33.
New lore was this--old age with its gray hair, _955 And wrinkled legends of unworthy things, And icy sneers, is nought: it cannot dare To burst the chains which life for ever flings On the entangled soul"s aspiring wings, So is it cold and cruel, and is made _960 The careless slave of that dark power which brings Evil, like blight, on man, who, still betrayed, Laughs o"er the grave in which his living hopes are laid.
34.
Nor are the strong and the severe to keep The empire of the world: thus Cythna taught _965 Even in the visions of her eloquent sleep, Unconscious of the power through which she wrought The woof of such intelligible thought, As from the tranquil strength which cradled lay In her smile-peopled rest, my spirit sought _970 Why the deceiver and the slave has sway O"er heralds so divine of truth"s arising day.
35.
Within that fairest form, the female mind, Untainted by the poison clouds which rest On the dark world, a sacred home did find: _975 But else, from the wide earth"s maternal breast, Victorious Evil, which had dispossessed All native power, had those fair children torn, And made them slaves to soothe his vile unrest, And minister to l.u.s.t its joys forlorn, _980 Till they had learned to breathe the atmosphere of scorn.
36.
This misery was but coldly felt, till she Became my only friend, who had endued My purpose with a wider sympathy; Thus, Cythna mourned with me the servitude _985 In which the half of humankind were mewed Victims of l.u.s.t and hate, the slaves of slaves, She mourned that grace and power were thrown as food To the hyena l.u.s.t, who, among graves, Over his loathed meal, laughing in agony, raves. _990
37.
And I, still gazing on that glorious child, Even as these thoughts flushed o"er her:--"Cythna sweet, Well with the world art thou unreconciled; Never will peace and human nature meet Till free and equal man and woman greet _995 Domestic peace; and ere this power can make In human hearts its calm and holy seat, This slavery must be broken"--as I spake, From Cythna"s eyes a light of exultation brake.
38.
She replied earnestly:--"It shall be mine, _1000 This task,--mine, Laon!--thou hast much to gain; Nor wilt thou at poor Cythna"s pride repine, If she should lead a happy female train To meet thee over the rejoicing plain, When myriads at thy call shall throng around _1005 The Golden City."--Then the child did strain My arm upon her tremulous heart, and wound Her own about my neck, till some reply she found.
39.
I smiled, and spake not.--"Wherefore dost thou smile At what I say? Laon, I am not weak, _1010 And, though my cheek might become pale the while, With thee, if thou desirest, will I seek Through their array of banded slaves to wreak Ruin upon the tyrants. I had thought It was more hard to turn my unpractised cheek _1015 To scorn and shame, and this beloved spot And thee, O dearest friend, to leave and murmur not.
40.
"Whence came I what I am? Thou, Laon, knowest How a young child should thus undaunted be; Methinks, it is a power which thou bestowest, _1020 Through which I seek, by most resembling thee, So to become most good and great and free; Yet far beyond this Ocean"s utmost roar, In towers and huts are many like to me, Who, could they see thine eyes, or feel such lore _1025 As I have learnt from them, like me would fear no more.
41.
"Think"st thou that I shall speak unskilfully, And none will heed me? I remember now, How once, a slave in tortures doomed to die, Was saved, because in accents sweet and low _1030 He sung a song his Judge loved long ago, As he was led to death.--All shall relent Who hear me--tears, as mine have flowed, shall flow, Hearts beat as mine now beats, with such intent As renovates the world; a will omnipotent! _1035
42.
"Yes, I will tread Pride"s golden palaces, Through Penury"s roofless huts and squalid cells Will I descend, where"er in abjectness Woman with some vile slave her tyrant dwells, There with the music of thine own sweet spells _1040 Will disenchant the captives, and will pour For the despairing, from the crystal wells Of thy deep spirit, reason"s mighty lore, And power shall then abound, and hope arise once more.
43.
"Can man be free if woman be a slave? _1045 Chain one who lives, and breathes this boundless air, To the corruption of a closed grave!
