The tall ugly ape, that still bore a dim shine Through his hairy eclipse of a manhood divine; And the elephant stately, with more than its reason, How thoughtful in sadness! but this is no season To reckon them up from the lag-bellied toad
To the mammoth, whose sobs shook his ponderous load. There were woes of all shapes, wretched forms, when I came, That hung down their heads with a human-like shame ; The elephant hid in the boughs, and the bear Shed over his eyes the dark veil of his hair; And the womanly soul, turning sick with disgust, Tried to vomit herself from her serpentine crust; While all groan'd their groans into one at their lot, As I brought them the image of what they were not. Then rose a wild sound of the human voice choaking Through vile brutal organs-low tremulous croaking; Cries swallow'd abruptly-deep animal tones Attuned to strange passion, and full utter'd groans; All shuddering weaker, till hush'd in a pause Of tongues in mute motion and wide-yearning jaws; And I guess'd that those horrors were meant to tell o'er The tale of their woes; but the silence told more That writhed on their tongues; and I knelt on the sod, And pray'd with one voice to the cloud-stirring God, For the sad congregation of supplicants there, That upturn'd to his heaven brute faces of prayer; And I ceased, and they utter'd a moaning so deep
That I wept for my heart-ease-but they could not weep, And gazed with red eye-balls, all wistfully dry, At the comfort of tears in a stag's human eye.
Then I motion'd them round, and, to soothe their distress, I caress'd, and they bent them to meet my caress, Their necks to my arm, and their heads to my palm, And with poor grateful eyes suffer'd meekly and calm Those tokens of kindness, withheld by hard fate From returns that might chill the warm pity to hate; So they passively bow'd-save the serpent, that leapt To my breast like a sister, and pressingly crept In embrace of my neck, and with close kisses blister'd My lips in rash love-then drew backward, and glister'd Her eyes in my face, and loud hissing affright, Dropt down, and swift started away from my sight!
This sorrow was theirs, but thrice wretched my lot, Turn'd brute in my soul, though my body was not, When I fled from the sorrow of womanly faces, That shrouded their woe in the shade of lone places, And dash'd off bright tears, 'till their fingers were wet, And then wiped their lids with long tresses of jet: But I fled-though they stretch'd out their hands, all entangled With hair, and blood-stain'd of the breasts they had mangled- Though they call'd- and perchance but to ask, had I seen Their loves, or to tell the vile wrongs that had been: But I staid not to hear, lest the story should hold Some hell-form of words, some enchantment once told, Might translate me in flesh to a brute; and I dreaded To gaze on their charms, lest my faith should be wedded With some pity-and love in that pity perchance- To a thing not all lovely; for once at a glance Methought where one sat I descried a bright wonder That flow'd like a long silver rivulet under The long fenny grass, with so lovely a breast, Could it be a snake-tail made the charm of the rest?
So I roam'd in that circle of horrors, and Fear Walk'd with me, by hills, and in valleys, and near Cluster'd trees for their gloom-not to shelter from heatBut lest a brute-shadow should grow at my feet; And beside that full oft in the sunshiny place, Dark shadows would gather like clouds on its face, In the horrible likeness of demons, (that none Could see, like invisible flames in the sun ;) But grew to one monster that seized on the light, Like the dragon that strangles the moon in the night; Fierce sphinxes, long serpents, and asps of the South; Wild birds of huge beak, and all horrors that drouth Engenders of slime in the land of the pest,
Like shapes without shape, and vile bats of the West, Bringing Night on their wings; and the bodies wherein Great Brahma imprisons the spirits of sin,
Many-handed, that blent in one phantom of fight Like a Titan, and threatfully warr'd with the light; I have heard the wild shriek that gave signal to close, When they rush'd on that shadowy Python of foes That met with sharp beaks and wide-gaping of jaws, With flappings of wings and fierce grasping of claws, And whirls of long tails:-I have seen the quick flutter Of fragments dissever'd-and necks stretch'd to utter Long screamings of pain,-the swift motion of blows, And wrestling of arms-to the flight at the close When the dust of the earth startled upward in rings, And flew on the whirlwind that follow'd their wings. Thus they fled--not forgotten-but often to grow Like fears in my eyes, when I walk'd to and fro In the shadows, and felt from some beings unseen The warm touch of kisses, but clean or unclean I knew not, nor whether the love I had won Was of heaven or hell-'till one day in the sun, In its very noon-blaze, I could fancy a thing Of beauty, but faint as the cloud-mirrors fling On the gaze of the shepherd that watches the sky, Half-seen and half-dream'd in the soul of his eye. And when in my musings I gazed on the stream, In motionless trances of thought, there would seem A face like that face, looking upward through mine; With its eyes full of love, and the dim drowned shine Of limbs and fair garments, like clouds in that blue Serene :-there I stood for long hours but to view Those fond earnest eyes that were ever uplifted Towards me, and wink'd as the water-weed drifted Between; but the fish knew that presence, and plied Their long curvy tails, and swift darted aside.
