No More Learning

_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.

20.
'We know not what will come--yet, Laon, dearest, _3640
Cythna shall be the prophetess of Love,
Her lips shall rob thee of the grace thou wearest,
To hide thy heart, and clothe the shapes which rove
Within the homeless Future's wintry grove;
For I now, sitting thus beside thee, seem _3645
Even with thy breath and blood to live and move,
And violence and wrong are as a dream
Which rolls from steadfast truth, an unreturning stream.

21.
'The blasts of Autumn drive the winged seeds
Over the earth,--next come the snows, and rain, _3650
And frosts, and storms, which dreary Winter leads
Out of his Scythian cave, a savage train;
Behold! Spring sweeps over the world again,
Shedding soft dews from her ethereal wings;
Flowers on the mountains, fruits over the plain, _3655
And music on the waves and woods she flings,
And love on all that lives, and calm on lifeless things.

22.
'O Spring, of hope, and love, and youth, and gladness
Wind-winged emblem! brightest, best and fairest!
Whence comest thou, when, with dark Winter's sadness _3660
The tears that fade in sunny smiles thou sharest?
Sister of joy, thou art the child who wearest
Thy mother's dying smile, tender and sweet;
Thy mother Autumn, for whose grave thou bearest
Fresh flowers, and beams like flowers, with gentle feet, _3665
Disturbing not the leaves which are her winding-sheet.

23.
'Virtue, and Hope, and Love, like light and Heaven,
Surround the world. --We are their chosen slaves.
Has not the whirlwind of our spirit driven
Truth's deathless germs to thought's remotest caves? _3670
Lo, Winter comes! --the grief of many graves,
The frost of death, the tempest of the sword,
The flood of tyranny, whose sanguine waves
Stagnate like ice at Faith the enchanter's word,
And bind all human hearts in its repose abhorred. _3675

24.
'The seeds are sleeping in the soil: meanwhile
The Tyrant peoples dungeons with his prey,
Pale victims on the guarded scaffold smile
Because they cannot speak; and, day by day,
The moon of wasting Science wanes away _3680
Among her stars, and in that darkness vast
The sons of earth to their foul idols pray,
And gray Priests triumph, and like blight or blast
A shade of selfish care o'er human looks is cast.

25.
'This is the winter of the world;--and here _3685
We die, even as the winds of Autumn fade,
Expiring in the frore and foggy air.
Behold! Spring comes, though we must pass, who made
The promise of its birth,--even as the shade
Which from our death, as from a mountain, flings _3690
The future, a broad sunrise; thus arrayed
As with the plumes of overshadowing wings,
From its dark gulf of chains, Earth like an eagle springs.

26.
'O dearest love! we shall be dead and cold
Before this morn may on the world arise; _3695
Wouldst thou the glory of its dawn behold?
Alas! gaze not on me, but turn thine eyes
On thine own heart--it is a paradise
Which everlasting Spring has made its own,
And while drear Winter fills the naked skies, _3700
Sweet streams of sunny thought, and flowers fresh-blown,
Are there, and weave their sounds and odours into one.

27.
'In their own hearts the earnest of the hope
Which made them great, the good will ever find;
And though some envious shade may interlope _3705
Between the effect and it, One comes behind,
Who aye the future to the past will bind--
Necessity, whose sightless strength for ever
Evil with evil, good with good must wind
In bands of union, which no power may sever: _3710
They must bring forth their kind, and be divided never!

28.
'The good and mighty of departed ages
Are in their graves, the innocent and free,
Heroes, and Poets, and prevailing Sages,
Who leave the vesture of their majesty _3715
To adorn and clothe this naked world;--and we
Are like to them--such perish, but they leave
All hope, or love, or truth, or liberty,
Whose forms their mighty spirits could conceive,
To be a rule and law to ages that survive. _3720

29.
'So be the turf heaped over our remains
Even in our happy youth, and that strange lot,
Whate'er it be, when in these mingling veins
The blood is still, be ours; let sense and thought
Pass from our being, or be numbered not _3725
Among the things that are; let those who come
Behind, for whom our steadfast will has bought
A calm inheritance, a glorious doom,
Insult with careless tread, our undivided tomb.

30.
'Our many thoughts and deeds, our life and love, _3730
Our happiness, and all that we have been,
Immortally must live, and burn and move,
When we shall be no more;--the world has seen
A type of peace; and--as some most serene
And lovely spot to a poor maniac's eye, _3735
After long years, some sweet and moving scene
Of youthful hope, returning suddenly,
Quells his long madness--thus man shall remember thee.

31.
'And Calumny meanwhile shall feed on us,
As worms devour the dead, and near the throne _3740
And at the altar, most accepted thus
Shall sneers and curses be;--what we have done
None shall dare vouch, though it be truly known;
That record shall remain, when they must pass
Who built their pride on its oblivion; _3745
And fame, in human hope which sculptured was,
Survive the perished scrolls of unenduring brass.

32.
'The while we two, beloved, must depart,
And Sense and Reason, those enchanters fair,
Whose wand of power is hope, would bid the heart _3750
That gazed beyond the wormy grave despair:
These eyes, these lips, this blood, seems darkly there
To fade in hideous ruin; no calm sleep
Peopling with golden dreams the stagnant air,
Seems our obscure and rotting eyes to steep _3755
In joy;--but senseless death--a ruin dark and deep!

33.
'These are blind fancies--reason cannot know
What sense can neither feel, nor thought conceive;
There is delusion in the world--and woe,
And fear, and pain--we know not whence we live, _3760
Or why, or how, or what mute Power may give
Their being to each plant, and star, and beast,
Or even these thoughts. --Come near me! I do weave
A chain I cannot break--I am possessed
With thoughts too swift and strong for one lone human breast. _3765

34.
'Yes, yes--thy kiss is sweet, thy lips are warm--
O! willingly, beloved, would these eyes,
Might they no more drink being from thy form,
Even as to sleep whence we again arise,
Close their faint orbs in death: I fear nor prize _3770
Aught that can now betide, unshared by thee--
Yes, Love when Wisdom fails makes Cythna wise:
Darkness and death, if death be true, must be
Dearer than life and hope, if unenjoyed with thee.

