No More Learning

And now the horsemen come--and all was done
Swifter than I have spoken--I beheld
Their red swords flash in the unrisen sun.
I rushed among the rout, to have repelled
That miserable flight--one moment quelled _2375
By voice and looks and eloquent despair,
As if reproach from their own hearts withheld
Their steps, they stood; but soon came pouring there
New multitudes, and did those rallied bands o'erbear.

6.
I strove, as, drifted on some cataract _2380
By irresistible streams, some wretch might strive
Who hears its fatal roar:--the files compact
Whelmed me, and from the gate availed to drive
With quickening impulse, as each bolt did rive
Their ranks with bloodier chasm:--into the plain _2385
Disgorged at length the dead and the alive
In one dread mass, were parted, and the stain
Of blood, from mortal steel fell o'er the fields like rain.

7.
For now the despot's bloodhounds with their prey
Unarmed and unaware, were gorging deep _2390
Their gluttony of death; the loose array
Of horsemen o'er the wide fields murdering sweep,
And with loud laughter for their tyrant reap
A harvest sown with other hopes; the while,
Far overhead, ships from Propontis keep _2395
A killing rain of fire:--when the waves smile
As sudden earthquakes light many a volcano-isle,

8.
Thus sudden, unexpected feast was spread
For the carrion-fowls of Heaven. --I saw the sight--
I moved--I lived--as o'er the heaps of dead, _2400
Whose stony eyes glared in the morning light
I trod;--to me there came no thought of flight,
But with loud cries of scorn, which whoso heard
That dreaded death, felt in his veins the might
Of virtuous shame return, the crowd I stirred, _2405
And desperation's hope in many hearts recurred.

9.
A band of brothers gathering round me, made,
Although unarmed, a steadfast front, and still
Retreating, with stern looks beneath the shade
Of gathered eyebrows, did the victors fill _2410
With doubt even in success; deliberate will
Inspired our growing troop; not overthrown
It gained the shelter of a grassy hill,
And ever still our comrades were hewn down,
And their defenceless limbs beneath our footsteps strown. _2415

10.
Immovably we stood--in joy I found,
Beside me then, firm as a giant pine
Among the mountain-vapours driven around,
The old man whom I loved--his eyes divine
With a mild look of courage answered mine, _2420
And my young friend was near, and ardently
His hand grasped mine a moment--now the line
Of war extended, to our rallying cry
As myriads flocked in love and brotherhood to die.

11.
For ever while the sun was climbing Heaven _2425
The horseman hewed our unarmed myriads down
Safely, though when by thirst of carnage driven
Too near, those slaves were swiftly overthrown
By hundreds leaping on them:--flesh and bone
Soon made our ghastly ramparts; then the shaft _2430
Of the artillery from the sea was thrown
More fast and fiery, and the conquerors laughed
In pride to hear the wind our screams of torment waft.

12.
For on one side alone the hill gave shelter,
So vast that phalanx of unconquered men, _2435
And there the living in the blood did welter
Of the dead and dying, which in that green glen,
Like stifled torrents, made a plashy fen
Under the feet--thus was the butchery waged
While the sun clomb Heaven's eastern steep--but when _2440
It 'gan to sink--a fiercer combat raged,
For in more doubtful strife the armies were engaged.

13.
Within a cave upon the hill were found
A bundle of rude pikes, the instrument
Of those who war but on their native ground _2445
For natural rights: a shout of joyance sent
Even from our hearts the wide air pierced and rent,
As those few arms the bravest and the best
Seized, and each sixth, thus armed, did now present
A line which covered and sustained the rest, _2450
A confident phalanx, which the foes on every side invest.

14.
That onset turned the foes to flight almost;
But soon they saw their present strength, and knew
That coming night would to our resolute host
Bring victory; so dismounting, close they drew _2455
Their glittering files, and then the combat grew
Unequal but most horrible;--and ever
Our myriads, whom the swift bolt overthrew,
Or the red sword, failed like a mountain river
Which rushes forth in foam to sink in sands for ever. _2460

15.
Sorrow and shame, to see with their own kind
Our human brethren mix, like beasts of blood,
To mutual ruin armed by one behind
Who sits and scoffs! --That friend so mild and good,
Who like its shadow near my youth had stood, _2465
Was stabbed! --my old preserver's hoary hair
With the flesh clinging to its roots, was strewed
Under my feet! --I lost all sense or care,
And like the rest I grew desperate and unaware.

16.
The battle became ghastlier--in the midst _2470
I paused, and saw, how ugly and how fell
O Hate! thou art, even when thy life thou shedd'st
For love. The ground in many a little dell
Was broken, up and down whose steeps befell
Alternate victory and defeat, and there _2475
The combatants with rage most horrible
Strove, and their eyes started with cracking stare,
And impotent their tongues they lolled into the air,

17.
Flaccid and foamy, like a mad dog's hanging;
Want, and Moon-madness, and the pest's swift Bane _2480
When its shafts smite--while yet its bow is twanging--
Have each their mark and sign--some ghastly stain;
And this was thine, O War! of hate and pain
Thou loathed slave! I saw all shapes of death
And ministered to many, o'er the plain _2485
While carnage in the sunbeam's warmth did seethe,
Till twilight o'er the east wove her serenest wreath.

18.
The few who yet survived, resolute and firm
Around me fought. At the decline of day
Winding above the mountain's snowy term _2490
New banners shone; they quivered in the ray
Of the sun's unseen orb--ere night the array
Of fresh troops hemmed us in--of those brave bands
I soon survived alone--and now I lay
Vanquished and faint, the grasp of bloody hands _2495
I felt, and saw on high the glare of falling brands,

19.
When on my foes a sudden terror came,
And they fled, scattering--lo! with reinless speed
A black Tartarian horse of giant frame
Comes trampling over the dead, the living bleed _2500
Beneath the hoofs of that tremendous steed,
On which, like to an Angel, robed in white,
Sate one waving a sword;--the hosts recede
And fly, as through their ranks with awful might,
Sweeps in the shadow of eve that Phantom swift and bright; _2505

20.
And its path made a solitude. --I rose
And marked its coming: it relaxed its course
As it approached me, and the wind that flows
Through night, bore accents to mine ear whose force
Might create smiles in death--the Tartar horse _2510
Paused, and I saw the shape its might which swayed,
And heard her musical pants, like the sweet source
Of waters in the desert, as she said,
'Mount with me, Laon, now'--I rapidly obeyed.

21.
Then: 'Away! away! ' she cried, and stretched her sword _2515
As 'twere a scourge over the courser's head,
And lightly shook the reins. --We spake no word,
But like the vapour of the tempest fled
Over the plain; her dark hair was dispread
Like the pine's locks upon the lingering blast; _2520
Over mine eyes its shadowy strings it spread
Fitfully, and the hills and streams fled fast,
As o'er their glimmering forms the steed's broad shadow passed.

