Which is a soul within the soul-they seem 455 Like echoes of an antenatal dream. It is an isle 'twixt Heaven, Air, Earth, and Sea, 460 It is a favoured place. Famine or Blight, The winged storms, chaunting their thunder-psalm O'er the gray rocks, blue waves, and forests green, But the chief marvel of the wilderness 465 470 475 480 Is a lone dwelling, built by whom or how None of the rustic island-people know : 485 'Tis not a tower of strength, though with its height It overtops the woods; but, for delight, Some wise and tender Ocean-King, ere crime Had been invented, in the world's young prime, 490 Of Earth having assumed its form, then grown 495 Out of the mountains, from the living stone, 500 The volumes of their many-twining stems; Parasite flowers illume with dewy gems The lampless halls, and when they fade, the sky Peeps through their winter-woof of tracery With Moon-light patches, or star atoms keen, 505 Or fragments of the day's intense serene; Working mosaic on their Parian floors. And, day and night, aloof, from the high towers And terraces, the Earth and Ocean seem To sleep in one another's arms, and dream 510 Of waves, flowers, clouds, woods, rocks, and all that we This isle and house are mine, and I have vowed Thee to be lady of the solitude. 515 And I have fitted up some chambers there 520 Out of its grave, and make the present last In thoughts and joys which sleep, but cannot die, Our simple life wants little, and true taste 525 530 Round the evening tower, and the young stars glance Between the quick bats in their twilight dance; The spotted deer bask in the fresh moon-light 535 Their withered hours, like leaves, on our decay, The living soul of this Elysian isle, Conscious, inseparable, one. Meanwhile 540 We two will rise, and sit, and walk together, Under the roof of blue Ionian weather, And wander in the meadows, or ascend The mossy mountains, where the blue heavens bend With lightest winds, to touch their paramour; 545 Or linger, where the pebble-paven shore, Under the quick, faint kisses of the sea Trembles and sparkles as with ecstasy, Possessing and possessed by all that is 550 Be one :- or, at the noontide hour, arrive Through which the awakened day can never peep; 555 A veil for our seclusion, close as Night's, 560 Our breath shall intermix, our bosoms bound, 565 And our veins beat together; and our lips, With other eloquence than words, eclipse The soul that burns between them; and the wells Which boil under our being's inmost cells, The fountains of our deepest life, shall be 570 As mountain-springs under the morning Sun. Spirit within two frames, oh! wherefore two? One passion in twin-hearts, which grows and grew, 575 Till like two meteors of expanding flame, Those spheres instinct with it become the same Touch, mingle, are transfigured; ever still Burning, yet ever inconsumable : In one another's substance finding food, 580 585 And one annihilation. Woe is me! The winged words on which my soul would pierce Are chains of lead around its flight of fire. - Weak Verses, go, kneel at your Sovereign's feet, And say: "We are the masters of thy slave; "What wouldest thou with us and ours and thine? Then call your sisters from Oblivion's cave, All singing loud: "Love's very pain is sweet, "But its reward is in the world divine 66 Which, if not here, it builds beyond the grave." So shall ye live when I am there. Then haste Over the hearts of men, until ye meet Marina, Vanna, Primus, and the rest, And bid them love each other and be bless'd: And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves, ΤΟ MUSIC, when soft voices die, Odours, when sweet violets sicken, And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, 590 595 600 5 |