The frosts of many a wind with dead leaves fill Earth's cold and sullen brooks; in silence, still The pale survivors stood; ere noon, the fear Of Hell became a panic, which did kill Like hunger or disease, with whispers drear. 4185 As Hush! hark! Come they yet? Just Heaven! thine hour is near!' XLV And Priests rushed through their ranks, some counterfeiting The rage they did inspire, some mad indeed With their own lies; they said their god was waiting To see his enemies writhe, and burn, and bleed,- Of human souls:-three hundred furnaces 4190 Soon blazed through the wide City, where, with speed, Men brought their infidel kindred to appease 4196 God's wrath, and while they burned, knelt round on quivering knees. XLVI The noontide sun was darkened with that smoke, The madness which these rites had lulled, awoke 4200 The deeds which night and fear brought forth, or weigh In balance just the good and evil there? He might man's deep and searchless heart display, XLVII 'Tis said, a mother dragged three children then, 4205 To those fierce flames which roast the eyes in the head, And laughed, and died; and that unholy men, Feasting like fiends upon the infidel dead, Looked from their meal, and saw an Angel tread The visible floor of Heaven, and it was she! And, on that night, one without doubt or dread Came to the fire, and said, 'Stop, I am he! 4210 Kill me!'-They burned them both with hellish mockery. XLVIII And, one by one, that night, young maidens came, And that some kissed their marble feet, with moan 4216 4220 139 CANTO XI I 4225 SHE SAW me not-she heard me not-alone Which only clothes the heart in solitude, A thought of voiceless depth;-she stood alone, 4230 Above, the Heavens were spread ;-below, the flood Was murmuring in its caves-the wind had blown Her hair apart, through which her eyes and forehead shone. II A cloud was hanging o'er the western mountains; And on the shattered vapours, which defying In the red Heaven, like wrecks in a tempestuous sea. III It was a stream of living beams, whose bank Its waves gushed forth like fire, and as if swayed Of liquid light, which then did end and fade Her radiant shape upon its verge did shiver; Aloft, her flowing hair like strings of flame did quiver. IV I stood beside her, but she saw me not- Rapture, and love, and admiration wrought From common joy; which with the speechless feeling All but her dearest self from my regard concealing. V 4235 4240 4245 4250 4255 4260 Her lips were parted, and the measured breath Was now heard there;-her dark and intricate eyes Orb within orb, deeper than sleep or death, Which, mingling with her heart's deep ecstasies, 4265 Burst from her looks and gestures; and a light From her whole frame, an atmosphere which quite Arrayed her in its beams, tremulous and soft and bright. VI She would have clasped me to her glowing frame; 4270 Which now the cold winds stole;-she would have laid I might have heard her voice, tender and sweet; I gazed-we parted then, never again to meet! VII Never but once to meet on Earth again! My steps are faint-Come back, thou dearest one- On which those accents died, faint, far, and lingeringly. VIII 4275 4280 4286 Woe! Woe! that moonless midnight!-Want and Pest Were horrible, but one more fell doth rear, As in a hydra's swarming lair, its crest Eminent among those victims-even the Fear Of Hell: each girt by the hot atmosphere Of his blind agony, like a scorpion stung Of circling coals of fire; but still there clung 4290 4295 One hope, like a keen sword on starting threads uphung: IX Not death-death was no more refuge or rest; Or like some tyrant's eye, which aye doth keep 4300 Their steps; they heard the roar of Hell's sulphureous surge. X Each of that multitude, alone, and lost To sense of outward things, one hope yet knew; As on a foam-girt crag some seaman tossed 4306 4311 Stares at the rising tide, or like the crew Whilst now the ship is splitting through and through; Each, if the tramp of a far steed was heard, Started from sick despair, or if there flew One murmur on the wind, or if some word Which none can gather yet, the distant crowd has stirred. XI Why became cheeks, wan with the kiss of death, 4315 4320 And even in death their lips are wreathed with fear.The crowd is mute and moveless-overhead Silent Arcturus shines-'Ha! hear'st thou not the tread XII 4325 'Of rushing feet? laughter? the shout, the scream, Of triumph not to be contained? See! hark! They come, they come! give way!' Alas, ye deem Falsely-'tis but a crowd of maniacs stark Driven, like a troop of spectres, through the dark, From the choked well, whence a bright death-fire sprung, A lurid earth-star, which dropped many a spark From its blue train, and spreading widely, clung To their wild hair, like mist the topmost pines among. XIII And many, from the crowd collected there, Joined that strange dance in fearful sympathies; There was the silence of a long despair, When the last echo of those terrible cries Came from a distant street, like agonies Stifled afar.-Before the Tyrant's throne 4330 4335 All night his aged Senate sate, their eyes 4340 XIV Dark Priests and haughty Warriors gazed on him 4345 Ere yet the matter did their thoughts arrest,- For as with gentle accents he addressed 4321 wreathed] writhed. Poetical Works, 1839, 1st ed. 4350 XV 'Ye Princes of the Earth, ye sit aghast And sprang from sleep!-dark Terror has obeyed From pain and fear! but evil casts a shade, XVI 'Ye turn to Heaven for aid in your distress; 4355 4360 Than ye conceive of power, should fear the lies Which thou, and thou, didst frame for mysteries To blind your slaves:-consider your own thought, 4365 Ye now prepare, for a vain idol wrought Out of the fears and hate which vain desires have brought. XVII 'Ye seek for happiness-alas, the day! For which, O willing slaves to Custom old, XVIII 'Fear not the future, weep not for the past. Glorious, and great, and calm! that ye would cast 4370 4375 4380 Proclaiming to the nations whence ye came, Purple, and gold, and steel! that ye would go And that mankind is free, and that the shame That Want, and Plague, and Fear, from slavery flow; Of royalty and faith is lost in freedom's fame! 4385 XIX 'If thus, 'tis well-if not, I come to say That Laon-' while the Stranger spoke, among 4390 4362 ye] he ed. 1818. |