Through which his soul, like Vesper's serene beam Piercing the chasms of ever rising clouds, Shone, softly burning; though his lips did seem Like reeds which quiver in impetuous floods; And through his sleep, and o'er each waking hour, Thoughts after thoughts, unresting multitudes, Were driven within him by some secret power, Which bade them blaze, and live, and roll afar, Like lights and sounds, from haunted tower to tower O'er castled mountains borne, when tempest's war Is levied by the night-contending winds,
And the pale dalesmen watch with eager ear;— Though such were in his spirit, as the fiends Which wake and feed an everliving woe,
What was this grief, which ne'er in other minds
A mirror found,-he knew not-none could know;
But on whoe'er might question him he turned The light of his frank eyes, as if to show
He knew not of the grief within that burned, But asked forbearance with a mournful look;
Or spoke in words from which none ever learned
The cause of his disquietude; or shook With spasms of silent passion; or turned pale: So that his friends soon rarely undertook
To stir his secret pain without avail;- For all who knew and loved him then perceived That there was drawn an adamantine veil Between his heart and mind,—both unrelieved Wrought in his brain and bosom separate strife. Some said that he was mad, others believed That memories of an antenatal life Made this, where now he dwelt, a penal hell And others said that such mysterious grief From God's displeasure, like a darkness, fell On souls like his, which owned no higher law Than love; love calm, steadfast, invincible
By mortal fear or supernatural awe; And others,-"Tis the shadow of a dream Which the veiled eye of Memory never saw,
'But through the soul's abyss, like some dark stream 100 Through shattered mines and caverns underground,
Rolls, shaking its foundations; and no beam
74 feed an Bodl. MS.; feed on edd. 1824, 1839.
Of joy may rise, but it is quenched and drowned In the dim whirlpools of this dream obscure; Soon its exhausted waters will have found
A lair of rest beneath thy spirit pure, O Athanase!-in one so good and great, Evil or tumult cannot long endure.
So spake they: idly of another's state Babbling vain words and fond philosophy; This was their consolation; such debate Men held with one another; nor did he, Like one who labours with a human woe, Decline this talk: as if its theme might be Another, not himself, he to and fro
Questioned and canvassed it with subtlest wit;
And none but those who loved him best could know
That which he knew not, how it galled and bit His weary mind, this converse vain and cold; For like an eyeless nightmare grief did sit Upon his being; a snake which fold by fold Pressed out the life of life, a clinging fiend
Which clenched him if he stirred with deadlier hold;- And so his grief remained-let it remain-untold '.
PRINCE ATHANASE had one beloved friend, An old, old man, with hair of silver white,
And lips where heavenly smiles would hang and blend With his wise words; and eyes whose arrowy light Shone like the reflex of a thousand minds. He was the last whom superstition's blight
Had spared in Greece-the blight that cramps and blinds,— And in his olive bower at Oenoe
Had sate from earliest youth. Like one who finds
A fertile island in the barren sea,
One mariner who has survived his mates
Many a drear month in a great ship-so he With soul-sustaining songs, and sweet debates Of ancient lore, there fed his lonely being:- "The mind becomes that which it contemplates,'-
The Author was pursuing a fuller development of the ideal character of Athanase, when it struck him that in an attempt at extreme refinement and analysis, his conceptions might be betrayed into the assuming a morbid character. The reader will judge whether he is a loser or gainer by the difference. [Shelley's Note.]
And thus Zonoras, by forever seeing
Their bright creations, grew like wisest men ; And when he heard the crash of nations fleeing
A bloodier power than ruled thy ruins then, O sacred Hellas! many weary years He wandered, till the path of Laian's glen Was grass-grown-and the unremembered tears Were dry in Laian for their honoured chief, Who fell in Byzant, pierced by Moslem spears :- And as the lady looked with faithful grief From her high lattice o'er the rugged path, Where she once saw that horseman toil, with brief
And blighting hope, who with the news of death Struck body and soul as with a mortal blight, She saw between the chestnuts, far beneath, An old man toiling up, a weary wight; And soon within her hospitable hall
She saw his white hairs glittering in the light
Of the wood fire, and round his shoulders fall; And his wan visage and his withered mien, Yet calm and gentle and majestical.
And Athanase, her child, who must have been Then three years old, sate opposite and gazed In patient silence.
