XLII.

To hear, to see, to live, was on that morn
Lethean joy! so that all those assembled
Cast off their memories of the past outworn;
Two only bosoms with their own life trembled,
And mine was one,-and we had both dissembled ;
So with a beating heart I went, and one,
Who having much, covets yet more, resembled;
A lost and dear possession, which not won,
He walks in lonely gloom beneath the noonday sun.
XLIII.

To the great Pyramid I came : its stair
With female quires was throng'd: the loveliest
Among the free, grouped with its sculptures rare;
As I approach'd, the morning's golden mist,
Which now the wonder-stricken breezes kist
With their cold lips, fled, and the summit shone
Like Athos seen from Samothracia, drest
In earliest light by vintagers, and one
Sate there, a female Shape upon an ivory throne.
XLIV.

A Form most like the imagined habitant
Of silver exhalations sprung from dawn,
By winds which feed on sunrise woven, to inchant
The faiths of men all mortal eyes were drawn,
As famisli'd mariners through strange seas gone
Gaze on a burning watch-tower, by the light
Of those divinest lineaments-alone

With thoughts which none could share, from that

fair sight

A Woman sitting on the sculptured disk
Of the broad earth, and feeding from one breast
A human babe and a young basilisk;
Her looks were sweet as Heaven's when loveliest
In Autumn eves.-The third Image was drest
In white wings swift as clouds in winter skies,
Beneath his feet, 'mongst ghastliest forms, represt
Lay Faith, an obscene worm, who sought to rise,

bright.

XLV.

And, neither did I hear the acclamations,

Which from brief silence bursting, fill'd the air
With her strange name and mine, from all the nations
Which we, they said, in strength had gather'd there
From the sleep of bondage; nor the vision fair
Of that bright pageantry beheld,—but blind

And silent, as a breathing corpse did fare,
Leaning upon my friend, till like a wind

LI.

Beside that Image then I sate, while she

Stood, 'mid the throngs which ever ebb'd and flow'd
Like light amid the shadows of the sea

Cast from one cloudless star, and on the crowd
That touch which none who feels forgets, bestow'd;

And whilst the sun return'd the stedfast gaze

Of the great Image as o'er Heaven it glode,
That rite had place; it ceased when sunset's blaze

XLVI.

Like music of some minstrel heavenly gifted,
To one whom fiends inthrall, this voice to me;
Scarce did I wish her veil to be uplifted,

I was so calm and joyous.-I could see
The platform where we stood, the statues three
Which kept their marble watch on that high shrine,
The multitudes, the mountains, and the sea;

As when eclipse hath past, things sudden shine
To men's astonish'd eyes most clear and crystalline.

XLVII.

At first Laone spoke most tremulously: But soon her voice the calmness which it shed Gather'd, and-« Thou art whom I sought to see, And thou art our first votary here, she said: «I had a dear friend once, but he is dead!And of all those on the wide earth who breathe, Thou dost resemble him alone-I spread This veil between us two, that thou beneath Shouldst image one who may have been long lost in

death.

When in the silence of all spirits there
Laone's voice was felt, and through the air
Her thrilling gestures spoke, most eloquently fair.

1.

« Calm art thou as yon sunset! swift and strong
As new-fledged Eagles, beautiful and young,
That float among the blinding beams of morning;
And underneath thy feet writhe Faith, and Folly,
Custom, and Hell, and mortal Melancholy-
Hark! the Earth starts to hear the mighty warning
Of thy voice sublime and holy;

Its free spirits here assembled,

See thee, feel thee, know thee now,To thy voice their hearts have trembled, Like ten thousand clouds which flow With one wide wind as it flies! Wisdom! thy irresistible children rise To hail thee, and the elements they chain. And their own will to swell the glory of thy train.

2.

O Spirit vast and deep as Night and Heaven!
Mother and soul of all to which is given
The light of life, the loveliness of being,
Lo! thou dost re-ascend the human heart,
Thy throne of power, almighty as thou wert,
In dreams of Poets old grown pale by seeing
The shade of thee:-now, millions start
To feel thy lightnings through them burning:
Nature, or God, or Love, or Pleasure,
Or Sympathy the sad tears turning
To mutual smiles, a drainless treasure,
Descends amidst us;-Scorn and Hate,
Revenge and Selfishness are desolate-

A hundred nations swear that there shall be

Pity and Peace and Love, among the good and free!

3.

« Eldest of things, divine Equality!

Wisdom and Love are but the slaves of thee,
The Angels of thy sway, the around thee
poor
Treasures from all the cells of human thought,
And from the Stars, and from the Ocean brought,
And the last living heart whose beatings bound thee:
The powerful and the wise had sought
Thy coming, thou in light descending
O'er the wide land which is thine own
Like the spring whose breath is blending
All blasts of fragrance into one,
Comest upon the paths of men!-
Earth bares her general bosom to thy ken,
And all her children here in glory meet

To feed upon thy smiles, and clasp thy sacred feet.

4.

My brethren, we are free! the plains and mountains
The grey sea-shore, the forests and the fountains,
Are haunts of happiest dwellers;-man and woman,
Their common bondage burst, may freely borrow
From lawless love a solace for their sorrow;
For oft we still must weep, since we are human.

A stormy night's serenest morrow,
Whose showers are pity's gentle tears,
Whose clouds are smiles of those that die
Like infants without hopes or fears,
And whose beams are joys that lie

In blended hearts, now holds dominion;

The dawn of mind, which upwards on a pinion
Borne, swift as sun-rise, far illumines space,

And clasps this barren world in its own bright embrace!

