- /;-i/. 
 
Sthiata, New fork 
 
 FROM THE 
 
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 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR5115.P54V5 
 
 A vision of life; semblance and reality, b 
 
 3 1924 013 531 847 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 the Cornell University Library. 
 
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A VISION OF LIFE 
 
A U rights reserved 
 
A 
 
 VISION OF LIFE 
 
 WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE 
 
 SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 AND HER majesty's MINISTER RESIDENT IN URUGUAY 
 
 Canterd di quel secondo regno, 
 
 Ove 1' umano spirito si purga, 
 E di salire al Ciel diventa degno. 
 
 ?LoniJon 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW I'okK 1^ l~ ' •-= 
 
 „ Lll'.RAKV ^ 
 
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 A^f^<^^^ 
 
 Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. 
 
 V/l A51HI,I ~ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 " By the death of Mr. William Gifford Palgrave, the accom- 
 plished and adventurous traveller whose journey throiigh 
 Arabia in 1862-63 attracted such universal attention, the 
 Royal Geographical Society loses one of its most dis- 
 tinguished members. The event occurred at Montevideo, 
 where he was serving as British Minister to the Republic 
 of Uruguay. He was the second son of Sir Francis 
 Palgrave, the famous historian and Deputy-Keeper of 
 the Public Records, and was born in Westminster on 
 January 24, 1826. Like his eldest brother Francis, he 
 was educated at the Charterhouse, and left that school 
 with all the honours which a schoolboy can gain on 
 entering on a University career. He obtained a 
 scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, his eldest brother 
 having already entered at Balliol. At the early age 
 of twenty, after an academical residence of only two 
 years and a half, he took his First Class in Classics, in 
 which class are to be found in the same year other 
 distinguished names, such as W. Bright, J. Conington, 
 and W. Ince, while T. G. Baring, the present Lord 
 Northbrook, was in the Second Class. Palgrave also 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 gained in the same Honour Schools a Second Class in 
 Mathematics. On leaving the University without seek- 
 ing any further distinction, he entered the Army and 
 served as a lieutenant in a regiment of Bombay Native 
 Infantry. From childhood he had shown himself fear- 
 less and energetic in the first degree, far-thoughted and 
 full of resource, and now, bringing into the Indian 
 Service the fruits of an education more varied and 
 complete (in the field of miKtary mathematics especially) 
 than, at that time at least, fell commonly to the lot of 
 officers, and having inherited his father's instinct for 
 language, a brilliant career was expected for him by 
 his " superiors. But an early passion for mission work 
 among the Arab races, aroused by the translation of the 
 old Arabian romance, Antar, now returned upon him 
 with overmastering force. Within a few years he quitted 
 the Army, and was received into a house of the Jesuit 
 Fathers in the Madras Presidency ; this being the nearest 
 accessible to him. 
 
 Whilst faithful throughout to family affections, and 
 loyal to old friendships and memories with the strength 
 of a strong nature, to the work of that Order he devotedly 
 gave himself for about fifteen years ; first in Southern 
 India, then (for completion of the requisite studies) in 
 Rome, until the dream of his boyhood was finally 
 accomplished by his mission to Syria and Palestine. 
 He now made himself master of Arabic habits of life, of 
 the religion, literature, and language ; not only preaching 
 extempore to vast crowds (and the Arabian crowd is 
 said to be critical in the niceties of their beautiful and 
 copious tongue), but writing hymns which were sung 
 through the country. Meanwhile the Druse persecution 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 broke out, and had not the rules of his Order stringently 
 forbidden it, he must, as he stated, have yielded to the 
 urgent prayer of the Maronite Christians, and put himself 
 at the head of their inexperienced forces ; — just escaping 
 with life from Damascus, after giving advice as to the 
 defence of the city which the Maronite leaders feared 
 to follow. As the Mission of Beyrout was broken up 
 for the time, Palgrave determined to penetrate Arabia 
 through its centre, with the object of ascertaining 
 whether it would be ultimately possible to enter that 
 sealed land as a Christian teacher. To aid him in this 
 journey, with due allowance on the part of his religious 
 superiors, he accepted a commission from the late 
 Emperor Napoleon to report to him on various matters 
 connected with Arabia, in which the Emperor was much 
 interested. He had fulfilled his mission in 1863, when, 
 finding it hopeless to go on further with his object, he 
 returned to Europe, quitting the Jesuits soon after. At 
 one of our meetings, in February 1864, he delighted 
 the Society with the account of his journey and ad- 
 ventures, and in 1865 he published his Narrative of a 
 Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 
 one of the most interesting and romantic books of travel 
 and adventure that have ever delighted the public. 
 
 Except for Dr. Wallin's journey across the country in 
 1848, and the less important one of Capt. Sadleir, 
 nothing had been heard of the interior of the Arabian 
 Peninsula in recent times, and there was a vague idea 
 that the country was dominated by the fierce and in- 
 tolerant Wahabis, and quite inaccessible to Europeans. 
 Palgrave was thoroughly competent to pass as a 
 Mahomedan ; but no disguise of this nature was needed. 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 and it was, in fact, in the character of a native Syrian 
 doctor, about whose form of religion no one concerned 
 himself, that he entered Arabia ; the stress of danger in 
 those parts, as he well knew, lying not in his faith, but 
 in his European nationality. As has already been said, 
 his familiarity with the language and habits was perfect, 
 but nevertheless he carried his life in his hand, and he 
 nearly lost it. He had penetrated as far as Haill when 
 his fame as a learned stranger brought him a summons 
 to Court. In the course of an interview with one of the 
 Princes, he was recognised by two persons who had 
 seen him in Damascus, and the success of his under- 
 taking, if not his life, was in imminent peril. Palgrave 
 managed to evade the suspicion for the time ; but when 
 he boldly went on into the interior of the peninsula, he 
 had a still narrower escape at Riadh — the headquarters 
 of the strictest and gloomiest Wahabi fanaticism — where 
 the Prince Abd-allah discovered his real character and 
 threatened him with assassination. He escaped this 
 peril only by flight from the city, and passed without 
 harm right through Arabia to the kingdom of Muscat, at 
 the south-eastern corner of the country. 
 
 In 1865, Mr. Palgrave was employed on special 
 work by the English Government, whose diplomatic 
 service he now entered for the first time, in negotiating 
 for the release of Consul Cameron and other prisoners 
 in Abyssinia. From that time his history is contained 
 in the records of the diplomatic and foreign service ot 
 this country. He was successively appointed Consul at 
 Soukhoum Kal6, 1866, Consul at Treblzond, 1867, at 
 St. Thomas, 1873, at Manila, 1876, and Consul- 
 General in Bulgaria in 1878. In March 1872, he 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 favoured the Society by reading, at an evening meeting, 
 a paper on the country between Trebizond and the 
 Upper Euphrates, over which he had travelled during 
 the period of his consulate at the former place, and in 
 which he gave a vivid account of the Lazes, who were 
 newly settled in the region. He was transferred to 
 Bangkok in 1879, and in 1884 he was promoted to be 
 Minister Resident and Consul-General to the Republic 
 of Uruguay, in the capital of which State he has just 
 died at his post. In 1868 he married Katharine 
 (daughter of Mr. G. E. Simpson of Norwich), by whom 
 he left three sons. A life so adventurous had severely 
 tried his naturally strong vital powers, and the winters of 
 Uruguay, cold to one who had passed many years in 
 the tropics, may have favoured the development of 
 bronchitis, to which he suddenly succumbed. His body 
 now lies in S. Thomas' Cemetery, Fulham : — Requiem 
 aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. 
 
 Besides the work which made him famous, he was 
 also the author of Essays on Eastern Questions, 1872 ; 
 Hermann Agha, an Eastern Narrative, 1872; Dutch 
 Guiana, 1876; and Ulysses, a series of scenes in 
 many lands, in 1887. 
 
 Ulysses, though the author had not this meaning in 
 view, was indeed no ill-chosen name for one not only 
 so wide a traveller, so quick an observer and vivid a 
 painter of the mores hominum multorum, but whose 
 versatility and mental acuteness led him also to be a keen 
 and devoted student of the best literature of many 
 nations. Beside his familiarity with the extensive 
 poetical treasures of Arabia, he knew the Commedia 
 of Dante almost by heart ; and English poetry of the 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 highest order was constantly in his hands and on his 
 lips. The lucid brilliancy of style remarked in his 
 Arabian narrative, in fact, was due to these studies ; he 
 regained the purity of his native language, after many 
 years spent almost wholly amongst foreigners, by a 
 careful six months' preparatory work among the master- 
 pieces of English literature. To his command over 
 Asiatic languages he must also have been much in- 
 debted for the strong hold of loyalty and affection which 
 he had throughout over the various native races amongst 
 whom he was called to work, in a career which, we 
 think, may correctly be described as adventurous, 
 honourable, and useful, in no narrow measure. In 
 whatever sphere of labour he found himself, intrepid 
 devotedness to the duty before him was the abiding note 
 of his character. 
 
 Mr. Palgrave became a Fellow of the Royal Geo- 
 graphical Society in 1878, and on his return to Europe 
 after his journey through Arabia, he received the gold 
 medal of the French Geographical Society." 
 
 With exception of a few added words, the above 
 notice has been reprinted (under permission) from 
 the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for 
 November, 1888. Some further details must, however, 
 be given in explanation of the circumstances in which 
 the following poem was written, and the manner in which 
 it is now presented. 
 
 Although autobiographical facts are almost wholly 
 absent, yet the Pageant of Life (the author's long-since 
 chosen title, given up owing to the accident of its use 
 elsewhere prior to the publication of this volume,) is so 
 
PREFACE XI 
 
 deeply coloured throughout by his thoughts and ex- 
 periences of man and of nature under many skies, that 
 a few words upon his own inner life seem required 
 for a fair understanding and estimate of the poem. 
 
 With a lively aptitude for study, for language, and 
 for writing prose and verse, which showed itself in 
 boyhood, the writer's mind was from the first of a 
 markedly receptive order ; in a high degree candid and 
 open to new impressions, which the imaginative and 
 impulsive bias of his mind, united to bold energy of 
 character, was always ready to translate into action. 
 Hence the fluctuations of opinion, — the successive 
 waves of conviction, — upon the main problems of 
 human life which his course exhibited : Surrendering an 
 English professional career for the Indian Army ; joining 
 next the Roman Communion ; then devoting all his 
 energies to the Society of Jesus, and quitting it when 
 disappointed of a Missioner's work in Arabia, as noticed 
 in the narrative prefixed. This relinquishment of the 
 aims of life, pursued hitherto with conviction and the 
 zeal of youth, when just at the mezzo cammin, soon led 
 him further. He drifted gradually from the Church of 
 his adoption ; and, like other Englishmen who have 
 lived much in the East and penetrated into its mysterious 
 secrets of thought and existence, — things often unknown 
 and inexplicable to Western civilization, — he was in turn 
 penetrated himself by the surrounding atmosphere and 
 strange fascination of India, Siam, and China; Japan, 
 above all, mastering him awhile by the spell which, in 
 different ways, she has laid upon many of our country- 
 men. In the primitive nature-worship of that Empire, 
 the Shinto system as it has been named, an old religion 
 
xu PREFACE 
 
 was found which seems to have appeared to him closely 
 analogous to what he conceived had once been realized 
 also in that first " Golden Age " which the poets assigned 
 to ancient Greece. This was in great measure a youth- 
 ful fancy; but boyhood, through all the vicissitudes of 
 W. G. Palgrave's career, exercised always a singular 
 hold over him. "Shintoism," anyhow, appealed with 
 overmastering sympathy to his imagination, and it was 
 whilst under this spell that he planned his Pageant 
 and wrote (so far as in the absence of manuscript dates 
 can now be judged) half or more than half of the 
 contents. 
 
 Such a view of primitive existence, of a true but 
 vanished Golden Age, carried with it, or was itself 
 recommended to his mind by a deep, lifelong scepticism 
 in regard to that counter-theory of progressive human 
 advance and amelioration with which (unproved though 
 he held it, and unproveable) in that portion of the 
 world which practically is the whole world to us, we are 
 familiar. Intimate conversance with the East, — not, 
 indeed, unchangeable, but to the European mind almost 
 incredibly slow to change; — the influence of some 
 powerful writers of our own age, adverse to or hopeless 
 of modern civilization ; — perhaps unconsciously that 
 doctrine of ascetic renunciation against which the First 
 and Second Books of his poem vehemently protest, — all 
 deepened the sense that human life and the race in its 
 long history displays indeed progress, but progress 
 towards degeneracy and dissolution : — the " road down- 
 wards " of the deep-thoughted Greek philosopher. 
 
 Assailed thus, as his life, often inevitably solitary, 
 moved on, by even more than the natural gloom and 
 
PREFACE xui 
 
 misery of scepticism in its ordinary type, in his final 
 change the writer's soul gradually reverted to the 
 religious belief of his earlier manhood. Within two or 
 three years before death, Faith, with peace and hope, 
 reasserted her supremacy within the troubled and world- 
 weary breast. He was now duly and formally reconciled 
 to Rome ; ending his career, with an inward happiness 
 and conviction long lost, in that Communion to the 
 service of which his best days had been devoted. 
 
 Hence the poem following, apparently from the closing 
 cantos of Book II, or those that open Book III, takes 
 a new — a Christian — at last a Catholic colour. It 
 must, however, remain uncertain how far, had the author 
 lived to revise and correct his work throughout, he 
 might have eliminated from the earlier portion the tone 
 it now bears, which (in accordance with the leading 
 theory of man's history from the childhood of the race) 
 inevitably presents Christianity itself as suffering de- 
 terioration, not only through admitted human frailty, 
 but through its appearance when the world was already 
 fast degenerating. But it seems probable that the First 
 Book, at least (here integrally reproduced), was intended 
 for publication substantially as it stands, and that a general 
 submission of the whole poem, — whether written before 
 or after reconversion, — to the judgment of the Church, 
 more Romano, would have been added at the close. 
 
 That some few passages, however, in the cantos 
 dealing with Religion, could not have been finally in- 
 cluded is certain ; and these have therefore been here 
 withdrawn. The other far larger omissions, — to pass from 
 the writer's life to his work, — are due to the fact which will 
 presently be noticed, that as the Vision advances it was 
 
XIV PREFACE 
 
 progressively less revised, and hence contains matter, — 
 in total length equivalent to about fourteen cantos, — 
 either distinctly inferior in style or in interest to the 
 bulk of the poem, — or, when we reach the later songs, 
 undecipherable. That the writer was diligent with the 
 "labour of the file," largely changing and improving his 
 work, is shown, not only by comparison of the successive 
 transcripts, but by the repetition of words and figures 
 which the less thoroughly finished portion exhibits ; and 
 the belief seems to be hence justified that the omissions 
 now made would have been consonant to his wish. Yet, 
 except in the single case already noted, nothing has 
 been excluded on the ground of the opinions or views of 
 life expressed : — though whether these outspoken utter- 
 ances, as upon Physical Science, Trade, and Manu- 
 factures, would have been always printed as they now 
 stand, must also remain undecided. The shadow of 
 death, — sudden, solitary, and unexpected, without one 
 conscious instant allowed for the novissima verba, — 
 renders all such speculation futile. 
 
 Similar considerations apply to several real or apparent 
 inconsistencies which may be observed, even where the 
 poem has received more or less revisal. The universal 
 sway of the twin Powers, Life and Death, seems to be in 
 one part forgotten or arbitrarily limited ; the geography 
 of the Vision is occasionally obscure ; the Seven King- 
 doms themselves are not very clearly discriminated, their 
 boundaries in some degree remain indistinct ; the same 
 characters once or twice recur in different regions. 
 The poem, on these points, diverges widely from the 
 clear lines followed everywhere by the Divina Commedia ; 
 although upon that great work, the Second and Third 
 
PREFACE XV 
 
 divisions especially, it is so largely modelled that this 
 story of " the Intermediate Realm '' might also almost 
 have been entitled a Purgatory of Man : — on which 
 ground the motto prefixed has been selected for it. 
 And those familiar with the Commedia will recognize 
 easily here and there passages or forms of phrase trans- 
 fused from it. 
 
 Owing to the peculiar circumstances in which this 
 Vision of Life, — as, with some loss of clear definition, 
 it has been perforce renamed, — appears, a few more 
 words upon the plan of editing adopted must be given. 
 Except in a very few cases of obvious lapsus calami 
 (generally placed within square brackets), the autograph 
 text, when ascertainable, has been rigidly followed, and 
 merely conjectural emendation excluded. Dubious 
 readings are marked * * ; longer passages, uncertain or 
 obviously uncorrected, t t- For the First Book, the 
 author's fourth draft has been available; for Book II, 
 cantos I to 20, a third draft; from canto 21 to the 
 1 8th of Book III, the second; thence to the end only 
 the first rough MS. exists. Except, however, twelve 
 lines near the beginning of Book III, canto 1 1, the whole 
 poem was approximately completed. 
 
 Brief as the notes are, readers, it is thought, will find 
 them useful in identifying persons or places named. 
 Some allusions, however, remain untraced. 
 
 In conclusion : How to deal with a work, left as this, 
 has been perplexing. To exclude, or to present only in 
 short independent extracts, whatever had not been fully, 
 or almost fully, revised, would have offered a poem too 
 fragmentary to be generally readable, or satisfactory to 
 such " fit audience " as the author must have intended 
 
XVI PREFACE 
 
 to address. To print the whole, for reasons already 
 assigned (without dwelling on its length, and metre 
 unusual to the English ear), would have been unjust to 
 the writer. By the plan here adopted (for which 
 Professor Craik's abridgment of Spenser's great romance 
 has supplied the model), it is hoped that an acceptable 
 middle course has been found, and that the less perfect 
 finish of the latter half will be pardoned in favour of 
 that continuity of the whole which the arrangement 
 here offered aims throughout at preserving.. 
 
 August, 1 89 1. 
 
BOOK I 
 
 (The summaries of Book I. are taken or adapted from the Author's 
 marginal notes. Those to Books II. and III. have been framed 
 from the text.) 
 
CANTO I 
 
 I wander back to the Valley of Vision, which I had entered as a 
 child, and find it desolate — I see my own spectre surrounded 
 by evil memories, but no release — A deliverer appears — His 
 double likeness — I entreat his help — He offers to lead me 
 to the Kingdom of Life — I assent, and ask the meaning of 
 the Vision — He declares himself the ruling Spirit of Canopus, 
 my spiritual ruler and brother. 
 
 By devious ways, that recks not here to tell, 
 
 Far had I wandered, till the circling maze 
 Of that long error brought me to the dell 
 Whence was my starting in the spring-tide days 
 
 When life was mine, an unspent heritage ; 
 Rich in large promise of well-meeded praise, 
 And the great vision of the untried age. 
 
 O happy dell, within whose grass-rimmed bound 
 Was a whole world to me, my fledgling cage 
 Wider than freedom, where th' encircling mound 
 
 Close vaulted o'er with heaven's own flawless blue 
 Shut out each meaner sight, each dissonant sound. 
 "Here then," said I, "th' horizon of my view, 
 
 End of my travel toil, bourne of my quest ; 
 No more I crave, no further path pursue." 
 
4 BOOK I 
 
 Ah vain ! as finds at eve the bird her nest, 
 
 Love's casket left and home, by some rude hand 
 Rifled and spoiled, so I my fancied rest. 
 Nor grass was there nor flower, but drifted sand, 
 
 Life's mere despair ; sand-heaped the toilsome track 
 Led to blank loneness ; not th' accursed land 
 Of swart Zeboira, nor the ridges black 
 
 Of fire-scathed Skaptar showed more desolate 
 Than my loved haunt, now ruined. To turn me back 
 I strove, but could not ; forced to pause and wait 
 
 What next might there befal me : a dense haze 
 Gathered around, then cleared ; and lo ! the gate 
 As of a broken fane, reared in the days 
 
 Of Ammon or Sesostris, void and lone 
 'Mid the drift-whitening sands, athwart the blaze 
 Of a down-slanted sun ; the blackened stone 
 
 Glared to the Western heat, for sunk the day 
 From noon, nor yet to evening coolness grown. 
 There in the mid blaze of the scorching ray 
 
 Careless, as it and balmiest shade were one. 
 Dust-soiled his vesture, scant his. hair and grey. 
 Motionless sat, as by long toil o'erdone. 
 
 What seemed a man, yet seemed not ; fixed his look 
 As a blank page, where writing razed or none ; 
 Statue-like, stone-like, death-like ; silence took 
 
 More silence from that form ; nor voice nor sound 
 Waked the lone vale of joy and hope forsook. 
 But as o'er some dank patch of swampy ground 
 
 Hovers a fluttering crowd of noisome things 
 Liveliest where most the life-slaying damps abound ; 
 Or as the autumn crows, whose flapping wings 
 
 Darken about some tree bark-stripped and dead 
 That wide o'er the bare field its branches flings, 
 Unnumbered shapes flew ceaseless round the head 
 
 Of that dim form the shattered gate before. 
 Now clustering thick, now in loose circles spread. 
 
CANTO I 5 
 
 Of thin pellucid air the semblance wore 
 
 Those shapes, some human, some to bird or beast 
 Or reptile fashioned ; taloned some who bore 
 Strange circlets like to diadems ; the ill feast ^ 
 
 Of Oetus showed such harpies ; so the host 
 Of phantoms wildly driven nor paused nor ceased. 
 Some threatening scowled, some laughed in mockful 
 boast 
 
 Some beckoning leered, some pale with rage or pain 
 Fled past, like smoke-wreaths by a whirlwind tost ; 
 But vain as dreams the threats, th' allurements vain. 
 
 And nought I understood, so the strong trance 
 Held me, like one bound in a sorcerer's chain. 
 And still the sun, as though to Gideon's lance 
 
 Obedient, stayed his course, nor sought the West, 
 And still in air the phantoms wove their dance. 
 As one who knows the night-hag on his breast. 
 
 And struggles hard in sleep, and strives to wake, 
 So I, by that weird wretchedness opprest, 
 Struggled ; but nought availed the spell to break, 
 
 Till gleamed a sudden splendour on my right, 
 Like the quick glitter of a breeze-swept lake. 
 And as at dawn the wide-winged birds of night 
 
 Fly to their thicket coverts, fled the brood 
 Hateful, o'ermastered by that radiant might. 
 There on a rising ground beside me stood 
 
 One as in manhood's prime with beauty clad 
 And strength serene, from life's own fount renewed ; — 
 Ah, how unlike the withered form and sad 
 
 By yon lone portal ! yet in secret wise 
 A brother's semblance each to the other had : 
 Two lamps, twin-fold in fashioned form and size, 
 
 But lightless one, one with translucent flame 
 A glowing orb, too bright for gazing eyes. 
 " O thou, whoe'er thou art, whate'er thy name, 
 
 1 Unidentifiable. Oetus was a giant, son of Neptune. 
 
6 BOOK I 
 
 " Or man, or surely god, attend my cry ; 
 So be my weakness to thy succour claim. 
 Rescue me from this death-stricken vale, where I 
 
 Am prisoner, my own folly's proper meed." 
 Weeping I spoke, my hands outstretched on high. 
 " Nor god nor man thou seest ; yet thy worst need 
 
 Is by my power outweighed ; mine 'tis to grant 
 More than thou ask'st or dream'stof; mine to lead 
 To the true land, fair life's inviolate haunt. 
 
 If that thou darest ; else vain th' attempted way," 
 Thus he, " nor help avails where courage scant." 
 " O heaven-sent guide," I answered, " no delay 
 
 Be mine, I give me to thy absolute guard, 
 Nor doubt thy skill, nor fear thy power t' assay. 
 But who art thou that hast me in regard 
 
 So watchful ? whence the love that to my side 
 Has brought thee, where all else is void or marred ? 
 Why moves not heaven's great lamp to eventide ? 
 
 And whose the form, phantom bested, yet lone 
 That sits and waits the desolate porch beside ? " 
 " Well hast thou asked," he answered, " trust unknown 
 
 Is undeserved ; not such thy trust shall be, 
 Nor far apart my kinship from thy own. 
 In nature one, though differing in degree 
 
 As high from low may differ : More would'st learn ? 
 At the bright portals of eternity 
 My dwelling is ; there 'midst the lamps that burn 
 
 Hung round the prow of the translated bark 
 Fabled of Colchos, well may'st thou discern 
 The ruddy fire ^ whose new-risen splendours mark 
 
 Syria's young year, what time the lessening glow 
 Of Autumn twilight fades into the dark. 
 Dark not to us but you ; th' alternate show 
 
 1 Canopus ; a star of the first magnitude in the rudder of the 
 southern constellation Argo, named after the ship in which lason 
 sailed for the Golden Fleece. 
 
CANTO I 7 
 
 " Of night and day reaches us not ; we bear 
 Light in ourselves, nor change nor shadow know. 
 Chiefest of such, outmeasuring all compare 
 
 Am I, from Egypt named by those of old 
 Who thought earth's types with typeless heaven to share. 
 And mine th' ethereal, thine the human mould. 
 
 Yet brothers we, linked in the enduring chain 
 Fate-knit, that binds us in its circled fold. 
 Now mark ; whatever land, air, sea contain 
 
 Through this moon-tended moon called Earth, com- 
 pelled 
 By law of birth to want, desire, and pain. 
 Has in our realm its counterpart, where eld, 
 
 Pain, want, desire abide not ; but the blaze 
 Of the great Summer by no Autumn quelled 
 This the perfection of th' imperfect days. 
 
 Time's measurement as ye hold them ; yet the end 
 On other heights abides, and loftier praise. 
 The hues of childhood's prism, the worshipped friend 
 
 Of boyhood,, youth's gay dreams, love's extasy, 
 All that man's thought can reach or hope pretend. 
 Are of our fullness ; thine they were, but I 
 
 Their truth, their meaning ; me without, thy might 
 Were weakness all, thy straightest path awry. 
 And farther realms than these, to mortal sight 
 
 Denied, are mine to show ; the ultimate scope 
 Of separate life, the one, the infinite. 
 Far o'er the star-strewed vault's unmeasured cope 
 
 As that thy earth surpasses, thence above 
 Love drew me down ; in me thy strength, thy hope. 
 
 Portion and part in th' all compelling Love." 
 
CANTO II 
 
 The Spirit partly reveals himself — He explains the meaning of the 
 Valley of Illusion, and how I may be delivered — He points to 
 my Spectre, in which I see the defacement of my past life, and 
 fall senseless — He restores me to life through the remorse of 
 self-knowledge, and promises to show the entire truth of human 
 life, in its earthly and in its spiritual phase — I assent ; he com- 
 mends my resolution, and proceeds to explain the Pageant — 
 An extasy. 
 
 The ray that from the morn-Ht East outspread 
 
 Fires in the opposing West the paUid snow 
 Of some far mountain range to rosy red, 
 As the mere shade of foggiest night would show 
 
 Compared with the bright flush that lit with flame, 
 At name of Love pronounced, my guardian's brow. 
 And the dead air around to that dear name 
 
 Quivering awaked to life and melody, 
 And tinted green o'er the parched sand-heaps came. 
 Then he spoke on ; "In the lone wastes aijd dry 
 
 Where thou hast strayed, myriads have strayed 
 before ; 
 But few beheld as thou with Aimless eye. 
 Strong youth, sad manhood, tottering age and hoar, 
 
 Like shattered twigs, heaped in the torrent's bed 
 Leaf-stripped and mutilate, dry from rind to core ; 
 
CANTO II 9 
 
 " Flocks to the pen at dusk of evening led 
 
 Of whence or why unheedful, so the train 
 Of men, soon numbered with th' .unnumbered dead. 
 Yet each fulfils his purposed lot, nor vain 
 
 Their joys, their griefs ; more suits me not to tell 
 Nor thee to hear, till passed with me the plain, 
 Named of Illusion, left the spectral dell 
 
 Where sits the Form thou know'st not, nor can'st 
 know 
 But in thyself, so strong the sensuous spell 
 Woven by the hours around thee, and the show 
 
 Of tbat which is not, veil of that which is, 
 As o'er earth's solid bulk the false bright snow, 
 For an hour's mockery spread." My hand in his 
 
 Smiling he took, and straight the touch, the smile 
 As Spring's first breathings with a new-felt bliss 
 Thrilled me almost to faintness ; calm the while 
 
 He pointed where in the ghost-haunted field 
 Sat the lone Form beside that granite pile. 
 And as some tower that by the tangled shield 
 
 Of trees half hid, sudden to nearer view 
 Stands out distinct in its own lines revealed, 
 Even thus, nor dim nor doubtful now, nor new. 
 
 But as fresh issuing from the founder's mould 
 Fronting me there, my very self I knew. 
 " By this torn is the veil, the story told. 
 
 What thou hast made thee in the ill-spent years ; 
 What once thou wast, what now thou art, behold." 
 Such were the words, not sounded to my ears, 
 
 But to my eyes declared in pictured shame 
 Not by repentance razed nor washed by tears. 
 Vain pleasures, causeless sorrow, merited blame. 
 
 Blind error, impotent striving, dead despair. 
 And the worse dread that owns nor form nor name 
 In that one view before me mirrored were. 
 
 Yet mine not theirs the substance, shadows they ; 
 
Mine the ill truth in truth reflected there. 
 
 As sweeps th' eclipse o'er heaven and blots the day 
 
 Both thought and life were by that ugly sight 
 Blotted, and senseless on the ground I lay. 
 O mine too well deserved, if endless, night ! 
 
 just requital of the thriftless ill 
 Whose life is death, so lived in life's despite ! 
 But that predestined Love whose brotherly skill 
 
 In love and pity wrought my overthrow, 
 For healing dealt the blow that seemed to kill. 
 And now my eyes reopened ; faint and slow 
 
 Life to her seat returned, and the stunned brain 
 Once more made answer to the pulses' flow. 
 Not gentler on the battle's trampled plain 
 
 A father's hands his wounded son may tend 
 Lest some chance touch rewake the sense of pain. 
 Than my guide bent t' upraise me. " Reached the end 
 
 Hast thou of error," such his words, " for truth 
 Till self be known, with error still must blend. 
 Sharp talons has remorse, and keen her tooth. 
 
 Yet none but she has power to rend away 
 The Nessus-garment ''■ round the limbs of youth 
 Wrapped by self-love. Dark night preludes the day, 
 
 And birth has pain ; and the long-blinded eye 
 Through sharpest smart opes to the visible ray. 
 Now past the birth-pangs, day-illumed the sky ; 
 
 Now thy healed sight may the hid things behold 
 O'er-flourished else by earth's vain imagery. 
 The path thy childhood's footsteps traced of old 
 
 In ignorant blindness, through my guidance now 
 Shall its veiled secrets to thy eyes unfold. 
 And other paths by others trod, and how 
 
 The mazy errors of the profitless years 
 To unwise feet nor rest nor goal allow, 
 
 1 That which, poisoned by the blood of the Centaur Nessus, 
 burned Herakles. 
 
CANTO II II 
 
 " These shalt thou see ; the hopes, the dreams, the fears. 
 
 The hollow phantasms of the long unrest 
 That men call Life ; but Death the name it bears 
 To us, th' unborn, th' undying ; at my hest 
 
 All these shall to thy ken naked and bare 
 Stand forth, in their true form and guise exprest. 
 Till thou with me shalt climb the difficult stair 
 
 That leads to the glad height, the purposed home. 
 Where what time marred th' eternal years repair 
 And perfect. . Rouse thee, brother ; not the dome 
 
 Of far-off heaven could from thy need divide 
 My love ; let thine from me no longer roam." 
 " O long desired, late found, my spirit's guide 
 
 In more than union, of my heart the heart," 
 Speechless myself, my tears for speech replied ; 
 " How could I for one hour from thee depart ? 
 
 Can self from self be sundered ? Lo, to thee 
 I give me wholly up ; nor joy nor smart 
 Save as thou will'st I know ; thine, thine to be 
 
 Is my sole choice : I follow, should'st thou lead 
 Even not to life's but death's eternity." 
 " Well hast thou said," he answered ; " be thy deed 
 
 Seal to thy word ; to firm resolve and high 
 Justice and love apportion equal meed. 
 The pearl of price no earthly price may buy, 
 
 The gain to which all other gain is loss. 
 Behold them ; these are thine, and these am I. 
 O for this treasure well-rejected dross ! 
 
 O for these joys well-borne extremest toil ! 
 O for such kingdom well-adventured cross ! 
 Few they who free them from the tangling coil 
 
 Of the false snake that binds the world around 
 And of thy kindred makes his choicest spoil." 
 A while as one whom difficult thoughts astound 
 
 He paused, then thus continued ; " The worse fate 
 Is for long years in lower circles bound, 
 
12 BOOK I 
 
 " Till worthy made by proof t' approach the gate 
 
 Where quicker sped soon shall thy footsteps stand ; 
 Not thy deserving, but the appointed date 
 To thee, to each, by the determining hand 
 
 Marked on the zodiac dial, that onward moves, 
 Nor prayer nor question heeds, nor owns command 
 Save what its power allows, or will approves. 
 
 And self-sustained through manifold form and change 
 Changeless for ever lives, for ever loves. 
 In this thy birthright, this th' apportioned range, 
 
 This the great spell that linked with mine thy sphere. 
 In bonds no blame may loose, no ills estrange." 
 He ceased ; I answered not, by sudden fear 
 
 Made dumb, so bright the splendour which o'erspread 
 Sudden the vale, till vanished all that ere 
 Had captive held my sight, the semblance dread 
 
 Of my own folly and shame, the ruined fane. 
 The dell, the motionless sun : and in their stead 
 Dome-like heaven's infinite blue o'erarched the plain 
 
 Unflecked from marge to zenith ; and above, 
 As in earth's skies Hyperion's noontide reign. 
 
 Midmost and loftiest throned the eternal Love. 
 
CANTO III 
 
 nvocation of Dante — The beginnings of Life, with only individual 
 differentiation, under the form of atoms tending to a farther 
 goal — My guide explains their nature and progress, and how 
 they arrive at actual personality by entering on the Life of 
 Sense — The Gate of the Life of Sense and Personality, through 
 which the Spirit Life must pass — I wonder at their willing- 
 ness : till I see the potential life in every atom, tending 
 towards fulfilment — The beginnings of Life. 
 
 D Poet, and more than poet, with glory crowned 
 
 Not by thy Florence only, thou whose head 
 The triplicate laurels of three worlds surround, 
 rhou through all mortal, all immortal led 
 
 By her whom the third circle claims, till past 
 Each height, thou saw'st heaven's self beneath thee 
 
 spread 
 In love made one with the Highest, hear the last 
 
 The meanest of thy kindred ; be thy fire 
 Within me, be thy mantle o'er me cast 
 Thou know'st how rough the upward road, and higher 
 
 Than unassisted my weak steps can climb 
 Rise the steep summits of my song's desire. 
 The path by thee first marked in happier time, 
 
 Untrod since then, be it mine again to trace 
 Led by the echo of the Master's rhyme. 
 
14 BOOK I 
 
 Now to my task. Around I looked, the place 
 
 Changed from its luminous stillness, as a dream 
 Changes, when busier shapes the first efface. 
 The air was thick as with an eddying stream 
 
 In countless circles drawn ; till earth and sky 
 Flickered uncertain through the vaporous gleam. 
 Nor what that vapour's self could I descry, 
 
 So dense, so swift it rolled, till watchful heed 
 With knowledge more exact informed my eye. 
 Close-herded crows that to warm roof-tops speed 
 
 Thwart the pale wintry eve, when other home. 
 Forest and field snow-whelmed, deny their need ; 
 Motes in a ray cross-slanted through the gloom 
 
 Of some oak-panelled chamber, where a rift 
 Lets in strange light on the ghost-tenanted room. 
 Are not so frequent, as that limitless drift 
 
 From far-off distance swept across the plain 
 Of specks unnumbered ; some, with motion swift 
 Whirled upwards, downwards ; some like Autumn rain 
 
 From the sky's depths came thronging ; some delayed 
 Self-clogged in intricate mazes, till the chain 
 Of their mad dance in the air uncertain swayed ; 
 
 Each of the other heedless, uncontrolled 
 As summer flies in the dank forest shade. 
 Yet as white mountain vapours fold on fold 
 
 Cling to the rocks, then up the pass are driven 
 From cliff to cliff by steady winds uprolled, 
 So to the stream of those bright motes uneven 
 
 Or swiftly onward whirled, or lingering slow, 
 One common impulse to their course was given. 
 Long time I gazed, by the multitudinous show 
 
 Dazzled, bewildered, nor could aught discern 
 Nor whence derived nor whither bound its flow. 
 Then to my guide I turned, from him to learn 
 
 What my eye taught not ; but more swift his thought 
 To the yet unworded question made return. 
 
CANTO III IS 
 
 " Beyond all time, all space, thy gaze is brought 
 
 Near to the fountain source, whence ever stream 
 The countless lives to separate being wrought 
 By the high Love that is and reigns supreme, 
 
 And from the stores of unexhausted will 
 Fashions the shapes of th' universal dream. 
 Itself their waking. Blindly they fulfil 
 
 Their purposed end, as mirrors dulled or bright, 
 Smooth or distorted, each one surface still 
 Reflects some ray of the unconditioned light, 
 
 Some line of that all-perfect loveliness. 
 Some partial trace of self-subsistent might. 
 All in their source are equal ; none may guess 
 
 How mote differs from mote, or spark from spark. 
 Nor this forecast to greater, that to less. 
 Till each has passed the portal wide and dark 
 
 That entrance gives on the uncertain state 
 Of sense and time and space ; ere then no mark 
 Is theirs by which to tell their destined fate 
 
 Of man, or insect, plant, or beast ; the power 
 Theirs, but deep-hidden in each, till through the gate 
 To several life they pass ; then bursts the flower 
 
 From th' undistinguished bud ; then first displays 
 Its proper hues flaunted in life's brief hour ; 
 A life of joys and sorrows, blame and praise. 
 
 Threads of the daedal web earth's surface o'er 
 Wove in the alternate loom of nights and days. 
 Behold — " He ceased, nor added word, but more 
 
 His pointing hand supplied ; I looked, and knew 
 Clear figured all that doubtful seemed before. 
 So, their long voyage o'er, the sailor crew 
 
 Entering the harbour 'twixt out-opening rocks 
 Watch one by one their house-roofs start to view. 
 And first as, where Syene's barrier locks 
 
 The upward way to Nubia's palm groves, stands 
 Some temple's huge eternity, and mocks 
 
1 6 BOOT 
 
 With stillness of black shade the shifting sands 
 
 WTiite and loose-piled, so in the mountain's side 
 Stood a huge portal, by no human hands 
 Square-hewn ; though entrance here no bar denied ; 
 
 But all within was darkness, such as fell 
 On the lost cities of Campania's pride ;^ 
 Darker than darkness' self ; dense, palpable ; 
 
 No gate with brass and iron thrice banded o'er 
 Might with such utter blank the sight repel. 
 And a thin Shadow restless evermore 
 
 Hovered about the lintel, as with wings 
 Outspread, the guardian of that open door. 
 As one to whom the sight amazement brings 
 
 Not understanding silent gazed I long. 
 Dull to the meaning of the visioned things, 
 And why now high now low the atom throng 
 
 Of that great mist its course convergent held 
 Drawn in to vanish those black gulfs among. 
 And much I pondered by what force compelled 
 
 The pure unchartered life should eager haste 
 To goal of care, disquiet, change, and eld ; 
 And whether sweetness-cloyed it longed to taste 
 
 Wilful the bitter draught of personal life. 
 Or if all will by mightier Will effaced. 
 While thus I mused with my own thoughts at strife. 
 
 From heaven's blue vaults to earth the troubled air 
 With myriad shapes where had been motes was rife. 
 All that earth's cycled years incessant bear, 
 
 All that has part in sorrow, care, and joy, 
 All that inherits water, earth, or air. 
 The babe, the child, the virgin maid, the boy. 
 
 The man, the wife, by years withered and blurred, 
 The corpse corruption claims or flames destroy. 
 The innumerous tribes of fish, or beast, or bird. 
 
 The insect lives recorded in a day, 
 
 ^ Herculaneum and Pompeii. 
 
CANTO lU 17 
 
 From grade to grade by change and time transferred, 
 Mustered before me, thronged in such array 
 
 As when by midnight's tempest-flash revealed 
 All hidden things stand forth in clear display, 
 Mountain and forest, river, town and field 
 
 Outlined in perfect form ; then swift from sight 
 Withdraw them ; so what erst the veil concealed 
 Now veil-less, shadow-less in intensest light 
 
 Flashed into being ; I looked, and wide o'erhead 
 As mounts the star-pranked heaven height over height, 
 So was my gaze from range to range upled 
 
 Of those bright forms down speeding : not the snows 
 On Danube's plains by Russian winds outspread 
 More dense, more ceaseless, when the sentinel rows 
 
 Of pine in one dense mass the Balkan hide. 
 And the dazed guide his baffled toil forgoes. 
 Even so bewildered by th' interminous tide 
 
 Of life, my straining sight to blindness turned. 
 Nor first nor last nor how nor where descried. 
 Yet through the wildering eddy dim discerned 
 
 Shone the fixed radiance whence all splendours move. 
 Alone ; while at my side unfailing burned 
 
 Starlike the brotherly pledge of guiding Love. 
 
CANTO IV 
 
 I am summoned to pass the Gate of individual existence — The 
 Guardians of the Gate — The Statues of Life and Death — I 
 ask their meaning — My guide begins to explain, but is in- 
 terrupted by a Power that compels us to enter the Cavern of 
 Trance — I lose consciousness — Regaining it, I find myself 
 alone in the Land of true Vision, and distinct Existence, and 
 enter on the spiritual counterpart of the surroundings of my 
 childhood at Hampstead — To this I am welcomed. 
 
 " The two-fold guard of th' all-receiving gate 
 
 Through which each separate life must pass to be, 
 Servants and lords of time-apportioned fate, 
 The twain in whose most seeming enmity 
 
 Yet real accord all that has form is bound, 
 Nor from our duplicate law may flinch or flee. 
 Till falls the chain to the last link unwound, 
 
 Are we, the One in Twain, the Twain in One, 
 Faithful and true by the True and Faithful found. 
 Enter the fane, denied the gate to none ; 
 
 Enter, all leaving, all secure t' attain ; 
 Enter, to know the personal life begun ; 
 Enter, to changeless joy through changeful pain ; 
 
 Enter, short is the night, the dawning near. 
 Enter, with love thy guide, in love to reign." 
 Such words from the dark portal to my ear 
 
CANTO IV 19 
 
 Distant yet clear were borne, where idly still 
 As one held doubtful 'twixt desire and fear 
 Loitering I stood, nor moved in answer. " 111 
 
 Thou lingerest," said my guide ; " no more delay, 
 Nor clog good succour with lag-footed will. 
 Behold the imaged semblance, the display 
 
 Of the twin Rulers, throned in equal state. 
 Who 'yond those portals hold inseparate sway.'' 
 O wondrous skill that could from stone create 
 
 The forms these words expressed ! O happy eyes 
 To view such marvels preordained by fate ! 
 Not fairer sculptures to Athenian skies 
 
 Glittered, when Greece the drowsy world and dull 
 Waked to delight with beauty's new surprise. 
 By the gateside a youth more beautiful 
 
 Than mom's first star I viewed ; his clustering hair 
 With roses crowned ; Salerno's maidens pull 
 No ruddier when Love's festals to prepare 
 
 They crown his shrine with flowers ; an ivy wreath 
 Girded his loins, of other vestment bare. 
 And where he trod, the earth in bloom beneath 
 
 Burst forth his feet to kiss ; the laughing sky 
 Poured down its brightest radiance on his path. 
 In his left hand a bird addressed to fly 
 
 Fluttered, grasped in his right a torch he reared. 
 That light and flame cast forth unceasingly ; 
 Mighty as noontide, clear as joyous morn. 
 
 Gentle as mellow evening, fair as day. 
 Loveliness heaven's own portals fit t' adorn. 
 But on the opposite side that marged the way 
 Sculptured a maiden stood, in girdled dress 
 Close wrapped from head to foot, that none might say 
 What from all eyes was shrouded ; not the less 
 Beauteous her face, but downcast, as to shun 
 Too curious gaze ; a secret none might guess. 
 And many asked, but answer found they none 
 
With poppies mixed a wreath of garnered ears 
 Circled her head ; a cup whence one by one 
 Fell the sad drops that are great Nature's tears, 
 
 Her left upbore ; empty her right ; her feet 
 Trod the crushed stubble of the outworn years. 
 Yet the true sister she and consort meet 
 
 Of that fair boy ; nor was their being twain 
 But one, though thus in semblance opposite. 
 " O love to which all other love is vain," 
 
 Thus to my guide I spoke ; " instruct me thou 
 What shapes are these before me sculptured plain. 
 Yet dark in meaning ; whose the rose-girt brow ? 
 
 Whose the sad wreath Lethean twined? if each. 
 As rang the voice, a kindred power avow ? " 
 Then he, " Of Life and Death, so human speech 
 
 Has named them, these the symbol forms, in one 
 Known to th' immortals ; wisdom hard to teach, 
 Harder to learn of those beneath the sun. 
 
 Though clear to those beyond : " then with quick hand 
 Upraised to warn, he stayed the words begun. 
 For now from the dim distance of the land 
 
 Rose a strong blast, that to the portal high 
 Drove, as when whirlwinds drive the desert sand. 
 With loving care the Master hastily 
 
 His robe around me flung ; then nearer drew 
 Me to himself, and said, " The hour is nigh ; 
 Pass we the door with conscious steps by few 
 
 Or none thus passed of old." With that the cave 
 Received us, forfeit to the outer view. 
 Blackness and silence all ; a double grave 
 
 Of sense and mind closed o'er me ; memory's seal 
 Effaced, no more to act its conscience gave, 
 Done or endured ; nor might those depths reveal 
 
 Aught to th' emergent self; nor the warm beam 
 Of life renewed the broken links anneal. 
 So the fallen rain-drop in the eddying stream 
 
CANTO IV : 
 
 Melts undistinguished ; so with dreamless sleep 
 Blends and is lost the unremembered dream. 
 How long, how wide that blank, the cave how deep. 
 
 How from its gloom to a new light we passed, 
 I know not ; those dread shades their secret keep. 
 When first my sight regained around I cast, 
 
 Midmost in a fair land alone I stood ; 
 Nor cave was there, nor phantom-haunted blast. 
 But round me grassy uplands with dark woods 
 
 Chequered, and sparkling water-tracks between. 
 And far off heights of purple solitude. 
 Yet haunts of men were nigh, though thick the screen 
 
 Of hedge-row trees opposed, that through the glade 
 Where the birds sang nor roof nor spire was seen, 
 Highgate or Hampstead ; bright the sunbeams played 
 
 On grass and leaf ; and fleecy clouds of Spring 
 Tempered the golden ray with flying shade. 
 So forth I wandered, till a crown-Uke ring 
 
 Of branching elms, that on a grassy mound 
 Mixed with brown firs uprose, as welcoming 
 To rest firom heatful toil, my footsteps found ; 
 
 And deep in matted grass a litde rill 
 From th' outer plain with coolness fenced it round. 
 This with slight care I passed, and climbed the hill ; 
 
 Then on its summit laid me down, half hid 
 Between the close-set trees, and gazed my fill 
 Far as the pale horizon's circling lid 
 
 O'er groves and meadows, where no rival height 
 With interposing screen the view forbid 
 As one who through drear hours of stormy night 
 
 On travel bound, joys at day's dawn to find 
 Some place of rest, with food and comfort dight ; 
 There the long miles and tedious left behind 
 
 Recounting, glad the labours of the way, 
 Pledges of present ease, he calls to mind ; 
 So stretched beneath those shadowing boughs I lay ; 
 
22 BOOK I 
 
 While perils past and pains to pleasures new 
 By thought transformed, remarshalled their array. 
 And still warm winds through the great tree-stems blew, 
 
 And still in greenest depths the blackbird sung, 
 And still looked smiling down the o'er-vaulted blue. 
 Then close, from whence I knew not, music rung ; 
 
 Clear as pure silver were the notes ; they named 
 Names deep in memory writ, denied the tongue. 
 And forms familiar erst in love unblamed. 
 
 Childhood's or youth's, in their own beauty there 
 Stood forth, from the lost past by love reclaimed. 
 And guttering with pure splendour ; " Welcome fair ! " 
 
 They cried, "welcome returning, welcome, led 
 In thy first life the second life to share. 
 Welcome : the living we, miscalled the dead, 
 
 The destined sharers of thy joy, with thee 
 Dwellers of the great Orb whose influence shed 
 Its fullness on thy birth-hour : love's decree 
 
 Made us companions of the darkling way 
 Thou now retread'st, from dream and semblance free." 
 Thus as they sang, clear and more clear heaven's ray 
 
 Sparkled on grass and tree from green to gold 
 Changed, and the purple hills that farther lay 
 Were amethyst all ; in diamond lustre rolled 
 
 The streams, and sapphire-blue the vault above ; 
 While spread self-oped before me fold by fold 
 
 The pageant scroll, figured and writ by Love. 
 
CANTO V 
 
 A dream of my early boyhood is re-enacted, in which I saw my 
 heart as a snared bird, prisoner to Love — My guide re- 
 appears, and gives the meaning of the dream — We stand on 
 the edge of Hampstead Heath, looking towards London — 
 Spirit aspect of modern London and its inhabitants — Cross 
 of St. Paul's — Modern Progress and Civilisation, as centralised 
 in London — Materialism of modern life — Its phantoms — Its 
 end in national and individual deterioration — My guide ex- 
 plains the causes of its failure, because contrary to Nature ; 
 and congratulates me on having preferred the spiritual Life. 
 
 A LITTLE yet in the blest beams of mom 
 
 Let me 'mid birds and flowers my tale delay ; 
 A little yet defer the destined scorn 
 Of wasted days, lone nights, and steps astray, 
 
 Earth's wrong, life's heavy burden ; all too soon 
 Must we lament ; rejoice we while we may. 
 No Siren sang, yet Siren-like the tune 
 
 Sounded within my brain ; and one bright star 
 Led up the dew-pranked morn of pleasant June. 
 On the green lawn, from Asian sands how far 
 
 By manhood's slumbers pressed ! a child I slept 
 In the visioned sleep \^ere dreams as waking are ; 
 Then seemed I rose, and through the garden stept 
 
 Where with white-flowering myrtle pleshed, the rose 
 A fenceful order 'long the pathway kept. 
 
24 BOOK 
 
 And as the dream-bound mind its vision knows 
 
 Yet how it knows enquires not, ware I was 
 Of the strange show which was my childhood's close, 
 That to new birth th' imperfect life might pass ; 
 
 So near my walk a fluttering sound I heard 
 As of wings tangled in th' embranching mass. 
 Seeking deliverance : then I turned where stirred 
 
 The leaves, and pinioned 'mid their sprays I saw, 
 But struggling to get free, a wondrous bird. 
 Ruffled his painted plumes ; with beak and claw 
 
 He strove, but nought availed from the strong snare 
 Of gilded wire his prisoned strength to draw. 
 Pitying, I sought the noose with helpful care 
 
 T' unloose, and set the feathered captive free. 
 But could not, so perplexed the meshes were. 
 Sudden a voice^ " In vain thou striv'st with me," 
 
 Thus close and clear it rang ; " My name is Love ; 
 Mine is thy heart ; submit to my decree." 
 Starting I woke. " No further need to prove 
 
 The vision's truth," thus said my guide, who now 
 Beside me stood ; " even here heaven's courses move 
 Back to their starting-point ; the waters flow 
 
 Onward, then ebbing their first line retrace ; 
 Nor aught its being's limits may outgrow. 
 Follow me now, nor fear ; the bonds of space 
 
 Are broken all : nor danger nor decay 
 In the vision world for thee, for me, have place.'' 
 This said, his hand on mine he laid ; the way 
 
 Led up a green hill-crest and margined heath ; 
 And wide before us spread the Southern day, 
 Where a broad river, 'midst the plain beneath 
 
 In silvery patches shone 'twixt roof and spire 
 Of a great City, that girt as with the wreath 
 Of a world's empire either bank ; and higher 
 
 Spread on the farther slopes : a smoke-dark cloud, 
 By day a veil, by night a vault of fire 
 
CANTO V 25 
 
 O'erarched the labyrinth streets, where a vast crowd 
 
 Like their own river ceaseless ebbed and flowed, 
 With eager steps, and faces downward bowed. 
 Dust-soiled they thronged along the pavement road, 
 
 Nor raised their eyes to the far sky that ever 
 Stainless above that smoke-soiled canopy glowed. 
 But they like circling lines that pass and quiver 
 
 Traced on a downward stream, in hurrying press 
 Eager renewed their purposeless endeavour. 
 And still from out that brick-piled wilderness 
 
 Flashed forth new shapes, new wonders, as the old 
 Faded ; and greater still was given for less ; 
 While midmost high o'erhead in tarnished gold, 
 
 Unheeded it by all, in proud neglect 
 A Cross of times outworn the story told. 
 " This the great heart of the great Power, bedecked 
 
 With earth's chief gems, with earth's own circle 
 crowned, 
 Thou knowest ; " — thus spoke my guide nor stayed t' 
 
 expect 
 My answer; "here th' illusive goods abound 
 
 That men for substance take ; here most the spell 
 Of the old sorceress works its wildering round." 
 Then looked I on that crowd innumerable 
 
 Of eager faces ; careworn each and pale 
 Went hastening on his way ; yet none could tell 
 Whither his course or why, nor might avail 
 
 Or voice or warning hand their race to stay : 
 But as light leaves swept by the Autumn gale 
 Onward they whirled ; a standard's broad display 
 
 Fluttered before them by thin breezes spread. 
 Of flimsiest gauze, with spangles broidered gay. 
 And on its flickering folds were letters read 
 
 That changed from hour to hour in some new word 
 Of blown self-praise, so was the vision led. 
 And where it passed the murky air was stirred 
 
26 BOOK I 
 
 With shouts of joy and triumph, mixed with sighs 
 As for lost things, in dissonant contrast heard. 
 For some of progress sung and victories 
 
 By science gained ; and some bewailed their day 
 Joyless and dark, by others held in prize. 
 While dense as luminous insects in their play 
 
 That swarm by evening rice-paths, glittering things 
 Flew round their heads, or perched beside their way, 
 Void of all substance,^ — fond imaginings, 
 
 Science, light, freedom, progress, and the boast 
 Of that which man to one mean level brings. 
 So guided, so accompanied was that host 
 
 Of young and old, women and men conjoined, 
 Where reverence all of sex and age was lost. 
 With open eyes staring they went, yet blind 
 
 To aught but the vain gauds that moved before, 
 And sought, yet paused not what they sought to find. 
 Then as I looked I saw that evermore 
 
 Hour after hour the brightness of each face 
 Faded, as fades a flower when smit the core 
 With blight j and from each limb fell off the grace 
 
 Of natural life, and dwarfed the stature grew ; 
 Till of that pomp self-vaunted in short space 
 Was nothing left ; and all that jubilant crew. 
 
 Like yearling plants levelled by wintry showers, 
 Wasted, and in cold mists were hid from view. 
 " So let them pass," thus spoke my guide ; " the powers 
 
 Of Nature, the hid springs of weal and woe 
 Stored in her depths, the prodigal births, the flowers 
 Of balm or bale ; the fruits that life bestow 
 
 Or quench, the seasons' wheel, the welcomed Spring, 
 The populous Summer, Winter's burial snow. 
 All these, obeyed, man to fulfilment bring, 
 
 But thwarted, crush, mocking the vain command 
 That their set purport from its use would wring. 
 Not absolute lord of nature man was planned. 
 
CANTO V 27 
 
 " But by obedience to th' unchanging laws 
 That bind him in his proper place to stand. 
 But these, as the thwart gleam which treacherous draws 
 
 Night's insect follies to their doom, the glare 
 Of vain conceit, oil-fed by self -applause, 
 Onward and downward draws ; nor part nor share 
 
 Of earth's true kingdom, joy, strength, beauty, aught 
 That makes life lovely as day's light the air 
 Is theirs ; so let them pass from naught to naught : 
 
 Till rolled through lower circles, they regain 
 The conscious being, to better wisdom brought. 
 But thou rejoice, whom from the ill-starred train 
 
 Of such I sundered, when thy vagrant heart 
 With mine I bound, enfranchised in Love's chain. 
 So let them pass ; hold thou the nobler part 
 
 Chosen in thy boyhood's hours, when first thy ear 
 Approved the voice that made thee what thou art. 
 And many a rose-crowned Summer, many a year 
 
 Has o'er that garden passed, and many a bough 
 Heavy with Autumn hopes, now bare and sere^ 
 Mocks the sad gaze of age ; yet happier thou 
 
 Even in illusion's loss art known, than they 
 Who earth's false harlot for their queen avow. 
 From her, from these I kept thee, day by day 
 
 Leading thee on, till manhood's perilous prime 
 Was gone, and bleached youth's auburn locks to grey. 
 Not in the shows of sense, the toys of time 
 
 Is the true life, thy goal ; on other ground 
 Sown is the harvest, reaped in other clime. 
 But that ill worm whose coil the world around 
 
 With a death-zodiac binds, from noblest things 
 Draws the slow venom of destruction's wound. 
 And cities, nations, empires, senates, kings 
 
 As London fails shall fail ; they most who strove 
 Loveless to reach, borne on Icarian wings, 
 
 The perfect bourne, denied to all but Love." 
 
CANTO VI 
 
 Vision of London as Capital of the Empire — My birthplace — 
 London in earlier times — Richard II. and the insurgents — The 
 ICing and the People — Processional triumph of Queen Eliza- 
 beth — Her Court : warriors, statesmen, navigators ; Shake- 
 speare, Spenser — Difference between that time and the present 
 — My guide shows me other instances of national decline, 
 as Rome, Constantinople, Athens, Florence, Venice, Paris, 
 Thebes, Nineveh — The cause of their decay, through dis- 
 obedience to the Laws of natural existence and growth. 
 
 The smoke-wove wreaths whose sullen curtains late 
 
 Shrouded that city's large magniiicence 
 Were gone ; and clear in view rose the proud state 
 Of the world's empress ; rampart none nor fence 
 
 Of brick or stone was hers ; so firm she stood 
 In her own might, herself her own defence. 
 And as the tangled breadth of some great wood 
 
 With leafy domes and spires of shade and light 
 Mottles the plain from some sheer eminence viewed, 
 Or the pure blackness of a summer night 
 
 Scored and cross-fretted by the chequered rows 
 Of fleecy cloudlets with reticular white, 
 So the wide plain adown in sure repose 
 
 By the calm-gliding stream, that mighty town 
 Outstretched its populous maze, whence ceaseless rose 
 
CANTO VI 29 
 
 Life's blended murmurs ; or a thymy down 
 
 O'er-buzzed with bustling bees, keen to fulfil 
 Their common purpose all, and each its own. 
 O my loved nurse and birthplace ! royal still 
 
 Even as thou art this day ; but worthier showed 
 As thus I saw thee, London, from the hill 
 Of boyhood's vision, and th' ignoble crowd 
 
 Mechanical spawn of Time's enfeebled eld 
 Had passed, as from blue skies a marsh-born cloud. 
 Then as past days redawning there dispelled 
 
 Th' unlovely growths of later years, I viewed 
 Close by the city marge a field that held 
 What seemed two hosts, so front to front they stood 
 
 Diverse yet semblant ; horsemen these, each shield 
 Emblazoned fair ; their armour dashed with blood 
 Their own or others'. Foremost on the field 
 
 As to a banquet dight, forth rode a youth 
 Unarmed, no vizor's masque his face concealed. 
 Fearless, in highborn grace and boyish truth : 
 
 Nor paled his cheek, though near th' opposing band 
 Gathered, in coarsest garb and mien uncouth ; 
 Rough men of day's rough toil ; each horny hand 
 
 For weapon grasped its labour's implement, 
 Pitchfork or pole or mattock from the land. 
 Hard was their look, as on fierce purpose bent. 
 
 Yet sad, as men pressed by some heavy wrong, 
 That victory's flush with customed shame was blent. 
 " What seek ye ? " thus the boy to that wild throng ; 
 
 "Our Leader," rung their answer. "Am not I 
 Leader and King ? to whom but me belong 
 Redress and justice ? Take them." The reply, 
 
 " God save our King, King Richard," echoed loud ; 
 " Thy liegemen we ; o'er us thy sovereignty." 
 — " The life of nations, kingship, deeds of war. 
 
 Or judgment, vigorous serfage, and the soul 
 To its own purpose steadfast, as the star 
 
3° 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 " True to the centre of th' encircled pole, 
 
 These hast thou seen ; yet look again, ere time 
 Deface the writing of the storied scroll." 
 I looked, the scene was changed ; as fields in prime 
 
 Of flowery Spring, so showed the streets, and loud 
 The merry bells rang out their festal chime. 
 And in gay dress with shout and song the crowd 
 
 Thronged every street, but most the pomp where rode 
 A maiden Queen, she seemed, of aspect proud 
 Yet smiling ; proud her cream-white charger trode 
 
 Midmost the press ; behind, a marshalled band 
 Worthy such sovereign's lead ; so forth they yode,^ 
 Warriors and statesmen ; some from farthest land 
 
 Iberian trophies bore, the golden boast 
 Of far Atlantis' late-surrendered strand ;^ 
 And Indian gems, and spoils of Libya's coast 
 
 Were there displayed ; and each with other vied. 
 Jealous who that high Dame might honour most. 
 And some to memory known I there espied, 
 
 Cecil's pale brow, and wisest Walsingham, 
 And Sidney's star, and Leicester's peacock pride ; 
 Howard, and venturous Drake, with many a name 
 
 Of war, or counsel, or deep policy. 
 Who the great meed earned of undying fame. 
 And 'mid the crowd, nor noted yet, was he 
 
 Who all mankind outvalued ta'en in one, 
 Nature's true glass, a world's epitome, — 
 Shakespeare ; and with him joined the minstrel son * 
 
 Of my own City-nurse and his, the praise 
 Of dorian,* praised of all ; so passed they on 
 Not to return ; and with them passed the days 
 
 When England yet was England, and her Queen 
 English, and both a dazzled world's amaze. 
 And much I grieved that what so fair had been 
 
 ' Went. 2 The Americas. 3 Edmund Spenser. 
 
 * Poetical name for Elizabeth. 
 
31 
 
 Should now so foul appear ; and the tall tree 
 For withered bareness change its earlier green. 
 Then said my guide and master, " This to see 
 
 That thou hast seen, to few is given ; yet know 
 Not new nor strange the visioned destiny. 
 Others from loftiest heights have fallen as low 
 
 Or lower ; so the numbing streams of death 
 Through various channels from one fountain flow." 
 He spoke, and pointed to the plain beneath. 
 
 Now boundless grown, and fronting due the sight 
 Where yet we stood 'mid yellow furze and heath. 
 There rose, a phantom scene, Rome's imaged might ; 
 
 And from the seven-fold nest to farthest bounds 
 Of earth, th' all-conquering eagle winged its flight ; 
 To clerkly dotage next and ruinous mounds 
 
 Shrunk and dishonoured ; such the doom of sway 
 That in excess the natural use confounds. 
 O piteous sight of unsurmised decay ! 
 
 O solitude of her that populous sate ! 
 Nor deemed her flower could fade, decline her day. 
 And there Byzantium mourned her purple state. 
 
 Jewel-clasp of two Empires, East and West, 
 Now in chained foulness worse than desolate. 
 There too I saw, by the like doom oppressed, 
 
 Lesser but lovelier forms ; Minerva's pride 
 With olive crowned and violet ; erst confessed 
 Of arts and learning queen ; there by the side 
 
 Of a shrunk Arno mourned the city known 
 Etruria's Athens ; there sad Adria's bride ; 
 And the old Bourbons' mud-bespattered throne 
 
 Where boastful Paris flaunts her worst disgrace. 
 As erst in despot splendour matched of none. 
 All these and more besides were there in place. 
 
 With hundred-gated Thebes, and Nimrod's pride. 
 And Ninus' sculptured piles which years deface. 
 Heart-sore, " And is this all ? " I weeping cried. 
 
32 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 " To this must nations come ? no better hope ? 
 But faint decay and ruin multiplied ? " 
 " Not Nature's crime but theirs ; the proper scope," 
 
 Answered my guide, " of all things to increase 
 Is framed ; not death but life heaven's star-bright cope 
 Showers down on men and cities, nor can cease 
 
 From ever-working growth ; but freely still 
 Large and more large renews her primal lease. 
 But the thwart power perverse that joys in ill 
 
 Through praise dishonour brings, through growth decay, 
 Rulers and ruled by turns misguiding ; till 
 They fall, as these have fallen of elder day. 
 
 O ye unwise ! who from th' unerring Mne 
 By Nature traced, in self-planned courses stray. 
 On its own rocks 'neath its own sky the pine 
 
 Puts forth its resinous scent ; nor seeks to change 
 Its natal slopes the grape-maturing vine. 
 Plant, bird, beast, insect, each maintains the range 
 
 Of its own personal birthplace ; food nor soil 
 They vary, nor their self from self estrange. 
 But ye with arrogant vaunt, and the fond toil 
 
 Of shallow lore would fain the laws reverse 
 Of birth, and Nature's garden fair despoil 
 Of flower, and flower-born fruit, with skill perverse 
 
 Life's deep foundations boastful to remove ; 
 Till sink your sand-built towers, smit by the curse 
 
 Of slighted Nature and avenging Love." 
 
CANTO VII 
 
 The vision of Ruins, and beyond it a shining City, the abode of 
 true patriots — ^We journey to it — The City is four-square, 
 with a Northern and an Eastern gate — Numa, guardian of the 
 Northern gate — The guardian of the Eastern gate — No en- 
 trance to West or South — The guardian of the Northern gate 
 invites me to enter — I enquire of my Guide the meaning of 
 these things — He explains — Spiritual affinity betv^een Rome 
 and London ; also between myself and those of the Eastern 
 gate, which represents Asia, as the Northern gate, Europe — 
 Sterility of the West or America, from the want of ti-ue 
 nobility of soul and aim — Sterility of Africa, and the Tropics 
 generally (figured by the South gate), arising from the natural 
 inferiority of the inhabitants — Limits of patriotic greatness — 
 Japan on the East — Gibraltar on the West — The glory of the 
 City. 
 
 As who from some high cliff the beach below 
 
 Bestrewed with splintered wrecks beholds at morn, 
 Where heaved in glossy calm the waters flow 
 That late such mischief wrought, now as in scorn 
 
 Smiling ; while bare and shivering on the sands 
 Cowers some scarce-rescued wretch of all forlorn ; . 
 So from the gorse-grown hill those visioned lands 
 
 Showed to my gaze, where in sad prospect lay, 
 Ruins of time, rent altars, scattered brands. 
 But these beyond, on the far marge away 
 
 Shone a fair city's whiteness, as the star 
 
 D 
 
34 BOOK 
 
 When heavy clouds oppress the dying day, 
 Gleams in keen silver o'er the murky bar 
 
 From South to North outstretched, the girded zone 
 Of night, swift hastening day's delight to mar. 
 So where all else was gloom that city shone 
 
 Upreared in perfect beauty, wall and spire, 
 'Yond the sad wrecks of empire overthrown. 
 "To that fair town, loadstone of thy desire 
 
 Our steps are bent," thus spoke the gracious voice 
 That was my guidance; "what thy thoughts desire 
 Be mine unasked to grant when just the choice ; 
 
 Nor joys a father more at wisdom shown 
 By his loved son, than I in thine rejoice. 
 Here of high deeds the guerdon, here the throne 
 
 Of the true kings of men, the destinies 
 Through toil and death to life's full stature grown. 
 Therefore unchanged beneath the changeful skies 
 
 Their works abide ; nor ruinous decay 
 Nor secret guile their fastness may surprise. 
 Nor cloud o'ercast the splendours of their day, 
 
 Nor autumn sear their summer, nor the shade 
 Of late remorse their steadfast hope dismay." 
 Thus having spoke his hand on mine he laid. 
 
 Guide to my way ; till from that well-known height 
 Descending, 'mid the plain our path was made. 
 'Mid various talk that seems not here to write. 
 
 To those high towers we passed, the portioned close 
 Of wise assurance and well-ordered might. 
 On deep foundations reared the walls arose 
 
 Polished and rock-like firm, that might defy 
 Worst wrongs of gnawing time, or sudden foes. 
 Four-square in measured strength they faced the sky ; 
 
 And on two sides, to North and East, a gate 
 Showed guarded entrance to the passers by. 
 At either portal, throned in grave estate 
 
 Sceptred and crowned, unbid by whom the door 
 
CANTO VII 35 
 
 Might ope to none, a royal porter sate. 
 Unlike in aspect diverse robes they wore ; 
 
 Grey-browed the first ^ o'er thoughtful eyes ; his dress 
 Round its white folds a purple margent bore ; 
 Bent was his form, as one whom years oppress : 
 
 And at his side in youthful beauty bare 
 Stood sweet Egeria's fount-born loveliness. 
 But by the gate that fronts the Eastern stair 
 
 Sat one nor young nor old, in manly show. 
 With smiling face, and brow unseamed by care. 
 I saw and wondered much ; then turned to go 
 
 Westward ; but door or entrance there was none, 
 But a blank wall, denied to friend or foe. 
 Last where the towers in Southern sunlight shone 
 
 With like event I strayed ; then took my way 
 Back to the Northern gate, the circuit done. 
 " O thou who wandering long by much delay 
 
 Hast reached the sacred mount, where the late flower 
 Of life some ripened fruit may yet display, 
 Here rest, for here is rest, the while the hour 
 
 Of adverse influence blots earth's skies, to know 
 Of steadfast purpose wed with truth the dower." 
 Such welcome, made in gentle words and slow 
 
 Where at the gate I stood, rejoiced my ear 
 From him who second reigned by Tiber's flow. 
 " Lord of my life, whose love has brought me here 
 
 Nor vainly brought," I said, " brother and guide, 
 Present in whom the past, the distant near. 
 Tell me why foremost from the Northern side 
 
 This greeting given ? who guards the Eastern door ? 
 And why from West and South access denied ? " 
 Answered my guide, half chiding, " What before 
 
 I told thee call to mind, nor longer be 
 As one who having, keeps unused his store, — 
 How in the star-traced courses the decree 
 1 Numa. 
 
36 BOOK I 
 
 " Is writ that binds the sons of earth in one, 
 So in their birthright climes and skies agree. 
 Many the heirs of Nuraa's Rome ; but none 
 
 Chiefer than thy own birthplace, her the nurse 
 Of thy first childhood by her Thames begun. 
 Thy heritage this from out the universe ; 
 
 Yet not forbid thy range the names untraced 
 In Europe's page, untuned to Europe's verse ; 
 As his who thrones by th' Eastern portal placed. 
 
 Silent as yet to thee ; but soon his voice 
 Shall fresh and firm upbuild what years defaced. 
 As erst Amphion's song ; till wisdom's choice 
 
 'Twixt these and those may doubtful hang, nor know 
 If more with these to mourn, with those rejoice. 
 Not thus th' unstable West, in barren flow 
 
 As its own vexed Atlantic's breast, where all 
 Purposeless the dark waters pass and go. 
 With lawless winds in hourly rise and fall. 
 
 These worth nor honour rules, but common greed 
 Not as of men, but cattle from the stall ; 
 Each for himself; nor reverend age, nor meed 
 
 Of honoured birth, nor courtesy that tends 
 On gentle minds, nor care of generous deed 
 Is theirs ; but shallow strivings, shallow ends. 
 
 Youth joyless, manhood loveless, life a dream 
 That fame records not, past, nor praise attends. 
 Vanity ! Such the fountain, such the stream ; 
 
 From withering what the rootless plant can save ? 
 Or what the promise of lost youth redeem ? 
 O had he known that vaunted gift who gave, 
 
 A second world, what ills his gift should bear 
 To him, to all, — unploughed the Western wave 
 Had kept the secret of its shores, and ne'er 
 
 Not to redress but ruin, to the New 
 Had the Old lent an ill-apportioned share. 
 O foolish men, the ancient poise and true 
 
CANTO VII 37 
 
 " Of ordered measure cast aside, to weigh 
 Unequal weights in self-forged scales untrue ! 
 Nor yet where Southward flames the zodiac day 
 
 Is aught of memory worth the groves among 
 Where dusky nations dusky lords obey. 
 Small wisdom theirs or strength, nor much of wrong 
 
 They, heed, or right maintain; recorded praise 
 Nor blame to such in manhood's right belong. 
 Turn thee from these, nor care what later days 
 
 May haply garner from a thriftless soil. 
 Nor seek the fruit where yet the flower delays. 
 This know ; from where Cathay to duteous toil 
 
 Sends forth her long-haired children, and the sun 
 First resting finds from the wide sea's turmoil, 
 To where on Calpe's ^ heights, his journey done, 
 
 He stays a late farewell, the bounds assigned 
 Are these to manhood's worth, since man begun. 
 Nor think the priceless gems of praise to find 
 
 In South or West new-ventured, or the show 
 Of popular rule, and freedom ill-defined." 
 Thus while he spoke a splendour as the glow 
 
 Of the great day-star's worshipped orb, that fires 
 To burnished gold the upland's crested snow. 
 Lit with pure flames the ridgy roofs and spires 
 
 In mazy lines, till all that city shone 
 As crystal, netted o'er with gilded wires. 
 O of true virtue and great deeds the throne ! 
 
 O just reward of those who justly strove ! 
 Joyous the gates I entered, o'er me thrown 
 
 The imperial mantle of abiding Love. 
 
 1 Gibraltar. 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
 My delight on entering the City ; which contains the noblest of 
 men — I traverse the Northern quarter, where are the great 
 men of Greece, Rome, Italy, Holland, Russia, England, Venice, 
 and the Mediterranean region ; and am admitted to their 
 fellowship — I meet Agis, King of Sparta — We converse — He 
 relates his attempt to regenerate Sparta : its failure, and his 
 death — My guide consoles him : his triumph — I enter the 
 Eastern region, laid out as a garden, and am welcomed by the 
 Guardian thereof. 
 
 The joy, the wonder, all that thrills the breast 
 
 Almost to pain, when erst from far the foot 
 Measuring its road, halts on the seven-fold crest 
 Of the world's Queen ; awhile in rapture mute 
 
 The traveller stands, then "Rome!" exclaims, and still 
 Repeats, as fearful of the truth's dispute ; 
 Nor may his eyes of gazing take their fill, 
 
 Where grey with memories rise the walls that tell 
 Of giant rule, and earth-encircling will : 
 Such was my joy when by th' associate spell 
 
 Of Love upheld, my steps the threshold passed 
 An hour to pace that honoured citadel. 
 The deeds that time and time's own heavens outlast, 
 
 The thoughts that quenchless burn when quenched 
 the stars, 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
 39 
 
 The spoken words, mightier than tempest blast, 
 The works of laurelled peace, the well-fought wars, 
 
 The words that man for more than man proclaim. 
 The thoughts of light, as morning's radiant bars. 
 And they the sons of greatness, lords of fame, 
 
 Those words who boldly spoke, those deeds who 
 wrought. 
 Not in their own but in their country's name ; 
 Who greatly dared to think, and gave their thought 
 
 Substance in art, nof backward turned, but deemed 
 The higher life by the lower cheaply bought, 
 Were here, on earth by death from death redeemed. 
 
 Robed in that city's shadowless light, the while 
 Each starlike in his proper splendour beamed. 
 O of our kind the glory ! in what style 
 
 Can I the jewels of your high praise enchase. 
 To which all bright is dull, all precious vile ? 
 From street to street I ventured with slow pace 
 
 As one who finds him 'mid a nobler band 
 Than wont, and in mere shame casts down his face. 
 For all that Greece, or Rome, or the fair land 
 
 Daughter of each, divinest Italy, 
 Have given to fame, I here in presence scanned. 
 And joined with these the chiefs whose purpose high. 
 
 Of self forgetful, laboured still to rear 
 Through toil and pain their birthland's majesty, 
 By Tiber's yellow stream, or Arno clear. 
 
