s: And withered all our strength like flame:


s: The knight that bears two swords is one,


s: Lives there a nobler knight, more strong


s: “Alas,” King Arthur said, “he hath shown


s: Like stars of storm the knight that bare


s: With lightning of their swords, till flight


s: He said, since first his blast was blown,


s: Strong as the strong storm-baffling bird


s: Whose cry round Orkney’s headlands heard


s: Which head should lose its crown, and lie


s: Changed hope and fear till fear took flight,


s: He stayed King Lot’s fierce lust of fight


s: Strong ships that rue the mirth it makes


s: And all the fight he yearned for fought,


s: Who said: “They are weary and worn with fight,


s: The sad king’s face shone, frowning: “Yea,


s: With crash of hosts that clashed and reeled,


s: And spear to splintering spear-shaft, steeled


s: From war’s clenched hand by storm’s wild light,


s: The ban twin-born with blessing, stirred


s: That rocked and roared from side to side


s: And shatters all the strengths that bore


s: And clove his strong steed’s neck in twain,


s: And smote him sheer through brow and brain,


s: Whence pride and power and shame were fled


s: The wife whose love had wrought his doom


s: By faith in fear ere thought could yield


s: That sought and durst not seek his sight,


s: Sank of the fear that brings forth fate,


s: And dark the deepening dread that swayed


s: Their darkening souls whose light grew shade


s: And scarce the blast that curbs the tree


s: Laughed, as from all that clamorous fight


s: He passed and sought not Arthur’s sight,


s: The wild Welsh host’s wide rage and roar?


s: “Two marvellous knights are they, whose ken


s: The gifts that time should rise and bring


s: That life should find this dolorous pass


s: The sad knight said, “nor change my lot.”


s: And seeing the king there stand, the knight


s: In reverence made for love’s sake bright


s: The sovereign of their souls, whose name


s: The strange knight gazed on him, and spake:


s: No scathe from strife that man may make?


s: And thence they rode with hearts as high


s: Should fall not, following forth where led


s: A knight whose pledge hath left me dead.


s: Seeing thine is less of strength and speed,


s: And thence with sorrowing heart and cheer


s: With flickering winds whose flash and play


s: Laughed, leapt, and fluttered like a bird


s: Sweet earth for heaven’s sweet sake be glad


s: The strange knight’s face grew keen and red


s: While life shall last me.”  So they went


s: Fleet as the lightning’s laugh and flame


s: And smote the strange knight through, and fled,


s: That shudders while the waste wind’s tune


s: What shame should say in fame’s wide ear


s: And up the tower’s curled stair he sprang


s: As one that flies death’s deadliest fang,


s: Stood from him, loth to strive or smite,


s: That not the maiden’s death they sought;


s: But there through years too dire for thought


s: Had lain their lady stricken, and nought


s: Therewith might heal her: so they stayed


s: This grace she had here by God’s grace wrought.


s: And love that saw save love’s self nought,


s: Deep tide fulfilled the dawn’s wide ways,


s: Till when they saw the fourth day spring


s: Words bright and kind as grace might make


s: Sweet for true knighthood’s kindly sake,


s: “What noise is this?” quoth Balen.  “Nay,”


s: And he, fulfilled of hate’s fierce lust,


s: Swore vengeance, pledged for hell to trust,


s: That heaven and earth in depth and height


s: Nor even when stars would grant them sight,


s: He walks and slays as plague’s blind breath


s: Makes moan perforce that mars our cheer,


s: Whose stroke through him hath stricken me


s: “That knight I know: two knights of mine,


s: Two comrades, sealed by faith’s bright sign,


s: Whose eyes as ours that live should shine,


s: He hath slain in even the same blind wise:


s: Grew bright with trust as dawn’s moist maze


s: Holds feast through all this country cried,


s: Shall show, full-flushed with bloodred wine,


s: To wreak the wrong he hath wrought us, bare


s: As shame should see and brand it.”  “Then,”


s: Ere toward their goal their steeds had sped.


s: That none whose lot is knighthood’s lot,


s: Shall fail to keep, for knighthood’s part,


s: Hid round by charms from all men’s sight,


s: And silence dark as shame.”  “Ah, well,”


s: Saying, “Knight, what wouldst thou with me?  Eat,


s: Do that thou art come for: stands thy seat


s: “Well hast thou said: thy rede rings true;


s: Quoth Balen: forth his fleet sword flew,


s: Wherewith he slew your knight, when fear


s: And gladly, bright with grief made glad,


s: Through all dark days of thwarting fear,


s: That head, clothed round with hell-faced night,


s: Thou hast slain a nobler knight, and now


s: And toward his host he turned and spake;


s: “Thou hast slain my brother,” said the king,


s: Do it then thyself.”  And the answer fell


s: Shone, and the strength of the eager stroke


s: As burns at sunrise heaven’s own height:


s: Turns when the thwarting winds wax higher,


s: Fell the walls, rent from base to crown,


s: Prone as prone seas that break and drown


s: Was death’s blind kingdom, till the grace


s: Rode forth through many a wild waste land


s: Their wrath make moan for doubt they had


s: Was part of Christ’s own blood, the wine


s: Whose growth bids earth’s deep darkness shine


s: As heaven’s deep light through the air and sea;


s: Wherewith, nigh drained of blood and breath,


s: Till time should break them, dead men lay;


s: Blew storm and cloud from death’s wide gate:


s: Those lands and woes at length and last.


s: Eight times, as thence he fared forth fast,


s: Wherethrough the knight forth faring found


s: A maiden’s dreams might frame her knight;


s: “What grief bows down your heart and head


s: “Sir knight,” that other said, “thy word


s: That none who passed might choose but heed,


s: Break thy pledged faith to meet me? soon


s: Shall strike my death-bell, and thy boon


s: The blind fierce hand that fain had wrought


s: Self-murder, stung with fire of thought,


s: Cried, “or I slay thee.”  Scarce the glow


s: But smiled and spake, “That shall not need:


s: By knights whom kings and courts make tame


s: “The knight that bears two swords I know,


s: Most praised of all men, friend and foe,


s: So spake the sorrowing knight, and stood


s: As one whose heart fresh hope made good:


s: Through glade and glen and rough green road


s: He said, “where springs of loftier fount


s: “But strength in weakness lives and stands


s: As rocks that rise through shifting sands;


s: Strikes silence through the stars of night,


s: Spake, and his face as dawn’s grew bright,


s: “How far then lies she hence?”  “By this,”


s: On search where hope might fear to sound


s: Made entrance through the guardless gate


s: As life, while hope in life grows great,


s: Through many a glorious chamber, wrought


s: Through devious wonders bright and dense


s: He passed and saw with shame-struck sense


s: To meet the knight whose love, so spurned


s: And dreamed and hoped and lived in vain,


s: And said, “I have found her sleeping fast,”


s: From leaves wherethrough light winds ran past


s: But Garnysshe, seeing, reeled as he stood


s: Half hewn through: and the burning blood


s: The loud wind down that drives off shore,


s: “I have slain what most I loved: I have shed


s: So sure and strong the deep stroke drove


s: Rode thence, lest folk would say he had slain


s: Forth toward this castle,” and all the stone


s: Glowed in the sun’s glare even as though


s: Thy way lies not: thou hast passed to-day


s: Within thee, and through God’s good power


s: That note, whence all the loud wood sang


s: With winged and living sound that sprang


s: But nought like death or strife was here:


s: They made him, they whose troop drew near


s: Lightened and laughed from grove to lawn


s: Could dream that wizard hands had wrought


s: Against all swords that chance brings near,


s: And there with stroke of sword and spear


s: Must all for whom these halls make cheer


s: “Is this, that none whom chance hath led


s: That wicked laughter touched with flame.


s: Their steeds that feel each fret and jar


s: Wherewith the wild ways wound them: yet,


s: “Sir,” said a knight thereby that stood,


s: But hearkening toward the stream’s edge heard


s: Nought save the soft stream’s rippling word,


s: Ye had yet been known, and died not here.


s: And Balen said, “Thou hast heard my name


s: Be it life’s to build or death’s to break:


s: Moan for sad life’s or death’s sad sake.”


s: And soared in prayer that soared not long,


s: A steed whose trappings shone like flame,


s: That wrought by doom against them wrought:


s: First, and went toward him: all too soon


s: Of strength came back, and the evil tune


s: Shrank the steel, tempered thrice to show


s: He smote his brother, and there had nigh


s: Felled him: and while they breathed, his eye


s: As the earth beneath and the amorous air


s: Were all the strokes they smote and bore,


s: And each knight’s hauberk hewn and shred


s: And oft they breathed, and drew but breath


s: And poured and drank the draught of death,


s: Might stand and speak, “What good knight’s head


s: That matched me.”  Then his brother’s eye


s: Flashed pride and love; he spake and smiled


s: And felt in death life’s quickening flame,


s: Sprang sharper than his sword’s stroke rang.


s: More keen than death’s or memory’s fang,


s: Through sense and soul the shuddering pang


s: Shivered: and scarce he had cried, “Alas


s: Then, gathering strength up for a space,


s: While death and life would grant them grace


s: Life strove and shuddered through the swoon


s: And sorrow set these chained words free:


s: Thou hast slain, and I, my brother, thee


s: Not know you, seeing two swords were dight


s: Than yours, that even ere youth could wield


s: Like arms with manhood’s tried and steeled


s: Fiercely: “Would God, for thy sole sake,


s: Of one false knight’s false word and thought,


s: “Well done were that, if aught were done


s: “No more shouldst thou, for all the might


s: Of heart and hand that seals thee knight


s: As would to God thou hadst risen! though here


s: Whose blossom blights the withering bower


s: And all those hard light hearts were swayed


s: They twain, free now from hopes and fears,


s: Might sleep; and she, as one that hears,


s: That fills with light from the answering east


s: Might bless them, and their lips be kissed


s: Of dreams, when sweet-souled sleep has power


s: He drank the draught of life’s first wine


s: The first good steed his knees bestrode,


s: The first wild sound of songs that flowed


s: Through ears that thrilled and heart that glowed,


s: I have heard the worst that woe might say:


s: Of men whose names like stars shall stand,


s: To speak less abstractly. In England, for example, no mere parade


s: an impression of the beautiful in respect to the appurtenances


s: A want of keeping is observable sometimes in the character of the


s: regards texture, the Saxony is alone admissible. Brussels is the


s: The rage for _glitter-_because its idea has become as we before


s: uniformity: and the evil is here aggravated, not in merely direct


s: constantly increasing. In fact, a room with four or five mirrors


s: dollar-manufacture. As we grow rich, our ideas grow rusty. It is,


s: Stanfield, or the lake of the Dismal Swamp of Chapman. There


s: are, nevertheless, three or four female heads, of an ethereal


s: Intensos rigidarn in frontern ascendere canos


s: Simeon, Abel-Phittim, and Duzi-Ben-Levi were the Gizbarim, or


s: sub-collectors of the offering, in the holy city of Jerusalem.


