Man. (alone.) We are the fools of time and terror: days
Steal on us and steal from us; yet we live, Loathing our life, and dreading still to die. In all the days of this detested yoke- This vital weight upon the struggling heart Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain, Or joy that ends in agony or faintness- In all the days of past and future, for
In life there is no present, we can number How few-how less than few-wherein the soul Forbears to pant for death, and yet draws back As from a stream in winter, though the chill Be but a moment's. I have one resource Still in my science-I can call the dead, And ask them what it is we dread to be: The sternest answer can but be the grave, And that is nothing-if they answer not- The buried prophet answer'd to the Hag Of Endor; and the Spartan monarch drew From the Byzantine maid's unsleeping spirit An answer and his destiny-he slew That which he loved, unknowing what he slew, And died unpardon'd-though he call'd in aid The Phyxian Jove, and in Phigalia roused The Arcadian Evocators to compel The indignant shadow to depose her wrath, Or fix her term of vengeance-she replied In words of dubious import, but fulfill'd.
If I had never lived, that which I love Had still been living; had I never loved, That which I love would still be beautiful- Happy and giving happiness. What is she? What is she now?-a sufferer for my sins- A thing I dare not think upon—or nothing. Within few hours I shall not call in vain- Yet in this hour I dread the thing I dare: Until this hour I never shrank to gaze On spirit, good or evil-now I tremble, And feel a strange cold thaw upon my heart, But I can act even what I most abhor,
And champion human fears.-The night approaches.
She is not of our order, but belongs
To the other powers. Mortai! thy quest is vain, And we are baffled also.
Hear me, hear me
Astarte! my beloved! speak to me:
I have so much endured-so much endure- Look on me! the grave hath not changed thee more Than I am changed for thee. Thou loved'st me Too much, as I loved thee: we were not made To torture thus each other, though it were The deadliest sin to love as we have loved. Say that thou loath'st me not-that I do bear This punishment for both-that thou wilt be One of the blessed-and that I shall die; For hitherto all hateful things conspire To bind me in existence-in a life Which makes me shrink from immortality— A future like the past. I cannot rest. I know not what I ask, nor what I seek: I feel but what thou art—and what I am; And I would hear yet once before I perish The voice which was my music-Speak to me! For I have call'd on thee in the still night, Startled the slumbering birds from the hush'd boughs,
And woke the mountain wolves, and made the caves Acquainted with thy vainly echoed name, Which answer'd me-many things answer'd me→ Spirits and men-but thou wert silent all. Yet speak to me! I have outwatch'd the stars, And gaz'd o'er heaven in vain in search of thee. Speak to me! I have wander'd o'er the earth And never found thy likeness-Speak to me! Look on the fiends around-they feel for me: I fear them not, and feel for thee alone- Speak to me! though it be in wrath;—but say— I reck not what-but let me hear thee once- This once-once more!
Phantom of Astarte. Manfred!
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY. She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling place. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!
VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. The king was on his throne, The satraps throng'd the hall; A thousand bright lamps shone O'er that high festival. A thousand cups of gold, In Judah deem'd divineJehovah's vessels hold
The godless Heathen's wine!
In that same hour and hall,
The fingers of a hand Came forth against the wall, And wrote as if on sand: The fingers of a man;— A solitary hand
Along the letters ran,
And traced them like a wand.
The monarch saw, and shook,
And bade no more rejoice; All bloodless wax'd his look, And tremulous his voice. "Let the men of lore appear,
The wisest of the earth, And expound the words of fear, Which mar our royal mirth."
Chaldea's seers are good,
But here they have no skill; And the unknown letters stood Untold and awful still. And Babel's men of age
Are wise and deep in lore; But now they were not sage, They saw-but knew no more. A captive in the land,
A stranger and a youth, He heard the king's command, He saw that writing's truth. The lamps around were bright,
The prophecy in view; He read it on that night,
The morrow proved it true. "Belshazzar's grave is made,
His kingdom pass'd away, He, in the balance weigh'd,
Is light and worthless clay. The shroud his robe of state,
His canopy the stone; The Mede is at his gate!
The Persian on his throne!"