35.
'Alas, our thoughts flow on with stream, whose waters _3775
Return not to their fountain--Earth and Heaven,
The Ocean and the Sun, the Clouds their daughters,
Winter, and Spring, and Morn, and Noon, and Even,
All that we are or know, is darkly driven
Towards one gulf. --Lo! what a change is come _3780
Since I first spake--but time shall be forgiven,
Though it change all but thee! '--She ceased--night's gloom
Meanwhile had fallen on earth from the sky's sunless dome.

36.
Though she had ceased, her countenance uplifted
To Heaven, still spake, with solemn glory bright; _3785
Her dark deep eyes, her lips, whose motions gifted
The air they breathed with love, her locks undight.
'Fair star of life and love,' I cried, 'my soul's delight,
Why lookest thou on the crystalline skies?
O, that my spirit were yon Heaven of night, _3790
Which gazes on thee with its thousand eyes! '
She turned to me and smiled--that smile was Paradise!


NOTES:
_3573 hues of grace edition 1818.


CANTO 10.

1.
Was there a human spirit in the steed,
That thus with his proud voice, ere night was gone,
He broke our linked rest? or do indeed _3795
All living things a common nature own,
And thought erect an universal throne,
Where many shapes one tribute ever bear?
And Earth, their mutual mother, does she groan
To see her sons contend? and makes she bare _3800
Her breast, that all in peace its drainless stores may share?

2.
I have heard friendly sounds from many a tongue
Which was not human--the lone nightingale
Has answered me with her most soothing song,
Out of her ivy bower, when I sate pale _3805
With grief, and sighed beneath; from many a dale
The antelopes who flocked for food have spoken
With happy sounds, and motions, that avail
Like man's own speech; and such was now the token
Of waning night, whose calm by that proud neigh was broken. _3810

3.
Each night, that mighty steed bore me abroad,
And I returned with food to our retreat,
And dark intelligence; the blood which flowed
Over the fields, had stained the courser's feet;
Soon the dust drinks that bitter dew,--then meet _3815
The vulture, and the wild dog, and the snake,
The wolf, and the hyaena gray, and eat
The dead in horrid truce: their throngs did make
Behind the steed, a chasm like waves in a ship's wake.

4.
For, from the utmost realms of earth came pouring _3820
The banded slaves whom every despot sent
At that throned traitor's summons; like the roaring
Of fire, whose floods the wild deer circumvent
In the scorched pastures of the South; so bent
The armies of the leagued Kings around _3825
Their files of steel and flame;--the continent
Trembled, as with a zone of ruin bound,
Beneath their feet, the sea shook with their Navies' sound.

5.
From every nation of the earth they came,
The multitude of moving heartless things, _3830
Whom slaves call men: obediently they came,
Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings
To the stall, red with blood; their many kings
Led them, thus erring, from their native land;
Tartar and Frank, and millions whom the wings _3835
Of Indian breezes lull, and many a band
The Arctic Anarch sent, and Idumea's sand,

6.
Fertile in prodigies and lies;--so there
Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill.
The desert savage ceased to grasp in fear _3840
His Asian shield and bow, when, at the will
Of Europe's subtler son, the bolt would kill
Some shepherd sitting on a rock secure;
But smiles of wondering joy his face would fill,
And savage sympathy: those slaves impure, _3845
Each one the other thus from ill to ill did lure.

7.
For traitorously did that foul Tyrant robe
His countenance in lies,--even at the hour
When he was snatched from death, then o'er the globe,
With secret signs from many a mountain-tower, _3850
With smoke by day, and fire by night, the power
Of Kings and Priests, those dark conspirators,
He called:--they knew his cause their own, and swore
Like wolves and serpents to their mutual wars
Strange truce, with many a rite which Earth and Heaven abhors. _3855

8.
Myriads had come--millions were on their way;
The Tyrant passed, surrounded by the steel
Of hired assassins, through the public way,
Choked with his country's dead:--his footsteps reel
On the fresh blood--he smiles. 'Ay, now I feel _3860
I am a King in truth! ' he said, and took
His royal seat, and bade the torturing wheel
Be brought, and fire, and pincers, and the hook,
And scorpions, that his soul on its revenge might look.

9.
'But first, go slay the rebels--why return _3865
The victor bands? ' he said, 'millions yet live,
Of whom the weakest with one word might turn
The scales of victory yet;--let none survive
But those within the walls--each fifth shall give
The expiation for his brethren here. -- _3870
Go forth, and waste and kill! '--'O king, forgive
My speech,' a soldier answered--'but we fear
The spirits of the night, and morn is drawing near;

10.
'For we were slaying still without remorse,
And now that dreadful chief beneath my hand _3875
Defenceless lay, when on a hell-black horse,
An Angel bright as day, waving a brand
Which flashed among the stars, passed. '--'Dost thou stand
Parleying with me, thou wretch? ' the king replied;
'Slaves, bind him to the wheel; and of this band, _3880
Whoso will drag that woman to his side
That scared him thus, may burn his dearest foe beside;

11.
'And gold and glory shall be his. --Go forth! '
They rushed into the plain. --Loud was the roar
Of their career: the horsemen shook the earth; _3885
The wheeled artillery's speed the pavement tore;
The infantry, file after file, did pour
Their clouds on the utmost hills. Five days they slew
Among the wasted fields; the sixth saw gore
Stream through the city; on the seventh, the dew _3890
Of slaughter became stiff, and there was peace anew:

