"Trampled its sparks into the dust of death; As day upon the threshold of the east Treads out the lamps of night, until the breath 391 "Of darkness re-illumine even the least Of heaven's living eyes-like day she came, Making the night a dream; and ere she ceased "To move, as one between desire and shame Suspended, I said-'If, as it doth seem, Thou comest from the realm without a name, "Into this valley of perpetual dream, Show whence I came, and where I am, and why Pass not away upon the passing stream.' 66 6 Arise and quench thy thirst,' was her reply. And as a shut lily stricken by the wand Of dewy morning's vital alchemy 401 "I rose; and, bending at her sweet command, Touched with faint lips the cup she raised, And suddenly my brain became as sand 66 The track of deer on desert Labrador; "Leaves his stamp visibly upon the shore, Until the second bursts;-so on my sight 410 Burst a new vision, never seen before, "And the fair shape waned in the coming light, As veil by veil the silent splendour drops From Lucifer, amid the chrysolite "Of sun-rise, ere it tinge the mountain tops; And as the presence of that fairest planet, Although unseen, is felt by one who hopes "That his day's path may end as he began it, In that star's smile, whose light is like the scent Of a jonquil when evening breezes fan it, 420 "Or the soft note in which his dear lament The Brescian shepherd breathes, or the caress That turned his weary slumber to content; 66 So knew I in that light's severe excess The presence of that shape which on the stream Moved, as I moved along the wilderness, "More dimly than a day-appearing dream, The ghost of a forgotten form of sleep; A light of heaven, whose half-extinguished beam 66 Through the sick day in which we wake to weep, Glimmers, for ever sought, for ever lost; 430 "Beside my path, as silent as a ghost; But the new Vision, and the cold bright car, With solemn speed and stunning music, crossed "The forest, and as if from some dread war Triumphantly returning, the loud million Fiercely extolled the fortune of her star. "A moving arch of victory, the vermilion And green and azure plumes of Iris had Built high over her wind-winged pavilion, 440 66 And underneath ætherial glory clad The wilderness, and far before her flew The tempest of the splendour, which forbade "Shadows to fall from leaf and stone; the crew Seemed, in that light, like atomies to dance "Embroidery of flowers, that did enhance 450 "Others stood gazing, till within the shade Of the great mountain its light left them dim; Others outspeeded it; and others made "Circles around it, like the clouds that swim Round the high moon in a bright sea of air; And more did follow, with exulting hymn, 66 : The chariot and the captives fettered there :But all like bubbles on an eddying flood Fell into the same track at last, and were "Borne onward.-I among the multitude 460 Was swept-me, sweetest flowers delayed not long; Me, not the shadow nor the solitude; "Me, not that falling stream's Lethean song; Me, not the phantom of that early form, Which moved upon its motion—but among 66 The thickest billows of that living storm I plunged, and bared my bosom to the clime Of that cold light, whose airs too soon deform. "Before the chariot had begun to climb The opposing steep of that mysterious dell, 470 Behold a wonder worthy of the rhyme "Of him who[m] from the lowest depths of hell, Through every paradise and through all glory, Love led serene, and who returned to tell "The words of hate and awe; the wondrous story How all things are transfigured except Love; For deaf as is a sea, which wrath makes hoary, "The world can hear not the sweet notes that move The sphere whose light is melody to lovers- "Grew dense with shadows to its inmost covers, The earth was grey with phantoms, and the air Was peopled with dim forms, as when there hovers "A flock of vampire bats before the glare Of the tropic sun, bringing, ere evening, Strange night upon some Indian isle;-thus were "Phantoms diffused around; and some did fling Shadows of shadows, yet unlike themselves, Behind them; some like eaglets on the wing "Were lost in the white day; others like elves Danced in a thousand unimagined shapes 491 Upon the sunny streams and grassy shelves; "And others sate chattering like restless apes On vulgar hands, . . . . . Some made a cradle of the ermined capes "Of kingly mantles; some across the tiar Of pontiffs sate like vultures; others played Under the crown which girt with empire "A baby's or an idiot's brow, and made Their nests in it. The old anatomies Sate hatching their bare broods under the shade 500 "Of dæmon wings, and laughed from their dead eyes To re-assume the delegated power, Arrayed in which those worms did monarchize, "Who made this earth their charnel. Others more Humble, like falcons, sate upon the fist Of common men, and round their heads did soar; "Or like small gnats and flies, as thick as mist On evening marshes, thronged about the brow Of lawyers, statesmen, priest and theorist ; - 510 "And others, like discoloured flakes of snow On fairest bosoms and the sunniest hair, Fell, and were melted by the youthful glow "Which they extinguished; and, like tears, they were A veil to those from whose faint lids they rained "Of whence those forms proceeded which thus stained |