THE LAMENT OF TASSO. Long years! It tries the thrilling frame to bear, And eagle-spirit of a child of song- Long years of outrage, calumny, and wrong; Imputed madness, prison'd solitude,
And the mind's canker in its savage mood, When the impatient thirst of light and air Parches the heart; and the abhorred grate, Marring the sunbeams with its hideous shade, Works through the throbbing eyeball to the brain With a hot sense of heaviness and pain;
And bare, at once, captivity display'd
Stands scoffing through the never-open'd gate, Which nothing through its bars admits, save day And tasteless food, which I have eat alone Till its unsocial bitterness is gone; And I can banquet like a beast of prey, Sullen and lonely, couching in the cave Which is my lair, and-it may be―my grave. All this hath somewhat worn me, and may wear, But must be borne. I stoop not to despair; For I have battled with mine agony, And made me wings wherewith to overfly The narrow circus of my dungeon wall, And freed the holy sepulchre from thrall, And revell'd among men and things divine, And pour'd my spirit over Palestine, In honour of the sacred war for him,
The God who was on earth and is in heaven, For he hath strengthen'd me in heart and limb. That through this sufferance I might be forgiven, I have employ'd my penance to record How Salem's shrine was won, and how adored.
But this is o'er-my pleasant task is done:- My long-sustaining friend of many years!
If I do blot thy final page with tears, Know, that my sorrows have wrung from me none. But thou, my young creation! my soul's child! Which ever playing round me came and smiled, And woo'd me from myself with thy sweet sight, Thou too art gone-and so is my delight: And therefore do I weep and inly bleed With this last bruise upon a broken reed. Thou too art ended-what is left me now? For I have anguish yet to bear-and how? I know not that-but in the innate force Of my own spirit shall be found resource. I have not sunk, for I had no remorse,
Nor cause for such: they call'd me mad—and why? Oh Leonora! wilt not thou reply? I was indeed delirious in my heart To lift my love so lofty as thou art;
But still my frenzy was not of the mind;
I knew my fault, and feel my punishment
Not less because I suffer it unbent.
That thou wert beautiful, and I not blind,
Hath been the sin which shuts me from mankind; But let them go, or torture as they will, My heart can multiply thine image still; Successful love may sate itself away,
The wretched are the faithful; 'tis their fate To have all feeling save the one decay, And every passion into one dilate, As rapid rivers into ocean pour;
But ours is fathomless, and hath no shore.
Above me, hark! the long and maniac cry Of minds and bodies in captivity.
And hark! the lash and the increasing howl, And the half-inarticulate blasphemy!
There be some here with worse than frenzy foul, Some who do still goad on the o'er-labour'd mind, And dim the little light that's left behind With needless torture, as their tyrant will Is wound up to the lust of doing ill:
With these and with their victims am I class'd, Mid sounds and sights like these long years have pass'd;
Mid sights and sounds like these my life may close: So let it be for then I shall repose.
I have been patient, let me be so yet; I had forgotten half I would forget, But it revives-oh! would it were my lot To be forgetful as I am forgot!-
Feel I not wroth with those who bade me dwell In this vast lazar-house of many woes? Where laughter is not mirth, nor thought the mind, Nor words a language, nor ev'n men mankind; Where cries reply to curses, shrieks to blows, And each is tortured in his separate hell— For we are crowded in our solitudes- Many, but each divided by the wall, Which echoes madness in her babbling moods;- While all can hear, none heed his neighbour's call- None! save that one, the veriest wretch of all, Who was not made to be the mate of these,
Nor bound between distraction and disease. Feel I not wroth with those who placed me here? Who have debased me in the minds of men, Debarring me the usage of my own,
Blighting my life in best of its career, Branding my thoughts as things to shun and fear? Would I not pay them back these pangs again, And teach them inward sorrow's stifled groan? The struggle to be calm, and cold distress, Which undermines our Stoical success! No!-still too proud to be vindictive-I Have pardon'd princes' insults, and would die. Yes, sister of my sovereign! for thy sake I weed all bitterness from out my breast, It hath no business where thou art a guest; Thy brother hates—but I can not detest; Thou pitiest not-but I can not forsake.
