-the They sent a boat to me ; sailors rowed In awe through many a new and fearful jag Of overhanging rock, through which there flowed In dream, like that!' The pilot then replied: It cannot be she is a human Her low voice makes you weep-she is some bride The foam of streams that cannot Or daughter of high birth--she can be make abode. They came and questioned me, but, when they heard My voice, they became silent, and they stood And moved as men in whom new love had stirred Deep thoughts: so to the ship we passed without a word. CANTO VIII I "I SATE beside the steersman then, and, gazing Upon the west, cried, 'Spread the sails! Behold! The sinking moon is like a watchtower blazing nought beside.' III "We passed the islets, borne by wind and stream, And, as we sailed, the mariners came near And thronged around to listen ;—in the gleam Of the pale moon I stood, as one whom fear May not attaint, and my calm voice did rear; 'Ye all are human-yon broad moon gives light To millions who the selfsame like ness wear, Even while I speak-beneath this very night Over the mountains yet; the City Their thoughts flow on like ours, in The night before we sailed, came Dream ye some Power thus builds for to my bed man in solitude? V "What is that Power? Ye mock yourselves, and give A human heart to what ye cannot know: As if the cause of life could think and live! 'Twere as if man's own works should feel, and show The hopes and fears and thoughts from which they flow, And he be like to them! Lo! Plague is free To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and Snow, Disease, and Want, and worse Necessity Of hate and ill, and Pride, and Fear, and Tyranny! Wields an invisible rod-that Priests Command or kill or fear, or wreak or and Kings, suffer woe. Above the Highest-and those fountain-cells Whence love yet flowed when faith had choked all other Are darkened-Woman as the bondslave dwells From slavery and religion's laby- Of man, a slave; and life is poisoned in rinth caves Guide us, as seaman saves. one clear star the To give to all an equal share of good, To track the steps of Freedom, though through graves She pass, to suffer all in patient mood, To weep for crime, though stained with thy friend's dearest blood, XII "To feel the peace of self-contentment's lot, To own all sympathies, and outrage none, And in the inmost bowers of sense and thought, its wells. XIV "Man seeks for gold in mines, that he may weave A lasting chain for his Own slavery ; In fear and restless care that he may live, He toils for others, who must ever be The joyless thralls of like captivity; He murders, for his chiefs delight in ruin; He builds the altar, that its idol's fee May be his very blood; he is pursuing Until life's sunny day is quite gone Oh blind and willing wretch !—his own down, obscure undoing. XV """Woman!-she is his slave, she has become A thing I weep to speak-the child of scorn, The outcast of a desolated home; Falsehood and fear and toil like waves have worn Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn As calm decks the false ocean :-well ye know What Woman is, for none of Woman born Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe, Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow. XVI "This need not be; ye might arise, and will That gold should lose its power, and thrones their glory; That love, which none may bind, be free to fill The world, like light; and evil faith, grown hoary With crime, be quenched and die.— Yon promontory Even now eclipses the descending moon! Dungeons and palaces are transi tory High temples fade like vapour-Man alone Remains, whose will has power when all beside is gone. XVII "Let all be free and equal!-From your hearts I feel an echo; through my inmost frame, Like sweetest sound, seeking its mate, it darts. I cannot name Whence come ye, friends? Alas, Wherewith ye twine the rings of life's perpetual coil. "Reproach not thine own soul, but know thyself, Nor hate another's crime, nor It is the dark idolatry of self actions once are gone, never dreamed of hope or refuge until now. XXIV "Yes I must speak-my secret should have perished Even with the heart it wasted, as a brand Fades in the dying flame whose life it cherished, But that no human bosom can withstand Thee, wondrous Lady, and the mild command Of thy keen eyes:- yes, we are wretched slaves, Who from their wonted loves and native land reft, and bear o'er the dividing waves Demands that man should weep The unregarded prey of calm and happy and bleed and groan; graves. |