Answered Pity from her cave; And Desolation howled to the destroyer 'Save !' Like shadows: as if day had cloven the skies Men started, staggering with a glad surprise, 12. "Thou heaven of earth! what spells could pall thee then In ominous eclipse? A thousand years Bred from the slime of deep Oppression's den Round France, the ghastly vintage, stooɑ Like clouds with clouds darkening the sacred bowers Rests with those dead but unforgotten hours Snow-crags by its reply are cloven in sunder: From Pithecusa to Pelorus Howls and leaps and glares in chorus: They cry, 'Be dim, ye lamps of heaven suspended o'er us !' Twins of a single destiny! appeal To the eternal years enthroned before us In the dim West! Impress us from a seal, All ye have thought and done! Time cannot dare conceal. 14. "Tomb of Arminius! render up thy dead, Till, like a standard from a watch-tower's staff, His soul may stream over the tyrant's head! His dead spirit lives in thee! Why do we fear or hope? Thou art already free!- And glorious world! thou flowery wilderness ! Thou island of eternity! thou shrine Gather thy blood into thy heart; repress The beasts who make their dens thy sacred palaces!. Were as a serpent's path which the light air Lift the victory-flashing sword,. And cut the snaky knots of this foul gordian word, The axes and the rods which awe mankind. To set thine armèd heel on this reluctant worm. 16. "Oh that the wise from their bright minds would kindle Such lamps within the dome of this dim world That the pale name of Priest might shrink and dwindle Of its own aweless soul, or of the Power unknown. Were stripped of their thin masks and various hue, They stand before their lord, each to receive its due! 17. "He who taught man to vanquish whatsoever Can be between the cradle and the grave He has enthroned the oppression and the oppressor! Amplest millions at their need, And power in thought be as the tree within the seed,- Diving on fiery wings to Nature's throne, Over all height and depth'-if Life can breed New wants, and Wealth, from those who toil and groan Rend, of thy gifts and hers, a thousandfold for one? 18. "Come Thou! But lead out of the inmost cave To judge with solemn truth Life's ill-apportioned lot,— Wert thou disjoined from these, or they from thee)— By blood or tears, have not the wise and free Wept tears, and blood like tears?"-The solemn harmony 19. Paused, and the Spirit of that mighty singing When the bolt has pierced its brain; As summer clouds dissolve unburthened of their rain; As a brief insect dies with dying day; O'er it closed the echoes far away I. ARETHUSA. ARETHUSA arose From her couch of snows In the Acroceraunian mountains,- Shepherding her bright fountains. She leapt down the rocks, Streaming among the streams; Her steps paved with green The downward ravine Which slopes to the western gleams: She went, ever singing In murmurs as soft as sleep. 2. 3. 4. The Earth seemed to love her, And Heaven smiled above her, As she lingered towards the deep. Then Alpheus bold, On his glacier cold, With his trident the mountains strook, In the rocks:--with the spasm All Erymanthus shook. And the black south wind It concealed behind The urns of the silent snow, And earthquake and thunder The bars of the springs below. Seen through the torrent's sweep, To the brink of the Dorian deep. "Oh save me! Oh guide me! For he grasps me now by the hair!" To its blue depth stirred, And divided at her prayer; And under the water The Earth's white daughter Fled like a sunny beam; Behind her descended Her billows, unblended With the brackish Dorian stream. Like a gloomy stain On the emerald main, Alpheus rushed behind,— As an eagle pursuing A dove to its ruin 5. Are as green as the forest's night : And the sword-fish dark, Under the ocean foam, And up through the rifts Of the mountain clifts,— They passed to their Dorian home. And now from their fountains In Enna's mountains, Down one vale where the morning basks, They ply their watery tasks. From their cradles steep In the azure sky, When they love but live no more. Pisa. HYMN OF APOLLO. I. THE sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie, From the broad moonlight of the sky, Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes, Waken me when their Mother, the grey Dawn, Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone. 2. Then I arise, and, climbing heaven's blue dome, I walk over the mountains and the waves, Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam ;— My footsteps pave the clouds with fire; the caves Are filled with my bright presence; and the air Leaves the green Earth to my embraces bare. 3. The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day; All men who do or even imagine ill Fly me, and from the glory of my ray Good minds and open actions take new might, |