THE DÆMON OF THE WORLD. A FRAGMENT [OF QUEEN MAB, REVISED.] [PART I.] Nec tantum prodere vati, Quantum scire licet. Venit ætas omnis in unam Congeriem, miserumque premunt tot sæcula pectus. Lucan Phars. L. v. L. 176. How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother Sleep! One pale as yonder wan and horned moon, The other glowing like the vital morn, It breathes over the world: Yet both so passing strange and wonderful! Hath then the iron-sceptred Skeleton, To the hell dogs that couch beneath his throne Leave aught of this pure spectacle 10 15 But loathsomeness and ruin ?— On which the lightest heart might moralize? Or is it but that downy-wingèd slumbers Have charmed their nurse coy Silence near her lids Will they, when morning's beam Flows through those wells of light, Seek far from noise and day some western cave, Where woods and streams with soft and pausing winds A lulling murmur weave?— Ianthe doth not sleep The dreamless sleep of death: Nor in her moonlight chamber silently Doth Henry hear her regular pulses throb, Or mark her delicate cheek With interchange of hues mock the broad moon, Outwatching weary night, Without assured reward. Her dewy eyes are closed; On their translucent lids, whose texture fine 40 Scarce hides the dark blue orbs that burn below The baby Sleep is pillowed: 45 With unapparent fire, Her golden tresses shade Twining like tendrils of the parasite Around a marble column. Hark! whence that rushing sound? "Tis like a wondrous strain that sweeps When west winds sigh and evening waves respond 'Tis wilder than the unmeasured notes Which from the unseen lyres of dells and groves Its shape reposed within: slight as some cloud When evening yields to night, Bright as that fibrous woof when stars indue Four shapeless shadows bright and beautiful The Dæmon leaning from the etherial car Human eye hath ne'er beheld A shape so wild, so bright, so beautiful, As that which o'er the maiden's charmèd sleep Waving a starry wand, Hung like a mist of light. 60 65 70 Such sounds as breathed around like odorous winds 75 Filling the chamber and the moonlight sky. Maiden, the world's supremest spirit Folds all thy memory doth inherit Feelings that lure thee to betray, For thou hast earned a mighty boon, Dimly, thy mind may make its own, Entranced in some diviner mood Custom, and Faith, and Power thou spurnest; From hate and awe thy heart is free; Ardent and pure as day thou burnest, A living light, to cheer it long, Therefore from nature's inner shrine, Where gods and fiends in worship bend, The flame to seize, the veil to rend, All that inspires thy voice of love, Or speaks in thy unclosing eyes, Or through thy frame doth burn or move, Earth's unsubstantial mimicry! It ceased, and from the mute and moveless fraine A radiant spirit arose, All beautiful in naked purity. Robed in its human hues it did ascend, Disparting as it went the silver clouds. It moved towards the car, and took its seat Beside the Dæmon shape. Obedient to the sweep of aery song, The mighty ministers. Unfurled their prismy wings. The magic car moved on; The night was fair, innumerable stars The magic car moved on. From the swift sweep of wings The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew; Now far above a rock the utmost verge The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow VOL. I. 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 Far, far below the chariot's stormy path, Calm as a slumbering babe, Its broad and silent mirror gave to view The chariot's fiery track, And the grey light of morn, Tinging those fleecy clouds That cradled in their folds the infant dawn. The chariot seemed to fly Through the abyss of an immense concave, As they approached their goal, The winged shadows seemed to gather speed. Appeared a vast and shadowy sphere, suspended With the sun's cloudless orb, Whose rays of rapid light Parted around the chariot's swifter course, And fell like ocean's feathery spray Dashed from the boiling surge Before a vessel's prow. 135 140 145 150 154 It was a sight of wonder! Some were horned, 16: 170 |