For sleep, he knew, kept most relentlessly Its precious charge, and silent death exposed, With doubtful smile mocking its own strange charms. 295 Startled by his own thoughts he looked around. 300 Gaped wide with many a rift, and its frail joints A restless impulse urged him to embark And meet lone Death on the drear ocean's waste; 305 For well he knew that mighty Shadow loves The slimy caverns of the populous deep. The day was fair and sunny, sea and sky Drank its inspiring radiance, and the wind Swept strongly from the shore, blackening the waves. 310 Following his eager soul, the wanderer Leaped in the boat, he spread his cloak aloft On the bare mast, and took his lonely seat, And felt the boat speed o'er the tranquil sea Like a torn cloud before the hurricane. 315 As one that in a silver vision floats Obedient to the sweep of odorous winds Upon resplendent clouds, so rapidly Along the dark and ruffled waters fled The straining boat. A whirlwind swept it on, With fierce gusts and precipitating force, The waves arose. Higher and higher still 320 Their fierce necks writhed beneath the tempest's scourge Like serpents struggling in a vulture's grasp. 325 Calm and rejoicing in the fearful war Of wave ruining on wave, and blast on blast Descending, and black flood on whirlpool driven 330 As if their genii were the ministers Holding the steady helm. Evening came on, 335 On every side 340 Entwined in duskier wreaths her braided locks At midnight The moon arose and lo! the ætherial cliffs 345 350 Of Caucasus, whose icy summits shone Among the stars like sunlight, and around Whose caverned base the whirlpools and the waves 355 Bursting and eddying irresistibly Rage and resound for ever. Who shall save? The boat fled on, the boiling torrent drove, The crags closed round with black and jaggèd arms, 360 And faster still, beyond all human speed, Sleep and death 365 The boat moved slowly. Where the mountain, riven, Exposed those black depths to the azure sky, 375 Ere yet the flood's enormous volume fell Even to the base of Caucasus, with sound That shook the everlasting rocks, the mass Filled with one whirlpool all that ample chasm; 380 With alternating dash the knarlèd roots Of mighty trees, that stretched their giant arms Reflecting, yet distorting every cloud, 385 A pool of treacherous and tremendous calm. With dizzy swiftness, round, and round, and round, Ridge after ridge the straining boat arose, Till on the verge of the extremest curve, Of glassy quiet 'mid those battling tides Shall it sink Is left, the boat paused shuddering. Of that resistless gulph embosom it? Now shall it fall? A wandering stream of wind, Breathed from the west, has caught the expanded sail 390 395 Of mossy slope, and on a placid stream, 400 With the breeze murmuring in the musical woods. 405 Is closed by meeting banks, whose yellow flowers But on his heart its solitude returned, And he forbore. Not the strong impulse hid In those flushed cheeks, bent eyes, and shadowy frame Upon his life, as lightning in a cloud Gleams, hovering ere it vanish, ere the floods Of night close over it. The noonday sun Now shone upon the forest, one vast mass 410 415 420 A narrow vale embosoms. There, huge caves, 425 430 435 The ash and the acacia floating hang Tremulous and pale. Like restless serpents, clothed Starred with ten thousand blossoms, flow around 440 The gray trunks, and, as gamesome infants' eyes, These twine their tendrils with the wedded boughs Uniting their close union; the woven leaves 445 And the night's noontide clearness, mutable As shapes in the weird clouds. Soft mossy lawns Beneath these canopies extend their swells, Fragrant with perfumed herbs, and eyed with blooms 450 Minute yet beautiful. One darkest glen Sends from its woods of musk-rose, twined with jasmine, To some more lovely mystery. Through the dell, 455 |