22.
And his hoofs ground the rocks to fire and dust,
His strong sides made the torrents rise in spray, _2525
And turbulence, as of a whirlwind's gust
Surrounded us;--and still away! away!
Through the desert night we sped, while she alway
Gazed on a mountain which we neared, whose crest,
Crowned with a marble ruin, in the ray _2530
Of the obscure stars gleamed;--its rugged breast
The steed strained up, and then his impulse did arrest.

23.
A rocky hill which overhung the Ocean:--
From that lone ruin, when the steed that panted
Paused, might be heard the murmur of the motion _2535
Of waters, as in spots for ever haunted
By the choicest winds of Heaven, which are enchanted
To music, by the wand of Solitude,
That wizard wild, and the far tents implanted
Upon the plain, be seen by those who stood _2540
Thence marking the dark shore of Ocean's curved flood.

24.
One moment these were heard and seen--another
Passed; and the two who stood beneath that night,
Each only heard, or saw, or felt the other;
As from the lofty steed she did alight, _2545
Cythna, (for, from the eyes whose deepest light
Of love and sadness made my lips feel pale
With influence strange of mournfullest delight,
My own sweet Cythna looked), with joy did quail,
And felt her strength in tears of human weakness fail. _2550

25.
And for a space in my embrace she rested,
Her head on my unquiet heart reposing,
While my faint arms her languid frame invested;
At length she looked on me, and half unclosing
Her tremulous lips, said, 'Friend, thy bands were losing _2555
The battle, as I stood before the King
In bonds. --I burst them then, and swiftly choosing
The time, did seize a Tartar's sword, and spring
Upon his horse, and swift, as on the whirlwind's wing,

26.
'Have thou and I been borne beyond pursuer, _2560
And we are here. '--Then, turning to the steed,
She pressed the white moon on his front with pure
And rose-like lips, and many a fragrant weed
From the green ruin plucked, that he might feed;--
But I to a stone seat that Maiden led, _2565
And, kissing her fair eyes, said, 'Thou hast need
Of rest,' and I heaped up the courser's bed
In a green mossy nook, with mountain flowers dispread.

27.
Within that ruin, where a shattered portal
Looks to the eastern stars, abandoned now _2570
By man, to be the home of things immortal,
Memories, like awful ghosts which come and go,
And must inherit all he builds below,
When he is gone, a hall stood; o'er whose roof
Fair clinging weeds with ivy pale did grow, _2575
Clasping its gray rents with a verdurous woof,
A hanging dome of leaves, a canopy moon-proof.

28.
The autumnal winds, as if spell-bound, had made
A natural couch of leaves in that recess,
Which seasons none disturbed, but, in the shade _2580
Of flowering parasites, did Spring love to dress
With their sweet blooms the wintry loneliness
Of those dead leaves, shedding their stars, whene'er
The wandering wind her nurslings might caress;
Whose intertwining fingers ever there _2585
Made music wild and soft that filled the listening air.

29.
We know not where we go, or what sweet dream
May pilot us through caverns strange and fair
Of far and pathless passion, while the stream
Of life, our bark doth on its whirlpools bear, _2590
Spreading swift wings as sails to the dim air;
Nor should we seek to know, so the devotion
Of love and gentle thoughts be heard still there
Louder and louder from the utmost Ocean
Of universal life, attuning its commotion. _2595

30.
To the pure all things are pure! Oblivion wrapped
Our spirits, and the fearful overthrow
Of public hope was from our being snapped,
Though linked years had bound it there; for now
A power, a thirst, a knowledge, which below _2600
All thoughts, like light beyond the atmosphere,
Clothing its clouds with grace, doth ever flow,
Came on us, as we sate in silence there,
Beneath the golden stars of the clear azure air;--

31.
In silence which doth follow talk that causes _2605
The baffled heart to speak with sighs and tears,
When wildering passion swalloweth up the pauses
Of inexpressive speech:--the youthful years
Which we together passed, their hopes and fears,
The blood itself which ran within our frames, _2610
That likeness of the features which endears
The thoughts expressed by them, our very names,
And all the winged hours which speechless memory claims,

32.
Had found a voice--and ere that voice did pass,
The night grew damp and dim, and, through a rent _2615
Of the ruin where we sate, from the morass
A wandering Meteor by some wild wind sent,
Hung high in the green dome, to which it lent
A faint and pallid lustre; while the song
Of blasts, in which its blue hair quivering bent, _2620
Strewed strangest sounds the moving leaves among;
A wondrous light, the sound as of a spirit's tongue.

33.
The Meteor showed the leaves on which we sate,
And Cythna's glowing arms, and the thick ties
Of her soft hair, which bent with gathered weight _2625
My neck near hers; her dark and deepening eyes,
Which, as twin phantoms of one star that lies
O'er a dim well, move, though the star reposes,
Swam in our mute and liquid ecstasies,
Her marble brow, and eager lips, like roses, _2630
With their own fragrance pale, which Spring but half uncloses.

34.
The Meteor to its far morass returned:
The beating of our veins one interval
Made still; and then I felt the blood that burned
Within her frame, mingle with mine, and fall _2635
Around my heart like fire; and over all
A mist was spread, the sickness of a deep
And speechless swoon of joy, as might befall
Two disunited spirits when they leap
In union from this earth's obscure and fading sleep. _2640

35.
Was it one moment that confounded thus
All thought, all sense, all feeling, into one
Unutterable power, which shielded us
Even from our own cold looks, when we had gone
Into a wide and wild oblivion _2645
Of tumult and of tenderness? or now
Had ages, such as make the moon and sun,
The seasons, and mankind their changes know,
Left fear and time unfelt by us alone below?

36.
I know not. What are kisses whose fire clasps _2650
The failing heart in languishment, or limb
Twined within limb? or the quick dying gasps
Of the life meeting, when the faint eyes swim
Through tears of a wide mist boundless and dim,
In one caress? What is the strong control _2655
Which leads the heart that dizzy steep to climb,
Where far over the world those vapours roll
Which blend two restless frames in one reposing soul?
37.
It is the shadow which doth float unseen,
But not unfelt, o'er blind mortality, _2660
Whose divine darkness fled not from that green
And lone recess, where lapped in peace did lie
Our linked frames, till, from the changing sky
That night and still another day had fled;
And then I saw and felt. The moon was high, _2665
And clouds, as of a coming storm, were spread
Under its orb,--loud winds were gathering overhead.

38.
Cythna's sweet lips seemed lurid in the moon,
Her fairest limbs with the night wind were chill,
And her dark tresses were all loosely strewn _2670
O'er her pale bosom:--all within was still,
And the sweet peace of joy did almost fill
The depth of her unfathomable look;--
And we sate calmly, though that rocky hill,
The waves contending in its caverns strook, _2675
For they foreknew the storm, and the gray ruin shook.

