s: Echoes to the crushing roar and thunder of a mighty river


s: Raging down a cataract. Very tower and forest quiver


s: And the grey wolves are afraid and the call of birds is drowned,


s: And the thought and speech of man in the boiling water's sound.


s: But upon the further side of the barren, sharp ravine


s: With the sunlight on its turrets is the castle seen,


s: Calm and very wonderful, white above the green


s: Of the wet and waving forest, slanted all away,


s: Because the driving Northern wind will not rest by night or day.


s: Yet the towers are sure above, very mighty is the stead,


s: The gates are made of ivory, the roofs of copper red.


s: Round and round the warders grave walk upon the walls for ever


s: And the wakeful dragons couch in the ports of ivory,


s: Nothing is can trouble it, hate of the gods nor man's endeavour,


s: And it shall be a resting-place, dear heart, for you and me.


s: Through the wet and waving forest with an age-old sorrow laden


s: Singing of the world's regret wanders wild the faerie maiden,


s: Often to the castle gate up she looks with vain endeavour,


s: For her soulless loveliness to the castle winneth never.


s: But within the sacred court, hidden high upon the mountain,


s: Wandering in the castle gardens lovely folk enough there be,


s: Breathing in another air, drinking of a purer fountain


s: And among that folk, beloved, there's a place for you and me.


s: Open the gates of the peaceful castle, rosy in the West,


s: In the sweet dim Isle of Apples over the wide sea's breast,


s: And driven and hurt beyond bearing this summer day,


s: But the heat and the pain together suddenly fall away,


s: Among men cursing in fight and toiling, blinded I fought,


s: But the labour passed on a sudden even as a passing thought,


s: In flowery valleys among the mountains and silent wastes untrod,


s: In the dewy upland places, in the garden of God,


s: Beyond the tide of the ocean, hidden and sunk away,


s: Out of the sound of battles, near to the end of day,


s: Under this head, I desire to say a few words upon three subjects,


s: My friends, though not legion in number, have been, in their


s: efforts in my behalf, disinterested, sincere, and energetic.


s: My book: I lay it, as my first offering, at the shrine of my


s: country's fame. "Would it were worthier." While our soldiers


s: are first in every field where they meet our enemies, and while


s: the wisdom of our legislators is justified before all the world,


s: in the perfection of our beloved institutions, our literature


s: languishes. This should not be so; for literature, with its


s: kindred arts, makes the true glory of a nation. We bow in spirit


s: when Greece is named, not alone because she was the mother of


s: heroes and lawgivers, but because her hand rocked the cradle of


s: a literature as enduring as it is beautiful and brilliant, and


s: cherished in their infancy those arts which eventually repaid her


s: For myself I have little to say. I have not written for fame, and


s: Stay, then, and, taste its sweetness here.


s: To cool thy lip, and quench thy thirst:--


s: The forest through whose shades we strayed,


s: Was strung with manhood's stoutest strength,


s: How hope, and power, and love, and fame,


s: The steed and guest, the host and guide,


s: Sought where the old man's friendly door


s: The sky was clear, the winds were still,


s: Against the sky's blue arch was pressed,


s: While rocks that press the mountain's brow,


s: Marked how those waves, in one broad blaze,


s: Marked how green bower and garden showed


s: To fire her temples, towers, and thrones,


s: A tear, which showed how strongly shaken


s: Through time's dim shadows, gathering fast,


s: And watched its wild waves in their play;


s: Time's hand hath ploughed athwart my brow:


s: Friends, who were kind, and warm, and true;


s: A soul, with wild dreams wildly stirred;


s: How strong a band hath Time! Love weaves


s: His wreath of flowers and myrtle leaves,


s: But soon his hopes are mixed with fears,


s: And soon his smiles are quenched in tears:


s: Breathes o'er him, and he droops to death;


s: Till youth, and strength, and vigour gone,


s: Nursed 'mid the loveliest scenes of earth,


s: With its strong waves my boyhood played.


s: With green vines trailing round and o'er


s: Wall, roof and casement, porch and door:


s: I know full well the charm that wrought,


s: Thy heart, I know, hath felt the same,--


s: There channelled dark, and dull, and deep,


s: Mark where a white-walled cottage stands,


s: From her white brow were backward rolled


s: For heart, and brain, and soul, and will,


s: When, from each brake and bush were heard,


s: Till voice so sweet, and form so bright,


s: O'er hill and glen, through wood and wild,


s: Yet, when wild Passion's trance was o'er,


s: I thought his heaving heart would burst,


s: Till the still twilight's gathering gloom


s: He stood where the mountain moss outspread


s: There came not a voice from the wooded hill,


s: Save the plaintive song of the whip-poor-will,(2)


s: And the waterfall's dash, and now and then,


s: Deep silence hung round him; the misty light


s: Of the young moon silvered the brow of Night,


s: O'er the valley's depth, and the mountain's height,


s: And breathed on the air, till its gentle swell


s: Arose on the ear like some loved one's call;


s: And he seemed as the spirit of some chief,


s: Yet his lips were compressed with a proud disdain,


s: Like the lips of a martyr who mocks at pain,


s: As the port of a hero who scorns to fly,


s: While stern, fierce lips, with many a cry


s: For blood and vengeance, filled the sky,


s: His strength, his likeness, and his name.


s: With Pain's cold, clammy, deathlike sweat;


s: The nervous, shuddering thrill, which came


s: Yet, through those signs of wo, there broke


s: Flashes of fearless thought, which spoke


s: Bore from his lips some words like these.


s: Or shrinks from what 'tis doomed to bear.


s: Or rend man's heart, should pierce my own,


s: Have felt, by turns, each pang, each care,


s: Which the first wind that through the sky


s: An outcast, where I should have reigned.


s: Had earth yet one whose smile could stir,


s: Say that our blood and hearts are cold.(3)


s: How much the Red man's heart may feel,--


s: When love and vengeance prompt the blow!


s: Marks, in the crimson stream that flows,


s: That guides and deals th' avenging blow;


s: Right well his scornful heart shall learn,


s: Gazed down with chastened looks of love,


s: Not, as when first they hymned her birth,


s: Whose feet have strayed from wisdom's ways,


s: Stood one whose garb, and port, and mien,


s: His thoughts were not of wealth and fame:


s: Whence could that veiling radiance shine,


s: And those bright orbs which o'er me shed


s: He felt the sharp steel pierce his breast,


s: With plumes to which the dewdrops cling,


s: Now, o'er some crystal stream low bending,


s: As though she were some thoughtless child;


s: With time's green, messy veil o'ergrown,


s: The shadowy shroud that veils the past:--


s: Whose hearts are full of craft and guile,


s: And life's dull constant toil, and tears,


s: True, youth, of hope and love possessed,


s: By friends--youth has no foes--caressed,


s: The hopes that, blighted in their bloom,


s: Conceived, and born, and nursed in heaven,


s: And still the bridegroom is not, there--


s: By hope's, and love's, and memory's art,--


s: In words, the love she could not doubt,--


s: Might drink such light from those soft eyes,


s: Like clouds across the pale moon glancing,


s: Thrills through the maiden's trembling breast,


s: Than these, the earth-born things of earth,--


s: Its bloom, or quench its deathless light,--


s: Her love is scorned, her faith betrayed,--


s: The time for rest, and peace, and prayer,


s: When falls the dew, and folds the flower


s: The guests, who lingered through the day,


s: Sighed, like to one oppressed with grief.


s: Whence comes that shriek of wild despair


s: 'Tis said, that, oft at summer midnight, there,


s: When all is hushed and voiceless, and the air,


s: Sweet, soothing minstrel of the viewless hand,


s: Swells rippling through the aged trees, that stand


s: With their broad boughs above the wave depending,


s: With the low gurgle of the waters blending


s: The rustle of their foliage, a light boat,


s: Bearing two shadowy forms, is seen to float


s: Adown the stream, without or oar or sail,


s: To break the wave, or catch the driving gale;


s: Smoothly and steadily its course is steered,


s: Until the shadow of yon cliff is neared,


s: The river's breast, had caught its gliding prow,


s: It hangs, then vanishes, and in its stead,


s: A wan, pale light burns dimly o'er the wave


s: That rolls and ripples by Mazelli's grave.


s: While rocks that press the mountain's brow


s: "For, the mountain being cloven asunder, she presents to the eye,


s: "Save the plaintive song of the whip-poor-will."


s: "They, the foul slaves' of lust and gold,


s: Say that our blood and hearts are cold."


s: It has been advanced by some writers, that the almost miraculous


s: The slightest wound from an arrow dipped in the juice of the


s: To you, who have given me friendship in adversity, counsel in


s: A fountain near the summit of a mountain, from which, through a


s: deep glen, a stream descends to the valley below. A city seen in


s: the distance. Time, midnight. Werner standing near the fountain.


s: Mighty and vast; and you, ye giant oaks,


s: Played with the breeze and battled with the storm,


s: He, who so oft has trod your rugged paths,


s: And laid him down beneath your shades to rest,


s: I sooner far would make your wilds my home,


s: With nought but your rude eaves to shield me from


s: The winter's cold or summer's heat, than be


s: That swarm within yon filthy city's walls.


s: Free from a forced communion with a race,


s: Whose presence makes me feel that I am bound,


s: By nature, to the thing I loathe the most,


s: Earth's stateliest, proudest, meanest reptile, man!


s: The foulness of a fiend is in his heart;


s: The viper's, or the scorpion's filthy nest


s: Nurses a far less deadly, poisonous brood


s: Than are the hellish lusts, the avarice,--


s: The pride--the hate--the double-faced deceits--


s: If he be not beneath hell's wish to damn,


s: Too lost for even fiends to meddle with,


s: How must they laugh to hear him, in his pride,


s: Giving his lust the sacred name of love;


s: Care for his household; naming his deceit


s: Praiseworthy caution; boasting of his hate,


s: When he no more can cloak it, as a proof


s: Of strength of mind and honesty of heart.


s: For all of goodness that remains on earth,


s: The name of virtue might be banished from it.


s: The bread for which their children cry at home;


s: Mothers, who put aside th' unconscious babe


s: That they may wrong its father; children, who


s: Grow old in crime ere they have spent their youth;


s: I cannot brook the thought, that I belong


s: To their vile race. My sufferings have been great,


s: And keen enough to prove my immortality;


s: For dust could not have borne what I have suffered.


s: My mind has pierced far, far beyond the length


s: Of which men scarcely dream, and paid in pain,


s: The price of what it learned and bought with pangs


s: By which a thousand ages were compressed


s: Methinks the peaceful earth will scarcely give


s: My dust a resting-place within its bosom,


s: But cast it forth as if too vile, to mingle


s: With clay that ne'er has been the slave of sin.


s: What! other watchers here at this lone hour?


s: Fleet hither, fleet hither, and leave earth's wretches


s: Earth quakes with the weight of the anguish she bears,


s: Her plains and her valleys are deluged with tears,


s: And her sighs, if united, were deeper by far,


s: Than the thunderbolt's peal, when the clouds are at war.


s: There is, not a bosom, that bears not within


s: Its chambers, the blot and the burden of sin;


s: Not a mind, but in many an hour bath felt


s: The curse of its nature, the pangs of its guilt.


s: These earth-worms! whose sire would have had us to bow


s: To his dust-moulded Godship! what--what are they now?


s: In the scale of true goodness, they sink far below


s: The poor, patient ox, that they yoke to the plough.