s: "'That they are fickle-minded and treacherous is as true as the


s: "Now, by the five corners of my beard!" shouted the Pharisee, who


s: "Let us not question the motives of the Philistine," interrupted


s: Teraphim!--is it Nergal of whom the idolater speaketh?---or


s: "Racal" swore Ben-Levi, "Racal do they mean to defraud us of the


s: our voices in a psalm--let us give thanks on the shawm and on the


s: It was not until the basket had arrived within a few feet of the


s: The fact is, that soon after my arrival at the cottage there had


s: My host, however, had in some degree resumed the calmness of his


s: demeanor, and questioned me very rigorously in respect to the


s: especially (among other things) upon the idea that the principle


s: "But for your exceeding minuteness," he said, "in describing the


s: He here closed the book and leaned forward in the chair, placing


s: other men do. In fact, Hop-Frog could only get along by a sort of


s: But although Hop-Frog, through the distortion of his legs, could


s: I am not able to say, with precision, from what country Hop-Frog


s: originally came. It was from some barbarous region, however, that


s: inventive in the way of getting up pageants, suggesting novel


s: Hop-Frog endeavored, as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these


s: "And now to business," said the prime minister, a very fat man.


s: Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly.


s: "Drink, I say!" shouted the monster, "or by the fiends-"


s: The tyrant regarded her, for some moments, in evident wonder at


s: The latter seemed to have recovered, in great measure, from his


s: "The sound appeared to come from without," observed one of the


s: among us, at our masquerades: but here it will be new altogether.


s: "Capital!" roared in chorus the monarch and his ministry.


s: The grand saloon in which the masquerade was to take place, was a


s: The arrangements of the room had been left to Trippetta's


s: The masqueraders, by this time, had recovered, in some measure,


s: from their alarm; and, beginning to regard the whole matter as a


s: well-contrived pleasantry, set up a loud shout of laughter at the


s: Ce grand malheur, de ne pouvoir être seul.


s: At first my observations took an abstract and generalizing turn.


s: By far the greater number of those who went by had a satisfied


s: The tribe of clerks was an obvious one and here I discerned


s: two remarkable divisions. There were the junior clerks of flash


s: There were many individuals of dashing appearance, whom I easily


s: The wild effects of the light enchained me to an examination of


s: The paving-stones lay at random, displaced from their beds by the


s: equally acute. These fellows demonstrate a hidden meaning in "The


s: of mitigating the accusations against me--I offer the sad history


s: suspicion. It is not impossible that he was affected with the


s: profound reflection, then looked up and, I thought, smiled very


s: Punctually at the word "away," my poor friend set off in a strong


s: old gentleman to make any other gentleman jump? The little old


s: I have already said that Mr. Shuttleworthy was one of the most


s: respectable and, undoubtedly, he was the most wealthy man in


s: Shuttleworthy's nephew, a young man of very dissipated habits,


s: the crowd, and especially between "Old Charley" and Mr.


s: and many high compliments to "Old Charley" upon his sagacity and


s: Mr. Goodfellow went on for some half hour longer in this strain,


s: This latter now came forward, and, with tears in his eyes, asked


s: any farther testimony, and immediately committed the prisoner for


s: The fact is, that Mr. Goodfellow had, since the death of Mr.


s: The morrow at length arrived, and with it a very large and highly


s: At the hearin' of this, ye may swear, though, I was as mad as a


s: behould, jist then all at once, the consated behavior of Mounseer


s: the door, while I turned my head round afther her, in a complate


s: "Woully wou," says he, "pully wou," says he--"Cot tam!"


s: Je suis plus savant que Balzac--          Plus sage que Pibrac;


s: the gridiron--a toasting-fork might be discovered by the side of


s: "I was saying," said the intruder, without attending to the


s: interrogatives,--"I was saying that I am not at all pushed for


s: "My Exposition!--there now!--how do you know?--how came you to


s: understand that I was writing an Exposition?--good God!"


s: important ethical ideas, which might, in obtaining a place in his


s: conversation. But plans even the most skilfully matured are often


s: If Bon-Bon had been astonished at the incident of the book, his


s: head?--right--the head of a worm. To you, likewise, these optics


s: are indispensable--yet I will convince you that my vision is more


s: Hereupon the guest helped himself to the wine upon the table, and


s: {*2} Ils ecrivaient sur la Philosophie (_Cicero, Lucretius,


s: Seneca_) mais c'etait la Philosophie Grecque.--_Condorcet_.


s: "What do you think of--what do you think of--hiccup!--Epicurus?"


s: "What do I think of whom?" said the devil, in astonishment, "you


s: "That's a lie!" repeated the restaurateur, dogmatically; "that's


s: "There was the soul of Cratinus--passable: Aristophanes--racy:


s: "Hic-cup!" here replied Bon-Bon, and his majesty proceeded:


s: "What do you think of a--hic-cup!--physician?"


s: "Don't mention them!--ugh! ugh! ugh!" (Here his Majesty retched


s: "Hiccup!--hiccup!--good God! how do you manage?"


s: The host swallowed another bumper, by way of denoting thorough


s: comprehension and acquiescence, and the visiter continued.


s: "Only think of a hiccup!--fricasseed shadow!! Now,


s: damme!--hiccup!--humph! If I would have been such


s: "My soul is--hiccup!--peculiarly qualified for--hiccup!--a-"


s: "Am supplied at present," said his Majesty.


s: "Your present disgusting and ungentlemanly situation."


s: But when were the hopes of humanity fulfilled? I could not have


s: completed my third snore when there came a furious ringing at the


s: "Come to me, by all means, my dear good friend, as soon as you


s: We had some difficulty in getting this case open without injury;


s: but having at length accomplished the task, we came to a second,


s: It was by his advice, accordingly, that we made, upon the spot, a


s: It will be readily understood that Mr. Gliddon's discourse turned


s: matters were now explained, it might be as well to proceed with


s: the investigation intended. Here Doctor Ponnonner made ready his


s: "But what we are especially at a loss to understand," said Doctor


s: "The blood of the Scarabaeus!" exclaimed Doctor Ponnonner.


s: "Yes. The Scarabaeus was the insignium or the 'arms,' of a very


s: "But what has this to do with you being alive?"


s: "Will you be kind enough to explain," I said, "what you mean by


s: in correcting, from his own private knowledge and experience, the


s: "By all means, sir," replied the Count, drawing up.


s: "The long duration of human life in your time, together with


s: the occasional practice of passing it, as you have explained, in


s: Having heard us to an end, the Count proceeded to relate a few


s: anecdotes, which rendered it evident that prototypes of Gall and


s: The Count said that he regretted not being able to remember, just


s: no means sure that two or three hundred of them might not have


s: been squeezed in with some trouble. That palace at Carnac was an


s: I here asked the Count what he had to say to our railroads.


s: I spoke of our gigantic mechanical forces.


s: He listened with marked interest, and in fact seemed not a little


s: I asked what was the name of the usurping tyrant.


s: As well as the Count could recollect, it was Mob.


s: Reviews. Surely there can be nothing in mere _size, _abstractly


s: Peace charm'd the street beneath her feet,


s: 'Twixt Want and Scorn she walk'd forlorn,


s: For as love's wild prayer dissolved in air,


s: But the sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven


s: I cannot better introduce the few poems which I shall present for


s: That shall soothe this restless feeling,


s: And the night shall be filled with music,


s: There, through the long, long summer hours,


s: And thick young herbs and groups of flowers


s: Should rest him there, and there be heard


s: Soft airs and song, and the light and bloom,


s: These to their soften'd hearts should bear


s: Of her bright face one glance will trace


s: Her health! and would on earth there stood,


s: Among the "Melodies" of Thomas Moore is one whose distinguished


s: Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer


s: Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;


s: Here still is the smile, that no cloud can o'ercast,


s: And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last.


s: Oh! what was love made for, if 'tis not the same


s: Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame?


s: I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,


s: I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.


s: Thou hast call'd me thy Angel in moments of bliss,


s: And thy Angel I'll be, 'mid the horrors of this,--


s: Through the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,


s: And shield thee, and save thee,--or perish there too!


s: The vigor of this poem is no less remarkable than its pathos. The


s: Though thy soul with my grief was acquainted,


s: And the love which my spirit bath painted


s: And when winds are at war with the ocean,


s: Though the rock of my last hope is shivered,


s: They may crush, but they shall not contemn--


s: They may torture, but shall not subdue me--


s: 'Tis of _thee _that I think--not of them.


s: Though human, thou didst not deceive me,


s: Though loved, thou forborest to grieve me,


s: Though slandered, thou never couldst shake,--


s: Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me,


s: Though watchful, 'twas not to defame me,


s: Yet I blame not the world, nor despise it,


s: From the wreck of the past, which bath perished,


s: It bath taught me that which I most cherished


s: In the wide waste there still is a tree,


s: Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,


s: Tears from the depth of some divine despair


s: Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,


s: And thinking of the days that are no more.


s: Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,


s: That brings our friends up from the underworld,


s: That sinks with all we love below the verge;


s: So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.


s: Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns


s: The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds


s: The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;


s: So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.


s: And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd


s: On lips that are for others; deep as love,


s: Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;


s: O Death in Life, the days that are no more.


s: Then mounte! then mounte, brave gallants all,


s: Heart-whole we'll part, and no whit sighe


s: passionate admiration of the bereaved child--


s: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,


s: Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,


s: While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,


s: As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.


s: "'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--


s: Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,


s: And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.


s: Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrow


s: From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore--


s: For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--


s: And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain


s: Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;


s: So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating


s: "'Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door--


s: Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;--


s: Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,


s: "Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;


s: But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,


s: And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,


s: But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,


s: And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"


s: This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"--


s: Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,


s: Soon I heard again a tapping somewhat louder than before.


s: "Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;


s: Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;--


s: Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--


s: Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,


s: By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,


s: Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,


s: For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being


s: Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door--


s: Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,


s: But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only


s: That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.