39.
There we unheeding sate, in the communion
Of interchanged vows, which, with a rite
Of faith most sweet and sacred, stamped our union. --
Few were the living hearts which could unite _2680
Like ours, or celebrate a bridal night
With such close sympathies, for they had sprung
From linked youth, and from the gentle might
Of earliest love, delayed and cherished long,
Which common hopes and fears made, like a tempest, strong. _2685

40.
And such is Nature's law divine, that those
Who grow together cannot choose but love,
If faith or custom do not interpose,
Or common slavery mar what else might move
All gentlest thoughts; as in the sacred grove _2690
Which shades the springs of Ethiopian Nile,
That living tree which, if the arrowy dove
Strike with her shadow, shrinks in fear awhile,
But its own kindred leaves clasps while the sunbeams smile;

41.
And clings to them, when darkness may dissever _2695
The close caresses of all duller plants
Which bloom on the wide earth--thus we for ever
Were linked, for love had nursed us in the haunts
Where knowledge, from its secret source enchants
Young hearts with the fresh music of its springing, _2700
Ere yet its gathered flood feeds human wants,
As the great Nile feeds Egypt; ever flinging
Light on the woven boughs which o'er its waves are swinging.

42.
The tones of Cythna's voice like echoes were
Of those far murmuring streams; they rose and fell, _2705
Mixed with mine own in the tempestuous air,--
And so we sate, until our talk befell
Of the late ruin, swift and horrible,
And how those seeds of hope might yet be sown,
Whose fruit is evil's mortal poison: well, _2710
For us, this ruin made a watch-tower lone,
But Cythna's eyes looked faint, and now two days were gone

43.
Since she had food:--therefore I did awaken
The Tartar steed, who, from his ebon mane
Soon as the clinging slumbers he had shaken, _2715
Bent his thin head to seek the brazen rein,
Following me obediently; with pain
Of heart, so deep and dread, that one caress,
When lips and heart refuse to part again
Till they have told their fill, could scarce express _2720
The anguish of her mute and fearful tenderness,

44.
Cythna beheld me part, as I bestrode
That willing steed--the tempest and the night,
Which gave my path its safety as I rode
Down the ravine of rocks, did soon unite _2725
The darkness and the tumult of their might
Borne on all winds. --Far through the streaming rain
Floating at intervals the garments white
Of Cythna gleamed, and her voice once again
Came to me on the gust, and soon I reached the plain. _2730

45.
I dreaded not the tempest, nor did he
Who bore me, but his eyeballs wide and red
Turned on the lightning's cleft exultingly;
And when the earth beneath his tameless tread,
Shook with the sullen thunder, he would spread _2735
His nostrils to the blast, and joyously
Mock the fierce peal with neighings;--thus we sped
O'er the lit plain, and soon I could descry
Where Death and Fire had gorged the spoil of victory.

46.
There was a desolate village in a wood _2740
Whose bloom-inwoven leaves now scattering fed
The hungry storm; it was a place of blood,
A heap of hearthless walls;--the flames were dead
Within those dwellings now,--the life had fled
From all those corpses now,--but the wide sky _2745
Flooded with lightning was ribbed overhead
By the black rafters, and around did lie
Women, and babes, and men, slaughtered confusedly.

47.
Beside the fountain in the market-place
Dismounting, I beheld those corpses stare _2750
With horny eyes upon each other's face,
And on the earth and on the vacant air,
And upon me, close to the waters where
I stooped to slake my thirst;--I shrank to taste,
For the salt bitterness of blood was there; _2755
But tied the steed beside, and sought in haste
If any yet survived amid that ghastly waste.

48.
No living thing was there beside one woman,
Whom I found wandering in the streets, and she
Was withered from a likeness of aught human _2760
Into a fiend, by some strange misery:
Soon as she heard my steps she leaped on me,
And glued her burning lips to mine, and laughed
With a loud, long, and frantic laugh of glee,
And cried, 'Now, Mortal, thou hast deeply quaffed _2765
The Plague's blue kisses--soon millions shall pledge the draught!

49.
'My name is Pestilence--this bosom dry,
Once fed two babes--a sister and a brother--
When I came home, one in the blood did lie
Of three death-wounds--the flames had ate the other! _2770
Since then I have no longer been a mother,
But I am Pestilence;--hither and thither
I flit about, that I may slay and smother:--
All lips which I have kissed must surely wither,
But Death's--if thou art he, we'll go to work together! _2775

50.
'What seek'st thou here? The moonlight comes in flashes,--
The dew is rising dankly from the dell--
'Twill moisten her! and thou shalt see the gashes
In my sweet boy, now full of worms--but tell
First what thou seek'st. '--'I seek for food. '--''Tis well, _2780
Thou shalt have food. Famine, my paramour,
Waits for us at the feast--cruel and fell
Is Famine, but he drives not from his door
Those whom these lips have kissed, alone. No more, no more! '

51.
As thus she spake, she grasped me with the strength _2785
Of madness, and by many a ruined hearth
She led, and over many a corpse:--at length
We came to a lone hut where on the earth
Which made its floor, she in her ghastly mirth,
Gathering from all those homes now desolate, _2790
Had piled three heaps of loaves, making a dearth
Among the dead--round which she set in state
A ring of cold, stiff babes; silent and stark they sate.

52.
She leaped upon a pile, and lifted high
Her mad looks to the lightning, and cried: 'Eat! _2795
Share the great feast--to-morrow we must die! '
And then she spurned the loaves with her pale feet,
Towards her bloodless guests;--that sight to meet,
Mine eyes and my heart ached, and but that she
Who loved me, did with absent looks defeat _2800
Despair, I might have raved in sympathy;
But now I took the food that woman offered me;

53.
And vainly having with her madness striven
If I might win her to return with me,
Departed. In the eastern beams of Heaven _2805
The lightning now grew pallid--rapidly,
As by the shore of the tempestuous sea
The dark steed bore me; and the mountain gray
Soon echoed to his hoofs, and I could see
Cythna among the rocks, where she alway _2810
Had sate with anxious eyes fixed on the lingering day.

54.
And joy was ours to meet: she was most pale,
Famished, and wet and weary, so I cast
My arms around her, lest her steps should fail
As to our home we went, and thus embraced, _2815
Her full heart seemed a deeper joy to taste
Than e'er the prosperous know; the steed behind
Trod peacefully along the mountain waste;
We reached our home ere morning could unbind
Night's latest veil, and on our bridal-couch reclined. _2820

55.
Her chilled heart having cherished in my bosom,
And sweetest kisses past, we two did share
Our peaceful meal:--as an autumnal blossom
Which spreads its shrunk leaves in the sunny air,
After cold showers, like rainbows woven there, _2825
Thus in her lips and cheeks the vital spirit
Mantled, and in her eyes, an atmosphere
Of health, and hope; and sorrow languished near it,
And fear, and all that dark despondence doth inherit.


NOTES:
_2397 -isle. Bradley, who cps. Marianne's Dream, St. 12. See note at end.


CANTO 7.

1.
So we sate joyous as the morning ray _2830
Which fed upon the wrecks of night and storm
Now lingering on the winds; light airs did play
Among the dewy weeds, the sun was warm,
And we sate linked in the inwoven charm
Of converse and caresses sweet and deep, _2835
Speechless caresses, talk that might disarm
Time, though he wield the darts of death and sleep,
And those thrice mortal barbs in his own poison steep.

