s: And hot winds of the desert, closer drew


s: His fisher's haick, and girded up his loins,


s: And the sweet song of angels passed away,


s: The priest, and the swart fisher by his side,


s: The blaze of burning villas rose and fell,


s: Roared from the trenches; and, within the walls,


s: Sharp crash of shells, low groans of human pain,


s: Shout, drum beat, and the clanging larum-bell,


s: And tramp of hosts, sent up a mingled sound,


s: Half wail and half defiance. As they passed


s: Flowed ankle-high about them, and dead men


s: Choked the long street with gashed and gory piles,--


s: From which at times, quivered a living hand,


s: And white lips moved and moaned. A father tore


s: In frenzy; and his fair young daughter wept


s: Clove the thick sulphurous air, and man and maid


s: Sank, crushed and mangled by the shattering shell.


s: Then spake the Galilean: "Thou hast seen


s: The blessed Master and His works of love;


s: Look now on thine! Hear'st thou the angels sing


s: Above this open hell? Thou God's high-priest!


s: In the dear Master's name, and for the love


s: Of His true Church, proclaim thee Antichrist,


s: Wide as the difference between death and life,


s: The hate of man and the great love of God!


s: Trembling, and muttering o'er his fearful dream.


s: "What means he?" cried the Bourbon, "Nothing more


s: Than that your majesty hath all too well


s: Catered for your poor guests, and that, in sooth,


s: The Holy Father's supper troubleth him,"


s: Quenched by the heedless million's feet?


s: The fires that scourge the plains below,


s: I listened, through the cloud and night,


s: Transmits their joys and griefs to thee.


s: Faith, Hope, and Trust, thy children, there.


s: Thou hoard'st in vain what love should spend;


s: "Free-lipped the liberal streamlets run,


s: Thy love with hate, thy truth with lies?


s: "Faith shares the future's promise; Love's


s: "Thy nature, which, through fire and flood,


s: "Strivest thou in darkness?--Foes without


s: Thy night-watch kept with trembling Doubt


s: BY fire and cloud, across the desert sand,


s: From their long bondage, with an outstretched hand,


s: "Lo, God is great!" the simple Moslem says.


s: Turn the dry scroll, and make that living phrase


s: And, like the Coptic monks by Mousa's wells,


s: Vague as the tales the wandering Arab tells,


s: And morning-smitten Memnon, singing, wakes;


s: O'er Ammon's grave and awful visage breaks


s: Not, as before, with hail and fire, and call


s: But in the stillness of the noonday, fall


s: No longer through the Red Sea, as of old,


s: Through human hearts, by love of Him controlled,


s: "God bless her," said the coast-guard,--


s: Hangs, white and calm, the hunter's moon.


s: Your scaffold prayers, and dungeon psalms.


s: The tall, sallow guardsmen their horsetails have spread,


s: Flaming out in their violet, yellow, and red;


s: And behind go the lackeys in crimson and buff,


s: And the chamberlains gorgeous in velvet and ruff;


s: Next, in red-legged pomp, come the cardinals forth,


s: Each a lord of the church and a prince of the earth.


s: What's this squeak of the fife, and this batter of drum


s: Lo! the Swiss of the Church from Perugia come;


s: The militant angels, whose sabres drive home


s: To the hearts of the malcontents, cursed and abhorred,


s: The good Father's missives, and "Thus saith the Lord!"


s: And lend to his logic the point of the sword!


s: O'er dark Thrasymenus, dishevelled and torn!


s: O fathers, who pluck at your gray beards for shame!


s: Well ye know how the Holy Church hireling behaves,


s: And his tender compassion of prisons and graves!


s: There they stand, the hired stabbers, the blood-stains yet fresh,


s: Grim instruments, careless as pincers and rack


s: How the joints tear apart, and the strained sinews crack;


s: But the hate that glares on them is sharp as their swords,


s: And the sneer and the scowl print the air with fierce words!


s: Off with hats, down with knees, shout your vivas like mad!


s: Here's the Pope in his holiday righteousness clad,


s: From shorn crown to toe-nail, kiss-worn to the quick,


s: Of sainthood in purple the pattern and pick,


s: Who the role of the priest and the soldier unites,


s: And, praying like Aaron, like Joshua fights!


s: We sang our hosannas and lighted all Rome;


s: With whose advent we dreamed the new era began


s: When the priest should be human, the monk be a man?


s: Ah, the wolf's with the sheep, and the fox with the fowl,


s: When freedom we trust to the crosier and cowl!


s: Stand aside, men of Rome! Here's a hangman-faced Swiss--


s: (A blessing for him surely can't go amiss)--


s: Would kneel down the sanctified slipper to kiss.


s: Short shrift will suffice him,--he's blest beyond doubt;


s: But there 's blood on his hands which would scarcely wash out,


s: Though Peter himself held the baptismal spout!


s: Make way for the next! Here's another sweet son


s: What's this mastiff-jawed rascal in epaulets done?


s: He did, whispers rumor, (its truth God forbid!)


s: And the mothers? Don't name them! these humors of war


s: They who keep him in service must pardon him for.


s: Hist! here's the arch-knave in a cardinal's hat,


s: With the heart of a wolf, and the stealth of a cat


s: (As if Judas and Herod together were rolled),


s: Who keeps, all as one, the Pope's conscience and gold,


s: Mounts guard on the altar, and pilfers from thence,


s: And flatters St. Peter while stealing his pence!


s: Who doubts Antonelli? Have miracles ceased


s: When robbers say mass, and Barabbas is priest?


s: When the Church eats and drinks, at its mystical board,


s: The true flesh and blood carved and shed by its sword,


s: When its martyr, unsinged, claps the crown on his head,


s: And roasts, as his proxy, his neighbor instead!


s: There! the bells jow and jangle the same blessed way


s: That they did when they rang for Bartholomew's day.


s: Hark! the tallow-faced monsters, nor women nor boys,


s: Vex the air with a shrill, sexless horror of noise.


s: Te Deum laudamus! All round without stint


s: The incense-pot swings with a taint of blood in 't!


s: And now for the blessing! Of little account,


s: You know, is the old one they heard on the Mount.


s: Its giver was landless, His raiment was poor,


s: No incense, no lackeys, no riches, no home,


s: No Swiss guards!  We order things better at Rome.


s: So bless us the strong hand, and curse us the weak;


s: Let Austria's vulture have food for her beak;


s: Let the wolf-whelp of Naples play Bomba again,


s: With his death-cap of silence, and halter, and chain;


s: Put reason, and justice, and truth under ban;


s: For the sin unforgiven is freedom for man!


s: Cried out in torture, crushed by thrones,


s: Though with the earthquake and the storm.


s: And sow its ghastly fields with flowers!


s: WITH clearer light, Cross of the South, shine forth


s: And thou, O river, cleaving half the earth


s: From the great mountains to the Atlantic waves


s: Yet a few years (God make them less!) and slaves


s: No fettered feet thy shaded margins press;


s: Where thou, the high-priest of the wilderness,


s: And thou, great-hearted ruler, through whose mouth


s: Once more, "Let there be light!"--Son of the South,


s: Careless of watch and ward; thou art begirt


s: The moated wall and battle-ship may fail,


s: Stronger than greaves of brass or iron mail


s: Crowned doubly by man's blessing and God's grace,


s: Who frees a people makes his statue's place


s: Lo! from his Neva's banks the Scythian Czar


s: Who, with the pencil of the Northern star,


s: From his gaunt hand shall drop the martyr's palm


s: And thou, O Earth, with smiles thy face make sweet,


s: The Voice that spake at Nazareth speaks still,


s: Alike thy hope and Heaven's eternal will


s: The years are slow, the vision tarrieth long,


s: But, one by one, the fiends of ancient wrong


s: Slow, doubtful, faint, they seem at first


s: What strange, glad voice is that which calls


s: "PUT up the sword!" The voice of Christ once more


s: Speaks, in the pauses of the cannon's roar,


s: O'er fields of corn by fiery sickles reaped


s: And left dry ashes; over trenches heaped


s: With nameless dead; o'er cities starving slow


s: Under a rain of fire; through wards of woe


s: From tortured brothers, husbands, lovers, sons


s: Of desolate women in their far-off homes,


s: Waiting to hear the step that never comes!


s: O men and brothers! let that voice be heard.


s: War fails, try peace; put up the useless sword!


s: In Eastern tents, when autumn nights grow cold,


s: And round the fire the Mongol shepherds sit


s: Met a fell monster, huge and fierce of look,


s: Whose awful voice the hills and forests shook.


s: "O son of peace!" the giant cried, "thy fate


s: Is sealed at last, and love shall yield to hate."


s: The unarmed Buddha looking, with no trace


s: Of fear or anger, in the monster's face,


s: In pity said: "Poor fiend, even thee I love."


s: Lo! as he spake the sky-tall terror sank


s: To hand-breadth size; the huge abhorrence shrank


s: And where the thunder of its rage was heard,


s: Circling above him sweetly sang the bird


s: "Hate hath no harm for love," so ran the song;


s: "And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong!"


s: NOT without envy Wealth at times must look


s: On their brown strength who wield the reaping-hook


s: And scythe, or at the forge-fire shape the plough


s: Or the steel harness of the steeds of steam;


s: Make service noble, and the earth redeem


s: Than theirs was never worthier knighthood made.


s: Well for them, if, while demagogues their vain


s: And evil counsels proffer, they maintain


s: Their honest manhood unseduced, and wage


s: No war with Labor's right to Labor's gain


s: Of sweet home-comfort, rest of hand and brain,


s: And well for Gain if it ungrudging yields


s: Labor its just demand; and well for Ease


s: No wrong to him who tills its pleasant fields


s: The interests of the rich man and the poor


s: And, when scant wage or labor fail to give


s: Food, shelter, raiment, wherewithal to live,


s: Need has its rights, necessity its claim.


s: Test well the charity suffering long and kind.


s: The home-pressed question of the age can find


s: No answer in the catch-words of the blind


s: Leaders of blind. Solution there is none


s: Save in the Golden Rule of Christ alone.


s: Free press and rostrum, church and school,


s: Whose hands, unstained with blood, maintained


s: Earth's farthest mountain-tops shall burn


s: Our prayers, our hopes, our service free;


s: massacre, these lines will be remembered:--


s: He is now a man of peace; and the agent at Standing Rock, Dakota,


s: "Toussaint!--thou most unhappy man of men


s: Whether the whistling rustic tends his plough


s: Buried in some deep dungeon's earless den;


s: Wilt thou find patience?--Yet, die not, do thou


s: Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow;


s: Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,


s: Live and take comfort. Thou hast left behind


s: Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies,--


s: There's not a breathing of the common wind


s: That will forget thee; thou hast great allies.


s: And love, and man's unconquerable mind."


s: Then Beauty is its own excuse for being."


s: "Whether, O Friend of Art! your gems derive


s: Fine forms from Greece, and fabled Gods revive;


s: Or bid from modern life the Portrait breathe,


s: And bind round Honour's brow the laurel wreath;


s: Each fair medallion o'er the wrecks of age;


s: Nor Time shall mar; nor steel, nor fire, nor rust


s: Touch the hard polish of the immortal bust.


s: Hence dull-eyed Naphtha pours his pitchy streams,


s: And Jet uncolour'd drinks the solar beams,


s: Bright Amber shines on his electric throne,


s: Where, nursed in night, incumbent Tempest shrouds


s: The seeds of Thunder in circumfluent clouds,


s: Besieged with iron points his airy cell,


s: "So, born on sounding pinions to the WEST,


s: When Tyrant-Power had built his eagle nest;


s: While from his eyry shriek'd the famish'd brood,


s: Clenched their sharp claws, and champ'd their beaks for blood,


s: And stabb'd the struggling Vampires, ere they flew.


s: --The patriot-flame with quick contagion ran,


s: Hill lighted hill, and man electrised man;


s: Her heroes slain awhile COLUMBIA mourn'd,


s: "The Warrior, LIBERTY, with bending sails


s: Helm'd his bold course to fair HIBERNIA'S vales;--


s: Firm as he steps, along the shouting lands,


s: Lo! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands;


s: Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn.


s: "Long had the Giant-form on GALLIA'S plains


s: Inglorious slept, unconscious of his chains;


s: Round his large limbs were wound a thousand strings


s: O'er his closed eyes a triple veil was bound,


s: And steely rivets lock'd him to the ground;


s: While stern Bastile with iron cage inthralls


s: His folded limbs, and hems in marble walls.