s: Let them revel awhile, in the false glaring light


s: Of deception, that blindness but seems to make bright;


s: Let them gather awhile of time's perishing flowers;


s: The revenge of eternity! This shall be ours!


s: To ruin the living, and trouble the dead.


s: Love's apple, and when we have found it,


s: Her name reproached, her fame despoiled:


s: Give man his three score years, and he will make


s: A wreck, the skill of hell might show forth as


s: The troubling of the dead!--if memory lives


s: In that far world, to which the spirit hastens,


s: When she casts off the clay that clogs her wings,


s: E'en there ye are forestalled, for man will need


s: No curse, to make his second life a hell,


s: Had the clear waters of this gurgling brook,


s: The pow'r to wash time's blots from th' mind's page,


s: And all earth's mountains were compact of gold,


s: Her hills all fruitful, and her valleys fresh,


s: Ere sin's sad blight fell on its living bow'rs,


s: And all were mine, I'd give them but to lay


s: My weary limbs along this streamlet's bed,


s: But, I forget my task--now let me to it!


s: The skies were clear, the winds were fair,


s: Waned past: night came: the heavens grew


s: Black, dread and threat'ning. Then the storm


s: The mermaids spread their flowing tresses;


s: To view them sleeping death's pale sleep.


s: Thou, in that bark's lost crew, may'st see,--


s: a beautiful form looking steadily at Werner.


s: If intercourse between all living worlds,


s: Had not been barr'd by Him who gave them life,


s: I should believe thou wert the guardian spirit,


s: Of that which men have named the Queen of Night.


s: Like her, thou art majestic, pale and sad,


s: And of a tender beauty: those bright curls


s: That press thy brow, and cling about thy neck,


s: Seem made of sunbeams, caught upon their way


s: To earth, by some creative hand, and woven


s: Conscious of its high source, and proud to be


s: I have seen many full, bright mortal eyes,


s: That were a labyrinth of witching charms,


s: In which the heart of him who looked was lost;


s: But none like thine; their light is not of earth;


s: Their loveliness not like what man calls lovely.


s: Beside the smoothness of thy brow and cheek,


s: The lily's lip were rough; each of thy limbs,


s: Was worthy of such dwellers, oh! how fair


s: And glorious, must have been its fields and bow'rs!


s: How clear its streams! how pure and fresh its airs!


s: How mellow were its fruits! how bright its flow'rs!


s: How strong and brave the beings, fit to share


s: It with thee! 'Tis most strange that He, whose hand


s: Fashions such wondrous things, should take delight


s: And yet thou lookest as if thou wert beyond


s: I have lived as thou livest, died as thou


s: Wilt have to die, and am what thou shalt be.


s: I have not questioned thee of life or death,


s: Nor of the state which shall succeed them both;


s: I care not for the first, nor fear the second;


s: Which good and evil wage upon the earth,


s: The Begetter of worlds, stars, suns, and systems!


s: And thou would'st know if other worlds have felt


s: The curse that fell upon, and blighted thine.


s: Poor simple child of clay! no doubt thou know'st


s: And think'st that there, in its fresh, stainless breast,


s: The baleful seeds of evil first were sown,


s: Which since have spread so fearfully abroad,--


s: When the sad doom, that came on him and his,


s: Was but the spray, cast from the wave of fate,


s: Which just then reached thy newly finished orb.


s: Where it first started--whither tends its course--


s: Where it shall stop--how many wrecks of worlds--


s: Once fairer far than thine was at its birth--


s: Shall strew its desolate way,--is not for things


s: That yet is mine to share. I have tried all


s: The longings of man's nature. I have loved,


s: And worshipped it with all my soul's intensity;


s: Shut out all other thoughts. But it was short;


s: Death plucked my lovely flower from my grasp,


s: My heart, and froze the fountains of its feeling.


s: And worn, the gaudiest wreath of fame, and when


s: I would have placed it on my brow, it grew


s: A mountain in its weight. I courted much


s: The notice of the world, and when men praised,


s: The very breath that bore their praise to me,


s: And heaped its shining dust in hoards around me,


s: I clad myself in purple--heaped my board


s: With all the fairest, sweetest fruits of earth,


s: And filled my golden goblets with bright juice,


s: Pressed from the goodliest grapes, and made my couch


s: Of down, and yet, I was most wretched still.


s: My garments were but cumbersome; my couch


s: Could give no rest, and e'en my generous wines


s: Could not remove the crushing weight that sat,


s: Nightmare-like, on my heart, until it grew


s: There is, one path which yet remains untrod;


s: To be my guide in it, I called thee hither,--


s: In which the mother of thy race was lost,


s: With e'en a wiser, mightier guide than I.


s: She thirsted, too, for knowledge, and she gave


s: The happiness of him--who shared her lot--


s: To know--what? That her own rebellious hand


s: Had raised the flood-gates of a sea of crime,


s: Which would for ever pour its bitter waves


s: Think of the sighs--the groans--the floods of tears--


s: The woes--too deep for these--which have no end,


s: Save but in heart-breaks! Think upon the toil--


s: The sweat--the pain--the strife--the crime--the blood--


s: The myriads of souls with which this one


s: Sad lesson was obtained! whose price is yet


s: The last poor son of earth mingles with dust!


s: Dost thou not fear to tread a path like this?


s: It is so long since I have felt its thrill


s: Thou art familiar with all earthly lore.


s: More: Thou hast gained, and wield'st a power, to which


s: The hurricane, at thy command goes forth,


s: Walking where'er thou bid'st it, and the storm


s: Ceases to howl when thou hast said,--"Be still!"


s: Thine anger stirs the ocean, and thy wrath


s: Finds out the deep foundations of the mountains,


s: And shakes them with its strength; the subtle fire,


s: That lights the tempest on its gloomy way,


s: Starts from its cloud-rocked slumber, at thy call,


s: Canst thou not be content when thou art feared


s: By those who rule a world? What is there yet


s: Which thy insatiate mind desires to know?


s: Would'st learn immortal mysteries? Reflect


s: Taunt me with my mortality? "Weak things,


s: Brought forth from earth,"--"Poor simple child of clay,"--


s: These are thy words, when well thou knows't that I,


s: Though bound to earth by bonds made of its mire,


s: Thou would'st not now be face to face with one


s: Of mortal birth. Thou, too, canst feel revenge,


s: And knowest how to wreak it; but, take heed,--


s: The power which brought thee hither, can, and may


s: Deal harshly with thee. If thou knowest aught


s: To which I have not pierced, reveal thy knowledge.


s: We may not tell the secrets of eternity;


s: But I can show thee things thou hast not seen,


s: And they may profit thee, although 'twill shake


s: Although thy path be through hell's gloomy gate,


s: I too will pass its portals at thy back.


s: Thou canst not enter where I dare not pass.


s: The verge of Creation. Enter Werner and Spirit.


s: Through yon array of dim and distant worlds


s: We winged our flight, have wholly died away,


s: Our ears must watch and wait to catch them.


s: Those stars are now like watch-fires, which though seen


s: Blazing afar, send not their light to make


s: Before us stretches one vast field of gloom,


s: Both palpable to touch and sight, across


s: Our path a barrier rears that seems to bar


s: Our farther progress. If there be, beyond


s: This wall of blackness, aught of mystery,


s: Which, from the influence of matter, free


s: Though art returned unto thy native orb,


s: Strange things are hidden by that ebon veil,


s: To which a single wish of thine may bear us.


s: Since we our search for knowledge have begun,


s: Wherever there is aught that Power has made,


s: Which Time has ruined, or which Fate has damned,


s: There let us go, that we may look on it,


s: And learn its history. What intense glooms


s: We now are passing through! I feel them part


s: As plainly as the swimmer feels the waves


s: That lave his gliding limbs. This sure must be


s: The home of Death--no voice, no sound, no sigh,


s: Not ev'n so much of breath as would suffice


s: This is indeed the realm of Death,--at least


s: It has no more of life than what though hast


s: Brought here with thee,--I speak of mortal life:


s: We now are near the Hades of past worlds,


s: Whose spirits have a life which cannot die.


s: You laugh! and show the haughty arrogance


s: Which in your mortal brethren you cotemn.


s: Think you that he who gave to man his mind,


s: The undying spark that quickens his clay frame,


s: Such mighty wonders as the spheres which go


s: Could be conceived by him, which has great hand


s: Intelligence! a thing that knows not death?


s: Hast though not seen thine earth put forth her leaves,


s: Clothing her rugged mountain tops and sides,


s: Her forests in the vale, each tree and shrub,


s: With a fair foliage? hast though not beheld


s: Her weaving, in the sunny springtide hours,


s: To robe her valleys in? With every flow'r


s: Of graceful form, and soft and downy leaf,


s: And tender hue, and tint, that Beauty owns,


s: To deck her gentle breast? When Autumn came,


s: With its rich gifts of pleasant, mellow fruits,


s: Hast though not seen her wipe her sunburnt brow,


s: And shake her yellow locks from every hill?


s: Hast though not heard her holy songs of peace


s: And plenty warbled from each vocal grove,


s: Hast though not seen her, when the hollow winds,


s: Which moan the requiem of the dying year,


s: Raved through her leafless bowers, wrap about


s: Her breast a mantle, wherewith to protect


s: And nurse the seed, the trusting husbandman


s: Hath given to her keeping? Are thine acts


s: As full of wisdom, and as free from blame?


s: But they stir such strange thoughts within my mind,


s: That, as I will not weep, I can but smile.


s: Methinks the darkness has grown less profound,--


s: A heavy, dim, and shadowy light, like that


s: Which, when the storm has chosen midnight's hour


s: First glimmers through the clouds which have been rent,


s: And torn by their own fierceness, hands about us.


s: The light increases still, and in the distance,


s: Enormous shadows, wearing distinct shapes,


s: Like mighty, mastless, sailless, vessels, moved


s: By magic o'er a tideless, waveless ocean,


s: Worlds like to that I live on, save that these


s: Seem made of living shades instead of dust;


s: Vast mountains, with tall trees and mighty rocks,


s: And fountains, gushing from their very summits;


s: Huge, towering cliffs, and deep and lonely glens,


s: And wide-mouthed caves that hold a deeper gloom,--


s: Swift streams, that rush adown their rugged sides,


s: And quiet lakelets, that appear to sleep


s: In the embrace of the surrounding hills;


s: The cottage of the hardy hunter, perched


s: High on the rocks, like to an eagle's nest:


s: The shepherd's humble shieling, and his fold,


s: And, half-way up, broad vineyards, with their vines


s: Bending with purple clusters of ripe fruit;--


s: Wide valleys, with green meadows, and pure streams,


s: And gentle hills, where ripening harvests stand;


s: Majestic rivers, with their verdant banks


s: Motionless lakes, and seas without a wave,


s: And oceans pulseless as a dead man's heart!


s: And mighty cities, standing on their coasts,


s: And giant tow'rs, and tapering spires, that seem


s: Churchyards, with their pale gravestones, that appear


s: Like watchers of the dead whose names they bear!


s: All these are there, but not a sign of life,


s: No living thing that creeps along the ground,


s: Or flies the air, or swims the wave, is seen.


s: It seems as if on all things some strong spell


s: Had in the twinkling of a star came down


s: And rocked them to an everlasting sleep!


s: That these things are, that they are quick with life,--


s: Such life as disembodied spirits have,--


s: That they are deathless? Thou need'st not inquire


s: Of me whence they are come, for thou hast seen


s: One of their number on its journey hither.


