Yes! she will wake again, Although her glowing limbs are motionless, And silent those sweet lips
Once breathing eloquence,
That might have soothed a tiger's rage Or thawed the cold heart of a conqueror. Her dewy eyes are closed,
And on their lids, whose texture fine Scarce hides the dark blue orbs beneath,
The baby sleep is pillowed: Her golden tresses shade The bosom's stainless pride,
Curling like tendrils of the parasite Around a marble column.
Hark! whence that rushing sound? 'Tis like the wondrous strain That round a lonely ruin swells, Which, wandering on the echoing shore, The enthusiast hears at evening. 'Tis softer than the west wind's sigh: 'Tis wilder than the unmeasured notes Of that strange lyre whose strings The genii of the breezes sweep:
Those lines of rainbow light
Are like the moonbeams when they fall Through some cathedral window, but the tints Are such as may not find Comparison on earth.
Behold the chariot of the Fairy Queen! Celestial coursers paw the unyielding air: Their filmy pennons at her word they furl, And stop obedient to the reins of light: These the Queen of spells drew in; She spread a charm around the spot, And, leaning graceful from the ethereal car, Long did she gaze, and silently,
Upon the slumbering maid.
Oh! not the visioned poet in his dreams, [brain, When silvery clouds float through the wildered
When every sight of lovely, wild, and grand, Astonishes, enraptures, elevates,
When fancy at a glance combines The wondrous and the beautiful; So bright, so fair, so wild, a shape Hath ever yet beheld,
As that which reined the coursers of the air, And poured the magic of her gaze Upon the maiden's sleep.
The broad and yellow moon Shone dimly through her form- That form of faultless symmetry; The pearly and pellucid car
Moved not the moonlight's line: 'Twas not an earthly pageant. Those who had looked upon the sight, Passing all human glory,
Saw not the yellow moon, Saw not the mortal scene, Heard not the night-wind's rush, Heard not an earthly sound, Saw but the fairy pageant, Heard but the heavenly strains
That filled the lonely dwelling.
The Fairy's frame was slight; yon fibrous cloud, That catches but the palest tinge of even, And which the straining eye can hardly seize When melting into eastern twilight's shadow, Were scarce so thin, so slight; but the fair star, That gems the glittering coronet of morn, Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful, As that which, bursting from the Fairy's form, Spread a perpetual halo round the scene,
Yet with an undulating motion
Swayed to her outline gracefully.
From her celestial car The Fairy Queen descended, And thrice she waved her wand
Circled with wreaths of amaranth: Her thin and misty form Moved with the moving air, And the clear silver tones, As thus she spoke, were such As are unheard by all but gifted ear.
Fairy. Stars! your balmiest influence shed. Elements! your wrath suspend! Sleep, Ocean, in the rocky bounds That circle thy domain !
Let not a breath be seen to stir Around yon grass-grown ruin's height; Let even the restless gossamer | Sleep on the moveless air! Soul of Ianthe! thou,
Judged alone worthy of the envied boon
That waits the good and the sincere; that waits Those who have struggled, and with resolute wil Vanquished earth's pride and meanness, burst the chains,
The icy chains of custom, and have shone The day-stars of their age;-Soul of Ianthe! Awake! arise!
Sudden arose
Ianthe's Soul! It stood
All beautiful in naked purity,
The perfect semblance of its bodily frame, Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace Each stain of earthliness Had passed away: it re-assumed Its native dignity, and stood Immortal amid ruin.
Upon the couch the body lay Wrapt in the depth of slumber: Its features were fixed and meaningless, Yet animal life was there,
And every organ yet performed Its natural functions: 'twas a sight
Of wonder to behold the body and soul. The self same lineaments, the same Marks of identity, were there:
Yet, oh, how different! One aspires to heaven, Plants for its sempiternal heritage, And, ever changing, ever rising still, Wantons in endless being.
The other, for a time the unwilling sport Of circumstance and passion, struggles on; Fleets through its sad duration rapidly; Then, like a useless and worn-out machine Rots, perishes, and passes.
Fairy. Spirit! who hast dived so deep; Spirit! who hast soared so high; Thou the fearless, thou the mild, Accept the boon thy worth hath earned, Ascend the car with me.
Spirit. Do I dream? is this new feeling But a visioned ghost of slumber? If indeed I am a soul,
A free a disembodied soul, Speak again to me.
Fairy. I am the Fairy MAB: to me 'tis given The wonders of the human world to keep: The secrets of the immeasurable past, In the unfailing consciences of men, Those stern unflattering chroniclers, I find : The future, from the causes which arise In each event, I gather: not the sting Which retributive memory implants In the hard bosom of the selfish men; Nor that extatic and exulting throb Which virtue's votary feels when he sums up The thoughts actions of well-spent day, Are unforeseen, unregistered by me: And it is yet permitted me, to rend The veil of mortal frailty, that the spirit, Clothed in its changeless purity, may know How soonest to accomplish the great end For which it hath its being, and may taste
That peace which in the end all life will share This is the meed of virtue; happy Soul, Ascend the car with me!
The chains of earth's immurement Fell from Ianthe's spirit;
They shrank and break like bandages of straw Beneath a wakened giant's strength. She knew her glorious change, And felt in apprehension uncontrolled New raptures opened round: Each day-dream of her mortal life, Each frenzied vision of the slumbers That closed each well spent day, Seemed now to meet reality.
The Fairy and the soul proceeded; The silver clouds disparted: And, as the car of magic they ascended, Again the speechless music swelled, Again the coursers of the air
Unfurled their azure pennons, and the Queen Shaking the beamy reins
Bade them pursue their way.
The magic car moved on.
The night was fair, and countless stars Studded heaven's dark blue vault,-
Just o'er the eastern wave
Peeped the first faint smile of morn.- The magic car moved on-
From the celestial hoofs
The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew, And, where the burning wheels Eddied above the mountain's loftiest peak,
Was traced a line of lightning.
Now it flew far above a rock, The utmost verge of earth,
The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow Lowered o'er the silver sea.
Far, far below the chariot's path, Calm as a slumbering babe,
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