s: The flimsy bonds, and round and round him gazed;


s: Starts up from earth, above the admiring throng


s: Lifts his Colossal form, and towers along;


s: High o'er his foes his hundred arms He rears,


s: Calls to the Good and Brave with voice, that rolls


s: Like Heaven's own thunder round the echoing poles;


s: Gives to the winds his banner broad unfurl'd,


s: And gathers in its shade the living world!


s: Through bubbling Lavas their resistless course,


s: O'er the broad walls of rifted Granite climb,


s: And pierce the rent roof of incumbent Lime,


s: Round sparry caves metallic lustres fling,


s: The transmutation of one metal into another, though hitherto


s: undiscovered by the alchymists, does not appear impossible; such


s: transmutations have been supposed to exist in nature, thus lapis


s: "HENCE glows, refulgent Tin! thy chrystal grains,


s: And tawny Copper shoots her azure veins;


s: Zinc lines his fretted vault with sable ore,


s: The living Silver rolls its ponderous waves;


s: With gay refractions bright Platina shines,


s: And studs with squander'd stars his dusky mines;


s: Long threads of netted gold, and silvery darts,


s: --Whence roof'd with silver beam'd PERU, of old,


s: "Heavens! on my sight what sanguine colours blaze!


s: Spain's deathless shame! the crimes of modern days!


s: Sail'd to the West, and slaughter'd half the globe;


s: While Superstition, stalking by his side,


s: Mock'd the loud groans, and lap'd the bloody tide;


s: For sacred truths announced her frenzied dreams,


s: Hear, oh, BRITANNIA! potent Queen of isles,


s: On whom fair Art, and meek Religion smiles,


s: Now AFRIC'S coasts thy craftier sons invade


s: With murder, rapine, theft,--and call it Trade!


s: Spreads his wide arms, and lifts his eyes to Thee;


s: With hunger pale, with wounds and toil oppress'd,


s: "ARE WE NOT BRETHREN?" sorrow choaks the rest;--


s: --AIR! bear to heaven upon thy azure flood


s: The blood-nursed Tyrant on his purple throne,


s: GNOMES! YOUR bold forms unnumber'd arms outstretch,


s: And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch.--


s: Defiled each hallowed fane, and sacred wood,


s: And, drunk with fury, swell'd the Nile with blood;


s: Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban states,


s: In dread divisions march'd the marshal'd bands,


s: And swarming armies blacken'd all the lands,


s: By Memphis these to ETHIOP'S sultry plains,


s: And those to HAMMON'S sand-incircled fanes.--


s: Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground;


s: Long ailes of Cypress waved their deepen'd glooms,


s: And quivering spectres grinn'd amid the tombs;


s: Burst from each pyramid expiring groans,


s: And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd cones.--


s: Day after day their deathful rout They steer,


s: Lust in the van, and rapine in the rear.


s: The bladed grass, sweet grains, and mealy roots;


s: Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads,


s: Retain'd the locusts in their earthy beds;


s: Bade on your sands no night-born dews distil,


s: Loud o'er the camp the Fiend of Famine shrieks,


s: Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks;


s: O'er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand,


s: And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand;


s: And Giant Murder rides between her wings;


s: Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill,


s: And showers of tears in blended streams distil;


s: High-poised in air her spiry neck she bends,


s: Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop


s: "Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe,


s: And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath;


s: Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies,


s: In red arcades the billowy plain surround,


s: And stalking turrets dance upon the ground.


s: --Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend,


s: Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square,


s: And now they front, and now they fly the war,


s: Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries,


s: Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot eyes.


s: Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers!--


s: Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,


s: Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;


s: Wave over wave the driving desert swims,


s: Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,


s: Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush,--


s: Wheeling in air the winged islands fall,


s: And one great earthy Ocean covers all!--


s: To earth, and listen'd to the groans below,--


s: Grim HORROR shook,--awhile the living hill


s: Heaved with convulsive throes,--and all was still!


s: persuasion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I stood.


s: Who glide unseen, on printless slippers borne,


s: Beneath the waving grass, and nodding corn;


s: Or lay your tiny limbs, when noon-tide warms,


s: Where shadowy cowslips stretch their golden arms,--


s: Star'd with bright points the mimic zodiac shines;


s: Borne on fine wires amid the pictured skies


s: With ivory orbs the planets set and rise;


s: Round the dwarf earth the pearly moon is roll'd,


s: Call your bright myriads, march your mailed hosts,


s: With spears and helmets glittering round the coasts;


s: Thick as the hairs, which rear the Lion's mane,


s: Or fringe the Boar, that bays the hunter-train;


s: And sweep resistless o'er the cultured grounds;


s: Such as erewhile, impell'd o'er Belgia's plain,


s: Roll'd her rich ruins to the insatiate main;


s: With piles and piers the ruffian waves engage,


s: "Where, girt with clouds, the rifted mountain yawns,


s: And chills with length of shade the gelid lawns,


s: Climb the rude steeps, the granite-cliffs surround,


s: Pierce with steel points, with wooden wedges wound;


s: Or melt with acid airs the marble craggs;


s: Crown the green summits with adventurous flocks,


s: And charm with novel flowers the wondering rocks.


s: --So when proud Rome the Afric Warrior braved,


s: While rocks on rocks their beetling brows oppose


s: With piny forests, and unfathomed snows;


s: Onward he march'd, to Latium's velvet ground


s: With fires and acids burst the obdurate bound,


s: And shook the rising empire of the world.


s: Seek my chill tribes, which sleep beneath the soil;


s: On grey-moss banks, green meads, or furrow'd lands


s: Each bursting bud with healthier juices feed,


s: So, in descending streams, the silver Chyle


s: Streaks with white clouds the golden floods of bile;


s: Join their fine rills, and swell the sanguine tide;


s: Each countless cell, and viewless fibre seek,


s: Nerve the strong arm, and tinge the blushing cheek.


s: "Oh, watch, where bosom'd in the teeming earth,


s: Guard from rapacious worms its tender shoots,


s: And drive the mining beetle from its roots;


s: With ceaseless efforts rend the obdurate clay,


s: Like HOWARD pierced the prison's noisome shade;


s: Where chain'd to earth, with eyes to heaven upturn'd,


s: The kneeling Saint in holy anguish mourn'd;--


s: Ray'd from his lucid vest, and halo'd brow


s: "PETER, arise!" with cheering voice He calls,


s: And sounds seraphic echo round the walls;


s: Locks, bolts, and chains his potent touch obey,


s: And pleased he leads the dazzled Sage to day.


s: With virgin earth, of woods and bones and shells;


s: Mould with retractile glue their spongy beds,


s: And stretch and strengthen all their fibre-threads.--


s: Late when the mass obeys its changeful doom,


s: GNOMES! with nice eye the slow solution watch,


s: With fostering hand the parting atoms catch,


s: Join in new forms, combine with life and sense,


s: And guide and guard the transmigrating Ens.


s: constituting the solid parts of the suns and planets, and their


s: The small apparent quantity of matter that exists in the universe


s: The fair ADONIS left the realms of light,


s: Bow'd his bright locks, and, fated from his birth


s: To change eternal, mingled with the earth;--


s: With darker horror shook the conscious wood,


s: On cypress-boughs the Loves their quivers hung,


s: Their arrows scatter'd, and their bows unstrung;


s: And BEAUTY'S GODDESS, bending o'er his bier,


s: Breathed the soft sigh, and pour'd the tender tear.--


s: Clad with new form, with finer sense combined,


s: And lit with purer flame the ethereal mind.


s: --Erewhile, emerging from infernal night,


s: Leaves the drear chambers of the insatiate tomb,


s: And shines and charms with renovated bloom.--


s: While wondering Loves the bursting grave surround,


s: And edge with meeting wings the yawning ground,


s: View the pale regions of the dead, and shrink;


s: Long with broad eyes ecstatic BEAUTY stands,


s: Heaves her white bosom, spreads her waxen hands;


s: Then with loud shriek the panting Youth alarms,


s: The GODDESS ceased,--the delegated throng


s: O'er the wide plains delighted rush along;


s: In dusky squadrons, and in shining groups,


s: Hosts follow hosts, and troops succeed to troops;


s: And nodding florets bow beneath their weight.


s: So when light clouds on airy pinions sail,


s: Flit the soft shadows o'er the waving vale;


s: Shade follows shade, as laughing Zephyrs drive,


s: Shade follows shade by laughing Zephyrs drove,


s: And all the chequer'd landscape seems to move.


s: AGAIN the GODDESS speaks!--glad Echo swells


s: The tuneful tones along her shadowy dells,


s: Her wrinkling founts with soft vibration shakes,


s: Curls her deep wells, and rimples all her lakes,


s: Her headlong cataracts, and circumfluent waves.


s: --Thick as the dews, which deck the morning flowers,


s: Or rain-drops twinkling in the sun-bright showers,


s: Fair Nymphs, emerging in pellucid bands,


s: Wafting the moist air from his oozy bed,


s: AQUATIC NYMPHS!--YOU lead with viewless march


s: And steer the shadowy treasure o'er the land,


s: Through vernal skies the gathering drops diffuse,


s: Plunge in soft rains, or sink in silver dews.--


s: YOUR lucid bands condense with fingers chill


s: In clay-form'd beds the trickling streams collect,


s: Strain through white sands, through pebbly veins direct;


s: Or point in rifted rocks their dubious way,


s: And in each bubbling fountain rise to day.


s: volcanic eruption, as mentioned in note on Chunda, Vol. II. and


s: The associate rills along their sinuous course;


s: Float in bright squadrons by the willowy brink,


s: Call from her crystal cave the Naiad-Nymph,


s: And, as below she braids her hyaline hair,


s: Eyes her soft smiles reflected in the air;


s: Or sport in groups with River-Boys, that lave


s: Their silken limbs amid the dashing wave;


s: "Onward YOU pass, the pine-capt hills divide,


s: Or feed the golden harvests on their side;


s: The wide-ribb'd arch with hurrying torrents fill,


s: OR lead with beckoning hand the sparkling train


s: And pleased revisit in their sea-moss vales


s: Blue Nereid-forms array'd in shining scales,


s: And Tritons bellowing through their twisted shells.


s: "So from the heart the sanguine stream distils,


s: O'er Beauty's radiant shrine in vermil rills,


s: Feeds each fine nerve, each slender hair pervades,


s: Each dimpling cheek with warmer blushes dyes,


s: Laughs on the lips, and lightens in the eyes.


s: --Erewhile absorb'd, the vagrant globules swim


s: From each fair feature, and proportion'd limb,


s: Of scale and shell, which Ocean overwhelms;


s: As Night's pale Queen her rising orb reveals,


s: Car'd on the foam your glimmering legion rides,


s: Your little tridents heave the dashing tides,


s: Urge on the sounding shores their crystal course,


s: Restrain their fury, or direct their force.


s: These tides will be also affected by the solar attraction when it


s: The gaudy conch with azure, green, and gold.


s: Give the keel'd Nautilus his oar and sail;


s: Firm to his rock with silver cords suspend


s: With worm-like beard his toothless lips array,


s: And teach the unwieldy Sturgeon to betray.--


s: Ambush'd in weeds, or sepulcher'd in sands,


s: In dread repose He waits the scaly bands,


s: The unwary plunderers to his circling jaws,


s: Eyes with grim joy the twinkling shoals beset,


s: You chase the warrior Shark, and cumberous Whale,


s: Feed the live petals of her insect-flowers,


s: Her shell-wrack gardens, and her sea-fan bowers;


s: With ores and gems adorn her coral cell,


s: Harness'd with gossamer, the loitering prow;


s: Or with fine films, suspended o'er the deep,


s: Of oil effusive lull the waves to sleep.


s: You stay the flying bark, conceal'd beneath,


s: With beaked head, and break his lips of steel;


s: Turn the broad helm, the fluttering canvas urge


s: From MAELSTROME'S fierce innavigable surge.


s: As sweeps o'er many a league his eddying train,


s: Vast watery walls in rapid circles spin,


s: And deep-ingulph'd the Demon dwells within;


s: Springs o'er the fear-froze crew with Harpy-claws,


s: Churns with his bloody mouth the dread repast,


s: The booming waters murmuring o'er the mast.