s: When thine own planet, starting from its sphere,


s: Shall fright the dwellers of the stars that skirt


s: Its destined pathway to these silent realms!


s: Thou'st seen the comet rushing through the sky,


s: And, gazing on the glowing track which it


s: Had branded on the azure breast of space,


s: Thinking thy words were wisdom, thou hast said,


s: "When its full term of years has been fulfilled,


s: It shall return again." Not knowing that


s: The light thou sawest was reflected from


s: That sacred fire, which, in the end, shall purge


s: The spirit essence which pervades creation,


s: From the dull dust with which a wayward fate


s: Has clogged its being! Question me no more--


s: There is one thing which I at last have learned,--


s: To feel that with the increase of our knowledge


s: Our sorrows must increase. I oft have heard,


s: But never before have felt the truth of this.


s: To know that were it not for this clay mask,


s: I even now might pierce the shadowy veil


s: Will make life doubly hard to bear, and tempt


s: And snatch wings for my spirit ere its time.


s: The flash which from its slumber wakes the mind,


s: And then, departing, leaves it to itself,


s: In the wide maze of error, darkly groping.


s: Than when I left the earth, but feel that I


s: Have bought my knowledge with increase of sorrow.


s: Did I not tell thee that its path were steep,


s: And hard to climb, and thick beset with thorns,--


s: And that its tempting, longed-for fruit, tho' bought


s: With a great price, is full of bitterness?


s: Yet farther on, thou might'st regret the more


s: What! is there aught still more remote than these


s: From the great centre of the universe,--


s: The fair domain of life and living things?


s: A kingdom tenanted with such dark shapes,


s: That angels shudder when they look on them!


s: Whose vacant weight is harder to be borne


s: Than the keen stingings of more active pangs;


s: When it has traced the mystic chain of being


s: To its last link, it may perchance shake off


s: If thou wilt on, I must proceed with thee,


s: Even though in looking on I share the pangs


s: Come, then, I too must see them, tho' it cost


s: Me years of pain to gaze but for a moment.


s: 'Twere harder now to find Eve's' buried dust,


s: The largest portion of her prying spirit.


s: Scene I. Near the place of the damned. Enter Werner and Spirit.


s: What piercing, stunning sounds assail my ear!


s: Wild shrieks and wrathful curses, groans and prayers,


s: Through which they penetrate to flutter like


s: The heart of a trapped hare,--are revelling round us.


s: Unlike the gloomy realm we just have quitted,


s: Silent and solemn, all is restless here,


s: Above us bends a black and starless vault,


s: Which ever echoes back the fearful voices


s: That rise from the abodes of wo beneath.


s: Around us grim-browed desolation broods,


s: While, far below, a sea of pale gray clouds,


s: Whither shall we direct our journey now?


s: Right down through yon abyss of boiling clouds,


s: If though hast courage to attempt the plunge,


s: And we shall stand where angels seldom stand,


s: And devils almost pity when they stand,--


s: Whose being, is of love, whose band is pow'r,


s: Whose breath is life, whose noblest attribute,--


s: The one most worthy of thyself~-is mercy!


s: Were these of thine immortal will conceived?


s: Has thy hand shaped them out the forms they wear?


s: Has thy breath made them quick with, breathing life?


s: And is thy mercy to their wailings deaf?


s: Poor creatures! I bad deemed that in my breast


s: Grief had congealed the hidden fount of tears,


s: But ye have drawn them from their frozen source


s: I thought thy heart so steeled in hardihood


s: Of universal hate, and pride, and scorn,


s: That even were the woes, which thou dost here


s: Behold endured by others, heaped on thee,


s: Thy haughty soul unmoved would feel them all;


s: To bear the worst decrees of ruthless fate,


s: But tell me, Spirit! is all hope extinct


s: In those who here sojourn, or do they look


s: Yet forward to some blest millennial day,


s: Which shall redeem them from this horrid place.


s: Best ask your theologians that question.


s: Some say that there are places purgatorial,


s: Where Error pays the price of her transgressions


s: In sufferings that efface the effects of sin.


s: And other some declare that when the soul


s: And clay are parted, heaven seals the doom


s: Of both, beyond repeal. Let thy own mind


s: Sit arbiter 'twixt these, and choose the truth.


s: Mark what approaches us, and mark it well.


s: It makes the warm blood curdle in my veins.


s: Than it, hell cannot hold a fouler form--


s: Its heavy eyes are dim and bleared with blood,


s: Its jaws, by strong convulsions fiercely worked,


s: Are clogged and clotted with mixed gore and foam!


s: A nauseous stench its filthy shape exhales,


s: And through its heaving bosom you may mark


s: The constant preying of a quenchless flame


s: That gnaws its heartstrings! while a harsh quick moan


s: Of mingled wrath, and madness, and despair,


s: It chases through the hot, sulphureous gloom,


s: With naked arms, white breast, and ebon locks,


s: And big black eyes that dart the humid flame


s: Which sets the heart ablaze; and red moist lips,


s: And checks as spotless as the falling flake


s: Ere it has touched the earth, and supple form


s: In its perfection! and with wanton looks


s: That speak the burning language of desire,


s: It seems to woo its loathsome follower,--


s: And on his brow his name is written, "Lust!"


s: Dismiss the spectre, for it blasts my sight,


s: And sears my brain with its dark hideousness!


s: 'Tis gone; look up and see what next appears.


s: It hath such giant members! and its port


s: Is martial as e'er marked a Caesar's moving.


s: Its sandals are of brass, its massive brow


s: It bears a sword with which, in idle strokes,


s: And at each blow it deals, a strong fatality


s: Turns back its sword's keen point on its own breast,


s: Which deep it gashes,--then in mournful tone,


s: It mutters o'er and o'er again these words,--


s: "I fought for fame and won unending wo."


s: His agonies seem like himself, immortal.


s: For many years his busy, plotting brain,


s: Made discord out of union, strife from peace,


s: And set the nations warring till the earth


s: Was crimson with the blood poured out for him!


s: He bears what he inflicted,--let him pass


s: More fit to string and strike Apollo's lyre,


s: Than bear the shield or wield the sword of Mars!


s: A faded garland, wreathed about his brow,


s: Tell what he was, and still employ his care.


s: With thin white hand, that trembles at its task,


s: In vain he strives to bind the broken chords,


s: And to their primal melody attune them;--


s: In vain,--for to his efforts still replies


s: A boding strain of harsh, discordant sound.


s: And then, with hot tears coursing down his cheeks,


s: He lifts his faded wreath from his pale brow,


s: And gazing on its withered leaves, exclaims,--


s: "For earthly fame I sung the songs of earth,


s: Forgetful of all higher, holier themes,--


s: 'Tis meet the meed I won should perish thus."


s: Is not the justice which confines him here


s: Seems, as his earthly strains were, full of softness.


s: Each thought, and word, and deed of mortal man,


s: Is but a moral seed, which, in due season,


s: Must bring forth fruit according to its kind.


s: The soil wherein those seeds are sown is Time,--


s: Death is the reaper of the ripened harvest,--


s: To be, or good or bad, the spirit's food!


s: If then our thoughts, and words, and deeds have been


s: Lean-framed and haggard-visaged, bowed beneath


s: The weight of years, or worldly cares that press


s: Still heavier than the iron hand of time.


s: His tottering form is fearful to behold!


s: If the fierce scourge which men on earth call famine,


s: Could incarnate itself, methinks 'twould choose


s: Just such a shape, so worn and grim and gaunt,


s: He gathers from the burning floor of hell


s: Some shining pebbles, which his fond conceit


s: Transmutes to gold, and these with constant care


s: He watches, counting and recounting them,


s: Bears with it all his fancied hoards away,


s: Which ever he renews with this complaint,--


s: "Alas! how speedily may wealth take wing."


s: And on his front his name is written, "Avarice."


s: There yet is, in this shadowy land of shades,


s: One form which I would have thee look upon.


s: Behold it cometh! mark and scan it well.


s: Through earth, or other regions, where abide


s: Things now no more of earth, have I beheld


s: Aught so profoundly mournful or so lone!


s: So dark a cloud o'erhangs his haggard brow,


s: That where he turns a dunner, murkier gloom


s: Prevails along hell's blasting atmosphere!


s: Surrounded by some goodly forms he moves,


s: Forms bright as his is dark, who each in turn


s: Woo his acceptance of the gifts they proffer.


s: Love stretches out his dimpled band, wherein


s: Bright Hope, that might renew again the pulse


s: Of life within the frozen veins of Death!


s: Beckons him to the future,--and calm Faith


s: Kindles beneath his eye her beacon blaze;


s: Yet, with such anguish as hell only holds,


s: He turns him from all these, and will not take


s: Love's proffered rose, lest 'neath its blushing leaves


s: Should lurk the stinging thorn of sly deceit.


s: Hope's smile to him is disappointment's signal,--


s: And the bright beacon Faith so kindly lights


s: To guide us o'er the treacherous sea of life,


s: Had nursed bright dreams, and cherished lofty aims,--


s: Had dreamed of love, or wooed Ambition's smiles,


s: Or, higher still, the sway of human hearts!


s: Detect a consciousness that I thy own soul


s: Claimed brotherhood with his! Thou too hast scoffed


s: At human love, and hope, and faith, and truth,


s: Nursing within thy bosom pride, and scorn,


s: And rankling hate, I till these at length became


s: Fiends which thou could'st not master! Thou art warned,


s: Be wise and heed the warning. Let us now


s: O'er which the rosy smile of morn is breaking,


s: Their daily rounds of toil and strife and crime.


s: Scene I. A peak of the Alps. Werner alone. Time, morning.


s: In these her quiet, unfrequented haunts,


s: To which, except the timid chamois' foot,


s: Or venturous hunter's, or the eagle's wing,


s: Naught from beneath ascends. As yet the sun


s: But darts his earliest rays of golden light


s: Which robed in clouds and capped with glittering ice,


s: Soar proudly up, and beam and blaze aloft,


s: As if they would claim kindred with the stars!


s: And they may claim such kindred, for there is


s: Which glows and burns in every beaming orb


s: Far as the eye can trace the mountain's crest


s: Of glowing, cloud-formed ranges are at rest,


s: Purple and crimson, orange and bright gold,


s: The sunny smile with which Morn hails the world.


s: Still rests upon the valley, still the flock


s: Sleeps undisturbed within the guarded fold,


s: The lark yet slumbers in her lowly nest,


s: The dew hangs heavy upon leaf and blade,


s: The gray mist still o'erveils the unruffled lake,


s: And all is tranquil as an infant's sleep;


s: For in my breast a thousand restless thoughts


s: Thoughts of long bygone years, and things that were


s: But are no more, and thoughts that sternly strive


s: Have looked upon; for I, since yesternight,


s: Have traversed the wide sea of space that rolls


s: Between the shores of this and other worlds;


s: Have gazed upon and scanned those worlds, or shades


s: That wear the lineaments of such; have seen


s: The damned in their own place, and marked the deep,


s: Might spring from knowledge. Tis a fatal tree,


s: Which ever hath borne bitter fruit, since first


s: Scene II. A chamber in the cottage of Manuel. Albert asleep.


s: Is treasured. Heaven bless thee! May thy life,


s: Blest to the fulness of a mother's prayer!


