With silent stars, and Heaven was breathless with Sculptures like life and thought; immoveable, deep-cyed.
Memories which found a tongue, as thus he silence Which on the paths of men their mingling poison thrust.
Then first, two glittering lights were seen to glide In circles on the amethystine floor,
Small serpent eyes trailing from side to side, Like meteors on a river's grassy shore, They round each other roll'd, dilating more And more-then rose, commingling into one, One clear and mighty planet hanging o'er A cloud of deepest shadow, which was thrown Athwart the glowing steps and the crystalline throne.
The cloud which rested on that cone of flame Was cloven; beneath the planet sate a Form, Fairer than tongue can speak or thought may frame, The radiance of whose limbs rose-like and warm Flow'd forth, and did with softest light inform The shadowy dome, the sculptures, and the state Of those assembled shapes-with clinging charm Sinking upon their hearts and mine-He sate Majestic, yet most mild-calm, yet compassionate.
Wonder and joy a passing faintness threw Over my brow-a hand supported me, Whose touch was magic strength: an eye of blue Look'd into mine, like moonlight, soothingly; And a voice said-Thou must a listener be This day-two mighty Spirits now return, Like birds of calm, from the world's raging sea, They pour fresh light from Hope's immortal urn; A tale of human power-despair not-list and learn !
I look'd, and lo! one stood forth eloquently, His eyes were dark and deep, and the clear brow Which shadow'd them was like the morning sky, The cloudless Heaven of Spring, when in their flow Through the bright air, the soft winds as they blow Wake the green world-his gestures did obey The oracular mind that made his features glow, And where his curved lips half open lay,
Passion's divinest stream had made impetuous way.
Beneath the darkness of his outspread hair He stood thus beautiful: but there was One Who sate beside him like his shadow there, And held his hand-far lovelier-she was known To be thus fair, by the few lines alone
Which through her floating locks and gather'd cloke, Glances of soul-dissolving glory, shone:-
None else beheld her eyes-in him they woke
THE star-light smile of children, the sweet looks Of women, the fair breast from which I fed, The murmur of the unreposing brooks, And the green light which, shifting overhead, Some tangled bower of vines around me shed, The shells on the sea-sand, and the wild flowers, The lamp-light through the rafters cheerly spread, And on the twining flax-in life's young hours These sights and sounds did nurse my spirits' folded
In Argolis, beside the echoing sea, Such impulses within my mortal frame Arose, and they were dear to memory, Like tokens of the dead:-but others came Soon, in another shape: the wondrous fame Of the past world, the vital words and deeds Of minds whom neither time nor change can tame, Traditions dark and old, whence evil creeds
Start forth, and whose dim shade a stream of poison feeds.
I heard, as all have heard, the various story Of human life, and wept unwilling tears. Feeble historians of its shame and glory, False disputants on all its hopes and fears, Victims who worshipp'd ruin,-chroniclers Of daily scorn, and slaves who loathed their state; Yet flattering power had given its ministers
A throne of judgment in the grave:-'t was fate, That among such as these my youth should seek its
The land in which I lived, by a fell bane
Was wither'd up. Tyrants dwelt side by side, And stabled in our homes, -until the chain
Stifled the captive's cry, and to abide
That blasting curse men had no shame-all vied In evil, slave and despot; fear with lust, Strange fellowship through mutual hate had tied, Like two dark serpents tangled in the dust,
Earth, our bright home, its mountains and its waters, And the etherial shapes which are suspended Over its green expanse, and those fair daughters, The clouds, of Sun and Ocean, who have blended The colours of the air since first extended
It cradled the young world, none wander'd forth To see or feel a darkness had descended
On every heart: the light which shows its worth, Must among gentle thoughts and fearless take its birth.
This vital world, this home of happy spirits, Was as a dungeon to my blasted kind, All that despair from murder'd hope inherits They sought, and in their helpless misery blind, A deepèr prison and heavier chains did find, And stronger tyrants:-a dark gulf before, The realm of a stern Ruler, yawn'd; behind, Terror and Time conflicting drove, and bore
Such man has been, and such may yet become! Aye, wiser, greater, gentler, even than they Who on the fragments of yon shatter'd dome Have stamp'd the sign of power-I felt the sway Of the vast stream of ages bear away My floating thoughts-my heart beat loud and fast- Even as a storm let loose beneath the ray Of the still moon, my spirit onward past
On their tempestuous flood the shrieking wretch from Beneath Truth's steady beams upon its tumult cast.
Imposture's impious toils round each discordant shrine. A tower whose marble walls the leagued storms with
Yes, oft beside the ruin'd labyrinth
Which skirts the hoary caves of the green deep,
Did Laon and his friend on one grey plinth,
Round whose worn base the wild waves hiss and leap, Resting at eve, a lofty converse keep:
And that this friend was false, may now be said Calmly-that he like other men could weep Tears which are lies, and could betray and spread Snares for that guileless heart which for his own had bled.
Then, had no great aim recompensed my sorrow, I must have sought dark respite from its stress, In dreamless rest, in sleep that sees no morrow- For to tread life's dismaying wilderness Without one smile to cheer, one voice to bless, Amid the snares and scoffs of human kind, Is hard-but I betray'd it not, nor less With love that scorn'd return, sought to unbind The interwoven clouds which make its wisdom blind.
With deathless minds which leave where they have past A path of light, my soul communion knew; Till from that glorious intercourse, at last,
As from a mine of magic store, I drew
Words which were weapons; -round my heart there
The adamantine armour of their power, And from my fancy wings of golden hue
Sprang forth-yet not alone from wisdom's tower, A minister of truth, these plumes young Laon bore.
An orphan with my parents lived, whose eyes Were load-stars of delight, which drew me home When I might wander forth; nor did I prize Aught human thing beneath Heaven's mighty dome Beyond this child: so when sad hours were come, And baffled hope like ice still clung to me, Since kin were cold, and friends had now become Heartless and false, I turn'd from all, to be, Cythna, the only source of tears and smiles to thee.
What wert thou then? A child most infantine, Yet wandering far beyond that innocent age In all but its sweet looks and mien divine; Even then, methought, with the world's tyrant rage A patient warfare thy young heart did wage, When those soft eyes of scarcely conscious thought, Some tale, or thine own fancies would engage
To overflow with tears, or converse fraught
As mine own shadow was this child to me,
A second self, far dearer and more fair; Which clothed in undissolving radiancy,
All those steep paths which languor and despair Of human things, had made so dark and bare, But which I trod alone-nor, till bereft Of friends, and overcome by lonely care, Knew I what solace for that loss was left, Though by a bitter wound my trusting heart was cleft.
Once she was dear, now she was all I had To love in human life-this playmate sweet, This child of twelve years old-so she was made My sole associate, and her willing feet Wander'd with mine where earth and ocean meet, Beyond the aërial mountains whose vast cells The unreposing billows ever beat, Through forests wide and old, and lawny dells, Where boughs of incense droop over the emerald wells.
And warm and light I felt her clasping hand When twined in mine: she followed where I went, Through the lone paths of our immortal land. It had no waste, but some memorial lent Which strung me to my toil-some monument Vital with mind: then, Cythna by my side, Until the bright and beaming day were spent, Would rest, with looks entreating to abide, Too earnest and too sweet ever to be denied.
And soon I could not have refused her-thus For ever, day and night, we two were ne'er Parted, but when brief sleep divided us: And when the pauses of the lulling air Of noon beside the sea, had made a lair For her soothed senses, in my arms she slept, And I kept watch over her slumbers there, While, as the shifting visions o'er her swept, Amid her innocent rest by turns she smiled and wept.-
And, in the murmur of her dreams was heard Sometimes the name of Laon :-suddenly She would arise, and like the secret bird Whom sunset wakens, fill the shore and sky With her sweet accents a wild melody! Hymns which my soul had woven to Freedom, strong The source of passion whence they rose, to be; Triumphant strains, which, like a spirit's tongue,
With passion, o'er their depths its fleeting light had To the enchanted waves that child of glory sung,
Which walks, when tempest sleeps, the wave of life's Of visions that were mine, beyond its utmost spring.
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