s: A thousand realms, horizon'd in his arms;


s: From skies of silver round his hoary head,


s: Tall rocks of ice refract the coloured rays,


s: And Frost sits throned amid the lambent blaze;


s: NYMPHS! YOUR thin forms pervade his glittering piles,


s: Where in cold caves imprisoned Naiads sleep,


s: Or chain'd on mossy couches wake and weep;


s: Where round dark crags indignant waters bend


s: Through rifted ice, in ivory veins descend,


s: Heave the vast spars, the ribbed granites crack,


s: And swell the imperial Danube or the Rhine.--


s: Or feed the murmuring TIBER, as he laves


s: Hears his lorn Forum sound with Eunuch-strains,


s: Sees dancing slaves insult his martial plains;


s: Parts with chill stream the dim religious bower,


s: Time-mouldered bastion, and dismantled tower;


s: And classic domes, that tremble on his sides;


s: Sighs o'er each broken urn, and yawning tomb,


s: And mourns the fall of LIBERTY and ROME.


s: Or drawn by whirlwinds from the Line returns,


s: And showers o'er Afric all his thousand urns;


s: High o'er his head the beams of SIRIUS glow,


s: In headlong cataracts the impetuous tide;


s: --Her long canals the sacred waters fill,


s: Gigantic SPHINX in circling waves admire;


s: And MEMNON bending o'er his broken lyre;


s: O'er furrow'd glebes and green savannas sweep,


s: And towns and temples laugh amid the deep.


s: deposited their rain in greater abundance.


s: O'er isles and oceans sheds a sanguine light,


s: Or shoots red stars amid the ebon night;


s: When, at his base intomb'd, with bellowing sound


s: Pour'd from red nostrils, with her scalding breath,


s: A boiling deluge o'er the blasted heath;


s: And, wide in air, in misty volumes hurl'd


s: Contagious atoms o'er the alarmed world;


s: And crush'd the Sorceress in her flinty cell.


s: Cauldron'd in rock, innocuous Lava burns;


s: On the bright lake YOUR gelid hands distil


s: Through the cleft roof, ambitious for the skies,


s: In vaulted hills condense the tepid steams,


s: And pour to HEALTH the medicated streams.


s: BUXTONIA smiles, the Goddess-Nymyh of Peak;


s: Deep in warm waves, and pebbly baths she dwells,


s: "Hither in sportive bands bright DEVON leads


s: Charm'd round the NYMPH, they climb the rifted rocks;


s: And steep in mountain-mist their golden locks;


s: On venturous step her sparry caves explore,


s: And light with radiant eyes her realms of ore;


s: Their dripping palms in playful malice fill,


s: Or taste with ruby lip the sparkling rill;


s: Croud round her baths, and, bending o'er the side,


s: Dip with gay fear the shuddering foot undress'd,


s: And quick retract it to the fringed vest;


s: Or cleave with brandish'd arms the lucid stream,


s: And sob, their blue eyes twinkling in the steam.


s: Bright lustres dart, as dash the waves below;


s: And Echo's sweet responsive voice prolongs


s: The dulcet tumult of their silver tongues.--


s: O'er their flush'd cheeks uncurling tresses flow,


s: Round each fair Nymph her dropping mantle clings,


s: And Loves emerging shake their showery wings.


s: "Here oft her LORD surveys the rude domain,


s: Fair arts of Greece triumphant in his train;


s: The blue roof closes, or the crescent bends;


s: New woods aspiring clothe their hills with green,


s: Smooth slope the lawns, the grey rock peeps between;


s: Relenting Nature gives her hand to Taste,


s: accomodation of the company by the Duke of Devonshire; and to the


s: With playful force arrest them as they pass,


s: And to _pure_ AIR betroth the _flaming_ GAS.


s: Their rapturous arms, with silver bosoms cling;


s: In fleecy clouds their fluttering wings extend,


s: Or from the skies in lucid showers descend;


s: Whence rills and rivers owe their secret birth,


s: moisture which descends in dews and showers, while the growth of


s: "So, robed by Beauty's Queen, with softer charms


s: SATURNIA woo'd the Thunderer to her arms;


s: O'er her fair limbs a veil of light she spread,


s: And the charm'd CESTUS sparkled round her waist.


s: --Raised o'er the woof, by Beauty's hand inwrought,


s: Breathes the soft Sigh, and glows the enamour'd Thought;


s: Vows on light wings succeed, and quiver'd Wiles,


s: --Slow rolls the Cyprian car in purple pride,


s: And, steer'd by LOVE, ascends admiring Ide;


s: Climbs the green slopes, the nodding woods pervades,


s: Burns round the rocks, or gleams amid the shades.


s: The barbed darts, and blazing torch of Love;


s: Reverts his smiling face, and pausing flings


s: Soft showers of roses from aurelian wings.


s: Delighted Fawns, in wreathes of flowers array'd,


s: Lift o'er their silver urns their leafy hair;


s: Each to her oak the bashful Dryads shrink,


s: And rests the fork upon the quivering string;


s: Points his arch eye aloft, with fingers strong


s: Draws to his curled ear the silken thong;


s: Loud twangs the steel, the golden arrow flies,


s: "'Tis done!" he shouts, "the mighty Monarch feels!"


s: And with loud laughter shakes the silver wheels;


s: Bends o'er the car, and whirling, as it moves,


s: His loosen'd bowstring, drives the rising doves.


s: Melts with soft sighs, with kindling rapture burns;


s: Clasps her fair hand, and eyes in fond amaze


s: The bright Intruder with enamour'd gaze.


s: "And leaves my Goddess, like a blooming bride,


s: "Her gorgeous palaces, and amaranth bowers,


s: "For cliff-top'd mountains, and aerial towers?"


s: He said; and, leading from her ivory seat


s: The blushing Beauty to his lone retreat,


s: And rests the crimson cushions upon clouds.--


s: Earth feels the grateful influence from above,


s: Sighs the soft Air, and Ocean murmurs love;


s: Etherial Warmth expands his brooding wing,


s: introducing him occur in the works of that immortal bard. Bacon.]


s: In the passage of Virgil Jupiter is called ether, and descends in


s: Tum pater omnipotens foecundis imbribus Aether


s: Conjugis in gremium laetae descendit, et omnes


s: Magnus alit, magno commixtus corpore, faetus.


s: Breathes sweet enchantment o'er BRITANNIA'S isle;


s: Whose sportive touch in showers resplendent flings


s: Her lucid cataracts, and her bubbling springs;


s: And swells in bright expanse her freighted tides.


s: YOU with nice ear, in tiptoe trains, pervade


s: Dim walks of morn or evening's silent shade;


s: Join the lone Nightingale, her woods among,


s: Through fount-full dells, and wave-worn valleys move,


s: And tune their echoing waterfalls to love;


s: Or catch, attentive to the distant roar,


s: The pausing murmurs of the dashing shore;


s: --Her playful Sea-horse woos her soft commands,


s: Turns his quick ears, his webbed claws expands,


s: His watery way with waving volutes wins,


s: The Nymph emerging mounts her scaly seat,


s: Hangs o'er his glossy sides her silver feet,


s: With snow-white hands her arching veil detains,


s: Gives to his slimy lips the slacken'd reins,


s: And chaunts the birth of Beauty's radiant Queen.--


s: O'er her fair brow her pearly comb unfurls


s: Her beryl locks, and parts the waving curls,


s: Each tangled braid with glistening teeth unbinds


s: Thrill'd by the dulcet accents, as she sings,


s: The rippling wave in widening circles rings;


s: Night's shadowy forms along the margin gleam


s: With pointed ears, or dance upon the stream;


s: And maddening Stars shoot headlong from the sphere.


s: Late as YOU floated on your silver shells,


s: Where by tall groves his foamy flood he steers


s: Through ponderous arches o'er impetuous wears,


s: By DERBY'S shadowy towers reflective sweeps,


s: And gothic grandeur chills his dusky deeps;


s: Sigh'd in his gales, and murmur'd in his tides,


s: Waved o'er his fringed brink a deeper gloom,


s: And bow'd his alders o'er MILCENA'S tomb.


s: "Oft with sweet voice She led her infant-train,


s: Explored his twinkling swarms, that swim or fly,


s: And mark'd his florets with botanic eye.--


s: "Sweet bud of Spring! how frail thy transient bloom,


s: "Fine film," she cried, "of Nature's fairest loom!


s: --Unconscious of the worm, that mined her own!--


s: --Pale are those lips, where soft caresses hung,


s: Wan the warm cheek, and mute the tender tongue,


s: Cold rests that feeling heart on Derwent's shore,


s: --HERE her sad Consort, stealing through the gloom


s: Hangs in mute anguish o'er the scutcheon'd hearse,


s: Or graves with trembling style the votive verse.


s: When Time's cold hand shall close my aching eyes,


s: Oh, gently lay this wearied earth of mine,


s: Where wrap'd in night my loved MILCENA lies.


s: "So shall with purer joy my spirit move,


s: Catch the first whispers of my waking love,


s: And drink with holy kiss her kindling breath.


s: "The spotless Fair, with blush ethereal warm,


s: Shall hail with sweeter smile returning day,


s: "Shall bend approved, where beckoning hosts invite,


s: Approach with Seraphim the throne of light,


s: And nursed with fairy-love the unletter'd child,


s: Spread round his pillow all your secret spells,


s: Pierced all your springs, and open'd all your wells.--


s: Glides the bright serpent, now in flowers conceal'd;


s: Far shine the scales, that gild his sinuous back,


s: So with strong arm immortal BRINDLEY leads


s: Mines the firm rock, or loads the deep morass,


s: With rising locks a thousand hills alarms,


s: Flings o'er a thousand streams its silver arms,


s: And Plenty, Arts, and Commerce freight the waves.


s: --NYMPHS! who erewhile round BRINDLEY'S early bier


s: On show-white bosoms shower'd the incessant tear,


s: Adorn his tomb!--oh, raise the marble bust,


s: With urns inverted, round the sacred shrine


s: Their ozier wreaths let weeping Naiads twine;


s: While on the top MECHANIC GENIUS stands,


s: Counts the fleet waves, and balances the lands.


s: Of humid earth, and lift her ponderous waves;


s: Bade with quick stroke the sliding piston bear


s: The viewless columns of incumbent air;--


s: Press'd by the incumbent air the floods below,


s: Foot after foot with lessen'd impulse move,


s: So when the Mother, bending o'er his charms,


s: Clasps her fair nurseling in delighted arms;


s: With sparkling eye the blameless Plunderer owns


s: Seeks the salubrious fount with opening lips,


s: "CONNUBIAL FAIR! whom no fond transport warms


s: Who, bless'd in vain with tumid bosoms, hear


s: To the sweet pouting lip, and glistening eye!--


s: Ah! what avails the cradle's damask roof,


s: The eider bolster, and embroider'd woof!--


s: Oft hears the gilded couch unpity'd plains,


s: No voice so sweet attunes his cares to rest,


s: So soft no pillow, as his Mother's breast!--


s: --Thus charm'd to sweet repose, when twilight hours


s: Shed their soft influence on celestial bowers,


s: Shuts his white wings, and sleeps on Beauty's shrine.


s: Sweep the long street, invest the tower sublime;


s: Gild the tall vanes amid the astonish'd night,


s: While with vast strides and bristling hair aloof


s: Pale Danger glides along the falling roof;


s: Moves his dark limbs across the lurid blaze.


s: Hurl'd in resplendent arches to the skies;


s: In iron cells condensed the airy spring,


s: And imp'd the torrent with unfailing wing;


s: --On the fierce flames the shower impetuous falls,


s: Steam, smoak, and dust in blended volumes roll,


s: And Night and Silence repossess the Pole.--


s: "Where were ye, NYMPHS! in those disasterous hours,


s: Which wrap'd in flames AUGUSTA'S sinking towers?


s: When sad WOODMASON mourn'd her infant loves?


