"In the world"s youth his empire was as firm As its foundations...Soon the Spirit of Good, Though in the likeness of a loathsome worm, Sprang from the billows of the formless flood, _400 Which shrank and fled; and with that Fiend of blood Renewed the doubtful war...Thrones then first shook, And earth"s immense and trampled mult.i.tude In hope on their own powers began to look, And Fear, the demon pale, his sanguine shrine forsook. _405
32.
"Then Greece arose, and to its bards and sages, In dream, the golden-pinioned Genii came, Even where they slept amid the night of ages, Steeping their hearts in the divinest flame Which thy breath kindled, Power of holiest name! _410 And oft in cycles since, when darkness gave New weapons to thy foe, their sunlike fame Upon the combat shone--a light to save, Like Paradise spread forth beyond the shadowy grave.
33.
"Such is this conflict--when mankind doth strive _415 With its oppressors in a strife of blood, Or when free thoughts, like lightnings, are alive, And in each bosom of the mult.i.tude Justice and truth with Custom"s hydra brood Wage silent war; when Priests and Kings dissemble _420 In smiles or frowns their fierce disquietude, When round pure hearts a host of hopes a.s.semble, The Snake and Eagle meet--the world"s foundations tremble!
34.
"Thou hast beheld that fight--when to thy home Thou dost return, steep not its hearth in tears; _425 Though thou may"st hear that earth is now become The tyrant"s garbage, which to his compeers, The vile reward of their dishonoured years, He will dividing give.--The victor Fiend, Omnipotent of yore, now quails, and fears _430 His triumph dearly won, which soon will lend An impulse swift and sure to his approaching end.
35.
"List, stranger, list, mine is an human form, Like that thou wearest--touch me--shrink not now!
My hand thou feel"st is not a ghost"s, but warm _435 With human blood.--"Twas many years ago, Since first my thirsting soul aspired to know The secrets of this wondrous world, when deep My heart was pierced with sympathy, for woe Which could not be mine own, and thought did keep, _440 In dream, unnatural watch beside an infant"s sleep.
36.
"Woe could not be mine own, since far from men I dwelt, a free and happy orphan child, By the sea-sh.o.r.e, in a deep mountain glen; And near the waves, and through the forests wild, _445 I roamed, to storm and darkness reconciled: For I was calm while tempest shook the sky: But when the breathless heavens in beauty smiled, I wept, sweet tears, yet too tumultuously For peace, and clasped my hands aloft in ecstasy. _450
37.
"These were forebodings of my fate--before A woman"s heart beat in my virgin breast, It had been nurtured in divinest lore: A dying poet gave me books, and blessed With wild but holy talk the sweet unrest _455 In which I watched him as he died away-- A youth with h.o.a.ry hair--a fleeting guest Of our lone mountains: and this lore did sway My spirit like a storm, contending there alway.
38.
"Thus the dark tale which history doth unfold _460 I knew, but not, methinks, as others know, For they weep not; and Wisdom had unrolled The clouds which hide the gulf of mortal woe,-- To few can she that warning vision show-- For I loved all things with intense devotion; _465 So that when Hope"s deep source in fullest flow, Like earthquake did uplift the stagnant ocean Of human thoughts--mine shook beneath the wide emotion.
39.
"When first the living blood through all these veins Kindled a thought in sense, great France sprang forth, _470 And seized, as if to break, the ponderous chains Which bind in woe the nations of the earth.
I saw, and started from my cottage-hearth; And to the clouds and waves in tameless gladness Shrieked, till they caught immeasurable mirth-- _475 And laughed in light and music: soon, sweet madness Was poured upon my heart, a soft and thrilling sadness.
40.
"Deep slumber fell on me:--my dreams were fire-- Soft and delightful thoughts did rest and hover Like shadows o"er my brain; and strange desire, _480 The tempest of a pa.s.sion, raging over My tranquil soul, its depths with light did cover, Which pa.s.sed; and calm, and darkness, sweeter far, Came--then I loved; but not a human lover!
For when I rose from sleep, the Morning Star _485 Shone through the woodbine-wreaths which round my cas.e.m.e.nt were.
41.
""Twas like an eye which seemed to smile on me.
I watched, till by the sun made pale, it sank Under the billows of the heaving sea; But from its beams deep love my spirit drank, _490 And to my brain the boundless world now shrank Into one thought--one image--yes, for ever!
Even like the dayspring, poured on vapours dank, The beams of that one Star did shoot and quiver Through my benighted mind--and were extinguished never. _495
42.
"The day pa.s.sed thus: at night, methought, in dream A shape of speechless beauty did appear: It stood like light on a careering stream Of golden clouds which shook the atmosphere; A winged youth, his radiant brow did wear _500 The Morning Star: a wild dissolving bliss Over my frame he breathed, approaching near, And bent his eyes of kindling tenderness Near mine, and on my lips impressed a lingering kiss,--
43.
"And said: "A Spirit loves thee, mortal maiden, _505 How wilt thou prove thy worth?" Then joy and sleep Together fled; my soul was deeply laden, And to the sh.o.r.e I went to muse and weep; But as I moved, over my heart did creep A joy less soft, but more profound and strong _510 Than my sweet dream; and it forbade to keep The path of the sea-sh.o.r.e: that Spirit"s tongue Seemed whispering in my heart, and bore my steps along.
44.
"How, to that vast and peopled city led, Which was a field of holy warfare then, _515 I walked among the dying and the dead, And shared in fearless deeds with evil men, Calm as an angel in the dragon"s den-- How I braved death for liberty and truth, And spurned at peace, and power, and fame--and when _520 Those hopes had lost the glory of their youth, How sadly I returned--might move the hearer"s ruth:
45.
