Soon, as it seem'd, we left our journeying high, And straightway into frightful eddies swoop'd; Such as aye muster where grey Time has scoop'd Huge dens and caverns in a mountain's side: There hollow sounds aroused me, and I sigh'd To faint once more by looking on my bliss— I was distracted; madly did I kiss
The wooing arms which held me, and did give My eyes at once to death: but 'twas to live, To take in draughts of life from the gold fount Of kind and passionate looks; to count, and count The moments, by some greedy help that seem'd A second self, that each might be redeem'd And plunder'd of its load of blessedness. Ah, desperate mortal! I even dared to press Her very cheek against my crowned lip, And, at that moment, felt my body dip Into a warmer air: a moment more, Our feet were soft in flowers.
There was store Of newest joys upon that alp. Sometimes A scent of violets, and blossoming limes, Loiter'd around us; then of honey cells, Made delicate from all white-flower bells,- And once, above the edges of our nest, An arch face peep'd,-an Oread as I guess'd.
Why did I dream that sleep o'erpower'd me In midst of all this heaven? Why not see, Far off, the shadows of his pinions dark, And stare them from me? But no, like a spark That needs must die, although its little beam Reflects upon a diamond, my sweet dream Fell into nothing-into stupid sleep. And so it was, until a gentle creep,
A careful moving caught my waking ears, And up I started: Ah! my sighs, my tears, My clenched hands;-for lo! the poppies hung
Dew-dabbled on their stalks, the ouzel sung A heavy ditty, and the sullen day Had chidden herald Hesperus away, With leaden looks: the solitary breeze Bluster'd, and slept, and its wild self did tease With wayward melancholy; and I thought, Mark me, Peona! that sometimes it brought Faint fare-thee-wells, and sigh-shrilled adieus !-- Away I wander'd-all the pleasant hues Of heaven and earth had faded: deepest shades Were deepest dungeons; heaths and sunny glades Were full of pestilent light; our taintless rills Seem'd sooty, and o'erspread with upturn'd gills Of dying fish; the vermeil rose had blown In frightful scarlet, and its thorns outgrown Like spiked aloe. If an innocent bird
Before my heedless footsteps stirr'd, and stirr'd In little journeys, I beheld in it
A disguised demon, missioned to knit My soul with under darkness; to entice My stumblings down some monstrous precipice : Therefore I eager follow'd, and did curse
The disappointment. Time, that aged nurse, Rock'd me to patience. Now, thank gentle heaven!
These things, with all their comfortings, are given To my down-sunken hours, and with thee, Sweet sister, help to stem the ebbing sea
Thus ended he, and both
Sat silent for the maid was very loth
To answer; feeling well that breathed words Would all be lost, unheard, and vain as swords Against the enchased crocodile, or leaps
Of grasshoppers against the sun.
And wonders; struggles to devise some blame To put on such a look as would say, Shame
On this poor weakness! but, for all her strife, She could as soon have crush'd away the life From a sick dove. At length, to break the pause, She said with trembling chance: "Is this the cause ?
Yet it is strange, and sad, alas! That one who through this middle earth should
Most like a sojourning demi-god, and leave. His name upon the harp-string, should achieve No higher bard than simple maidenhood, Singing alone, and fearfully,-how the blood Left his young cheek; and how he used to stray He knew not where and how he would say, nay,
If any said 'twas love: and yet was love;
What could it be but love? How a ring-dove Let fall a sprig of yew-tree in his path
And how he died: and then, that love doth scathe The gentle heart, as northern blasts do roses; And then the ballad of his sad life closes With sighs, and an alas !-Endymion ! Be rather in the trumpet's mouth,-anon Among the winds at large-that all may hearken! Although, before the crystal heavens darken, I watch and dote upon the silver lakes Pictured in western cloudiness, that takes
The semblance of gold rocks and bright gold sands, Islands, and creeks, and amber-fretted strands With horses prancing o'er them, palaces And towers of amethyst,-would I so tease My pleasant days, because I could not mount Into those regions? The Morphean fount Of that fine element that visions, dreams, And fitful whims of sleep are made of, streams Into its airy channels with so subtle,
So thin a breathing, not the spider's shuttle, Circled a million times within the space
Of a swallow's nest-door, could delay a trace,
A tinting of its quality: how light
Must dreams themselves be; seeing they're more slight
Than the mere nothing that engenders them! Then wherefore sully the entrusted gem
Of high and noble life with thoughts so sick? Why pierce high-fronted honour to the quick For nothing but a dream?" Hereat the youth Look'd up: a conflicting of shame and ruth Was in his plaited brow: yet his eyelids Widen'd a little, as when Zephyr bids A little breeze to creep between the fans Of careless butterflies: amid his pains He seem'd to taste a drop of manna-dew, Full palatable; and a colour grew
Upon his cheek, while thus he lifeful spake.
“Peona! ever have I long'd to slake
My thirst for the world's praises: nothing base, No merely slumberous phantasm, could unlace The stubborn canvas for my voyage prepared- Though now 'tis tatter'd; leaving my bark bared And sullenly drifting. yet my higher hope Is of too wide, too rainbow-large a scope, To fret at myriads of earthly wrecks. Wherein lies happiness? In that which becks Our ready minds to fellowship divine, A fellowship with essence; till we shine, Full alchemized, and free of space.
The clear religion of heaven! Fold
A rose-leaf round thy finger's taperness,
And soothe thy lips: hist! when the airy stress Of music's kiss impregnates the free winds, And with a sympathetic touch unbinds Æolian magic from their lucid wombs:
Then old songs waken from enclouded tombs ;
Old ditties sigh above their father's grave; Ghosts of melodious prophesyings rave Round every spot where trod Apollo's foot; Bronze clarions awake, and faintly bruit, Where long ago a giant battle was; And, from the turf, a lullaby doth pass
In every place where infant Orpheus slept. Feel we these things!—that moment have we stept Into a sort of oneness, and our state
Is like a floating spirit's.
Richer entanglements, enthralments far More self-destroying, leading, by degrees, To the chief intensity: the crown of these Is made of love and friendship, and sits high Upon the forehead of humanity.
All its more ponderous and bulky worth Is friendship, whence there ever issues forth A steady splendour; but at the tip-top, There hangs by unseen film, an orbed drop Of light, and that is love: its influence Thrown in our eyes genders a novel sense, At which we start and fret; till in the end, Melting into its radiance, we blend, Mingle, and so become a part of it,—
Nor with aught else can our souls interknit So wingedly when we combine therewith, Life's self is nourish'd by its proper pith, And we are nurtured like a pelican brood. Ay, so delicious is the unsating food,
That men, who might have tower'd in the van Of all the congregated world, to fan And winnow from the coming step of time All chaff of custom, wipe away all slime Left by men-slugs and human serpentry Have been content to let occasion die, Whilst they did sleep in love's Elysium. And, truly, I would rather be struck dumb
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