XXIX

XXVII

XXX

From the green ruin plucked that
he might feed ;-

We know not where we go, or what But I to a stone seat that Maiden led,

sweet dream And, kissing her fair eyes, said,

May pilot us through caverns " Thou hast need Of rest," and I heaped up the

strange and sair

Or far and pathless passion, while the courser's bed

stream In a green mossy nook, with mountain

Of life our bark doth on its whirlflowers dispread.

pools bear, Spreading swift wings as sails to

the dim air : Within that ruin, where a shattered Nor should we seek to know, so the portal

devotion Looks to the eastern stars, aban

Of love and gentle thoughts be doned now

heard still there By man, to be the home of things

Louder and louder from the utmost immortal,

ocean
Memories like awful ghosts which Of universal life, attuning its commotion.

come and go,
And must inherit all he builds
below,

To the pure all things are pure !

Oblivion wrapt When he is gone, a hall stood; o'er whose roof

Ourspirits, and the fearsuloverthrow Fair clinging weeds with ivy pale

Of public hope was from our being

snapt, Clasping its gray rents with a verdur

Though linked years had bound it ous woof, A hanging dome of leaves, a canopy

A power, a thirst, a knowledge, moon-proof.

which below All thoughts, like light beyond the

atmosphere, XXVIII

Clothing its clouds with grace, doth The autumnal winds, as if spell

ever flow, bound, had made

Came on us, as we sate in silence A natural couch of leaves in that

there, recess,

Beneath the golden stars of the clear Which seasons none disturbed, but,

azure air :-
in the shade
of flowering parasites, did Spring
love to dress

In silence which doth follow talk that With their sweet blooms the wintry loneliness

The baffled heart to speak with Of those dead leaves, shedding their sighs and tears, stars whene'er

When wildering passion swalloweth The wandering wind her nurslings up the pauses might caress;

of inexpressive speech : the Whose intertwining fingers ever there

youthful years Made music wild and soft that filled the Which we together passed, their listening air.

hopes and fears,

did grow,

there;

for now

XXXI

causes

into one

The blood itself which ran within our

XXXIV frames,

The meteor to its far morass returned: That likeness of the features which

The beating of our veins one interval endears

Made still; and then I felt the blood The thoughts expressed by them, our

that burned very names,

Within her frame mingle with And all the winged hours which speech

mine, and fall less memory claims,

Around my heart like fire; and

over all XXXII

A mist was spread, the sickness of a Had found a voice :-and, ere that deep voice did pass,

And speechless swoon of joy, as The night grew damp and dim, might befall and, through a rent

Two disunited spirits when they leap Or the ruin where we sate, from the In union from this earth's obscure and morass,

fading sleep. A wandering Meteor by some wild

XXXV wind sent,

Was it one moment that confounded llung high in the green dome, to which it lent

thus A faint and pallid lustre; while the

All thought, all sense, all feeling, song Of blasts, in which its blue hair

Unutterable power, which shielded us quivering bent,

Even from our own cold looks,

when we had gone Strewed strangest sounds the moving leaves among;

Into a wide and wild oblivion A wondrous light, the sound as of a

Or tumult and of tenderness? or now spirit's tongue.

Had ages, such as make the moon

The seasons and mankind, their XXXIII

changes know, The Meteor showed the leaves on

Left fear and time unfelt by us alone which we sate,

below? And Cythna's glowing arms, and

the thick ties Of her soft hair which bent with I know not. What are kisses whose gathered weight

fire clasps My neck near hers, her dark and The failing heart in languishment, deepening eyes,

or limb Which, as twin phantoms of one Twined within limb? or the quick star that lies

dying gasps O'er a dim well move though the star Of the life meeting, when the faint

reposes, Swam in our mute and liquid Through tears of a wide mist ecstasies,

boundless and dim, ller marble brow, and eager lips, In one caress ? What is the strong

control With their own fragrance pale, which Which leads the heart that dizzy Spring but half uncloses.

and sun,

XXXVI

eyes swim

XLV

XLIII

As the great Nile feeds Egypt; ever Down the ravine of rocks, did soon finging

unite Light on the woven boughs which o'er The darkness and the tumult of its waves are swinging.

their might

Borne on all winds. - Far, through XLII

the streaming rain The ones of Cythna's voice like Floating, at intervals the garments echoes were

white Of those far murmuring streams; Of Cythna gleamed, and her voice they rose and fell,

once again Mixed with mine own in the tem- Came to me on the gust, and soon I pestuous air,

reached the plain. And so we sate, until our talk befell

Of the late ruin, swift and horrible, And how those seeds of hope might I dreaded not the tempest, nor did yet be sown

he Whose fruit is evil's mortal poison :

Who bore me, but his eyeballs well

wide and red For us this ruin made a watch-tower Turned on the lightning's cleft exultlone,

ingly: But Cythna's eyes looked faint, and now And, when the earth beneath his two days were gone

tameless tread Shook with the sullen thunder, he

would spread Since she had food :- therefore I did His nostrils to the blast, and joyously awaken

Mock the fierce peal with neighThe Tartar steed, who, from his ings;—thus we sped ebon mane

O'er the lit plain, and soon I could Soon as the clinging slumbers he had descry shaken,

Where Death and Fire had gorged the Bent his thin head to seek the

spoil of victory.
brazen rein,

XLVI
Following me obediently; with
pain

There was a desolate village in a Of heart so deep and dread that one wood, caress,

Whose bloom-inwoven leaves now When lips and heart refuse to part scattering fed again

The hungry storm; it was a place of Till they have told their fill, could blood, scarce express

A heap of hearthless walls ;--the The anguish of her mute and fearful

flames were dead tenderness,

Within those dwellings now,--the

life had fled

From all those corpses now,--but the Cythna beheld me part, as I bestrode

wide sky, That willing steed — the tempest Flooded with lightning, was ribbed and the night,

overhead Which gave my path its safety as I By the black rafters, and around did rode

lie

XLIV