All that ideal beauty ever bless'd

The mind within its most unearthly mood, When each conception was a heavenly guestA ray of immortality-and stood,

Starlike, around, until they gather'd to a god!

CLXIII.

And if it be Prumetheus stole from Heaven The fire which we endure, it was repaid By him to whom the energy was given Which this poetic marble hath array'd With an eternal glory-which, if made By human hands, is not of human thought; And Time himself hath hallow'd it, nor laid One ringlet in the dust-nor hath it caught A tinge of years, but breathes the flame with which 'twas wrought.

CLXIV.

But where is he, the Pilgrim of my song, The being who upheld it through the past? Methinks he cometh late and tarries long. He is no more-these breathings are his last; His wanderings done, his visions ebbing fast, And he himself as nothing :-if he was Aught but a phantasy, and could be class'd With forms which live and suffer-let that pass→→ His shadow fades away into Destruction's mass,

CLXV.

Which gathers shadow, substance, life, and all
That we inherit in its mortal shroud,

And spreads the dim and universal pall
Through which all things grow phantoms; and

the cloud

Between us sinks and all which ever glow'd,

Till Glory's self is twilight, and displays

A melancholy halo scarce allow'd

To hover on the verge of darkness; rays Sadder than saddest night, for they distract the

gaze,

CLXVI.

And send us prying into the abyss,

To gather what we shall be when the frame
Shall be resolved to something less than this
Its wretched essence; and to dream of fame,
And wipe the dust from off the idle name
We never more shall hear,-but never more,
Oh, happier thought! can we be made the same:
It is enough in sooth that once we bore

3

These fardels of the heart-the heart whose sweat

was gore.

CLXVII.

Hark! forth from the abyss a voice proceeds,
A long low distant murmur of dread sound,
Such as arises when a nation bleeds

With some deep and immedicable wound; Through storm and darkness yawns the rending ground,

The gulf is thick with phantoms, but the chief Seems royal still, though with her head discrown'd And pale, but lovely, with maternal grief

She clasps a babe, to whom her breast yields no relief.

CLXVIII.

Scion of chiefs and monarchs, where art thou? Fond hope of many nations, art thou dead? Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low Some less majestic, less beloved head?

In the sad midnight, while thy heart still bled, The mother of a moment, o'er thy boy,

Death hush'd that pang for ever: with thee fled

The present happiness and promised joy Which fill'd the imperial isles so full it seem'd to

cloy.

CLXIX.

Peasants bring forth in safety.-Can it be,
Oh thou that wert so happy, so adored!

Those who weep not for kings shall weep for
thee,

And Freedom's heart, grown heavy, cease to hoard

Her many griefs for One; for she had pour'd
Her orisons for thee, and o'er thy head
Beheld her Iris.-Thou, too, lonely lord,

And desolate consort-vainly wert thou wed! The husband of a year! the father of the dead!

CLXX.

Of sackcloth was thy wedding garment made;
Thy bridal's fruit is ashes: in the the dust
The fair-hair'd Daughter of the Isles is laid,
The love of millions! How we did entrust
Futurity to her! and, though it must
Darken above our bones, yet fondly deem'd
Our children should obey her child, and bless'd
Her and her hoped-for seed, whose promise
seem'd

Like stars to shepherds' eyes :-'twas but a meteor beam'd.

CLXXI.

Wo unto us, not her, for she sleeps well:
The fickle reek of popular breath, the tongue
Of hollow counsel, the false oracle,
Which from the birth of monarchy hath rung
Its knell in princely ears, till the o'erstrung

Nations have arm'd in madness, the strange

fate (69)

Which tumbles mightiest sovereigns, and hath flung

Against their blind omnipotence a weight

Within the opposing scale, which crushes soon or late,

CLXXII.

These might have been her destiny; but no, Our hearts deny it: and so young, so fair, Good without effort, great without a foe; But now a bride and mother-and now there! How many ties did that stern moment tear! From thy Sire's to his humblest subject's breast Is link'd the electric chain of that despair, Whose was as an earthquake's and opprest The land which loved thee so that none could love thee best.

CLXXIII.

(70) Lo, Nemi! navell'd in the woody hills
So far, that the uprooting wind which tears
The oak from his foundation, and which spills
The ocean o'er its boundary, and bears
Its foam against the skies, reluctant spares
The oval mirror of thy glassy lake;

And calm as cherish'd hate, its surface wears
A deep cold settled aspect nought can shake,
All coil'd into itself and round, as sleeps the snake.

CLXXIV.

And near Albano's scarce divided waves

Shine from a sister valley;-and afar
The Tiber winds, and the broad ocean laves
The Latian coast where sprung the Epic war,
"Arms and the Man," whose reascending star

Rose o'er an empire;-but beneath thy right Tully reposed from Rome ;-and where yon bar Of girdling mountains intercepts the sight The Sabine farm was till'd the weary bard's delight. (71)

CLXXV.

But I forget. My pilgrim's shrine is won,
And he and I must part,—so let it be,—
His task and mine alike are nearly done;
Yet once more let us look upon the sea;
The midland ocean breaks on him and me,
And from the Alban Mount we now behold
Our friend of youth, that ocean, which when we
Beheld it last by Calpe's rock unfold

Those waves, we follow'd on till the dark Euxine roll'd

CLXXVI.

Upon the blue Symplegades: long yearsLong, though not very many, since have done Their work on both; some suffering and some

tears

Have left us nearly where we had begun: Yet not in vain our mortal race hath run, We have had our reward-and it is here; That we can yet feel gladden'd by the sun, And reap from earth, sea, joy almost as dear As if there were no man to trouble what is clear.

CLXXVII.

Oh that the Desert were my dwelling place,

With one fair Spirit for my minister,
That I might all forget the human race,
And, hating no one, love but only her!
Ye Elements!--in whose ennobling stir
I feel myself exalted-Can ye not