HYMN BEFORE SUN-RISE, IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNY.®
Besides the Rivers Arvè and Arveiron, which have their sources in the foot of Mont Blanc, five conspicuous torrents rush down its sides; and, within a few paces of the Glaciers, the Gentiana Major grows in immense numbers, with its "flowers of loveliest blue."
HAST thou a charm to stay the morning-star
In his steep course? So long he seems to pause On thy bald awful head, O sovran Blanc ! The Arve and Arveiron at thy base
Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful Form, Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines, How silently! Around thee and above Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black, An ebon mass: methinks thou piercest it, As with a wedge! But, when I look again, It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, Thy habitation from eternity.
O dread and silent Mount! I gazed upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,
Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in prayer, I worshipp'd the Invisible alone.
Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody,
So sweet, we know not we are listening to it,
Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought, Yea, with my life and life's own secret joy: Till the dilating Soul-enrapt, transfused, Into the mighty Vision passing-there, As in her natural form, swell'd vast to Heaven! Awake, my soul! not only passive praise Thou owest; not alone these swelling tears, Mute thanks, and secret ecstasy. Awake, Voice of sweet song! Awake, my Heart, awake! Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my Hymn. Thou first and chief, sole sovran of the Vale! O, struggling with the darkness all the night, And visited all night by troops of stars,
Or when they climb the sky or when they sink;
6 It having been mentioned to Mr. Wordsworth, that Coleridge had said a visit to the battle-field of Marathon would raise in him no kindling emotion, Wordsworth replied as follows: "O, that was mere bravado for the purpose of astonishing his hearers! And yet it might in some sense be true, for Coleridge was not under the influence of external objects. He had extraordinary powers of summoning up an image or series of images in his own mind; and it might be that he meant that his idea of Marathon was so vivid, that no visible observation could make it more so. A remarkable instance of this is his poem, said to be composed in the Vale of Cha mouni! Now he never was at Chamouni, or near it, in his life."
Companion of the morning-star at dawn, Thyself Earth's rosy star, and of the dawn Co-herald; wake, Ó, wake, and utter praise! Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in Earth? Who fill'd thy countenance with rosy light? Who made thee parent of perpetual streams? And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad! Who call'd you forth from night and utter death, From dark and icy caverns call'd you forth, Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, For ever shatter'd and the same for ever? Who gave you your invulnerable life,
Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, Unceasing thunder and eternal foam?
And who commanded, (and the silence came,) Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest?
Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous ravines slope amain,-
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty Voice, And stopp'd at once amid their maddest plunge! Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!
Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven Beneath the keen full Moon? Who bade the Sun Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet?- God! let the torrents, like a shout of nations Answer! and let the ice-plains echo, God! God! sing ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice! Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow, And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God!
Ye living flowers that skirt th' eternal frost; Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest; Ye eagles, play-mates of the mountain-storm; Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds; Ye signs and wonders of the element, -
Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise!
Thou too, hoar Mount, with thy sky-pointing peaks,
Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard,
Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene Into the depth of clouds, that veil thy breast,-
Thou too again, stupendous Mountain! thou That, as I raise my head, awhile bow'd low In adoration, upward from thy base
Slow travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears, Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud,
Rise like a cloud of incense, from the Earth! Thou kingly Spirit throned among the hills, Thou dread ambassador from Earth to Heaven, Great hierarch! tell thou the silent Sky, And tell the stars, and tell yon rising Sun, Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.
(Composed at Clevedon, Somersetshire.)
My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is To sit beside our cot, our cot o'ergrown
With white-flower'd jasmin and the broad-leaved myrtle, (Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!)
