbaned merchants wail - From rear to van, with anguish smitten pale; - Cabool and eldest Balk are resonant - With shriek, and dolorous sigh, and Koran chant; - - And Persia’s rosy vales are thickly strewn - With lethal shafts that blight her spicy bloom, - And, through the palace of the Caliphate, - At blazing noontide speeds the wingëd fate; - - And over all the fields of ancient Roum - Settles a cloud of pestilential gloom; - The keen shafts leave the shrouded East behind, - Thridding like light the mazes of the wind. - - Onward their course they hold, nor once relent - Until they reach the shrill-tongued Occident. - The crash and roar of crowded cities cease, - And o’er their bulwark broods the desert’s peace. - - The clanging enginery forgets to move, - Where luxury’s gauds by jaded hands are wove; - The wail, the dirge, the unextinguished moan, - In streets, in fields, in ships are heard alone. - - Unknelled, unshrived, in yawning trenches deep, - The bursting corses fall a livid heap; - Death, at the growing carnage, laughs elate, - While round his throne Sesostres shrouded wait. - - Athwart Atlantic’s troubled waters fly - The arrowy fates, and fill the western sky; - Fair Erie’s queen is stricken with distress— - Named for the herd that graze the wilderness. - - And all the nascent states and cities young, - By forest, lake, and stream, with grief are wrung; - Till spent at length, beneath the sinking day - The red shafts quench their rage, and cease to slay. - - - - -THE AUTUMNAL RIDE. - - - October glittered brazen-hued - Beneath the keen autumnal sun; - Their leaves the ash and maple strewed - Like fiery coals of martyrdom. - - The mountains reared their granite cones - Through veils of ether opaline; - Their bases cinctured round with zones - Of giant beech and Delphic pine. - - We sucked the air with Ariel’s greed, - And chest and nostril ampler grew; - Mile after mile rushed by with speed— - We felt the freshness of the dew; - - While dimpled laughter soon began - To loosen up the heart and brain; - The blood inebriated ran, - Quicksilver-like, through every vein. - - We saw Monadnoc cleave the sky, - The eagle’s perch a peak sublime; - Aerial pasturages high, - Where grazed and lowed the mountain kine. - - Majestic hill, thy might is sung - In strains that with thy cliffs shall last! - As long as Night her mantle dun, - And Day his beams shall o’er thee cast. - - In radiant verse thy summit shines - Henceforth to all men evermore; - The lulling murmur of thy pines - Is audible on every shore. - - From morn till noontide on we rode— - The day grew summery awhile; - The mountain vapors throbbed and glowed, - But soon they wore a pensive smile. - - The sky, a magazine of hues, - Its amethystine glories rained; - That richer colors still diffuse, - The more the dying sunbeam waned. - - O, day forever marked with white, - With Eva passed among the hills! - A year has flown—its keen delight - In memory yet my bosom thrills. - - - - -TO ——. - - - I. - - Thou mortal Belial! thee I name - The mightiest sophist known to fame. - In the old Hellenic isles, - Rich in rhetoric’s winning wiles, - ’Mongst their most persuasive dead, - None like thee was ever bred; - E’en the Ithacensian’s lips - Thou couldst cast into eclipse; - Nor serpent’s eye, nor siren’s lute, - Nor Coptic Lotos’ magic fruit, - Could bewilder and entrance, - Like thy honied utterance. - - II. - - Shadowed thick with jetty hair, - Flowing like acanthus fair - Over pillared capital, - Towers aloft thy kingly brow; - While from sunken eyes below - Gleams a fiery southern glance, - Keener far than keenest lance. - - III. - - These, with that Ionic form, - And Asiatic fancy warm, - Assembled and conjoined in one, - Make the Forum’s paragon! - - - - -SUGGESTED BY A HEAD OF ACHILLES IN SIR WILLIAM GELL’S POMPEII. - - - The swift Pelides from a Goddess’ loins, - Like lightning from a summer cloud was born; - Ambrosial youth incarnadined his limbs - With roseal lustre and Hebean bloom; - Yet in their marble smoothness lay enshrined - A Titan’s energy—and his large eyes, - That dreamed and languished like Endymion’s, - When, vine-like, round his neck the lucent arms - Of Lycomedes’ daughter were entwined, - Glowed like a pard’s in fight. A glossy wealth - Of sunny Apollonian tresses loosely rolled - Adown his ivory shoulders. In his breast - A fiery-blooded heart throbbed fiercely—now - In sorrow unappeased venting itself - Above his fallen friend; and now in ire - Unquenchable, that withered all his foes, - When vengeance called him to the ensanguined field. - The hero’s sword not only he could wield; - The heroic lyre he also strung, and oft - At eve, in his pavilion by the sea, - His melancholy spirit soothed with song. - - - - -PSYCHE. - - - In vigils lone she hears the chimes - Of voices from diviner climes, - And sees entranced the statures grand, - That throng her lofty fatherland. - Unwonted odors, strange and rare, - Float round her on the midnight air, - From gardens where her youth was spent, - Beyond the dark blue firmament. - - The fleshly walls are white and thin, - Which close her yearning spirit in— - Celestial footfalls she can hear, - Inaudible to grosser ear. - She mourns her lot like one exiled, - Her songs are filled with longings wild - For home, and that serener day - Which lights the angels far away. - - - - -THE SERAPHS’ HOLIDAY. - - - There is a year when all the stars, which throng - The blue abysses of eternity, - Back to the stations, whence their march began, - Have rolled. The wondrous season passes not - In Heaven uncelebrated; but with pomp, - And dance, and song, and gorgeous festivals, - The happy people mark its slow return. - Then all the mighty Seraphim, who rule - By Allah’s will the starry satrapies - Of the Universe, with joyful hearts receive - Permission to revisit once again - The golden streets of Paradise, the groves, - And fields, and streams, and shady palaces - Of their nativity. Upon the morn - Of their return, soon as the eastern wind - Begins to fan the innumerable palms, - Amid whose waving branches glittering stand - The beatific mansions, straight the walls, - Smaragdine domes and minarets, which grace - Or fortify the blest metropolis, - Are thickly lined with eager faces, set - With dark angelic eyes, whose glances pierce - Interminably far the rosy veils - Of pure celestial air, wherein no mote - Or vapor floats to intercept the view. - Ere long, above the horizon’s verge appears - The expected pomp. East, West, and North and South, - Along the ancient thoroughfares, which lead - From Paradise through spaces infinite, - Besprinkled o’er with starry Cyclades, - Down to the fiery palaces, wherein - The solar Seraphs hold their sway, it comes— - A long array of chariots superb, - Harnessed to sun-engendered steeds, whose veins - Are filled with fluid fire, the succulence - Of the Heliacal pastures where they graze. - Proudly the planetary Sultans rein - Their haughty yokes, which underneath the shade - Of solar gonfalons advance, their feet - Unto the sound of lordly harmonies - Uplifting. Within the eternal gates, - Through wingëd throngs, o’er star-paved streets they ride, - And by the Stream of Life, shadowed with palms, - Unyoke their steeds, fettered with links of gold - Infrangible and bright, to graze the banks; - Then laving in the flood their giant limbs, - They haste unto the glad festivities. - - - - -MORNING. - - - All hail, thou blessed light of morn! - At length I feel thy cheering ray— - Through all the darksome night forlorn, - Yearning for thee I sleepless lay. - The Roman in his palace porch, - On the Parthenopean isle, - To dim his red nocturnal torch, - Ne’er prayed more fervently thy smile. - The dripping trees in verdure drest, - The rosy light, and eastern wind, - Dispel the larvæ, which infest - The slumbers of the troubled mind. - - O Power divine! my spirit keep - From deeds of darkness ever clear, - Lest unto me the realms of Sleep - Should be beset with phantoms drear; - For Conscience to the wicked is - A demon-evocator pale, - And summons from the soul’s abyss - Forms, which must make the stoutest quail. - - Bear witness, purple Eremite, - Who reared amid translucent seas - A gorgeous palace of delight, - A refuge from the Eumenides; - Colossal spectres nightly strode - Through portal, corridor and hall, - The Sea impersonated stood, - His dreaming spirit to appal. - - Fronting the portals of the Sun, - His lurid torches burning low, - How oft amid the shadows dun - He waited for the morning’s glow. - Bringer of pleasant thoughts, all hail! - Thy touch dissolves the guilty dream. - And Orcus’ shapeless legions quail, - Flying before thy rosy beam. - - - - -AUTUMN. - - - When yellowing woods let fall their sapless leaves, - And, breathing softly from the mild South-west, - The Indian Summer mitigates the air, - Me it delights, leaving the towers of men, - With devious feet, and void of fixed intent, - To wander far into the country still; - My path, some grassy road untrodden lone, - Which leads the steps through woods of dwarfish pines, - Where dwells unscared the solitary jay, - And sings the cricket, sole inhabitants. - In these sweet solitudes the soul becomes - Tranquil as seas mid happy isles embayed; - Here weary hearts a balsam for their woes, - In whispering boughs and silent skies can find. - - And here, amid the calm and liberal air, - The heated brain grows cool from contact free; - How sweet to live a sylvan eremite, - By some sequestered lake in forests hid, - Or pebble-paven urn, the cradle cool - Of tiny brook, or gently lapsing stream. - Legends there are of fallen kings, who held - Their exiled courts beneath the forest boughs; - Better their faded state in such pure haunts, - Than when it shone in haughty palaces! - - - - - O power of Music! whence thy spell - On man and brute, on soul and heart? - What spirit haunts the chorded shell, - Whose murmurs every passion start? - The silent tenants of the sea, - The brinded pard and serpent, own - Thy sway—their fierceness tamed by thee, - They cower and writhe about thy throne. - - Thy lordly breath to war can yield - A glory wild, a nameless charm; - The sworded ranks, the embattled field - Thou fill’st with bosoms high and warm; - The gorgeous palaces of old - Thy magic numbers cause to rise, - And faces, which the valley’s mould - Has hidden long from weeping eyes. - - The depths of love, its wild despair, - By thee are told, are breathed by thee, - And while thy whispers fill the air, - A better world we seem to see; - Some happier region undefiled, - Where youth and beauty aye abide— - Where sin the spirit ne’er beguiled, - And joy fills up the circuit wide. - - - - -DREAMS. - - - The magic of a dream how great! - To us it gives a might divine, - Whereby our souls annihilate - The power of death, and space, and time. - - The forms which lie recumbent, cold, - In tombs and charnel-houses lone, - In dreams our eyes again behold, - As they in life were loved and known. - - We enter through the gates of sleep, - Into a neutral interspace, - Most pleasant to the eyes that weep, - For Life and Death can there embrace. - - There absence ceases to divide; - Though seas and mountains intervene, - Friend unto friend can swiftly glide, - And reck not of the space between. - - There I last night thy form beheld, - My ancient comrade, tried and true! - Tears from my eyes profusely welled, - And tears as freely fell from you! - - - - -THE PENITENT. - - - Sorrowful, weak, dejected, and in fear, - Most Merciful, I fall before thy throne! - The world through wickedness is dark and drear, - Peace and content are found in Heaven alone. - - A retrospect of sin behind me lies, - A peccant youth all spent at Belial’s shrine! - The meek Judæan beckoned from the skies; - I heeded not, seduced by powers malign. - - The scales are fallen from my darkened sight, - A potent euphrasy is poured therein; - I look around with terror and affright, - Behold the world is vanity and sin! - - With labor infinite, the race of men - Their ruined mansion struggle to restore; - By their own might they think to make again - The Earth a happy Eden as of yore. - - This task no mortal skill can execute, - All Archimedean subtleties are vain; - Invention, sciences, and minds astute, - Are baulked, like those of old on Shinar’s plain. - - Though unto us the elements become - Obsequious helots to our wills subdued; - Though, Ariel-like, the glittering lightning run, - To do our errands over land and flood; - - All is in vain—a doom—a deadly blight - Is on us, and our space-embosomed home; - Our fallen natures can be made upright - By meek contrition and by faith alone. - - - - - Ocean, thou art disenchanted! - And the mariner no more - Anchors under islands haunted, - Off a silver-sanded shore; - - Where he sees some Fairy’s palace - Glitter through the boscage green; - Hears the glancing of her shuttle, - And the wizard chant between. - - Once the galley steering westward, - Toward the throne of Saturn sailed, - Toward the Islands of the Happy, - Where the summer never failed; - - Where along the beach elysian, - Heroes born in better days - Wandered, fanned by winds eternal, - Blowing inland from the bays. - - Ocean, thou art disenchanted! - And the mariner no more - Sees the sunken city glimmer, - Leagues away from any shore. - - Where are Helice and Buris? - Leaning o’er the galley’s side, - Once the voyager saw them waver - With the motions of the tide. - - Argosies condemned to wander - Havenless from clime to clime, - With ensanguined ingots laden,— - All have faded from the brine! - - And the Triton’s shell no longer - Over yesty waves is blown; - And Poseidon’s burnished axle - Drifts a wreck upon the foam. - - These are gone—but still thy surges - Kiss and girdle isles of balm, - Clasping beaches beryl-paven, - Latitudes of endless calm! - - - - -TWILIGHT IN EGYPT. - - - Round the City of the Sun, - And Mokattan mountains dun, - Fast the woof of Night is spun, - Planets through it gleaming; - Vista’d columns stretch in rows, - On whose tops with massive brows, - Sphinxes lion-limbed repose, - In the twilight dreaming. - - Shines Canopus high and calm - Over sand and waving palm, - While the sea-winds, strewing balm, - Make the Lotos quiver; - Limned upon the rising Moon, - Sculptured demons frown and gloom, - Pedestalled amid the spume - Of the Coptic river. - - Valè to the dying day - Memnon’s lips of marble say, - Darkling mid the shadows gray, - Which around it gather; - Girdled by the swelling stream, - Island-like the cities gleam, - O’er their imaged temples lean - In the blue that waver. - - Gilded by the lunar disc, - Pyramid and obelisk - Towering stand, their bases kissed - By the gulfing water; - Lakelike spreads the fertile tide, - Veiling all the valley wide— - To and fro the shallops glide, - Filled with mirth and laughter. - - - - -ARIEL’S SONG. - - - I’ll quarry the sapphire sunset - For blocks of purple air, - And over the floor of ocean - I’ll build me a palace rare; - The South wind through its chambers - By day and night shall blow, - Fanning my brow with odors, - With lovesick whispers low. - - Eolian lutes shall murmur - Their breezy notes to me, - And amber-tressed merwomen - My servitors shall be; - By showery sunbeams paven - With tessellated light, - My ivory floors shall glitter - A marvel to the sight. - - And when my lids are heavy, - With slumber’s dews oppressed, - A pale-lipped shell shall circle - My limbs reclined in rest; - The pillars of my mansion - Full proudly shall aspire, - Their corbels wrought and woven - Of opalescent fire. - - My torches shall be kindled - At wells of Naptha fine, - And myrrhine urns shall bubble - With draughts of Elfin wine; - Those gardens, which the daughters - Of Hesper sow and till, - With golden-rinded melons - My fragrant board shall fill. - - The vaunted barge of Cydnus - My shallop shall outvie, - With silken cables furnished, - With sails of purple dye; - Its deck in halcyon weather - Shall bear me o’er the main— - Its argent beak shall follow - Apollo’s sinking wain. - - - - - Where abid’st thou, prophet mighty? - Whom the fiery horses drew - Skyward from the Jordan’s rivage, - Till they faded from the view,— - Past the sceptre of Uriel, - Regent of the solar fire, - Past the starry Lion couchant, - And the planet-chorded Lyre; - - Till the citadels of Heaven - O’er the Sea of Jasper flamed, - And thy wingëd yoke in triumph - At its golden gates was reined; - Thou hast clomb the grades of splendor, - As the ages rolled away, - Till at length cherubic legions - Thee as hierarch obey. - - But thy fatherland has fallen - From the might of other days; - The anathemas of Ebal - Blight and wither all its race. - Gone the ivory house of pleasure, - Where the Syrian cedars grew, - Where the minions of Astarte - Could a monarch’s heart subdue; - - Gone the carven lion-warders - From that monarch’s jewelled throne— - But the genii malignant - Still his mighty signet own; - Still his song instinct with passion, - Like a string of rubies glows; - Than the vaunted lays of Teïos - With a sweeter cadence flows. - - - - - On her monumental scroll - Let these syllables be seen; - Meek Griselda was no dream, - No ideal of the soul. - - Softly slumbers one below, - Who an equal worth could claim - With that visionary dame, - Drawn by poet long ago. - - Face more beautiful and mild - Than the buried maiden bore, - Never blessed the earth before, - Never sorrow’s sigh beguiled. - - Through her lineaments of white - Blushed the morning’s healthy hue, - And her eye of tender blue - Was with softest lustre bright. - - Like the Mother sad and fair, - The Madonna in the skies, - She was patient, sinless, wise, - And of gentleness most rare. - - In the mansion where she died, - All is silent, drear and lone; - In the yard the lindens moan— - Through the chambers shadows glide. - - - - -THE INDIAN SUMMER. - - - Now the sweet autumnal Summer which the Indian loved so well, - Over mountain, plain, and hollow sheds the glory of its spell. - - Softer breathe the gentle zephyrs, and like visitants they seem - From a latitude benigner, from a climate more serene. - - Dream the heavens warm and glowing, shining veils of tepid haze, - Nimbus-like investing nature, through the long celestial days. - - Cities, hamlets, russet woodlands, saintly halos seem to wear, - All transfigured in the splendor of the mild October air. - - Such perchance the lenient ether, such as these the tranquil skies, - Spread above the fields of heaven, arching over Paradise. - - Brief their beauty, transient, fleeting—soon the north wind’s trump - is blown, - Whirl the leaves in gusty eddies, and the rainy tempests moan. - - - - -HYMN TO PHOSPHOR. - - - Radiant Phosphor! thou art fashioned - Like some beardless minion young, - And before the giant Mithra - Do thy wingëd sandals run. - - Morning’s herald, urn of splendor! - From thy stellar fountains flow - Purer lustres, fires intenser - Than thy brother stars can show. - - When their beams begin to darken - And the bird Alectryon sings, - Still thy torch’s tresses sparkle, - Still thine orb its radiance flings. - - Once the Dawn adored thy beauty; - Thee her acolyte she made, - Waiting in her saffron porches, - While the world was wrapt in shade. - - Kissed she oft thy beamy temples, - And from anemonies fair - Shook the dew-drops to besprinkle - Thy redundant yellow hair. - - With her arms about thee folded, - Oft thy fragrant mouth she prest, - That exhaled a sweeter odor - Than the cassia-scented West. - - Hail, thou silver-shielded planet, - Whom undying beams adorn! - Hail, thou firmamental leader! - Dewy sentinel of morn! - - - - -TO THE CRICKET. - - - Flourishes in song immortal - The Cicada famed of old; - On the brows of Attic women - Was its likeness worn in gold. - - But my Cricket! none have praised thee, - Insect full of dulcet mirth! - Singing in the August moonlight, - Minstrel of the country hearth! - - Sharded rhapsodist of Autumn, - When the year begins to wane, - In the grass and in the hedges - Trillest thou thy wiry strain. - - Harp with clasps of ivory strengthened, - Unto thee does not belong; - Thine own body is a cithern, - Its pulsations make thy song. - - In the midnight weird and holy, - When the moon is in eclipse, - Feedest thou on leaves of moly— - Honeydew-drops steep thy lips. - - - - -BOOTH’S RICHARD. - - - The sceptred Gorgon of the Isles, - The fiercest of the kingly brood, - Weaves o’er again his deadly wiles, - Again appears with flesh indued. - - Promethean will uncrushed and calm, - His blighted sinews nerved and strung, - All foes he met without alarm— - At fiend or god his gauntlet flung. - - His spirit was a dark abyss, - Its surface glassed with summer smiled; - But deep below the dragon hissed, - And thoughts like hydras lurked and coiled. - - The bright-haired shadows drenched in blood, - The stifled Princes sweet and pale, - Athwart his dim pavilion strode— - His heart of iron did not quail. - - Though from beneath Gehenna stirred, - And sent its legions to the fray, - The war-cry from his lips was heard, - Like blast of bugle far away. - - Girt lion-like with countless foes— - On earth, in heaven, without a friend— - With clenching teeth and gathered brows - He battled bravely to the end. - - - - -L’ENVOI. - - - ’Neath the rainy Equinox, - Flooding her dishevelled locks, - Lies the Summer dead and cold, - With her shroud about her rolled, - Like the drowned Ophelia fair, - Dripping from the oozy mere; - O’er her bleaching corse complain - Sighing winds and chilling rain. - - Withered fillets, garlands sere, - Bind her brow and deck her bier— - Urnlike lilies, violets frail, - Faded blossoms of the vale, - Thickly strew her loosened hair. - - Sorrowing o’er his daughter fair, - Sadly bends the stricken Year, - To her lips applies his ear; - For the voice which long ago - Cheered him with its music low, - Hearkens he, and for the smile - Wont his dotage to beguile, - Lifts her drooping lids in vain,— - She will never smile again. - - Ravished from their mistress pale, - Fly her tresses on the gale; - Driving North winds pipe and rave - Threnodies about her grave. - Bird and leaf forsake the tree— - Sinks to rest the yellow bee; - All his labors in the sun, - All his airy voyages done; - While the squirrel gathers fast - Largess of the bough and blast. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELFIN LAND: AND OTHER -POEMS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Elfin land: and other poems</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Benjamin West Ball</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 15, 2022 [eBook #68531]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELFIN LAND: AND OTHER POEMS ***</div> - -<h1>POEMS.</h1> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a>[i]</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger"><span class="larger">ELFIN LAND:</span><br /> -<span class="smaller">AND</span><br /> -OTHER POEMS.</p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -BENJAMIN WEST BALL.</p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE:</span><br /> -JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY.<br /> -<span class="smaller">MDCCCLI.</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a>[ii]</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by<br /> -JAMES MUNROE & COMPANY,<br /> -In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.</p> - -<p class="titlepage smaller"><span class="smcap">Thurston, Torry & Emerson, Printers.</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iii"></a>[iii]</span></p> - -<p class="dedication">TO<br /> -<span class="larger">D. S. H.,</span><br /> -THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,<br /> -AS A TESTIMONIAL<br /> -OF AFFECTIONATE REGARD.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iv"></a>[iv]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v"></a>[v]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_D_S_H">TO D. S. H.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">I.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ere thou wert seen, and ere I knew</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Such loveliness on earth unfolded,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A morning dream revealed to view</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That shape in perfect beauty moulded;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Around thy graceful waist, methought,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The fabled Zone of Love was glowing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The cestus with enchantment fraught,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A charm, that vanquished all, bestowing—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The phantom fled, but evermore</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Until thyself I might discover,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its memory in my heart I bore,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of shade impalpable the lover.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">II.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When Eastward thou wert long sojourning,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From me divided and afar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though sunset in the West was burning,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I turned where shone my being’s star;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the woods, the village spires,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Adown the broadly flowing river</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My glances winged by wild desires</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To pierce the distance, would endeavor;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Each bickering train which eastward rolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Each trailing cloud that thither flew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As long as eyesight could behold,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I followed, musing still of you;—</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a>[vi]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">III.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of you, the magnet of my heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The vision of my nightly slumber,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of all my thoughts the central part,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And source of fancies without number.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The stars are not more dear to Night,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To scented winds the bursting blossom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Day its floods of golden light,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than thou art, gentlest, to my bosom.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The beauty of the North is thine,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its auburn tress, its eye of azure,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its rose-hued cheek, whose freshness Time</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Leaves blooming long without erasure.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">IV.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Incarnate in thy graceful form,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I see that sweet Göthéan vision,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That dream of beauty soft and warm,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which folded Faust in joy elysian.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though clouds disturb the blue serene,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And storm and darkness round me lower,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy presence is a sunny gleam,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A bow of promise ’mid the shower;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though from me fortune fall away,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By Hope itself disowned, forsaken,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whilst thou art spared by pale decay,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I rest in peace, secure, unshaken.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS.</h2> - -</div> - -<table> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Proem</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PROEM">9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Disenchantment</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#DISENCHANTMENT">12</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Elfin Land.</span> Part I.</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Elfin_Land_PART_I">17</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="pad-left">Part II.</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#Elfin_Land_PART_II">28</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Inscription</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#INSCRIPTION">37</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Teutonic Minstrel’s Tomb</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_TEUTONIC_MINSTRELS_TOMB">38</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Invocation</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#INVOCATION">40</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Ionia</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#IONIA">41</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Threnody</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THRENODY">46</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Concetto</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CONCETTO">49</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Lay of the Condemned Spirit in Dante</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_LAY_OF_THE_CONDEMNED_SPIRIT_IN_DANTE">50</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Love’s Labor Lost</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#LOVES_LABOR_LOST">51</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Plague in Summer</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_PLAGUE_IN_SUMMER">55</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Euthanasia</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#EUTHANASIA">57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Forgotten</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_FORGOTTEN">58</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">To W. P. R.