 Or the crag-margined shores where burst and flow 
 Aegaea's sparkling tides, or marshes drear 
 Of Holland, Moscow's fire-illumined snow, 
 
 Green England's daisied meads, the, marble walls 
 Of Venice, Syria's rock-reflected glow, — 
 From death-strewn fields to history known, from halls 
 
 Of council, warriors, statesmen, whose firm mind 
 Nor popular greed infects, nor fear appals. 
 All doubt, all wavering purpose left behind, — 
 
40 BOOK I 
 
 I passed amid these mighty ones ; to me 
 Unworthy was such worthiness assigned. 
 As one to whom some wizard hand the key 
 
 Of a great wealth has given, from room to room 
 Strays on 'mid gold and heaped-up jewelry, 
 Master of all, and through the caverned gloom 
 
 Sees further heaps, and thinks, "The antique earth 
 For me on these has closed her hoardful womb ; " 
 Then to those riches turns again, in mirth 
 
 Laughing aloud, and drunk with childish pleasure, 
 Nor fears decay, nor heeds of other worth ; — 
 Even so was I, girt by the new-found treasure 
 
 Of will and wisdom, from the founts of time 
 Poured forth around me there, nor stint nor measure. 
 So on we fared, our talk of deeds which climb 
 
 Fame's highest heights, of deaths that life complete, 
 Not conquer, the ripe first-fruits of earth's prime ; 
 Till at a corner of the shining street 
 
 That midway cleft the town, I saw where sate. 
 Fair as the sky where night and morning meet. 
 In most translucent calm, a form sedate 
 
 But sad, and sad the glories of his brow. 
 Though as a conqueror crowned in kingly state. 
 A lustre half-eclipsed, a smothered glow, 
 
 A beauty dimmed by pain ; that all my heart 
 In pitying love went forth his truth to know. 
 But ere I spoke, he questioned : " Who thou art 
 
 Tell me, and whence thy path, and who thy guide. 
 That mortal claim'st among th' immortals part ? " 
 " Of little note my name, nor aught beside 
 
 Worthy recount is mine ; who leads me knows 
 Alike my whence and wherefore," I replied : 
 " Nor needs my guide declare ; th' assured repose 
 
 Of this firm city, an untroubled lake, 
 Reflects each light in upper heaven that shows. 
 But who art thou thus lone ? my eye-balls ache 
 
CANTO VIII 41 
 
 " With gazing on thy beauty, and my soul 
 Faints in compassionate longing for thy sake." 
 " A purpose unfulfilled was mine, a goal 
 
 Unreached," he answered, " Sparta's heir and king, 
 The lines of shame t' erase from Sparta's scroll 
 1 strove, and back the honoured days to bring 
 
 Of old Lycurgus, and the blighted wreath 
 Inweave with garlands of a better Spring. 
 As he who with much toil the stifled breath 
 
 Of his drowned child would fain recall, in vain 
 I wrought, nor knew that death but leads to death, — 
 Once gone, for ever gone." Like one with pain 
 
 Oppressed, awhile he ceased ; then raised his face 
 And smiled. " And were my hour renewed, again 
 Would I adventure, though the pathway led 
 
 But where it ended then." He bared his neck 
 Black with the cruel noose. "Thou seest," he said, 
 " Sparta's reward, no more ; nor much I reck 
 
 My doom ; nor, pilot of th' ancestral state. 
 Though guiltless of her loss, survive the wreck.'' 
 " Agis," then spoke my guide, " unequal fate 
 
 Conquered thy hopes, not thee ; the nobler lot 
 Once chosen, abides thy portion ; factious hate 
 Has but itself o'ermastered ; unforgot 
 
 Sparta survives in thee, the hohest word 
 On the muster-roll of fame, that numbers not 
 Greater than those who death nor shame have feared 
 
 Even from their country, for that country's good. 
 And to their own her welfare aye preferred. 
 Swift fades all human growth unless with blood 
 
 Watered betimes its roots ; life's loftiest towers 
 In death's foundations aye have firmest stood." 
 As some fair field late drenched in wintry showers 
 
 By Spring's returning sun caressed, again 
 Glitters in emerald spikes and varnished flowers, 
 So at these words the gloom of anxious pain 
 
42 BOOK I 
 
 Passed from that regal brow, in joy serene 
 Assured he had not striven nor died in vain. 
 Then on we passed, to where a meadow green 
 
 Starred with bright flowers to sight disclosed a throng 
 Of other aspect ; some the groves between 
 Paced in glad converse linked, and some with song 
 
 Made the air tuneful ; some in restful ease 
 Sat or reclined the grass-edged streams along. 
 Less fair than those behind us left were these, 
 
 Yet not less noble showed, but calmer shone 
 Their light, as moonshine over silent seas. 
 Self-perfect shapes, each in himself a throne 
 
 Of firm content and absolute victory, 
 A lord of nations each, and each alone. 
 A purer air was theirs, a sunnier sky 
 
 Through the far Eastern portals issuing there 
 Whence light and life have course continually. 
 " Thrice-happy spirits, to whom this garden fair 
 
 Is given, your wages these : O ! would that fate 
 Past life, past death, with you might mete my share." 
 Such thought was mine, when from the Eastern gate 
 
 Th' unspoken answer came, that silent passed 
 Through sense and heart, with joy untried elate. 
 "Well hast thou chosen ; here be the anchor cast 
 
 Of thy long sail," so spoke my guide, " thy race 
 With these is numbered, these thy peers at last. 
 Here rest ; awhile among them be thy place. 
 
 Thy sojourn here, so will the lords above, 
 With these thy brethren, circled in th' embrace 
 
 Foretaste and pledge assigned of deathless Love." 
 
CANTO IX 
 
 Beauty of the Eastern garden, the resting-place of the Eastern 
 patriots and heroes — I fall into an enchanted sleep, and in 
 dream am transported to Japan : description of Japan — 
 Vision of the Sun -origin of the Japanese nation, and the 
 connection between the two — Temno, the first Emperor — 
 His semblance, as the Guardian of Japan — He announces 
 himself to me ; and explains the excellence of the first Age 
 of Japan — Its simplicity and conformity with Nature — 111 
 effects of the introduction from China of Buddhism, and of 
 luxury and pomp — Civil wars, and succeeding torpor under 
 the usurping nobles — Foreign attack — Restoration of the 
 Empire — Exhortation to Japan to stand fast on her original 
 and native ways — An extasy — End of the First or Intro- 
 ductory Pageant. 
 
 Satiate with pleasure through that garden wide 
 
 I strayed by copse and streamlet, the sweet hour 
 Content t' enjoy, careless of all beside. 
 Whate'er may loveliest be of plant or flower, 
 
 Whate'er of beauty may the varied scene 
 Present in open lawn or arching bower ; 
 Full brooks of mirrored silver, marged with green, 
 
 Blossoms of every hue the summer West 
 At sunset wears the golden isles between, 
 In one were gathered there ; not farthest quest 
 
 Of Ocean's hid retreats, nor fairy glades 
 
44 BOOK I 
 
 In moonlight masked, that wondrous tales attest, 
 Nor the cool valleys by Pierian maids 
 
 Trodden, nor Syria's glens, nor Enna's plain, 
 Nor Circe's haunts, nor Eden's vanished shades, 
 Might in compare that garden's vaunt attain ; 
 
 Even Nature's self with Nature to adorn 
 Aught else in rival guise, might strive in vain. 
 Nor ever night was there, nor eve, but morn 
 
 In dewy sparklings radiant, that with Spring 
 Contended which should most these bowers adorn. 
 And Time was there, but Love had clipped his wing 
 
 And reft his scythe, lest to that happy ground 
 His captious malice aught of wrong should bring. 
 Till the great hour predoomed, the ultimate bound 
 
 Of time and time's creation, when complete 
 The secular year fulfils its destined round. 
 Then as I wandered on with careless feet 
 
 From lawn to glade, from glade to lawn, the dell 
 With a strange stillness of enchantment sweet 
 Closed me around, till on my sense there fell 
 
 Deep slumber, where a pine's wide boughs outspread 
 Shadowed a bank of moss-wove asphodel 
 I slept, and seemed, but how I know not, led 
 
 Where on an island coast a dark blue sea 
 Broke in white waves unceasing ; overhead 
 With flakes of sulphurous smoke heaven's canopy 
 
 Was streaked; but all beyond, green plains and 
 hills 
 Were netted o'er with dense embroidery 
 Of every growth that from earth's store distils 
 
 Colour, and scent, and sweetness ; shone between 
 Wide-spreading lakes, swift torrents, silver rills. 
 No fairer land Idalia's goddess queen ^ 
 
 Claimed for her own ; yet from the crested snows 
 Fire-mingled horror frowned in sternest mien. 
 1 Venus. 
 
CANTO IX 45 
 
 All these I saw, nor marvelled ; sleep bestows 
 
 Such calm 'mid strangest phantasm, that the mind 
 As fore-aware, nor fear nor wonder knows. 
 Then, where it seemed I lay, a vehement wind 
 
 Intense with torrent brightness, as a stream 
 Of whitest light that makes the eyeballs blind. 
 Burst forth and wrapped me round ; till in my dream 
 
 Swept upwards 'mid the central fire I stood 
 That in their courses guides the sevenfold team 
 Of borrowed light and warmth each day renewed. 
 
 And other orbs unreckoned ; these among 
 Our little world its moon-dogged way pursued. 
 But from above what seemed a bridge was flung 
 
 O'er the abyss to where, third of the seven, 
 A slanted ball our sea-girt planet hung. 
 As o'er some cliff by primal earthquakes riven 
 
 The workman's skill a binding length of chain 
 May throw, so this o'erarched the void of heaven, 
 And to that island 'mid th' involving main 
 
 Where erst I stood, the farther end was bound ; 
 Then to the fiery centre turned again. 
 Nor form distinct was there, nor act, nor sound. 
 
 But from the inmost depths outstretched the hand 
 That makes and mars whatever lives on ground. 
 And as the flickering lights that net the sand 
 
 Seen through clear shallow waters, when the day 
 Looks down from balanced noon o'er sea and land, 
 With intertangling shapes instinct the ray 
 
 Traced varying pictures there, now seen, now gone 
 Where mirror-like earth's mottled surface lay. 
 Of trees, and beasts, and birds, and men ; each one 
 
 A moment given to view, then hid from sight 
 By other shapes successive o'er it drawn. 
 Then as a sudden star that 'midst the light 
 
 Of the broad new-risen morn appears, nor less 
 Glitters distinct in the dawn-silvered height. 
 
46 BOOK I 
 
 Stood forth a warrior form/ in stateliness 
 
 A visible god, parent of gods and kings, 
 With the sun's glories girt as with a dress. 
 And o'er his crested head with plumy wings 
 
 Hovered a dragon-bird ; and keen his look 
 Was sent before, gazing on far-off things 
 Where star-like in the tremulous distance shook 
 
 The destiny of Japan, the island gem 
 Jealously set in Ocean's farthest nook ; 
 Of Asia's sea-dipped robe the flowery hem, 
 
 Of noblest tissue wove, yet firm t' outlast 
 The gold and iron of Rome's own diadem ; 
 Heir of the primal sun, from dateless past 
 
 To dateless future, Empire's singular throne. 
 In Nature's central strength founded and fast. 
 Then as I looked, with gentler lustre shone 
 
 That hero-shape, beckoning me where I stood 
 With gracious speech of welcome ; " Not unknown 
 To thee my name, my lineage, unsubdued 
 
 By all-subduing Time and Change, and aye 
 Like Spring-tide flowers from age to age renewed." 
 He spoke, and pointed where beneath us lay 
 
 In greenest light, chequered with dusky shade 
 The gathered isles that Temno's throne obey. 
 Then thus ; " Child of antipodal earth, conveyed 
 
 By Love to Love's domain, attend and learn 
 The truth in fiction's visioned scene conveyed. 
 So through the time-wove veils mayst thou discern 
 
 Whence kindled the pure flame through secular years 
 Unquenched, through ages yet unquenched to burn. 
 No demon-haunted fanes, no dotard fears 
 
 Were once Japan's ; no altar-stone, no shrine 
 Was dark with victims' blood, or wet with tears. 
 No statecraft yet had traced the sundering line 
 
 'Twixt man and man, rulers and ruled, nor yet 
 ' Temno. 
 
CANTO IX 47 
 
 " Disparted human life from life divine. 
 Nor simple truth lay tangled in the net 
 
 Of njultiple science ; none the charge belied 
 Of herited toil ; nor might the lord forget 
 His vassal's sunborn kinship ; side by side 
 
 Palace and cottage rose ; the chieftain's hold 
 To the serfs hut protecting strength suppHed. 
 This was ; till from the West upgathering rolled 
 
 A vapour dense with monstrous images 
 Of palace-courts, temples, and gods of gold, 
 And priestly hopes and terrors, the disease 
 
 Of mind o'erstrained to madness, such as throng 
 The hermit's cave, till mockery-girt he sees 
 Angels or demons in illusion strong. 
 
 Like herded clouds by the Autumn tempest chased 
 Flight after flight the evening skies along : 
 And luxury's pomp and wealth-bred pride effaced 
 
 The simpler life, as smirched a picture rare 
 Of ancient skill by some coarse hand defaced ; 
 And bigot zeal and tyrannous wrong were there. 
 
 And war begetting war, and rival rage. 
 And the foul things that bred and nurtured are 
 Of time's corruption ; till th' exhausted age 
 
 Lapped in tricennial slumber pulseless lay. 
 And o'er it custom closed her iron cage. 
 Till waked by rude assault, we stand at bay 
 
 'Gainst foes without, 'gainst our own selves within, 
 And in our late revived our earlier day. 
 So with new youth instinct her spotted skin 
 
 The serpent casts, nor heeds the pulsing throes. 
 Intent the renovated life to win. 
 My own heroic country ! he who knows 
 
 Loves thee ; who loves, with jealous dread surveys 
 Alike misleading friends and pirate foes. 
 From the false outer-lure avert thy gaze ; 
 
 In thy own self and Nature's mirror look 
 
4,8 BOOK I 
 
 " For the glad image of imperial days. 
 Nor foreign law, nor lore, nor art, nor book 
 
 Thou need'st ; nor with the foolish be thou found 
 Who glass for gems, tinsel for gold mistook." 
 Thus while he spoke the light that clothed him round 
 
 From heaven's ancestral orb, sent forth a ray 
 That dream to sense transformed ; and on the ground 
 Where late I slept, wakeful again I lay : 
 
 With flowers the grass was rife, with birds the grove ; 
 And at my side the guardian of my way, 
 
 Shone, the bright reflex of transforming Love. 
 
CANTO X 
 
 We leave the Glorious City and Garden, and go Eastwards by a 
 narrow path in a dismal wood, whence comes a sound of 
 moaning and lamentation — I ask an explanation, and am 
 answered that this is the region allotted to those who have 
 wasted their life without worthy aims or deeds ; the common- 
 place ; the selfish : Also of those utterly worthless and depraved 
 by nature, vicious and cruel from their birth ; examples are 
 named to me — All these forfeit their personality, and return 
 to the general mass of existence, as material out of which new 
 individualities may arise — I see them melting and fused into 
 indistinct substance — They have no individual future, nor per- 
 sonal link to a second life — I am downcast at the sight, but 
 my Guide rouses me to go onwards ; we shall soon have passed 
 the region of the Second Death — This is a mystery revealed 
 to few. 
 
 From the fair haven where the joys of shore 
 Are with sea-toil at quits, half-willed the crew 
 
 On further voyage bound, unloose once more 
 
 The bark long beached in calm ; the sails anew 
 
 With song and shout unfolding to the breeze 
 
 ■ Forward they fare, till from their lessening view 
 
 Are gone the quays and houses, heights and trees, 
 The dear familiar landmarks, bartered ill 
 
 For breadth of hazy skies and shifting seas. 
 
 Now back they strain their view, now round them, till 
 
 E 
 
So BOOK I 
 
 Dim grow their eyes with tears, nor aught they find 
 Present, the depths of memory's void to fill : 
 So from the City of Praise, the close assigned 
 
 To noblest deeds, the crown of all delight 
 Round victor brows by Love victorious twined, 
 Not now by choice, but by th' o'ermastering might 
 
 Of Fate's decree, that willed my steps to tread 
 Each maze of circling life, each difficult height. 
 With slow submissive feet and downcast head, 
 
 Silent, nor conscious all, I passed the door 
 Whence Eastward through the land the pathway led. 
 With quickset thorn and bramble matted o'er ; 
 
 Rugged the ground and dry ; large stones between 
 Strewn in loose sand vexed the tired footstep sore. 
 Nor lightsome flower was there, nor pleasant green, 
 
 But speckled growths and hemlock's sullen leaf 
 'Mid sapless trunks and blighted boughs were seen ; 
 Boughs where no sweet bird sang, but sounds of grief 
 
 With moanings mixed and cries of vain lament 
 That sought but found not to its woes relief. 
 Filled that sad wood, and followed where we went, 
 
 A tedious way, 'mid heavy vapours cast 
 O'er path and copse, a dank infolding tent. 
 Silent and slow 'mid mist and gloom we passed, 
 
 And still the moaning voices wailed around 
 As wails 'mid dying woods the wintry blast. 
 And lead-like weighed the lifeless air, that sound 
 
 Stirred not, across my brows, and in thick sand 
 Clogged, my tired steps no certain footing found. 
 So fares 'mid Arctic floes some shipwrecked band 
 
 Frost-doomed to slumbrous death, where the chill sea 
 Frets the black edges of an ice-girt strand. 
 "Master," at last I said, "what strange decree 
 
 Of Fate, or vengeful guerdon of past crime. 
 Or Chance untoward, if Chance indeed there be, 
 Has desolate made of light and life the clime ? 
 
CANTO X 51 
 
 " And whence these wailing sounds of grief unseen 
 Like infant ghosts that mourn their ravished prime ? " 
 " Not Chance," he answered thus, " nor the blind Fate 
 
 Fabled of some, o'er these have sway ; no power 
 Is theirs aught here to ruin or create. 
 But as from stalk the bud, from bud the flower 
 
 In certain sequence springs, till last the fruit 
 Mellows in ripeness to the seasoned hour. 
 So all thou here behold'st in earth has root, 
 
 Thence to fulfilment brought, nor less nor more 
 Than in its cause ordained and certain suit.'^ 
 The high rewards of patriot toil, the store 
 
 Of joys won by endurance, the fair sheaves 
 Of harvest sown on Nature's kindliest shore. 
 These hast thou seen ; nor wonder much if grieves 
 
 Thy spirit to change for shade the blessed light. 
 And withered boughs for springtide's golden leaves. 
 For here the doom of those who shunned the fight 
 
 In craven sloth, nor ranged them with the bands 
 Of good or ill, rolled round from day to night. 
 Purposeless, useless, shrivelled hearts and hands, 
 
 To selfish pleasures, selfish cares consigned, 
 The cankered weeds of life's unfruitful sands. 
 They too whom yet unborn a reprobate mind 
 
 Fashioned to ill, in foulness bred, their hours 
 Numbered by deeds of shame, a bestial kind. 
 Th' unnatured mime,^ who, crowned with poison flowers, 
 
 Trophied his own disgrace, twice matricide. 
 By Baiae's shore, and Rome's fire-wasted towers ; 
 And Emesa's painted god,^ and who beside 
 
 Verona's courts or, Padua,* thine with shame 
 And blood besmirched, and she the murd'ress bride ^ 
 Of Kirkfield's blackened walls, and more whose name 
 
 Is writ in time's worst scroll ; and with them blent 
 
 1 Consequence. ^ Nero. ' Elagabalus. 
 
 * Ezzelino d'Este : Galeazzo Visconti. * Mary of Scotland. 
 
52 ' BOOK I 
 
 " Despots and eunuchs, Asia's secular shame. 
 All these inglorious here sad discontent 
 
 Holds prisoners ; they 'mid thorns and twilight lone 
 Lost life, lost love, lost joys, lost all, lament. 
 Nor sign nor memory theirs ; form, that each one 
 
 From each beside divides, a separate whole 
 Or man or less than man, from these is gone : — 
 Unsexed, unshaped, unconscienced, till the scroll 
 
 Of heaven-writ time unfolding mark the change 
 That shapes to self the yet unpersoned soul." 
 No more he said, but pointed to the range 
 
 Of that dense girding wood ; I looked and saw. 
 Or seemed to see, so vague the sight, so strange, 
 Uncertain things like snow-flakes when the thaw 
 
 Of Spring's first venture has their links unstrung. 
 That fused in shapeless masses earthward drew. 
 So downward weighed in ragged wreaths that clung 
 
 To the bare boughs, or scattered here and there, 
 Drifted by unseen gusts at random flung. 
 Those dregs of ruined manhood ; but the air 
 
 With inarticulate hiss of scoif and scorn 
 And moanings of a woe beyond despair 
 Was thick ; a starless night divorced from morn, 
 
 A Springless winter, where th' untimely germ 
 Hard locked in frost and darkness rots unborn ; 
 A mouldering layer, where crawls and feeds the worm 
 
 Of death in death, till from the general heap 
 New powers assigned may better lives inform. 
 But not themselves they raise them from the sleep 
 
 That being's lines effaced, nor theirs the due 
 Of years renewed who nothing sowed nor reap. 
 To their first life, first hope, first task untrue 
 
 No second chance is theirs, no conscious day 
 Waits them through secular courses dawned anew. 
 Name, memory, self, their all has passed away, 
 
 As clouds a moment touched by sunset's beam 
 
CANTO X 
 
 S3 
 
 Fade in the rain-dimmed twilight's common grey. 
 So on we went ; and still that evil gleam 
 
 Clung to the woods around, and sadly shrilled 
 The inarticulate wail ; or truth, or dream, 
 Or both, I scarce could tell, such sadness filled 
 
 My heart at thought of that sad ruin, the tomb 
 Of squandered life, and being unfulfilled. 
 " Rouse thee," then thus my guide, " nor make to gloom 
 
 Profitless way ; what here thou seest of dread 
 Is but the darkness of Life's fashioning womb. 
 Leave to their shame the shamed, to death the dead. 
 
 Onward ; the road is long, and far the goal. 
 And brief the hour, and steep the path we tread." 
 As wine to quivering lips when faints the soul 
 
 From out th' o'er-laboured limbs, so was thy word 
 To me, my guide, my hope, my heart's control. 
 " Look up," thus he continued ; " great th' award 
 
 Well earned by little pain, sweet the repose.; 
 On these thy thoughts be fixed, in these upstored. 
 And see ; even now the tangled forest shows 
 
 Less dense ; and thinlier wove the thorny screen,^ 
 And fresh the wind from off the outland blows 
 Scattering the phantom haze ; a kindher green 
 
 Mottles the dusky ground ; and lightsome day 
 Sunders with silvery streaks the cloud-wove screen.^ 
 While the sad wails that long have dogged our way 
 
 Now faint and fainter come, till heard no more. 
 Like far-off funeral notes when borne away 
 Seaward from listeners on a spell-girt shore : 
 
 And part thou understand'st, and part the veil 
 Of earthly grossness blurs and darkens o'er. 
 To listening ears, to thine, is told my tale ; 
 
 To seeing eyes revealed, not theirs who rove 
 Self-blinded, self-betrayed ; nor guides avail 
 
 When quenched the lamp, unclasped the hand of Love." 
 1 Sk MSS. 
 
CANTO XI 
 
 We are in an empty plain, sloping up towards a mountain range — 
 My guide explains that what we have thus far passed was the 
 Intermediate State assigned to the noblest, and, next, that to 
 the basest lives — But many regions and conditions remain, 
 corresponding to other degrees and pursuits of life — He urges 
 advance — We begin to climb the mountain, but the path 
 breaks off — My guide ascribes this to some malignant power — 
 Above the precipice appears a man's hand, and six other 
 mystical symbols, the last a fair youth, whom my guide speaks 
 of mysteriously as Eros or Anteros — The mystery can only be 
 declared, and entrance given by the presiding Power. 
 
 Now on we fared by open ground, but strewed 
 
 With tumbled blocks, and specked with tarns that 
 shone 
 Silver, 'mid blackening moss and granite rude ; 
 Grey overhead the heavens, and distant grown 
 
 To limitless height removed ; and faint afar 
 Like a vast wall uprose a mountain zone. 
 Yet to our onward march th' horizon bar 
 
 No nearer grew ; nor day was there nor night, 
 Nor sky-throned sun, nor roving moon nor star 
 Told of time-chronicled change ; behind in sight 
 
 Lay a black streak the woodland, and before 
 Wide stretched the desolate plain to left and right. 
 As sleeps a play-tired child his pastime o'er, 
 
CANTO XI 55 
 
 So slept th' encircling air ; no motion stirred 
 The balanced reed, and grassy plumelet hoar. 
 Nor hum of insect flight, nor chirp of bird 
 
 Nor aught that lived was there ; no landmark told 
 Of measured space, or path or goal averred. 
 By doubt perplexed, yet fearful lest too bold 
 
 In question found, I turned my guide to ask 
 Whence the numb stillness, what the desolate wold. 
 Not easier may the scribe his oft-conned task 
 
 Traced by himself peruse, than he my need 
 For whom nor thought had veil nor purport mask. 
 Then thus ; " Th' abode of joys to those decreed 
 
 Who of earth's part the noblest chose and best, 
 The garnered harvest of life's golden seed, 
 Hast thou beheld, nor less the term unblest 
 
 Of earth's mere failure, where th' unhonoured dead 
 Sleep their long sleep by dull oblivion pressed. 
 By these and those to the hid meaning led 
 
 Nor thine, nor wholly mine ; but in the scroll 
 Writ of the Eternal, by th' Eternal read. 
 Now hear ; by other paths than these the goal 
 
 Is reached ; in other circles traced and twined 
 Round the high mount the lustral courses roll. 
 But first th' extremes! bounds of old assigned 
 
 To earthly time and space, this region drear 
 Empty and waste, between two worlds confined. 
 Traversed by few, our steps must pass ; nor ere 
 
 Can'st thou the heights attain, the entrance gate 
 Where the great Portress guards the sevenfold sphere ; 
 And in like number ranged thy coming wait 
 
 The sorcerer-lords of life, by whom each one 
 Of praise or blame his portion finds and state. 
 On then, nor doubt, nor fear ; the work begun 
 
 Is half achieved ; but brief the hour allowed 
 To thee, to me, and swift the sand-grains run." 
 As when at day's decline a spreading cloud 
 
56 BOOK I 
 
 Wind-driven, in haste ascends the Western height 
 And weaves a dying sun's untimely shroud, 
 The traveller sees his reckoning short, and light 
 
 Outwaned before its hour, and hurries on 
 Lest fail his steps bemazed in blinding night, 
 'Mid the dark hills where help or shelter none, — 
 
 So at that warning voice my loitering tread 
 Hasted or seemed to haste, all languor gone. 
 Nor long, the level plain at hand outspread 
 
 To broken ridges changed, that ever higher 
 Rose to the towered-up ranges overhead. 
 Dark ledges, fringed with many a splintered spire 
 
 Of storm-worn rock ; and close behind them glowed 
 Flickering the turmoil of that quenchless fire 
 Wrapt round Earth's poles, the Northern gods' abode ; 
 
 And steeper showed the path and narrower still. 
 And stonier rough the ground our footsteps trode. 
 Yet all untired we upward clomb, until 
 
 We reached where like some Alpine torrent black 
 Loose rocks confusedly piled streamed down the hiU, 
 Barring all further way, that stony wrack 
 
 So wide, so wild was strewed ; the searching eye 
 Questioned in vain, nor found of answering track 
 Vestige or sign : not Salcombe's cliffs might vie 
 
 In steepness with that ruin, nor meets the gaze 
 From Petra's piled-up rocks more stern reply. 
 "Whence now th' ascent? who knows? and by what 
 ways 
 
 Our further course ? and how ? " thus spoke my guide 
 Pausing, as one whom new-risen doubts amaze. 
 " Master,'' I said, " not all by thee untried 
 
 These realms I deem ; how then th' unlooked-for bar 
 Thwarting thy hope ? by whom the way denied ? " 
 And he ; " The Power malign from old at war 
 
 With Love's well-ordered reign has wrought this wrong. 
 Haply our purposed task intent to mar. 
 
CANTO XI 57 
 
 " Vain malice, by heaven's lords to whom belong 
 
 Thy fates, derided, as the mischievous play 
 Of some rude child the garden flowers among. 
 Nor at his choice our destined course to stay 
 
 By absolute Will ordained ; nor the decree 
 Fate-sealed is his to cancel or delay." 
 Thus while he spoke 'twas mine with fear to see 
 
 The topmost marge above, a shape that seemed 
 As a man's hand,-' outstretched in air and free ; 
 And in its grasp a golden circlet gleamed 
 
 Fit for a monarch's crown ; and wide o'erhead 
 Now bright now dim a wavering glory streamed. 
 Then close beside, from that high verge outspread 
 
 Through the faint haze like some ethereal fire 
 Shone a white flower,^ lip-tinged with crimson red. 
 A living thing, instinct with strong desire 
 
 It bent and beckoned towards me, till my heart 
 Answered, as voice to voice responsive quire. 
 Roused me from that sweet trance with sudden smart 
 
 A chill, as when through pleasant airs of spring 
 Unseen a floated iceberg sends its dart. 
 For close beside that flower uprose a thing ^ 
 
 Of form uncertain, veiled as with a shroud 
 In dazzling gleam and wide out-pinioned wing. 
 Terrified, " What may this portend ? " aloud 
 
 I cried ; but he, the Master, with stern look. 
 Finger on lip, my questioning disallowed. 
 And more than words his silence gave rebuke 
 
 With warning mixed and caution, how the hour 
 Nor vagrant thought nor idle speech might brook. 
 The outstretched hand, th' o'ershadowing wings, the 
 flower 
 
 Yet fringed the height ; but pathway none nor stair 
 Led up from where we stood to that strange tower 
 
 1 Ambition : War and Statesmanship. 
 
 2 Art. ^ Religion. 
 
58 BOOK I 
 
 Of inaccessible rock, the foot's despair ; 
 
 And grey above the vaporous vault ; and cold 
 Shook the scant grass-tops in the tremulous air. 
 Then a fourth sign in tortuous length unrolled 
 
 Flaunted those three beside, a banner ^ bright 
 With rainbow hues and writings wrought in gold. 
 Earth, ocean, changeful day, returning night 
 
 Embroidered there were seen, the ways of men, 
 And courts, and council-halls, and deeds of might. 
 Much I admired ; but ere my curious ken 
 
 Had half discoursed these shapes, a doubtful form ^ 
 Like smoke-wreaths rolled at eve across the fen, 
 Rose to the marge : the blackness of the storm 
 
 Was in its hair ; woman's the face, but pale. 
 With wrinkles seamed, and vexing cares deform. 
 Unlike, though near, in glittering garb and frail 
 
 Even as the gauziest insect things that ply 
 Their idle dance adown a woodland vale, 
 A harlot form ^ had place ; her wanton eye 
 
 Challenged the gazer ; in her hand the while 
 A bell-ringed timbrel tinkled ceaselessly. 
 But from the rest, apart, as who nor guile 
 
 Nor force in aid required, a youth * there stood 
 With earnest eyes, and conquest's regal smile. 
 Loose o'er his breast a scarf more red than blood 
 
 Was cast, unveiled the rest, and fair in hue 
 As Parian stone new washed in crystal flood. 
 And ever as I looked his stature grew 
 
 Taller and yet more tall, and ruddier grew 
 The scarf, as roseleaves wet with summer dew. 
 "The choicest gift on earth-born man bestowed. 
 
 The direst curse, thou seest ; to thee, to all 
 Chief help chief hindrance on the upward road. 
 
 ^ Creative thought in Literature. 
 ^ Physical Science and its practical applications. 
 3 Sensual Pleasure. * Love. 
 
CANTO XI 59 
 
 " The bitter sweet, the honey blent with gall, 
 
 Eros or Anteros ; for weal, for woe 
 Him the destroyer, him the saviour call." 
 Thus spoke my guide, and pointed to the show 
 
 Ranged on the topmost crag : then sighing, " More 
 Not mine is now to tell, nor thine to know ; 
 Till She, their Mother and thine, unbar the door 
 
 And bid thee enter, where the sevenfold stream 
 In rainbow hues reflects the lustral shore. 
 Undimmed there shall thy eyes peruse the dream 
 
 Waking misnamed by those on earth, who move • 
 Acting or suffering, till with colourless beam 
 
 Arise the real morn, th' essential Love." 
 
CANTO XII 
 
 Introduction : The Earth described by my guide — The Spirit of the 
 Earth is seen and lifts us to the summit of the mountain, with 
 the aid of the seventh apparition, Love — We reach the entrance 
 of the Spirit region, vifhere the Spirit of Earth sits as Port- 
 ress — My guide aslcs admittance for me — She answers that 
 the Spirit-world is divided into Seven regions, correspond- 
 ing to the Seven chief pursuits of man : Love, Ambition, 
 Art, Knowledge, Religion, Science, Pleasure — All have to be 
 traversed, and I am commanded to record what is displayed 
 to me. 
 
 " She sits, a Queen, a Mother ; crowned her head 
 
 With thorn-twined roses, but the thorns are more ; 
 And o'er her face a sightless veil is spread. 
 Fair is her robe, but stained with dust and gore, 
 
 With countless forms of beauty manifold 
 And ghastliest things betwixt embroidered o'er. 
 In her right hand a sceptre of pure gold 
 
 She bears ; its touch is life, its touch is death, 
 Makes old the new, and new-creates the old. 
 To all that breathes she portions out the breath, 
 
 The force assigns ; then bids it wax or vade ^ 
 Through heights above, through depths unknown beneath. 
 Love in her light, and hatred in her shade. 
 
 Yet she nor loves, nor hates, nor joys, nor grieves, 
 1 " A weakened form of Fade " (Skeat.) 
 
CANTO XII 6 1 
 
 " Alike to her if bloom the flowers or fade. 
 
 She knows, she numbers each, the sands, the leaves. 
 
 The water-drops, the motes that dance in light, 
 And the great depth that each and all receives. 
 Are hers, the multitudinous seas, the might 
 
 Of storms, the central fires, the crested snow. 
 Highest or lowest, equal in her sight. 
 Her portioned kingdom these, while to and fro 
 
 Revolve the zodiac orbits, and perform 
 The will that none but He who wills may know." 
 Thus spoke my guide, and pointed where a form 
 
 Darkened the topmost crags, as dimly shows 
 Blackening through the rent veil of drifted storm 
 Some mighty headland's ominous shade to those 
 
 Who wandering long by trackless seas at last 
 Shelter or shipwreck find ; even to such close 
 Our way was brought, when those sheer heights o'erpast 
 
 By the unresisted power whose master-spell 
 Chains and sustains all being, our footsteps fast 
 Stood on the topmost summit ; so befell 
 
 A wonder like to his or more, who slept 
 Pillowed on stone in Mahanaim's dell, 
 Stairfoot of heaven ; for he, my Guide, o'erleapt 
 
 With me the limits of dream, and in the sooth 
 Of the real world with his my presence kept. 
 Yet oft to purblind eyes unwonted truth 
 
 Wears falsehood's semblance; but the sculptured 
 shape 
 Hides in the quarried marble's mass uncouth. 
 So while e'en now 'neath that precipitous cape 
 
 At gaze we stood, nor path discerned nor sign 
 Up the steep barrier, barred all hope's escape, 
 Sudden as in still eve a fiery line 
 
 Drawn thwart the darkness of a sultry cloud 
 Bids its hid rifts in sharp-drawn clearness shine. 
 So from the topmost parapet's misty shroud 
 
62 BOOK 
 
 Down flashed a winding stair, that to our feet 
 By ready steps the utmost heights allowed. 
 And he ^ who made the sevenfold band complete 
 
 In rosiest splendour reached a glowing hand 
 Outstretched our upward toil to aid and greet. 
 But ere our footsteps well the crowning strand 
 
 Had pressed, the vision faded, from the lawn 
 As fades on near approach the rainbow band ; 
 And in its place, likest an Autumn dawn 
 
 Margined by rain-streaks, the opposing way ^ 
 Seemed small and dim, 'mid rocky walls withdrawn. 
 But in the midst, as through the formless grey 
 
 Vaporous, shows the daystar's outlined track 
 Now risen, so showed the Portress of the way.^ 
 "Approach," then thus the Master, "courage slack 
 
 Is hail to harvest-fields ; be bold, be wise. 
 Nor from thy greeting let due reverence lack." 
 So near I drew where full those steadfast eyes 
 
 Unpassioned met my own ; and to my speech 
 Made " Mother " prelude : but at morn as dies 
 The sudden breeze that from the Eastern reach 
 
 Heralds the sun, then drops, its message o'er, 
 As dies the wavelet on the noontide beach, — 
 So in that Presence stilled my voice, that more 
 
 Sought to declare, tongue-palsied stayed ; and dumb 
 Stone-like I stood Earth's empress-power before. 
 But my true guide who from the homeless home 
 
 Of life's untruth had led me to the land 
 Of all that was, and is, and is to come. 
 Placed on my down-bowed head his covering hand. 
 
 And for my speech his own advanced'; its tone 
 With reverence mixed new accents of command. 
 " Sister, to whom ere years were yet, the throne 
 
 Of many-tinted earth was given by Him 
 Whose will we work when most we jvork our own, 
 1 Love. 2 Sic MSS. 
 
CANTO XII 
 
 63 
 
 In sun, or sunlit orb, or star-mist dim, 
 
 Differing in power, yet monarchs all, to reign 
 Each in his range to being's outmost rim ; 
 Lesser than mine thy planet realm, a grain 
 
 Of dust to vastest Alp, or in compare 
 With ocean depths a drop of casual rain. 
 Yet royal thou, though less ; thy palace fair ; 
 
 And the bright vine of life in myriad hues 
 O'er walls and vault has wove its tapestry there. 
 Small orb, but sparkling with the diamond dews 
 
 Of human thought and human love ; a bride 
 Whom for himself a god unblamed might choose. 
 Thine the dark woods, full rivers, pastures wide 
 
 Spread for thy numberless children ; thy great store 
 Open to all ; thy gifts to none denied. 
 O many-flickering lake, by the firm shore 
 
 Girt of unchanging life ; O wondrous dream 
 Imaged of truth, that wakes to sleep no more. 
 Fleeting thy light, yet roseate, from the beam 
 
 Of other suns than thine ; the eternal hills 
 Quiver, but fade not from the mirrored stream. 
 Rend thou the veil, disperse the mist that fills 
 
 The portal to th' archetypal world, where show 
 Even as they are the joys, the cares, the ills, 
 The flowers that deck man's path, the thorns that 
 strow. 
 
 Be these to him declared who suppliant stands 
 By silence worthier made thy grace to know. 
 The pilgrim of my love, froin the vain lands 
 
 Of semblance brought, receive the trust, to' thee. 
 As me, confided th' all-moulding hands. 
 Shaped in thy womb his substance, though by me 
 
 Informed with star-lit fire ; on both his hope 
 Is stayed ; but mine the guidance, thine the key." 
 Scarce had his words an end, the rock-piled cope 
 
 Was cleft ; and through the rifts a brightness shone 
 
64 BOOK I 
 
 Torrent-like downward poured on ridge and slope. 
 And a great voice, most like the mingling tone 
 
 Of woods and far-off waves, when storm and sea 
 Together surge beneath th' Autumnal zone, 
 Thus spoke reply ; " Child of eternity, 
 
 Though born in time ; thou, fathered by the star 
 Bright lord and leader of the Austral sky. 
 Yet not my child the less, though rapt afar 
 
 Awhile in other orbs than mine, and here, 
 Where things that are not verge on things that are, 
 Approach. The secret paths that year by year 
 
 In light and shadow on my convex weaved 
 Lead up to all men hope, believe, or fear. 
 To thee are visible made, no more deceived 
 
 By semblant show ; the life .o'erlaid by death 
 This ; the hid pearl, doubted, denied, believed 
 By each in turn. Love's heaven. Ambition's wreath. 
 
 Art's witchery, Knowledge sought by land and main, 
 Faith's phantasms ; all that swells an idle breath 
 With prayers, and moans, and paeans ; Science vain 
 
 Of wisdom void ; and Sense of sense the meed 
 In its own bounds of pleasure, rest, or pain ; 
 The sevenfold Sphinx, the riddle all must read 
 
 Or serve unread from sunbright locks to grey. 
 With aching brows, tired limbs, and hearts that bleed. 
 But thou, not thus thy portion ; pass thy way 
 
 Through all my realm, and what thou seest, record. 
 Lessons and landmarks of a future day.'' 
 Here ceased th' articulate voice ; the mighty word 
 
 Like sound of organ quires, now pealing high 
 Now low, now clear, now faint at evening heard 
 Far and more far retired ; nor now could I 
 
 From sound translate the thought ; nor yet the veil 
 Of Nature's flesh-woven life from ear and eye 
 Was all withdrawn, nor mortal words avail 
 
 To mete th' immortal, marred by symbols weak, 
 
CANTO xn 65 
 
 As broken speech of childhood's stammering tale. 
 There let it rest, nor further answer seek 
 
 To the great question ; nor untimely move 
 The natural bounds ; till through the death-mists bleak 
 
 Gleam the white morn, the reign of deathless Love. 
 
CANTO XIII 
 
 We see a plain, whence rise seven peaks, islanded in a boundless 
 sea : we aie suddenly borne thither, and at a gate find the 
 Spirit of Ambition as Guardian — My Guide congratulates me 
 on not having obeyed him in life — The hill of military and 
 civil Ambition rises before us — No one is seen : and I wait by 
 a fountain, on the walls about which are graved the names of 
 great men. 
 
 Not yet, not yet that morn ; the imaged ray 
 
 Is but the nebulous sun-streak ^ o'er the face 
 Of tropic night, where winds the zodiac way 
 'Mid the twelve guardians of the yearly trace 
 
 High in meridian heavens, then fades before 
 The manifest day, broad reddening in its place. 
 Such is the vision ; yet, O my friend, the more 
 
 My debt to thee, who through th' uncertain night 
 Hast imaged forth true day's uptreasured store ; 
 And the sun's course in that faint cone of light 
 
 Is rightly tracked ; and in the semblance strange 
 Of the vain dream is substance given to sight. 
 We stood ; far off in mottled interchange 
 
 Of light and shade, the pl^in beyond, uprose 
 Peak over peak, a mountain's sevenfold range. 
 And midmost there, as in a petalled rose 
 
 1 The Zodiacal Light. 
 
CANTO XIII 
 
 67 
 
 The central gold, glittered a dazzling blaze, 
 An ever quivering splendour, such as throws 
 Some crystalline fount, struck by the noonday rays 
 
 Of the clear sun, where plexed in rainbow chain 
 Sparkles the plashing water's diamond maze. 
 But hills and plain beyond to the utmost strain 
 
 Of sight's survey, unspecked by sail or oar 
 Lay the large stillness of a circling main 
 Unfathomably calm ; along the shore 
 
 Of that charmed isle, their ward, the waters slept 
 Secure in their own depth ; no breakers' roar 
 Was theirs nor tidal flow ; no seabird swept 
 
 That silvery floor, where far from change or time 
 Immutability her throne had set. 
 But the desire which erst in boyhood's prime 
 
 Th' unseen to see, the unknown to touch and know, 
 Impelled my restless way from clime to clime, 
 Drove me, as when Autumnal storm-blasts blow 
 
 Flies the driven leaf, and through the gusty air 
 Forth whirled the circling swifts confusedly go. 
 Sheer the descent ; nor ledge nor rock-hewn stair 
 
 Waited the foot ; nor had the eagle's wing 
 Through that great void availed our flight to bear. 
 And how we passed I know not, nor can bring 
 
 Back to remembrance aught, so swift our change 
 Downward from those black rocks to where the Spring 
 In fadeless beauty clothed that island strange ; 
 
 And high 'mid forest belts of densest green 
 Towered in seven purple peaks the central range. 
 These and the shore betwixt a leafy screen 
 
 Continuous fenced them round, as guard from view 
 Blank walls of palace-pride some Eastern Queen. 
 But as we left the shore, and nearer drew 
 
 Crossing the sunny slope to where the shade 
 Of that high wood was wet with sunless dew. 
 Midmost a gateway set our steps delayed ; 
 
68 BOOK 
 
 Of gold or gilded was the arch, and bore 
 Sceptres and crowns, and trophied arms displayed. 
 And in fair letters ; " Enter ; this the door 
 
 Of Power," was written there ; and close beside 
 Was one, half seen when the high crags before. 
 Wondering, that hand and crown in outstretched pride 
 
 Had I beheld ; but now the form complete 
 What erst was hid to curious sight supplied. 
 Dark iron with gold embossed from head to feet 
 
 His armour wrapped him round ; and on his brow 
 A star that with heaven's huntsman ^ might compete. 
 Proud was his look, as who might scarce allow 
 
 To others place, likest a conquering chief 
 When at his feet submissive foemen bow. 
 " Well known to me thou comest," in accents brief 
 
 Nor without scorn his speech ; " yet enter here 
 Even thou, though scant thy garland, sere thy leaf" 
 Abashed I heard, yet lingered, " Shame nor fear 
 
 Befit thee," thus the Master ; " scorn with scorn 
 Repel ; who wins may slight the loser's jeer. 
 The phantom prize on earth by thee forborne 
 
 In phantom form thou seest ; the illusion vain 
 By many sought, the crown in aching worn 
 By many heads, noblest of mortal strain ; 
 
 They faded as it faded ; of their glory 
 Annals miswrit, misread, alone remain. 
 Till in th' appointed time the earth grown hoary 
 
 Their trace forgets ; as melt from the clear blue 
 Light clouds, mouldered the scroll, forgot the story ; 
 But the end is not yet" He ceased, and drew 
 
 My steps with his where 'midst the wooded close 
 Wound a low path, leaf-fenced from outer view. 
 This too we passed ; and now before us rose 
 
 The first of those seven hills, beheld afar. 
 Now to our steps permitted, to disclose 
 
 ^ Sirius, as the star attendant on the constellation Orion. 
 
CANTO XIII 69 
 
 Th' abode of those bold spirits who erst by war 
 
 Or statecraft strove to scale the perilous height 
 Where sit the charioteers of Empire's car 
 Drawn by her millions. Round I cast my sight 
 
 Eager those great ones to behold who shone 
 Meteors or stars of earth's tempestuous night. 
 But on that mountain visible shape was none 
 
 To meet the questioning eye ; the noontide heat 
 Glared on untenanted lawn and whitening stone. 
 " Awhile," then spoke my guide, " thy weary feet 
 
 Stay, where yon fount fresh from the mountain 
 breast, 
 Scarce seen for clearness, skirts the marble seat 
 Hard by the source ; The season given to rest 
 
 Refuse not ; oft what toil has sought in vain 
 Is of a timely pause self-offered guest." 
 Then where to its first slant upheaved the plain 
 
 In green and gold, he pointed to a cell 
 Of marble blocks rough-hewn but pure of stain ; 
 And 'neath the low-browed vault a brimming well 
 
 Poured sea-ward forth its wave ; and the cool shade 
 Like a broad curtain thwart the doorway fell. 
 Hither by jasper steps of easiest grade 
 
 Fixed in the turfy slope, we upward went. 
 Till at the door a pause our footsteps made. 
 Then by the rill that ceaseless from the rent 
 
 Close at our feet outstreamed we sat ; the gloom 
 Unwonted, all within to darkness blent ; 
 Till on the fronting wall a restless loom 
 
 Of light, reflex from those pure waters, traced 
 To gradual sight the fount and vaulted room. 
 With mighty names the walls around were graced 
 
 Of ancient fame, honoured memorials all ; 
 And some were fresh, some worn and part defaced. 
 But while I strove to read, the plashing fall 
 
 Of th' ever-bubbling waters, and the dance 
 
70 BOOK I 
 
 Of those wan lights on roof and floor and wall, 
 Dazed my tired sense, as chill-born mists advance 
 
 O'er a calm sea, so swift that ere men know 
 Whence risen, they close them in ; so closed the trance 
 On mind and eye ; the indoors gloom, the glow 
 
 Without, the ripple of th' unresting rill. 
 Nor sound nor motion else, above, below 
 All hushed in seemful sleep, more slumbrous still 
 
 Than convent courts when August's noontide beam 
 Whitens from base to crest Caserta's hill,i 
 Wrought on me there ; till thought dissolved in dream 
 
 Of wildest shapes confused, a phantom train. 
 The dust of sleep, upstirred by Morpheus' team. 
 Soon to subside, as leaves on Autumn's plain 
 
 Whirl to the breeze awhile, then strew the ground 
 In windless shelter heaped : all things attain 
 Or soon or late their own appointment, found 
 
 Toil's ultimate guerdon ; who most strongly strove 
 Securest rest, Love's champions, girded round 
 
 By the everlasting arms of favouring Love. 
 
 1 Near Naples. The convent is S. Maria del Angelo. 
 
CANTO XIV 
 
 I sleep, and a dream carries me as a boy to the Yarmouth coast, 
 reading Plutarch, and full of ambitious thoughts — I wake : 
 a trumpet is heard, and the Roman legions appear, Julius 
 Caesar in their midst — I lament the downfall of his Empire 
 — He tells me that I am now in Elysium : describes his 
 career, and the ultimate survival of Rome after the Empire 
 had fallen — He passes away with a sigh. 
 
 The tangled star-maze of th' abyss ; the zone 
 
 Twelve-blazoned of mid heaven ; the nightly change 
 Waxing or waning of th' unquiet moon, 
 Th' alternate day, the seasons' yearly range, 
 
 The balanced rod nice-poised, and what beside 
 Man's use has found or skill devised of strange. 
 Measurements all, outportioned from the tide 
 
 That measures them by hours and days and years 
 As custom wills, or shows of sense divide ; 
 Time, on whose forward pinions hopes and fears 
 
 Thick cluster, on whose path o'ergone reniain 
 Dead memories, dead regrets, dead smiles, dead tears, 
 Might tell how long fettered in slumber's chain 
 
 I lay within that cell ; but time as men 
 Count its slow pulse, in that new land was none, 
 For all was present there ; the questioned " When ? " 
 
 Had but one answer, " Now " ; the careless hours 
 
72 BOOK I 
 
 Had loosed their idle cars, unhooked the rein. 
 But I whom to this rest the fateful Powers 
 
 Had brought, was by the vision borne afar, 
 Where o'er brown marsh and barren sand-hills lowers 
 Cloud-veiled th' Icenian ^ sky ; a land of shade 
 
 Edged by a cold green sea ; and on the shore 
 The ebbing tide a sea-weed fringe had made. 
 There on the sand reclined I seemed once more, 
 
 As erst in ready youth, to turn the page 
 By Chaeronea's chronicler ^ placed in store 
 Of Greece and Rome ; heirlooms of nobler age 
 
 To lesser times and men : once more I read 
 Of mighty deeds, high thoughts and counsel sage, — 
 So ruled the mirrored dream ; till overhead 
 
 A crown with laurel wreathed of regal gold, 
 Fit meed of high emprize to victory led. 
 Stooped to my reach ; I clutched it ; but, behold. 
 
 Ere yet my lingers closed it round, 'twas gone ; 
 And in its stead a formless vapour cold 
 Circled me there ; then broke the dream : alone 
 
 But wakeful now I sat, and watched the spring 
 Chequer with threads of light the vaulted stone. 
 Then, as far off first heard the tempest's wing 
 
 Slow flaps in muffied beats, till nearer grown 
 On their full sweep the clouds their death-bolts bring, 
 So through the stilly air a trumpet blown 
 
 Was faintly heard, then louder, till the place 
 Shook as a storm-blown tree, so shrill the tone ; 
 And flutes, and drums, and tramp of measured pace. 
 
 With clash of arms, and voices harsh between, 
 Thickened and grew ; as when the hounded chase 
 Bursts in full cry from 'yond the forest screen. 
 
 And sight to sound gives meaning, so my ear 
 Lent form and substance to the cause unseen. 
 Not long, for now alternate helm and spear 
 1 Norfolk. 2 Plutarch. 
 
CANTO XIV 73 
 
 With sword and pike and bannered sign displayed, 
 Wave upon wave the serried ranks drew near ; 
 Standard and crest, and short home-thrusting blade, 
 
 The conquerors of a world, from Britain's coast 
 And Adas hoar to Tigris' palm-fringed wave. 
 O unretuming greatness ! glory lost 
 
 Too soon ! for ever lost ! so mustering stood 
 Full told my eyes before that giant host. 
 Then right from left divided, as the flood 
 
 Of the Erythraean sea, when cloven in twain, 
 Pathway to Israel's wonder-working rod ; 
 And a great cry hke thunder, when the rain 
 
 Stayed in mid down-pour gives the lightning road. 
 Of " Caesar ! " rent the air ; then stilled again, 
 As with slow step but firm, and eyes that glowed 
 
 Instinct with quenchless fire, the form of him 
 Whose name is one with empire, forward strode. 
 But dim the glories on his crest, and dim 
 
 The laurel crown, withered and stained, that yet 
 Wove its vain memories round the helmet rim. 
 In his pale face deep-furrowed care had set. 
 
 Blended with pitying scorn, the lines of thought. 
 Love twinned with hate, and triumph with regret. 
 Downwards I cast my eyes, such reverence wrought 
 
 In me that greatness ruined, that deep decay 
 Of giant strength to phantom weakness brought ; 
 Disthroned Hjrperion of a vaster day ; 
 
 And much I grieved that Nature's noblest birth 
 Should like her meanest pass in shade away. 
 O labours ill-bestowed ! O little worth 
 
 Of prize, hard sought, late found, untimely lost ! 
 Dross bought with silver, harvest reaped in dearth ! 
 Where now the trophies by that matchless host 
 
 Reared on a prostrate world ? thy glories where. 
 Imperial Rome, undying Maro's ^ boast ? 
 1 Virgil. 
 
74 BOOK I 
 
 Fallen are the leaves, the branches barked and bare, 
 
 Hewn down the trunk, the very roots uprent 
 Of that great tree, the She-wolfs fateful lair. 
 Keen his dark eyes that awful Presence bent 
 
 On mine, suffused with tears ; then said, " Thy grief 
 On mine, on Rome's decay is idly spent. 
 Not surer fades and falls the autumnal leaf 
 
 Than fade and fall earth's empires, though the green 
 Of some more lasting show, of some more brief. 
 But greater than the Done has ever been 
 
 The Doer ; and Will outlasts what Will has made ; 
 That the firm substance ; this the fading screen. 
 I know not who thou art, nor how conveyed 
 
 Hither, nor greatly care ; but sure I deem 
 Not without cause thou walk'st the phantom glade 
 Elysium called of old, the partial dream 
 
 Foreshadowing perfect truth, exempt by fate 
 From Stygian bond, or draught of Lethe's stream. 
 So to fair earth returned may'st thou relate 
 
 What here thou saw'st or heard'st, the joy, the pain. 
 Their doom who climb the difficult heights of state. 
 Towns sacked, fields wasted, blood poured forth like 
 rain 
 
 From Gaul's full rivers and Britain's fog-veiled shore 
 To Libya's sands, and red Pharsalia's plain, 
 These were my onward path, till earth no more 
 
 Gave prize or space for conquest ; all was mine. 
 Till scaled the rock-stair Sacred named of yore 
 To the Capitolian height ; a god the shrine 
 
 Received me, born of gods ; so spoke the voice 
 Of Mantua's bard, nor erred the heaven-taught line. 
 Then, Lord of evil and good, I made the choice 
 
 Of good ; a wounded world I healed, and bade 
 Who feared securely dwell, who mourned rejoice. 
 In fair Astraea's ^ wreath I hid the blade 
 1 Justice. 
 
CANTO XIV 75 
 
 " Of lawless war ; the debt of tears and blood, 
 An Empire's due, my peaceful sway repaid. 
 Nor long misrule succeeding, nor the brood 
 
 Of despot heirs, my portioned empire's shame. 
 Nor the brute violence of the Northern flood. 
 Has all o'erthrown the fabric on my name 
 
 Upreared, nor all the mighty lines effaced 
 Graven by my skill, nor turned my praise to blame. 
 Such art the structure crowned, such forethought based. 
 
 For others, not for me ; strong to outlast 
 The heart that willed it, and the hand that traced. 
 What portion mine, behold ! " — Aside he cast 
 
 The purple-broidered robe, where scarred his breast 
 'Mid many wounds the deadliest and the last 
 By caitiff Brutus made, at Rome's behest 
 
 Slaying her slayer ; even he, whom least that deed 
 Behoved, of all best trusted, loved the best. 
 Such end ambition finds, th' awarded meed 
 
 Of self-sought greatness, crime avenged by crime, 
 The deathful harvest of a poison seed. 
 Then as from spring-tide fields the glittering rime, 
 
 Work of the keen-starred night, dissolves away 
 Soon as their slanted height the sunbeams cUmb, 
 Banner and sword and spear and helmed array 
 
 Traceless from sight were gone ; and with a sigh 
 Sadder than words that Mightiest passed away. 
 And he, my brother guide, approaching nigh, 
 
 But whence I knew not, roused me ; soft he laid 
 His hand on mine, and words of purport high 
 Spoke that my song repeats not ; from the shade 
 
 Of that cool dome we went by lawn and grove. 
 Where penance-bound to exile, haunt the glade 
 
 Ambition's outcasts from the realm of Love. 
 
CANTO XV 
 
 We continue the ascent, as if up a volcano's side : groans heard 
 underground — ^A dense cloud comes over us : then a lightning- 
 flash, and the spirit of Oliver Cromwell passes by in the 
 storm — I see him in vision standing beside his own corpse : 
 he laments his loneliness of heart — My guide explains his 
 sorrow as caused by his crimes — Daylight returns ; I see many 
 Greek, Roman, and Carthaginian leaders ; Scythians and 
 Tartars ; European generals : all men of pure heroism. 
 
 Thoughtful, as who from kingly palace back 
 
 Return, and weigh the converse held, we went 
 Where on the hill-side wound our upward track. 
 Steep was the way, 'mid massy boulders rent, 
 
 So seemed, by earthquake force, and tumbled mound 
 Of mortared brick or stone at random blent 
 And evermore our steps beneath the ground 
 
 Shifted and shook, and like a mandrake's groan 
 Replied from deeps unseen a hollow sound. 
 Yet with bright flowers that mountain turf was strown 
 
 Of thousand hues ; and the soft-breathing air 
 Mingled its gusts with music's distant tone. 
 Such, if with greater things may less compare. 
 
 In Spring's best days the winding slopes that smile 
 Where bursts through Aetna's rifts the Typhon glare ; 
 A dread with beauty overlaid ; the while 
 
CANTO XV 77 
 
 Loaded as with strange weight my weary feet 
 Made scant fulfilment of th' accustomed toil. 
 Veiled in dim clouds the sun-disk, yet with heat 
 
 Heavy the air ; and far the mountain peak 
 In faintest outline rose my eye to greet. 
 " Master and guide," I questioned, " why so weak 
 
 My hmbs, erst strong to labour ? whence the gloom 
 Thus overspread ? and whose the moans that speak 
 Of grie^ unresting in th' all-resting tomb ? 
 
 For tomb this mount I deem ; such semblance bear 
 The ruined heaps, tangled with random bloom." 
 " Brother," his answer thus began ; but ere 
 
 To sequent speech the words were shaped, there fell 
 Darkness on darkness round us ; and the air 
 Grew thick with formless dread, as when the spell 
 
 Of Samovedian wizards darkens o'er 
 The frost-bright stars with smoke-clouds breathed of hell; 
 Round the doomed fishers by Alaska's shore. 
 
 And peal on peal quick following, onward came 
 Mixed with a whirlwind blast the thunder's roar ; 
 Till flashed 'mid all a waft of sheeted flame. 
 
 As though Heaven's vault to fire were turned ; and 
 through 
 The quick succeeding crash was heard the name 
 Of him whom Marston's field and Worcester's knew 
 
 The striker-down of thrones, the iron rod 
 That shattered friend and foeman, old and new. 
 O'er necks of kings and king-like councils trod 
 
 His heavy foot, nor paused till reached the height, 
 The perilous height, where man is paired with god. 
 There more than king he stood ; nor banded might, 
 
 Nor murder's whetted blade, nor vengeful hate, 
 Nor life-slaying care that knows not day from night. 
 Could quell that stubborn will, till the dark fate, 
 
 Bearer of victory's wreath twice proved in war. 
 With the third mercy crowned the destined date 
 
78 BOOK I 
 
 That ranked the mortal where th' immortals are ; 
 
 While from the storm-swept land that greatness passed 
 As passes from heaven's scroll a cancelled star. 
 Then quenched the lightning, stilled the gusty blast, 
 
 And a grey light as of the fabled morn 
 When sun nor moon were yet, the mount o'ercast. 
 Where on a couch of gold inwove with thorns 
 
 What seemed a warrior lay ; and by the bed. 
 With hand close-pressed to brow as one that mourns, 
 A living form beside the motionless dead 
 
 In very likeness stood, as stands a friend 
 By friend himself has slain, nor turns his head 
 Though in the sight be torture's worst ; so blend 
 
 Past joys enhanced by present wretchedness. 
 And the great anguish of the manifest end ; 
 And his full loss he knows, yet none the less 
 
 Clings to the shadow of the day gone by 
 To clothe or bare his spirit's nakedness. 
 ' ' O lonely path by which I clomb so high ! 
 
 lonely height where throned and crowned I sate ! " 
 Thus spoke the voice of that fallen majesty : 
 
 " No friend, for friendship claims an equal state; 
 
 No love ; for love ne'er shared a partner throne ; 
 No truth ; for truth turns from a palace gate. 
 The beast its fellow finds ; in loving tone 
 
 Bird answers bird ; the common insect race 
 Together herds ; the field's wild flower alone 
 Blooms not, but clusters with its kind in place ; 
 
 1 only friendless, loveless ; mine to hear 
 No sociate voice ; to see no trustful face. 
 Alone I hope, joy, triumph, grieve, or fear. 
 
 Alone unloved I live, unmourned I die. 
 My honour smirched, my guerdon vanished clear." 
 Such heavy words he spoke ; then with a sigh 
 
 Drearier than moan of wintry winds that wail 
 Round snow-choked doors when lowers December's sky, 
 
CANTO XV 79 
 
 Made fitting close to the else unfinished tale ; 
 
 As though th' unmanly scorn and shame to tell 
 Wrought on the dead no words might there avail : 
 Then faded slow from sight, while as in spell 
 
 Entranced I stood ; and faint, and yet more faint 
 Came the sad sounds, Ambition's late-tolled knell. 
 While thus my guide ; " What ails thee ? the complaint 
 
 Thou hear'st, and hearing mourn'st, the meed displays 
 Of mightiest deeds deformed by self-ful taint. 
 He and his like the temple of high praise 
 
 Reared on the marsh of wrong, and saw too late 
 Sunk in its depths the pile they strove to raise. 
 Ruined the massive tower ; the gilded state 
 
 With fire consumed ; the statue fair o'erthrown, 
 The tree cut down, the garden desolate. 
 Yet not in vain they strove ; nor thou bemoan 
 
 As profitless all their toil ; the plastered screen ^ 
 Flakes off, but firm abides the central stone." 
 Even as he ceased, o'erhead the cloudy screen ^ 
 
 Parted, as mists of chilly morning bred 
 Break in thin wreaths from off the sun-warmed green. 
 Light blew the mountain breeze ; the sounds of dread 
 
 Ceased from beneath our feet ; on mound and stone 
 Tall grass and glittering flowers their carpet spread. 
 By field and copse bright the glad day-star shone, 
 
 Not ours but like to ours ; the slanting ground 
 Slope above slope built up the mountain cone. 
 " Here, till the years complete their lustral round. 
 
 They dwell, the brave, who pure of factious crime 
 In fair-fought field their brows with laurel crowned. 
 Here Peleus' child and Ammon's, with the prime 
 
 Of the old heroic bands by heroes led, 
 From Argive shores, or Haemus' ^ sterner clime. 
 The champions here in Latian warfare bred, 
 
 1 Sic MSS. 
 2 Mountain-range bounding Thrace on the North. 
 
go BOOK I 
 
 " Decius, Camillus, and th' unsullied fame 
 Of great Marcellus, and the Libyan dead 
 Followers of him who on the altar flame 
 
 Swore the dire hatred that nor Alps could bar, 
 Nor Cannae satiate, nor lost Zama tame. 
 And others there from barbarous realms afar, 
 
 Scythian, Albanian, Tartar, and the bands 
 Of later days and new-found forms of war 
 To happier times unknown ; but valour stands 
 
 To its own centre true, whate'er of change 
 Wrought in its guise by varying arts or lands. 
 All these in honour strove, nor from that range 
 
 To meaner ends declined, nor aught allowed 
 From noble thought and loyal purpose strange." 
 Not inly heard alone, nor all aloud 
 
 Such words were borne, while o'er the mountain high 
 Roved my free gaze, unchecked by mist or cloud. 
 As when long days of rain are past, the sky 
 
 With countless flecks of chequered stillness gleams, 
 Snow-white at noon, at eve of crimson dye, 
 So showed on that clear height in following streams 
 
 Of bright procession forms, now silver bright. 
 Now reddened as with blood, then changed as dreams 
 Change to pale shades confused ; from utmost sight 
 
 They pass, as from sea-margined cliffs beheld 
 Lost in converging lines the sea-birds' flight. 
 So by the trodden path our course we held 
 
 Cross the wide mount, conversing much on those 
 Whom greed of power or lust of fame compelled 
 On loftiest deeds and noblest, though the close 
 
 Oft marred the outset, and the baser strove 
 Still with the worthier sense ; till blanched the rose, 
 
 Red stained to white in lustral baths of Love. 
 
CANTO XVI 
 
 Sky and landscape change: vision of the Russian steppes in winter: 
 burning of Moscow — Napoleon appears : his downfall and 
 greatness in ruin — He describes his career; laments his 
 ambition, and tells his thoughts of glory and defeat, as con- 
 trasted with the life of his peasant-guide, when descending the 
 Alps to Marengo : recognising the peasant's as happier than 
 his own. 
 
 When from the narrowed vault of wintry days 
 
 Northward returns Heaven's king, and hour by hour 
 In wider circles darts his quickening rays, 
 And loosed from bonds of numbing frost the power 
 
 Of hfe Promethean swells in every bough 
 To glistening green, or white unfolding flower, 
 Then joys the peasant lad as to the plough 
 
 He yokes the stall-pent team, and cheerly loud 
 Whistles, of mist and chill forgetful now ; 
 Then if by chance from the dim North a cloud 
 
 Swiftly up-swept, blots daylight's silvery beam, 
 And all night long expands its icy shroud 
 O'er earth and heaven, till late the dawning gleam 
 
 Reveals but undistinguished snow-heaps, sad 
 The plough-boy stands beside th' unharnessed team ; 
 So when with better hopes my heart was glad 
 
 In gladness of that mount, a shadow vast 
 
 G 
 
82 BOOK I 
 
 In joyless veil once more that vision clad. 
 Whence risen that cloud I marked not, but aghast 
 
 Felt its approach ere seen ; a sudden chill 
 Smote me, as when th' eclipse with ominous haste 
 Devours the midday sun-god ; grove and hill 
 
 Were lost to view, erased the guiding way 
 As sand tracks by the advancing sea-waves, till 
 Wide stretched around a level waste and grey 
 
 Of snow-drift, ash-bestrewn, and foul with blood, 
 And phantom shapes distort, and mere dismay. 
 But where on the low marge a fir-spiked wood 
 
 Belted the plain, uprose a flickering glow 
 Of cities fire-consumed, yet unsubdued. 
 Nor sound was here nor life ; the carrion crow 
 
 Had left the wolf-gnawed bones ; the ashes, cold 
 As those who lit them erst, bestrewed the snow. 
 Only like one lost in a trackless wold 
 
 Moved a grey-mantled form, with brows severe. 
 And folded arms, and braid of tarnished gold. 
 And the great crown that Monza's ^ sons revere, 
 
 Iron and gold, his temples girt ; his eye 
 Nor lit with hopeful ray, nor' dimmed with fear. 
 Not ruined, but ruin's self in imagery 
 
 So showed that awful Shape ; above the gloom 
 Of a lost world made fitting canopy. 
 Before his steps with blood-stained claws and plume 
 
 What eagle seemed or vulture ill defined 
 Hovered, the phantom of a vampire tomb. 
 Southward the Emperor bent his way ; behind 
 
 The fire-girt snows, a blood-lake broad before. 
 And shattered limbs of men the pathway lined. 
 But, far the corpse-strewn plain and blood-marsh o'er 
 
 On the low sky in cloudlike distance rose 
 A barren rock, girt by the Atlantic's roar. 
 
 ^ Near Milan: a city in which the "Iron Crown" has been 
 long kept. 
 
CANTO XVI 
 
 83 
 
 — Last of the giant kinship ! last of those 
 
 Who sole a world outpoise, the Titan brood 
 Conquerors of gods, and conquered in the close ! 
 Too late thy birth, Napoleon ! the young blood 
 
 Of earth was spent ; the weakness of her age 
 Mixed with thy strength, that else had well withstood 
 Fortune's blind chance, and envy's banded rage : 
 
 But the clay marred the iron ; thy tale was writ 
 Too large for dwindling Europe's narrowed page. 
 Now torn the scroll, in nameless fragments split 
 
 The statue lies, 'mid weeds and shards o'erthrown. 
 And over its wreck weak shadows pass and flit. 
 Yet the great Will, the spirit's deathless throne, 
 
 In realms of truth and spirit abides, possessed 
 Not now in others' knowledge, but its own. 
 " But thou who fain would'st know what worst or best 
 
 Awaits earth's chiefs, to him of conquerors known 
 Mightiest and last, be thy desire addressed." 
 Not with more eager haste to springs foreshown 
 
 Cool in the rock's cleft side may travellers turn. 
 Driven on by thirst almost to madness grown 
 When shadeless all the ways in sunshine burn, 
 
 Than I, made bold by my consenting guide. 
 Drew nigh to that great ghost intent to learn. 
 But to my question turned not nor replied 
 
 Awhile the iron-crowned phantom, with fixed gaze 
 Still on the distance bent, as who descried 
 Something that verge beyond of dateless days. 
 
 Till dim his eyes with tears, and sad his look 
 Bent on me from that far-off island's haze. 
 Then spoke; — "From loneliest heights unmarked the 
 brook 
 
 Descends; then swollen to shoreless tide below 
 For the great ocean's self is oft mistook. 
 So mightiest years from smallest day-dawns flow. 
 
 And mine were of the mightiest, till the crown 
 
$4 BOOK I 
 
 " Of Europe's empire widened to my brow. 
 Kings I upraised at will, at will cast down ; 
 
 Nations I made or marred ; their lesser life 
 Bloomed in my smile, or withered at my frown. 
 
 ill-won prize with thankless labour rife ! 
 Empty of rest or joy ! O toil to toil 
 
 Successive linked, and strife begot by strife ! 
 Till the once-purposed goal in wild turmoil 
 
 Wavering is lost to sight, as 'mid the wave 
 The beacon-buoy when maddening storms upboil. 
 Of others lord, of my own self the slave 
 
 Was I ; till tired of fame and power and throne 
 Back to the abyss its misused gifts I gave. 
 Yet through the blinding mists around me thrown 
 
 By my own splendour, once a better day 
 With short-houred gleam on my life's pathway shone. 
 Now hear. What time from Alpine slopes the May 
 
 Had stripped their yearly veil, with the great host 
 To me and conquest vowed, I passed my way. 
 Vanquished behind us frowned the glacier frost. 
 
 No barrier now ; and sea-like stretched beneath 
 Marengo's plains, sure victory's promised boast. 
 While down the slippery paths, a slackened wreath, 
 
 Unwound the sequent files of those who then 
 Were life, and strength, and courage, and hopeful breath. 
 
 1 looked and gloried in my might, of men 
 
 The chiefest I, sun of the secular day 
 That reaps the harvest of time's whitening grain. 
 For in my grasp I knew the guerdon lay. 
 
 Not Austria's spoils alone ; but all the worth 
 Frontiered from Volga's banks to Calpe's ^ bay ; 
 The five-zoned world my throne, the populous earth 
 
 Held in my empire's fee, the future years 
 Named of my name, and cycled from my birth. 
 An instant, all was changed, as changed appears 
 * Gibraltar. 
 
CANTO XVI 
 
 85 
 
 "The shifted scene where meets the nightly throng 
 To acted semblance of past joys or tears. 
 I saw till the hot life those paths along 
 
 Death- chilled to skeletons, strewed the mountain 
 side, 
 Torn shreds of flags, and rusted arms among. 
 Nor these alone, but all that vision wide 
 
 Of empire nor by space nor years confined 
 Shrivelled and scant its former lines belied. 
 A painted screen it seemed where night-long wind 
 
 And rain have wreaked their will, a hollow shell. 
 Of rocket fire the smirched and shattered rind. 
 Then a great darkness o'er my spirit fell. 
 
 And grief of wasted life, and labour vain. 
 As his who spellbound toils, yet knows the spell. 
 But at my side, close by my bridle rein 
 
 That morn a peasant lad of mountain race 
 Guided my pathway to the Lombard plain, 
 Of sturdy limb, crisp hair, and sun-tanned face. 
 
 With laughing eyes, quick glance, and careless tread, 
 Unshod, yet careless of the rough-strewn ways. 
 
 happy life, by its own purpose led 
 
 In youth, and strength, and joy, to the ultimate 
 goal 
 Of satiate being from its own banquet fed ; 
 One with the winds that blow, the stars that roll, 
 
 One with itself, in its own self complete ; 
 Part, but in concord with th' existent whole. 
 
 1 saw and knew, O knowledge bitter-sweet ! 
 
 His the true substance, mine the shadow vain, 
 His the rich treasure, mine the tinselled cheat 
 O jewel, not mine ! O freedom from the chain 
 
 That bound me! Seen from far, apprized, confest, 
 Joy known and measured by contrasted pain ! 
 It might not be ; nor ever to my breast 
 
 Returned that envied pang, that mirrored bliss. 
 
86 
 
 " Visioned, yet real, possessing, not possessed, 
 To earth by life denied, restored in this 
 
 At last, at last, by cycled years that move 
 Through pain remorseful to the pardoning kiss, 
 
 Seal of new life, sealed by the lips of Love." 
 
CANTO XVII 
 
 Napoleon regrets that in the peasant of the Alps he failed to 
 recognise his own true star — My guide comforts him — We 
 enter a fair meadow ; the region of ambitious Statesmen and 
 Counsellors — The first who speaks is Thomas Cromwell ; he 
 describes his power and downfall ; the results of his work for 
 England console him — He points out the two statesmen 
 associated with him as true national benefactors, the elder 
 Kiiprili of Anatolia, Grand Vizier ; and lyeyas, first of the 
 Japanese war-ministers or Shogans. 
 
 Then as his speech he ended that great ghost 
 
 Full on me turned his eyes, and said, " To thee 
 Is given what, — mine an hour, — by me was lost. 
 He my true guide, lord of my destiny. 
 