2.
I told her of my sufferings and my madness,
And how, awakened from that dreamy mood _2840
By Liberty's uprise, the strength of gladness
Came to my spirit in my solitude;
And all that now I was--while tears pursued
Each other down her fair and listening cheek
Fast as the thoughts which fed them, like a flood _2845
From sunbright dales; and when I ceased to speak,
Her accents soft and sweet the pausing air did wake.

3.
She told me a strange tale of strange endurance,
Like broken memories of many a heart
Woven into one; to which no firm assurance, _2850
So wild were they, could her own faith impart.
She said that not a tear did dare to start
From the swoln brain, and that her thoughts were firm
When from all mortal hope she did depart,
Borne by those slaves across the Ocean's term, _2855
And that she reached the port without one fear infirm.

4.
One was she among many there, the thralls
Of the cold Tyrant's cruel lust; and they
Laughed mournfully in those polluted halls;
But she was calm and sad, musing alway _2860
On loftiest enterprise, till on a day
The Tyrant heard her singing to her lute
A wild, and sad, and spirit-thrilling lay,
Like winds that die in wastes--one moment mute
The evil thoughts it made, which did his breast pollute. _2865

5.
Even when he saw her wondrous loveliness,
One moment to great Nature's sacred power
He bent, and was no longer passionless;
But when he bade her to his secret bower
Be borne, a loveless victim, and she tore _2870
Her locks in agony, and her words of flame
And mightier looks availed not; then he bore
Again his load of slavery, and became
A king, a heartless beast, a pageant and a name.

6.
She told me what a loathsome agony _2875
Is that when selfishness mocks love's delight,
Foul as in dream's most fearful imagery,
To dally with the mowing dead--that night
All torture, fear, or horror made seem light
Which the soul dreams or knows, and when the day _2880
Shone on her awful frenzy, from the sight
Where like a Spirit in fleshly chains she lay
Struggling, aghast and pale the Tyrant fled away.

7.
Her madness was a beam of light, a power
Which dawned through the rent soul; and words it gave, _2885
Gestures and looks, such as in whirlwinds bore
Which might not be withstood--whence none could save--
All who approached their sphere,--like some calm wave
Vexed into whirlpools by the chasms beneath;
And sympathy made each attendant slave _2890
Fearless and free, and they began to breathe
Deep curses, like the voice of flames far underneath.

8.
The King felt pale upon his noonday throne:
At night two slaves he to her chamber sent,--
One was a green and wrinkled eunuch, grown _2895
From human shape into an instrument
Of all things ill--distorted, bowed and bent.
The other was a wretch from infancy
Made dumb by poison; who nought knew or meant
But to obey: from the fire isles came he, _2900
A diver lean and strong, of Oman's coral sea.

9.
They bore her to a bark, and the swift stroke
Of silent rowers clove the blue moonlight seas,
Until upon their path the morning broke;
They anchored then, where, be there calm or breeze, _2905
The gloomiest of the drear Symplegades
Shakes with the sleepless surge;--the Ethiop there
Wound his long arms around her, and with knees
Like iron clasped her feet, and plunged with her
Among the closing waves out of the boundless air. _2910

10.
'Swift as an eagle stooping from the plain
Of morning light, into some shadowy wood,
He plunged through the green silence of the main,
Through many a cavern which the eternal flood
Had scooped, as dark lairs for its monster brood; _2915
And among mighty shapes which fled in wonder,
And among mightier shadows which pursued
His heels, he wound: until the dark rocks under
He touched a golden chain--a sound arose like thunder.

11.
'A stunning clang of massive bolts redoubling _2920
Beneath the deep--a burst of waters driven
As from the roots of the sea, raging and bubbling:
And in that roof of crags a space was riven
Through which there shone the emerald beams of heaven,
Shot through the lines of many waves inwoven, _2925
Like sunlight through acacia woods at even,
Through which, his way the diver having cloven,
Passed like a spark sent up out of a burning oven.

12.
'And then,' she said, 'he laid me in a cave
Above the waters, by that chasm of sea, _2930
A fountain round and vast, in which the wave
Imprisoned, boiled and leaped perpetually,
Down which, one moment resting, he did flee,
Winning the adverse depth; that spacious cell
Like an hupaithric temple wide and high, _2935
Whose aery dome is inaccessible,
Was pierced with one round cleft through which the sunbeams fell.

13.
'Below, the fountain's brink was richly paven
With the deep's wealth, coral, and pearl, and sand
Like spangling gold, and purple shells engraven _2940
With mystic legends by no mortal hand,
Left there, when thronging to the moon's command,
The gathering waves rent the Hesperian gate
Of mountains, and on such bright floor did stand
Columns, and shapes like statues, and the state _2945
Of kingless thrones, which Earth did in her heart create.

14.
'The fiend of madness which had made its prey
Of my poor heart, was lulled to sleep awhile:
There was an interval of many a day,
And a sea-eagle brought me food the while, _2950
Whose nest was built in that untrodden isle,
And who, to be the gaoler had been taught
Of that strange dungeon; as a friend whose smile
Like light and rest at morn and even is sought
That wild bird was to me, till madness misery brought. _2955

15.
'The misery of a madness slow and creeping,
Which made the earth seem fire, the sea seem air,
And the white clouds of noon which oft were sleeping,
In the blue heaven so beautiful and fair,
Like hosts of ghastly shadows hovering there; _2960
And the sea-eagle looked a fiend, who bore
Thy mangled limbs for food! --Thus all things were
Transformed into the agony which I wore
Even as a poisoned robe around my bosom's core.

16.
'Again I knew the day and night fast fleeing, _2965
The eagle, and the fountain, and the air;
Another frenzy came--there seemed a being
Within me--a strange load my heart did bear,
As if some living thing had made its lair
Even in the fountains of my life:--a long _2970
And wondrous vision wrought from my despair,
Then grew, like sweet reality among
Dim visionary woes, an unreposing throng.

17.
'Methought I was about to be a mother--
Month after month went by, and still I dreamed _2975
That we should soon be all to one another,
I and my child; and still new pulses seemed
To beat beside my heart, and still I deemed
There was a babe within--and, when the rain
Of winter through the rifted cavern streamed, _2980
Methought, after a lapse of lingering pain,
I saw that lovely shape, which near my heart had lain.

18.
'It was a babe, beautiful from its birth,--
It was like thee, dear love, its eyes were thine,
Its brow, its lips, and so upon the earth _2985
It laid its fingers, as now rest on mine
Thine own, beloved! --'twas a dream divine;
Even to remember how it fled, how swift,
How utterly, might make the heart repine,--
Though 'twas a dream. '--Then Cythna did uplift _2990
Her looks on mine, as if some doubt she sought to shift:

19.
A doubt which would not flee, a tenderness
Of questioning grief, a source of thronging tears;
Which having passed, as one whom sobs oppress
She spoke: 'Yes, in the wilderness of years _2995
Her memory, aye, like a green home appears;
She sucked her fill even at this breast, sweet love,
For many months. I had no mortal fears;
Methought I felt her lips and breath approve,--
It was a human thing which to my bosom clove. _3000

20.
'I watched the dawn of her first smiles; and soon
When zenith stars were trembling on the wave,
Or when the beams of the invisible moon,
Or sun, from many a prism within the cave
Their gem-born shadows to the water gave, _3005
Her looks would hunt them, and with outspread hand,
From the swift lights which might that fountain pave,
She would mark one, and laugh, when that command
Slighting, it lingered there, and could not understand.