s: How well his sleep portrays a quiet mind,


s: A day without a cloud, whose only voices


s: Arise from sighing airs, and whispering leaves,


s: And tell-tale brooks that of their banks beseech


s: A gift, a wreath of their sweet flowers, wherewith


s: And free, glad birds that flit from bough to bough,


s: And ring their songs of love in the clear air,


s: Till heaven is filled with gushing melody,


s: A thing of life, whose breath is sweetest music!


s: And only love, the bright and holy dream


s: The crystal stream that threads a neighbouring vale,


s: I and his father watched our fathers' flocks,


s: And he would lay aside his shepherd's pipe,


s: And in low words, far sweeter than its music,


s: Talk of the sun and stars and gentle moon,


s: The earth and all its loveliness, the trees


s: And shrubs and flowers; how these were all pervaded


s: And quickened by the spirit of deep love;


s: Till, by the frequent blush that tinged my cheek,


s: The light that would break from my downcast eyes,


s: And the quick beat of my too happy heart,


s: Emboldened, he poured out his own pure passion,


s: Has had no eras,--days, and months, and years,


s: Have all gone by uncounted, in the full,


s: Deep, fervent, soul-sufficing happiness,


s: Of all I prayed for, panted for, obtained!


s: But I must rouse him, it is time his flock


s: Where the green willows cluster thickest, there


s: They dwell. 'Tis scarce so far as I could cast


s: A pebble from my sling. Seek it, and they


s: Will minister to thee what thou mayest need.


s: Ah, mother! I have dreamed so strange a dream,


s: As closely followed by my bleating flock,


s: I climbed the rugged mountain side where spring


s: Our greenest pastures, singing as I went,


s: That my own heart, to sadness little used,


s: Grew heavy at the sight; and he seemed worn


s: As by some hidden, inward strife of soul,


s: Which even then seemed raging in his breast.


s: He stayed to question me where he might find


s: Where he might crave the boons of rest and food,--


s: And mindful of the lesson taught by thee,


s: To give the hungry bread, the weary rest,


s: I pointed him to where our cottage stands,


s: Assuring him that thou and my sweet sister,--


s: Fair as aught earthly, and as pure as fair,--


s: To those who beg for succour at our hands;


s: Are but the stewards of the bounteous Lord


s: Who giveth to his creatures all good gifts.


s: But it is time that thou shouldst seek the hills,


s: So take thy crook and pipe and hie away.


s: Scene III. The side of a mountain. Werner descending.


s: Enter a shepherd boy, followed by his flock, singing.


s: When the Morning starts up from her couch on the deep,


s: Where through the dim night hours, she pillows her sleep,


s: I start from my slumbers, and hie me away


s: Where the white torrent dashes its feathery spray,--


s: I quaff the fresh stream as it bursts from the hill,--


s: I pluck the fresh flowers that spring by the rill,--


s: I watch the gray clouds as they curl round the peak


s: That rises high over them, barren and bleak;


s: And I think how the worldling who courts fortune's smile,


s: In his heart, like that peak, may be lonely the while;


s: And then my own heart sings aloud in its joy,


s: That Heaven has made me a free shepherd boy!


s: When the horn of the hunter resounds from on high,


s: Where the tall giant ice-cliffs ire piled to the sky,


s: Where, shunning the verdure of valleys and dells,


s: The brave eagle builds, and the shy chamois dwells,--


s: I list to its gay tones, as by me they float,


s: And I echo them merrily back, note for note;


s: With the wild bird a song full as gladsome I sing,


s: I crown me with flowers, and sit a crowned king,--


s: My flock are my subjects, my dog my vizier,


s: And my sceptre--a mild one--the crook that I bear;


s: No wants to perplex me, no cares to annoy,


s: It is the wanderer of my last night's dream,


s: The same pale brow, and darkly mournful eye,


s: If he seeks friendly guidance, food, or shelter,


s: For merriment,--then thou perchance hast wealth,


s: Broad, fruitful lands, and tenements, and all


s: And yet have more than all which thou hast named.


s: No tongue has ever spoken with reproach,


s: Is fair as pure, and pure as is the snow


s: Of these my native mountains. I have health,


s: And strength, and food, and raiment, and employ,


s: And should I not then have a joyous heart?


s: Among the blessings Heaven has given to me,


s: One which I have not named to thee; it is


s: Was never closed against the wayfarer,--


s: If thou hast need of aught which it affords,


s: There where the wide-armed willows cluster thickest


s: Upon the green banks of yon crystal stream,


s: Our cottage stands. The path to it is short


s: And easily traversed,--so, now, farewell.


s: Stay yet a moment. That which thou hast proffered,


s: Is what I sought. Thou hast a noble heart,


s: I fain would give thee guerdon,--here is gold.


s: Thou meet'st with one, bowed down by suffering,


s: Then if thou heed'st his prayer for my sake,


s: I shall be well repaid. Again, farewell.


s: Scene IV. After a lapse of time. A rustic arbour near the


s: cottage of Manuel. Enter Rose and Werner.


s: Nay, let my silent blushes plead with thee


s: My ardent love, which will not be repressed,


s: Plead with thee for acceptance of my suit;


s: For I do love thee with such passionate love,


s: That life itself, if weighed against that love,


s: I'm but a simple shepherd's simple child,


s: Unused to courtly speeches, and they say


s: That in the world thy name and rank are high,


s: And that when such as thou do proffer love


s: And faith to lowly maidens, 'tis a jest,--


s: And that when they have won our honest love,


s: They cast it from them with unpitying hands,


s: As idly as they would a withered flower.


s: Nay, maiden, let me tell thee of the past,


s: Let me lay bare my heart beneath thy gaze,


s: And thou wilt pity if thou canst not love.


s: I loved in youth with love as fond and deep


s: As ever made the heart of man its slave,


s: But, ere my hopes could ripen to fruition,


s: Death came and made my worshipped one his prize;


s: And though my peace departed when she died,


s: Yet I was proud, and would not bond to sorrow,


s: But with calm brow and eye, and smiling lip,


s: I mingled with the giddy thoughtless world,


s: Seeking from out its varied realms to wring


s: Some recompense for that which I had lost.


s: Wealth, fame, and power, I sought for and obtained,


s: The paths of hidden knowledge I essayed,


s: And trod their mazy windings till they led


s: My footsteps--whither I may not disclose,--


s: But all availed me nothing, still my heart


s: Ached with the dreary void lost love had made,


s: Ached ever till that void was filled by thee!


s: Since first fate led me to your kindly door,


s: Three times the moon with full-orbed light hath shone,


s: Thrice thirty times, with song of merry birds


s: And breath of fragrance, Morn has blest the earth


s: And all its dwellers with her radiant presence;


s: Thrice thirty times, with star-bound brow, dim Night


s: Hath kept her tearful watch above the earth;


s: And every time the full-orb'd moon hath shone,


s: And every time the merry Morn hath smiled,


s: And every time dim Night with star-bound brow


s: Above the earth hath kept her tearful watch,


s: My heart has added to its store of love,


s: Its pure, deep, fervent, passionate love for thee!


s: By all my hopes of heaven, my words are true.


s: I pledge to thee, as thine, for evermore!


s: Love's apple,--and when we have found it,


s: Considering the Mandrake, many fabulous notions were entertained


s: by the ancients; and they never attempted to extract it from the


s: daring enough to undertake its extraction. The usual manner of


s: The Emperor Adrian, in a letter to Calexines, writes that he is


s: drinking the juice of the Mandrake to render him amorous: hence


s: It grows in Italy, Spain, and the Levant.


s: Fair as some sea-child, in her coral bower,


s: Decked with the rare, rich treasures of the deep;


s: Mild as the spirit of the dream whose power


s: Bears back the infant's soul to heaven, in sleep


s: Brightens the hues of summer's first-born flower


s: Pure as the tears repentant mourners weep


s: O'er deeds to which the siren, Sin, beguiled,--


s: Art thou, sweet, smiling, bright-eyed cherub child.


s: From which unhallowed thoughts shrink blushing back,--


s: Thy smile is a warm light that shines to bless,


s: As beams the beacon o'er the wanderer's track,--


s: Thy voice is music, at whose sounds Distress


s: Unbinds her writhing victim from the rack


s: Of misery, and charmed by what she hears,


s: Forgets her woes, and smiles upon her tears.


s: If time will blight, that promise; if thy brow,


s: So sunny now, will learn to wear the mask


s: Of hollow smiles, or cold deceit, whilst thou


s: Art learning in thy soul the bitter task


s: Time teaches to all bosoms, when the glow


s: Of hope is o'er--but this I may not know.


s: My path will not be near to thine through life,--


s: Kind ones will guard and fondly shelter thee;


s: Me bitterness awaits, and care and strife,


s: With heartaches, and the pangs that "pass not by;"


s: Each hour shall give thee some new pleasure; years,


s: Long years can bring me only toil 'and tears.


s: 'Tis meet that it should be so,--I have made


s: Across my heart, in youth, the dull, deep shade


s: That wrinkled age flings over all at last


s: And could I live those vanished moments o'er,


s: My heart would wander as it strayed before.


s: I know not how it is,--my heart is stern,


s: And little giv'n to thoughts of tenderness;


s: Yet looking on thy young brow it will yearn,


s: Thoughts that have slumbered long awake and burn


s: With a wild strength which nothing can repress!


s: Be still, worn heart, be still; does not the cold


s: And heavy clay--clod mingle with her mould?


s: Yes, 'tis that in thy soft check's tender bloom,


s: Thy black eyes' brightness, in each graceful move,


s: 'Twas in my boyhood; but the insatiate tomb


s: Claimed her fair form, and for the realms above


s: Her spirit fled the earth; oh! how I wept


s: That mine should in its bondage still be kept.


s: I had so loved in life--it still was fair,


s: Surpassing fair, in death; and as she lay


s: With the thick tresses of her long dark hair


s: Gathered above the brow whence feeling's ray


s: Had fled, because death's shadow darkened there,


s: Her more than earthly beauty made her seem


s: The incarnation of some pure bright dream.


s: I stood and gazed: the pale grave sheet was wound


s: About the form from which life's spark was fled,


s: For ever fled,--wet eyes were weeping round,


s: And voices full of sorrow mourned the dead;


s: I could not weep; a sadness more profound


s: Than that from which those heart-drops, tears, are shed,


s: Alone when crowds were round me. May thy fate


s: Be coloured with a brighter hue, and strown


s: With flowers where mine is thorns;--where mine is hate,


s: And strife, and bitter discord, may thine own


s: Be love, and hope, and peace--for these create


s: The sunshine of existence; may their light


s: Beam ever round thee, warm, and glad, and bright.


s: Soft, silvery cloudlets, pure and white,


s: And far o'er field, and flower, and tree,


s: "'Twas little she thought that I stood breathless by her side


s: listening to the song she sang as she sat by the sea's edge,


s: pondering so deeply, upon me too perhaps, that the white foam


s: "Still o'er the dream I nursed too well,


s: The shell-strewn beach that edged the main,


s: Has yearned with dreams, through long, long, years,


s: Its lack of strength and depth wilt prove,


s: On! there are hours of sadness, when the soul,


s: Torn from its every stay, and crushed beneath


s: Its many griefs, and spurning faith's control,


s: Pants with an earnest longing for the death


s: Which would for ever close its dark career,


s: With the pale shroud and the remorseless bier;


s: When the harsh, sterile nothingness of life,


s: First breaks upon the hope-deluded breast,


s: And the heart sickens with the bootless strife


s: That wrings its chords, and longs to be at rest;


s: Ev'n if the blow that frees it from distress,


s: Should strike it into utter nothingness.


