The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. Complete in One Volume

CHAPMAN.

not the Supreme Being itself. The belief which some

5. superstitious persons whom I have brought upon the And from that hour did I with earnest thought stage entertain of the Deity, as injurious to the character Beap knowledge from forbidden mines of lore, of his benevolence, is widely different from my own. Yet nothing that my tyrants knew or taught lo recommending also a great and important change I cared to learn, but from that secret store in the spirit which animates the social institutions of

Wrought linked armour for my soul, before mankind, I have avoided all flattery to those violent and It might walk forth to war among mankind; malignant passions of our nature, which are ever on Thus power and hope were strengthen'd more and the watch to mingle with and to alloy the most bene

more ficial innovations. There is no quarter given to Revenge, Within me, till there came upon my mind or Envy, or Prejudice. Love is celebrated every where A sense of loneliness, a thirst with which I pined. as the sole law which should govern the moral world.

Alas, that love should be a blight and snare
DEDICATION.

To those who seek all sympathies in one!-
Such once I sought in vain; then black despair,

The shadow of a starless night, was thrown
There is uo danger to a man, that knows

Over the world in which I moved alone:-
What life and death is: there's not any law

Yet never found I one not false to me,
Escoods his knowledge; neither is it lawful

Hard hearts, and cold, like weights of icy stone
That he should stoop to any other law.

Which crushed and withered mine, that could not be

Aught but a lifeless clog, until revived by thee.
TO MARY

7.
1.

Thou Friend, whose presence on my wintry heart So now my summer-task is ended, Mary,

Fell, like bright Spring upon some herbless plain; And I return to thee, mine own heart's home;

How beautiful and calm and free thou wert As to his Queen some victor Knight of Facry,

In thy young wisdom, when the mortal chain Earning bright spoils for her enchanted dome;

Of Custom thou didst burst and rend in twain, Nor thou disdain, that ere my fame become

And walked as free as light the clouds among,
A star among the stars of mortal night,
If it indeed may cleave its natal gloom,

Which many an envious slave then breathed in vain

From his dim dungeon, and my spirit sprung Its doubtful promise thus I would unite

To meet thee from the woes which had begirt it long. With thy beloved name, thou Child of love and light.

8. The toil which stole from thee so many an hour, No more alone through the world's wilderness, Is ended,—and the fruit is at thy feet!

Although I trod the paths of high intent, No longer where the woods to frame a bower

I journey'd now: no more companionless, With interlaced branches mix and meet,

Where solitude is like despair, I went. Or where with sound like many voices sweet,

There is the wisdom of a stern content Water-falls leap among wild islands green,

When Poverty can blight the just and good, Which framed for my lone boat a lone retreat

When Infamy dares mock the innocent, Of moss-grown trees and weeds, shall I be seen:

And cherish'd friends turn with the multitude But beside thee, where still my heart has ever been. To trample: this was ours, and we unshaken slood ! 3.

9. Thoughts of great deeds were mine, dear Friend, when

Now has descended a serener hour, first

And with inconstant fortune, friends return; The clouds which wrap this world from youth did pass.

Though suffering leaves the knowledge and the power I do remember well the hour which burst

Which says :--Let scorn be not repaid with scorn. My spirit's sleep: a fresh May-dawn it was,

And from thy side two gentle babes are born When I walked forth upon the glittering grass,

To fill our home with smiles, and thus are we And wept, I knew not why; until there rose

Most fortunate bencath life's beaming morn; From the near school-room, voices, that, alas!

And these delights, and thou have been to me Were but one echo from a world of woes

The parents of the Song I consecrate to thee.
The harsh and grating strife of tyrants and of focs.

4.
And then I clasp'd my hands and look d around Is it, that now my inexperienced fingers
-But none was near to mock my streaming eyes, But strike the prelude of a loftier sirain ?
Which pour'd their warm drops on the sunny ground Or, must the lyre on which my spirit lingers
So without shame, I spake:-- I will be wise,

Soon pause in silence, ne'er to sound again,
And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies

Though it might shake the Anarch Custom's reign, Such power, for I grow weary to behold

And charm the minds of men to Truth's own sway The selfish and the strong still tyrannise

Holier than was Amphion's? I would fain Without reproach or check.» I then controll'd Reply in hope-but I am worn away, My tears, my heart grew calm, and I was meek and bold. And Death and Love are yet contending for their prey.

10.

11.

And what art thou? I know, but dare not speak :
Time may interpret to his silent

years.
Yet in the paleness of thy thoughtful cheek,
And in the ligh: thine ample forehead wears,
And in thy sweelest smiles, and in thy tears,
And in thy gentle speech, a prophecy
Is whispered, to subdue my fondest fears :

And through thinc eyes, even in thy soul I see
A lamp of vestal fire burning internally.

