XXII.

"

Ere night, methought, her waning eyes were grown Weary with joy, and tired with our delight, We, on the earth, like sister twins, lay down On one fair mother's bosom :-from that night She fled;-like those illusions clear and bright, Which dwell in lakes, when the red moon on high Pause ere it wakens tempest ;-and her flight, Though 'twas the death of brainless phantasy, Yet smote my lonesome heart more than all misery.

XXIII.

"It seemed that in the dreary night, the diver
Who brought me thither, came again, and bore
My child away. I saw the waters quiver,
When he so swiftly sunk, as once before:
Then morning came-it shone even as of yore,
But I was changed-the very life was gone
Out of my heart-I wasted more and more,
Day after day, and sitting there alone,

Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan.

XXIV.

"I was no longer mad, and yet methought

My breasts were swoln and changed :-in every vein
The blood stood still one moment, while that thought
Was passing-with a gush of sickening pain
It ebbed even to its withered springs again:
When my wan eyes in stern resolve I turned
From that most strange delusion, which would fain
Have waked the dream for which my spirit yearned
With more than human love,-then left it unreturned.

XXV.

"So now my reason was restored to me,

I struggled with that dream, which, like a beast
Most fierce and beauteous, in my memory

Had made its lair, and on my heart did feast;

But all that cave and all its shapes possest

By thoughts which could not fade, renewed each one Some smile, some look, some gesture which had blest Me heretofore: I, sitting there alone,

Vexed the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan.

XXVI.

"Time past, I know not whether months or years; For day, nor night, nor change of seasons made Its note, but thoughts and unavailing tears:

And I became at last even as a shade,

A smoke, a cloud on which the winds have preyed,

Till it be thin as air; until, one even,

A Nautilus upon the fountain played,

Spreading his azure sail where breath of Heaven

Descended not, among the waves and whirlpools driven.

XXVII.

"And when the Eagle came, that lovely thing,
Oaring with rosy feet its silver boat,

Fled near me as for shelter; on slow wing,
The Eagle, hovering o'er its prey did float;
But when he saw that I with fear did note
His purpose, proffering my own food to him,
The eager plumes subsided on his throat-
He came where that bright child of sea did swim,
And o'er it cast in peace his shadow broad and dim.

XXVIII.

"This wakened me, it gave me human strength And hope, I know not whence or wherefore, rose, But I resumed my ancient powers at length;

My spirit felt again like one of those

Like thine, whose fate it is to make the woes

Of humankind their prey-what was this cave?
Its deep foundation no firm purpose knows

Immutable, resistless, strong to save,

Like mind while yet it mocks the all-devouring grave.

XXIX.

"And where was Laon? might my heart be dead,
While that far dearer heart could move and be?
Or whilst over the earth the pall was spread,
Which I had sworn to rend? I might be free,
Could I but win that friendly bird to me,

To bring me ropes; and long in vain I sought

By intercourse of mutual imagery

Of objects, if such aid he could be taught;

But fruit, and flowers, and boughs, yet never ropes he brought.

XXX.

"We live in our own world, and mine was made
From glorious phantasies of hope departed:
Ay, we are darkened with their floating shade,
Or cast a lustre on them-time imparted
Such power to me, I became fearless-hearted,
My eye and voice grew firm, calm was my mind,
And piercing, like the morn, now it as darted
Its lustre on all hidden things, behind

Yon dim and fading clouds which load the weary wind.

XXXI.

My mind became the book through which I grew Wise in all human wisdom, and its cave,

Which like a mine I rifled through and through,

To me the keeping of its secrets gave

One mind, the type of all, the moveless wave

Whose calm reflects all moving things that are,

Necessity, and love, and life, the grave,

And sympathy, fountains of hope and fear :

Justice, and truth, and time, and the world's natural sphere.

XXXII.

44

And on the sand would I make signs to range
These woofs, as they were woven, of my thought;
Clear, elemental shapes, whose smallest change
A subtler language within language wrought:
The key of truths which once were dimly taught
In old Crotona ;-and sweet melodies

Of love, in that lone solitude I caught

From mine own voice in dream, when thy dear eyes
Shone through my sleep, and did that utterance harmonize.

XXXIII.

"Thy songs were winds whereon I fled at will,
As in a winged chariot, o'er the plain

Of crystal youth; and thou wert there to fill
My heart with joy, and there we sate again
On the grey margin of the glimmering main,
Happy as then but wiser far, for we

Smiled on the flowery grave in which were lain
Fear, Faith, and Slavery; and mankind was free,
Equal, and pure and wise, in wisdom's prophecy.

XXXIV.

"For to my will my fancies were as slaves
To do their sweet and subtle ministries;

And oft from that bright fountain's shadowy waves
They would make human throngs gather and rise
To combat with my overflowing eyes,

And voice made deep with passion-thus I grew

Familiar with the shock and the surprise

And war of earthly minds, from which I drew

The power which has been mine to frame their thoughts anew.

XXXV.

"And thus my prison was the populous earth-
Where I saw-even as misery dreams of morn
Before the east has given its glory birth-
Religion's pomp made desolate by the scorn
Of wisdom's faintest smile, and thrones uptorn,
And dwellings of mild people interspersed

With undivided fields of ripening corn,

And love made free-a hope which we have nurst
Even with our blood and tears—until its glory burst.

XXXVI.

"All is not lost! there is some recompense

For hope whose fountain can be thus profound,
Even throned Evil's splendid impotence,

Girt by its hell of power, the secret sound

Of hymns to truth and freedom-the dread bound
Of life and death past fearlessly and well,
Dungeons wherein the high resolve is found,
Racks which degraded woman's greatness tell,
And what may else be good and irresistible.