That Benediction which the eclipsing Curse 480 Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love Which, through the web of being blindly wove By man and beast and earth and air and sea, Burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of The fire for which all thirst, now beams on me, Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality. The breath whose might I have invoked in song Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng Whose sails were never to the tempest given; 490 The massy earth and spherèd skies are riven! I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, And to remoter time Bequeath, like sunset to the skies, The splendor of its prime; And leave, if naught so bright may live, All earth can take or Heaven can give. 30 Saturn and Love their long repose Shall burst, more bright and good Than all who fell, than One who rose, Than many unsubdued: Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers, 35 Oh, cease! must hate and death return? Of bitter prophecy. The world is weary of the past, Oh, might it die or rest at last! 40 WHEN THE LAMP IS SHATTERED 5 O Love! who bewailest The frailty of all things here, Why choose you the frailest Now, in humbler, happier lot, For your cradle, your home, and your Imprisoned, for some fault of his, bier? Its passions will rock thee As the storms rock the ravens on high: Bright reason will mock thee, Like the sun from a wintry sky. From thy nest every rafter Will rot, and thine eagle home WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE Ariel to Miranda:-Take This slave of Music, for the sake Lit you o'er the trackless sea, When you die, the silent Moon, Is not sadder in her cell When you live again on earth, Many changes have been run, Since Ferdinand and you begun Your course of love, and Ariel still 25 30 5 ΙΟ 15 20 25 In a body like a grave;— The artist who this idol wrought, To live in happier form again: 35 40 45 55 From which, beneath Heaven's fairest star, The artist wrought this loved Guitar, To all who question skilfully, And pattering rain, and breathing dew, 60 65 70 That seldom-heard mysterious sound, 75 30 To those who cannot question well The spirit that inhabits it; 80 It talks according to the wit Of its companions; and no more 85 Has tracked your steps, and served your By those who tempt it to betray will; These secrets of an elder day: The winds of heaven blew, the ocean rolled For simple sheep: and such are daffodils 15 Its gathering waves-ye felt it not. The With the green world they live in; and blue Bared its eternal bosom, and the dew Of summer nights collected still to make 30 The morning precious: beauty was awake! clear rills That for themselves a cooling covert make 'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake, 35 They alway must be with us, or we die. 45 Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly "She found me roots of relish sweet, 25 And honey wild, and manna-dew, And sure in language strange she said— 'I love thee true.' "She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept, and sighed full sore,30 And there I shut her wild, wild eyes, With kisses four. "And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dreamed-ah! woe betide!The latest dream I ever dreamed On the cold hill's side. "I saw pale kings and princes too, 35 Pale warriors, death-pale were they all, Who cried-'La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!' |