Whose sleep hath been taken Beneath the cold moon,
As the spell which no slumber Of witchery may test,
The rhythinical number
Which lull'd him to rest ?"
Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,
A thousand seraphs burst th' Empyrean thro', Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight- Seraphs in all but "Knowledge," the keen light That fell, refracted, thro' thy bounds, afar O Death! from eye of God upon that star: Sweet was that error-sweeter still that death- Sweet was that error-ev'n with us the breath Of Science dims the mirror of our joy- To them 'twere the Simom, and would destroy- For what (to them) availeth it to know
That Truth is Falsehood—or that Bliss is Woe ? Sweet was their death-with them to die was rife
With the last ecstasy of satiate life
Beyond that death no immortality
But sleep that pondereth and is not "to be"
And there-oh! may my weary spirit dwell—
*Apart from Heaven's Eternity-and yet how far from Hell !
With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven and Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that tranquil and eveu happiness which they suppose to be characteristic of heavenly enjoyme at
In no rompido sueno
Un dia puro-allegre-libre Quiera-
Libre de amor-de zelo
De odio de esperanza-de rezelo.-Luis Ponce de Leon.
Sorrow is not excluded from "Al Aaraaf," but it is that sorrow which the
What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim, Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn? But two: they fell for Heaven no grace imparts To those who hear not for their beating hearts. A maiden-angei and her seraph-lover-
O! where (and ye may seek the wide skies ɔve1) Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known? *Unguided Love hath fallen-'mid "tears of perfect inoan
He was a goodly spirit-he who fell: A wanderer by moss-y-mantled well- A gazer on the lights that shine above- A dreamer in the moonbeam by his love: What wonder? for each star is eye-like there, And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hair- And they, and ev'ry mossy spring were holy To his love-haunted heart and melancholy. The night had found (to him a night of wo) Upon a mountain crag, young Angelo- Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,
And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie. Here sate he with his love-his dark eye bent
With eagle gaze along the firmament:
Now turn'd it upon her-but ever then
It trembled to the orb of EARTH again.
Ianthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray!
How lovely 'tis to look so far away!
living love to cherish for the dead, and which, in some minds, resembles the de lirium of opium. The passionate excitement of Love and the buoyancy of spint attendant upon intoxication are its less holy pleasures--the price of which, to those souls who make choice of "Al Aaraaf" as their residence after life, is final death and annihilation.
* There be tears of perfect moan
Wept for thee in Helicon.-Milton.
She seem'd not thus upon that autumn eve
I left her gorgeous halls-nor mourn'd to leave. That eve-that eve-I should remember well- The sun-ray dropp'd, in Lemnos, with a spell On th' Arabesque carving of a gilded hall Wherein I sate, and on the draperied wall- And on my eye-lids-O the heavy light! How drowsily it weigh'd them into night! On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan :
But O that light!-I slumber'd-Death, the while, Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle
So softly that no single silken hair
Awoke that slept-or knew that he was there.
The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon *Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon- More beauty clung around her column'd wall †Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal, And when old Time my wing did disenthral Thence sprang I—as the eagle from his tower, And years I left behind me in an hour. What time upon her airy bounds I hung One half the garden of her globe was flung Unrolling as a chart unto my view— Tenantless cities of the desert too! Ianthe, beauty crowded on me then, And half I wish'd to be again of men."
"My Angelo! and why of them to be? A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee-
It was entire in 1687--the most elevated spot in Athens.
↑ Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love.-Marlows
And greener fields than in yon world above, And woman's loveliness-and passionate love."
"But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft *Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft, Perhaps my brain grew dizzy-but he world I left so late was into chaos hurl'd-
Sprang from her station, on the winds apart, And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart. Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar And fell-not swiftly as I rose before, But with a downward, tremulous motion thro' Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto! Nor long the measure of my falling hours, For nearest of all stars was thine to ours- Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth, A red Dædalion on the timid Earth.
"We came and to thy Earth-but not to us Be given our lady's bidding to discuss: We came, my love; around, above, below, Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go, Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod She grants to us, as granted by her God- But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfuri'd Never his fairy wing o'er fairier world! Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes Alone could see the phantom in the skies, When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be Headlong thitherward o'er the starry sea― But when its glory swell'd upon the sky, As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,
Pennon-for pinion.- Milton.
We paus'd before the heritage of men,
And thy star trembled-as doth Beauty then!"
Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away
The night that waned and waned and brought no day. They fell for Heaven to them no hope imparts
Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.
FAIR river! in thy bright, clear flow Of crystal, wandering water, Thou art an emblem of the glow
Of beauty-the unhidden heart-- The playful maziness of art
In old Alberto's daughter;
But when within thy wave she looks-- Which glistens then, and trembles- Why, then, the prettiest of brooks Her worshipper resembles; For in his heart, as in thy stream, Her image deeply lies-
His heart which trembles at the beam
Of her soul-searching eyes.
« PoprzedniaDalej » |