21.
'Methought her looks began to talk with me; _3010
And no articulate sounds, but something sweet
Her lips would frame,--so sweet it could not be,
That it was meaningless; her touch would meet
Mine, and our pulses calmly flow and beat
In response while we slept; and on a day _3015
When I was happiest in that strange retreat,
With heaps of golden shells we two did play,--
Both infants, weaving wings for time's perpetual way.

22.
'Ere night, methought, her waning eyes were grown
Weary with joy, and tired with our delight, _3020
We, on the earth, like sister twins lay down
On one fair mother's bosom:--from that night
She fled,--like those illusions clear and bright,
Which dwell in lakes, when the red moon on high
Pause ere it wakens tempest;--and her flight, _3025
Though 'twas the death of brainless fantasy,
Yet smote my lonesome heart more than all misery.

23.
'It seemed that in the dreary night the diver
Who brought me thither, came again, and bore
My child away. I saw the waters quiver, _3030
When he so swiftly sunk, as once before:
Then morning came--it shone even as of yore,
But I was changed--the very life was gone
Out of my heart--I wasted more and more,
Day after day, and sitting there alone, _3035
Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan.

24.
'I was no longer mad, and yet methought
My breasts were swoln and changed:--in every vein
The blood stood still one moment, while that thought
Was passing--with a gush of sickening pain _3040
It ebbed even to its withered springs again:
When my wan eyes in stern resolve I turned
From that most strange delusion, which would fain
Have waked the dream for which my spirit yearned
With more than human love,--then left it unreturned. _3045

25.
'So now my reason was restored to me
I struggled with that dream, which, like a beast
Most fierce and beauteous, in my memory
Had made its lair, and on my heart did feast;
But all that cave and all its shapes, possessed _3050
By thoughts which could not fade, renewed each one
Some smile, some look, some gesture which had blessed
Me heretofore: I, sitting there alone,
Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan.

26.
'Time passed, I know not whether months or years; _3055
For day, nor night, nor change of seasons made
Its note, but thoughts and unavailing tears:
And I became at last even as a shade,
A smoke, a cloud on which the winds have preyed,
Till it be thin as air; until, one even, _3060
A Nautilus upon the fountain played,
Spreading his azure sail where breath of Heaven
Descended not, among the waves and whirlpools driven.

27.
'And, when the Eagle came, that lovely thing,
Oaring with rosy feet its silver boat, _3065
Fled near me as for shelter; on slow wing,
The Eagle, hovering o'er his prey did float;
But when he saw that I with fear did note
His purpose, proffering my own food to him,
The eager plumes subsided on his throat-- _3070
He came where that bright child of sea did swim,
And o'er it cast in peace his shadow broad and dim.

28.
'This wakened me, it gave me human strength;
And hope, I know not whence or wherefore, rose,
But I resumed my ancient powers at length; _3075
My spirit felt again like one of those
Like thine, whose fate it is to make the woes
Of humankind their prey--what was this cave?
Its deep foundation no firm purpose knows
Immutable, resistless, strong to save, _3080
Like mind while yet it mocks the all-devouring grave.

29.
'And where was Laon? might my heart be dead,
While that far dearer heart could move and be?
Or whilst over the earth the pall was spread,
Which I had sworn to rend?
I might be free, _3085
Could I but win that friendly bird to me,
To bring me ropes; and long in vain I sought
By intercourse of mutual imagery
Of objects, if such aid he could be taught;
But fruit, and flowers, and boughs, yet never ropes he brought. _3090

30.
'We live in our own world, and mine was made
From glorious fantasies of hope departed:
Aye we are darkened with their floating shade,
Or cast a lustre on them--time imparted
Such power to me--I became fearless-hearted, _3095
My eye and voice grew firm, calm was my mind,
And piercing, like the morn, now it has darted
Its lustre on all hidden things, behind
Yon dim and fading clouds which load the weary wind.

31.
'My mind became the book through which I grew _3100
Wise in all human wisdom, and its cave,
Which like a mine I rifled through and through,
To me the keeping of its secrets gave--
One mind, the type of all, the moveless wave
Whose calm reflects all moving things that are, _3105
Necessity, and love, and life, the grave,
And sympathy, fountains of hope and fear,
Justice, and truth, and time, and the world's natural sphere.

32.
'And on the sand would I make signs to range
These woofs, as they were woven, of my thought; _3110
Clear, elemental shapes, whose smallest change
A subtler language within language wrought:
The key of truths which once were dimly taught
In old Crotona;--and sweet melodies
Of love, in that lorn solitude I caught _3115
From mine own voice in dream, when thy dear eyes
Shone through my sleep, and did that utterance harmonize.

33.
'Thy songs were winds whereon I fled at will,
As in a winged chariot, o'er the plain
Of crystal youth; and thou wert there to fill _3120
My heart with joy, and there we sate again
On the gray margin of the glimmering main,
Happy as then but wiser far, for we
Smiled on the flowery grave in which were lain
Fear, Faith and Slavery; and mankind was free, _3125
Equal, and pure, and wise, in Wisdom's prophecy.

34.
'For to my will my fancies were as slaves
To do their sweet and subtile ministries;
And oft from that bright fountain's shadowy waves
They would make human throngs gather and rise _3130
To combat with my overflowing eyes,
And voice made deep with passion--thus I grew
Familiar with the shock and the surprise
And war of earthly minds, from which I drew
The power which has been mine to frame their thoughts anew. _3135

35.
'And thus my prison was the populous earth--
Where I saw--even as misery dreams of morn
Before the east has given its glory birth--
Religion's pomp made desolate by the scorn
Of Wisdom's faintest smile, and thrones uptorn, _3140
And dwellings of mild people interspersed
With undivided fields of ripening corn,
And love made free,--a hope which we have nursed
Even with our blood and tears,--until its glory burst.

36.
'All is not lost! There is some recompense _3145
For hope whose fountain can be thus profound,
Even throned Evil's splendid impotence,
Girt by its hell of power, the secret sound
Of hymns to truth and freedom--the dread bound
Of life and death passed fearlessly and well, _3150
Dungeons wherein the high resolve is found,
Racks which degraded woman's greatness tell,
And what may else be good and irresistible.

37.
'Such are the thoughts which, like the fires that flare
In storm-encompassed isles, we cherish yet _3155
In this dark ruin--such were mine even there;
As in its sleep some odorous violet,
While yet its leaves with nightly dews are wet,
Breathes in prophetic dreams of day's uprise,
Or as, ere Scythian frost in fear has met _3160
Spring's messengers descending from the skies,
The buds foreknow their life--this hope must ever rise.

38.
'So years had passed, when sudden earthquake rent
The depth of ocean, and the cavern cracked
With sound, as if the world's wide continent _3165
Had fallen in universal ruin wracked:
And through the cleft streamed in one cataract
The stifling waters--when I woke, the flood
Whose banded waves that crystal cave had sacked
Was ebbing round me, and my bright abode _3170
Before me yawned--a chasm desert, and bare, and broad.