Can they whose mates are beasts, condemned to bear Scorn, heavier far than toil or anguish, dare To trample their oppressors? in their home _1050 Among their babes, thou knowest a curse would wear The shape of woman--h.o.a.ry Crime would come Behind, and Fraud rebuild religion"s tottering dome.
44.
"I am a child:--I would not yet depart.
When I go forth alone, bearing the lamp _1055 Aloft which thou hast kindled in my heart, Millions of slaves from many a dungeon damp Shall leap in joy, as the benumbing cramp Of ages leaves their limbs--no ill may harm Thy Cythna ever--truth its radiant stamp _1060 Has fixed, as an invulnerable charm, Upon her children"s brow, dark Falsehood to disarm.
45.
"Wait yet awhile for the appointed day-- Thou wilt depart, and I with tears shall stand Watching thy dim sail skirt the ocean gray; _1065 Amid the dwellers of this lonely land I shall remain alone--and thy command Shall then dissolve the world"s unquiet trance, And, mult.i.tudinous as the desert sand Borne on the storm, its millions shall advance, _1070 Thronging round thee, the light of their deliverance.
46.
"Then, like the forests of some pathless mountain, Which from remotest glens two warring winds Involve in fire which not the loosened fountain Of broadest floods might quench, shall all the kinds _1075 Of evil, catch from our uniting minds The spark which must consume them;--Cythna then Will have cast off the impotence that binds Her childhood now, and through the paths of men Will pa.s.s, as the charmed bird that haunts the serpent"s den. _1080
47.
"We part!--O Laon, I must dare nor tremble, To meet those looks no more!--Oh, heavy stroke!
Sweet brother of my soul! can I dissemble The agony of this thought?"--As thus she spoke The gathered sobs her quivering accents broke, _1085 And in my arms she hid her beating breast.
I remained still for tears--sudden she woke As one awakes from sleep, and wildly pressed My bosom, her whole frame impetuously possessed.
48.
"We part to meet again--but yon blue waste, _1090 Yon desert wide and deep, holds no recess, Within whose happy silence, thus embraced We might survive all ills in one caress: Nor doth the grave--I fear "tis pa.s.sionless-- Nor yon cold vacant Heaven:--we meet again _1095 Within the minds of men, whose lips shall bless Our memory, and whose hopes its light retain When these dissevered bones are trodden in the plain."
49.
I could not speak, though she had ceased, for now The fountains of her feeling, swift and deep, _1100 Seemed to suspend the tumult of their flow; So we arose, and by the starlight steep Went homeward--neither did we speak nor weep, But, pale, were calm with pa.s.sion--thus subdued Like evening shades that o"er the mountains creep, _1105 We moved towards our home; where, in this mood, Each from the other sought refuge in solitude.
CANTO 3.
1.
What thoughts had sway o"er Cythna"s lonely slumber That night, I know not; but my own did seem As if they might ten thousand years outnumber _1110 Of waking life, the visions of a dream Which hid in one dim gulf the troubled stream Of mind; a boundless chaos wild and vast, Whose limits yet were never memory"s theme: And I lay struggling as its whirlwinds pa.s.sed, _1115 Sometimes for rapture sick, sometimes for pain aghast.
2.
Two hours, whose mighty circle did embrace More time than might make gray the infant world, Rolled thus, a weary and tumultuous s.p.a.ce: When the third came, like mist on breezes curled, _1120 From my dim sleep a shadow was unfurled: Methought, upon the threshold of a cave I sate with Cythna; drooping briony, pearled With dew from the wild streamlet"s shattered wave, Hung, where we sate to taste the joys which Nature gave. _1125
3.
We lived a day as we were wont to live, But Nature had a robe of glory on, And the bright air o"er every shape did weave Intenser hues, so that the herbless stone, The leafless bough among the leaves alone, _1130 Had being clearer than its own could be, And Cythna"s pure and radiant self was shown, In this strange vision, so divine to me, That if I loved before, now love was agony.