</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#TO_W_P_R">60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Song of Eneas’ Men</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_SONG_OF_ENEAS_MEN">62</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Authoress of the Mysteries of Udolpho</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_AUTHORESS_OF_THE_MYSTERIES_OF_UDOLPHO">64</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Monody of the Countess of Nettlestede</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#MONODY_OF_THE_COUNTESS_OF_NETTLESTEDE">65</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Close, close by Aidenn</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CLOSE_CLOSE_BY_AIDENNS_HAPPY_PORTALS">69</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Pan and Laïs</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PAN_AND_LAIS">71</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Athens</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#ATHENS">76</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Achilles’ Song</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#ACHILLES_SONG">77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Anastasius</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#ANASTASIUS">78</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Cymindis</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CYMINDIS">82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Cemetery in Summer</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_CEMETERY_IN_SUMMER">85</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">All hail, my gentle, etc.</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#ALL_HAIL_MY_GENTLE_HOUSEHOLD_LAR">88</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>[viii]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Singing Masons at Crocusburg</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_SINGING_MASONS_AT_CROCUSBURG">90</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Agimur Fatis</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#AGIMUR_FATIS">92</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">A Hermitage</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#A_HERMITAGE">94</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">I saw a snake-girt, etc.</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#I_SAW_A_SNAKE-GIRT_EMBRYON">95</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Lucifer Redux</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#LUCIFER_REDUX">97</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Ansaldo’s Garden</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#ANSALDOS_GARDEN">100</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Dying Moslem</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_DYING_MOSLEM">102</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Mdcccxlviii-ix</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#MDCCCXLVIII-IX">104</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Autumnal Ride</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_AUTUMNAL_RIDE">110</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">To ——</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#TO">113</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Suggested by a Head of Achilles, in Sir Wm. Gell’s Pompeii</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#SUGGESTED_BY_A_HEAD_OF_ACHILLES_IN_SIR_WILLIAM_GELLS_POMPEII">115</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Psyche</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PSYCHE">117</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Seraph’s Holiday</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_SERAPHS_HOLIDAY">118</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Morning</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#MORNING">121</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Autumn</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#AUTUMN">123</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">O Power of Music</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#O_POWER_OF_MUSIC">125</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Dreams</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#DREAMS">127</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Penitent</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_PENITENT">129</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Ocean, thou art disenchanted</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#OCEAN_THOU_ART_DISENCHANTED">131</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Twilight in Egypt</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#TWILIGHT_IN_EGYPT">133</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Ariel’s Song</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#ARIELS_SONG">135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Where abid’st thou, Prophet mighty</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#WHERE_ABIDST_THOU_PROPHET_MIGHTY">137</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">On her Monumental Scroll</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#ON_HER_MONUMENTAL_SCROLL">139</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">The Indian Summer</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#THE_INDIAN_SUMMER">141</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Hymn to Phosphor</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#HYMN_TO_PHOSPHOR">143</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">To the Cricket</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#TO_THE_CRICKET">145</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">Booth’s Richard</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#BOOTHS_RICHARD">147</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><span class="smcap">L’Envoi</span></td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#LENVOI">149</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="POEMS">POEMS.</h2> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="PROEM">PROËM.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A gleaner in the fields of song,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I follow where the great have gone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The wise, the beautiful, the strong,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">An humble garland weaving.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their harmonies enchant mine ears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unseal the fontal depths of tears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And lift my spirit to the spheres,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Each sense of pain bereaving.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Muse of the West! upon thy shrine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I lay this votive wreath of mine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though many an offering there may shine,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With brighter blossoms gleaming.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For, even now, though wild and young,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By cunning hands thy harp is strung,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And lips, with bees in clusters hung,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy fame are fast redeeming.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But late thy heart was pierced with pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still o’er thee flows of raven grain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A vestment dun; thine eyelids rain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their tears o’er one departed.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The harp of Israfel no more</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is heard below—some brighter shore</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Receives him, and his lost Lenore</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He clasps, the fiery hearted.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His were the wingéd words, that bear</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Imaginations rich and rare,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As pinions’ seeds through all the air,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And sow them in each bosom.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thoughts’ shadows lowered about his eye;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His forehead was a temple high,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fit haunt for Dædal Poesy;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For flowers divine to blossom.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His spirit stalked in joyless gloom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through autumn wolds, where never bloom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was seen. Above, a sullen moon</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through flying rack was beaming;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sighing winds their dirges blew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The withered leaves in eddies flew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Upon his brow the nightshade’s dew</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In venomed drops was gleaming.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sad heart, thy fiery throbs are o’er!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy soul has gained the eternal shore!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There mayst thou find the loved of yore,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who went before thee thither!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Reknit to them by cords, which ne’er</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Parcæ dark again can shear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mayst thou enjoy ambrosial cheer</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In regions of unclouded weather!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="DISENCHANTMENT">DISENCHANTMENT.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">I.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Glides the shadow round the dial,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Youth and Hope have almost flown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vainly fade my days like water,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On the sandy desert thrown.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On the Tree of Life the verdure,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Leaf by leaf decaying, dies;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And a low prophetic murmur</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In its waving branches sighs.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At its roots the Nornas sitting,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Chant, by turns, their solemn hymn;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In its shadow dreams are brooding,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As at old Dodona dim.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">II.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once like trodden vintage foaming,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through my veins the life-blood rolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fiery visions flashed around me,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Such as blinded prophets old.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cold and dark the golden mountains,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which of yore environed me;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">From the star its sheen has faded,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From the blossom and the tree.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gazing westward in the sunset,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I no longer can descry</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tents of Paladins, in clusters,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pitched against the darkening sky.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">III.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They have furled their gorgeous banners,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And their oriflammes uprolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They have struck their far pavilions,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Rich with purple and with gold.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the galley of Ulysses</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I no more at random sail,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On each tenth returning sunrise</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sure some stranger port to hail.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now the regions of the Lotos</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O’er the waters disappear;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now the meadows of the Sirens</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Starred with blossoms glitter near;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">IV.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now the golden ether leaving,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">We to lampless glooms descend,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where the Shadows of the Weary</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through the umbered spaces wend.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">With “the blind old man” I wandered</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On the soft Ionian shore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Danced at harvest feasts in autumn,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">While the oak tree arched me o’er;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through the streets of Asian cities,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lit with nuptial tapers trod,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where in star-light flamed the altars</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of the yellow-buskined god.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">V.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All the dark-eyed tribes of Hellas</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I could visit, one by one,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In their <i>agorai</i> I gossipped</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With the idlers in the sun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At the school of old Crotona</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Heard the Samian recite,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How the eternal Monad flowers</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Into blossoms infinite;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How from shape to shape forever</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Silent, serpent-like it glides,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On a starred, unresting circle,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In its pilgrimages rides.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VI.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At the city of Glaucopis,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Neath the olive trees I lay,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">While the bird of Itys warbled</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through the livelong summer day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And at moon-rise, decked with garlands,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lay reclined in that alcove,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where harangued the Man-Silenus</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On the genesis of Love.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fast the wine and wit were flowing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Mid the banquet’s joyous din;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At the door, the son of Clinias,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Crowned and drunken, gazing in.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or at morning, in some <i>stoa</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Heard the Sage, as in his toils</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He immeshed the wordy sophists</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Come to dazzle from the Isles.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the house of Thespis sitting,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On upæthric seats of stone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Saw the tribes of birds collected</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In a kingdom of their own;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In a quaint ethereal city,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Full of many-tinted plumes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which in mid-air intercepted</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Jove’s refection, altar-fumes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VIII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But the portals of Athenæ</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I no longer wander through,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">To her Owl and to her <i>Bema</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2">I have bid a long adieu.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cities thronged with breathing beings—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Not the pavements of the dead—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For the future I must frequent,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For the future I must tread.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though their streets have not the glory,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which the towns of Hellas wore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In them I must toil and battle,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Till the fret and din are o’er.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">IX.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till the clamor of the Present</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the eternal silence dies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And my frame, but dust and ruin,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In its final chamber lies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With the vanished and forgotten,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With the lovely and the brave,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who have sunken through the Ages,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To the quiet of the grave.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There the eye of love shall vainly</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through the red earth seek to pry,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There the grass and night winds only</div> - <div class="verse indent2">True to sorrow ever sigh.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Elfin_Land_PART_I">Elfin Land<br /> -<span class="allsmcap">PART I.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Into the fabled Fairy land</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>My portals open wide,</i></div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>Where life is all a holiday</i></div> - <div class="verse indent2"><i>From morn till eventide.</i></div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A soft and dreamy atmosphere</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Above its plains is hung,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A summer noon and twilight fused</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And mingled into one.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From all its bounds the turbaned cock</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is banished far away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As erst he was from Sybaris,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where drowsy people lay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Indulging drowsy phantasies,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Long after break of day.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The cricket’s wiry song by night,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By day the humblebee’s,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The loudest noises are, that float</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Upon the Elfin breeze.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Welsh king, Arthur, and his court</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Have dwelt long ages here—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sir Launcelot still whispers sly</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To faithless Guenevere.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here Jacques and his gay compeers</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In forests still carouse,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pavilioned by a network green</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of melancholy boughs.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Removed beyond the Sabbath chime,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Far in the shady wold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unvexed by care they fleet the time,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As in the Age of Gold.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Still in the limpid runnels’ waves,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which round their lodges wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And in the stones and in the trees,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Monitions deep they find.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">That merry knot is also here</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of fabling Florentines,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who revelled while the Avenger hung</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O’er Arno and its vines.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The love of story, dance, and song,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They had in Tuscan land,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still warms their breasts, though ferried o’er</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Unto the Fairy strand.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here too La Mancha’s cavalier</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Reposes ’neath his bays,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who roamed the wilds of tawny Spain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In quest of knightly praise.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er river, vale, and mountain lone,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He ne’er shall wander more,—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His steed is in the self-same stall</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With Roland’s Brigliadore.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Stretched on the banks of Elfin streams,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With antique knights he lies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And talks through all the livelong day,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of many an old emprize.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here sages dwell, whose names adorn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The mediæval time,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In lonely turrets, whence at night</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their ruddy tapers shine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Aquinas, dialectic sage,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Endowed with subtlest wits—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath a cobweb canopy</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The saintly sophist sits.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And he, who in his wizard glass</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To Surry’s eye displayed</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His gentle lady o’er the sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With lilied pallor spread.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Brave Surry, knightly bard, who cull’d,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where Tuscan summers shine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ambrosial flowers of heavenly song</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To deck a colder clime.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Those cloistral lovers far renowned,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The sage and nun, are here,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose quenchless passion yielded not</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To penances austere.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In vain the serge, the flinty bed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The eremital glooms—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The boy-god flashed his fire-tipt reed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Athwart the censer’s fumes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ficino, mighty Platonist,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Hath here his dwelling-place;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No sphingal countenance more calm</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than his majestic face.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Among the starry flock was he,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whose holy toils unsealed</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fountains of Hellenic lore,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And all their wealth revealed.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From Plato’s thoughts their Attic dress,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To charm an era rude,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He tore away, and in its stead</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A meaner garb indued.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But unto eyes, o’er which no film</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By ignorance is thrown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His dreams those garments only grace</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In which at birth they shone.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of bright Cadmean rune he wove</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A rich asbestic web;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sometimes its woof like sunset glows,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of gold and purple thread;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sometimes with rosy spring it vies—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Then flowers inwoven shine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sometimes diaphonous as oil;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than Coan gauze more fine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And thus each imaged thought, that sprung</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From his sciential brain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A fluent drapery received,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To make its beauty plain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Here pilgrims dwell, strange sights that saw</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On many a foreign strand—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He born beneath the Doge’s rule,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beloved of Kubla Khan,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Mandeville, who journeyed far</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Against the Eastern wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sacred Capital to see,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And miracles of Ind.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">None ever wore the sandal shoon</div> - <div class="verse indent2">More marvellous than he;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For then the world had far away</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its realms of mystery.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The giant Roc then winnowed swift</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The morning-cradled breeze,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And happy islands glittered o’er</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Occidental seas.