39.
'Above me was the sky, beneath the sea:
I stood upon a point of shattered stone,
And heard loose rocks rushing tumultuously
With splash and shock into the deep--anon _3175
All ceased, and there was silence wide and lone.
I felt that I was free! The Ocean-spray
Quivered beneath my feet, the broad Heaven shone
Around, and in my hair the winds did play
Lingering as they pursued their unimpeded way. _3180

40.
'My spirit moved upon the sea like wind
Which round some thymy cape will lag and hover,
Though it can wake the still cloud, and unbind
The strength of tempest: day was almost over,
When through the fading light I could discover _3185
A ship approaching--its white sails were fed
With the north wind--its moving shade did cover
The twilight deep; the mariners in dread
Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread.

41.
'And when they saw one sitting on a crag, _3190
They sent a boat to me;--the Sailors rowed
In awe through many a new and fearful jag
Of overhanging rock, through which there flowed
The foam of streams that cannot make abode.
They came and questioned me, but when they heard _3195
My voice, they became silent, and they stood
And moved as men in whom new love had stirred
Deep thoughts: so to the ship we passed without a word.


NOTES:
_2877 dreams edition 1818.
_2994 opprest edition 1818.
_3115 lone solitude edition 1818.


CANTO 8.

1.
'I sate beside the Steersman then, and gazing
Upon the west, cried, "Spread the sails! Behold! _3200
The sinking moon is like a watch-tower blazing
Over the mountains yet;--the City of Gold
Yon Cape alone does from the sight withhold;
The stream is fleet--the north breathes steadily
Beneath the stars; they tremble with the cold! _3205
Ye cannot rest upon the dreary sea! --
Haste, haste to the warm home of happier destiny! "

2.
'The Mariners obeyed--the Captain stood
Aloof, and, whispering to the Pilot, said,
"Alas, alas! I fear we are pursued _3210
By wicked ghosts; a Phantom of the Dead,
The night before we sailed, came to my bed
In dream, like that! " The Pilot then replied,
"It cannot be--she is a human Maid--
Her low voice makes you weep--she is some bride, _3215
Or daughter of high birth--she can be nought beside. "

3.
'We passed the islets, borne by wind and stream,
And as we sailed, the Mariners came near
And thronged around to listen;--in the gleam
Of the pale moon I stood, as one whom fear _3220
May not attaint, and my calm voice did rear;
"Ye are all human--yon broad moon gives light
To millions who the selfsame likeness wear,
Even while I speak--beneath this very night,
Their thoughts flow on like ours, in sadness or delight. _3225

4.
'"What dream ye? Your own hands have built an home,
Even for yourselves on a beloved shore:
For some, fond eyes are pining till they come,
How they will greet him when his toils are o'er,
And laughing babes rush from the well-known door! _3230
Is this your care? ye toil for your own good--
Ye feel and think--has some immortal power
Such purposes? or in a human mood,
Dream ye some Power thus builds for man in solitude?

5.
'"What is that Power? Ye mock yourselves, and give _3235
A human heart to what ye cannot know:
As if the cause of life could think and live!
'Twere as if man's own works should feel, and show
The hopes, and fears, and thoughts from which they flow,
And he be like to them! Lo! Plague is free _3240
To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and Snow,
Disease, and Want, and worse Necessity
Of hate and ill, and Pride, and Fear, and Tyranny!

6.
'"What is that Power? Some moon-struck sophist stood
Watching the shade from his own soul upthrown _3245
Fill Heaven and darken Earth, and in such mood
The Form he saw and worshipped was his own,
His likeness in the world's vast mirror shown;
And 'twere an innocent dream, but that a faith
Nursed by fear's dew of poison, grows thereon, _3250
And that men say, that Power has chosen Death
On all who scorn its laws, to wreak immortal wrath.

7.
'"Men say that they themselves have heard and seen,
Or known from others who have known such things,
A Shade, a Form, which Earth and Heaven between _3255
Wields an invisible rod--that Priests and Kings,
Custom, domestic sway, ay, all that brings
Man's freeborn soul beneath the oppressor's heel,
Are his strong ministers, and that the stings
Of death will make the wise his vengeance feel, _3260
Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with tenfold steel.

8.
'"And it is said, this Power will punish wrong;
Yes, add despair to crime, and pain to pain!
And deepest hell, and deathless snakes among,
Will bind the wretch on whom is fixed a stain, _3265
Which, like a plague, a burden, and a bane,
Clung to him while he lived; for love and hate,
Virtue and vice, they say are difference vain--
The will of strength is right--this human state
Tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate. _3270

9.
'"Alas, what strength? Opinion is more frail
Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moon
Even while we gaze, though it awhile avail
To hide the orb of truth--and every throne
Of Earth or Heaven, though shadow, rests thereon, _3275
One shape of many names:--for this ye plough
The barren waves of ocean, hence each one
Is slave or tyrant; all betray and bow,
Command, or kill, or fear, or wreak, or suffer woe.

10.
'"Its names are each a sign which maketh holy _3280
All power--ay, the ghost, the dream, the shade
Of power--lust, falsehood, hate, and pride, and folly;
The pattern whence all fraud and wrong is made,
A law to which mankind has been betrayed;
And human love, is as the name well known _3285
Of a dear mother, whom the murderer laid
In bloody grave, and into darkness thrown,
Gathered her wildered babes around him as his own.

11.
'"O Love, who to the hearts of wandering men
Art as the calm to Ocean's weary waves! _3290
Justice, or Truth, or Joy! those only can
From slavery and religion's labyrinth caves
Guide us, as one clear star the seaman saves.
To give to all an equal share of good,
To track the steps of Freedom, though through graves _3295
She pass, to suffer all in patient mood,
To weep for crime, though stained with thy friend's dearest blood,--

12.
'"To feel the peace of self-contentment's lot,
To own all sympathies, and outrage none,
And in the inmost bowers of sense and thought, _3300
Until life's sunny day is quite gone down,
To sit and smile with Joy, or, not alone,
To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of Woe;
To live, as if to love and live were one,--
This is not faith or law, nor those who bow _3305
To thrones on Heaven or Earth, such destiny may know.

13.
'"But children near their parents tremble now,
Because they must obey--one rules another,
And as one Power rules both high and low,
So man is made the captive of his brother, _3310
And Hate is throned on high with Fear her mother,
Above the Highest--and those fountain-cells,
Whence love yet flowed when faith had choked all other,
Are darkened--Woman as the bond-slave dwells
Of man, a slave; and life is poisoned in its wells. _3315

14.
'"Man seeks for gold in mines, that he may weave
A lasting chain for his own slavery;--
In fear and restless care that he may live
He toils for others, who must ever be
The joyless thralls of like captivity; _3320
He murders, for his chiefs delight in ruin;
He builds the altar, that its idol's fee
May be his very blood; he is pursuing--
O, blind and willing wretch! --his own obscure undoing.