"Warm tears throng fast! the tale may not be said-- Know then, that when this grief had been subdued, I was not left, like others, cold and dead; _525 The Spirit whom I loved, in solitude Sustained his child: the tempest-shaken wood, The waves, the fountains, and the hush of night-- These were his voice, and well I understood His smile divine, when the calm sea was bright _530 With silent stars, and Heaven was breathless with delight.
46.
"In lonely glens, amid the roar of rivers, When the dim nights were moonless, have I known Joys which no tongue can tell; my pale lip quivers When thought revisits them:--know thou alone, _535 That after many wondrous years were flown, I was awakened by a shriek of woe; And over me a mystic robe was thrown, By viewless hands, and a bright Star did glow Before my steps--the Snake then met his mortal foe." _540
47.
"Thou fearest not then the Serpent on thy heart?"
"Fear it!" she said, with brief and pa.s.sionate cry, And spake no more: that silence made me start-- I looked, and we were sailing pleasantly, Swift as a cloud between the sea and sky; _545 Beneath the rising moon seen far away, Mountains of ice, like sapphire, piled on high, Hemming the horizon round, in silence lay On the still waters--these we did approach alway.
48.
And swift and swifter grew the vessel"s motion, _550 So that a dizzy trance fell on my brain-- Wild music woke me; we had pa.s.sed the ocean Which girds the pole, Nature"s remotest reign-- And we glode fast o"er a pellucid plain Of waters, azure with the noontide day. _555 Ethereal mountains shone around--a Fane Stood in the midst, girt by green isles which lay On the blue sunny deep, resplendent far away.
49.
It was a Temple, such as mortal hand Has never built, nor ecstasy, nor dream _560 Reared in the cities of enchanted land: "Twas likest Heaven, ere yet day"s purple stream Ebbs o"er the western forest, while the gleam Of the unrisen moon among the clouds Is gathering--when with many a golden beam _565 The thronging constellations rush in crowds, Paving with fire the sky and the marmoreal floods.
50.
Like what may be conceived of this vast dome, When from the depths which thought can seldom pierce Genius beholds it rise, his native home, _570 Girt by the deserts of the Universe; Yet, nor in painting"s light, or mightier verse, Or sculpture"s marble language, can invest That shape to mortal sense--such glooms immerse That incommunicable sight, and rest _575 Upon the labouring brain and overburdened breast.
51.
Winding among the lawny islands fair, Whose blosmy forests starred the shadowy deep, The wingless boat paused where an ivory stair Its fretwork in the crystal sea did steep, _580 Encircling that vast Fane"s aerial heap: We disembarked, and through a portal wide We pa.s.sed--whose roof of moonstone carved, did keep A glimmering o"er the forms on every side, Sculptures like life and thought, immovable, deep-eyed. _585
52.
We came to a vast hall, whose glorious roof Was diamond, which had drunk the lightning"s sheen In darkness, and now poured it through the woof Of spell-inwoven clouds hung there to screen Its blinding splendour--through such veil was seen _590 That work of subtlest power, divine and rare; Orb above orb, with starry shapes between, And horned moons, and meteors strange and fair, On night-black columns poised--one hollow hemisphere!
53.
Ten thousand columns in that quivering light _595 Distinct--between whose shafts wound far away The long and labyrinthine aisles--more bright With their own radiance than the Heaven of Day; And on the jasper walls around, there lay Paintings, the poesy of mightiest thought, _600 Which did the Spirit"s history display; A tale of pa.s.sionate change, divinely taught, Which, in their winged dance, unconscious Genii wrought.
54.
Beneath, there sate on many a sapphire throne, The Great, who had departed from mankind, _605 A mighty Senate;--some, whose white hair shone Like mountain snow, mild, beautiful, and blind; Some, female forms, whose gestures beamed with mind; And ardent youths, and children bright and fair; And some had lyres whose strings were intertwined _610 With pale and clinging flames, which ever there Waked faint yet thrilling sounds that pierced the crystal air.
55.
One seat was vacant in the midst, a throne, Reared on a pyramid like sculptured flame, Distinct with circling steps which rested on _615 Their own deep fire--soon as the Woman came Into that hall, she shrieked the Spirit"s name And fell; and vanished slowly from the sight.
Darkness arose from her dissolving frame, Which gathering, filled that dome of woven light, _620 Blotting its sphered stars with supernatural night.
56.
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 gra.s.sy sh.o.r.e, _625 They round each other rolled, 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. _630
57.
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 Flowed forth, and did with softest light inform _635 The shadowy dome, the sculptures, and the state Of those a.s.sembled shapes--with clinging charm Sinking upon their hearts and mine. He sate Majestic, yet most mild--calm, yet compa.s.sionate.
58.
Wonder and joy a pa.s.sing faintness threw _640 Over my brow--a hand supported me, Whose touch was magic strength; an eye of blue Looked into mine, like moonlight, soothingly; And a voice said:--"Thou must a listener be This day--two mighty Spirits now return, _645 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!
59.
I looked, and lo! one stood forth eloquently.
His eyes were dark and deep, and the clear brow _650 Which shadowed 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, _655 And where his curved lips half-open lay, Pa.s.sion"s divinest stream had made impetuous way.
60.
Beneath the darkness of his outspread hair He stood thus beautiful; but there was One Who sate beside him like his shadow there, _660 And held his hand--far lovelier; she was known To be thus fair, by the few lines alone Which through her floating locks and gathered cloak, Glances of soul-dissolving glory, shone:-- None else beheld her eyes--in him they woke _665 Memories which found a tongue as thus he silence broke.
CANTO 2.