s: When thy fair Daughters with unheeded screams,


s: Ill-fated MOLESWORTH! call'd the loitering streams?--


s: The trembling Nymph on bloodless fingers hung


s: With ceaseless shrieks her sleeping friends alarms,


s: Drops with singed hair into her lover's arms.--


s: The illumin'd Mother seeks with footsteps fleet,


s: Where hangs the safe balcony o'er the street,


s: And panting lowers it to her tiptoe friends;


s: And now a third, and now a fourth, she brings;


s: Safe all her babes, she smooths her horrent brow,


s: So, by her Son arraign'd, with feet unshod


s: "E'en on the day when Youth with Beauty wed,


s: The flames surprized them in their nuptial bed;--


s: With wringing hands, and dark dishevel'd hair,


s: The blushing Beauty with disorder'd charms


s: Round her fond lover winds her ivory arms;


s: Beat, as they clasp, their throbbing hearts with fear,


s: Ah me! in vain the labouring engines pour


s: Round their pale limbs the ineffectual shower!--


s: --Then crash'd the floor, while shrinking crouds retire,


s: And Love and Virtue sunk amid the fire!--


s: And their white ashes mingle in their urn.


s: The shine of welfare, or the shade of woe;


s: Who with soft lips salute returning Spring,


s: Or watch, untired, the wintery clouds, and share


s: Go, shove the dim mist from the mountain's brow,


s: Chase the white fog, which floods the vale below;


s: And catch the hailstones in your little hands;


s: Guard the coy blossom from the pelting shower,


s: And dash the rimy spangles from the bower;


s: From each chill leaf the silvery drops repel,


s: "So should young SYMPATHY, in female form,


s: Climb the tall rock, spectatress of the storm;


s: Life's sinking wrecks with secret sighs deplore,


s: And bleed for others' woes, Herself on shore;


s: Bare her warm heart, her virgin arms expand,


s: Charm with kind looks, with tender accents cheer,


s: Grief's cureless wounds with lenient balms asswage,


s: And snatch the dagger pointed to his breast;


s: And rob her quiver'd shafts with hand unseen.


s: And teach Hibernian echoes JONES'S name;


s: Bind round her polish'd brow the civic bay,


s: And drag the fair Philanthropist to day.--


s: So from secluded springs, and secret caves,


s: Cools the parch'd vale, the sultry mead divides,


s: And towns and temples star his shadowy sides.


s: And in new veins the gushing rills direct;--


s: So flowers shall rise in purple light array'd,


s: And blossom'd orchards stretch their silver shade;


s: Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold,


s: "Thus when young HERCULES with firm disdain


s: Braved the soft smiles of Pleasure's harlot train;


s: To valiant toils his forceful limbs assign'd,


s: O'er sad Etolia pour'd his wasteful waves,


s: O'er lowing vales and bleating pastures roll'd,


s: Swept her red vineyards, and her glebes of gold,


s: Mined all her towns, uptore her rooted woods,


s: The youthful Hero seized his curled crest,


s: And dash'd with lifted club the watery Pest;


s: With waving arm the billowy tumult quell'd,


s: And to his course the bellowing Fiend repell'd.


s: His lengthen'd form, with scales of silver burn'd;


s: Lash'd with restless sweep his dragon-train,


s: And shot meandering o'er the affrighted plain.


s: The Hero-God, with giant fingers clasp'd


s: With starting eyes, wide throat, and gaping teeth,


s: Curl his redundant folds, and writhe in death.


s: The grisly Demon foam'd, and roar'd along;


s: Roll'd his red eye, his threatening antlers turn'd.


s: Dragg'd down to earth, the Warrior's victor-hands


s: Press'd his deep dewlap on the imprinted sands;


s: Then with quick bound his bended knee he fix'd


s: Strain'd his strong arms, his sinewy shoulders bent,


s: And from his curled brow the twisted terror rent.


s: --Pleased Fawns and Nymphs with dancing step applaud,


s: And hang their chaplets round the resting God;


s: Fill with ripe fruits, with wreathed flowers adorn,


s: Feed with the dulcet drops my tender broods,


s: Hang from each bending grass and horrent thorn


s: The tremulous pearl, that glitters to the morn;


s: And Earth's dark chambers hide the stagnant wave,


s: O, pierce, YE NYMPHS! her marble veins, and lead


s: Her gushing fountains to the thirsty mead;


s: Wide o'er the shining vales, and trickling hills


s: So shall my peopled realms of Leaf and Flower


s: Exult, inebriate with the genial shower;


s: Dip their long tresses from the mossy brink,


s: With tufted roots the glassy currents drink;


s: And view their waving honours in your streams.


s: imprisoning atmospheric air in the interstices of the putrescent


s: "Thus where the veins their confluent branches bend,


s: The Chyle's white trunk, diverging from its source,


s: O'er each red cell, and tissued membrane spreads


s: In living net-work all its branching threads;


s: Maze within maze its tortuous path pursues,


s: Fills each fine pore, pervades each slender hair,


s: And drinks salubrious dew-drops from the air.


s: "Thus when to kneel in Mecca's awful gloom,


s: League after league, through many a lingering day,


s: Steer the swart Caravans their sultry way;


s: O'er sandy wastes on gasping camels toil,


s: Or print with pilgrim-steps the burning soil;


s: O'er the green brink the kneeling nations bend,


s: Bathe the parch'd lip, and cool the feverish tongue,


s: And the clear lake reflects the mingled throng."


s: The Goddess paused,--the listening bands awhile


s: Then with soft murmur sweep in lucid trains


s: Down the green slopes, and o'er the pebbly plains,


s: To each bright stream on silver sandals glide,


s: Reflective fountain, and tumultuous tide.


s: Their glittering net-work o'er the autumnal lawn;


s: From blade to blade connect with cordage fine


s: The unbending grass, and live along the line;


s: Or bathe unwet their oily forms, and dwell


s: So when the North congeals his watery mass,


s: Piles high his snows, and floors his seas with glass;


s: While many a Month, unknown to warmer rays,


s: Leave the white soil, and rush upon the main;


s: From isle to isle the moon-bright squadrons stray,


s: And win in easy curves their graceful way;


s: On step alternate borne, with balance nice


s: wounding the bark, or strangulating a part of the branch. 461. 2.


s: As when at noon in Hybla's fragrant bowers


s: Contending swarms on bending branches cling,


s: Quivering in air their painted plumes expand,


s: And coloured shadows dance upon the land.


s: beautiful appearance of being covered with additional flowers.]


s: While in warm floods ecliptic breezes rise,


s: And sink with wings benumb'd in colder skies.


s: And veer, as moves the sun, their airy tide;


s: And Eurus steals his ice-winds from the Pole.


s: Your playful trains, on sultry islands born,


s: With soft susurrant voice alternate sweep


s: On tides of ether, float from clime to clime;


s: Or waft the fragrant bosom of the Spring.


s: O'er the bright plains her dewy lustre showers;


s: Drops the dark curtain o'er the brilliant scene;


s: You form with chemic hands the airy surge,


s: SYLPHS! from each sun-bright leaf, that twinkling shakes


s: O'er Earth's green lap, or shoots amid her lakes,


s: Your playful bands with simpering lips invite,


s: And wed the enamour'd OXYGENE to LIGHT.--


s: Cling the fond Pair with unabating love;


s: Hand link'd in hand on buoyant step they rise,


s: And soar and glisten in unclouded skies.


s: Whence in bright floods the VITAL AIR expands,


s: Pervades the swarming seas, and heaving earths,


s: Where teeming Nature broods her myriad births;


s: Fills the fine lungs of all that _breathe_ or _bud_,


s: Warms the new heart, and dyes the gushing blood;


s: And, as it wastes, renews the subtile flame.


s: atmosphere and replenishes it with the food of life.


s: "So pure, so soft, with sweet attraction shone


s: Fair PSYCHE, kneeling at the ethereal throne;


s: Won with coy smiles the admiring court of Jove,


s: Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers


s: Onward they march to HYMEN'S sacred bowers;


s: With lifted torch he lights the festive train,


s: Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain;


s: And hides with mystic veil their blushing brows.


s: Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling,


s: Meet with warm lip, and clasp with rustling wing.--


s: --Hence plastic Nature, as Oblivion whelms


s: Soft Joys disport on purple plumes unfurl'd,


s: And Love and Beauty rule the willing world.


s: Quae mare navigerum et terras frugiferentes


s: Concelebras; per te quoniam genus omne animantum


s: Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina folis.            Lucret.]


s: Stay the fell SYROC'S suffocative breath;


s: The poisoned javelin balanced in his hand;--


s: Fierce on blue streams he rides the tainted air,


s: Points his keen eye, and waves his whistling hair;


s: impenetrable deserts of sand. See Note on l. 294 of this Canto.]


s: Burst his dense clouds, his wheeling spires untwist;


s: Wide o'er the West when borne on headlong gales,


s: Dark as meridian night, the Monster sails,


s: Lashing with serpent-train the waves below,


s: Whirls his black arm, the forked lightning flings,


s: And showers a deluge from his demon-wings.


s: With webbed feet o'er midnight meadows creeps,


s: Or flings his hairy limbs on stagnant deeps.


s: And dash the baleful conqueror from his car;


s: And bathes in human gore his armed wheels.


s: "Thus when the PLAGUE, upborne on Belgian air,


s: Look'd through the mist and shook his clotted hair,


s: O'er shrinking nations steer'd malignant clouds,


s: The beauteous AEGLE felt the venom'd dart,


s: Slow roll'd her eye, and feebly throbb'd her heart;


s: Each fervid sigh seem'd shorter than the last,


s: And starting Friendship shunn'd her, as she pass'd.


s: Sinks on the pillowy moss her drooping head,


s: And prints with lifeless limbs her leafy bed.


s: --On wings of Love her plighted Swain pursues,


s: Extends on tapering poles the canvas roof,


s: Spreads o'er the straw-wove matt the flaxen woof,


s: Sweet buds and blossoms on her bolster strows,


s: And binds his kerchief round her aching brows;


s: And clasps the bright Infection in his arms.--


s: With pale and languid smiles the grateful Fair


s: Applauds his virtues, and rewards his care;


s: Mourns with wet cheek her fair companions fled


s: Calls to its bosom all its scatter'd rays,


s: And pours on THYRSIS the collected blaze;


s: Braves the chill night, caressing and caress'd,


s: And folds her Hero-lover to her breast.--


s: Eyed, as he swam, the far love-lighted tower;


s: Breasted with struggling arms the tossing wave,


s: Less bold, TOBIAS claim'd the nuptial bed,


s: And drove, instructed by his Angel-Guide,


s: The enamour'd Demon from the fatal bride.--


s: --SYLPHS! while your winnowing pinions fan'd the air,


s: And shed gay visions o'er the sleeping pair;


s: And with his keener arrows conquer'd DEATH.


s: And crown'd with fame your TORRICELL, and BOYLE;


s: Taught with sweet smiles, responsive to their prayer,


s: --How up exhausted tubes bright currents flow


s: Weigh the long column of the incumbent skies,


s: And with the changeful moment fall and rise.


s: The membrane-valve sustains the weight above;


s: Stroke follows stroke, the gelid vapour falls,


s: And misty dew-drops dim the crystal walls;


s: Rare and more rare expands the fluid thin,


s: Primeval Silence reign'd with ancient Night.


s: The mist and descending dew which appear at first exhausting the


s: Bade from low earth the bold MONGULFIER rise;


s: Where were ye, SYLPHS! when on the ethereal main


s: Young ROSIERE launch'd, and call'd your aid in vain?


s: Fair mounts the light balloon, by Zephyr driven,


s: Higher and yet higher the expanding bubble flies,


s: Lights with quick flash, and bursts amid the skies.--


s: Headlong He rushes through the affrighted air


s: With limbs distorted, and dishevel'd hair,


s: And DEATH receives him in his sable arms!--


s: So erst with melting wax and loosen'd strings


s: Sunk hapless ICARUS on unfaithful wings;


s: His scatter'd plumage danced upon the wave,


s: O'er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,


s: And strew'd with crimson moss his marble bed;


s: Struck in their coral towers the pausing bell,


s: And wide in ocean toll'd his echoing knell.


s: Where oft your PRIESTLEY woos your airy powers,


s: On noiseless step or quivering pinion glide,


s: As sits the Sage with Science by his side;


s: To his charm'd eye in gay undress appear,


s: Drinks with red lips the purest breath of heaven;


s: How, while Conferva from its tender hair


s: And the pure ETHER marries with the MINE.