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Upon Saint Michael’s happy morn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">How throbbed his glowing brow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When towards the ancient Orient</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His galley turned her prow!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Already in the wind he smells</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Hyblæan odors blown</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From isles invisible, afar</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Amid the Indian foam.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The turbaned millions, dusky, wild,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Already meet his eyes—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The domes of Islam crescent-crowned</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In long perspective rise,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Mid waving palms, o’er level sands,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With skyey verges low,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where from his eastern tent, the Sun</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Spreads wide a saffron glow.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The golden thrones of Asian kings,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their empery supreme,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their capitals Titanic, laved</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By many a famous stream;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The cities, desolate and lone,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where desert monsters prowl,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where spiders film the royal throne,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And shrieks the nightly owl;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Enormous Caf, the mountain wall</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of ancient Colchian land—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where dragon-drawn Medea gave</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Argonaut her hand;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Nysæan Meros, mid whose rifts</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The viny God was born,—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The empyreal sky its summit cleaves,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In shape a golden horn;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And o’er its top reclining swim</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In zones of windless air</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The slumbrous deities of Ind,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Removed from earthly care;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Ammonian phalanx round its base</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In festal garments ranged,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their brows with ivied chaplets bound,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their swords to <i>thyrsi</i> changed;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The ravenous gryphons, brooding o’er</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The desert’s gleaming gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The auroral Chersonese, that shines</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With treasures manifold;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The groves of odorous scent, that line</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The green Sabæan shore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whence wrapped in cerements dipt in balm,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His sire the Phœnix bore;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Persian valley famed in song,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where gentle Hafiz strayed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Indian Hollow far beyond,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By mountains tall embayed;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose virgins boast a richer bloom</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than peaches of Cabool,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And nymph-like fall their marble urns</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With fountain-waters cool;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose looms produce a gorgeous web,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That with the rainbow vies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So delicate its downy woof,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">So deep its royal dyes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The motionless Yogee, who stands</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In wildernesses lone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His sleepless eye forever fixed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On Brahma’s airy throne,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In blue infinity to melt</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His troubled soul away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And of the sunny Monad form</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A portion and a ray.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The tales, Milesian-like, that charm</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The vacant ear at eve,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wherein the Orient fabulists</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their marvels interweave;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of wondrous realms beyond the reach</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of mortal footstep far,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose maidens, winged with pinions light,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Outstrip the falling star;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose forests bear a vocal fruit,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With human tongues endowed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That mid the autumn-laden boughs</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Are querulous and loud;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of sparry caves in musky hills,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which sevenfold seas surround,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where ancient kings enchanted lie,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In dreamless slumber bound;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of potent gems, whose hidden might</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Can thwart malignant star;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Eblis’ pavement saffron-strewn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Neath fallen Istakhar;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">All these in long succession rose,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Illumed by fancy’s ray,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As swiftly towards the Morning lands</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His galley ploughed her way.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="Elfin_Land_PART_II">Elfin Land.<br /> -<span class="allsmcap">PART II.</span></h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But far the greatest miracle</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which Elfin land can show,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A hostel is, like that which stood</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In Eastcheap long ago.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Before the entrance, in the blast</div> - <div class="verse indent2">There swings a tusky sign;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when at night the Elfin moon</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And constellations shine,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A ruddy glow illumes the panes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And looking through you see,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With merry faces seated round,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A famous company.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Prince Hal the royal wassailer,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And that great fount of fun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Diana’s portly forester,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The merry knight Sir John,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With all their losel servitors,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Mirth-shaken cheek by cheek;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cambysean Pistol, Peto, Poins,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And Bardolph’s fiery beak.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A grove there is in Elfin land,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where closely intertwine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Grecian myrtle’s branches light</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With Gothic oak sublime.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath its canopy of shade,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their temples bound with bays,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are grouped the minstrels, that adorn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The mediæval days.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The laurelled Ghibelline, who saw</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Stygian abyss,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fiery mosques and walls, that gird</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The capital of Dis;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The realms of penance, and the rings</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of constellated light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose luminous pavilions hold</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The righteous robed in white;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Uranian groves and spheral vales,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Saturnian academes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where sainted theologues abide,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Discoursing mystic themes;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Paradisal stream, that winds</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through Heaven’s unfading bowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And on its banks the beauteous maid,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who culled celestial flowers.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Him next the sweet Vauclusian swan,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Love’s Laureate, appears,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who bathed his mistress’ widowed urn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With Heliconian tears;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Certaldo’s storied sage,—a bard,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Though round his genius rare</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The golden manacles of verse</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He did not choose to wear.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Those rosy morns, that usher in</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Each festal-gladdened day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His prose depicts in hues as bright</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As could the poet’s lay.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His ultramontane brother, born</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In Albion’s shady isle;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dan Chaucer, of his tameless race</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Apollo’s eldest child;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Medecean banqueter,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whose Fescennines unfold</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The deeds of heathen Anakim</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Restored to Peter’s fold;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ferrara’s Melesigenes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who o’er a wide domain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of haunted forests, mounts, and seas,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Exerts his magic reign;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A glowing Mœnad, with her locks</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Dishevelled in the wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His fancy wantons far and near,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From Thule unto Ind;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now from her griffin steed alights</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Alcina’s palace near,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now in the Patmian prophet’s car</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ascends the lunar sphere;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Or with Rinaldo wanders through</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Caledonian wood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amid whose shades and coverts green</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Heroic trophies glowed;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Or paints the mighty Paladin</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Transformed to monster gross,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose mistress drank in Ardennes lone</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The lymph of Anterōs.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Next hapless Tasso, pale and wan,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Released from dungeon grates;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sacred legions of the cross</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His genius celebrates;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Armida’s mountain paradise</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Amid the western seas;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her dragon-yoke, whose nimble hooves</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Could run upon the breeze.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The sombre forest, where encamped</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Dark Eblis’ minions lay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With shapes evoked from Orcus’ gloom</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To fright his foes away.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Lo, marble pontifices spring,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To arch illusive streams,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And swans and nightingales rehearse</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their moist melodious threnes!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The centuried trees are cloven wide,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And forth from every plant</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A maiden steps, whose tears might melt</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A heart of adamant.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A sudden darkness veils the sky,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And fortresses of fire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With ruddy towers of pillared flame,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Above the woods aspire.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Transfigured in the morning beam.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On Zion’s holy height</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rinaldo puts the dusky swarms</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of Erebus to flight.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor absent from the shining throng</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That dainty bard, I ween,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who hung the maiden empress throne</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With garlands ever green.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Elfin Court’s Demodocus,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His lay he carols light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His fancy’s unexhausted urns</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Still brimmed with waters bright.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Far distant from the minstrel’s bower,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Another group is seen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who ruled of yore a sylvan race</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In western forests green.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Manhattan’s sleepy potentates—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of ox-like girth are they;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In ages gone the Hudson rolled</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beneath their gentle sway.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A hazy <i>nimbus</i> sleeps about</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their smooth unwrinkled brows;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like ripened melon through its folds</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Each mottled visage glows.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The ponderous Twiller dozes still,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Benignant, voiceless, deep;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His council-board, rotund and grave,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Unbroken silence keep.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And still Van Winkle snores and dreams</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Upon the mountain side,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unwakened by the ebbless flow</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of time’s unwearied tide.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Sleepy Hollow’s pedagogue,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In smoky autumn air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lies musing of his faithless love,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His Katarina fair.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Those knights are here who wandered through</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The forests of the south,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And vast savannas green and lone,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To find the fount of youth.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The towers and fanes they likewise sought</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of Eldorado bright;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amid magnolian woods and palms</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Uprose its turrets light.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Glittered its roofs with golden tiles—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All things of gold were wrought;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its burghers wore a jaundiced hue</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From yellow pavements caught.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But who shall number all that haunt</div> - <div class="verse indent2">King Oberon’s domains?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His lieges are the airy shapes</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Conceived in poet’s brains.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Their limbs are cast in fairer mould</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than those of common earth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their ladies are more beautiful</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than dames of mortal birth.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This work-day world perchance will show,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In epochs yet to be,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As goodly men and lovely maids</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As those in Faërie.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INSCRIPTION">INSCRIPTION.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Lithe ivy, let thy gliding foliage shade</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This urn, where Shelley’s sacred dust is laid,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose fire was quenched beneath the angry sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That laves the sunny shores of Italy!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Elements did moan around his bier.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In him they lost their best interpreter—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For his most subtile, sympathizing frame</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was as a sweet melodious instrument,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through all whose pores and million channels went</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Universe into his heart and brain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In musical influxes, that ebbed amain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From out his lips, in verse of power to tame</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A tiger’s heart, or suage an angel’s pain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through his well-jointed reeds the circling gyres</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of planets poured in song their soft desires,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And glad ovations, while their vernal dreams</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The leaves did whisper, and the clouds and streams</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And winds their fluent exultations pour,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With sky-pavilioned ocean’s organ-roar.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TEUTONIC_MINSTRELS_TOMB">THE TEUTONIC MINSTREL’S TOMB.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Far north they say there lies a wizard land,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which has above it all the changeless year,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A silver-shining, milk-warm atmosphere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amid whose windless calm the forests stand</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As still as clustered obelisks. A bland</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Delight is shed o’er all who enter here;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And by a lonely path their way they steer</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through dreamy hollows, under forests grand</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of larch and fir, round many a placid mere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er silver streams and level barrens drear.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At length they come unto a mossy gate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And find within a city desolate;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its streets knee-deep with yellow leaves are strown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And stiller than the Ephesian Sleeper’s cave.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The watchman’s horn at midnight lies unblown,—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ivy-muffled bells hang dumb, and save</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The noise of summer flies, sound there is none.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wide open stands the Kaiser’s palace door,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And here and there, upon the dusty floor,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Swords, helms, and spears, and empty wine-cups lie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Between whose golden lips black spiders ply</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their filmy looms in bright security.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Within this city, reared by Elfin hands,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A huge and mouldering mausoleum stands.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">These words are graved upon its portals gray,—</div> - <div class="verse indent0"><i>The Singer of the Nibelungen Lay</i>.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INVOCATION">INVOCATION.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">O, placid Death! O, lotos-circled king!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Parent of rest and endless slumbering!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With downy-sandalled pace approach me now,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And bathe my lips and palpitating brow</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From flagons full of cool Lethean spray,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For I am weary of the light of day.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or call to Sleep, thy mild dejected twin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when the rosy-fingered Morn shall rise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will ye aloft upon the healthy wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That blows from out her dewy balconies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Waft me to those calm isles, whose tribes obey</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sky-fallen Saturn’s ever peaceful sway?</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="IONIA">IONIA.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Ye lands and immemorial isles, that bear</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The name of Ion, who with besom made</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of laurel-boughs the Sun-god’s temple swept—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye golden climes, to poesy and love</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Most dear, oases mid the wastes of Eld,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where, in her lonely retrospective flight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bright-haired Mnemosyne delights to pause,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By matchless shapes of loveliness beguiled!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Within your bounds the plastic hand of art</div> - <div class="verse indent0">First made the mountain’s marble entrails teem</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With images of beauty, lining all</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your sea-washed strand with fair columnar cities,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Built high of glossiest sun-enamelled stone.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forever o’er your myrtle-shaded vales,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Reclined on summer clouds, did Aphrodite</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And golden Eros lean, kindling the air</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With passion’s rosy glow. In all the earth</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beside, did visible nature never wear</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Robes so resplendent. Through the luminous folds</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of your transparent atmosphere appeared</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unequalled prospects to enchant the eye;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Marmorean cities rising o’er the verge</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of halcyon seas, and promontories crowned</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With tombs heroical, or glistening shrines;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And breezy mountains swathed with silver clouds,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The watchtowers blue of broad-eyed Jove; whence he</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The limitless low-lying earth surveyed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The towns of mortal men, their fights and toils.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oft from your shore the fisherman descried</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The smoke of conflagration climbing slow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In graceful spires, far up the summer air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From some beleaguered city of the isles;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And white-robed argosies from wealthy Tyre,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rising and falling on the sparkling waves,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Voyaging with orient merchandise to towns,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose turrets glittered in the western beam.