mass " When the sun lingered o'er his ocean “A Shape all light, which with one floor, hand did fling To gild his rival's new prosperity. Dew on the earth, as if she were the Thou wouldst forget thus vainly to de dawn, plore And the invisible rain did ever sing “Ills, which if ills can find no cure from A silver music on the mossy lawn; thee, And still before me on the dusky grass, will quell, “In her right hand she bore a crystal Mantling with bright Nepenthe; the And whether life had been before that fierce splendour sleep Fell from her as she moved under the The heaven which I imagine, or a hell “ Like this harsh world in which I wake “Of the deep cavern, and with palms to weep, so tender, arose, Their tread broke not the mirror of its billow, to keep, Glided along the river, and did bend Though it was now broad day, a gentle her trace “ Head under the dark boughs, till like of light diviner than the common sun a willow, Her fair hair swept the bosom of the stream “ Was filled with magic sounds woven That whispered with delight to be its into one pillow. Oblivious melody, confusing sense Amid the gliding waves and shadows “ As one enamoured is upborne in dream dun; O'er lily-paven lakes ’mid silver mist, presence Partly to tread the waves with feet flowed, which kissed And the sun's image radiantly intense The dancing foam ; partly to glide along “ Burned on the waters of the well that The air which roughened the moist glowed amethyst, Like gold, and threaded all the forest's “Or the faint morning beams that fell among The trees, or the soft shadows of the trees; “ Amid the sun, as he amid the blaze And her feet, ever to the ceaseless song Of his own glory, on the vibrating Floor of the fountain, paved with flash. “Of leaves, and winds, and waves, and ing rays, birds, and bees, seem maze new And falling drops, moved in a measure And as a shut lily stricken by the wand Of dewy morning's vital alchemy, Yet sweet, as on the summer evening breeze, “I rose; and, bending at her sweet command, “Up from the lake a shape of golden Touched with faint lips the cup she dew raised, Between two rocks, athwart the rising And suddenly my brain became as sand moon, Dances i' the wind, where never eagle" Where the first wave had more than flew; half erased The track of deer on desert Labrador; “And still her feet, no less than the Whilst the wolf, from which they fled sweet tune amazed, To which they moved, seemed as they moved to blot "Leaves his stamp visibly upon the The thoughts of him who gazed on them; shore, and soon Until the second bursts;- :--so on my sight Burst a new vision, never seen before, “ All that was, seemed as if it had been not ; “And the fair shape waned in the comAnd all the gazer's mind was strewn ing light, beneath As veil by veil the silent splendour drops Iler feet like embers; and she, thought From Lucifer, amid the chrysolite by thought, “Of sun-rise, ere it tinge the mountain “Trampled its sparks into the dust of cleath; tops; As day upon the threshold of the east And as the presence of that sairest planet, Treads out the lamps of night, until the breath Although unseen, is felt by one who hopes “Of darkness re-illumine even the least That his day's path may end as he Of heaven's living eyes—like day she began it, came, Making the night a dream; and ere she In that star's smile, whose light is like the scent ceased Of a jonquil when evening breezes fan “ To move, as one between desire and it, shame " Or the soft note in which his dear Suspended, I said-Is, as it doth seem, lament Thou comest from the realm without a The Brescian shepherd breathes, or the name, “Into this valley of perpetual dream, That turned his wcary slumber to conShow whence I came, and where I am, tent; and why “So knew I in that light's severe excess Pass not away upon the passing stream. The presence of that shape which on the “Arise and quench thy thirst, was her reply. Moved, as I moved along the wilderness, caress stream wake to weep, were war “More dimly than a day-appearing Round the high moon in a bright sea of dream, air; The ghost of a forgotten form of sleep; And more did follow, with exulting A light of heaven, whose half-extin hymn, guished beam “ The chariot and the captives fettered “ Through the sick day in which we there : But all like bubbles on an eddying flood Glimmers, for ever sought, for ever lost ; Fell into the same track at last, and So did that shape its obscure tenour keep “ Borne onward. - I among the multi“ Beside my path, as silent as a ghost ; tude But the new Vision, and the cold bright Was swept -me, sweetest flowers decar, layed not long; With solemn speed and stunning music, Me, not the shadow nor the solitude; crost “ The forest, and as if from some dread Me, not that falling stream's Lethean song; Triumphantly returning, the loud million Me, not the phantom of that early form, Fiercely extolled the fortune of her star. Which moved upon its motion — but among “A moving arch of victory, the ver “ The thickest billows of that living milion storm And green and azure