Of that still fountain; as the human Then through the plain in tranquil

Held commune with him, as if he and it
Beside the grassy shore
Were all that was,-only . . . when Of the small stream he went; he did

Two starry eyes, hung in the gloom of Strong shuddering from his burning limbs. As one

And seemed with their serene and azure Roused by some joyous madness from

Beneath the shade of trees, beside the flow

Sometimes Of the wild babbling rivulet; and now The forest's solemn canopies were changed

Dark and profound. Now on the For the uniform and lightsome evening

It danced; like childhood laughing as Gray rocks did peep from the spare

The struggling brook: tall spires of Islanded seas, blue mountains, mighty windlestrae streams, Threw their thin shadows down the Dim tracts and vast, robed in the

And nought but gnarled roots of ancient Of leaden-coloured even, and fiery hills Mingling their flames with twilight, on

Of the remote horizon. The near scene, A gradual change In naked and severe simplicity,

In most familiar cadence, with the howl Bright flowers departed, and the beauti- The thunder and the hiss of homeless

Of the green groves, with all their odor- Mingling its solemn song, whilst the broad river,

And musical motions. Calm, he still Foaming and hurrying o'er its rugged pursued

The stream, that with a larger volume Fell into that immeasurable void

Its stony jaws, the abrupt mountain And did embower with leaves for ever breaks,

And seems, with its accumulated crags, And berries dark, the smooth and even To overhang the world for wide

Beneath the wan stars and descending The children of the autumnal whirlwind

In wanton sport, those bright leaves, In thy devastating omnipotence,

calls

One human step alone, has ever broken
The stillness of its solitude :-one voice His brother Death. A rare and regal
Alone inspired its echoes;—even that

voice

Which hither came, floating among the winds,

And led the loveliest among human forms

To make their wild haunts the depository

prey

He hath prepared, prowling around the world;

Glutted with which thou mayst repose, and men

Go to their graves like flowers or creeping worms,

Of all the grace and beauty that endued | Nor ever more offer at thy dark shrine The unheeded tribute of a broken heart.

Its motions, render up its majesty,
Scatter its music on the unfeeling storm,
And to the damp leaves and blue cavern

mould,

When on the threshold of the green

recess

Nurses of rainbow flowers and branching The wanderer's footsteps fell, he knew

The dim and hornèd moon hung low, Like winds that bear sweet music, when

and poured

A sea of lustre on the horizon's verge That overflowed its mountains. Yellow mist

Filled the unbounded atmosphere, and drank

Of the old pine. Upon an ivied stone Wan moonlight even to fulness: not a Reclined his languid head, his limbs did

brink

Shone, not a sound was heard; the very Diffused and motionless, on the smooth winds, Danger's grim

playmates, on that Of that obscurest chasm ;-and thus he

precipice Slept, clasped in his embrace.-O, storm

of death!

Whose sightless speed divides this sullen

night :

And thou, colossal Skeleton, that, still
Guiding its irresistible career

lay,

Surrendering to their final impulses
The hovering powers of life. Hope and

despair,

The torturers, slept; no mortal pain or

fear

Marred his repose, the influxes of sense,

With nature's ebb and flow, grew feebler Lone as incarnate death! O, that the

And when two lessening points of light Of dark magician in his visioned cave,
alone
Raking the cinders of a crucible
Gleamed through the darkness, the For life and power, even when his feeble

Was quenched, the pulse yet lingered Like some frail exhalation; which the

It paused-it fluttered. But when Robes in its golden beams,-ah! thou

That ministered on sunlight, ere the west And beasts and men live on, and mighty Eclipses it, was now that wondrous

NOTE TO ALASTOR; OR THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE

So sweet even in their silence, on those contrary, contains an individual interest