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Within your cities, villages, and fields,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Abode a graceful populace, with rites</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And manners beautiful as e’er adorned</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The imagined landscape of a poet’s dream;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The captive maid, descending with her urn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To shady spring, or cistern scooped from stone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And flowing with cool water to the brim;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The royal virgin, seated far within</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Some gorgeous recess of the kingly dome,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Plying with busy hand her dædal loom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The wandering minstrel, slumbering fast at noon</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By fountain-side or stream, or harping loud</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In palace hall, and crowded market-place;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The frequent song of Hymen, saffron-robed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Resounding through the torchlit street, what time</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The star of love, thrice welcome Hesper, rose</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above some immemorial mountain’s brow;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The youthful vintagers, by moonlight pale</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bearing the grapes in osier talarisks,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While on his lute some beardless minstrel played</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Lay of Linus, regal boy, of all</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sons of men most musical, whose bloom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was scorched and withered by the solar beam;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rustic temple, hidden deep in groves</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And pleasant solitudes, beneath whose dome</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The village youth their glowing pæans sang;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And over all the dark blue heavens sublime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where from their sky-pavilions brightest shone</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ancient stars and constellations, hymned</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By eldest bards—the sworded Titan named</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Orion, with the starry sisterhoods,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hyads and Pleïades in clusters bright.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cradled amid your kindly influences,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The soft Ionian fancy wantoned wild</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">In warm voluptuous dreams of loveliness,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pouring its inspirations in a tongue</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inimitable—a honeyed dialect—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Protean, flexible, all various,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose vowelled cadences could flow as smooth</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As amber streams, or raise and modulate</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their intonations to the ocean’s deep</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sonorous surges chafing with the strand.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Indelible and burning Rune, its words</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Upon the scroll of blind Meonides</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Survive, and with their fluent numbers shame</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The harsher languages of later days.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor in the Carian’s golden chronicle,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though not arranged in metrical array,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sound they less sweet. Alas! the glorious tribes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Over whose chiselled lips they wont to roll</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In honeyed song and fiery eloquence,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Have vanished. Hushed the lyres of Ibycus,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bacchylides, and Sappho<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> starry-eyed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And that delicious lute the Teian played</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Within the halls of King Polycrates,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While round him, bound with leafed and roseal wreaths,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Mid fountain spray and snowy columns, danced</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ionia’s raven-tressed voluptuous girls.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Minstrel of beauty, love, and vinous joy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy festal spirit yet survives on earth,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Clad in a garment of enduring verse,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The asbestine robe of all-immortal song!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<div class="footnote"> -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Sappho was an Æolian, but she is commonly included in -this cluster of poets.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THRENODY">THRENODY.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though my boyhood scarce is over,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Yet the dark Plutonian tide</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Many a friend and loyal lover</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From my bosom doth divide.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In the cypress-shaded valleys</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of the solemn nether realm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They in draughts from Lethe’s chalice,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Every mortal memory whelm.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While above, the pensive willow</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Droops forever o’er their urns,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And around their earthy pillow</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Glide the many-footed worms.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In the race with me they started</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From the East with visions gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vehement and hero-hearted,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fearless of the coming fray.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Brightly flowed their golden tresses</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the soft auroral wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, like falcons from their jesses,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Upward bore they unconfined.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Bathed their spirits in the splendor</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of the Scian bard sublime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And of Maro’s lay more tender</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Heard the symphony divine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Felt their hearts with love unbounded</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For their country running o’er,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While they read the words that sounded</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the Attic Pnyx of yore.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But the frosts of death descended,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ere was gone the morning’s dew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And their joyful being ended,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">While the world was fresh and new.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though the rose and lily wither</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On their garden beds awhile,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soon the gentle vernal weather</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Shall restore their former smile.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But for man august and splendid,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than the angels little lower,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When his dreamlike life is ended,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Blooms his withered frame no more.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Shades of friendship, gliding slowly</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On Cocytus’ farther brink,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In this cup of nectar holy</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Once again to you I drink.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye have crossed the languid river,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ye have paid the last obole;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Day for you has set forever,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ye have won the mystic goal!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONCETTO">CONCETTO.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ammon’s solar fount congeals</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the heat and glare of noon;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But its waters it unseals</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Neath the kisses of the moon.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So the heart is often found</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the smiles of fortune cold;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But afflictions lowering round,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All its charities unfold.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_LAY_OF_THE_CONDEMNED_SPIRIT_IN_DANTE">THE LAY OF THE CONDEMNED SPIRIT IN DANTE.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container smaller"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">—— nel dolce mondo.—<i>Inferno.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When o’er the threshold of the drear abyss,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whose portals stern shall never ope for me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy feet regain that upper world of bliss,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">These shadowy orbs may never hope to see;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Wilt thou to kindred hearts, that linger yet</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By Arno’s stream, my hapless name recall?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For mortals soon the dearest face forget,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When blanched by death it lies beneath the pall.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">An exile in the realms of endless pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In dreams I see my pleasant earthly home;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh, bid them there resyllable my name,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Forgetful of the sins that make me moan!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sweet world of bliss, forever lost to me,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For your blue heavens and pleasant sun I pine!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For grass, and flower, and stream, and rustling tree,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I mourn forever in the nether clime!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LOVES_LABOR_LOST">LOVE’S LABOR LOST.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">I.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This royal gate, thou quivered sprite,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Shall ope to thee no more!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mere Hymen’s torch is quenched and cold,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His burning lay is o’er.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The potentate, whose sceptre bright</div> - <div class="verse indent2">This goodly realm obeys,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An anchoret in scholar’s weeds</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Has vowed to pass his days.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">II.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His palace is an academe,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As hushed as summer noon;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No festal sound is heard therein,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beneath the sun or moon.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The palace-yard with rankest weeds</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is thickly overgrown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And moss begins to carpet o’er</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Each long untrodden stone.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">III.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bees swarm within the rifted walls,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And store their golden dew;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The livelong day with drowsy hum</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They cleave the ether blue.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The yellow beams of summer sleep</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In silence on the floors;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A muffled tread is sometimes heard</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Along the corridors.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">IV.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Within a vast and shady room,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With antique volumes piled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In studious mood the monarch sits,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From passion’s lures exiled.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A skylight in the roof is made,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through which at night are seen</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ancient stars in clusters bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Amid the blue serene.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">V.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Around the king three famous lords,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Bound by the self-same vow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In silence sit, and o’er the scrolls</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of starry Plato bow.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Above them gaze from lofty stands</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The high-browed kings of thought,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their furrowed lineaments divine</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In placid marble wrought.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VI.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the blazoned window lies</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A far-stretched prospect grand;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lakes, emerald lawns, and rustling woods</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O’erlooking all the land.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There in the sunshine, to and fro</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Slow stalks a solemn wight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Attended by a tiny page,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A pert and saucy sprite.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A blue pavilion farther on</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is pitched beneath the trees;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Begirt by tents, whose pennons float</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And dally with the breeze.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A bevy fair of dark-eyed girls</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beneath their folds abide;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unto the vows of yonder lords</div> - <div class="verse indent2">What fortune will betide!</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VIII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sometimes they scour the flowery meads,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On nimble palfreys white;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sometimes they dance beneath the shade</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through all the balmy night.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their merry songs, their jocund notes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Are borne from grove to grove;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fill up your ears with molten wax,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ye enemies of love!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">IX.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Short was the siege those damsels laid—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The king has gone away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In lonely woods his lady’s wrath</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By penance to allay.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The famous lords, who round him sat,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Each, at his maid’s command,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Attend a year the couch of death,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ere he can win her hand.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_PLAGUE_IN_SUMMER">THE PLAGUE IN SUMMER.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">Oh golden hours! Elysian day,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Adorned with all things bright and gay;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Green boughs, and winds, and summer beams,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lovely as Eden’s transient gleams!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But ah! the glorious robes ye wear</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Deride the depths of man’s despair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Since, lurking mid your gladsome rays,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Plague of Ganges stalks and slays.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For he from Indian vales has come,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Following the circle of the sun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through Balk, and over Oxus’ stream,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gliding as soundless as a dream,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Into the cities of the West,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That quail before the giant pest.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The stir of life in silence dies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where’er the mighty vampyre flies;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The voice of mirth is hushed and mute;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The viol shrill, the festal lute;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Alike o’er towns and hamlets brood</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Silence, and Death, and Solitude;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While in the shadow of the pall</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The busy worms hold carnival!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="EUTHANASIA">EUTHANASIA.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In the dawn of her life and the bloom of her spring,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dark Asrael fanned her to sleep with his wing;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And her form, when the spirit had flown from its shrine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lay like marble, that’s moulded by chisel divine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh, why was she garnered in life’s early bloom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To grace with her beauty the clods of the tomb?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There were victims for death, who were weary and old,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And who longed for the slumber unbroken and cold.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But her loveliness lives, for escaped from its urn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In blossoms and odors her dust shall return—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the Hesper-like glory, that shone in her eye,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To-night will be beaming a star in the sky.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_FORGOTTEN">THE FORGOTTEN.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Many a sword hath nobly wrought,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Many a warrior bravely fought,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose name the lyre hath never taught</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To swell his nation’s minstrelsy.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In lonely woods their ashes sleep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose dewy leaves above them weep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And wild birds chant their dirges sweet—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But none e’er list their melody.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh, when we pledge our father’s fame,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">One flowing goblet let us drain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To those, the long forgotten slain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whose relics moulder silently;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And o’er their foes, the warriors red,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who for their fenceless acres bled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let none a tear refuse to shed—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Tis due to Nature’s chivalry.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">What more becomes a noble foe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than o’er the brave, his sword laid low,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To let the tears of sorrow flow?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They glorify his victory.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">No deathless bard their valor blest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or Paugus, Ajax of the West,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Philip had not sunk to rest,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Enfolded in obscurity.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_W_P_R">TO W. P. R.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The links of amity that bind</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Our souls together evermore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are forged as strong as those that joined</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The brave and beautiful of yore.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though many a valley-darkening hill</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And ocean billow may divide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My heart retains thine image still,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through every change of time and tide.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though lapsing years are friendship’s bane,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And absence brings forgetfulness,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet these exert their might in vain,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They cannot make our love the less.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Across the billows of the sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where rolls the legend-haunted river,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My dreaming spirit flies to thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like arrow drawn from Phœbus’ quiver.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">About thy hearth-stone, dim and cold,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Forsaken Lares droop and moan;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They miss the faces, that of old</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Within their joyous precincts shone.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Full soon the halls of Dis shall hide</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Both thee and me and all we love,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For, bubbles on a rushing tide,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Our evanescent beings move.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While yet the stars above us shine,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And youth and hope and love remain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O, pilgrim seek thy natal clime,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And glad my heart and eyes again!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SONG_OF_ENEAS_MEN">THE SONG OF ENEAS’ MEN.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Joy to us, for yonder river</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Opens up a pathway calm</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To the green and silent inland,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Under forests dropping balm.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wandering Lares, ye shall nestle</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the hearth-light once again—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye shall drift no more at random,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sport of tempest and of rain.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though the gentle household voices,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Wont of old your ears to thrill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By the banks of far Scamander</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Are forever hushed and still;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Kindred hands shall heap your altars,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Kindred knees before you bow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the country of the stranger,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Into which we enter now.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Woodland carols bid us welcome</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From the Siroc and the foam;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Safe escaped from moaning surges</div> - <div class="verse indent2">We at length have found a home.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Shepherds’ fires on mountain headlands,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">We shall watch your gleams no more,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gazing wildly from the billows,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To the wished-for, tranquil shore.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Twins of Leda, on our quarters</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ye shall never flame again;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We shall bow to rustic altars,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Not the trident of the main.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Softly rolls the yellow river</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Eddying to the briny sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soon upon his waves to carry</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Battle-ship and argosy;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soon to change his rippling murmur</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Into ocean’s clangor wild,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And be mingled with the waters</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In which nations are inisled.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Joy to us, his gentle current</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Opens up a pathway calm</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To the green and silent inland,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Under forests dropping balm.