s: Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,


s: "Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store


s: Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster


s: But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,


s: Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore--


s: What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore


s: This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing


s: To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;


s: This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining


s: On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplght gloated o'er,


s: But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er,


s: Respite--respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;


s: Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"


s: On this home by Horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore--


s: Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,


s: It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore--


s: Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."


s: Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!


s: And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting


s: And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,


s: What a world of merriment their melody foretells!


s: To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells


s: From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.


s: What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!


s: To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats


s: What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!


s: To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!


s: What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!


s: In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,


s: In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,


s: By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells--


s: In the clamour and the clangour of the bells!


s: What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!


s: At the melancholy meaning of their tone!


s: To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.


s: The leaves they were withering and sere;


s: There were days when my heart was volcanic


s: That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek


s: But our thoughts they were palsied and sere--


s: And we marked not the night of the year--


s: (Though once we had journeyed down here)


s: We remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,


s: She has seen that the tears are not dry on


s: These cheeks, where the worm never dies,


s: And has come past the stars of the Lion,


s: Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.


s: I replied--"This is nothing but dreaming.


s: See!--it flickers up the sky through the night!


s: Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,


s: Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."


s: But were stopped by the door of a tomb--


s: And I said--"What is written, sweet sister,


s: As the leaves that were crisped and sere--


s: As the leaves that were withering and sere--


s: That I journeyed--I journeyed down here!--


s: That I brought a dread burden down here--


s: On this night, of all nights in the year,


s: Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber--


s: Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber--


s: A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,


s: Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,


s: There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,


s: With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,


s: Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe--


s: Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses


s: That gave out, in return for the love-light,


s: Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death--


s: That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted


s: By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.


s: I saw thee half reclining; while the moon


s: Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,


s: And on thine own, upturn'd--alas, in sorrow!


s: Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight-


s: Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)


s: That bade me pause before that garden-gate,


s: To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?


s: No footstep stirred: the hated world an slept,


s: Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven!--oh, God!


s: How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)


s: Save only thee and me. I paused--I looked-


s: And in an instant all things disappeared.


s: (Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)


s: The mossy banks and the meandering paths,


s: The happy flowers and the repining trees,


s: Were seen no more: the very roses' odors


s: All--all expired save thee--save less than thou:


s: Save only the divine light in thine eyes-


s: Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.


s: I saw but them--they were the world to me!


s: I saw but them--saw only them for hours,


s: What wild heart-histories seemed to he enwritten


s: Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!


s: But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,


s: And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees


s: Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained;


s: They would not go--they never yet have gone;


s: Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,


s: They have not left me (as my hopes have) since;


s: They follow me--they lead me through the years.


s: They are my ministers--yet I their slave.


s: Their office is to illumine and enkindle--


s: My duty, to be saved by their bright light,


s: They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),


s: And are far up in Heaven--the stars I kneel to


s: I see them still--two sweetly scintillant


s: And this maiden she lived with no other thought


s: But we loved with a love that was more than love--


s: With a love that the wingéd seraphs of Heaven


s: The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,


s: Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,


s: That the wind came out of the cloud, chilling


s: But our love it was stronger by far than the love


s: For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams


s: And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes


s: And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side


s: Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride


s: For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,


s: Brightly expressive as the twins of Loeda,


s: Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies


s: Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.


s: Search narrowly the lines!--they hold a treasure


s: That must be worn _at heart_. Search well the measure--


s: The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor!


s: And yet there is in this no Gordian knot


s: Which one might not undo without a sabre,


s: If one could merely comprehend the plot.


s: Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering


s: Eyes scintillating soul, there lie _perdus_


s: Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing


s: Of poets, by poets--as the name is a poet's, too.


s: Like the knight Pinto--Mendez Ferdinando--


s: Still form a synonym for Truth--Cease trying!


s: "Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce,


s: "Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.


s: Through all the flimsy things we see at once


s: Trash of all trash!--how _can_ a lady don it?


s: Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff-


s: Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff


s: Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it."


s: Bubbles--ephemeral and _so_ transparent--


s: But _this_ is, now,--you may depend upon it--


s: Of the dear names that lie concealed within 't.


s: Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,


s: Can find, among their burning terms of love,


s: Therefore by that dear name I long have called you--


s: And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you


s: My mother--my own mother, who died early,


s: Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,


s: And thus are dearer than the mother I knew


s: Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.


s: THOU wouldst be loved?--then let thy heart


s: Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride--


s: Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride.


s: With the moon-tints of purple and pearl,


s: Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curl--


s: While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eye--


s: While ever to her young Eulalie upturns her violet eye.


s: Of all who hail thy presence as the morning--


s: Of all to whom thine absence is the night--


s: The blotting utterly from out high heaven


s: The sacred sun--of all who, weeping, bless thee


s: Hourly for hope--for life--ah! above all,


s: For the resurrection of deep-buried faith


s: At thy soft-murmured words, "Let there be light!"


s: At the soft-murmured words that were fulfilled


s: In the seraphic glancing of thine eyes--


s: Of all who owe thee most--whose gratitude


s: And think that these weak lines are written by him--


s: By him who, as he pens them, thrills to think


s: His spirit is communing with an angel's.


s: NOT long ago, the writer of these lines,


s: Maintained "the power of words"--denied that ever


s: Beyond the utterance of the human tongue:


s: And now, as if in mockery of that boast,


s: Two words-two foreign soft dissyllables--


s: That hangs like chains of pearl on Hermon hill,"--


s: Have stirred from out the abysses of his heart,


s: Unthought-like thoughts that are the souls of thought,


s: (Who has "the sweetest voice of all God's creatures")


s: Could hope to utter. And I! my spells are broken.


s: The pen falls powerless from my shivering hand.


s: With thy dear name as text, though bidden by thee,


s: I can not write-I can not speak or think--


s: Alas, I can not feel; for 'tis not feeling,


s: This standing motionless upon the golden


s: Threshold of the wide-open gate of dreams,


s: Gazing, entranced, adown the gorgeous vista,


s: To where the prospect terminates-_thee only!_


s: Wherethe good and the bad and the worst and the best


s: Down, down that town shall settle hence,


s: 'Neath which thy slumb'ring sould lies hid,


s: Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress!


s: Strange, above all, thy length of tress,


s: Some vault that oft hath flung its black


s: How I shudder at the notes Of the bells, bells, bells--


s: From the secret that lies in these wolds--


s: expression of the poet's undying love for his deceased bride,


s: AH broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!


s: Let the bell toll!--a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;


s: And, Guy De Vere, hast _thou_ no tear?--weep now or never more!


s: See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!


s: Come! let the burial rite be read--the funeral song be sung!--


s: An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young--


s: A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.


s: "By you--by yours, the evil eye,--by yours, the slanderous tongue


s: _Peccavimus_; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song


s: Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel so wrong!


s: The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside


s: The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes--


s: The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes.


s: "Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise,


s: "But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!


s: "Let no bell toll!--lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,


s: All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,


s: TYPE of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary


s: At length--at length--after so many days


s: (Thirst for the springs of lore that in thee lie,)


s: My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory!


s: I feel ye now--I feel ye in your strength--


s: O spells more sure than e'er Judæan king


s: O charms more potent than the rapt Chaldee


s: Ever drew down from out the quiet stars!


s: Here, where a hero fell, a column falls!


s: Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold,


s: Here, where the dames of Rome their gilded hair


s: Waved to the wind, now wave the reed and thistle!


s: Here, where on golden throne the monarch lolled,


s: Glides, spectre-like, unto his marble home,


s: Lit by the wanlight--wan light of the horned moon,


s: The swift and silent lizard of the stones!


s: But stay! these walls--these ivy-clad arcades--


s: These mouldering plinths--these sad and blackened shafts--


s: These vague entablatures--this crumbling frieze--


s: These shattered cornices--this wreck--this ruin--


s: These stones--alas! these gray stones--are they all--


s: "Not all"--the Echoes answer me--"not all!


s: "Prophetic sounds and loud, arise forever


s: "From us, and from all Ruin, unto the wise,


s: "We rule the hearts of mightiest men--we rule


s: "Not all our power is gone--not all our fame--


s: "And cling around about us as a garment,


s: "Clothing us in a robe of more than glory."


s: Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,


s: And travellers, now, within that valley,


s: It writhes!--it writhes!--with mortal pangs


s: THERE are some qualities--some incorporate things,


s: That have a double life, which thus is made


s: A type of that twin entity which springs


s: From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.


s: There is a two-fold _Silence_--sea and shore--


s: Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,


s: Newly with grass o'ergrown; some solemn graces,


s: Render him terrorless: his name's "No More."


s: He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!


s: But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)


s: Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf,


s: That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod


s: No foot of man,) commend thyself to God!


s: From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,


s: And chasms, and caves, and Titian woods,


s: White-robed forms of friends long given,


s: But the traveller, travelling through it,


s: Beholds it but through darkened glasses.


s: FAIR isle, that from the fairest of all flowers,


s: Thy gentlest of all gentle names dost take


s: At sight of thee and thine at once awake!


s: How many thoughts of what entombed hopes!


s: No more--no more upon thy verdant slopes!


s: Transfomring all! Thy charms shall please _no more_--


s: Henceforth I hold thy flower-enamelled shore,


s: ROME.--A Hall in a Palace  Alessandra and Castiglione.


s: Oh, I'm the happiest, happiest man in Rome!


s: A few days more, thou knowest, my Alessandra,


s: Will make thee mine. Oh, I am very happy!


s: Aless.  Methinks thou hast a singular way of showing


s: Thy happiness!--what ails thee, cousin of mine?


s: I was not conscious of it. It is a fashion,


s: Aless. Thou didst. Thou art not well. Thou hast indulged


s: Too much of late, and I am vexed to see it.


s: Late hours and wine, Castiglione,--these


s: Will ruin thee! thou art already altered--


s: Thy looks are haggard--nothing so wears away


s: The constitution as late hours and wine.


s: Cas. (musing.)  Nothing, fair cousin, nothing--not even deep


s: Thy riotous company, too--fellows low born--


s: Ill suit the like with old Di Broglio's heir


s: Aless.   Thou wilt--thou must. Attend thou also more


s: To thy dress and equipage--they are over plain


s: For thy lofty rank and fashion--much depends


s: Aless. Then see to it!--pay more attention, sir,


s: To a becoming carriage--much thou wantest


s: Aless.(haughtily)  Thou mockest me, sir!


s: Cas. (abstractedly.)  Sweet, gentle Lalage!


s: Cas. (startling.)  Cousin! fair cousin!--madam!


s: I crave thy pardon--indeed I am not well--


s: Your hand from off my shoulder, if you please.


