To man the wisdom of a high despair, When such can die, and he live on and linger here.

666

XXIX.

Aye, ye may fear not now the Pestilence; From fabled hell, as by a charm withdrawn, All power and faith must pass, since calmly hence

In torment and in fire have Atheists gone; And ye must sadly turn away, and moan In secret, to his home each one returning, And to long ages shall this hour be known n; And slowly shall its memory, ever burning, Fill this dark night of things with an eternal morning.

XXX.

"For me the world is grown too void and cold,

Since hope pursues immortal destiny

With steps thus slow-therefore shall ye behold

How Atheists and Republicans can dieTell to your children this!' then suddenly He sheathed a dagger in his heart and fell; My brain grew dark in death, and yet to me There came a murmur from the crowd, to tell Of deep and mighty change which suddenly befell.

XXXI.

"Then suddenly I stood a winged Thought
Before the immortal Senate, and the seat
Of that star-shining spirit, whence is wrought
The strength of its dominion, good and great,
The better Genius of this world's estate.
His realm around one mighty Fane is spread,

Elysian islands bright and fortunate,

Calm dwellings of the free and happy dead, Where I am sent to lead!" these winged words she said,

XXXII.

And with the silence of her eloquent smile,
Bade us embark in her divine canoe;

Then at the helm we took our seat, the while
Above her head those plumes of dazzling hue
Into the winds' invisible stream she threw,
Sitting beside the prow: like gossamer,
On the swift breath of morn, the vessel flew
O'er the bright whirlpools of that fountain
fair,

Whose shores receded fast, whilst we seemed lingering there;

XXXIII.

Till down that mighty stream dark, calm, and fleet,

Between a chasm of cedarn mountains riven,1 Chased by the thronging winds whose viewless feet

As swift as twinkling beams, had, under Heaven,

From woods and waves wild sounds and odours driven,

The boat fled visibly-three nights and days, Borne like a cloud through morn, and noon,

and even,

We sailed along the winding watery ways

1 Here we are even closer than in stanza xix to Kubla Khan:

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!-ED.

Of the vast stream, a long and labyrinthine

maze.

XXXIV.

A scene of joy and wonder to behold

That river's shapes and shadows changing

ever,

Where the broad sunrise filled with deepening gold

Its whirlpools, where all hues did spread and quiver;

And where melodious falls did burst and

shiver

Among rocks clad with flowers, the foam and

spray

Sparkled like stars

upon the sunny river ; Or when the moonlight poured a holier day, One vast and glittering lake around green islands lay.

XXXV.

Morn, noon, and even, that boat of pearl outran

The streams which bore it, like the arrowy cloud

Of tempest, or the speedier thought of man, Which flieth forth and cannot make abode. Sometimes through forests, deep like night, we glode,

Between the walls of mighty mountains crowned

With Cyclopean piles, whose turrets proud, The homes of the departed, dimly frowned O'er the bright waves which girt their dark foundations round.

XXXVI.

Sometimes between the wide and flowering meadows

Mile after mile we sailed, and 'twas delight To see far off the sunbeams chase the shadows Over the grass; sometimes beneath the night Of wide and vaulted caves, whose roofs were bright

With starry gems, we fled, whilst from their deep

And dark-green chasms, shades beautiful and white

Amid sweet sounds across our path would

sweep,

Like swift and lovely dreams that walk the waves of sleep.

XXXVII.

And ever as we sailed our minds were full Of love and wisdom, which would overflow In converse wild, and sweet, and wonderful; And in quick smiles whose light would come and go,

Like music o'er wide waves, and in the flow Of sudden tears, and in the mute caressFor a deep shade was cleft, and we did know That virtue, though obscured on Earth, not

less

Survives all mortal change in lasting loveliness.

XXXVIII.

Three days and nights we sailed, as thought and feeling

Number delightful hours--for through the sky

The sphered lamps of day and night, revealing New changes and new glories, rolled on high,

Sun, Moon, and moonlike lamps, the progeny Of a diviner Heaven, serene and fair :

On the fourth day, wild as a wind-wrought

sea

The stream became, and fast and faster bare The spirit-winged boat, steadily speeding there.

XXXIX.

Steady and swift, where the waves rolled like mountains

Within the vast ravine, whose rifts did pour Tumultuous floods from their ten thousand fountains,

The thunder of whose earth-uplifting roar Made the air sweep in whirlwinds from the shore,

Calm as a shade, the boat of that fair child Securely fled, that rapid stress before, Amid the topmost spray, and sunbows wild, Wreathed in the silver mist: in joy and pride we smiled.

XL.

The torrent of that wide and raging river
Is passed, and our aërial speed suspended.
We look behind; a golden mist did quiver
Where its wild surges with the lake were
blended:

Our bark hung there, as on a line suspended Between two heavens, that windless waveless lake;

Which four great cataracts from four vales, attended

By mists, aye feed; from rocks and clouds they break,

And of that azure sea a silent refuge make.