12.
Peace in the desert fields and villages,
Between the glutted beasts and mangled dead!
Peace in the silent streets! save when the cries
Of victims to their fiery judgement led, _3895
Made pale their voiceless lips who seemed to dread
Even in their dearest kindred, lest some tongue
Be faithless to the fear yet unbetrayed;
Peace in the Tyrant's palace, where the throng
Waste the triumphal hours in festival and song! _3900

13.
Day after day the burning sun rolled on
Over the death-polluted land--it came
Out of the east like fire, and fiercely shone
A lamp of Autumn, ripening with its flame
The few lone ears of corn;--the sky became _3905
Stagnate with heat, so that each cloud and blast
Languished and died,--the thirsting air did claim
All moisture, and a rotting vapour passed
From the unburied dead, invisible and fast.

14.
First Want, then Plague came on the beasts; their food _3910
Failed, and they drew the breath of its decay.
Millions on millions, whom the scent of blood
Had lured, or who, from regions far away,
Had tracked the hosts in festival array,
From their dark deserts; gaunt and wasting now, _3915
Stalked like fell shades among their perished prey;
In their green eyes a strange disease did glow,
They sank in hideous spasm, or pains severe and slow.

15.
The fish were poisoned in the streams; the birds
In the green woods perished; the insect race _3920
Was withered up; the scattered flocks and herds
Who had survived the wild beasts' hungry chase
Died moaning, each upon the other's face
In helpless agony gazing; round the City
All night, the lean hyaenas their sad case _3925
Like starving infants wailed; a woeful ditty!
And many a mother wept, pierced with unnatural pity.

16.
Amid the aereal minarets on high,
The Ethiopian vultures fluttering fell
From their long line of brethren in the sky, _3930
Startling the concourse of mankind. --Too well
These signs the coming mischief did foretell:--
Strange panic first, a deep and sickening dread
Within each heart, like ice, did sink and dwell,
A voiceless thought of evil, which did spread _3935
With the quick glance of eyes, like withering lightnings shed.

17.
Day after day, when the year wanes, the frosts
Strip its green crown of leaves, till all is bare;
So on those strange and congregated hosts
Came Famine, a swift shadow, and the air _3940
Groaned with the burden of a new despair;
Famine, than whom Misrule no deadlier daughter
Feeds from her thousand breasts, though sleeping there
With lidless eyes, lie Faith, and Plague, and Slaughter,
A ghastly brood; conceived of Lethe's sullen water. _3945

18.
There was no food, the corn was trampled down,
The flocks and herds had perished; on the shore
The dead and putrid fish were ever thrown;
The deeps were foodless, and the winds no more
Creaked with the weight of birds, but, as before _3950
Those winged things sprang forth, were void of shade;
The vines and orchards, Autumn's golden store,
Were burned;--so that the meanest food was weighed
With gold, and Avarice died before the god it made.

19.
There was no corn--in the wide market-place _3955
All loathliest things, even human flesh, was sold;
They weighed it in small scales--and many a face
Was fixed in eager horror then: his gold
The miser brought; the tender maid, grown bold
Through hunger, bared her scorned charms in vain; _3960
The mother brought her eldest born, controlled
By instinct blind as love, but turned again
And bade her infant suck, and died in silent pain.

20.
Then fell blue Plague upon the race of man.
'O, for the sheathed steel, so late which gave _3965
Oblivion to the dead, when the streets ran
With brothers' blood! O, that the earthquake's grave
Would gape, or Ocean lift its stifling wave! '
Vain cries--throughout the streets thousands pursued
Each by his fiery torture howl and rave, _3970
Or sit in frenzy's unimagined mood,
Upon fresh heaps of dead; a ghastly multitude.

21.
It was not hunger now, but thirst. Each well
Was choked with rotting corpses, and became
A cauldron of green mist made visible _3975
At sunrise. Thither still the myriads came,
Seeking to quench the agony of the flame,
Which raged like poison through their bursting veins;
Naked they were from torture, without shame,
Spotted with nameless scars and lurid blains, _3980
Childhood, and youth, and age, writhing in savage pains.

22.
It was not thirst, but madness! Many saw
Their own lean image everywhere, it went
A ghastlier self beside them, till the awe
Of that dread sight to self-destruction sent _3985
Those shrieking victims; some, ere life was spent,
Sought, with a horrid sympathy, to shed
Contagion on the sound; and others rent
Their matted hair, and cried aloud, 'We tread
On fire! the avenging Power his hell on earth has spread! ' _3990

23.
Sometimes the living by the dead were hid.
Near the great fountain in the public square,
Where corpses made a crumbling pyramid
Under the sun, was heard one stifled prayer
For life, in the hot silence of the air; _3995
And strange 'twas, amid that hideous heap to see
Some shrouded in their long and golden hair,
As if not dead, but slumbering quietly
Like forms which sculptors carve, then love to agony.

24.
Famine had spared the palace of the king:-- _4000
He rioted in festival the while,
He and his guards and priests; but Plague did fling
One shadow upon all. Famine can smile
On him who brings it food, and pass, with guile
Of thankful falsehood, like a courtier gray, _4005
The house-dog of the throne; but many a mile
Comes Plague, a winged wolf, who loathes alway
The garbage and the scum that strangers make her prey.

25.
So, near the throne, amid the gorgeous feast,
Sheathed in resplendent arms, or loosely dight _4010
To luxury, ere the mockery yet had ceased
That lingered on his lips, the warrior's might
Was loosened, and a new and ghastlier night
In dreams of frenzy lapped his eyes; he fell
Headlong, or with stiff eyeballs sate upright _4015
Among the guests, or raving mad did tell
Strange truths; a dying seer of dark oppression's hell.

