ODE TO NAPLES.* EPODE I. α. I STOOD within the city disinterred †; And heard the autumnal leaves like light footfalls The listening soul in my suspended blood; I felt that Earth out of her deep heart spoke I felt, but heard not :-through white columns glowed A plane of light between two heavens of azure : As in the sculptor's thought; and there Because the crystal silence of the air Weighed on their life; even as the Power divine, upon mine. * The Author has connected many recollections of his visit to Pompeii and Baie with the enthusiasm excited by the intelligence of the proclamation of a Constitutional Government at Naples. This has given a tinge of picturesque and descriptive imagery to the introductory Epodes, which depicture the scenes and some of the majestic feelings permanently connected with the scene of this animating event.-Author's Note. † Pompeii. EPODE II. a. Then gentle winds arose, With many a mingled close Of wild Eolian sound and mountain odour keen; Welters with air-like motion, Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, It bore me; (like an Angel, o'er the waves I sailed where ever flows A spirit of deep emotion, Of the dead kings of Melody *. There streamed a sunlit vapour, like the standard Of some ethereal host; Whilst from all the coast, Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered Over the oracular woods and divine sea Prophesyings which grew articulate They seize me—I must speak them;-be they fate! STROPHE a. 1. NAPLES! thou Heart of men, which ever pantest * Homer and Virgil. Elysian City, which to calm enchantest The mutinous air and sea! they round thee, even Metropolis of a ruined Paradise Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained! Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice, Which armed Victory offers up unstained To Love, the flower-enchained! Thou which wert once, and then didst cease to be, STROPHE B. 2. Thou youngest giant birth, Which from the groaning earth Leap'st, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale ! Who 'gainst the Crowned Transgressors Pleadest before God's love! Arrayed in Wisdom's mail, Wave thy lightning lance in mirth; Nor let thy high heart fail, Though from their hundred gates the leagued Oppressors, With hurried legions move! Hail, hail, all hail! ANTISTROPHE α. What though Cimmerian Anarchs dare blaspheme A new Actæon's error Shall theirs have been-devoured by their own hounds! Be thou like the imperial Basilisk, Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds! Gaze on oppression, till, at that dread risk ANTISTROPHE B. 2. From Freedom's form divine, From Nature's inmost shrine, Strip every impious gawd, rend Error veil by veil : O'er Ruin desolate, O'er Falsehood's fallen state, Sit thou sublime, unawed; be the Destroyer pale! And equal laws be thine, And winged words let sail, Freighted with truth even from the throne of God: That wealth, surviving fate, be thine.-All hail! ANTISTROPHE a. y. Didst thou not start to hear Spain's thrilling paan Starts to hear thine! The Sea Which paves the desert streets of Venice, laughs The viper's palsying venom, lifts her heel * Exa, the Island of Circe. The viper was the armorial device of the Visconti, tyrants of Milan. ANTISTROPHE B. Y. Florence! beneath the sun, Of cities fairest one, Blushes within her bower for Freedom's expectation : Rome tears the priestly cope, As ruling once by power, so now by admiration,- From a remoter station For the high prize lost on Philippi's shore :- EPODE I. B. Hear ye the march as of the Earth-born Forms The crash and darkness of a thousand storms See Of crags and thunder-clouds? ye the banners blazoned to the day, Inwrought with emblems of barbaric pride? Dissonant threats kill Silence far away, The Serene Heaven which wraps our Eden wide The Anarchs of the North lead forth their legions Famished wolves that bide no waiting, On Beauty's corse to sickness satiating— They come ! The fields they tread look black and hoary With fire-from their red feet the streams run gory! |