XXXVIII.

"So years had past, when sudden earthquake rent
The depth of ocean, and the cavern crackt
With sound, as if the world's wide continent
Had fallen in universal ruin wrackt;

And through the cleft streamed in one cataract
The stifling waters :-when I woke, the flood,
Whose banded waves that crystal cave had sacked,
Was ebbing round me, and my bright abode

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,
And heard loose rocks rushing tumultuously
With splash and shock into the deep-anon

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
Around, and in my hair the winds did play,
Lingering as they pursued their unimpeded way.

XL.

"My spirit moved upon the sea like wind
Which round some thymy cape will lag and hover,
Though it can wake the still cloud, and unbind
The strength of tempest: day was almost over,
When through the fading light I could discover
A ship approaching-its white sails were fed
With the north wind-its moving shade did cover
The twilight deep;-the mariners in dread

Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread.

XLI.

"And when they saw one sitting on a crag,
They sent a boat to me;-the sailors rowed
In awe through many a new and fearful jag

Of overhanging rock, through which there flowed

The foam of streams that cannot make abode.

They came and questioned me, but, when they heard
My voice, they became silent, and they stood
And moved as men in whom new love had stirred
Deep thoughts: so to the ship we past without a word.

L

"I SATE beside the steersman then, and, gazing
Upon the west, cried, 'Spread the sails! behold
The sinking moon is like a watch-tower blazing
Over the mountains yet ;-the City of Gold
Yon Cape alone does from the sight withhold;
The stream is fleet--the north breathes steadily
Beneath the stars; they tremble with the cold!
Ye cannot rest upon the dreary sea;-

Haste, haste to the warm home of happier destiny!

II.

"The Mariners obeyed-the Captain stood
Aloof, and, whispering to the Pilot, said,
'Alas, alas! I fear we are pursued

By wicked ghosts: a Phantom of the Dead,
The night before we sailed, came to my bed

In dream, like that!' The Pilot then replied,
'It cannot be-she is a human Maid-

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,
And as we sailed, the Mariners came near
And thronged around to listen ;-in the gleam
Of the pale moon I stood, as one whom fear
May not attaint, and my calm voice did rear:
'Ye are all human-yon broad moon gives light
To millions who the self-same likeness wear.
Even while I speak-beneath this very night,
Their thoughts flow on like ours, in sadness or delight.

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!
Is this your care? ye toil for your own good-
Ye feel and think-has some immortal power
Such purposes? or in a human mood,

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,
And he be like to them. Lo! Plague is free

To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and Snow,
Disease, and Want, and worse necessity

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,
Or known from others who have known such things,
A Shade, a Form, which Earth and Heaven between
Wields an invisible rod-that Priests and Kings,
Custom, domestic sway, ay, all that brings
Man's free-born soul beneath the oppressor's heel,
Are his strong ministers, and that the stings
Of death will make the wise his vengeance feel,

Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with tenfold steel

VIII.

"And it is said, this Power will punish wrong;
Yes, add despair to crime, and pain to pain!
And deepest hell, and deathless snakes among,
Will bind the wretch on whom is fixed a stain,
Which, like a plague, a burthen, and a bane,
Clung to him while he lived;-for love and hate,
Virtue and vice, they say are difference vain-
The will of strength is right-this human state
Tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate.

IX.

"Alas, what strength? Opinion is more frail
Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moon
Even while we gaze, though it awhile avail
To hide the orb of truth-and every throne
Of Earth or Heaven, though shadow rests thereon,
One shape of many names :-for this ye plough
The barren waves of ocean; hence each one
Is slave or tyrant; all betray and bow,
Command, or kill, or fear, or wreak or suffer woe.

X.

"Its names are each a sign which maketh holy
All power-ay, the ghost, the dream, the shade,
Of power-lust, falsehood, hate, and pride, and folly;
The pattern whence all fraud and wrong is made,
A law to which mankind has been betrayed;
And human love, is as the name well known
Of a dear mother, whom the murderer laid
In bloody grave, and, into darkness thrown,
Gathered her wildered babes around him as his own.

ΧΙ.

'O love! who to the hearts of wandering men
Art as the calm to Ocean's weary waves!
Justice, or truth, or joy! thou only can
From slavery and religion's labyrinth caves

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,
Until life's sunny day is quite gone down,

To sit and smile with Joy, or, not alone,

To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of Woe;
To live, as if to love and live were one,-

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
A thing I weep to speak-the child of scorn,
The outcast of a desolated home.

Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn
Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn,
As calm decks the false Ocean :-well ye know
What Woman is, for none of Woman born
Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe,
Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow.

XVI.

"This need not be; ye might arise, and will

That gold should lose its power, and thrones their glory;
That love, which none may bind, be free to fill
The world, like light; and evil faith, grown hoary
With crime, be quenched and die.-Yon promontory
Even now eclipses the descending moon !—
Dungeons and palaces are transitory—

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-
Whence come ye, friends? Alas, I cannot name
All that I read of sorrow, toil, and shame,
On your worn faces; as in legends old
Which make immortal the disastrous fame
Of conquerors and impostors false and bold,

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-
All mortal thoughts confess a common home:
Blush not for what may to thyself impart
Stains of inevitable crime: the doom

Is this, which has, or may, or must, become
Thire, and all humankind's. Ye are the spoil
Which Time thus marks for the devouring tomb,
Thou and thy thoughts and they, and all the toil
Wherewith ye twine the rings of life's perpetual coil.