s: production of variety of new airs or gasses, can only be clearly


s: When playful PROSERPINE from CERES stray'd,


s: Pluck'd with fair hand the silver-blossom'd bower,


s: And purpled mead,--herself a fairer flower;


s: Rush'd gloomy DIS, and seized the trembling maid.--


s: Dropp'd from their gauzy laps the gather'd sweets,


s: Clung round the struggling Nymph, with piercing cries,


s: Pursued the chariot, and invoked the skies;--


s: Pleased as he grasps her in his iron arms,


s: The wheels descending roll'd in smoky rings,


s: Infernal Cupids flapp'd their demon wings;


s: Earth with deep yawn received the Fair, amaz'd,


s: And far in Night celestial Beauty blaz'd.


s: Huge SEA-BALLOONS beneath the tossing tide;


s: The diving castles, roof'd with spheric glass,


s: Ribb'd with strong oak, and barr'd with bolts of brass,


s: Buoy'd with pure air shall endless tracks pursue,


s: Then shall BRITANNIA rule the wealthy realms,


s: Which Ocean's wide insatiate wave o'erwhelms;


s: Confine in netted bowers his scaly flocks,


s: Part his blue plains, and people all his rocks.


s: Beneath the shadowy ice-isles of the Pole,


s: Onward, through bright meandering vales, afar,


s: Obedient Sharks shall trail her sceptred car,


s: With harness'd necks the pearly flood disturb,


s: Pleased round her triumph wondering Tritons play,


s: And Seamaids hail her on the watery way.


s: --Oft shall she weep beneath the crystal waves


s: O'er shipwreck'd lovers weltering in their graves;


s: With slaves to glory, and with slaves to gold;


s: Shrin'd in the deep shall DAY and SPALDING mourn,


s: Each in his treacherous bell, sepulchral urn!--


s: Oft o'er thy lovely daughters, hapless PIERCE!


s: With brow upturn'd to Heaven, "WE WILL NOT PART!"


s: He cried, and clasp'd them to his aching heart,--


s: --Dash'd in dread conflict on the rocky grounds,


s: Crash the mock'd masts, the staggering wreck rebounds;


s: Chills their pale bosoms, bathes their shuddering limbs,


s: Climbs their white shoulders, buoys their streaming hair,


s: And the last sea-shriek bellows in the air.--


s: Each with loud sobs her tender sire caress'd,


s: --Stretch'd on one bier they sleep beneath the brine,


s: And their white bones with ivory arms intwine!


s: "VII. SYLPHS OF NICE EAR! with beating wings you guide


s: Or stretch and modulate the trembling cords.


s: Breathed the rapt song, and fan'd the thought of fire,


s: Or brought in combinations, deep and clear,


s: YOU with soft breath attune the vernal gale,


s: When breezy evening broods the listening vale;


s: Or wake the loud tumultuous sounds, that dwell


s: The Eolian Harp, and mingle all its strings;


s: Or trill in air the soft symphonious chime,


s: When rapt CECILIA lifts her eye sublime,


s: Swell, as she breathes, her bosoms rising snow,


s: Through her fair lips on whispering pinions move,


s: And form the tender sighs, that kindle love!


s: With ribbon-rein the indignant Lion guides;


s: And shakes delirious rapture from the strings;


s: Slow as the pausing Monarch stalks along,


s: Sheaths his retractile claws, and drinks the song;


s: Soft Nymphs on timid step the triumph view,


s: With pointed ears the alarmed forest starts,


s: And Love and Music soften savage hearts.


s: Calls the red tempest round the guilty head,


s: And launch from airy cars the vollied storms.--


s: From Ashur's vales when proud SENACHERIB trod,


s: Pour'd his swoln heart, defied the living GOD,


s: Urged with incessant shouts his glittering powers;


s: Round her sad altars press'd the prostrate crowd,


s: Hosts beat their breasts, and suppliant chieftains bow'd;


s: Loud shrieks of matrons thrill'd the troubled air,


s: And trembling virgins rent their scatter'd hair;


s: Spread the blaspheming scroll before the Lord,


s: Raised his pale hands, and breathed his pausing sighs,


s: And fixed on Heaven his dim imploring eyes,--


s: "Oh! MIGHTY GOD! amidst thy Seraph-throng


s: "Thine the wide earth, bright sun, and starry zone,


s: "That twinkling journey round thy golden throne;


s: "Thine is the crystal source of life and light,


s: "And thine the realms of Death's eternal night.


s: "Lo! Ashur's King blasphemes thy holy shrine,


s: "Insults our offerings, and derides our vows,---


s: "Oh! strike the diadem from his impious brows,


s: "Tear from his murderous hand the bloody rod,


s: --SYLPHS! in what dread array with pennons broad


s: Onward ye floated o'er the ethereal road,


s: Call'd each dank steam the reeking marsh exhales,


s: And rolled the dreadful whirlwind on the foe!--


s: Hark! o'er the camp the venom'd tempest sings,


s: Man falls on Man, on buckler buckler rings;


s: Groan answers groan, to anguish anguish yields,


s: --High rears the Fiend his grinning jaws, and wide


s: Spans the pale nations with colossal stride,


s: Waves his broad falchion with uplifted hand,


s: And his vast shadow darkens all the land.


s: Make the green children of the Spring your care!


s: Oh, SYLPHS! disclose in this inquiring age


s: One GOLDEN SECRET to some favour'd sage;


s: Grant the charm'd talisman, the chain, that binds,


s: --No more shall hoary Boreas, issuing forth


s: With Eurus, lead the tempests of the North;


s: Rime the pale Dawn, or veil'd in flaky showers


s: Chill the sweet bosoms of the smiling Hours.


s: Meet with soft kiss, and mingle in the skies,


s: Fan the gay floret, bend the yellow ear,


s: And rock the uncurtain'd cradle of the year;


s: Autumn and Spring in lively union blend,


s: O'er twelve degrees his ribs gigantic bend,


s: And many a league his leathern jaws extend;


s: Huge fields of air his wrinkled skin receives,


s: From panting gills, wide lungs, and waving leaves;


s: Then with dread throes subsides his bloated form,


s: Oft high in heaven the hissing Demon wins


s: His towering course, upborne on winnowing fins;


s: Steers with expanded eye and gaping mouth,


s: His mass enormous to the affrighted South;


s: And Frost and Famine follow as he swims.--


s: SYLPHS! round his cloud-built couch your bands array,


s: And mould the Monster to your gentle sway;


s: Charm with soft tones, with tender touches check,


s: With silver curb his yielding teeth restrain,


s: And give to KIRWAN'S hand the silken rein.


s: --Pleased shall the Sage, the dragon-wings between,


s: Bend o'er discordant climes his eye serene,


s: Adorn with wreathed ears Kampschatca's brows,


s: Earth's wondering Zones the genial seasons share,


s: Brood the green children of parturient Spring!--


s: Where in their bursting cells my Embryons rest,


s: Each vaulted womb of husk, or pod, or shell;


s: Feed with sweet juices, clothe with downy hair,


s: Or hang, inshrined, their little orbs in air.


s: "So, late descry'd by HERSCHEL'S piercing sight,


s: Ten thousand marshall'd stars, a silver zone,


s: Effuse their blended lustres round her throne;


s: Suns call to suns, in lucid clouds conspire,


s: And light exterior skies with golden fire;


s: And one great circle forms the unmeasured year.


s: --Roll on, YE STARS! exult in youthful prime,


s: Mark with bright curves the printless steps of Time;


s: Near and more near your beamy cars approach,


s: Flowers of the sky! ye too to age must yield,


s: Frail as your silken sisters of the field!


s: Star after star from Heaven's high arch shall rush,


s: Suns sink on suns, and systems systems crush,


s: And Death and Night and Chaos mingle all!


s: --Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,


s: Immortal NATURE lifts her changeful form,


s: Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,


s: Life's golden threads in endless circles wind;


s: Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd,


s: And, as they burst, the living flame unfold.


s: The Oak's vast branches in its milky veins;


s: Each ravel'd bud, fine film, and fibre-line


s: Traced with nice pencil on the small design.


s: The young Narcissus, in it's bulb compress'd,


s: In whose fine arms a younger embryon lies,


s: Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes;


s: Grain within grain successive harvests dwell,


s: And boundless forests slumber in a shell.


s: Long winding meads, and intermingled bowers,


s: Green files of poplars, o'er the lake that bow,


s: And glimmering wheel, which rolls and foams below,


s: In one bright point with nice distinction lie


s: --So, fold on fold, Earth's wavy plains extend,


s: And, sphere in sphere, its hidden strata bend;--


s: Incumbent Spring her beamy plumes expands


s: O'er restless oceans, and impatient lands,


s: And the GREAT SEED evolves, disclosing ALL;


s: LIFE _buds_ or _breathes_ from Indus to the Poles,


s: And the vast surface kindles, as it rolls!


s: Teach the fine SEED, instinct with life, to shoot


s: On Earth's cold bosom its descending root;


s: With Pith elastic stretch its rising stem,


s: Part the twin Lobes, expand the throbbing Gem;


s: Fan with your balmy breath its kindling bloom,


s: Each widening scale and bursting film unfold,


s: Swell the green cup, and tint the flower with gold;


s: While in bright veins the silvery Sap ascends,


s: While, spread in air, the leaves respiring play,


s: Or drink the golden quintessence of day.


s: --So from his shell on Delta's shower-less isle


s: Bursts into life the Monster of the Nile;


s: The Brain's fine floating tissue swells, and spreads;


s: Nerve after nerve the glistening spine descends,


s: Through each new gland the purple current glides,


s: Edge over edge expands the hardening scale,


s: And sheaths his slimy skin in silver mail.


s: --Erewhile, emerging from the brooding sand,


s: With Tyger-paw He prints the brineless strand,


s: Helm'd with broad tail, and oar'd with giant limbs;


s: Rolls his fierce eye-balls, clasps his iron claws,


s: And champs with gnashing teeth his massy jaws;


s: Old Nilus sighs along his cane-crown'd shores,


s: And bear on sportive wings the callow Loves;


s: Call with sweet whisper, in each gale that blows,


s: The slumbering Snow-drop from her long repose;


s: Unveil the bashful Violet's tremulous head;


s: While from her bud the playful Tulip breaks,


s: And young Carnations peep with blushing cheeks;


s: Bid the closed _Petals_ from nocturnal cold


s: Shake into viewless air the morning dews,


s: And wave in light their iridescent hues;


s: While from on high the bursting _Anthers_ trust


s: To the mild breezes their prolific dust;


s: Love out their hour, and leave their lives in air.


s: Warm'd with new life, unfolds his larva-form;


s: agreeably seen in the flower of the parnassia, in which the males


s: Point their green gems, their barren shoots protrude;


s: Wound them, ye SYLPHS! with little knives, or bind


s: Or bend to earth the inhospitable bough.


s: So shall each germ with new prolific power


s: Delay the leaf-bud, and expand the flower;


s: Closed in the _Style_ the tender pith shall end,


s: The smoother Rind its soft embroidery spread


s: In vaulted _Petals_ o'er their fertile bed;


s: While the rough Bark, in circling mazes roll'd,


s: Forms the green _Cup_ with many a wrinkled fold;


s: Firm round the callow germ, a _Floral Guard_.


s: Stint the young germ, the tender blossom stain;


s: On each lop'd shoot a softer scion bind,


s: So shall the trunk with loftier crest ascend,


s: And wide in air its happier arms extend;


s: Nurse the new buds, admire the leaves unknown,


s: And blushing bend with fruitage not its own.


s: And offer'd on the shrine his mystic rod;


s: First a new bark its silken tissue weaves,


s: Fair fruits protrude, enascent flowers expand,


s: With pigmy spears, or crush the venom'd balls;


s: Fright the green Locust from his foamy bed,


s: Arm with sharp thorns the Sweet-brier's tender wood,


s: And dash the Cynips from her damask bud;


s: Steep in ambrosial dews the Woodbine's bells,


s: So where the Humming-bird in Chili's bowers


s: On murmuring pinions robs the pendent flowers;


s: Seeks, where fine pores their dulcet balm distill,


s: And sucks the treasure with proboscis-bill;


s: Knits her smooth brow, extinguishes her smile;


s: A Spiders bloated paunch and jointed arms


s: Hide her fine form, and mask her blushing charms;


s: The similitude of this flower to this great spider seems to be a


s: The Smut's dark poison, and the Mildew white;


s: Deep-rooted Mould, and Ergot's horn uncouth,


s: And break the Canker's desolating tooth.


