139 IIO heart; Look up, and let me see our doom in it; Thea! Thea! Thea! where is Saturn?” Look up, and tell me if this feeble shape This passion lifted him upon his feet, 135 Is Saturn's; tell me, if thou hear'st the And made his hands to struggle in the air, voice His Druid locks to shake and ooze with Of Saturn; tell me, if this wrinkling brow, sweat, Naked and bare of its great diadem, 101 His eyes to fever out, his voice to cease. Peers like the front of Saturn. Who had | He stood, and heard not Thea's sobbing power deep; To make me desolate? whence came the A little time, and then again he snatched strength? Utterance thus:-"But cannot I create? How was it nurtured to such bursting Cannot I form? Cannot I fashion forth forth, Another world, another universe, While Fate seemed strangled in my To overbear and crumble this to nought? nervous grasp? 105 Where is another chaos? Where?”—That But it is so; and I am smothered up, word 145 And buried from all godlike exercise Found way unto Olympus, and made Of influence benign on planets pale, quake Of admonitions to the winds, and seas, The rebel three.-Thea was startled up, Of peaceful sway above man's harvest. And in her bearing was a sort of hope, ing, As thus she quick-voiced spake, yet full of And all those acts which Deity supreme awe: Doth ease its heart of love in.-I am gone “This cheers our fallen house: come to Away from my own bosom: I have left our friends, 150 My strong identity, my real self, O Saturn! come away, and give them Somewhere between the throne, and where I sit 115 I know the covert, for thence came I Here on this spot of earth. Search, Thea, hither." search! Thus brief; then with beseeching eyes she Open thine eyes eterne, and sphere them went round With backward footing through the shade Upon all space: space starred, and lorn of a space: light; He followed, and she turned to lead the Space regioned with life-air; and barren way 155 void; Through agèd boughs, that yielded like the Spaces of fire, and all the yawn of hell. 120 mist Search, Thea, search! and tell me, if thou Which eagles cleave upmounting from seest their nest. A certain shape or shadow, making way Meanwhile in other realms big tears With wings or chariot fierce to repossess were shed, A heaven he lost erewhile: it must-it More sorrow like to this, and such like woe, must Too huge for mortal tongue or pen of Be of ripe progress-Saturn must be scribe; King. 125 The Titans fierce, self-hid, or prisonYes, there must be a golden victory; bound, There must be Gods thrown down, and Groaned for the old allegiance once more, trumpets blown And listened in sharp pain for Saturn's Of triumph calm, and hymns of festival voice. Upon the gold clouds metropolitan, But one of the whole mammoth-brood still Voices of soft proclaim, and silver stir 130 kept Of strings in hollow shells; and there His sovereignty, and rule, and majesty; 165 shall be Blazing Hyperion on his orbèd fire Beautiful things made new, for the surprise Still sat, snuffed the incense, teeming up Of the sky-children; I will give com- From man to the sun's God; yet un 160 mand: secure: 211 en 220 For as among us mortals omens drear In smoothest silence, save what solemn Fright and perplex, so also shuddered tubes, he, 170 Blown by the serious Zephyrs, gave of Not at dog's howl, or gloom-bird's hated sweet screech, And wandering sounds, slow-breathèd Or the familiar visiting of one melodies; Upon the first toll of his passing-bell, And like a rose in vermeil tint and shape, Or prophesyings of the midnight lamp; In fragrance soft, and coolness to the eye, But horrors, portioned to a giant nerve, 175 That inlet to severe magnificence Oft made Hyperion ache. His palace Stood full blown, for the God to enter in. bright, He entered, but he entered full of wrath; Bastioned with pyramids of glowing gold, His flaming robes streamed out beyond his And touched with shade of bronzéd obe- heels, lisks, And gave a roar, as if of earthly fire, 215 Glared a blood-red through all its thou- That scared away the meek ethereal sand courts, Hours Arches, and domes, and fiery galleries; 180 And made their dove-wings tremble. On And all its curtains of Aurorian clouds he flared, Flushed angerly: while sometimes eagle's From stately nave to nave, from vault to wings, vault, Unseen before by Gods or wondering men, Through bowers of fragrant and Darkened the place; and neighing steeds wreathèd light, were heard, And diamond-pavèd lustrous long arNot heard before by Gods or wondering cades, men. 185 Until he reached the great main cupola; Also, when he would taste the spicy There standing fierce beneath, he stamped wreaths his foot, Of incense, breathed aloft from sacred And from the basements deep to the high hills, towers Instead of sweets, his ample palate took Jarred his own golden region; and before Savor of poisonous brass and metal sick: The quavering thunder thereupon had And so, when harbored in the sleepy ceased, 225 west, 190 His voice leapt out, despite of godlike curb, After the full completion of fair day, - To this result: "O dreams of day and For rest divine upon exalted couch night! And slumber in the arms of melody, O monstrous forms! O effigies of pain! He paced away the pleasant hours of ease O specters busy in a cold, cold gloom! With stride colossal, on from hall to hall; O lank-eared Phantoms of black-weeded While far within each aisle and deep re- pools! 230 cess, 196 Why do I know ye? why have I seen ye? His wingèd minions in close clusters stood, why Amazed and full of fear; like anxious men Is my eternal essence thus distraught Who on wide plains gather in panting To see and to behold these horrors new? troops, Saturn is fallen; am I too to fall? When earthquakes jar their battlements Am I to leave this haven of my rest, 235 and towers. This cradle of my glory, this soft clime, Even now, while Saturn, roused from icy This calm luxuriance of blissful light, trance, These crystalline pavilions, and pure fanes, Went step for step with Thea through the Of all my lucent empire? It is left woods, Deserted, void, nor any haunt of mine. 240 Hyperion, leaving twilight in the rear, The blaze, the splendor, and the symCame slope upon the threshold of the west; metry, Then, as was wont, his palace-door flew I cannot see—but darkness, death and ope 205 darkness. 