Deep slumber fell on me :-my dreams were fire,
Soft and delightful thoughts did rest and hover
Like shadows o'er my brain: and strange desire,
The tempest of a passion, raging over
My tranquil soul, its depths with light did eover,
Which past; and calm, and darkness, sweeter far,
Came-then I loved; but not a human lover!
For, when I rose from sleep, the Morning Star
Shone thro' the woodbine wreaths which round my case.
ment were.
'Twas like an eye which seemed to smile on me.
I watched, till by the sun made pale, it sank
Under the billows of the heaving sea;
But from its beams deep love my spirit drank,
And to my brain the boundless world now shrank
Into one thought-one image-yes, for ever!
Even like the dayspring, poured on vapours dank,
The beams of that one Star did shoot and quiver
Thro' my benighted mind—and were extinguished never
The day past thus: at night, methought in dream
A shape of speechless beauty did appear;
It stood like light on a careering stream
Of golden clouds which shook the atmosphere
A winged youth; his radiant brow did wear
The Morning Star: a wild dissolving bliss
Over my frame he breathed, approaching near,
And bent his eyes of kindling tenderness
Near mine, and on my lips impressed a lingering kiss,
And said: A Spirit loves thee, mortal maiden;
How wilt thou prove thy worth? Then joy and sleep
Together fled; my soul was deeply laden,
And to the shore I went to muse and weep;
But, as I moved, over my heart did creep
A joy less soft, but more profound and strong
Than my sweet dream; and it forbade to keep
The path of the sea-shore: that Spirit's tongue
Seemed whispering in my heart and bore my steps along
How, to that vast and peopled city led,
Which was a field of holy warfare then,
I walked among the dying and the dead,
And shared in fearless deeds with evil men.
Calm as an angel in the dragon's den-
How I braved death for liberty and truth,
And spurned at peace, and power, and fame; and when
Those hopes had lost the glory of their youth,
How sadly I returned-might move the hearer's ruth.
Warm tears throng fast! the tale may not be said-
Know then, that, when this grief had been subdued,
I was not left like others, cold and dead;
The Spirit whom I loved in solitude
Sustained his child: the tempest-shaken wood,
The waves, the fountains, and the hush of night-
These were his voice, and well I understood
His smile divine, when the calm sea was bright
With silent stars, and Heaven was breathless with de
In lonely glens, amid the roar of rivers,
When the dim nights were moonless, have I known
Joys which no tongue can tell; my pale lip quivers
When thought revisits them;-know thou alone,
That, after many wondrous years were flown,
I was awakened by a shriek of woe:
And over me a mystic robe was thrown,
By viewless hands, and a bright Star did glow
Before my steps--the Snake then met his mortal foe.
Thou fearest not then the Serpent on thy heart?
Fear it! she said, with brief and passionate cry,
And spake no more: that silence made me start-
I looked, and we were sailing pleasantly,
Swift as a cloud between the sea and sky.
Beneath the rising moon seen far away;
Mountains of ice, like sapphire, piled on high
Hemming the horizon round, in silence lay
On the still waters-these we did approach alway.
And swift and swifter grew the vessel's motion,
So that a dizzy trance fell on my brain-
Wild music woke me: we had past the ocean
Which girds the pole, Nature's remotest reign-
And we glode fast o'er a pellucid plain
Of waters, azure with the noon tide day.
Etherial mountains shone around-a Fane
Stood in the midst, girt by by green isies which lay,
On the blue sunny deep, resplendent, far away.
It was a Temple, such as mortal hand
Has never built, nor extacy, nor dream,
Reared in the cities of inchanted land:
'Twas likest Heaven, ere yet day's purple stream
Ebbs o'er the western forest, while the gleam
Of the unrisen moon among the clouds
Is gathering-when with many a golden beam
The thronging constellations rush in crowds,
Paving with fire the sky and the marmoreal floods.