SUCH was Zonoras; and as daylight finds
One amaranth glittering on the path of frost,
When autumn nights have nipped all weaker kinds,
Thus through his age, dark, cold, and tempest-tossed, Shone truth upon Zonoras; and he filled From fountains pure, nigh overgrown and lost, The spirit of Prince Athanase, a child,
With soul-sustaining songs of ancient lore And philosophic wisdom, clear and mild. And sweet and subtle talk they evermore, The pupil and the master, shared; until, Sharing that undiminishable store,
The youth, as shadows on a grassy hill Outrun the winds that chase them, soon_outran His teacher, and did teach with native skill
154 beneath edd. 1824, 1839; between Bodl. MS. ed. 1839; An ed. 1824. had ed. 1824.
165 One Bodl. MS. 167 Thus thro' Bodl. MS. (?), ed. 1839; Thus 173 talk they ed. 1824, Bodl. MS.; talk now ed. 1839. 175 that ed. 1839; the ed. 1824.
Strange truths and new to that experienced man; Still they were friends, as few have ever been Who mark the extremes of life's discordant span.
So in the caverns of the forest green, Or on the rocks of echoing ocean hoar, Zonoras and Prince Athanase were seen
By summer woodmen; and when winter's roar Sounded o'er earth and sea its blast of war, The Balearic fisher, driven from shore,
Hanging upon the peaked wave afar,
Then saw their lamp from Laian's turret gleam, Piercing the stormy darkness, like a star
Which pours beyond the sea one steadfast beam, Whilst all the constellations of the sky
Seemed reeling through the storm. . . They did but seem For, lo! the wintry clouds are all gone by, And bright Arcturus through yon pines is glowing, And far o'er southern waves, immovably
Belted Orion hangs-warm light is flowing From the young moon into the sunset's chasm.- 'O, summer eve! with power divine, bestowing
'On thine own bird the sweet enthusiasm Which overflows in notes of liquid gladness, Filling the sky like light! How many a spasm
‘Of fevered brains, oppressed with grief and madness, Were lulled by thee, delightful nightingale,-
And these soft waves, murmuring a gentle sadness, 205
'And the far sighings of yon piny dale Made vocal by some wind we feel not here.- I bear alone what nothing may avail
To lighten a strange load!'-No human ear Heard this lament; but o'er the visage wan Of Athanase, a ruffling atmosphere
Of dark emotion, a swift shadow, ran, Like wind upon some forest-bosomed lake, Glassy and dark. And that divine old man.
Beheld his mystic friend's whole being shake, Even where its inmost depths were gloomiest- And with a calm and measured voice he spake,
182 So ed. 1839; And ed. 1824. 183 Or on Bodl. MS.; Or by edd. 1824, 199 eve Bodl. MS. ed. 1839; night ed. 1824.
swift edd. 1824, 1839; emotion with swift Bodl. MS.
And, with a soft and equal pressure, pressed That cold lean hand :-Dost thou remember yet When the curved moon then lingering in the west 'Paused, in yon waves her mighty horns to wet, How in those beams we walked, half resting on the sea? 'Tis just one year-sure thou dost not forget- Then Plato's words of light in thee and me Lingered like moonlight in the moonless east, For we had just then read-thy memory 'Is faithful now-the story of the feast; And Agathon and Diotima seemed From death and dark forgetfulness released . .
AND when the old man saw that on the green Leaves of his opening a blight had lighted He said: 'My friend, one grief alone can wean A gentle mind from all that once delighted :- Thou lovest, and thy secret heart is laden With feelings which should not be unrequited.' And Athanase . . . then smiled, as one o'erladen With iron chains might smile to talk (?) of bands Twined round her lover's neck by some blithe maiden, And said.
"Twas at the season when the Earth upsprings From slumber, as a sphered angel's child, Shadowing its eyes with green and golden wings, Stands up before its mother bright and mild, Of whose soft voice the air expectant seems- So stood before the sun, which shone and smiled
To see it rise thus joyous from its dreams, The fresh and radiant Earth. The hoary grove
Waxed green-and flowers burst forth like starry beams;The grass in the warm sun did start and move, And sea-buds burst under the waves serene:How many a one, though none be near to love, Loves then the shade of his own soul, half seen In any mirror-or the spring's young minions, The winged leaves amid the copses green;How many a spirit then puts on the pinions Of fancy, and outstrips the lagging blast, And his own steps-and over wide dominions 250 under ed. 1824, Bodl. MS.; beneath ed. 1839. 1824, 1889; outrides Bodl. MS.
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