s: This air is most oppressive!--Madam--the Duke!


s: Di Broglio.  My son, I've news for thee!--hey?--what's the


s: I' the pouts? Kiss her, Castiglione! kiss her,


s: You dog! and make it up, I say, this minute!


s: I've news for you both. Politian is expected


s: We'll have him at the wedding. 'Tis his first visit


s: We'll have him at the wedding. A man quite young


s: In years, but grey in fame. I have not seen him,


s: But Rumour speaks of him as of a prodigy


s: Pre-eminent in arts and arms, and wealth,


s: And high descent. We'll have him at the wedding.


s: Aless. I have heard much of this Politian.


s: So deep abstruse he has not mastered it.


s: And sought his company. They speak of him


s: Drinking the cup of pleasure to the dregs.


s: Cas.  Ridiculous! Now I have seen Politian


s: And know him well--nor learned nor mirthful he.


s: Let us go forth and taste the fragrant air


s: Of the garden. Did I dream, or did I hear


s: Jac. [Jacinta] (pertly.) Yes, Ma'am, I'm here.


s: Lal.   I did not know, Jacinta, you were in waiting.


s: Sit down!--Let not my presence trouble you--


s: Sit down!--for I am humble, most humble.


s: Lal. "It in another climate, so he said,


s: "Bore a bright golden flower, but not i' this soil!"


s: (pauses--turns over some leaves, and resumes)


s: "No lingering winters there, nor snow, nor shower--


s: "Breathes the shrill spirit of the western wind."


s: To what my fevered soul doth dream of Heaven!


s: O happy land (pauses) She died!--the maiden died!


s: A still more happy maiden who couldst die!


s: (Jacinta returns no answer, and Lalage presently resumes.)


s: Told of a beauteous dame beyond the sea!


s: Thus speaketh one Ferdinand in the words of the play--


s: "She died full young"--one Bossola answers him--


s: "Seemed to have years too many"--Ah luckless lady!


s: But like--oh, very like in its despair--


s: A thousand hearts--losing at length her own.


s: She died. Thus endeth the history--and her maids


s: Lal.  Wilt thou, my good Jacinta, be so kind


s: For the wounded spirit in Gilead it is there!


s: Dew in the night time of my bitter trouble


s: Will there be found--"dew sweeter far than that


s: Which hangs like chains of pearl on Hermon hill."


s: (re-enter Jacinta, and throws a volume on the table.)


s: For thou hast served me long and ever been


s: Lal. What didst thou say, Jacinta? Now I bethink me


s: Thou hast not spoken lately of thy wedding.


s: How fares good Ugo?--and when is it to be?


s: Can I do aught?--is there no farther aid


s: That's meant for me. (aside) I'm sure, madam, you need not


s: But then I might have sworn it. After all,


s: There 's Ugo says the ring is only paste,


s: For he 's sure the Count Castiglione never


s: Would have given a real diamond to such as you;


s: And at the best I'm certain, Madam, you cannot


s: Lal.  Poor Lalage!--and is it come to this?


s: Thy servant maid!--but courage!--'tis but a viper


s: Whom thou hast cherished to sting thee to the soul!


s: Ha! here at least 's a friend--too much a friend


s: In earlier days--a friend will not deceive thee.


s: Fair mirror and true! now tell me (for thou canst)


s: A tale--a pretty tale--and heed thou not


s: Though it be rife with woe: It answers me.


s: It speaks of sunken eyes, and wasted cheeks,


s: Whispers of early grave untimely yawning


s: For ruined maid. Fair mirror and true--thou liest not!


s: Thou hast no end to gain--no heart to break--


s: (While she speaks, a monk enters her apartment, and approaches


s: Sweet daughter, in Heaven. Think of eternal things!


s: Give up thy soul to penitence, and pray!


s: Lal. (arising hurriedly.)  I cannot pray!--My soul is at war


s: The sweet airs from the garden worry me!


s: Thy presence grieves me--go!--thy priestly raiment


s: Lal.  Think of my early days!--think of my father


s: And mother in Heaven think of our quiet home,


s: And the rivulet that ran before the door!


s: Think of my little sisters!--think of them!


s: And think of me!--think of my trusting love


s: And confidence--his vows--my ruin--think--think


s: Yet stay! yet stay!--what was it thou saidst of prayer


s: And penitence? Didst thou not speak of faith


s: There is a vow were fitting should be made--


s: Lal.  Father, this zeal is anything but well!


s: Hast thou a crucifix fit for this thing?


s: Thy raiments and thy ebony cross affright me!


s: I have a crucifix Methinks 'twere fitting


s: The deed--the vow--the symbol of the deed--


s: And the deed's register should tally, father!


s: (draws a cross-handled dagger, and raises it on high)


s: Behold the cross wherewith a vow like mine


s: And speak a purpose unholy--thy lips are livid--


s: Thine eyes are wild--tempt not the wrath divine!


s: Pause ere too late!--oh, be not--be not rash!


s: An apartment in a Palace. Politian and Baldazzar.


s: Baldazzar.------Arouse thee now, Politian!


s: Thou must not--nay indeed, indeed, shalt not


s: Give away unto these humors. Be thyself!


s: Shake off the idle fancies that beset thee,


s: Politian.  Not so, Baldazzar! Surely I live.


s: To give thee cause for grief, my honoured friend.


s: Command me, sir! what wouldst thou have me do?


s: At thy behest I will shake off that nature


s: Which from my, forefathers I did inherit,


s: Which with my mother's milk I did imbibe,


s: And be no more Politian, but some other.


s: Bal.  To the field, then--to the field--


s: There is an imp would follow me even there!


s: There is an imp hath followed me even there!


s: Bal.  Give not thy soul to dreams: the camp--the court,


s: Befit thee--Fame awaits thee--Glory calls--


s: And her the trumpet-tongued thou wilt not hear


s: Pol.  Thou heardst it not!--Baldazaar, speak no more


s: To me, Politian, of thy camps and courts.


s: Oh! I am sick, sick, sick, even unto death,


s: Of the hollow and high-sounding vanities


s: Of the populous Earth! Bear with me yet awhile!


s: We have been boys together--schoolfellows--


s: And now are friends--yet shall not be so long--


s: For in the eternal city thou shalt do me


s: Shall then absolve thee of all further duties


s: Approaches, and the Hours are breathing low,


s: The sands of Time are changed to golden grains,


s: As hath been kindled within it. Methinks the air


s: Rich melodies are floating in the winds--


s: Sitteth in Heaven.--Hist! hist! thou canst not say


s: Pol.  Not hear it!--listen now!--listen!--the faintest sound


s: And yet the sweetest that ear ever heard!


s: A lady's voice!--and sorrow in the tone!


s: Baldazzar, it oppresses me like a spell!


s: Into my heart of hearts! that eloquent voice


s: Had I but heard it with its thrilling tones


s: Be still!--the voice, if I mistake not greatly,


s: Proceeds from yonder lattice--which you may see


s: Very plainly through the window--it belongs,


s: Does it not? unto this palace of the Duke.


s: Is even that Alessandra of whom he spoke


s: Voice        "And is thy heart so strong


s: (very faintly)   As for to leave me thus


s: Bal.  The song is English, and I oft have heard it


s: In merry England--never so plaintively--


s: (more loudly)    As for to leave me thus


s: Bal.  The hour is growing late--the Duke awaits use--


s: Voice           "Who hath loved thee so long


s: (distinctly)        In wealth and woe among,


s: Bal.  Let us descend!--'tis time. Politian, give


s: These fancies to the wind. Remember, pray,


s: Your bearing lately savored much of rudeness


s: Unto the Duke. Arouse thee! and remember


s: Pol.  Remember? I do. Lead on! I do remember.


s: Let us descend. Believe me I would give,


s: Freely would give the broad lands of my earldom


s: To look upon the face hidden by yon lattice--


s: "To gaze upon that veiled face, and hear


s: Descend with me--the Duke may be offended.


s: Pol. (aside)  'Tis strange!--'tis very strange--methought the


s: Chimed in with my desires, and bade me stay!


s: Sweet voice! I heed thee, and will surely stay.


s: Now be this Fancy, by Heaven, or be it Fate,


s: Still will I not descend. Baldazzar, make


s: Shall be attended to. Good-night, Politian.


s: Pol.  Good-night, my friend, good-night.


s: The gardens of a Palace--Moonlight Lalage and Politian.


s: To me, Politian?--dost thou speak of love


s: This mockery is most cruel--most cruel indeed!


s: Politian.  Weep not! oh, sob not thus!--thy bitter tears


s: And still I speak of love. Look at me, brightest


s: And beautiful Lalage!--turn here thine eyes!


s: Thou askest me if I could speak of love,


s: Knowing what I know, and seeing what I have seen.


s: Thou askest me that--and thus I answer thee--


s: Thro' good and ill--thro' weal and wo I love thee.


s: Not mother, with her first-born on her knee,


s: Thrills with intenser love than I for thee.


s: Not on God's altar, in any time or clime,


s: Burned there a holier fire than burneth now


s: Thou dost forget thyself, remembering me!


s: How, in thy father's halls, among the maidens


s: Pure and reproachless of thy princely line,


s: MY seared and blighted name, how would it tally


s: What need we more? Ha! glory!--now speak not of it.


s: By all I hold most sacred and most solemn-


s: By all my wishes now--my fears hereafter-


s: By all I scorn on earth and hope in heaven-


s: Than in thy cause to scoff at this same glory


s: And trample it under foot. What matters it-


s: What matters it, my fairest, and my best,


s: Descend together--and then--and then, perchance-


s: The starry and quiet dwellings of the blest,


s: Thou lovest me, and in my heart of hearts


s: Of yonder trees methought a figure passed-


s: A spectral figure, solemn, and slow, and noiseless-


s: Like the grim shadow Conscience, solemn and noiseless.


s: Pol.  My Lalage--my love! why art thou moved?


s: Why dost thou turn so pale? Not Conscience' self,


s: Far less a shadow which thou likenest to it,


s: Should shake the firm spirit thus. But the night wind


s: Thou speakest to me of love. Knowest thou the land


s: With which all tongues are busy--a land new found--


s: A thousand leagues within the golden west?


s: A fairy land of flowers, and fruit, and sunshine,


s: And crystal lakes, and over-arching forests,


s: And mountains, around whose towering summits the winds


s: Of Heaven untrammelled flow--which air to breathe


s: Is Happiness now, and will be Freedom hereafter


s: Fly to that Paradise--my Lalage, wilt thou


s: Fly thither with me? There Care shall be forgotten,


s: And Sorrow shall be no more, and Eros be all.


