Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar,
And fell not swiftly as I rose before,

But with a downward, tremulous motion thro'
Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!
Nor long the measure of my falling hours,
For nearest of all stars was thine to ours

Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,
A red Dædalion on the timid Earth."

"We came and to thy Earth

240

Be given our lady's bidding to discuss :
We came, my love; around, above, below,
Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,
Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod
She grants to us, as granted by her God
But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl'd
Never his fairy wing o'er fairier world!
Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes
Alone could see the phantom in the skies,
When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be
Headlong thitherward o'er the starry sea
But when its glory swell'd upon the sky,

250

255

As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,
We paus'd before the heritage of men,

And thy star trembled as doth Beauty then!"

260

Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away
The night that waned and waned and brought no day.
They fell for Heaven to them no hope imparts

Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.

(1829)

For, being an idle boy lang syne,
Who read Anacreon, and drank wine,
I early found Anacreon rhymes
Were almost passionate sometimes -
And by strange alchemy of brain
His pleasures always turn'd to pain — \
His naivete to wild desire

His wit to love - his wine to fire —
And so, being young and dipt in folly

I fell in love with melancholy,
And used to throw my earthly rest
And quiet all away in jest —

I could not love except where Death
Was mingling his with Beauty's breath
Or Hymen, Time, and Destiny
Were stalking between her and me.

Of late, eternal Condor years

So shake the very Heaven on high
With tumult as they thunder by,
I have no time for idle cares
Through gazing on the unquiet sky.
And when an hour with calmer wings
Its down upon my spirit flings-
That little time with lyre and rhyme

To while away - forbidden things!

My heart would feel to be a crime
Unless it trembled with the strings.

(1829)

15

20

11 Of late: O, then the (1831).

12 shake: shook (1831); Heaven; air (1829), Heavens (1831, B.J.).

13 thunder: thunder'd (1831).

14 I hardly have had time for cares (1829), I scarcely have had time for cares (S. M.); have: had (1831).

16 And when: Or if (1831); wings: wing (1831).

17 upon did on (1831); flings: fling (1831).

18 time: hour (1831).

19 things: thing (1831).

20 would feel: half fear'd (1831).

21 Unless it trembled: Did it not tremble (1829); strings: string (1831). After this line, 1831 adds the following:

But now my soul hath too much room —

2 crystal, wandering: labyrinth-like (1829, B. G. M.).

5

13 His: The (1829, B. G. M., B.J.).

14 Of her soul-searching: The scrutiny of her (1829, B. G. M.).

8 After this line, 1829 adds the following (the poem being divided into stanzas in that edition) :