XLIX. "My name is Pestilence. This bosom dry Of three death-wounds-the flames had ate the other! I flit about, that I may slay and smother ;- But Death's-if thou art he, we'll go to work together! L. "What seek'st thou here? the moonlight comes in flashes,The dew is rising dankly from the dell ; "Twill moisten her! and thou shalt see the gashes In my sweet boy-now full of worms-But tell First what thou seek'st."-"I seek for food."-""Tis well, Thou shalt have food; Famine, my paramour, Waits for us at the feast-cruel and fell Is Famine, but he drives not from his door Those whom these lips have kissed, alone. No more, no more!" LI. As thus she spake, she grasped me with the strength Of madness, and by many a ruined hearth She led, and over many a corpse. At length We came to a lone hut, where, on the earth Had piled three heaps of loaves, making a dearth LII. She leaped upon a pile, and lifted high Her mad looks to the lightning, and cried: "Eat! And then she spurned the loaves with her pale feet, .LIII. And, vainly having with her madness striven Soon echoed to his hoofs, and I could see LIV. And joy was ours to meet. She was most pale, Famished, and wet, and weary; so I cast My arms around her, lest her steps should fail As to our home we went,-and, thus embraced, Her full heart seemed a deeper joy to taste Than e'er the prosperous know. The steed behind Trod peacefully along the mountain waste. We reached our home ere morning could unbind Night's latest veil, and on our bridal couch reclined. LV. Her chilled heart having cherished in my bosom, And sweetest kisses passed, we two did share Our peaceful meal. As an autumnal blossom Which spreads its shrunk leaves in the sunny air After cold showers, like rainbows woven there,Thus in her lips and cheeks the vital spirit Mantled, and in her eyes an atmosphere Of health and hope; and sorrow languished near it, And fear, and all that dark despondence doth inherit. CANTO VII. I. So we sate joyous as the morning ray Which fed upon the wrecks of night and storm Now lingering on the winds; light airs did play Among the dewy weeds, the sun was warm, And we sate linked in the inwoven charm Of converse and caresses sweet and deep,Speechless caresses, talk that might disarm Time, though he wield the darts of death and sleep, And those thrice mortal barbs in his own poison steep. II. I told her of my sufferings and my madness; And all that now I was; while tears pursued Fast as the thoughts which fed them, like a flood From sunbright dales ;—and, when I ceased to speak, Her accents soft and sweet the pausing air did wake. III. She told me a strange tale of strange endurance, Like broken memories of many a heart Woven into one; to which no firm assurance, So wild were they, could her own faith impart. She said that not a tear did dare to start From the swoln brain, and that her thoughts were firm, Borne by those slaves across the ocean's term; IV. One was she among many there, the thralls The tyrant heard her singing to her lute A wild and sad and spirit-thrilling lay, Like winds that die in wastes-one moment mute The evil thoughts it made which did his breast pollute. V. Even when he saw her wondrous loveliness, One moment to great Nature's sacred power He bent, and was no longer passionless. And mightier looks availed not; then he bore A king, a heartless beast, a pageant and a name. VI. She told me what a loathsome agony Is that when selfishness mocks love's delight, To dally with the mowing dead. That night VII. Her madness was a beam of light, a power Which dawned through the rent soul; and words it gave, Gestures, and looks, such as in whirlwinds bore, Which might not be withstood, whence none could save All who approached their sphere, like some calm wave Vexed into whirlpools by the chasms beneath. And sympathy made each attendant slave VIII. The King felt pale upon his noonday throne. Of all things ill-distorted, bowed, and bent :- Made dumb by poison, who nought knew or meant But to obey; from the fire-isles came he, A diver lean and strong, of Oman's coral sea. IX. They bore her to a bark, and the swift stroke Until upon their path the morning broke. They anchored then where, be there calm or breeze, X. "Swift as an eagle stooping from the plain XI. "A stunning clang of massive bolts redoubling Through which there shone the emerald beams of heaven, XII. "And then," she said, "he laid me in a cave Above the waters, by that chasm of sea, Like an hupaithric temple wide and high, Whose aëry dome is inaccessible, [fell. Was pierced with one round cleft through which the sunbeams XIII. "Below, the fountain's brink was richly paven With the deep's wealth, coral and pearl, and sand Like spangling gold, and purple shells engraven With mystic legends by no mortal hand, Left there when, thronging to the moon's command, Of mountains; and on such bright floor did stand |