And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light, Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve Serenely brilliant (such should wisdom be)
Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents
Snatch'd from yon bean-field! and the world so hush'd! The stilly murmur of the distant sea
Placed lengthways in the clasping casement, hark! How by the desultory breeze caress'd,
Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover,
It pours such sweet upbraiding as must needs Tempt to repeat the wrong! And now, its strings Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes Over delicious surges sink and rise,- Such a soft floating witchery of sound As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land, Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers, Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise,
Nor pause, nor perch, hovering on untamed wing! O, the one life within us and abroad,
Which meets all motion and becomes its soul, A light in sound, a sound-like power in light, Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere. Methinks it should have been impossible Not to love all things in a world so fill'd; Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air Is Music slumbering on her instrument.
And thus, my love! as on the midway slope Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon,
Whilst through my half-closed eyelids I behold The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main, And tranquil muse upon tranquillity;
Full many a thought uncall'd and undetain'd, And many idle flitting phantasies, Traverse my indolent and passive brain, As wild and various as the random gales That swell and flutter on this subject lute! And what if all of animated nature
Be but organic harps diversely framed, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps, Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of All?
But thy more serious eye a mild reproof Darts, O beloved woman! nor such thoughts Dim and unhallow'd dost thou not reject, And biddest me walk humbly with my God. Meek daughter in the family of Christ! Well hast thou said and holily dispraised These shapings of the unregenerate mind; Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break On vain Philosophy's aye-babbling spring. For never guiltless may I speak of Him, Th' Incomprehensible! save when with awe I praise Him, and with Faith that inly feels; Who with His saving mercies healed me, A sinful and most miserable Man,
Wildered and dark, and gave me to possess
Peace, and this cot, and thee, heart-honour'd Maid!
REFLECTIONS ON HAVING LEFT A PLACE OF RETIREMENT.
Low was our pretty Cot: our tallest rose Peep'd at the chamber-window. We could hear At silent noon, and eve, and early morn, The sea's faint murmur. In the open air Our myrtles blossom'd; and across the porch Thick jasmins twined: the little landscape round Was green and woody, and refresh'd the eye. It was a spot which you might aptly call The Valley of Seclusion! Once I saw (Hallowing his Sabbath-day by quietness)
A wealthy son of commerce saunter by, Bristowa's citizen: methought it calm'd His thirst of idle gold, and made him muse With wiser feelings: for he paused, and look'd With a pleased sadness, and gazed all around, Then eyed our Cottage, and gazed round again, And sigh'd, and said it was a Blessed Place. And we were blessed. Oft with patient ear Long-listening to the viewless sky-lark's note, (Viewless, or haply for a moment seen Gleaming on sunny wings,) in whisper'd tones I've said to my beloved, "Such, sweet girl! The inobtrusive song of happiness, Unearthly minstrelsy! then only heard
When the soul seeks to hear; when all is hush'd, And the heart listens!"
But the time, when first From that low dell steep up the stony mount I climb'd with perilous toil, and reach'd the top, O, what a goodly scene! Here the bleak mount, The bare bleak mountain speckled thin with sheep; Grey clouds, that shadowing spot the sunny fields; And river, now with bushy rocks o'erbrow'd, Now winding bright and full, with naked banks; And seats, and lawns, the abbey, and the wood, And cots, and hamlets, and faint city-spire; The Channel there, the Islands and white sails, Dim coasts, and cloud-like hills, and shoreless Ocean,- It seem'd like Omnipresence! God, methought, Had built Him there a temple: the whole World Seem'd imaged in its vast circumference. No wish profaned my overwhelmed heart. Blest hour! It was a Luxury - to be!
Ah, quiet dell, dear Cot, and mount sublime! I was constrain'd to quit you. Was it right, While my unnumber'd brethren toil'd and bled, That I should dream away th' entrusted hours On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart With feelings all too delicate for use?
Sweet is the tear that from some Howard's eye Drops on the cheek of one he lifts from earth: And he that works me good with unmoved face Does it but half: he chills me while he aids, My benefactor, not my brother man! Yet even this, this cold beneficence,
Praise, praise it, O my Soul! oft as thou scann'st
« PreviousContinue » |