26.
The Princes and the Priests were pale with terror;
That monstrous faith wherewith they ruled mankind,
Fell, like a shaft loosed by the bowman's error, _4020
On their own hearts: they sought and they could find
No refuge--'twas the blind who led the blind!
So, through the desolate streets to the high fane,
The many-tongued and endless armies wind
In sad procession: each among the train _4025
To his own Idol lifts his supplications vain.

27.
'O God! ' they cried, 'we know our secret pride
Has scorned thee, and thy worship, and thy name;
Secure in human power we have defied
Thy fearful might; we bend in fear and shame _4030
Before thy presence; with the dust we claim
Kindred; be merciful, O King of Heaven!
Most justly have we suffered for thy fame
Made dim, but be at length our sins forgiven,
Ere to despair and death thy worshippers be driven. _4035

28.
'O King of Glory! thou alone hast power!
Who can resist thy will? who can restrain
Thy wrath, when on the guilty thou dost shower
The shafts of thy revenge, a blistering rain?
Greatest and best, be merciful again! _4040
Have we not stabbed thine enemies, and made
The Earth an altar, and the Heavens a fane,
Where thou wert worshipped with their blood, and laid
Those hearts in dust which would thy searchless works have weighed?

29.
'Well didst thou loosen on this impious City _4045
Thine angels of revenge: recall them now;
Thy worshippers, abased, here kneel for pity,
And bind their souls by an immortal vow:
We swear by thee! and to our oath do thou
Give sanction, from thine hell of fiends and flame, _4050
That we will kill with fire and torments slow,
The last of those who mocked thy holy name,
And scorned the sacred laws thy prophets did proclaim. '

30.
Thus they with trembling limbs and pallid lips
Worshipped their own hearts' image, dim and vast, _4055
Scared by the shade wherewith they would eclipse
The light of other minds;--troubled they passed
From the great Temple;--fiercely still and fast
The arrows of the plague among them fell,
And they on one another gazed aghast, _4060
And through the hosts contention wild befell,
As each of his own god the wondrous works did tell.

31.
And Oromaze, Joshua, and Mahomet,
Moses, and Buddh, Zerdusht, and Brahm, and Foh,
A tumult of strange names, which never met _4065
Before, as watchwords of a single woe,
Arose; each raging votary 'gan to throw
Aloft his armed hands, and each did howl
'Our God alone is God! '--and slaughter now
Would have gone forth, when from beneath a cowl _4070
A voice came forth, which pierced like ice through every soul.

32.
'Twas an Iberian Priest from whom it came,
A zealous man, who led the legioned West,
With words which faith and pride had steeped in flame,
To quell the unbelievers; a dire guest _4075
Even to his friends was he, for in his breast
Did hate and guile lie watchful, intertwined,
Twin serpents in one deep and winding nest;
He loathed all faith beside his own, and pined
To wreak his fear of Heaven in vengeance on mankind. _4080

33.
But more he loathed and hated the clear light
Of wisdom and free thought, and more did fear,
Lest, kindled once, its beams might pierce the night,
Even where his Idol stood; for, far and near
Did many a heart in Europe leap to hear _4085
That faith and tyranny were trampled down;
Many a pale victim, doomed for truth to share
The murderer's cell, or see, with helpless groan,
The priests his children drag for slaves to serve their own.

34.
He dared not kill the infidels with fire _4090
Or steel, in Europe; the slow agonies
Of legal torture mocked his keen desire:
So he made truce with those who did despise
The expiation, and the sacrifice,
That, though detested, Islam's kindred creed _4095
Might crush for him those deadlier enemies;
For fear of God did in his bosom breed
A jealous hate of man, an unreposing need.

35.
'Peace! Peace! ' he cried, 'when we are dead, the Day
Of Judgement comes, and all shall surely know _4100
Whose God is God, each fearfully shall pay
The errors of his faith in endless woe!
But there is sent a mortal vengeance now
On earth, because an impious race had spurned
Him whom we all adore,--a subtle foe, _4105
By whom for ye this dread reward was earned,
And kingly thrones, which rest on faith, nigh overturned.

36.
'Think ye, because ye weep, and kneel, and pray,
That God will lull the pestilence? It rose
Even from beneath his throne, where, many a day, _4110
His mercy soothed it to a dark repose:
It walks upon the earth to judge his foes;
And what are thou and I, that he should deign
To curb his ghastly minister, or close
The gates of death, ere they receive the twain _4115
Who shook with mortal spells his undefended reign?

37.
'Ay, there is famine in the gulf of hell,
Its giant worms of fire for ever yawn. --
Their lurid eyes are on us! those who fell
By the swift shafts of pestilence ere dawn, _4120
Are in their jaws! they hunger for the spawn
Of Satan, their own brethren, who were sent
To make our souls their spoil. See! see! they fawn
Like dogs, and they will sleep with luxury spent,
When those detested hearts their iron fangs have rent! _4125

38.
'Our God may then lull Pestilence to sleep:--
Pile high the pyre of expiation now,
A forest's spoil of boughs, and on the heap
Pour venomous gums, which sullenly and slow,
When touched by flame, shall burn, and melt, and flow, _4130
A stream of clinging fire,--and fix on high
A net of iron, and spread forth below
A couch of snakes, and scorpions, and the fry
Of centipedes and worms, earth's hellish progeny!

39.
'Let Laon and Laone on that pyre, _4135
Linked tight with burning brass, perish! --then pray
That, with this sacrifice, the withering ire
Of Heaven may be appeased.
' He ceased, and they
A space stood silent, as far, far away
The echoes of his voice among them died; _4140
And he knelt down upon the dust, alway
Muttering the curses of his speechless pride,
Whilst shame, and fear, and awe, the armies did divide.