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_AUTHORESS_OF_THE_MYSTERIES_OF_UDOLPHO">THE AUTHORESS OF THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Her genius had its dwelling in the light</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of setting suns, and the deserted halls</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of ivy-clad chateaux, where, undisturbed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Arachne plies her gossamer loom, filming</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sumptuous tapestries, embroidered o’er</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With flowers and gay Ovidian phantasies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the refulgent mirrors, long ago</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wafted in argosies from the lagunes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of wealthy Venice. Through the silent night,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rippling shadows of the ancient trees</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dapple the floors, and ’neath the fireless hearths,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The crickets chirrup shrill—while from the walls</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The painted semblance of some Lady Blanche,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or rose-lipped Maude, or Eleanore looks down,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Long since enveloped in the robes of death.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In summer, when the luscious peach is ripe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through the great windows opening westward lie</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Delicious prospects; lawns and wooded slopes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Orchards of grapes—and o’er the tree-tops high</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The glittering ocean backed by sunset skies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With gold and amethystine vapors hung.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="MONODY_OF_THE_COUNTESS_OF_NETTLESTEDE">MONODY OF THE COUNTESS OF NETTLESTEDE.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh vernal sun, how cold thy beams to me!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Since they can never more illume</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His face, my heart’s idolatry,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That now, alas! immersed in urnal gloom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Far, far below thy golden glances lies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wrapt from these yearning arms and weeping eyes!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In vain for me, sweet flowers, ye reassume</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your vestments rare of oriental dyes;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your subtle fragrance and your glorious bloom</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But call to mind a sweeter far than you—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My Prince and Lord, my Beautiful and True,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose cheek was burnished with as bright a hue</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As decks your leaves, whose eyes were wont to shine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Upon my glowing face like stars benign.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Again I hear the South wind’s murmurs low</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Making the earth with life and beauty glow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But now more icy than the Sarsar’s breath,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In deserts old the minister of death,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Around my worn and wasted frame it sighs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Recalling soft Elysian memories.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">How oft engraven in the oaken rind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My hapless name with his I see entwined.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dear hand, that carved these love knots, ’neath the mould</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou now alas! art shrunken, pulseless, cold!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And has he left the world forevermore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That still contains his ill-starred paramour?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh, woe is me! Oh sickening, keen distress!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh solemn, strange, and mighty loneliness!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That makes to issue from my riven breast</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sob after sob of anguish unrepressed</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And irrepressible, till, nerveless down</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My cold limbs sink upon the sun-warm ground.—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thence up aloft I gaze with yearning eyes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Into the vast and azure-flowing skies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Far, far beyond whose airy curtains stand</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The many mansions of the angel land.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There, girt with seraphs sits the mother mild,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there in glory reigns her sinless child.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh, Holy One! Thy countenance benign</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unto thy weary worshipper incline!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My lonely spirit quickly call away</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From earth, and its pale tenement of clay!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sunlit hills, woods, vales, and waters clear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And home and household faces once so dear—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All these fair sights since his departure seem</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mournful and strange,—a vision and a dream.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh, Saviour merciful! whate’er his fate</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the grave, let me participate.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">If garmented in light, he walks serene</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By thy still waters, through thy pastures green,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My soul make pure so long by sin defiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, raised to heaven, acknowledge me thy child!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But if, Erinnys-like, the bloody Doom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That here on earth pursued him to the tomb,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lured by his sins relentless pass beyond,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And hunt him to the gulfs of woe profound,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Together let our erring sprites be hurled</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Afar into some sad autumnal world—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some land of withered leaves and sighing winds,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where twined in one we may bewail our sins!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Father in Heaven, forgive this impious prayer!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou know’st it rises from my deep despair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Be merciful unto my wretched state—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Indeed, indeed, I am unfortunate!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Far, far from me the loved one buried lies—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His sepulchre unknown to these dim eyes—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In that sad chapel, whose dark aisles contain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Full many a haughty heart and guilty brain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beauty and strength resolved to dust again.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There languish now henceforth in dull decay</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Those eyes, that glistened with a star-like ray.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From his blanched lip and cheek forevermore</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fades the fresh rose which blossomed there before.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Gory and dank, bereft of all their grace</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His tresses hang about his marble face—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not as of old, when flowing unconfined,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their odors wooed the amorous summer wind.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Livid and blue those beauteous lips, whose kiss,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The seal of love, imparted perfect bliss.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The rosy twilights and the moons of May,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath whose beams we loved the hours away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are gone—and gone the ruddy ember-gloom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That filled with lurid light our silent room,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When o’er our hall the wintry tempest flew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And love our yearning hearts together drew.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My stay, my life, my hope, my star is gone—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And I am left in sorrow and alone;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The oak is stricken from the vine’s embrace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And on the earth its tendrils run to waste!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="CLOSE_CLOSE_BY_AIDENNS_HAPPY_PORTALS">CLOSE, CLOSE BY AIDENN’S HAPPY PORTALS</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Close, close by Aidenn’s happy portals</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My tent is pitched forevermore,<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through which to join the bright immortals,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My loved and lost have gone before.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In noontide trance and starry dream</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their forms transfigured oft I see;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though Death’s cold river flows between,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their gentle whispers come to me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Aidenn’s walls I see in dreams,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its shining turrets golden-tiled;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But swiftly fade their lovely gleams,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And leave behind a longing wild.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There cleansed and pure from earthly stain,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Full many a martyred spirit dwells,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through fire and wrong that did attain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Those far celestial citadels.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye white-robed warders, strong and bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That on those shining summits stand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Entreat for me the Prince of Light,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That I may reach his happy land.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="footnotes"> -<div class="footnote"> -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> The idea in the first four lines of this piece was borrowed -from a beautiful passage occurring in a biographical sketch of -a late distinguished poet.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="PAN_AND_LAIS">PAN AND LAÏS.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">I.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once on a time, grown tired of shepherd’s fare,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From hilly Arcady with swift descent,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rough Pan in tunic wove of subtile air,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Invisible to sacred Corinth went;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through his aerial vesture vision-proof,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No mortal eye could see or horn or hoof.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">II.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With soundless tread he passed from street to street,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through which as arteries the sea-winds blew;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And gorgeous shows the mighty rustic greet,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where’er from right to left his glance he threw;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Poor seem his pastoral hills and forests all,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Matched with the Isthmus’ peerless capital.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">III.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For now its rampires, palaces, and shrines,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lit up by morning’s golden glances stood;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A pillared labyrinth, through which there winds</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With ceaseless flow a various multitude.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Nobles and merchants swiftly roll along,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On radiant cars by Thracian coursers drawn.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">IV.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And hoary priests, in robes of purest white,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lead slowly up the pomp of sacrifice</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To stately fanes, where wreaths of incense light</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From fuming altars climb the purple skies;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While slender pipes by youthful minions blown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With softest melodies the rites make known.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">V.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From foam-born Aphrodite’s voluptuous seat</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On Acrocorinth’s lofty summit pour,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their raven tresses dropping unguents sweet,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Her thousand handmaids to the busy shore,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where they entangle in their wanton wiles</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The voyagers come from continents and isles.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VI.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As on he passed, the Arcadian god admires,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Between tall sculptured piles that line the way,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cool lymph in crystal jets, and sheaf-like spires,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From marble gorges spouted ceaselessly;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose myriad drops with charmed eyes he sees,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bestrode by interwoven Irides.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Weary at length of wandering here and there,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His eyes sore dazzled by the eternal gleam</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of sun-kissed marbles, on a shady stair,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Near which uprose a fountain’s liquid sheen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pan sought repose, and heard a minstrel tell</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In plastic verse of Here’s potent spell;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">VIII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which, on a mountain-couch of vernal flowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lulled by its might the Thunderer to sleep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who lay, regardless of the ebbing powers</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of Ilion’s champion, locked in swoonings deep.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here, while he sat, a sudden silence fell</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On all the street, that, quiet as the cell</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">IX.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Indian saint by Ganges’ marge afar,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Within a moment’s interval became;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For on a rose-ensanguined ivory car,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of swanlike shape, and lovelier than the wain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Dawn, came Laïs, Eros’ idol fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Delicious, soft, and warm as vernal air.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">X.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A golden tiar begirt her forehead white,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which flashed with many an orient amethyst,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">With jacinth, pearl, and opal’s fire-red light;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Each gem the guerdon of a burning kiss</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On Asian lords bestowed, who wore the crowns</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of those voluptuous Ionian towns—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">XI.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Miletus, Smyrna, and the rest, that line</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The eastern margin of the central sea;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whence many a burnished galley o’er the brine</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To Corinth crosses, drawn by witchery</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of laughter-swimming eyes and rosy lips,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wherein she doth all other towns eclipse.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">XII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Slow rolled proud Laïs’ wheels—while here and there,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On warrior, bard, and sage, who spell-bound stood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She showered familiar smiles, that flushed the air,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And thrilled each heart in all the multitude;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her partial glances raised a prouder glow</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than all the wreaths that glory could bestow.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">XIII.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pan, at her presence, felt his cloud-robe turn</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Fire-red, like vapors round the sinking sun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Not thus for dreamy Dian did he burn;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And how a kiss might from her lips be won,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">He of his horn-clad brain assistance sought,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which, full of schemes, struck out a subtle thought.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">XIV.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For swift as light, from some far river’s meads,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A hornet flying drove his venomed sting</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Into the foreheads of her glossy steeds;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They, bolting upward, made a sudden spring,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That snapped, like gossamer threads, each leathern trace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And dashed the chariot on a statue’s base.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">XV.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By arms invisible the falling dame</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Was held unwounded in the yielding air;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And on her brow there fell a fiery rain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of kisses, caught from lips in ambush there;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then gently to the earth her form declined,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While rose a reed-like murmur on the wind.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="ATHENS">ATHENS.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">She sits in glory on her eyrie high,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Far seen, the Pharos of antiquity;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, through the dusky-woven veil of time,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She vents her sun-bright shafts, that pierce and shine</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like lightning, from the golden quivers drawn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of high philosophy and Sophoclean song.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Around her feet in lucid currents wind</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Two streams, through marble-paven channels, lined</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By temples pillar-propt, whose snowy sheen</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Glistens like silver through the olive’s green.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="ACHILLES_SONG">ACHILLES’ SONG.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">I.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Glory is in the balance laid,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">An early doom and endless praise;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Gainst these in adverse scale are weighed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The joys of peace and length of days.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Give me the grave—the glory give,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The field of honor, and the tomb!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What boots it like a hind to live,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And sink at last in lampless gloom?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">II.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The soft embrace of love I yield,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The pleasures of the Sybarite;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, rushing to the gory field,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With battle’s carnage feast my sight.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though meteor-like my course may be,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through blood and slaughter quickly run;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A growing fame remains to me,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">While rivers flow, and shines the sun.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="ANASTASIUS">ANASTASIUS.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Lands of the burning East, adieu!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I bid your Sun farewell!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To colder climates, strange and new,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My bark the winds impel.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From olives of the Grecian vale</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To northern firs I go;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To darkness, snow, and rain, and hail,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From skies that ever glow.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There memories gloomy as the clime,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like vulture-beaks will gnaw;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ruined maid, the plundered shrine,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The violated law—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The life-blood, which my gory hand</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From friendship’s bosom drew—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">These drive me from my native land,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To regions cold and new.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Isle of my birth, I never more</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Will seek thee o’er the wave;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For fast beside thy lovely shore</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is Helen’s early grave.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The billows of the ocean roll,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And murmur softly there;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Mary Mother for her soul</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is uttered many a prayer.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Old Stamboul’s halls I ne’er again</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In pleasure’s train shall tread,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor sauntering view, with slackened rein,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Her City of the dead;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor o’er the yellow desert far</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The dome of Ali spy,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which in the distance, like a star,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Salutes the pilgrim’s eye.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sole solace of my dark career,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A lovely boy is left;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My ruthless lust his mother dear</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of home and joy bereft.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her phantom hovers ever nigh,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In sunshine and in shade,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forevermore her gentle sigh</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My bosom doth upbraid.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">She loved me long, she loved me true,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I trampled on her heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My cold neglect the sweet one slew,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like Asrael’s venomed dart.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ah! white-robed saint, bend down on me</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy features sad and mild;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My life a flowerless desert see,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All save thy gentle child.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The haughty Scian’s heart is riven,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His buoyant spirits flown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For him there is no hope in heaven,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Below, no rest nor home.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Forgive me, O my slighted love!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Wert thou on earth again,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Believe me, thou shouldst not reprove—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My heart would own thy reign.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Already in my breast I feel</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The immedicable ill,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fell disease no art can heal,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beyond the leech’s skill.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sapped by its power my frame shall lie,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Mixed with its parent mould;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once with those statues it could vie,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which Hellas loved of old.