II.
So, as I stood, one blast of muttering thunder
Burst in far peals along the waveless deep,
When, gathering fast, around, above and under,
Long trains of tremulous mist began to creep,
Until their complicating lines did sleep
The orient sun in shadow :- not a sound
Was heard; one horrible repose did keep

The forests and the floods, and all around
Darkness more dread than night was poured upon the
ground.

INI.
Hark! 't is the rushing of a wind that sweeps
Earth and the ocean. See ! the lightnings yawn
Deluging Heaven with fire, and the lash'd deeps
Glitter and boil beneath : it rages on,
One mighty stream, whirlwind and waves upthrown,
Lightning, and hail, and darkness eddying by.
There is a pause-- the sea-birds, that were gone

Into their caves to shriek, come forth, to spy
What calm has fallin on earth, what light is in the sky.

12.

They say that thou wert lovely from thy birth,
Of glorious parents, thou aspiring Child.
I wonder not-for One then left this earth
Whose life was like a setting planet mild,
Which clothed thee in the radiance undefiled
Of its departing glory; still her fame
Shines on thee, through the tempests dark and wild

Which shake these latter days; and thou canst claim
The shelter, from thy Sire, of an immortal name.

13.

IV.
One voice came forth from many a mighty spirit, For, where the irresistible storm had cloven
Which was the echo of three thousand years;

That fearful darkness, the blue sky was seen
And the tumultuous world stood mute to hear it, Fretted with many a fair cloud interwoven
As some lone man who in a desert hears

Most delicately, and the ocean green, The music of his home :-unwonted fears

Beneath that opening spot of blue serene, Fell on the pale oppressors of our race,

Quiver'd like burning emerald : calm was spread And Faith, and Custom, and low-thoughted cares, On all below; but far on high, between Like thunder-stricken dragons, for a space

Earth and the upper air, the vast clouds fled, Left the torn human heart, their food and dwelling-place. Countless and swift as leaves on autumn's tempest shed.

14.

v. Truth's deathless voice pauses among mankind! For ever, as the war became more fierce If there must be no response to my cry

Between the whirlwinds and the rack on high, If men must rise and stamp with fury blind

That spot grew more serene; blue light did pierce On his pure name who loves them -- thou and I, The woof of those white clouds, which seem'd to lie Sweet friend! can look from our tranquillity

Far, deep, and motionless; while through the sky Like lamps into the world's tempestuous night, - The pallid semicircle of the moon Two tranquil stars, while clouds are passing by Past on, in slow and moving majesty;

Which wrap them from the foundering seaman's sight, Its upper horn array'd in mists, which soon
That burn from year to year with unextinguish'd light. But slowly fled, like dew beneath the beams of noon.

VI.
I could not chuse but gaze; a fascination
Dwelt in that moon, and sky, and clouds, which drew
My fancy thither, and in expectation
Of what I knew not, I remain'd :-- the hue
Of the white moon, amid that heaven so blue,

Suddenly stain'd with shadow did appear;
CANTO I.

A speck, a cloud, a shape, approaching grew,

Like a great ship in the sun's sinking sphere
Bebeld afar at sea, and swift it came anear.

VII.

Even like a bark, which from a chasm of mountains, When the last hope of trampled France had fail'd Dark, vast, and overhanging, on a river Like a brief dream of unremaining glory,

Which there collects the strength of all its fountains, From visions of despair I rose, and scaled

Comes forth, whilst with the speed its frame doth The peak of an aerial promontory,

quiver, Whose cavern'd base with the vext surge was hoary; Sails, oars, and stream, tending to one endeavour; And saw the golden dawn break forth, and waken So, from that chasm of light a winged Form Each cloud, and every wave :--but transitory

On all the winds of heaven approaching ever The calm : for sudden, the firm earth was shaken, Floated, dilating as it came: the storm As if by the last wreck its frame were os ertaken. Pursued it with fierce blasts, and lightnings swift and

warm.

VIII. A course precipitous, of dizzy speed, Suspending thought and breath ; a monstrous sight! For in the air do I behold indeed An Eagle and a Serpent wreathed in fight :And now relaxing its impetuous flight, Before the aerial rock on which I stood, The Eagle, hovering, wheel'd to left and right,

And hung with lingering wings over the tlood, And startled with its yells the wide air's solitude.

XIV. Wile baffled wile, and strength encounter'd strength, Thus long, but unprevailing :- the event Of that portentous fight appear'd at length : Until the lamp of day was almost spent It had endured, when lifeless, stark, and ren Hung high that mighty Serpent, and at last Fell to the sea, while o'er the continent,

With clang of wings and scream the Eagle past, Heavily borne away on the exhausted blast.