Look on a love which knows not to despair, But all unquench'd is still my better part, Dwelling deep in my shut and silent heart As dwells the gather'd lightning in its cloud, Encompass'd with its dark and rolling shroud, Till struck,-forth flies the all-ethereal dart! And thus at the collision of thy name
The vivid thought still flashes through my frame, And for a moment all things as they were Flit by me ;-they are gone-I am the same. And yet my love without ambition grew;
I knew thy state, my station, and I knew A princess was no love-mate for a bard; I told it not, I breathed it not, it was Sufficient to itself, its own reward! And if my eyes reveal'd it, they, alas! Were punish'd by the silentness of thine, And yet I did not venture to repine. Thou wert to me a crystal-girded shrine, Worshipp'd at holy distance, and around Hallow'd and meekly kiss'd the saintly ground; Not for thou wert a princess, but that love Had robed thee with a glory, and array'd Thy lineaments in beauty that dismay'd- Oh! not dismay'd—but awed, like one above; And in that sweet severity there was
A something which all softness did surpass― I know not how-thy genius master'd mine- My star stood still before thee:-if it were Presumptuous thus to love without design, That sad fatality hath cost me dear;
But thou art dearest still, and I should be Fit for this cell, which wrongs me, but for thee. The very love which lock'd me to my chain Hath lighten'd half its weight; and for the rest, Though heavy, lent me vigour to sustain, And look to thee with undivided breast, And foil the ingenuity of pain.
It is no marvel-from my very birth
My soul was drunk with love, which did pervade And mingle with whate'er I saw on earth; Of objects all inanimate I made Idols, and out of wild and lonely flowers,
And rocks, whereby they grew, a paradise, Where I did lay me down within the shade Of waving trees, and dream'd uncounted hours, Though I was chid for wandering; and the wise Shook their white aged heads o'er me, and said Of such materials wretched men were made, And such a truant boy would end in woe, And that the only lesson was a blow;
And then they smote me, and I did not weep, But cursed them in my heart, and to my haunt Return'd and wept alone, and dream'd again The visions which arise without a sleep. And with my years my soul began to pant With feelings of strange tumult and soft pain; And the whole heart exhaled into one want, But undefined and wandering, till the day I found the thing I sought-and that was thee; And then I lost my being all to be
Absorb'd in thine-the world was past away- Thou didst annihilate the earth to me!
I loved all solitude-but little thought To spend I know not what of life, remote From all communion with existence, save The maniac and his tyrant; had I been Their fellow, many years ere this had seen My mind like theirs corrupted to its grave,
But who hath seen me writhe, or heard me rave? Perchance in such a cell we suffer more Than the wreck'd sailor on his desert shore; The world is all before him-mine is here, Scarce twice the space they must accord my bier. What though he perish, he may lift his eye And with a dying glance upbraid the sky- I will not raise my own in such reproof, Although 'tis clouded by my dungeon roof.
Yet do I feel at times my mind decline, But with a sense of its decay:-I see Unwonted lights along my prison shine, And a strange demon, who is vexing me With pilfering pranks and petty pains, below The feeling of the healthful and the free;
But much to one, who long hath suffer'd so, Sickness of heart, and narrowness of place, And all that may be borne, or can debase. I thought mine enemies had been but man, But spirits may be leagued with them—all earth Abandons-Heaven forgets me; in the dearth Of such defence the powers of evil can, It may be, tempt me further, and prevail Against the outworn creature they assail. Why in this furnace is my spirit proved Like steel in tempering fire? because I loved ?--- Because I loved what not to love, and see, Was more or less than mortal, and than me! I was once quick in feeling-that is o'er ;- My scars are callous, or I should have dash'd My brain against these bars as the sun flash'd In mockery through them; if I bear and bore The much I have recounted, and the more Which hath no words, 'tis that I would not die
And sanction with self-slaughter the dull lie Which snared me here, and with the brand of shame Stamp madness deep into my memory, And woo compassion to a blighted name, Sealing the sentence which my foes proclaim. No-it shall be immortal!—and I make A future temple of my present cell, Which nations yet shall visit for my sake. While thou, Ferrara! when no longer dwell The ducal chiefs within thee, shalt fall down, Aud crumbling piecemeal view thy hearthless halls, A poet's wreath shall be thine only crown, A poet's dungeon thy most far renown, While strangers wander o'er thy unpeopled walls! And thou, Leonora! thou-who wert ashamed That such as I could love-who blush'd to hear To less than monarchs that thou couldst be dear, Go! tell thy brother that my heart, untamed By grief, years, weariness—and it be may A taint of that he would impute to me— From long infection of a den like this, Where the mind rots congenial with the abyss, Adores thee still;-and add-that when the towers And battlements which guard his joyous hours Of banquet, dance, and revel, are forgot, Or left untended in a dull repose, This-this shall be a consecrated spot!
