Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

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,-
And that, till then, the snakes of Hell had need

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 winds of eve dispersed those ashes gray.

The madness which these rites had lulled, awoke
Again at sunset.-Who shall dare to say

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,
And cast a light on those dim labyrinths, where
Hope, near imagined chasms, is struggling with despair.

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,
Beauteous and calm, like shapes of living stone
Clothed in the light of dreams, and by the flame
Which shrank as overgorged, they laid them down,
And sung a low sweet song, of which alone
One word was heard, and that was Liberty;

And that some kissed their marble feet, with moan
Like love, and died; and then that they did die
With happy smiles, which sunk in white tranquillity.

4216

4220

139

CANTO XI

I

4225

SHE SAW me not-she heard me not-alone
Upon the mountain's dizzy brink she stood;
She spake not, breathed not, moved not-there was thrown
Over her look, the shadow of a mood

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;
Before its blue and moveless depth were flying
Gray mists poured forth from the unresting fountains
Of darkness in the North:-the day was dying:-
Sudden, the sun shone forth, its beams were lying
Like boiling gold on Ocean, strange to see,

And on the shattered vapours, which defying
The power of light in vain, tossed restlessly

In the red Heaven, like wrecks in a tempestuous sea.

III

It was a stream of living beams, whose bank
On either side by the cloud's cleft was made;
And where its chasms that flood of glory drank,

Its waves gushed forth like fire, and as if swayed
By some mute tempest, rolled on her; the shade
Of her bright image floated on the river

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-
She looked upon the sea, and skies, and earth;

Rapture, and love, and admiration wrought
A passion deeper far than tears, or mirth,
Or speech, or gesture, or whate'er has birth

From common joy; which with the speechless feeling
That led her there united, and shot forth
From her far eyes a light of deep revealing,

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,
Absorbed the glories of the burning skies,

Which, mingling with her heart's deep ecstasies, 4265

Burst from her looks and gestures; and a light
Of liquid tenderness, like love, did rise

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;
Those warm and odorous lips might soon have shed
On mine the fragrance and the invisible flame

4270

Which now the cold winds stole;-she would have laid
Upon my languid heart her dearest head;

I might have heard her voice, tender and sweet;
Her eyes mingling with mine, might soon have fed
My soul with their own joy.-One moment yet

I gazed-we parted then, never again to meet!

VII

Never but once to meet on Earth again!
She heard me as I fled-her eager tone
Sunk on my heart, and almost wove a chain
Around my will to link it with her own,
So that my stern resolve was almost gone.
'I cannot reach thee! whither dost thou fly?

My steps are faint-Come back, thou dearest one-
Return, ah me! return!'-The wind passed by

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
By his own rage upon his burning bier

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;
Not life-it was despair to be!-not sleep,
For fiends and chasms of fire had dispossessed
All natural dreams: to wake was not to weep,
But to gaze mad and pallid, at the leap
To which the Future, like a snaky scourge,

Or like some tyrant's eye, which aye doth keep
Its withering beam upon his slaves, did urge

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,
Paler from hope? they had sustained despair.
Why watched those myriads with suspended breath
Sleepless a second night? they are not here,
The victims, and hour by hour, a vision drear,
Warm corpses fall upon the clay-cold dead;

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
In stony expectation fixed; when one
Sudden before them stood, a Stranger and alone.

4340

XIV

Dark Priests and haughty Warriors gazed on him
With baffled wonder, for a hermit's vest
Concealed his face; but, when he spake, his tone,

4345

Ere yet the matter did their thoughts arrest,-
Earnest, benignant, calm, as from a breast
Void of all hate or terror-made them start;

For as with gentle accents he addressed
His speech to them, on each unwilling heart
Unusual awe did fall-a spirit-quelling dart.

4321 wreathed] writhed. Poetical Works, 1839, 1st ed.

4350

XV

'Ye Princes of the Earth, ye sit aghast
Amid the ruin which yourselves have made,
Yes, Desolation heard your trumpet's blast,

And sprang from sleep!-dark Terror has obeyed
Your bidding-O, that I whom ye have made
Your foe, could set my dearest enemy free

From pain and fear! but evil casts a shade,
Which cannot pass so soon, and Hate must be
The nurse and parent still of an ill progeny.

XVI

'Ye turn to Heaven for aid in your distress;
Alas, that ye, the mighty and the wise,
Who, if ye dared, might not aspire to less

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
An empty and a cruel sacrifice

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!
Ye find it not in luxury nor in gold,
Nor in the fame, nor in the envied sway

For which, O willing slaves to Custom old,
Severe taskmistress! ye your hearts have sold.
Ye seek for peace, and when ye die, to dream
No evil dreams: all mortal things are cold
And senseless then; if aught survive, I deem
It must be love and joy, for they immortal seem.

XVIII

'Fear not the future, weep not for the past.
O, could I win your ears to dare be now

Glorious, and great, and calm! that ye would cast
Into the dust those symbols of your woe,

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
The Council sudden tumult and affray
Arose, for many of those warriors young,
Had on his eloquent accents fed and hung
4361 the mighty] tho' mighty ed. 1818.

4390

4362 ye] he ed. 1818.

« ForrigeFortsett »