s: Ah, nothingness! The thought at times will come,


s: That clouds its being! from its clay-made home,


s: Into the far depths of the vast UNKNOWN,


s: In its vain searchings for th' eternal throne


s: Of that Omnipotence which gave it birth,


s: And, giving it a nature which might suit


s: And a few years, in which to eat the fruit


s: Of life's strange tree, so bitter at its core,


s: Then death, the quiet grave, sleep, and--what more?


s: Whence came we? whither go we? All is still


s: And voiceless in the past! A veil is drawn


s: Across the future! by life's mystic rill


s: We sit and ponder, watching for the dawn


s: Of some yet unconceived, far-reaching thought,


s: By which our nature's secret shall be taught!


s: Our secret souls! and why the little share


s: Of happiness that mingles with our fate,


s: Our loves! our hopes! what are they? fruits which turn


s: That cast a moment's brightness while they burn,


s: Then die, and leave a darkness which affrights


s: Our spirits with its thrice redoubled gloom,


s: Making the sky a pall--the earth a tomb!


s: And yet these are the all of life for which


s: 'Tis worth the wearing of its chain to know,


s: Wealth, fame, and power are but toys! the rich,


s: The high and mighty, with the base and low,


s: Alike before the reaper Death must fall,--


s: And bow your heads to earth, for Death is here!


s: Mark ye not how across that eye so clear,


s: And the quick throbbings of her heart shall cease,


s: Her pain-wrung spirit will obtain release,


s: Your gushing tears, for Mercy's hand hath shaken


s: Her earth-bonds off, and from her lip hath taken


s: Are they who rest secure from care and strife,--


s: That they who walk the thorny way of life,


s: Was for the quiet of the tomb's deep rest,--


s: Love's sepulchre lay cold within her breast,


s: Is of her life the story; she had loved,


s: And he who won her heart to love, had proved


s: Where shines and falls the summer's sun and dew;


s: For these should shine and fall where lies so true


s: So on the stone ye place above her head,


s: With music on her lips,--joy in her eye,--


s: Her sunny banner streaming through the sky,--


s: Drop on the turf that wraps her mouldering heart,


s: One morn, just as day in the far east was breaking,


s: Young Love, who all night had been roving about,


s: His strength, by his rambles, completely worn out.


s: Round his brow a wreath, woven of every flower


s: That springs from the hillside, or valley, was bound;


s: In his hand was a rose he had stol'n from some bower,


s: While his bow and his quiver lay near on the ground.


s: Wild Fancy just came from her kingdom of dreams,


s: And to catch the warm kiss of its first golden beams


s: On her cheek, caught a glimpse of the slumbering boy!


s: With a light, noiseless step she drew near to the sleeper,


s: And gazed till her snowy-breast heaved a soft sigh;


s: Then she bade sleep's dull god bring a sounder and deeper


s: And heavier trance for Love's beautiful eye.


s: Then back to her shadowy kingdom she flow,


s: And called up the bright mystic forms she has there;


s: And filling an urn from a fountain of dew,


s: She bade them all straight to Love's couch-side repair.


s: They came, and stood round, as her hand, o'er his pillow,


s: From a chalice of pearl, poured its magical stream:


s: While his red rosy lips, that now sighed like a billow


s: At play with the breeze, told how sweet was his dream.


s: He dreamed that he sat on a shining throne, wrought


s: Of the purest of gold that the earth could supply,


s: While a trio of beautiful maids, who each brought


s: A gift for his shrine, in succession past by.


s: First Fame, with the step and the glance of a queen,


s: Came up, and before him bent down her proud knee,


s: And held up a garland, whereon played the sheen


s: Next Wealth, the stern mistress of men, for whose smile


s: They toil like the galley slave,--brought in her hand


s: And the diamonds of many a far off land.


s: And Beauty came too, with her blue, laughing eye,


s: Her fair flowing locks, and her soft rosy cheek,


s: And red lips, whose sweet smile told silently


s: The tale which they seemed ashamed to speak.


s: 'Neath the shade of a palm branch a fourth one stood by,


s: With locks like in hue to the tresses of Night,


s: With a pale, pensive brow, and a dark dreamy eye,


s: Where the soul of sweet softness lay gleaming in light!


s: It was Fancy: Love gazed, and his eager eye shone


s: With a lustre of feeling, deep, fervent, and sweet;


s: And he thought it were better to give up his throne


s: For a place, on his knees, at the coy maiden's feet.


s: And from that bright hour, through calm and through storm,


s: Through the sunlight of summer, and winter's dark reign,


s: These twain have been bound by ties, tender and warm,


s: Which ne'er through all time shall be severed again.


s: And ever where Love weaves his fond witchery,


s: Will Fancy the aid of her brightness bestow,


s: And give the loved object, whatever it be,


s: 'Tis not in youth, when life is new, when but to live is sweet,


s: When if a transient grief o'ershades the spirit for a while,


s: The momentary tear that falls is followed by a smile;


s: Or if a pensive mood, at times, across the bosom steals,


s: It scarcely sighs, so gentle is the pensiveness it feels


s: It is not then the, restless soul will seek for one with whom


s: To share whatever lot it bears, its gladness or its gloom,--


s: But oh! when comes the icy chill that freezes o'er the heart,


s: When, one by one, the joys we shared, the hopes we held, depart;


s: As for her olive branch the dove swept o'er the sullen wave,


s: With it to share her destiny, and make it all her own!


s: At night, in visions, when my soul drew near


s: The shadowy confines of the spirit land,


s: Wild, wondrous notes of song have met my ear,


s: Wrung from their harps by many a seraph's hand;


s: And forms of light, too, more divinely fair


s: Than Mercy's messenger to hearts that mourn,


s: On wings that made sweet music in the air,


s: Have round me, in those hours of bliss, been borne,


s: Have deemed myself a born child of the sky.


s: While thought awoke in its resistless pow'r,


s: And restless Fancy wove her brightest dream:


s: Mysterious tongues, that were not of the earth,


s: Have whispered words which I may not repeat,--


s: But Thought or Fancy ne'er have given birth


s: To form and voice like thine,--so fair and sweet!


s: Nor have I found them when my spirit's flight


s: Had borne me to the far shores of delight.


s: They rose, those silvery tones of praise and pray'r,


s: Soft as the light breeze, when Aurora trips


s: The earth, and, lighting up the darkened air,


s: Carols her greetings to the waking flow'rs!


s: They fell upon my heart like summer rain


s: Upon the thirsting fields,--and earlier hours,


s: When I too breathed th' adoring pray'r and strain,


s: Came back once more; the present was beguiled


s: Of half its gloom, and my worn spirit smiled.


s: Pray, lady, that the sad, soul-searing blight,


s: Which comes upon us when we tread the ways


s: On thy pure spirit in its youthful days;


s: Or like the fruitage of the Dead Sea shore,


s: Tho' outward bloom and freshness thou may'st be,


s: Stern bitterness and death will gnaw thy core,


s: And thou wilt be a heart-scathed thing like me,


s: Bearing the weight of many years, ere thou


s: Hast lost youth's rosy cheek and lineless brow.


s: I know that thou, wouldst not shrink from


s: I would share the world with thee, were it


s: "Glenara, Glenara, now read me my dream."


s: And pressed his thin hand to his withered brow,


s: As if he struggled with some rising thought


s: Which should have kept its place in memory's urn


s: Till he had cast the shadow from his soul,


s: Which for a while had bound it in a spell


s: Born of the bygone years,--then thus he spoke:


s: Now listen, boy, and I will show to thee


s: Thee what its scenes and shapes of mystery


s: Foreshadow of the future,--for full well


s: Binds e'en the time to come in its wild spell!


s: And from approaching years a knowledge wrings


s: Of what they bear upon their viewless wings.


s: Along life's weary way of pain and care,


s: Forms, viewless as the soft-breathed summer air,


s: Attend man's footsteps in his pilgrimage;


s: If Pleasure gilds, or Sorrow blots the page


s: Whereon is traced his history, still his ear


s: Will ever catch their warning voices near.


s: And they--those guardian ones, who, while thy sleep


s: Hung o'er thee like a curtain, came around


s: And fanned thee till thy slumber grew more deep,--


s: Flung o'er thy rest, so perfect and profound,


s: A dream whose mem'ry thou shouldst ever keep


s: Bound to thy spirit, for altho' it wound,


s: Thy young heart now, perchance, in after years,


s: 'Twill save thee much of toil, and many tears.


s: It was a dream of life: of boyhood's strong


s: And soul-consuming yearnings after love!


s: His eager search to find, amid the throng,


s: Some heart to give him thought for thought--to move


s: And mingle with his own, as twines the song


s: From Beauty's lyre and lips! to know and prove


s: The dearest joy to care-cursed mortals given,


s: The one with least of earth, and most of heaven


s: Of manhood's ceaseless strivings after fame,--


s: For which he wields the sword, or lights the flame


s: Whose red glare mocks a nation's agonies,--


s: His pen or pencil, to gain--what? a name,


s: A passing sound--an echo--a mere breath,


s: Which he, vain fool, dreams mightier than death!


s: Forsakes its high resolves and wild desires,


s: When stern Ambition can no more control,


s: And Love has shrouded o'er its smothered fires;


s: And Hope, the last kind comforter, expires;


s: And Avarice, monster of the gilded vest,


s: Creeps in and occupies the vacant breast.


s: And then the last sad scene: The sick heart, sore


s: And fainting from its wounds--the palsied limb--


s: The brow whose death-sweat peeps from every pore--


s: The eye with its long, weary watch grown dim--


s: The withered, wan cheek, that shall bloom no more--


s: The last dregs dripping slowly from the brim


s: Of life's drained cup,--behind all gloom, before


s: A deep, dark gulf--we plunge, and all is o'er!


s: Whose name is on yon lettered stone? whose ashes rest beneath?


s: Thou art fitter for a bride than for a watcher by the tomb!


s: "It is the name of one whose deeds made men grow pale with fear,


s: And Nero's, stranger, is the dust that lies sepulchred here;


s: That name may be a word of harsh and boding sound to thee,


s: But oh! it has a more than mortal melody for me!


s: "And I,--my heart has grown to age in girlhood's fleeting years,


s: And has one only task--to bathe its buried love in tears;


s: The all of life that yet remains to me is but its breath;


s: Then tell me, is it meet that I should seek the bridal wreath?"


s: But maiden, he of whom you speak was of a savage mood,


s: That took its joy alone in scenes, of carnage, tears and blood;


s: "The voice that taught an abject world to tremble at its words,


s: To me was mild and musical, and mellow as a bird's--


s: "I saw him first beside the sea; near to ray father's home,


s: When like an ocean deity he bounded from the foam;


s: Ev'n then a glory seemed to breathe around him as he trod,


s: And my haughty soul was bowed, as in the presence of a God.


s: I knew not, till my heart was his, the darkness of his own,


s: Nor dreamed that he who knelt to me was master of a throne!


s: And when the fearful knowledge came, its coming was in vain,--


s: I had forsaken all for him, and would do so again."


s: Is love the offspring of the will? or is it, like a flower,


s: So frail that it may fade and be forgotten in an hour?


s: Such thoughts as lips should only breathe,


s: On them, and those they loved, had hung.


