But loathsomeness and ruin? Spare aught but a dark theme, On which the lightest heart might moralize? Or is it but that downy-winged slumbers Have charmed their nurse coy Silence near her lids Will they, when morning's beam Flows through those wells of light, Seek far from noise and day some western cave, 20 Where woods and streams with soft and pausing winds A lulling murmur weave?— Ianthe doth not sleep The dreamless sleep of death: Nor in her moonlight chamber silently Doth Henry hear her regular pulses throb, Or mark her delicate cheek 25 30 35 With interchange of hues mock the broad moon, Outwatching weary night, Without assured reward. Her dewy eyes are closed; On their translucent lids, whose texture fine 40 Scarce hides the dark blue orbs that burn below With unapparent fire, The baby Sleep is pillowed: Her golden tresses shade The bosom's stainless pride, Twining like tendrils of the parasite Around a marble column. Hark! whence that rushing sound? "Tis like a wondrous strain that sweeps When west winds sigh and evening waves respond In whispers from the shore: 45 50 'Tis wilder than the unmeasured notes Which from the unseen lyres of dells and groves The genii of the breezes sweep. Floating on waves of music and of light The chariot of the Dæmon of the World Descends in silent power: Its shape reposed within: slight as some cloud When evening yields to night, Bright as that fibrous woof when stars indue Four shapeless shadows bright and beautiful The Dæmon leaning from the etherial car Human eye hath ne'er beheld A shape so wild, so bright, so beautiful, As that which o'er the maiden's charmed sleep Waving a starry wand, Hung like a mist of light. Such sounds as breathed around like odorous winds Of wakening spring arose, Filling the chamber and the moonlight sky. Maiden, the world's supremest spirit Feelings that lure thee to betray, For thou hast earned a mighty boon, The truths which wisest poets see Dimly, thy mind may make its own, Rewarding its own majesty, Entranced in some diviner mood Of self-oblivious solitude. Custom, and Faith, and Power thou spurnest; From hate and awe thy heart is free; Ardent and pure as day thou burnest, A living light, to cheer it long, The watch-fires of the world among. Therefore from nature's inner shrine, Where gods and fiends in worship bend, The flame to seize, the veil to rend, All that inspires thy voice of love, Or speaks in thy unclosing eyes, Or through thy frame doth burn or move, Earth's unsubstantial mimicry !1 It ceased, and from the mute and moveless frame A radiant spirit arose, All beautiful in naked purity. Robed in its human hues it did ascend, Disparting as it went the silver clouds It moved towards the car, and took its seat Beside the Dæmon shape. Mimickry in Shelley's edition. 105 110 Obedient to the sweep of aery song, The mighty ministers Unfurled their prismy wings. The magic car moved on; The night was fair, innumerable stars. The eastern wave grew pale The magic car moved on. From the swift sweep of wings Now far above a rock the utmost verge Of the wide earth it flew, The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow Far, far below the chariot's stormy path, Calm as a slumbering babe, Its broad and silent mirror gave to view The pale and waning stars, 115 120 125 130 135 The chariot's fiery track, And the grey light of morn Tinging those fleecy clouds 140 That cradled in their folds the infant dawn. The chariot seemed to fly Through the abyss of an immense concave, Radiant with million constellations, tinged With shades of infinite colour, And semicircled with a belt F 145 As they approached their goal, The winged shadows seemed to gather speed. Whose rays of rapid light Parted around the chariot's swifter course, And fell like ocean's feathery spray Dashed from the boiling surge 150 155 It was a sight of wonder! Some were horned, Spirit of Nature! here In this interminable wilderness Of worlds, at whose involved immensity Even soaring fancy staggers, Here is thy fitting temple. Yet not the lightest leaf 165 170 175 180 |