XXXVIII. "So years had past, when sudden earthquake rent And through the cleft streamed in one cataract Before me yawned-a chasm desert, and bare, and broad. XXXIX. "Above me was the sky, beneath the sea: I stood upon a point of shattered stone, All ceased, and there was silence wide and lone. I felt that I was free! The Ocean-spray Quivered beneath my feet, the broad Heaven shone XL. "My spirit moved upon the sea like wind Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread. XLI. "And when they saw one sitting on a crag, Of overhanging rock, through which there flowed The foam of streams that cannot make abode. They came and questioned me, but, when they heard L "I SATE beside the steersman then, and, gazing Haste, haste to the warm home of happier destiny! II. "The Mariners obeyed-the Captain stood By wicked ghosts: a Phantom of the Dead, In dream, like that!' The Pilot then replied, Her low voice makes you weep-she is some bride, Or daughter of high birth-she can be nought beside.' III. "We past the islets, borne by wind and stream, IV. "What dream ye? Your own hands have built a home, Even for yourselves on a beloved shore: For some, fond eyes are pining till they come, How they will greet him when his toils are o'er, And laughing babes rush from the well-known door! Dream ye some Power thus builds for man in solitude? "What is that Power? Ye mock yourselves, and give A human heart to what ye cannot know: As if the cause of life could think and live! 'Twere as if man's own works should feel, and show The hopes, and fears, and thoughts, from which they flow, To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and Snow, Of hate and ill, and Pride, and Fear, and Tyranny. VI. "What is that Power? Some moon-struck sophist stood Watching the shade from his own soul upthrown Fill Heaven and darken Earth, and in such mood The Form he saw and worshipped was his own, His likeness in the world's vast mirror shown; And 'twere an innocent dream, but that a faith Nursed by fear's dew of poison, grows thereon, And that men say, that Power has chosen Death On all who scorn its laws, to wreak immortal wrath. VII. "Men say that they themselves have heard and seen, Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with tenfold steel VIII. "And it is said, this Power will punish wrong; IX. "Alas, what strength? Opinion is more frail X. "Its names are each a sign which maketh holy ΧΙ. 'O love! who to the hearts of wandering men Guide us, as one clear star the seamen saves. To give to all an equal share of good, To track the steps of freedom, though through graves She pass, to suffer all in patient mood, To weep for crime, though stained with thy friend's dearest blood XII. "To feel the peace of self-contentment's lot, To own all sympathies, and outrage none, And, in the inmost bowers of sense and thought, To sit and smile with Joy, or, not alone, To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of Woe; This is not faith or law, nor those who bow To thrones on Heaven or Earth, such destiny may know. XIII. "But children near their parents tremble now, Because they must obey-one rules another, And as one Power rules both high and low, So man is made the captive of his brother, And Hate is throned on high with Fear her mother, Above the Highest-and those fountain-cells, Whence love yet flowed when faith had choked all other, Are darkened-Woman, as the bond-slave, dwells Of man, a slave; and life is poisoned in its wells. XIV. "Man seeks for gold in mines, that he may weave A lasting chain for his own slavery ;— In fear and restless care that he may live He toils for others, who must ever be The joyless thralls of like captivity; He murders, for his chiefs delight in ruin; He builds the altar, that its idol's fee May be his very blood; he is pursuing, O, blind and willing wretch! his own obscure undoing. XV. "Woman!-she is his slave, she has become Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn XVI. "This need not be; ye might arise, and will That gold should lose its power, and thrones their glory; High temples fade like vapour-Man alone Remains, whose will has power when all beside is gone. XVII. "Let all be free and equal !-From your hearts I feel an echo; through my inmost frame Like sweetest sound, seeking its mate, it darts- The discord of your hearts I in your looks behold. XVIII. "Whence come ye, friends? from pouring human blood Forth on the earth? or bring ye steel and gold, That Kings may dupe and slay the multitude? Or from the famished poor, pale, weak, and cold, Bear ye the earnings of their toil? unfold! Speak! are your hands in slaughter's sanguine hue Stain'd freshly? have your hearts in guile grown old? Know yourselves thus? ye shall be pure as dew, And I will be a friend and sister unto you. XIX. "Disguise it not we have one human heart- Is this, which has, or may, or must, become |