As on the jag of a mountain crag, Which an earthquake rocks and swings, An eagle alit one moment may sit In the light of its golden wings. [beneath, And when sunset may breathe from the lit sea Its ardours of rest and of love, And the crimson pall of eve may fall From the depth of heaven above, With wings folded I rest, on mine airy nest, That orbed maiden with white fire laden, Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor, And wherever the beat of her unseen feet, May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof, And I laugh to see them whirl and flee, When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, I bind the sun's throne with a burning zone, Over a torrent sea, Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof, The mountains its columns be. The triumphal arch through which I march With hurricane, fire, and snow, [chair, When the powers of the air are chained to my The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove, While the moist earth was laughing below. 518 I am the daughter of the earth and water, I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; For after the rain when with never a stain, The pavilion of heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, [tomb, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the STANZAS APRIL, 1814 AWAY! the moor is dark beneath the moon, Rapid clouds have drank the last pale beam of even: Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon, And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven. Pause not! The time is past! Every voice cries, Away! Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood: Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay: Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude. Away, away! to thy sad and silent home; Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth; Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come, The leaves of wasted autumn woods shall float around thine head: The blooms of dewy spring shall gleam beneath thy feet: But thy soul or this world must fade in the frost that binds the dead, Ere midnight's frown and morning's smile, ere thou and peace may meet. The cloud shadows of midnight possess their own repose, For the weary winds are silent, or the moon is in the deep: Some respite to its turbulence unresting ocean knows; Whatever moves, or toils, or grieves, hath its appointed sleep. Thou in the grave shalt rest-yet till the phantoms flee Which that house and heath and garden made dear to thee erewhile, Thy remembrance, and repentance, and deep musings are not free From the music of two voices and the light of one sweet smile. 519 520 MUSIC, WHEN SOFT VOICES DIE Music, when soft voices die, Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heap'd for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when Thou art gone, THE POET'S DREAM ON a Poet's lips I slept Dreaming like a love-adept In the sound his breathing kept; Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses, But feeds on the aerial kisses Of shapes that haunt Thought's wildernesses. He will watch from dawn to gloom The lake-reflected sun illume The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom, 521 522 Nor heed nor see what things they be THE WORLD'S WANDERERS TELL me, thou Star, whose wings of light In what cavern of the night Will thy pinions close now? Tell me, Moon, thou pale and gray Seekest thou repose now? Weary Mind, who wanderest ADONAIS An Elegy on the Death of John Keats I WEEP for Adonais-he is dead! O, weep for Adonais! though our tears Forget the Past, his fate and fame shall be An echo and a light unto eternity!' Where wert thou, mighty Mother, when he lay, When Adonais died? With veilèd eyes, 'Mid listening Echoes, in her Paradise She sate, while one, with soft enamoured breath, With which, like flowers that mock the corse beneath, He had adorned and hid the coming bulk of death. Oh weep for Adonais-he is dead! Wake, melancholy Mother, wake and weep! Death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair. Most musical of mourners, weep again! Lament anew, Urania !-He died, Who was the Sire of an immortal strain, Blind, old, and lonely, when his country's pride, The priest, the slave, and the liberticide, Into the gulf of death; but his clear Sprite Yet reigns o'er earth; the third among the sons of light. Most musical of mourners, weep anew! Not all to that bright station dared to climb; Which leads, through toil and hate, to Fame's serene abode But now, thy youngest, dearest one has perished, |