s: And life shall then be mine, for I will live


s: For thee, and in thine eyes--and thou shalt be


s: Shall wait upon thee, and the angel Hope


s: Attend thee ever; and I will kneel to thee


s: And worship thee, and call thee my beloved,


s: My all;--oh, wilt thou--wilt thou, Lalage,


s: Pol.  And he shall die!                                (exit)


s: Where am I?--what was it he said?--Politian!


s: Thou art not gone--thou are not gone, Politian!


s: I feel thou art not gone--yet dare not look,


s: Lest I behold thee not; thou couldst not go


s: With those words upon thy lips--O, speak to me!


s: And let me hear thy voice--one word--one word,


s: To say thou art not gone,--one little sentence,


s: To say how thou dost scorn--how thou dost hate


s: My womanly weakness. Ha! ha! thou art not gone-


s: O speak to me! I knew thou wouldst not go!


s: I knew thou wouldst not, couldst not, durst not go.


s: Villain, thou art not gone--thou mockest me!


s: And thus I clutch thee--thus!--He is gone, he is gone


s: Gone--gone. Where am I?--'tis well--'tis very well!


s: So that the blade be keen--the blow be sure,


s: Politian.  This weakness grows upon me. I am faint,


s: To die ere I have lived!--Stay, stay thy hand,


s: O Azrael, yet awhile!--Prince of the Powers


s: Give me to live yet--yet a little while:


s: Demanded but to die!--what sayeth the Count?


s: Baldazzar.  That knowing no cause of quarrel or of feud


s: What answer was it you brought me, good Baldazzar?


s: With what excessive fragrance the zephyr comes


s: Laden from yonder bowers!--a fairer day,


s: No mortal eyes have seen!--what said the Count?


s: Bal.  That he, Castiglione' not being aware


s: Of quarrel between your lordship and himself,


s: All this is very true. When saw you, sir,


s: When saw you now, Baldazzar, in the frigid


s: Ungenial Britain which we left so lately,


s: A heaven so calm as this--so utterly free


s: From the evil taint of clouds?--and he did say?


s: Bal.  No more, my lord, than I have told you, sir:


s: All very true. Thou art my friend, Baldazzar,


s: And I have not forgotten it--thou'lt do me


s: A piece of service; wilt thou go back and say


s: Unto this man, that I, the Earl of Leicester,


s: Hold him a villain?--thus much, I prythee, say


s: Pol.  (aside.) 'Tis he!--he comes himself? (aloud) Thou reasonest


s: I know what thou wouldst say--not send the message-


s: Well!--I will think of it--I will not send it.


s: Now prythee, leave me--hither doth come a person


s: With whom affairs of a most private nature


s: Pol.  At the Vatican.                                     (exit


s: Pol.  I am the Earl of Leicester, and thou seest,


s: Hath without doubt arisen: thou hast been urged


s: Some words most unaccountable, in writing,


s: Of nothing which might warrant thee in this thing,


s: Having given thee no offence. Ha!--am I right?


s: Cas.  Ha!--draw?--and villain? have at thee then at once,


s: Proud Earl!                                   (draws.)


s: Pol.  (drawing.)  Thus to the expiatory tomb,


s: Hold off--thy sacred hand!--avaunt, I say!


s: Avaunt--I will not fight thee--indeed I dare not.


s: Pol.  Thou wilt not fight with me didst say, Sir Count?


s: Shall I be baffled thus?--now this is well;


s: Hold off thy hand--with that beloved name


s: So fresh upon thy lips I will not fight thee--


s: I do believe thee!--coward, I do believe thee!


s: It is--it is--most true. In such a cause


s: Pol.  (greatly softened.)  Alas!--I do--indeed I pity thee.


s: Cas.  It needeth not be--thus--thus--O let me die


s: Thus on my bended knee. It were most fitting


s: For in the fight I will not raise a hand


s: Against thee, Earl of Leicester. Strike thou home--


s: Here is no let or hindrance to thy weapon-


s: Am I not--am I not sorely--grievously tempted


s: To take thee at thy word? But mark me, sir,


s: Think not to fly me thus. Do thou prepare


s: For public insult in the streets--before


s: The eyes of the citizens. I'll follow thee


s: Like an avenging spirit I'll follow thee


s: Even unto death. Before those whom thou lovest-


s: Before all Rome I'll taunt thee, villain,--I'll taunt thee,


s: Dost hear? with cowardice--thou wilt not fight me?


s: Most righteous, and most just, avenging Heaven!


s: On yesterday we were speaking of the Earl?


s: Of the Earl Politian? Yes! it was yesterday.


s: Alessandra, you and 1, you must remember!


s: It is most singular that you should laugh


s: As tell me, sir, at once what 'tis you mean.


s: Duke. The Earl of Leicester! Yes!--is it he you mean?


s: The words you used were that the Earl you knew


s: Duke. That did you, sir, and well I knew at the time


s: You were wrong, it being not the character


s: Of the Earl-whom all the world allows to be


s: Most singular! I could not think it possible


s: As I was walking with the Count San Ozzo,


s: Having just arrived in Rome. Hal ha! he is altered!


s: Such an account he gave me of his journey!


s: 'Twould have made you die with laughter-such tales he told


s: Such wit-such whim-such flashes of wild merriment


s: Set off too in such full relief by the grave


s: Demeanor of his friend-who, to speak the truth,


s: Cas. You did-and yet 'tis strange! but true as strange,


s: How much I was mistaken! I always thought


s: Duke. So, so, you see! Be not too positive. Whom have we here?


s: My lord, a second welcome let me give you


s: Of Leicester in Great Britain. [Politian bows haughtily.]


s: Baldazzar, Duke of Surrey. The Earl has letters,


s: To Rome and to our palace, Earl Politian!


s: And you, most noble Duke! I am glad to see you!


s: I knew your father well, my Lord Politian.


s: And let me make the noble Earl acquainted


s: With your betrothed. You come, sir, at a time


s: Your son made mention of--your son, is he not?


s: Touching those letters, sir, I wot not of them.


s: If such there be, my friend Baldazzar here--


s: Baldazzar! ah!--my friend Baldazzar here


s: Will hand them to Your Grace. I would retire.


s: His lordship's chambers-show his lordship to them!


s: His lordship is unwell.     (Enter Benito.)


s: Ben. This way, my lord! (Exit, followed by Politian.)


s: 'Tis as you say--his lordship is unwell.


s: Of a long journey--the--indeed I had better


s: This way, my son, I wish to speak with thee.


s: You surely were mistaken in what you said


s: Of the Earl, mirthful, indeed!--which of us said


s: Politian was a melancholy man?    (Exeunt.)


s: "I dare say Milton preferred 'Comus' to either-. if so-justly.


s: "Aristotle, with singular assurance, has declared poetry the most


s: "I see no reason, then, why our metaphysical poets should plume


s: Yet Wordsworth and Coleridge are men in years; the one imbued in


s: "'Trifles, like straws, upon the surface flow;


s: He who would search for pearls must dive below,'


s: "The long wordy discussions by which he tries to reason us into


s: comparison with William Wordsworth, the poet.


s: "Again, in estimating the merit of certain poems, whether they be


s: "'The dew was falling fast, the-stars began to blink;


s: I heard a voice: it said-"Drink, pretty creature, drink!"


s: And, looking o'er the hedge, be-fore me I espied


s: A snow-white mountain lamb, with a-maiden at its side.


s: No other sheep was near,--the lamb was all alone,


s: And by a slender cord was-tether'd to a stone.'


s: "But there are occasions, dear B-, there are occasions when even


s: permitted to assume that title.' Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!


s: "Of Coleridge, I can not speak but with reverence. His towering


s: "What is poetry?--Poetry! that Proteus-like idea, with as many


s: appellations as the nine-titled Corcyra! 'Give me,' I demanded of


s: More followers than a thief to the gallows.


s: SCIENCE! true daughter of Old Time thou art!


s: Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.


s: Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,


s: Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?


s: How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,


s: Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering


s: Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?


s: Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?


s: Hast thous not torn the Naiad from her flood,


s: The Elfin from the green grass, and from me


s: The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?


s: (Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty's eye,


s: That list our Love, and deck our bowers--


s: 'Twas a sweet time for Nesace--for there


s: Her world lay lolling on the golden air,


s: Near four bright suns--a temporary rest--


s: * A star was discovered by Tycho Brahe which appeared


s: suddenly in the heavens--attained, in a few days, a


s: brilliancy surpassing that of Jupiter--then as suddenly


s: disappeared, and has never been seen since.


s: Empyrean splendor o'er th' unchained soul--


s: The soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)


s: To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode,


s: And late to ours, the favour'd one of God--


s: But, now, the ruler of an anchor'd realm,


s: She throws aside the sceptre--leaves the helm,


s: And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,


s: Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.


s: Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth,


s: Whence sprang the "Idea of Beauty" into birth,


s: (Falling in wreaths thro' many a startled star,


s: Like woman's hair 'mid pearls, until, afar,


s: It lit on hills Achaian, and there dwelt)


s: Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled--


s: Of other beauty glittering thro' the light--


s: A wreath that twined each starry form around,


s: Of flowers:  of lilies such as rear'd the head


s: Upon the flying footsteps of--deep pride--


s: Uprear'd its purple stem around her knees:


s: *And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam'd--


s: Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham'd


s: (The fabled nectar that the heathen knew)


s: Deliriously sweet, was dropp'd from Heaven,


s: So like its own above that, to this hour,


s: In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf


s: And blossom of the fairy plant, in grief


s: Disconsolate linger--grief that hangs her head,


s: Repenting follies that full long have fled,


s: Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,


s: Like guilty beauty, chasten'd, and more fair:


s: She fears to perfume, perfuming the night:


s: **And Clytia pondering between many a sun,


s: While pettish tears adown her petals run:


s: ***And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth--


s: And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,


s: Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing


s: Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king:


s: * This flower is much noticed by Lewenhoeck and Tournefort.


s: The bee, feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated.


s: ** Clytia--The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ a


s: better-known term, the turnsol--which continually turns


s: towards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country from


s: which it comes, with dewy clouds which cool and refresh its


s: flowers during the most violent heat of the day.--_B. de St.


s: *** There is cultivated in the king's garden at Paris, a


s: species of serpentine aloes without prickles, whose large


s: and beautiful flower exhales a strong odour of the vanilla,


s: during the time of its expansion, which is very short. It


s: does not blow till towards the month of July--you then


s: perceive it gradually open its petals--expand them--fade


s: From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:


s: **And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!


