Thro the boundless element:

Thence we bear the prophecy
Which begins and ends in thee!

IONE.

More yet come, one by one: the air around them Looks radiant like the air around a star.

FIRST SPIRIT.

On a battle-trumpet's blast
I fled hither, fast, fast, fast,
Mid the darkness upward cast.
From the dust of creeds outworn,
From the tyrant's banner torn,
Gathering round me, onward borne,
There was mingled many a cry—
Freedom! Hope! Death! Victory!
Till they faded thro' the sky;

690

695

700

And one sound, above, around,

One sound beneath, around, above,

Was moving; 'twas the soul of love;

705

'Twas the hope, the prophecy,

Which begins and ends in thee.

SECOND SPIRIT.

A rainbow's arch stood on the sea,
Which rocked beneath, immoveably;
And the triumphant storm did flee,
Like a conqueror, swift and proud,
Between with many a captive cloud
A shapeless, dark and rapid crowd,
Each by lightning riven in half:
I heard the thunder hoarsely laugh:
Mighty fleets were strewn like chaff

693 like] B.; 'as' die Ausgaben.

710

715

And spread beneath a hell of death
O'er the white waters. I alit
On a great ship lightning-split,
And speeded hither on the sigh
Of one who gave an enemy

His plank, then plunged aside to die.

THIRD SPIRIT.

I sate beside a sage's bed,

And the lamp was burning red

720

Near the book where he had fed,

725

When a Dream with plumes of flame,
To his pillow hovering came,

And I knew it was the same
Which had kindled long ago
Pity, eloquence, and woe;

And the world awhile below
Wore the shade its lustre made.

It has borne me here as fleet
As Desire's lightning feet:

I must ride it back ere morrow,

Or the sage will wake in sorrow.

FOURTH SPIRIT.

On a poet's lips I slept

Dreaming like a love-adept

730

735

In the sound his breathing kept;

Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses,

740

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 i' the ivy-bloom,

733 born 1820 u. F. — 745 i[n] B.; ‘in' die Ausgaben.

745

Nor heed nor see, what things they be;
But from these create he can

Forms more real than living man,
Nurslings of immortality!

One of these awakened me,

And I sped to succour thee.

IONE.

Behold'st thou not two shapes from the east and west
Come, as two doves to one beloved nest,
Twin nurslings of the all-sustaining air
On swift still wings glide down the atmosphere?
And, hark! their sweet, sad voices! 'tis despair
Mingled with love and then dissolved in sound.

PANTHEA.

Canst thou speak, sister? all my words are drowned.

IONE.

Their beauty gives me voice. See how they float On their sustaining wings of skiey grain,

Orange and azure deepning into gold:

Their soft smiles light the air like a star's fire.

CHORUS OF SPIRITS.

Hast thou beheld the form of Love?

750

FIFTH SPIRIT.

As over wide dominions.

I sped, like some swift cloud that wings the wide air's

wildernesses,

That planet-crested shape swept by on lightning-braided

pinions,

765

Scattering the liquid joy of life from his ambrosial tresses: His footsteps paved the world with light; but as I past

'twas fading,

And hollow Ruin yawned behind: great sages bound in

madness,

And headless patriots, and pale youths who perished,

unupbraiding,

Gleamed in the night I wandered o'er, till thou, O King of sadness,

770

Turned by thy smile the worst I saw to recollected

gladness.

SIXTH SPIRIT.

Ah, sister! Desolation is a delicate thing:

It walks not on the earth, it floats not on the air,
But treads with killing footstep, and fans with silent wing
The tender hopes which in their hearts the best and
gentlest bear;

775

Who, soothed to false repose by the fanning plumes above, And the music-stirring motion of its soft and busy feet, Dream visions of aerial joy, and call the monster, Love, And wake, and find the shadow Pain, as he whom now we greet.

CHORUS.

Though Ruin now Love's shadow be,
Following him, destroyingly,

On Death's white and winged steed,
Which the fleetest cannot flee,

Trampling down both flower and weed,
Man and beast, and foul and fair,
Like a tempest thro the air;

Thou shalt quell this horseman grim,
Woundless though in heart or limb.

770 nach 'night' Punkt 1820, 1839; F. u. B. nicht.

780

785

774 silent footstep 1820 u. 1839; 'killing' Blind, F. u. B. H.

771 turn'st

liest 'lulling' in B. nach Locock. 779 the] their B.

PROMETHEUS.

Spirits! how know ye this shall be?

CHORUS.

In the atmosphere we breathe,

As buds grow red when snow-storms flee,
From spring gathering up beneath,
Whose mild winds shake the elder brake,
And the wandering herdsmen know

That the white-thorn soon will blow:
Wisdom, Justice, Love, and Peace,
When they struggle to increase,

Are to us as soft winds be

To shepherd boys, the prophecy
Which begins and ends in thee.

IONE.

Where are the Spirits fled?

790

795

800

PANTHEA.

Only a sense.

Remains of them, like the omnipotence
Of music, when the inspired voice and lute
Languish, ere yet the responses are mute,
Which thro the deep and labyrinthine soul,
Like echoes through long caverns, wind and roll.

PROMETHEUS.

How fair these air-born shapes! and yet I feel
Most vain all hope but love; and thou art far,
Asia! who, when my being overflowed,
Wert like a golden chalice to bright wine
Which else had sunk into the thirsty dust.
All things are still: alas! how heavily

805

810

791 'the snow-storms' die Ausgaben. Nach 800 Bühnenweisung: They vanish B.