s: Mines unperceived beneath the shrivel'd rin'd;


s: Then climbs the branches with increasing strength,


s: Spreads as they spread, and lengthens with their length;


s: --Thus the slight wound ingraved on glass unneal'd


s: Crack follows crack, to laws elastic just,


s: The same happens to a smooth surfaced lead-ore in Derbyshire, the


s: O, clasp the Harebel with your velvet wings;


s: And shake the white rime from the shuddering Rose;


s: Whilst Amaryllis turns with graceful ease


s: Her blushing beauties, and eludes the breeze.--


s: SYLPHS! if at noon the Fritillary droops,


s: And hide the vale's chaste Lily from the ray;


s: Bends all her leaves, and braves the sultry hour;--


s: Mimosa's soft sensations from the night;


s: Fold her thin foilage, close her timid flowers,


s: And with ambrosial slumbers guard her bowers;


s: O'er each warm wall while Cerea flings her arms,


s: The gadding tendrils of the adventurous Vine;


s: Her fragrant flowers, her graceful foliage bend;


s: Shrined in transparent pulp her pearly seed;


s: Hang round the Orange all her silver bells,


s: And guard her fragrance with Hesperian spells;


s: Bud after bud her polish'd leaves unfold,


s: Rise in his bright matrass DIANA'S trees;


s: Drop after drop, with just delay he pours


s: And wide in air the gas phlogistic flies;


s: Slow shoot, at length, in many a brilliant mass


s: Branch after branch extend their silver stems,


s: moderately strong; mix this solution with about twenty ounces of


s: circumstances concerning this beautiful experiment see Mr. Keir's


s: Imperial KEW by Thames's glittering side;


s: Obedient sails from realms unfurrow'd bring


s: And nurse in fostering arms the tender year,


s: Plant the young bulb, inhume the living seed,


s: Prop the weak stem, the erring tendril lead;


s: Or fan in glass-built fanes the stranger flowers


s: Delighted Thames through tropic umbrage glides,


s: And flowers antarctic, bending o'er his tides;


s: Drinks the new tints, the sweets unknown inhales,


s: And calls the sons of science to his vales.


s: The fruits and foliage of discordant skies,


s: Twines the gay floret with the fragrant bough,


s: And bends the wreath round GEORGE'S royal brow.


s: --Sometimes retiring, from the public weal


s: Through glades exotic pass with step sublime,


s: Or mark the growths of Britain's happier clime;


s: With beauty blossom'd, and with virtue blaz'd,


s: Mark the fair Scions, that themselves have rais'd;


s: The Grace and Guard of Britain's golden lands.


s: Lead the gay hours along the ethereal hight,


s: SYLPHS! who from realms of equatorial day


s: To climes, that shudder in the polar ray,


s: From zone to zone pursue on shifting wing,


s: The bright perennial journey of the spring;


s: Sweet flowers, that glitter in Arabia's shades;


s: Fruits, whose fair forms in bright succession glow


s: Each leaf, whose fragrant steam with ruby lip


s: Each spicy rind, which sultry India boasts,


s: Scenting the night-air round her breezy coasts;


s: Roots whose bold stems in bleak Siberia blow,


s: And gem with many a tint the eternal snow;


s: O'er Ande's steeps, and hides his golden caves;


s: --And, where yon oak extends his dusky shoots


s: Wide o'er the rill, that bubbles from his roots;


s: Beneath whose arms, protected from the storm


s: SYLPHS! with religious hands fresh garlands twine,


s: And deck with lavish pomp HYGEIA'S shrine.


s: "Call with loud voice the Sisterhood, that dwell


s: On floating cloud, wide wave, or bubbling well;


s: Each from her sphere with beckoning arm invite,


s: Curl'd with red flame, the Vestal Forms of light.


s: Close all your spotted wings, in lucid ranks


s: Cross your meek arms, incline your wreathed brows,


s: And win the Goddess with unwearied vows.


s: "Oh, wave, HYGEIA! o'er BRITANNIA'S throne


s: Thy serpent-wand, and mark it for thy own;


s: Her nodding forests, and her waving plains;


s: Shed o'er her peopled realms thy beamy smile,


s: And with thy airy temple crown her isle!"


s: The GODDESS ceased,--and calling from afar


s: Mounts with light bound, and graceful, as she bends,


s: Whirls the long lash, the flexile rein extends;


s: On whispering wheels the silver axle slides,


s: Climbs into air, and cleaves the crystal tides;


s: Streams o'er her ivory shoulders, buoy'd in air;


s: Swells her white veil, with ruby clasp confined


s: Round her fair brow, and undulates behind;


s: The lessening coursers rise in spiral rings,


s: Gradual progress of the formation of the earth, and of plants and


s: Twilight fifty miles high. Wants further observations


s: Conductors of heat. Cold on the tops of mountains


s: Phosphorescent light in the evening from all bodies


s: Medusa originally an hieroglyphic of divine wisdom


s: Gunpowder described by Bacon. Its power. Should be lighted in the


s: Divine benevolence. The parts of nature not of equal excellence


s: Accumulation of electricity not from friction


s: We have a sense adapted to perceive heat but not electricity


s: Paralytic limbs move by electric influence


s: Death of Professor Richman by electricity


s: Lightning drawn from the clouds. How to be safe in thunder storms


s: Cupid rises from the egg of night. Mrs. Cosway's painting of this


s: navigated into southern climates. Some ice-islands have floated


s: southwards 60 miles long. Steam attending them in warm climates


s: Formation of primeval islands before the production of the moon.


s: Moon has little or no atmosphere. Its ocean is frozen. Is not yet


s: Antient statues of Hercules. Antinous. Apollo. Venus. Designs of


s: Morasses rest on limestone. Of immense extent


s: Mr. Wedgwood's cameo of a slave in chains, and of Hope


s: Armies of Cambytes destroyed by famine, and by sand-storms


s: Whirling turrets of sand described and explained


s: Hannibal made a passage by fire over the Alps


s: Moonsoons attended with rain Overflowing of the Nile. Vortex of


s: Muscular actions and sensations of plants


s: Barometer and air-pump, Dew on exhausting the receiver though the


s: Fable of Proserpine an antient chemical emblem


s: Mr. Kirwan's treatise on temperature of climates


s: Seeds of plants. Spawn of fish. Nutriment lodged in seeds. Their


s: Plants visible within bulbs, and buds, and seeds


s: Branches bent to the horizon bear more fruit


s: Diseases of plants four kinds. Honey-dew


s: _Etherial Forms! you chase the shooting stars,


s: Or yoke the vollied lightnings to your cars._


s: explosion, and appears with a red light.


s: different degrees of heat according to Mr. Morgan's theory of


s: Hence he supposes there must be a great accumulation of positive


s: Maccabees, (B. II. c. v.) is such a description of them, as might


s: _Cling round the aerial bow with prisms bright,


s: And pleased untwist the sevenfold threads of light._


s: The manner in which the rainbow is produced was in some measure


s: _Eve's silken couch with gorgeous tints adorn,


s: Or fire the arrowy throne of rising morn._


s: apparently deepens the blue by its contrast; these colours being


s: opposite to each other, as explained in note II.


s: _Alarm with comet-blaze the sapphire plain,


s: The wan stars glimmering through its silver train._


s: Dr. Hamilton observes that the light of small stars are seen


s: _Or give the sun's phlogistic orb to roll._


s: Some modern philosophers are of opinion that the sun is the great


s: phlogiston which they possess; and that this is formed by the


s: _Round her still centre tread the burning soil,


s: And watch the billowy Lavas, as they boil._


s: supposed to have been projected from the sun, hence the volcanos


s: _Or sphere on sphere in widening waves expand,


s: And glad with genial warmth the incumbent land._


s: A cubic inch of water thus cooled down to 32° mixed with an equal


s: prodigious quantity of heat which it again parts with on its


s: When the matter of heat or calorique is set at liberty from its


s: Spontaneous concords quired the matin strain._


s: _Star of the earth, and diamond of the night._


s: There are eighteen species of Lampyris or glow-worm, according to


s: _Or mark in shining letters Kunckel's name


s: In the pale phosphor's self-consuming flame._


s: _Quick moves the balanced beam, of giant-birth,


s: Wields his large limbs, and nodding shakes the earth._


s: Mr. Watt gained a patent for his engine in 1768, but the further


s: inequality in the length of the two ends of the lever.


s: _In phalanx firm the fiend of Frost assail._


s: Mr. Hunter by very curious experiments discovered that the living


s: _Cold from each point cerulean lustres gleam._


s: departure of the electric fluid from points.


s: Can any thing similar to either of these happen in respect to the


s: _Where dwell my vegetative realms benumb'd


s: In buds imprison'd, or in bulbs intomb'd._


s: hybernacula, and might have given the same term to seeds. In warm


s: _From the deep craters of his realms of fire


s: The whirling sun this ponderous planet hurld_.


s: explosion, the motion of the sun itself might be at the same time


s: progressive motion, and not liable itself to be disturbed by the


s: _While Ocean wrap'd it in his azure robe_.


s: increasing state and the water perpetually in a decreasing one.


s: Another mode in which limestone appears is in the form of round


s: _Gnomes! you then taught transuding dews to pass


s: Through time-fallen woods, and root-inwove morass_.


s: completely exhaled from them. Though coal and clay are frequently


s: _Cold waves, immerged, the glowing mass congeal,


s: constitutes hardness. And secondly, if they are displaced by such


s: production of this calciform ore of copper.


s: subterraneous fires, as mentioned in note on Canto II. l. 398.


s: different from themselves becomes accounted for.


s: _Transmute to glittering flints her chalky lands,


s: Or sink on Ocean's bed in countless sands._


s: limestone coloured with iron. Mr. F. French presented me with a


s: This idea of the production of nodules of flint in chalk-beds is


s: _Whence ductile Clays in wide expansion spread,


s: Soft as the Cygnet's down, their snow-white bed._


s: There is however great difficulty in accounting for the universal


s: _Smear'd her huge dragons with metallic hues,


s: With golden purples, and cobaltic blues;_


s: accordingly makes an essential circumstance in the process.


s: O winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire,


s: What loss is theirs who from thy kingdom turn


s: Dismayed, and think thy snow a sculptured urn


s: The streams than under ice. June could not hire


s: Her roses to forego the strength they learn


s: In sleeping on thy breast. No fires can burn


s: The bridges thou dost lay where men desire


s: To northward, and the sounds of singing cease,


s: Keep warm by inner fires, and rest in peace.


s: Sleep on content, as sleeps the patient rose.


s: Walk boldly on the white untrodden snows,


s: Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;


s: And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still;


s: No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,


s: And willow stems grow daily red and bright.


s: These are the days when ancients held a rite


s: And prayer to purify the new year's will:


s: Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight,


s: Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste,


s: And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed


s: The ardent summer's joy to have and taste;


s: Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed,


s: To reckon clear the new life's sterner need;


s: Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!


s: Month which the warring ancients strangely styled


s: The month of war,--as if in their fierce ways


s: Were any month of peace!--in thy rough days


s: I find no war in Nature, though the wild


s: Winds clash and clang, and broken boughs are piled


s: At feet of writhing trees. The violets raise


s: Their heads without affright, without amaze,


s: And sleep through all the din, as sleeps a child.


s: And he who watches well may well discern


s: Like pregnant mother the sweet earth doth yearn;


s: In secret joy makes ready for the spring;


s: And hidden, sacred, in her breast doth bear


s: No days such honored days as these! When yet


s: Fair Aphrodite reigned, men seeking wide


s: For some fair thing which should forever bide


s: In fitting frame that no age could forget,


s: Her name in lovely April's name did hide,


s: To all the fairest flowers Spring did beget.


s: And when fair Aphrodite passed from earth,


s: Her shrines forgotten and her feasts of mirth,


s: Sweet April took, of kingdom most divine,


s: When Christ ascended, in the time of birth


s: O month when they who love must love and wed!


s: Were one to go to worlds where May is naught,


s: And seek to tell the memories he had brought


s: From earth of thee, what were most fitly said?


s: From apple-boughs, or if the soft green wrought


s: In fields, or if the robin's call be fraught


s: The most with thy delight. Perhaps they read


s: Thee best who in the ancient time did say


s: Thou wert the sacred month unto the old:


s: No blossom blooms upon thy brightest day


s: So subtly sweet as memories which unfold


s: In aged hearts which in thy sunshine lie,


s: To sun themselves once more before they die.