Like what may be conceived of this vast dome,
When from the depths which thought can seldom pierce Genius beholds it rise, his native home,
Girt by the deserts of the Universe.
Yet, nor painting's light, or mightier verse,
Or sculpture's marble language, can invest
That shape to mortal sense-such glooms immerse
That incommunicable sight, and rest
Upon the labouring brain and overburthened breast
Winding among the lawny islands fair,
Whose blossomy forests starred the shadowy deep,
The wingless boat paused where an ivory stair
Its fretwork in the crystal sea did steep,
Encircling that vast Fane's aerial heap:
We disembarked, and thro' a portal wide
We past-whose roof, of moonstone carved, did keep
A glimmering o'er the forms on every side,
Sculptures like life and thought; immoveable, deep eyed
We came to a vast hall, whose glorious roof
Was diamond, which had drunk the lightning's sheen
In darkness, and now poured it through the woof
Of spell-inwoven clouds, hung there to screen
Its blinding splendour-thro' such veil was seen
That work of subtlest power, divine and rare;
Orb above orb, with starry shapes between,
And horned moons, and meteors strange and fair,
On night-black columns poised-one hollow hemisphere!
Ten thousand columns in that quivering light
Distinct-between whose shafts wound far away
The long and labyrinthine aisles-more bright
With their own radiance than the Heaven of Day;
And, on the jasper walls around, there lay
Paintings, the poesy of mightiest thought,
Which did the Spirit's history display;
A tale of passionate change, divinely taught, [wrought.
Which, in their winged dance, unconscious Genii
Beneath, there sat on many a sapphire throne
The Great, who had departed from mankind,
A mighty Senate;-some, whose white hair shone
Like mountain snow, mild, beautiful, and blind;
Some, female forms, whose gestures beamed with mind;
And ardent youths, and children bright and fair;
And some had lyres, whose strings were intertwined
With pale and clinging flames, which ever there [air.
Waked faint yet thrilling sounds that pierced the crystal
One seat was vacant in the midst, a throne,
Reared on a pyramid like sculptured flame,
Distinct with circling steps which rested on
Their own deep fire--soon as the Woman came
Into that hall, she shrieked the Spirit's name,
And fell, and vanished slowly from the sight,
Darkness arose from her dissolving frame,
Which, gathering, filled that dome of woven light,
Blotting it's sphered stars with supernatural night.
Then, first, two glittering lights were seen to glide
In circles on the amethystine floor,
Small serpent eyes trailing from side to side,
Like meteors on a river's grassy shore,
They round each other rolled, dilating more
And more-then rose, commingling into one,
One clear and mighty planet hanging o'er
A cloud of deepest shadow, which was thrown
Athwart the glowing steps and the crystalline throne.
The cloud which rested on that cone of flame
Was cloven; beneath the planet sate a Form
Fairer than tongue can speak or thought may frame
The raidance of whose limbs rose-like and warm
Flowed forth, and did with softest light inform
The shadowy dome, the sculptures, and the state
Of those assembled shapes-with clinging charm
Sinking upon their hearts and mine-He sate
Majestic, yet most mild-calm, yet compassionate
Wonder and joy a passing faintness threw
Over my brow-a hand supported me,
Whose touch was magic strength: an eye of blue
Looked into mine, like moonlight, soothingly;
And a voice said-Thou must a listener be
This day-two mighty Spirits now return,
Like birds of calm, from the world's raging sea;
They pour fresh light from Hope's immortal urn;
A tale of human power-despair not-list and learn.
I looked, and lo! one stood forth eloquently;
His eyes were dark and deep, and the clear brow
Which shadowed them was like the morning sky,
The cloudless Heaven of Spring, when, in their flow
Thro' the bright air, the soft winds as they blow
Wake the green world-his gestures did obey
The ocular mind that made his features glow,
And, where his curved lips half open lay,
Passion's divinest stream had made impetuous way.
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