And what behind it lay, all earth shall view. fill’d, LXXXIII. But this will not endure, nor be endured! Mankind have felt their strength, and made it felt. They might have used it better, but, allured, By their new vigour, sternly have they dealt On one another; pity ceased to melt With her once natural charities. But they, Who in oppression's darkness caved had dwelt, They were not eagles nourished with the day; What marvel then, at times, if they mistook their prey ? LXXXIV. What deep wounds ever closed without a scar? The heart's bleed longest, and but heal to wear That which disfigures it; and they who war With their own hopes, and have been vanquish’d, bear Silence, but not submission : in his lair Fix'd Passion holds his breath, until the hour :Which shall atone for years ; none need despair: It came, it cometh, and will come,--the power To punish or forgive-in one we shall be slower. LXXXV. Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring. Sounds sweet as if a sister's voice reproved, That I with stern delights should e'er have been so moved. LXXXVI. It is the hush of night, and all between Thy margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear, Mellow'd and mingling, yet distinctly seen Save darken’d Jura, whose capt heights appear Precipitously steep ; and drawing near, There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, Of flowers yet fresh with childhood ; on the ear Drops the light drip of the suspended oar, Or chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more ; LXXXVII, He as an evening reveller, who makes His life an infancy, and sings his fill; At intervals, some bird from out the brakes, Starts into voice a moment, then is still. There seems a floating whisper on the hill, But that is fancy, for the starlight dews All silently their tears of love instil, Weeping themselves away, till they infuse Deep into Nature's breast the spirit of her hues. LXXXVIII. Ye stars ! that are the poetry of heaven! If in your bright leaves we would read the fate Of men 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 In us such love and reverence from afar, selves a star. LXXXIX. All heaven and earth are still—though not in sleep, host But hath a part of being, and a sense 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: it 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 ;-'would disarm The spectre Death, had he substantial power to harm. XCT. take 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 pray’r! XCII. 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 far 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 shakes with its mountain-mirth As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. xCIV. Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way be tween Heights which appear as lovers who have parted In hate, whose mining depths so intervene, 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 de. parted: Itself expired, but leaving them an age Of years all winters,-war within themselves to wage. XCV. Now, where the quick Rhone thus hath cleft his way, The mightiest of the storm hath ta'en his stand : fork'd That in such gaps as desolation work’d, There the hot shaft should blast whatever therein lurk’d. XCVI. Sky, mountains, river, winds, lake, lightnings With night, and clouds, and thunder, and a soul Are ye like those within the human breast? nesti |