Absorbed me from the nature of itself
With it's own fleetness. Where is he that borne Adown the sloping of an arrowy stream, Could link his shallop to the fleeting edge, And muse midway with philosophic calm Upon the wondrous laws, which regulate The fierceness of the bounding Element?
My thoughts which long had grovell'd in the slime Of this dull world, like dusky worms which house Beneath unshaken waters, but at once
Upon some Earth-awakening day of Spring Do pass from gloom to glory, and aloft Winnow the purple, bearing on both sides Double display of starlit wings which burn, Fanlike and fibred, with intensest bloom; Ev'n so my thoughts, erewhile so low, now felt Unutterable buoyancy and strength
To bear them upward through the trackless fields Of undefin'd existence far and free.
Then first within the South methought I saw A wilderness of spires, and chrystal pile Of rampart upon rampart, dome on dome, Illimitable range of battlement
On battlement, and the Imperial height Of Canopy o'ercanopied.
In diamond light upsprung the dazzling cones Of Pyramids as far surpassing Earth's
As Heaven than Earth is fairer. Each aloft Upon his narrow'd Eminence bore globes Of wheeling Suns, or Stars, or semblances Of either, showering circular abyss Of radiance. But the glory of the place Stood out a pillar'd front of burnish'd gold, Interminably high, if gold it were
Or metal more etherial, and beneath
Two doors of blinding brilliance, where no gaze Might rest, stood open, and the eye could scan,
Through length of porch and valve and boundless hall,
Part of a throne of fiery flame, wherefrom
The snowy skirting of a garment hung, And glimpse of multitudes of multitudes That minister'd around it-if I saw
These things distinctly, for my human brain Stagger'd beneath the vision, and thick night Came down upon my eyelids, and I fell.
With ministering hand he rais'd me up: Then with a mournful and ineffable smile, Which but to look on for a moment fill'd My eyes with irresistible sweet tears, In accents of majestic melody,
Like a swoln river's gushings in still night Mingled with floating music, thus he spake :
"There is no mightier Spirit than I to sway The heart of man: and teach him to attain By shadowing forth the Unattainable;
And step by step to scale that mighty stair Whose landing-place is wrapt about with clouds Of glory of Heaven.' With earliest light of Spring, And in the glow of sallow Summertide,
And in red Autumn when the winds are wild With gambols, and when full-voiced Winter roofs The headland with inviolate white snow,
I play about his heart a thousand ways, Visit his eyes with visions, and his ears With harmonies of wind and wave and wood, -Of winds which tell of waters, and of waters Betraying the close kisses of the wind- And win him unto me: and few there be
So gross of heart who have not felt and known A higher than they see: They with dim eyes Behold me darkling. Lo! I have given thee To understand my presence, and to feel
My fullness; I have fill'd thy lips with power. I have rais'd thee nigher to the spheres of Heaven, Man's first, last home: and thou with ravish'd sense Listenest the lordly music flowing from Th' illimitable years. I am the Spirit,
The permeating life which courseth through All th' intricate and labyrinthine veins Of the great vine of Fable, which, outspread With growth of shadowing leaf and clusters rare, Reacheth to every corner under Heaven, Deep-rooted in the living soil of truth; So that men's hopes and fears take refuge in
1 Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.
The fragrance of it's complicated glooms And cool impleachèd twilights. Child of Man, See'st thou yon river, whose translucent wave, Forth issuing from the darkness, windeth through The argent streets o' th' City, imaging
The soft inversion of her tremulous Domes, Her gardens frequent with the stately Palm, Her Pagods hung with music of sweet bells, Her obelisks of rangèd Chrysolite,
Lo! how he passeth by,
And gulphs himself in sands, as not enduring
To carry through the world those waves, which bore The reflex of my City in their depths.
Oh City! oh latest Throne! where I was rais'd To be a mystery of loveliness
Unto all eyes, the time is well-nigh come When I must render up this glorious home To keen Discovery: soon yon brilliant towers Shall darken with the waving of her wand; Darken, and shrink and shiver into huts, Black specks amid a waste of dreary sand, Low-built, mud-wall'd, Barbarian settlements. How chang'd from this fair City!"
Then parted Heaven-ward on the wing: and I Was left alone on Calpe, and the Moon Had fallen from the night, and all was dark! (1829)
When my passion seeks Pleasance in love-sighs She, looking thro' and thro' me Thoroughly to undo me,
Smiling, never speaks :
So innocent-arch, so cunning-simple, From beneath her gather'd wimple
Glancing with black-beaded eyes, Till the lightning laughters dimple The baby-roses in her cheeks; Then away she flies.
Prythee weep, May Lilian! Gaiety without eclipse Wearieth me, May Lilian : Thro' my very heart it thrilleth When from crimson-threaded lips Silver-treble laughter trilleth : Prythee weep, May Lilian.
EYES not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed With the clear-pointed flame of chastity, Clear, without heat, undying, tended by Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent fane Of her still spirit; locks not wide-dispread, Madonna-wise on either side her head; Sweet lips whereon perpetually did reign The summer calm of golden charity, Were fixed shadows of thy fixed mood,
Revered Isabel, the crown and head, The stately flower of female fortitude,
Of perfect wifehood and pure lowlihead.
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