Which covered our being and darkened our birth In the deep. A VOICE. In the deep? SEMICHORUS II. Oh, below the deep. 60 SEMICHORUS I. An hundred ages we had been kept Cradled in visions of hate and care, And each one who waked as his brother slept, Found the truth SEMICHORUS II. Worse than his visions were! SEMICHORUS I. We have heard the lute of Hope in sleep; SEMICHORUS II. As the billows leap in the morning beams! CHORUS. Weave the dance on the floor of the breeze, Pierce with song heaven's silent light, Once the hungry Hours were hounds Which chased the day like a bleeding deer, VOL. II. 65 70 And it limped and stumbled with many wounds But now, oh weave the mystic measure Of music, and dance, and shapes of light, Let the Hours, and the spirits of might and pleasure, Like the clouds and sunbeams, unite. 75 85 PANTHEA. See, where the Spirits of the human mind CHORUS OF SPIRITS. We join the throng Of the dance and the song, By the whirlwind of gladness borne along; As the flying-fish leap From the Indian deep, And mix with the sea-birds, half asleep. CHORUS OF HOURS. Whence come ye, so wild and so fleet, And your wings are soft and swift as thought, CHORUS OF SPIRITS. We come from the mind Of human kind 90 Which was late so dusk, and obscene,1 and blind, 95 Now 'tis an ocean Of clear emotion, A heaven of serene and mighty motion. From that deep abyss Of wonder and bliss, Whose caverns are crystal palaces; From those skiey towers Where Thought's crowned powers Sit watching your dance, ye happy Hours! From the dim recesses Of woven caresses, Where lovers catch ye by your loose tresses; Where sweet Wisdom smiles, Delaying your ships with her syren wiles. From the temples high Of Man's ear and eye, Roofed over Sculpture and Poesy; From the murmurings Of the unsealed springs Where Science bedews his Dædal wings. 100 105 110 115 employed by Shelley,-not in the modern sense hinted at by Mr. Rossetti, but in the sense in which it is applied to the ravens in Adonais The obscene ravens clamorous o'er the dead, which Mr. Rossetti did not alter. It seems to me that obscure would so wholly agree with its " 'companion epithets as to be hardly more than a repetition of one of them, dusk; and I take obscene to be in simple and exact opposition to clear or pure emotion. Years after years, Through blood, and tears, And a thick hell of hatreds, and hopes, and fears; We waded and flew, And the islets were few Where the bud-blighted flowers of happiness grew. Our feet now, every palm, Are sandalled with calm, And the dew of our wings is a rain of balm; The human love lies Which makes all it gazes on Paradise. 120 125 CHORUS OF SPIRITS AND HOURS. Then weave the web of the mystic measure; From the depths of the sky and the ends of the earth, Come, swift Spirits of might and of pleasure, Fill the dance and the music of mirth, As the waves of a thousand streams rush by 131 CHORUS OF SPIRITS. Our spoil is won, Our task is done, We are free to dive, or soar, or run; Beyond and around, Or within the bound Which clips the world with darkness round. We'll pass the eyes Of the starry skies Into the hoar deep to colonize: 135 140 Death, Chaos, and Night, From the sound of our flight, Shall flee, like mist from a tempest's might. And Earth, Air, and Light, And the Spirit of Might, Which drives round the stars in their fiery flight; The powers that quell Death, Wherever we soar shall assemble beneath. And our singing shall build In the void's loose field A world for the Spirit of Wisdom to wield; From the new world of man, And our work shall be called the Promethean. CHORUS OF HOURS. Break the dance, and scatter the song; Let some depart, and some remain. SEMICHORUS I. We, beyond heaven, are driven along: SEMICHORUS II. Us the enchantments of earth retain : SEMICHORUS I. Ceaseless, and rapid, and fierce, and free, With the Spirits which build a new earth and sea, 145 150 155 160 165 |