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Its day of splendor and of power</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Even in my youth is past;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its Phidian symmetry no more</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Shall beauty’s promise blast.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Apostate to my father’s creed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I from their heaven am banned;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How o’er Jehennan shall I speed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By light Al Serat spanned?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The infernal surge, which moans below</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its gossamer arches frail,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Me, plunging to the gulfs of woe,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Will whelm in endless bale.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Would that my soul might share a part</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of perfect bliss with thee!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O, dark-eyed Smyrniote of my heart,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My wronged Euphrosynè!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CYMINDIS">CYMINDIS.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container smaller"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ορνιθι λιγυρη εναλιγκιος, ην τ’ εν ορεσσι</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Χαλκιδα κικλησκουσι Θεοι, ανδρες δε Κυμινδιν.—<i>Homer.</i></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Beside my lattice cool at dead of night,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As I sat musing on unnumbered things,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With startled glance I saw a figure bright,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No larger than a star, on luminous wings</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Borne towards me with a swift continuous flight,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From some green island in the Occident.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">At first, methought that Hesper from his throne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Upon the forehead of the firmament</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Had parted, and was gliding o’er the foam</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of ocean towards me; but my error soon</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Became apparent—for a gorgeous bird,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Apparelled in full many a splendid plume</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Of green, and gold, and purple, came and stirred</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An olive’s foliage with its flutterings;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where, perching on a slender flexile bough,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">It stayed its flight and furled its weary wings.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Voiceless awhile, against a dark green spray</div> - <div class="verse indent0">It leaned its breast; then making prelude low,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From its dim throat poured out a lengthened flow</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of moist Memnonian melody—a lay</div> - <div class="verse indent0">More soft and sweet than ancient Pan could play</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Through all the wild Circean realm of sound,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Did range this feathered minstrel’s dulcet tongue;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So that no note, or high or low is found,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">That by its tuneful throat was left unsung.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sometimes I heard a flute’s low silvery plaining,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And then anon a shepherd’s reed was blown;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And then a far-off clarion’s exclaiming</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aroused my spirit with its martial tone;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which died ere long into a tender moan—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The wail of Indian lover, languishing</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath a guarded princess’ lattice high.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This ceased; and next a music rivalling</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The spheral chime that fills the starry sky,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">An intervolved Æolian harmony,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Stole through the porch of sound into the hall</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Where my delighted spirit sat enthroned,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And from their cells the loftiest thoughts, that woned</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Therein, rapt into ecstasy, did call—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A sudden shriek of keenest anguish broke</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My breathless rapture, and the silver chain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of that wild song, alas! Cymindis’ note</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">(Such was that Iris-feathered warbler’s name)</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was stilled forever. Him within the beak</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of a relentless vulture dead I saw,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">That, swooping from the clouds, his descant sweet</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Had hushed to silence, to appease the maw</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of famine in his eyrie on the steep.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_CEMETERY_IN_SUMMER">THE CEMETERY IN SUMMER.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The west wind in the piny bough</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A low eternal threne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Weaves o’er the dead that sleep below</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The sleep without a dream.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The night-leaved cypress’ shadow glooms,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The flexile willow sighs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While gorgeous summer glows and blooms</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In florid earth and skies.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">On marble shaft and urnal stone</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Glimmers the sunny beam,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And squirrels chirp and wild bees drone</div> - <div class="verse indent2">About the alleys green.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through leafy vistas, long and dim,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where slanting sunlights fall,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I see a troop of spectres thin,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In cerement, shroud, and pall.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Shades insubstantial gliding slow,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The harvest of the years,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above whose narrow dwellings flow</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Bereaved affection’s tears.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The din of life from yonder towers</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is but a murmur here;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A bee-like hum amid the flowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">It falls upon mine ear.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye tranquil sleepers, stretched below,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">How pleasant is your rest!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Your pulseless hearts no longer know</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The cares which life infest.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The silent Hours no longer bring</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Or good or ill to you;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And slander’s shaft no more can sting</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The slumberer ’neath the yew.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In cool seclusion dark and deep,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beneath the teeming mould,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ye reck not of the summer’s heat,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The sleety winter’s cold.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The constellated stars at night</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through waving branches gleam,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Titan’s arrows, swift and bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Across your couches stream.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sepulchral Eros, mourning here</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Forgetful of thy bow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With torch reversed and falling tear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And pinion-shaded brow!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The eyes are dim beneath your tread,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That sunned you with their light;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The lips, where you on kisses fed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Are cold and lily-white.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="ALL_HAIL_MY_GENTLE_HOUSEHOLD_LAR">ALL HAIL, MY GENTLE HOUSEHOLD LAR</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">All hail, my gentle household Lar!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My silent mansion ’mid the trees!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My devious steps have wandered far,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O’er lands of Eld beyond the seas.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Amid thine autumn fields I hear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Prophet of rain, the whistling quail;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While from its sheaf the wheaten ear</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is beaten by the sounding flail.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In other climes this quiet home</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Has risen star-like to my view,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When tired, dejected, and alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">No friendly heart my sorrows knew.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Twas years ago the passion came,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A vague desire, a longing wild</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To visit lands, whose wondrous fame</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Had charmed my fancy when a child.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When dreamy south winds softly blew</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In spring time o’er the misty glebe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And birds of passage wedge-like flew</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To distant lake and arctic mead,</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I felt the longing uncontrolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The yearning wish to be away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where splendid cities rich and old</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In happier climates glittering lay.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Their towers have filled my sated eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their sins and follies all are known,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With quickened step the pilgrim hies</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To greet once more his long-left home.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O silent house! O breezy shade!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Haven of rest and refuge sweet!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The great world’s din can ne’er invade</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy lonely courts, my green retreat!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Like Sirmio’s minstrel travel-worn,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My own soft couch at length I press,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thinking o’er the toils I’ve borne,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Forget in sleep my weariness.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="THE_SINGING_MASONS_AT_CROCUSBURG">THE SINGING MASONS AT CROCUSBURG.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container smaller"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The singing masons</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Building roofs of gold.—<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Pilgrim! within the hollow of this oak</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once hummed and toiled a commonwealth of bees.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And in all honeydom there were no folk,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of swifter wing or sharper sting than these.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The waxen fragments, round the fountain strown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With more than dædal artifice ywrought,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once formed the structures of their fragrant town,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which hung embosomed in this oaken grot.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its name was Crocusburg. ’Twas built, they say,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By queen Iophile, whose early home</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was in a mountain cleft of Attica.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She with her bees was often wont to roam</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Ægean isles, in quest of flowery prey;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And so it fell one summer afternoon,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As she led thence her train, each wing and thigh</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Clogged with the sweets of many an island-bloom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Just off Mount Sunium’s marble forehead high,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A sudden rain-gust blew them all awry</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A thousand leagues into the western sky.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath their flight, a waste of surges wild,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shoreless and gray the vast Atlantic rolled;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And o’er its waves no Tyrian galley toiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whereon they might their gauzy pinions fold.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But they escaped, a saffron-scented wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which blew from meads below the horizon’s rim,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Into this blossom-tessellated vale</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They swiftly traced, a thin aerial clue</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By their keen muzzles in the trackless blue</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of heaven detected, and they builded here</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A honey mart, that grew without a peer.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its cells and waxen magazines ran o’er</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With brimful floods of lucent yellow dew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The choicest sweets of every gold-eyed flower,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That on the earth’s green bosom ever grew.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whether its leaves and scented buds expand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At morn and eve by spicy breezes fanned,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above the tropics’ hot volcanic mould,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er sunless magazines of gems and gold;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or nature weaves it with less gaudy dyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In moister looms, upon a colder shore—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Each flower-clad vale beneath the purple skies</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its tribute yielded to their fragrant store.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="AGIMUR_FATIS">AGIMUR FATIS.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We are as wrecks upon a stormy sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The winds and currents bear us where they will;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or dry leaves, that before the tempest flee,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Borne on to good or unevaded ill.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ere weeping through the gates of life we came,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Our lots were fixed, each act and thought decreed:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In vain we strive—we stem the tide in vain;—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Alike the idiot’s brain, the sage’s rede.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Powerless before the unimpassioned Doom</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The form of beauty and the lofty mind;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The shuttle speeds athwart the fatal loom—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Our lots are woven as the threads unwind.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sorrow and gladness intertwined are ours,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Or woe unmixed, or pleasure undefiled;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Exult not, though thy path be strewn with flowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Oft mid their bloom the venomed asp lies coiled.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">On the dark billows of the sea of fate</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Full many a glorious shape floats wrecked and pale;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While meaner beings, haughty and elate,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A festal throng before the zephyrs sail.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And star-like eyes and lovely cheeks are dewed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With ceaseless tears, an unextinguished rain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And youth and strength, and kingly fortitude</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With dotard weakness struggle oft in vain.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_HERMITAGE">A HERMITAGE.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">A Saxon eremite of old did rear</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My mossy walls beneath this pine-clad slope;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From learned Iona, armed with clerkly lere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">He went in youth, and dealt a deadly stroke</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through all the lonely Arctic Cyclades</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On Pagan creeds; and o’er the misty seas</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In Suevia with Odin’s might did cope,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The chief of blue Valhalla’s deities;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor ceased, till from his forest temple dark</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Had fled each white-stoled oaken hierarch.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His mission done, beneath my lowly roof</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His days he passed, from all the world aloof.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="I_SAW_A_SNAKE-GIRT_EMBRYON">I SAW A SNAKE-GIRT EMBRYON</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I saw a snake-girt embryon, crowned and dumb,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its rigid finger, pointed towards the sky;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From whence the fiery breath of life must come,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That kindles unborn lip and rayless eye.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I saw a demon beagle dark as night,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A shadowy maiden, hounding through the air;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And as she fled she shrieked with wild affright,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And, Mœnad-like, behind her streamed her hair.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The bridal couch of sad Proserpina</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In grim Hephæstus’ realm mine eyes beheld;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ravished bride bewailed her home afar—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Her temples bound with Stygian asphodel.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I saw the vast Plutonian gardens, where</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That cursed pomegranate shed its deadly bloom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whose fatal fruitage, banned from upper air</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sad Ceres’ daughter till the seventh moon.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I saw the Pleiads, in their skyey tent,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Bemoan their starry sister, dead and cold;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His bow against her fierce Orion bent—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Orion zoned with belt of fretted gold.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I saw the Avengers with viperean hair</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Above the palace roofs at Argos fly;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The matricide Orestes shuddered there,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Obscene with matted locks and haggard eye.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I saw the loaded tables of the Sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By ancient Nilus’ orbëd fountains spread;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where wont of old the happy gods to come,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Twelve days by long-lived Ethiops richly fed.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Phantoms of air exhaled by dark madjoon,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And visionary fabrics dim and vast;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like vapors gliding o’er the autumnal moon,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Before imagination’s eye they passed.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LUCIFER_REDUX">LUCIFER REDUX.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Prince of the fallen stars,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy front shall lose its scars!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fires shall cease to burn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy legions shall return!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A ray shall pierce the gloom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A voice dissolve the doom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The victor shall relent,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The brazen chains be rent!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The demon’s crown of woe</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No more shall gird thy brow;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fires shall cease to burn.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy legions shall return.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The dark pavilions spread</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Within thy kingdom dread;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The palaces of pain,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like dreams, shall melt and wane.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Eden’s flag unrolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Again thy helm enfold;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fires shall cease to burn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy legions shall return!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The mystic feud shall end,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy willing knees shall bend;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once more the central throne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy homage bright shall own.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In heaven thy starred domain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall greet its chief again;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The fires shall cease to burn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy legions shall return!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thine ancient halls of state,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So long left desolate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall ring with joy once more,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall bloom with wreath and flower.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The constellations bright,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The torches of the night,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Around thy steps shall chant</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A pæan jubilant.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The wheels that o’er thee drove,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sword thy mail that clove,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shall lead thy glad return,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Before thy march shall burn!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="ANSALDOS_GARDEN">ANSALDO’S GARDEN.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Beautiful the hearts that keep</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Neath the frosts of age</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Something of their youthful heat,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Tempered in its rage.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Teian-like, they laugh and sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Though the shadows gather;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For they feel the warmth of spring</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the wintry weather.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Minstrels ’neath the snows of time</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Feel their bosoms glowing,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With a fervor as sublime</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As when flowers were blowing.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Like to tomb-lamps’ beams, that spread</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Lustre round decay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To the last their hearts will shed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sunlike haloes, fancies gay.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thus Ansaldo’s garden bloomed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">June in January set,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While the frosty stars illumed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Orange leaf and mignonette.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_DYING_MOSLEM">THE DYING MOSLEM.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Jannat al Aden’s towers I see,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I know my fate is nigh—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Hûr al Oyun beckon me,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their waving arms I spy.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sweet maids of Heaven, I come, I come!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Mine eyes in darkness swim—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The chills of death my heart benumb,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And creep through every limb.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My trophies see around me piled—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The unbeliever’s blood</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My dripping garments has defiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Has slaked my falchion good.