40.
His voice was like a blast that burst the portal
Of fabled hell; and as he spake, each one _4145
Saw gape beneath the chasms of fire immortal,
And Heaven above seemed cloven, where, on a throne
Girt round with storms and shadows, sate alone
Their King and Judge--fear killed in every breast
All natural pity then, a fear unknown _4150
Before, and with an inward fire possessed,
They raged like homeless beasts whom burning woods invest.

41.
'Twas morn. --At noon the public crier went forth,
Proclaiming through the living and the dead,
'The Monarch saith, that his great Empire's worth _4155
Is set on Laon and Laone's head:
He who but one yet living here can lead,
Or who the life from both their hearts can wring,
Shall be the kingdom's heir--a glorious meed!
But he who both alive can hither bring, _4160
The Princess shall espouse, and reign an equal King. '

42.
Ere night the pyre was piled, the net of iron
Was spread above, the fearful couch below;
It overtopped the towers that did environ
That spacious square; for Fear is never slow _4165
To build the thrones of Hate, her mate and foe;
So, she scourged forth the maniac multitude
To rear this pyramid--tottering and slow,
Plague-stricken, foodless, like lean herds pursued
By gadflies, they have piled the heath, and gums, and wood. _4170

43.
Night came, a starless and a moonless gloom.
Until the dawn, those hosts of many a nation
Stood round that pile, as near one lover's tomb
Two gentle sisters mourn their desolation;
And in the silence of that expectation, _4175
Was heard on high the reptiles' hiss and crawl--
It was so deep--save when the devastation
Of the swift pest, with fearful interval,
Marking its path with shrieks, among the crowd would fall.

44.
Morn came,--among those sleepless multitudes, _4180
Madness, and Fear, and Plague, and Famine still
Heaped corpse on corpse, as in autumnal woods
The frosts of many a wind with dead leaves fill
Earth's cold and sullen brooks; in silence, still
The pale survivors stood; ere noon, the fear _4185
Of Hell became a panic, which did kill
Like hunger or disease, with whispers drear,
As 'Hush! hark! Come they yet? --Just Heaven! thine hour is near! '

45.
And Priests rushed through their ranks, some counterfeiting
The rage they did inspire, some mad indeed _4190
With their own lies; they said their god was waiting
To see his enemies writhe, and burn, and bleed,--
And that, till then, the snakes of Hell had need
Of human souls:--three hundred furnaces
Soon blazed through the wide City, where, with speed, _4195
Men brought their infidel kindred to appease
God's wrath, and, while they burned, knelt round on quivering knees.

46.
The noontide sun was darkened with that smoke,
The winds of eve dispersed those ashes gray.
The madness which these rites had lulled, awoke _4200
Again at sunset. --Who shall dare to say
The deeds which night and fear brought forth, or weigh
In balance just the good and evil there?
He might man's deep and searchless heart display,
And cast a light on those dim labyrinths, where _4205
Hope, near imagined chasms, is struggling with despair.

47.
'Tis said, a mother dragged three children then,
To those fierce flames which roast the eyes in the head,
And laughed, and died; and that unholy men,
Feasting like fiends upon the infidel dead, _4210
Looked from their meal, and saw an Angel tread
The visible floor of Heaven, and it was she!
And, on that night, one without doubt or dread
Came to the fire, and said, 'Stop, I am he!
Kill me! '--They burned them both with hellish mockery. _4215

48.
And, one by one, that night, young maidens came,
Beauteous and calm, like shapes of living stone
Clothed in the light of dreams, and by the flame
Which shrank as overgorged, they laid them down,
And sung a low sweet song, of which alone _4220
One word was heard, and that was Liberty;
And that some kissed their marble feet, with moan
Like love, and died; and then that they did die
With happy smiles, which sunk in white tranquillity.


NOTES:
_3834 native home edition 1818.
_3967 earthquakes edition 1818.
_4176 reptiles']reptiles edition 1818.


CANTO 11.

1.
She saw me not--she heard me not--alone _4225
Upon the mountain's dizzy brink she stood;
She spake not, breathed not, moved not--there was thrown
Over her look, the shadow of a mood
Which only clothes the heart in solitude,
A thought of voiceless depth;--she stood alone, _4230
Above, the Heavens were spread;--below, the flood
Was murmuring in its caves;--the wind had blown
Her hair apart, through which her eyes and forehead shone.

2.
A cloud was hanging o'er the western mountains;
Before its blue and moveless depth were flying _4235
Gray mists poured forth from the unresting fountains
Of darkness in the North:--the day was dying:--
Sudden, the sun shone forth, its beams were lying
Like boiling gold on Ocean, strange to see,
And on the shattered vapours, which defying _4240
The power of light in vain, tossed restlessly
In the red Heaven, like wrecks in a tempestuous sea.

3.
It was a stream of living beams, whose bank
On either side by the cloud's cleft was made;
And where its chasms that flood of glory drank, _4245
Its waves gushed forth like fire, and as if swayed
By some mute tempest, rolled on HER; the shade
Of her bright image floated on the river
Of liquid light, which then did end and fade--
Her radiant shape upon its verge did shiver; _4250
Aloft, her flowing hair like strings of flame did quiver.

4.
I stood beside her, but she saw me not--
She looked upon the sea, and skies, and earth;
Rapture, and love, and admiration wrought
A passion deeper far than tears, or mirth, _4255
Or speech, or gesture, or whate'er has birth
From common joy; which with the speechless feeling
That led her there united, and shot forth
From her far eyes a light of deep revealing,
All but her dearest self from my regard concealing. _4260

5.
Her lips were parted, and the measured breath
Was now heard there;--her dark and intricate eyes
Orb within orb, deeper than sleep or death,
Absorbed the glories of the burning skies,
Which, mingling with her heart's deep ecstasies, _4265
Burst from her looks and gestures;--and a light
Of liquid tenderness, like love, did rise
From her whole frame, an atmosphere which quite
Arrayed her in its beams, tremulous and soft and bright.