s: ***And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever


s: Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given


s: ****To bear the Goddess' song, in odors, up to Heaven:


s: * There is found, in the Rhone, a beautiful lily of the


s: Valisnerian kind. Its stem will stretch to the length of


s: three or four feet--thus preserving its head above water


s: *** It is a fiction of the Indians, that Cupid was first


s: seen floating in one of these down the river Ganges--and


s: that he still loves the cradle of his childhood.


s: * The Humanitarians held that God was to be understood as


s: having a really human form.--_Vide Clarke's Sermons_, vol.


s: The drift of Milton's argument, leads him to employ language


s: which would appear, at first sight, to verge upon their


s: doctrine;  but it will be seen immediately, that he guards


s: himself against the charge of having adopted one of the most


s: ignorant errors of the dark ages of the church.--_Dr.


s: Sumner's Notes on Milton's Christian Doctrine_.


s: This opinion, in spite of many testimonies to the contrary,


s: could never have been very general. Andeus, a Syrian of


s: Mesopotamia, was condemned for the opinion, as heretical. He


s: lived in the beginning of the fourth century. His disciples


s: were called Anthropmorphites.--_Vide Du Pin_.


s: Dicite sacrorum præsides nemorum Deæ, &c.


s: Unusque et universus exemplar Dei.--And afterwards,


s: She ceas'd--and buried then her burning cheek


s: She stirr'd not--breath'd not--for a voice was there


s: Which dreamy poets name "the music of the sphere."


s: Ours is a world of words:  Quiet we call


s: "Silence"--which is the merest word of all.


s: All Nature speaks, and ev'n ideal things


s: Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wings--


s: But ah! not so when, thus, in realms on high


s: And the red winds are withering in the sky!


s: **"What tho' in worlds which sightless cycles run,


s: Link'd to a little system, and one sun--


s: Where all my love is folly and the crowd


s: Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud,


s: The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath--


s: (Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?)


s: What tho' in worlds which own a single sun


s: The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run,


s: ** Sightless--too small to be seen--_Legge_.


s: To bear my secrets thro' the upper Heaven.


s: Leave tenantless thy crystal home, and fly,


s: With all thy train, athwart the moony sky--


s: *Apart--like fire-flies in Sicilian night,


s: To the proud orbs that twinkle--and so be


s: Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man!"


s: The single-mooned eve!--on Earth we plight


s: Our faith to one love--and one moon adore--


s: The birth-place of young Beauty had no more.


s: As sprang that yellow star from downy hours


s: Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,


s: And bent o'er sheeny mountain and dim plain


s: **Her way--but left not yet her Therasæan reign.


s: * I have often noticed a peculiar movement of the fire-flies;


s: --they will collect in a body and fly off, from a common


s: ** Therasæa, or Therasea, the island mentioned by Seneca,


s: which, in a moment, arose from the sea to the eyes of


s: Raising his heavy eyelid, starts and sees


s: With many a mutter'd "hope to be forgiven"


s: What time the moon is quadrated in Heaven--


s: Of sunken suns at eve--at noon of night,


s: While the moon danc'd with the fair stranger light--


s: Of gorgeous columns on th' unburthen'd air,


s: Flashing from Parian marble that twin smile


s: Far down upon the wave that sparkled there,


s: And nursled the young mountain in its lair.


s: *Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall


s: Thro' the ebon air, besilvering the pall


s: Of their own dissolution, while they die--


s: A dome, by linked light from Heaven let down,


s: Sat gently on these columns as a crown--


s: A window of one circular diamond, there,


s: * Some star which, from the ruin'd roof Of shak'd Olympus,


s: And rays from God shot down that meteor chain


s: And hallow'd all the beauty twice again,


s: Save when, between th' Empyrean and that ring,


s: Some eager spirit flapp'd his dusky wing.


s: But on the pillars Seraph eyes have seen


s: The dimness of this world:  that greyish green


s: That Nature loves the best for Beauty's grave


s: Lurk'd in each cornice, round each architrave--


s: That from his marble dwelling peeréd out


s: Seem'd earthly in the shadow of his niche--


s: From Balbec, and the stilly, clear abyss


s: * Voltaire, in speaking of Persepolis, says, "Je connois


s: bien l'admiration qu'inspirent ces ruines--mais un palais


s: erigé au pied d'une chaine des rochers sterils--peut il


s: être un chef d'vure des arts!" [_Voila les arguments de M.


s: "Oh! the wave"--Ula Degusi is the Turkish appellation;


s: but, on its own shores, it is called Bahar Loth, or


s: Almotanah. There were undoubtedly more than two cities


s: engluphed in the "dead sea." In the valley of Siddim were


s: five--Adrah, Zeboin, Zoar, Sodom and Gomorrah. Stephen of


s: Byzantium mentions eight, and Strabo thirteeen, (engulphed)


s: It is said, (Tacitus, Strabo, Josephus, Daniel of St. Saba, Nau,


s: Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim.


s: And sees the darkness coming as a cloud--


s: ***Is not its form--its voice--most palpable and loud?


s: But what is this?--it cometh--and it brings


s: A music with it--'tis the rush of wings--


s: A pause--and then a sweeping, falling strain


s: Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;


s: And zone that clung around her gentle waist


s: Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.


s: Within the centre of that hall to breathe


s: She paus'd and panted, Zanthe!  all beneath,


s: The fairy light that kiss'd her golden hair


s: And long'd to rest, yet could but sparkle there!


s: ***Young flowers were whispering in melody


s: To happy flowers that night--and tree to tree;


s: Fountains were gushing music as they fell


s: In many a star-lit grove, or moon-lit dell;


s: Fair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wings--


s: And sound alone that from the spirit sprang


s: Bore burthen to the charm the maiden sang:


s: ** I have often thought I could distinctly hear the sound of


s: the darkness as it stole over the horizon.


s: *** Fairies use flowers for their charactery.--_Merry Wives


s: * In Scripture is this passage--"The sun shall not harm


s: thee by day, nor the moon by night." It is perhaps not


s: producing blindness to those who sleep with the face exposed


s: to its rays, to which circumstance the passage evidently


s: * The Albatross is said to sleep on the wing.


s: ** I met with this idea in an old English tale, which I am


s: now unable to obtain and quote from memory:--"The verie


s: essence and, as it were, springe-heade, and origine of all


s: musiche is the verie pleasaunte sounde which the trees of


s: * The wild bee will not sleep in the shade if there be


s: moonlight. The rhyme in this verse, as in one about sixty


s: lines before, has an appearance of affectation. It is,


s: however, imitated from Sir W. Scott, or rather from Claud


s: Halcro--in whose mouth I admired its effect:


s: Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,


s: A thousand seraphs burst th' Empyrean thro',


s: Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight--


s: Seraphs in all but "Knowledge," the keen light


s: That fell, refracted, thro' thy bounds, afar


s: O Death!  from eye of God upon that star:


s: Sweet was that error--sweeter still that death--


s: Sweet was that error--ev'n with _us_ the breath


s: To them 'twere the Simoom, and would destroy--


s: That Truth is Falsehood--or that Bliss is Woe?


s: Sweet was their death--with them to die was rife


s: But sleep that pondereth and is not "to be"--


s: And there--oh!  may my weary spirit dwell--


s: *Apart from Heaven's Eternity--and yet how far from Hell!


s: * With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven and


s: Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain


s: that tranquil and even happiness which they suppose to be


s: De odio--de esperanza--de rezelo.---_Luis Ponce de Leon_.


s: Sorrow is not excluded from "Al Aaraaf," but it is that


s: sorrow which the living love to cherish for the dead, and


s: which, in some minds, resembles the delirium of opium. The


s: passionate excitement of Love and the buoyancy of spirit


s: attendant upon intoxication are its less holy pleasures--


s: the price of which, to those souls who make choice of "Al


s: Aaraaf" as their residence after life, is final death and


s: What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim,


s: Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn?


s: But two:  they fell:  for Heaven no grace imparts


s: To those who hear not for their beating hearts.


s: O!  where (and ye may seek the wide skies over)


s: Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known?


s: *Unguided Love hath fallen--'mid "tears of perfect moan."


s: A gazer on the lights that shine above--


s: What wonder?  For each star is eye-like there,


s: And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hair--


s: And they, and ev'ry mossy spring were holy


s: To his love-haunted heart and melancholy.


s: The night had found (to him a night of wo)


s: Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,


s: And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie.


s: Here sate he with his love--his dark eye bent


s: "Iante, dearest, see!  how dim that ray!


s: She seem'd not thus upon that autumn eve


s: I left her gorgeous halls--nor mourn'd to leave.


s: That eve--that eve--I should remember well--


s: The sun-ray dropp'd, in Lemnos, with a spell


s: On th'Arabesque carving of a gilded hall


s: Wherein I sate, and on the draperied wall--


s: How drowsily it weigh'd them into night!


s: On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran


s: But O that light!--I slumber'd--Death, the while,


s: Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle


s: Awoke that slept--or knew that it was there.


s: The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon


s: *Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon--


s: More beauty clung around her column'd wall


s: **Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal,


s: And when old Time my wing did disenthral


s: Thence sprang I--as the eagle from his tower,


s: One half the garden of her globe was flung


s: A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee--


s: * It was entire in 1687--the most elevated spot in Athens.


s: ** Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows


s: Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love.--_Marlowe._


s: And greener fields than in yon world above,


s: And women's loveliness--and passionate love."


s: "But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft


s: *Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft,


s: Perhaps my brain grew dizzy--but the world


s: Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,


s: And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.


s: Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar


s: But with a downward, tremulous motion thro'


s: Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!


s: Nor long the measure of my falling hours,


s: For nearest of all stars was thine to ours--


s: Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,


s: "We came--and to thy Earth--but not to us


s: Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,


s: She grants to us, as granted by her God--


s: But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl'd


s: Never his fairy wing o'er fairier world!


s: Alone could see the phantom in the skies,


s: When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be


s: Headlong thitherward o'er the starry sea--


s: But when its glory swell'd upon the sky,


s: As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,


s: And thy star trembled--as doth Beauty then!"


s: Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away


s: The night that waned and waned and brought no day.


s: They fell:  for Heaven to them no hope imparts


s: Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.


s: From clouds that hung, like banners, o'er,


s: My own voice, silly child!--was swelling


s: Of flattery 'round a sovereign's throne.