15.
'"Woman! --she is his slave, she has become _3325
A thing I weep to speak--the child of scorn,
The outcast of a desolated home;
Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn
Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn,
As calm decks the false Ocean:--well ye know _3330
What Woman is, for none of Woman born
Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe,
Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow.

16.
'"This need not be; ye might arise, and will
That gold should lose its power, and thrones their glory; _3335
That love, which none may bind, be free to fill
The world, like light; and evil faith, grown hoary
With crime, be quenched and die. --Yon promontory
Even now eclipses the descending moon! --
Dungeons and palaces are transitory-- _3340
High temples fade like vapour--Man alone
Remains, whose will has power when all beside is gone.

17.
'"Let all be free and equal! --From your hearts
I feel an echo; through my inmost frame
Like sweetest sound, seeking its mate, it darts-- _3345
Whence come ye, friends? Alas, I cannot name
All that I read of sorrow, toil, and shame,
On your worn faces; as in legends old
Which make immortal the disastrous fame
Of conquerors and impostors false and bold, _3350
The discord of your hearts, I in your looks behold.

18.
'"Whence come ye, friends? from pouring human blood
Forth on the earth? Or bring ye steel and gold,
That Kings may dupe and slay the multitude?
Or from the famished poor, pale, weak and cold, _3355
Bear ye the earnings of their toil? Unfold!
Speak! Are your hands in slaughter's sanguine hue
Stained freshly? have your hearts in guile grown old?
Know yourselves thus! ye shall be pure as dew,
And I will be a friend and sister unto you. _3360

19.
'"Disguise it not--we have one human heart--
All mortal thoughts confess a common home:
Blush not for what may to thyself impart
Stains of inevitable crime: the doom
Is this, which has, or may, or must become _3365
Thine, and all humankind's. Ye are the spoil
Which Time thus marks for the devouring tomb--
Thou and thy thoughts and they, and all the toil
Wherewith ye twine the rings of life's perpetual coil.

20.
'"Disguise it not--ye blush for what ye hate, _3370
And Enmity is sister unto Shame;
Look on your mind--it is the book of fate--
Ah! it is dark with many a blazoned name
Of misery--all are mirrors of the same;
But the dark fiend who with his iron pen _3375
Dipped in scorn's fiery poison, makes his fame
Enduring there, would o'er the heads of men
Pass harmless, if they scorned to make their hearts his den.

21.
'"Yes, it is Hate, that shapeless fiendly thing
Of many names, all evil, some divine, _3380
Whom self-contempt arms with a mortal sting;
Which, when the heart its snaky folds entwine
Is wasted quite, and when it doth repine
To gorge such bitter prey, on all beside
It turns with ninefold rage, as with its twine _3385
When Amphisbaena some fair bird has tied,
Soon o'er the putrid mass he threats on every side.

22.
'"Reproach not thine own soul, but know thyself,
Nor hate another's crime, nor loathe thine own.
It is the dark idolatry of self, _3390
Which, when our thoughts and actions once are gone,
Demands that man should weep, and bleed, and groan;
Oh, vacant expiation! Be at rest. --
The past is Death's, the future is thine own;
And love and joy can make the foulest breast _3395
A paradise of flowers, where peace might build her nest.

23.
'"Speak thou! whence come ye? "--A Youth made reply:
"Wearily, wearily o'er the boundless deep
We sail;--thou readest well the misery
Told in these faded eyes, but much doth sleep _3400
Within, which there the poor heart loves to keep,
Or dare not write on the dishonoured brow;
Even from our childhood have we learned to steep
The bread of slavery in the tears of woe,
And never dreamed of hope or refuge until now. _3405

24.
'"Yes--I must speak--my secret should have perished
Even with the heart it wasted, as a brand
Fades in the dying flame whose life it cherished,
But that no human bosom can withstand
Thee, wondrous Lady, and the mild command _3410
Of thy keen eyes:--yes, we are wretched slaves,
Who from their wonted loves and native land
Are reft, and bear o'er the dividing waves
The unregarded prey of calm and happy graves.

25.
'"We drag afar from pastoral vales the fairest _3415
Among the daughters of those mountains lone,
We drag them there, where all things best and rarest
Are stained and trampled:--years have come and gone
Since, like the ship which bears me, I have known
No thought;--but now the eyes of one dear Maid _3420
On mine with light of mutual love have shone--
She is my life,--I am but as the shade
Of her,--a smoke sent up from ashes, soon to fade.

26.
'"For she must perish in the Tyrant's hall--
Alas, alas! "--He ceased, and by the sail _3425
Sate cowering--but his sobs were heard by all,
And still before the ocean and the gale
The ship fled fast till the stars 'gan to fail;
And, round me gathered with mute countenance,
The Seamen gazed, the Pilot, worn and pale _3430
With toil, the Captain with gray locks, whose glance
Met mine in restless awe--they stood as in a trance.

27.
'"Recede not! pause not now! Thou art grown old,
But Hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth
Are children of one mother, even Love--behold! _3435
The eternal stars gaze on us! --is the truth
Within your soul? care for your own, or ruth
For others' sufferings? do ye thirst to bear
A heart which not the serpent Custom's tooth
May violate? --Be free! and even here, _3440
Swear to be firm till death! " They cried, "We swear! We swear! "

28.
'The very darkness shook, as with a blast
Of subterranean thunder, at the cry;
The hollow shore its thousand echoes cast
Into the night, as if the sea and sky, _3445
And earth, rejoiced with new-born liberty,
For in that name they swore! Bolts were undrawn,
And on the deck, with unaccustomed eye
The captives gazing stood, and every one
Shrank as the inconstant torch upon her countenance shone. _3450

29.
'They were earth's purest children, young and fair,
With eyes the shrines of unawakened thought,
And brows as bright as Spring or Morning, ere
Dark time had there its evil legend wrought
In characters of cloud which wither not. -- _3455
The change was like a dream to them; but soon
They knew the glory of their altered lot,
In the bright wisdom of youth's breathless noon,
Sweet talk, and smiles, and sighs, all bosoms did attune.

30.
'But one was mute; her cheeks and lips most fair, _3460
Changing their hue like lilies newly blown,
Beneath a bright acacia's shadowy hair,
Waved by the wind amid the sunny noon,
Showed that her soul was quivering; and full soon
That Youth arose, and breathlessly did look _3465
On her and me, as for some speechless boon:
I smiled, and both their hands in mine I took,
And felt a soft delight from what their spirits shook.


CANTO 9.

1.
'That night we anchored in a woody bay,
And sleep no more around us dared to hover _3470
Than, when all doubt and fear has passed away,
It shades the couch of some unresting lover,
Whose heart is now at rest: thus night passed over
In mutual joy:--around, a forest grew
Of poplars and dark oaks, whose shade did cover _3475
The waning stars pranked in the waters blue,
And trembled in the wind which from the morning flew.

2.
'The joyous Mariners, and each free Maiden
Now brought from the deep forest many a bough,
With woodland spoil most innocently laden; _3480
Soon wreaths of budding foliage seemed to flow
Over the mast and sails, the stern and prow
Were canopied with blooming boughs,--the while
On the slant sun's path o'er the waves we go
Rejoicing, like the dwellers of an isle _3485
Doomed to pursue those waves that cannot cease to smile.

