The twilight deep;-the mariners in dread Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread. XLI. "And when they saw one sitting on a crag, They sent a boat to me ;-the sailors rowed In awe through many a new and fearful jag Of overhanging rock, thro' which there flowed The foam of streams that cannot make abode. They came and questioned me, but when they heard My voice, they became silent, and they stood And moved as men in whom new love had stirred Deep thoughts: so to the ship we passed without a word. CANTO EIGHTH. I. "I SATE beside the steersman then, and gazing 6 Upon the west, cried, Spread the sails! be hold! The sinking moon is like a watch-tower blazing Over the mountains yet ;—the City of Gold Yon Cape alone does from the sight withhold; The stream is fleet-the north breathes steadily Beneath the stars, they tremble with the cold! Ye cannot rest upon the dreary sea! Haste, haste to the warm home of happier destiny!' II. "The Mariners obeyed-the Captain stood Aloof, and whispering to the Pilot, said, Alas, alas! I fear we are pursued 6 By wicked ghosts: a Phantom of the Dead, The night before we sailed, came to my bed In dream, like that!'—The Pilot then replied, 'It cannot be--she is a human Maid Her low voice makes you weep-she is some bride, Or daughter of high birth-she can be naught beside.' III. “We passed the islets, borne by wind and stream, And as we sailed the Mariners came near And thronged around to listen ;-in the gleam Of the pale moon I stood, as one whom fear May not attaint, and my calm voice did rear; 'Ye all are human-yon broad moon gives light To millions who the self-same likeness wear, Even while I speak-beneath this very night, Their thoughts flow on like ours, in. sadness or delight. IV. "What dream ye? Your own hands have built an home, Even for yourselves on a beloved shore: come, How they will greet him when his toils are o'er, And laughing babes rush from the wellknown door! Is this your care? ye toil for your own good Ye feel and think-has some immortal power Such purposes? or in a human mood, Dream ye that God thus builds for man in solitude? V. "What then is God? ye mock yourselves, and give A human heart to what ye cannot know : As if the cause of life could think and live! "Twere as if man's own works should feel, and show The hopes, and fears, and thoughts from which they flow, And he be like to them. Lo! Plague is free To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and Snow, Disease, and Want, and worse Necessity Of hate and ill, and Pride, and Fear, and Tyranny. VI. 666 What then is God? Some moon-struck sophist stood Watching the shade from his own soul upthrown Fill Heaven and darken Earth, and in such mood The Form he saw and worshipped was his own, His likeness in the world's vast mirror shown; And 'twere an innocent dream, but that a faith Nursed by fear's dew of poison, grows thereon, And that men say, God has appointed Death 'On all who scorn his will to wreak immortal wrath. VII. 666 'Men say they have seen God, and heard from God, Or known from others who have known such things, And that his will is all our law, a rod To scourge us into slaves-that Priests and Custom, domestic sway, aye, all that brings Are his strong ministers, and that the stings feel, Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with tenfold steel. VIII. "And it is said that God will punish wrong; Yes, add despair to crime, and pain to pain! And his red hell's undying snakes among Will bind the wretch on whom he fixed a stain, Which, like a plague, a burthen, and a bane, Clung to him while he lived;-for love and hate, Virtue and vice, they say, are difference vain The will of strength is right-this human state Tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate. 666 IX. Alas, what strength? opinion is more frail Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moon Even while we gaze, though it awhile avail To hide the orb of truth-and every throne Of Earth or Heaven, though shadow, rests thereon, One shape of many names:-for this ye plough The barren waves of ocean, hence each one Is slave or tyrant; all betray and bow, Command, or kill, or fear, or wreak, or suffer woe. X. "Its names are each a sign which maketh holy All power-aye, the ghost, the dream, the shade Of power, lust, falsehood, hate, and pride, and folly; The pattern whence all fraud and wrong is made, A law to which mankind has been betrayed; And human love is as the name well known Of a dear mother, whom the murderer laid In bloody grave, and into darkness thrown, Gathered her wildered babes around him as his own. |