 The Star that ruled my ways, in visible guise 
 My comrade deigned for that short morn to be : 
 He to the heart revealed, though to the eyes 
 
 Veiled in ambiguous form, too soon withdrawn 
 'Mid earth-sprung mists, light of the eternal skies." 
 No more he said, but upward gazed, at dawn 
 
 As he who seeks, nor finds, some vanished star 
 Through the pale haze o'er heaven's pure blackness 
 
 drawn. 
 But with a smile like hers who from long war 
 
 Her spouse returning greets, and pitying sees 
 Scarce healed across his unhelmed brow the scar 
 
88 BOOK I 
 
 That tells of combat past, till by degrees 
 
 Pain's memory fades in present happiness 
 Of rest secure, and conflict lapped in peace ; — 
 Even with such pitying look, of worst distress 
 
 Healing and balm, my guide beheld, and gave 
 To pride remorseful pardoning love's caress. 
 Then vanished all, the fires, the snow-piled grave 
 
 Of perished hosts, the blood-stream's girdling zone, 
 The far-seen isle of doom, the prisoning wave. 
 Ambition's sum ; like smoke they passed ; alone 
 
 At gaze we stood ; before us meadows green 
 And tufted groves, by bluest heaven o'ershone. 
 A realm of ordered calm, a restful scene 
 
 Welcome to mind and eye, where nought of dread 
 Or past distress or present ill was seen. 
 "Master," I questioned thus, "whose care has led 
 
 Hither my steps unthwarted, to the abode 
 Of these the truly living, miscalled the dead, 
 Tell me where now the rocks that late we trode 
 
 'Mid storm and dreariest gloom ? and whose the land 
 Fair spread to sight ? on whom this peace bestowed ? " 
 Answered my guide, " By many a path is planned 
 
 Th' ascent of earth's high thrones, but loftiest climb 
 The masters of the sword, and firmest stand ; 
 Rightly the noblest held ; but marred by crime 
 
 Too oft the crown they gain, and dim with rust 
 Of tears and blood the glories of their time. 
 Like cloud-built towers at eve dissolved, their trust 
 
 Fades with the fading years, till each proud name 
 Once high as heaven, lies vile in common dust. 
 Eagles of barren heights ! Less vaunt their fame 
 
 Attends, who strove with hands unarmed to seize 
 Dominion's helm, the olive-wreath their claim, 
 In court or hall or council ; next to these, 
 
 But lesser far, shalt thou behold the band 
 Of patriots called, vanes of the popular breeze. 
 
CANTO XVII 89 
 
 '"Mid the still pastures of this guarded land 
 
 The statesmen-shepherds bide, till slow the hours 
 Bring round, its course complete, the dial hand. 
 And green the leaves above, and bright the flowers, 
 
 But fruitless all, and sighs the breezes are 
 That stir the boughs, watered with tears for showers." 
 He spoke, and pointed where nor near nor far 
 
 Figures I saw that measured moved and slow, 
 As loth by vulgar haste their state to mar.^ 
 Towards us their way was bent, in seemly row 
 
 And rich attire, yet grave, as theirs who pass 
 From palace gates to grace some courtly show ; 
 With even steps they trod the yielding grass 
 
 Till front to front we stood, with greeting fair 
 Made and returned, befitting time and place. 
 Then they, "At whose behest th' unfooted stair 
 
 That hither leads was yours to climb ? and how 
 From different worlds together linked ye fare ? " 
 Answered my guide ; " She whom yourselves avow 
 
 Mother and Queen our path assigned, and gave 
 Free passage o'er the mystic mountain's brow. 
 What kinship mortals with immortals have 
 
 Is his with mine, and both are blent in one ; 
 Nor ours is more to tell, nor yours to crave." 
 As a grey lake touched by the morning sun 
 
 Sparkles in countless smiles, so brightly there 
 On every face the sign of welcome shone. 
 And I, though wondering much, nor all aware 
 
 By whom the greeting given, yet joyed as he 
 Who from strange lands returned his native air 
 Feels on his cheek once more, and joys to see 
 
 Sights to old days familiar once, that bring 
 Past thoughts, past loves, in act again to be. 
 Then from the midmost of that honoured ring 
 
 Came forward three, in form distinct and vast, 
 
 ^ Cf. Divina Commedia, Purg. iii. 10. 
 
go BOOK I 
 
 But kinglike each, or little less than king. 
 
 And one, the stateliest of the band, whose breast 
 
 With heavy folds of twisted gold was hung. 
 Foremost advanced to me his speech addressed. 
 Gentle his words as from a honeyed tongue 
 
 To courteous utterance framed ; but cold his eye 
 As night's keen star the leafless boughs among. 
 And thus ; "To perilous lordship destiny 
 
 Twice lent my name ; even now hast thou beheld 
 The second Cromwell ; know the first in me. 
 The despot will that at a breath dispelled 
 
 Rome's secular fabric, that nor creed nor law 
 But its own self avowed, I captive held 
 Chained by my stronger purpose, bent to draw 
 
 All to itself, as whirlpools draw the tide 
 That makes them, to their all-devouring maw. 
 Nor gracious youth, nor reverend age, nor pride 
 
 Of high descent, nor pity's oft-urged plea 
 Might my keen axe-edge blunt or turn aside. 
 Alone of that dark breast I kept the key 
 
 Where dwelt the stores of kingly power, the will 
 That life or death assigned with like decree. 
 Potent for good, omnipotent for ill. 
 
 Long years my charge I held, nor faltered, sure 
 In all my Master's dictates to fulfil. 
 But he, now absolute grown, through me secure 
 
 Where erst he feared, the load of thankfulness 
 His trustless heart no longer might endure. 
 So sweet to bitter turned by sweet's excess ; 
 
 And my true good transformed by his false mind 
 To crime than which all other crime was less. 
 Wheat-sheaves from tare-sown fields shall reapers bind, 
 
 Lilies on thorns, on brambles grapes shall grow 
 Ere a king's slave a grateful king shall find." 
 Pausing, his hand across a furrowed brow 
 
 He passed, as who would brush from memory's glass 
 
CANTO XVII 91 
 
 Of some ill shapes the yet too present show. 
 Then said ; " Heaven's work abides, earth's pageants 
 pass ; 
 
 The good remains, the ill dissolves away 
 As clouds from skies, or shadows off the grass. 
 Not all for thee, false Henry, was the day 
 
 Of the great things I wrought ; nor shall thy stain 
 Sully the gold of England's orient ray. 
 As some fierce storm from off the stagnant plain 
 
 Impetuous drives the marsh-sprung pest, afar 
 Blown by the gale, outwashed by the wild rain, 
 Such was my course ; the remnant ills of war 
 
 Like heaped-up corpses left ; the festering wrong 
 Of ease misused, and custom's leaden bar, 
 These from the land I swept ; the prostrate throng 
 
 Felt in my storm their healing ; to my name 
 A despot's hate, a nation's thanks belong." 
 Again he paused ; and I ; "Of praise and blame 
 
 Much hast thou earned, O Cromwell ! but the gold 
 Wastes not, though sharp the test, and fierce the flame.'' 
 " Enough ; " he smiled and answered ; " now behold, 
 
 Conjoint to my expectant hour, the twain 
 Worthiest with me in honour's text enrolled. 
 He ^ on my right who from Amasia's plain 
 
 Called to Byzantium's towers, with pitiless sword 
 Yet pitying, cleft the links of the dull chain 
 By licensed greed and old corruption's horde 
 
 Coiled round the giant limbs of Othman's brood. 
 And youth for age, and praise for shame restored. 
 And Kiiprili's name broad-writ in lines of blood 
 
 Glows like the beacon-fire that crowns the height 
 To guide the Crescent bark through storm and flood. 
 But he the third thou seest in equal light 
 
 Of statesman-radiance robed, alone upbore 
 
 1 The elder Kiiprili, Grand Vizier of Mahomet IV. : sometimes 
 styled the Richelieu of Turkey. 
 
92 
 
 " A falling empire's weight, so deem aright, 
 lyeyas ^ he, who by fair Biwa's shore 
 
 Victor of trait'rous wrong and civil broil, 
 All negligent pride and careless ease forbore, 
 And helmed him to long years of healsome toil 
 
 Till firm the fabric rose, no more as erst 
 To foreign greed and rival schemes a spoil. 
 Mightiest and noblest heart of those inhearsed 
 
 'Mid Shiba's shrines, or Nikho's cypress grove ; 
 Hero of later days, yet with the first 
 
 Writ by Japan in lines of grateful love.'' 
 
 1 First of the Japanese war-ministers. 
 
CANTO XVIII 
 
 The folly of selfish Ambition— We now enter the region of dema- 
 gogues and popular orators ; a desolate flat, over which the 
 spirits are driven by an unceasing wind — My guide points out 
 first Pericles, whose policy ruined Athens, then Cleon, the 
 Roman Tribunes, the Gracchi, Marius, Cinna, and Rienzi — 
 Modem demagogues follow — Warning to England against 
 such leaders, and republican ideas imported from France or 
 the United States — The ill consequences of Columbus's dis- 
 coveries. 
 
 O FOOLISH cares of men ! O toilsome days 
 
 Idly bestowed ! O labour run to waste, 
 Success by failure crossed, and cancelled praise ! 
 As on loose ground a goodly temple based, 
 
 Or mine where ore is none, deep-hewn in vain, 
 Or sea-side footsteps by the tide erased ; 
 Such is their guerdon who with hand and brain 
 
 For self not others toil, though high the deed, 
 AVith dross for gold repaid, and chaff for grain ; 
 Empty the ears ; like harvest from like seed. 
 
 They only self attain who self forgo, 
 All lost well lost for love's sufficient meed. 
 But worst for those who by the harlot show 
 
 Of popular favour lured, and patriot's name, 
 On the base crowd ingrate their toil bestow. 
 And long must ages roll ere the pure flame 
 
94 BOOK I 
 
 Of love those dregs consume, and the soiled ghost 
 Pure through the gates return whence first it came. 
 As Autumn flowers pinched by untimely frost 
 
 Shrivelled and wan drop from their blighted stems 
 Drenched with the night's cold dews, a death-strickeii 
 
 host, 
 So from the gay greenwood that circling hems 
 
 The space to those great spirits assigned, who wait. 
 Cleansed of earth's soil, love's faultless diadems. 
 Forth as we passed with thoughtful steps sedate 
 
 Changed all that cheerful scene to sombre hue 
 That even remembered irks me to relate. 
 As mixed with sand and weed-rack pebbles strew 
 
 Some torrent's path now dry, so was the ground, 
 O'er which a bitter wind unceasing blew. 
 And here and there a stunted thorn had bound 
 
 Its prickly network cross the path, and lay 
 Light bones and broken shards the fields around. 
 But there like ghosts that foiled of purpose stray 
 
 Yet may not rest or pause, dim forms of men 
 Chasing or chased, so seemed, fled down the way : 
 As flit the marsh-fires o'er the putrid fen 
 
 So went they, singly some, some trooped in bands 
 Causeless, that sundered oft, then joined again. 
 But rest or term was none ; thorn-strewn the sands 
 
 Denied repose ; and still the gusty wind 
 Drove those weak forms along the desolate strands. 
 And some lamenting went of friends unkind 
 
 And treacherous wrong ; and some like men distraught 
 Ceaselessly called on others left behind. 
 And others veiled from their own selves in thought 
 
 Silent were driven by sand and thorn ; but all 
 Ever by that cold wind were forward raught. 
 As birds at random blown by the wild squall 
 
 Precursor of the storm, now here now there 
 Screaming are whirled by cottage roof and wall. 
 
CANTO XVni ge 
 
 So showed those forms that through the dusty air 
 
 Confused the sight : I stood, and wondering gazed 
 If aught the untold meaning might declare. 
 Then spoke my brother-guide ; " Why thus amazed 
 
 Behold'st thou these ? or have new-visioned things 
 So soon earth's records from thy mind erased ? 
 They whom the popular breath on its light wings, 
 
 Lighter themselves, to faction's heights upbore 
 Here find what fitting meed such headship brings. 
 Foremost his form ^ behold who first of yore 
 
 Led the vain babblers when th' Athenian crowd 
 Clutched at the helm, disdainful of the oar ; 
 Till with riven mast, torn sail, and tangled shroud 
 
 Helpless the vessel lay, and o'er her broke 
 In whelming storm the Macedonian cloud. 
 In freedom's borrowed name he bound the yoke 
 
 Of popular will supreme on the fair land 
 By Pallas cloven with th' olive-bearing stroke ; ^ 
 And lit with vain self-trust the wasteful brand 
 
 For thirty years * unquenched, till Graecia's pride, 
 Ashes and blood, bestained the Thracian strand.* 
 Close in his train the demagogue herd, allied 
 
 In lust of gain or power, attend their chief, 
 Cleon, and viler names to fame denied. 
 All these as restless whirls the withered leaf 
 
 Wind-driven across the road, are borne along 
 Till penal years outworn allow relief. 
 When renovated Greece from secular wrong 
 
 Rescued by noble deeds resumes the wreath 
 Of art, the wand of thought, the lyre of song, 
 Then, nor till then, shall the due term bequeath 
 
 1 Pericles. 
 
 2 In the mythical contest between Poseidon and Pallas she 
 called forth the olive in Athens. 
 
 3 The Peloponnesian war. 
 * The battle at Arginusae. 
 
96 BOOK 
 
 " Their life to second birth, once more to tread 
 Hymettus' slopes, Athenian air to breathe. 
 So death resumes the living, life the dead. 
 
 Sunset revolves to sunrise, even to morn, 
 Till the great noon its changeless radiance shed." 
 Thus spoke my guide, nor more, whilst onward borne 
 
 By the rash wind those phantoms passed away, 
 As shadow-waves pass o'er the breeze-swept corn. 
 Next fiercer sounds I heard, cries of dismay, 
 
 And plainings loud with curses mixed, that seemed 
 To darken more the gloom of that sad day ; 
 Till swift of a new throng the vanguard gleamed 
 
 In double headship, while the following crew 
 Like a mad comet's train confusedly streamed. 
 And a voice called aloud, " What guerdon due 
 
 To patriot-feigned sedition ? what reward 
 For those who first rebellion's trumpet blew ? " 
 Deafened, alarmed, to my dear guide and lord 
 
 Closer I drew ; but he, " Behold the first 
 Who dyed in Roman blood the Roman sword. 
 The Gracchi these, names to all time accursed ; 
 
 With them the progeny of their crime, the race 
 In base intrigue and poisonous treason versed ; 
 And wolfish Marius, and the dog-like face 
 
 Of shameless Cinna ; till Rome's violate State 
 Veiled in a despot's rule her worse disgrace. 
 And, following, the vain man,^ the fool of fate, 
 
 Last of the Tribunes idly called, for he 
 Was but the bastard of a lesser date. 
 All these and many more in days to be, 
 
 Courtiers of popular headship, who for hire 
 To the mob idol bend a servile knee." 
 So forth the tumult swept, in mixed attire 
 
 Of various climes the witness, voices blent 
 In jarring resonance, sounds of plaint or ire ; 
 ^ Cola di Rienzi. 
 
CANTO XVIII 97 
 
 Orderless all, confused, dishonoured, went 
 
 Wrecks of the turbid flood their art availed 
 To loose, not bind, by their own triumph shent.^ 
 Those too who by brute force or fraud assailed 
 
 Europe's ill-soldered thrones I saw, till last 
 Weakness o'er weakness, dwarves o'er dwarves prevailed. 
 So Bourbon's rotten stem to earth was cast ; 
 
 So Spain's ill-nurtured seedlings on the coast 
 Of far Atlantis ^ laid in lawless waste. 
 O blight of earth's late harvest ! deadliest most 
 
 Where fairest promise bloomed ! all honoured worth 
 Fades at thy blast, in popular vileness lost. 
 O England ! O my country ! thou whose birth 
 
 To Greece, to Rome, a nobler sister gave. 
 Empress of nations, crown of the whole earth. 
 Treasure-house moated by the jealous wave, 
 
 Thou that wave's mistress ; rivals at thy feet 
 Now crouch in fear, now in vain envy rave ; 
 Happy for thee if thy time-guarded seat 
 
 From outer foes exempt, thou keep'st secure 
 From Judas-patriots, and base faction's cheat. 
 Too well thou know'st of old the brood impure 
 
 Of democrat France, or that new-fangled world ^ 
 Where chartered greed most flaunts her tawdry lure. 
 Ill-starred the hour when Genoa's chief unfurled 
 
 The Westward bellying canvass, better then 
 By thwarting winds on rock and shipwreck hurled, 
 Nor back returned a worse Pandora train 
 
 To Europe's new Prometheus brought, with ills 
 Unknown, unguessed, vexing the lives of men. 
 Not she in scarlet robed on Latian hills. 
 
 As Patmos' dreamer tells, a harlot queen, 
 With worser draught her witchcraft's goblet fills. 
 Drink they who list, and to the horde unclean 
 
 1 Shamed. 
 ^ America, North and South. 
 
98 BOOK I 
 
 Unbar the gates of power, and 'mid the shrine 
 Of worshipped worth enthrone a form obscene. 
 Bestial themselves they boast a bestial line 
 
 Fathered of apes, not men ; such madness waits 
 Who earthly rule dissociate from divine. 
 At this such glare as from the furnace gates 
 
 Of Hiera ^ bursts or Aetna, when the night 
 Unbinds the storm-fiend of Trinacria's ^ straits, 
 So reddened skies and plain with angry light 
 
 To th' unknown voice thus heard, whose threat'ning 
 sound 
 In crimson fire transformed itself to sight ; 
 Like aspens of the breeze-swept vale the ground 
 
 Quivered beneath, the storm-wrapped heavens above ; 
 Then stilled, as in new splendour closed around, 
 
 Now near, th' all-healing wings of pardoning Love. 
 
 ^ One of the Lipari islands, north of Sicily. 
 ^ Sicily. 
 
CANTO XIX 
 
 We pass to a calm sea-shore, and see Hannibal — My guide tells 
 him of my own early admiration for him — He welcomes us, and 
 calls up his past life in a series of visions — His greatness sur- 
 vives the ruin of Carthage. 
 
 The light unveiled, to which a tenfold sun 
 
 Had seemed a fire-fly spark, the wind-drove band 
 Of flitting ghosts, the tempest, all were gone ; 
 And as in some wide bay the slanted sand 
 
 Washed by the refluent tide no trace retain, ^ 
 Void of all these before us lay the land. 
 But with thick grass and reed o'ergrown the plain 
 
 Circled the mountain base ; and far in view 
 Spread the bare bosom of the heaving main. 
 Still was the tempered air ; no storm-blast blew 
 
 Thwart the clear vault, nor cloud nor speck was there, 
 Blue canopy to the ocean's waveless blue. 
 But 'twixt the meadowed slope and sandflats bare 
 
 Rose a low wall, as where a drifting waste 
 With near encroachment threats an orchard square. 
 By a smooth path the midmost way was crossed, 
 
 Where as the Master led I followed slow. 
 Silent, and in the realm of ghosts a ghost. 
 ' Sic MSS. 
 
Then was I ware of one with downcast brow 
 
 Propped on his hand, who speechless sat and lone 
 By the wall-side the narrow slope below. 
 A warrior shape in burnished steel he shone 
 
 But light the figured cuirass-guard, and light 
 The plumeless helm, and light the baldric's zone. 
 As the hot blackness of a sultry night 
 
 Flickers with sheeted fire, uncertain gleamed 
 In his dark eyes half-closed a dangerous light. 
 Of southern climes and Libyan suns he seemed. 
 
 Panther-like crouched, the path beside ; in rest 
 Restless ; I knew not if he waked or dreamed. 
 Like one who sees but marks not, though the guest 
 
 Stand in the open door, nor sign nor word 
 Of welcome gives, with inner thought oppressed. 
 So to the greeting by our speech preferred 
 
 No answer made that form, as who distraught 
 From unknown lips some foreign sound has heard. 
 Then, roused to speech : " By what new ordinance 
 brought 
 
 Passed ye the circling bounds ? and, if the way 
 Self-taught ye know, why else enquire ye aught ? " 
 To whom my guide ; " That which all worlds obey 
 
 Or thine, or ours, or other, bid me change 
 For your brief twilight life's eternal day. 
 But he thou seest companion of my range 
 
 Is one whom from thy being, close linked with mine, 
 Nor sundering space nor time could all divide. 
 As the slant reflex of the ocean brine 
 
 Presents in nearness on the mirrored rim 
 Some distant star, so history's oft-conned line 
 Thee first, Hamilcar's son, revealed to him 
 
 In worshipped likeness ; to his eyes thy rays 
 Shone in full orb, where faint all else and dim." 
 Not from a rain-dark cloud more dazzling blaze 
 
 Declares the sun's return, than at the word 
 
CANTO XIX lOI 
 
 Transfigured beamed the pride of Byrsa's ^ days, 
 And cried ; " O welcome thou, my strength, my lord ! 
 
 O happy hour ! O long deferred embrace 
 Of spirit with spirit, death sundered, life restored ! " 
 Then thus to me ; " Of distant land and race. 
 
 Yet near in higher kin, brother, to thee 
 Be given a brother's welcome, face to face. 
 No common chance, no vulgar destiny 
 
 Assigned thy hither-ward way, not hence to part 
 Till plucked the fruit from truth's slow-ripening tree. 
 The spell in by-gone days o'er mind and heart 
 
 Cast by my name I thus renew : the dead 
 For thee revive, for thee re-act their part." 
 Even as he spoke, thick gathered round my head 
 
 A mist that hid the landscape round, and then 
 Parted to visioned scenes that came or sped. 
 And first a shrine I saw, with panoplied men 
 
 Close thronged, and 'midst a child : his hand was laid 
 As on an altar's marge : I looked again 
 And knew the face, and heard the words he said 
 
 Of hatred to his country's foes : the vow 
 Long years in blood fulfilled, in blood repaid. 
 Crimson the fire-light gleamed on cheek and brow. 
 
 But star-like pure the childish eyes ; their glance 
 Summed the sworn future in an absolute Now. 
 This soon was gone ; and widened on my trance 
 
 A desolate height, where o'er the incrusted ice 
 Ghost-like the snow-wreaths whirled their dizzying dance. 
 And a long train, various in war's device. 
 
 Slow-winding clomb the slope, with bleeding feet 
 Upcrowding to the barriered precipice. 
 Each on his comrade gazed, aghast to meet 
 
 That face, the glass of his own thought, till fear 
 Grew to despair, Ul-counsellor of retreat. 
 Then rose that Leader's voice in accents clear, 
 1 Carthage. 
 
And, "Forward" cried ; " across these heights is Rome, 
 Rival and spoil : " nor more was then to hear 
 For splintering rocks and crash of arms, while clomb 
 
 The dusky war-files to the crest, as pass 
 Dark lines of tempest thwart tossed ocean's foam. 
 Next a wide plain, dark-grown with tufted grass. 
 
 Spread to my view, where lost in reedy sedge 
 Half-hidden waters fed the black morass. 
 But red to sight was by each swampy ledge 
 
 The trampled ooze, and riiddy streamlets flowed 
 Through field and mud-bank to th' horizon's edge. 
 Upwards I looked, if chance the sunset glowed 
 
 In western heavens diffused with crimson stain 
 That in reflex such ghastly semblance showed. 
 But grey the silent eve, with autumn rain 
 
 Dim-streaked in slanting bars, and faint the day 
 Narrowed in colourless close o'er stream and plain : 
 And grass and reeds amidst in plashes lay 
 
 The blood of slaughtered men : with curdling blood 
 Mantled the sluggish pools, the shallow bay. 
 There, girt with death and conquest, midmost stood 
 
 He, the dread Chief, who late from Alpine snow 
 Poured, at his vow's behest, war's pityless flood. 
 Thrice victor now, by Trebia's torrent flow 
 
 And Thrasimene's banks, till Cannae's field 
 Heaped up the slaughter-pyre of that great vow. 
 When shivered was Rome's sword, and cloven her shield 
 
 With deadliest-seeming blows, and even the war, 
 A harvest reaped, no further sheaves might yield. 
 There stayed the forward tide, there Libya's star 
 
 Faded, and from the o'er-confident leader fled 
 Neglected Victory's unreturning car. 
 Again I looked : Numantia's sands were red 
 
 With her own children's gore, and, gorged his fill, 
 On Libyan flesh the Libyan vulture fed. 
 Vain now th' impetuous onset, vain the skill 
 
CANTO XIX 103 
 
 Taught by long use, the stubborn courage vain ; 
 Fixed the decree, remediless the ill. 
 But he, the lion of Afric's fervid plain. 
 
 Whom chance nor death could daunt not, nor the 
 might 
 Of fate subdue, nor fortune bind in chain, 
 Though set, hopeless of morn, in Zama's night 
 
 That sun, for twenty years with victory's ray 
 Made one, untired resumed his country's fight. 
 By wise restraint and toil that brooks delay 
 
 Rebuilding Byrsa's ruins, with slow reform 
 Her prostrate walls upraising day by day. 
 Vain hope, vain labour all : the Roman storm 
 
 That snapped the central stem, relentless yet 
 Swept on, nor gave to rise the prostrate form. 
 Withered in earth the root, the branches wet 
 
 With poisonous dews that kill ; Phoenicia's place 
 Knew it no more, past memory, past regret. 
 Yet he like some lone watch-tower round whose base 
 
 All night the eddying waters clash, till day 
 Nought but expanse unbroken now displays, 
 Sp stood Numidia's chief, then passed away 
 
 In darkness from the land unworthy grown 
 Of such as he, left to her own decay. 
 In foreign lands to childhood's thought unknown. 
 
 Where native accents none to soothe the ear 
 Nor native sights the eye, banished, alone ; 
 By an ungrateful country's cruel fear 
 
 Driven forth, he sits an Asian Despot's guest 
 'Mid dim neglect, and base barbarian sneer. 
 Nor triumph now nor fame, but only rest 
 
 He seeks, yet finds not, though the sundering clime 
 Had baffled all but Rome's relentless quest. 
 He knew, nor vainly strove, but calm to time 
 
 Bequeathed th' imperfect vow, the vengeance slow 
 That on a nation wreaks a nation's crime. 
 
104 BOOK I 
 
 " Here be the end ; the gods have willed it so ; 
 
 To them not Rome I yield ; my task is o'er ; 
 And a great Shade to the great Shades I go." 
 He spoke, and quaffed ; the footsteps at the door 
 
 Close on the threshold paused ; not this they sought, 
 Feared in his life, in death they feared him more. 
 Then as the passing of a dreamer's thought 
 
 By some sharp sound dispelled, this vision too 
 Passed, but remained the truth by shadows taught. 
 In Byrsa's port no more the seaman crew 
 
 Unload their merchant bales, no more its sands 
 Shall high-towered empire on those mounds renew. 
 Faded the very memory from the lands 
 
 Made by that memory famous, now the prey 
 Of Arab hordes and Gallia's meaner bands. 
 But thou, great Spirit, in truth's eternal day 
 
 Eterne, hast reared thy glory's monument 
 From earth's dishonour safe, from time's decay. 
 Lord of the high resolve, the stern intent 
 
 That life and self disdains ; lord of the throne 
 Starlike amid the starry element. 
 One be my lot with thine, one mantle thrown 
 
 Round us in earth's dim ways, one sphere above ; 
 That sphere where reigns in all, yet reigns alone 
 
 One common Lord, one Guide, one Trust, one Love. 
 
CANTO XX 
 
 The Second Region : Fine Art ; approached by a gateway over 
 which appears the mystic Flower, before seen — We enter the 
 region of Architects — Vision of Egypt and her great monu- 
 ments, and of the first Architect, who was Builder of the 
 Palace at Thebes. 
 
 Seven voices from the cloud-veiled summit call, 
 
 Seven paths, to each a guide, lead up the slope, 
 Seven portals welcome to the mystic hall ; 
 Hopeful each voice, each entry scrolled with hope, 
 
 With hope each pathway bordered ; blank and mute 
 Is the eighth access to the ultimate cope ; 
 But this I saw not yet nor knew ; my foot 
 
 Now trod the second path that Eastward still 
 Wound 'twixt the ocean shore and mountain root. 
 For now the lustral realm where the first ill 
 
 Works its own cure, and loftiest aims attain 
 The prize oft sought by failure, as the rill 
 Long vexed in mazes finds at last the main, 
 
 Behind us lay; nor till th' appointed time 
 Of earth fulfilled, might I those heights regain. 
 O welcome hour, expected long, the chime 
 
 Of destiny's peal, that bids th' earth-weary ghost 
 Change for unsullied light this fog-girt slime ! 
 As one who wind-bound long from some fair coast 
 
I06 BOOK I 
 
 Loosens the sail, half glad new scenes to try, 
 Half grieving o'er dear things in distance lost, 
 Even so, distraught 'twixt pain and joy was I ; 
 
 Joy to behold the further realms, and pain 
 From those great spirits to sunder company. 
 But fate compelled me, and th' invisible chain 
 
 From birth to death twined round our ways, each 
 one 
 Drew my steps onward from their rest again. 
 The kinsman form of Byrsa's lonely son. 
 
 The wind-blown patriot troop, the statesman band, 
 The laurelled lords of conquest, all were gone. 
 By the wet margin of the shingly strand 
 
 We passed, a silent pair ; the sea's bright glass 
 Glittered to right, and left-ward was the land. 
 And now two little hills with wavy grass 
 
 Green from their lowest base before us stood, 
 Narrowing the pathway to a middle pass. 
 On either summit high a clustered wood 
 
 Of laurel, mixed with growth of various leaf 
 Intricate, made a forest solitude. 
 Where never curious foot of man, the thief 
 
 Of Nature's stores and treasured loveliness 
 Might come, nor laughter coarse, nor plaining giief. 
 But some coy Oread ^ scaped the rude caress 
 
 Of all too eager Hermes, here might dwell. 
 And tend her flowers, and weave her fragrant tress. 
 There a fair gateway spanned the narrow dell 
 
 With its white arch of chiselled marble, wrought 
 To shapes in beauty indescribable ; 
 No lovelier shows by visitant angels brought 
 
 To the young priestess, when within the fane 
 Alone she worships, earth and self forgot. 
 And living sparklets like the sprinkled rain 
 
 Of sunrise, a thin veil of atom light, 
 ' Mountain Nymph. 
 
CANTO XX 107 
 
 Flashed through those shapes, and passed, and flashed 
 
 again. 
 But o'er and through the gateway's midmost height 
 
 A flower, in form and hue all flowers of earth 
 Excelling, downward bent, a wondrous sight. 
 No terraced bowers adorned for moonlight mirth 
 
 Had reared that flower by Belus' palaces. 
 Nor from Hesperian orchard-glades its birth. 
 But other suns and other dews than these. 
 
 The suns that set not, and the dews of May 
 Eternal, fed its living loveliness. 
 I looked and knew the charm that on my way 
 
 Up the dark gorge 'twixt dream and waking lost 
 Cast the strange magic of its Iris ray ; 
 The same, but lovelier now ; more bright the boast 
 
 Of changeful hues, statelier the wooing grace. 
 Then most intent when careless seeming most. 
 Balanced in air, as then, with downward face 
 
 My face it sought ; and soft its scented breath 
 Drew me, as draws the lamp the insect's chase. 
 And now we stood the portal arch beneath. 
 
 Leader and led, where round the mystic flower 
 Clustered in emulous twine the marble wreath. 
 Then round us swept, but whence unknown, a power 
 
 Like a strong wave that lifts from off' the sand 
 The bather's foot-hold in a dangerous hour ; 
 Nor aught I saw, but felt the clasping hand 
 
 Of my true guide on mine, and heard the voice 
 That first spoke welcome to the spirit land. 
 And these the words, " Brother and friend, rejoice ; 
 
 The realm of those who Nature, cast by man 
 In flawless mould, have made their earthly choice. 
 Now open lies before thee ; rise and scan 
 
 What of the work abides by each in place 
 Accomplished, how fulfilled the god-like plan." 
 He said ; and at his voice, as 'neath the trace 
 
I08 BOOK I 
 
 Of some skilled artist on the canvass bare 
 Comes out from mind to sense the pictured face, 
 So from the blankness of encircling air 
 
 A landscape clear in outline, steeped in light 
 Came forth, till seemed the thing itself was there. 
 For a broad river rolled its tawny might 
 
 'Twixt fields and rocks alternate ; pillared fanes 
 Bordered the gliding highway left and right. 
 Beneath a changeless sky of clouds and rains 
 
 Unknowing, rose high walls, that seemed upreared 
 By recent hands, so free from rent or stain : ^ 
 And giant statues of old kings revered 
 
 By crouching slaves around their pedestals, 
 And records graven of cancelled days appeared. 
 And they, the pyramid twins, whose bulk appals 
 
 The gazer, till recoil both mind and eye 
 Back from th' incline of those heaven-piercing walls, 
 And these beyond, where th' ever-glowing sky 
 
 Canopies o'er the giant maze of stone 
 Where the first Egypt throned in majesty. 
 Gone now the courtier crowd, the armies gone 
 
 That thronged those halls, and gone the builder kings 
 Who reared them, gone their names, their deeds, their 
 
 throne : 
 But 'mid the memories of those faded things 
 
 Unfading stands the palace monument. 
 Titanic birth of huge imaginings. 
 The lotus-flowering column ; sculptures blent 
 
 Of bird and beast and man ; the quaint design 
 Of multiple form with rainbow tints besprent ; 
 The pointed spires, whose granite mirrors shine 
 
 Like crystal dykes in the sun ; the porches' shade 
 Dark as the entry of some caverned mine. 
 Wondering, all these I passed amid, nor stayed 
 
 Till reached the Memnon brother-shapes, that sit 
 1 SkUSS. 
 
CANTO XX 109 
 
 Guarding the vale where their dead selves are laid : 
 Now reft of voice, yet more in silence fit 
 
 To sentinel silent death, where buried lies 
 An empire's dust, apportioned to the pit. 
 Nor the sole guardians they ; with woman-eyes 
 
 Earnest, and lips half-parted, watches ever 
 The Theban mystery,^ couched in lion guise. 
 And there, 'twixt those great statues and the river, 
 
 Bare to the waist a dusky form up-grew 
 Where the hot air-streams o'er the sandhills quiver. 
 A scroll his knees up-bore ; but fixed his view 
 
 Rested on the great shafts of Karnak's pile 
 As one who from old time their purport knew. 
 Serious his aspect ; yet a patient smile 
 
 Parted his lips, and bright his steadfast eye 
 Shone to the mirror of the flashing hill. 
 Of us no heed he took, nor moved, till nigh 
 
 Approaching spoke my guide ; " O thou, whose art 
 Creative, forecast of eternity, 
 First to the inmost thought of Nature's heart 
 
 Gave form and substance ; till with joy she saw 
 Through thee revealed to man her nobler part, 
 And the hid life from sight by uniform law 
 
 Dark-veiled, through thee discovered clear and given 
 To form, its own incorporate presence saw ; 
 By thee of mortals first the screen was riven 
 
 That beauty's truth from man concealed, and earth 
 By thee transformed was sister made to heaven. 
 Father of art 1 from thee the Pallas birth 
 
 Burst in the fullness of the powers above 
 Goddess and queen ; yet in her queenliest worth 
 
 Vassal and handmaid to th' archetypal Love." 
 
 ^ The Sphinx. 
 
CANTO XXI 
 
 The range of Architecture — Vision of the Palaces and Temples of 
 Thebes in their original splendour — Greatness of Egypt — 
 Vision of the land, past and present — The Three Lamps of 
 Architecture : Beauty, Strength, Truth — The Architect re- 
 counts the rise and progress of the Art ; in Greece and the 
 Empire from Britain to Africa, and throughout Europe — I 
 lament its present non-existence ; he answers that the Art is 
 now lost. 
 
 Like one who home from far returned to trace 
 
 Ancestral memories, finds in hall or shrine 
 Graven the rude likeness of some kinsman face, 
 And seeing thinks, " And was this semblance thine, 
 
 First of my race ? the features these ? the frame 
 This ? through long-herited birthright moulding mine." 
 So gazed I on that man to storied fame 
 
 Unknown, yet of such record worthier far 
 Than many a sworded, many a sceptred name. 
 They rear, they ruin, they make, they mend, they mar. 
 
 But slight their crumbling work and narrow, pent 
 'Mid close-drawn bounds of time, and regioned bar. 
 Stars of the night, to each his hour is lent ; 
 
 Then the dark marge : but thine the lamp of dawn 
 Firstborn and herald of day's firmament ; 
 From where Ilyssus threads the thymy lawn 
 
CANTO XXI III 
 
 To Tiber's yellow waves, and the far lands 
 'Neath cold Arcturus' sluggish wheels withdrawn. 
 Then mind to mind made answer ; hands with hands 
 
 Linked through the ages wrought, and heart to heart 
 Spoke what who hears obeys, not understands. 
 But he, that primal spirit, from these apart 
 
 In his first greatness dwells, a nameless king 
 Of the hid depths where Nature links with Art. 
 Then as to wakening eyes, brushed by the wing 
 
 Of sleep too sudden scared, in form and hue 
 Tremulous awhile welters each new-seen thing, 
 So gradual on my sight the vision grew. 
 
 Confused at first, till gathering outlines wrought 
 What seemed a kingly palace reared in view. 
 Ruddy the stone from sad Syene brought 
 
 Gleamed to the sun ; within, each chamber wall 
 Was bright with countless shapes of pictured thought 
 Beyond the pillared ranges of the hall 
 
 Sat one, the warrior king, whose sculptured sneer 
 On Syrian rocks yet flouts the vanquished thrall. ^ 
 Without were horse and chariot, sword and spear 
 
 The living might of Egypt, on their lord 
 Intent ; his smile their hope, his frown their fear 
 No lure of merchant gain great Egypt's sword 
 
 Unsheathed, no phantom vain of despot mood 
 Nor fitful crowd, nor faction's hasty word. 
 But in the mirror of her fountless flood 
 
 In yearly change unchanged, from ebb to flow 
 Imaged her own eternity she viewed. 
 Land of the. mountain cairns stone-piled, that show 
 
 Life deathless made through death ; hers the vast maze 
 Where Moeris'^ prisoned waters coil and flow. 
 
 1 Sesostris of Egypt, said to have conquered Syria, and set up 
 there inscriptions and emblems denoting his victory over effeminate 
 races. 
 
 2 A lake near Memphis. 
 
And where on Phylae's roofs th' unslanted rays 
 
 Of heaven's sign-guided chariot, downward poured 
 Year after year renew their shadowless blaze ; 
 To where 'mid clustered palm and granaries stored 
 
 Wind the seven rivers of the guarded plain 
 From towered Canopus to the Syrian ford. 
 But on the granite floor of that wide fane 
 
 Lay slumbrous forms of sages, warriors, kings, 
 Thick-strewn as corn beat down by summer rain. 
 And all around piled heaps of shattered things, 
 
 Dead emblems of dead mysteries there I knew, 
 Fragments of orbs, and crowns, and arms, and wings. 
 Intent in thought I stood, till on my view 
 
 Again arose his shape who first the dream 
 Of artist-thought to tangible being drew. 
 Before the inmost shrine where the hid stream 
 
 Of life wells ceaseless up he stood, and high 
 Three star-like cressets o'er him cast their gleam. 
 Blent, yet distinct they shone ; the dazzled eye 
 
 Now one, now three, made reckoning ; so the light 
 Wove of three hues one singular brilliancy. 
 Pure the first lamp of silver radiance bright 
 
 Perfect in beauty shone ; not fairer shines 
 Full-orbed heaven's queen in summer's calmest night. 
 The next with ruddier fire than decks the lines 
 
 Of Hesper's cloud-built palace glowed ; its ray 
 Told of a power that wanes not nor declines. 
 Clear sapphire shone the third ; the azure day 
 
 That vaults the frozen mountain-tops at noon 
 Compared with this were blotted mist and grey. 
 Three, yet a single fire the cressets shone. 
 
 As though a rain-bow should its banded chain 
 Of separate tints retwisting blend in one. 
 Now diamond white, now red with ruby stain, 
 
 Now hyaline all the temple glowed ; and now 
 Hueless that light that could each hue contain. 
 
CANTO XXI 113 
 
 Full fell the triple splendour on the brow 
 
 Of that true priest, art's firstborn, heir, and sire. 
 As on Imaian ^ heights the sunrise glow. 
 Then towards my guide, who to that triple fire 
 
 His added radiance lent, he turned, and spoke 
 Words as of him who holds his heart's desire. 
 " On the dim earth in me the dawning broke. 
 
 Dawn not of earth nor of earth's heaven, outspread 
 Beyond the clustered stars and zodiac yoke. 
 Thee too, my lesser friend, I welcome, led 
 
 By him of both the lord, till the high goal 
 Is reached 'mid those who live, misnamed the dead. 
 Sown is the seed that to earth's farthest pole 
 
 Shall reach, a mighty tree, whose branching pride 
 Of various flowers entwines one perfect whole. 
 Truth, beauty, strength ; — of these the power allied 
 
 That substance clothes on thought, and gives to man 
 Of Nature's wealth what Nature's self denied. 
 Here is their fount ; from hence Art's rivers ran 
 
 Where 'mid the plain in Asian story famed 
 Ninus and Nimrod reared their giant plan ; 
 Mighty, but all fantastic show, till tamed 
 
 By Dorian cunning to the perfect grace 
 Of the great shrine from Virgin Wisdom named.^ 
 Then Westward rolled the stream, in breadth and 
 space 
 
 Widening, as widened from the seven-fold hill 
 Rome's Empire, circling to a world's embrace ; 
 From Britain's twilight halls and cloisters, till 
 
 Afric's once populous coast-fringe, where the wave 
 Broke on long wharf and palace-crested hill. 
 Or where Byzantium's sky-lit dome,^ that gave 
 
 Judaea's fane, the boast of David's son, 
 A more than rival, vaults an empire's grave. 
 
 1 Himalayan. ^ The Parthenon, dedicated to Pallas. 
 
 3 S. Sophia. 
 
 I 
 
114 "'OO"^ ' 
 
 " Or where the lion-standards flaunt the sun 
 
 Reddened on Adria's shoals, and dome and tower 
 Rise like a faery mist from waters dun ; ^ 
 Or where in sculptured grace the queenly flower, 
 
 Thy lily, France, emblazoned arch and wall 
 By many-pillared aisle, or buttressed tower. 
 Palaces, temples, tombs, memorials, all 
 
 Vaunts of a world whose dying children fain 
 From deathless thought would weave their marble pall ; 
 Stone, but instinct with life ; the builder's brain 
 
 Was the true mirror where the triplicate ray 
 Of strength, truth, beauty flashed to form again. 
 Theirs the firm life that shall not pass away 
 
 When names and kingdoms pass ; known or unknown 
 From me, their common dawn, kindled their day." 
 He ceased ; and I with thought perplexed, as one 
 
 Who listening, part accordant finds, and part 
 Not as he deemed, to question thus begun ; 
 Saying, " If from th' eternal fount thy art 
 
 Was drawn, that to mere toil of structured stone 
 Beauty, and truth, and strength could thus impart, 
 Why now from earth withdrawn the power, that none 
 
 Can substance give to art's true thought ? or build 
 Aught that may face unshamed the common sun ? 
 Tame copyists all, to forge the likeness skilled, 
 
 Not to create ; their work a scroll bereft 
 Of charactered worth, a promise unfulfilled. 
 Nor power, nor truth, nor grace, nor beauty left, 
 
 But mere reflex and semblance ; barren death 
 Clothed with false tracement of life's borrowed weft ? " 
 " Even so," that shape replied ; " not twice the breath 
 
 Of heaven is breathed in man ; not twice the Spring 
 Garlands the year, not twice the Summer's wreath. 
 They come, they pass ; another year may bring 
 
 Fresh flowers, but not the same ; the magic word 
 ' Venice. 
 
CANTO XXI 115 
 
 " Forgot ; lost in the depths the master ring. 
 Vanished the polestar from heaven's chart, unheard 
 
 Amphion's builder strain ; the delicate sheen 
 Once wove o'er earth's dull things stripped off and 
 
 blurred. 
 Blighted the boughs reclothe ^ no second green ; 
 
 The starless nights roll on, and bring no dawn ; 
 Faded the lines from the many-diapered screen ; 
 Till on another world another dawn ^ 
 
 Shall rise, and fresh from withered leaves' decay 
 Blooms a fair flower, an infant world new-born. 
 From morn to eve accomplishing its day ; 
 
 So to their goal the onward ages move. 
 Till then death rules and spares not ; to her sway 
 
 All things are subject but undying Love." 
 
 1 Resume altered to reclothe, but the syntax uncorrected. 
 2 Sic MSS. 
 
CANTO XXII 
 
 My guide consoles me, and conducts to the Region of Painting — 
 The Nile valley is replaced by the Val d'Arno — The Palace of 
 Painting and its Gallery of works of all times — Pagan myth- 
 ology, Classical subjects. Biblical and Christian, History, 
 Landscape — A summary of all Art — My guide explains the 
 excellence of Painting, especially the Italian Schools. 
 
 The voice that by Siloah's gates at even 
 
 O'erdarkening gloom with gloom, to Israel told 
 Captive the ark, the standard soiled and riven, 
 Stabbed with no deadlier wound the pontiff old, 
 
 Than me his utterance who earth's bloom foretaught 
 Fated to dust, its fires to ashes cold. 
 Inly I mourned, " In vain the gift was brought 
 
 Mockery of dying men, so soon withdrawn 
 A cancelled boon, now all, now less than nought." 
 "Grieve not," then thus my guide, "the brightest 
 morn 
 
 Is child of darkest night ; the destined Spring 
 Bides hopeful 'neath snow-sheeted Winter's lawn. 
 Now lift thy eyes to yon fair plain, where fling 
 
 High walls and towers an outlined shade, that tells 
 Of strength with beauty linked in golden ring. 
 By lilied fields, and violet-cushioned dells - 
 
 And slopes with olive hoar, where Arno's stream 
 
CANTO XXII 117 
 
 " Unlearns the chill of Falterona's wells.^ 
 There with the memories girt of beauty's dream 
 
 The lords of beauty dwell, by just award 
 Robed in the brightness of love's artist gleam." 
 Like one who drowsy grown the wayside sward 
 
 A half-hour's couch has made, then starting knows 
 Far off the journey's bourne, nor brooks retard, 
 But nerves his stiffened limbs, and knits his brows. 
 
 Then to his way once more with quickened pace 
 Turns, nor to backward scenes a thought allows ; 
 So from the visioned Nile of primal days, 
 
 Temples, and tombs, and marvels, to the abode 
 Of beauty wed with art I turned my ways. 
 Sun-gUded shone the grass, and white the road 
 
 By orchard-grove and portal fair, and white 
 Beneath our feet the marble pavement showed. 
 So on we passed till where in princely height 
 
 Tall marble walls, where niche or window none, 
 Closed in their jealous ward from outer sight. 
 Four-square within the cloistered silence, won 
 
 By a low-entranced door ; and all around 
 Arch upon arch kept out the baffled sun. 
 With lilies white and red th' ingirdled ground 
 
 A flowery tapestry shone ; the gallery tall 
 Was with close fret of lilied garden crowned. 
 Nor several rooms were there, nor portioned hall. 
 
 But a continuous interchange of hue 
 In pictured beauty ran from wall to wall. 
 Whate'er of ancient dreams or fancies new 
 
 Man's thought has imaged forth or hand designed 
 Was present there as in true life to view ; 
 Angels, and saints, and godheads ; forms assigned 
 
 To visioned spheres of faith's eternity ; 
 
 1 Dante describes the Arno (Purg. xiv. 16) as 
 Un fiumicel che nasce in Falterona — 
 "one of the highest of the Tuscan Apennines" (Dean Plumptre, 
 Commedia, 1886). 
 
Il8 BOOK I 
 
 Thought's bubbles, blown by hope with love combined. 
 These all, fair as bright cloudlets scattered high 
 
 O'er earliest summer morn, nor less than they 
 Fading to day's hot radiance, witched the eye. 
 They too, presentments of an earlier day 
 
 When shrined in stars, or founts, or branching trees, 
 Faith's gods or god-like powers made glad the way, 
 Sylvans and Oreads named, and Dryades, 
 
 And Jove, and Phoebus, and the presence fair 
 Of nymphs or Muses, lustrous images, 
 First-fruits of earth's first flowers, were figured there 
 
 Like tangled threads of light in changeful rays 
 From sun-lit pools cast on a marble stair. 
 Beauties unreal, yet real ; fathomless maze 
 
 Of error-pictured truth ; ill-bartered dreams 
 For waking blank of over-reasoning days. 
 And heroes here and gods, by Simois' stream 
 
 And Ida's pine-clad heights, or loftier snows 
 Of dread Olympus, Hellas' minstrel theme. 
 Nor less in imaged life those walls disclose 
 
 Th' all-wondrous pageant age by age unrolled 
 From earth's first shapement to its fiery close. 
 Fable, or truth ; and Eden's pendulous gold, 
 
 The whelming seas, and where the shepherd sage 
 Saw the great sight by Midian's hill-girt fold ; 
 Till broke the snare, and loosed the fowler's cage 
 
 By th' Erythraean shore and parted brine. 
 Portal and proem of a God-ruled age ; 
 And the dread Mount, and Horeb's tempest shrine 
 
 In fire and darkness veiled, were pictured there, 
 And round the mountain base the warning line. 
 But these I passed, till shone in sequence fair 
 
 Crowned with the light nor change nor time can quell 
 Earth's loveliest Vision, sole beyond compare. 
 The Mother-Maid, th' Immaculate Miracle, 
 
 In perfect beauty throned ; and next her One 
 
CANTO XXII 119 
 
 Whose look was power, whose every word a spell, 
 A brightness robed in brightness, as the sun 
 
 Clad in a golden cloud ; o'er shame and pain 
 Anguish and death He passed triumphant on. 
 And they his legioned followers, the long train 
 
 Of maids and matrons, manhood, age, and youth, 
 Came after, of that beauty rapt and fain. 
 And other sights were there, dread deeds of ruth 
 
 In war or tumult done, and bitter woes. 
 Faces with hate distort, and deeds uncouth ; 
 And there were happy meadows ; ordered rows 
 
 Of purple-clustered vines ; with fruit the trees 
 O'erweighted, margined round each garden close ; 
 Peace was the sunshine, peace the tepid breeze 
 
 That scarce disturbed the curl which lightest lay 
 On the stray maiden's neck ; a world of peace ; 
 And the green hills whence all the live-long day 
 
 Full-fed the summer rivulets sought the plain. 
 Stretched down to smooth sea-marge and shining bay. 
 There too smoke-pennoned peaks, and fiery rain 
 
 On blackened slopes, and icy crests of stone 
 Inviolate, that the eagle's wing disdain ; 
 All that earth joys or fears from zone to zone. 
 
 All that earth's sons have suffered, been, or wrought. 
 All that earth's spirit-powers have woven in one, 
 These, and more else, from substance shaped by thought 
 
 To semblance more than substance true, were there 
 From farthest bounds together blent and brought. 
 As burns a magic fire in noontide air 
 
 Fed with rare gums, in many-coloured light 
 A living prism, so glowed each painted square. 
 Vision of visions ! to my thrice-happy sight 
 
 Made plain in absolute beauty, form and limb, 
 Colour and shade, all fashioned to delight. 
 With beauty's wine upfilled from depth to brim 
 
 Was my heart's cup ; for beauty's happiness 
 
120 BOOK I 
 
 With tears of joy's excess my eyes were dim. 
 
 Nor conscious thought could now nor word express 
 
 The bliss through mind and sense diffused, as dwells 
 Liquid in crystal globes pure light's excess. 
 Bound and o'ermastered by th' entangling spells 
 
 I gazed, confused as he who waking hears 
 Round him the mingled chime of countless bells. 
 Then spoke my guide ; " This shrine the sequent years. 
 
 Mirror of human life, in tints distilled 
 From human hearts, tempered with human tears, 
 With men's great deeds, great hopes, great woes have 
 filled. 
 
 Till summed the perfect count by measured days 
 Determined, closed the book, the vision sealed. 
 Here dwell the royal spirits, whose view sublime 
 
 Ranged all earth's daedal scene, whose guided hand 
 Wrought in the might of life's creative prime. 
 They chiefest whom the loved Hesperian ^ land 
 
 Canopied o'er by heaven's best influence, fed 
 From breasts ambrosial, her own children band. 
 Theirs the great plain in chequered green outspread 
 
 From Alp to Adria ; theirs the vineclad home 
 Tuscan or Umbrian, and the nameless Head ^ 
 That a world's headship owned, and named it Rome. 
 
 Nor absent they, though few, from colder skies 
 Gathered with these in Art's encircling dome. 
 All these abide thy question, to thy eyes 
 
 Manifest in their works ; so rules the star 
 That on thy twilight bid such morn arise. 
 Enter ; the veil is raised, withdrawn the bar. 
 
 Decked the high hall, full flowered the mystic grove ; 
 Enter, an hour made one with those who are 
 
 Mirrors and mirrored in all-beauteous Love." 
 
 1 Italy. 
 2 The original name of Rome was regarded as a hidden mystery. 
 
CANTO XXIII 
 
 I traverse the gallery — Vision of Giotto found by Cimabue — The 
 Tuscan School appears in procession from Masaccio to 
 Michelangelo. 
 
 With flagging sails, that to th' uncertain breeze 
 
 Scarce make response, the bark to calm resigned 
 Sleeps in the shadow of lake-margined trees ; 
 Then quivering wakes, if so some brisker wind 
 
 Ruffles the darkened wave, and forward borne 
 Leaves the low shore and tethering stakes behind. 
 So at his word who from my being's morn 
 
 To fading eve had made my ways his care 
 Starting I roused me, with desire new born 
 More to behold ; with earnest eyes the square, 
 
 Now bathed, so seemed, in noontide blaze, and 
 glowing 
 With thousand hues, I questioned everywhere. 
 Like sunlit streams in liquid rainbows flowing 
 
 Glittered the galleried ranges, and between 
 From pier to pier, thin-tendrilled flowers up-growing 
 Waved in heaven's purest airs, a flickering screen ; 
 
 But lone the place, nor down the cloistered shade 
 Was living form, nor on the central green. 
 Onward we went with measured steps, nor stayed 
 
To separate wonder where the imaged skill 
 Scene after scene, form following form displayed. 
 I would have questioned oft my guide ; but still 
 
 With steadfast face intent on things before 
 From range to range he passed, nor stayed my will. 
 Then as a spring-tide mist with curtain hoar 
 
 Mantles some willowed dell, a vapour rolled 
 In upward wreaths curled through the palace floor. 
 Till sense and thought, wrapped in that heavy fold, 
 
 Awhile were blurred, as blurred a seal that shows 
 With second impress crossed th' unhardened mould. 
 Thus while I stood perplexed, before me rose 
 
 Green slopes with pasture glad, and scattered sheep, 
 White as on April hills the remnant snows. 
 'Mid flowers of those that greet the morn, and steep 
 
 Their dyes in its pure beams, the slanted dales 
 Clomb from the valley to the crowning steep. 
 " Arno's mid course thou seest, of Tuscan vales. 
 
 And all are fair, the fairest, by the walls 
 Where blooms the garden of a hundred tales. ^ 
 Even there," thus spoke my guide, " the sunlight falls 
 
 On him the shepherd lad, the pride and crown 
 Of Florence most, and Padua's cloistered walls." 
 I looked ; a boy beside, in braided gown 
 
 Stooped a thin form, as on the risen sun 
 A waning moon in earliest morn looks down. 
 " Through many orbs the changeful ages run,'' 
 
 Added my guide ; " but heaven's last gift, the art 
 That colour weds to shape, in him begun. 
 Giotto thou seest, like him of God's own heart 
 
 Chosen from the sheepfold, 'mid the monarch few 
 Who faithful found in either world have part. 
 Happy the hour that forth his footsteps drew 
 
 Who found the field-hid treasure ; happier thou. 
 Thyself the priceless pearl revealed to view." 
 ^ The Poggio Gherardi, near Florence, where the Decamerotu opens. 
 
CANTO XXIII 
 
 123 
 
 While thus he spoke, the elder Shade his brow 
 
 With gracious semblance raised, and said, "Behold 
 What to this hour succeeding years allow. 
 Linked with his name my name ; the glories told 
 
 Shall blend with his my praise, but his the more, 
 Leader and pasturer of the Tuscan fold." 
 With that he pointed where in vapour hoar 
 
 Updrawn from Arno's stream the city lay. 
 Cherished of Mars, but of Dione ^ more. 
 There without peer, as for some festal day 
 
 Rises her handmaids 'midst a maiden queen. 
 Uprose the virginal tower,^ art's Iris ray. 
 And marshalled from the opening gates were seen 
 
 In long procession stateliest forms, that moved 
 Crowned with red lilies woven with fadeless green. 
 And, " There are they by Love himself beloved," 
 
 Thus spoke my guide, "whose work through toilful pain 
 Truth guided, thought perfected, time approved." 
 Then was I ware, circling that faultless fane. 
 
 Of countless shapes, all various, as in dreams 
 Pictured successive on a slumberer's brain. 
 And some were lovelier than the fabled themes 
 
 Of old Peneus' banks or Tempe's shades ; 
 And some like spectres bred from Stygian streams. 
 But fewer these, nor much to sight displayed 
 
 'Mid those bright shapes thick as at evening close 
 The living lamps ' that throng some Indian glade. 
 White lilies strewed their path, like new-fallen snows 
 
 On Pratomagno * at morn ; and round them gleamed 
 Full-orbed the light earth dims not nor bestows. 
 As one who doubts if very fact, or dreamed 
 
 Long since what now he wakeful sees, I gazed 
 
 1 Dione, mother to Aphrodite (Iliad, v. 370). 
 
 2 Giotto's Tower, faced with coloured marbles. ^ Fire-flies. 
 * Pratomagno, part of the Apennine ridge in upper Val d'Arno 
 
 (Purg. V. 116). 
 
124 BOOK I 
 
 On one whose features not unknown I deemed. 
 But he with answering look his eyes upraised, 
 
 And said, " Thy thought I know ; long since we met 
 In days not all from memory's page erased. 
 Spirit with spirit, mind with mind, ere yet 
 
 To utterance framed thy young desires, new born 
 That hour to life ^ ; thou can'st not sure forget, 
 Hour when Masaccio's name, as on the dawn 
 
 The day-star risen, cast on thy heart the ray 
 Lightening the true to prize, the false to scorn. 
 My followers these, in whom Hesperia's day 
 
 Even to. fulfilment's noon upgathered, shone 
 Art's zodiac belt, bright clasp of life's array. 
 Thou knewest not then, but now thou know'st, and known 
 
 Art by thy kinsfolk ; look, nor lose the hour 
 That past returns not with returning sun. 
 He ^ who next me thou seest, the stainless flower 
 
 From her received, to whom high heaven assigned 
 A God for son, a riven heart for dower. 
 They too whose leaf smit by the parching wind 
 
 In tempest days breathed from the coming ill 
 Withered, but left a life-fraught seed behind, 
 Sandro,^ and Delia Porta,^ and the skill 
 
 Of Ghirlandaio, master known of him * 
 On either summit throned of Phocia's hill." ^ 
 He ceased, and onward past ; to memory's brim 
 
 My soul was filled ; with inmost longings yearned 
 My heart, with happy tears my eyes were dim. 
 Aroused I cleared my view, and next discerned 
 
 Those at whose master spell the golden years 
 Of the young earth to the first spring returned. 
 
 1 The writer first visited Florence as a child of thirteen. 
 
 2 Angelico da Fiesole. 
 
 ^ Botticelli and Fra Bartolommeo (but the author seems to have 
 meant L. Signorelli). 
 
 * Michelangelo, poet and painter. 
 ^ Parnassus. 
 
CANTO XXIIl 125 
 
 Last in the train but loftiest, three ; their peers 
 
 Out-towering, as the lesser Alps among 
 The snow-named Mount its triple crest uprears. 
 Awhile their steps they stayed, as whom the throng 
 
 Loitering, or converse brief, awhile detain. 
 Where with my guide I stood their path along. 
 Not lowlier bends, bowed down by Autumn rain 
 
 The garden's latest flower, than I my head 
 Abashed to earth declined, nor raised again, 
 Till by the voice made bold of him who led 
 
 Into all truth my steps, with lifted eyes 
 Clear I beheld what erst my vision fled. 
 But they like the great stars of midnight skies 
 
 Watchful of all, yet heedless seemed, nor aught 
 Of earthly care might to their heights arise. 
 Made lean by studious labour and deep thought 
 
 Was One,^ with eager eyes that restless gleamed 
 Ever to find, yet ever further sought. 
 And One,^ a Titan shape, by lightning seamed 
 
 Yet of the lightning lord, Climene's son ^ 
 Victor, unbound, fire-bearing, such he seemed. 
 A dew-washed rose, just opening to the sun, 
 
 A star new-risen in the pale Eastern screen, 
 A breasted swan, where waters purest run. 
 Are fair ; but fairer He * the third was seen 
 
 Who 'mid those elders went ; his boyish face 
 Upturned to heaven, more than that heaven serene. 
 Betwixt the twain austere, in youthful grace 
 
 Veiling his hidden strength, he firmly trod 
 The upward path with swift unfailing pace ; 
 Named of God's angel, he an angel god 
 
 Late stooped to earth, early recalled above ; 
 O Sanzio ! thine the form an hour that stood 
 
 By mine, presentment of the invisible Love. 
 
 1 Leonardo da Vinci. ^ Michelangelo. 
 
 5 Prometheus. * Raphael. 
 
CANTO XXIV 
 
 Raphael describes his funeral in the Pantheon, and the subsequent 
 decay of Painting — He explains the cause of this decline, the 
 result of national and social decay — Michelangelo appears — 
 The Sistine frescoes^He relates the fall and extinction of 
 Faith and Art — Only a few true artists remain ; and Art 
 abides, although its works perish — A triumph of the true 
 artists is seen. 
 
 " O THOU who yet, wrapped in the mortal veil 
 
 That grossly dims the sight, the grace hast won 
 To pass by paths unwont the spirit-pale, 
 In me behold the perfect gift to none 
 
 Before or after given, in me the doom 
 Quenching my light, as swift eclipse the sun. 
 Listen. In that famed temple-heart of Rome, 
 
 Where all the gods by all mankind revered 
 Circling have throned, wide gaped a new-made tomb ; 
 And near it one, who in death's hour appeared 
 
 Not man but angel there, could angels die. 
 Was laid, a flower by frost untimely seared. 
 But o'er that lifeless form upreared pn high, 
 
 Art's last best gift, in crowning loveliness 
 Transfigured shone the manifest Deity. 
 Smiling the face, upraised the hands to bless. 
 
 But not for earth that smile ; a god's farewell 
 
CANTO XXIV 127 
 
 "A\''as in that blessing, a lost last love's caress. 
 Then through the dome commingling with the swell 
 
 Of chaunted praise, deep sighs, and wailing pain 
 Led up the world-wide dirge of Raphael. 
 For ne'er while Spring to Winter, sun to rain 
 
 Succeeds, to darkness day, to sadness joy. 
 Shall my lost beauty visit earth again. 
 But time and vandal rage, and worse alloy 
 
 Of care ill-sorted, of each remnant left 
 The tints shall mar, the virgin grace destroy. 
 And they, the servile crew, that haunt for theft 
 
 Art's jewelled shrine, not worship, rob the meed 
 Of truth and love, of love and truth bereft. 
 Unsheaved, unstored the harvest rots ; with weed 
 
 O'er-run my garden's pride ; the Summer past 
 Sad Autumn's bhghts and wintry frosts succeed. 
 O grief of griefs ; even as my steps at last 
 
 The summit trod, even as my hand the prize 
 Grasped for its own, to void and failure cast." 
 He ceased, and all around the air with sighs 
 
 Was fraught ; and as at eve a sheeted cloud. 
 Crept a chill shade o'er those warm imageries. 
 Silent awhile I hearkened, nor allowed 
 
 Utterance to thought, such reverence tied my 
 tongue, 
 Till the strong passion framed my words aloud. 
 " O thou of painters chief, as first in song 
 
 Maeonia's bard ! ^ what spite, what doom unknown 
 Has wrought to art and thee such ruinous wrong ? 
 Why dried the living fount, the flower out-blown, 
 
 Thought's fount, art's flower ? the teeming mind, the 
 skill, 
 Heaven's light, earth's beauty, vanished all and gone ? " 
 Answered Urbino's pride ; " From heaven the ill 
 
 Comes not by thee bewept, nor starry fate, 
 ^ Homer. 
 
128 BOOK I 
 
 " Nor the sure cycles of th' eternal will, 
 But as the baser lives that darkling wait 
 
 In earth the vigorous growth of Summer's grove, 
 And in an hour destroy what years create ; 
 So even from that which fosters beauty's love 
 
 Is bred what cankers love ; and love destroyed 
 Destroys even that which erst itself could move. 
 With heaven's best gifts the sated sense is cloyed 
 
 Till heaven itself distasteful pales, and next 
 The central life is in life's heart destroyed ; 
 Nought loved, nought honoured, nought believed; 
 perplexed 
 
 The mind, -withered the heart, the fountain dry 
 Or muddy, dark, heaven's beam no more reflects. 
 Lifeless the form, mindless the imagery. 
 
 Or vilely soiled, or vain with sordid jest. 
 Nature to foulness grown, and art a lie. 
 Out-roved the day for food, to evening rest 
 
 And callow young the bird comes back, to find 
 Nought but a rifled brood, an empty nest. 
 With desolate plaint to the ever-wailing wind 
 
 All night she answering sits, till morn returns 
 Blank as the daylight dawned upon blind eyes. 
 But less her loss than his, my loss, who mourns ^ 
 
 Love's wasted nest, of beauty's manifold brood 
 Empty and void, life's roses dwined to thorns." 
 Grieving I heard, and all that multitude 
 
 Grieved to my grief responsive ; rocked the ground. 
 And the air darkened round us where we stood ; 
 Till through that haggard shade there came a sound 
 
 As of great wings; and a strange light that seemed 
 not 
 Of sun or moon or planet orbed us round. 
 In waking truth beheld, in slumber dreamed not, 
 
 1 One MS. reads, than mine, the hour that mourns : the syn- 
 tax has been here left imperfect. 
 
CANTO XXIV 129 
 
 Nor shadowy vision's mockery ; but the truth 
 Is for the truth by baser minds esteemed not. 
 So be it ; but he, the guardian of my youth, 
 
 Teacher and guide, has bid me sing the song, 
 Though unadorned the rhyme, and style uncouth. 
 For now, high rising 'mid the phantom throng 
 
 Stood forth that mighty spirit whom erst I knew 
 Archangel named, more than archangel strong. 
 Not he whose club Nemea's portent ^ slew 
 
 Could match that massive strength, nor statelier rose 
 Hyperion, noblest of the Titan crew. 
 And as from heaven's far depths in fiery shows 
 
 Flash forth fantastic lights that pass or stay 
 By Arctic seas, and Zembla's haunted snows. 
 So the vast visions ^ of mind's mightiest day, 
 
 The all-creative Power, the trumpet blast. 
 The Sibyl's spell, the Prophet's lightning ray. 
 And the dread hour that closes time in past. 
 
 Sealing o'er joy or woe th' eternal bar. 
 Half seen half lost were round that Presence cast. 
 But he as through night's fleeting clouds a star 
 
 Unmoved undimmed in steady radiance shines 
 From the still peace where things immortal are. 
 So calm so free from whatsoe'er confines 
 
 This narrow life of ours, Arezzo's boast ^ 
 Moved, as the sun goes up the belted signs. 
 Then, as at nightfall on some sea-beat coast 
 
 Heard the long breaker's roar, the accents came 
 Borne on the silence of that listening host. 
 " All that Time gives, all cunning work of fame. 
 
 All that earth girds in her many-woven zone. 
 Heaven's star-illumined vault, the central frame. 
 Shall fail with Time, a bubble-film outblown ; 
 
 ' The Nemean Lion, slain by Herakles. 
 
 2 Visions, the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. 
 
 ^ Michelangelo was born within the diocese of Arezzo. 
 
 K 
 
130 BOOK I 
 
 " How then shall man's frail toil of pictured shade 
 Duration claim when substance' self is gone ? 
 Even now from Sistine vaultings pass and fade 
 
 The hues that in one likeness God with man 
 Blended, and earth with heaven co-partner made. 
 Dim grow the angel splendours, faint and wan 
 
 Flicker the prophet-fires ; and pale to see 
 She who earth's earliest blessing wrought and ban. 
 From his blurred throne th' avenging Deity 
 
 A rayless lightning sends ; the dark despair 
 Of hell nine-circled sets its prisoners free. 
 Vanished as birds in depths of viewless air 
 
 The angel guard, th' attendant palms, the throne, 
 Vanished heaven's self, the meed of baffled prayer. 
 Blank the great mirror's face ; the semblance gone 
 
 Faith pictured there and love ; but love and faith 
 Fade not nor pass, eternal throned in One. 
 Nor time o'er these has power, nor chance, nor death. 
 
 Nor cyclic law nor starry course may claim 
 Entrance to their high realm for boon or scathe. 
 With them, clad with their splendour, crowned with fame. 
 
 Are those who on art's altar day by day 
 Have fed with faithful care Love's visible flame ; 
 Whose patient steps have kept truth's difficult way. 
 
 Shunning the Demas pitfall of base gain. 
 Nor yet by passion's fool-fires lured astray. 
 These, though their earth-wrought works with earth again 
 
 To nought return, in their own strength abide. 
 Partners and kings in Love's unending reign. 
 In him their rest, their joy, their crown, their pride. 
 
 And her, whose mirrored form they worshipped long. 
 The beauty heaven unveils. Love's proper bride." 
 He ceased ; and round him all that Tuscan throng 
 
 A jubilant answer gave ; and evermore 
 Love, beauty, truth the burden of their song. 
 And, " Ours," they sang, " the pearl of price, the store 
 
CANTO XXIV 13 J 
 
 " From eyes unworthy hid ; to us the clew 
 Is given, the pass-word taught, unbarred the door. 
 But few the heritors of our kingdom ; few 
 
 Our rough-hewn path who tread, our bliss who prove : 
 And faint Art's altar-fires, and dim to view 
 
 In Europe's mists the Bethlehem star of Love.'' 
 
CANTO XXV 
 
 A vision of Venice : her beauty and glory — Vision of the Embark- 
 ment of the expedition under Dandolo : and of the majesty of 
 Venice — Her four great artists : Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, 
 Tintoretto ; respectively representing her Beauty, Glory, 
 Wealth, and Strength ; which survive in their works — 
 Tintoretto's "Crucifixion" — The Spirit of Venice is eternal. 
 
 Rapt in the visioned joy by sound and sight 
 
 To sense presented there, I stood like one 
 Motionless struck and blind by sudden light, 
 Awhile forgetful of the task begun, 
 
 That through all secret dooms by Love upstored 
 Where time and space are not should lead me on. 
 Till he, my heaven's mid-star, my being's lord. 
 
 Whose ruddy gleam, of Southern night the gem, 
 Compassed my birth, my slackened will restored. 
 " Rouse thee," he said, " the nobler diadem 
 
 Forget not, the white throne ; the crowning flower 
 Thy journey's prize, blooms on a loftier stem ; 
 Nor all on these bestow th' allotted hour ; 
 
 For wide the further range, and more are they 
 Who wait thee where fulfilment perfects power." 
 He spoke ; I raised my eyes ; the fair array 
 
 Late seen, the Tuscan hills, the song, the glory 
 Heard or beheld, like dreams had passed away. 
 And Alpine peaks with secular winters hoary 
 
 Girt the far view, and from a waveless sea 
 
CANTO XXV 133 
 
 Rose the grey wonder of Rialto's story. 
 The hon-wings, the sea-born City, she, 
 
 Merchant and warrior Queen, the jewel set 
 First in thy forehead's crown, loved Italy ; 
 I knew the boatman's cry, the oozy net 
 
 Close by the marble rampart trailed, the sail 
 To the salt breeze 'mid dome and palace set ; 
 Then most when at roused day-break Adria's gale 
 
 Ruffles the dull lagoon, and drives the haze 
 Thwart the wan waters and the star-light pale. 
 I knew the magic fretwork on the face 
 
 Wrought of a magic lake ; the Nereid's dream 
 Outlasting age by age earth's waking days ; 
 The lion-power, whose plumes with eagle gleam 
 
 Shone from the glacier-furrowed Alps afar 
 To the hot calm of Nilus' palm-fringed stream. 
 Here when all round was darkness else, in war 
 
 Of tyrants matched with tyrants, freedom's sway 
 In peaceful wisdom shone, a constant star ; 
 Nor storms might veil nor demons quench that ray, 
 
 Though leagued with waves and tempests, and the roar 
 Of Genoa's thunder round Murano's bay.^ 
 So firm the heaven-clasped Ducal bond, that more 
 
 Than bridal ring troth-plighted linked in one, 
 Venice, thy youth with Adria's surges hoar. 
 There high in whitening skies Hesperia's sun 
 
 With splendour filled the square, and porch and dome 
 In fivefold beauty held the treasures won 
 By venturous rapt from the mis-honoured tomb 
 
 'Mid Egypt's servile hordes, and glowed the sign 
 Last sunset splendour of imperial Rome ; 
 When the long glories of the Ducal line 
 
 Centred in him ^ whose more than statesman sight 
 
 1 Venice and Genoa were at war 1298-1381. The lines may 
 refer to the fight in which Doge Andrea Contarini drove the 
 Genoese from Chioggia and saved Venice. 2 Dandolo. 
 
134 BOOK I 
 
 Scanned the decrepitude of the Byzantine. 
 In age outworn, yet vigorous in the might 
 
 Of inmost youth ; his on Ufe's tremulous verge 
 The head to counsel, and the hand to smite. 
 Marshalled before, around him, as the surge 
 
 Circles a grey rock tower, a gathered crowd 
 Of warrior chiefs their motley squadrons urge. 
 So to the destined carcass clanging loud 
 
 The trooping vultures sweep ; so swift so wide 
 Rises o'er heaven's still blue the Indian cloud. 
 Peasant and prince, the bridegroom from the bride 
 
 Sundered the morn, the sower from the sown, 
 The war-signed veteran there, the youth untried. 
 All that Venetia's clustered islets own. 
 
 All that her breezes fan, her streams infold, 
 All where her shadow slept or sunlight shone, 
 The high-born life in palace reared and gold, 
 
 The careful tradesman from his Asian wares. 
 The sturdy gondolier, the young, the old ; 
 All these were gathered on the granite stairs 
 
 Down to the Sclavon wharf ^ where, ranged before, 
 Venetia's galleys wait Byzantium's heirs. 
 Then, as on wintry eve when frost is hoar. 
 
 To the still air upsteams a vaporous cloud 
 From the home-gathering kine, their pasture o'er. 
 While answering each to each with voices loud 
 
 The herdsmen cry, and ceaseless through the stall 
 Sound the vain lowings of the horned crowd ; 
 So with a thin white mist from wall to wall 
 
 The square was filled, till lost to separate sight 
 Were chiefs and followers in that flickering pall. 
 But from th' infoldings of its nebulous light 
 
 Uprisen four mighty shapes came forth, to view 
 Like the four towers of Cairo's fortress height. 
 Of rainbow tints inwove with golden hue 
 ' Riva de' Schiavoni. 
 
CANTO XXV 135 
 
 Their garments shone, nor wholly each the same 
 Nor diverse yet, but to one kinship true. 
 There as they stood, the life, the pride, the name. 
 
 The city, the harbour, the terraqueous sway 
 Mirrored in them, one with themselves became ; 
 Till all that subject was to time's decay 
 
 From those great shapes a cast-off raiment fell. 
 And left them bare in heaven's ethereal ray. 
 And Venice self transformed, so wrought the spell. 
 
