Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

V.

Lovest thou the doleful wind

When thou gazest at the skies? Doth the low-tongued Orient Wander from the side of the morn, Dripping with Sabæan spice On thy pillow, lowly bent

With melodious airs lovelorn,
Breathing Light against thy face,
While his locks a-drooping twined

Round thy neck in subtle ring
Make a carcanet of rays,

And talk together still,
ye
In the language wherewith Spring
Letters cowslips on the hill?
Hence that look and smile of thine,
Spiritual Adeline.

A CHARACTER.

WITH a half-glance upon the sky
At night he said, "The wanderings
Of this most intricate Universe
Teach me the nothingness of things."
Yet could not all creation pierce
Beyond the bottom of his eye.

He spake of beauty that the dull
Saw no divinity in grass,
Life in dead stones, or spirit in air;
Then looking as 't were in a glass,
He smooth'd his chin and sleek'd his hair,
And said the earth was beautiful.

He spake of virtue: not the gods
More purely, when they wish to charm
Pallas and Juno sitting by:
And with a sweeping of the arm,
And a lack-lustre dead-blue eye,
Devolved his rounded periods.

Most delicately hour by hour
He canvass'd human mysteries,
And trod on silk, as if the winds
Blew his own praises in his eyes,
And stood aloof from other minds
In impotence of fancied power.

With lips depress'd as he were meek,
Himself unto himself he sold :
Upon himself himself did feed:
Quiet, dispassionate, and cold,
And other than his form of creed,
With chisell'd features clear and sleek.

[blocks in formation]

He saw thro' life and death, thro' good and ill,

He saw thro' his own soul. The marvel of the everlasting will, An open scroll,

Before him lay with echoing feet he threaded

The secretest walks of fame : The viewless arrows of his thoughts were headed

And wing'd with flame,

Like Indian reeds blown from his silver tongue,

And of so fierce a flight,
From Calpe unto Caucasus they sung,
Filling with light

And vagrant melodies the winds which bore

Them earthward till they lit; Then, like the arrow-seeds of the field flower,

[blocks in formation]

And thro' the wreaths of floating dark

upcurl'd,

Rare sunrise flow'd.

And Freedom rear'd in that august sunrise

Her beautiful bold brow,

When rites and forms before his burning

eyes

Melted like snow.

There was no blood upon her maiden robes Sunn'd by those orient skies;

But round about the circles of the globes Of her keen eyes

In your eye there is death,
There is frost in your breath
Which would blight the plants.
Where you stand you cannot hear
From the groves within

The wild-bird's din. In the heart of the garden the merry bird chants,

It would fall to the ground if you came in.
In the middle leaps a fountain
Like sheet lightning,
Ever brightening

With a low melodious thunder;
All day and all night it is ever drawn
From the brain of the purple mountain
Which stands in the distance yonder :

And in her raiment's hem was traced in It springs on a level of bowery lawn, And the mountain draws it from Heaven

flame

WISDOM, a name to shake

And when she spake,

above,

All evil dreams of power-a sacred name. And it sings a song of undying love; And yet, tho' its voice be so clear and full, You never would hear it; your ears are so dull;

Her words did gather thunder as they

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

When the sharp clear twang of the golden chords

Runs up the ridged sea.

Hither, come hither and frolic and play; | O listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten
Here it is only the mew that wails;
We will sing to you all the day:
Mariner, mariner, furl your sails,
For here are the blissful downs and dales,
And merrily, merrily carol the gales,
And the spangle dances in bight and
bay,

And the rainbow forms and flies on the land

Over the islands free;

And the rainbow lives in the curve of
the sand;

Hither, come hither and see;
And the rainbow hangs on the poising

wave,

And sweet is the color of cove and cave,
And sweet shall your welcome be :
O hither, come hither, and be our lords,
For merry brides are we :

We will kiss sweet kisses, and speak
sweet words:

O listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten
With pleasure and love and jubilee :

Who can light on as happy a shore
All the world o'er, all the world o'er?
Whither away? listen and stay: mariner,
mariner, fly no more.

THE DESERTED HOUSE.

I.

LIFE and Thought have gone away
Side by side,

Leaving door and windows wide;
Careless tenants they !

II.

All within is dark as night:
In the windows is no light;
And no murmur at the door,
So frequent on its hinge before.

[graphic][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

Rain makes music in the tree
O'er the green that folds thy grave.
Let them rave.

V.

Round thee blow, self-pleached deep,
Bramble roses, faint and pale,
And long purples of the dale.
Let them rave.

These in every shower creep
Thro' the green that folds thy grave.
Let them rave.

VI.

The gold-eyed kingcups fine;
The frail bluebell peereth over
Rare broidry of the purple clover.
Let them rave.

Kings have no such couch as thine,
As the green that folds thy grave.
Let them rave.

VII.

Wild words wander here and there :
God's great gift of speech abused
Makes thy memory confused:
But let them rave.

The balm-cricket carols clear
In the green that folds thy grave.
Let them rave.

LOVE AND DEATH.

WHAT time the mighty moon was gathering light

Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise, And all about him roll'd his lustrous eyes; When, turning round a cassia, full in

view

Death, walking all alone beneath a yew, Aud talking to himself, first met his sight:

"You must begone," said Death, "these walks are mine."

Love wept and spread his sheeny vans for flight;

Yet ere he parted said, "This hour is thine:

Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree

Stands in the sun and shadows all beneath,
So in the light of great eternity
Life eminent creates the shade of death;
The shadow passeth when the tree shall
fall,

But I shall reign for ever over all."

[blocks in formation]
« ElőzőTovább »