By the glory of the sky: Which from heaven like dew doth fall, Noon descends, and after noon The frail bark of this lone being,) 320 330 Pass, to other sufferers fleeing, Sits beside the helm again. Other flowering isles must be To some calm and blooming cove, 340 Of old forests echoing round, And the light and smell divine 350 Of all flowers that breathe and shine: We may live so happy there, That the spirits of the air, But their rage would be subdued And the winds whose wings rain balm And the earth grow young again. 360 370 HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY. 1. THE awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats though unseen amongst us,-visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower, Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, It visits with inconstant glance Each human heart and countenance; Like hues and harmonies of evening,Like clouds in starlight widely spread,Like memory of music fled,— Like aught that for its grace may be Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery. 2. Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon Of human thought or form,-where art thou gone? Why dost thou pass away and leave our state, This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate? Ask why the sunlight not for ever Weaves rainbows o'er yon mountain river, Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown, Why fear and dream and death and birth Such gloom,-why man has such a scope For love and hate, despondency and hope? 3. No voice from some sublimer world hath ever To sage or poet these responses givenTherefore the names of Dæmon, Ghost, and Heaven, Remain the records of their vain endeavour, Frail spells-whose uttered charm might not avail to sever, From all we hear and all we see, Thy light alone-like mist o'er mountains driven, Or music by the night wind sent, Through strings of some still instrument, Or moonlight on a midnight stream, Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. 4. Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart Thou messenger of sympathies, That wax and wane in lovers' eyesThou that to human thought art nourishment, Like darkness to a dying flame! Depart not as thy shadow came, Depart not-lest the grave should be, Like life and fear, a dark reality. 5. While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin, And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. I was not heard-I saw them not- Of life, at the sweet time when winds are wooing All vital things that wake to bring I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy! 6. I vowed that I would dedicate my powers With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now I call the phantoms of a thousand hours Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowers Of studious zeal or love's delight Outwatched with me the envious night— They know that never joy illumed my brow Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free This world from its dark slavery, That thou-O awful LOVELINESS, Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express. |