 Made one with them, into their likeness passed. 
 Time's fairest dream, by Time unchangeable. 
 Beauty with power informed the first ^ had cast 
 
 Around his form ; sun-like the second shone ; 
 Gorgeous the third ; of rugged strength the last. 
 Then spoke my guide ; " Of fourfold strands in one 
 
 Was woven the thread to Venice erst assigned 
 By that which metes the courses of the sun. 
 Whate'er of grace adorns or form or mind, 
 
 Whate'er of beauty found in plain or hill. 
 Magic of dawn, of even, of cloud, of wind, 
 Her portion all were these ; nor taint of ill 
 
 Might stain her fount of happy life, nor slime 
 Darken the marge of her clear-watered rilL 
 Hers the bright fullness of the vigorous time 
 
 When from the tomb-heaps of old Italy 
 Rose the new life, since choked in tears and crime. 
 To the strong Western breeze she lifted high 
 
 The flags of wealth and conquest, winged by fate 
 To farthest Asian shores and Eastern sky. 
 Her message these ; the pomp, the pride of state, 
 
 The golden barge, the Ducal vest, the ring. 
 The crown of power bedecked her where she sate. 
 And all that trade could grasp or victory bring, 
 
 Or artist fancy mould, or luxury crave, 
 Clothed her, as clothed with meadow-flowers the Spring. 
 1 Giorgione, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto, 
 
136 BOOK I 
 
 "But more than these the pliant strength that gave 
 
 To the fair form endurance, the hid might 
 Joyous as life, relentless as the grave. 
 So smooth, so gay the painted hide and bright 
 
 That clothes the woodland panther, but beneath 
 Th' unwearying nerves, the sinews tense for fight. 
 Queen of a thousand years, for her the wreath 
 
 Of beauty, splendour, power, on empire's brow 
 Wide as the skies above, the seas beneath. 
 Perished herself, in these she lives ; and now 
 
 Giorgione's, Titian's art, Verona's Paul, 
 And he, the dyer's son who the great woe 
 That veiled the Man-God's countenance with the pall 
 
 Of ashen twilight could pourtray,^ retain 
 What lesser powers could give not nor recall. 
 O sunset lines that fade not, but remain 
 
 A vanished sun's enduring monument 
 By the dim marge of th' Euganean plain ! 
 And Brenta's high-swollen streams in fell consent 
 
 With Adria's surge may from her islets sweep 
 Tower, palace, dome, in sandy ruin blent. 
 And o'er what once was Venice, salt and deep 
 
 The recordless waves may weave their idle play ; 
 A scroll effaced ; her doom, a dreamless sleep ; 
 But these are blazoned on th' eternal day 
 
 Of the true light that fades not, nor allows 
 Eve to its morn, or dimness to its ray. 
 Summed up the tale and told, the gilded prows 
 
 No more to victory cleave the deeps, and mourns 
 Widowed the sea-lord of his Istrian spouse. 
 Yet, Venice, lives thy spirit ; thy beacon burns 
 
 To guide and welcome where wave-wearied rove 
 O'er Time's dark sea the wandering barks, by turns 
 
 Truants and pilgrims of th' abiding Love." 
 
 1 The Crucifixion within the Scuola di San Rocco. Tintoretto 
 has painted the glory round the Lord's head in grey. 
 
CANTO XXVI 
 
 The Evening of earth is felt in the Spirit land — I see a vision of 
 a stony plain — My guide rouses me, and we are in the region 
 of Sculpture, where Michelangelo is throned as chief : last of 
 the true sculptors — He shows me those of Pagan and Classical 
 Art — Nearest him are Niccolo Pisano and Donatello — Other 
 Italian sculptors — A vision of noble Sculpture, and the faith, 
 greatness, or beauty it embodies — Classical and Christian 
 subjects — The decay of Faith and Art. 
 
 Not here, where pulse of time was not, nor change 
 
 Had power to cheat the sense with varying show 
 Of mom or eve or seasons' motley range, 
 But on that mother earth to which I owe 
 
 This little breath, for nobler promise given 
 Than man-born blame can reach or praise bestow. 
 Passed had the sunlight veil from bashful even 
 
 That now with hundred starry eyes displayed 
 Looked forth from her high throne in cloudless heaven ; 
 And all was still, save when through depths of shade 
 
 Some meteor sped, or to his distant mate 
 Called a lone night-bird from the wooded glade. 
 And I, though by Love's guiding power, with fate 
 
 Confederate, freed from time's successive chain 
 Awhile, yet felt the hour, a slumbrous weight 
 Laid on my eyes and soul, as on the brain 
 
138 BOOK I 
 
 Some opiate broods, when sleep and waking share 
 O'er the half-conscious sense divided reign ; 
 Till tower, and dome, and pictured diaper 
 
 Of wall, with the great forms to sight displayed 
 Quivered and faded as a dawn-trapped star ; 
 And in their place an open field, o'erlaid 
 
 With shivered blocks that of Carrara's grain 
 Or Paros told, our doubtful footsteps stayed : 
 For pathway here was none, but through the plain 
 
 Great lines of shattered wall, and heaps of stone 
 Confusedly thrown, of purpose void and vain. 
 "Onward," then thus my guide, "the marvels shown 
 
 Of pictured Art, with Nature's self the skill 
 Coequal made, fair beauty's perfect throne, 
 Hast thou beheld ; yet more remains, and ill 
 
 Should'st thou the portioned realm whose bounds 
 enfold 
 Art's noblest sons, lords of the lustral hill, 
 Unheeded pass ; nor any worthier hold 
 
 Than they who heaven-inspired, from brass or stone 
 Gave to invisible godhead human mould. 
 Conquerors of time their works abide ; each one 
 
 Mirror to men, though worn and part defaced. 
 Of mind on which th' eternal beauty shone. 
 Strange that the work inanimate should outlast 
 
 The hand that made it and the heart that planned. 
 And Art abide where Nature flows to waste." 
 He ceased ; I looked and saw where from the sand 
 
 Fresh springing flowers of wondrous form and hue 
 In starlike semblance spangled o'er the land. 
 And far as sight could reach the heaven's pale blue 
 
 Poured down diaphanous light, by flowers and ground 
 Upward in myriad rays returned anew. 
 Midmost the space, throned on a marble mound 
 
 Sat one ^ to sight well known ; his furrowed brow 
 1 Michelangelo. 
 
CANTO XXVI 139 
 
 Leaned on his hand, in deepest musings bound ; 
 Like him who a sought goal has reached, and now 
 
 Finds him no nearer to the purposed aim. 
 And fain would further pass, yet knows not how. 
 Last of the demigods he, in whom the name, 
 
 Mightiest of names, was Truth ; in him the scroll 
 Closed the great list of those whom earlier fame 
 Writ 'mid the gods or godlike : Round her pole 
 
 Earth circles, suns arise and set, the care 
 Of Nature weaves through parts her daedal whole ; 
 But second or like to thee, Etruria's heir. 
 
 Nor suns revolved nor seasons bring ; nor time 
 To earth relenting may that loss repair. 
 As one who journeying from far distant clime 
 
 Reverend some sacred relic guarded high 
 On the veiled shrine approaches, when the chime 
 Of the shrill-tinkling bell bids every eye 
 
 Behold, and every knee adoring bow, 
 And longs to approach, yet fears to venture nigh ; 
 So, towards that Titan form and awful brow 
 
 Half drawn by longing, half by fear repelled 
 Was I, nor dared in words my thought t' avow. 
 But that great spirit in equal balance held 
 
 'Twixt proud reserve and pitiful tenderness. 
 With beckoning hand my forward step compelled. 
 Till by his side I stood ; though steep, th' access 
 
 Gave footing firm and prospect to survey 
 The promised pageant of that last recess. 
 Before us all who to the earlier day 
 
 Of Egypt, Greece, or Rome in sculpture gave 
 Heirlooms of gladness, joy of ages ; they 
 Who from ethereal heights or violet wave 
 
 Hermes or Aphrodite called, and drew 
 Oread or Satyr from the vine-clad cave. 
 Immortal, made by mortals, in clear view 
 
 They and their works displayed, a shining band 
 
140 BOOK 
 
 To the great Master made obeisance due. 
 But chiefest two, sent from Etruria's land 
 
 Mother of noblest sons, approached the heights 
 Where Buonarotti throned ; from Pisa's strand 
 The first ^ ; as one to whom a sudden light 
 
 After long darkness shines yet dazzles not, 
 Such was his aspect, who the ugly night. 
 Of barbarous North and effete East begot. 
 
 Alone dispelled, and to fair Italy 
 Restored her beauty's heirloom long forgot. 
 Till the pure truth of Hellas' imagery 
 
 In grace recast the unsightly shapes, that erst 
 Imaged new worship to the Christian eye. 
 Second in time,^ but mightier than the first 
 
 In craft and wile, thy vigorous beauty shone. 
 Art-flower of Florence, loved Donato, nursed 
 At Nature's breast, to studious manhood grown 
 
 Perfect in skill : the Martyr's warrior grace,^ 
 And Jesse's champion son,* in brass or stone, 
 The children troops * of mimic song, the face 
 
 Furrowed with tears of penitent Magdalen,^ 
 Judah's dread matron,^ these in equal place 
 And many more beside, on earth again 
 
 'Twas thine to bring ; so well thy art assigned 
 What best in men to gods, in gods to men. 
 In these complete the list ; nor hand nor mind 
 
 Of lesser days to these can add ; the shrine 
 Closed to the pilgrim, sealed the book and signed. 
 Then spoke my brother guide; "A power divine 
 
 Was on man's earth and is not ; never more 
 Shall marble form or rainbow-tinted line 
 Their vanished gods to dying men restore ; 
 
 Shivered the heaven-lent glass ; the mirrored star 
 
 ^ Niccolo Pisano. ^ Donatello. 
 
 ^ S. George at Or San Michele. ' In the Bargello Museum. 
 
 '' In the Baptistery. " In the Loggia de' Lanzi. 
 
CANTO XXVI 141 
 
 " Is but a memory of night's cancelled store. 
 But thou with sense freed from each limiting bar 
 
 Of time and cause look up, where yet displayed 
 In their own truth to thee the things that are." 
 Reverent I heard, nor to the voice delayed 
 
 Obedience due, and saw where o'er us bent 
 A\'hat seemed a crystal dome with forms pourtrayed, 
 Infinite, as the heaven's own element 
 
 Seen through Thaumantia's ^ iridescent bow. 
 And hyaline depths with vaporous splendour blent. 
 Olympus there, and Cretan Ida's snow, 
 
 And Sinai's crags, and Thabor's mystic hill. 
 And the cool heights whence Tiber's waters flow. 
 There too the lords of fight, whom that fair ill 2 
 
 Of Greece and Troy the bane, from Hellas drew 
 To dye with hero blood Scamander's rill : 
 And there th' incarnate strength Jove-born,^ who slew 
 
 Geryon with Lerna's pest ; yet could not quell 
 The craft of Nessus ; there the Centaur crew, 
 Boast of Athene's Phidian citadel ; * 
 
 And they^ through Euxine gates, unoped before, 
 Who sought on Colchian shores the golden fell ; 
 And the famed wanderers on Aeaea's ^ shore 
 
 Awhile from fate reprieved ; but fate's decree 
 For respite given has double ills in store. 
 All these, and more besides in like degree. 
 
 And with them some by beauty garlanded 
 With fadeless praise in love's eternity ; 
 Hylas, and Hyacinthus, and the maid ' 
 
 Too well by Phoebus loved ; and whom thy wile, 
 Jealous Aurora, slew ; Euboea's glade, 
 
 1 Iris. 2 Helen. ^ Herakles. 
 
 * Sculptured in the metopes of the Parthenon. 
 
 ^ lason and the Argonauts. 
 
 8 Aeaea, a mythical island where Odysseus found Circe reigning. 
 
 ' Daphne. 
 
142 BOOK I 
 
 Procris, yet mourns thy fate ; nor less the while, 
 
 Bent o'er th' eclipse of her love-worshipped sun,^ 
 Grieves the Queen-goddess of Cythera's isle. 
 And with them shapes divine were seen, each one 
 
 In his own regioned birth-place ; there with Jove 
 Hyperion throned, and blessed Mary's Son, 
 And the fair shapes of Tempe's haunted grove 
 
 Dryads, and Oreads, and with myrtle crowned 
 She, the rapt prophet ^ of the Cuman cove, 
 Dying yet deathless ; and beside her frowned 
 
 The woe-denouncing seers of Syria's hills. 
 And some whose brows the aureole rays surround 
 Of saintdom, won from heaven through earth's worst ills, 
 
 Eremites, virgins, martyrs, and all those 
 In whom the eternal life its law fulfils. 
 From earth's vain misery brought to sure repose ; 
 
 Bearers of truth's entrusted torch, whose flame 
 Unvexed, undimmed in mist and tempest glows. 
 Still burns that god-lit fire ; but not the same 
 
 On earth its lustre ; outward form no more 
 Mirrors to man the God of uttered name. 
 Pagan or Christian ; vain the careful lore, 
 
 The transcript features vain ; soul-less and cold 
 The mimicked art that would art's truth restore. 
 Then, as I gazed, upgathering fold on fold 
 
 Floated an earth-sprung mist, around, above ; 
 Till like a landscape blurred, a tale out-told, 
 
 Vanished the pageant of incorporate Love. 
 
 1 Adonis, — the Spring, here equated with Phoebus. 
 2 The Cumaean Sibyl. 
 
CANTO XXVII 
 
 I have now beheld the first two regions, and the purgation 
 of Ambition and of Art — What remain, — earthly Love, 
 Religious belief. Science, Knowledge, Pleasure, are also states 
 of intermediate lustration : the Eternal is beyond — We are 
 now on the beach of an inland sea ; the farther shore densely 
 wooded — I make an act of absolute love and submission to 
 my Guide, who relates how he had protected me thus far 
 against the snares of Ambition, Love, and Religion — A Boat 
 appears — In it is the apparition (seen before at the barrier) 
 of earthly Love — Against his power my Guide promises help 
 — We embark. 
 
 " Because of all men present found or past, 
 
 Thou art elected by my singular grace 
 To know the thing that shall the sign outlast ; 
 Because compassionate love from my high place 
 
 Has drawn me down to thee, with thee to stand 
 Presence to presence visible, face to face ; 
 Because the limits of man's utmost strand 
 
 Thou hast outgone, borne by my power and led 
 Where time is not, nor space, nor sea, nor land ; 
 Well hast thou fared, and well thy footsteps sped 
 
 By the dim portals of the mystic West 
 Through the twin realms of those, miscalled the dead, 
 Who in themselves or art-wrought type expressed 
 
 Th' eternal Strength and Beauty ; echoes they 
 
144 BOOK I 
 
 " Of the far Truth, blest gospel of the blest. 
 Th' unerring guidance theirs, the excellent way, 
 
 Yet not the ultimate goal ; earth's weeds, earth's 
 flowers 
 Too oft their steps detained in fond delay ; 
 So to the symbol not the fact their powers 
 
 Were given, a thankless gift ; till summed in vain 
 Unguerdoned closed their life-long count of hours ; 
 Nor wholly loss their lot, nor perfect gain. 
 
 But keener joys than theirs and worse distress 
 Five-regioned to thy onward path remain. 
 Theirs first, self-bound and bondaged to the stress 
 
 Of earthly Love, whom all that lives, but most 
 Earth's best and noblest sons their lord confess. 
 Theirs next who ventured all, or gained or lost, 
 
 A doubtful cast, to follow her, the lure 
 Of souls, who in th' Eternal makes her boast. 
 These shalt thou visit, and in their lot, secure 
 
 Thyself, such power is mine, behold the doom 
 Love and Religion to thy kin procure. 
 For theirs an infinite joy, with infinite pain 
 
 Ever entwined, a fire-fount marged with snow, 
 A sunshine gleam, through drifts of icy rain. 
 These past, through further realms thy path must go 
 
 Where Science reaps its tilth ; and, near, the bloom 
 Faded or fadeless of the poet brow 
 Be thine t' appraise aright ; and last their doom 
 
 Who being's store on being's self expended, 
 Pleasure their goal in life, in death the tomb. 
 These the seven threads, or singly woven or blended 
 
 In life's recurrent loom ; broidered and spun 
 From these the robe o'er man's dull earth extended. 
 The intermediate this ; its bounds outgone. 
 
 What last awaits thy path, not mine to tell 
 Nor thine to hear, till the great Vision won." 
 As falls on springing grass light rain, so fell 
 
CANTO XXVII 145 
 
 On my glad ears these spoken words, the while 
 Entranced I lay in love's soul-quickening spell. 
 The face, my childhood's dream, the form, the smile 
 
 In feature limned and hue, the vision long 
 Desired, in part revealed, in part awhile 
 Deferred, by thought ungrasped, untold in song 
 
 Others' or mine, unveiled beside me then 
 In singular beauty shone ; no visioned throng 
 Joyous or sad, no semblanced form of men 
 
 Hero or saint was there ; vanished and gone 
 Each godlike shape, that vale's late denizen ; 
 Vanished the valley's self, the pageant flown ; 
 
 And in its place our fronted way before 
 Waveless and blue a glassy water shone. 
 In yellow sand sloped at our feet the sliore ; 
 
 But all the further bank in distance seen 
 Down to the marge a tree-fringed mantle wore. 
 Of tangled boughs inwoven and glossy green ; 
 
 As where on tideless shores the lithe Malay 
 Moors his light skiff beneath the mangrove screen ; 
 Or where the streams down-rolled from far Cathay 
 
 In Siam's gulf their waters blend, and make 
 'Twixt plumy palm and matted fern their way ; 
 A mass perplexed, even to the sinuous snake 
 
 Impenetrable ; which not the down-poured heat 
 Of noon can pierce, or slanted whirlwinds shake. 
 Then I, " Since power, nor art, nor regal seat, 
 
 Nor beauty wrought to sculptured form, may grant 
 The perfect gift, life's goal, nor guide the feet ; — 
 Faded the flowers, blighted the orchard, scant 
 
 The light to earth's great darkness ; farther lies 
 The better hope ; thou know'st, — fulfil the want ; 
 Through thee, that want's fulfilment ; in thy eyes 
 
 Mirrored the goal I seek ; thy hand the key 
 Holds to unbar my forfeit Paradise. 
 And if aught else my eyes desire to see. 
 
146 BOOK I 
 
 " My ears to hear, my thought to know, from all 
 These visioned scenes, not in themselves, but thee. 
 The answer lies ; writ on the temple wall 
 
 The letters they, mis-shaped ; but thou the book, : 
 The echoes they ; thyself Love's homeward call. " 
 As sunlight poured on flowers, with such a look 
 
 Those eyes, that heaven resumed, on mine in place 
 Responsive beamed, as pleased these words he spoke : 
 " Brother and nearest, of my kindred race 
 
 Dearer and nearer none ; as child and boy 
 Rescued by me from lesser love's disgrace, 
 From thee through manhood's years vain grief, vain joy, 
 
 The dust of life, my care removed, and kept 
 Love's gold untarnished by base earth's alloy. 
 And in the hours when toil-outwearied slept 
 
 Thy spirit in nightly rest, I sent the train 
 That o'er thy dream a warning pageant swept. 
 Else vain thy strength, thy heaven-born purpose vain. 
 
 As theirs whom now, midmost the lustral crowd 
 Shalt thou behold in self-won loss or gain." 
 He spoke, and pointed where as flits a cloud 
 
 Instinct with living fire athwart the blue 
 When Summer's height to Autumn's verge has bowed, 
 So on that watery smoothness where the view 
 
 Met the dark fringe of boughs enlaced, a boat 
 Glided, a golden streak of sunbright hue. 
 Nor oar nor outlined sail I saw, remote 
 
 Nor near, it mocked th' enquiring sight ; a gleam 
 Seen, not defined, like maiden love's first thought. 
 Then as I gazed, across the midway stream 
 
 Sudden it darted, through the liquid night 
 As darts from depths unseen a meteor beam ; 
 Till full revealed in its own quivering light 
 
 That ceaseless went and came from stem to prow 
 Even where we stood the galley paused in sight. 
 No earth-born shape was there, but in the glow 
 
CANTO XXVII 147 
 
 Of roseate gold translucent him who erst 
 In beauty lured me up the mountain brow 
 Again I knew ; again th' insatiate thirst 
 
 Of Love and Beauty thrilled me, the desire 
 Blest in pursuit, in late attainment cursed. 
 So hastes the insect's wing to withering fire ; 
 
 So leaps the cataract to its shattering fall ; 
 So sinks the meteor's flight in marsh and mire. 
 And this and more I knew, yet might not all 
 
 Resist the manifest spell ; such lustre shone 
 From that too lovely face, so strong the spell. 
 Trembling I turned me to my guide ; " Thy own 
 
 Am I, sole hope, sole guardian ; this the hour 
 Of the great venture ; thou my trust alone. 
 For perilous are the ways and dread the power 
 
 Of Love, the Lord ; nor human foot may brave 
 Unharmed the path, nor tread the sorcerer's bower.'' 
 Gently the Master smiled, " The lion's cave 
 
 The lion fearless seeks ; to guard be mine. 
 Thine to obey ; no more ; be wise, be brave.'' 
 Thus while he spoke, as some new-gilded shrine 
 
 Glitters from wall to wall, when evening's rite 
 Bids countless lamps from roof and altar shine. 
 Not less that wondrous bark with spangly light 
 
 Glittering received its freight ; then to th' expanse 
 Of the mid waters winged its self-taught flight. 
 Nor more I saw nor knew, so deep a trance 
 
 Enwrapped me, till we reached the destined grove. 
 Where dwell those noblest fools of Time's mischance 
 
 Vassals of love-born Faith, or faithless Love. 
 
BOOK II 
 
CANTO I 
 
 The Third Kingdom — Invocation to Love — We land in a wood, 
 and a cry leads us upward, when Helen of Troy flits as a 
 shadow on the path — She declares herself perfect Beauty, and 
 offers to conduct me through her vassals — My guide agrees, 
 but will accompany us unseen. 
 
 First-born of earth and heaven ; of both the Lord 
 
 O Love ! of both the outcast thou ; thy name 
 Twofold, by turns reviled, by turns adored ; 
 On thee supremest praise, on thee worst blame. 
 
 Curses and hymns alternate wait, but thou 
 Changeless abid'st, for those and these the same. 
 O'er all who live thy power, to thee they bow 
 
 Freemen or slaves alike ; on earth thy feet, 
 In heaven the splendour of thy aureoled brow. 
 Diverse thy act's effect, not thou ; as heat 
 
 Hardens to rock th' enamelled imagery. 
 But melts the frost-work fret from lawn and street. 
 Or as some long-forgotten melody, 
 
 Heard after years, awakes with equal spell 
 Pleasure or pain, as bids the memory. 
 But thou in heights of heaven or depths of hell 
 
 No change endur'st, nor by division less 
 Nor more thy power, alone, immutable. 
 All loss, all grief, all anguish, all distress 
 
152 BOOK II 
 
 Transparent in thy ray, transformed by thee 
 Honour become, and life, and happiness. 
 Where thou art not, life is not ; of the tree 
 
 Whose leaves are years, whose stem the universe. 
 Whose fruit are worlds, whose roots eternity. 
 The quickening sap thou art ; the poet's verse. 
 
 The artist's skill, the conqueror's wreath, the praise 
 That of immortal deeds is child and nurse, — 
 Sweet youth, spring breezes, summer's genial days, 
 
 The soft caress of dawn's awakening breath, 
 When briefest night, and eve till morn delays, 
 These are thy buds, thy flowers ; these weave the wreath 
 
 Round thy flushed temples bound; their beauty 
 thine ; 
 From thee they take ; parting, to thee bequeath. 
 On thee I call ; assist me, lest the line 
 
 By thee untutored fail, as failed the wing 
 Of him ^ whose fate misnamed th' Icarian brine. 
 No usual joys, no common woes I sing. 
 
 But theirs who, to thy voice obedient proved. 
 Thy choicest sweets assayed, thy keenest sting. 
 Of such was I, thou know'st it ; thine approved 
 
 In perilous days and strange, till wiser grown 
 In love, more than thy gifts thyself I loved. 
 In all that lives thou art, but most thy throne 
 
 Is in the human heart ; be. Lord, in mine. 
 Be in my voice, my verse ; through thee be known 
 The trophies of thy empire, the long line 
 
 Of those thy vassals known in weal or woe, 
 Mine to record ; the praise, the memory thine. 
 — Such words or like to these from the full flow 
 
 Of my pressed heart I spoke, when first the strand 
 Gave rest and welcome to our freighted prow. 
 And now glad on the beach we stood ; the sand 
 
 Up from the margin sloped ; in front a wood 
 
 ' Icarus, who fell into the south-east part of the Aegaean Sea. 
 
CANTO I I S3 
 
 Made narrow free-way to the new-trod land. 
 Doubtful awhile which way to turn we stood, 
 
 Of guidance fain ; but voice nor movement showed 
 ■ Save the quick glances of the rippling flood ; 
 Not long, till near us on the left I heard, 
 
 As when through the hushed depths of stillest noon 
 Calls on her roving mate some nested bird. 
 Or thrush, or pleasant oriole ; clear the tone 
 
 Came on the listening ear ; we looked, but shape 
 Of sentient life or guiding will was none. 
 So to that cry we turned us, where a cape 
 
 Thrust forth a pebbly ridge ; and through the heap 
 Seawards a little streamlet found escape : 
 And such a narrow path as mountain sheep 
 
 May fray through briar and bush, beside the rill 
 Made covert opening up the woodland steep. 
 A torrent bed the way, stone-piled ; and still 
 
 Vaulted with densest copse, and faint the gleam 
 Of day, though high the noon on plain and hill. 
 But here through th' interlacing boughs no beam 
 
 Could pierce direct or slant ; and scarce the tread 
 Darkling might choose 'twixt slippery ledge and stream. 
 Then gradual, step by step, the path outspread 
 
 Broader and easier grown ; and the blue sky 
 Patched with glad light the greenwood overhead. 
 Then, as in new-found freedom roved my eye. 
 
 Something I saw that oft our pathway crossed 
 Like mirrored light, flashed on the passers-by ; 
 Vaporous at first in outline, as a ghost 
 
 That has outstayed its term ; then clearer drawn 
 In human form distinct it showed ; then lost 
 Or doubtful : So, new venturing on the lawn 
 
 From birth-place coverts, courts yet shuns caress 
 Proffered by beckoning hands a wanton fawn. 
 But this was beauty's self, nor words express 
 
 Nor thought may image forth, though memory's aid 
 
154 BOOK II 
 
 Be summoned all, that perfect loveliness. 
 A sexless shape at first it seemed, arrayed 
 
 In its own roseate light ; a double grace 
 Female, or male, or both, its limbs displayed ; 
 Then all to woman grew, till last the face. 
 
 Earth's wonder, pride of Hellas,^ bane of Troy, 
 Avowed the god-born flower of Leda's race. 
 Untold I knew that form, th' incarnate joy 
 
 Of full-flushed Venus, knew the fateful charm 
 That wrought fierce madness in th' Idaean boy ; 
 Whence Ilium mourned in ruin ; yet could disarm 
 
 The wrath of injured Greece, th' avenging blow ; 
 Such, beauty's love-lent power to heal or harm. 
 Then with a voice sweeter than music's flow 
 
 When oared with mirth and song by Como's walls 
 In their gay bark the revellers glide and go, 
 She spoke ; " From Sparta's coasts to Ilion's halls 
 
 Fated I came, of Love and Death the Queen ; 
 Two worlds my footstool, and their kings my thralls. 
 For mine all beauty ; mine the grace serene 
 
 Beauty's best bloom ; the brightness that outshines 
 Whate'er of else is, shall be, or has been. 
 The net that draws, the chain that all entwines. 
 
 My birthright these ; to the world's end my name 
 Writ 'mid the splendours of heaven's burning signs. 
 Nor false nor traitress I : no slanderous shame 
 
 My pure perfection mars ; if aught there were 
 Blameful, on men's surmise, not me, the blame. 
 From sweetest flowers the wizard's envious care 
 
 The deadliest draughts distils ; the crystal glass 
 Stainless itself, reflects or foul or fair. 
 Times change to what they were not ; ages pass. 
 
 But sovereign beauty all to her decree 
 Draws, as the loadstone draws the magnet's mass." 
 A space she paused ; then smiling -, " Would'st thou see 
 1 Helen. 
 
CANTO I 155 
 
 " My vassals ? count their ranks ? — though easier far 
 Numbered the wind-driven ridges of the sea, 
 When raves November's storm on Istria's bar ; ^ 
 
 Or when still frosty nights have bared the skies, 
 To count and reckon each particular star. 
 Thou wilt ; I read thy answer in thy eyes, 
 
 Though mute thy speech ; for this the trusty guide 
 Led thee by visioned scenes and form's disguise. 
 By him, by me, be led ; — my steps beside 
 
 Secure shalt thou the manifold snares explore 
 In love's mid pathway spread, by few descried, 
 By fewer scaped : — and first their doom deplore 
 
 Who reckless grasp the thorn-surrounded rose. 
 Too late with tears bedropped, besprent with gore. 
 Next, with like fate, unlike deservings, those 
 
 Who twined with poisonous growths of fraud and 
 wrong 
 Love's flowers, till withered both in deathly close. 
 Nor absent they through miry ways and long 
 
 Love's pilgrims stainless found ; the faithful few 
 True to the end th' unfaithful herd among. 
 Happy their lot ! less happy those, the crew 
 
 By evil dreams beguiled, the partners made 
 Of powers unblest, to Love's great laws untrue. 
 And others there whom fate's untimely shade 
 
 Caught and oppressed ere noon ; guilty they died 
 Or guiltless, one their portion ; some betrayed, 
 Betrayers some ; nor wanting there who cried 
 
 All lost for Love, well lost : and some Love's dower 
 Bartered, ill choice, for gain or easeful pride. 
 All these and many more confessed the power 
 
 Of beauty seen or fancied ; for the eye 
 Full oft is pander to th' illusive hour." 
 She spoke ; her suasive words, the witchery 
 
 Of her sweet smile, captive detained me there, 
 1 Mouth of the Danube (?) or, an Adriatic seaport (?) 
 
156 BOOK II 
 
 Bound to assent, yet doubtful of reply. 
 
 Till he, my guide, of my heart's thought aware 
 
 Thus answer made ; " Helen, the portal key 
 Of this thick-peopled realm, th' apportioned share 
 Of earthly love on earth made void, to thee 
 
 He gave whose gifts abide ; to lead be thine, 
 To follow ours, so wills the high decree. 
 Thou too, my brother, demur not, nor repine 
 
 Her voice awhile t' obey ; the passion known 
 Earthly, demands a guide of earthly line. 
 A stranger I not citizen here ; my throne 
 
 Of other ore compact ; but she the queen 
 Till the full tale complete, the term outgone. 
 Yet present I, though hid ; the stars serene 
 
 By day as night shine on ; unchecked their rays 
 Pour their strong influence through the noontide screen : 
 Till past the utmost bound, the circling maze 
 
 Woven by the human sense, the human heart, 
 Again we tread the spirit's kindred ways ; 
 In show, not truth, dissociate ; thus we part 
 
 A little space ; the while be thine to rove 
 With her thy guide, best skilled the love t' impart 
 
 In wise unwisdom hid, the love of Love." 
 
CANTO II 
 
 The cry heard before summons us to the guarded grove — Here first 
 are those who have loved in vain — Here is seen Dido : Cepha- 
 lus lamenting Procris, and one of Amalfi with his drowned 
 Love. 
 
 The child who from his mother's customed smile 
 
 And birthplace-home forth sent to lodgment new 
 And guardians strange, each voice each face awhile 
 Distrustful hears and sees ; and oft his view 
 
 Around him sidelong throws, if chance to find 
 Aught that recalls the known, the trusted few. 
 His childhood's friends ; so I with doubtful mind. 
 
 Reft of that loved companionship till now 
 Inseparate, followed my new guide assigned. 
 With little toil we gained the ridgy brow 
 
 Whence, like Ligurian fields from Lombard towers 
 Beheld, a level plain spread far below. 
 And hedgerow lines inwove with budding flowers 
 
 Such as Spring loves, enmeshed with curious maze 
 Meadows, and lawns, and sun-illumined bowers. 
 And, " Here the appointed mansion, here delays," 
 
 So spoke the Ledan Queen, " their term whom love 
 Twined in the labjrrinth fold of passionate days." 
 Not yet her words had ceased when clear above 
 
 Outrang the note first by the sea-beach heard. 
 Guide to the entrance of that guarded grove. 
 
Ijg BOOK II 
 
 Upward I looked, for there what seemed a bird 
 
 Bright-eyed, with jewelled plume, and beak of gold. 
 Hovered our heads above ; the warm air stirred 
 By the ever-quivering wings fluttered the fold 
 
 Of the light robe that girt dame Helen's breast, 
 And waved the ringlet o'er those ivories rolled. 
 " Here," thus again the note was loud, " the rest 
 
 Of love's outwearied pilgrims ; here at even 
 Is of each mateless bird the folding nest. 
 Of love in death made perfect this the heaven. 
 
 Of blood for tears poured forth this the reward. 
 Of life for love resigned the guerdon given." 
 Thus while it sung down the green slant of sward 
 
 My steps with secret force were drawn, till soon 
 I reached the wild-briar hedge, and circling guard. 
 With every flower that opes to sunniest June 
 
 Thick-set the ground ; the rose, the jasmine there. 
 The flaunted rival of the day-star's noon. 
 Tall lilies, close-set hyacinths, pansies fair. 
 
 And fairer yet, the flower by nymphs beloved,^ 
 Beautiful child of beauty's self-despair. 
 O'er these and countless more my vision roved 
 
 Pleased, yet amazed ; for each of crimson hue, 
 Whate'er its form, to the light breezes moved. 
 Not other shows some landscape to the view 
 
 Through tinted glass, where in one ruddy stain 
 Is blent the forest green, the skiey blue. 
 The while my gentle guide and courteous, fain 
 
 My doubt to solve, thus spoke ; " Thy wonderment 
 Easy solution finds and answer plain. 
 They whose dear loves on earth untimely shent ^ 
 
 Were quenched in blood by self or foemen shed. 
 Have this their realm with mimick hue besprent." 
 
 1 The hyacinth, sprung from the blood of a youth loved by 
 Apollo. 
 
 2 Properly, shamed : used here apparently for ruined. 
 
CANTO II IJ9 
 
 Thus she ; but ere in answering guise my head 
 I turned, even now a form ^ of witching grace 
 And queenly bearing sad and measured tread 
 Before us passed ; again I looked, that face 
 
 Eager to scan, but nought was there to tell 
 Who, or how brought to th' immemorial place. 
 " Myself thou know'st not yet ; but all too well 
 
 My tale thou know'st," thus spoke that royal form, 
 " Blazed in Love's loftiest heaven. Love's saddest hell. 
 ^Vhat time by Venus roused the ill-purposed storm 
 Me with Troy's perjured chief to that dark cave 
 Drove where the fateful hours of shame deform 
 The seal affixed, and from a husband's grave 
 
 Roused up the vengeful ghost, no more to rest 
 Till sunk Troy's Rome, a Punic Vandal's slave.^ 
 Here, here," she cried, and bared her riven breast, 
 
 " The double fount ; not redder though more wide 
 Is Phlegethon's stream ; rest, wronged Sichaeus, rest." 
 No more she spoke, but past ; silent my guide 
 
 Smiled as in pitying scorn ; but I for grief 
 Wept, and love's due by fate to love denied. 
 Nor less perplexed why of earth's good the chief 
 
 Earth's cruellest ill should prove, and why withheld 
 From life's worst wrongs save through worse wrongs 
 
 reKef 
 And why to opposite act by fate compelled 
 
 Duty and love ; and what the one confers 
 Is by the other in hostile guise repelled. 
 
 The lawn is now close embowered with trees of crimson 
 blossom. Here lies Procris, dying in the arms of 
 Cephalus. We now reach a lake, lovely even as 
 those of Italy. A wretched old man, unnamed, is 
 seen ; he is of Amalfi ; was visited in his island 
 dwelling by his Love, who, drowned by her 
 brother's treachery, is now held in his arms. 
 
 1 Dido. ^ Sack of Rome by the Vandals. 
 
CANTO III 
 
 In a fiery vision Love himself appears — Innumerable martyrs of 
 passion go by in a mighty train — A youth invites me to 
 remain and learn the history of Love's pilgrims. 
 
 Helen assures me of the vast number of Love's de- 
 votees : a sudden glare as of fire breaks forth : 
 Helen vanishes, and Love is seen in his despotic 
 splendour : The air round him is stirred by the 
 invisible presence of multitudinous life. Then the 
 vision passes, 
 
 and loud and clear 
 Came voices, songs of death virith victory crowned. 
 Whilst from the further lawn approaching near 
 
 Such crowds as some great city's festal day 
 Might send afield to greet the springtide year, 
 With chaunt and garlands wreathed and vestments gay, 
 
 So was the throng that o'er the limitless plain 
 In broad procession trod the flower-paved way. 
 'Twixt joy and .sadness held, a seemly train 
 
 They passed in sight, and on each face displayed 
 Was calm assurance sealed o'er inward pain. 
 A flaming heart enwoven with crimson braid 
 
 Each vestment bore, of other symbol bare. 
 And round each head a roseate halo played : 
 Not ruddier gleam through winter's frosted air 
 
CANTO III l6i 
 
 Low skirting suns at even : with this the red 
 Clothed on the love-bird's breast might ill compare. 
 Thus, yet not wholly thus, their radiance shed 
 
 Those crimson gleams that from Love's riven breast 
 Forth issuing, orbed in light each martyr head. 
 Not theirs the satiate calm, the perfect rest, 
 
 Though passed the barrier gate, — as birds in flight / 
 Scaped the hawk's chase, nor yet the sheltering nest 
 Attained, though near ; on circling pinions light 
 
 Poising they float, nor fold the outstretched wing 
 Awhile, nor beat the air ; — so these to sight 
 Nor restful all nor restless ; but the sting 
 
 Of memory rankles yet, nor absolute joy 
 Nor pain to these the lustral ages bring. 
 And passionate hope remains, and past annoy 
 
 Yet unforgot, and the death-purchased pleasure 
 They reached, yet might not what they reached enjoy ; 
 Till paid strong passion's debt, fulfilled the measure 
 
 By justest laws ordained for those who served 
 In part their own, part the high Master's pleasure. 
 So from the perfect path aside they swerved. 
 
 Nor the full goal attained, till death that erred not 
 Atonement made, or from worse ill preserved. 
 And some to life's true worth life's self preferred not. 
 
 But ventured all for all, the narrower bar 
 Of self o'erleapt, the siren voices heard not. 
 By this, the rose-paved valley near and far 
 
 Was dense with martyr forms, yet each from each 
 Distinct, as flower from flower or star from star. 
 And all I knew, nor aught their tale to teach 
 
 Was needed there ; present to me the past 
 Embodied stood, far as past ages reach. 
 Up to the vision-gifted morn, when cast 
 
 My. lot an hour with theirs ; their joys I knew, 
 Their pangs, their hopes, their doom, their first, their 
 last. 
 
l62 BOOK II 
 
 Till, as with morn's first gleam the thick-fallen dew 
 
 Weeps day's disclosure near, so filled my eyes 
 With tears at the world's wrong made clear in view. 
 
 Helen again appears : the crowd of Love's martyrs 
 pass into calm, whilst she names them. A youth 
 speaks : 
 
 " Whom here thou seest," to me 
 Such were his words, " in chronicled prose or rhyme 
 Emblazoned, or to later memory 
 
 Unknown, unwrit, unsung, yet all are they 
 Who loyal sealed in blood Love's sovereignty. 
 But thou, whoe'er thou art, who earth's pale day 
 
 Again shalt view returning, whence in truth 
 Few have returned or none, a difficult way. 
 Here bide awhile, and learn what deeds of ruth. 
 
 What darings high, what tenderest longings led 
 From the vain show to where the eternal Sooth ^ 
 Begins its reign, not perfects ; farther shed 
 
 As on low hills the silvery dawn, above 
 Is the sought goal for Love's true pilgrims, led 
 
 Through change and death, to deathless, changeless 
 Love." 
 
 1 Sooth, Truth. 
 
CANTO IV 
 
 The youth leads me where are Guinevere, Orpheus, and others ; 
 followed by more heroic forms, headed by Mark Antony — I 
 ask for Cleopatra, and leam that she with other sinners is 
 undergoing lustral penance elsewhere — I see Imelda and 
 Bonifazio. 
 
 As who 'mid galleried domes, a nation's store 
 
 Of form eterne in stone or pictured grace 
 Wanders, intent on art's successive lore, 
 And entering finds apart in special place 
 
 The work of earliest years, when unripe skill 
 What the mind saw gave not the hand to trace, — 
 And these beyond, the mightier ones who fill 
 
 With perfect art bodied from perfect thought 
 The loftiest summit of the Aeonian hill, — 
 Enwrapt he gazes, till the wonders sought 
 
 O'ermaster sense ; and for delight mere awe 
 Remains, and dread by present godhead wrought ; 
 Even so was I when gathered there I saw 
 
 Love's hero-martyrs, each a priceless gem 
 In the great Crown set by eternal law. 
 Mightiest of Lords, on thee ; for thou to them 
 
 Art paramount right and wrong; and thou and 
 they 
 Are each to each guerdon and diadem. 
 
l64 BOOK II 
 
 I see that the youth, my present guide, bears signs of 
 violent death. 
 
 Low was his voice yet clear; "The foremost place 
 
 Of those thou seest," he said, "to her^ belongs 
 Who wrought for Britain's peers disastrous days, 
 By Camelot's guilty court, and Arthur's wrongs : 
 
 And close beside in Thracian guise the lord ^ 
 Of beasts and men, such kingship crowned his songs. 
 Himself the slave of love ; the powers abhorred 
 
 Of hell's dark caves he dared, to break the chain 
 Of her long sought, late found, in vain restored. 
 Next following hand in hand thou seest the twain ^ 
 
 Who found by Ninus' tomb their own ; the fate 
 That dyed th' o'erbranching fruit with purple stain. 
 And linked in lot with these,* though by far date 
 
 Sundered, the pair whom towered Verona mourns, 
 Dear offerings on the altar-fires of hate. 
 Proud Capulet's feud and Moneschalchi's scorns : — 
 
 But from that death was life ; so 'mid their peers 
 Brightest on them th' eternal splendour dawns. 
 O but for these and like to these the years 
 
 Were rayless all and dim ! through these alone 
 Is earth commensurate with the heavenly spheres. 
 A sunless sky, a featureless mask of bone, 
 
 A withered tree, nor bark nor foliage there, 
 Were else thy meed, O little world and lone." 
 Next, following these, a band I saw more fair 
 
 Than fresh-blown flowers in grass and hedge ; the 
 smile 
 Of wakening fields roused by the springtide air. 
 There the lost victim of the Naiads' guile, 
 
 Hylas, and whom the Syrian stream in blood 
 Yearly records ; * from old Trinacria's isle 
 
 '■ Guinevere. ^ Orpheus. 
 
 * Pyramus and Thisbe. * Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 ° Thammuz-Adonis. 
 
CANTO IV 
 
 i6s 
 
 To Britain's mist-veiled coasts and Avon's flood ^ 
 Song-famed Adonis ; and the leaf-traced word 
 
 Of self-upbraiding grief, thy passionate mood 
 
 Helios, of light and life all-powerful lord. 
 
 But powerless whom thou lovedst ^ from envious night 
 
 To save, the loved one's death thy love's reward. 
 
 All these my happy eyes with such delight 
 As his who first on Eden gazed, surveyed, 
 
 Now perfect made by death in deathless light. 
 
 Love's greater warriors now appear ; more glowing, but 
 sterner and some more aged than those before seen — 
 Mark Antony leads them — I ask where is Cleopatra ? 
 The youth answers, 
 
 " Where dateless years of gloom efface 
 
 The life misused, 'mid the dark groves thy path 
 Hitherward crossed, she finds her lustral place. 
 There all whom angered love's avenging wrath 
 
 Has doomed to second death, the punishment 
 Of wasted life, dark crime, and violate faith. 
 With her Mycaenae's queen,* and th' other sent 
 
 Death-gift to France from death-stricken Italy, 
 Catharine,* red star of slaughter's firmament. 
 But not on these be now thy thought, nor I 
 
 Would such in memory bear ; to each his part. 
 And other mine, and sure." Then from the sky 
 Such radiance round us shone, that all my heart 
 
 With joy was filled, and constant faith that fails not, 
 Though present help be none, and hope depart. 
 And closed the iron net, and strength avails not 
 
 The prisoned life to free ; the pain that seals 
 
 1 Alludes to Shakespeare's early Venus atid Adonis, and to Para 
 disc Lost, i. 446. 
 
 2 Hyacinthus, cf. C. ii. 41. ^ Clytemnestra. 
 * Catharine de' Medici. 
 
l66 BOOK II 
 
 Love's ratified bond he knows, and knowing quails not. 
 Then as the doubtful ray that first reveals 
 
 Through cloudy bars where evening's starry Queen 
 Guides to the Western marge her downward wheels, 
 A form of maiden beauty, lovelier seen 
 
 Than she of Ida's guests the loveliest, stood 
 First dim, then clear defined those shapes between. 
 Loose her ungirded robe and loose the snood 
 
 Dropped from her ebon hair ; unsandalled shone 
 Her ivory feet, but stained with bruise and blood. 
 But she on him she loved intent alone 
 
 Of all beside regardless showed, secure 
 Him her sole lord, come life, come death, to own. 
 On her his eyes were bent ; one radiance pure 
 
 Encircling wrapped them round ; of others told 
 Not even remembrance might in count endure. 
 I saw and knew the twain in stories old, 
 
 The chronicled love, the ambushed hate, the knife, 
 Th' envenomed wound, the kiss by love made bold 
 In poison's deadliest spite ; till herited strife 
 
 Found in their grave its tomb ; and love's despair 
 To sad Bologna concord gave and life. 
 Imelda ! Bonifazio ! ^ loveliest pair 
 
 And best of loved Hesperia ; who the tale 
 Knows not ? who owns not in their woes a share ? 
 
 The lovers breathe their tale into my heart — The 
 treacherous wounds . which murdered him — Her 
 faithfulness through violence and poison. 
 
 Then as dark copse, dull plain, and heath-brown hill 
 
 By sudden sunUght touched, in green and gold 
 To beauty turn, so to th' all-healing Will 
 Responsive flashed a ray that fold on fold 
 
 1 Unidentified, after a seavcli through the contents of several 
 hundred Nacelle. 
 
i67 
 
 Infinite depths revealed of happiness 
 By mortal eyes unseen, to ears untold. 
 And all earth knows of joy to this was less 
 
 Than to an Alp a sand-grain ; all delight 
 With this compared were pain, all bliss distress. 
 And more I saw but tell not, lest the sight, 
 
 Like the rash huntsman's of Cyllene's grove,^ 
 Be to th' unworthy blindness ; veiled in light 
 
 Thou with thy hid ones dwell'st, triumphant Love. 
 
 1 Teiiesias, blinded for an indiscreet glance at Athena. 
 
CANTO V 
 
 Memories of English scenery and of youtli return — Earthly Love 
 now appears as my leader ; he enumerates various classes of 
 his subjects, until for a space I fall under his influence — My 
 true Guide resumes his sway, the other paying him homage — 
 A mystical vision, wherein Love and I are blended in my 
 Guide — As a central Form, Eternal Love is now seen, in whom 
 all lives are ultimately absorbed. 
 
 Meadows, my childhood's Eden ! hedge-row flowers 
 
 Costlier esteemed than gems ! green copse and tree 
 Shelter and dream-land of my noontide hours, 
 What breadths of various land, what wastes of sea 
 
 Have from my present sundered yours ! and how 
 After long absence would your greeting be ! 
 Better apart abide ; in memory's Now 
 
 Remains unchanged the self of things ; her art 
 O'er your wan semblance spreads youth's golden glow. 
 But ah ! the life that in those scenes had part. 
 
 The form, the voice, the clasping hand, the smile, 
 The warmth, the answering beat of heart to heart. 
 Memory ! canst thou restore ; dead things awhile 
 
 Canst thou re-clothe in freshness ? and to Spring 
 Winter's lone frost, hoar age to youth beguile ? 
 Not thus, though great thy power ; the years that bring. 
 
 Take what they brought, and more ; the swallows' flight 
 
CANTO V 169 
 
 Speeds their departing, spreads no homeward wing. 
 Such thoughts were mine when passed, effaced in light 
 
 Those loveliest forms and fairest, and alone 
 I stood, like one by sight deprived of sight, 
 Darkhng awhile, till slow returning shone 
 
 On my dazed eyes the daylight dawned anew 
 As on a traveller in a land unknown. 
 Peaceful before me lay outstretched in view 
 
 A garden trim with flowers, the Northern clime 
 Such as attest in varied scent and hue ; 
 And tufts of greenest grass inwoven with thyme 
 
 And hollows cowslip-marged, and clematis hoar 
 On mossy banks, fair England's village pride, — 
 Not given to other lands, though vaunted more 
 
 In flower or fruit, forest or field, and clad 
 With all the sun-traced zone's perennial store. 
 Dear land, dear fields, dear flowers, to me, though sad 
 
 With memories of far years, when dawning life 
 Was dawning love, now dim with tears, now glad 
 With joys half real, half fancied, peace with strife 
 
 Alternate, strength with weakness, so the hours 
 Unreckoned passed, with squandered offerings rife. 
 
 Earthly Love now stands by me, disguised as a pilgrim, 
 and looks on me with blame but more pity — He 
 tells me I am no longer his servant, and then 
 describes the varying nature and . fortune of his 
 slave-warriors ; each according to his deeds and 
 sufferings has fit award. 
 
 " And it and they are mine, in me begun. 
 Ended in me, since the first Eastern team 
 
 Gave to a tenantless earth a new-orbed sun. 
 
 Till like a tale rehearsed, a morning dream 
 From memory rased, the separate drops of life 
 
 Merge in the fullness of my widening stream. 
 
170 BOOK 11 
 
 " And lover, loved, friend, brother, sister, wife, 
 All names, all forms of love, in me have rest 
 From a world's wrong, and vain opinion's strife." 
 
 The charm of sensuous law, the unrest of mortal love 
 and hate, fall on me for a moment. 
 
 Then broke self-snapped the spell ; to wakening mind 
 
 Restored around I gazed, in manlier plight. 
 On those first aims intent, as a brisk wind 
 Scatters a marsh-born fog ; for there in sight 
 
 Stood my true Guide, long absent ; calm but stern 
 His look, as steadfast burns the watch-tower's light 
 That warns of danger nigh, when seethe and churn 
 
 O'er the jagged rocks the waves ; so, 'mid the shade 
 Of that dim realm his face might I discern. 
 
 Before him pales Earthly Love, who gives me over to 
 the true Guide — In him Love and I are now both 
 merged in a mystical trance and vision. 
 
 As wax by wax impressed fresh imagery 
 
 Holds and retains, so to Thy likeness grew 
 Whate'er was love's in love, or mine in me, 
 
 Whilst thus blended in one pure light, as chords in one 
 strain of music. 
 
 As he, the God-loved man who, bowed and grey. 
 By Patmos' low-reefed shore beheld where stood 
 
 An angel shape midmost the orb of day. 
 
 So 'mid the life-giving splendours of the flood 
 That wrapped us round, central a Form I saw 
 
 That to itself all form, all life, subdued. 
 
 Or mine or theirs, linked in eternal law 
 
CANTO V 171 
 
 Life's love, eternity's love ; and all beside 
 As one vast circle to this centre draw. 
 Here stayed the vision's range, as stays the tide 
 
 By its own weight restrained ; more to behold 
 Had blindness wrought, or memory's act denied. 
 And thou, my friend, to whom the tale is told, 
 ■ Enquire not now for more ; content to know 
 How Love, — though years be young or years be old, 
 In starry heights, or air, or earth below. 
 
 And countless lives and countless selves that aye 
 Like sparks from the great furnace pass and go, — 
 One with itself, with these abides, its ray 
 
 Alike on dale or hill ; true guidance set 
 To the sure goal, though chance the path astray. 
 If more thou know'st be wary, nor forget 
 
 Him, the rash searcher of Cithaeron's grove ^ 
 Made wise too late for pardon ; folded yet 
 
 The doors, forbid the inmost shrine of Love. 
 1 Actaeon. 
 
CANTO VI 
 
 As I waken from the swoon that follows the vision, Venus appears 
 — She speaks ; but a chill wind withers her beauty — I find 
 myself in a dark wood, where Tannhauser sits — We speak 
 together, till a cry is heard ; he answers it, and offers to tell 
 me his tale of despair. 
 
 The hour that least of shade, of stillness most 
 
 Allots, now halved the dial, nor yet the day 
 'Twixt East and West his medial line had crost, 
 When phantom shapes of power, so stories say, 
 
 And sounds articulate heard, though spokesman there 
 Be none, by copse or lone hill-side dismay ; 
 Then chief when earth poised 'twixt the DeUan pair ^ 
 
 In doubtful balance hangs, and neutral held 
 Lies to her spirit lords passive and bare. 
 But I whose sight by the great vision quelled 
 
 Awhile had passed to darkness, as in death 
 Abode, from th' outer sense of things repelled. 
 Then from the blackness of some chasm beneath 
 
 As earth-born vapours rise, upgathering slow 
 To definite shapes, then loose the woven wreath. 
 Again they come, again they pass and go. 
 
 Till shaped in steady likeness they pourtray 
 The secrets questioned of the gulf below : — 
 1 Apollo and Artemis. 
 
CANTO VI 173 
 
 Even so from that deep slumber, of the clay 
 
 That clogged me yet the due, a flickering gleam 
 Of things half shaped half shapeless found its way. 
 Then from the mass confused, so showed my dream, 
 
 A perfect form attuned to perfect grace 
 Dawned, as on night's drear rack the daystar's beam. 
 A woman's form it seemed, a woman's face, 
 
 But both divine, as from the Aegaean spray 
 Goddess and queen, she of the Titan race 
 Uprose the last, the fairest ; long her sway 
 
 O'er earth, as Jove's o'er heaven, supreme confessed. 
 Till paled to Bethlehem's star the Hellene ray. 
 And, " I am she," such were her words expressed 
 
 By sounds more sweet than harp or lyre, " who long 
 Throned in each mortal, each immortal breast. 
 All joys, all passions, all dehghts that throng 
 
 Life's ever-varying path from youth to age. 
 By me are given, to me of right belong. 
 Blank and unlovely without me the page 
 
 Of earth's recorded day ; the living springs 
 Are mine alone that man's great thirst assuage. 
 And high and low, priests, warriors, statesmen, kings. 
 
 The churl who tills the ground, the lord who owns, 
 And he who weeps, and he who joys and sings 
 To me attune their chaunts, to me their moans. 
 
 Who knows not me nought worthful knows, or has. 
 Though crowned with all earth's crowns, throned on all 
 
 thrones." 
 As birds in summer boughs oi* streams in grass 
 
 Sweet melody make nor cease, so to my ear 
 Her words, nor might the notes from memory pass. 
 Nor unobeyed the call ; till sudden fear 
 
 Fell on me while I listening stood ; for there 
 Like the chill breath that speaks the iceberg near 
 To the ill-destined ship, in numb despair 
 
 The seamen bide their fate, as onward borne 
 
174 BOOK II 
 
 Through the dense mist to frozen death they fare, 
 Even such a chill, so icy, so forlorn, 
 
 'Twixt her and me was breathed; but whence the 
 blast 
 I knew not, cold as death and keen as scorn. 
 O'er that fair face, those godlike limbs it passed. 
 
 To furrowed age upwithering all ; a sight 
 That with mere horror made love's self aghast, 
 And passion changed to loathing ; with affright 
 
 Mingling, till broke my dream, though yet my thought 
 Flickered, like eyes confused with changing light. 
 Upstarting round I gazed, but vainly sought 
 
 What might assurance bring, for all around 
 Was strange and new to sight and hearing wrought. 
 Grey rocks on either side, and damp the ground 
 
 Beneath with a hid stream, and high before 
 Uprose a mount with serried pine-trees crowned. 
 With thick-fallen leaves and matted grass the floor 
 
 Was dense, and dense above th' o'er-branching grove 
 Hemmed in by crags half-seen and precipice hoar. 
 Nor beam of noontide sun nor stars above 
 
 Might pierce that close-laced veil of sullen green 
 By the tall trees in wildered foliage wove. 
 Such the dark dell where plucked the Colchian Queen ' 
 
 Herbs better left unsought ; in such a glade 
 Outwears the Cambrian seer his spell-bound teen.^ 
 But other likeness his whom here in shade 
 
 Of the sad copse with his own gloom combined 
 Pensive I saw, in knightly garb arrayed. 
 Bowed on his knees his low-drooped head reclined ; 
 
 Hid was his face ; but grief, most to despair 
 Akin, no less on every limb was signed. 
 " Or man, or spirit, or phantom-shape, whate'er 
 
 Thou sitt'st, the guardian of this loneliness, 
 If outward semblance right thy state declare ; 
 1 Medea. 2 Merlin. 
 
CANTO VI 175 
 
 " Whose portion, say, this region ? what access 
 
 Leads up the mountain barrier? by what name 
 Thee shall I call ? how soothe thy grief's excess ? " 
 Thus I ; but he like one made mute by shame 
 
 Remained, or imaged rock that bides unmoved 
 The passer's questioning glance, itself the same. 
 Again I spoke : " By all in memory proved 
 
 Life's best or worst allotment, by whate'er 
 Most thou hast mourned, most cherished, dearest loved, 
 Scorn not my words, but answer ; heaviest care 
 
 Is lighter made by speech ; the spirit's load 
 That single strength o'erburdens two may share." 
 " How to these depths thou cam'st, or who the road 
 
 Gave to thy "feet I know not; " so the form 
 Replied, nor raised his head, nor look bestowed : 
 " But if as sounds thy voice the life-blood warm 
 
 Yet fills thy veins, be warned in time, as those 
 Who in dark skies forecast the nearing storm. 
 Ah me ! by seeming calm beguiled I chose 
 
 The blackness of that storm, whose drops are tears, 
 Passion its lightnings, black despair its close." 
 Here ceased his speech ; like one who, curious, nears 
 
 Some cave's dim entrance, where the dusty trace 
 Of wolf or bear impressed the token bears. 
 Cautious he ventures on the unknown space 
 
 Of inner darkness ; fear and quick desire 
 Contending in his mind hold equal place ; 
 Even so was I distraught, or to retire 
 
 From quest of perilous lore, or undeterred 
 By those dark words, the utmost scope t' enquire. 
 ' Thus while I doubtful paused, at distance heard 
 
 A sound of plaint that solace craved, yet ill 
 Hoped, so it seemed, to find, the silence stirred. 
 Twice shrilled that piteous cry, then all was still 
 
 In the dark vale, save where by wind unshaken 
 Swayed the dense pine-grove of th' opposing hill. 
 
175 BOOK II 
 
 A voice it seemed of one who loved forsaken 
 
 By one beloved, and from all succour lone 
 By anguish throes or pangs of death o'ertaken. 
 But he, that crouching shape, than whom the stone 
 
 On which he sat, till then more lifelike seemed, 
 Rose, quick responsive to the summon's moan. 
 I marked by grief not age his features seamed 
 
 With lines unmeet, and haggard pale his cheek 
 By matted hair deformed, and tears o'erstreamed. 
 But in his eyes such fire as on the peak 
 
 Of Cotopaxi burns, when the red glare 
 Hell-kindled pale heaven's lightning shows and weak. 
 And loud he cried, " O Love beyond compare 
 
 Loving and loved and loveliest ! is thy pain 
 Hopeless as mine ? as mine thy heart's despair ? 
 O death that will not die ! O heavy chain 
 
 That binds us yet unites not ; is there grief 
 As mine ? as thine ? — and both endured in vain." 
 Then thus to me ; " Who suffers, small relief 
 
 Finds in recounted sorrows ; scant delight 
 Is theirs who crown them with the shrivelled leaf 
 Yet by the Power constrained that wills aright 
 
 Whate'er it wills, though balm of healing none 
 Be to my wounds, nor to my darkness light, 
 For thee, who to these realms hast passage won 
 
 Not by thy skill but his, will I declare 
 The doom of many, imaged forth in one. 
 Not for my feet alone was spread the snare. 
 
 For thee, for them prepared ; the iron net 
 Caged on my flutterings, countless prisoners share. 
 But I from all most wretched chosen and set 
 
 Beacon and warning sign ; the hill, the grove 
 Thou seest of her once goddess known, and yet 
 
 Godlike though fallen, the Venus Queen of Love." 
 
CANTO VII 
 
 Tannhauser relates his well-known story — His lustful youth — The 
 summons to the mountain of Venus (whereof the spiritual 
 counterpart is before me) — The joy and the misery for un- 
 counted years — My guide promises him oblivion of the past 
 and ultimate restoration to real happiness. 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
 Tannhauser's tale continued — Sleeping in the Venus-bower, a 
 spectre crowd of fellow -sinners addresses him — He wakes 
 within a tomb, the vampire-corpse of Venus by him, and horrid 
 visions of Sin around : — 
 
 " But in those eyes with which heaven's starry fire 
 Might ill compare, an evil radiance glowed 
 As the night-flame o'er-flickering swamp and mire, 
 
 Where by black depths begirt the treacherous road 
 Leads to belated death ; such ending have 
 Trust on illusion, love on sense bestowed. 
 
 And all around, as in a rock-hewn grave 
 Shapes of corruption bred, and noisome things 
 Fled through the gloom, or clustered in the cave. 
 
 All forms misformed, all foul imaginings 
 Confused were gathered there ; a spectre crew, 
 Harpies and Gorgons, vulture beaks and wings. 
 
 There, 'mid those phantom masks, distinct I knew 
 111 thoughts of aspect foul, and deeds of blame. 
 And vain regrets, and cares of pallid hue ; 
 
 And vile reproach, and want, and blinking shame. 
 And secret guilt, and manifest infamy ; 
 Lost time, lost love, lost life, lost hope, lost name.'' 
 
 But he cannot yet leave her — He swoons, and wanders in misery 
 over the world — My guide teaches the moral of his story. 
 
CANTO IX 
 
 Circling the Mountain, we traverse a blood-stained way, and meet 
 infinite fantastic shapes of illusion, led by Anteros-Lust and 
 Fancy, followed by a crowd of their victims — At a trumpet- 
 call every monstrous form of evil, and Venus herself, go by — 
 My guide announces the final purgation of these sinners. 
 
 As who from lazar haunts and beds of pain, 
 
 Powerless to soothe or cure, to th' open door 
 With gladness turns, of air and freedom fain, 
 From that dank glade we passed ; the way before 
 
 Circled the mount ill-famed ; the silent wood 
 Like cloistered walls close-vaulted arched us o'er. 
 With russet leaves and shivered twigs bestrewed 
 
 A narrow path we trod, and all the way 
 Was crimson-stained and foul with mire and blood. 
 Then marked I where by the hill-side the day 
 
 Was densest curtained off, a purple brook 
 As from death-wounded limbs trickled alway. 
 Deep loathing seized my thought ; with horror shook 
 
 My limbs ; my feet refused in that foul stain 
 To wade, my eyes on its red trail to look. 
 Paused too my guide, as whom in doubt detain 
 
 Things yet unseen but near ; on mine his hand 
 Was laid, in sign of timely warning fain.^ 
 ■^ Fain, eager. 
 
l8o BOOK 11 
 
 Then, as at summons of the choral wand 
 
 By scenic sorcerer waved, in semblant rage 
 Swayed by th' orchestra's swell, a motley band 
 As sylphs or demons dight, the resonant stage 
 
 With mimic war invade ; now high now low 
 Pennons with pennons, swords with swords engage ; — 
 So from that evil marsh of crimson dye 
 
 Infinite shapes, fantastic most and new, 
 In motley groups upgathering passed us nigh. 
 I marked, and saw where foremost ranged in view 
 
 With changeful colours gay that mocked the sight 
 A leader Form headed that motley crew. 
 Like one half mad, or ill with wine bedight. 
 
 Amazed he trod ; on all around was cast 
 His look, yet fixed on none his lust's delight. 
 Beside his way thin hopes, regretful past. 
 
 Vain longings, causeless joys, heart's emptiness, 
 Flew wild as leaves whirled by November's blast. 
 Nor name nor sign he bore ; yet none the less 
 
 Him that ill power I knew. Love's twin-born foe,^ 
 Who curses most where most he seems to bless ; 
 As shadow cleaves to light, ebb follows flow. 
 
 Night tracks the day, death life ; where flourish most 
 Health-breathing herbs, earth's subtlest poisons grow. 
 Him next, or side by side, of that bad host 
 
 Second in might and headship. Fancy vain. 
 Pander of ill, the left-hand pathway crossed. 
 On a strange beast,^ that Lycia's threefold bane 
 
 Or seemed, or was, he rode ; a coloured glass 
 Of unreal hues in ever-flickering stain 
 Aloft he held ; his tread beneath the grass 
 
 To flowers was turned, to gems the flowers ; but all 
 Were fleeting false, as dreams that please andjpass. 
 Followed on these such crowd as to the call 
 
 Of music loud and clamour throngs the ways 
 ^ Lust as Anteros. ^ Chimaera. 
 
CANTO IX l8l 
 
 Of popular mask or pageant festival. 
 
 With necks outstretched and eager eyes they gaze 
 
 As each to each a marvel grown ; so these 
 Leading or led revolved in Fancy's maze. 
 And in hot suns as restless swarm the bees 
 
 Where summer hives are ranged ; in angry chase 
 Now here now there they come, they go, nor ceasfe ; 
 So restless these, as of their own disgrace 
 
 Eager, of sensuous Love and Fancy bred. 
 Followed th' incestuous authors of their race. 
 Last following went, to harmful venture led, 
 
 A pale disfeatured crowd, the fools of time, 
 By time bemocked as living, scorned when dead. 
 'Mid these, grieving, I saw life's fairest prime 
 
 Cankered at heart by that dark power, whose skill 
 Is man's decay, life's ruin. Nature's crime. 
 Not long ; for from the depths of that dark hill, 
 
 By the wayside, I heard a clanging blast 
 Trumpet-like blown, in threatening notes and shrill. 
 And to that summoning call obedient passed 
 
 Across the field such monstrous forms and dread 
 That memory's self even now recoils aghast. 
 For there of Lerna's pest the sevenfold head 
 
 Living, yet cleft I saw ; the Furies there, 
 Medusa's snakes, and Harpy wings outspread ; 
 And linked with these wan sorrow, gnawing care, 
 
 Wasting disease, foul shame, lone poverty. 
 And late repentance vain, and stark despair. 
 And ancient hate to murder kin went by. 
 
 And treason masked in smiles, and rancour fell, 
 And ugly death, and after infamy ; 
 All that of direst wrong old stories tell ; 
 
 All horrid shapes, all foulest agonies. 
 All worst essayed on earth or dreamed in hell, 
 With nameless deeds and things that hand denies 
 
 To write or tongue to tell, with these I saw. 
 
1 82 BOOK II 
 
 Till sick my heart with faintness, seared my eyes. 
 Yet by my guide upheld, and the great awe 
 
 Of that old daemon power, whose might dischained 
 Before us passed, no step might I withdraw. 
 Then midmost these, nor sullied more nor stained 
 
 Than by dark clouds the moon, that beauty shone, 
 Of mortal men the bliss, the curse, ordained. 
 As through Thaumantia's ^ many-coloured zone 
 
 Sun-drawn on slanted rainfall, plain and field 
 Glitter in that gay gauze across them thrown. 
 So all that motley concourse unconcealed 
 
 In Venus' self I saw, th' ensnared, the snare, 
 And the great canker of earth's rose revealed. 
 Then with the rest she vanished ; mirk the air 
 
 Hung o'er the forest track ; nor shape nor aught 
 But the sad trees and silent mount was there. 
 While thus my brother-guide ; " The doctrine taught 
 
 Forget not thou, nor deem the pageant vain 
 To thy roused sense in visioned semblance brought. 
 Know then as to her nest the bird again 
 
 From furthest flight returns, as heat from fire. 
 Harvest from seed, from full-charged clouds the rain, 
 Each true to each, — such sequence ill desire 
 
 Finds to its aim or makes ; the banded shaft 
 Flies to its mark, nor lower strikes nor higher. 
 And nature's primal bounds nor force nor craft 
 
 May move or overpass ; his little sail 
 Man sets at will ; the breezes hers that waft. 
 Nor may his bark the happy isles avail 
 
 To reach who reckless steers ; nor his to shun 
 The barrier reefs, though favouring breathe the gale. 
 And more ; What flowers, what fruits, the glorious sun 
 
 Looks on are healthful found ; but poisonous those 
 Sprouted of sunless mould and shadows dun. 
 Sweet the tall lily's whiteness, sweet the rose 
 
 ^ Iris, the rainbow. 
 
CANTO IX 183 
 
 " Unfold them to the day ; from vaporous night 
 Her hemlock growths the Cretan sorceress ^ chose. 
 So in man's heart, life's garden, earth's delight. 
 
 All pleasant things in form, and scent, and hue. 
 In Truth's white radiance steeped their rays unite ; 
 Pure thoughts, high deeds, glad utterance, purpose true, 
 
 Whate'er of best heaven circles, earth allows. 
 Or th' interlustral state transforms anew. 
 With quickening dews are drenched that garden's boughs 
 
 Rained from th' eternal dawn ; the thorns to flowers 
 Are changed, bright chaplets of immortal brows. 
 But other doom is his whom the dark powers 
 
 Of ill, th' invisible worm, has found, and made 
 Haunt of his breast in youth's ill-guarded hours. 
 There things mis-shaped, in fair disguise arrayed. 
 
 Misplaced desires, ill thoughts, and deeds unclean, 
 The toadstool growth of falsehood's fostering shade. 
 Those worst whom here or there the sorceress-Queen 
 
 Claims for her own, and in th' accursed hill 
 Prisoners detains, in torment-joys obscene. 
 Yet these of error more than purposed ill 
 
 Victims or slaves, shall the great morn deliver 
 By suffering cleansed from stain ; th' eternal Will 
 That life not death decrees, of life the giver, 
 
 Pitying such end ordains, while onward move 
 Helmless, yet steered, the wrecks down the great river 
 
 To the far goal, the lustral calm of Love." 
 ' Medea of Colchis is apparently intended. 
 
CANTO X 
 
 We pass into a clear landscape : a Star glitters before us — Here are 
 the true and honourable votaries of Love and Friendship — We 
 meet a common soldier v^ho slew himself after the Emperor 
 Otho's defeat at Brescia ; he tells his story, and explains the 
 ethics of wrong and rightful suicide. 
 
 I return with joy from those dark woods to open earth 
 and skies and a fair flowery landscape : a brilliant 
 light points our track ; I ask its meaning of my 
 guide : — 
 
 Then he ; " Of ill desire and vain pretence 
 
 Of the world's passing show, who, free from stain 
 Have to true love subdued the partial sense, 
 Here find their just abode ; pleasure nor pain 
 
 Of earth can touch them more ; secure they wait 
 The life eterne, porch of Love's inmost fane. 
 And faithful consorts here by envious fate 
 
 Asunder torn in life, in death united 
 Taste of love's vine the clusters sweet though late. 
 And who through wintry storms the friendship, plighted 
 
 In pleasant days of spring, maintained ; and who 
 Have truth with truth even to the end requited. 
 And equal made with these in honour due 
 
 Brothers in deed as kin ; no worthier band 
 
CANTO X 185 
 
 " Than theirs is called in all that glorious crew. 
 And, ranked with these, who to their lord's command 
 
 Freely could all resign ; who lived and died 
 Not to their own but to their chieftain's hand" 
 Even as he spoke our onward path beside 
 
 One I beheld close stepping pace for pace, 
 As to our way companion given or guide. 
 Unknown to me the garb, unknown the face, 
 
 Yet not unwelcome there nor strange, but seemed 
 For happy ends sent from some happy place. 
 Crested the helm, and bright the armour gleamed 
 
 That clad the vigorous limbs ; yet who beheld 
 Herald of peace, not war, that form had deemed. 
 
 I ask who he is ; he replies that his name is of no 
 consequence : 
 
 " Unmarked of men to live, unmourned to die 
 Was all I asked or gained, content to know 
 
 Sealed in my blood love's immortality. 
 More would'st thou learn ? then hear ; When Brescia's 
 
 snow 
 With Roman blood by Romans shed distained, 
 
 Bade Rome's eighth emperor hope and life forgo, 
 Nor to Rome's laurelled champion aught remained 
 But for his Rome to die, so fate's decree 
 
 Of secular crime the just award ordained, — 
 As on some jutting cliff the wintry sea 
 Tumultuous breaks ; unmoved the waves among 
 
 Bides the black rock till night and tempest flee, — 
 Pontiff and victim made of secular wrong 
 So, Otho ! stood'st thou then ; while in mad mood 
 
 Before, around thee surged the warrior throng. 
 Scarce scaped the carnage field ; with dust and blood 
 Their armour foul, their banners soiled and torn. 
 
 Like hunted wolves at desperate bay they stood. 
 
l86 BOOK II 
 
 " ' Vengeance or death,' their cry ; ' no second morn, 
 Dishonoured, ours to see ; nor Nero's heir, 
 
 Rome's choice, shall basely veil to German scorn.' 
 But he, ' Not mine Hesperia's crown to wear 
 Wet with Hesperia's tears ; not mine to climb 
 
 Slippery with Roman blood th' Imperial stair. 
 Enough the carnage past ; to future time 
 'Mid Rome's great memories stored, be Otho's death 
 
 Found the atonement of sad Otho's crime.' 
 Thus he; with staring eyes and in-drawn breath 
 We heard the self-spoke doom, like men forsook. 
 
 Nor hope from gods above, nor fiends beneath ; 
 Each gazed on each ; each in the other's look 
 Saw but his own re-imaged ; each his name 
 
 Charactered read in black dishonour's book. 
 Yet none replied or spoke, where all of blame 
 Conscious and foul defeat ; nor sign nor word 
 
 Found to effacement of remembered shame. 
 But I, to whom the voice of my dear lord 
 As fuel was to flame, from the mid throng 
 
 Stood forth, sole spokesman of the warrior horde ; 
 And thus ; ' Of civic rights or popular wrong 
 Not mine to know nor reck ; alone thy will 
 
 For law we own ; to it, to thee belong. 
 Ready for thee to save, for thee to spill 
 Or others' blood or ours ; our plighted vow 
 
 Thus we maintain, thus what we vouched fulfil.' " 
 No more he spoke ; as summer morn a glow 
 Suffused his face ; then with a smile he bared 
 
 Midmost his breast the love-approving blow. 
 
 My guide teaches the doctrine of wrongful and justifiable 
 suicide. 
 
CANTO XI 
 
 The City of True Love rewarded — Some among a vast crowd of the 
 faithful excel in rosy light — These, the soldier explains, are 
 heroic souls. — Theseus appears, and tells of his life and journey 
 to Hell with Peirithous. 
 
 We pass the plain rapidly, and reach the gate of the 
 City of True Love rewarded. 
 
 "One love, one faith, one victor-wreath they own," 
 
 Thus spoke my guide, " though ranged in three-fold 
 sign 
 The bannered guardians of the Master's throne. 
 But the pure whiteness of the foremost line 
 
 Is perfect love's ; the red, love's martyr-palm ; 
 Golden the rest in faith inviolate shine. 
 From lands of snow-strewn fir, or vine, or palm, 
 
 Cold North or genial South ; from where the bay 
 Darkens to Calpe's frown, to the great calm 
 Where from a waveless ocean dawns the day, 
 
 Comrades and kin they join, whose high disdain 
 Of earth disclosed to life the excellent way. 
 With those as men they served in equal pain. 
 
 Equal in glory now ; lovers and loved 
 Lords of one realm till the great end they reign. 
 The crimson ensign theirs, the sign approved 
 
l88 BOOK II 
 
 " Of life-blood given for love, from rash reproof 
 And partial blame by righteous meed removed." 
 I looked ; from the near gate to where aloof 
 
 Outstretched the city walls, in flickering fires 
 Frequent the pennons gleamed from roof to roof. 
 As when slow drawn in ever-narrowing spires 
 
 Led by the Scorpion sign, from Northern day 
 To the lone South compelled day's lamp retires, 
 O'er icy depths of night in ceaseless play 
 
 Now dazzling white, now green, now crimson red 
 At will the Polar witch-fires pass or stay. 
 Such was the flickering show ; while with slow tread 
 
 And watchful eyes intent the gates of gold 
 Joyous I passed, by love's sure guidance led. 
 O happy gates, set to love's central fold ! 
 
 happy fold, love's guarded citadel ! 
 
 Thrice happy flock, love's first-fruits here enrolled ! 
 But thou, my being's stay, my guide, if well 
 
 1 thy behest have heard, and heard obeyed. 
 Give me in worthy verse the things to tell 
 
 By thee revealed, lest the prevailing shade 
 
 Of earth's exile, where from that glorious throng 
 
 Banished awhile I mourn, these lines invade. 
 
 Then where we passed the crowded streets along 
 And all were fair, all bright, I marked in view 
 
 Brighter and fairer some their peers among. 
 