6.
She would have clasped me to her glowing frame; _4270
Those warm and odorous lips might soon have shed
On mine the fragrance and the invisible flame
Which now the cold winds stole;--she would have laid
Upon my languid heart her dearest head;
I might have heard her voice, tender and sweet; _4275
Her eyes, mingling with mine, might soon have fed
My soul with their own joy. --One moment yet
I gazed--we parted then, never again to meet!

7.
Never but once to meet on Earth again!
She heard me as I fled--her eager tone _4280
Sunk on my heart, and almost wove a chain
Around my will to link it with her own,
So that my stern resolve was almost gone.
'I cannot reach thee! whither dost thou fly?
My steps are faint--Come back, thou dearest one-- _4285
Return, ah me! return! '--The wind passed by
On which those accents died, faint, far, and lingeringly.

8.
Woe! Woe! that moonless midnight! --Want and Pest
Were horrible, but one more fell doth rear,
As in a hydra's swarming lair, its crest _4290
Eminent among those victims--even the Fear
Of Hell: each girt by the hot atmosphere
Of his blind agony, like a scorpion stung
By his own rage upon his burning bier
Of circling coals of fire; but still there clung _4295
One hope, like a keen sword on starting threads uphung:

9.
Not death--death was no more refuge or rest;
Not life--it was despair to be! --not sleep,
For fiends and chasms of fire had dispossessed
All natural dreams: to wake was not to weep, _4300
But to gaze mad and pallid, at the leap
To which the Future, like a snaky scourge,
Or like some tyrant's eye, which aye doth keep
Its withering beam upon his slaves, did urge
Their steps; they heard the roar of Hell's sulphureous surge. _4305

10.
Each of that multitude, alone, and lost
To sense of outward things, one hope yet knew;
As on a foam-girt crag some seaman tossed
Stares at the rising tide, or like the crew
Whilst now the ship is splitting through and through; _4310
Each, if the tramp of a far steed was heard,
Started from sick despair, or if there flew
One murmur on the wind, or if some word
Which none can gather yet, the distant crowd has stirred.

11.
Why became cheeks, wan with the kiss of death, _4315
Paler from hope? they had sustained despair.
Why watched those myriads with suspended breath
Sleepless a second night? they are not here,
The victims, and hour by hour, a vision drear,
Warm corpses fall upon the clay-cold dead; _4320
And even in death their lips are wreathed with fear. --
The crowd is mute and moveless--overhead
Silent Arcturus shines--'Ha! hear'st thou not the tread

12.
'Of rushing feet? laughter? the shout, the scream,
Of triumph not to be contained? See! hark! _4325
They come, they come! give way! ' Alas, ye deem
Falsely--'tis but a crowd of maniacs stark
Driven, like a troop of spectres, through the dark,
From the choked well, whence a bright death-fire sprung,
A lurid earth-star, which dropped many a spark _4330
From its blue train, and spreading widely, clung
To their wild hair, like mist the topmost pines among.

13.
And many, from the crowd collected there,
Joined that strange dance in fearful sympathies;
There was the silence of a long despair, _4335
When the last echo of those terrible cries
Came from a distant street, like agonies
Stifled afar. --Before the Tyrant's throne
All night his aged Senate sate, their eyes
In stony expectation fixed; when one _4340
Sudden before them stood, a Stranger and alone.

14.
Dark Priests and haughty Warriors gazed on him
With baffled wonder, for a hermit's vest
Concealed his face; but when he spake, his tone,
Ere yet the matter did their thoughts arrest,-- _4345
Earnest, benignant, calm, as from a breast
Void of all hate or terror--made them start;
For as with gentle accents he addressed
His speech to them, on each unwilling heart
Unusual awe did fall--a spirit-quelling dart. _4350

15.
'Ye Princes of the Earth, ye sit aghast
Amid the ruin which yourselves have made,
Yes, Desolation heard your trumpet's blast,
And sprang from sleep! --dark Terror has obeyed
Your bidding--O, that I whom ye have made _4355
Your foe, could set my dearest enemy free
From pain and fear! but evil casts a shade,
Which cannot pass so soon, and Hate must be
The nurse and parent still of an ill progeny.

16.
'Ye turn to Heaven for aid in your distress; _4360
Alas, that ye, the mighty and the wise,
Who, if ye dared, might not aspire to less
Than ye conceive of power, should fear the lies
Which thou, and thou, didst frame for mysteries
To blind your slaves:--consider your own thought, _4365
An empty and a cruel sacrifice
Ye now prepare, for a vain idol wrought
Out of the fears and hate which vain desires have brought.

17.
'Ye seek for happiness--alas, the day!
Ye find it not in luxury nor in gold, _4370
Nor in the fame, nor in the envied sway
For which, O willing slaves to Custom old,
Severe taskmistress! ye your hearts have sold.
Ye seek for peace, and when ye die, to dream
No evil dreams: all mortal things are cold _4375
And senseless then; if aught survive, I deem
It must be love and joy, for they immortal seem.

18.
'Fear not the future, weep not for the past.
Oh, could I win your ears to dare be now
Glorious, and great, and calm! that ye would cast _4380
Into the dust those symbols of your woe,
Purple, and gold, and steel! that ye would go
Proclaiming to the nations whence ye came,
That Want, and Plague, and Fear, from slavery flow;
And that mankind is free, and that the shame _4385
Of royalty and faith is lost in freedom's fame!