There I gazed for lost time, and forgot all the things That once had been wonders-the fishes with wings, And the glimmer of magnified eyes that look'd up From the glooms of the bottom like pearls in a cup, And the huge endless serpent of silvery gleam, Slow winding along like a tide in the stream. Some maid of the waters, some Naiad, methought Held me dear in the pearl of her eye-and I brought My wish to that fancy; and often I dash'd My limbs in the water, and suddenly splash'd The cool drops around me, yet clung to the brink, Chill'd by watery fears, how that Beauty might sink With my life in her arms to her garden, and bind me With its long tangled grasses, or cruelly wind me
In some eddy to hum out my life in her ear Like a spider-caught bee-and in aid of that fear Came the tardy remembrance-Oh falsest of men! Why was not that beauty remember'd till then? My love, my safe love, whose glad life would have run Into mine-like a drop-that our fate might be one, That now, even now,-may-be,-clasp'd in a dream That form which I gave to some jilt of the stream, And gazed with fond eyes that her tears tried to smother On a mock of those eyes that I gave to another! Then I rose from the stream, but the eyes of my mind, Still full of the tempter, kept gazing behind On her crystalline face, while I painfully leapt
To the bank, and shook off the curst waters, and wept With my brow in the reeds; and the reeds to my ear Bow'd, bent by no wind, and in whispers of fear, Growing small with large secrets, foretold me of one That loved me-but oh to fly from her, and shun Her love like a pest-though her love was as true To mine as her stream to the heavenly blue; For why should I love her with love that would bring All misfortune, like Hate, on so joyous a thing? Because of her rival-even her whose witch-face
I had slighted, and therefore was doom'd in that place To roam, and had roam'd, where all horrors grew rank, Nine days ere I wept with my brow on that bank ; Her name be not named, but her spite would not fail To our love like a blight; and they told me the tale Of Scylla, and Picus, imprison'd to speak
His shrill-screaming woe through a woodpecker's beak. Then they ceased-I had heard as the voice of my star That told me the truth of my fortunes-thus far I had read of my sorrow, and lay in the hush Of deep meditation,-when lo! a light crush Of the reeds, and I turn'd and look'd round in the night Of new sunshine, and saw, as I sipp'd of the light Narrow-winking, the realized nymph of the stream Rising up from the wave with the bend and the gleam Of a fountain, and o'er her white arms she kept throwing Bright torrents of hair that went flowing and flowing In falls to her feet, and the blue waters roll'd Down her limbs like a garment, in many a fold, Sun-spangled, gold-broider'd, and fled far behind Like an infinite train. So she came and reclined In the reeds, and I hunger'd to see her unseal The buds of her eyes that would ope and reveal The blue that was in them; and they ope'd and she raised Two orbs of pure crystal, and timidly gazed
With her eyes on my eyes; but their colour and shine Was of that which they look'd on, and mostly of mine- For she loved me-except when she blush'd, and they sank Shame-humbled to number the stones on the bank, Or her play-idle fingers, while lisping she told me How she put on her veil, and in love to behold me Would wing through the sun till she fainted away Like a mist, and then flew to her waters and lay In love-patience long hours, and sore dazzled her eyes In watching for mine 'gainst the midsummer skies. But now they were heal'd--O my heart, it still dances When I think of the charm of her changeable glances, And my image how small when it sank in the deep Of her eyes where her soul was-Alas! now they weep,
And none knoweth where. In what stream do her eyes Shed invisible tears? Who beholds where her sighs Flow in eddies, or sees the ascent of the leaf
She has pluck'd with her tresses? Who listens her grief Like a far fall of waters, or hears where her feet Grow emphatic among the loose pebbles and beat Them together? Ah! surely her flowers float adown To the sea unaccepted, and little ones drown
For need of her mercy-even he whose twin-brother Will miss him for ever; and the sorrowful mother Imploreth in vain for his body to kiss
And cling to, all dripping and cold as it is, Because that soft pity is lost in hard pain!
We loved-how we loved!-for I thought not again
Of the woes that were whisper'd like fears in that place
If I gave me to beauty. Her face was the face
Far away, and her eyes were the eyes that were drown'd
For my absence, and her arms were the arms that sought round And clasp'd me to nought, for I gazed and became Only true to my falsehood, and had but one name For two loves, and call'd ever on Ægle, sweet maid Of the sky-loving waters-and was not afraid Of the sight of her skin-for it never could be Her beauty and love were misfortunes to me!
