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The waves, the fountains, and the hush of night

These were his voice; and well I understood

His smile divine when the calm sea was bright

And to the shore I went to muse With silent stars, and Heaven was breath

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And spake no more: that silence Paving with fire the sky and the mar

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A cloud of deepest shadow which was thrown

Athwart the glowing steps and the crystalline throne.

LVII

The cloud which rested on that cone of flame

Was cloven beneath the planet sate a Form

Fairer than tongue can speak or thought may frame,

The radiance of whose limbs roselike and warm

Flowed forth, and did with softest light inform

The shadowy dome, the sculptures, and the state

Of those assembled shapes-with
clinging charm

Sinking upon their hearts and mine.
He sate

Majestic yet most mild-calm yet compassionate.

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His eyes were dark and deep, and the clear brow

Which shadowed them was like the morning sky,

The cloudless Heaven of Spring, when in their flow

Through the bright air the soft

winds as they blow

Wake the green world: his gestures did obey

The oracular mind that made his features glow,

And, where his curvèd lips half-open lay, Passion's divinest stream had made impetuous way.

LX

Beneath the darkness of his outspread hair

He stood thus beautiful: but there was One

Who sate beside him like his shadow there,

And held his hand-far lovelier

she was known

To be thus fair by the few lines alone

Which through her floating locks and gathered cloak,

Glances of soul-dissolving glory, shone :

None else beheld her eyes-in him they woke

Memories which found a tongue as thus he silence broke.

CANTO II

I

THE starlight smile of children, the sweet looks

Of women, the fair breast from

which I fed,

The murmur of the unreposing brooks, And the green light which, shifting

overhead,

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IV

The land in which I lived by a fell bane

Was withered up. Tyrants dwelt

side by side,

And stabled in our homes-until the chain

Stifled the captive's cry, and to

abide

That blasting curse men had no shame all vied

In evil, slave and despot; fear with lust

Strange fellowship through mutual hate had tied,

Like two dark serpents tangled in the

dust,

Which on the paths of men their mingling poison thrust.

V

Earth, our bright home, its mountains and its waters,

And the ethereal shapes which are suspended

Over its green expanse, and those fair daughters,

The clouds, of Sun and Ocean, who have blended

The colours of the air since first extended

It cradled the young world, none wandered forth

To see or feel: a darkness had descended

On every heart: the light which shows its worth

Must among gentle thoughts and fearless take its birth.

VI

This vital world, this home of happy spirits,

Was as a dungeon to my blasted kind.

All that despair from murdered hope inherits

They sought, and, in their helpless misery blind,

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