But thou-when all that birth and beauty throws Of magic round thee is extinct-shalt have One half the laurel which o'ershades my grave. No power in death can tear our names apart, As none in life could rend thee from my heart. Yes, Leonora! it shall be our fate
To be entwined for ever-but too late!
Ζώη με, σάς ἀγαπῶ.
ATHENS, 1810. Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give, oh, give me back my heart! Or, since that has left my breast, Keep it now, and take the rest! Hear my vow before I go, Ζώη με, σὰς ἀγαπῶ.
By those tresses unconfined, Woo'd by each Ægean wind; By those lids whose jetty fringe Kiss thy soft cheeks' blooming tinge; By those wild eyes like the roe, Ζώη μᾶ, σὰς ἀγαπῶ.
By that lip I long to taste;
By that zone-encircled waist; By all the token-flowers that tell What words can never speak so well; By love's alternate joy and woe, Ζώη με, σὰς ἀγαπῶ.
Maid of Athens! I am gone: Think of me, sweet! when alone.
"Heu quanto minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse!"
And thou art dead, as young and fair
As aught of mortal birth;
And form so soft, and charms so rare,
Too soon return'd to earth! Though earth received them in her bed, And o'er the spot the crowd may tread In carelessness or mirth,
There is an eye which could not brook A moment on that grave to look.
I will not ask where thou liest low, Nor gaze upon the spot;
There flowers or weeds at will may grow,
So I behold them not:
It is enough for me to prove
That what I loved and long must love
Like common earth can rot;
To me there needs no stone to tell, 'Tis nothing that I loved so well.
Yet did I love thee to the last
As fervently as thou,
Who didst not change through all the past, And canst not alter now.
The love where death hath set his seal, Nor age can chill, nor rival steal,
Nor falsehood disavow:
And, what were worse, thou canst not see Or wrong, or change, or fault in me.
The better days of life were ours;
The worst can be but mine:
The sun that cheers, the storm that lowers, Shall never more be thine.
The silence of that dreamless sleep I envy now too much to weep;
Nor need I to repine
That all those charms have pass'd away; I might have watch'd through long decay.
The flower in ripen'd bloom unmatch'd
Must fall the earliest prey; Though by no hand untimely snatch'd, The leaves must drop away: And yet it were a greater grief To watch it withering, leaf by leaf, Than see it pluck'd to-day; Since earthly eye but ill can bear To trace the change to foul from fair.
I know not if I could have borne To see thy beauties fade; The night that follow'd such a morn Had worn a deeper shade:
Thy day without a cloud hath past, And thou wert lovely to the last;
Extinguish'd, not decay'd; As stars that shoot along the sky Shine brightest as they fall from high.
As once I wept, if I could weep
My tears might well be shed, To think I was not near to keep One vigil o'er thy bed; To gaze, how fondly! on thy face, To fold thee in a faint embrace,
Uphold thy drooping head; And show that love, however vain, Nor thou nor I can feel again.
Yet how much less it were to gain, Though thou hast left me free, The loveliest things that still remain, Than thus remember thee! The all of thine that cannot die Through dark and dread eternity, Returns again to me,
And more thy buried love endears Than aught, except its living years.
STANZAS FOR MUSIC. There be none of beauty's daughters With a magic like thee; And like music on the waters
Is thy sweet voice to me: When, as if its sound were causing The charmed ocean's pausing, The waves lie still and gleaming, And the lulled winds seem dreaming.
And the midnight moon is weaving
Her bright chain o'er the deep; Whose breast is gently heaving, As an infant's asleep:
So the spirit bows before thee, To listen and adore thee; With a full but soft emotion, Like the swell of summer's ocean.
Titan! to whose immortal eyes The sufferings of mortality, Seen in their reality, Were not as things that gods despise; What was thy pity's recompense? A silent suffering, and intense; The rock, the vulture, and the chain, All that the proud can feel of pain, The agony they do not show, The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness, And then is jealous lest the sky Should have a listener, nor will sigh Until its voice is echoless.
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