Thus our bliss had endured for a time-shorten'd space, Like a day made of three, and the smile of her face Had been with me for joy,—when she told me indeed Her love was self-task'd with a work that would need Some short hours, for in truth 'twas the veriest pity Our love should not last, and then sang me a ditty, Of one with warm lips that should love her and love her When suns were burnt dim and long ages past over. So she fled with her voice, and I patiently nested My limbs in the reeds, in still quiet, and rested Till my thoughts grew extinct and I sank in a sleep Of dreams-but their meaning was hidden too deep To be read what their woe was-but still it was woe That was writ on all faces that swam to and fro In that river of night-and the gaze of their eyes Was sad-and the bend of their brows-and their cries Were seen, but I heard not. The warm touch of tears Travell'd down my cold cheeks, and I shook till my fears Awaked me, and lo! I was couch'd in a bower, The growth of long summers rear'd up in an hour! Then I said, in the fear of my dream, I will fly From this magic, but could not, because that my eye Grew love-idle among the rich blooms; and the earth Held me down with its coolness of touch, and the mirth Of some bird was above me-who, even in fear, Would startle the thrush? and methought there drew near A form as of Egle-but it was not the face
Hope made, and I knew the witch-Queen of that place, Even Circe the Cruel, that came like a Death Which I fear'd, and yet fled not, for want of my breath. There was thought in her face, and her eyes were not raised From the grass at her foot, but I saw, as I gazed, Her spite-and her countenance changed with her mind As she plann'd how to thrall me with beauty, and bind My soul to her charms,-and her long tresses play'd From shade into shine and from shine into shade, Like a day in mid-autumn-first fair, O how fair! With long snaky locks of the adderblack hair
That clung round her neck-those dark locks that I prize For the sake of a maid that once loved me with eyes Of that fathomless hue-but they changed as they roll'd, And brighten'd, and suddenly blazed into gold
That she comb'd into flames, and the locks that fell down Turn'd dark as they fell, but I slighted their brown, Nor loved till I saw the light ringlets shed wild That Innocence wears when she is but a child;
And her eyes-O I ne'er had been witch'd with their shine, Had they been any other, my Ægle, than thine! Then I gave me to magic, and gazed till I madden'd In the full of their light-but I sadden'd and sadden'd The deeper I look'd-till I sank on the snow Of her bosom, a thing made of terror and woe, And answer'd its throb with the shudder of fears, And hid my cold eyes from her eyes with my tears, And strain'd her white arms with the still languid weight Of a fainting distress. There she sat like the Fate That is nurse unto Death, and bent over in shame To hide me from her-the true Ægle-that came With the words on her lips the false witch had foregiv'n To make me immortal-for now I was even
At the portals of Death that but waited the hush Of world-sounds in my ear to cry welcome, and rush With my soul to the banks of his black-flowing river. O would it had flown from my body for ever Ere I listen'd those words, when I felt with a start The life blood rush back in one throb to my heart, And saw the pale lips where the rest of that spell Had perish'd in horror-and heard the farewell
Of that voice that was drown'd in the dash of the stream! How fain had I follow'd, and plunged with that scream Into death, but my being indignantly lagg'd Through the brutaliz'd flesh that I painfully dragg'd Behind me-O Circe! O mother of Spite!
Speak the last of that curse! and imprison me quite In the husk of a brute-that no pity may name The man that I was-that no kindred may claim The monster I am! Let me utterly be
Brute-buried and Nature's dishonour with me
Uninscribed!-But she listen'd my prayer that was praise To her malice with smiles, and advised me to gaze On the river for love-and perchance she would make In pity a maid without eyes for my sake,
And she left me like Scorn. Then I ask'd of the wave What monster I was, and it trembled and gave The true shape of my grief, and I turn'd with my face From all waters for ever, and fled through that place Till with horror more strong than all magic I pass'd Its bounds, and the world was before me at last.
There I wander'd in sorrow, and shunn'd the abodes Of men, that stood up in the likeness of Gods, But I saw from afar the warm shine of the sun On their cities, where man was a million, not one; And I saw the white smoke of their altars ascending, That show'd where the hearts of the many were blending, And the wind in my face brought shrill voices that came From the trumpets that gather'd whole bands in one fame As a chorus of man-and they stream'd from the gates Like a dusky libation pour'd out to the Fates. But at times there were gentler processions of peace That I watch'd with my soul in my eyes till their cease,
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