XVI Here the earth's breath is pestilence, and few But things whose nature is at war with life — Snakes and ill worms - endure its mortal dew. The trophies of the clime's victorious strifeWhite bones, and locks of dun and yellow hair, And ringed horns which buffaloes did wear XVII stood there And at the utmost point The relics of a weed-inwoven cot, Thatched with broad flags. An outlawed mur derer Had lived seven days there; the pursuit was hot When he was cold. The birds that were his grave Fell dead upon their feast in Vado's wave. XVIII There must have lived within Marenghi's heart That fire, more warm and bright than life or hope, (Which to the martyr makes his dungeon XIX Nor was his state so lone as you might think. Those And each one, with peculiar talk and play, XX And the marsh-meteors, like tame beasts, at night XXI He mocked the stars by grouping on each weed XXII And many a fresh Spring morn would he awaken, While yet the unrisen sun made glow, like iron Quivering in crimson fire, the peaks unshaken Of mountains and blue isles which did environ With air-clad crags that plain of land and sea, — And feel liberty. XXIII And in the moonless nights, when the dim ocean Heaved underneath the heaven, Communed with the immeasurable world; And felt his life beyond his limbs dilated, Till his mind grew like that it contemplated. XXIV His food was the wild fig and strawberry ; The milky pine-nuts which the autumnal blast Shakes into the tall grass; and such small fry As from the sea by winter-storms are cast; And the coarse bulbs of iris flowers he found Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground. XXV And so were kindled powers and thoughts which made His solitude less dark. When memory came (For years gone by leave each a deepening shade), His spirit basked in its internal flame,As, when the black storm hurries round at night The fisher basks beside his red firelight. XXVI Yet human hopes and cares and faiths and errors, Like billows unawakened by the wind, Slept in Marenghi still; but that all terrors, Weakness, and doubt, had withered in his mind. His couch XXVII And, when he saw beneath the sunset's planet XXVIII The thought of his own kind who made the soul Which sped that wingèd shape through night Look on the west, how beautiful it is Vaulted with radiant vapors! The deep bliss The edges of that cloud fade Into a hue, like some harmonious thought, Till it dies and between The light hues of the tender, pure, serene, Perhaps the only comfort which remains Lines written for Julian and Maddalo. Published by Garnett, LINES WRITTEN FOR PROMETHEUS UNBOUND As a violet's gentle eye Gazes on the azure sky, Until its hue grows like what it beholds; As a gray and empty mist Over the western mountain it enfolds, Upon its snow; As a strain of sweetest sound LINES WRITTEN FOR MONT BLANC THERE is a voice, not understood by all, Lines written for Prometheus Unbound. Published by Mrs. Shelley, 18391. Lines written for Mont Blanc. Published by Garnett, 1862. |