3.
'The many ships spotting the dark blue deep
With snowy sails, fled fast as ours came nigh,
In fear and wonder; and on every steep
Thousands did gaze, they heard the startling cry, _3490
Like Earth's own voice lifted unconquerably
To all her children, the unbounded mirth,
The glorious joy of thy name--Liberty!
They heard! --As o'er the mountains of the earth
From peak to peak leap on the beams of Morning's birth: _3495

4.
'So from that cry over the boundless hills
Sudden was caught one universal sound,
Like a volcano's voice, whose thunder fills
Remotest skies,--such glorious madness found
A path through human hearts with stream which drowned _3500
Its struggling fears and cares, dark Custom's brood;
They knew not whence it came, but felt around
A wide contagion poured--they called aloud
On Liberty--that name lived on the sunny flood.

5.
'We reached the port. --Alas! from many spirits _3505
The wisdom which had waked that cry, was fled,
Like the brief glory which dark Heaven inherits
From the false dawn, which fades ere it is spread,
Upon the night's devouring darkness shed:
Yet soon bright day will burst--even like a chasm _3510
Of fire, to burn the shrouds outworn and dead,
Which wrap the world; a wide enthusiasm,
To cleanse the fevered world as with an earthquake's spasm!

6.
'I walked through the great City then, but free
From shame or fear; those toil-worn Mariners _3515
And happy Maidens did encompass me;
And like a subterranean wind that stirs
Some forest among caves, the hopes and fears
From every human soul, a murmur strange
Made as I passed; and many wept, with tears _3520
Of joy and awe, and winged thoughts did range,
And half-extinguished words, which prophesied of change.

7.
'For, with strong speech I tore the veil that hid
Nature, and Truth, and Liberty, and Love,--
As one who from some mountain's pyramid _3525
Points to the unrisen sun! --the shades approve
His truth, and flee from every stream and grove.
Thus, gentle thoughts did many a bosom fill,--
Wisdom, the mail of tried affections wove
For many a heart, and tameless scorn of ill, _3530
Thrice steeped in molten steel the unconquerable will.

8.
'Some said I was a maniac wild and lost;
Some, that I scarce had risen from the grave,
The Prophet's virgin bride, a heavenly ghost:--
Some said, I was a fiend from my weird cave, _3535
Who had stolen human shape, and o'er the wave,
The forest, and the mountain, came;--some said
I was the child of God, sent down to save
Woman from bonds and death, and on my head
The burden of their sins would frightfully be laid. _3540

9.
'But soon my human words found sympathy
In human hearts: the purest and the best,
As friend with friend, made common cause with me,
And they were few, but resolute;--the rest,
Ere yet success the enterprise had blessed, _3545
Leagued with me in their hearts;--their meals, their slumber,
Their hourly occupations, were possessed
By hopes which I had armed to overnumber
Those hosts of meaner cares, which life's strong wings encumber.

10.
'But chiefly women, whom my voice did waken _3550
From their cold, careless, willing slavery,
Sought me: one truth their dreary prison has shaken,--
They looked around, and lo! they became free!
Their many tyrants sitting desolately
In slave-deserted halls, could none restrain; _3555
For wrath's red fire had withered in the eye,
Whose lightning once was death,--nor fear, nor gain
Could tempt one captive now to lock another's chain.

11.
'Those who were sent to bind me, wept, and felt
Their minds outsoar the bonds which clasped them round, _3560
Even as a waxen shape may waste and melt
In the white furnace; and a visioned swound,
A pause of hope and awe the City bound,
Which, like the silence of a tempest's birth,
When in its awful shadow it has wound _3565
The sun, the wind, the ocean, and the earth,
Hung terrible, ere yet the lightnings have leaped forth.

12.
'Like clouds inwoven in the silent sky,
By winds from distant regions meeting there,
In the high name of truth and liberty, _3570
Around the City millions gathered were,
By hopes which sprang from many a hidden lair,--
Words which the lore of truth in hues of flame
Arrayed, thine own wild songs which in the air
Like homeless odours floated, and the name _3575
Of thee, and many a tongue which thou hadst dipped in flame.

13.
'The Tyrant knew his power was gone, but Fear,
The nurse of Vengeance, bade him wait the event--
That perfidy and custom, gold and prayer,
And whatsoe'er, when force is impotent, _3580
To fraud the sceptre of the world has lent,
Might, as he judged, confirm his failing sway.
Therefore throughout the streets, the Priests he sent
To curse the rebels. --To their gods did they
For Earthquake, Plague, and Want, kneel in the public way. _3585

14.
'And grave and hoary men were bribed to tell
From seats where law is made the slave of wrong,
How glorious Athens in her splendour fell,
Because her sons were free,--and that among
Mankind, the many to the few belong, _3590
By Heaven, and Nature, and Necessity.
They said, that age was truth, and that the young
Marred with wild hopes the peace of slavery,
With which old times and men had quelled the vain and free.

15.
'And with the falsehood of their poisonous lips _3595
They breathed on the enduring memory
Of sages and of bards a brief eclipse;
There was one teacher, who necessity
Had armed with strength and wrong against mankind,
His slave and his avenger aye to be; _3600
That we were weak and sinful, frail and blind,
And that the will of one was peace, and we
Should seek for nought on earth but toil and misery--

16.
'"For thus we might avoid the hell hereafter. "
So spake the hypocrites, who cursed and lied; _3605
Alas, their sway was past, and tears and laughter
Clung to their hoary hair, withering the pride
Which in their hollow hearts dared still abide;
And yet obscener slaves with smoother brow,
And sneers on their strait lips, thin, blue and wide, _3610
Said that the rule of men was over now,
And hence, the subject world to woman's will must bow;

17.
'And gold was scattered through the streets, and wine
Flowed at a hundred feasts within the wall.
In vain! the steady towers in Heaven did shine _3615
As they were wont, nor at the priestly call
Left Plague her banquet in the Ethiop's hall,
Nor Famine from the rich man's portal came,
Where at her ease she ever preys on all
Who throng to kneel for food: nor fear nor shame, _3620
Nor faith, nor discord, dimmed hope's newly kindled flame.

18.
'For gold was as a god whose faith began
To fade, so that its worshippers were few,
And Faith itself, which in the heart of man
Gives shape, voice, name, to spectral Terror, knew _3625
Its downfall, as the altars lonelier grew,
Till the Priests stood alone within the fane;
The shafts of falsehood unpolluting flew,
And the cold sneers of calumny were vain,
The union of the free with discord's brand to stain. _3630

19.
'The rest thou knowest. --Lo! we two are here--
We have survived a ruin wide and deep--
Strange thoughts are mine. --I cannot grieve or fear,
Sitting with thee upon this lonely steep
I smile, though human love should make me weep. _3635
We have survived a joy that knows no sorrow,
And I do feel a mighty calmness creep
Over my heart, which can no longer borrow
Its hues from chance or change, dark children of to-morrow.