 So have I seen, thick drenched in Syrian dew 
 By old Damascus' walls, with livelier glow 
 
 Some rose outbrave the rest in perfect hue. 
 
 The Roman soldier explains that such are those who 
 kept faith to death, and were equal friends — The 
 elect of Love in all ages come forward. 
 
 Scarce had his words their close, ere to the spot 
 
 Where paused our steps, two forms than whom more fair 
 
CANTO XI 189 
 
 Myron or greater Phidias sculptured not, 
 Drew nigh ; ruddy the one, his clustered hair 
 
 Like sunbright ripples crisp ; a lion's hide 
 Girt his strong limbs, unvestured else and bare. 
 Of darker hue and slenderer form beside, 
 
 Yet kinglike trode his comrade ; a sad smile 
 Told of o'ermastered toil and ills defied. 
 
 Theseus shortly narrates his exploits ; his journey to 
 Hades in hope to release his friend Peirithous ; 
 their deliverance by the Supreme Power. 
 
CANTO XII 
 
 My guide names other heroic friends — A smile from Infinite Love 
 in finite Form entrances me — Many more go before us, until 
 the light of Supreme Love strikes down and blinds me. 
 
 My guide enumerates other hero-friends : amongst them 
 Patroclus and Achilles ; Harmodius and his brother ; 
 Orestes and Pylades ; Nisus and Euryalus. The 
 souls pass by : a glance from one, described as 
 " Infinite Love in finite Form," wholly entrances me. 
 Then again I see the city streets, peopled by more 
 happy souls : Ceyx and Alcyone : — My guide names 
 Admetus and Alcestis ; Arria, and another Roman 
 not specified ; then continues : 
 
 " Well fares the land where the dear name of home 
 
 Honoured, all else upholds ; less firm beside 
 All other bond than ocean's drifted foam. 
 But happiest those in whom impressed abide 
 
 The seals of that high bond by heaven assigned 
 To the clasped hands of bridegroom pledged with bride ! 
 The five-fold links that to their birth-place bind 
 
 Nations, to parents children, kin to kin. 
 Rulers with ruled, and friends with friends entwined ; 
 These knit th' enduring good ; in these begin, 
 
 In these their fullness find, in these remain, 
 
CANTO XII 191 
 
 " Who the true life from change and death would win. 
 O happy they, thrice blest, whom science vain, 
 
 Nor pomp of idle show, nor restless pride 
 In change insatiate masked, nor greed of gain, 
 Nor vain conceit, to folly match and guide. 
 
 Nor license rash, nor scorn of wiser eld 
 From Nature's ways and Love's have drawn aside." 
 Thus while he spoke, of sudden I beheld 
 
 What, seemed of infinite peace the chos'n abode 
 In a fair land by joy and pleasaunce held. 
 And as the place in beauty, they who trode 
 
 That happy ground, their own : nor anxious care 
 Nor discontent was theirs, nor changeful mood ; 
 But rest secure of garnered treasures heir 
 
 Reigned o'er the quiet land, and ordered calm, 
 And life in love, and love in life was there. 
 This Nature's goal and purpose, this the palm 
 
 Of truth o'er semblance gained, the prize, the crown, 
 Of earth's sore wounds last healing found and balm. 
 
 Absolute light veiled in darkness now comes down from 
 the throne of supreme Love with entrancing power. 
 
CANTO XIII 
 
 Waking, my guide bears me far away to a sea-shore — Here the 
 Lustral Powers bide in their great Present, the mysteiy where- 
 of human speech cannot tell — My guide now appears as a 
 human Brother, announces that I have passed the perilous 
 strait of my way, have made the true choice, and may go on 
 further — All that I have seen returns to view : I recognize my 
 spectral self; my follies of youth — My guide desires me to 
 forget the past : all are inevitably subjects of Love, but after 
 their nature bear his mark for good or evil, and meet their 
 reward as predestined — The seven -fold Symbols reappear, 
 with a glorious vision foreshadowing their ultimate repose who 
 rise above things of sense. 
 
 The trance passes : 
 
 And now I felt, yet felt not, through the air 
 Borne in resistless swoop, as when their prey 
 
 From field or fold strong-pinioned eagles bear. 
 
 Till far behind fair land and city lay 
 
 To sight not memory lost ; and now we staid 
 
 By the lone margin of a salt-sea bay. 
 
 Nor flashing oar nor sail were there displayed, 
 But the green desert of a fathomless deep 
 
 And the low shore-cliff's narrow line of shade. 
 
 My guide lays me down to sleep. 
 
CANTO xm 193 
 
 By this the morn 
 Had grown to noon, if morn and noon might be 
 
 Where never twilight died nor day was born. 
 
 Nor ever moon across that tideless sea 
 
 Her silver pathway drew, nor sequent hours 
 
 Traced in those skies diurnal registry ; 
 
 Nor season here, nor throned in Zodiac bowers 
 A monarch sun ; but self-contained and sure 
 
 Bides the great Present of the Lustral Powers. 
 
 The mystery of these is unutterable — I wake by the 
 sea-side : a human form is by me, 
 
 a human voice 
 Attuned to love the lordship of command. 
 And thus the words were borne ; " Brother, rejoice ; 
 
 Past is the perilous strait ; 'twixt false and true 
 Tinsel and gold, made thy determinate choice ; 
 Henceforth with strength restored and courage new 
 
 Be thine with me the onward path t' explore. 
 Where through strange mazes guides the heaven-lent 
 
 clue." 
 Thus while he spoke, all heard or seen before, 
 
 But most th' enchantments of the wide domain 
 Where Proteus Love his empire holds, once more 
 In clear reflex I saw ; the bliss, the pain. 
 
 But as far off, I felt, and 'mid the herd 
 My spectre knew, twined in th' enchanter's chain. 
 And faint and far the Siren notes I heard 
 
 That erst had power to wile, an echo weak 
 Of foolish joys, by wise oblivion blurred. 
 And with hot touch of shame I felt my cheek 
 
 Suffused, that e'er such toys my steps had led 
 Substance in dreams and life in death to seek. 
 
 My guide tells me to quit thoughts of the past — All 
 O 
 
194 BOOK II 
 
 beings are slaves to love, for good or for evil ; all 
 come to diverse homes " in the intermediate shade," 
 as "prejudged eternally.'' 
 
 Thus while he spoke, as in the silvered glass 
 
 Form answers form, shade shade, before me rose 
 The seven-fold guardians of that entrance pass ; 
 The banner waved, the proffered crown, the rose 
 
 Dewy with beauty's gems, the phantom shape 
 Swathed in the gloom of undistinguished woes. 
 These and th' associate forms that o'er the cape 
 
 Of limiting earth's last range where erst I stood. 
 Mocking alike attainment or escape. 
 Again before me ranged ; again my blood 
 
 Alternate chilled and glowed ; again the tone 
 Of a dread voice its warning note renewed. 
 While further yet,' as 'yond th' horizon zone, 
 
 By rays oblique, reflex in present view 
 Of things unseen the semblant form is shewn. 
 False in itself, yet in presentment true, 
 
 So showed those heights beyond, a vision fair 
 Limned and enamelled on the infinite blue. 
 High walls, and domes, and towers were imaged there 
 
 Of stainless marble wrought, with jewelry 
 Inlaid, and golden spires, and sculpture rare ; 
 And much I knew, yet knew not all ; the eye 
 
 Uncertain made and doubtful part, confessed 
 Something that roused yet baffled memory. 
 
 These things, the guide tells, are the image and fore- 
 taste of the true kingdom, where — 
 
 With folded wings 
 There long desire has rest, no more to move, 
 By its own fullness stilled ; all separate things 
 Blent in the one, the folding orb of Love." 
 
CANTO XIV 
 
 The vision passes — We track the shore till stopped by a fieiy 
 stream— My guide explains that the next kingdom is ruled by 
 a. Sorceress-Phantom — We enter a gloomy mist, filled with 
 sad sounds. 
 
 Stay, stay, thou glorious vision ! or bid me fade 
 
 With thee to farthest depths, nor leave me lone 
 By hope deferred to faint despair betrayed ! 
 Such was my cry ; with tenfold lustre shone 
 
 A flash, no more ; then closed th' unmeaning blue 
 Recordless, voiceless, o'er the glory gone. 
 But from th' horizon of my memoried view 
 
 The vision passed not ; pictured there it glowed 
 In its own light ; while hope and courage new 
 Through every limb with renovate fullness flowed ; 
 
 So to my guide I turned, and hand in hand 
 Silent a space our onward path we trode 
 By the cool margin of the wave-beat sand, 
 
 Till by a stream debarred, whose wondrous flow 
 Closed from our hoped access the farther strand. 
 As from the depths of Aetna's Titan glow 
 
 The fire-flood bursts, its burning breath denies 
 Passage above, its liquid flame below ; 
 Such was the barrier herej in mere surprise 
 
 Helpless I stood, and sought with outstretched palm 
 Shelter to my scorched face and blinded eyes. 
 
196 BOOK II 
 
 Terrified by the fiery flood, I am assured by my guide 
 of unseen heavenly aid ; he discourses on our pil- 
 grimage under shelter of a rock. 
 
 " Thou know'st the life in mortal courses pent 
 
 A sevenfold way pursues, as each, from birth, 
 Or custom's force, or chance, has ta'en the bent. 
 Ambition, Art, Love, Science, Sensuous Mirth, 
 
 Creative Thought, Religion's Empery, 
 Beacons or bale-fires of the sons of earth. 
 Each in this penance-realm by just decree 
 
 Lustration finds or meed, till ultimate doom 
 By long endurance set each prisoner free. 
 Seven portals these, seven paths, but one the home, 
 
 Their goal and thine, when to th' extremest bound 
 Of th' intermediate realm thy footsteps come. 
 Of the seven hills within the circuit found 
 
 Three hast thou seen, of noblest ends mista'en, 
 Like precious robes trailed on the sullying ground. 
 Ambition first, high heart and honoured strain, 
 
 But marred by personal will, as summer blight 
 Shrivels and taints the golden harvest grain. 
 And next, heaven's gift, earth's treasure, man's delight. 
 
 The painter's, sculptor's art, to common things 
 Too oft debased, and dwarfed by vulgar spite. 
 Last, the third realm, where Love's irradiate wings 
 
 O'er darkest shades are spread, worse mixed with best. 
 Dross with pure gold, and vilest slaves with kings, 
 Hast thou beheld ; these on thy mind impressed 
 
 Yet fresh remain, these in the world of men 
 Shall record find, in thy true verse expressed. 
 Nor shalt thou see them more, nor turn again 
 
 Whence now thou cam'st, till for thy lustral need 
 Thyself art made this realm's brief denizen. 
 All these through good's excess from perfect deed 
 
 Have erred ; but whom this chasm from those divides 
 
CANTO XIV 197 
 
 " Have of defect or aim misplaced the meed. 
 Therefore the power through error's self that guides 
 
 To truth the true, has with all-purging fire 
 Circled the realm where darkest stain abides.'' 
 Then I ; " Lord of my life, in whom desire 
 
 Is with fulfilment one, to whom is known 
 Th' unspoken aim to which my hopes aspire, 
 Tell me what error theirs, whom the dread zone 
 
 With flame has girt, what purport foiled, or how 
 Crushed in defeat their aim, or monstrous grown ? " 
 But he with downcast eyes and furrowed brow 
 
 Silent awhile remained, as friend by friend 
 Questioned of what the tongue is loth t' avow. 
 Lest with the answer strange surprise should blend 
 
 Somewhat of doubt or pain ; awhile he bides 
 Silent, then slow replies ; thus he ; " Attend, 
 Nor from the meaning swerve ; the fiery tides 
 
 That front thy path, the realm inclose where pine 
 Whom to this loss the Phantom-Sorceress guides. 
 Ask not that Phantom's name ; in many a shrine 
 
 She dwells, by many a land, from Zembla's coast 
 To the warm heavings of the tropic brine. 
 
 This Sorceress, Superstition - Religion in the widest 
 sense of the word — unites gentleness and ferocity, 
 pride and humility, good and evil. 
 
 Lifter of every veil ; of every creed 
 
 She holds what seems the key, the mystery 
 
 Hid from all eyes, the page that none may read. 
 
 O grave of countless slain ! O fathomless sea 
 
 Insatiate most when smoothest spread ! who most 
 
 Thy promise trust, the most beguiled by thee." 
 
 Sudden from speech he paused ; for now the coast 
 Where stayed our steps, and all the sea between 
 
 And the near crags in misty shade were lost. 
 
ig8 BOOK II 
 
 As when the sun-scorched plains, no longer green, 
 
 Are wrapped in rolling smoke, when reckless play 
 Or chance has fired the grass, so dense a screen 
 Shut all around from sight ; but densest lay 
 
 The shroud where close before in downward flood 
 The guardian fire-stream sought the lonely bay. 
 And evermore meseemed as there I stood 
 
 Deepened the torrent's roar, and murkier rolled 
 The smoky cloud, blotched as with crimson blood. 
 And voices strange I heard, and sounds that told 
 
 Of bitter plaint ; and ever rising higher 
 Clamour and shrieks of anguish manifold. 
 As when through Indian towns the wind-driven fire 
 
 Loud crackling speeds ; with helpless cries the crowd 
 Palace and hall bewails and gilded spire 
 Whirled in red embers through th' unnatured cloud 
 
 Outblotting heaven's blue vault, and evermore 
 Fiercer the flame ; so wild, so fierce, so loud 
 Uprose that storm's turmoil, till the firm shore 
 
 Our feet beneath, as hollow found and frail, 
 Trembled in act to sink ; behind, before 
 Uncertain all and perilous ; faint and pale 
 
 I to my guardian clung ; but he the while 
 Unmoved the scene surveyed ; not Himmon's vale 
 Had blanched with fear that cheek, or the calm smile. 
 
 Seal of high deeds, bid from those lips remove, 
 Or dimmed those beacon fires ; nor force nor guile 
 
 Have o'er thy vassals power. Immortal Love. 
 
CANTO XV 
 
 The Fourth Kingdom — This is a phantom region, indescribable — 
 We gaze on the fiery stream ; sweet music is heard, with one 
 jarring note, resolved into final harmony — The landscape 
 clears — In a vision a Form, seen before, returns ; this figures 
 the Religions and Superstitions of the world — I am speech- 
 less, and my guide bears me onward. 
 
 From far-off lands returned and customs strange 
 
 Of men, and monstrous forms of beast or bird 
 Unknown to native sight and homely range. 
 Questioned, the traveller oft refrains, deterred 
 
 By fear lest fact should fiction seem, and shame 
 Be for due praise on spoken truth conferred. 
 Such fear is mine when his command whose name 
 
 Untold resumes my life, the wonders shown 
 In the mid realm bids me in verse proclaim. 
 For all was phantom here, as colours thrown 
 
 On sunset skies of storm, or vaporous play 
 That knits and swift unknits the Iris zone. 
 A changeful world ; nor sequence here nor stay. 
 
 But dream dissolving dream, and fairest show 
 By foullest crossed, or mightiest by decay. 
 This and what more behoved me then to know 
 
 In words that timorous sloth and faithless fear 
 Dispelled, as cloudless suns the fresh fall'n snow, 
 
200 BOOK II 
 
 The Master taught; and more he told that here 
 
 My verse'recounts not ; for even then the eye 
 Insatiate made as deaf my heedless ear. 
 Nor may the teacher's words though wisest vie 
 
 With things beheld ; nor hearing's sense engrave 
 Deep as sight's edge the seal of memory. 
 By the steep margin of that fiery wave 
 
 We stood with shaded eyes, as, upward flung 
 From depths unknown or poured from viewless cave, 
 Welled that dread heat ; with deafened ears and 
 tongue 
 
 Speechless, intent on the dread scene, of all 
 Reckless beside, close to my guide I clung. 
 As one whom venturous search from hall to hall 
 
 Of a lone palace-wreck at eve, has led 
 To a great chasm, where through the rifted wall 
 Mere blackness gapes, and void ; with cautious dread 
 
 Downward he peers, nor to th' uncertain verge 
 Adventures yet, nor moves his forward tread, 
 Lest the next step be death ; so me the surge 
 
 Of the wide sea, but the red fire-flood more 
 Fast-bound a prisoner held, till chance emerge 
 Th' expected aid heaven-pledged, strong to restore 
 
 Freedom awhile withheld ; and now the stream. 
 Now the hot smoke-wreaths fain I sought t' explore. 
 Then as through darkest clouds a watery gleam 
 
 The storm - drenched traveller cheers, or hope de- 
 ferred 
 Shapes in mid woes some joy-preluding dream, 
 So from far distance borne, yet clear, I heard 
 
 Fitful at first, then constant blown, a strain 
 Sweet as in summer's eve love's deathless bird. 
 Of smiles with tears besprent it told, of pain 
 
 With pleasure woven in one, but more the pleasure ; 
 And rest outlasting toil, and sunshine rain. 
 But evermore as through a blithesome measure 
 
CANTO XV 201 
 
 A jarring note renewed, a something there 
 Told of a baffled hope, and cheated treasure. 
 Then swelled the music more, till now whate'er 
 
 Had discord been, in whelming harmony 
 Was lost, as vanished motes in sunlight clear. 
 And now that sulphurous gloom, that smoke-wreathed 
 sky 
 
 Changed to serenest light, disclosed to view 
 Extinguished fires, their channel void and dry. 
 While from the far horizon's stainless blue 
 
 Wide stretched beyond, what seemed a gathered 
 flight 
 Of snow-white doves swift slanting towards us drew. 
 Or as in April heavens a cloudlet white 
 
 By the south wind in playful dalliance swept 
 Momently changing mocks the gazer's sight ; 
 So was the vision seen, so swift it kept 
 
 Onwards its course, the while that music sweet 
 Around its path like a lithe serpent crept. 
 Me too that melody's witchcraft bound ; my feet 
 
 Rooted to earth like hers ^ whose leafy change 
 The love that wrought laments, forbade retreat. 
 And nearer now revealed that vision strange 
 
 Was the cloaked phantom ^ of my earlier tale 
 Seen 'mid the guardians of the outer range. 
 But now distinct the features, raised the veil 
 
 From brows of dreadful calm ; a face that seemed 
 Of marble hewn, as marble hard and pale. 
 
 Her dress and ghastly appearance : her wings spread 
 out over Earth : mystic symbols and attendants. 
 
 Then thus the Master's voice ; ." The vision seen 
 By few, to few revealed, the hope, the dread 
 
 ^ Daphne, changed into the laurel when flying from Phoebus. 
 ^ See Book I., Canto xi., p. 57. 
 
202 BOOK II 
 
 " Of a sick world, without disguise or screen 
 Behold in its own shape ; the sorceress wed 
 
 Not to one spouse but many ; doubtful birth, 
 Of Time's twin offspring Truth and Error bred. 
 Yet other garb and guise to sons of earth 
 
 Her oft presentment shows ; a charm that makes 
 Of best and worst confused illusive worth. 
 But the higher Power that leaves not nor forsakes 
 
 Those whom eternal Love from the blind mass, 
 Nations or men, to its own portion takes. 
 Has to thy eyes upheld the secret glass 
 
 That true from false discerns ; so through the snare 
 Spread for thy feet untangled may'st thou pass." 
 Thus while he spoke the phantom-haunted air 
 
 Darkened with myriad forms, that in wild dance 
 Entwined, with beauty horror, foul with fair. 
 
 Strange memories rise before me : 
 
 As one whom loss of blood or hunger sore 
 
 To faintness brings, around him stares to seek 
 Aught that may sense sustain or breath restore, 
 So I, with mortal vesture clogged and weak. 
 
 For weakness dwells in clay, in suppliant wise 
 Raised to my guide wet eyes and pallid cheek. 
 And he, 'twixt whom and me veil or disguise 
 
 Was none, with half-reproachful steadfastness 
 Turned on my face the sunlight of calm eyes. 
 Then as a brother's arm with clinging stress 
 
 Supports the fainting boy, whose faltering tread 
 And trembling limbs the frozen blood confess, 
 His hands he chafes, uplifts his drooping head, 
 
 Pointing where mounds and drifted snows among 
 Shows the hoped shelter of the parent shed, — 
 So in that wildering hour ere yet my tongue 
 
 Had framed its prayer in words, the heedful guide 
 
CANTO XV 203 
 
 Round me his arms with timely succour flung. 
 And through the spectre host on either side 
 
 Parted, as prow-cleft waves when fresh the wind 
 Drives the full-canvassed bark, their spray divide, 
 Unharmed he bore my mortal weight ; behind 
 
 The fire-stream roared anew ; in densest veil 
 Once more the smoke-wreaths o'er its path entwined. 
 Here let the verse have pause, and the strange tale 
 
 Borrow from silence rest, till I recount 
 Hid things made manifest in the midmost vale 
 Of those by pain made perfect, till th' amount 
 
 Of the just debt be paid, the sullied dove 
 In the pure depths of wisdom's lustral fount 
 
 Washed and made free where Life is one with Love. 
 
CANTO XVI 
 
 Passing through a dense wood, we are addressed by S. Anthony — 
 My guide replies, and we follow hira through a narrow path to 
 a gloomy shrine. 
 
 From the sweet sorceress ^ of Ogygia's woods 
 
 By timely violence freed, to the sad shore 
 Cimmerian, bathed by Ocean's sunless floods. 
 The Ithacan chiefs by Pallas taught t' explore 
 
 What hidden things the shadowy world in death 
 From ours divided holds, and the dark lore 
 Known to the conclave of the vaults beneath, — 
 
 Profitless wisdom all, and atmosphere 
 Too chill for life, too thin for human breath, 
 Voices of evil purport, sights of fear, 
 
 And earth's warm love to hatred turned, or worse, 
 And the long winter of the cyclic year, — 
 So sings the Samian bard ; ^ but more his verse * 
 
 Reveals, from the grey towers by Arno's stream 
 Exiled by unjust hate and doom perverse, 
 Who from Giudecca's pit to the mid beam 
 
 Of Life's eternal sun by wisdom led 
 In Love revealed the Vision all-supreme ; 
 
 1 Calypso. 2 Ulysses. 
 
 3 Homer : Samos perhaps put by error for Smyrna. * Dante. 
 
CANTO XVI 205 
 
 Who, mortal yet, on food immortal fed, 
 
 And drank the living streams, and with the flowers 
 Blossomed in highest heaven was garlanded ; 
 To each such grace was given, to each the powers 
 
 That mould or mar the moulded clay, assigned 
 Part in the secret of the eternal towers. 
 Yet wider range and stranger forms of kind 
 
 To me even me displayed, this Pageant's rhyme 
 Must tell, for future years in trust assigned. 
 And all by childhood dreamed, to manhood's prime 
 
 Revealed, of later years life's harvest sheaves. 
 Attune the changes of the modulate chime. 
 And now through a dense wood, whose pleached leaves 
 
 Noon's glare to twilight made, 'mid drops that fell 
 Thick as fast-melting frost from sun-smit leaves. 
 But these were human tears, our way befell ; 
 
 And evermore the sightless glades between 
 Tolled the dull clangour of a smitten bell. 
 Yet trackless all, so seemed, th' untrodden green 
 
 Spread to our feet, nor less the wood denied 
 Opening or guidance through the leafy screen. 
 Perplexed a questioning look toward my guide 
 
 I turned, but as in water shade to shade. 
 His face to mine with equal doubt replied. 
 Silent awhile we stood ; around, the glade, 
 
 Wildered in infinite monotony. 
 Search to the eye, step to the foot forbade. 
 Then, as in thought who lonely sits, and nigh 
 
 No living creature deems, suddenly near. 
 No warning given, beholds a watcher nigh : 
 Wondering he scans the form, the garb, in fear 
 
 Kin to surprise, as fain to learn from these 
 What may the visitant mean, what message bear. 
 Such or more wonder mine, when 'mid the trees. 
 
 Where densest closed the boughs, a sudden shape 
 Came forth in quaintest guise ; no quainter sees 
 
206 BOOK II 
 
 Naples or Rome, when stands the crowd agape 
 
 At the processioned monstrous Carnival 
 By Tiber's banks, or fair Puzzuoli's cape. 
 
 The figure, S. Anthony, asks our right of passage — My 
 guide briefly describes Egyptian asceticism as the 
 parent of the monastic system, with all its evils, and 
 announces the authority for our pilgrimage. 
 
 Then slow upraised his beckoning hand extended 
 Where through the densest grove, unmarked before, 
 
 A sinuous path the vale's steep slope descended. 
 
 No narrower track the panther opes, nor more 
 With winding bend perplexed, nor darker shade 
 
 In Ural's mine shrouds Scythia's buried ore. 
 
 Till where a level plain succeeding made 
 More easy way, midmost a grassy lawn 
 
 What seemed a shrine was to our eyes displayed. 
 
 In the twilight we see a grey chapel, with domed roof 
 and narrow windows : the strain of music heard by 
 the fire-brook here pours forth loudly, with a sound 
 of many voices, whilst worship proceeds within. 
 
 As who for bathing dight by some deep stream 
 
 Stands at a doubtful pause, and eyes the wave 
 Fearful by act his purpose to redeem, 
 So by the door I stood, and the dark cave 
 
 Mistrustful eyed, though thrice th' Egyptian grey 
 With hand and voice signal of entrance gave. 
 Till on my arm I felt the Master lay 
 
 His guiding touch, as with a cheersome smile 
 Scattering my coward fears he led the way. 
 So hand in hand, free from enchantment's guile. 
 
 Entering we bowed beneath the dark alcove 
 Haunt of the unearthly powers, whose spells beguile 
 
 All save the chosen few, th' elect of Love. 
 
CANTO XVII 
 
 We enter the chapel — On the walls are figured scenes from early 
 Biblical history, from the Christian Church, from the Inquisi- 
 tion. 
 
 " Whate'er thou seest or hear'st of sign or word 
 
 Silent attend and note ; to dying men 
 So may thy song undying truth record." 
 Such warning fell, though whence I knew not, when 
 
 That chapel door I passed ; the curtained shade 
 That entrance gave, behind us closed again. 
 Nor sculptured likeness there nor form pourtrayed 
 
 At first I saw, so thick the incense fume 
 In that half-darkness sight and sense dismayed. 
 As one on whom while living yet the tomb 
 
 By chance or crime has closed, awakening knows 
 Peopled with things of death the vaulted gloom. 
 Then saw I slow emerging, rows on rows. 
 
 Figures from floor to roof, and colours blent 
 Of pictured men and women, joys or woes. 
 Up the mid space with pausing step we went. 
 
 My guide and I, of the dense crowd aware 
 That stood or knelt in lowliest worship bent. 
 With vaporous heat and censer-smoke the air 
 
 Scarce freedom left of breath, and blurred and faint 
 With iris haloes shone the tapers there. 
 
208 BOOK II 
 
 As on some chancel-wall or screen-work quaint, 
 
 Where by Icenian marshes ^ rest the twain 
 Who clothed in flesh my life, each antique saint 
 Shows by long years defaced and wanton stain ; 
 
 Yet undefaced the childish memories 
 That in my heart deep-graven by love remain. 
 And now to that half-night our customed eyes 
 
 Attempered grown, could each by each behold 
 Things erst confused in darkness and disguise. 
 There on the left-hand wall the legend old 
 
 Of Syrian annals writ ; a world from nought 
 Fashioned, in seven brief days its work unrolled. 
 There light from darkness sundered, waters brought 
 
 To gathered seas, and all that earth of life 
 Or heaven of brightness holds, in course was wrought. 
 And, masked in serpent guise, the primal strife 
 
 In Heaven begun, resumed in Eden, showed. 
 And that ill-tasted tree with poison rife. 
 
 The Deluge and a few scenes recording human crime 
 and misery from the Old Testament are briefly 
 noticed. 
 
 Of later years the scenes I there descried 
 
 As of a second world unlike the old. 
 Fair as the new-winged insect's summer pride. 
 In robes of many hues and circling gold 
 
 Martyr and virgin forms 'mid angel shapes 
 And heaven-raught palms, and holiest names enscrolled, 
 A long procession ranged, in priestly capes 
 
 Wide-flowing, or monkish cowl, and hermits hoar 
 On mountain summits lone or jutting capes. 
 There I beheld who ^ on the Libyan shore 
 
 ' Sir Francis and Lady Palgrave are buried in the village church- 
 yard of Irstead, in East Norfolk. 
 ^ S. Augustine. 
 
CANTO XVII 209 
 
 To Cato's martyr-memory consecrate, 
 Kindled the quenchless torch of Hippo's lore. 
 And next in place, though later found in date, 
 
 Two cloistered shapes I saw, from Clairvaux' bower 
 One,^ from Aquino's crags his laurelled mate.^ 
 But most the giant twain, to whom the power 
 
 Was given the crumbling shrine of priestly Rome 
 Firm to up-prop, till past the perilous hour ; 
 Where on Galicia's rocks th' Atlantic foam 
 
 Its saltness breaks, thence the stern leader ^ came 
 Who fenced with word and deed the Fisher's tomb. 
 And linked with his in equal praise the name * 
 
 By sandalled myriads borne, a seraph band 
 Who for their own Alverno's mystery ^ claim. 
 And last but mightiest he ^ whose high command 
 
 Given in the Name of Power, what prostrate lay 
 Upreared, the broken linked in healing band. 
 But where in tremulous gleam the tapers' ray 
 
 From moulded gold and gems reflected shone, 
 A fairer prospect wooed me to delay. 
 Here with calm eyes fronting the Tyrant's throne 
 
 Stood th' Alexandrian maid ' ; the torturing wheel 
 Shivered by angel-might beside was strown. 
 And 'mid the full-swollen pomp of proud Castile 
 
 In poorest vestment clad, Heaven's cloistered bride ^ 
 Bore on her heart impressed the bridegroom's seal. 
 
 Horrible visions of the Inquisition follow, and I hasten 
 onward. 
 
 ^ S. Bernard. 2 S. Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 ^ S. Ignatius Loyola. * S. Francis. 
 
 ° The sanctuary where S. Francis received the Stigmata, 
 
 ^ Presumably Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII. 
 ' S. Catharine. ^ S. Teresa. 
 
CANTO XVIII 
 
 In the chancel I see symbols and visions of the birth and progress 
 of Christianity. 
 
 We enter the chancel, where the Cross is the only 
 symbol seen, 
 
 Reared on earth's central mound, when noonday night 
 Hid from a trembhng world what else had been 
 
 As lightning's scathing flash to th' upturned sight. 
 
 A life transformed in death, a glory seen 
 
 In murkiest gloom, an earthly Form with heaven 
 
 Instinct : 
 
 A vision revealing mercy united with wrath, despair 
 with hope, " and more than thought can reach." 
 
 From the dim margin of a silent shore 
 
 Who morn by morn has journeyed, purpose-led 
 
 What inland lies of some new realm to explore. 
 
 Till all his travel-mates outgone or dead 
 
 Alone he stands, where from the shelving ground 
 
 Wells forth a mighty river's fountain-head. 
 
 Ice-cold and crystal clear, a grassy mound 
 
 Scarce marks the spot ; yet hence the waters flow 
 
CANTO XVm 211 
 
 Whose giant course nor climes nor empires bound. 
 Silent he stands and thinks how far below 
 
 Lie the wide plains and feathery groves of palm 
 Where these cool streams in torrid sunlight flow. 
 How all unlike these mountain heights, the balm 
 
 Of mountain flowers, to where the ship-thronged 
 river 
 'Mid crowded quays meets ocean's muddy calm ! 
 How sullied there, how stainless here, yet ever 
 
 Though thus transformed the same : distance nor 
 change 
 Can from their fount these far-flowing waves dissever. 
 Yet to the crowds who by the populous range 
 
 Dwell of the full-swoll'n stream, where broad and 
 deep 
 Seaward the wharf-girt waters pass, how strange 
 Were the small rivulet cold and pure, the steep, 
 
 Th' untrodden grass, whence to the haunts of men 
 Down heights unknown the gathered waters leap ! 
 So tranced I stood, so lost in musings, when 
 
 Of the great Power that o'er the earth has gone 
 Conquering and moulding all, before my ken 
 Revealed the Source I saw, the glorious One, 
 
 The visible God, the King by twofold birth 
 High o'er all kings, as o'er all thrones his throne. 
 Lowest and loftiest of the sons of earth. 
 
 Son of the Eternal Love ; compared with Thee 
 All loveUest things nor beauty have nor worth. 
 A mist-enfolded star, a Deity 
 
 Through human limbs diffused ; 
 
 By man how sadly despised and mistreated ! 
 
 O flower of Jesse's line ! how rough the stem 
 
 That bore thy blossomed grace ! how sharp the thorn 
 To that true Eden hedge and diadem ! 
 
Thus while I mused, as cross a doubtful morn 
 
 In the low East a rising cloud with rain 
 Black, or upgathered hail is quickly borne 
 On angry winds of storm, till all the plain 
 
 Where full-eared hopes even now with yellowing green 
 Shone to the dawn, in darkness fades again, 
 So round that awful Form where anguish keen 
 
 Was one with keener Love, a murky cloud 
 From earth uprising wove a crape-like screen. 
 And masks of purport new, a motley crowd 
 
 Stranger than opiate dreams, of imageries 
 In mitred pomp and broidered vestment proud 
 And more than kingly state ; in coarsest frieze 
 
 Others of various dye, and banners wrought 
 Fluttered with symbols quaint, and crowns, and 
 
 keys, 
 And visions these betwixt than human thought 
 
 Loftier and purer shown, and eyes to heaven 
 Upraised, and smiles, foretastes of what they sought. 
 And bliss supreme 'mid earth's worst sufferance given. 
 
 And joy in anguish perfect made, and pain 
 To pleasure turned, and roughest ways to even. 
 As woven in myriad dyes a silken skein 
 
 Grows to a dazzling web, where first and last 
 Sequence and form the gazer seeks in vain. 
 So was the shifting veil that dense and fast 
 
 Rose from the temple floor, till all beside 
 Invisible grown to mere effacement passed. 
 In mind as sight perplexed, to my true guide. 
 
 Who constant stood beside, I turned to seek 
 What might of good or ill that change betide. 
 Stern was his look ; to marble blanched his cheek 
 
 Of sorrow told and awe ; his lifted hand 
 Summoned expectance yet forbade to speak. 
 And denser now than erst th' adoring band 
 
 Gathered about the shrine, and thick the steam 
 
CANTO XVIII 213 
 
 With phantoms wove an eye-perplexing strand. 
 And false or true or waking sense or dream 
 
 I knew not to discern, nor might divine 
 What the hid purport of th' enacted theme. 
 Then from that serried throng which filled the shrine 
 
 A murmur rose, as when th' upgathering storm 
 Sends its hoarse herald through the mountain pine. 
 And where concealed awhile that royal Form 
 
 In god-like anguish calm enshrouded stood, 
 Hid by the gleams that dazzle and deform, 
 A light obscure of crimson tinge like blood 
 
 Spread from beyond the veil, from floor to roof 
 Filling the fane as with a whelming flood : 
 Till in its glow th' illusion-painted woof 
 
 Melted to formless haze ; and midmost there 
 Like the red star hung in mid heaven aloof 
 An angry Presence glowed ; around the air 
 
 Quivered, and with responsive tremor shook 
 Altar and shrine and walls and sculptures rare. 
 As who perplexed in some great Master's book 
 
 Looks to resolve his doubtful mind, so I 
 Bent on my guide again th' enquiring look. 
 But in his face even such expectancy 
 
 As in my own I knew, though nought of dread 
 Was there, but fate's presage in purport high. 
 As when in distant street the measured tread. 
 
 With martial music heard, to the great crowd 
 Preludes the victor King's approach, each head 
 Is turned whence comes the sound, like wheat-fields 
 bowed 
 
 By harvest-winds one way, on every mien 
 One thought, one hope, one vassal fear avowed. 
 Till now where reddest glowed the vaporous screen 
 
 O'er apse and altar shed, a Form of old 
 By the lone seer of exiled Patmos seen, 
 In His own likeness stood ; as burnished gold 
 
214 BUUK. 
 
 In sevenfold furnace fiery made, than snow 
 On Alpine peaks more white the vestment's fold. 
 But to that Face the sun's meridian glow 
 
 Had rayless seemed and pale ; the lightning gleam 
 Matched with those eyes a fire-damp's flickering show. 
 And where His feet were stayed, a fiery stream 
 
 Issued and flowed resistless ; and afar 
 Seven lamps of fire sent forth a quenchless beam. 
 And in His open palm a sevenfold star 
 
 In azure lustre shone ; and His keen breath 
 Was as a falchion's edge made sharp for war ; 
 
 The evils whereof are seen behind Him. Yet 
 
 His brows around 
 All-conquering Love had bound the victor's wreath. 
 With highest power, with deepest anguish, crowned. 
 
 In each supreme He stood ; His blazoned sway 
 Nor cyclic years nor secular orbits bound. 
 As in mid noon-day's tower some meteor ray 
 
 Of the eighth heaven portentous denizen 
 Blots with excess of light the natural day, 
 So earth's connatal powers, the gods till then 
 
 Believed, adored, by th' all-eclipsing Cross 
 Blurred and effaced passed from the world of men. 
 
 Lament for the lost youth of humanity. 
 
CANTO XIX 
 
 The building vanishes — My guide narrates the disappearance of the 
 Pagan deities, and the rise of Hope and Fear to rule in their 
 place — Praise of Paganism — A vision of early life and later 
 creeds promised. 
 
 The shrine and all about it vanishes : my guide alone 
 remains. 
 
 Then I; "If thine to tell, O Master-! say 
 
 What means that painted shrine, the pageant rare 
 A moment shown, then dream-like snatched away. 
 If true, why cancelled thus the semblance fair ? 
 
 If false, by whom ordained ? from love or hate 
 The boon ? in hope perfected, or despair ? " 
 Then he ; " The Powers that o'er man's earthly state 
 
 For good or ill preside, from first to last 
 Fortune or chance by you misnamed, or fate. 
 Each in his day prevails, while to the past 
 
 The present still succeeds, as o'er the slope 
 From gliding clouds quick shadows pause or pass. 
 Eternal they, yet kin to earth ; their scope 
 
 Is aye to earth proportionate found ; its measure 
 No wider range to fear allows or hope, — 
 Fortunate isles, Elysian fields of pleasure. 
 
 Or dark Cimmerian caves, and streams denied 
 
2l6 BOOK II 
 
 " To perjured thirst, and harpy-guarded treasure. 
 Yet as the tales at evening told beside 
 
 The cottage hearth, full oft in fancy's loom 
 True deeds inweave, hidden or travestied. 
 So 'neath the fabling talk of Greece and Rome 
 
 In scant disguisement veiled of prose or lay 
 Th' eternal purport hides, reward or doom. 
 These the fit birth-gifts of the natal day 
 
 Which welcomed man new-born ; with these content 
 From morn to eve to wend life's pilgrim way. 
 Till from a Power unknown but mightier sent 
 
 He came, the conquering Lord, who that fair veil 
 Of earth-woven hopes and fears asunder rent. 
 
 Paganism then passes away ; 
 
 Silent th' oracular caves ; the ocean's floor 
 
 Untracked by Tethys' wheels ; untenanted 
 Th' Olympic heights and Ida's summits hoar. 
 
 In its place two mighty forms overshadow man — Hope 
 and Fear. A blank, godless age is prophesied for 
 the close. 
 
 Yet not in vain the past, nor all deceived 
 
 Who erst those shrines adored ; the faithful heart 
 Abides of its sure guerdon unbereaved. 
 But happiest they who with their birthright's part 
 
 Contented, seek no further range, nor borrow 
 From worlds unknown vain solace, vainer smart : 
 From life's to-day forecasting life's to-morrow 
 
 As from the bud the leaf, whate'er betide. 
 Sunshine of surer bliss, or clouds of sorrow. 
 All these in peaceful state their hour abide 
 
 Who from earth's earliest dawn to evening grey 
 Have their first pathway kept, nor turned aside 
 
CANTO XIX 217 
 
 " To the fond beckonings of a gaudier day. 
 
 These too shalt thou behold, and tread the vale, 
 Fabled or real, of Mantua's elder lay.' 
 These past, another realm, the margined pale 
 
 To later creeds assigned, shall to thy view 
 Their portioned meed, blessing or doom unveil. 
 There as th' optician's art in sevenfold hue 
 
 Untwists the skein of common light, thy glance 
 Shall foul from fair dispart, and false from true ; 
 Such power I now confer ; Athena's lance 
 
 With less discerning touch the Titan host 
 Wide scattering, roused the gods from fateful trance. 
 And these beyond whom th' Erythraean coast 
 
 And Mecca's vale sent forth, a name to none 
 Second for ill, Arabia's prophet-boast ; 
 With him the turbaned crowd whose empire won 
 
 O'er tottering Cross and phantom throne, even now 
 Flaunts its proud Crescent to Byzantium's sun. 
 And further yet what later creeds avow 
 
 Of undeterminate power, a fancied soul 
 Of all that is, nor personal Rule allow, 
 Find their allotted place, till reached the goal 
 
 To them, to all, assigned, where reigns above 
 Th' eternal Truth, the absolute Life, the pole 
 
 Of the all-containing orb, the central Love. " 
 
 ' Virgil's Sixth Aeneid. 
 
CANTO XX 
 
 In a lovely landscape we reach the Fountain of Youth — I bathe in 
 it, and my eyes are opened to the fair inhabitants of the region ; 
 Olympus rising over all, peopled vrith the gods of Greece, 
 India, and Ethiopia — Glimpse of the infernal regions — Rhapsody 
 on ancient Hellas and her deities. 
 
 O HAPPY Spring, than Summer's blossomed pride, 
 
 Than Autumn's wealth more fair ! O happy Spring 
 Of renovate earth the bridal veil and bride ! 
 There is no joy like thine ; each loveliest thing 
 
 Is tarnish-dimmed save thee ; thou only shinest 
 For ever new, unbruised by Time's rough wing. 
 The emerald sprays, the starry flowers thou twinest. 
 
 Youth's mirrored self, beauty's embodiment, 
 Are thy fit crown, of all divine divinest. 
 — Now through a blossomed mead my footsteps went 
 
 With him, my constant guide ; and all around 
 Breathed the cool air a many-perfumed scent. 
 And little hills with plumy verdure crowned 
 
 Bordered the way ; and the many-throated song 
 Of garrulous birds made answer to the sound 
 Of rippling streams, hid their fringed banks among, 
 
 And over all the cloudless hyaline 
 A myriad sparks of living brightness flung. 
 A land of perfect peace ; a land of vine 
 
CANTO XX 219 
 
 Olive and corn and fruits and sheaves ; a land 
 Of life with youth twin-fashioned haunt and shrine. 
 As budding twigs by April breezes fanned 
 
 Put forth their leaves in gladness, so renewed 
 In sense and heart that loveliest scene I scanned. 
 Yet not by plain nor hill nor stream nor wood 
 
 Could aught my circling eyes discern, to tell 
 What dwellers owned this seeming solitude. 
 Then to my guide I turned, the oracle 
 
 Of sure response, the torch whose steady ray 
 Could every darkness raised of doubt dispel. 
 And thus ; " Guardian and guide of these my ways 
 
 Through the mid-lustral realm, what blest sojourn 
 Is this ? to whom assigned the blossomed maze ? " 
 Then he ; " By yon cool glade where densest fern 
 
 With harebells blends its fronds, and primrose pale, 
 Shalt thou to what thou ask'st the answer learn." 
 Then with slow steps as who some ancient pale 
 
 Of reverent worship trod, our way we bent, 
 He first, I following through the margined vale. 
 Till in a glade we stood where twined and bent 
 
 Tall branches screened the day ; a stream before 
 By grass and stems in liquid coolness went. 
 "That which thou seek'st,'' now spoke my guide, "the 
 lore 
 
 Hid from a world grown old, the primal truth. 
 Gospel of grace to man, the gods of yore. 
 Here be it thine to know ; the stains uncouth 
 
 Of earth's decrepit years, the dust of time 
 Cleansed in the stream thou seest, the fount of youth.'' 
 Not with more eager haste in Nubia's clime 
 
 The herdsman parched and lone, if chance he hears 
 From the far well the bucket's clanking chime, 
 Urges his camel's course; athirst his ears 
 
 Drink in the welcome sound, that farther still 
 Seems from his fierce desire the more he nears, 
 
Than at the Master's words a sudden thrill 
 
 Of longing mixed with pain my mortal frame 
 Pierced, and compelled to his my thought and will ; 
 That had the stream in place been liquid flame 
 
 Nought had it stayed my forward plunge, or bent 
 From its resolve a moment's space my aim. 
 But fresh as mountain breeze the element 
 
 Closed o'er me where I sank, then to the air 
 Restored me with new power and life besprent. 
 Smiling my Master welcome gave, and there 
 
 Laid on my eyes his hands, when all around 
 Groves, plains, grass, flowers, in sight transfigured 
 
 were. 
 Not lonely now nor mute, with music's sound 
 
 Breathed the low winds responsive ; forms divine 
 Some with mere beauty, some with aureole crowned. 
 Or wreathed with fadeless flowers or tendrilled vine. 
 
 Moved on the lawn, or the tall trees between 
 Shone, as large stars from clouds emerging shine. 
 Nor these alone, but o'er the mounded green 
 
 Maidens and youths and hero forms, and boys 
 With laughing girls beside, a motley scene ; 
 Some linked in earnest talk, some to glad noise 
 
 Of flutes and cymbals lightly passed, and some 
 Loitered in smiles and jests and amorous toys. 
 And overhead in many-coloured loom 
 
 Of living forms it seemed, height over height, 
 Converse of earth uprose th' Olympian dome. 
 Infinite beauty matched with infinite might. 
 
 And each to each reflex, as cloudless skies 
 Give and receive great ocean's tremulous light. 
 For there th' earth-ruling powers, the deities 
 
 In happier days known and adored, their court 
 Once more an hour displayed to mortal eyes ; 
 Erst on Olympus' peaks, fitting resort 
 
 To man's proportionate gaze, or fabled more 
 
CANTO XX 221 
 
 Meru, or that far realm of old report 
 By lotus groves on th' Ethiopian shore ; 
 
 Or throned in solar fires, as sign by sign 
 Given to each race its heaven-appointed lore. 
 In fabling tale, or song, or dateless page 
 
 Enshrined the heirloom given ; but fairest far 
 To Greece assigned the luminous heritage. 
 Brightest and best of heaven-born lights ; true star 
 
 Of morning risen on earth, precursor meet 
 Of the glad forms that tend Hyperion's car. 
 The perfume-laden Hours, the glancing feet 
 
 That weave the dance Pierian, and the grace 
 Threefold of sister charm and influence sweet. 
 There with swift lightnings girt in loftiest place 
 
 The Lord of gods and men ^ in calm serene 
 Bent o'er the kindred crowd his awful face. 
 And there in rainbow-circled state was seen 
 
 Large-eyed, in partner-state the Sister bride ^ 
 Olympian born, of Argos shield and Queen. 
 And there brightest and best in circUng pride 
 
 Of his own fervent rays the Loxian god ^ 
 Monarch of day, stood the great throne beside. 
 And in glad youth, with winged swiftness shod 
 
 Fair Maia's fairer son,* in mirth entwined 
 With spells of power the light Caducean rod. 
 There in an hour of borrowed peace reclined 
 
 The warrior god ^ whose crimson planet bears 
 Like name, of old in Thracian fanes enshrined. 
 Him most unlike, stateliest 'mid heavenly peers 
 
 The Maiden wisdom ^ stood ; with olive bough 
 Fruitful, in peace she leads the golden years. 
 By her the virgin huntress Queen,' her bow 
 
 In crescent silver clear. Heaven's wonderment, 
 
 1 Zeus. 2 Here. ^ Apollo. 
 
 * Hermes. ^ Ares (Mars). " Athena Parthenos. 
 
 ' Artemis Selene. 
 
222 BOOK 11 
 
 Beacon-like gleamed o'er Latmos' pine-clad brow. 
 And, loveliest, thou whom lone Cythera sent 
 
 The sea-born Queen of Love ! ^ the unparalleled 
 Centre and star of being's firmament. 
 All perfect deemed ere thee, all beauty held 
 
 Supreme in earth or heaven, from mind and eye 
 Passes, by thee resumed, possessed, excelled. 
 O visioned dome of a god-tenanted sky. 
 
 O'er a god-tenanted earth ! of human hearts 
 Desire ! nor all for human sense too high ! 
 And other forms were there ; thy quivered darts 
 
 Eros ! and thy culled flowers, Proserpina ! 
 And who ^ to heaven the nectared bowl disparts. 
 Rapt by the Idaean bird, and Saturn grey 
 
 Unthroned but reverend seen, and with his crew 
 Roseate in vine-wreathed car lacchus gay. 
 And at the mountain's sea-marged base to view 
 
 Distant, yet clear, Nereus with Neptune joined 
 Drove his swart dolphins through the sparkling blue. 
 But in far depths uncertain, undefined 
 
 The hated realms with woe Tartarean fraught 
 Glimmered, a lurid dread by guilt designed. 
 Of love contemned, to vengeance changed, were wrought 
 
 Those iron gates of pain ; love's righteous law 
 Righteously to revere, the lore they taught. 
 But soon the chasm reclosed, though the great awe 
 
 Awhile remained, then slowly passed, as chid 
 Might prowling beasts to shrouded dens withdraw. 
 And other mysteries once unveiled, but hid 
 
 From eyes profane of later ignorance. 
 In their own proper fullness unforbid 
 'Mid the great mount I saw ; the Sibyl's trance. 
 
 The oracle-breathing gulf, Dodona's fane. 
 The rustling oak's response, the priestly dance, — 
 
 ^ Aphrodite. 
 2 Ganymede borne to Olympus by the Eagle. 
 
CANTO XX 223 
 
 All these and else whate'er to minds profane 
 
 Meaningless things and void abide, to me 
 Shone in undying truth, nor shone in vain, 
 Of all that is, or was, or is to be 
 
 Mirrored in one reflex ; as the bright day 
 In countless sparkles of the infinite sea. 
 Then as with ebbing pulse the solemn lay 
 
 From quire to quire replies, when thronged the fane 
 For a great nation's yearly holiday. 
 So at the vision's close a mingled stream 
 
 Of harp and voice from that Olympian height 
 Shower-Uke descending, rose from earth again, 
 Till sound, and form, and rainbow hues, and light, 
 
 And the fair vale beneath, and heaven above 
 One universe made, one being, one delight, 
 
 In the fair realm of life-incarnate Love. 
 
CANTO XXI 
 
 A landscape in North- Eastern Greece — Apollo, Herakles, Admetus, 
 and Alcestis are seen together — The two last tell their story. 
 
 From the great splendour of the early gods, 
 
 Earliest yet fairest they, my eyes I turned 
 To the cool solace of terrene abodes, 
 While yet th' o'erarching dome that conscious burned 
 
 With forms divine, like morn's gay hues by day 
 Yet unabsorbed, its living hues inurned. 
 But fronting where we stood, with olives grey 
 
 And terraced vineyards marged, and meadows green 
 Mottled with kine, Boeotia's ^ waters lay. 
 Untold the name I knew, and far between 
 
 Where tillage-patched the ground, and hamlet smoke 
 Curled in thin wreaths, were Pherae's turrets seen. 
 A land of peaceful days ; nor trumpet woke 
 
 Echoes of war and fear, nor barbarous foe 
 Loosed the scared oxen from the ploughman's yoke. 
 Nor blight the springtide marred, nor parching glow 
 
 Of drought made summer bare, nor ray malign 
 Of thwarting star might fields or pastures know. 
 But flocks of silky fleece, and herded kine 
 
 And harvest-laden wains, and promise there 
 
 1 Erroneously named for Phthiotis ; the waters are the Gulf of 
 Pagasae. 
 
CANTO XXI 225 
 
 Of orchard gold and purple clustered vine. 
 These I beheld, nor from the prospect fair 
 
 Diverted thought, till as to gazing eyes 
 Sudden a star responds in evening air. 
 So to my view revealed in glad surprise 
 
 Beauty with strength allied in fourfold band 
 Showed as the polar pride of austral skies. 
 
 Apollo, Herakles, Admetus, Alcestis are seen together — • 
 My guide names their heroic deeds — Alcestis then 
 narrates her wedded happiness, Admetus' death, 
 and the appearance of Apollo ; who tells her the 
 conditions of Admetus' restoration to life. 
 
 " No more he spoke, nor need ; no doubtful strife 
 Held my divided thought ; alone my lord 
 
 Death-stricken I saw, knew but my name of wife. 
 
 O welcome more than to the sun-parched sward 
 Are summer rains, or to a mother's breast 
 
 Her only son from far past hope restored. 
 
 To me that sudden pang, from mortal vest 
 Disrobing my free soul, that joyed to know 
 
 Granted the prayer, fulfilled the glad behest ! " 
 
 Love gladly submits to such loss — Admetus renders 
 thanks for his happiness. 
 
 Thus while he spoke so grew the scene as when, 
 
 Seldom beheld, the zodiac heavens among 
 Four master planets greet the gazer's ken. 
 Yellow and red and white and crimson, hung 
 
 As in one lamp, while broad and bright the day 
 Widening beneath such upward radiance flung, — 
 Even so the wondrous four from earth's decay 
 
 To deathless heaven withdrawn, all change above. 
 Passed with that happier age ; true mirrors they 
 
 Of earth with heaven instinct in mutual Love. 
 
CANTO XXII 
 
 Vision of heroes of Greek mythology, and glorification of Greece. 
 
 O LOVED and welcomed most whate'er the eye 
 
 Has first in love beheld, on which the mind 
 Has first assayed its hidden alchemy 
 To its own self transforming all in kind. 
 
 Much we behold in after days, but still 
 In nought like these heart's true repose we find : 
 Nor charm of foreign clime nor scene has skill. 
 
 Though decked in brightest hues, the soul t' enchain 
 As that first vision of life's fronting hill. 
 Such too his joy whom distant lands detain 
 
 'Mid stranger speech, if chance the accents known 
 To childhood's ears renew the simple strain. 
 Even so to me those names familiar grown 
 
 In boyhood's opening morn their welcome made. 
 In their own living truth substantial shown. 
 
 This was no phantom vision, the Gods existing still in 
 power to bless or ban- — A vast multitude of beauti- 
 ful forms, heroes, matrons, virgins, is seen : Theseus, 
 Peirithous, Hippolytus : 
 
 There too new lighted on th' Icarian hill ^ 
 1 Ethiopian, according to legend. 
 
CANTO XXII 227 
 
 He 1 who the tribute shame of virgin blood 
 Endured not, virgin-born in hours of ill. 
 And there unbowed unwronged beside him stood 
 
 In naked beauty clad with downcast eyes 
 The rescued type of spotless maidenhood.^ 
 
 lo is also here, and Iphigeneia. 
 
 There too with serious mien like one intent 
 
 On deeds the thought disowns, and lustral wreath 
 Twined round her pallid brows, Electra went.^ 
 Nor yet a mother's crime, a father's death, 
 
 Had all from memory past, though calm serene 
 Sat in her eyes and tuned her even breath. 
 And still, like light diffused, th' Athenian Queen 
 
 Was present there, and Phoebus' cleansing fire 
 Felt by the conscious sense, a power unseen. 
 And there from thirst unslaked of vain desire 
 
 The self-consuming soul of him * who deemed 
 All height attained but mounting step to higher. 
 Who from Chimaera's triform curse redeemed 
 
 Lycia, thy vineclad slopes, himself the while 
 Mightiest of men, yet outcast most he seemed. 
 Lord of the broad-winged steed,^ by force or guile 
 
 Victor in scornful might ; then phantom-chased 
 O'er the Alaeian plains in drear exile. 
 Here be thy rest, great spirit j the seeming waste 
 
 Of gems for earth too rare, in treasured store 
 Are gathered here, 'mid their own brightness placed ; 
 
 And many more from Grecian lands. 
 
 1 Perseus, son to Danae. , 
 
 2 Andromeda. 
 2 Daughter to Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. 
 * Bellerophon. ^ Pegasus. 
 
228 BOO 
 
 As 'mid the pleasant hills where rolls the tide 
 
 Of gathered Rhine some plots of happier ground 
 Bear a fine fruitage to all else denied, 
 Nectar of choicest fount, though nought around 
 
 The perfumed source reveal, or reason show 
 In heaven's aspect or local influence found. 
 Even thus all gifts the lords of earth bestow 
 
 On other lands, fair Greece, compared with thine 
 Are but as woodland fruits that common grow, 
 To the choice clusters of the tended vine ; 
 
 For thine the natural grace, the loveliness 
 Of human life inwoven with life divine. 
 Till men with gods and gods with men no less 
 
 In just proportion moved, and each with each 
 Blended, a Psychd twined in love's caress. 
 Nor vaunt of nobler height nor wider reach 
 
 Than this has earth beheld, nor rival peers 
 Can subtler lore or deeper wisdom teach. 
 From throes of vain desire, from phantom fears 
 
 Exempt, in truth content, in truth complete 
 Was the great orb of Hellas' golden years. 
 Thus spoke the voice, and ceased ; to music sweet 
 
 Changing the inarticulate close, nor I 
 What more I heard may in this verse repeat. 
 Then as in gathered pomp of pageant high 
 
 From door to tapestried dais some palace hall 
 Dazzles with myriad hues the enquiring eye ; 
 Where silks and diamond sparks and plumage tall 
 
 In flickering movement blend, a shifting mass, 
 Colour and form and light from wall to wall, 
 Then to the orchestra's voice subdued they pass 
 
 In ordered range distinct, till perfect there 
 The figured dance its full completeness has, 
 Single with Single poised and pair with pair, 
 
 Till all, confused before, by the sweet spell 
 Is woven in beauty's loom, — so swift so fair 
 
CANTO XXII 229 
 
 The Olympian mount, the Aetolian citadel, 
 
 With all they held of gods and god-like men, 
 Nature's perfection, mountain, plain and dell, 
 To such a oneness grew that subtlest ken 
 
 Could naught misplaced discern, but last and first 
 From one derived to one returned again. 
 As a fair rose in some choice garden nurst 
 
 By earth and air, sunshine and diamond dew, 
 All precious things else separate and dispersed 
 Joins to one perfect orb of form and hue. 
 
 In its sole compass nature's best to prove, 
 Hellas ! such rose wast thou ; thy leaves bestrew 
 
 The ruined shrines of Saturn, Jove, and Love. 
 
CANTO XXIII 
 
 The beautiful old world fades — My guide reveals its reappearance 
 — We enter a desert, and see a Mohammedan army — Sketch 
 of the career of Mahomet and his followers. 
 
 The spectacle of Hellas passes away : 
 
 And like a child widowed of brief delight 
 
 I wept that vision fair that nevermore 
 May gild earth's dwindhng day or cheer her night, 
 Till the great winter's frost from shore to shore 
 
 Have frozen life's restless sea, and deadly chill 
 Pulseless abide the planet's inmost core. 
 
 I grieve with idle tear's, 
 
 Till spoke my guide, "Why mourn'st thou? vain the 
 tears 
 
 Shed for what fades nor dies, though changeful form 
 O'er the bright glass draw the dim veil of years. 
 Thick roll the mists of the ever-varying storm. 
 
 And bleak the snow-strewn path, but th' upper skies 
 Nor envious vapours stain nor clouds deform. 
 Twain are the natures, twain the eternities 
 
 Of gods, and men by gods beloved ; nor time 
 
CANTO XXIII 231 
 
 " Shall dim their star, nor fret their Paradise. 
 Though rare and rarer yet the heights who climb 
 
 Where in th' assurance of inviolate Truth 
 Throne the high gods, with men as gods sublime. 
 The planet's secular spring, the bloom of youth. 
 
 Have from the painted canvass passed ; but yet. 
 Though marked by wrinkled age and piteous ruth, 
 Abides the essential life, from the fierce fret 
 
 Of sect and creed secure ; so sure, so deep 
 On the hid core the seal divine is set. 
 With this content abide, nor fondly steep 
 
 In vain regrets thy strength ; rugged and long 
 Yet lies the path our destined steps must tread. 
 Even to life's utmost bourne, where temporal wrong 
 
 Fades as a noontide cloud, till all complete 
 Be the full measure of th' appointed song. 
 And short the fate-permitted hours, and fleet 
 
 The dial's passing shade, nor twice to man 
 May due performance with occasion meet." 
 Then I, " As on parched plains the breezes fan 
 
 A half-extinguished fire, so now thy speech 
 Quickens the emprize thy guidance erst began. 
 Thine to conduct, sole Master, thine to teach ; 
 
 To learn, to follow, mine, far as the stair 
 May upward climb, or orbed existence reach.'' 
 And now our eyes before, level and bare. 
 
 Such desert spread as by Tchaeona's ^ waste 
 Fit margin makes to the Erythraean's glare. 
 Nor herbage green nor painted floweret graced 
 
 That desolate silence, barren all and dry 
 With pebbly sands and splintered rock defaced. 
 And from unclouded depths th' o'erarching sky 
 
 Poured down the heat that kills, and on the sand 
 Th' illusive vapour mocked the thirsty eye. 
 Thus while we went, far o'er the distant strand 
 ' Apparently a desert near the Red Sea. 
 
232 BOOK II 
 
 That in long ranges heaved, what doubtful seemed 
 If dust or smoke, approaching wreaths I scanned. 
 More and more near they drew, while through them 
 gleamed 
 
 Flashes of steely light ; and these among, 
 But higher raised, outslanted bannerets streamed. 
 Till through the dusty veil revealed a throng 
 
 Of swart-browed warriors tall with eager eyes, 
 Panoplied inail, keen swords, and lances long 
 Sudden before us ranged, from storm-vexed skies 
 
 As herded sea-birds sweep when to their flight 
 Refuge or rest the weltering wave denies, 
 Dark as the vanguard cloud of conquering night 
 
 In th' East upgathering wide, an ominous shade 
 Across our path, barring the onward sight. 
 Such was the phantom band, so broad displayed 
 
 Nor friends nor foes as yet, each horseman grim 
 As for brief parle a grudging period made. 
 Then with low voice thus spoke my guide, " Of him 
 
 Arabia's prophet son, whom first the land 
 From Syria's hills to Aden's ocean rim 
 Teacher and lord revered ; at whose command 
 
 Of that fierce tribe the warring elements 
 Were each with each soldered in adamant band. 
 The shade thou seest ; and who th' uncounted tents 
 
 Of Nejd and the far South, by that fierce spirit 
 Transformed to age-enduring monuments 
 Who the great fame or infamy inherit 
 
 Summed in thy name, Islam ! a name of power 
 Alike to those who spurn and those who bear it. 
 O dark the noontide gloom and woe the hour 
 
 When th' unseen might in Gabriel's borrowed name 
 Bore the first summons to Khadjah's bower ! 
 As falls on withered leaves the lightning flame, 
 
 The secular woods around to one vast pyre 
 Kindling in sudden blaze, so fateful came 
 
CANTO XXIII 233 
 
 " On that dark mind adust the daemon fire 
 
 From Calpe's pillared gates to farthest tide 
 Of sunrise seas remote ; nor gilded spire 
 Of Buddha's hohest shrines, nor marble pride 
 
 Of Europe's worshipped cross th' inviolate sign, 
 Might unconsumed that fiery torrent bide." 
 He spoke, and pointed to the turbaned line 
 
 Of those who scant of pomp, in semblance rude, 
 Trampled to dust th' imperial Byzantine. 
 " Nor long ere Persia's jewelled multitude 
 
 Felt the keen sabre's edge, and Susa mourned 
 Her sacred fires, quenched in a priesthood's blood. 
 Thence from a conquered Orient Westward turned 
 
 The sword of God misnamed, till farthest Spain 
 Had the fit meed of tyrannous incest earned.^ 
 Even to the Pyrenean, and the red plain 
 
 Known of Poitiers, where first the crescent moon 
 Of Mecca's heaven shrunk to unwonted wane 
 In the far West reversed ; but all too soon 
 
 Renewed its fires, as some fell meteor lamp 
 Blasts with ill-omened glare th' astonished noon. 
 So with fierce cymbal clang and myriad tramp 
 
 Of Tartar steeds the hordes of Gobi's ^ waste 
 Poured on the fenceless lands their locust camp : 
 An Eden smiled their march before, defaced 
 
 And desolate all behind, from old Cathay 
 On to the bounds by Helle's waters traced ; 
 Till from Byzantium's towers the latest ray 
 
 Of Hellas' lore divine and Flavian glory ^ 
 In blood and fire for ever passed away. 
 The rest thou know'st ; the Danube waters gory 
 
 With Christian rout, Otranto's ghastly cry, 
 
 1 Refers to the legend of Cava ravished. 
 
 2 In MS. written Kohi. 
 
 3 The glory of the best period of the Roman Empire ; or 
 because Vespasian made Byzantium a Roman Province. 
 
234 BOOK II 
 
 " And lost Mohacks, and shamed Vienna's story. 
 But this deep graven retain ; 'twixt earth and sky 
 
 Than this no deadlier blight the ill-matched pair, 
 Error with Truth, have given for progeny." 
 Scarce had he spoke, such clamours filled the air 
 
 As when the clarion call from tent to tent 
 Bids a great host for new assault prepare. 
 No God but God, the One, no message sent 
 
 But his, the Prophet Chief's, with wavering yell 
 Loud clanging o'er the pageant-heaven was sent."^ 
 Each hand the sabre gripped, each visage fell 
 
 Lowered with intent of ill, as wolves at even 
 Glare on the traveller by the darkening fell. 
 Trembled the ground beneath, with gloom the heaven 
 
 Was grey, while shapes of death those ranks before 
 Flew like wreck-ominous birds by tempest driven. 
 Where now the smiles of Love, the joys of yore 
 
 By populous town or hamlet known or grove ; 
 Where the fair forms of Rome and Greece, the store 
 
 Treasured for men beloved by Gods who love ? 
 
 1 Sic MS. 
 
CANTO XXIV 
 
 Mohammedan heroes are seen in vision, and a final true Paradise is 
 prophesied for them. 
 
 By Tigris' crumbling banks and Syria's plains 
 
 Who meets the whirling cloud that pillared high 
 With storm-swept dust the noonday radiance stains, 
 More wildered bides not in mid way than I, 
 
 Whelmed in that angry gloom where sound and sight 
 No aid could bring, nor hopeful clue supply. 
 Arid nature's self, of all that bears delight 
 
 Forbid where needed most, in senseless swoon 
 Sought a brief respite from that evil night. 
 Prostrate on earth I lay|; not long, for soon, 
 
 As through deep waters dimly visible 
 Strange forms float upward to the magic moon, 
 So through the darkness blank and palpable 
 
 Of my tranced spirit as on a curtained screen 
 Rose the great forms of Islam's inmost spell. 
 Of fair presentment some ; and some were seen 
 
 Stateliest of hero mould, and some with gloom 
 Darkly deformed, some with pure joy serene. 
 And first his pictured form ^ I knew to whom 
 
 By rightful heirdom due, by guile delayed, 
 1 AH. 
 
236 BOOK II 
 
 Mecca a Lordship, Kufa gave a tomb ; 
 Fourth of the Caliph Hne, yet first, thy blade 
 
 Two-edged on foes and friends was turned ; by thee 
 The deadliest wound ^ in Islam's breast, was made, 
 Cloven by that sword in twain ; each moiety 
 
 Unites no more, but with strange life endued 
 Grows to new forms of dateless enmity. 
 Then as a ripple fades from off the flood 
 
 Faded that awful form, and in its place 
 Rising a diverse shape,^ yet kindred, stood ; 
 Midway 'twixt youth's first bloom and the early grace 
 
 Of manhood's prime it came ; but foully showed 
 With blood the hands defiled, with blood the face. 
 Now less than man with anguish marred, a god 
 
 Irradiate now with conquest, like the star 
 Of demon name th' alternate presence glowed. 
 Herald of love divine, from regions far 
 
 An angel sent to earth, from fiercest hell 
 A power of dark deceit and ruthless war. 
 What legends strange unvouched, what secular spell 
 
 Circles thy name, what fruits thy blossoms bear. 
 Fairest and foulest Asia's pages tell. 
 Then as that image passed, the dusky air 
 
 Grew to uncounted forms, in vesture quaint 
 Such as in maddest hours earth's masquers wear. 
 But shadowy more and vague they seemed, and faint 
 
 The banners o'er them waved ; uncertain things. 
 Despot or slave I knew not, fiend or saint. 
 To the drugged wretch no wilder vision brings 
 
 Poppy or henbane fell, nor denser throng 
 To Scythian field corpse-scented vulture wings. 
 And but the power of that enchantment strong 
 
 To slumber bound my bodily sense, amaze, 
 
 1 The schism between Shiites and Sonnites, Persians and 
 Turks. 
 
 ^ Husein, son of Ali. 
 
CANTO XXIV 237 
 
 O'ermastering trance, had done the vision wrong, 
 As North winds scatter clouds ; but now my gaze 
 
 Was prisoner held, while that vague imagery 
 Grew to distinctness on the pictured haze. 
 There in 'mid circle hailed, with call and cry 
 
 Wearying the Meccan heaven, a motley band 
 Sole truth sole lord proclaimed their fancy's lie ; 
 And some in pilgrim guise from land to land 
 
 Passed to the central shrine, where the fierce flame 
 Of Islam burns by yearly breezes fanned. 
 Others a servile garb and borrowed name 
 
 O'er wealth and lineage cast, from palace-home 
 Self-banished wanderers made, nor thought it shame 
 With outcasts vile and leper hordes to roam. 
 
 Scornful and scorned of earth, by weariness. 
 Hunger, nor pain nor death itself, o'ercome, — 
 Such power has love divine ; though in false dress 
 
 Mis-trapped by fancy's wrong; and all awry 
 The aim, but sure the bolt, and true the stress. 
 For the sphered influence of the infolding sky 
 
 May be disguised, not quenched ; through mist and 
 cloud 
 Passes unseen the life-giving alchemy. 
 Then changed the scene; I saw where thronged a 
 crowd, 
 
 Eager with hate and hate's worst hopes, beneath 
 A palace gate ; above, the banner proud 
 Of stern Ommeyya to the sultry breath 
 
 Of Syria's summer waved ; but in the hall 
 Throned gnawing pain and all too lingering death. 
 For there the warrior chiefs whose sword in thrall 
 
 Levelled a subject world, from Calpe's straits 
 Dreaded to far Cathay's inviolate wall. 
 Helpless a captive lies ; those prison gates 
 
 None may unlock but death, who day by day 
 1 Uncertain : probably Musa or Khalid, 
 
238 BOOK 
 
 Nearer, yet slow, the torturer's bidding waits. 
 Yet on that face serene no shadow lay 
 
 Of anxious thought ; no keenest pain or care 
 Traced on that brow the lines of hope's decay ; 
 But in their place such smile as conquerors wear 
 
 When won the day, such radiance calm as grows 
 Of love fulfilled and compassed hope were there ; 
 Nor the heart-sickening pang, nor keener throes 
 
 Of life's great purpose closed, nor doubt nor dread 
 Vexed the still depths of that entire repose. 
 Then was I ware of one who by that bed 
 
 In feigned compassion stood, the while his hate 
 On visible pain and death its rancour fed. 
 One who for vengeance long delayed and late 
 
 Had watched a tale of years, in hope deferred 
 Patient as hound before his master's gate. 
 Th' outwearied sigh, the moan of anguish heard, 
 
 Were to his ear sweet music ; in his breast 
 Each sign of pain responsive pleasure stirred. 
 But he whose storm-tossed bark to the sure rest 
 
 Was hastening with spread sail, — and now the keel 
 Touched on that shore the haven of his quest. 
 Where other airs and other suns reveal 
 
 What earth-bound life denied, — on those around 
 Gazing, thus of long silence broke the seal : 
 " My God, my King, by thy acceptance crowned," 
 
 Thus were his words, " my being's sacrifice 
 All I desire has full acceptance found. 
 Enough for me to live, my Lord, though dies 
 
 All other life with mine, enough for me 
 So God remain though perish earth and skies. 
 To be, if such thy will, or not to be 
 
 Is to thy servant one ; thy reign beside 
 Nought I desire, nor hope, nor know but thee." 
 Then ere he ceased, as floods the rising tide 
 
 Silent but swift the sands, a radiance shone 
 
CANTO XXIV 239 
 
 From the far hills seen through the portals wide ; 
 Yet not of earth that splendour, nor the sun 
 
 Had in its glory part ; from far away 
 Beamed that effulgence of the eternal throne. 
 And in its light revealed, as breaks the day 
 
 Sudden o'er vale and town and height, when riven 
 Night's curtain, edged with rain by morn's keen ray, — 
 An earth all gems and living gold, a heaven 
 
 Vaulted with rainbow splendours, an abode 
 To victim love by love triumphant given. 
 There 'neath green shades of perfumed foliage trod 
 
 Singly or grouped in happy converse, they 
 By * men's * own kin disowned, avowed by God. 
 'Mid the cool garden shades and perfumed spray 
 
 Silent they passed or sate, and love divine 
 Clothed them as clothes a bride her pure array. 
 They from red clusters of the eternal vine 
 
 That flowered when Eden was not, with warm hands 
 In bowls elysian press the inebriate wine : 
 Not in Hesperian isles nor fabled lands 
 
 Arcadian, glow such clustered grapes, nor stain 
 With purple gleam Panchaia's ^ fragrant sands. 
 But ever and anon a magic strain 
 
 Trancing th' astonished sense, through the far trees 
 Came like a fitful wind o'er harvest plain. 
 And as struck harp-cords vibrate to the breeze 
 
 Faithful response to faintest touch, a tune 
 Noteless, all notes above, beyond, so these 
 Were one with that far music made, and soon 
 
 All separate thought, all will, all life were lost 
 As shadows lost in the universal noon. 
 And those who most fantastic showed, or most 
 
 In quaint disguise misformed, in that bright beam 
 Transfigured shone, fairest of that fair host : 
 And the deep trance till then that held my dream 
 ■' Virgilian name for Arabia Felix. 
 
240 BOOK II 
 
 Passed as a morning mist, nor aught remained 
 Of all beheld or heard, my wonder's theme, 
 But a small voice and still, " The height attained 
 
 Not what they sought, but more, conferred ; the dove 
 Awhile with erring flight perplexed, detained. 
 
 Has the true dovecote found, th' all-sheltering Love." 
 
CANTO XXV 
 
 We are now in a lifeless desert, thickly strown with gravestones 
 covered with mouldering sculpture — Here are materialist and 
 sensual philosophers with their followers, Epicurus their leader 
 — These are lost from existence — I grieve at this apparent 
 exception from the law of purgation ; but my guide promises 
 for them also a final restoration. 
 
 As who from land embarked at eve, alone 
 
 Through darkest night where lamp or moon or star 
 Was none, on the damp deck his limbs has thrown 
 And feels the heaving plank, but near or far 
 
 Nothing discerns or knows, while the dumb hours 
 Muffled attend on night's slow-moving car 
 O'er the long arch of Tithon's joyless bowers, 
 
 Till broadens grey the dawn, and lone the sun 
 O'er a lone sea looks from his Eastern towers. 
 But friendly voice or sight familiar none 
 
 Is there that home recalls, but vapour chill 
 And the monotonous wash of waters dun, — 
 Then thinks, " If all the past of good or ill 
 
 Be but a fancied dream, no more, and I 
 Of shadows vain a shadow vainer still." — 
 Such was my thought when to the circling eye 
 
 That gazing sought, but found not, sign nor trace 
 Told of the vision's vanished pageantry, 
 
 R 
 
242 BOOK 11 
 
 But 'mid rock-margined heights an open space 
 
 Thin-streaked with yellow grass and grey with stone, 
 Showed as 'mid grizzled hair an eyeless face. 
 Nor motion there nor sound, save the low moan 
 
 As of a restless breeze that fretted there 
 Over some loved remembrance lost and gone. 
 Nor insect shape the soil nor bird the air 
 
 Furrowed with cheerful life ; above, beneath 
 Emptiness stretched o'er empty land and bare. 
 " What land, what doom is this, where formless death 
 
 Unpartnered sceptre holds, where trace nor sign 
 Of life ? " with stifled voice and difiScult breath 
 Thus to my guide I spoke, his hand on mine 
 
 The while he laid, and with reviving cheer 
 Quickened my step where led the transverse line. 
 " Not as thou think'st," he said, " the place, nor here 
 
 Empty the realm and void, though likeness none 
 Greet the enquiring eye nor sound the ear. 
 This their fit rest assigned whose course was run 
 
 Godless to godless end, who life from earth 
 Cancelled, from earth the heaven, from heaven the sun. 
 For as a lifeless corpse of little worth, 
 
 A sunless sky, a flowerless mead, a feast 
 Spread amid tombs, of music void and mirth, 
 So were earth's visible show, or bird or beast, 
 
 Insect or herb or man, of that bereft 
 To whom each form, from perfect most to least. 
 Is but the apparent mask, assumed or left 
 
 By the hid Power, earth's viewless visitant. 
 Pearls of his dew, threads of his burning weft. 
 As to the sun the flower, as turns the plant 
 
 To the stream-side its roots, as yearns the boy. 
 Nor knows his yearning's aim to love's new want, 
 So all the years produce, complete, destroy. 
 
