XXXII. They mourn, but smile at length; and, smiling, mourn The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn; In massy hoariness; the ruined wall Stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone; The day drags through though storms keep out the sun; And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on: XXXIII. Even as a broken mirror, which the glass The same, and still the more, the more it breaks; Shewing no visible sign, for such things are untold. There is a very life in our despair, Vitality of poison,-a quick root Which feeds these deadly branches; for it were As nothing did we die ; but Life will suit Itself to Sorrow's most detested fruit, Like to the apples on the (8) Dead Sea's shore, Existence by enjoyment, and count o'er [threescore? Such hours 'gainst years of life,-say, would he name XXXV. The Psalmist numbered out the years of man: They are enough; and if thy tale be true, Thou, who didst grudge him even that fleeting span, More than enough, thou fatal Waterloo! Millions of tongues record thee, and anew Their children's lips shall echo them, and say "Here, where the sword united nations drew, "Our countrymen were warring on that day!" And this is much and all which will not pass away. XXXVI. There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men, One moment of the mightiest, and again And shake again the world, the Thunderer of the scene! Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou! Who deem'd thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert. Ob, more or less than man-in high or low, Look through thine own, uor curb the lust of war, Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest star. XXXIX. Yet well thy soul hath brook'd the turning tide Is gall and wormwood to an enemy. When the whole host of hatred stood hard by, To watch and mock thee shrinking, thou hast smiled With a sedate and all-enduring eye,- · When Fortune fled her spoil'd and favourite child, He stood unbowed beneath the ills upon him piled. XL. Sager than in thy fortune; for in them That just habitual scorn which could contemn And spurn the instruments thou wert to use If, like a tower upon a headlong rock, 1 [throne Thou hadst been made to fall or stand alone, For sceptred cynics earth were far too wide a den. But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell, And there hath been thy bane; there is a fire XLIII. This makes the madman who bave made men mad By their contagion; Conquerors and Kings, Founders of sects and systems, to whom add Sophists, Bards, Statesman, all unquiet things Which stir too strongly the soul's secret springs, And are themselves the fools to those they fool; Envied, yet how unenviable! what stings Are theirs! One breast laid open were a school Which would unteach mankind the lust to shine or rule. XLIV. Their breath is agitation, and their life He who ascends to mountain-tops, shall find And thus reward the toils which to those summits led. Away with these! true Wisdom's world will be A blending of all beauties; streams and dells, And there they stand, as stands a lofty mind, And those which waved are shredless dust ere now, And the bleak, battlements shall bear no future blow, XLVIII. Beneath these battlements, within those walls Than mightier heroes of a longer date, What want these outlaws (10) conqueror's should have [brave. Their hopes were not less warm, their souls were full as XLIX. In their baronial feuds and single fields, And many a tower for some fair mischief won, L. But Thou, exulting and abounding river! Through banks whose beauty would endure for ever With the sharp scythe of conflict,-then to see Thy valley of sweet waters were to know Earth paved like Heaven, and to seem such to me [be. Even now what wants thy stream?-that it should Lethe LI. A thousand battles have assail'd thy banks, But these and half their fame have pass'd away And Slaughter heap'd on high his weltering ranks Their very graves are gone, and what are they? Thy tide wash'd down the blood of yesterday, And all was stainless, and on thy clear streamn Glass'd with its dancing light the sunny ray; But o'er the blackened memory's blighting dream Thy waves would vainly roll, all sweeping as they seem. H |