Flowed at a hundred feasts within the wall. In vain! the steady towers in Heaven did shine As they were wont, nor at the priestly call Left Plague her banquet in the Ethiop's hall, Nor Famine from the rich man's portal came, Where at her ease she ever preys on all Who throng to kneel for food: nor fear nor shame, Nor faith, nor discord, dimmed hope's newly kindled flame. XVIII. "For gold was as a god whose faith began To fade, so that its worshippers were few, And Hell and Awe, which in the heart of man Is God itself; the Priests its downfall knew, As day by day their altars lonelier grew, Till they were left alone within the fane; The shafts of falsehood unpolluting flew, And the cold sneers of calumny were vain, The union of the free with discord's brand to stain. XIX. "The rest thou knowest-Lo! we two are here We have survived a ruin wide and deepStrange thoughts are mine-I cannot grieve or fear. Sitting with thee upon this lonely steep I smile, though human love should make me weep; We have survived a joy that knows no sorrow, And I do feel a mighty calmness creep Over my heart, which can no longer borrow Its hues from chance or change, dark children of to-morrow. XX. "We know not what will come—yet, Laon, dearest, Cythna shall be the prophetess of Love, Her lips shall rob thee of the grace thou wearest, To hide thy heart, and clothe the shapes which rove Within the homeless Future's wintry grove; For I now, sitting thus beside thee, seem Even with thy breath and blood to live and move, And violence and wrong are as a dream Which rolls from steadfast truth an unreturning stream. XXI. 66 The blasts of Autumn drive the wingèd seeds Over the earth,-next come the snows, and rain, And frosts, and storms, which dreary Winter leads Out of his Scythian cave, a savage train; Behold! Spring sweeps over the world again, Shedding soft dews from her ætherial wings; Flowers on the mountains, fruits over the plain, And music on the waves and woods she flings, And love on all that lives, and calm on lifeless things. XXII. "O Spring, of hope, and love, and youth, and gladness Wind-winged emblem! brightest, best and fairest ! Whence comest thou, when, with dark Winter's sadness The tears that fade in sunny smiles thou sharest? Sister of joy, thou art the child who wearest Thy mother's dying smile, tender and sweet; Thy mother Autumn, for whose grave thou bearest Fresh flowers, and beams like flowers, with gentle feet, Disturbing not the leaves which are her winding-sheet. XXIII. "Virtue, and Hope, and Love, like light and Heaven, Surround the world.-We are their chosen slaves. Has not the whirlwind of our spirit driven Truth's deathless germs to thought's remotest caves? Lo, Winter comes!-the grief of many graves, The frost of death, the tempest of the sword, The flood of tyranny, whose sanguine waves Stagnate like ice at Faith the enchanter's word, And bind all human hearts in its repose abhorred. XXIV. "The seeds are sleeping in the soil: meanwhile The Tyrant peoples dungeons with his prey; Pale victims on the guarded scaffold smile Because they cannot speak; and, day by day, The moon of wasting Science wanes away Among her stars, and in that darkness vast The sons of earth to their foul idols pray, And grey Priests triumph, and like blight or blast A shade of selfish care o'er human looks is cast. XXV. "This is the winter of the world ;—and here We die, even as the winds of Autumn fade, Expiring in the frore and foggy air.Behold! Spring comes, though we must pass, who made The promise of its birth,- -even as the shade Which from our death, as from a mountain, flings The future, a broad sunrise; thus arrayed As with the plumes of overshadowing wings, From its dark gulph of chains, Earth like an eagle springs. XXVI. "O dearest love! we shall be dead and cold Before this morn may on the world arise; Wouldst thou the glory of its dawn behold? Alas! gaze not on me, but turn thine eyes On thine own heart-it is a Paradise Which everlasting spring has made its own, And while drear winter fills the naked skies, Sweet streams of sunny thought, and flowers fresh blown, Are there, and weave their sounds and odours into one. XXVII. "In their own hearts the earnest of the hope Which made them great the good will ever And though some envious shade may interlope Between the effect and it,- -One comes behind, Who aye the future to the past will bindNecessity, whose sightless strength forever Evil with evil, good with good must wind In bands of union, which no power may sever: They must bring forth their kind, and be divided never! XXVIII. "The good and mighty of departed ages we Are like to them—such perish, but they leave All hope, or love, or truth, or liberty, Whose forms their mighty spirits could conceive To be a rule and law to ages that survive. XXIX. "So be the turf heaped over our remains Even in our happy youth, and that strange lot, Whate'er it be, when in these mingling veins The blood is still, be ours; let sense and thought Pass from our being, or be numbered not Among the things that are; let those who come Behind, for whom our steadfast will has bought A calm inheritance, a glorious doom, Insult with careless tread our undivided tomb. |