 Yearns to the hidden life that day by day 
 To each in turn existence gives and joy. 
 
CANTO XXV 243 
 
 " But these by self-taught paths a joyless way 
 
 On earth pursued, from love exiled, their doom 
 Dull morn, unjoyous noon, and evening grey : 
 Till for the light their life disowned deep gloom 
 
 Quenched their unfuelled orb ; of secular death 
 The valley this thou seest, th' unopening tomb. 
 Look round, but here delay not long, unneath ^ 
 
 Mayst thou th' invisible curse abide ; nor here 
 Fit place for human heart or human breath." 
 As who when dank in fogs the dying year 
 
 Grows to its latest dawn, through misty screen 
 Sees wall, or leafless tree, or hedge outpeer. 
 So those grey stones and barren sands between, 
 
 At distance undiscerned, in nearer view 
 Tombstones of various shape and date were seen. 
 Not closer laid the lettered slabs that strew, 
 
 Yarmouth, thy churchyard sands, and o'er and o'er 
 The oft-told tale of shipwrecked death renew ; 
 Though by no other beach the memoried store 
 
 Of wrong by tempest wrought such record have. 
 From Northmost Cape to Devon's rocky shore. 
 But different here the guise ; on every grave 
 
 Not writ but imaged forth in form was shown 
 Whose the long winter of that godless cave. 
 For there no second spring ; the harvest sown 
 
 In death, by death is reaped ; the lords of being 
 Disowned by these, justly their lot disown. 
 Then to this region brought by just decreeing 
 
 A timeless date they bide, through ages slow 
 Earth's frustrate years and lustral dues out-dreeing.^ 
 There 'mid those cancelled forms was mine to know 
 
 Outlined the shade of him for sage renowned 
 By sophist speech, and reason's empty show : 
 Who first a soulless world and empty round 
 
 Of atom chance and blind necessity 
 
 ^ Scarcely. 2 Undergoing penance for. 
 
244 BOOK II 
 
 From Thracia's wold first brought to Grecian ground. 
 Then, as the fields when favouring earth and sky 
 
 To happiest crops combine, if with ill seed 
 Sprinkled, all rankest growths and worst supply, 
 So that ill harvest of malignant weed 
 
 Blighting the sense and mind, the land o'erspread ; 
 A godless tribe, mocked by a godless creed. 
 " Here the vain crowd by Epicurus led 
 
 On varying paths, but frustrate all, attain 
 Not as they sought, the death that slays the dead. 
 With these whome'er dull heart and shallow brain 
 
 Prisoned in earthly sense, the powers they knew not 
 Know them not now for joy or penal pain ; 
 Here on their native earth the flower that grew not 
 
 Grows not for them, but stony barrenness. 
 And slow decay, that secular years renew not. 
 Till from each Sepulchre-stone the faint impress 
 
 Of its dishonoured form by age on age 
 Effaced, have passed to utter nothingness. 
 A rayless sunless starless blank the wage 
 
 Of life from life's intent disjoined, a word 
 Blotted and lost from being's record page." 
 Thus spoke my guide, then ceased ; but I who heard 
 
 The death pronounced on these, the stony doom 
 Whence no recall, with inward doubt was stirred ; 
 And thus, " If to no voice, no hope, the tomb 
 
 Restore its guarded prey, no second spring 
 This winter show, no dawn disperse the gloom. 
 Say, my true guide, my lord, what might shall bring 
 
 Back to love's fold these wanderers strayed, and close, 
 Imperfect else, life's all-including ring ? 
 Or shall love's crowning flower, the eternal rose 
 
 Of man's innumerous life, else perfect found. 
 Wanting of these, its full completeness lose ? " 
 In doubt I spoke, with sadness compassed round 
 
 That aught by love to living conscience brought 
 
CANTO XXV 245 
 
 Should fade, as fades in air a passing sound. 
 
 But he, my guide, in whose clear sight my thought 
 
 Even to its depths was known, from causeless grief 
 Of error bred, soon my delivery wrought. 
 And thus, " With golden corn the plenteous sheaf 
 
 In treasured store abides, while idly driven 
 By outer blasts is whirled the withered leaf. 
 Yet by one dew, one rain, one fostering heaven 
 
 Were both to ripeness brought, though this neglected, 
 Upgarnered that in balance scales uneven. 
 Honoured the life-sustaining grain, rejected 
 
 The barren leaf's decay, yet both one end 
 Upgathers last, till all by one collected. 
 So, for to thee 'tis given, thy vision send 
 
 Through cycled years of time, till closed thy gaze 
 Where to one point the lines converging tend. 
 Life's countless atoms there, th' unnumbered rays 
 
 Of orbed existence, first to least and last, 
 Make up the keenness of that central blaze. 
 There the dead dust of these, in ages past 
 
 Fashionless nameless long, to merest light 
 Transformed, as gold by purging fire recast." 
 Thus while he spoke, as through the frosty night 
 
 Shiver the wind-blown stars, the plain around 
 Glittered each time-worn stone with sparkles bright ; 
 And as of opening leaves a rustling sound 
 
 Filled all the place, and 'mid the gravestones seen 
 Of those sad forms nor sign nor trace was found : 
 Till from my sight, as ne'er such things had been. 
 
 Vanished the graves, the plain ; and pure above 
 The light-enwoven dome of heaven serene 
 
 Shone in the radiance of impersonate Love. 
 
CANTO XXVI 
 
 Five Queens, representing different religions, appear : presently 
 they are fused in one — She claims whatever has been good in 
 Judaism, Hellenism, and Christianity. 
 
 Lord of my life, star of my childhood's dawn, 
 
 Sun of my manhood's noon, sole fountain thou 
 Whence the high verse by thee made mine is drawn, — 
 Mightier and more than when from the high brow 
 
 Of earth's extremest barrier burst the view 
 Of the seven lustral realms, be with me now : 
 For other verse and other strains are due 
 
 To what remains to tell ; nor slight the task 
 That links with visioned shows the substance true. 
 But this thou canst and more ; thy hand the mask 
 
 Can bind and loose at will, thy skill bestow 
 More than my thought can reach or purpose ask. 
 For not by Trophon's cave,^ or Chebar's flow, 
 
 Or sea-girt Patmos lone, such vision yet 
 Painted in stranger forms its boding show. 
 From a green hill a changeful rivulet 
 
 Now clear now turbid ran ; its banks beside 
 Five damsels throned in sequent order set. 
 Meagre the first and stern, her claw-like hand 
 1 The Hellenic oracle of Trophonius. 
 
CANTO XXVI 247 
 
 Clutched on a written scroll ; as one from old 
 Scornful and scorned, askance the rest she scanned. 
 Who next in order sat with gems and gold 
 
 A queen of nations seemed ; but form and face 
 Were lost to view, shrouded in crimson fold. 
 And following her, but by a little space 
 
 Parted, and half averse, with sword and lance 
 Threatening, a dusky form was third in place. 
 But these unlike the fourth ; her sunny glance 
 
 Of gentlest purpose told ; the spring-clad mead 
 Has not the brightness of her countenance. 
 Gorgeous with gems untold and costly weed 
 
 Of strange device, the fifth on things afar 
 Intent, of those around took little heed. 
 Such were the five ; o'er each a tremulous star 
 
 Now dim now radiant shone, with doubtful ray 
 White as fair peace, or red with crimson war. 
 And as the living fires at close of day 
 
 Frequent by Indian glades, now bright now dim 
 Alternate flash with blank eclipse, so they. 
 But the five sister queens nor eye nor limb 
 
 Moved where entranced they sat, changeless and still 
 Like marble forms in alleyed gardens trim. 
 
 My guide directs me to record the vision — I see these 
 Queens like phantoms before a treasure -cave : as 
 dancers move and intermingle, 
 
 Thus one by one those shapes, those colours gay 
 Dazzling the sense, those vestments mystical 
 
 Blended or passed, nor earnest all nor play, 
 
 But fused of each ; for what the immortals call 
 Earnest is play to men, and mortal mind 
 
 For earnest holds the laughter of heaven's hall. 
 
 A strange dream that cannot be unravelled. Then, 
 like clouds at evening. 
 
248 BOOK II 
 
 So one by one those several forms descried 
 
 Each on her throne apart, in rival state 
 Of jewelled robe distinct and sceptred pride, 
 Collected grew to one, that singly great 
 
 Summed up the fivefold reign ; to each the face 
 Like yet unlike, in a new power elate. 
 And the five thrones that erst in ordered place 
 
 Eternal seemed as those who sat, in one 
 But loftier far, were piled and wider space. 
 And the five stars in several light that shone 
 
 In one portentous flared, a meteor flame 
 Of doubtful days the dread prognostic known. 
 But she now throned aloft, sole Queen and Dame, 
 
 Whate'er those five divided held of yore. 
 Beauty or grace, or lustrous gawd, or name. 
 In her one self resumed, and corporate bore 
 
 Now this, now that, now one, now all of those 
 By her summed up, in power and Queenship more. 
 Veiled was her face ; in her right hand a rose 
 
 Outshone the ruby's glow ; her left a bowl 
 Filled with the draught which he who drinks it knows : 
 And cross her brows and round her arms a scroll 
 
 Writ with a Name of Power, and folded hung 
 O'er breast and girdled loins the mystic scroll. 
 And far the rose its heavy fragrance flung. 
 
 And ruddier glowed the star, while murmuring low 
 Like one in passionate trance her lay she sung. 
 I heard the words, I knew the strain, and thou. 
 
 Reader of this strange verse, if chance the strain 
 Thou know'st not, bide thy time till given to know. 
 This was the song ; " From hunger, thirst, and pain. 
 
 Hunger for more than bread, and thirst that clings 
 Like Oeta's poisonous flame ^ to heart and brain, . 
 To my spread feast, my fountain come ; my wings 
 
 Shelter and healing give ; in me the calm 
 ' The poisoned robe which consumed Herakles on Mount Oeta. 
 
CANTO XXVI 249 
 
 " Of earth's unrest, the sum and crown of things. 
 Binding in me the bruised, the wounded balm, 
 
 The hopeless hope, the dying life, the dead 
 True resurrection find and conqueror's palm. 
 By me through thorn-set paths and deserts led 
 
 Who from earth's offered pastures turned aside 
 Have on heaven's grapes and fruits ambrosial fed. 
 By me from gilded thrones and marble pride 
 
 Of palace towers great kings in eager haste 
 Have passed to hermit cave and lone hill-side. 
 By me still cloister walls with lilies chaste 
 
 Outvie love's crimson rose ; and caverned wells 
 Sweeter than wine in golden goblets taste. 
 For mine th' enchantments, mine the master-spells 
 
 That the red torments of the martyr's pyre 
 Can change to soothing dews, so legend tells. 
 From the first dawn when the star-spangled quire 
 
 Man's birth profclaimed in song, to the dim close 
 When thought and life in earth's last night expire, 
 Still shall the incense clouds, the steams that rose 
 
 From altars victim-piled, the hearts of men 
 Captive to me, the rapturous joys, the throes 
 Of a blind world, my .changeless right remain, 
 
 Though changed full oft the scheme, in semblance 
 new. 
 As one the moon if wax her form or wane." 
 
 Thus in the several phases — Judaism, Greece in 
 the Golden Age, Christianity — has she presented 
 herself. 
 
CANTO XXVII 
 
 All nations are seen gathered round the great Queen, whose rays 
 bless some and doom others — This difference my guide is 
 unable to explain — Suddenly the whole scene vanishes as a 
 mirage — The guide smiles, and I see a vision of the new 
 Olympian Heaven. 
 
 If moments passed or years, where count of time 
 
 Was not by days or hours or dialled star, 
 He may alone declare who to that clime 
 From things that are not led to things that are. 
 
 His be my song to guide, lest rashly driven 
 Swerve from its course the memory's light poised car. 
 As o'er the wide encircling green when even 
 
 In stillness holds the land, a distant sound 
 Of homeward birds comes up the twilight heaven. 
 So from the hill-fenced marge that girt around 
 
 The spectral plain, where in proud silence now 
 Sat the great Queen with fivefold empire crowned. 
 Gathered a noise, and grew, from bough to bough 
 
 As sweeps the forest wave when first the breeze 
 Fitfully blows the leafy branches through. 
 And a vast crowd in banded companies 
 
 Thronged to that central spot from every side. 
 Thick as in summer-swarms the blackening bees. 
 And as the circling rooks at eventide 
 
CANTO XXVII 251 
 
 With clamour fill the grove, so now the cry 
 In dissonant tongues to stranger tones allied. 
 Hither from where the polestar keen and high 
 
 Reigns o'er the icebound North, to where the day 
 Holds in mid heaven his year-long majesty, 
 All tribes, all clans, from earth's prolific clay 
 
 Nurtured to human form ; the motley seed 
 Of that strange life all other lives obey. 
 The sons of Europe's townships and the breed 
 
 Of Asia's houseless North, and where the wave 
 Casts on reef-margined coasts the ocean weed. 
 And wher6«to brigand Spain the Italian ^ gave 
 
 A world to spoil and waste ; and, choked with sand, 
 Where yawns 'mid arid rocks the Libyan cave. 
 And where her long-haired sons the Serian land 
 
 Guards with protective fence, and where the morn 
 Risen from the deep, Japan, first greets thy strand ; — 
 All these, as yellowing leaves by tempest torn. 
 
 From Autumn boughs were gathered here, and stayed 
 Thick as on English fields the serried corn. 
 But these in circles ranged a halo made 
 
 Round her, Queen of their night, in mystic change 
 Each beyond each in various robes arrayed. 
 For crimson those who of that pageant strange 
 
 Nearest the throne were placed ; a second space 
 Gathered in snow-white robes the outer range. 
 And some with mighty gold, and some with grace 
 
 Of green or heavenly blue, and circling these 
 With duskier garb some held the outmost place. 
 With eyes upturned, spread hands, and bended knees 
 
 They girt the worshipped throne, as those who wait 
 Doubtful, yet fixed t' obey, their lord's decrees. 
 Then was I ware that from the central state 
 
 Of her, that kingdom's Queen, a several ray 
 Where light with darkness blent and love with hate 
 1 Pope Alexander VI. 
 
252 BOOK II 
 
 To each and all was sent : the human clay 
 
 Touched by that shaft ethereal grew, the stain 
 Of earth by that quick fire was purged away. 
 O happy those and blest, for little pain 
 
 Guerdoned with joys untold, whose glories writ, 
 Martyrs or saints, in fadeless light remain ! 
 But some by the same shafts with darkness smit 
 
 In evil guise were changed, a ghastly gloom 
 For nightmare shades and maniac horrors fit. 
 And still my wonder grew what secret doom 
 
 Made of that goodness ill, and why the light 
 To these deliverance wrought, to those a tomb. 
 Then thus my Guide ; " The doubt thou own'st aright 
 
 None may resolve, till stayed the sequent years 
 In that last hour that day is not nor night. 
 Nor meteor gleams of hope, nor shadowed fears 
 
 Vex the unsullied calm, the speckless glass 
 Where mirrored love in formless truth appears. 
 Not thus what now thou seest, the gathered mass 
 
 Of earth-born evil and good, the phantom throng 
 Beauteous or foul ; nor bide they long, but pass 
 As rifted clouds low driven are hurled along 
 
 In monstrous forms outstretched, that beast, or bird, 
 Or stranger shape, present when winds are strong, 
 Or the answering echo of an uttered word 
 
 Distort t' uncertain sound, by those below 
 Listening, as fancy bids, diversely heard. 
 Not more, while here our feet, is there to know, 
 
 Nor mine in words to tell ; what hid remains 
 Of loftier mount, a mightier power must show." 
 Thus while he spoke, as spreads on Syrian plains, 
 
 Of noontide-steam compact, the imaged lake 
 That with false hopes mocks the faint traveller's pains, 
 Where rocks and sand-heaped slopes and clustered brake 
 
 In form distinct are seen, and all around 
 Hills, stones, trees, sands, in tremulous ripples shake j 
 
CANTO XXVII 253 
 
 So that vast plain, the throne-uprearing mound, 
 
 And she who thereon sat, and they who prone 
 Worshipped to the far sight's extremest bound. 
 Wavered in flickering lines, till one by one 
 
 Each vestment quaint, each form, each symbol token 
 In a vague mist wrapped and dissolved were gone ; 
 Frost-work by the slant sunbeam thawed and broken, 
 
 Smoke-wreaths at noon by rising winds disparted. 
 Meaningless words in crowd or market spoken ; 
 All things of semblance fair untimely thwarted 
 
 By time or fate's decree, earth's spring by frost 
 Untimely nipped, hope frustrate, joy departed 
 Here seemed in that great wrack ; the promise most, 
 
 Least the performance found ; the solid frame 
 Night's phantom morn-dispelled, a fleeting ghost. 
 As one with sorrow part and part with shame 
 
 Smitten I saw and wept, unmindful all 
 Whither my path, or where, or whence I came. 
 There had I long remained, so dark a pall 
 
 O'erspread my heart and brain ; nor from the place 
 Had I removed, to mere despair a thrall : 
 But as on his shamed child a father's face 
 
 Is bent in pitying love, where anger none 
 Though much of grief, as for half-shared disgrace, 
 Even with such love, so sad, so helpful shone 
 
 The pitying smile of him, my lord, my guide. 
 Through the thick curtain of that darkness lone. 
 I looked ; the mists that veil, the clouds that hide. 
 
 The phantom state, the truth in fiction held, 
 The shrine misdeemed, the falsehood deified. 
 All these like night's ill dreams by morn dispelled. 
 
 Seen in that sunlike smile, that countenance 
 Perfect in beauty, scattered were and quelled. 
 Then turned on me the life-giving smile, the glance 
 
 Known to my renovate life ; an instant there 
 Oped the far portals of the Olympian trance. 
 
254 BOOK II 
 
 As height surmounting height the marble stair 
 
 In long succession upward winds, till won 
 Thy topmost pride, Milan, — so steep, so fair. 
 Rose the ascent to where what earth begun 
 
 And marred, renewed I saw ; till, reconciled. 
 Semblance with truth and gods with men were one. 
 With greener graves, with bluer mountains, smiled 
 
 Another Hellas there, with lovelier shapes 
 Peopled, by no false love from truth beguiled. 
 A mightier Pan was there ; by summer capes 
 
 A new Dion^ gleamed ; brighter the flowers. 
 Ruddier the fruits, purpler the mystic grapes. 
 
 There too was revealed the King and Conqueror, God 
 and Man : 
 
 And here the priceless pearl, the Mother Maid, 
 
 Lily and rose of earth, of heaven the gem. 
 Goddess and Queen of gods and mortals made. 
 And these beside, as round the central stem 
 
 Clusters the petalled flower, in scent and hue 
 Flawless, complete, a self-crowned diadem. 
 So those great spirits divine, faithful and true. 
 
 In many fanes enshrined, by many a tongue 
 Invoked, who to blind men the labyrinth clue 
 That heavenward leads 'mid scorn and worst of wrong 
 
 Have freely placed in hand, together blent. 
 Here tuned of renovate love the nuptial song. 
 As in a dream I heard and saw ; the intent 
 
 In part I knew, but more the depths unknown 
 Veiled, as faint stars the day-lit firmament. 
 Such changeful scenes and strange the central zone 
 
 Of the lustral realms displayed, that to relate 
 In measured verse, or from my song disown, 
 I scarce can tell ; but he whose word the gate 
 
 Of life and death unbarred, whose will to mine 
 
CANTO XXVII 25s 
 
 Is rule and law, whate'er the deed await, 
 
 Bids me the tale rehearse ; who lists the shrine 
 
 May enter free, free may the mystery prove 
 More often sought than found, the fount divine 
 
 Quickening dead earth to Eden life and Love. 
 
BOOK III 
 
CANTO I 
 
 The Fifth Kingdom — I have now passed the realms where the 
 twin-powers of Life and Death reign supreme — A vast wall 
 appears, over which an angel bears us to a fair plain full of 
 light — I regret the less fortunate souls ; a strain of music 
 sympathizes with and consoles me — This is the kingdom of 
 true poets and prose-writers, who also wait their final 
 lustration. 
 
 Past are the perilous heights where life with death 
 
 Uncertain balance holds, the road so nigh 
 To heaven's own gates, so sheer the gulf beneath. 
 Where the twin powers o'er human destiny 
 
 For good, for ill supreme, concealed from men, 
 Each the hid polestar of a visible sky, 
 Orbits of life and death, the pilgrim's ken 
 
 Lead and mislead by turns ; now each bright ray 
 Unerring guides, now wildfires of the glen. 
 But these and those are left ; henceforth the way 
 
 By easier courses led completes the ring, 
 The twilight border of life's lustral day. 
 But thou, Lord of my life, leader and king 
 
 Of the bright troop where, formed in mystic sign 
 Latest revealed, the Four i their radiance fling, 
 Assist me now ; so may the measured line 
 
 1 The constellation of the Southern Cross. 
 
260 BOOK III 
 
 Aright things seen record, as silvered glass 
 Reflects the shades that stain, the lights that shine. 
 Spring gales to budding trees, spring showers to grass 
 
 Freshness and life convey, but livelier sent 
 Through my dull soul thy quickening currents pass : 
 With thee, thou know'st, from my first hour was blent 
 
 My spirit's central self, my all"; on thee. 
 As on his lord a slave, my eyes are bent. 
 Borne by thy might, as o'er th' unfathomed sea 
 
 Fleets the white bird of Austral storm, my song. 
 O'er all that was or is or is to be, 
 Shall touch the outmost bound, secure, nor long 
 
 The message given delay, in far-off years 
 Lesson and guidance to the mortal throng. 
 And now from the dread realm where boundless fears 
 
 With boundless hopes combine, our steps had gone 
 Where a high wall its girding barrier rears. 
 No loftier fence of brick with margined stone 
 
 From the mailed Tartar guards, as travellers tell. 
 The hoarded wealth of China's populous zone. 
 Then spoke my guide ; " Who reared this barrier well 
 
 Their work have done ; what lies beyond to gain 
 Nor venturous strength avails nor mystic spell. 
 Yet were heaven's mandate unfulfilled, and vain 
 
 The path our steps have traced, if thus forbid 
 Back we return nor the full course attain." 
 As by unlooked-for doubt perplexed and chid 
 
 In undertone he spoke, the while his look 
 To right to left enquired the passage hid. 
 But I who from the words uncertain took 
 
 More fear perchance than cause, his countenance 
 Scanned as a half-taught clown a printed book, 
 Nor what I sought discerned ; though still his glance 
 
 Went and returned, as o'er some river wide 
 Unresting swifts pursue their circling dance. 
 Then with such sudden glance as meteors glide 
 
CANTO I 261 
 
 From deep to deep, yet none from whence or where 
 Their course may tell, in Autumn nights descried. 
 Through the mute stillness of th' imprisoned air 
 
 Flashed a quick ray, so bright, the lightning beam 
 111 with that blinding splendour might compare. 
 So flashed on Kishon's banks the harnessed team 
 
 That rapt the heavenward seer, its fiery glow 
 Mirrored an instant on that ancient stream. 
 But other here the shape ; no locks of snow. 
 
 No age-worn form was here, but beauty's prime 
 Linked with the perfect life immortals know. 
 Such the lone shepherd boy ^ upborn sublime 
 
 From Ida's heights, while 'mid the rock-strewn plain 
 His flocks unconscious grazed the Phrygian thyme ; — 
 Or the bright offspring of Jove's golden rain ^ 
 
 Who, Pallas-led, by Libya's haunted shore 
 Broke the dishonour of the virgin's ^ chain : — 
 Or who,* his twelvefold toil outwrought and o'er, 
 
 By guile not force o'ercome, the cleansing blaze 
 Of Oeta's self-lit pyre to heaven upbore. 
 Such, but than these more god-like, with bright rays 
 
 Crowned, who beside us stood ; the timely power 
 Sent by the Will all other Will obeys. 
 Wrapt in that splendour round, o'er wall and tower 
 
 Light as the feathery down, by winds upwhirled 
 When changed to circlets hoar the purple flower,^ 
 So light so swift our slanted flight was hurled 
 
 Far o'er the extremest verge, the fiery bound 
 To the great riddle of a wildered world. 
 Till on a meadowed plot of flowery ground 
 
 Where with fresh hues was green the grass, descend- 
 ing. 
 On grateful speech intent I turned me round. 
 But nought perceived, save with the daylight blending 
 
 1 Ganymede. ^ Perseus. ' Andromeda. 
 
 * Herakles. 5 Thistle. 
 
262 BOOK III 
 
 A swift receding gleam, nor e'er anew 
 Saw I that form my fated way befriending. 
 Then spoke my guide ; " In vain th' enquiring view 
 
 Thou strain'st, in vain thy thought ; a vanished star 
 Hid and o'ercurtained by the noonday blue ; 
 A nameless flower from nameless realms afar 
 
 Sent by the Love supreme, that mortal clay 
 Can lift unscathed to where th' immortals are. 
 Silent his power adore, and in thy lay 
 
 Grateful his deeds record ; but most the boon 
 Even to the end with duteous toil repay. 
 For near the appointed journey's close, and soon 
 
 Shalt thou with us be one ; till then refrain, 
 Nor mar with jarring haste th' unfinished tune.'' 
 Thus while he spoke, our path beside the plain 
 
 With pleasant hills distinct, and stream and wood. 
 So wrought in beauty's spell, that visioned pain 
 And fear and thought of ill, a spectral brood, 
 
 Vanished from memory's trace, as hosts of night 
 Chased by the day-star in his conquering mood. 
 For fair the landscape showed ; the glowing light 
 
 Sparkled from grass and leaf, in light the hills 
 Went up from wood-girt base to crowning height. 
 In light the copses green, in light the rills 
 
 Like shredden silver shone, as natural joy 
 Through healthful youth, and life through beauty thrills. 
 Here sure the dreamed-of rest, from earth's annoy 
 
 Or penal torment free, the golden year 
 Nor memoried ill nor present wants annoy. 
 New born desire and need their contest drear 
 
 Have here in peace defined ; Elysian shades 
 Or chance Utopia's dream or Eden's here. 
 Such was my thought while 'mid far opening glades 
 
 The turf-paved path we trod, where never leaf 
 Yellows to Autumn's touch nor floweret fades. 
 Till of that stillness born a secret grief 
 
263 
 
 Rose to the thought, of those whose sterner doom 
 Late seen, from age to age delayed rehef, — 
 As who with chaplets decked the loved one's tomb 
 
 Visits, and mourns the more, that crown nor wreath 
 Can bid the dead revive, nor sweet perfume 
 Prevail o'er damp decay, — till now my breath 
 
 Was heavy drawn with sighs, and the sad mood 
 Moistened with tears my downcast lids beneath. 
 The while in strange accord from out the wood 
 
 Came plaintive sounds and low, a plaint that told 
 Not as of present pain but absent good : 
 A vague yet true lament, a plaint of old 
 
 Heard and unanswered still, as by the swain 
 Unmarked the lamb's faint bleat from stony fold. 
 But this with sweetest notes the sad complain 
 
 Tempered to music's inmost soul, that none 
 Listening might scape the witchcraft of the strain. 
 All song of modulate voice, all concord won 
 
 From well-strung quire of men, with this compare ^ 
 Were as mere darkness to the noontide sun. 
 Then thus my master-guide ; " How calm, how fair. 
 
 This portioned realm thou seest, in wondering mind 
 That aught of grief should these calm joys impair. 
 Know then to those, whom from the vulgar kind 
 
 The favouring Muse has raised, with various wreath 
 Crowning their brows, are these blest groves assigned. 
 The poets here, in whose recording breath 
 
 Live the dead deeds of men ; or in whose rhyme 
 Love ever glows undimmed by age or death. 
 And with them here the garnered wealth of time 
 
 Who stored to later dearth, whose just award 
 Apportions meed to virtue, blame to crime. 
 And here the lords of thought, of wisdom's hoard 
 
 Who grasped the difficult keys, of heaven and earth 
 Scaled by their toil the heights, the depths explored. 
 1 Sic MS. 
 
264 BOOK III 
 
 " All these and else whoe'er of godlike birth 
 
 In measured verse or ordered prose have held 
 Truth's flawless glass to Nature's mirrored worth, 
 In part their guerdon find, though part withheld 
 
 Till cleansed each mortal stain, and pure the gold 
 From error's dross, an4 passion's mist dispersed. 
 And as earth's manifold wrong they mourned of old, 
 
 So now their own they mourn, while onward move 
 Slow-paced the lustral hours, till wide unfold 
 
 Th' eternal gates, the welcome smile of Love." 
 
CANTO II 
 
 I am permitted to see Homer, Dante, Shakespeare ; and in actual 
 vision the scenes of Iliad, ■ Odyssey, and Divina Commedia 
 appear to me — A voice tells how Poetry passed from Homer 
 through Virgil to Dante and Shakespeare. 
 
 He spoke ; attent I stood, till gently laid 
 
 I felt his hand on mine, a warning sign 
 That of some near event announcement made. 
 The while with gesture quick where densest twine 
 
 The scented bay trees wove, his other hand 
 Pointing, to roused expectance gave th' assign. 
 Thither my eyes I turned, and soon a band 
 
 In regal garb attired, their forehead crowned 
 With empire's wreath for more than empire planned, 
 Forth on the pathway came ; with fuller sound, 
 
 But joyous now, the music swelled, and glowed 
 With brighter light the heaven, with flowers the ground. 
 As who the reverence meet on rank bestowed 
 
 Or birth, or age, accept, so stately these 
 In their own worth complete the pathway trode. 
 "With downward brow, veiled eyes, and bended knees 
 
 Adore," so spoke my guide, " as who revealed 
 On some high throne the manifest godhead sees. 
 High as the mountain tops o'er pastured field. 
 
 O'er common mortals these ; in these to men 
 
266 BOOK III 
 
 " Are heaven's best gifts and last confirmed and sealed. 
 And first the Ionian bard/ whose equal strain 
 
 Of Troy and Greece the hero-gods with praise 
 Undying crowns ; and ranked with him, the twain ^ 
 Co-heirs of sovereign song ; the bard whose lays 
 
 Measure the world of men, — and whom from hell 
 To heaven's high throne Love led through every maze ; 
 Creators each in turn, to each the spell 
 
 Given of truth's inmost hall, to each the treasure 
 Of love with life instinct, apportioned well. 
 The pulse of fresh-flushed youth, the ordered measure 
 
 Of years mature, the ebbing tides of time. 
 All hopes, all hates, all loves, all pain, all pleasure 
 Their work of witchery wove, as erst to rhyme 
 
 By magic chords and song from woven air 
 Rose the seven-portalled towers of Thebes sublime." 
 More if he spoke I know not, so the awe 
 
 Of those three mightiest spirits my every sense 
 Bound, that entranced nought else I heard or saw. 
 Not long, for now through heart and brain intense 
 
 A touch, an impress thrilled, that might the dead 
 Rouse ere the hour by life's omnipotence. 
 And as th' electric shock in circles led 
 
 Gives what its source retains, nor less the spark 
 Quickens the extremest pole than fountain-head. 
 So my dead self in numbness frozen and dark 
 
 Sudden with light and warmth was filled, a ray 
 From the far depths, a soul-transforming mark 
 And Ilion's ancient walls, Sigaeum's bay 
 
 Present before me showed, nor less my ear 
 Rang to the mingled cries of hero-fray, — 
 The rage of pitiless strife, the sword, the spear, 
 
 The madness drunk with blood, the thought that 
 yearned 
 To the far home, the calm resolve and near, 
 
 1 Homer. ^ Shakespeare and Dante. 
 
CANTO II 267 
 
 The axe that clove the gates, the fire that burned, 
 
 The gods in faction ranked, the fateful doom, 
 The pride to ruin, the song-to wailing turned. 
 No pictured pageant these, in fancy's loom 
 
 Woven, but in present act my soul within 
 Living were marshalled o'er time's rifled tomb. 
 But he, that master bard, in whom begin 
 
 All notes of song, in whom th' undying strains 
 Not of man's earth their last fulfilment win 
 As ocean-born to ocean's breast the rain 
 
 In copious joy returns, my wonderment 
 Smiled to behold, as smile on gaping swains 
 Great palace lords in state ; then downward bent 
 
 My kneeling form he touched ; a world unknown 
 Oped at that touch, as opes a curtained tent. 
 There with the wave-tossed chief, whose island throne ^ 
 
 Shadows the Adrian wave, the heavy debt 
 Wandering I paid of Neptune's town ^ o'erthrown ; 
 Aeaea's moonht isle,^ the ambush set 
 
 On the siren-haunted rocks, the palace floor 
 Stained with debauch, with vengeful slaughter wet, 
 Were mine to share, mine the long-hoarded store 
 
 Of absent love with envious hatred crossed. 
 Mine the sure rest attained, the ultimate shore. 
 Then as the starry knots of morning frost 
 
 Outlined on bark and leaf, as grows the day 
 Melt into what that beauty first embossed, 
 So with the forms it showed that lightning ray 
 
 Into my being passed, till sightless now 
 In the heart's self they made incorporate stay. 
 Fount of Pierian rills ! all streams that flow 
 
 Are of thy fullness part ; such power is thine 
 On thy elect thy selfhood to bestow. 
 " O ye who with full throat the draught divine 
 
 Have quaifed by Arno's banks or Avon's ; ye 
 
 ^ Ithaca. 2 Troy. ' Where Odysseus found Circe. 
 
268 BOOK III 
 
 " Heirs of my sway, co-partners of my line, 
 Receive this least this last of suppliants ; he. 
 
 Child of a later day, may kinship find 
 In strains by earlier years denied to me. 
 For as progressive suns each several kind 
 
 Of choicest fruit to ripeness bring, and each 
 With some new sweetness fraught of pulp or rind. 
 So years succeeding years in forward reach 
 
 Weave the bright strands of song in textured hue 
 Changing, as changed the thought, the life, the speech : 
 Yet in deep self the same, though seeming new 
 
 Songster and audience both, and bides the song 
 To its own note, to him that breathed it, true." 
 Such words from him who 'mid the minstrel throng 
 
 Towers as o'er lesser fanes the giant [fane] 
 Where thrones the Fisher-Prince earth's lords among. 
 With head bowed down I heard, till once again. 
 
 Touched by his hand, I upward looked, and saw 
 What fadeless traced abides in memory's grain : 
 Such sight as feared rebuke or tongueless awe 
 
 Might have forbid my verse, but his command 
 Utterance compels whose word is truth and law. 
 For now where erst distinct on either hand 
 
 That glorious twain I late beheld, the pride 
 This of the Ausonian, that of British land, 
 A twofold vision glowed ; on either side 
 
 A lucid orb it seemed, a thought, a dream 
 Than solid earth more real, than heaven more wide : 
 An uncreated world poised in the beam 
 
 Of all creative light, eternity 
 Present in time, o'er time and space supreme. 
 The season-tempered earth, the clouds, the sky. 
 
 Forest and field, great town, strong citadel, 
 Populous mart, fair champaign, mountain high 
 Were pictured there, and all around them fell 
 
 As a thin veil o'er beauty cast, the haze 
 
CANTO II 269 
 
 Of English summer noons, spell woven on spell. 
 But this and these beyond my tranced gaze 
 
 Another orb beheld, unlike the first. 
 Substance or dream, night pierced with noonday rays ; 
 There of all pain and shameful wrong the worst 
 
 To sense or spirit known, the abhorred descent 
 To the dark pit, of death th' abode accursed. 
 And the revisited stars, and evil shent ^ 
 
 By cleansing pains, while round the mystic height 
 In hopeful course the heavenward path is bent. 
 And those and these beyond, the mansions bright 
 
 With God's own manifest love, the universe. 
 Maker and made, one inter-radiant light, — 
 Terrible vision ; yet by Love's self the verse 
 
 Inspired, by Love the tale that heaven and earth 
 With hell inweaves in one, bid to rehearse. 
 O all-embracing song, with golden girth 
 
 Clasping in one the whole, O high decree 
 . From partial throes shaping the renovate birth ! 
 All being, all lives greatest and least, in thee 
 
 Their ultimate goal attain, to unison brought 
 In conscient bliss, heaven's sought jreality ! 
 Then as intent I gazed, in eager thought 
 
 Searching the depths beyond, as a far land 
 O'er limitless steppes by the strayed traveller sought. 
 Till ridge on ridge, touched by dim evening's wand 
 
 Confused together fade, that vision dread 
 Passed, as effaced by touch of mightier hand. 
 Yet though unseen, remained, in heart and head 
 
 Graven, as in Argive^ hearts the patriot song 
 That age by age to freedom's conquests led. 
 Then with reviving strength and effort strong 
 
 I broke the bonds of trance, as who from swoon 
 Wakes to fresh life his gathered friends among. 
 
 ' Used apparently for abolished. 
 ^ Possibly should be Spartan, referring to Tyrtaeus. 
 
270 BOOK III 
 
 And one was there who said, " The secret boon 
 
 On earth by Heaven conferred, the instrument 
 Tempering all discord to its own sweet tune, 
 From Lydia's shore to reed-girt Mantua sent, 
 
 Echoed in silvery notes, with mightier strains 
 In Arno's vale by the great Master blent ; 
 Till most on Avon's banks and meadowed plains 
 
 To English accents tuned, the magic wove 
 Of infinite chords, but bound the golden chains 
 
 That knit earth's spleenful orb to Heaven's great 
 Love." 
 
CANTO III 
 
 Napoleon III and others in great place I have seen ; but I was 
 never received by any with such favour as by the two poets 
 with whom I am now standing — Beatrice smiles on me, and 
 Dante resolves some perplexities in regard to the Commedia. 
 
 Him of his name the third, from frontiered Rhine 
 
 To Western seas who ruled, till dark Sedan 
 Closed o'er the sunset of Ajaccio's line, 
 And him th' incarnate Fate, by men the man 
 
 Of iron named and blood, whose master hand 
 Perfected last what Teuto's fight ^ began, 
 Have I beheld ; and who fair Europe's land 
 
 Cleansed from Gaul's earlier swarm, where seared 
 and riven 
 By th' iron hail thy oaks, green Ardennes, stand : — 
 And him, the thrice-crowned Head to whom is given 
 
 In God's own place to throne, the penal doom 
 To bind or loose, sole link of earth and heaven, 
 Present have I revered ; Eternal Rome, 
 
 What power is like to thine ? what palaced pride 
 Can match the Martyr's shrine, the Fisher's tomb ? 
 — All these have I beheld, and more beside, 
 
 Heroes of earth or lords ; nor converse due 
 With such, nor greeting hands, has fate denied. 
 
 ' Arminius defeated Varus, B.C. 9, in the Teutoberg wood. 
 
272 BOOK III 
 
 But ne'er in access bland or reverent view 
 
 Have I such favour found as when that hour 
 Midmost I stood between th' immortal two ; 
 One in their kinship made ; so willed the power, 
 
 Lord of my spirit's birth, with subtle skill 
 Tending to ripened fruit th' entrusted flower. 
 No vain Pieria this, no fabled hill 
 
 Of yore Parnassus named, — ^voiceless and lone 
 Those heights, and dry the Heliconian rill, — 
 But the true founts of song, the secret known 
 
 To the hid gods of earth ; the magic pale 
 Closed to all else, allowed to these alone. 
 As who by power divine from pain and bale 
 
 Secure of old in hottest furnace stood, 
 Girt with the tyrant fires of Dura's vale. 
 So 'mid that splendour I ; the mystic flood 
 
 In brightness whelmed my sense, nor thought nor 
 word 
 Was mine to frame, childlike by awe subdued. 
 Till as from distance borne a voice I heard. 
 
 But whose I knew not yet, that like swift flame 
 Kindling to new delight my spirit stirred. 
 And, " What thy inmost wish, secure of blame 
 
 Or dull reproof, declare, that question made 
 Meetly, to meet reply may give proclaim." 
 As one by inward force constrained, afraid. 
 
 Yet in consentment glad, so wrought the sound 
 On my charmed sense, I the command obeyed. 
 But first my dazzled eyes that long the ground 
 
 Had sought, to upward gaze unapt, I raised 
 As to his master's face the wistful hound. 
 There in full view with equal splendour blazed 
 
 The suns of earth's true heaven, the glorious twain 
 All heights above, fittest by silence praised. 
 And both my gaze returned, nor by disdain 
 
 Was dimmed the brightness of that smile that shone 
 
CANTO III 273 
 
 In the clear eyes, love's, beauty's, life's, domain. 
 But most in his through whom the memoried stone ^ 
 
 By flower-crowned Mary's dome ^ is honoured more 
 Than Memnon's shrine, or Caesar's laurelled throne. 
 Serious his look, and sad the garb he wore 
 
 With exile dust besoiled ; but of strange flowers 
 A triple crown inwove his forehead bore. 
 For some with crimson glow the fiery towers 
 
 Of Pluto called to mind, and some the green 
 Of the upward mount, some, gold from Eden bowers. 
 At his right hand who seemed of Heaven the Queen ^ 
 
 In perfect beauty shone ; nor turned aside 
 His look from hers, nor hers from his was seen. 
 Lord of the Song Divine, Etruria's pride, 
 
 Dante, thine the form, and hers with thine 
 By love eterne conjoined and deified. 
 
 Low at the knees of him whose mighty line 
 
 Writ the whole heart of love, prostrate I bowed 
 As bows the pilgrim at th' all-worshipped shrine. 
 
 Dante gives me encouraging words, and recognizes me 
 as his follower. 
 
 " But rare all precious things, and scant the band 
 Attent to heaven's responsive notes, and few 
 
 The voice who mark, or hearing, understand. 
 
 Yet, as from distance struck, confusedly true 
 Echo repeats the sounds to listening ears 
 
 Which grant of melody's maze the guiding clue. 
 
 So the wide waste across of sundering years 
 The meaning of my song, the ninefold chain 
 
 1 Sasso di Dante. 
 
 2 S. Maria del Fiore, the Duomo of Florence. 
 
 3 a Queen appears as an alternative reading in the MS. As 
 Beatrice, not the B.V.M., is intended, a for the is probably 
 correct. 
 
274 BOOK HI 
 
 "Reached from all deeps to the empyrean spheres. 
 But thou whose feet this intermediate plain 
 
 'Twixt world and world, have trod, no more afar 
 May'st note by note drink in the perfect strain." 
 Thus while he spoke, as on the Eastern bar 
 
 In molten silver quivering through dark air, 
 Outleaps the brightness of morn's herald star. 
 From her whose crescent ^ smile from stair to stair 
 
 Of heaven led up the ascent, a glance there shone 
 Such as in love's best page recorded are. 
 O smile all smiles above, O beauty shown 
 
 But to th' elect of heaven, O gentle light, 
 Pure emanation of the sapphire throne, 
 Can tongue avail to tell, can pen to write. 
 
 What I beheld in thee ? when first thy ray 
 For dimness splendour gave, for blindness sight. 
 As who 'mid stranger tongues his toilsome way 
 
 Seeks to beguile with speech, but to his thought 
 Finds not the words that others hearken may, 
 So now the vision, that seen, such wonders wrought 
 
 Of renovate heart and life, my faltering song 
 Halts to declare, that music's notes untaught. 
 Then he, the patriot bard, whom faction's wrong 
 
 Gave to an exile's tomb, where Adria's wave 
 Floods the sad marsh Ravenna's walls along. 
 Once more his word resumed ; " To thoughts that crave 
 
 Reply, be answer given ; the hidden seed 
 Shall in the manifest flower its fullness have. 
 Nor unresponsive thou, nor slow to read 
 
 The cyphered signs of truth, nor now to learn, 
 Heaven-taught of yore, the things of heaven hast need. 
 But this thy doubt remains, my spirit's urn 
 
 What fountain filled with living draught, what brand 
 Lit in my verse the fires that quenchless burn : 
 And if by earthly airs with me was fanned 
 ^ Always increasing in sweetness. 
 
CANTO III 
 
 275 
 
 " She of my verse the soul, or if her name 
 Be but a mask of other purport planned. 
 Know then of earthly mould that peerless dame 
 
 Whom Love assigned my queen, in breathing form 
 Our native town, our earth, our sky the same 
 ^Vith fleshly vesture clad, with life-blood warm. 
 
 Though more than mortal fair ; such perfect grace 
 Was hers, each word, each smile, each gest, each 
 
 glance. 
 Yet not that gentle port, that angel face. 
 
 Wrought on my life the spell ; a mightier chain 
 Than earthly love might forge was here in place. 
 For know whome'er the fateful Powers ordain 
 
 Poet or seer, to such is given for guide 
 A visible type of Love's all-quickening reign. 
 Else might the sense divine for man too wide 
 
 Formless remain, and vague, and random all 
 The marksman's keenest shaft, fit aim denied. 
 Thus in the mirror aptly placed, though small. 
 
 Is seen the giant sun, and gathered shine 
 Dazzling the rays that else unheeded fall. 
 So was all human worth, all truth divine. 
 
 Mirrored in her to me, herself my theme, 
 Centre and brightness of the encircling line. 
 In her fulfilled Love's utmost law, the dream 
 
 Bodied in wakeful truth, herself the glass 
 Transfused with brightriess of th' eternal beam. 
 Nor other now heaven's law ; the thing that was 
 
 Is and shall be, till every type receive 
 Fullness, and mortal to immortal pass. 
 But thou fulfil thy task assigned, nor grieve 
 
 By seeming change perplexed or true love's wrong. 
 And what thou mourn'st, delayed, not lost, believe." 
 Thus while he spoke, my brother guide, who long, 
 
 As who sweet music hears, and waits, intent 
 Lest sound or sign jar on the chords of song. 
 
276 BOOK III 
 
 On me such aspect turned, as pity, blent 
 
 With love's approval, wreathes, that the quick blood 
 
 Up to my face from my full heart was sent ; 
 
 And as by lightning flash I understood 
 
 Signed in that life my own, as fits the glove 
 
 Drawn on the wearer's hand, and through the wood 
 Rang out the triumph chaunt of conquering Love. 
 
CANTO IV 
 
 Invocation to the poet's unnamed and mystic Beatrice — Shake- 
 speare, with Ideal Beauty by his side, appear : he is silent : I 
 do him reverence — By a clear stream I now see Musaeus, and 
 with him a crowd of true poets of all ages. 
 
 O ONCE and ever loved, to whom the flower 
 
 Of my closed heart in life's first morning smit 
 Oped to the fullness of thy quickening power, 
 In roseate hues of joy and fragrance, fit 
 
 For thee whose gifts were these, till failed with- 
 drawn 
 From the dull earth the vision shaming it ; 
 If in this verse thy name, that to my dawn 
 
 Was the bright morning star, as hers proclaimed 
 By angel songs on Eden's mystic lawn. 
 Unspoken bide, my silence, haply blamed 
 
 By some, with thee shall pardon find, for thou 
 Not in their world but thine art rightly named. 
 'Neath their own ashes laid more hotly glow 
 
 Love's altar fires, but to the common ray 
 Made bare, like coals dispersed their heat forgo : 
 Not so, not so, thy praise ; thy presence aye 
 
 Nameless shall names outlive, even in this song 
 Made one with love, as starhght merged in day. 
 
278 BOOK III 
 
 And now the voice that Arno's vale along 
 
 Love first attuned, had ceased, and distant heard 
 Breathed a new chaunt the forest trees among. 
 Nor nearer drew the sound, but as a bird 
 
 Flutters a ruffled wing, then stays, the trees 
 Quivering to the far sound responsive stirred. 
 As one who feels a presence near, yet sees 
 
 Nothing, though strained his gaze, while vague belief 
 Peoples the void with fancied images. 
 So 'mid that forest I ; each branch, each leaf. 
 
 Seemed conscious of the unseen, till even what fear 
 Might there suggest, revealed, had brought relief. 
 Then was I ware of him on earth whose peer 
 
 Has been not nor shall be, o'er all supreme, 
 Polestar and zenith of the human sphere. 
 But as the faint presentment of a dream 
 
 Was that divinest form, and dim the face 
 Scarce seen as though by moonlight's doubtful gleam. 
 And close beside, but yet more faint in place, 
 
 A pure perfection stood, a beauty veiled 
 In its own light, that none the form might trace, — 
 Two wonders blent in one ; my spirit quailed 
 
 As on the twain I gazed, and sense and mind 
 Dazzled and weak from that. great vision failed. 
 Then spoke my guide, " Whate'er of greatness joined 
 
 To beauty and perfect life, whate'er the power 
 That fashioned man has to men's world assigned, 
 All precious things of earth, heaven's bridal dower. 
 
 Mirrored in Shakespeare dwell, in him the spring 
 Of the great deep, in him Love's inmost bower. 
 His the waked songs of morning, his the wings 
 
 That beat heaven's answering gale, in him alone 
 Centred all highest aims, all noblest things." 
 Then as before some monarch's sovereign throne 
 
 The herald guides some stranger's step, from far 
 In reverence come that worshipped power to own ; 
 
CANTO IV 279 
 
 So by my master led, my guide, my star, 
 
 Teacher and Lord, in lowliest guise I bowed 
 To him the polestar of man's ultimate bar. 
 But he, as through dull veil of envious cloud 
 
 On earth's expectant face the glorious Sun 
 Cheerly looks forth in his bright self avowed, 
 So where I lowly knelt that kingly one 
 
 Deigned to look down in grace ; a smile, a look 
 Perfecting all by the elder twain begun. 
 As to keen student eyes a well-writ book 
 
 Open its tale declares, so nature's whole 
 In that one smile clear form and meaning took. 
 Till to that vision's self transformed, my soul 
 
 Other than first I knew, to these subdued, 
 Earth's glory, nature's crown, art's ultimate goal. 
 Such close the vision found ; and if too rude 
 
 My verse, and halt the line, marvels to show 
 Wider a range than earth's, and higher mood, 
 Be in themselves th' excuse ; too deep the flow 
 
 For line or lead, the mountain peaks too high 
 For aim, too slight the shaft, too weak the bow. 
 " But ne'er," so rang the voice, " shall mortal eye, 
 
 As yet by death unsealed, the godlike three 
 Again behold in veil-less majesty. 
 But thou who them hast seen, go forth ; to thee 
 
 The secret told retain ; to every maze 
 The clue thou hold'st, to every door the key." 
 Such words I heard, but knew not whence ; amaze 
 
 Held me enthralled awhile ; till to my thought 
 Answered the star-crowned guardian of my ways. 
 And said, " Thus far by thy hid birthright brought 
 
 Hast thou the lords beheld, by Will divine 
 Monarchs and makers of the world of thought. 
 Now forward lies thy way where gathered shine, 
 
 Lesser though bright, in the quired firmament, 
 The associate splendours of the starry Nine. 
 
28o BOOK III 
 
 " But first thy mortal sight bedazed and shent 
 
 By sight's excess, by friendly power restored 
 Must what remains in its true guise present." 
 Thus spoke the brother-guide, and to the word 
 
 Shaping the deed, a narrow pathway took 
 Towards a glad sound of many waters heard ; 
 Till by a green descent and cool a brook 
 
 Sparkled our eyes before, and at the edge 
 Stood one of vestment white and reverend look. 
 Still as the watchful bird on bush or hedge 
 
 Slant o'er the stream, he stood ; with asphodel 
 Circled his hair entwined with greenest sedge. 
 Then spoke my guide, " Of whom old glories tell, 
 
 Musaeus ^ here thou seest ; apt guardian he 
 O'er the pure stream fed by Castalia's well. 
 All other sons of song, the Imperial Three 
 
 Whom late thou saw'st alone except, his state 
 Willing attend, and grace his sovereignty.'' 
 This said, to that grey form of dateless date 
 
 My steps he led, where by the guarded wave 
 Th' expectant shades his sign permissive wait. 
 Nor long that sign delayed ; with aspect grave 
 
 Yet glad the welcome given, as might beseem 
 His son ^ whose charm unsealed the pitiless grave. 
 Not with more zest the wain's o'erlaboured team 
 
 Haste to the cooling ford than I, to slake 
 My thirst of sight, stooped to the healing stream. 
 From a far world derived those waters take 
 
 Virtue, by him bestowed from whom the spheres 
 In circling course their ninefold music make. 
 Then sudden as th' uncurtained stage appears 
 
 With moving shapes alive, the sight that fill 
 With the feigned pageant of imagined years, 
 
 1 A mythical poet, to whom a similar place is given in the Sixth 
 Acneid. 
 
 2 Musaeus in one legend is son to Orpheus. 
 
CANTO IV 281 
 
 So where till then green valley, copse-grown hill, 
 
 Had silent seemed and void, my wondering eye 
 Such vision saw that the remembrance still 
 Quickens my pulse with joy : an hour that I 
 
 Treasure a gift for aye, till once again ' 
 Converse be mine with that bright company. 
 All whom the Muse from out the sons of men 
 
 Ha^ chosen and marked her own, whom deathless 
 song 
 Themselves has deathless made, were there in ken. 
 From the young years when erst to mortal tongue 
 
 Was measured utterance given, to latest time 
 Of earth, sere bays, clipped speech, and notes unstrung. 
 Present were gathered there ; from the blue clime 
 
 Of famed Ionia's crest, to where the tide 
 On Thule's shores lay tranced to Runic rhyme ; — 
 Th' Athenian stage, Elea's victor pride,^ 
 
 Thy bards, imperial Rome, the shepherd lay 
 Of fair Trinacria's hills,^ I there descried. 
 Nor less, though offspring of a feebler day, 
 
 Italia's lyric bard, or who the tale 
 Of knightly deeds inwove with fiend or fay.^ 
 There too the seraph bard of Eden's vale 
 
 Somewhat apart I saw ; upraised his eyes. 
 Not sightless now, to heaven, and forehead pale. 
 Then spoke that white-robed seer, " In other skies 
 
 Throned the impersonate Power, from whom proceed 
 To man, thought, music, life, love, everything. 
 Here in these bowers from earth remote the meed 
 
 Has placed of passionate song, till pure the flame 
 Mount to its source, for harvest ripe the seed. 
 And some their lays attest ; and some to fame 
 
 Known, but unknown their uttered verse ; and 
 some, 
 
 1 Pindar. 2 xhe Sicilian Idyllists. 
 
 ' Petrarch, perhaps ; Ariosto, Tasso, and others. 
 
282 BOOK III 
 
 " Fresh-graved the song, effaced the songster's name, — 
 But all eternal found : till closed the sum 
 
 Of fadeless bays in perfect chaplets wove. 
 Crowning the lord of song ; to him they come 
 
 A bridal quire, where music weds with Love." 
 
CANTO V 
 
 England in Shakespeare has the greatest of all poets — His suc- 
 cessors flit by : Pope, Byron, Shelley, Keats — Their future 
 suggested — I now hear myself named by my Mother ; S. T. 
 Coleridge appears, and in return for my early admiration, 
 fostered by her, tells me the secret of the vale of poets ; their 
 nobleness, their joy, grief, and final perfected state. 
 
 Empress and nurse of nations, of my birth 
 
 Cradle, even mine, what name, what greatness, say 
 Can match with thine ? what likeness thine on earth ? 
 Since of the noblest three our being's day 
 
 Has given o'er minds to rule, the noblest one 
 Is thine, the mightiest power, the keenest ray. 
 England, this glory thine ; the circling sun 
 
 That sets not on thy bounds, even there has seen 
 Or man or god greater than Shakespeare none. 
 Yet not alone in him thy laurels green 
 
 Ever abide ; his court a sequent band 
 Ever attend, as stars in heaven's serene. 
 Nor these were absent now ; at his command, 
 
 A warbling flight, they came, whoe'er by song 
 Tuned to high thought have gladdened English land. 
 And some I knew for smoothest line, yet strong, 
 
 Rightly renowned, to whom the well-earned bays 
 Of noblest thought in balanced verse belong : 
 
284 BOOK III 
 
 But chiefly he whose guarded grot surveys 
 
 The royal stream where midway bends his flow 
 From Windsor's bowers to London's chartered maze ; 
 And following these, but varied more, in show 
 
 Of brightness robed or shade, in mood and brain 
 Kin yet diverse, thy late-born minstrels go. 
 But foremost he^ who Othnjan's despot chain 
 
 From renovate Greece, with trumpet call that woke 
 Dull Europe, strove t' unbind, nor strove in vain ; 
 Who first the sword unsheathed, who first the yoke 
 
 Smote till it burst, till Missalonghi claimed 
 The passionate life outworn, the heart tha,t broke. 
 O hero bard in times degenerate famed 
 
 Sole undegenerate thou, like him of yore 
 Of a saved Greece the true Tyrtaeus ^ named ! 
 Close by his side an angel form, yet more 
 
 Than fancied angels fair, whom bigot hate 
 Drove from the British to the Ausonian shore, 
 Poet of light and life ; too soon the date 
 
 To thy sea-spousals given ; by swift decree 
 With Lycidas and Hylas linked thy fate. 
 Nor absent thou from that fair company, 
 
 Love-smit Seldne's ^ bard, for the harsh earth 
 Too sweet thy song's interfluous melody. 
 And others next I saw, by kindred birth 
 
 Sharers with these in fame, that kindled here. 
 To earth's dim memories brightness gives and worth. 
 Till the great winter of the secular year 
 
 In frozen silence reign, and withered man 
 From the dead branch drop off a leaflet sere. 
 Not thus the world beyond, the eternal plain 
 
 Where bide the ethereal lamps, eclipsed below 
 
 1 Byron. 
 
 2 The Athenian poet who encouraged the Spartans in the second 
 Messenian war. 
 
 ' Refers to the Endyviion of Keats. 
 
CANTO V 285 
 
 Till perfect made in heaven what earth began. 
 But the green meads where living waters flow 
 
 Their sure abode are given, and else whate'er 
 On those they love the worshipped gods bestow, 
 Are theirs to the end of time ; such harvest bear 
 
 The seeds of god-given song : with its high merit 
 In just appraisement weighed, may nought compare. 
 This portion none receives but he whose spirit 
 
 Kindled with other flame, than earth's, and made 
 One with that flame, may its pure source inherit. 
 From the cool shadows of a willowy glade 
 
 Somewhat apart, where curved the gliding stream, 
 Were to my listening ear these words conveyed : 
 And from beneath the boughs such steady gleam 
 
 As yields the glow-worm's spark, but this more bright 
 Of sapphire hue sent forth a lovely beam. 
 As who 'mid summer lawns some new delight 
 
 Of flower or crimson fruit beholding, stays 
 His onward step, till satiate made his sight. 
 So on that star-like spark I fixed my gaze. 
 
 While, as responsive thought to thought, more clear 
 Full on me turned shone forth those gem-like rays ; 
 Till, sense with sense accordant now, my ear 
 
 Took in the uttered name, that gently spoken 
 By one from childhood's days, had power to cheer. 
 Hers was the voice, the word ; nor other token 
 
 Of her was needed there ; the love I knew 
 By the great chasm 'twixt world and world unbroken. 
 For loves to loves succeed, and old to new 
 
 Yields as a wave-chased wave, but this may change 
 not 
 More than by cloud-rack heaven's enduring blue. 
 A mother's love that heaven ; its courses range not. 
 
 To their first tracement true ; its circling hold 
 Absence and care and death itself estrange not. 
 I knew the present power, the charms of old 
 
286 BOOK in 
 
 Around me wove their spell, till where I stood 
 Back to its source my being's stream was rolled. 
 There on the marge of that clear-watered wood 
 
 His form I saw, whose phantom-haunted lay ^ 
 Told the just vengeance of ill-squandered blood. 
 Calm was his face, the slips of silvery grey 
 
 Shadowed a youthful smile, from his clear eyes 
 Shone the calm brightness of an Autumn day. 
 " The love that to my verse in childish wise," 
 
 Thus were his words; "was thine; the spirit's dawn, 
 Unveiled by her whose influence now supplies 
 Unseen the good thou seest, my form has drawn 
 
 From the calm rest of satiate thought to teach 
 What the hid virtue of this secret lawn. 
 This by thy inmost thought, thought mute to speech, 
 
 Questioned I know ; but all too dull thy ken 
 The truth to see, too short thy grasp to reach. 
 With joys exceeding those to dying men 
 
 By niggard earth allowed, thou seest around 
 Filled all the vale, flower-crowned each denizen ; 
 Yet in thy ears such notes of plaintive sound 
 
 As tell of inward grief, like wormwood poured 
 In sweetest draught, the perfect joy confound. 
 
 Why, you ask, is not their lot perfect ? 
 
 Know then whate'er its natural element 
 
 Outgoes, to higher life sublimed and signed, 
 
 Measures its pain even by its joy's extent. 
 
 For not unscathed beyond its natural kind 
 May life its orb dilate, nor free from smart 
 
 Mingles the mortal with th' immortal mind. 
 
 Life gives many examples of this alloy of good by evil 
 
 Nor 'mid the world of dreams whose marge is death 
 1 Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, 
 
CANTO V 287 
 
 " Idly by men called life, is given to weave 
 From thorn or canker free the Poet's wreath. 
 And who from the high gods the most receive 
 
 Must most in count repay ; and oft the morn 
 In brightness risen declines to cloud-stained eve. 
 And some with fairest hues of verse the thorn 
 
 Of personal hate have dressed, and to the strings 
 Of love's sweet lyre have tuned the notes of scorn. 
 And some, nor few their tale, ethereal wings 
 
 Have limed with purchased clay, and their high dower, 
 111 barterers they, exchanged for earthly things. 
 And some with hasty hands the delicate flower 
 
 Of love have rudely grasped, till reft of grace 
 In blameful ruin lies love's sheltering bower. 
 And some, the noblest these, though nought of base 
 
 Has marred their work divine, yet seeing mourn 
 Earth's limitless wrong, life's error, love's disgrace, 
 And conquered good by conquering ill o'erborne. 
 
 And love by hate, and life by death ; and joy 
 Prelude to pain, and hope of hope forlorn — 
 Desolate all, and the fair world a toy ^ 
 
 Tossed in a demon's play, and sovereign fate 
 Powerless to save, all-powerful to destroy. 
 So memory love's bright rays with gloom of hate 
 
 Darkens awhile, till by alternate change 
 The perfect mind attains its destined state. 
 Such law contains us here ; nor think it strange 
 
 If joy with grief combine ; th' Elysian grove 
 The portal this, no more ; the outward range 
 
 Of the hid rest where life is one with Love." 
 
 1 "AvepoiTTos . . . 0eov Ti valyiiiov : Plato, Laws, Book VII. 
 
CANTO VI 
 
 Passing into another landscape, I at first see no one — My guide 
 explains that here are the Historians, themselves little known 
 personally in their 'own time — They then appear ; Herodotus, 
 Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus — Then a motley crowd of divers 
 races : Gibbon among them eminent. 
 
 To the vexed thought erewhile that anxious held 
 
 My mind, the poet-sage such answer meet 
 Portioned, till loosed each knot, each doubt dispelled. 
 Nor longer stayed discourse, his work complete 
 
 At her behest, who to Pieria's rill, 
 Truest of guides, first led my childish feet: 
 Silent my guide and I the sacred hill 
 
 Circled with reverent step, till reached the bound 
 Where those great spirits their lustral doom fulfil. 
 Before us now with matted turf the ground 
 
 Rose in ascending slope, and up the steep 
 In curve alternate traced the footpath wound. 
 
 It was a weary ascent ; 
 
 Till on the mountain head where rock nor tree 
 Parted the view we stood ; beneath the land 
 Showed as the ridges of a wind-blown sea : 
 Part seen but more concealed, with frequent band 
 
CANTO VI 289 
 
 Of interposing mist, a shifting shroud 
 By air and light woven in illusive strand. 
 But overhead nor vaporous mist nor cloud 
 
 Stained the pure heavens, and dark the central blue 
 A silent vault to the pale margin bowed. 
 
 We reach the summit, but see no sign of life anywhere. 
 
 Then thus my guide; "Whom thou desir'st to see. 
 
 Lords of the mount our steps have climbed, more near 
 Are than thou think'st, though hidden yet from thee. 
 Little on earth beheld or marked, even here 
 
 Not oft revealed to sight, their honoured meeds 
 Not in themselves but what they wrought appear. 
 For these in history's pictured scroll the deeds 
 
 Of gods made act in men, the bright ones hid 
 By their own light have clothed in mortal weeds. 
 These the dulled seeds of fire, awhile forbid 
 
 By cold earth's numbing frost, th' o'ercrusted death 
 Uplift, as spring flowers burst the coffin lid. 
 Fostered by these to renovate life and breath 
 
 The nations wake from sleep, till the great past 
 From its own memories winds the present wreath. 
 But they the flame who fanned, the summoning blast 
 
 Who blew, themselves unmarked the most remain, 
 Lost in the shade by their own trophies cast." 
 Then I beheld as when the autumn plain 
 
 Darkens to night, and from the fallow ground 
 Turning, the peasant plods his cot to gain, 
 From blackening heaps of weeds with care around 
 
 Piled o'er the exhausted furrows, one by one 
 Comes out in ruddy light each smouldering mound, — 
 So on that height where form or likeness none 
 
 Late I perceived, a crowned and sceptred throng 
 Like, yet distinct, in kingly lustre shone. 
 
 Their kingship always abides ; their judgments stand. 
 U 
 
290 BOOK in 
 
 And now my view before in order set 
 
 Ranged the great lords of sceptred history, 
 Senate of Time, on Time's high mountain set. 
 
 As the loftiest tree in a forest, or summit in a mountain 
 range. 
 
 Four giant ones stood forth in central show. 
 And foremost one who eldest seemed, arrayed 
 
 In Dorian garb of massive fold, his head 
 Circled a ninefold wreath of myrtle braid. 
 But o'er those aged limbs and brows were shed 
 
 Gleams of immortal youth, in Cambrian dell 
 Like some old oak with magic flowers o'erspread. 
 And next in soldier guise attired, that well 
 
 Beseemed his stern aspect, th' Athenian chief 
 Held forth to view a blood-stained chronicle 
 Of ill-assorted power, and splendour brief; 
 
 Bright dawn of storm-vexed day, — the Maenad ^ blast 
 To blighted Hellas floweret left nor leaf. 
 Sociate with these, but third in order, past 
 
 Who honoured lived and long where Padua's towers 
 O'er the great plain their storied shadows cast : 
 Till to the she-wolf's brood whate'er the hours 
 
 Had brought of weal or bale, from Sylvia's son ^ 
 To Caesar's line, their heirloom bides and ours. 
 Last of the four, yet 'mid that band to none 
 
 Second in grave aspect, a shape with night 
 Clothed, as it seemed, and storm, came slowly on. 
 With blood and shame besmirched the scroll his right 
 
 Grasping in part concealed, with Roman crime 
 By Rome on Rome avenged the page was dight. 
 And these beyond whose spell in prose, or rhyme 
 
 Kindred to prose, to imaged steadfastness 
 
 ^ Fury. 2 Romulus. 
 
CANTO VI 291 
 
 Have charmed the restless waves of onward time ; 
 A motley throng they came, in form and dress 
 
 Of Goth or Celt or Slav or Teuto's race : 
 Various as when by tides compelled or stress 
 Of long opposing winds, some harbour's face 
 
 With myriad flags confused appears, in hue 
 Diverse and form, compelled from every place. 
 And eminent these amidst [in] nearer view 
 
 Him who the gathering shades of ancient Rome 
 From morn till midnight gloom pourtrayed I knew. 
 As matchless reared the Tuscan artist's ^ dome 
 
 All lesser piles by Tiber's banks upreared 
 Dwarfs in compare, its founder's pride and tomb ; 
 So 'mid the throng of lesser days appeared 
 
 He who that task fulfilled, where Leman's lake 
 Mirrored the rest by lifelong toil endeared. 
 For as deep waters just reflection make 
 
 Of converse skies and bordering heights, that ever 
 Pourtrayal apt on the calm surface take, 
 While all distort in restless whirl and quiver 
 
 Colour and form and light confusedly blent 
 Are dashed and lost adown the restless river ; 
 So to their gaze alone whose calm content 
 
 Is fixed on the wider orb, our little day 
 Views a mere point in time's wide firmament, — 
 Is given in changeless truth and apt array 
 
 Earth's fleeting shapes, like leaves by whirlwind blast 
 When Autumn rides the tempest, to pourtray. 
 So by the elder four, by this the last 
 
 But worthiest, wrought in hardest ore the throne 
 For the Colossus of the Imperial past. 
 The golden head, the silver breast, the zone 
 
 Brazen, the feet with clay debased, a mass 
 Shapeless in common dust have passed o'erthrown. 
 And but the likeness drawn on history's glass, 
 
 1 Michel Angelo, architect of the dome of S. Peter's. 
 
292 BOOK III 
 
 That bides when gone the substance, nought were left 
 In aught that is to know the all that was. 
 Of lesser things and feebler stuff the weft 
 
 Is woven of later days, a trivial show. 
 Of honour, strength, grace, loveliness bereft. 
 With Athens, Sparta, passed the morn ; the glow 
 
 Of noon with Rome declined, the clouds of night 
 Now o'er monotonous plains their shadows throw. 
 
 Yet a light from Love on high shines on them. 
 
CANTO VII 
 
 We descend the mount and rest in a bower — Explanation why so 
 few great historians have existed, especially in later times — I 
 see Plutarch, who leads us through a mystic region where 
 strange music is heard. 
 
 Even here time existed for me, and too short was that 
 permitted, yet there was much to learn which I can- 
 not reveal. 
 
 As on far wandering bound at fall of night 
 
 Who leaves his birth-place home, and knows the 
 morn 
 Shall find him far from each loved sound or sight. 
 Slow with such strain as self from self were torn 
 
 He leaves the darkened porch ; a lonely road 
 Stretches before to distant lands forlorn. 
 Such was my thought as silent both we trod 
 
 The winding curves, the long descent that led 
 To the green margin of the level sod. 
 And still with many thoughts oppressed my head 
 
 Downward I heldi the while my careful guide 
 Through the dense copse my sightless footsteps led. 
 Till gently from the common path aside 
 
 Turning, his hand on mine he placed, and drew 
 Towards a recess that in the forest side 
 
294 BOOK III 
 
 Showed as a cave, so thick the branches grew 
 
 Around and overhead, nor noontide beam 
 Pierced to the grass wet with perennial dew, 
 But violet-sprinkled turf betwixt," a stream 
 
 Clearer than diamond flowed ; no sound was there 
 But through far boughs the blue jay's sudden scream. 
 In such, no other glade, Elissa ^ fair 
 
 By Priam's vagrant son was seen, alas. 
 When sight was one with love, love with despair. 
 Then where in music fell the liquid glass 
 
 Poured on a rocky shelf, awhile to rest 
 We leant, 'mid purple flowers and thy my grass. 
 But I of mysteries hid the former quest 
 
 Resumed in silent thought, till urged by him 
 The doubt foreknown my questioning words ex- 
 pressed. 
 Then he ; " Of earthly sense the twilight dim 
 
 Yet hangs thy view before, as lost in haze 
 Uncertain forms perplex the horizon rim. 
 The mighty record of earth's nobler days 
 
 Hast thou revered in these, the immortal band 
 Who link with Rome and Hellas England's praise. 
 Yet bides thy thought perplexed, the builder's wand 
 
 Why given to only these ? fulfilled the feat 
 By these alone, by others idly planned ? 
 Mark then, to each design in act complete 
 
 With cunning hand conjoined and steadfast will 
 Must in fit purpose apt material meet. 
 Nor wanting these can nature's self fulfil 
 
 Whate'er the task designed, nor human wit 
 Of these deprived attainment wed with skill. 
 And still to noblest form must substance fit 
 
 In apt accord combine, with golden pen 
 On golden base should golden deeds be writ. 
 
 1 Dido. 
 
CANTO VII 295 
 
 The truly great historians are on the mount, and their 
 records are eternal. The world has since degener- 
 ated, and History with it. 
 
 " But ere their memory passed, the abiding Power 
 
 Whom at these gates thou sawest, lest envious Time 
 Fabled yet true should his own birth devour, 
 From those who history's mount with toil to climb 
 
 Have striven, her favourites chose in mindful charge, 
 Co-heirs and guardians of her memoried prime. 
 These in her shrine she thrones ; the rest at large 
 
 On lesser hearts intent and emperies 
 Ephemeral, hold the mount's uncertain marge, 
 Save him i who from contempt of old surmise 
 
 Redeemed Boeotia's name, of hero-worth 
 Chronicler true, with life's best wisdom wise. 
 Sad Chaeronea's boast, th' ancestral earth 
 
 Her treasurer finds in thee ! through thee to teach 
 All the slow years recount of nobler birth." 
 
 He welcomes us : my guide repHes : Plutarch leads us 
 on. 
 
 He spoke, and turning led where close the bough 
 
 O'erarching passage gave, nor might the way 
 Passage to uncompanioned step allow. 
 So thick the sidelong fence, nor glimpse of day 
 
 Divide the vaulting green ; and all beneath 
 Year strewn on year the withered leafage lay. 
 Here death with life alternate, life with death, 
 
 Join in fraternal rule, and, green or sere. 
 Summer with winter weaves a chequered wreath. 
 As who mis-strayed at even in lonely fear 
 
 Wanders by unknown paths where landmark none 
 Nor watch-dog's bark, nor sound of human cheer, 
 
 1 Plutarch. 
 
296 BOOK in 
 
 And thinks, Alone till night's long course be run 
 
 Here must I stay ; then with fantastic dread 
 Shudders, if ne'er arise on earth the sun ; 
 Such thoughts or like were mine, as slow my tread 
 
 Followed our self-given guide, whose awful shade 
 Unseen yet felt, silent our pathway led. 
 And as in opiate sleep the act essayed 
 
 Void of effect remains, so frustrate seemed 
 Our task, endless the toil, unreal the glade. 
 And if in truth we journeyed there or dreamed 
 
 I knew not then, nor cared, in drowsy trance 
 Of a strange spell the captive unredeemed. 
 Then a far sound of silver resonance 
 
 Pulsed on the heavy air, not such as tells 
 Haply of soldier pomp or circling dance. 
 But the faint tone that from high minster bells 
 
 Dies with the dying day, or midnight chaunt 
 Borne on the organ-wave from hermit cells : 
 Nor earthly music that, nor borrowed vaunt 
 
 Of heavenly spheres supreme, ^n echo strange 
 Of the unreal world that dreams and shadows haunt. 
 Yet as 'mid elfin notes with sudden change 
 
 Rings out the hunter's horn, so these among 
 Was other music heard of measured range. 
 As of the ever-moving orbs, a song 
 
 Sung with the harpers of th' Elysian grove ; 
 An undertone scarce marked, scarce felt, yet 
 strong 
 
 Drawn to the centre of abysmal Love. 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
 We enter a mountain-girdled plain, covered with flowers unknown 
 on earth — These are the illusions of Philosophy — In a 
 central temple she is seen as a mighty female figure : her 
 votaries stream forth and circle endlessly round — Here are 
 Socrates, Solomon, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Epicurus, and 
 others — The goddess specially favours Lucretius — Presently 
 the whole fades in mist. 
 