s: Thou'rt sad; thou say'st that in the halls


s: Tho' o'er her darkened, crumbling walls,


s: Till Time shall crush them in the brine,


s: Our tombs as well shall keep their trust,


s: That long has ceased to be, whose very name,


s: Has swept away from earth, leaving thy frame,


s: Among the records of the things that were,


s: Its place,--Tradition has forgot thee--Fame,


s: If ever fame was thine, has ceased to bear


s: Her record of thee,--say, what dost thou here?


s: Three thousand years ago a mother's arms


s: Were wrapped about that dark and ghastly form,


s: And all the loveliness of childhood's charms


s: Glowed on that cheek, with life then flushed and warm;


s: Say, what preserved thee from the hungry worm


s: That haunts with gnawing tooth the gloomy bed


s: Spread for the lifeless? Tell what could disarm


s: Decay of half its power, and while it fed


s: On empires--races--make it spare the dead!


s: How strange to contemplate the wondrous story,


s: When those deep sunken eyes first saw the light,


s: Upon her pride and power had fall'n no blight;


s: And Tyre, the ancient mariner's delight,


s: Whose merchantmen were princes, and whose name


s: Was theme of praise to all, has left her site


s: Yet thou, amid all change, art still the same.


s: And she who, by the "yellow Tiber's" side,


s: Sits wrapped in her dark veil of widowhood,


s: With scarce a glimmer of her ancient pride,


s: To cheer the gloom of that deep solitude


s: Which o'er the seat of vanquished pow'r doth brood,


s: Since thou wast born has seen her glories rise,


s: Burn, and expire! quenched by the streams of blood


s: Which her slaves drew from her own veins, the price


s: Of usurpation, proud Ambition's sacrifice!


s: And darker in her fate, and sadder still,


s: The wonder of the world! Destruction's wing


s: Hath from her swept each fair and goodly thing;


s: Her palaces and temples! where are they?


s: Her walls and marble tow'rs lie mouldering,


s: Her glory to the spoiler's hand a prey,--


s: And yet time spares a portion of thy clay!


s: To whom these shores four centuries ago,


s: Tho' now proud Freedom's boasted dwelling-place,


s: Were all unknown; the wide streams that now flow


s: Where Cultivation's hand has steered her plough,


s: Had then but seen the forest huntsman guide


s: His light canoe across the waves which now


s: Reflect the snowy sails that waft in pride


s: The stately ship along their rippling tide.


s: Sent back to tread with Time his constant way,


s: What would their best, their brightest visions weigh


s: Beside the fearful truths thou couldst reveal?


s: Unveiled before thee, and for we or weal,


s: Thy doom is fixed beyond ev'n heaven's repeal.


s: That lie beyond Death's shadowy vale; but thou


s: Wove for thine earthly sojourn. Was thy brow


s: Graced with the poet's, hero's garland? How


s: Dealt Fortune with thee? Did she curse or bless


s: Thee with her frown or smile? Speak! thou art now


s: Among the living,--they around thee press.


s: Still silent? Then thy lot we can but guess.


s: Perhaps thou wast a monarch, and hast worn


s: Perhaps a warrior, and those arms have borne


s: The foremost shield, and dealt the deadliest blow


s: That drew the life-blood of a warring foe!


s: Perhaps thou wor'st the courtier's gilded thrall,--


s: Some glittering court's gay, proud papilio!


s: Perchance a clown, the jester of some hall,


s: The slave of one man, and the fool of all!


s: Oh life! and pride! and honour! come and see


s: To what a depth your visions tumble down!


s: Behold your wearer,--who shall say if he


s: Were monarch, warrior, parasite, or clown!


s: And call them bright and deathless! and who break


s: Each dearer tie to grasp fame's gilded crown,


s: Come, hear instruction from this shadow speak,


s: And learn how valueless the prize ye seek!


s: See where ambition's loftiest flight doth tend,


s: Behold the doom perhaps of blood-bought fame,


s: And know that all which earth can give must end,


s: Ye passions! which defy our pow'r to tame


s: Or curb your headlong tides, behold your home!


s: Love! see the breast where thou didst light thy flame!


s: Immortal spirit! see thy shattered dome!


s: Shall life possess, and beauty deck again


s: That withered form, and foul and dusky cheek?


s: Will Death resign his dull and frozen reign,


s: Her long-deserted dwelling, and to break


s: The bondage which has held in icy chains


s: All that was mortal of thee? will she make


s: Her home in thee, and shall these poor remains


s: Share with her heaven's pleasures or hell's pains?


s: Wonder of wonders! who could look on thee


s: The mouldering shrines where dupes have bent the knee,


s: Has oft with timid footstep trembling trod,--


s: All these are worse than nothing; come and see


s: Where once a deathless soul held its abode,--


s: Farewell! Not idly has this hour been spent.


s: Thy silent teachings I may not forget,--


s: Than all the babbled words which ever yet


s: Have fall'n from living lips,--they shall be set


s: With the bright gems which Wisdom loves to keep;


s: And when my spirit against fate would fret,


s: My eyes shall turn to thee and cease to weep,


s: Till I too sleep death's deep and dreamless sleep!


s: Come near me with thy lips, and, breathe o'er mine


s: Their breath, for I consume with love's desire,--


s: Thine ivory arms about me clasp and twine,


s: And beam upon mine eye thine eye's soft fire;


s: Clasp me yet closer, till my heart feels thine


s: Thrill, as the chords of Memnon's mystic lyre


s: Thrilled at the sun's uprising! thou who art


s: The lone, the worshipped idol of my heart!


s: There! balmier than the south wind, when it brings


s: How to thy dewy lips mine own lip clings,


s: And in my breast thine eyes have lit a fire


s: Our passionate love? what pow'r shall part us twain?


s: Not even Death! Life could bestow no bliss


s: Like death with thee, and I would rend its chain


s: If thou shouldst perish, for my heaven is


s: To gaze upon thee! I could bear all pain


s: They try to woo me from thy fond embrace,


s: To lure me from the light of those dear eyes;


s: They tell me that in fortune's arduous chase,


s: I have such fleetness as would win the prize;--


s: But all the pomps of circumstance and place,


s: A glance, a word, a smile of thine outvies!


s: The blessed lot to dwell with love and thee.


s: To lead thee on through life, and to enlarge


s: Thy soul with added knowledge, day by day,


s: To guard thee, as an angel guards his charge,


s: From every ill that lurks along the way!


s: To smooth that rugged way, and strew its marge


s: With the bright flowrs that never can decay,--


s: This were a lot too glorious, too divine,


s: And yet Hope whispers that it shall be mine.


s: Now listen, love,--this plan shall rule my life


s: And thine:--In some remote and sunny dell,


s: Far from the crowded city's silly strife,


s: My hands shall rear the home where we will dwell;


s: Shall till the soil, with fertile fruitage rife,


s: And teach the golden ear to shoot and swell;


s: And my sole wished for recompense shall be


s: My ever growing, deep'ning love for thee.


s: Thy task shall be to train the trailing vine,


s: To watch, and cherish in its growth, the flow'r


s: Whose breath and cheek are sweet and fair as thine;


s: To bless and brighten the domestic bow'r


s: Where we will build to Love a hallowed shrine,


s: Till, chastened by thy smile, my heart has grown


s: As pure, and soft, and sinless as thine own.


s: Oh, hasten, love! to realize the dream,--


s: Come from the world,--the crowd is not for thee;


s: Forsake it then, ere the contagious steam


s: Of its foul breath has soiled thy purity;--


s: Come, for my heart would burst could I but deem


s: That such as they are, thou couldst ever be!


s: Come, for my soul adores thee with a love


s: These lines are inscribed to the memory of John Q. Carlin, killed


s: Many ages ago, near the high Hartz, there dwelt


s: A rude race of blood-loving giants, who felt


s: No joy but the fierce one which Carnage bestows,


s: When her foul lips are clogged with the blood of her foes.


s: And fiercer and bolder than all of the rest


s: Was Bohdo,(1) their chieftain;--'twas strange that a breast,


s: Which nothing like kindness or pity might move,


s: Should glow with the warmth and the rapture of love.


s: Yet he loved, and the pale mountain-monarch's fair child


s: Was the maid of his heart; but tho' burning and wild


s: Was the love that he bore her, it won no return,


s: And the flame that consumed him was answered with scorn.


s: Now the lady is gone with her steed to the plain,--


s: Save the falcon and hound there is none in her train;


s: She needs none to guide, or to guard her from harm


s: There's no fear in her heart, there is strength in her arm.


s: From her white wrist unhooded her falcon she threw,


s: Her bow like Diana, the huntress, she drew;


s: And fleet as the fetterless bird swept the sky,


s: So on her proud steed swept the fair lady by.


s: See how her eye sparkles, and how her cheek glows,


s: As onward so fearless and proudly she goes,


s: With her locks streaming back like a banner of gold,


s: Were she not, say, a bride meet for Nimrod(2) of old?


s: And he saw her--the chief, from his tower afar--


s: As she glanced o'er the earth like some wandering star;


s: And he swore she should come in that tower to dwell,


s: Or his soul be a prize to the spirits of hell.


s: His war-horse he mounted, and, swift as the shoot


s: Of the night-gathered meteor, he sped in pursuit,--


s: Breathing out, as he went, mad with love and with hate,


s: Bitter curse upon curse against heaven and fate.


s: Urging on his fleet courser with spur and with rein,


s: He swept o'er the earth as the storm sweeps the plain,--


s: And the fair lady knew, by the gleam of his shield,


s: It was Bohdo, the scourge of the red battle field!


s: Then spurred she her steed over valley and hill,


s: Over rock, marsh and moor, over river and rill,


s: Yet still her eye sparkled, and still her cheek glowed,


s: As onward so fleetly and bravely she rode.


s: With the speed of the hawk when he darts on his prey,--


s: Or an arrow let loose from a warrior's bow,


s: When it speeds with sure aim to the heart of his foe.


s: Then the Hartz, the wild Hartz--the terrific--the proud!


s: Where the mist-spirit dwells in his palace of cloud!


s: Where the evil ones gather in envious wrath,


s: To blight and to blast,--towered up in her path.


s: Still her cheek kept its glow, still her eye flashed in pride,


s: As onward she flew up the steep mountain side;


s: And fierce as the tempest, and fleet as the wind,


s: Stern Bohdo, the ruthless, still followed behind.


s: To a fearful abyss, whose unhallowed name(3)


s: By the powers of darkness was given, she came,


s: And the whirlpool's wild voice, from the dark gulf below,


s: Came up like the wail of a soul in its we.


s: Beyond rose the rocky shelf, barren and bare,


s: Beneath lay the whirlpool, around her despair,


s: Behind her came one, sweeping on in the chase,


s: Whose grasp was more dreaded than death's cold embrace.


s: Then she called on the spirits who watch round the brave,


s: In peril to nerve, to assist and to save,


s: Closed calmly her eyes, as one sinking in sleep,


s: And urged her proud steed to the terrible leap!


s: A moment it paused on the high precipice,


s: Then sprang, boldly sprang, o'er the frightful abyss!


s: And struck its firm hoof in the rock till the sound


s: Shook the hills, and the sparks flew like lightning around!


s: And the foot-print it left has remained to this day,


s: And no rain-flood or tempest shall wear it away;


s: She was saved--the brave Emma was saved--but her crown,


s: From her fair brow unloosed, in the whirlpool sank down.