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">More soft to me than beds of flowers</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The gory battle plain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For thence I mount to Eden’s bowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And joys immortal gain.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The Houri’s kiss is sweeter far</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than whispers of the South;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her eyes are like the evening star,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Her lot eternal youth!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="MDCCCXLVIII-IX">MDCCCXLVIII-IX.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O torrid August—sun-emblazoned asp!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Reluctantly thy days, like coils, unclasp</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And leave the worn and heat-enfeebled frame</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its wonted strength in cooler hours to gain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O months with ruin fraught! O years of fate!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What stars malign o’er you predominate!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The seals of death are broke—the wide earth moans,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A lazar-house of pain through all her zones.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The seeds of swift decay broadcast impregn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The wave, the air, the land, the summer beam;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is there no Tuscan garden as of old,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where, to beguile the heart, sweet tales are told?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Where youth and beauty, weaving fables gay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With dance and music keep the cares at bay?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No pangless isolation, green and fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above whose fields are charms of taintless air?</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O, vaunted Epoch! that look’st back with scorn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Upon thy brother ages elder-born—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That mak’st the lightning’s withering glance thy scribe,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And on the hissing cauldron’s breath dost ride—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With all thy boasted sciences, must thou</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Before the sworded angel veil thy brow?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Art <i>thou</i>, too, vulnerable with all thine arts?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hast <i>thou</i> no shield to ward the lethal darts?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No potent balm, whose virtues can expel</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The lurking venom from its citadel?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Must <i>thou</i>, too, pray for some Araunah’s floor,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whereon the wasting vengeance may give o’er?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Cease, then, to vaunt—for know that ages gone</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Have had a wisdom mightier than your own.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The globe, a ruined palace, still will be</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Death, Disease, and War, a mansion free,—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A mighty park, wherein, Orion-like,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ghastly hunters unevaded strike;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their hounds, the passions, which no arts can tame—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The ruthless beagles still pursue their game.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">No sop, that puny science can devise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Will hush their yells, or drowse their dragon eyes;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The melancholy Asia mourns afar,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Drooping in sorrow ’neath the Plague’s red star.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Beneath her palms the giant mother see,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her turret-girded brow upon her knee!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The elephantine tusk, that stays her hand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lies unregarded in the yellow sand.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Not thus she mourned, when Iran’s king forlorn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fled pale and vanquished towards the realms of morn.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mystic Brahmin, roofed by groves sublime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lies grovelling before his pagod shrine;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In vain adores the monstrous shapes, that fill</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The peaks of Meru’s golden-hornëd hill;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Poisoned with death the stream of Indus flows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The baleful air a lurid furnace glows.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The spotted pard in sultry jungle cowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His nerves unstrung and withered all his powers;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The glistering scales, which clothe the serpent, wane,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their splendors darkened by the touch of pain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Flickers no more his tongue like cloven flame;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His crushing coils and horrent length unrolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cumber the heated dust relaxed and cold.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On Himmalaya’s topmost summit lone</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Plague’s Red Fiend ascends his mountain throne,—</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In shape an Afrite, or a gloomy Djinn,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where, underneath the brows of Heaven, begin</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Ganges’ waters, that devolving pour</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through gates of ice and starlit arches hoar.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His bow is bent—the viewless arrows fall</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On desert, ocean, vale, and capital;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The lonely ship, that ploughs the barren sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is filled with shapes of writhing agony.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The desert trains of turbaned merchants wail</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From rear to van, with anguish smitten pale;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cabool and eldest Balk are resonant</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With shriek, and dolorous sigh, and Koran chant;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And Persia’s rosy vales are thickly strewn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With lethal shafts that blight her spicy bloom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, through the palace of the Caliphate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At blazing noontide speeds the wingëd fate;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And over all the fields of ancient Roum</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Settles a cloud of pestilential gloom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The keen shafts leave the shrouded East behind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thridding like light the mazes of the wind.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Onward their course they hold, nor once relent</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Until they reach the shrill-tongued Occident.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The crash and roar of crowded cities cease,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And o’er their bulwark broods the desert’s peace.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The clanging enginery forgets to move,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where luxury’s gauds by jaded hands are wove;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The wail, the dirge, the unextinguished moan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In streets, in fields, in ships are heard alone.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Unknelled, unshrived, in yawning trenches deep,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The bursting corses fall a livid heap;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Death, at the growing carnage, laughs elate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While round his throne Sesostres shrouded wait.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Athwart Atlantic’s troubled waters fly</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The arrowy fates, and fill the western sky;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fair Erie’s queen is stricken with distress—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Named for the herd that graze the wilderness.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And all the nascent states and cities young,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By forest, lake, and stream, with grief are wrung;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till spent at length, beneath the sinking day</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The red shafts quench their rage, and cease to slay.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_AUTUMNAL_RIDE">THE AUTUMNAL RIDE.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">October glittered brazen-hued</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Beneath the keen autumnal sun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their leaves the ash and maple strewed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like fiery coals of martyrdom.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The mountains reared their granite cones</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through veils of ether opaline;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their bases cinctured round with zones</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of giant beech and Delphic pine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We sucked the air with Ariel’s greed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And chest and nostril ampler grew;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Mile after mile rushed by with speed—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">We felt the freshness of the dew;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">While dimpled laughter soon began</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To loosen up the heart and brain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The blood inebriated ran,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Quicksilver-like, through every vein.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We saw Monadnoc cleave the sky,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The eagle’s perch a peak sublime;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aerial pasturages high,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where grazed and lowed the mountain kine.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Majestic hill, thy might is sung</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In strains that with thy cliffs shall last!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As long as Night her mantle dun,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And Day his beams shall o’er thee cast.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In radiant verse thy summit shines</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Henceforth to all men evermore;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The lulling murmur of thy pines</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is audible on every shore.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">From morn till noontide on we rode—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The day grew summery awhile;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mountain vapors throbbed and glowed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But soon they wore a pensive smile.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The sky, a magazine of hues,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its amethystine glories rained;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That richer colors still diffuse,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The more the dying sunbeam waned.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O, day forever marked with white,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With Eva passed among the hills!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A year has flown—its keen delight</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In memory yet my bosom thrills.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TO">TO ——.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">I.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou mortal Belial! thee I name</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The mightiest sophist known to fame.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the old Hellenic isles,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rich in rhetoric’s winning wiles,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Mongst their most persuasive dead,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">None like thee was ever bred;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">E’en the Ithacensian’s lips</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou couldst cast into eclipse;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor serpent’s eye, nor siren’s lute,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nor Coptic Lotos’ magic fruit,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Could bewilder and entrance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like thy honied utterance.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">II.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shadowed thick with jetty hair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Flowing like acanthus fair</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Over pillared capital,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Towers aloft thy kingly brow;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While from sunken eyes below</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Gleams a fiery southern glance,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Keener far than keenest lance.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="stanza-number">III.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">These, with that Ionic form,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Asiatic fancy warm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Assembled and conjoined in one,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Make the Forum’s paragon!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="SUGGESTED_BY_A_HEAD_OF_ACHILLES_IN_SIR_WILLIAM_GELLS_POMPEII">SUGGESTED BY A HEAD OF ACHILLES IN SIR WILLIAM GELL’S POMPEII.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The swift Pelides from a Goddess’ loins,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like lightning from a summer cloud was born;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ambrosial youth incarnadined his limbs</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With roseal lustre and Hebean bloom;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Yet in their marble smoothness lay enshrined</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A Titan’s energy—and his large eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That dreamed and languished like Endymion’s,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When, vine-like, round his neck the lucent arms</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Lycomedes’ daughter were entwined,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Glowed like a pard’s in fight. A glossy wealth</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of sunny Apollonian tresses loosely rolled</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Adown his ivory shoulders. In his breast</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A fiery-blooded heart throbbed fiercely—now</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In sorrow unappeased venting itself</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Above his fallen friend; and now in ire</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unquenchable, that withered all his foes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When vengeance called him to the ensanguined field.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">The hero’s sword not only he could wield;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The heroic lyre he also strung, and oft</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At eve, in his pavilion by the sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His melancholy spirit soothed with song.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="PSYCHE">PSYCHE.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In vigils lone she hears the chimes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of voices from diviner climes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And sees entranced the statures grand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That throng her lofty fatherland.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unwonted odors, strange and rare,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Float round her on the midnight air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From gardens where her youth was spent,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Beyond the dark blue firmament.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The fleshly walls are white and thin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which close her yearning spirit in—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Celestial footfalls she can hear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Inaudible to grosser ear.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She mourns her lot like one exiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Her songs are filled with longings wild</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For home, and that serener day</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which lights the angels far away.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SERAPHS_HOLIDAY">THE SERAPHS’ HOLIDAY.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There is a year when all the stars, which throng</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The blue abysses of eternity,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Back to the stations, whence their march began,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Have rolled. The wondrous season passes not</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Heaven uncelebrated; but with pomp,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And dance, and song, and gorgeous festivals,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The happy people mark its slow return.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then all the mighty Seraphim, who rule</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By Allah’s will the starry satrapies</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of the Universe, with joyful hearts receive</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Permission to revisit once again</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The golden streets of Paradise, the groves,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And fields, and streams, and shady palaces</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of their nativity. Upon the morn</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of their return, soon as the eastern wind</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Begins to fan the innumerable palms,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Amid whose waving branches glittering stand</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The beatific mansions, straight the walls,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Smaragdine domes and minarets, which grace</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Or fortify the blest metropolis,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are thickly lined with eager faces, set</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With dark angelic eyes, whose glances pierce</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Interminably far the rosy veils</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of pure celestial air, wherein no mote</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Or vapor floats to intercept the view.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ere long, above the horizon’s verge appears</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The expected pomp. East, West, and North and South,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Along the ancient thoroughfares, which lead</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From Paradise through spaces infinite,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Besprinkled o’er with starry Cyclades,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Down to the fiery palaces, wherein</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The solar Seraphs hold their sway, it comes—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A long array of chariots superb,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Harnessed to sun-engendered steeds, whose veins</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are filled with fluid fire, the succulence</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of the Heliacal pastures where they graze.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Proudly the planetary Sultans rein</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their haughty yokes, which underneath the shade</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of solar gonfalons advance, their feet</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unto the sound of lordly harmonies</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Uplifting. Within the eternal gates,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through wingëd throngs, o’er star-paved streets they ride,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And by the Stream of Life, shadowed with palms,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Unyoke their steeds, fettered with links of gold</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Infrangible and bright, to graze the banks;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then laving in the flood their giant limbs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">They haste unto the glad festivities.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="MORNING">MORNING.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">All hail, thou blessed light of morn!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">At length I feel thy cheering ray—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through all the darksome night forlorn,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Yearning for thee I sleepless lay.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Roman in his palace porch,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On the Parthenopean isle,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To dim his red nocturnal torch,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ne’er prayed more fervently thy smile.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The dripping trees in verdure drest,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The rosy light, and eastern wind,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dispel the larvæ, which infest</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The slumbers of the troubled mind.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O Power divine! my spirit keep</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From deeds of darkness ever clear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lest unto me the realms of Sleep</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Should be beset with phantoms drear;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For Conscience to the wicked is</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A demon-evocator pale,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And summons from the soul’s abyss</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Forms, which must make the stoutest quail.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Bear witness, purple Eremite,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who reared amid translucent seas</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A gorgeous palace of delight,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A refuge from the Eumenides;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Colossal spectres nightly strode</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Through portal, corridor and hall,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Sea impersonated stood,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His dreaming spirit to appal.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Fronting the portals of the Sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His lurid torches burning low,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How oft amid the shadows dun</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He waited for the morning’s glow.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bringer of pleasant thoughts, all hail!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy touch dissolves the guilty dream.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Orcus’ shapeless legions quail,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Flying before thy rosy beam.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="AUTUMN">AUTUMN.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When yellowing woods let fall their sapless leaves,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, breathing softly from the mild South-west,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Indian Summer mitigates the air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Me it delights, leaving the towers of men,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With devious feet, and void of fixed intent,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To wander far into the country still;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My path, some grassy road untrodden lone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Which leads the steps through woods of dwarfish pines,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where dwells unscared the solitary jay,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And sings the cricket, sole inhabitants.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In these sweet solitudes the soul becomes</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tranquil as seas mid happy isles embayed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here weary hearts a balsam for their woes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In whispering boughs and silent skies can find.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And here, amid the calm and liberal air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The heated brain grows cool from contact free;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How sweet to live a sylvan eremite,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By some sequestered lake in forests hid,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Or pebble-paven urn, the cradle cool</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of tiny brook, or gently lapsing stream.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Legends there are of fallen kings, who held</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their exiled courts beneath the forest boughs;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Better their faded state in such pure haunts,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than when it shone in haughty palaces!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="O_POWER_OF_MUSIC">O POWER OF MUSIC</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">O power of Music! whence thy spell</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On man and brute, on soul and heart?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What spirit haunts the chorded shell,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whose murmurs every passion start?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The silent tenants of the sea,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The brinded pard and serpent, own</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy sway—their fierceness tamed by thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">They cower and writhe about thy throne.