 Roused by that music's twofold chord, my eyes 
 
 From the dark path I lifted, wonders new 
 Beholding, and fresh realms 'neath other skies. 
 Passed were the forest bounds, and dazzling blue 
 
 Over us rose the sky, but circling far 
 Wall-like a mountain line enclosed the view. 
 So round the plain that most Sarmatian ^ war 
 
 Has wronged -and yet may wrong, the Balkan heights 
 Rear a black rampart to the midnight star. 
 But here the guarded plain with spring's delights 
 
 Glowed, as of Persian looms the web, or burn 
 With many coloured fires the Northern nights. 
 But nor in herb nor flower could I discern 
 
 Aught of our customed earth's ; nor glowing rose 
 Nor lily wan, nor moss, nor downy fern. 
 For as through flickering veil mis-shaped when glows 
 1 Russian invasions. 
 
298 BOOK III 
 
 O'er Tadraor's sands the day, strange forms of men 
 Or beasts, or crested towers, or palmy rows 
 Now fixed, now gliding, daze the traveller's ken ; 
 
 So was the portent rare, to things of earth 
 Like yet unlike, mocking the where and when. 
 " O guardian sole and guide, lord of my birth," 
 
 Such was my cry, " what mockery this ? for whom 
 Prepared, or real the scene, or jesting mirth ? " 
 Then he, " No jestful semblance this ; the doom. 
 
 Matched with its earthly foil, whate'er the task 
 Done or undone, apportions light or gloom. 
 This the true substance, that the semblant mask, 
 
 But each to each reflex ; the harvest grain 
 The garner fills, the vintaged grape the cask. 
 So they whose numbered days in labour vain 
 
 Have risen and set, though high th' intent, by fate 
 Hither dismissed, concordant meed obtain. 
 They who in fond research, and vain debate 
 
 Of cause, effect, and end, philosophy 
 Named, but illusion all, early and late 
 Have toiled nor aught attained, by fantasy 
 
 Beguiled of noblest aim, as who should take 
 For substance real the sunset pageantry. 
 But these as sad Arachne's daughters make 
 
 Of their own selves a centred maze, a frame 
 Of wisdom void, though wrought for wisdom's sake.'' 
 Thus while he spoke as pours on festal days 
 
 From some cathedral porch the city crowd, 
 One, but disparted soon by several ways. 
 So from a columned porch of aspect proud 
 
 Reared in 'mid field, a sober-vested throng 
 Streamed, as o'er Autumn skies a rising cloud. 
 And some with upturned face their ranks among 
 
 In joyful memory went, and some with mien 
 Downcast, as victims bowed to tyrant wrong ; 
 And some with measured tread and brow serene 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
 299 
 
 In banded sequence moved j and some pursued 
 Singly their way, th' ungreeted crowd between. 
 But all, whate'er their guise of seeming mood. 
 
 By circling tracks were led, the trodden ground 
 Retreading still, with endless toil renewed. 
 Saddened I gazed, nor for my gazing found 
 
 Purpose or rest, as in mid stream the eye 
 Wearies to watch the eddy's ceaseless round. 
 Till, for a while unseen, a temple high 
 
 Midmost the plain I marked ; a Doric row 
 Of columned marble 'gainst the purple sky. 
 Almost a blank it seemed, the secular snow 
 
 That crowns Helvetia's peaks, of mark or stain 
 Does not more void, more spectral-phantom, show. 
 There from the crowd withdrawn, as whom disdain 
 
 Part, and in part deep thought, or weariness 
 Yet unresolved from things around detain, 
 A mighty form I saw ; a woman's dress 
 
 Enwrapped the giant limbs ; her laurelled brow 
 Leaned on her upturned hand its heavy stress. 
 Now her veiled eyes on earth she fixed, and now 
 
 Raised to the temple vault, where open space 
 Might to Heaven's utmost heights free pass allow. 
 And as white sails a fitful radiance trace 
 
 To shepherd eyes, where from far ocean flashed 
 They watch the gleam, so changeful shone her face ; 
 Triumphant now, now with sad front abashed 
 
 She viewed the circling crowd, where oft in strife 
 Imaged or real, the currents crossed or clashed, 
 Bearing opposed and thwart the flags of life 
 
 Sombre or gay, as with the mystic lore 
 Of Asia scrolled or Attic wisdom rife. 
 There whom the Delphian voice in days of yore 
 
 Wisest of men proclaimed, and Salem's vaunt, 
 Th' uxorious king, in wealth and knowledge more ; 
 tAnd whom Athdnd's shrine and wisdom's haunt 
 
300 BOOK III 
 
 Of dense assembly named, a teacher knew 
 Nor flattering guile could win, nor treachery daunt, t 
 And next, divinest of the godlike few 
 
 Worthy that path to tread, the garden lord 
 Of Academe, nursed on Hymettian dew. 
 To him the golden key, the magic word 
 
 That through all spheres to the spirit's utmost goal 
 Pierces, was given, the lustral pain's reward. 
 Thine the hid fount, O Plato ! thine the bowl 
 
 Reversing Circe's draughts : released by thee, 
 Nor passion's charm can bind, nor death control. 
 Thou too, the master mind,^ eternity 
 
 Thy name in wisdom's page, wast there, a star 
 Mirrored on endless waves of Time's wide sea. 
 Nor through th' unshaken heavens while day's bright 
 car 
 
 Measures its Zodiac course, shall earth again 
 Relume the lamps in buried Greece that are. 
 And other lights were there, nor all in vain, 
 
 Though pale, their splendour shone, to distant years 
 Beacons or wildfires of a starless main. 
 The Samian ^ first, by old Crotona's peers 
 
 Revered a present god, such notes divine 
 His music touched to right attuned ears, 
 To grosser sense denied ; a fruitful vine 
 
 O'erbranching half a world ; his word a gate 
 Through the spoiled tomb to life's all-gathering shrine. 
 Nor absent hence the peerless twain of date 
 
 Coeval though opposed ; twin monarchs they 
 Over one realm in lordship separate. 
 He * who to pleasure gave the transient day 
 
 Portioned to dying men, and he * who led 
 Through toil endured and pleasure spurned the way. 
 And who ^ to Fate's constraint and order bred 
 
 1 Aristotle. ^ Pythagoras. ^ Epicurus. 
 
 ■• Apparently Diogenes. ' Zeno of Citium. 
 
CANTO VIII 301 
 
 Of changeless law the ever-changing show 
 Of earth assigns, a headship without head ; 
 And who in heaven above or earth below 
 
 Nor headship own nor head, and purposed frame 
 To hap confused and sightless strife forgo. 
 Blind and of blind the guides, a hollow name 
 
 Pillared on seeming lore, and groundward bent 
 On partial shapes, let go the common aim. 
 From these averse her view she turns, intent 
 
 On the maze-tangled clue 'mid weed and stone 
 Now seen, now hid, through the far labyrinth sent, 
 fFrom gate to central shrine to those alone 
 
 Favoured by her, through all the spheres who led 
 Her bard, the bard of love, that secret known ; f 
 For hers the purer ray, the firmer tread, 
 
 Where lags the reasoning mind, and faint and chill 
 Glimmers the light by other cressets shed : 
 The substance real of unreal things, that still 
 
 By earth on earthly lives are clad, the truth 
 By visible form belied, th' eternal Will, 
 Being and form and life in lasting sooth ; 
 
 Trinal the name, the essence one ; the goal 
 Eternal life stayed in eternal youth. 
 As in clear letters writ some storied scroll 
 
 To him who reads unfolds its lore, to me 
 From part to part lay bare the animate Whole, 
 And 'mid those moving forms whose pageantry 
 
 Figured the questioning mind, the prize attained 
 By some, by others missed, was given to see. 
 Then while I looked, as clouds with sunset stained 
 
 Crimson and gold, at night's approaching gloom 
 Of light and joy despoil themselves, — so seemed 
 Each noblest form and best, — Athens and Rome 
 
 With the elder East and late illumined West, 
 Showed as faint outlines on a sculptured tomb. 
 While from far depths with gathering sound increased 
 
302 BOOK III 
 
 Was heard the twofold strain, the undertone, 
 As 'mid high choral chaunts the murmuring priest. 
 And at the sound the visioned forms each one 
 
 With her their worshipped Queen, and dome and 
 plain, 
 In a bright mist were wrapped around and gone. 
 Nor of the world-long dream might aught remain 
 
 Or verse, or history's page, or system wove 
 Through subtlest web, though fair, nor shadow stain 
 
 The colourless radiance of infolding Love. 
 
CANTO IX 
 
 A new, brilliant, and gay landscape appears : a myrtle - crowned 
 procession approaches — These are writers of Romance, from 
 the Hundred Tales of Tuscany to Scott, the giant among 
 all novelists — Eastern tale-writers, Japanese and others, by 
 whom Europe has profited — Praise of the art of Romance as 
 a solace to man — The procession returns, a vast multitude, till 
 all are merged and disappear in music. 
 
 'Mid the green shelter of calm summer dells 
 
 Touched by the morning rays, the twittering song 
 Of countless loves in glad contentment tells. 
 Nor less the crystal runs and pools among 
 
 Of Hermon's snow-fed streams, quick glances sent 
 Of scale and fin reveal a happy throng. 
 Each in its proper world, the element 
 
 To bird or fish decreed, accordant days 
 With its own bounds, its birthright, lives content. 
 Not so with foolish men, by self-taught ways 
 
 From nature's track divergent far, with toil 
 Purposeless, self-imposed, our pathway strays. 
 For glad contentment grief, for calm, turmoil, 
 
 Such harvest reaped is ours ; the loftier aim 
 Too lofty planned, is but attainment's foil. 
 A note too highly pitched, O holiest name 
 
 *Professed* by mortal tongues. Philosophy, 
 
304 BOOK III 
 
 Thine be all praise ; to us alone the blame. 
 We, while all else in earth, in sea, or sky, 
 
 Obey their being's law, with vain endeavour 
 Thy manifest law transgress, thy voice defy. 
 Thus while I thought, he whose true guidance ever 
 
 Led me from truth to truth, whom from my side 
 Nor measured space nor spirit-depths could sever, 
 Towards me turned and smiled, as smiles the guide 
 
 When some precipitous peak with toil ascended 
 Opens o'er lands unknown a prospect wide ; — 
 O smile all smiles above, by thee befriended 
 
 From height to height I climb, till the long way 
 In thee begun in thee be summed and ended ! 
 Scattered the mist and gone ; once more the day 
 
 On grass and wild-flowers beamed, nor aught was there 
 Of columned portal seen or grave array. 
 Nor other sound but the cool rustling air 
 
 That freshly blew was heard, by mystic chaunt 
 Unvexed, and free as children's voices are. 
 Then as on glittering rains the coloured vaunt 
 
 Of glad Thaumantia's bow, or chequered dyes 
 When in 'mid air processioned banners flaunt. 
 So the whole radiance of those sunlit skies 
 
 With shifting hues was stained ; less gay the breast 
 Of that rare bird, last pledge of Paradise. 
 And as, at morn by light and victory blest 
 
 The glad procession moves, memorial show 
 Of the risen God in manhood's form expressed. 
 So from the circling distance, row by row, 
 
 With myrtle crowned and bays, to music *meet* 
 Came a great crowd, nor swift their march nor slow. 
 Till in half circle near us drawn, their feet 
 
 Halted from onward course, and ranged around 
 Stood the bright throng in ordered state complete. 
 And the glad music rang with blended sound 
 
 Of joyful greetings given, as welcome made 
 
CANTO IX 305 
 
 When grate returning keels on native ground. 
 The while o'erhead in the pure air displayed 
 
 Those painted banners streamed, with emblems rare 
 Blazoned, and letters twined in curious braid. 
 "Those whom thou seest," thus to my questioning 
 prayer 
 
 Answered my spirit's guide, " and whom thy eye 
 Seest not, in distance veiled and luminous air ; 
 As flowers to fields, as sunlight to the sky. 
 
 Beauty and splendour give, so these to earth 
 Freshness and joy from age to age supply. 
 Foremost and best who now with answering mirth 
 
 Cheer the dull hours, and now with gentle tears 
 Slake to new life the dusty wayside dearth. 
 By these time's orbs reversed, return the years 
 
 Charactered large in fame ; by these the dream 
 Of fancy wove in waking fact appears." 
 Nurse of romance, by Arno's storied stream 
 
 Late-born of race divine, thy first essay 
 To hundred tales attuned Love's single theme ; 
 Till where the North's cold star with steady ray 
 
 Mirrors on the dark stream, whose bordered wave 
 Sunders the kindred realms of partnered sway, 
 Ettrick's dark glades and heathery slopes among 
 
 Was reared thy stateliest shrine ; whence rising shone 
 Brightest and best on earth the visioned throng : 
 A giant shade o'er lesser forms alone 
 
 Towering in perfect might, so 'mid the rest 
 Monarch supreme, thy presence, Scott, was known. 
 Yet not unhonoured they nor few, the crest 
 
 Of the bright wave of thought, with quickening flow 
 Moved from the garrulous East to manlier West. 
 Here 'mid flower-blazoned flags in order go 
 
 Thy cinctured sons, Japan ; nor honoured less 
 O'er half a world, the Seric dragons glow. 
 Here forms uncouth and garish hues express 
 
306 BOOK III 
 
 What dreaming India saw ; a strength and grace 
 Present, but masked in fancy's motley dress. 
 And where with mornless nights unequal days 
 
 Earth's narrower circle to her warrior brood 
 Alternate metes, walled in by icy space, 
 Even there of glorious deeds and hardihood 
 
 In strange adventure known, and love's delight. 
 Is the wild tale by fancy's art renewed. 
 And as on distant slopes the mirrored light 
 
 Casts a pale gleam, so Europe's witheired age 
 From these some radiance draws in time's despite. 
 For not alone by verse divine the page 
 
 A healing gives to men, nor history's roll 
 Can the great thirst, the concrete want, assuage 
 Where yearns the imperfect to the perfect whole. 
 
 Yet these some solace bring, nor idly shed 
 By these are the bright drops from fancy's bowl. 
 Then as of nearing crowds confused the tread 
 
 Shook, where we stood, the ground, and once again 
 Music and song the approaching pageant led. 
 While from its further verge the teeming plain, 
 
 Now vaster grown and domed with purer blue. 
 Pennon and flag sent forth in mingled train. 
 Nor now of question made or answer new 
 
 Was need these bands to tell ; the garb they bore 
 Their native land and age refigured true. 
 And first whom venturous heart, and mind of lore 
 
 Insatiate, by wide lands and lonely seas 
 The world's remotest chambers drove t' explore. 
 Nor scared by danger's scowl, nor witched by ease, 
 
 Followers of him, the wise, who unbeguiled 
 By Sirens' songs or beauty's witcheries 
 'Mid perilous seas and mountain waves up-piled 
 
 Held on his way's intent, till through the haze 
 Of twenty years dim loomed Thiaki's isle.^ 
 ' Ithaca. 
 
CANTO IX 307 
 
 O comrades mine and brothers true, by ways 
 
 Various to goals as various bound, to death 
 Untimely some, some to long years of praise ; 
 Not history's stately roll nor poet's wreath 
 
 Your special crown outvies, whose just [award] 
 Makes straight th' unequal praise of earth, beneath, 
 'Mid the glad tenants of th' Elysian sward 
 
 Here, till fulfilled the lustral hour ; to each 
 Portioned in restful life the fit reward. 
 All who high hopes by quickening deed or speech 
 
 On the dull earth as rays have cast, and brought 
 Hesperian fruit from the death-guarded beach ; 
 Who to the world of sense, the world of thought. 
 
 Have given a wider realm, a dearer gain 
 Than Genoa's son for Spain's dull tyrant sought. 
 — Here stays perforce my song, for now the plain 
 
 AVith forms of light and beauty numberless 
 Was filled, as filled with waves the ocean main. 
 As when through terraced streets the people press 
 
 On to the central city square, where waits 
 A nation's saviour from her worst distress. 
 The Conqueror King, who from his country's gates 
 
 Repelled the intruding foe, and for despair 
 Wrested late triumph from th' unequal Fates : 
 On the great throne with trophies decked, and fair 
 
 AVith grateful wreaths, serene he sits, and sees 
 His own just pride in all reflected there. 
 Then as at noon's dead calm a gusty breeze 
 
 Sudden upwhirls the summer's dust, and wakes 
 To rustling sound and life the leafy trees ; 
 So from all sides, as one, tumultuous breaks 
 
 A nation's just acclaim, a mighty cry 
 That of all praise one joy, one utterance, makes, 
 Till from its ordered place upbursting high 
 
 The full-blown music swells ; the pomp and pride 
 Fused and transformed to living harmony ; 
 
308 BOOK 
 
 So now the bannered crowd, the shrine, the throne 
 
 With her the spirit-queen, the pomp, the flowers, 
 Lost to all else, in music hved alone. 
 While from far depths as Zephyr's diamond showers 
 
 Descend in latter Spring, such music fell 
 As twines of Iris' rays th' Elysian bowers ; 
 Or subtler yet than old Amphion's spell 
 
 When Thebes embodied song ; fit dwelling wove 
 For those, who prisoned in earth's twilight cell, 
 
 Brightened its gloom with beams of mirrored Love. 
 
CANTO X 
 
 Sadder regions now await us — We are on the .sea-shore : a myster- 
 ious darkness arises over the landscape, mixed with lurid flashes 
 — My guide explains that the five realms thus far passed belong 
 to those whom Love will make perfect — Now follows the Sixth: 
 that of those misled by Science ; their doom is to dwell in a 
 world such as they planned — A momentary gleam ; a mystic 
 conflict ; we pass over the black gulf. 
 
 Not without pain the things of pain in words 
 
 We image forth, and sadness told in verse 
 Sadness to him who sings and hears affords. 
 But sadder yet when, as a funeral hearse 
 
 Following a bridal show, the songster's lay 
 To gladness tuned, must pain and death rehearse. 
 Such now my task assigned ; nor hght th' essay 
 
 Though by his aid upheld whose guiding hand 
 Led through all lustral realms my fateful way. 
 And thou, crowned leader of the conquering band, 
 
 Father of light and life, thy radiance shed 
 On the thick darkness of th' ill-destined land. 
 In the far distance now behind us spread 
 
 The mountain barrier lay ; the sea beside 
 Left but a shingly path to forward tread : 
 That sea by storm unvexed, unswollen by tide, 
 
 Whose depths with earthly date coeval here 
 
310 BOOK III 
 
 The sevenfold realm, goal of earth's paths, divide. 
 Calm as the smile of sleeping child, and clear 
 
 As the child's wakening eye, the watery blue 
 Mirrored the azure-vaulted hemisphere. 
 Not the far isles of silver named, if true 
 
 The famed Milesian tale, more peaceful gleamed 
 When steered o'er Euxine depths the suppliant crew : 
 Nor e'er before in my sad heart I deemed 
 
 Such peace abode had found, that all endured 
 Of pain or toil, outfaded memories seemed. 
 Then as to near eclipse when most assured 
 
 Darkens the noontide day, so land and main 
 Grew dark to sight, by a strange gloom obscured. 
 Yet whence it came I knew not ; cloud nor stain 
 
 Nor sign . of tempest there, but as betrayed 
 To spell malign, dethroned the noontide's reign. 
 Toward my guide I turned, of speech afraid. 
 
 So heavy weighed the gloom ; and thrice my lips 
 Failed of their utterance, thrice the task assayed. 
 Till thus ; " What ominous shade, what sun's eclipse 
 
 Mars the fair prospect round, what demon power 
 In grasp malign the dying beauty clips ? " 
 " Fear not," the Master's answer came, " the hour 
 
 Is short, though given to ill, but long shall last 
 The sequent good, and earth's atoning dower." 
 So through the thickening gloom we onward passed. 
 
 Nor from his hand my hand I loosed, till ended 
 Sheer on the beach our narrowing path at last. 
 But o'er the opposing wave in air extended 
 
 Something, I knew not what, so dense the gloom. 
 As from above let down to earth descended. 
 As the vast portal of some Memphian tomb, 
 
 But vaster, this ; or as old legends tell. 
 The giant arch that spans the gulf of doom. 
 But on my ear through the far darkness fell 
 
 Such sound with measured throb, as when the blast 
 
CANTO X 311 
 
 Tolls on the beacon lone the warning bell. 
 And as 'mid Adria's storms the bending mast, 
 
 Tipped with no friendly light the sails between 
 Glimmers, a sign of bale to eyes aghast,^ 
 Such phosphor glare now far now nearer seen 
 
 Flashed through the curtained gloom, a messenger 
 Of unknown dread from 'yond the further screen. 
 And at that spectre flash meseemed the air 
 
 Pulsed to its beat, as when the large-winged bird 
 Of night with circling swoop regains her lair. 
 And but through the thick shade at times I heard, — 
 
 For sight was none, — the master's voice, the tone 
 That to fresh life my frozen pulses stirred, 
 Sure had I perished there, to senseless stone 
 
 By Gorgon fear congealed. 
 
 Here my guide bids me rest till a sign to advance is 
 given. 
 
 " Now hear ; by Fate's decree to thee revealed 
 
 Have the five realms their secret worth, whate'er 
 Life's proper aims to man's fulfilment yield. 
 In deeds of noblest name and public care 
 
 Was theirs on earth the choice ; expectant now, 
 Till perfect found, in the first realm they share. 
 Next who th' all perfect from the starry brow 
 
 Of absolute beauty showed, in art to bide 
 Heirloom of earth, the second realm avow. 
 Then the great powers ^ to whom all else beside 
 
 Even as to gods bows down, of all that is 
 Blessing or curse, o'er the 'mid realm preside. 
 Last the high boon by favouring destinies 
 
 Given to the lords of thought or song, displays 
 Reflex and earnest of accomplished bliss. 
 Of all perfecting Love the upward ways 
 
 ^ S. Elmo's fire. ^ Love and Religion. 
 
312 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 " Thus far hast thou beheld ; all these by hope 
 Cleansed from the dust and stain of mortal days. 
 But other realms than these and other scope 
 
 Await thee now, where o'er dark seas outspread 
 In limitless seeming hangs the murky cope. 
 Here whom vain skill and vauntful science led 
 
 From life's true paths astray, and Nature's scroll 
 In earth's fair semblance writ have backwards read ; 
 Who spirit in laws of sense would bind, and soul 
 
 In mindless force resume, and on the parts 
 Intent, neglect life's proper gift, the whole. 
 Dull eyes that beauty's rays admit not, hearts 
 
 Kin to the beasts that fade ; a reason bound 
 In narrowest range that mind from sense disparts. 
 The life-fraught breeze of star-lit dawn, the sound 
 
 Of summer woods at noon, the painted scene 
 In myriad hues the sunset gold around. 
 The upward gaze of flowers, the innumerous green 
 
 Of the moist fields, the busy insect swarm 
 Of motley life the sheltering blades between ; 
 The Winter's timely sleep, the breezes warm 
 
 Of Spring's return, the golden Autumn leaf, 
 The changeful sky, the wind-driven cloud, the storm,- 
 Rest to man's toil assigned, to woes relief. 
 
 As on the mother's breast the cradled child 
 Tended by Nature's joys and Nature's grief, 
 Founts of pure life in freshness undefiled ; 
 
 — From these aside they turn, to barren waste 
 From their own birthright-pasture self-exiled. 
 A fevered youth's unrest, an age debased 
 
 To narrowest aims, till lustral periods spent 
 In what they loved have the marred lines retraced. 
 Till then to their ill choice the element 
 
 Conforms th' abode assigned, for Nature's range 
 Outgone, in their own work constrained and pent. 
 Ill hap the work, the workman ill, th' exchange 
 
CANTO X 313 
 
 " That from the beauteous life, the light, the pleasure, 
 Heirlooms of men, would men and earth estrange." , 
 Then I ; " Master and lord, if granted leisure 
 
 Be to discourse awhile, with ampler key 
 Unlock, I pray, of this hid lore the treasure. 
 If ranked with things that are or things to be 
 
 What thou declaredst e'en now, — the mind perverse, 
 The ignoble task, the ruined world in fee, — 
 So, to the sunlit earth returned, my verse 
 
 May timely warning give, lest seeds of ill 
 Unwitting sown, for harvest bear a curse." 
 Thus while I spoke, a sudden wind and chill 
 
 From the far distance came, the woods among 
 As heard the screech-owl's cry in midnight still. 
 And as a star 'mid cloudy vapours hung 
 
 Distant and faint, or the brief-flashing ray 
 O'er Cambrian straits from Treser's watch-tower ^ flung. 
 So swift so slight the gleam that midmost way 
 
 O'er the drear gulf upborne, on quivering air 
 Fluttered awhile, then passed in gloom away. 
 Yet ere it wholly passed an upward stair 
 
 Reared on that dead sea-beach to heights denied 
 To upward gaze was given in presence there. 
 While as at fear's approach his father's side 
 
 Close seeks the shrinking child, in vague alarm 
 Nearer to him I drew, my guard, my guide. 
 But he not unforewarned with prescient care 
 
 Circled my waist, the while on mine his hand 
 With gentle pressure laid assured from harm. 
 Thus while we stood, as o'er the dusty land 
 
 Sweeps the wild Pampas storm, from high de- 
 scended 
 A rushing night, swifter than lightning's brand ; 
 Then all was lost to sense, confused and blended 
 
 Darkness and storm and flight, nor mine to tell 
 ' Apparently Holyhead : Treser meaning the House of the Star. 
 
314 BOOK IIJ 
 
 What rage assailed, what escort wings defended. 
 Till the black gulf o'erpast what next befell 
 
 Be in this Pageant shown, so far approve 
 They at whose hest I write, the gracious spell 
 
 Woven of all life that beauty crowns with Love. 
 
CANTO XI 
 
 A dismal landscape like the English " Black Country '' is seen, 
 filled with engines and works — the triumph of Applied 
 Science and Machinery — Here are colossal bridges, crystal 
 palaces, — all, vanity and vexation of spirit, contrasted with the 
 charm of pure unspoiled Nature — The future of the indwellers 
 revealed. 
 
 The MS. begins with a picture of Naples, but is 
 incomplete. 
 
 How the great gulf we passed, how reached the hill 
 
 Circling the realm of shade, is to the mind 
 That would recall, a doubt and mystery still. 
 As on lone mountain heights a vehement wind 
 
 With darkest night conjoined, of when and where 
 Cancels the sense, till all, before, behind. 
 Is undistinguished blank ; the travellers fare 
 
 Onward, yet know not how, till sudden rise 
 Some welcome landmark through th' unfolding air ; 
 Such was our way that to enquiring eyes 
 
 Little revealed but gloom, though conscious sense 
 Told of swift change in half-seen phantasies. 
 High in 'mid space we seemed by strange suspense 
 
 Borne on o'erarching span, with iron clank 
 And mandrake shrieks, and sulphurous vapours dense. 
 And onward whirled we passed from bank to bank 
 
 Of the great chasm, where flitting bale-iires far 
 
3l6 BOOK III 
 
 In fathomless depths of darkness rose and sank. 
 Till as o'er pest-stricken shores an evil star 
 
 Motionless hangs, a ruddy light, that seemed 
 Purposeful placed, signed passage from afar. 
 Till where o'erhead the smoky lustre gleamed 
 
 On a black soil and bare our further way 
 Was stayed, nor ill the end such course beseemed. 
 Like the fair land in England's happier day 
 
 Once fair with grassy dell and streams, but now 
 Of blackness named, such scene around us lay. 
 While frequent ranged,^ in far receding row 
 
 Were ranged^ the dens of toil, the labour vain 
 That ever sought to find yet knew not how. 
 A land where rest is not nor pause, a gain 
 
 Still sought, eluding still, a shifting goal 
 Of the vexed heart, tired limbs, and faiUng brain. 
 Where to mere means the end, to parts the whole 
 
 Postponed, is lost to view ; where reigns supreme 
 Mechanic law, throned on the void of soul. 
 Where for the glorious sun, the connate beam, 
 
 Man's heirloom health and strength, a deadly pall 
 Daylight and starlight shrouds in sulphurous steam : 
 Where the fair forms of life, the flowerets small. 
 
 The mighty trees, the hedgerow's berried store. 
 The bushy glens where pleasant waters fall, 
 The grazing herds, the feathered joys that soar 
 
 In air or perch the boughs, the life content 
 As nature gives to life, nor frets for more, — 
 All these for graceless forms of toil, intent 
 
 On gain and gainful change and toilsome haste. 
 Bartered are found through this sad realm's extent. 
 And every joysome sound by moorland waste 
 
 Or in deep thicket heard, or pastures green, 
 — Mirth answering mirth, and sport with sport enlaced 
 tOf bird or beast or man, — for sound obscene 
 ' Sic MSS. : — a sign of unievised work. 
 
CANTO XI 317 
 
 Of dull metallic roar, or discord shrill 
 Of wild ear-piercing shriek is heard between, f 
 And for each scent that evening flowers distill 
 
 From perfume-laden cups, the heavy air 
 Was thick with sulphurous reek and airs that kill. 
 And for the honeyed flow and savours rare 
 
 Of nature's ready feast, a poisoned sense 
 The palate filled, and craving thirst's despair. 
 And the soft touch of natural influence 
 
 In breeze or sunny beam or contact warm 
 Of life with living life, all these from hence 
 Were driven, as rose-leaves by November's storm ; 
 
 And in their place collision harsh and rude, 
 And gestures rough that living grace deform. 
 Such was the nearer scene ; but distant viewed 
 
 Vast piles of gathered wealth, and things that told 
 Of busy crowds around th' horizon stood ; 
 Bridges of monstrous span, and iron mould. 
 
 In outstretched meanness, huge monotonies, 
 Their sullen length from bank to bank unrolled : 
 And serried chimneys tall, that the pure skies 
 
 Sully with vaporous breath, and at their feet 
 The sleepless glare of clanging factories. 
 Nor wanted high-built tower nor dome complete 
 
 In palace-semblance reared ; but all, alas, 
 Were but a figured show, a hollow cheat. 
 Of painted metals vile and common glass 
 
 From base to glittering crown, an empty thing ; 
 " The earth has bubbles, as the water has," 
 Then spoke my guide ; " What prize what failure bring 
 
 Science with skill combined, the golden age 
 Of Man o'er Nature, Master, Lord and King, 
 Prefigured here thou seest ; when the blind rage 
 
 Of progress, change, and wealth, the threefold gin, 
 Shuts on the self-trapped life its iron cage. 
 For mind, mechanic skill, for rest, the din 
 
3i8 BOOK in 
 
 " Of movement without end, for wise content 
 Glamour without, and craving void within." 
 Thus while he spoke, as who the purport meant 
 
 On symbol rock engraven, or painted scene 
 On crumbling wall, relates ; his gaze intent 
 With narrowed eyes resumes, if aught unseen 
 
 By a first view may yet remain, in quest 
 Of the veiled Isis hid the folds between ; 
 So with new sense of wonderment possessed 
 
 Again around I gazed, till darker grew 
 The heavens, and murkier burned the fires unblest. 
 Then as on blood fresh-shed a deadlier hue 
 
 Falls from a passing shade, within my breast 
 Darkened on my first dread a horror new. 
 
 I ask what race will be thus cursed, and if no deliverance 
 will ever be^My guide promises final victory. 
 
 " But first through dateless hours of wintry night 
 
 Must the sad ages roll, till other stars 
 New influence shed from unimagined light, 
 Throes of a second birth, inglorious wars 
 
 With treason foul confused, and new disease 
 With famine joined, and all that slays or mars, — 
 Such harvest science brings ; by such degrees 
 
 Fulfilled the promise old, that life transmutes 
 In the foul dream of Circe's witcheries. 
 O Eden earth to Hinnom, men to brutes 
 
 Changed by illusive spell, O bitter tree 
 Of knowledge, flowers ill-plucked, ill-tasted fruits, 
 Who shall thy venom purge, the captive free 
 
 From the dark spell, replume the silver dove 
 By thee despoiled and tarnished ? who but he 
 
 The one, th' all-healing, all-restoring Love ? " 
 
CANTO XII 
 
 Figxires appear huddled together — I question them : the chief 
 answers that he and his comrades desired to frame a world 
 where Man should reign supreme and free from higher 
 interference, reducing everything to the Visible — Another now 
 speaks : his aim was to supersede mind -work by machine- 
 work — These are the Patriarchs of Steam and Rail — For this 
 revolt against Nature the shades are condemned to restlessness 
 of despair and hope — A third follows : he broke by the 
 Electric Telegraph the bonds wisely set between nations — 
 Then appears a vision of natural beauty in contrast. 
 
 With sights and sounds of cureless ill, that weighed 
 
 Leadlike on sense and heart, the dreary scene 
 Of earth by man misused my eye surveyed. 
 As the mean foulness of a suburb green 
 
 With burnt-out fire-works strewed, in trampled mire 
 Shows where the drunken night has noisiest been ; 
 So grimed with crusted smoke, defaced by fire 
 
 The beauty forged by man ; earth, water, air, 
 Polluted all, dishonoured nature's pyre. 
 Wide was the range, and long I gazed, but there 
 
 No form withal discerned, nor beast nor bird 
 Nor human shade moved on the level bare. 
 Then, as on far-off slopes an antlered herd 
 
 Sudden appears, where long the huntsman's ken 
 
320 BOOK 
 
 Nought but grey rock and grassy tuft averred ; 
 So 'mid the desolate stillness of a glen 
 
 Somewhat apart that lay, a gathered band 
 AVere pent as huddled sheep in stony pen. 
 With downcast faces sad, nor foot nor hand 
 
 They moved, but each from each in thought apart 
 Pored on the blackness of the circling sand. 
 So by Cathedral gates or opening mart 
 
 Sit crippled forms and old, in memory dim 
 Retracing days that in glad life had past. 
 I saw, then wondering turned from these to him. 
 
 Light of my thoughts and ways, to ask and learn 
 What the presentment of that conclave grim. 
 But he, " From their own selves may question earn 
 
 The answer rightly sought, so with fresh gain 
 Of truth to th' upper world may'st thou return." 
 Thus having said across the blighted plain 
 
 The path he led to where, silent and grey. 
 In twilight semblance cowered those shadows vain : 
 Till near approach with greeting joined ; but they 
 
 Approach nor greeting marked, as who th' intent 
 Saw not, or seeing cared not to repay. 
 Then with slow pause his forehead downward bent 
 
 Upreared who seemed the chief, and on my face 
 Fixed a dull stare of doubtful discontent. 
 And thus ; " Thy profitless steps to this, the place 
 
 Of baffled hopes, what adverse power has brought, 
 Unwelcome witness of my life's disgrace ? 
 Mine and who with me bide ; for ours the thought 
 
 On man's own visible world ; from none beside. 
 Spirit or god, or aid or hindrance sought 
 An order new to uprear, a crowning pride 
 
 Of science wed to skill, a world where man 
 Sole lord, with none should earth's empire divide. 
 Titan-scheme forbid, heaven-blasted plan 
 
 Of Sennaar's legend-tower, on wings to flight 
 
CANTO XII 321 
 
 " Unequal, whelmed in gulfs Icarian ! 
 Chiefest of these was I in Nature's spite 
 
 Distance and space to foil, and things apart 
 Wisely ordained, in rashness to unite ; 
 Till all the daedal earth by Nature's art 
 
 Distinct, its various grace and life forgo, 
 Blent and confounded in one common mart. 
 Effaced the primal bounds, nor ocean's flow 
 
 Nor track of stoniest drought, might land from land 
 Longer divide, nor crest of pathless snow : 
 Till the rash boast of old Chaldeans' band 
 
 Should late fulfilment find, nor speech nor place, 
 Aught on Man's earth, exempt from man's command. 
 As of past rule each mark or sculptured trace 
 
 New lords with care remove, so save his own 
 Should man all right deny, all rule efface ; 
 Nought but the visible left, nor shrine nor throne, 
 
 But mind's ; an eyeless heaven, a rayless sun ; — 
 O Nimrod tower, by nature's curse o'erthrown ! " 
 He ceased, in sullen musings lost ; but one 
 
 Beside him found in place, with sequent tale 
 Took up the theme by th' elder shade begun. 
 And said ; " Whoe'er thou art, to the sad vale 
 
 Of man's decay self-wrought who mortal ear 
 ■Hast brought, if listening, chance may those avail 
 Whom earth's glad day-light cheers ; attend and hear 
 
 What heard thou needs must write, the wretchedness 
 Of the great vaunt, fulfilled in ruin drear. 
 The god-apportioned toil, the daily stress 
 
 Of thought with labour joined, the apt consent 
 Of man with nature's partnered loveliness. 
 These I contemned, as childhood's slight content 
 
 Misprized in serious age ; on wider gains 
 And vaster plans, so willed my greed, intent. 
 Machines not men my aim, 'twas mine t' attain 
 
 By mere mechanic force and sleight whate'er 
 
322 BOOK III 
 
 " Had purpose given to living hand or brain : 
 Till as at wintry breath the garland fair 
 
 From the bald woodland drops, and loveliest shapes 
 Shrink to dead heaps, nor strength nor beauty there ; 
 So art to mere devisement, men to apes, 
 
 Kingdoms to headless hordes, strength to decay 
 Shrunk, of a blighted vine the shrivelled grapes. 
 Rotten ere ripe the vintage ; wretched they 
 
 That tainted wine who drink, and thirsting turn 
 From the pure draughts of nature's founts away. 
 Here their presentment true ; look round and learn 
 
 Timely what they too late, to nature's law 
 Till scourged by pain our upward state return." 
 Thus while he spoke the circling shades I saw 
 
 In restless motion swayed, as when the wind 
 Bends the long grasses of the whitening shaw. 
 And some with looks that horror told behind 
 
 Turned a reverted gaze, and forward some 
 Leant as in hope a promised goal to find. 
 But more, as of all thought or feeling numb. 
 
 Mere shadows went or came ; while rose and fell 
 As of vain gusts at eve the ceaseless hum. 
 Nor word distinct nor uttered speech to tell 
 
 Whence their complaint or why, but vague unrest 
 As the first loosening of a Circe spell. 
 But I with saddened thought and labouring breast 
 
 Beheld the ruin wrought, and mourned to see 
 How ill completion matched the will's behest ; 
 And how from Nature's bounds by science free 
 
 Self-prisoned man remains, and less than man, 
 A withered dwarf, who more than god would be. 
 Till with faint voice scarce heard and aspect wan, 
 
 One who even thus of past pre-eminence 
 Some token gave, thus to my ear began. 
 " 'Twixt land and land of space the sundering fence 
 
 Had wisest Nature reared, lest folly's taint 
 
CANTO XII 323 
 
 " Contagious grown should blot the birthright sense : 
 So the bright hues that Life's fair garden paint 
 
 With beauty's various flowers should safe remain 
 From spreading rust, and stain of mildew faint. 
 More even than those thou heard'st, the mighty twain 
 
 Patriarchs of steam and rail, did I the bound 
 Connatural set to earth-born man disdain. 
 Mine was the art that could in one confound 
 
 All diverse speech, all thought j the girdle mine, 
 The fatal chain, linked the wide world around. 
 As in besieging war from mine to mine 
 
 Is knit the slumbering death, that waked, confounds 
 In ruinous heaps the long defended line, 
 A moment past well ranged they stood, the bounds 
 
 To hostile force and envious onslaught set ; 
 Now a mere mass confused in fenceless mounds. 
 So my far-reaching art, the coronet 
 
 Of science named, o'er earth's innumerous bloom 
 Of flower and fruit was cast, a tanghng net, 
 Cast o'er a captive world ; to equal doom 
 
 Wisdom with folly bound, till folly's voice 
 For truthful speech nor hearing left nor room. 
 But ye, dark powers of ill perverse, whose choice 
 
 Is with destruction made, who man with man 
 Through me in (self-wrought) ruin linked, rejoice." 
 Then at that uttered curse those spectres wan 
 
 That mistlike filled the vale, as tremulous heat 
 On noontide sands, their flickering dance began. 
 Till as an updriven wave with swift retreat 
 
 Draws speckled foam and sand, while towering high 
 From shore and sea the closing waters meet, 
 A weltering crest upchurned, where dazed the eye 
 
 As by the crash the ear, in fierce contest 
 Upheaved, self-tortured everlastingly : — 
 So from the gloom that veiled the spectral West 
 
 Outburst a whirlwind blast, that wildly driven 
 
324 BOOK III 
 
 Chased all confused those phantom forms unblest, 
 Scattered and shred-like torn ; and lo ! the heaven 
 
 In sapphire dome unstained, and the pure air 
 With earth to earth-born man for birthright given. 
 Where now th' unnatured crowd? the tumult where 
 
 Of force from rest disjoined ? around, above, 
 Is the great calm, unvexed by toilful care. 
 
 Best dower of renovate life to renovate Love. 
 
CANTO XIII 
 
 I see a city of civilization, science, skill, wealth, ruled by the demo- 
 cratic assembly which disdains the past, and is ruled by no 
 principle — Seated in chill light, in a robe figuring the descent 
 of man from brutes, is Science, a changeful figure, throned 
 as alone supreme and divine — A band of her followers is 
 around ; like Science, all bearing a withered bough — a branch 
 of the tree of knowledge — Their grovelling nature -studies 
 described. 
 
 City of man, not God, by wealth and skill 
 
 Earth-born, earth-gathered, built, — thy golden walls 
 Shone on my vision from the frontier hill. 
 Far glittering roofs, wide domes, and windowed halls 
 
 In labyrinth lines entwined, and factories 
 Piled with rich wares, and guarded arsenals, 
 And marts of ornate skill to longing eyes 
 
 Set forth in broad arcades, and all of wealth, 
 Science, and keen device, the purposed prize. 
 And all that chemic lore or craft to health 
 
 Can lend in boasted aid j and all that sense 
 Desires in feast avowed or solaced stealth. 
 Nor aught of peacock show or gay pretence 
 
 Or specious gilded dross, or costly bait 
 To sensuous joy ordained, was wanting thence. 
 There too through many a pillared porch elate 
 
326 BOOK III 
 
 In glittering ranges curved the illumined stage 
 Showed the bright lurements of theatric state. 
 And she, the late-born child of feverish age, 
 
 Th' orchestra, queen of sound, in gauzy chains 
 By science led, of music turned the page. 
 Nor far removed the echoing hall where reigns 
 
 Supreme the popular voice, a wordy throng 
 Gathered, whom more to note this verse disdains : — 
 They who the names of sacred power that long. 
 
 Watchwords of hero deeds, earth's nobler days 
 Led to high praise, besmirch with party wrong. 
 For here of ancient laws and form-fenced ways 
 
 Traced by ancestral care, the service true 
 Of old obedience, and tradition's haze 
 Fringing with rainbow hues the distant view 
 
 Till as from bud the flower, from flower the fruit. 
 Continuous blends the old with order new. 
 Nor part had here nor place ; uptorn the root. 
 
 Withered the stem, the flower ; and in their place 
 The popular rule, the many-headed brute. 
 Of shrine or temple nought, of artist grace 
 
 Wed to the nobler thought, of reverence paid 
 To birth or age nor memory here nor trace. 
 As fish in ocean's depths, or beasts in glade. 
 
 Or birds in limitless air, nor guide nor chief 
 Who own, a headless horde ; — by sun or shade 
 As sand by winds upheaved ; — or autumn leaf 
 
 Self-sundered from the sap-giving stem, or aught 
 Than these more unrestrained, more vain, more brief 
 City of men, thy children such ! so wrought, 
 
 A ship of fools, thy state, with idle winds 
 Distent thy sails, thy hold with ruin fraught. 
 Then as a tempest-flash well nigh that blinds 
 
 The unexpectant eye, when prone the rain 
 Descends, and cower 'mid huddled flocks the hinds. 
 So from th' horizon of that blasted plain 
 
CANTO XIII 327 
 
 Even to the central domes that prouder rose 
 Than Thebes or Ilion to th' Orphean strain, 
 A mirrored radiance shone ; its source who knows 
 
 Let him reveal, I may not ; but the glare 
 As with an iceberg's chill my senses froze. 
 Shuddering I gazed and wondered much, for there 
 
 Midmost that joyless night a woman's shape. 
 But queenly proud, as pampered harlots are, 
 Enthroned I saw ; o'er her large form a cape 
 
 Broidered with strange device was thrown, whereon 
 Were imaged worm and fish and bird and ape ; 
 Each interwoven and blent with each, that none 
 
 Could last from first divide ; a pedigree, 
 Though old, unhonoured ; though divergent, one. 
 Such was the robe, the broidery such ; but she 
 
 Stranger herself by far, nor to one form 
 Constant, but various more than cloud or sea; 
 Now, as when erst beheld, a shape difform 
 
 From the high crag she frowned, with bat-like wings 
 Shadowing the smoke wreaths of th' involving storm. 
 And now with stateliest calm, that sceptred kings 
 
 Might from afar revere, a virgin Queen, 
 Greater than they, supreme o'er earthly things : 
 And now with shameless front and flaunted sheen 
 
 Of mimic pearl and gem, a harlot old, 
 But clad in youth's array, that Power was seen. 
 And a great crowd of semblance manifold, 
 
 Yet in one livery clad, her throne around 
 Clustered as trooping sheep in evening fold. 
 While from all sides to music tuned a sound 
 
 That reverence told and worship, to mid air 
 Went up, like incense-mist from hallowed ground. 
 Yet was no lord, no god, no ruler there 
 
 In worship owned by these ; nor other shrine 
 Confessed, nor throne, nor rival, nor compeer. 
 She only great, she glorious, she divine ; 
 
328 BOOK III 
 
 And on her brow and on her vestment's hem 
 Science, her name, was writ, her empire's sign. 
 Round her pale brows a flickering diadem 
 
 Of that cold light was twined, and her right hand 
 Held stripped of flower and fruit a sapless stem. 
 Then while with wondering gaze the pomp I scanned 
 
 Of Time's last portent queen, from out the rest 
 Came forth with reverent step a marshalled band. 
 As stunted trees on the bare wind-blown West 
 
 Of Mona's farthest ledge, warped and awry. 
 Unkindly skies and meagre soil attest. 
 Such the procession seemed, that to the eye 
 
 Small solace gave or meed, yet was their mien 
 Proud, as of conquerors come from victory. 
 And with a several offering each the Queen 
 
 Approaching, homage made ; but she more cold 
 Than wintry moon looked down on all serene. 
 But all ahke, subjects or Queen, in hold 
 
 That withered branch displayed, which erst I knew 
 Her sceptre-wand, decked with false pearls and gold. 
 Then thus my guide, " Where first the quickening dew 
 
 Gemmed with its tears earth's infant face, and where 
 The central fount its fourfold stream upthrew. 
 With scented rind and leaf and blossom fair, 
 
 But most with clustered fruit, conspicuous grew 
 That branch, thou wondering seest, now peeled and bare. 
 Of Knowledge this the tree, pleasant to view. 
 
 But death to taste ; so found the twain who erst 
 Ventured the deed that yet the nations rue. 
 Accursed the tree, the branch, the fruit ; accursed 
 
 She thou behold'st, of that ill growth the soul. 
 Of man's mis- worshipped idols last and worst." 
 Yet as he spoke, like marsh-fed mists that roll 
 
 Up the hill-sides at dawn of autumn day. 
 O'er that great crowd a heavy vapour stole. 
 And first the eyes that wilful turned away 
 
CANTO XIII 329 
 
 From nature's offered scope to things removed 
 From human sense and life's connatal ray, 
 By measureless space estranged, or harmful proved 
 
 To daily sense of life, with envious gaze 
 Prompt to explore, by vain compeers approved, — 
 To the fair robe that Nature's form arrays. 
 
 Beauty of field or grove, and living grace 
 Were feelingless grown, confused in self-made haze. 
 And every power from ordered range and place 
 
 To wider scope outstretched, was warped and. 
 marred. 
 Like a strained chord, a mis-tuned diapase, 
 From their true aim and healthful act debarred, 
 
 Till to the likeness of their work subdued 
 In their own lore they find their fit reward. 
 And some with purpose fixed and serious mood 
 
 Pored on earth's writhing worms, or hour by 
 hour 
 Watched through the optic glass corruption's brood. 
 And some the vigorous leaf or painted flower 
 
 Keen to dissect and class, of heart's delight 
 Stripped the gay broidery of the garden bower. 
 And some the inmost life, the conscious light 
 
 Of the great Lamp of mind, with atom dust 
 Smothered, or gave to chance and bestial might ; 
 Duty to need-born custom, love to lust. 
 
 Reverence to coward fear, and beauty's sense 
 To gain or use, scornful aside they thrust : 
 These in the infinite night's magnificence 
 
 A clockwork saw, no more ; in the bright sun 
 A chemic force, a vapour rare or dense. 
 Till, as the camp-lit watch-fires one by one 
 
 'Twixt midnight fade and dawn, the ready foe 
 Of onslaught sure, waits till the last be gone, — 
 So with their worshipped Queen that hapless show 
 
 Vanished in darkness lost ; a leaden weight. 
 
33° 
 
 Sunk in the fathomless ocean depths below. 
 Such progress Science brings, such triumphs wait 
 
 Her banner's onward march, such guerdon prove 
 Who by her false-fires led, man's birthright state 
 
 From Nature's scope divorce, from Nature's Love. 
 
CANTO XIV 
 
 I ask if any deliverance is proposed for these souls ; my guide seems 
 to promise final lustration — Again as a dream I see the great 
 City ; but now prepared for war — We enter, and see all 
 scientific contrivances to kill and maim : Destruction throned 
 on the seat of his consort Science — From this magazine of 
 death goes forth an army, and I hear the roar of a ruined 
 world, and see the fall of the city. 
 
 Again I ask my guide if no lustral ascent from this evil 
 realm is allowed ? 
 
 " In the seven realms of trial state whate'er 
 
 Thou seest,'' his answer came, " to ends of good. 
 Ordained, finds harvest in th' eternal year." 
 
 He points upward — A mist overspreads the plain, and 
 again reveals that great City, but not the throne of 
 the crowned phantom : 
 
 Only from mart and square and lengthening street 
 Such sound uprose as jutting rocks among 
 
 Tells where opposing waters plunge and meet. 
 
 Of horse, and rattling wheel, and noisy throng, 
 Was now the unresting roar j and heard between 
 
 Were laugh and wailing loud, and tramp and song. 
 
 Then with half careless brow and smile serene 
 
 Thus spoke my guide : " Those noisy walls within 
 
332 BOOK 11 
 
 " Much to thy sight decreed remains unseen. 
 Here let us enter now, nor fear the din, 
 
 Nor aught uncouth behold ; a phantom show 
 Of substance void, to morning dreams akin. 
 As in frore Arctic seas who foremost go, 
 
 Sundered awhile, by snow-reflected gleam 
 In air pourtrayed their lagging comrades know. 
 So what thou here behold'st itself a dream. 
 
 Yet as of imaged truth, — alas that e'er 
 Should true with false be blent, — the substance deem." 
 Thus while he spoke a portal wide, and fair 
 
 O'erarched our forward way, that street by street 
 Led up the town, till reached the central square. 
 Yet less the thronging crowd, though dense, our feet 
 
 Delayed than wondering dread, as pause and gaze 
 Who on their road some hideous portent meet. 
 For not the Lycian cave nor Cretan maze. 
 
 Though that Chimaera's fires, the portent fell 
 This of Pasiphae held, as Grecian lays 
 Of old have sung, or storied legends tell. 
 
 Could with the works of ill, the dooms compare 
 By man for man forged in hate's citadel. 
 For all that rends or maims, or wide in air 
 
 Scatters the lacerate life, or swift from far 
 Wings iron death, was piled in order there. 
 And as o'er mangled crowds the demon car 
 
 Moves 'mid Orissa's palms, so crushed and prone 
 The nations lay 'neath science-hounded war : — 
 While veiled in poisonous smoke, even on the throne 
 
 Where erst his consort sat, with horror crowned 
 O'er a slain world Destruction reigned alone. 
 "And this," so spoke my guide, "the ultimate bound 
 
 Of man's research unblest, the freedom late 
 From Nature's rule in death's own slavery found. 
 Nor long the path, nor doubtful traced ; — the state 
 
 Of its past self despoiled, of memory's wealth 
 
CANTO XIV 
 
 333 
 
 " And art and joy and love made desolate. 
 
 And the sure growth of sequent years, the health 
 
 Treasured from age to age, for feverish dreams 
 Of empty strife exchanged by thriftless stealth. 
 Till strikes the fated hour, and from th' extremes 
 
 Of greed and hate together clashed, the brand 
 Flashes o'er blackening walls and blood-stained streams, 
 And wreaked th' unnatured spite, the ruin planned 
 
 By man's unresting foe, the power accurst 
 With mortal life knit in coeval band." 
 While thus he spoke, my wandering eyes that erst 
 
 Confused the complex scene surveyed, as who 
 At the full fount chokes from o'er-satiate thirst. 
 Now steadier grown, the motley scene and new 
 
 Had part with part compared ; and still the more 
 I gazed, with terror mixed amazement grew. 
 By sea, by land, by mountain plain or shore. 
 
 For peace, for war, whate'er may blight or kill, 
 Better in ignorance hid, destruction's store, 
 All that mechanic craft can frame, and skill 
 
 Of chemic lore combine, with care upstored, 
 A prisoned fiend apt to the jailer's will. 
 The all-solvent force from hell's long guarded hoard 
 
 Won to the winner's bane ; — all these, and worse 
 If worse might be, made up the pile abhorred. 
 Knowledge of death, not life, in thee the curse 
 
 Fulfilled of that bad hour to man that gave 
 A reprobate self, a ruined universe ! 
 Then as by perilous seas lona's cave, 
 
 Or pillared Staffa, thine, when fronts the moon 
 Heaven's western sun, fills to th' o'erswollen wave. 
 So to war's challenge cry and answering tune 
 
 Of fife and drum and brazen instrument 
 Rolled on what seemed a demon host, and soon 
 Was loet in sulphurous mist ; before it went 
 
 Such roar as when from Indian skies descends 
 
334 BOOK III 
 
 In darkness wreathed the typhoon elennent : — 
 Fields it lays waste, forests uptears, and rends ; 
 
 Village and tower and town and shrine of stone 
 Levelled with earth in heaped confusion blends ; 
 The scream of woman's fear, the shriek, the groan 
 
 Of wretches crushed, the mingling sounds* of doom 
 In the undistinguished roar are heard as one. 
 Such was the roar went up from the deep gloom 
 
 Of victors shroud, and vanquished ; such the dirge 
 Of a slain world, knelled o'er dead Nature's tomb. 
 Then, as 'mid seas across from the far verge 
 
 Where broods the rising storm, a lengthening train 
 Their landward way the clamorous sea-fowl urge. 
 While from his cottage door th' upgazing swain 
 
 Fain would their number count, while band on band 
 Succeeding still makes his fond labour vain, — 
 So wild, so numerous, through that spectral night 
 
 New shapes of shapeless ill, of substance bare 
 And form, momently mocked the straining sight. 
 The crash of roadside ruin, the swift despair 
 
 Of ships together hurled, when all they hold 
 Of youth and strength and hope and life and care 
 Sinks to dark death, in trackless waters cold, 
 
 Th' explosion's sudden crash, when torn and rent, 
 Scattered the limbs that late that force controlled, — 
 And mixed with these, the subtler poison sent 
 
 Unseen, unfelt, unknown, from fount and rill, 
 Sure vengeance of the misused element. 
 And earth's life-bearing bosom, the breasts that still 
 
 Were to her offspring health and strength and joy 
 Tainted and shamed mere poison-drops distil. 
 Fulfilled the cyclic course ; not Asian Troy 
 
 Nor Byrsa's ^ walls foredoomed, nor aught that years 
 Can frame, ages perfect, an hour destroy, 
 So desolate lay, so low, as o'er thy peers 
 ^ Carthage. 
 
CANTO XIV 335 
 
 Exalted once, now lower fallen than they, 
 Worthiest of doom predestined, worthiest tears ! 
 — Again I looked ; with pallid light the day 
 
 Bordered the circling hills, and o'er a land 
 Strewed with mere wrecks diffused a doubtful ray. 
 Not desolate more nor hopeless by the strand, 
 
 Moeris,^ of thy lost waters, far outspread 
 Recordless ruins break th' encroaching sand. 
 'Mid a dead world, a city of the dead, 
 
 Tomb of itself and them, by those who built 
 Levelled in dust, self-dried the fountain bed. 
 Then spoke my guide ; " The hopes, the life-blood spilt, 
 
 Are but the debt repaid, the ransom fee 
 Of nature's laws annulled, man's treason-guilt. 
 In Eden's tainted bower the poison tree 
 
 Had else unhewed remained, and age by age 
 Such fruits had borne as by Zeboim's sea 
 The kindred groves accurst ; — the jealous rage 
 
 Of international strife, the cruel skill 
 Of treacherous hate, the vengeful heritage 
 Of trampled pride and ill outfaced by ill. 
 
 These were the doom of earth, through boundless time 
 Accursed, a wandering star, a frustrate will. 
 Now by swift death to life recalled, the crime 
 
 Atoned, from nature's bounds no more to rove 
 Is the new birth, a renovate star sublime 
 
 In the pure depths of empyrean Love." 
 1 A lake in ancient Egypt. 
 
CANTO XV 
 
 The storm has passed — Another female figure appears ; lawless 
 Republican Freedom — She relates her history — Wicked 
 passions and political falsehoods surround her — They fade, 
 and a lovely vision of the life after Nature, vphich alone is true 
 Freedom, follows. 
 
 Yet once again thou bid'st me, once again 
 
 Lord of my song, my vision's arbiter. 
 Of that sad realm renew th' ungrateful strain. 
 Not mine to choose the key ; all sounds that are 
 
 Joyous or sad, discord or harmony, 
 Each at thy will their pinions fold or stir. 
 Then while alone beneath that other sky 
 
 Not of man's earth we stood, and on the space 
 Open and bare the shadows glided by. 
 But of that whirlwind crowd, the hideous chase 
 
 Of spectre deaths unnamed, of the great storm 
 O'er-curtaining all, was there nor sign nor trace. 
 But in its stead what seemed a female form. 
 
 But armed with sword and helm, and countenance 
 With envious sneer and hasty wrath difform. 
 Stood where of late that town ; to heaven her glance 
 
 Upturned defiance told, unbound her hair 
 Streamed as a Maenad's in the drunken dance. 
 Wrought to her hand a ready axe and bare 
 
CANTO XV 337 
 
 Gleamed at her side ; in her right hand a scroll 
 Banner-like shifted to the shifting air. 
 And many dates and names that boastful roll 
 
 Now here now there displayed, but most as read 
 From memory passed to mere effacement's goal. 
 Drunken, but not with wine, her restless tread 
 
 Uncertain moved of aim ; her feet beneath 
 Piecemeal with broken shards the ground was spread. 
 And trampled laws were there, and ancient faith 
 
 Trodden in dust, and loyal vows and true 
 Cancelled, and soiled with blood a kingly wreath 
 ^^^lile with no certain sound a trumpet blew 
 
 Fantastic march and self-involved, that still 
 Th' advancing step in backward circles drew. 
 As who some wretch distort with cureless ill 
 
 Meets, and the foulness seen, the more abhorred, 
 The more to gaze compels th' unwilling will : 
 So was I then, nor less my vision's Lord 
 
 Scanned that unlovely form, nor to my look 
 Enquiring turned, by sign replied or word, 
 That from his silence added fear I took. 
 
 Nor wonder ye that hear, for things of dread 
 Owned by immortals how may mortals brook ? 
 Then where we stood, with bold and sudden tread 
 
 That form towards us came, in haunted room 
 As some foul spectre nears the sleeper's bed. 
 And a chill air as from a vaulted tomb 
 
 Upbreathed around it spread, and all around 
 A sound of moving wings, unseen in gloom. 
 And now 'twLxt us and it of sundering ground 
 
 Ten paces scarce remained, when bold and clear. 
 Ere question asked, her answer utterance found 
 " From earth, my proper kingdom, brought, and here 
 
 In visioned form compelled, in me the power 
 Behold that was and is and yet shall be. 
 When first, as legends tell, in Eden's bower 
 
338 BOOK III 
 
 " Was the great freedom won that man from law 
 Loosed, from the lord the slave, mine was the hour ; 
 The victory mine, the witching spells that draw 
 
 All noblest things to shapeless heaps, as spread 
 Swift floods in level lowlands, fire in straw. 
 So secret sure, so swift, each trusted creed. 
 
 Each rule of firmest stay, altar and throne. 
 Fall in the day by fate and me decreed. 
 Till the last links of custom's honoured zone 
 
 Are loosed, and mightiest nations, taught by me, 
 Their parent past and proper selves disown : 
 From all that binds, restrains, and orders, free 
 
 As dust that late was man, or shifting sand 
 Drawn grain by grain to the undiscerning sea. 
 The while all stateliest things, all fairest planned, 
 
 Heirlooms of time, a nation's diadem ^ 
 Shivered by me in fragments strew the strand. 
 The wrongs of gods and kings, the rights of man. 
 
 My watchwords these, my spells ; with these of yore 
 In the great strife I led destruction's van. 
 When the blue waves that lave Corcyra's shore 
 
 Reddened with blood,^ and shamed Miletus ^ viewed 
 The nameless horrors of her harvest floor, — 
 These were my first essays ; in mightier mood 
 
 Surpassed, when at my word the tribune band, 
 Rome, from thy rock drew streams of Roman blood, 
 When as cut flowers that strew the summer land 
 
 Mown by the reaper's scythe, thy noblest peers 
 Corpse-strewed the halls their fathers' pride had planned. 
 And still as to the load of added years 
 
 Bows down th' enfeebled earth, till wholly fail 
 The central power that yet the frame uprears. 
 Honour and truth and law, like phantoms pale 
 
 Of a lost world, from the uncreating spell 
 
 ' Sic MS. 2 The famous massacre in B.C. 427. 
 
 ^ Sacked by Darius in B.C. 494. 
 
CANTO XV • 339 
 
 " Of Freedom's dreaded name retire and quail. 
 What fabric mine beyond th' Atlantic swell 
 
 Of Indian blood compact and Afric's groans 
 Let my great shrine, the first Republic, tell. 
 But chief where on the Abbey's ^ desecrate stones 
 
 Women with children, maids with helpless age, 
 To Freedom's birthday paean tuned their moans. 
 Since then my forward track from [age to age] ^ 
 
 Prospers, and march of mind and liberty 
 In blood and spoil are marked in History's page. 
 As creeps the fire through rotten wood and dry, ■ 
 
 As filters poison through the tainted stream. 
 As breathing death the plague from cloudless sky. 
 So through all things that best and fairest seem 
 
 My sure corruption spreads, till fade from earth 
 Empires and faiths, an unreturning dream ; 
 And precious things long prized, and things of worth 
 
 Mine to debase, by me dissolved and ended 
 In the wide death that knows no second birth." 
 Thus while she spoke the ghastly forms that tended 
 
 Unseen before her song, unnatured will. 
 Envy, and idiot pride with rapine blended. 
 And the dark thoughts that worm-like feed on ill, 
 
 And bitter hates and loathsome phantasies. 
 And trust for show betrayed, and joys that kill. 
 And party froth of popular speech, and lies 
 
 Worshipped for very truth, and last despair, 
 Swarmed round their worshipped Queen as carrion flies 
 Round their foul food ; all distant semblance fair 
 
 From that proud form they took ; the mirror they 
 Of her true self, through them revealed and bare. 
 So passed the portent on, while far away 
 
 E'en to the visible marge its path along 
 Trampled in blood th' adoring nations lay. 
 
 1 Massacre of the clergy by the Republicans (September 1792) 
 in the Carmelite Abbaye. ^ Zone in MS. 
 
340 BOOK 111 
 
 What next I saw nor mortal tongue nor song 
 To mortal ears attuned may tell ; nor how 
 Slain the foul slayer, avenged the secular wrong. 
 
 But my guide does not enable me to tell more. 
 
 As who at dawn awaking with quick start 
 
 Feels in himself the dream he dreamed, yet nought 
 Imaged recalls, nor part can join with part ; 
 So what my soul unchanged retains, my thought 
 
 Fails to retrace ; a treasure stored, but lost 
 The key, and memory's blank with memory fraught 
 Then linked once more the chain : that evil host. 
 
 With her the band who led, that false though fair 
 Phantom of self-styled Freedom's conquering boast, 
 Dead with the dead themselves had slain, even there 
 
 On earth mere hollow semblance lay, to dust 
 Aptly dissolved, even as their triumphs were. 
 And in their place and hers, as from dull rust 
 
 Glitters a furbished brand, a loveliness 
 Human-divine revealed old Nature's trust. 
 In its own beauty veiled that form ; nor less 
 
 All hearts to her she drew ; before her way 
 Bloomed with new flowers the wreck-strewn wilderness. 
 And as a blackening shadow-line that lay 
 
 Late on the green hill side, before the breath 
 Of sunlit heaven, unmarked dissolves away. 
 So in that vision new those forms of death 
 
 Dissolving passed from sight, and heavenly life 
 By earthly life was mirrored from beneath. 
 Uptorn the poisonous root, the knowledge rife 
 
 With doom, earth's primal wrong, and wiser Man 
 No more with Nature held unnatured strife : — 
 Till to the modulate note with which began 
 
 Life's music, moved the dance, and freshly wove 
 Nature and ordered law the purposed plan 
 
 Of the high power that circles all in Love. 
 
CANTO XVI 
 
 A vision of England's glory, and a lament — A land of wonderful 
 beauty is now seen, and a Siren voice invites me to the happi- 
 ness of the Seventh Realm — I feel the attraction, calling me 
 to yield : but my guide wakens me from the charm. 
 
 Empress of land and waters, foremost thou 
 
 In earth's processioned pride, all else to thee, 
 Subjects or foes, allies or rivals bow ; 
 England, Time's sceptred heir, of Liberty 
 
 Wedded to Law the home ; by thee the vaunt 
 Of Rome or earlier Greece is held in fee. 
 Who with just pride behold'st thy standards flaunt 
 
 Of every sky the arc, from the mid zone 
 Broadened to either winter's year-long haunt. 
 Mother of states and statesmen, from thy throne 
 
 O'er thought and deed supreme, wisest and best 
 Thee with forced praise earth's jealous Balaams own. 
 Phoenix of ages, in thy island nest 
 
 Once and again renewed from fiery pain, 
 Fresh plumed with mightier wings and prouder crest : 
 And if of earth's cloud fabrics might remain 
 
 Eternal aught, 'twere thou, 'mid things of change 
 Changeless, a rock 'mid ocean's shifting plain. 
 Land of my birth, first known, first loved, the range 
 
242 BOOK 111 
 
 Of treasured childhood's dreams, long exiled years 
 That first best vision dim not nor estrange. 
 Whence then th' o'ershadowing gloom, the formless 
 fears 
 
 Like night birds winged at even, that o'er my thought 
 Darkened, and filled my gazing eyes with tears ? 
 When now to that sixth realm a visitant brought 
 
 Where science finds her meed, the penal doom 
 Of that proud city in presence thus was wrought ? 
 Not thus, not thus thy type ; yet 'mid the gloom 
 
 That whelmed the visioned sense, methought I knew 
 Writ with thy name, even thine, a Titan tomb. 
 Through moonless nights of shade in doubtful view 
 
 So lours the Shinaar pile, memorial lone 
 Of banded pride, earth's heaven-assailing crew. 
 Like effort, like reward ; the flower o'erblown 
 
 Falls from th' unpetalled stalk, the statued form 
 By its own weight shivered and overthrown. 
 And in the brightest sky the wildest storm 
 
 Broods unsuspect though near, and in the vest 
 Of gold-throned empire lurks the chamel worm. 
 What worm thou know'st, what tempest : — for the rest 
 
 Fulfil thy portioned task, the destiny 
 Warp of earth's portioned woof for worst or best. 
 Changed now the scene, the song ; Another sky 
 
 Bent o'er us where we stood, another land 
 AVorthy that heaven in beauty took the eye. 
 But how from that dark region's farther strand. 
 
 Where late our visioned path had been, to this 
 Sudden we passed, not mine to understand. 
 Behind us pain and ruin, before us bliss 
 
 Myriad in form yet one, so heaven and earth 
 Mingled in each an individual kiss. 
 As a fair babe at earliest hour of birth 
 
 Is beauty, life and joy, before us smiled 
 Fresh to th' embrace that love-irradiate mirth. 
 
CANTO XVI 343 
 
 Not the fair land ^ that of their course beguiled 
 
 Ithaca's homeward crew, nor that by God 
 Planted in midmost of Thelassar's wild, 
 Could with this garden vie ; nor that, th' abode 
 
 Of Perse's daughter-witch,^ nor the far groves ^ 
 Spoiled by Alcides of their golden load. 
 But these were fairer found ; the fancy roves 
 
 Vainly their like to find, all ages tries. 
 All beauteous things, nor aught as these approves. 
 Ah me ! from the dark realm of worse surmise 
 
 What difference this, what joy, when seen again 
 Green earth, bright flowers, pure rivulets, azure skies. 
 As who some landscape rare of mount or plain 
 
 Known but by name now iirst beholds, and more 
 Than thought had given to hope, accounts his gain : — 
 From the dim horrors of the unnatured shore 
 
 So I to nature's best restored ; for naught 
 Valued * to this all joys esteemed before. 
 And sense on wakening sense and thought on thought 
 
 Crowded in throng confused, that to my heart 
 Faintness for very joy an instant brought, 
 And but the brother guide whose guardian art 
 
 Failed not, upheld me then, nor sense nor breath 
 Had mine remained, so keen the pleasing smart. 
 On a high ledge we stood ; the plain beneath 
 
 In myriad hues, all lovely, to the sun 
 Sparkled with gems woven in innumerous wreath. 
 And meads and brimming streams, and flowers that 
 shone. 
 
 And ripening orbs of gold, and tufted glades 
 From the hill marge to the vision's utmost zone. 
 In varying beauty spread, of lights with shades 
 
 In just proportion joined, that once beheld 
 
 1 Ogygia. 2 Aeaea, Circe's dwelling., 
 
 ' Hesperides. * Compared. 
 
344 BOOK III 
 
 From lovesick memory passes not nor fades. 
 Then while entranced I gazed, motionless held 
 
 By that fair scene, a sound on odours rare 
 Pillowed, as smoke of incense wreaths upwelled ; 
 The while the rustling leaves at dance, the beat 
 
 Of wavelets on their banks, the answering cries 
 Of happy birds, mazed in their green retreat. 
 And other sounds attuned to harmonies 
 
 Confusedly heard with sound of voice, that lent 
 To leaves and birds and wavelets apt replies. 
 Their strong enchantment wove ; and lovelier bent 
 
 O'er me the vaulted blue, that my whole being 
 Forth from itself to greet that music went. 
 Its own surcease by its own act decreeing. 
 
 Such magic drew me on, from fear and pain 
 And forward hope and past remembrance freeing. 
 The while, now first distinct, a Siren strain 
 
 Borne on the perfumed air to where I stood 
 Sent out the enchantment of the midmost plain. 
 And then the words I heard ; " From labours rude 
 
 Here the repose attained, the joy, the rest ; 
 Here the fair prime of love and youth renewed ; 
 As from long fray returned when red the West 
 
 Gleams o'er the hard-fought field, to dreamless sleep 
 Sinks the tired warrior on the loved one's breast. 
 Such welcome thine, such calm ; the perilous steep 
 
 Hast thou secure o'erpast, the guardian hours 
 For thee with us inviolate refuge keep. 
 For thee the couch prepared ; less fair the flowers 
 
 That healing breathe and balm where beauty's Queen 
 Bends o'er Adonis in Idalian bowers. 
 Ambition's doubtful prize. Art's painted screen. 
 
 Love's passionate draught, Religion's visioned hope, 
 Slow toil of knowledge stored, and Science keen, — 
 The sixfold task on which heaven's pitying cope 
 
 Looks down, but little heeds, withal hast thou 
 
CANTO XVI 345 
 
 " Traversed, the aimless aim, th' unequal scope. - 
 Here then thy sail be furled ; the o'erhasty vow- 
 Best when forsworn fulfilled ; life's proffered joys 
 Be thine, th' Hesperian isle, the lotus bough. 
 Here where no satiate zest the palate cloys 
 
 Ever to new renewed ; nor age nor care 
 This garden blight, nor envious time destroys." 
 Thus sang the secret voice till the warm air 
 
 Was drunken sweet with song, and all my heart. 
 Tangled with joys new found, lay captive there. 
 Till by a touch aroused, with sudden start 
 
 I turned, and met those eyes whose searching ray 
 Pierced my remorseful soul with conscious smart. 
 As bent on deed forbid or harmful play • 
 
 Shrinks back the self-chid child, if chance he sees, 
 When least bethought, his father's grave survey ; 
 So from that sensuous dream of careless ease 
 
 With shame suffused I woke, and gazing sought 
 In that loved face from the false charm release. 
 Then he to whom th' unspoken words my thought 
 
 In its true self declared, to this my wound 
 Healing and balm with ready answer brought. 
 "Fear not," he said, "nor faint; the purpose sound 
 
 In weakness perfects strength ; the Uly flower 
 Sprung from the soil, a stainless queen is crowned. 
 O'er life of sense compact that sense has power 
 
 Nor wonder much nor blame ; what child of earth 
 But smooth to rough and sweet prefers to sour ? 
 
 But the absolute Will has given thee a nobler nature and 
 better light. 
 
 Here where all pleasing lures of sound and sight. 
 
 Odour, or touch, or taste, entwine the chain 
 Where phantom joys with lustral pains unite, 
 Whate'er old poets sing or legends feign 
 
346 BOOK III 
 
 " Sirens or Lotus groves, or Circe wiles, 
 End and fulfilment in this realm attain. 
 Here who from life's due task and prize the wiles 
 
 Of the great sorceress prisoners held, in sorrow 
 Masked by lost joy abide their cleansing while. 
 Till pure the spirit greet th' ethereal morrow, 
 
 Bright star of stainless dawn ; till then the grove 
 Thou seest confines their range, compelled to borrow 
 
 From folly past late lore of ransoming Love." 
 
CANTO XVII 
 
 Into this Paradise we descend — A Satyr guides : an illusive sense 
 of delight seizes me — I see a visionary plain, v\fith a sky of 
 wonderful tints — This mirage vanishes in white light : the 
 forest reappears, but glowing with rainbow colours, and 
 flitting forms of beauty between — The sensation of Youth 
 comes over me — The Satyr explains that this is a kind of twi- 
 light region between the Realms and the abyss lying between 
 earth and heaven — The indwellers seem to have, and yet to have 
 not, every sensuous pleasure, whilst awaiting final lustration 
 — The Satyr and all his kind are, however, fated to pass away. 
 
 Thus while he spoke such breeze as wakes to song 
 
 The summer birds at dawn, from off the height 
 Passed in long waves the forest tops along. 
 And glossy leaves and flowers embossed in white 
 
 Rustled and waved around, till all the wood 
 Thrilled with expectance of some new delight. 
 So from the rock-faced ledge in cheerful mood 
 
 Downward our steps we turned, till on the plain 
 Knee-deep in scented herbs and flowers we stood. 
 A narrow space we trod ; in serried row 
 
 Before us rose the trees, the rock behind, 
 That exit thence or entrance none might know. 
 Silent awhile we paused, the doubtful mind 
 
 Holding in equal poise, perchance to wait 
 Or road-directing chance, or guide assigned. 
 
