I held what I inherited in thee As pawn for that inheritance of freedom Vane. Hampden. Hail, fleet herald Of tempest! that rude pilot who shall guide Beyond the webs of that swoln spider. Of atheist priests! Fair star, whose beam lies on the wide Atlantic, Oh light us to the isles of the evening land! Touched by departing hope, they gleam! lone regions, With purest blood of noblest hearts; whose dew Of formal blasphemies; nor impious rites Wrest man's free worship, from the God who loves, These exiles from the old and sinful world! This glorious clime; this firmament, whose lights Of pale-blue atmosphere, whose tears keep green Becomes a cell too narrow for the soul Of cradling peace built on the mountain tops,— FRAGMENTS. To which the eagle spirits of the free, 603 Which range through heaven and earth, and scorn the storm Return to brood on thoughts that cannot die And cannot be repelled. Like eaglets floating in the heaven of time, SCENE V. Archy. I'll go live under the ivy that overgrows the terrace, and court the tears shed on its old roots (?), as the [wind?] plays the song of 'A widow bird sate mourning [Sings] Heigho! the lark and the owl ! One flies the morning, and one lulls the night :-- Sings like the fool through darkness and light. "A widow bird sate mourning for her love The frozen wind crept on above, There was no leaf upon the forest bare, 1822. No flower upon the ground, And little motion in the air Except the mill-wheel's sound.” XL. 1. WE meet not as we parted; 2. That moment is gone for ever; Like lightning that flashed and died, 3. That moment from time was singled Sweet lips, could my heart have hidden Ye would not have then forbidden 18 22. 1822. The death which a heart so true 5. Methinks too little cost For a moment so found, so lost! XLI. Bright wanderer, fair coquette of heaven, XLII. THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE. Of darkness fell from the awakened earth. To which the birds tempered their matin lay. Their trembling eyelids to the kiss of day, With orient incense lit by the new ray Burned slow and inconsumably, and sent Isle, ocean, and all things that in them wear Their portion of the toil which he of old Was at my feet, and heaven above my head ;— Was so transparent that the scene came through That I had felt the freshness of that dawn The birds, the fountains, and the ocean, hold Sweet talk in music through the enamoured air. And then a vision on my brain was rolled. As in that trance of wondrous thought I lay, Thick strewn with summer dust; and a great stream Of people there was hurrying to and fro, Numerous as gnats upon the evening gleam,— Was borne amid the crowd as through the sky Some flying from the thing they feared, and some And others, as with steps towards the tomb, Of their own shadow walked, and called it death; But more, with motions which each other crossed, , Upon that path where flowers never grew,- Out of their mossy cells for ever burst, With overarching elms, and caverns cold, And violet-banks where sweet dreams brood;-but they Pursued their serious folly as of old. And, as I gazed, methought that in the way But icy cold, obscured with blinding light When on the sunlit limits of the night Her white shell trembles amid crimson air, And whilst the sleeping tempest gathers might- Doth, as the herald of its coming, bear The ghost of her dead mother, whose dim form So came a chariot on the silent storm The guidance of that wonder-winged team. The shapes which drew it in thick lightenings Were lost-I heard alone on the air's soft stream The music of their ever-moving wings. All the four faces of that Charioteer Had their eyes banded. Little profit brings Speed in the van and blindness in the rear, Nor then avail the beams that quench the sun: Or that with banded eyes could pierce the sphere Of all that is, has been, or will be, done. So ill was the car guided-but it passed With solemn speed majestically on. The crowd gave way; and I arose aghast, Or seemed to rise, so mighty was the trance, And saw, like clouds upon the thunder-blast, The million with fierce song and maniac dance Raging around. Such seemed the jubilee As when, to greet some conqueror's advance, Imperial Rome poured forth her living sea From senate-house and forum and theatre, When . upon the free 7 Had bound a yoke which soon they stooped bear. Nor wanted here the just similitude Of a triumphal pageant, for, where'er |