And down the earthquaking cataracts which shiver A haven, beneath whose translucent floor Sepulchre them, till in their rage they tear A subterranean portal for the river, It fled the circling sunbows did upbear Its fall down the hoar precipice of spray, Lighting it far upon its lampless way. XLIII. And when the wizard lady would ascend The labyrinths of some many-winding vale, Which to the inmost mountain upward tend— She called "Hermaphroditus !" and the pale And heavy hue which slumber could extend Over its lips and eyes, as on the gale XLIV. And it unfurled its heaven-coloured pinions, With stars of fire spotting the stream below; And from above into the Sun's dominions Flinging a glory, like the golden glow In which spring clothes her emerald-winged All interwoven with fine feathery snow [minions, And moonlight splendour of intensest rime, With which frost paints the pines in winter time. XLV. And then it winnowed the Elysian air Which ever hung about that lady bright, Breasting the whirlwind with impetuous flight; The pinnace, oared by those enchanted wings, Clove the fierce streams towards their upper springs. XLVI. The water flashed like sunlight by the prow Of a noon-wandering meteor flung to Heaven; The still air seemed as if its waves did flow In tempest down the mountains,-loosely driven The lady's radiant hair streamed to and fro; Beneath, the billows having vainly striven Indignant and impetuous, roared to feel The swift and steady motion of the keel. XLVII. Or, when the weary moon was in the wane, Her spirit; but sailed forth under the light His storm-outspeeding wings, th' Hermaphrodite; She to the Austral waters took her way, Beyond the fabulous Thamondocona. XLVIII. Where, like a meadow which no scythe has shaven, Which rain could never bend, or whirl-blast shake, With the Antarctic constellations paven, Canopus and his crew, lay th' Austral lakeThere she would build herself a windless haven Out of the clouds whose moving turrets make The bastions of the storm, when through the sky spirits of the tempest thundered by. The tremulous stars sparkled unfathomably, And around which the solid vapours hoar, Based on the level waters, to the sky Lifted their dreadful crags; and like a shore Of wintry mountains, inaccessibly Hemmed in with rifts and precipices grey, And hanging crags, many a cove and bay. L. And whilst the outer lake beneath the lash LI. On which that lady played her many pranks, LII. And then she called out of the hollow turrets In mighty legions million after million On meteor flags; and many a proud pavilion, LIII. They framed the imperial tent of their great Queen LIV. And on a throne o'erlaid with starlight, caught LV. These were tame pleasures.-She would often climb LXX. For on the night that they were buried, she A mimic day within that deathy nook; Of second childhood's swaddling bands, and took LXXI. And there the body lay, age after age, With gentle sleep about its eyelids playing, Of death or life; while they were still arraying In liveries ever new the rapid, blind, And fleeting generations of mankind. LXXII. And she would write strange dreams upon the brain The miser in such dreams would rise and shake LXXIII. The priests would write an explanation full, And nothing more; and bid the herald stick The old cant down; they licensed all to speak Whate'er they thought of hawks, and cats, and geese, By pastoral letters to each diocese. LXXIV. The king would dress an ape up in his crown Would place a gaudy mock-bird to repeat Of the prone courtiers crawled to kiss the feet Of their great Emperor when the morning came; And kissed-alas, how many kiss the same! LXXV. I STOOD within the city disinterred † ; Of spirits passing through the streets; and heard The oracular thunder penetrating shook The listening soul in my suspended blood; I felt that Earth out of her deep heart spoke I felt, but heard not:-through white columns A plane of light between two heavens of azure: Because the crystal silence of the air Weighed on their life; even as the Power divine, EPODE II. a. Then gentle winds arose, And where the Baian ocean The soldiers dreamed that they were blacksmiths, Of wild Æolian sound and mountain odour keen ; LXXVI. And timid lovers who had been so coy, They hardly knew whether they loved or not, Would rise out of their rest, and take sweet joy, To the fulfilment of their inmost thought; And when next day the maiden and the boy Met one another, both, like sinners caught, Blushed at the thing which each believed was Only in fancy-till the tenth moon shone; [done Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, It bore me like an Angel, o'er the waves The Author has connected many recollections of his No storm can overwhelm ; Of the dead kings of Melody *. Whilst from all the coast, Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered Over the oracular woods and divine sea Prophesyings which grew articulate They seize me-I must speak them;-be they fate! STROPHE a. 1. NAPLES! thou Heart of men, which ever pantest The mutinous air and sea! they round thee, even Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained! Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice, Which armed Victory offers up unstained Thou which wert once, and then didst cease to be, STROPHE B. 2. Thou youngest giant birth, Which from the groaning earth Leap'st, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale ! Last of the Intercessors Who 'gainst the Crowned Transgressors Pleadest before God's love! Arrayed in Wisdom's mail, Wave thy lightning lance in mirth; Though from their hundred gates the leagued With hurried legions move! ANTISTROPHE a. What though Cimmerian Anarchs dare blaspheme To turn his hungry sword upon the wearer; Shall theirs have been-devoured by their own If Hope, and Truth, and Justice may avail, ANTISTROPHE B. 2. Homer and Virgil. Strip every impious gawd, rend Error veil by veil : O'er Ruin desolate, O'er Falsehood's fallen state, Sit thou sublime, unawed; be the Destroyer pale! And equal laws be thine, And winged words let sail, Freighted with truth even from the throne of God: ANTISTROPHE a. y. Didst thou not start to hear Spain's thrilling paan Starts to hear thine! The Sea Hear ye the march as of the Earth-born Forms Of crags and thunder clouds? See ye the banners blazoned to the day, The Serene Heaven which wraps our Eden wide The Anarchs of the North lead forth their legions |