Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven! If in your bright leaves we could read the fate Of man and empires:-'tis to be forgiven, That in our aspirations to be great, Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, And claim a kindred with you: for ye are A beauty and a mystery, and create In us such love and reverence from afar, That fortune, fame, power, life have named themselves
All heaven and earth are still-though not in sleep, But breathless, as we grow when feeling most; Aud silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep ;- All heaven and earth are still: From the high host Of stars, to the lull'd lake and mountain-coast, All is concentered in a life intense,
Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, But hath a part of being, and a sense
Of that which is of all Creator and defence. XC.
Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt In solitude, where we are least alone;
A truth, which through our being then doth melt And purifies from self; is a tone,
The soul and source of music, which makes known Eternal harmony, and sheds a charm,
Like to the fabled Cytherea's zone,
Binding all things with beauty;-'twould disarm The spectre Death, had he substantial power to harm. XCI.
Not vainly did the early Persian make
His altar the high places and the peak
Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, (20) and thus take A fit and unwall'd temple, there to seek
The Spirit in whose honour shrines are weak, Uprear'd of human hands. Come, and compare Columns and idol-dwellings Goth or Greek,
With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air, Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer!
Thesky is changed!-and such a change! Oh night,(21) And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light Of a dark eye in woman! Far along,
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, But every mountain now hath found a tongue, And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud! XCIII.
And this is in the night :-Most glorious night! Thou wert not sent for slumber! let me be A sharer in thy fierce and får delight,- A portion of the tempest and of thee! How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea, And the big rain comes dancing to the earth! And now again 'tis black,-and now, the glee Of the loud hills shake with its mountains-mirth, As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. XCIV.
Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way between Heights which appear as lovers who have parted In hate, whose mining depths so intervenc,
That they can meet no more, though broken-hearted; Though in their souls, which thus each other thwarted; Love was the very root of the fond rage
Which blighted their life's bloom, and then departed :Itself expired, but leaving them an age
Of years all winters,-war within themselves to wage.
Now, where the quick Rhone thus hath cleft his way, The mightiest of the storms hath ta'en his stand:
For here, not one, but many make their play, And fling their thunder-bolts from hand to hand, Flashing and cast around; of all the band -
The brightest through these parted hills hath fork'd His lightnings,- -as if he did understand,
That in such gaps as desolation work'd,
There the hot shaft should blast whatever therein lurk'd
Sky, mountains, river, winds, lake, lightnings! ye! With night, and clouds, and thunder, and a soul To make these felt and feeling, well may be Things that have made me watchful; the far roll Of your departing voices, is the knoll
Of what in me is sleepless,-if I rest,
But where of ye, oh tempests is the goal? Are ye like those within the human breast?
Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest? XCVII.
Could I embody and unbosom now
That which is most within me,could I wreak My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw Soul, heart, mind, passion, feelings, strong or weak, All that I would have sought, and all I seek, Bear, know, feel and yet breathe-into one word, And that one word were Lightning, I would speak; But as it is, I live and die unheard,
With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword. XCVIII.
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 pondered fittingly. }
Clarens! sweet Clarens, birth-place 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 colours caught
And sun-set into rose-hues sees them wrought (22) '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, [mocks. Which stir and sting the soul with hope that woos, then
Clarens! by heavenly feet thy paths are trod,— Undying Love's, who here ascends a throne To which the steps are mountains; where the god Is a pervading life and light,--so shown Not on those summits solely, nor alone
In the still cave and forest; o'er the flower His eyes is sparkling, and his breath hath blown, His soft and summer breath, whose tender power Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour. CI.
All things are here of him; from the black pines, Which are his shade on high, and the loud roar Of torrents, where he listeneth, to the vines Which slope his green path downward to the shore, Where the bowed waters meet him, and adore, Kissing his feet with murmurs; and the wood, The covert of old trees with trunks all hoar, But light leaves, young as joy, stands where it stood, Offering to him, and his, a populous solitude.
A populous solitude of bees and birds, And fairy-form'd and many-coloured things, Who worship him with notes more sweet than words, And innocently open their glad wings, Fearless and full of life; the gush of spring's, And fall of lofty mountains, and the bend
Of stirring branches, and the bud which brings The swiftest thought of beauty, here extend, Mingling, and made by Love, unto one mighty end
He who hath loved not, here would learn that love, And make his heart a spirit: he who knows
That tender mystery, will love the more,
For this is Love's recess, where vain men's woes, And the world's waste, have driven him far from those, For 'tis his nature to advance or dye;
He stands not still, but or decays, or grows Into a boundless blessing, which may vie With the immortal lights, in its eternity!
'Twas 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: 'twas the ground Where early Love his Pysche's zone unbound, And hallowed it with loveliness; 'tis lone, And wonderful, and deep, and hath a sound, And sense, and sigh of sweetness; here the Rhone Hath spread himself a couch, the Alps have rear'd a throne CV.
Lausanne! and Ferney! ye have been the abodes (23) Of names which unto you bequeath'd a name; Mortals, who sought and found, by dangerous roads, A path to perpetuity of fame :
They were gigantic minds, and their steep aim, Was Titan-like, on daring doubts to pile
[flame Thoughts which should call down thunder, and the Of Heaven, again assail'd, if Heaven the while
On man and man's research could deign do more than smile CVI.
The one was fire and fickleness, a child, Most mutable in wishes but in mind,
A wit as various,-gay, grave, sage, or wild,- Historian, bard, philosopher, combined; He multiplied himself among mankind, The Proteus of their talents; But his own Breathed most in ridicule,-which, as the wind, Blew where it listed, laying all things prone,— Now to o'erthrow a fool, and now to shake a throne. CVII.
The other, deep and slow, exhausting thought, And hiving wisdom with each studious year, In meditation dwelt, with learning wrought, And shaped his weapon with an edge severe, Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer; The lord of irony,-that master-spell,
Which stung his foes to wrath, which grew from fear, And doom'd him to the zealot's ready Hell,
Which answers to all doubts so eloquently well.
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