Page images
PDF
EPUB

The thoughtless wretch drinks in a subtle poison
Lulling to sleep; and, when he sleeps, he dies.

But what are these still standing in the midst?
The earth has rocked beneath; the thunder-bolt
Passed through and through, and left its traces there,
Yet still they stand as by some unknown charter !
O, they are Nature's own! and, as allied
To the vast mountains and the eternal sea,
They want no written history; theirs a voice
Forever speaking to the heart of man!

AMALFI.

HE who sets sail from NAPLES, when the wind
Blows fragrance from POSILIPO, may soon,
Crossing from side to side that beautiful lake,
Land underneath the cliff where, once among
The children gathering shells along the shore,
One laughed and played, unconscious of his fate; 308
His to drink deep of sorrow, and, through life,
To be the scorn of them that knew him not,
Trampling alike the giver and his gift,
The gift a pearl precious, inestimable,
A lay divine, a lay of love and war,
To charm, ennoble, and, from age to age,
Sweeten the labor when the oar was plied
Or on the ADRIAN or the TUSCAN sea.

There would I linger- then go forth again,
And hover round that region unexplored,
Where to SALVATOR (when, as some relate,
By chance or choice he led a bandit's life.

Yet oft withdrew, alone and unobserved,
To wander through those awful solitudes)
Nature revealed herself. Unveiled she stood
In all her wildness, all her majesty,

As in that elder time ere man was made.

There would I linger-then go forth again;
And he who steers due east, doubling the cape,
Discovers, in a crevice of the rock,
The fishing-town, AMALFI. Haply there
A heaving bark, an anchor on the strand,
May tell him what it is; but what it was
Cannot be told so soon. 309

310

The time has been, When on the quays along the SYRIAN coast 'T was asked, and eagerly, at break of dawn, "What ships are from AMALFI?" when her coins, Silver and gold, circled from clime to clime; From ALEXANDRIA southward to SENNAAR, And eastward, through DAMASCUS and CABUL And SAMARCAND, to thy great wall, CATHAY." Then were the nations by her wisdom swayed; And every crime on every sea was judged According to her judgments. In her port Prows, strange, uncouth, from NILE and NIGER met People of various feature, various speech; And in their countries many a house of prayer, And many a shelter, where no shelter was, And many a well, like JACOB's in the wild, Rose at her bidding. Then in PALESTINE, By the way-side, in sober grandeur stood A hospital, that, night and day, received The pilgrims of the west; and, when 't was asked,

"Who are the noble founders?" every tongue
At once replied, "The merchants of AMALFI."
That hospital, when GODFREY scaled the walls,
Sent forth its holy men in complete steel;
And hence, the cowl relinquished for the helm,
That chosen band, valiant, invincible,
So long renowned as champions of the cross,
In RHODES, in MALTA.

For three hundred years

There, unapproached but from the deep, they dwelt; Assailed forever, yet from age to age

Acknowledging no master.

From the deep

They gathered in their harvests; bringing home,
In the same ship, relics of ancient GREECE,

That land of glory where their fathers lay,
Grain from the golden vales of SICILY,

311

And INDIAN spices. Through the civilized world Their credit was ennobled into fame;

And, when at length they fell, they left mankind
A legacy, compared with which the wealth

Of Eastern kings—what is it in the scale?
The mariner's compass.

They are now forgot,
And with them all they did, all they endured,
Struggling with fortune. When SICARDI stood
On his high deck, his falchion in his hand,

And, with a shout like thunder, cried, "Come forth, And serve me in SALERNO!" forth they came, Covering the sea, a mournful spectacle;

The women wailing, and the heavy oar

Falling unheard. Not thus did they return,312

The tyrant slain; though then the grass of years

Grew in their streets.

There now to him who sails

Under the shore, a few white villages
Scattered above, below, some in the clouds,
Some on the margin of the dark-blue sea

And glittering through their lemon-groves, announce
The region of AMALFI. Then, half-fallen,

A lonely watch-tower on the precipice,

Their ancient landmark, comes. Long may it last;
And to the seaman in a distant age,

Though now he little thinks how large his debt,
Serve for their monument! 313

MONTE CASSINO.314

"WHAT hangs behind that curtain?"

learn?

27315

"Wouldst thou

If thou art wise, thou wouldst not. 'Tis by some
Believed to be his master-work who looked

Beyond the grave, and on the chapel-wall,

As though the day were come, were come and past,
Drew the Last Judgment.316 But the wisest err.
He who in secret wrought, and gave it life,
For life is surely there and visible change,317
Life such as none could of himself impart
(They who behold it go not as they came,
But meditate for many and many a day),
Sleeps in the vault beneath. We know not much;
But what we know we will communicate.

'Tis in an ancient record of the house;

And may it make thee tremble, lest thou fall! on a Christmas-eve

ere yet the roof

Once
Rung with the hymn of the Nativity,
There came a stranger to the convent-gate,
And asked admittance; ever and anon,

As if he sought what most he feared to find,
Looking behind him. When within the walls,
These walls so sacred and inviolate,

Still did he look behind him; oft and long,
With curling, quivering lip and haggard eye,
Catching at vacancy. Between the fits,
For here, 't is said, he lingered while he lived,
He would discourse, and with a mastery,
A charm by none resisted, none explained,
Unfelt before; but when his cheek grew pale
(Nor was the respite longer, if so long,
Than while a shepherd in the vale below
Counts, as he folds, five hundred of his flock),
All was forgotten. Then, howe'er employed,
He would break off and start as if he caught
A glimpse of something that would not be gone;
And turn and gaze and shrink into himself,
As though the fiend were there, and, face to face,
Scowled o'er his shoulder.

Most devout he was;

Most unremitting in the services;

Then, only then, untroubled, unassailed;

And, to beguile a melancholy hour,
Would sometimes exercise that noble art

He learnt in FLORENCE; with a master's hand,
As to this day the sacristy attests,

Painting the wonders of the APOCALYPSE.

« PreviousContinue »