5.

My brethren, we are free! the fruits are glowing Beneath the stars, and the night-winds are flowing O'er the ripe corn, the birds and beasts are dreamingNever again may blood of bird or beast Stain with its venomous stream a human feast, To the pure skies in accusation steaming, Avenging poisons shall have ceased

To feed disease and fear and madness,

The dwellers of the earth and air

Shall throng around our steps with gladness
Seeking their food or refuge there.

Our toil from thought all glorious forms shall cull,
To make this Earth, our home, more beautiful,

And Science, and her sister Poesy,
Shall clothe in light the fields and cities of the free!

6.

« Victory, Victory to the prostrate nations! Bear witness Night, and ye mute Constellations Who gaze on us from your crystalline cars! Thoughts have gone forth whose powers can sleep no more!

Victory! Victory! Earth's remotest shore,

Regions which groan beneath the Antarctic stars,
The green lands cradled in the roar

Of western waves, and wildernesses

Peopled and vast, which skirt the oceans
Where morning dyes her golden tresses,
Shall soon partake our high emotions:

Kings shall turn pale! Almighty Fear,

The Fiend-God, when our charmed name he hear,
Shall fade like shadow from his thousand fanes,
While Truth with Joy enthroned o'er his lost empire
reigns!,

LVI.

gore

Might share in peace and innocence, for
Or poison none this festal did pollute,
But piled on high, an overflowing store
Of pomegranates, and citrons, fairest fruit,
Melons, and dates, and figs, and many a root
Sweet and sustaining, and bright grapes ere yet
Accursed fire their mild juice could transmute
Into a mortal bane, and brown corn set

III.

Then, rallying cries of treason and of danger
Resounded: and-. They come! to arms! to arms!
The Tyrant is amongst us, and the stranger
Comes to enslave us in his name! to arms!»

In vain for Panic, the pale fiend who charms
Strength to forswear her right, those millions swept
Like waves before the tempest-these alarms
Came to me, as to know their cause I leapt

For now the despot's blood-hounds with their prey,
Unarm'd and unaware, were gorging deep
Their gluttony of death; the loose array

Of horsemen o'er the wide fields murdering sweep,
And with loud laughter for their tyrant reap

A harvest sown with other hopes; the while,
Far overhead, ships from Propontis keep
A killing rain of fire-when the waves smile

snapt.

II.

And till we came even to the City's wall

And the great gate, then, none knew whence or why, Disquiet on the multitudes did fall:

And first, one pale and breathless past us by, And stared and spoke not;-then with piercing cry A troop of wild-eyed women, by the shrieks Of their own terror driven,-tumultuously Hither and thither hurrying with pale cheeks, Each one from fear unknown a sudden refuge seeks

VIII.

Thus sudden, unexpected feast was spread

For the carrion fowls of Heaven.—I saw the sight

I moved-I lived-as o'er the heaps of dead,
Whose stony eyes glared in the morning light,
I trod; to me there came no thought of flight,
But with loud cries of scorn which whoso heard
That dreaded death, felt in his veins the might
Of virtuous shame return, the crowd I stirr'd,
And desperation's hope in many hearts recurr'd.

XXI.

Then: «< away! away!» she cried, and stretched her

sword

As 't were a scourge over the courser's head, And lightly shook the reins :-We spake no word But like the vapour of the tempest fled Over the plain; her dark hair was dispread Like the pine's locks upon the lingering blast; Over mine eyes its shadowy strings it spread, Fitfully, and the hills and streams fled fast, As o'er their glimmering forms the steed's broad shadow

past.

XXII.

And his hoofs ground the rocks to fire and dust,
His strong sides made the torrents rise in spray,
And turbulence, as of a whirlwind's gust
Surrounded us;-and still away! away!

Through the desert night we sped, while she alway
Gazed on a mountain which we near'd, whose crest
Crown'd with a marble ruin, in the ray

Of the obscure stars gleam'd;-its rugged breast The steed strain'd up, and then his impulse did arrest.

XXIII.

A rocky hill which overhung the Ocean :-
From that lone ruin, when the steed that panted
Paused, might be heard the murmur of the motion
Of waters, as in spots forever haunted

By the choicest winds of Heaven, which are enchanted
To music, by the wand of Solitude,

That wizard wild, and the far tents implanted
Upon the plain, be seen by those who stood

XXVII.

Within that ruin, where a shatter'd portal Looks to the eastern stars, abandoned now By man, to be the home of things immortal, Memories, like awful ghosts which come and go, And must inherit all he builds below, When he is gone, a hall stood; o'er whose roof Fair clinging weeds with ivy pale did grow, Clasping its grey rents with a verdurous woof, A hanging dome of leaves, a canopy moon-proof.

XXVIII.

The autumnal winds, as if spell-bound, had made
A natural couch of leaves in that recess,
Which seasons none disturb'd, but in the shade
Of flowering parasites, did spring love to dress
With their sweet blooms the wintry loneliness
Of those dead leaves, shedding their stars, whene'er
The wandering wind her nurslings might caress;
Whose intertwining fingers ever there,

Made music wild and soft that filled the listening air.

XXIX.

We know not where we go, or what sweet dream
May pilot us through caverns strange and fair
Of far and pathless passion, while the stream
Of life our bark doth on its whirlpools bear,
Spreading swift wings as sails to the dim air;
Nor should we seek to know, so the devotion
Of love and gentle thoughts be heard still there
Louder and louder from the utmost Ocean