XXIX. "So be the turf heaped over our remains Insult with careless tread, our undivided tomb. XXX. "Our many thoughts and deeds, our life and love, After long years, some sweet and moving scene Quells his long madness-thus man shall remember thee. XXXI. "And Calumny meanwhile shall feed on us, Shall sneers and curses be;-what we have done And fame, in human hope which sculptured was, 1 In Shelley's edition, stedfast again. XXXII. "The while we two, beloved, must depart, And Sense and Reason, those inchanters fair, These eyes, these lips, this blood, seems darkly there Peopling with golden dreams the stagnant air, In joy;-but senseless death-a ruin dark and deep! XXXIII. "These are blind fancies-reason cannot know And fear, and pain-we know not whence we live, Or even these thoughts :-Come near me! I do weave With thoughts too swift and strong for one lone human breast. XXXIV. "Yes, yes-thy kiss is sweet, thy lips are warm O willingly,1 beloved, would these eyes, Close their faint orbs in death: I fear nor prize 1 There is no comma at willingly in Shelley's edition. 2 Wisdom is spelt with a small w in Shelley's edition. XXXV. Alas, our thoughts flow on with stream, whose waters Return not to their fountain-Earth and Heaven, The Ocean and the Sun, the clouds their daughters, Winter, and Spring, and Morn, and Noon, and Even, All that we are or know, is darkly driven Towards one gulph-Lo! what a change is come Since I first spake-but time shall be forgiven, Tho' it change all but thee!"-She ceased, night's gloom Meanwhile had fallen on earth from the sky's sunless dome. XXXVI. Tho' she had ceased, her countenance uplifted O, that my spirit were yon Heaven of night, She turned to me and smiled-that smile was Paradise! 1 This "alexandrine in the middle of a stanza" divides with that in stanza XXVII of Canto IV the claim to be considered the one referred to in Shelley's preface. In Shelley's edition crystalline has no accent on the second syllable, though clearly to be read with one. S Canto Tenth. I. WAS there a human spirit in the steed, That thus with his proud voice, ere night was gone, To see her sons contend? and makes she bare II. I have heard friendly sounds from many a tongue, Which was not human-the lone Nightingale Has answered me with her most soothing song, Out of her ivy bower, when I sate pale With grief, and sighed beneath; from many a dale With happy sounds, and motions, that avail Like man's own speech; and such was now the token Of waning night, whose calm by that proud neigh was broken. 1 We have a for an in Mrs. Shelley's and Mr. Rossetti's editions. III. Each night, that mighty steed bore me abroad, The dead in horrid truce: their throngs did make Behind the steed, a chasm like waves in a ship's wake. IV. For, from the utmost realms of earth, came pouring At that throned1 traitor's summons; like the roaring Their files of steel and flame;-the continent Trembled, as with a zone of ruin bound, Beneath their feet, the sea shook with their Navies' sound. V. From every nation of the earth they came, Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings 1 Thron'd in Shelley's edition. In Shelley's edition the word here is home,-clearly an oversight, whether in writing or in correcting the press. |