XV. And with it fled the tempest, so that ocean And earth and sky shone through the atmosphereOnly, 't was strange to see the red commotion Of waves like mountains o'er the sinking sphere Of sun-set sweep, and their fierce roar to hear Amid the calm: down the steep path I wound To the sea-shore-the evening was most clear

And beautiful, and there the sea I found Calm as a cradled child in dreamless slumber bound.

IX.
A shaft of light upon its wings descended,
And every golden feather gleamed therein-
Feather and scale inextricably blended.
The Serpent's mailed and many-colour'd skin
Shone through the plumes its coils were twined within
By many a swollen and knotted fold, and high
And far, the neck receding lithe and thin,

Sustain'd a crested head, which warily
Shifted and glanced before the Eagle's stedfast eye.

X.
Around, around, in ceaseless circles wheeling
With clang of wings and scream, the Eagle sail'd
Incessantly-sometimes on high concealing
Jis lessening orbs, sometiines as if it faild,
Drooped through the air; and still it shriek'd and

waild,
And casting back its eager head, with beak
And talon uprcmittingly assail'd

The wreathed Serpent, who did ever seek
Upon his enemy's heart a mortal wound to wrcak.

XI.
What life, what power, was kindled and arose
Within the sphere of that appalling fray!
For, from the encounter of those wondrous foes,
A vapour like the sea's suspended spray
Hung gather'd : in the void air, far away,
Floated the shalter'd plumes; bright scales did leap,
Where'er the Eagle's talons made their way,

Like sparks into the darkness;-as they sweep, Blood stains the snowy foam of the tumultuous deep.

XVI. There was a Woman, beautiful as morning, Silting beneath the rocks, upon the sand Of the waste sea-fair as one flower adorning An icy wilderness--cachi delicate hand Lay crossed upon her hosom, and the band Of her dark hair had fall'n, and so she sale Looking upon the waves ; on the bare strand

Upon the sea-mark a small boat did wait, Fair as herself, like Love by llope left desolate.

XVII. It seem'd that this fair Shape had look'd upon That unimaginable fight, and now That her sweet eyes were weary of the sun, As brightly it illustrated her woe; For in the tears which silently to flow Paused not, its lustre hung: she watching aye The foam-wreaths which the faint tide wove below

Upon the spangled sands, groaned heavily, And after every groan looked up over the sea.

XII. Swift chances in that combat-many a check, And many a change, a dark and wild turmoil ; Sometimes the Snake around his enemy's neck Lock'd in stiff rings his adamantine coil, Until the Eagle, faint with pain and toil, Remitted his strong flight, and near the sea Languidly flutter'd, hopeless so to foil

llis adversary, who then rear'd on high Flis red and burning crest, radiant with victory.

XVIIT.
And when she saw the wounded Serpent make
His path between the waves, hier lips grew pale,
Parted, and quiver'd; the tears ceased to break
From her immoveable eyes; no voice of wail
Escaped her; but she rose, and on the gale
Loosening her star-bright robe and shadowy hair
Pour'd forth her voice; the caveros of the vale

That open'd to the ocean, caught it there,
And fill'd with silver sounds the overflowing air.

XIII. Then on the white edge of the bursting surge, Where they had sank together, would the Snake Relax his suffocating grasp,

and scourge The wind with his wild writhing's ; for to break That chain of torment, the vast bird would shake The strength of his unconquerable wings As in despair, and with his sinewy neck,

Dissolve in sudden shock those linked rings, Thien soar-as swift as smoke from a volcano springs.

XIX. She spake in language whose strange melody Might not belong to earth. I heard, alone, What made its music more melodious be, The pity and the love of every tone; But to the Snake those accents swect were known llis native tongue and liers ; nor did he beat The hoar spray idly then, but winding on

Through the green shadows of the waves that meet Near to the shore, did pause beside her

suowy feet.

XXV

XXXI.
Speak not to me, but hear! much shalt thou learn, In the world's youth his empire was as firm!
Much must remain unthought, and more untold, As its foundations-soon the Spirit of Good,
In the dark Future's ever-flowing urn:

Though in the likeness of a loathsome worm, know then, that from the depth of ages

old

Sprang from the billows of the formless flood, Two Powers o'er mortal things dominion hold

Which shrank and fled; and with that fiend of blood Ruling the world with a divided lot,

Renew'd the doubtful war-thrones then first shook, Immortal, all pervading, manifold,

And carth's immense and trampled multitude, Twin Genii, equal Gods--when life and thought In hope on their own powers began to look, Sprang forth, they burst the womb of inessential Nought. And Fcar, the demon pale, his sanguine shrine forsook.

XXXII.

