Thus power and hope were strength-
ened more and more

Within me, till there came upon my
mind

A sense of loneliness, a thirst with which I pined.

VI

Alas that love should be a blight and

snare

To those who seek all sympathies
in one !-

Such once I sought in vain; then black despair,

Which crushed and withered mine, that could not be

Aught but a lifeless clog, until revived by thee.

The shadow of a starless night, To trample: this was ours, and we unwas thrown

shaken stood !

Over the world in which I moved
alone :-

Yet never found I one not false to me,
Hard hearts, and cold, like weights
of icy stone

VII

Thou Friend, whose presence on my
wintry heart

Fell, like bright Spring upon some
herbless plain,

How beautiful and calm and free thou

IX

Now has descended a serener hour, And, with inconstant fortune, friends return;

Though suffering leaves the knowledge and the power

Which says "Let scorn be not repaid with scorn."

And from thy side two gentle babes are born

To fill our home with smiles, and thus are we

Most fortunate beneath life's beaming morn:

And these delights, and thou, have been to me

wert

In thy young wisdom, when the The parents of the Song I consecrate to mortal chain

thee.

Of Custom thou didst burst and

rend in twain,

And walk as free as light the clouds

among,

Which many an envious slave then
breathed in vain

From his dim dungeon, and my spirit
sprung

To meet thee from the woes which had begirt it long!

VIII

Although I trod the paths of high intent,

I journeyed now: no more companionless,

No more alone through the world's wilderness, .

Where solitude is like despair, I

went.

There is the wisdom of a stern content

When Poverty can blight the just and good,

When Infamy dares mock the innocent,

And cherished friends turn with the multitude

XII

They say that thou wert lovely from
thy birth,

Of glorious parents, thou aspiring
Child.
I wonder not

- for One then left this

XIII

One voice came forth from many a mighty spirit

And the tumultuous world stood mute to hear it,

As some lone man who in a desert hears

The music of his home :-unwonted fears

Fell on the pale oppressors of our

race,

Which was the echo of three-
thousand years;

earth

Which wrap them from the foundering seaman's sight,

Whose life was like a setting planet That burn from year to year with mild,

unextinguished light.

Which clothed thee in the radiance
undefiled

Of its departing glory; still her fame
Shines on thee, through the tempests
dark and wild

Which shake these latter days; and thou canst claim

The shelter, from thy Sire, of an immortal name.

XIV

Truth's deathless voice pauses among mankind!

If there must be no response to my cry

If men must rise and stamp, with fury blind,

On his pure name who loves them, -thou and I,

Sweet friend! can look from our tranquillity

Like lamps into the world's tempestuous night,

Two tranquil stars, while clouds are passing by

CANTO I

1

When the last hope of trampled
France had failed

Like a brief dream of unremaining
glory,

From visions of despair I rose, and scaled

The peak of an aërial promontory, Whose caverned base with the vext surge was hoary;

And saw the golden dawn break forth, and waken