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Thy lordly breath to war can yield</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A glory wild, a nameless charm;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The sworded ranks, the embattled field</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thou fill’st with bosoms high and warm;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The gorgeous palaces of old</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy magic numbers cause to rise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And faces, which the valley’s mould</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Has hidden long from weeping eyes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The depths of love, its wild despair,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By thee are told, are breathed by thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And while thy whispers fill the air,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A better world we seem to see;</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Some happier region undefiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where youth and beauty aye abide—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where sin the spirit ne’er beguiled,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And joy fills up the circuit wide.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="DREAMS">DREAMS.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The magic of a dream how great!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To us it gives a might divine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whereby our souls annihilate</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The power of death, and space, and time.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The forms which lie recumbent, cold,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In tombs and charnel-houses lone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In dreams our eyes again behold,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As they in life were loved and known.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">We enter through the gates of sleep,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Into a neutral interspace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Most pleasant to the eyes that weep,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For Life and Death can there embrace.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There absence ceases to divide;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Though seas and mountains intervene,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Friend unto friend can swiftly glide,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And reck not of the space between.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">There I last night thy form beheld,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My ancient comrade, tried and true!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Tears from my eyes profusely welled,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And tears as freely fell from you!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_PENITENT">THE PENITENT.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sorrowful, weak, dejected, and in fear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Most Merciful, I fall before thy throne!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The world through wickedness is dark and drear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Peace and content are found in Heaven alone.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">A retrospect of sin behind me lies,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A peccant youth all spent at Belial’s shrine!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The meek Judæan beckoned from the skies;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I heeded not, seduced by powers malign.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The scales are fallen from my darkened sight,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A potent euphrasy is poured therein;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I look around with terror and affright,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Behold the world is vanity and sin!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With labor infinite, the race of men</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their ruined mansion struggle to restore;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By their own might they think to make again</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Earth a happy Eden as of yore.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">This task no mortal skill can execute,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All Archimedean subtleties are vain;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Invention, sciences, and minds astute,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Are baulked, like those of old on Shinar’s plain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though unto us the elements become</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Obsequious helots to our wills subdued;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though, Ariel-like, the glittering lightning run,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To do our errands over land and flood;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">All is in vain—a doom—a deadly blight</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Is on us, and our space-embosomed home;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Our fallen natures can be made upright</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By meek contrition and by faith alone.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="OCEAN_THOU_ART_DISENCHANTED">OCEAN, THOU ART DISENCHANTED</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ocean, thou art disenchanted!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And the mariner no more</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Anchors under islands haunted,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Off a silver-sanded shore;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Where he sees some Fairy’s palace</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Glitter through the boscage green;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hears the glancing of her shuttle,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And the wizard chant between.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Once the galley steering westward,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Toward the throne of Saturn sailed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Toward the Islands of the Happy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where the summer never failed;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Where along the beach elysian,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Heroes born in better days</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wandered, fanned by winds eternal,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Blowing inland from the bays.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ocean, thou art disenchanted!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And the mariner no more</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sees the sunken city glimmer,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Leagues away from any shore.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Where are Helice and Buris?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Leaning o’er the galley’s side,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Once the voyager saw them waver</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With the motions of the tide.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Argosies condemned to wander</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Havenless from clime to clime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With ensanguined ingots laden,—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All have faded from the brine!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And the Triton’s shell no longer</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Over yesty waves is blown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Poseidon’s burnished axle</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Drifts a wreck upon the foam.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">These are gone—but still thy surges</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Kiss and girdle isles of balm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Clasping beaches beryl-paven,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Latitudes of endless calm!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TWILIGHT_IN_EGYPT">TWILIGHT IN EGYPT.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Round the City of the Sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And Mokattan mountains dun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fast the woof of Night is spun,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Planets through it gleaming;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Vista’d columns stretch in rows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On whose tops with massive brows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sphinxes lion-limbed repose,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the twilight dreaming.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Shines Canopus high and calm</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Over sand and waving palm,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While the sea-winds, strewing balm,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Make the Lotos quiver;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Limned upon the rising Moon,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sculptured demons frown and gloom,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pedestalled amid the spume</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of the Coptic river.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Valè to the dying day</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Memnon’s lips of marble say,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Darkling mid the shadows gray,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Which around it gather;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Girdled by the swelling stream,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Island-like the cities gleam,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er their imaged temples lean</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the blue that waver.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Gilded by the lunar disc,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Pyramid and obelisk</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Towering stand, their bases kissed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By the gulfing water;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lakelike spreads the fertile tide,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Veiling all the valley wide—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To and fro the shallops glide,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Filled with mirth and laughter.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="ARIELS_SONG">ARIEL’S SONG.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">I’ll quarry the sapphire sunset</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For blocks of purple air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And over the floor of ocean</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I’ll build me a palace rare;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The South wind through its chambers</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By day and night shall blow,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fanning my brow with odors,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With lovesick whispers low.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Eolian lutes shall murmur</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Their breezy notes to me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And amber-tressed merwomen</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My servitors shall be;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By showery sunbeams paven</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With tessellated light,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My ivory floors shall glitter</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A marvel to the sight.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And when my lids are heavy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With slumber’s dews oppressed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A pale-lipped shell shall circle</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My limbs reclined in rest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The pillars of my mansion</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Full proudly shall aspire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their corbels wrought and woven</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of opalescent fire.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">My torches shall be kindled</div> - <div class="verse indent2">At wells of Naptha fine,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And myrrhine urns shall bubble</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With draughts of Elfin wine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Those gardens, which the daughters</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of Hesper sow and till,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With golden-rinded melons</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My fragrant board shall fill.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The vaunted barge of Cydnus</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My shallop shall outvie,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With silken cables furnished,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With sails of purple dye;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its deck in halcyon weather</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Shall bear me o’er the main—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Its argent beak shall follow</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Apollo’s sinking wain.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="WHERE_ABIDST_THOU_PROPHET_MIGHTY">WHERE ABID’ST THOU, PROPHET MIGHTY?</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Where abid’st thou, prophet mighty?</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whom the fiery horses drew</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Skyward from the Jordan’s rivage,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Till they faded from the view,—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Past the sceptre of Uriel,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Regent of the solar fire,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Past the starry Lion couchant,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And the planet-chorded Lyre;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Till the citadels of Heaven</div> - <div class="verse indent2">O’er the Sea of Jasper flamed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thy wingëd yoke in triumph</div> - <div class="verse indent2">At its golden gates was reined;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou hast clomb the grades of splendor,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As the ages rolled away,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till at length cherubic legions</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thee as hierarch obey.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But thy fatherland has fallen</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From the might of other days;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The anathemas of Ebal</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Blight and wither all its race.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Gone the ivory house of pleasure,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where the Syrian cedars grew,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where the minions of Astarte</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Could a monarch’s heart subdue;</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Gone the carven lion-warders</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From that monarch’s jewelled throne—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But the genii malignant</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Still his mighty signet own;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still his song instinct with passion,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like a string of rubies glows;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Than the vaunted lays of Teïos</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With a sweeter cadence flows.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak hidden" id="ON_HER_MONUMENTAL_SCROLL">ON HER MONUMENTAL SCROLL</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">On her monumental scroll</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Let these syllables be seen;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Meek Griselda was no dream,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No ideal of the soul.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Softly slumbers one below,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Who an equal worth could claim</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With that visionary dame,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Drawn by poet long ago.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Face more beautiful and mild</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than the buried maiden bore,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Never blessed the earth before,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Never sorrow’s sigh beguiled.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Through her lineaments of white</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Blushed the morning’s healthy hue,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And her eye of tender blue</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Was with softest lustre bright.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Like the Mother sad and fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Madonna in the skies,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">She was patient, sinless, wise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And of gentleness most rare.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In the mansion where she died,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">All is silent, drear and lone;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In the yard the lindens moan—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through the chambers shadows glide.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_INDIAN_SUMMER">THE INDIAN SUMMER.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Now the sweet autumnal Summer which the Indian loved so well,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Over mountain, plain, and hollow sheds the glory of its spell.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Softer breathe the gentle zephyrs, and like visitants they seem</div> - <div class="verse indent0">From a latitude benigner, from a climate more serene.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Dream the heavens warm and glowing, shining veils of tepid haze,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nimbus-like investing nature, through the long celestial days.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Cities, hamlets, russet woodlands, saintly halos seem to wear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All transfigured in the splendor of the mild October air.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Such perchance the lenient ether, such as these the tranquil skies,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Spread above the fields of heaven, arching over Paradise.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Brief their beauty, transient, fleeting—soon the north wind’s trump is blown,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whirl the leaves in gusty eddies, and the rainy tempests moan.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="HYMN_TO_PHOSPHOR">HYMN TO PHOSPHOR.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Radiant Phosphor! thou art fashioned</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like some beardless minion young,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And before the giant Mithra</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Do thy wingëd sandals run.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Morning’s herald, urn of splendor!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From thy stellar fountains flow</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Purer lustres, fires intenser</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than thy brother stars can show.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">When their beams begin to darken</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And the bird Alectryon sings,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Still thy torch’s tresses sparkle,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Still thine orb its radiance flings.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Once the Dawn adored thy beauty;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thee her acolyte she made,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Waiting in her saffron porches,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">While the world was wrapt in shade.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Kissed she oft thy beamy temples,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And from anemonies fair</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shook the dew-drops to besprinkle</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy redundant yellow hair.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With her arms about thee folded,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Oft thy fragrant mouth she prest,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That exhaled a sweeter odor</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Than the cassia-scented West.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Hail, thou silver-shielded planet,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Whom undying beams adorn!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hail, thou firmamental leader!</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Dewy sentinel of morn!</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_THE_CRICKET">TO THE CRICKET.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Flourishes in song immortal</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The Cicada famed of old;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">On the brows of Attic women</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Was its likeness worn in gold.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">But my Cricket! none have praised thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Insect full of dulcet mirth!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Singing in the August moonlight,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Minstrel of the country hearth!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sharded rhapsodist of Autumn,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When the year begins to wane,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In the grass and in the hedges</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Trillest thou thy wiry strain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Harp with clasps of ivory strengthened,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Unto thee does not belong;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thine own body is a cithern,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its pulsations make thy song.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">In the midnight weird and holy,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When the moon is in eclipse,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Feedest thou on leaves of moly—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Honeydew-drops steep thy lips.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="BOOTHS_RICHARD">BOOTH’S RICHARD.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The sceptred Gorgon of the Isles,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The fiercest of the kingly brood,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Weaves o’er again his deadly wiles,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Again appears with flesh indued.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Promethean will uncrushed and calm,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His blighted sinews nerved and strung,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All foes he met without alarm—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">At fiend or god his gauntlet flung.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">His spirit was a dark abyss,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Its surface glassed with summer smiled;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But deep below the dragon hissed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And thoughts like hydras lurked and coiled.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The bright-haired shadows drenched in blood,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The stifled Princes sweet and pale,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Athwart his dim pavilion strode—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His heart of iron did not quail.</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Though from beneath Gehenna stirred,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And sent its legions to the fray,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The war-cry from his lips was heard,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like blast of bugle far away.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Girt lion-like with countless foes—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">On earth, in heaven, without a friend—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With clenching teeth and gathered brows</div> - <div class="verse indent2">He battled bravely to the end.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LENVOI">L’ENVOI.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">’Neath the rainy Equinox,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Flooding her dishevelled locks,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lies the Summer dead and cold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With her shroud about her rolled,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Like the drowned Ophelia fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dripping from the oozy mere;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">O’er her bleaching corse complain</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sighing winds and chilling rain.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Withered fillets, garlands sere,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bind her brow and deck her bier—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Urnlike lilies, violets frail,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Faded blossoms of the vale,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thickly strew her loosened hair.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sorrowing o’er his daughter fair,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sadly bends the stricken Year,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To her lips applies his ear;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For the voice which long ago</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Cheered him with its music low,</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span> - <div class="verse indent0">Hearkens he, and for the smile</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Wont his dotage to beguile,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lifts her drooping lids in vain,—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She will never smile again.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Ravished from their mistress pale,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fly her tresses on the gale;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Driving North winds pipe and rave</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Threnodies about her grave.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Bird and leaf forsake the tree—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sinks to rest the yellow bee;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All his labors in the sun,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All his airy voyages done;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While the squirrel gathers fast</div> - 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