s: On, on came the chief, in his fierceness and wrath,


s: Nor saw he the wide gulf that yawned in his path,--


s: And soon, in the depths of its fathomless tide,


s: The warrior and war-steed were laid side by side.


s: And the mountaineer tells how in sullen despair,


s: His ghost, imannealed of its sins, lingers there;


s: Ever watching, pale, silent, untiring, unmoved,


s: The bright golden crown of the maiden he loved.


s: A diver once, lured by the wealth of the prize,


s: Sought out the deep cave where it lay, and still lies,


s: And where, chained by a spirit-breathed spell, it shall stay,


s: Till the whirlpool and mountain alike pass away.


s: Twice he rose with the crown, till its gleaming points blazed


s: On the eyes of the wondering thousands who gazed,


s: Twice it fell from his grasp, and sank quickly again


s: To the bed where for years undisturbed it had lain.


s: He followed,--this effort the treasure may earn--


s: But vainly they watch who await his return;


s: A red hue of blood tinged the deep waters o'er,


s: But the diver came up from their dark depths no more.


s: footstep,") is worthy of being enrolled among Odin's Berserker.


s: Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth


s: O me!  What eyes hath love put in my head


s: That time of year thou may'st in me behold


s: Being your slave, what should I do but tend


s: When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes


s: They that have power to hurt, and will do


s: Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing


s: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought


s: Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye


s: O lest the world should task you to recite


s: Let me not to the marriage of true minds


s: How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st


s: Full many a glorious morning have I seen


s: The expense of spirit in a waste of shame


s: Dirge (Fear no more the heat o' the sun)


s: An epitaph on Salathiel Pavy, a child of Queen Elizabeth's


s: To Cynthia, on concealment of her beauty


s: Song (Ask me no more where Jove bestows)


s: Lullaby (Weep you no more, sad fountains)


s: A guiltless lady imprisoned:  after penanced


s: A Horatian ode upon Cromwell's return from Ireland


s: The picture of T. C. in a prospect of flowers


s: The nymph complaining of death of her fawn


s: Ode (Thou youngest virgin-daughter of the skies)


s: Thoughts of a Briton on the subjugation of Switzerland


s: It is a beauteous evening, calm and free


s: On the extinction of the Venetian Republic


s: Stanzas written in dejection near Naples


s: Written by Spensor on his marriage in Ireland, Elizabeth Boyle of


s: identity of the heroine of this great poem.  It is worth while to


s: choice is allowed.  In reading such a line as Tennyson's


s: "Dear as remembered kisses after death,"


s: It may please the reader to think that this frolic, rich, and


s: delicate singer was Shakespeare's very Rosalind.  From Dr. Thomas


s: This splendid poem (from the same romance), written on the poet's


s: George Peele's four fine stanzas (which must be mentioned as


s: dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, but are better without that


s: dedication) exist in another form, in the first person, and with


s: The sixth stanza is perhaps by Izaak Walton.


s: The author of this exquisite song is by no means certain.  The


s: second stanza is not with the first in Shakespeare, but it is in


s: conceit."  In Kind are her Answers the long syllables and the


s: I have followed the usual practice in omitting the last and less


s: Campion's "airs," for which he wrote his words, laid rules too


s: for music make an unlucky repeating pattern with the poor variety


s: began again and again with the onset of a true poet.  Take, for


s: example, the poem beginning with the vitality of this line,


s: Who would have guessed that the piece was to close in a jogging


s: stanza containing a reflection on the fact that brutes are


s: speechless, with these two final lines -


s: Campion yields a curious collection of beautiful first lines.


s: "Sleep, angry beauty, sleep and fear not me"


s: is far finer than anything that follows.  So is there a single


s: Another solitary line is one that by its splendour proves Campion


s: And yet "a thousand cherubim" is a line of a poem full of the


s: dullest kind of reasoning--curious matter for music--and of the


s: their quibbling).  But the work of choosing among his lyrics for


s: enough for extracting a short poem, but must not be made to bear


s: "When thou must home to shades of underground,


s: And there arrived, a new admired guest--"


s: It is as solemn and fantastic at the close as at this dark and


s: splendid opening, and throughout, past description, Elizabethan.


s: death, it is by no violence that we give him the name that covers


s: especially the quality of keeping its simplicity; and it has a


s: quality of great simplicity not at all child-like, but adult,


s: large, gay, credulous, tragic, sombre, and amorous.


s: but the earlier lines of the last are fine.


s: emphatic initiative, and his overbearing and impulsive voice in


s: and for doing so have encountered the anger rather than the


s: argument of those who cannot admire a pretty lyric but they must


s: poem, some more impassioned and less restless hour.  It is, from


s: life.  One might wish that the English ode (roughly called


s: passed out of the gates of the garden of stanzas, and walks (not


s: Treasury we all know so well; and, therefore, generation after


s: taught by the Golden Treasury, and Cardinal Newman was of it.


s: Writing to Coventry Patmore of his great odes, he called them


s: beautiful but fragmentary; was inclined to wish that they might


s: some day be made complete.  There is nothing in all poetry more


s: unity of life, and when it ends it ends for ever.


s: "Me here she first perceived, and here a morn


s: Of bright carnations overspread her face."


s: The seventeenth century has possession of that "morn" caught once


s: The solemn vengeance of this poem has a strange tone--not unique,


s: like indignation; nevertheless, it is menacingly and obscurely


s: justified, on a ground as it were beyond the common region of


s: An editor is greatly tempted to mend a word in these exquisite


s: verses.  George Herbert was maladroit in using the word "rest" in


s: stanza; so then the first line of the last stanza would not have


s: this rather distressing ambiguity.  The poem is otherwise perfect


s: George Herbert's work is so perfectly a box where thoughts


s: nevertheless, it may be well to stop the reader at such a lovely


s: Ronsard to Herrick:  "Time is short; they make the better bargain


s: cold impatience was--time out of mind--unknown to the truer love;


s: poets were wrong to give their verses the message of so sorry a


s: charming reflex glimpse it gives of her to whom the rose and the


s: verse were sent, and who had not thought that time was brief.


s: The sock represents the stage, in L'Allegro, for comedy, and the


s: buskin, in Il Penseroso, for tragedy.  Milton seems to think the


s: comic drama in England needs no apology, but he hesitates at the


s: tragic.  The poet of King Lear is named for his sweetness and his


s: Most of the allusions in Lycidas need no explaining to readers of


s: Bellerus stands for Belerium, the Land's End.


s: Arethusa and Mincius--Sicilian and Italian streams--represent the


s: "Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep,"


s: reader of taste could suffer them.  A better opinion on that


s: Addison, whom some believe to have committed none; moreover, Pope


s: call a "rage," and this expatiated (to use another word of their


s: own) beyond all bounds.  Of sheer voluntary extremes it is not in


s: provoked, could be backed to write more trash than fancy ever


s: tempted the half-incredulous sweet poet of the older time to run


s: arranged there.  The eighteenth century was never content with a


s: behind no century in passion--nay, to show the way, to fire the


s: nations.  Addison taught himself, as his hero taught the battle,


s: "where to rage"; and in the later years of the same literary age,


s: misgiving as to the resulting verse.  Take such a phrase as "the


s: Take The Weeper of Crashaw--his most flagrant poem.  Its follies


s: are all sweet-humoured, they smile.  Its beauties are a quick and


s: flagrant that it is difficult to quote them without rousing that


s: sipped the Saint's tear:  "Then to his music," in Crashaw's


s: divinely simple phrase; and his singing "tastes of this breakfast


s: thee."  Then you come upon the fancy, "Fountain and garden in one


s: The day, and plant it fairer in thy face."


s: Elizabethan would have had it no fresher.  The Hymn to St. Teresa


s: Sweet, not so fast!"  Of many contemporary songs in pursuit of a


s: poet's light heart and perpetual pleasure, with the late ripeness


s: To the conspiracy of our spacious song!"


s: I have been obliged to take courage to alter the reading of the


s: This ode has been chosen as more nobly representative than that,


s: better known, On the Death of Mr. William Harvey.  In the Crashaw


s: language of love, and left it cooler than he found it.  What the


s: conceits of Lovelace and the rest-- flagrant, not frigid--did not


s: began to lose by him.  But even then, even then, who could have


s: foretold what the loss at a later day would be!


s: speaking and therefore indivisible by pause or even by any


s: "Like some fair pine o'erlooking all the ignobler wood."


s: If Cowley's delicate example had ruled in English poetry (and he


s: impulse, of more impetuous foot, of fuller and of hastier breath,


s: Cowley probably was two or three years younger than Richard


s: Crashaw, and the alexandrine is to be found--to be found by


s: searching--in Crashaw; and he took precisely the same care as


s: Cowley that the long wand of that line should not give way in the


s: "Or you, more noble architects of intellectual noise."


s: "Of sweets you have, and murmur that you have no more."


s: "And everlasting series of a deathless song."


s: "To all the dear-bought nations this redeeming name."


s: A later poet--Coventry Patmore--wrote a far longer line than even


s: "He unhappily adopted," says Dr. Johnson as to Cowley's diction,


s: Colonel Richard Lovelace, an enchanting poet, is hardly read,


s: except for two poems which are as famous as any in our language.


s: Perhaps the rumour of his conceits has frightened his reader.  It


s: impulse.  Since the first day danced with the first night, no


s: dancing was more natural--at least to a dancer of genius.  True,


s: Barnsdale, danced in his boots ("and glad he could so get away"),


s: author here and there whose original seriousness or work-a-day


s: century was in love with that old fancy--more in love, perhaps,


s: than any century in the past.  Its late painters, whose human


s: angels and the loves aloft, as though they shook a tree to make a


s: Fine is the fantastic and infrequent landscape in Lovelace's


s: In more than one place Lucasta's, or Amarantha's, or Laura's hair


s: Lovelace, who loved freedom, seems to be enclosed in so narrow a


s: book; yet it is but a "hermitage."  To shake out the light and


s: spirit of its leaves is to give a glimpse of liberty not to him,


s: In To Lucasta I have been bold to alter, at the close, "you" to


s: "thou."  Lovelace sent his verses out unrevised, and the


s: inconsistency of pronouns is common with him, but nowhere else so


s: him this redress, offered him here as an act of comradeship.


s: That errors should abound in the text of Lovelace is the more


s: kind of dainty confusion between the two vestals--the living and


s: the dead; they are "equal virgins," and you must assign the


s: pronouns carefully to either as you read.  This, read twice, must


s: This is a poem that takes the winds with an answering flight.


s: Should they be "birds" or "gods" that wanton in the air in the


s: between birds so divine and gods so light?  But to begin with


s: "gods" would be to make an anticlimax of the close.  Lovelace led


s: faults), "of the British Aristides."  The portly dulness of the


s: mind that could make such a phrase, and having made, award it, is


s: award was not made in his own age; he did but live on the eve of


s: puzzle the triumph of him, whoever he was, who made a success of


s: this phrase of the "British Aristides."  Nay, it is difficult not


s: spiritual Aristides, might himself have been somewhat taken by


s: surprise at the encounters of so subtle a muse.  He, as a garden-


s: heads, within the caves, and by the walks and the statues of the


s: gods, keeping the tryst of a seventeenth century convention in


s: which there were certainly no surprises.  And for fear of the


s: commonplaces of those visits, Marvell sometimes outdoes the whole


s: The political poems, needless to say, have an excellence of a


s: different character and a higher degree.  They have so much


s: Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland than when it


s: The Satires are, of course, out of reach for their inordinate


s: length.  The celebrated Satire on Holland certainly makes the


s: utmost of the fun to be easily found in the physical facts of the


s: poor; but the joke of his bad verses was hardly needed, so fine


s: does Marvell find that of his hunger.  Perhaps there is no age of


s: The presence of a furtive irony of the sweetest kind is the sure


s: sign of the visit of that unlooked-for muse.  With all spirit and


s: The noble phrase of the Horatian Ode is not recovered again, high


s: students until Mr. E. K. Chambers gave us his excellent edition.


