The morn is up again, the dewy morn, With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom, Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn, And living as if earth contain'd no tomb, And glowing into day: we may resume The march of our existence and thus I, Still on thy shores, fair Leman! may find room And food for meditation, nor pass by Much, that may give us pause, if ponder'd fittingly. Clarens! sweet Clarens, birthplace of deep Love! Thine air is the young breath of passionate thought; Thy trees take root in Love; the snows above The very Glaciers have his colors caught, And sunset into rose-hues sees them wrought By rays which sleep there lovingly; the rocks, The permanent crags, tell here of Love, who sought In them a refuge from the worldly shocks, Which stir and sting the soul with hope that woos, then mocks. And the world's waste, have driven him far from those, For 't is his nature to advance or die; He stands not still, but or decays, or grows Into a boundless blessing, which may vie With the immortal lights, in its eternity! 'T was not for fiction chose Rousseau this spot, Peopling it with affections; but he found It was the scene which Passion must allot To the mind's purified beings; 't was the ground Where early Love his Psyche's zone unbound, And hallow'd it with loveliness; 't is lone, And wonderful, and deep, and hath a sound, And sense, and sight of sweetness; here the Rhone Hath spread himself a couch, the Alps have rear'd a throne. along, Which I would seize, in passing, to beguile My breast, or that of others, for a while. Fame is the thirst of youth, but I am not So young as to regard men's frown or smile, As loss or guerdon of a glorious lot : I stood and stand alone,-remember'd or forgot. I have not loved the world, nor the world me; I have not flatter'd its rank breath, nor bow'd To its idolatries a patient knee, Nor coin'd my cheek to smiles, nor cried aloud In worship of an echo; in the crowd They could not deem me one of such; I stood Among them, but not of them; in a shroud Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could, Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued. I have not loved the world, nor the world me, But let us part fair foes; I do believe, Though I have found them not, that there may be Yet this was in my nature: as it is, I know not what is there, yet something like to this. Yet, though dull Hate as duty should be taught, I know that thou wilt love me; though my name Should be shut from thee, as a spell still fraught With desolation, and a broken claim; Though the grave closed between us,'t were the same, I know that thou wilt love me; though to drain My blood from out thy being were an aim, And an attainment,-all would be in vain, Still thou wouldst love me, still that more than life retain. The child of love, though born in bitterness, And nurtured in convulsion. Of thy sire These were the elements, and thine no less. As yet such are around thee, but thy fire Shall be more temper'd, and thy hope far higher. Sweet be thy cradled slumbers! O'er the sea And from the mountains where I now respire, Fain would I waft such blessing upon thee, As with a sigh, I deem thou might'st have been to me. May-June, 1816. November 18, 1816. SONNET ON CHILLON. ETERNAL Spirit of the chainless Mind! Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thouart, For there thy habitation is the heartThe heart which love of thee alone can bind; And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd To fetters, and the damp vault's day less gloom, Their country conquers with their martyrdom, And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind. Chillon thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar-for 't was trod. Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God. June, 1816. December 5, 1816. THE PRISONER OF CHILLON My hair is gray, but not with years, As men's have grown from sudden fears: My limbs are bow'd, though not with toil. But rusted with a vile repose, For they have been a dungeon's spoil, And mine has been the fate of those To whom the goodly earth and air Proud of Persecution's rage; There are seven pillars of Gothic mould, In Chillon's dungeons deep and old, There are seven columns, massy and gray, Dim with a dull imprison'd ray, And in each ring there is a chain; For in these limbs its teeth remain, They chain'd us each to a column stone, But even these at length grew cold. A grating sound, not full and free, As they of yore were wont to be; It might be fancy, but to me They never sounded like our own. I was the eldest of the three, And to uphold and cheer the rest I ought to do-and did my bestAnd each did well in his degree. The youngest, whom my father loved, Because our mother's brow was given To him, with eyes as blue as heaven For him my soul was sorely moved; And truly might it be distress'd To see such bird in such a nest; For he was beautiful as day (When day was beautiful to me As to young eagles, being free)A polar day, which will not see A sunset till its summer's gone, Its sleepless summer of long light, The snow-clad offspring of the sun: And thus he was as pure and bright, And in his natural spirit gay, With tears for nought but others' ills. And then they flow'd like mountain rills, Unless he could assuage the woe Which he abhorr'd to view below. The other was as pure of mind, And perish'd in the foremost rank With joy-but not in chains to pine: His spirit wither'd with their clank, I saw it silently decline- And so perchance in sooth did mine: But yet I forced it on to cheer Those relics of a home so dear. He was a hunter of the hills, Had follow'd there the deer and wolf; To him his dungeon was a gulf, And fetter'd feet the worst of ills. Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls: A thousand feet in depth below Its massy waters meet and flow; Thus much the fathom-line was sent From Chillon's snow-white battlement, Which round about the wave inthrals: A double dungeon wall and wave Have made and like a living grave Below the surface of the lake The dark vault lies wherein we lay, We heard it ripple night and day; Sounding o'er our heads it knock'd; And I have felt the winter's spray ; I said my nearer brother pined. But he, the favorite and the flower, |