19.
'If thus, 'tis well--if not, I come to say
That Laon--' while the Stranger spoke, among
The Council sudden tumult and affray
Arose, for many of those warriors young, _4390
Had on his eloquent accents fed and hung
Like bees on mountain-flowers; they knew the truth,
And from their thrones in vindication sprung;
The men of faith and law then without ruth
Drew forth their secret steel, and stabbed each ardent youth. _4395

20.
They stabbed them in the back and sneered--a slave
Who stood behind the throne, those corpses drew
Each to its bloody, dark, and secret grave;
And one more daring raised his steel anew
To pierce the Stranger. 'What hast thou to do _4400
With me, poor wretch? '--Calm, solemn and severe,
That voice unstrung his sinews, and he threw
His dagger on the ground, and pale with fear,
Sate silently--his voice then did the Stranger rear.

21.
'It doth avail not that I weep for ye-- _4405
Ye cannot change, since ye are old and gray,
And ye have chosen your lot--your fame must be
A book of blood, whence in a milder day
Men shall learn truth, when ye are wrapped in clay:
Now ye shall triumph. I am Laon's friend, _4410
And him to your revenge will I betray,
So ye concede one easy boon. Attend!
For now I speak of things which ye can apprehend.

22.
'There is a People mighty in its youth,
A land beyond the Oceans of the West, _4415
Where, though with rudest rites, Freedom and Truth
Are worshipped; from a glorious Mother's breast,
Who, since high Athens fell, among the rest
Sate like the Queen of Nations, but in woe,
By inbred monsters outraged and oppressed, _4420
Turns to her chainless child for succour now,
It draws the milk of Power in Wisdom's fullest flow.

23.
'That land is like an Eagle, whose young gaze
Feeds on the noontide beam, whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze _4425
Of sunrise gleams when Earth is wrapped in gloom;
An epitaph of glory for the tomb
Of murdered Europe may thy fame be made,
Great People! as the sands shalt thou become;
Thy growth is swift as morn, when night must fade; _4430
The multitudinous Earth shall sleep beneath thy shade.

24.
'Yes, in the desert there is built a home
For Freedom. Genius is made strong to rear
The monuments of man beneath the dome
Of a new Heaven; myriads assemble there, _4435
Whom the proud lords of man, in rage or fear,
Drive from their wasted homes: the boon I pray
Is this--that Cythna shall be convoyed there--
Nay, start not at the name--America!
And then to you this night Laon will I betray. _4440

25.
'With me do what ye will. I am your foe! '
The light of such a joy as makes the stare
Of hungry snakes like living emeralds glow,
Shone in a hundred human eyes--'Where, where
Is Laon? Haste! fly! drag him swiftly here! _4445
We grant thy boon. '--'I put no trust in ye,
Swear by the Power ye dread. '--'We swear, we swear! '
The Stranger threw his vest back suddenly,
And smiled in gentle pride, and said, 'Lo! I am he! '


NOTES:
_4321 wreathed]writhed. "Poetical Works" 1839. 1st edition.
_4361 the mighty]tho' mighty edition 1818.
_4362 ye]he edition 1818.
_4432 there]then edition 1818.


CANTO 12.

1.
The transport of a fierce and monstrous gladness _4450
Spread through the multitudinous streets, fast flying
Upon the winds of fear; from his dull madness
The starveling waked, and died in joy; the dying,
Among the corpses in stark agony lying,
Just heard the happy tidings, and in hope _4455
Closed their faint eyes; from house to house replying
With loud acclaim, the living shook Heaven's cope,
And filled the startled Earth with echoes: morn did ope

2.
Its pale eyes then; and lo! the long array
Of guards in golden arms, and Priests beside, _4460
Singing their bloody hymns, whose garbs betray
The blackness of the faith it seems to hide;
And see, the Tyrant's gem-wrought chariot glide
Among the gloomy cowls and glittering spears--
A Shape of light is sitting by his side, _4465
A child most beautiful. I' the midst appears
Laon,--exempt alone from mortal hopes and fears.

3.
His head and feet are bare, his hands are bound
Behind with heavy chains, yet none do wreak
Their scoffs on him, though myriads throng around; _4470
There are no sneers upon his lip which speak
That scorn or hate has made him bold; his cheek
Resolve has not turned pale,--his eyes are mild
And calm, and, like the morn about to break,
Smile on mankind--his heart seems reconciled _4475
To all things and itself, like a reposing child.

4.
Tumult was in the soul of all beside,
Ill joy, or doubt, or fear; but those who saw
Their tranquil victim pass, felt wonder glide
Into their brain, and became calm with awe. -- _4480
See, the slow pageant near the pile doth draw.
A thousand torches in the spacious square,
Borne by the ready slaves of ruthless law,
Await the signal round: the morning fair
Is changed to a dim night by that unnatural glare. _4485

5.
And see! beneath a sun-bright canopy,
Upon a platform level with the pile,
The anxious Tyrant sit, enthroned on high,
Girt by the chieftains of the host; all smile
In expectation, but one child: the while _4490
I, Laon, led by mutes, ascend my bier
Of fire, and look around: each distant isle
Is dark in the bright dawn; towers far and near,
Pierce like reposing flames the tremulous atmosphere.

6.
There was such silence through the host, as when _4495
An earthquake trampling on some populous town,
Has crushed ten thousand with one tread, and men
Expect the second; all were mute but one,
That fairest child, who, bold with love, alone
Stood up before the King, without avail, _4500
Pleading for Laon's life--her stifled groan
Was heard--she trembled like one aspen pale
Among the gloomy pines of a Norwegian vale.

7.
What were his thoughts linked in the morning sun,
Among those reptiles, stingless with delay, _4505
Even like a tyrant's wrath? --The signal-gun
Roared--hark, again! In that dread pause he lay
As in a quiet dream--the slaves obey--
A thousand torches drop,--and hark, the last
Bursts on that awful silence; far away, _4510
Millions, with hearts that beat both loud and fast,
Watch for the springing flame expectant and aghast.

