To do her will, and show their subtle slights, I will declare another time; for it is A tale more fit for the weird winter nights Than for these garish summer days, when we Scarcely believe much more than we can see. TO THE MOON. ART thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven, and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth,— And ever-changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object worth its constancy? ODE TO NAPLES.* EPODE I. a. I STOOD within the city disinterred, † And heard the autumnal leaves like light foot falls 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: Around me gleamed many a bright sepulchre Of whose pure beauty, Time, as if his pleasure Were to spare Death, had never made erasure; *The Author has connected many recollections of his visit to Pompeii and Baie with the enthusiasm excited by the intelligence of the proclamation of a Constitutional Government at Naples. This has given a tinge of picturesque and descriptive imagery to the introductory epodes, which depicture the scenes and some of the majestic feelings permanently connected with the scene of this animating event.-Author's *Note. + Pompeii. But every living lineament was clear As in the sculptor's thought; and there The wreaths of stony myrtle, ivy and pine, Like winter leaves o'ergrown by moulded snow, Seemed only not to move and grow 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; And where the Baian ocean Welters with air-like motion, Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, It bore me; like an angel, o'er the waves I sailed where ever flows A spirit of deep emotion, Of the dead kings of melody.* Homer and Virgil. The horizontal æther; heaven stript bare There streamed a sunlit vapour, like the standard Of some ethereal host; Whilst from all the coast, Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered Over the oracular woods and divine sea They seize me-I must speak them;-be they fate! STROPHE a. 1. NAPLES, thou Heart of men, which ever pantest Naked, beneath the lidless eye of heaven! Elysian City, which to calm enchantest The mutinous air and sea! they round thee, even As sleep round Love, are driven 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, Now art, and henceforth ever shalt be, free, If Hope, and Truth, and Justice can avail. STROPHE B. 2. Thou youngest giant birth, Which from the groaning earth Leapst, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale! Last of the intercessors Who 'gainst the Crowned Transgressors Pleadest before God's love! Arrayed in wisdom's mail, Wave thy lightning lance in mirth ; Nor let thy high heart fail, ; Though from their hundred gates the leagued oppressors, With hurried legions move! Hail, hail, all hail! ANTISTROPHE a. 1. What though Cimmerian anarchs dare blaspheme To turn his hungry sword upon the wearer; Shall theirs have been-devoured by their own hounds! Be thou like the imperial basilisk, Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds! Gaze on oppression, till, at that dread risk Aghast, she pass from the Earth's disk; Fear not, but gaze-for freemen mightier grow, And slaves more feeble, gazing on their foe. If Hope, and Truth, and Justice may avail, Thou shalt be great.-All hail! |