348 BOOK in 
 
 Nor long ere issuing forth, in form and gait 
 
 Nor human all nor bestial, one that seemed 
 Of Satyr brood as rustic tales relate, 
 Naked before us stood ; in sunlight gleamed 
 
 Hazel his laughing eyes ; who scanned his face 
 In youthful mask had quaint Silenus deemed. 
 No word he spoke, but as in natural grace 
 All forest things are fair, a willing guide 
 Waiting he stood, self-offered there in place. 
 Then by a narrow cleft erst undescried 
 
 Midmost the grove he led, 'twixt branch and bough 
 Gliding secure, as woodland serpents glide. 
 And still from step to step I wondered how 
 
 Following unchecked we passed, where else the eye 
 Mere hindrance found, but ready access none. 
 And overhead enlaced the branches high 
 
 Shut out the vaulted heaven, and from behind 
 Closed on our path their green perplexity. 
 The while that sylvan form of gentlest kind 
 
 Oft turned our way t' assure, with merry look 
 As a quick sunbeam glanced through cloudy blind. 
 And aye from that bright smile presentment took 
 
 My soul of near delight, and inly thought, — 
 If such the outward clasp, how fair the book ! 
 How long we fared or far, who thither brought 
 Our steps may rightliest know ; but I for joy 
 Of time or measured space accounted nought. 
 For fear, and fear-bred care, and doubt's annoy 
 
 Could here no entrance find, nor weariness 
 Might with earth's dross that perfect hour alloy. 
 O happy rest, though vain ! O nothingness 
 Of earth's existence fitting meed repaid ! 
 How shall my verse thy joys, thy pains express ? 
 So on we passed, and still the close-fenced glade 
 
 More distant view denied, and oft the cry 
 Of some hid bird in laughing mockery played. 
 
CANTO XVII 349 
 
 And oft aside I looked if chance to espy 
 
 Some human guide the trees between ; but none 
 Save that quaint shape, the wood's own progeny. 
 Nor he to question asked or speech begun 
 
 Answer or heed returned, but smiled as who 
 Silence had vowed till task or pastime done. 
 At last on either hand the opening view 
 
 Gave a great plain to sight, if plain it were, 
 Or vaporous film compact to form and hue. 
 Not the cloud-domes upbuilt in Indian air. 
 
 Crimson and pink and gold, where rests at even 
 The out-journeyed sun, might with those tints compare. 
 If unsubstantial earth or solid heaven 
 
 That gem-bespangled floor, those crags up-piled 
 Of glittering pearl with glancing fire-streaks riven, 
 Was what I then beheld, a phantom wild 
 
 Where truth was not, nor being, nor firm abode 
 Of life with joy, of their old strife beguiled, — 
 I knew not nor enquired^ so changeful glowed 
 
 The rainbow-textured domes, so bright the lines 
 Where through the clefts the golden pavement showed. 
 Then as from spray to spray, when warmer shines 
 
 Th' encroaching day, the night-embroidered frost 
 Melts off confused from the sun-fronted pines ; 
 So all that varied weft, broken and crost 
 
 As by some eddying under-flow, from sight 
 In one white radiance passed confusedly lost. 
 And the fair woodland from th' encircling height 
 
 First seen, returned to view, but fairer now 
 Than maiden coy new decked for love's delight. 
 For where that mist had been, each summit bough. 
 
 Hill top or palace spire, was wrapped and hung 
 With tangled shreds of heaven's Thaumantian bow. 
 And the broad leaves and large-eyed flowers among 
 
 Flitted translucent gleams, that with the flowers 
 In brightness blent, as music blends with song. 
 
35° 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 And shapes half seen, half guessed, by glades and bowers 
 
 Naked or gaily dight, as those beheld 
 In haunted gardens at still noontide hours. 
 I gazed and gazed again ; with pleasure swelled 
 
 Almost to pain my heart, and to my eyes 
 Tears, to my mind far-memoried thoughts upwelled ; 
 The days when youth and I were one, the skies 
 
 Of Spring o'erarching Spring, the untarnished ray 
 That life to earth, light to the sun supplies. 
 O gift but once bestowed, unmorrowed day 
 
 Quick dawned, darkened ere noon ; O crowning 
 bloom, 
 Of the green stem fulfilment and decay ! 
 Yet of that perished flower the lost perfume 
 
 Again was mine to prove, from time's restraint 
 Freed in the pageant realm of meed and doom. 
 Thus while I stood, that guide whose semblance quaint 
 
 Of twofold kin compact resumed in one, 
 A forest birth, as wild-flower frpe from taint, 
 Fruitful as earth, glad as the quickening sun. 
 
 Towards n;ie turned his face, of all beside 
 Heedless, and thus with human speech begun. 
 " Earth-born, to thee, not to thy spirit-guide 
 
 Of earth exempt, my words ; in kindred blood 
 Is kindred speech, to alien race denied. 
 Know then the rocks o'erpast, the silent wood, 
 
 The rainbow mists, the meteors in their sport. 
 Guard the seventh realm placed in the lustral flood. 
 The ultimate limits these, th' extreme resort 
 
 Of life by time distinct, the boundary this 
 Ere reached the portals of th' ethereal court. 
 Behind, the multiple forms, before, th' abyss 
 
 Formless to mortal sense ; betwixt the twain. 
 Twilight of each, thou seest the bowers of bliss. 
 Here the last flush of being's feverish pain 
 
 Dies in the calm eterne, as lost at morn 
 
CANTO XVU 351 
 
 " Melts into day's pure light the lunar stain. 
 The restless toil, the care, the strife, the scorn 
 
 Enter not here nor bide; the painted fly 
 Here has no sting, the blossomed rose no thorn. 
 As sleeps the child secure, his mother nigh 
 
 Watchful to tend and guard, so from all wrong 
 Sure fenced the land sleeps 'neath its own bright sky." 
 Thus while he spoke the sound of harp and song 
 
 Ere now from distance heard, across the mere 
 Like birds in level flight came swift and strong ; 
 And on the glittering shore in presence near 
 
 Such witching forms I saw as magic nights 
 Image, when right the spell, the crystal clear. 
 Processions ranged, and dance, and quaint delights. 
 
 Bubbles of joy's full glass, and vestments gay 
 With myriad hues, and gems from mountain heights. 
 And eyes more bright than these, and as the day 
 
 That knows not veil nor needs, the loveliness 
 Of naked forms, unshamed in careless play. 
 Then thus, ere question asked, that guide no less 
 
 Made to my thought reply, " Lest things beheld 
 Should the true meaning hide 'neath sight's excess. 
 Whom here thou seest from the full life withheld 
 
 Awhile by just decree, in longing pain 
 Frustrate by dreamy joys are captive held. 
 And some with frustrate toil their heads in vain 
 
 Would with fresh roses crown, and thirsting still 
 Some with hot lips elusive goblets drain. 
 All that on earth sufficed the sensuous will 
 
 Is present here in full, yet all and none 
 Can the deep want assuage, or craving still." 
 Awhile he paused ; then with changed tones, as one 
 
 Who nears what fain he would not, yet for fleeing 
 No outlet finds, filled up the tale begun, 
 And said, "In narrower bounds of Fate's decreeing 
 
 Is our existence bound, our little day 
 
352 BOOK III 
 
 " Has but with this fair realm commensurate being; 
 Till as a fount dried up, a faded ray 
 
 ' From a shot star, with all thou seest in place, 
 To the great depths we pass from form away. 
 I too with these must pass ; with these my race 
 
 Ends in a blank, the goal ; and all we are 
 Lost in unpersoned life and formless space," 
 He ceased and wept ; from sightless realms afar 
 
 Came answering sounds of grief, while from above 
 Darkened the heavens, all but the steadfast star 
 
 Changeless in change, the enfolding star of Love. 
 
CANTO XVIII 
 
 From this seemingly preliminary region we approach the Seventh 
 realm itself — My guide describes the Satyr's peculiar sphere of 
 life — ^We now coast the stream which islands the seven king- 
 doms — The Satyr reappears in fresh beauty : he and the 
 guide bear me across, and I see a fair country, on which we 
 land-— The Satyr vanishes as we enter the realm of Sensual 
 Pleasure. 
 
 Who by the victim deer fresh-slain has stood 
 
 Afield, and the bright eye now glazed and dim 
 Has watched, and the fair limbs defiled with blood, 
 But has not inly wished that even on him 
 
 Sooner than on that harmless helplessness 
 Had fallen of hasty fate the shadow grim ? 
 At least not I ; how then that just distress 
 
 Of nature's veriest child unmoved could I 
 Behold, or my fast-thronging tears repress ? 
 But he, my brother guide, whose spirit high 
 
 Bent not to idle grief, with grave rebuke 
 Turned on my tear-stained cheeks a blameful eye. 
 Then in his own, of strength compact, he took 
 
 My hand and gently pressed, and to his own 
 Upraised in half-reproach my downward look : 
 And thus ; " By fairest forms the shadows thrown 
 
 Are fleeting none the less ; by change, whate'er 
 
354 BOOK III 
 
 " Exists, or soon or late must form disown. 
 Nor vigorous seeming life, nor beauty rare 
 
 In form and shape may but one hour outlast 
 The power that wrought them, and the type they 
 
 wear. 
 The present joy is theirs ; future or past 
 
 Can vex them not nor harm ; not theirs but thine 
 The shadowed grief in semblance o'er thee cast. 
 The flower that fades with eve, the golden line 
 
 Traced by a dying day, the yellowing leaf. 
 The showers that passing gleam, the suns that shine, — 
 Each while it lasts complete, existence brief 
 
 Sums as eterne ; nor here for querulous moan 
 Is room, nor idle tears of sensuous grief. 
 No guerdon his t' attain, nor fault t' atone, 
 
 With Nature one the Faun ; nor passion's chain 
 Draws him astray ; thyself hast forged thy own." 
 
 We approach the seventh realm, and my guide dis- 
 courses with me of things not to be here communi- 
 cated. 
 
 "The stream whose banks,'' thus spoke my guide, 
 " along 
 Our pathway lead^, whose circling waters sweep 
 Past yon fair land in current swift and strong. 
 From the far fountains of the limitless deep 
 
 Its source derives and flow, where change and time 
 Are girdled-in by the all-sustaining sleep. 
 On these, time's farthest shores, the sevenfold clime 
 
 An island shows, no more, though wide in view 
 Reach the broad plains, cloud-high the mountains 
 
 climb." 
 Here paused his speech awhile, then thus, " Renew 
 The memoried scene, when passed the perilous 
 height 
 
CANTO xvin 355 
 
 " Oped on thy wondering gaze the landscape new, 
 And know of all that hour revealed to sight 
 
 Nothing untrod but this remains, th' abode 
 Of pain as bliss and darkness masked as light." 
 Scarce had he spoke when midway, where the road 
 
 Down to the margent led, and crystal-pure 
 O'er furrowed sands downshelved the waters flowed, 
 He who at first our steps with playful lure 
 
 Had through the forest led, then left awhile, 
 Before us stood, the vision's Cynosure. 
 In Ida's groves, or Sylvan-haunted isle, 
 
 Samoa or ancient Crete, no shape more fair 
 Greeted with answering glance an Oread's smile. 
 Round his lithe limbs in joyous clasp the air 
 
 Burst into meteor light ; a staff entwined 
 With vine and rose his poising hand upbore. 
 
 The Satyr explains that he and the Guide must 
 bear me across the waters — On the other side a 
 fair landscape, a region of pleasure, appears. 
 
 And O, such was my thought, if this the cage 
 That keeps imprisoned Love, what paradise 
 
 Can to deliverance hence Desire engage ? 
 
 If all so sweet the failure, what the prize 
 
 Offered to victory's grasp ? or who these joys 
 
 Beholding, want or pain could here surmise ? 
 
 We hear sweet music, and land. 
 
 Then spoke that sylvan form, " The mandate given 
 By her whose realm thou seest, Nature's abode 
 
 Favoured o'er all, though hers be all the seven, 
 
 Have I this hour fulfilled ; thus far the road 
 Through joyous scenes or sad, pleasure or pain 
 
 To mortals due, mortal thyself hast trod. " 
 
356 BOOK in 
 
 Here I am to learn Life's last deceit — The Satyr 
 vanishes. 
 
 Then spoke my brother guide ; "In part his tale 
 
 He told, in part concealed ; nor even here 
 Wholly the mist dispelled, withdrawn the veil. 
 Though the far verge of time's enfolding sphere 
 
 Hast thou attained, and on the margin stood 
 Ringed by the stillness of the dateless year : " 
 Nor added more ; but to the neighbouring wood 
 
 My following footsteps led, the central grove 
 Of the seventh realm, where bide whom sensuous 
 good 
 
 Drew from the better choice, the Uranian Love. 
 
CANTO XIX 
 
 Love as Queen of the world is sung by two choirs, gay and sad : 
 Gay representing the old Greek Satyr and Nymph existence : 
 Sad, the state of human creatures devoted to the senses — In 
 them I feel my past life reflected — Certain Asiatic voluptuaiy 
 sovereigns are now seen, whilst Queen Love shines forth in 
 higher beauty — Sardauapalus tells us his experiences of pleasure 
 and satiety. 
 
 Mistress and fount of all delight that earth 
 
 By mount or fruitful plain, by air and sky 
 Portions to all who of her womb have birth ; — 
 Queen of the . . . spell whose witchery 
 
 Subtle as fire, as death resistless, leaves 
 Barren the land, the fountain choked and dry ; — 
 Lady of pitying grace, whose favour weaves 
 
 Bands for the world's deep wound ; from whose full 
 treasure 
 Each want supply, each anguish balm receives ; — 
 Lady of cruel pain, whose daemon pleasure 
 
 Is in the torture fed of those by fate 
 Drawn in thy clueless maze of magic measure : — 
 Thine from the untempered chaos to create 
 
 All form, all life, all beauty ; these by thee 
 Framed and to fullness brought, attend thy state ; — 
 Thine the all-reaching blight, the poison-tree 
 
3S8 BOOK III 
 
 Whose roots this earth entwine, whose branching shade 
 Blots to not-being all *fairest* things that be : — 
 In thee our hopes, our joys ; in thee pourtrayed 
 
 All that of ours is best ; in thee whate'er 
 Has music, art, or rarest nature made. 
 All precious . . ., all loveliest known and rare, 
 
 Touched by thy wand, of beast, or flower, or bird, 
 Wither in dust deform and perish there. 
 
 I marvel at what I hear and see ; 
 
 For there from fountain-marge and forest green 
 Satyr and Nymph and Oread, every form 
 
 Broidered on the young world's terraqueous screen. 
 
 Hymned on the right her praise ; as breezes warm 
 From isles of Indian spice, the music sweet 
 
 Breathed the whole heart of that bi-natured swarm. 
 
 O happy heart, in its own love complete ! 
 O happy love, that heart's fit denizen ! 
 
 O happy life, such heart, such love, to greet ! 
 
 An array, young and old, mustered on the other side of 
 Love's throne, stood in sad repentance, so 
 
 That with their grief I grieved ; a like lament 
 
 To theirs, as like the cause ; nor alien all 
 From mine their fault, nor the fault's chastisement. 
 As who, when first a guest, some galleried hall 
 
 With curious care explores, and pleased surveys 
 Gay with the pictured past each panelled wall ; 
 And some t' ancestral blame, and some to praise 
 
 Witness in scene pourtrayed ; but all to him 
 Alien, as of stranger race and distant days ; 
 If sudden these amidst in form or limb 
 
 He his own semblance sees, and *action*, thought 
 Unknown imaged beholds in semblance grim. 
 
CANTO XIX 359 
 
 Amazed he stares, and " By what magic brought 
 Hither," he thinks, this portent ill, from old 
 
 By prescient hate or sorcerer's malice wrought, — 
 
 So in an alien tale my own o'ertold 
 
 Beholding these, I read from first to last 
 
 As on a pictured screen by priests unrolled. 
 
 Through every realm of trial-change o'erpast 
 
 From the high proffered crown, that o'er the gate 
 
 Pendant allures, to the far-margined waste. 
 
 My guide warns and comforts me. 
 
 This said, he pointed where in midmost throng 
 Of those his words declared, a seemly band. 
 
 Clad in such robes as to great kings belong. 
 
 In silent conclave sate ; not by the strand 
 
 Of Egypt's desolate stream more proudly calm 
 
 Memnon's vast bulk o'erlooks the Ophian land. 
 
 I see Venus now in highest splendour, with Asiatic adorers 
 before her — Sardanapalus asks our sympathy, and 
 tells his glory, his pleasures, his satiety, and his 
 gn^eatest grief, the remaining sting of vain desire. 
 
CANTO XX 
 
 Roman chiefs appear : Lucullus, Caesar, — those who failed to fulfil 
 their higher aims, — Sylla, and others ; Antony with Cleopatra ; 
 then Alcibiades is seen, and by him his friend Socrates — He 
 describes the fall of Greece and his own death, with a vague 
 prophetic intimation of a greater Martyrdom. 
 
 He ceased ; and from around, the kindred throng 
 
 Monarchs and shadows of that earher day, 
 Took up of frustrate Hfe the choral song, 
 Sad music to sad words ; but she whose sway 
 
 In her own living right was manifest there. 
 Smiled her acceptance of that penitent lay. 
 And to her smile that wanton crowd and fair, 
 
 Sylvans and Nymphs and Fauns and Dryades, 
 Brightened with answering smiles the woodland air. 
 O'er the whelmed treasures of the . . . seas 
 
 So smile the gleaming waves, a smile that ill 
 With the lost wrecks itself beguiled agrees. 
 But I from those strange founts in hope to fill 
 
 My spirit's eager thirst, my farther view 
 Raised to the summit of a neighbouring hill. 
 Where in fair robes and calm aspect a crew 
 
 Of honoured strain, so seemed their guise, apart 
 From those who joyed or mourned, enthroned I knew. 
 
CANTO XX 361 
 
 I recognize LucuUus and others who threw away great 
 actions for pleasant sloth : Here is Sylla : 
 
 Smiling he sat, with roses crowned, as who 
 
 Had heart's desire attained ; but o'er his head 
 With blood-stained wings outstretched a horror flew. 
 
 There also lies the headless trunk of Mark Antony : — 
 
 While thus my guide ; " As fullest orbed the moon 
 
 Nearest eclipse is found, as winter bare 
 Lurks ambushed in the leafy boughs of June, 
 So to fulfilled desire desire's despair 
 
 Is twinned in earth's vain dream, and worst of ill 
 Memoried, or future feared, is present there. 
 And who most fenced with self-enjoyment, still 
 
 Is from enjoyment most shut out ; nor long 
 From love's true source self-sundered flows the rill." 
 
 Then Cleopatra, and others whose 
 
 lightsome mood 
 Game of life's earnest, earnest made of game. 
 And these amidst, as 'mid a gathered brood 
 
 Of sea-fowl towers the great bird to snows 
 Antarctic known, a mighty form there stood. 
 Fair as a god's his form, but manhood's rose 
 
 Bloomed on his sunburnt cheek, nor lacked the trace 
 Of labouring thought, and passion's wayward throes. 
 Yet as the noonday plain in light, in grace 
 
 So was each feature steeped ; nor care nor crime 
 Could mar the calm perfection of that face. 
 [Though] stained the pages of thy storied time 
 
 With crimes and cares, yet through all ages who, 
 O son of Clinias, to thy height may climb ? 
 As some rare Indian flower in scent and hue 
 
 Peerless as poisonous known, allures and kills, 
 
362 BOOK III 
 
 A upas-bloom to Greece that beauty grew. 
 In beauty's Circe-cup thy deadliest ills, 
 
 Hellas, were mixed ; through her the power malign 
 On fairest things its worst designs fulfils. 
 Thus while I mused and gazed, a beckoning sign 
 
 Drew me towards the mount, summoned by him 
 The glory and shame of old Alcmaeon's ^ line. 
 There at my near approach an outline dim 
 
 In wondrous form deform was there, as Pan 
 Masked for Silenus in Evoeian ^ whim. 
 
 My guide paints the character and career of Alcibiades 
 — The gay crowd vanishes. 
 
 And the brute phalatix-swarms of Thracian brood 
 O'er murdered Hellas drew th' Emathian shroud.^ 
 
 Plato then appears, and tells the vanity of pleasure 
 disjoined from virtue. 
 
 " This thy predestinate doom, Athena, mourned 
 
 By man-befriending gods ; for linked with thine 
 In whelming gloom earth's freshness was inurned. 
 And others there are, lands by slow decline 
 
 To like dishonour led, from age to age 
 Silver with dross, with water mixed the wine. 
 This was I ware ; what most was mine the page. 
 
 Shrine of undying truth, may tell ; the hate 
 Of envy bred, the accuser's perjured rage. 
 These mixed the hemlock cup ; by these the fate 
 
 Portioned to worth's excess ; in me fulfilled 
 Loomed the presentment of each later date, 
 But more " Here ceased abrupt his speech, as thrilled 
 
 By a far thought, a lightning fl:ash that clove 
 The infinite depths of being, till lost and stilled 
 
 In the white radiance of unpersonal Love. 
 
 ^ The great family from which Alcibiades claimed descent, 
 through his mother Deinoraache. 2 Bacchanalian. 
 
 ^ The lordship of Alexander. 
 
CANTO XXI 
 
 A fair scene opens: It is the Italian , Renaissance — Petrarch, as 
 the Chief, is singing — The Sicilian Idyllists ; the English, 
 characterized — Lament and prophecy for Italy. 
 
 May morns, May flowers, May meadows, May delights. 
 
 To these the song was tuned that, where we stood 
 Rose to my ear from thwart the laurelled heights. 
 Sweet were the notes and strange that the dull blood 
 
 To livelier pulses quivering waked, as when 
 Thrills to the cuckoo's note the summer wood. 
 And life itself to music turned ; and then. 
 
 Most like sharp discord, silence came, or ill 
 At jar with good, till flowed the notes again. 
 Then said my brother-guide ; " Beyond the hill 
 
 Fronting our view, in their own bounds apart 
 A songster band the vale with music fill. 
 These, — when from Western beauty, Western art, 
 
 Slow passed the shades of barbarous night, the dawn 
 Waked to new life long-slain Ausonia's heart, — 
 From wrangling faction-cries and hate withdrawn, 
 
 Of Grecian form and Roman stateliness 
 Fenced for themselves a fancy-guarded lawn ; 
 Famine without and blood and sore distress 
 
 Of field and town ; but they, secure of harm. 
 
364 BOOK 11; 
 
 "Toyed with the hours in pleasure's still recess ; 
 Nor birthright pride, nor stranger-wrong the charm 
 
 Could loose their soul that bound, or tune the strain 
 To patriot notes, or nerve the listless arm. 
 Or if for a brief space aroused, again 
 
 With womanish plaint or children's rhymester-play 
 In tinsel folds they wrapped the nobler pain." 
 Then I, " Nor Siren all, nor Muse, their lay 
 
 Yet took my boyhood's ear ; and glad would I 
 The songsters' selves in their own realm survey." 
 
 This my guide promises me. 
 
 Discoursing thus from the hyacin thine hill 
 
 Down by the plain we passed, where rippling wound 
 Seaward in liquid light a narrow rill ; 
 Such home by Borneo's shores or Java's sound 
 
 O'erbowered by branching green, the fisher lone 
 'Mid brackish streams and sweet has often found. 
 Behind, bright leaves and flowery perfume blown 
 
 By summer's panting breath ; before was rolled 
 In measureless depths to sight time's ocean zone. 
 But these and those betwixt, on textured gold 
 
 'Mid the moist grass outspread, an artful tale 
 Of loveless love the bard of Arqua told. 
 As mirrored flame in ice the radiance pale 
 
 O'er face and forehead shone ; and still the song 
 Rang falsely sweet, a mourner's purposed wail. 
 With laurel crowned, chiefest his peers among, 
 
 In spangled vesture decked, a prince he sate ; 
 And at his feet in chequered shade the throng 
 With silver trump and lute and harp elate 
 
 His praise extol, who erst the *o'er*-laboured rhyme 
 With thought inwove, a coronal intricate. 
 Others on grassy banks, where flowering thyme 
 
 Thick under-carpet made, in shepherd guise 
 
CANTO XXI 365 
 
 Played with old fancies of Arcadian prime. 
 Of pastoral loves they told, rank's rivalries, 
 
 With hopes and joys and fears that best the glade 
 Or village cot present *with* new disguise, 
 Blended with nature's truth ; a paradise made 
 
 Nor wholly false nor real ; an Eden dream. 
 From toil repose, from storm a guardian shade : 
 Till from Trinacria's ^ shores and Ladon's ^ stream 
 
 Lured to Ausonia,^ thronged who first and best 
 Tuned to Libethrian notes * the sylvan theme, 
 Bion with Moschus joined, and thou, the guest 
 
 Of Hiero ^ known, but more of Pan ; thy lay 
 For a lost Syrinx charmed the God's unrest. 
 And those whom the chill North's discoloured day 
 
 Yet reared, pale flowerets from the common blight 
 Exempt, a distant sun's declining ray. 
 By Windsor's storied banks,^ or Cumbrian height. 
 
 When with faint *morn* the enchantress Geraldine 
 Broke the numb stillness of the April night.''' 
 Now slack the strings and weak, severed the line 
 
 That present bound with past : 
 
 For that fair vine is now leafless and sapless. 
 
 O fallen from thy free self, O ill protected 
 From the brute swarms of spoil, dear Italy ! 
 
 Beauty and art and love's true lore rejected 
 
 By earth's degenerate sons, awhile in thee 
 
 Their refuge found and home ; but all too brief 
 
 The respite given, by jealous destiny, 
 
 ^ Sicily. ^ A river in Arcadia. ' Here used for Sicily, 
 
 * Notes of the Muses. ^ Theocritus. 
 
 * Pope's Pastorals. 
 
 ' Possibly a vague reference to the song of Fitztravers of 
 Naworth upon the legend of Lord Surrey's Geraldine (Lay of the 
 Last Minstrel, Canto vi. ) 
 
366 BOOK in 
 
 Short day, short joy ; too long the night, the grief. 
 
 The foul disguise, the wasted lives, the shame, — 
 Slave to each lord, prize to each neighbour thief ; 
 Till, once Imperial hailed, thy ancient name 
 
 Was for a byword known, and all thy praise 
 Turned to contempt, to foul reproach thy fame. 
 Alas the hundred Tales,i alas the lays 
 
 Lombard and Tuscan heard, alas the joy. 
 The pageant pomp, the boast of golden days, — ■ 
 Ill-omened mirth, when he, the victim toy ^ 
 
 Of Nature's bounds outpast, foreshowed in death 
 Arts that unman, perfections that destroy. 
 All these before me passed, 'mid the hot breath 
 
 Of incense steamed from gold, and stiiling scent 
 Of lily and rose, and Arno's violet wreath, 
 With priestly censers mixed ; and 'mid them went 
 
 The artist despot prince,^ of Cosmo's line 
 Noblest and vilest in oile purpose blent. 
 
 f * * * t 
 
 Proteus of infinite form, thy mind a chord 
 Of magic range ; now tuned to hymns divine. 
 To Bacchic orgies now ; vassal and lord. 
 
 Despot and child of thy loved town, the spell 
 Of Cosmo thine, most cherished, most abhorred. 
 
 To the lone child of Yemen's sunburnt clan, 
 
 From Dahra . . . bound, where the red waste 
 Shuts on his little life its limitless span, 
 Nor shrub nor bush nor waymark there ; effaced 
 
 1 Boccaccio's Decamerone ; perhaps also the earlier Cento Novelle 
 Antiche may be alluded to. 
 
 2 Unidentified. ^ Lorenzo de' Medici. 
 
CANTO XXI 367 
 
 All but the desert's self, as from the deep 
 Pass the light tracks by merchant venture traced ; 
 And from his burning noon-tower steep by steep 
 
 Blood-red the day declines, but reckoning none 
 Of hours or bird or beast is there to keep ; 
 Then where in measureless light the tyrannous sun 
 
 Curtains his westward slope, till sands and skies, 
 Distant and near, in that vast blue are one, 
 Sudden in stateliest hues of rainbow dyes 
 
 Compact, a landscape spreads, with grove and palm. 
 Palace and dome, before the wanderer's eyes. 
 And winding lakes with glassy coolness charm 
 
 His fevered sense, and pastures green, that tell 
 Of tended herds and flocks secure from harm ; 
 These he beholds, and close before a well 
 
 Some little bower with coolness filled, that seems 
 Almost in reach, so strong the illusive spell ; 
 Till as the marge he nears, the fount, the streams. 
 
 Palace and grove and field from sense and sight 
 Fade, as from opening eyelids *inmost* dreams : — 
 So passed thy dream Ausonia ! last delight 
 
 And best to earth allowed ; nor following time 
 The shattered vase may from its dust unite. 
 From Hellas first transfused Ausonia's clime 
 
 That beauty made her own, the light, the glow 
 Where Pleasure *nursed* her flower in full-grown prime ; 
 Till burst the Helvetian storm, the robber foe, 
 
 Gaul's locust swarm accursed,^ and leagued with hell 
 In fire and blood the dark Iberian woe ; ^ 
 Till o'er waste field and tenantless cities fell 
 
 Silent and blank the night, a leaden gloom 
 Nor star might pierce nor lighted torch dispel. 
 Yet shall the dawn, . . . , return, the doom 
 
 1 The invasions from Switzerland and France at close of fifteenth 
 and beginning of sixteenth centuries. 
 
 2 The Spanish rule in Italy. 
 
368 BOOK m 
 
 For better years make place, nor Italy 
 Be but a desolate shrine, a shattered tomb ; 
 Yet nor her bowers, nor aught the sunlit sky, 
 
 Encircling folds of earth, again may bear 
 That pleasure flower, the rose of springs gone by. 
 And green outspreads the garden leaf; but there 
 
 Blossom is none, nor joy ; nor laughing Faun 
 Hides 'mid the boughs as erst, nor Oread fair. 
 Ended the joy, the feast ; the Arcadian lawn 
 
 Herdless and shepherdless spreads ; in vain they rove 
 Seeking who is not there, the god withdrawn 
 
 To his own shrine, Love absolute made in Love. 
 
CANTO XXII 
 
 Follows now a lifeless land : all I have passed through vanishes 
 from consciousness — We descend to the sea : my guide bids 
 me cleanse my face : then all the past of my pilgrimage returns 
 before me — He speaks of the ascent from the imperfect to per- 
 fection — I see the supreme Palace of Love, and Earth's false 
 attractions below ; a flickering scene, beyond which the vision 
 of the Star of absolute Light is for a moment allowed me. , 
 
 On the lone margin of the utmost strand 
 
 We stood, my guide and I ; for void of all 
 That joyed or grieved was the here tenantless land ; 
 Nor beauty's late- seen form ; nor answering call 
 
 Of song to song, nor pleasure's rainbow wing 
 Might the lost days of vanished *life* recall ; 
 But yellow sands, where shrub nor herb nor thing 
 
 That kinship even remotest claimed to mind 
 Or sense ; and speckless blue the ocean ring. 
 Not equinoctial seas, when wave and wind. 
 
 Curtained with sunlight, sleep, more lonely still ; 
 A blank, a fullness ; life with death entwined. 
 [As] on wide-bosomed lake or gliding rill. 
 
 Where in quick sparkling smiles of cheerful play 
 With joy instinct and life the waters thrill, 
 If from black Boreal caverns far away 
 
 Is breathed the wintry North, to ice congealed 
 
 2 B 
 
370 BOOK III 
 
 All that bright mirror lifeless spreads and grey ; 
 So of the secret shown, the depths unsealed 
 
 Late to my venturous gaze, the joys, the pain. 
 The self, long years unknown, to self revealed, 
 All then told and untold, from heart and brain 
 
 Had passed, a blank, a void ; nor memory there 
 Nor thought, to conscious image might remain. 
 But he, the guardian power, whose constant care 
 
 Failed not, whate'er my need, on mine his hand 
 In guidance laid, as down the cushioned stair 
 Of grassy slopes we passed and terraced sand ; 
 
 Where of that circling sea with even stroke 
 As sleeper's pulse the ripple beat the strand, 
 Nor movement else nor sound the silence broke. 
 
 My guide explains that our path henceforward is beyond 
 the pale of human mind : He leads me on : 
 
 So at long journey's close who hastes to greet 
 
 The haunt of evening rest, by hedge and tree 
 Quickens his tread where opes the village street. 
 Then, where our steps by the unresting sea 
 
 Were stayed, again he spoke ; "In time and space 
 This the fulfilment of thy fate's decree. 
 But first in the pure wave thy brow and face. 
 
 With travel stained and the dense airs that brood 
 O'er penal depths, cleanse from unmeet disgrace. 
 So with clear sight, and vigour fresh renewed, 
 
 May'st thou the brightness bear, the forms that shine 
 Symbols and reflex of the absolute Good." 
 
 I obey his command, and past pain and toil are 
 obliterated. 
 
 So from my heart and brain the weight that lay 
 In numbness dark and cold, by the hid power 
 
ANTO XXII 371 
 
 Of that pure wave dissolving passed away. 
 And all heard or beheld from that first hour 
 
 In the lone *vale* even to the utmost bound 
 Where now we stood, as from some giant tower 
 On a bare height upraised the landscape round 
 
 Map-like out-portioned lies, so clear dispread 
 As in one view the . . . coil unwound. 
 Not tangled now but clear life's single thread 
 
 In purposed mazes ran, and upward ever 
 Crooked or straight the innumerous texture led. 
 As swift and deep, his roadway cross, a river 
 
 The horseman forward bars j for bridge or ford 
 Around he strains his eyes in vain endeavour; 
 Or as the knot that save the Gordian sword, 
 
 Nought could resolve ; or as the word unspoken 
 Alone could ope the spell-intrusted hoard, 
 So with vain toil of thought in all the token 
 
 Of first and last I sought, where the long chain 
 Linked world with world in circling coil unbroken. 
 
 I ask an explanation : 
 
 " And thus," the answer came, " the life that was 
 
 Or is, or yet shall be, from simplest mood 
 Through complex form to the absolute life must pass. 
 
 These souls remain till purged by the fire of vengeful love. 
 
 As by warm sunbeams pierced at morn retire 
 Thin mists from lake and hill, so the keen ray 
 
 Of love revealed scatters dull earth's desire ; 
 
 Or as the vigorous swimmer casts away 
 
 What yet th' unpractised limbs upheld, so these 
 
 Rise from the imperfect to the perfect way. 
 
 But first the threefold zone of circling seas 
 
 The visioned bark must pass, till reached the shore. 
 
372 BOOK III 
 
 " Where sits the guardian of the golden keys." 
 Thus having spoke, his words he stayed ; nor more 
 
 Needed of speech or sign ; so wide, so clear 
 The unlimited vision stretched my eyes before. 
 And from Life's basement courses, tier by tier 
 
 Upmounting to the lordliest pinnacle, 
 Love's palace towers o'erpeered the outmost sphere. 
 While far beneath, as in some mouldering cell 
 
 Flutters the spider's web, outstretched I saw, 
 By time and space cross-woven, earth's vexing spell. 
 O all-ensnaring net, of skill to draw 
 
 Whate'er its mesh enfolds, with personal life 
 Connatal thou, 
 
 j- * * * f 
 
 O life of death compact, O priceless gold 
 
 Deep-veined in granite doom, O diamond heaven 
 Marred' by dull earth and darkness manifold ! 
 fAs who through formless clouds by tempest riven 
 
 Of phantom lights and shades,! upgazing sees 
 The untroubled splendours of the circling Seven, 
 Nor the mad railings of the storm, nor seas 
 
 Dashed in tumultuous spray, nor hail-blent rain 
 May stain the brightness of that starry peace ; 
 So the great calm of Love's all-circling reign 
 
 Showed 'mid the phantom whirl, the shadowy war 
 Of flickering light and shades, that, pass and stain ; 
 And these beyond, a luminous point, a star 
 
 Shone in the measureless depths, vivid and lone. 
 Centre and being of all things that are : 
 Semblance all else, or dark or bright ; it shone 
 
 Absolute light, keen, insupportable. 
 
 ■j" * * * t 
 
 O Light supreme, O self-subsistent, thou 
 
CANTO XXII 373 
 
 Art of all light and life the sum ! in thee 
 Mirror and mirrored ray no difference know. 
 Such was the vision, an instant seen, to me 
 
 On the utmost verge allowed j around, above, 
 Then all was blank ; only the unfathomed sea 
 
 Circling the realms of peace, the realms of Love. 
 
CANTO XXIIl 
 
 A transformation into life and joy now seizes me — We stand 
 on the shore, where lies a laoat with sail, but no helm 
 or steerer — A crowd of miserable beings who spurned Love 
 gathers round and vanishes — Then the light reappears, and we 
 pass mysteriously to the land of real Semblance — My guide 
 sprinkles my brows, and I perceive things in their inmost 
 being, in a vision of a crystal sea through which crimson 
 flashes, with strange sounds of music. 
 
 Like Glaucus and Psyche I am transfigured into new 
 life and gladness — We stand by the sea, whereon 
 is a boat with sails but no helm — My guide en- 
 courages me to embark, but a mystic gloom darkens 
 the shore : a vision, part a palace and part a tomb, 
 is seen, with shapes of those whose name 
 
 Effaced with their vain life has passed ; for praise 
 Unworthy, self-adjudged ; unworthy blame. 
 
 As one who unawares on noontide ways 
 
 Some dwarf mis-shaped or foul deformity, 
 Cripple or monster meets, his startled gaze 
 
 Frowning averts, nor cares with curious eye 
 
 But to prolong disgust ; so faint I turned 
 From that vile crew's dishonoured memory. 
 
 Then thus my guide ; " Not vain nor idly learned 
 
 The lesson taught by these, who the high prize 
 
CANTO XXUI 
 
 37S 
 
 " Spurning of love, by love in turn are spurned. 
 Leave them ; not this thy choice ; thy destinies 
 Fulfilled await the crown, that on thy head 
 
 He wreathes who ne'er the promise made denies. 
 Nor thou thy word deny." No more he said, 
 But seaward signed the way, where like the morn 
 
 Dawned on the hills a silvery lustre spread. 
 Smit by that light the phantom brood of scorn 
 Faded as things that were not ; through the air 
 
 Sounds of light wings and joyous tones were borne. 
 And full in front 'mid the bright splendour where 
 Purest the silver shone, again as erst 
 
 Broke the keen light beyond all light's compare ; 
 And in that . . 's *creative* radiance burst 
 A vision on my sight, a happiness 
 
 As sight to blindness given, or drink to thirst ; 
 That even now, in earth's exile, I bless 
 That moment's boon allowed, the memory given 
 
 Solace and staff through this world's wilderness. 
 But you whose venturous step awhile has striven 
 Thus far on mine to tend, more closely now 
 
 Follow the track through *net* and semblance riven 
 Even to the inmost truth ; and from the bough 
 Of verse by art *entwined,* the mystic rose 
 
 Pluck while the guardian lords the boon allow. 
 Yet though revealed the circling bloom that glows 
 In crimson orbs of leaf, unthought, untold 
 
 Is the hid secret of the centre close. 
 — But I where the great sea's encircling fold 
 Girded the shadowy land, what next should be 
 
 Waited with hope by new fulfilment bold. 
 Not long ; for as from watery pressure free 
 Upsprings the imprisoned air, or climbing flame 
 
 Skyward, in flickering spires unceasingly. 
 So from that semblance-land of praise or blame 
 Portioned in seeming time, with my true guide 
 
376 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 I passed to the great realm without a name. 
 Unfelt by sense the passage ; undescried 
 By ear, to ear untold ; for sense and seeing 
 
 Discern not here, nor space nor time divide 
 The personal bounds of life ; the laws decreeing 
 To each a temporal form, are fused and lost 
 
 In the keen radiance this of absolute being. 
 " Nor thou, this line o'erpassed, this barrier crost, 
 Canst aught perceive or know ; and must abide 
 
 Blindest to light when light-illumined most. 
 For this the eternal love that aid and guide 
 Willed me to thee, has power conferred to show 
 
 Through semblance real what truth unveiled would 
 hide. 
 For this from the bright fountain's central flow 
 With gathered drops thy eyes I touch, and make 
 
 Powerful thy eyes to see, thy heart to know." 
 
 My guide, my star, now shines out in perfect glory, and 
 sprinkles my eyes and brow with drops of flame. 
 
 And at the touch all wondrous things e'en now 
 
 Viewless to my quenched sight, in clear display 
 Did to my sense their inmost self avow. 
 Not to the bard of Mantua's silver lay, 
 
 Nor Arno's raptured seer, the Elysian field 
 In *fount* and flower more aptly pictured lay 
 Than to my eyes, by those bright dews unsealed 
 
 Was the hid . . . , the changeless extasy 
 Beyond the veil in the veil's self revealed. 
 And this the vision showed. A crystal sea 
 
 Clearer than diamond fire, and through the mass 
 A crimson radiance flashed incessantly. 
 As wine through water seen, ere in the glass 
 
 To one confused, or when bright cords along 
 Electric fires in tremulous pulses pass. 
 
CANTO XXIII 377 
 
 But here to memory's task ill-matched my song 
 
 Fails from the marvels shown, as fails at need 
 The broken utterance of a stammering tongue. 
 Yet at thy word, O Love, my lines proceed 
 
 To climb, though weak themselves, yet urged by thee. 
 The difficult heights where thrones the eternal meed. 
 On the smooth mirror of that stormless sea 
 
 In our light boat we passed, where round the prow 
 That crimson radiance flashed incessantly. 
 And like strange sounds wood-wildered lovers know, 
 
 Heard through the golden leaves, from the far deep 
 Sweet sounds of music swelled in upward flow. 
 Like one whom trance enthrals, to restful sleep 
 
 Akin, yet diverse all, while heart and brain 
 O'er form and *hue* their watchful empire keep, 
 O'er the bright splendour of that liquid plain 
 
 So was I borne ; as on a mother's breast 
 Lies a loved child, of mere existence fain. 
 What next befell in sequent verse expressed 
 
 Shall my true song declare, so favouring prove 
 The vision's lord and mine ; my brother guest 
 
 At the great banquet of *subsistent* Love. 
 
CANTO XXIV 
 
 A voice sings the bliss of Renunciation of Pleasure — It is Saint 
 Francis of Assisi — The truth of his doctrine ; his many fol- 
 lowers — He recognizes them whencesoever they may come, the 
 poor and wretched above all — But in this Love all created 
 things have part. 
 
 " O HAPPY choice, that from earth's sensuous toys 
 
 Turned us to v\rant and pain, and the vain shows 
 Of earth made footstones to immortal joys ; 
 The sweet for bitter draught, the offered rose 
 
 We for the thorns resigned, for drink and feast 
 Hunger and thirst, vigil and fast we chose. 
 And as the process of the years increased 
 
 Our burden self-imposed, its added load 
 Heavier we made, when strength to bear was least. 
 Nor solace cool of shade nor rest our road 
 
 Gave to our toil-worn feet ; barren and lone 
 The land we wended and the path we trode. 
 For as the covering glories of the sun 
 
 Each lesser light of heaven o'erveil, so wrought 
 In us the primal Love, the Eterne, the One, 
 That of nought else in earth or air the thought 
 
 Might in our mind have place, but only He, 
 Lord of our being, ^effaced* the *rest* and 'wrought*- 
 And all on earth or air or sky or sea 
 
CANTO XXIV 379 
 
 " Pleasant to sense or mind, in His compare 
 Was dross and dregs, and fraud and witchery. 
 Therefore from all we turned, as turns despair 
 
 From the dead hope to that sole Love that is 
 Truth of all loves that have been, are, or were. 
 Therefore, for want and pain, the fadeless bliss 
 
 Of absolute life is ours, and whom we loved 
 Seals on our lips the individual kiss. 
 The false reproving, by the false reproved. 
 
 Strangers on earth we fared, till th' open door 
 Of this true rest received us and approved." 
 Such greeting words, as the clear waters o'er 
 
 We passed, to me were borne, when at the sound 
 I turned, the speaker's self and form t' explore. 
 As by a meadowed plot of marshy ground 
 
 Of some rare flowers the purple majesty 
 Rises, that lesser blooms in court surround, 
 So through the watery floor and stainless sky 
 
 Gathered unnumbered forms that *circling* made 
 To one bright shape th' attendant galaxy ; 
 Where in coarse garb of peasant guise arrayed, 
 
 Yet kingly none the less, in radiance pure 
 Assisi's shame and glory stood displayed. 
 Him whom nor threats to affray nor joys allure 
 
 Availed, nor kinship's claim, nor charms of home, 
 fFromf the great bliss in naked Love secure. 
 For this, whate'er of price 'neath heaven's high dome 
 
 Is found, ... he spurned, naked and bare^ 
 Content in that one quest through earth to roam. 
 Till from Alverno's ^ height the herbless stone 
 
 With sudden roses blushed, and from on high 
 Love's martyr-seal in fourfold radiance shone. 
 And she,^ bride of that seal, to passers-by 
 
 1 Sic MS. 
 
 2 Cell in the Apennines where S. Francis received the Stigmata. 
 ^ Poverty. 
 
380 BOOK III 
 
 Long time reproach and shame, accepted now, 
 Knit to his own her perfect poverty. 
 With the true wisdom well, O Francis, thou 
 
 Show'dst the more excellent way ; of Eden life 
 Thine with bare hand to pluck the fruitful bough. 
 All other leaf, all fruit, thy provident knife, 
 
 Divided, left to fade ; from this to weave 
 The singular wreath, crown of a conqueror's strife. 
 As in the hour when warm the summer's eve 
 
 Broods o'er Parthenope's bay, the ready crowd 
 Of home and household friends and kinship leave 
 Oft unreturning take ; with wailing loud 
 
 And hopeful cry commixed, to sea they fare, 
 As o'er the Atlantic wave a wind-driven cloud. 
 For of *deep* lands and summer pastures fair 
 
 They the report have heard, and wisely bold 
 The Here adventured for the promised There. 
 So to the voice of happier realms that told. 
 
 To loss of these assigned, a countless band 
 Their names obedient in those ranks enrolled ; 
 And then by their great chief on either hand 
 
 Before me gathered stood, and each to each 
 Was of new fire and light a kindling brand. 
 I saw and inly thought ; " The furthest reach 
 
 Of all-embracing life, of joy that knows not 
 Pause or defeat, the bliss denied to speech, 
 Here is attained ; the lotus flower that grows not 
 
 On earth's dull lake, its bloom-enfolded treasure. 
 Plighted to these, on other quest bestows not." 
 Then on me smiled that glorious form, and " Measure," 
 
 He said, " by what thou seest, our sum, or make 
 From ^heart's* renounce the count of . . . less pleasure. 
 And know whate'er the name for whose loved sake 
 
 Who love the narrow path contend and steep. 
 They only all receive who all forsake. 
 Not Europe's shrines nor Asian temples keep 
 
CANTO XXIV 
 
 " Their altar's mystic flame ; than fancied heavens more 
 
 highi 
 Is the true lore, than creeds and priesthoods deep. 
 'Neath the pure blue of fair Ausonia's sky, 
 
 Or Syria's purple vault, or Indian glare 
 Of down-poured heat, or changeful canopy 
 Of China's worshipped heaven, the watchful care 
 
 Of all-embracing love has still provided 
 Who by this pathway pass, these garlands wear. 
 By system dimmed, by *purblind* sense derided, 
 
 In them the embodied truth abides, and [draws] ^ 
 Love's chosen few, by Love's own footsteps guided." 
 He ceased, and all that crowd with such applause 
 
 As on victorious chiefs a victor host 
 Bestows, and triumph song, made glad the pause. 
 Then I ; " O of all those flower and boast 
 
 Who in the Sign ^ have part, that from earth's ill 
 To the true life has mightiest drawn and most. 
 If but in love be life, and hatred still 
 
 The bane of love, say by what art the twain 
 Harmonious made, one perfect life fulfil ? 
 
 The stones our feet that bruise, the thorns that pain 
 Quick from a brother's path to move, nor less 
 
 On thy own pathway strew the torturing train." t * 
 
 With such a smile as bleakest wilderness 
 
 Might clothe with springing flowers, that patriarch 
 chief 
 
 Disclosed the treasures of love's hid recess. 
 
 And thus ; " Heaven's scattered rays on grass or leaf 
 Their gentlest influence pour ; but, mirrored, burn 
 
 Of life-consuming darts a gathered sheaf 
 
 1 Perhaps omit mystic. ^ Leads in MS. ' The Cross. 
 
 * Uncertain if these three lines were intended to be spoken by 
 S. Francis. 
 
382 BOOK 1 
 
 " And the full stream poured from the Naiad's urn, 
 
 O'er level fields so gently flows, the eye 
 Scarce from the ripple's curve its course may learn. 
 If chance [where] narrow banks and steep deny 
 
 The wider course, it pass, with torrent force 
 The downward waters rage impetuously. 
 That rocks nor trees nor moorland bounds its course 
 
 May unremoved abide ; the while in play 
 An infant's hand might bar the trickling source. 
 So love from self unwed, from earth's decay 
 
 By mere renouncement freed, its manifold stream 
 To one contracts, to one bright fire its ray. 
 But as whate'er the Sun's diffusive gleam 
 
 Lightens, o'er earth outspread, is found 
 
 Pictured and summed in each dividuous beam, 
 So all that flies in air or moves on ground. 
 
 Or cleaves a watery way, proportionate part 
 Has in the orb by love encircled round. 
 But most whom pinching want, or the keen smart 
 
 Of pain, or deadlier wound ^detained*, my choice 
 Claimed as my own ; these of my heart the heart. 
 What done to these is done to me, the voice 
 
 Heard of the incarnate Love, in loving deed 
 Bade me, though ... by personal foes, rejoice. 
 Nor men alone but beasts of wood or mead, 
 
 And the swift birds of air, in them I knew 
 Brothers and partners of love's ample creed. 
 Nor beasts alone and birds, but lives that flew 
 
 Careless on insect wings, and what the deep 
 Engulphs, in love's magnetic cords I drew. 
 Nor these alone, but thin green leaves that keep 
 
 Their yearly task of shade, and silent flowers. 
 And the piled fruits of Autumn's golden heap. 
 Were in His love beloved ; nor even the powers 
 
 Of earth and air and fire and flood, the wind, 
 Sunbeams and storm and snows and hail and showers, 
 
CANTO XXIV 383 
 
 " Were from that Love shut out ; in all the mind, 
 
 Eye to the heart, the eternal loveliness 
 Beholds, to all beside fast closed and blind. 
 Therefore upgathered in that love's caress 
 
 Not many now but one ; th' existence blent 
 With our own joy, for ever blest we bless." 
 Thus as he spoke, the o'erarching element 
 
 To purest radiance changed, and a great noise 
 As of innumerous harps in heard concent 
 Like thunder loud j yet . . . the higher voice 
 
 Uprose of songstress heard, the notes above 
 Of quire or band orchestral, hailed the choice 
 
 That claimed for earth well-lost the unearthly Love. 
 
CANTO XXV 
 
 The guide announces our advance to higher regions — The lake now 
 swarms with stars in mystic dance, which form a galaxy, 
 wherein my guide, Canopus, is the central splendour — He 
 explains that the perfect rest of the heavenly realm is three- 
 fold : first, S. Francis and his followers : now, those who have 
 completely lost self — Among the lights I now see Saint 
 Theresa : her glory : she tells me who are with her. 
 
 Stunned by the vehement triumph-cry, with sight 
 
 Quelled by th' excessive radiance, as in swoon 
 Awhile I lay, nor recked if swift the flight 
 Or slow of what earth's dream by sun or moon 
 
 Reckons as time ; but in the abiding Now 
 Vanish as shades in equinoctial noon. 
 Thus as I lay the master's hand my brow 
 
 Touched with reviving fingers, while his glance 
 Was on the waters at the gliding prow. 
 " From the first rapture of the extatic trance 
 
 Granted to sense and memory, onward yet 
 To further life and kinglier crown advance. 
 The tangling meshes of earth's . . . net, 
 
 And with love's staff who broke, and single-hearted 
 Past to the goal, have in thy view been set. 
 Now whom love's keener edge in life disparted 
 
 From worthier snares than these, in visioned wise 
 
CANTO XXV 
 
 38s 
 
 " Shall to thy sense be by this hour imparted." 
 Then as in limitless depth of summer skies 
 
 Light fleeces form at noon, till all the blue 
 Is mottled o'er in vaporous fantasies ; 
 So at the voice that spoke, the ocean view 
 
 Of fleckless crystal late, a mere expanse, 
 With myriad stars to bright confusion grew, — 
 Atoms of keenest light in tangled dance 
 
 That sharply flashed and moved ; and now they wheel 
 In separate orbs, now in one line advance. 
 From some high gallery seen as whirls the reel 
 
 Of beauty's festal pride, when the high state 
 Of courts on worth approved sets yearly seal 
 Nor speech nor thought was mine ; content to sate 
 
 My eyes on the fair things, now singly clear. 
 Now in one brightness mazed and aggregate. 
 What next I saw to the uninitiate ear 
 
 How shall my verse declare ? or how display 
 Beauty unveiled to eyesight dimmed and blear ? 
 Yet must the tale be told ; the sequent lay 
 
 Heeded or not be sung ; so wills supreme 
 He whom o'er all I love, in all obey. 
 As in the changes of a midnight dream 
 
 When verges night to morn, the forms of sleep 
 New form, new movement take, as changed the theme 
 In which they share, yet their main semblance keep ; 
 
 So those bright globes of light, whose glittering play 
 Rose from the ... of the visioned deep : 
 For now as by one throb, each separate ray 
 
 Grew to a rounded disc, as buds of spring 
 Start into flowers at touch of amorous May. 
 And in the centre of each luminous ring, 
 
 But drawn in hues of light, for tint or shade 
 Here may nor form express or shadow fling, 
 A face, a likeness shone, a form arrayed 
 
 In light's diaphanous shine ; of youthful prime, 
 2 c 
 
386 BOOK III 
 
 Female or male, the living form pourtrayed. 
 A heaven of living stars, a chime 
 
 To music's heart attuned ; a garden set 
 With flowers of every season, every clime. 
 Or diamond gems circled with emerald fret, — 
 
 So showed that happy throng, inwoven there, 
 Of absolute Life befitting coronet. 
 Then as at signal given the pageant rare 
 
 Changed, and those forms of beauteous portraiture 
 Again in keenest light infolded were. 
 Nor could my sight, though strengthened most, endure, — 
 
 For mortal sense t' immortal truth unequal 
 Must still remain, — that light's effulgence pure. 
 Nor were my words to those high marvels equal, 
 
 Could they acceptance find ; but as a tongue 
 Not understood fail of the promised sequel. 
 
 This, however, is not the defect of the guide who inspires 
 me. 
 
 And now those countless lights that swift and free 
 
 Like furnace-sparks were seen, from every side 
 Converging shone a steadfast galaxy ; 
 Till of that dazzling zone the starry guide 
 
 Worshipped of men, when in Egyptian story 
 O'er Libya's vale Canopus throned in pride ; 
 Now o'er Antarctic seas and loneness hoary 
 
 With glacier-snows up-piled, the hero prow ^ 
 He steers, of Austral night supremest glory ; 
 To his own form and self transfigured now 
 
 The central splendour shone ; and all the rest 
 Were as a halo to that kingly brow. 
 Then thus he spoke ; " The love, the joys exprest 
 
 In those thou seest, than those beheld of late 
 In fuller Hfe and nobler stand confest. 
 
 ■^ See Book I. Canto i. 1. 115, 
 
CANTO XXV 387 
 
 " And know of absolute rest the perfect state, 
 
 Perfect in each, yet sequent in degree, 
 By threefold grade is given to contemplate. 
 They who from earthly goods naked and free 
 
 With the great chief Alverno's ^ mount ascended, 
 Are first, and outmost of the 'encircling* three. 
 But higher those who, as Love willed, attended 
 
 On earth by Love's elect, from first to last 
 By that high aid as thou by me befriended. 
 Have with long toil and pain the bound o'erpast 
 
 That sunders self from self, and in the Eterne, 
 Not in themselves, their part and portion cast." 
 Then I ; "Of this high meed, and those who earn 
 
 By toil or birthright place, not haply strange 
 E'en to my hope, more would I gladly learn." 
 But he ; " 'Mid the bright lives that moving range 
 
 From height to height, to whom thou will'st, thy 
 prayer 
 Address, nor fear reply's denied exchange." 
 As who on some high feast a palace stair 
 
 Untrod before ascends, with anxious glance 
 'Mid countless faces strange and torches' flare 
 Some friendly form to see, — sweet countenance 
 
 With welcome of famihar smile ; so I 
 On those keen splendours gazed, if so perchance 
 Might memory question aid or prompt reply. 
 
 But memory none nor sign ; nor keenest sight 
 Of mutual knowledge there could aught descry. 
 Then more than ruby red, than diamond bright, 
 
 Where densest shone the clustered orbs, a ray 
 Changed to clear noon the darkness of my night. 
 And, as from central heaven downpoured, a day 
 
 On day's uprising dawned ; such beauty there 
 O'ershone the brightness of its crowned display. 
 O flower of perfect Love, O fairest fair, 
 
 ^ Cf. Book II. Canto xvii. I. 120. 
 
388 BOOK III 
 
 Iberia's boast and earth's, Theresa, thine 
 The form, the life, the grace, the granted prayer. 
 And thine the phoenix-heart by love divine 
 
 Transformed, consumed, renewed; and thine the 
 wreath 
 Knit by the clusters of the mystic vine. 
 Pleasure in pain, in torture, joy in death ; 
 
 The plant, the flower of life, was thine ; to thee 
 Alike the heights above, the depth beneath. 
 O all-perfuming flower, O Eden tree 
 
 Fruitful of better life, what happy fate 
 Gave me thy power t' approach, thy glory see ! 
 As a young Queen and fair in maiden state 
 
 Smiles on the suppliant throng, the while intent 
 They on her glance as birds on heaven wait : 
 Ev'n with such regal smile on me was bent 
 
 In pitying love that face, whose beauty none 
 Excels of all that deck love's firmament. 
 And as with sound of rippling streams in one 
 
 Blend sweetest notes of song's accord, a voice 
 Gave to the ear delight by the eye begun. 
 And thus the message came ; " Brother, rejoice 
 
 In what this second realm unfolds for those 
 AVho, chosen of Love, made of that Love their choice. 
 He, the deep centre of the eternal rose ; 
 
 The circling petals they ; from him their scent, 
 From him the hue that cheers, the fire that glows. 
 Till inmost self, connatal element 
 
 Of space-conditioned life, in that which most 
 From self abhors, was all consumed and spent. 
 Here the true rest and fullness ; this the boast 
 
 Of death annulled by life ; made perfect here 
 Banner and guerdon of Love's conquering host." 
 Thus while she spoke, the canopied atmosphere 
 
 One common glory shone ; and with the glow 
 Reddened the triple depths of that still mere. 
 
CANTO XXV 389 
 
 Till as in vaulted shrines when organs blow 
 
 To hymns of choral praise, such music sweet 
 Filled th' intermediate space with honeyed flow 
 Of sound's intensest thrill, that now my feet 
 
 Failed where I stood, and o'er my eyes a shade 
 Darkened, and ceased the mortal heart to beat," 
 By joy's excessive load crushed and o'er-weighed, 
 
 And self in vision lost : — such welcome prove 
 They who by earth's long torment perfect made, 
 
 Burn in the fires of all-consuming Love. 
 
CANTO XXVI 
 
 All vanish save S. Theresa — She reveals that many paths from 
 many nations lead to this kingdom — Spirits from the first five 
 realms can reach it j those from the sixth and seventh only after 
 long re-births ; whilst other lovirer souls seem to be excluded 
 — She passes, casting a regenerating ray upon me — I have the 
 vision of the Head of the Saviour^Then another ray from 
 my guide transports me to the highest sphere. 
 
 Roused from that swooning trance by touch of him, 
 
 My spirit's strength and guide, upwards again 
 I looked, nor dazzled now my sight nor dim ; 
 But as quenched stars at dawn that glorious train 
 
 Now faint and far was seen, or as the ring 
 That shrouds heaven's queen from *menaced* storm and 
 
 rain. 
 Only that loveliest Form,^ fountain and spring 
 
 Of Carmel's renovate streams, as one fair dove 
 That bides, its comrades flown, with folded wing. 
 Yet to depart delayed ; a mother's love 
 
 Was in her eyes, but on her queenly brow 
 Throned the vast wisdom of the gods above. 
 Then spoke my guide ; " What mortal suits to know 
 
 Freely demand of her ; for this the grace 
 Granted awhile, nor thou the gift forgo." 
 
 ' S. Theresa, who founded the Reformed Carmelites or Descahos. 
 
CANTO XXVI 391 
 
 As in a glass who fronting stands may trace 
 
 Things then behind him far, so clear I knew 
 My inmost thought mirrored in that bright face, 
 Yet to our nature's laws obedience true. 
 
 With question asked and answered, draught by 
 draught, 
 Waters of life from that pure fount I drew. 
 And thus ; " Upon life's tree the fruitful graft 
 
 If of its nature one, I fain would learn 
 From the great mistress of love's plastic craft. 
 And if the lonely cell and order stern 
 
 Be to these heights sole path, or other way 
 Lead through earth's lowlands to the summit bourne." 
 Then with pleased smile of earnest mixed with play. 
 
 As o'er her questioning child a mother's look 
 Is bent, while kisses yet her words delay ; 
 So from the living leaves of that fair book 
 
 By love's own finger writ, with tenderness 
 Of dallying pause these sounds rny hearing took, 
 t * * * t 
 
 "Then know, to this pure life's serenest height 
 
 Many the paths, not one ; though speediest still 
 The narrower way close fenced by cloistered rite. 
 To me that path assigned, by heaven-taught skill 
 
 New fenced, new paved, new guarded, stair by stair 
 I brought to the summit of the *ambrosial* hill. 
 Happy, with me that path who choose, though rare 
 
 Who close my footsteps tread ; more rare who climb 
 Through dust and mist of earth to the upper air. 
 But to no race confined nor creed nor clime 
 
 Is the strait path of love, . . . 
 
 • f * * •* t 
 
 To the great King with anguish crowned, whose throne 
 On self dethroned is reared, whoe'er their track 
 
,g2 BOOK III 
 
 "Have set, open to these, and these alone. 
 And some from the great hero-town that hath 
 
 Its gates by the bright gardens where delayed 
 Thy earlier steps ; they whom the envious wrath 
 Of the rude crowd and treason, undismayed, 
 
 True to love's compass-star, through blood and tears 
 AVhiter than snow their ruddy garments made. 
 And some, though few their numbered tale, whose years 
 
 'Mid toils of court and camp, senate and field. 
 Taught them hid lore of the extra-solar spheres, 
 Where not to sense nor time nor space revealed 
 
 Is the unconditioned life ; the realm from far 
 They saw, the word they read, the scroll unsealed. 
 But more who through earth's dust the ethereal car 
 
 Of Art triumphant bore, till their own art 
 For things that seem gave them the things that are ; 
 And for the cunning brain informed the heart 
 
 With perfect form and grace, till the whole man 
 Grew of the imaged life_ himself a part. 
 And as some acted play, that sport began. 
 
 Haply to earnest turns, so these with truth 
 Filled up the mimicked outline of truth's plan. 
 More numerous yet the band whom bitter ruth 
 
 Of love by earth made void, like him beloved 
 Of love, has torn with Erymanthian tooth. 
 These with earth's brightest flowers inwove have proved 
 
 Earth's keenest venom-thorns ; and each in turn 
 Have a false phantom found, a thing reproved. 
 Now clear of dregs and soil the purified urn ; 
 
 Of self made selfless now, with the pure oil 
 Pressed from the life-tree's fruit, as stars they bum. 
 So late with weeds o'ergrown the furrowed soil 
 
 The riche[r] harvest bears, than the loose dust 
 Barren alike to man's neglect or toil. 
 And joined with these, nor numerous less, their trust 
 
 Who in the symbol placed ; till love's own flower 
 
CANTO XXVI 393 
 
 " Grew, and aside the earthy covering thrust. 
 They who of Hellas born, th' Olympic power i 
 
 Of Elis' * shrine* revered, or answer sought 
 From old Dodona's grove, or Pythian bower ; 
 Or by the lore on Syria's mountains taught 
 
 Shaped a more excellent way, or to the shrine 
 Of Heaven's pure Queen their votive oiferings brought. 
 And where o'er Indian streams and palm-groves shine 
 
 Towered fanes of ancient faith, and the far East 
 From Western greed secure guards th' ocean-line : — 
 All these through imaged form from form released, 
 
 Have at one table sate ; a different bowl 
 Each grasped ; but one the nectar, one the feast. 
 They too who on pure limbs the Delphic stole 
 
 Have robed of spotless white, and in high verse 
 Have writ their name on great Apollo's scroll. 
 Or the plumed pomp of History's pictured hearse 
 
 Have led from age to age ; or what, possest 
 By man, may help to sain man's primal curse. 
 Have taught or striven to teach ; or meed of rest 
 
 Passionless, and fair life, fit recompense 
 Have of their toil, with their own blessings blest. 
 But not with these, not these, whose vain pretence 
 
 Of science false[ly] named, and arts that kill. 
 Has hope from life divided, truth from sense ; 
 Nor they, though less removed, whom sensuous will 
 
 In fading roses binds, — not theirs assigned 
 The all-circling rest, nor th' empyrean hill. 
 For drink the Danaid sieve, for food the wind ; 
 
 Life's phantom-fruit is theirs, *till* birth on birth 
 Renewed, the stains have cleansed, the dross refined. 
 With them, who from illusive forms of earth 
 
 Sought real heaven to frame, and nature's wail, 
 Ill-attuned revellers, mocked with songs of mirth : 
 And whom the twilight wood, and whom the vale 
 ^ The famous statue of Zeus by Phidias. 
 
394 BOOK III 
 
 " Of spectre-tombs retains ; and the great mass 
 By blame as praise rejected, and the tale 
 Of names in water writ ; as shades on glass 
 
 Mirrored, or the light dust of summer heat, 
 Circling or blown transverse the eddies pass." 
 Here paused her voice ; and as full quires repeat 
 
 The single note foregone, with answer loud 
 Of triumph rang the circling joy complete. 
 And as in zenith heavens a fleecy cloud 
 
 Melts in the infinite blue, so passed away 
 With their bright Queen [from] sight the attendant 
 
 crowd. 
 But as she passed, even then a singular ray 
 
 From her own burning heart that glorious one 
 Darted on him, the guardian of my way ; 
 And from a lake's calm surface as the sun 
 
 Reflex his image sends, so in my heart 
 Was lit the flame erst in those hearts begun. 
 And such desire as spoken words t' impart 
 
 Awaits not, thrilled my breast, and, — a quick throe, — 
 Life tore from life and self from self a part. 
 Nor personal sense could reach, nor thought could know 
 
 That unconditioned bliss, where several being 
 Is lost, as gold in sevenfold furnace glow. 
 But then connatal love, by heaven's decreeing 
 
 My guide even to the end, in harmony 
 As of twin stars his will with mine agreeing, 
 Thus to th' unsyllabled question made reply. 
 
 And said ; " The boundless love, the rest supreme, 
 Will not thy just desire, dear friend, deny. 
 But save by those who from the illusive dream 
 
 Of time and space made free, . . . 
 
 t * * * f 
 
 ... in sorrow lost and pain. 
 
CANTO XXVI 395 
 
 "Not for themselves but others, none the height 
 Thou seek'st, though almost won, may hope t' attain." 
 Thus while he spoke, his pointing hand my sight 
 
 Guided to midmost heaven, where overhead 
 Glowed the great convex with intensest light, 
 And vaster now than vastest heaven outspread ; 
 
 Now a keen star-like point it gemmed ; and now 
 Brightness at one with darkness, hope with dread. 
 And in its midst what seemed a kingly brow 
 
 With anguish crowned and empire vast had home. 
 One with the light, yet twinned, I knew not how. 
 As on thy night of nights, eternal Rome, 
 
 From far the pilgrim views in raptured gaze 
 Now crimson all, now white, the Titan dome ; ^ 
 So with swift change, unchanging yet, the rays 
 
 Of that great glory shone, that even delight 
 Was not, all thought effaced in mere amaze. 
 Not long ; for he, my vision's guide, in sight 
 
 To the vision's self transformed, on me, so long 
 His guarded charge, a shaft of purest light 
 From where he stood those secret joys among 
 
 Darted, that swift to highest height above 
 Bore me, that witness here might crown the song 
 
 Wreathed for the feast where thrones the bridegroom 
 Love. 
 
 ' The illumination of the cupola upon S. Peter's day. 
 
CANTO XXVII 
 
 A Hymn to our Blessed Lord as God and Man by my guide, who 
 commends me now to His guidance — I see inexpressive 
 marvels, and the ultimate vision of Divine Love in the form 
 of Man. 
 
 " Godhead and Manhood thou, limitless Life 
 
 In personal form here shown, of perfect peace 
 Maker and Lord, girt with the sword of strife ; 
 Noted of all, possessing all, jth' increasef ; 
 
 Throne of all visible things, yet all to thee 
 Lighter than down blown by the autumn breeze ; 
 Griefs keenest pangs, joy's highest extasy 
 
 Are thine, in thy deep calm ; the sheltering breast 
 Where all are one with love, and love with thee. 
 The infinite want, the fierce desire, the quest 
 
 Of unattained desire, in thee alone 
 Centered, fulfilment find and absolute rest. 
 A name of many names the crystal stone 
 
 Bound in thy diadem tress ; but each to them 
 Whom to thy likeness chosen thou know'st, is known. 
 And others there are at thy vesture's hem ; 
 
 Of these are we, thy suppliants ; Child of earth 
 He who before thee bends ; to me of heaven . 
 Glory and singular star assigned from birth. 
 
 Him from life's promise-dawn to the dim even 
 Of joyless age, through trial years of sadness 
 My hand has led ; with his my spirit striven. 
 
 Each grade of conscious life, from the dark madness 
 Of self informed with crime, to the pure day 
 Of love through torment perfect made in gladness, 
 
 His upward path has wound ; nor further way 
 
CANTO XXVII 397 
 
 " Is to my guidance given ; the rest is thine ; 
 Thine the great vision ; thine the guiding ray ; 
 
 The gate, the palace-throne, the all-fruitful vine 
 Whose clusters glad the universe, that knows 
 Itself in thee, as thou thyself divine." 
 
 From far, so seemed it, as a wind that blows 
 Through the wood to us that voice was borne ; but 1 
 Knew in those words my vision's granted close. 
 
 And as in upward gaze unspoke reply 
 Of grateful mind I made, a sense unknown 
 To nature's self informed my heart and eye. 
 
 The eternal Now, the all-present Here, the throne 
 Of self-existent light, the happiness 
 Of limitless life, the rose-encircling zone. 
 
 Were visible there ; yet for that sight the less 
 To speech proportioned they ; for symbols none, 
 Finite themselves, may infinite things express. 
 
 And as bent eyes, how keen soe'er, the sun 
 Beheld, to darkness turn, and gazing more 
 Less apprehend, by their own sight o'erdone ; 
 
 Or who some singular strain, long years before 
 - Heard, would to mind recall ; but . . . never 
 Can the one note from other notes restore ; 
 
 So I to earth returned, with vain endeavour 
 In words of earthy mould the marvel tell 
 That from earth's sight the unlifted curtains sever. 
 
 Yet some may understand ; 
 
 Many there are who run the race ; yet each 
 But to his proper mark attains ; and few 
 
 Who the high goal, love's crowning summit, reach. 
 
 The manifold mesh of life, the form, the hue 
 Pictured in pictured space, of these whate'er 
 
 Captive the affection leads, or glads the view. 
 
 All lovely things in ocean, earth, or air, 
 All joy of laughing youth, all empery, 
 
398 BOOK III 
 
 By love and life wrought out in death's despair ; 
 All joy of mortal skill, all harmony 
 
 Woven in the webs of sound ; all fairest flowers 
 That glad the mead, all rainbow vaults of sky ; 
 Not in their semblant show, but as the powers 
 
 Of which the vesture they, the substance hid 
 Whence are those shadows thrown, that build the powers 
 Of life's apparent home, but here amid 
 
 The eternal light, one with that light, revealed 
 In their own selves, to human view forbid : 
 And every deed of honoured memory, sealed 
 
 By Love's approving seal ; and more by time 
 Or envious guile from later days concealed ; 
 But most the martyr-love by hatred's crime 
 
 Victor in love confessed, and from the abyss 
 Of worst endured in passionate faith subUme ; — 
 These in that splendour glowed, where all that is 
 
 Its ultimate meaning finds, where thrones supreme 
 Love blent with love in universal kiss. 
 — O First and Last, Sun of all worlds, thy beam 
 
 Is light and truth and love ; their fountain-head 
 Is in thy orb ; to thee returns their stream. 
 All separate life, all personal love, is dead 
 
 ... or confront with thine ; our sight between 
 And thy true vision the thick darkness spread. 
 O all-transforming vision, an instant seen. 
 
 Then for a night withdrawn, till the true morn 
 Scatter earth's hated night, dissolve the screen ! 
 Yet though exiled the while, not all forlorn 
 
 Am I, nor shall this verse thy glory's praise, 
 Perish, an *empty* . . ., a theme outworn. 
 Once loved, for ever loved ; nor hours nor days 
 
 Have o'er love's fabric power, the form its fire 
 Has stamped, changeless itself, all change outstays. 
 Nor from that vision seen [will] heart's desire 
 
 Turn to aught else its eyes, or from the height 
 
CANTO XXVII 399 
 
 Where now I stood to other height aspire. 
 
 As joys the bridegroom when the expected night 
 
 Gives to his loving arms the bride ; as joys 
 The mother-bride at her first babe's first sight ; 
 Nor the full cup o'erflows the marge, nor cloys 
 
 The satiate sense, nor more is there nor less, 
 Nor other draught the ambrosial fount alloys. 
 So from that orb of perfect loveliness 
 
 Nor truth nor love nor life divide ; for [all] 
 Diverse in name, one absolute good express. 
 As who on Pisgah's height, or the great wall 
 
 Of Darien's Titan ridge, or erst who stood 
 On th' Euxine cliifs escaped from Persian thrall. 
 And their long toils and anxious fears, in mood 
 
 Of rest secure, surveyed, and more and more 
 Gazing, the assurance of their sight renewed ; 
 Yet with more keen intent, as when a store 
 
 Of infinite gems and gold the wondering eye 
 Greets, I that vision's secret sought t' explore ; 
 Nor vainly sought ; for to the voiceless cry 
 
 Of my too eager love, in answer came 
 For dimness sight, for want satiety ; 
 And from mid fires as when some sudden flame 
 
 Shoots a keen flash, so to my inmost view 
 At once revealed the ultimate vision came. 
 Not that the Eternal Life or old or new 
 
 Admits, or shadow of change ; but now my sense 
 Quickened by love, to full attainment grew. 
 Then in the midmost orb, where most intense 
 
 That visioned radiance glowed, a Shape there showed 
 Of a Man's likeness, an Omnipresence 
 In human forn:i subsistent ; such it glowed, 
 
 Light of the encircling light, the central core 
 Of the great glory from that fount o'erflowed. 
 This I beheld pourtrayed, and wondered more 
 
 Whose that bright form and whence j fain to discern 
 
400 BOOK III 
 
 What the far meaning, what the imaged lore. 
 But as faint outlined on the horizon sky 
 
 Some distant sail, just seen, or outlined coast, 
 The more we gaze, the more eludes the eye ; 
 So now distinct now blurred, that vision crossed 
 
 Or seemed to cross my sight ; till my whole thought 
 Faltered, in quick desire perplexed and lost. 
 Till perfect now the Love that in me wrought 
 
 Unveiled the impersonate truth displayed ; the Life 
 That to all life life and deliverance brought ; 
 In whom closed was the breach ; th' envenomed knife 
 
 Of death to healing made, healed the deep wound. 
 Nor will with will, nor self with self at strife. 
 And for great Nature's secular wail, a sound 
 
 Of infinite harps to separate harmony 
 Attuned, and the great goal's extremest bound. 
 This the pre-ordinate end, the purpose high ■ l^ 
 
 Of Love through all diffused, from all again 
 Centered and bound in personality. 
 Not wavering now, nor faint, but without stain 
 
 Pictured in dazzling light, the Form I knew 
 Whose beauty draws all life, whose hands contain. 
 Me too those hands contained, that beauty drew 
 
 Never to sunder more ; in him the want 
 Summed and complete ; the vision sealed and true. 
 This the pre-ordinate rest ; this the great Mount 
 
 Where thrones the changeless Life, whose heights above 
 Are as his depths beneath ; hence flows the Fount, 
 
 Hither returns, of th' all-encircling Love. 
 
 Jan. 31, 1888. ' 
 
 L.D. 
 
 aSnts of tfje Utston ai 3Life 
 

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