s: O month whose promise and fulfilment blend,


s: And burst in one! it seems the earth can store


s: In all her roomy house no treasure more;


s: Of all her wealth no farthing have to spend


s: On fruit, when once this stintless flowering end.


s: And yet no tiniest flower shall fall before


s: Its tithe of seed, which we may count and tend


s: Till harvest. Joy of blossomed love, for thee


s: Seems it no fairer thing can yet have birth?


s: Watch well if seeds grow strong, to scatter free


s: Germs for thy future summers on the earth.


s: A joy which is but joy soon comes to dearth.


s: Some flowers are withered and some joys have died;


s: The garden reeks with an East Indian scent


s: From beds where gillyflowers stand weak and spent;


s: The white heat pales the skies from side to side;


s: But in still lakes and rivers, cool, content,


s: In vain the cruel skies their hot rays shed;


s: The lily does not feel their brazen glare.


s: In vain the pallid clouds refuse to share


s: Their dews; the lily feels no thirst, no dread.


s: Unharmed she lifts her queenly face and head;


s: She drinks of living waters and keeps fair.


s: Hath need of pause and interval of peace.


s: Some subtle signal bids all sweet sounds cease,


s: Weak subterfuge! Each mocking day doth fleece


s: Poor middle-agèd summer! Vain this show!


s: Whole fields of golden-rod cannot offset


s: And well the singing thrush and lily know,


s: Can deck in splendid guise, their time to go!


s: O golden month! How high thy gold is heaped!


s: The yellow birch-leaves shine like bright coins strung


s: On wands; the chestnut's yellow pennons tongue


s: To every wind its harvest challenge. Steeped


s: In yellow, still lie fields where wheat was reaped;


s: And yellow still the corn sheaves, stacked among


s: The yellow gourds, which from the earth have wrung


s: Her utmost gold. To highest boughs have leaped


s: The purple grape,--last thing to ripen, late


s: If grapes do not for freezing night-dews wait.


s: Think, while thou sunnest thyself in Joy's estate,


s: Mayhap thou canst not ripen without frost!


s: When Nature lets the wild earth go its way


s: And spend whole seasons on a single day.


s: The spring-time holds her white and purple dear;


s: October, lavish, flaunts them far and near;


s: October, scornful, burns them on a bier.


s: The winter hoards his pearls of frost in sign


s: Of kingdom: whiter pearls than winter knew,


s: October, feasting 'neath her dome of blue,


s: Drinks at a single draught, slow filtered through


s: This is the treacherous month when autumn days


s: With summer's voice come bearing summer's gifts.


s: Beguiled, the pale down-trodden aster lifts


s: Her head and blooms again. The soft, warm haze


s: Makes moist once more the sere and dusty ways,


s: And, creeping through where dead leaves lie in drifts,


s: The violet returns. Snow noiseless sifts


s: Ere night, an icy shroud, which morning's rays


s: The treachery, at last, too late, is plain;


s: Bare are the places where the sweet flowers dwelt.


s: What profit from the violet's day of pain?


s: The lakes of ice gleam bluer than the lakes


s: Of water 'neath the summer sunshine gleamed:


s: Far fairer than when placidly it streamed,


s: The brook its frozen architecture makes,


s: And under bridges white its swift way takes.


s: Snow comes and goes as messenger who dreamed


s: Might linger on the road; or one who deemed


s: His message hostile gently for their sakes


s: Who listened might reveal it by degrees.


s: Our loins now with mighty bands of sleep,


s: In longest, darkest nights take rest and ease,


s: And every shortening day, as shadows creep


s: O'er the brief noontide, fresh surprises find.


s: {1a}  Tacit. Julii Agric. vita, cap. xiv.


s: A worthy hero seated on variegated trappings,


s: Beautiful in a tangle is a thick-maned horse.—Ib. p, 28.


s: “That wore the golden spurs,”—Owen’s Ll. Hen, p. 131.


s: {80b}  “Pan,” pannus—down, fur, ermine, or fulled cloth.


s: “Ymogel ddwyn gwraig atat yn enw ei _hargyvrau_.”


s: Beware of taking to thyself a wife for the sake of her portion.


s: In that case, the passage should be rendered,—


s: Ere thou didst obtain thy nuptial dowry;


s: “argynrein” has no reference whatever to the nuptial dowry.


s: Because of the battle of Argoed Llwyvain,


s: And the ravens were coloured with the war of men.


s: And Llywarch Hen in his “Elegy on Urien Rheged” has the following


s: Pen a borthav mywn vy nghrys; pen Urien,


s: I bear by my side a head; the head of Urien,


s: And on his white bosom the sable raven is perched.


s: I bear in my shirt a head; the head of Urien,


s: Owain, his ravens, and his parti-coloured staff.


s: {82a}  Al. “March,” as if addressing the horse of the slain;—


s: He brought protection to women, and mead he distributed.


s: In war, but was a tame animal when he poured the wine from the


s: “That was the prompt defender of his neighbourhood.”


s: {84d}  Llywarch Hen says in like manner of his own son Gwen,—


s: In the assault like the eagle at the fall of rivers thou wert.


s: Llanw _ebyr_ ar _llyr_, lle ni mawr-drig.”  (Cynddelw.)


s: The bright hue of the spreading ebullition of the breakers of the


s: Of the flood of the effluxes of rivers, on the strand, where it


s: Megys twrv _ebyr_ yn _llyr_ llawn.”  (Cynddelw.)


s: Was like the tumult of the mouths of rivers with a full margin.


s: Cynhwrv yn _ebyr_, _llyr_ yn llenwi.”  (Ll P. Moch.)


s: The beginning of October, the period of the falling off of day,


s: There is tumult in the mouths of rivers, filling up the shore.


s: {85b}  “A garwyd,” al. “a gatwyt” “was preserved, or protected.”


s: Design of enterprize blazoned on his standard.


s: Gorchaneu . . . Achaws yu am goffau yn y Gorchaneu rivedi Guyr a


s: “Ys gwyr Manawyd a Phryderi.”  (Myv. Arch. vol. i. p. 67.)


s: The name of Pryderi occurs further on in our Poem.


s: Dr. O. Pughe translates the line in the Gododin thus—


s: “There was a confident impelling forward of the shaft of the


s: {87e}  Lit. “the place of wine,” otherwise “a horn of wine,”


s: “Ef a’m rhoddes medd a gwin o wydrin _ban_.


s: He gave me mead and wine from the transparent horn.  (Taliesin.)


s: Precious was the amber, but its price was the grave.


s: {88a}  The hero of this stanza we take to be the “son of Ysgyran”


s: He repelled violence, and gore trickled to the ground.


s: {88b}  Al. “The maimed shield-bearer,” (ysgwydwr.)


s: If I had judged you to be of the tribe of Bryneich,


s: Not the phantom of a man would I have left alive;


s: Round the grave of Dysgyrnyn Dysgyveddawd,


s: Heavy the burning impulse raised by sin.


s: {90b}  “Neithyawr.”  Al. “than go to the altar.”


s: “Tri eilldeyrn ynys Prydain: Gwrgai vab Gwrien yn y Gogledd, a


s: cynneddvau clodvorion a rhadvorion.”  (Triad, 26, third series.)


s: “Hyveidd a Gododin a lleu towys.”  (Myv. Arch. vol. i. p. 57.)


s: Would prostrate the ravagers.  (Myv. Arch. vol. i. p. 64.)


s: {91b}  Al. “As with blades they dealt mutual blows.”


s: {92b}  Or “gem of a regiment;” his choice regiment.


s: “O _arwar_ daiar down i gyd dyddbrawd.”  (Ll. P. Moch.)


s: {93b}  “Impia sub dulci melle venena latent.”


s: “Trychant marshals his men, armed with the weapons of war.”


s: Bards.—See STEPHEN’S Literature of the Kymry, p. 265.)


s: {94d}  Or, “Like a deluge, I would not have left a man alive.”


s: {96a}  Or, “They served as butts for the falling lances.”


s: “Esteemed for their age and disposition.”


s: “Gwedy meirch hywedd, a chochwedd ddillad,


s: Main vy nghoes, nid oes ym dremyn!”  (Elegy on Cynddylan.)


s: After the sleek tractable steeds, and garments of ruddy hue,


s: Slender is my leg, my piercing look is gone.”


s: In some copies we read “phurawr” (purawr) _what purifies_.


s: {97d}  As in the two preceding lines is contained a compliment to


s: {98a}  “Ceugant yw angeu,” (adage.)  The line might be rendered,—


s: “Without end they multiplied the wooden biers;”


s: And biers innumerable.  (Elegy upon Geraint ab Erbin.)


s: “Ceugant,” translated _without end_, is properly a Druidic term,


s: “Cylch y ceugant, ac nis gall namyn Duw eu dreiglaw.”


s: “Tri phren rhydd yn forest y brenhin; pren crib eglwys; a phren


s: {98c}  A reference to the last unction.  See St. James, v. 14.


s: {98d}  I.e. Tudvwlch Hir, the hero of this particular stanza.


s: {99d}  Or, “Through ambition he was a soarer.”  The person here


s: The path of glory leads but to the grave.—(Taliesin.)


s: Destructive were their wassails with Mynyddawg.


s: The Gorchan Maelderw in like manner speaks of him as,—


s: “Tudvwlch the oppressor of war, the destroyer of forts.”


s: {100f}  Al. the powerful supporter—“drut nerthyd.”


s: {101b}  “Like the thunder of heaven was the clashing of the


s: {101d}  Mark the antithesis “gwr llawr”—“arbennawr,” and


s: {102a}  Al. “Erthgi,” which is obviously the same as “Arthgi,” a


s: “In the front Erthai would mangle an army.”


s: {102e}  “Gowyssawr,” the furrower of battle: the designation of a


s: A oedd draw yn _cwysaw cad_.”  (Hywel Cilan.)


s: A grandson of Bleddyn with the weapon of slaughter,


s: i.e. “who will own, or who will deny them.”


s: Under me was blood to the top of my knee.


s: {104c}  Al. “Even on the foam-bordered Mordei.”


s: “Whilst Gwarthlev and Enovryd were pouring forth the liquor.”


s: {105d}  A peculiarity observable in Welsh documents is, that they


s: There are three trumpet progressions; the assembly of a country


s: according to heads of families and chiefs of tribes, the horn of


s: “Tair clud addwyn y sydd; beirdd yn darogan heddwch, _cyrch


s: “Tri corn cynghlud y sydd; _corn cynhauav_, corn dadlau, a chorn


s: {106b}  “Arvel,” which is required on account of the rhyme.


s: {106c}  Bright shields, which are here likened to wings.


s: His round shield was with fire winged for slaughter.


s: {106d}  An allusion to the trappings of the horses.


s: {108f}  A reference to the armour of the soldiers.


s: {109b}  Cynon was the son of Clydno Eiddin, and one of the three


s: Atteb.  Cyweirdeb.”  (Cynan ab Clydno Eiddin ai dywawd.)


s: The chief counsellor of the Island of Britain?


s: Better to keep than to pursue.  (Iolo MSS. pp. 251, 651.)


s: {109d}  There is a place so called in Cardiganshire.


s: {111a}  Nothing is known of this diviner.


s: Which has been translated by Ieuan Vardd,


s: Al. “Athrwys,” (ath-rhwys) “very vigorously.”


s: {111c}  This appears to have been the compact entered into by the


s: “A hero’s prowess is not without ambition.”


s: There are various readings of the word which is here translated


s: “When all were extended, thou didst also fall.”


s: That in the other Gorchan of Maelderw, page 85, may be rendered,


s: Present narrates that he was carried with the arms.


s: Dy _ffossaut_ trallaut trymmaf.”  (Myv. Arch. vol. i. p. 149.)


s: Thy interment, which was a most heavy affliction.


s: Descended into the fosse of the rampart,


s: Three warriors and three score and three hundred,


s: To the conflict of Cattraeth went forth;


s: Of those who hastened from the mead of the cup-bearers,


s: And I myself from the shedding of blood.—


s: {114b}  The grave of Cynon is thus recorded;—


s: The grave of Cynon the son of Clydno Eiddin.


s: It is the grave of a warrior valiant in the conflict,—


s: Ni char Dofydd diobeith.”  (Myv. Arch. i. 175.)


s: The son of Porthawr, with the warlike speech?