8.
They fly--the torches fall--a cry of fear
Has startled the triumphant! --they recede!
For, ere the cannon's roar has died, they hear _4515
The tramp of hoofs like earthquake, and a steed
Dark and gigantic, with the tempest's speed,
Bursts through their ranks: a woman sits thereon,
Fairer, it seems, than aught that earth can breed,
Calm, radiant, like the phantom of the dawn, _4520
A spirit from the caves of daylight wandering gone.

9.
All thought it was God's Angel come to sweep
The lingering guilty to their fiery grave;
The Tyrant from his throne in dread did leap,--
Her innocence his child from fear did save; _4525
Scared by the faith they feigned, each priestly slave
Knelt for his mercy whom they served with blood,
And, like the refluence of a mighty wave
Sucked into the loud sea, the multitude
With crushing panic, fled in terror's altered mood. _4530

10.
They pause, they blush, they gaze,--a gathering shout
Bursts like one sound from the ten thousand streams
Of a tempestuous sea:--that sudden rout
One checked, who, never in his mildest dreams
Felt awe from grace or loveliness, the seams _4535
Of his rent heart so hard and cold a creed
Had seared with blistering ice--but he misdeems
That he is wise, whose wounds do only bleed
Inly for self,--thus thought the Iberian Priest indeed,

11.
And others, too, thought he was wise to see, _4540
In pain, and fear, and hate, something divine;
In love and beauty, no divinity. --
Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine
Like a fiend's hope upon his lips and eyne,
He said, and the persuasion of that sneer _4545
Rallied his trembling comrades--'Is it mine
To stand alone, when kings and soldiers fear
A woman? Heaven has sent its other victim here. '

12.
'Were it not impious,' said the King, 'to break
Our holy oath? '--'Impious to keep it, say! ' _4550
Shrieked the exulting Priest:--'Slaves, to the stake
Bind her, and on my head the burden lay
Of her just torments:--at the Judgement Day
Will I stand up before the golden throne
Of Heaven, and cry, "To Thee did I betray _4555
An infidel; but for me she would have known
Another moment's joy! the glory be thine own. "'

13.
They trembled, but replied not, nor obeyed,
Pausing in breathless silence. Cythna sprung
From her gigantic steed, who, like a shade _4560
Chased by the winds, those vacant streets among
Fled tameless, as the brazen rein she flung
Upon his neck, and kissed his mooned brow.
A piteous sight, that one so fair and young,
The clasp of such a fearful death should woo _4565
With smiles of tender joy as beamed from Cythna now.

14.
The warm tears burst in spite of faith and fear
From many a tremulous eye, but like soft dews
Which feed Spring's earliest buds, hung gathered there,
Frozen by doubt,--alas! they could not choose _4570
But weep; for when her faint limbs did refuse
To climb the pyre, upon the mutes she smiled;
And with her eloquent gestures, and the hues
Of her quick lips, even as a weary child
Wins sleep from some fond nurse with its caresses mild, _4575

15.
She won them, though unwilling, her to bind
Near me, among the snakes. When there had fled
One soft reproach that was most thrilling kind,
She smiled on me, and nothing then we said,
But each upon the other's countenance fed _4580
Looks of insatiate love; the mighty veil
Which doth divide the living and the dead
Was almost rent, the world grew dim and pale,--
All light in Heaven or Earth beside our love did fail. --

16.
Yet--yet--one brief relapse, like the last beam _4585
Of dying flames, the stainless air around
Hung silent and serene--a blood-red gleam
Burst upwards, hurling fiercely from the ground
The globed smoke,--I heard the mighty sound
Of its uprise, like a tempestuous ocean; _4590
And through its chasms I saw, as in a swound,
The tyrant's child fall without life or motion
Before his throne, subdued by some unseen emotion. --

17.
And is this death? --The pyre has disappeared,
The Pestilence, the Tyrant, and the throng; _4595
The flames grow silent--slowly there is heard
The music of a breath-suspending song,
Which, like the kiss of love when life is young,
Steeps the faint eyes in darkness sweet and deep;
With ever-changing notes it floats along, _4600
Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep
A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap.

18.
The warm touch of a soft and tremulous hand
Wakened me then; lo! Cythna sate reclined
Beside me, on the waved and golden sand _4605
Of a clear pool, upon a bank o'ertwined
With strange and star-bright flowers, which to the wind
Breathed divine odour; high above, was spread
The emerald heaven of trees of unknown kind,
Whose moonlike blooms and bright fruit overhead _4610
A shadow, which was light, upon the waters shed.

19.
And round about sloped many a lawny mountain
With incense-bearing forests and vast caves
Of marble radiance, to that mighty fountain;
And where the flood its own bright margin laves, _4615
Their echoes talk with its eternal waves,
Which, from the depths whose jagged caverns breed
Their unreposing strife, it lifts and heaves,--
Till through a chasm of hills they roll, and feed
A river deep, which flies with smooth but arrowy speed. _4620

20.
As we sate gazing in a trance of wonder,
A boat approached, borne by the musical air
Along the waves which sung and sparkled under
Its rapid keel--a winged shape sate there,
A child with silver-shining wings, so fair, _4625
That as her bark did through the waters glide,
The shadow of the lingering waves did wear
Light, as from starry beams; from side to side,
While veering to the wind her plumes the bark did guide.

21.
The boat was one curved shell of hollow pearl, _4630
Almost translucent with the light divine
Of her within; the prow and stern did curl
Horned on high, like the young moon supine,
When o'er dim twilight mountains dark with pine,
It floats upon the sunset's sea of beams, _4635
Whose golden waves in many a purple line
Fade fast, till borne on sunlight's ebbing streams,
Dilating, on earth's verge the sunken meteor gleams.

22.