s: into life.  Vaughan's imagination suddenly opens a new window


s: It was no easy matter to choose a group of representative ballads


s: thin places.  Finally, it seemed best to take, from among the


s: songs.  Such passages do not occur but in ballads that are


s: stanzas following.  A Lyke Wake Dirge is of surpassing quality


s: throughout.  I am sorry to have no room for Jamieson's version of


s: This most majestic ode--one of the few greatest of its kind--is a


s: simplicity, bears himself like a child who, having said something


s: It is a futile thing--and the cause of a train of futilities--to


s: hail "style" as though it were a separable quality in literature,


s: Aphra Behn's resounding song is to be praised.  But it IS the


s: style--implying the reckless and majestic heart--that first takes


s: genius, magical in spite of the limited diction.


s: Also in spite of limited diction--the sign of thought closing in,


s: counterfeit.  Yet Pope's Elegy begins by stealing and translating


s: "What beckoning ghost, besprent with April dew,


s: "What beckoning ghost along the moonlight shade


s: Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?"


s: Yet they are not lost.  Pope's awe and ardour are authentic, and


s: Cowper, again, by the very directness of human feeling makes his


s: narrowing English a means of absolutely direct communication.  Of


s: This fragment (the only fragment, properly so called, in the


s: present collection) so pleased Wordsworth that he wished he had


s: written the lines.  They are very gently touched.


s: When Blake writes of sleep and dreams he writes under the very


s: It is not necessary to write notes on Wordsworth's sonnets--the


s: greatest sonnets in our literature; but it would be well to warn


s: editors how they print this one sonnet; "I wished to share the


s: heart-moving poem, 'Tis said that some have died for love, is


s: Wordsworth to be confessed as an impassioned poet.


s: "This beast not unobserved by Nature fell,


s: His death was mourned by sympathy divine."


s: And the signs of that sympathy are cruelly asserted to be these


s: arid woodland ruins--cruelly, because the common sight of the day


s: "The Being that is in the clouds and air,


s: That is in the green leaves among the groves,


s: For the unoffending creature whom He loves."


s: We must shut our ears because the poet offers us, as a proof of


s: that "reverential care," the visible alteration of nature at the


s: scene of suffering--an alteration we are obliged to dispense with


s: Wordsworth himself believed in a sympathy he asks us--upon such


s: To choose from Wordsworth is to draw close a net with very large


s: supremely beautiful but exceedingly Wordsworthian.


s: Close to the marvellous Kubla Khan--a poem that wrests the secret


s: Age as the best specimen of Coleridge's poetry that is quite


s: likeness to "some poor nigh-related guest" with the three lines


s: that follow is too squalid for poetry, or prose, or thought.


s: This poem is surely more full of a certain quality of extreme


s: Page 265 (Are those her ribs through which the Sun)


s: impossibly placed a star WITHIN the tip of the crescent.


s: Page 266 (I feer thee, ancient Mariner!)


s: perhaps the most beautiful passage in the poem," adds one critic


s: Coleridge reveals, throughout this poem, an exaltation of the


s: senses, which is the most poetical thing that can befall a simple


s: supernatural stanzas on page 271; and, for touch, to the line -


s: One really fine and poetic stanza--of course, the third; three


s: stanzas that are good eloquence--the fourth, fifth, and seventh;


s: and one that is a fair bit of argument--the tenth--may together


s: The profounder spirit of Shelley's poem yet leaves it a careless


s: Dissyllabic rhymes are beautiful and enriching when they fall in


s: the right place; that is, where there is a pause for the second


s: little syllable to stand.  For example, they could not be better


s: This magnificent poem is surely the greatest of a great poses


s: writings, and one of the most splendid poems on nature and on


s: poetry in a literature resounding with odes on these enormous


s: No need to point to a poem that so shines as does this lucent


s: Keats is here the magical poet, as he is the intellectual poet in


s: Of the five odes of Keats, the Nightingale is perhaps the most


s: perfect, and certainly the most imaginative.  But the Grecian Urn


s: which this fancy sports are amongst the loveliest in all


s: rather weak and its sentiment effusive.  It has a touch of the


s: deadly sickliness of Endymion.  None the less does it remain just


s: eloquent Melancholy more narrowly escapes exclusion from that


s: Copyright in the United States, 1896, by CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS.


s: Since the old wild tale, made new, found grace,


s: When half sung through, before your face,


s: Glad thoughts and birds take flower and flight,


s: The steed between his knees that sprang,


s: The moors and woods that shone and sang,


s: The hours where through the spring’s breath rang,


s: That earth gives thanks if heaven illume


s: Albeit the spirit of life’s light spring


s: And lord of hours like snakes that sting


s: Stronger, and all blithe winds that blew


s: And Thames that bore but swans in throng


s: Glad, though for shame his heart waxed hot,


s: Fair toward the glimmering goal of fame,


s: Wrought honour toward the strange north strand


s: For all his bright life’s kindling bloom


s: And light that took no thought for gloom,


s: The wild north lives and hates the south?


s: Nought save the strength of storms and snows,


s: What would these carles where knighthood blows


s: Brute cheek that challenged shame for note


s: Forth sprang their swords, and Balen slew


s: Then spake the great king’s wrathful will


s: Till time should bring its trust to flower,


s: But even as earth when dawn takes flight


s: Such praise on me, for knighthood’s sake


s: The sheathed and girded sword, and wrought


s: With strength whose force availed him nought


s: With little strain of strength or strife


s: And mocked his might of manhood.  “Nay,”


s: Strong knights reel back like birds affrayed


s: By storm that smote them as they strayed


s: Wherethrough the spirit of man may steer


s: Back from the spell-bound thing, and threw


s: But darklier doomed than they whose cheer


s: With scarce a flash of the eye could say


s: That yearns till dawn find voice and rise,


s: Shone strange as fate Morgause, with eyes


s: Fire swift and blind as death’s own track


s: Strove, and prevailed not: then Sir Kay,


s: Grim curse that girt her life with grief


s: “Methought the wide round world could bring


s: And when her thankful praise waxed great


s: Strange lightning flickered from her eyes.


s: Thou hast here approved thee: yet not wise


s: “What chance God sends, that chance I take,”


s: He said.  Then soft and still she spake;


s: “God’s will,” quoth he, “it is, we know,


s: As the east wind, when the morning’s breast


s: Gleams like a bird’s that leaves the nest,


s: So time’s mute breath, that brings to bloom


s: All flowers that strew the dead spring’s tomb,


s: Even as in dreams where death seems dead


s: That rippled whispering round her, came.


s: “King, for thine old faith’s plighted sake


s: And whispering witchcraft’s bated breath,


s: “This knight that won the sword—his head


s: Nought if not this.”  Then Balen turned,


s: Three years he had sought her, and here espied


s: Would slake with blood thy soul’s desire:


s: Sharp flashed his sword forth, fleet as flame,


s: “That one found once my friend lies dead;


s: “Thou shouldst have here forborne her; yea,


s: Thine, heaped too high for wrath to weigh,


s: Was thine the right to wreak thy wrong.”


s: Than aught of power man’s power may take


s: On one that hell’s own heart holds dear,


s: “Albeit, for all that pride would prove,


s: That her their slayer, from hell’s lake sprung,


s: “Yea,” said the king, “too high of heart


s: That loved him, seeing it, all might know


s: And wreak the wrong his wrath had wrought.


s: The flame of shame that brands her brow!—


s: “This good knight found within her bower


s: “The sorceress, one with her in thought,


s: By charms whereof sweet heaven sees nought,


s: Honour, and shine as heaven’s own height,


s: Should perish, being the goodliest knight


s: That even the all-glorious north has borne.


s: Nor dreams that fear should hear and flee


s: Weeps, laughs, and lightens on our eyes,


s: And sees and hears not: smiles and sighs


s: As dew-flowers blowing in flowerless grass,


s: That now the stronger sun strikes through


s: On hope’s green stem in life’s fierce light.


s: And far he had ridden athwart strange lands


s: And cried, “What wilt thou with me?”  Loud


s: Rang Launceor’s vehement answer: “Knight,


s: As the arched wave’s weight against the reef


s: And quells the hearkening hearts of men,


s: And breaks and shattering seaward sounds


s: As crying of the old sea’s wolves and hounds


s: Shocked, and the strength of Launceor’s spear


s: But Balen’s spear through Launceor’s shield


s: Clove as a ploughshare cleaves the field


s: That horse with horseman stricken reeled,


s: And as a storm-breached rock falls, fell.


s: Full toward that fair wild place of fight,


s: And seeing the man there fallen and dead,


s: Two bodies and one heart thou hast slain,


s: Two souls thou hast lost; by thee they die,


s: And sorrowing for their strange love’s sake


s: As rain-stars blurred and marred by rain


s: All thought of all worse months than May:


s: Of far-flown days whose full-souled quire


s: Rang memories winged like songs that bear


s: Sweet gifts for spirit and sense to share:


s: Than this the deep dear love that breaks


s: Their helms unbraced that might not hide


s: And word from word leapt light and fleet


s: As brethren should, being twain and one.”


s: “Who hath done this deed?”  And Balen eyed


s: Of swift blithe scorn flashed answer bright


s: Small fear shall fret my heart,” quoth he:


s: The church that man might find most fair


s: As thought from thought takes wing and flies,


s: Strikes, flashes, and is quenched, ere fear


s: That cleaves in twain the shadow of night


s: Before the wide-winged word takes flight


s: The man whose word God’s will made good,


s: Thou hast wrought thyself a grievous woe


s: Thou mightst have stayed her deadly blow.”


s: “My heart is wrung for this deed’s sake,


s: Three kingdoms pine through twelve years’ change,


s: “And not till years shall round their goal


s: May this man’s wound thou hast given be whole.”


s: Farewell: but fain would Mark have known


s: The strong knight’s name who had overthrown


s: May men that praise him, knights and lords,


s: Call him the knight that bears two swords,


s: Till where the leaves grew dense and dim


s: “Through shadows that the sun strikes red,


s: But they, for doubt half touched with dread,


s: Would say not where their goal might lie.


s: “Ah, now,” they cried, “thou art ours at need


s: Rest, for their good steeds’ weary sake,


s: Then “Rise,” he said, “the king is nigh,


s: The goodliest knights that bear his sway


s: Then through the glimmering gloom around


s: The brave blithe hearts within them bound,


s: And “Where,” quoth Balen, “rides the king?”


s: And smote their strong king down, ere yet


s: For grace they gave him, seeing the proud


s: And ere the wildwood leaves were stirred


s: “By whom?” the high king smiled and said.


s: “Two knights whose heart and hope are one


s: Their hearts shall hail the enkindling sun


s: “The chance was hard and strange, sir king,”


s: The wild king flushed with pride and shame,