4.
Morn fled, noon came, evening, then night descended, _1135 And we prolonged calm talk beneath the sphere Of the calm moon--when suddenly was blended With our repose a nameless sense of fear; And from the cave behind I seemed to hear Sounds gathering upwards!--accents incomplete, _1140 And stifled shrieks,--and now, more near and near, A tumult and a rush of thronging feet The cavern"s secret depths beneath the earth did beat.
5.
The scene was changed, and away, away, away!
Through the air and over the sea we sped, _1145 And Cythna in my sheltering bosom lay, And the winds bore me--through the darkness spread Around, the gaping earth then vomited Legions of foul and ghastly shapes, which hung Upon my flight; and ever, as we fled, _1150 They plucked at Cythna--soon to me then clung A sense of actual things those monstrous dreams among.
6.
And I lay struggling in the impotence Of sleep, while outward life had burst its bound, Though, still deluded, strove the tortured sense _1155 To its dire wanderings to adapt the sound Which in the light of morn was poured around Our dwelling; breathless, pale and unaware I rose, and all the cottage crowded found With armed men, whose glittering swords were bare, _1160 And whose degraded limbs the tyrant"s garb did wear.
7.
And, ere with rapid lips and gathered brow I could demand the cause--a feeble shriek-- It was a feeble shriek, faint, far and low, Arrested me--my mien grew calm and meek, _1165 And grasping a small knife, I went to seek That voice among the crowd--"twas Cythna"s cry!
Beneath most calm resolve did agony wreak Its whirlwind rage:--so I pa.s.sed quietly Till I beheld, where bound, that dearest child did lie. _1170
8.
I started to behold her, for delight And exultation, and a joyance free, Solemn, serene and lofty, filled the light Of the calm smile with which she looked on me: So that I feared some brainless ecstasy, _1175 Wrought from that bitter woe, had wildered her-- "Farewell! farewell!" she said, as I drew nigh; "At first my peace was marred by this strange stir, Now I am calm as truth--its chosen minister.
9.
"Look not so, Laon--say farewell in hope, _1180 These b.l.o.o.d.y men are but the slaves who bear Their mistress to her task--it was my scope The slavery where they drag me now, to share, And among captives willing chains to wear Awhile--the rest thou knowest--return, dear friend! _1185 Let our first triumph trample the despair Which would ensnare us now, for in the end, In victory or in death our hopes and fears must blend."
10.
These words had fallen on my unheeding ear, Whilst I had watched the motions of the crew _1190 With seeming-careless glance; not many were Around her, for their comrades just withdrew To guard some other victim--so I drew My knife, and with one impulse, suddenly All unaware three of their number slew, _1195 And grasped a fourth by the throat, and with loud cry My countrymen invoked to death or liberty!
11.
What followed then, I know not--for a stroke On my raised arm and naked head, came down, Filling my eyes with blood.--When I awoke, _1200 I felt that they had bound me in my swoon, And up a rock which overhangs the town, By the steep path were bearing me; below, The plain was filled with slaughter,--overthrown The vineyards and the harvests, and the glow _1205 Of blazing roofs shone far o"er the white Ocean"s flow.
12.
Upon that rock a mighty column stood, Whose capital seemed sculptured in the sky, Which to the wanderers o"er the solitude Of distant seas, from ages long gone by, _1210 Had made a landmark; o"er its height to fly Scarcely the cloud, the vulture, or the blast, Has power--and when the shades of evening lie On Earth and Ocean, its carved summits cast The sunken daylight far through the aerial waste. _1215
13.
They bore me to a cavern in the hill Beneath that column, and unbound me there; And one did strip me stark; and one did fill A vessel from the putrid pool; one bare A lighted torch, and four with friendless care _1220 Guided my steps the cavern-paths along, Then up a steep and dark and narrow stair We wound, until the torch"s fiery tongue Amid the gushing day beamless and pallid hung.
14.