s: Have deem'd, since I have reach'd to power;


s: My breast her shield in wintry weather--


s: Young Love's first lesson is--the heart:


s: For 'mid that sunshine, and those smiles,


s: When Hope, the eagle that tower'd, could see


s: To the sound of the coming darkness (known


s: They wave:--from out their fragrant tops


s: They weep:--from off their delicate stems


s: * And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lut, and


s: who has the sweetest voice of all God's creatures.--KORAN.


s: While a bolder note than this might swell


s: Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrin'd


s: Thy heart--_thy_ heart!--I wake and sigh,


s: Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame


s: When that deep blush _would_ come o'er thee,


s: 'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone--


s: For the night--tho' clear--shall frown--


s: Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish--


s: The breeze--the breath of God--is still--


s: What though that light, thro' storm and night,


s: My seared and blighted heart hath known,


s: WREATHED in myrtle, my sword I'll conceal


s: When they plunged in the tyrant their steel,


s: Beloved heroes! your deathless souls roam


s: In the joy breathing isles of the blest;


s: Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!


s: Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,


s: Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,


s: And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,


s: In my young boyhood--should it thus be given,


s: 'Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!


s: For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright


s: In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,


s: From mine own home, with beings that have been


s: Of mine own thought--what more could I have seen?


s: 'Twas once & _only_ once & the wild hour


s: From my rememberance shall not pass--some power


s: Or spell had bound me--'twas the chilly wind


s: Too coldly--or the stars--howe'er it was


s: That dream was as that night wind--let it pass.


s: Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life--


s: As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife


s: Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.


s: {From an earlier MS. Than in the book--ED.}


s: _How often we forget all time, when lone


s: Her woods--her wilds--her mountains-the intense


s: IN youth I have known one with whom the Earth


s: In daylight, and in beauty, from his birth:


s: Whose fervid, flickering torch of life was lit


s: From the sun and stars, whence he had drawn forth


s: A passionate light such for his spirit was fit


s: And yet that spirit knew-not in the hour


s: Of its own fervor-what had o'er it power.


s: Perhaps it may be that my mind is wrought


s: To a fever* by the moonbeam that hangs o'er,


s: But I will half believe that wild light fraught


s: With more of sovereignty than ancient lore


s: That with a quickening spell doth o'er us pass


s: As dew of the night-time, o'er the summer grass?


s: Doth o'er us pass, when, as th' expanding eye


s: To the loved object-so the tear to the lid


s: Will start, which lately slept in apathy?


s: And yet it need not be--(that object) hid


s: From us in life-but common-which doth lie


s: With a strange sound, as of a harp-string broken


s: Of what in other worlds shall be--and given


s: Who otherwise would fall from life and Heaven


s: Drawn by their heart's passion, and that tone,


s: That high tone of the spirit which hath striven


s: Though not with Faith-with godliness--whose throne


s: With desperate energy 't hath beaten down;


s: Wearing its own deep feeling as a crown.


s: In the falsest and untruest--On the sweetest


s: Where, through the garish lights that fly


s: Like that which on my tongue doth dwell,


s: When the Night's first dream hath flown.


s: With the gourd and the grape luxuriant grew.


s: Throughout the day I sit behind the counter of my shop


s: And the odours of my country are all about me--


s: And these carry my mind to half-forgotten days


s: When tales were plentiful and care was hard to hold.


s: All day I sell for trifling sums the wares of my own land,


s: And buy for many cash such things as people wish to sell,


s: One night a white-skinned damsel came to me


s: And offered, with fair words, something she wished to sell.


s: Now if I desire a jacket I can buy it with coin,


s: If I desire rice-spirit, that, too, I can buy;


s: But there is one good thing above all precious,


s: And though I buy readily most things that I desire,


s: This thing that the white maid offered at my own price


s: I refresh myself of an evening with my machine-that-sings.


s: And these are 'Hitchy Koo' and 'We don't want to lose you.'


s: When, in the evening, a friend honours me with a visit,


s: I engage his ears with the air of 'Hitchy Koo';


s: From those who fill me with a spirit of no-satisfaction,


s: To render the music of 'We don't want to lose you.'


s: The noise that at this moment greets the ear


s: Of the elegant visitor to this despicable hovel


s: Is the incomparable music of 'Hitchy Koo';


s: And the price of this person's tea, mister,


s: Is but a paltry six shillings the pound.


s: The dark days now begin, when in afternoon


s: The Great Night Lantern makes a razor-edge


s: And the straight stiff lamps of these stiff London streets,


s: Bright girls, hair flowing, go by with shuttered faces,


s: Holding close captive their warm insurgent bosoms.


s: Some slender lad of bold and upright carriage


s: Greets them, and the shuttered lanterns of their faces


s: Burst with light at the touch of the lamplighter.


s: If I do not accept your high-minded invitation


s: At the little place called The Blue Lantern, near Pennyfields.


s: Please don't regard me as lacking in gracious behaviour,


s: Or as insufferably ignorant of the teachings of the Book of Rites


s: But I am sojourning here in a strange land,


s: And am not fully informed of the usages of your dignified people.


s: As the wise Mencius observed in one of his inspired hours,


s: Doubtless thinking forward to situation of this person:


s: Child who has once suffered unpleasant sensation of burning,


s: Ever afterward reluctant to approach stove.


s: Wherefore, as this person once accepted an invitation,


s: In words as affable and polished as yours, Mister,


s: To drink rice-spirit at The Blue Lantern,


s: And was there subjected to a custom of this country


s: Of an entirely disturbing and unpleasing nature,


s: He has, since that day, viewed The Blue Lantern


s: With a feeling of most decided repugnance.


s: Of the commanding and palatial Home for Asiatics


s: And looked across the city at the hour of no-light.


s: But the skirt of darkness had a hundred rents,


s: Made by the lights of many people's homes.


s: But human kindliness has torn it through,


s: So that it shows ten thousand gaping rents


s: As I walked the street in the purring evening


s: Tossed me a smile; and suddenly Pennyfields


s: Grew from darkness to light, and the light of the stars


s: I may not see her again, but I hold her smile in my heart,


s: And she is with me in my shop and about the streets.


s: West India Dock may some time suffer a drought;


s: But the beauty born of her quickened smile


s: Last week this person, desiring to make it known


s: That he was in all ways moving up to the date,


s: Which announces to refined and intelligent customers


s: This week this person purchased a whole days' amusement;


s: He is moved to reflect on the far-reaching and wholesome value


s: Of a National Register which would announce to the face


s: At the top of a tenement house near Poplar High Street,


s: That the bricks of the houses are bright and fair to the eye.


s: There are no flowers in West India Dock Road;


s: Nothing but brick and stone, and iron and spent air.


s: But when rough brick and stone are a shrine for beauty,


s: Perhaps if this person encloses within himself


s: Beautiful thoughts and amiable intentions,


s: The noble outlines of that tenement house.


s: At ten o'clock last night an ugly fellow,


s: Of skinny exterior and most ungracious manner,


s: From the flapping doors of the Blue Lantern.


s: He lurched in most ungainly fashion past this person's shop--


s: And used base language of an unpolished nature,


s: This person did not respond in like manner,


s: Knowing that he is not himself all-perfect,


s: A devout follower of the teachings of the Four Books.


s: He contented himself with repeating in a far-reaching tone,


s: When pot upon stove reproveth kettle for blackness,


s: I want to make a song of the little girls


s: I could make a song of boys quite easily with words,


s: But words are too blunt for such delicate things as girls.


s: I would like to make my song of them with bees and butterflies.


s: But little girls are morning light and melody;


s: Their clear, cool skin is like wine to the eyes,


s: The lines of their fluent limbs run like a song,


s: And every step is a note of grace which the frock repeats.


s: Don't you think it a pity, and greatly to be deplored


s: And pass from it to the guile and trickery of woman?


s: Looking closely at the glass windows of my shop,


s: I see in them the whole of my shop reflected.


s: Looking at my windows closely from the street,


s: I see in them the life of the street reflected.


s: Yet if I stand away, the glass remains transparent,


s: And I see clearly through it to the things beyond.


s: I will try henceforth not to look at them too closely.


s: Lithely on their strings swing the many-coloured lanterns,


s: Aglow with the hues of the Peacock's Tail,


s: And they are lighted at the last hours of the evenings,


s: Walks the willowy maiden from the tea-shop across the road.


s: One of this person's white-skinned friends, Bill Hawkins,


s: Had occasion, at the time of unkind weather,


s: To rescue from the certain peril of drowning


s: One who had slipped from the edge of a wharf to the dock.


s: Without reward the flower serves the bee.


s: The mother serves the child with pain and toil.


s: The soldier serves his king without king's gratitutde.


s: And this person has noted with much private amusement,


s: Bill Hawkins goes ever from his accustomed path


s: To add service to service to the one he rescued;


s: While the rescued one looks ever upon Bill Hawkins


s: With eyes of no-approval, indeed, with intense disgust.


s: You look as though you would like to creep into some warm nest,


s: Oh, look, little maid! I have made you a nest!


s: Creep into it, and I will hide you away,


s: One little corner where not a breath of wrong


s: For though my feet may stumble, and I may fall,


s: The corner that houses you I will ever keep whole.


s: Is a house where girls surrender their bodies


s: To the pleasures of base-minded and unpolished men,


s: Lives a white maid of surpassing virtue,


s: That looks upon cesspools of mud, and mounds of refuse


s: One morning, at the season of Clear Weather,


s: As I sat alone in my Tea-House of the Refined White Lily,


s: A stranger of affable address approached me,


s: And showed me, with a multitude of argument,


s: Were I to place the whole of my substance with him,


s: As a token of my faith in Ice Cream Cornet for the Lincolnshire.


s: That he carried always on written leaves


s: Concerning horses and women, and the wind in the hills


s: He did not tell him that he knew full well


s: That Ice Cream Cornet was a non-starter for the Lincolnshire.


s: Married a fair wife, demure and of chaste repute,


s: Any knowledge of the manner of man he had been.


s: Awaking and finding himself couched with a woman,


s: Leaving at the couch's side four goodly coins.


s: Remembering the occasion and his present estate of marriage,


s: Filled with emotions of an entirely disturbing nature,


s: Fear that his wife should discover his absence


s: Entering stealthily, then, with the toes of the leopard,


s: He perceived her sitting erect on the couch,


s: Biting shrewdly, with a distressing air of experience,


s: Even so it is when Big Politician meets Little Politician.


