CHILDE

HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE.

CANTO III.

I.
Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child !
Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart?
When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled,
And then we parted, not as now we part,
But with a hope.

Awaking with a start,
The waters heave around me; and on high
The winds lift up their voices: I depart.
Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by,
When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad

mine eye.

II.
Once more upon the waters! yet once more!
And the waves bound beneath me as a steed
That knows his rider. Welcome, to their roar!
Swist be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead!
Though the strain'd mast should quiver as a reed,
And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale,
Still must I on; for I am as a weed,
Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sail
Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath

prevail.

III.
In my youth's summer I did sing of One,
The wandering outlaw of his own dark mind;
Again I seize the theme then but begun,
And bear it with me, as the rushing wind
Bears the cloud onwards: in that Tale I find
The furrows of long thought, and dried-up tears,
Which, ebbing, leave a sterile track behind,
O'er which all leavily the journeying years
Plod the last sands of life, where not a flower

appears.

IV. Since my young days of passion-joy, or pain, Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string, And both may jar: it may be, that in vain I would essay as I have sung to sing, Yet, though a dreary strain, to this I cling; So that it wean me from the weary dream Of selfish grief or gladness--so it fling Forgetfulness around me-it shall seem To me, though to none else, a not ungrateful theme.

V. He, who grown aged in this world of woe, In deeds, not yers, piercing the depths of life, So that no wonder waits him; nor below Can love, or sorrow, fame, ambition, strife, Cut to his heart again with the keen knife of silent, sharp endurance: he can tell Why thought seeks refuge in lone caves, yet rise With airy images, and shapes which dwell Still unimpair'd, though old, in the soul's haunted

cell.

VI. 'Tis to create, and in creating liye A being more intense, that we endow With form our fancy, gaining as we give The life we image, even as I do now. What am I? Nothing; but not so art thou, Soul of my thought! with whom I traverse earth, Invisible but gazing, as I glow Mix'd with thy spirit, blended with thy birtlı, And feeling still with thee in my crush'd feelings'

dearth,

VII. Yet must I think less wildly: I have thought Too long and darkly, till my brain became, In its own eddy boiling and o'erwrought, A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame: And thus, onthaught in youth my heart to tame, My springs of life were poison'd, 'Tis too late! Yet am I chang’d; though still enough the same In strength to bear what time can not abate, And feed on bitter fruits without accusing Fate.