s: “Tair braint Beirdd ynys Prydain; Trwyddedogaeth lle’r elont; nas


s: The three primary privileges of the Bards of the Isle of Britain;


s: (Institutional Triads.  See also Myv. Arch. vol. iii.  Laws of


s: Denso paventem sustulit aere.  (Horace Carm. lib. ii. Ode 7.)


s: {115d}  Or more sententiously, as Davies has it,


s: “Base is he in the field, who is base to his own relatives.”


s: Al. “When we were deprived of our sharpened weapons.”


s: “There trod not, in Gododin, on the surface of the fosse,


s: When deprived of his sharpened weapon, none more destitute.”


s: “They assembled in arms, and in complete array they moved along,


s: Amgeledd am un nid gwiw!”  (Llywarch Hen.)


s: Against any Lloegrians that may come this day;


s: “There was the hero of the two shielded wings,


s: The one with the variegated front; the other of like quality with


s: “Tarian a gymmerai Arthur ar ei Ysgwydd, yr hon a elwid Prydwen.”


s: “Tri lloneid Prydwen ydd aetham ni ar for.”


s: {118c}  Perhaps scintillations from the clash of arms.


s: {118e}  “_Bud_ e vran,” an allusion to the name of _Bud_van.


s: {119c}  “Eleirch,” lit. _swans_, but the expression “meirch eilw


s: {119d}  Or, “the trappings” of his charger.


s: Au _deuddeng-nydd_ yn hoean”—Engl. y Misoedd.


s: {120c}  The word “arvaeth” in this poem seems to have a reference


s: Wearing the golden chain, leaders of armies;


s: {121d}  “Meirch,” suggested by the name “Marchleu.”


s: {121h}  The Bard would here pay an indirect compliment to his own


s: {122c}  Mygedorth is mentioned by Llywarch Hen,—


s: And in a state of subjection after excess of fruition


s: It is likewise alluded to in the Triads,—


s: “Cornan, march meibion Elifer Gosgorddfawr, a ddwg arnaw Gwrgi,


s: Peredur, Dunawd Fyr, a Chynfelyn Drwsgl, i edrych ar fygedorth


s: Cornan, the horse of the sons of Elifer with the great retinue,


s: That no one’s steeds would be overtaken by Marchleu;


s: As he was reared to bring support to all around,


s: Powerful was the stroke of his sword upon the adversary;


s: Eagerly ascended the ashen spear from the grasp of his hand,


s: From the narrow summit of the awful pile.”  _Gorch. Mael_.


s: {122d}  “Vygu,” or “the place where he would suffocate some one.”


s: {123a}  Nothing more is known of this chieftain.


s: respectively described in the succeeding lines.


s: The _mighty Spirit_ made.  (Gwawd Gwyr Israel.)


s: “Llary deyrn cedyrn yn cadw gwesti _cyrdd_,


s: A mild prince of mighty men keeping festivals of songs,


s: And equally protecting the minstrels.  (Llygad Gwr.)


s: Claim the splendid paths of harmonious songs,


s: Consecrated governor of the kingdom of heaven.  (Bleddyn Vardd.)


s: Every one has his foot on the fallen.  (Iolo MSS. pp. 259, 664.)


s: “Tri chadvarchawg Teyrn ynys Prydain: Caradawc Vreiehvras, a Llyr


s: {127f}  We should have been tempted to construe the line thus,—


s: Making “kynn caffat” into one word “cynghaffad,” had we not been


s: {128c}  Caradawg Vreichvras, just mentioned.


s: “Na Phyll, na Madawg, ni byddynt hiroedlawg,


s: ‘Rhoddyn!’—‘na roddyn!’—cyngrair byth nis erchynt!”


s: Nor Pyll, nor Madawg, would be long lived,


s: If according to custom there was a calling—


s: The mighty God will determine every right.


s: Constinobl, or honn y doeth y genhedlaeth vwyav o’r byd, ac o


s: {129d}  This name occurs in the Tale of Twrch Trwyth, page 259.


s: {129e}  Probably Aeddon the son of Ervei: see line 845.


s: {130a}  Or affirmatively, “a shield in the battle.”


s: {130c}  “How grievous is the longing for them.”


s: {131c}  That is, contributed his life towards a victory.


s: {131e}  Lit. “With the strength of steeds.”


s: {131f}  “Ar gychwyn,” poised, ready to fly.


s: “Tri gwyndeyrn ynys Prydain; Rhun ab Maelgwn, Owain ab Urien, a


s: Rhuawn Bevr ab Dewrath Wledig.”  (Triad xxv. third series.)


s: Gwytua ruuawn bebyr ben teyrnet.”  (Myv. Arch v. i. p. 277.)


s: The white wave, mantled with foam, bedews the grave,


s: The resting place of Rhuvawn Pebyr, chief of kings.


s: The graves that have their mounds together,


s: “Noe and Eseye hurled a massive stone from the wall of the fort,


s: He is dead; he will stir no more for all the doctor’s art.


s: {134b}  Cyhadvan, cyd advan, a co-retreat.


s: Gwallawg, the knight of tumult, would violently rave,


s: With a mind determined to try the sharpest edge,


s: {138a}  Morien is probably alluded to here again, whose especial


s: Most sad the lingering that thou art left, O Merddin.


s: The grave of Beli son of Benlli Gawr.  (Myv. Arch. v. i. p. 82.)


s: Or Beli son of Rhun, a sovereign of North Wales.


s: {139f}  “A clat,” cladd, a trench.  “In those parts where it (the


s: {140b}  Being skilled in the knowledge of the stars.


s: hansoddau y darogenynt a chwenychid ei wybod hyd yn nydd brawd.”


s: {141a}  Gwyddwg seems to have been in the service of Gwydien.


s: {141c}  “Murdyn;” it may be “mur dyn,” (_the bulwark of men_) as


s: The Englynion Beddau y Milwyr point out the graves of others,—


s: Y mae Sanant Syberv vun y mae Run ryvel achwy


s: The graves on the shore, on which but little generosity has been


s: {141e}  His character has been described before in stanza xxv.


s: {142d}  “Ysgrwydiat.”  Al. “Gold mailed warriors slept in death,


s: {143d}  “In the day of conflict.”  _Gorch. Mael_.


s: {144c}  The word Din indicates it to have been a camp or a fort.


s: {144f}  Meaning, perhaps, that had he himself been present, this


s: “The hero, the joy of the North, effected it,”


s: {147a}  Lit. “There does not walk upon the earth.”


s: Greet kindly though there be no acquaintance.


s: {147c}  He would not submit to arbitration, which would imply an


s: inability to assert their rights by force of arms.


s: {148a}  Al. “He bestowed his sword upon the,” &c.


s: {148e}  “Keingyell,” ceingel; a hank of thread.


s: {148f}  This was probably his sword which flashed.


s: {148h}  There is much poetic force in this line.


s: {149a}  Perhaps _Luce_ Bay, near _Leuco_pibia.


s: {149b}  Llywarch Hen, in his Elegy on Urien Rheged, speaks thus,—


s: {149e}  A poetical definition of a storm in winter.


s: “Deg myrdd yn y rhiallu, deg rhiallu yn y vynta, a deg mynta yn y


s: Ten myriads in the riallu ten times the riallu, in the mynta, ten


s: {150c}  Qu. _Carban_tium in the province of Valentia?


s: {150d}  Dyvynawl Vrych, or Donald Brec, who is said in the Scotch


s: Arranged was the prison of Gwair in Caer Sidi


s: Pwyll is the hero of one of the Mabinogion.


s: {151b}  Llywarch Hen speaks of a person of this name.


s: A gwedy Rhys mae rhysonial.”  (Elegy on Cynddylan.)


s: The sod of Ercal is on the ashes of fierce


s: And after Rhys there is great murmuring of woe.


s: {151c}  Al. “from the place where he was once overtaken.”


s: Ei orwydd, o wng ac o bell.”  (On Old Age.)


s: Gracefully he placed his thigh over the saddle


s: Of his steed, on the near and farther side.


s: {152f}  Al. “May triumph be far from his hand.”


s: Bradwen fought, slaughtered, and burned;


s: Thou didst not guard either the extremity or the entrance


s: Of the towering town; thy helmet did I not behold from the sea,


s: From the rampart of the sea, O thou knight worse than a slave.”


s: {154c}  “Gwas,” which means also youth.  It is probable that the


s: messenger or herald of the Saxons is here meant, who being of an


s: {154d}  Aneurin, addressing his country.


s: {154j}  By the “bulwark of toil” is probably understood Morien.


s: {155e}  The treacherous herald before mentioned.


s: {156a}  Another way of construing these two lines would be,—


s: “Strangers to the country, their deeds shall be heard of;


s: The bright wave murmured along on its pilgrimage;”


s: “Where they had collected together the most melodious deer.”


s: The deer were collected within the encampment for the purpose of


s: {156g}  Or, “mutually sharing” the toils of war.


s: “The stranger with the crimson robe pursued,


s: Llawer hendref fraith gwedi llwybrgodaith


s: Many a slippery tear sails down the cheek,


s: Many a widow raises the mournful shriek,


s: Many a cry of misery arises as erst on Camlan field.


s: {159a}  “Gwryd,” _manliness_, as displayed in war.


s: “With a feast of wine and a banquet of mead, endowed


s: By Cynlaith, mother of Hwrraith, was the energetic Eidol.”


s: “With a feast of wine and a banquet of mead,


s: Did his brave (_hwrraith_ from _hwrdd_) mother


s: At the first fall of the dew (_cyn llaith_) enrich


s: {160a}  The hill on which the vanguard was stationed.


s: “The foremost spearmen spring up around him.”


s: “As from the rocky cliff the shepherd sees


s: Clustering in heaps on heaps the driving bees,


s: Rolling, and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms,


s: With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms;


s: Dusky they spread, a close embodied crowd,


s: {161c}  Al. “They marched and chanted, clad in coat of mail.”


s: One who was generous of wine, and bounty, and mead.


s: A gware pelre a phen Saeson.”  (Myv. Arch. i. p. 73.)


s: Songsters, soon would their cares be heard;


s: An army of horsemen so harassing round Caer Llion;


s: And the revenge of Idwal on the Aranwynians;


s: And the playing of ball-buffetting with Saxon heads.


s: {164b}  “Adan;” that is _â dan_, will go under.  Lit. “under the


s: And immovable stone in the front of the army.”


s: {164f}  Al. “Oppressor, dressed in thy shining white robes.”


s: Enwir art thou named from thy righteous deed;


s: “Kigleu am dal met myned dreig Kattraeth.”  (Myv. Arch. i. 266.)


s: where he evidently refers to line 290 of our Poem.


s: description of the slaughter which ensued at Cattraeth.


s: {167a}  Or, “the gallantry of the glorious knight of conflict.”


s: Ac yved gwin o wydr gloyw.”  (Elegy upon Geraint)


s: Men who would not flinch from the dread of the spear,


s: And the quaffing of wine out of the bright glass.


s: {168e}  Probably Ayr in Scotland, rather than Aeron in Wales.


s: Oh, Cynddilig, why wert thou not a woman!


s: {170b}  “Dieis.”  Al. “her thrusts were penetrating.”


s: “On Tuesday they put on their splendid robes;


s: On Thursday messengers formed contracts;


s: On Sunday they were pierced by ruddy weapons;


s: On Monday a pool of blood knee deep was seen.”


s: {173b}  The stanza is thus varied in Gorchan Maelderw,


s: To conflict, headed by the king in front of the course;


s: And the forward beam of war, wore a murky hue.”  (_Gorch. Mael_.)


s: {173e}  The Catrail, or else the vallum of our hero’s camp.


s: “It was such a thrust to the little man.”  (Gorch. Mael.)


s: {174e}  Probably from the top of the rampart.


s: {175f}  Quasi dicat, “did not wear one.”


s: “It was a violation of privilege to sentence a woman to death.”


s: Pendevic Prydein yno _pen Barn_;”  (Myv. Arch. i. 132.)


s: {177d}  Or, “He sounded for steeds, he sounded for harness.”


s: Llywelyn the amiable lion, the torch of the Lloegrians.


s: {179a}  Lit. “the battle of sovereignty,”


s: {180a}  The contrast between his conduct in war and his domestic


s: {180c}  Or, “we are called to the sea and the borders, (or to the


s: “A successful warrior, flaming in steel, before the enemy.”


s: {182c}  Or, “The raging flame turns not from Eiddyn.”