s: During the years when the white men fought each other,


s: I observed how the aged cried aloud in public places


s: Of honour and chivalry, and the duty of the young;


s: And how the young ceased doing the pleasant things of youth,


s: And brought out bottles of wine and drank the health


s: Of the young men they had sent out to die for them.


s: In the agreeable public gardens of Poplar


s: For this is the season of Clear Weather.


s: There blossom the quiet flowers of this country:


s: And the mandarin of them all is the rhododendron.


s: There is a little bush of kindliness towards all men.


s: There is a slender tree of forgiveness for all wrongs.


s: There is a humble growth of repentance for past sins.


s: And around the field is a thick hedge of thankfulness.


s: Which are breaking to flower under the sun of a maiden's eyes.


s: And linger on the bridge by the Isle of Dogs,


s: The swan-like shape of the ship that brought me hither.


s: And on each voyage my heart accompanies it.


s: Should I some day in person journey with it,


s: My honourable father would welcome his little son.


s: He would not see this worn and tattered one,


s: This lean and sorrowful son of the waterside.


s: He would see his little son who left him long ago;


s: For love would brush away the husk of years,


s: At the corner of the Causeway on every seventh evening


s: Making big noise of Washed-in-Blood-of-Lamb.


s: And march with candles and pray to Lady.


s: At shop in Pennyfields, many times a day,


s: This person pays respect to Big Man Joss,


s: And burns to him prayer-papers and punk-sticks.


s: And all day long men toil for wife and child;


s: Wife suffer and stint to make bigger plate for child;


s: Child beg in street to get food for sick mother;


s: Sister wear ragged clothes for sake of little brother.


s: I am going to Salmon Lane, to the cheap market for dainty foods.


s: I shall buy meat and fish and a loaf of bread,


s: I shall buy a cluster of flowers and a bottle of wine,


s: But the sweetest spice will not be seen,


s: It will leap from my heart to the pot as I stir it.


s: I am going to gather it on the way to the market


s: From my own sweet thoughts and from elegant conversation


s: How shall I write of you, little friend,


s: I will tell him of your twenty yellow curls


s: Tumbling in a cascade about your shoulders;


s: The colours of the flower before its leaves unclose;


s: How the tones of your voice, sounding in my ears,


s: Float before my eyes like strings of lanterns;


s: I see my thoughts like a white river in your eyes;


s: How, as I walk down the street where you have trod,


s: And I will tell him that you are not for me,


s: Unless, perchance, shame and disgrace fall upon you,


s: As it falls upon some girls of this quarter,


s: And your neighbours and friends pass by the other way.


s: Then, perhaps, it would be permitted to me


s: The misfortunes of one are the entertainment of many.


s: When Prosperity attended the occasions of this person,


s: He was regarded and received on all sides by his fellows


s: But when, on a recent manifestation of evil spirits,


s: With attitudes of mirth and expressions of no-gravity.


s: A hundred different sounds by day and night.


s: The crash and mutter of the dockside railway,


s: The noise of quarrel, the noise of fist on face,


s: My country's songs, guitars, and gramophones,


s: The noise of women bargaining their flesh,


s: The scream of syren, the wail of hooter,


s: The boom of guns, the clatter of factories,


s: The panic of feet, and malevolent words.


s: All these sounds I know, and they disturb me not.


s: One (may the dogs devour him) threw a stone at my window,


s: And hooted and jeered and made base noise with his mouth.


s: Nay, worse, this son of a sea-slug (may his line perish)


s: And the bug-eaten cabbage-leaf on his head?'


s: The lean and scurvy dog that slinks about Pennyfields


s: Flew in great fear at sight of this reprover of our doings,


s: And came to me, and rubbed itself against my shoe.


s: And soon will come the Feast of Go Nien.


s: Then I will pay my debts, and gather in my dues.


s: And afterwards I will hang up my devil-chasers


s: And will proceed to the restaurant of Ng Tack,


s: And drink spring wine with him and meet my friends.


s: And a curry of fish and a large Chung Goun,


s: Sweet onions, and black eggs and chow chow.


s: We will have cakes and tea, and music and songs,


s: And call in our white friends to sit with us.


s: For this one day we shall be each to the other,


s: For if we always so behaved, one to the other,


s: In making tchah for table, each man has his own way.


s: Some serve it dashed with lemon, and some with bamboo shoot,


s: And some with sugar, in the English way,


s: But when one offers tchah to distinguished visitor,


s: One offers the noble suey sen, and flavors it


s: With the dried bud of the noble chrysanthemum.


s: Flavoured with the buds of the flower of all flowers.


s: Have come at times to my insignificant shop,


s: For pieces of jade, or banners, or curious cuttings of ivory.


s: And breathe the soft scents that flow from their garments,


s: And long to soothe their lily-fingered hands.


s: And am filled with a sickness of my present unkind estate.


s: Not always remote, not always in lofty places,


s: And I think upon the kind and considerate beauty


s: And her patched, uncoloured robes of common cloth.


s: And with a change of mood I charge the elegant ladies


s: Three times the value of the articles chosen,


s: To deck the less fervid beauty of my friend.


s: The waters of the river flow swiftly at Limehouse Hole,


s: Past beautiful steel ships and tawny sails,


s: Past clamorous factories and broken boats and bells.


s: Throughout the day these things are one--


s: But when the evening introduces the night,


s: This thing is broken into a thousand delicacies,


s: Make happy discord of the day's harsh harmonies.


s: The upright Ho Ling, the grave Cheng Huan,


s: And the round-bodied and amiable Sway Too, of my own country;


s: Together with the maid of the golden curls,


s: And two pale Englishmen, Bill Hawkins and Jack Brown.


s: We sat beneath the lantern, and drank our tchah in fellowship,


s: And the moon rose and mated with the soft smells of my store,


s: And brought forth a spirit that spoke to us


s: Of things forgotten or lost, or long despaired of.


s: Friendship bound us together, and we sat late,


s: Glad of the night, and each glad of his companions;


s: Wrought horrors upon their fellows beneath this moon,


s: Drunk with the wicked words of the wicked lords of men.


s: Last night I dreamed of the maid with yellow curls.


s: She came to me in the room above my shop,


s: And we two were alone, freed from the laws of day.


s: I took from her her clothing, garment by garment,


s: And I drew from her to myself her thoughts, one by one,


s: As often I had wished, till all of her was mine.


s: Then I was sad, for nothing was left to love.


s: And I quickly clothed her again, garment by garment,


s: And gave her back her thoughts, one by one,


s: That love released from bond, and unburdened of its fetters,


s: Excuse me, Mister, if I enter a gentle protest


s: About the manner in which you comport yourself


s: For, looking at you, one would form the opinion


s: That you were a man of much worth and nobility,


s: A councillor of the king or a learned judge,


s: Had marked him out to sit above his fellow.


s: One would think thus to see the swinging arms,


s: The slow protuberant belly sheathed in a vest of scarlet,


s: And the gold chain of Albert, the great Consort;


s: To see the haughty head, the portly mien,


s: Don't interrupt! I only wished to tell you


s: That your claim to the excessive esteem of your neighbours


s: Do please remember, Mister, that that scarlet belly


s: Was acquired by the labours of little children


s: Whom you employ to stick labels on bottles.


s: I have lifted her over my threshold to-night.


s: Many moons have risen and set since she received my napi;


s: But now she is here and has entered my upper room,


s: Where is a shrine for the joss of happiness,


s: And fine things for fine fingers to handle,


s: And shaded lanterns and a guitar and my machine-that-sings.


s: There are ornaments of jade and lacquer,


s: And the bamboo pipe and the hap-heem that I have laid aside,


s: And the written leaves containing my verses.


s: But there are no writing tables, no ink and no brushes.


s: For now my verses will be written upon her brow.


s: I hear from the street the sound of passing footsteps;


s: And I can sort and name these passing footsteps.


s: There are the truculent steps of the seeker after trouble,


s: There are the fearful feet of those who are not at ease


s: And the solemn reassuring tread of big policemen;


s: And the interrupted steps of the revellers,


s: And the fleet feet of those who have purchased trouble.


s: But those that tread most heavily on my heart


s: Are the light and lingering footsteps of tired young women.


s: A feast is spread, and you are all invited.


s: Since I left the fervid skies of my own country


s: For the thin skies and leaden streets of the West.


s: Long have I sojourned, seeking my desire,


s: Keeping my shop, and looking always with long eyes


s: At others' guesting-tables, at whose top sat love.


s: Truly the ways of mandarins are inscrutable.


s: My estimable and upright friend, Ho Ling,


s: Long had desired to return to his own country.


s: He bore himself in Limehouse without reproach,


s: A reputable stranger, mild of manner and gentle of address.


s: Yet when he sought assistance to return to his own country,


s: And hung at the ear of notable men who could help him,


s: And would in no way help him to go where his heart was set.


s: Wherefore my friend forsook his quiet and regular ways,


s: And went about as one possessed by thunder and fire,


s: Stormily; doing many things of a reprehensible character,


s: Committing grave misdemeanours in the public streets,


s: And following evil ways in a manner to attract attention.


s: The lords of this country placed him upon a boat,


s: And commanded that he should be carried, at their own cost,


s: To his own country, whither he most desired to go.


s: The grave and thin-faced one who keeps the Bespoke Tailor's Shop,


s: Never takes pellet of li-un or nut of areca,


s: He has no friends, for he has no weaknesses.


s: While others fall to the simple follies of humanity


s: He walks ever upright and self-contained, devout and dignified,


s: Many heavy blows has this patient person's back received,


s: His well-framed enterprises have gone awry.


s: And his heart has gone hungry these many years for love.


s: All these things he has suffered without murmur.


s: One thing alone has driven him to utter piercing cries,


s: And make gestures expressive of volcano in eruption:


s: And that is the bootmender across the road


s: Who sings hymns to himself in the evening.


s: For that is true that the sage has spoken:


s: That it is the smell of gin-and-onions about the secretary


s: Which drives his master, who long has suffered gin-and-cloves,


s: To the breaking-point of inexpressible exasperation.


s: I determined yesterday to become English gentleman;


s: And I have this morning bought a bowler hat.


s: I have bought brown boots and a suit of rare blue serge,


s: Which the affable one who supplied me with it


s: Spoke of as Natty, and added his assurance


s: I have bought white collars and many-coloured ties,


s: And a walking-stick and a blue-spotted shirt.


s: Apparelled thus, I strolled this evening down Pennyfields,


s: And the old men came out with expressions of no-kindness.


s: And passed words one to the other of a derisive nature.


s: Not suffer himself to be disturbed by hooting of owls.


s: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws