One Heaven, one Hell, one immortality, And one annihilation. Woe is me! The winged words on which my soul would pierce Into the height of love's rare Universe, Are chains of lead around its flight of fire.— I pant, I sink, I tremble, I expire! Weak Verses, go, kneel at your Sovereign's feet, And say "We are the masters of thy slave; What wouldest thou with us and ours and thine ?" Which, if not here, it builds beyond the grave.” Then haste Over the hearts of men, until ye meet Marina, Vanna, Primus, and the rest, And bid them love each other and be blest: And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves, And come and be my guest,—for I am Love's. 1820. FRAGMENT. Is it that in some brighter sphere We part from friends we meet with here? Over the Present's dusky glass? Part of which comes true, and part Poems to Liberty, Greece, and Italy. ODE TO NAPLES. EPODE I. a. I STOOD within the city disinterred; And heard the autumnal leaves like light footfalls Of spirits passing through the streets; and heard The Mountain's slumberous voice at intervals Thrill through those roofless halls; The oracular thunder penetrating shook The listening soul in my suspended blood; I felt that Earth out of her deep heart spokeI felt, but heard not:-through white columns glowed The isle-sustaining Ocean-flood, A plane of light between two Heavens of azure : As in the sculptor's thought; and there Because the crystal silence of the air Weighed on their life; even as the Power divine Which then lulled all things, brooded upon mine. EPODE II. a. Then gentle winds arose With many a mingled close Of wild Æolian sound and mountain-odour keen; Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, I sailed, where ever flows A spirit of deep emotion Of the dead kings of Melody. There streamed a sunlight vapour, like the standard Of some ætherial host; Whilst from all the coast, Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered Over the oracular woods and divine sea Prophesyings which grew articulate They seize me--I must speak them-be they fate! STROPHE a. I. Naples! thou Heart of men which ever pantest The mutinous air and sea: they round thee, even Metropolis of a ruined paradise Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained! Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice, Which armed Victory offers up unstained To Love, the flower-enchained! Thou which wert once, and then didst cease to be, STROPHE B. 2. Thou youngest giant birth Leap'st, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale ! Who 'gainst the Crowned Transgressors Pleadest before God's love! Arrayed in Wisdom's mail, Wave thy lightning lance in mirth Though from their hundred gates the leagued Oppressors, With hurried legions move! ANTISTROPHE α. What though Cimmerian Anarchs dare blaspheme Shall theirs have been-devoured by their own hounds! Be thou like the Imperial Basilisk ANTISTROPHE B. 2. From Freedom's form divine, From Nature's inmost shrine, Strip every impious gawd, rend Error veil by veil ; O'er Ruin desolate, O'er Falsehood's fallen state, Sit thou sublime, unawed; be the Destroyer pale! And equal laws be thine, And winged words let sail, Freighted with truth even from the throne of God: That wealth, surviving fate, |