Hairs which are vipers, and they curl and flow And their long tangles in each other lock, And with unending involutions shew Their mailed radiance, as it were to mock The torture and the death within, and saw The solid air with many a ragged jaw. IV. And from a stone beside, a poisonous eft Of sense, has flitted with a mad surprise Flares, a light more dread than obscurity. V. 'Tis the tempestuous loveliness of terror; For from the serpents gleams a brazen glare Kindled by that inextricable error, Which makes a thrilling vapour of the air Become a and ever-shifting mirror Of all the beauty and the terror there A woman's countenance, with serpent locks, Gazing in death on heaven from those wet rocks. TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. (With what truth I may say - I. My lost William, thou in whom That decaying robe consume Like thee can die, thy funeral shrine II. Where art thou, my gentle child? Let me think thy spirit feeds, With its life intense and mild, The love of living leaves and weeds, Among these tombs and ruins wild ; Let me think that through low seeds Of the sweet flowers and sunny grass, Into their hues and scents may pass A portion THE SENSITIVE PLANT. PART FIRST. A SENSITIVE Plant in a garden grew, And the Spring arose on the garden fair, But none ever trembled and panted with bliss In the garden, the field, or the wilderness, Like a doe in the noon-tide with love's sweet want, As the companionless Sensitive Plant. The snow-drop, and then the violet, Arose from the ground with warm rain wet, And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent From the turf, like the voice and the instrument. Then the pied wind-flowers and the tulip tall, Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess, And the Naiad-like lily of the vale, Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale, And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue, And the rose like a nymph to the bath addrest, Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air The soul of her beauty and love lay bare : And the wand-like lily, which lifted up, As a Mænad, its moonlight-coloured cup, Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky; And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose, And on the stream whose inconstant bosom Was prankt under boughs of embowering blossom, With golden and green light, slanting through Their heaven of many a tangled hue, Broad water lilies lay tremulously, And starry river-buds glimmered by, And around them the soft stream did glide and dance And the sinuous paths of lawn and of moss, Were all paved with daisies and delicate bells And flowrets which drooping as day drooped too And from this undefiled Paradise The flowers (as an infant's awakening eyes Can first lull, and at last must awaken it,) When Heaven's blithe winds had unfolded them, Shone smiling to Heaven, and every one Shared joy in the light of the gentle sun; |