plumes of Iris had Built high over her wind - winged pa I plunged, and bared my bosom to the vilion, clime Of that cold light, whose airs too soon “ And underneath ethereal glory clad deform. The wilderness, and far before her flew The tempest of the splendour, which “Before the chariot had begun to climb forbade The opposing steep of that mysterious dell, “Shadow to fall from leaf and stone; Behold a wonder worthy of the rhyme the crew Seemed in that light, like atomies to “Of him who from the lowest depths dance of hell, Within a sunbeam;—some upon the new Through every paradise and through all “Embroidery of flowers, that did en glory, hance Love led serene, and who returned to tell The grassy vesture of the desert, played, Forgetful of the chariot's swift advance; " The words of hate and awe; the won“Others stood gazing, till within the drous story shade How all things are transfigured except Of the great mountain its light left them Love; dim; For deaf as is a sea, which wrath makes Others outspeeded it; and others made hoary, “ Circles around it, like the clouds that " The world can hear not the sweet swim notes that move did soar; as mist The sphere whose light is melody to To reassume the delegated power, lovers Arrayed in which those worms did A wonder worthy of his rhyme.—The monarchise, grove “Who made this earth their charnel. “Grew dense with shadows to its inmost Others more covers, Humble, like falcons, sate upon the fist The earth was gray with phantoms, and of common men, and round their heads the air Was peopled with dim forms, as when there hovers “Or like small gnats and flies, as thick "A flock of vampire - bats before the On evening marshes, thronged about glare the brow Of the tropic sun, bringing, ere evening, of lawyers, statesmen, priest and Strange night upon some Indian isle;- theorist ;thus were “And others, like discoloured flakes of “ Phantoms diffused around; and some did fling On fairest bosoms and the sunniest hair, Shadows of shadows, yet unlike them. Fell, and were melted by the youthful selves, glow Behind them; some like eaglets on the wing Which they extinguished; and, like tears, they were “ Were lost in the white day; others A veil to those from whose faint lids like elves they rained Danced in a thousand unimagined shapes In drops of sorrow. I became aware Upon the sunny streams and grassy shelves; “Of whence those forms proceeded which thus stained “ And others sate chattering like restless The track in which we moved. After apes On vulgar hands, From every form the beauty slowly Some made a cradle of the ermined waned; capes firmest limb and fairest “Of kingly mantles ; some across the face tiar The strength and freshness fell like dust, Of pontiffs sate like vultures; others and left played The action and the shape without the Under the crown which girt with em grace pire "Of life. The marble brow of youth “A baby's or an idiot's brow, and was cleft made With care; and in those eyes where Their nests in it. The old anatomies once hope shone, Sate hatching their bare broods under Desire, like a lioness berest the shade "Of her last cub, glared ere it died ; “Of dæmon wings, and laughed from each one their dead eyes Of that great crowd sent forth incessantly brief space, " From every were the way ance died; These shadows, numerous as the dead EARLY POEMS leaves blown STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL Thy dewy looks sink in my breast ; Thy gentle words stir poison there; be Thou hast disturbed the only rest That was the portion of despair! “ Obscure clouds, moulded by the casual Subdued to Duty's hard control, I could have borne my wayward lot : Had cankered then-but crushed it were there, not, STANZAS. - APRIL 1814 AWAY! the moor is dark beneath the moon, Rapid clouds have drank the last pale beam of even : “Was old, the joy which waked like Away! the gathering winds will call heaven's glance the darkness soon, serene lights of heaven. Pause not! The time is past! Every voice cries, Away! “ And fell, as I have fallen, by the way Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood: Those soonest from whose forms most Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, shadows past, dares not entreat thy stay: And least of strength and beauty did Duty and dereliction guide thee back abide. to solitude. " Then, what is life? I cried.” Away, away! to thy sad and silent home; CANCELLED OPENING OF Pour bitter tears on its desolated THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE" hearth; Watch the dim shades as like ghosts Out of the eastern shadow of the Earth, they go and come, Amid the clouds upon its margin gray And complicate strange webs of Scattered by Night to swathe in its bright melancholy mirth. birth The leaves of wasted autumn woods In gold and fleecy snow the infant shall float around thine head: Day, The blooms of dewy spring shall The glorious Sun uprose : beneath his gleam beneath thy feet : light, But thy soul or this world must fade in The earth and all .. the frost that binds the dead, side; |