XXXVIII. Then Greece arose, and to its bards and sages,

Thus the dark tale which history doth unfold, In dream, the golden pinioned Genii came,

I knew, but not, methinks, as others know, Even where they slept amid the night of ages,

For they weep not; and Wisdom had unroll'd
Sleeping their hearts in the divinest flame,

The clouds which hide the gulf of mortal woe:
Which thy breath kindled, Power of holiest name! To few can she that warning vision show,
And oft in cycles since, when darkness gave

For I loved all things with intense devotion;
New weapons to thy foe, their sunlike fame

So that when Hope's deep source in fullest flow,
Upon the combat shone-a light to save,

Like earthquake did uplift the stagnant ocean
Like Paradise spread forth beyond the shadowy grave. Of human thoughts-mine shook beneath the wide

emotion.
XXXIII.

XXXIX.
Such is this conflict-when mankind doth strive When first the living blood through all these veins
With its oppressors in a strife of blood,

Kindled a thought in sense, great France sprang
Or when free thoughts, like lightnings are alive;

forth, And in each bosom of the multitude

And scized, as if to break, the ponderous chains Justice and truth, with custom's hydra brood,

Which bind in woe the nations of the earth.
Wage silent war;—when priests and kings dissemble I saw, and started from my cottage hearth;
In smiles or frówns their fierce disquietude,

And to the clouds and waves in tameless gladness,
When round pure hearts, a host of liopes assemble, Shrick'd, till they caught immeasurable mirth-
The Snake and Eagle meel—the world's foundations And laugh'd in light and music: soon, sweet madness
tremble !

Was pour'd upon my heart, a soft and thrilling sadness.
XXXIV.

XL.
Thou hast beheld that fight-when to thy home

Deep slumber fell on me:—my dreams were fire, Thou didst return, steep not its hearth in tears;

Soft and delightful thoughts did rest and hover
Though thou mayst hear that earth is now become

Like shadows o'er my brain; and strange desire,
The tyrani's garbage, which to his compeers,
The vile reward of their dishonour'd years,

The tempest of a passion, raging over

My tranquil soul, its depths with light did cover, He will dividing give.—The victor Fiend

Which past; and calm, and darkness, sweeter far
Omnipotent of yore, now quails, and fears

Came-then I loved; but not a human lover!
His triumph dearly won, which soon will lend
An impulse swift and sure to his approaching end.

For when I rose from sleep, the Morning Star
Shone through the woodbine wreaths which round my

casement were.
XXXV.

XLI. List, stranger list ! mine is a human form,

'T was like an eye which scem’d to smile on me. Like that thou wearest-touch me-shriek not now! My hand thou feel'st is not a ghost's, bul warm

I watch'd, till by the sun made pale, it sank With human blood.—’T was many years ago,

Under the billows of the heaving sea;

But from its beams deep love my spirit drank,
Since first my thirsting soul aspired to know
The secrets of this wondrous world, when deep

And to my brain the boundless world now shrank
My heart was pierced with sympathy, for woe

Into one thought-one image-yes, for ever! Which could not be mine own--and thought did

Even like the day-spring, pourd on vapours dank,

The beams of that one Star did shoot and quiver keep In dream, unnatural watch beside an infant's sleep.

Through my benighted mind-and were extinguish'd

XLII.
XXXVI.
Woe could not be mine own, since far from men

The day past thus: at night, methought in dream
I dwell, a free and happy orphan child,

A shape of speechless beauty did appear:

It stood like light on a carecring stream
By the sea-shore, in a deep mountain glen;
And near the waves, and through the forests wild,

Of golden clouds which shook the atmosphere;
I roam'd, to storm and darkness reconciled :

A winged youth, his radiant brow did wear

The Morning Star: a wild dissolving bliss
For I was calm while tempest shook the sky:
But when the breathless heavens in beauty smiled,

Over my frame he breathed, approaching near,

And bent his eyes of kindling tenderness I wept, sweet tears, yet too tumultuously

Near mine, and on my lips impress'd a lingering kiss. for peace, and clasp'd my hands aloft in ecstacy.

XLIII.
XXXVII.

And said: a Spirit loves thee, mortal maiden,
These were forebodings of my

fate-before

How wilt thou prove thy worth? Then joy and sleep A woman's heart beat in my virgin breast,

Together tled, my soul was deeply laden, It had been nurtured in divinest lore:

And to the shore I went to muse and weep; A dying poct gave me books, and blest

But as I moved, over my heart did creep With wild but holy talk the sweet unrest

A joy less soft, but more profound and strong In which I watch'd him as he died away

Than iny sweet dream; and it forbade to keep
A youth with hoary hair-a fleeting guest

The path of the sca-shore: that Spirit's tongue
Of our lone mountains--and this lore did sway Seem'd whispering in my heart, and hore my steps
My spirit like a storm, contending there alway.

along

never.

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