200 again." Even here, into my center of repose, Which sages and keen-eyed astrologers 245 gaze centuries: 280 Fall!—No, by Tellus and her briny robes! Now lost, save what we find on remnants Over the fiery frontier of my realms huge I will advance a terrible right arm, Of stone, or marble swart; their import Shall scare that infant thunderer, rebel gone, Jove, Their wisdom long since fled.—Two wings And bid old Saturn take his throne this orb 250 Possessed for glory, two fair argent wings, He spake and ceased, the while a heavier Ever exalted at the God's approach: 285 threat And now, from forth the gloom their Held struggle with his throat, but came plumes immense not forth; Rose, one by one, till all outspreaded were; For as in theatres of crowded men While still the dazzling globe maintained Hubbub increases more they call out eclipse, "Hush!" Awaiting for Hyperion's command. So at Hyperion's words the Phantoms Fain would he have commanded, fain took pale 255 290 Bestirred themselves, thrice horrible and And bid the day begin, if but for change. cold; He might not:No, though a primeval 260 295 Like a lithe serpent vast and muscular Those silver wings expanded sisterly, Making slow way, with head and neck con- Eager to sail their orb; the porches wide vulsed Opened upon the dusk demesnes of night; From over-strainèd might. Released, he And the bright Titan, frenzied with new fled woes, To the eastern gates, and full six dewy Unused to bend, by hard compulsion hours bent 300 Before the dawn in season due should His spirit to the sorrow of the time; blush, 265 And all along a dismal rack of clouds, He breathed fierce breath against the Upon the boundaries of day and night, sleepy portals, He stretched himself in grief and radiance Cleared them of heavy vapors, burst them faint. wide There as he lay, the Heaven with its Suddenly on the ocean's chilly streams. stars 305 The planet orb of fire, whereon he rode Looked down on him with pity, and the Each day from east to west the heavens voice through, Of Cælus, from the universal space, Spun round in sable curtaining of clouds; Thus whispered low and solemn in his Not therefore veilèd quite, blindfold, and hid, “O brightest of my children dear, earthBut ever and anon the glancing spheres, born Circles, and arcs, and broad-belting colure, And sky-engendered, Son of Mysteries 310 Glowed through, and wrought upon the All unrevealèd even to the powers muffling dark 275 Which met at thy creating; at whose joys Sweet-shaped lightnings from the nadir And palpitations sweet, and pleasures soft, deep I, Calus, wonder, how they came and Up to the Zenith, -hieroglyphics old, whence; 270 ear: hid And at the fruits thereof what shapes they Until it ceased; and still he kept them be, 315 wide: Distinct, and visible; symbols divine, And still they were the same bright, Manifestations of that beauteous life patient stars. Diffused unseen throughout eternal space; Then with a slow incline of his broad Of these new-formed art thou, O brightest breast, child! Like to a diver in the pearly seas, 355 Of these, thy brethren and the God- Forward he stooped over the airy shore, desses! 320 And plunged all noiseless into the deep There is sad feud among ye, and rebellion night. Of son against his sire. I saw him fall, I saw my first-born tumbled from his SONNETS throne! To me his arms were spread, to me his ON FIRST LOOKING INTO voice CHAPMAN'S HOMER Found way from forth the thunders round his head! 325 Much have I travelled in the realms of Pale wox I, and in vapors my face. gold, Art thou, too, near such doom? vague fear there is: And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; For I have seen my sons most unlike Gods. Round many western islands have I Divine ye were created, and divine been In sad demeanor, solemn, undisturbed, 330 Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Unruffled like high Gods, ye lived and Oft of one wide expanse had I been told 5 ruled: That deep-browed Homer ruled as his Now I behold in you fear, hope, and wrath; demesne; Actions of rage and passion; even as Yet did I never breathe its pure serene I see them, on the mortal world beneath, Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and In men who die.—This is the grief, O bold: Son! 335 Then felt I like some watcher of the skies Sad sign of ruin, sudden dismay, and fall! Yet do thou strive; as thou art capable, When a new planet swims into his ken; As thou canst move about, an evident Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes God; He stared at the Pacific—and all his men And canst oppose to each malignant hour Looked at each other with a wild surmiseEthereal presence:-I am but a voice; 340 My life is but the life of winds and tides; Silent, upon a peak in Darien. No more than winds and tides can I avail: But thou canst.-Be thou therefore in the WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE Of circumstance; yea, seize the arrow's barb When I have fears that I may cease to be Before the tense string murmur.—To the Before my pen has gleaned my teeming earth! 345 brain, For there thou wilt find Saturn, and his Before high pilèd books, in charact'ry, Hold like rich garners the full-ripened Meantime I will keep watch on thy bright grain; sun, When I behold, upon the night's starred And of thy seasons be a careful nurse.”— face, 5 Ere half this region-whisper had come Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, down, And think that I may never live to trace Hyperion arose, and on the stars 350 Their shadows, with the magic hand of Lifted his curvèd lids, and kept them wide chance; IO van woes, a IO 20 25 And when I feel, fair creature of an hour! Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell 15 That I shall never look upon thee Your manly hearts shall glow, more, As ye sweep through the deep, Never have relish in the faery power While the stormy winds do blow; Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore While the battle rages loud and long, Of the wide world I stand alone, and think | And the stormy winds do blow. Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. Britannia needs no bulwark, No towers along the steep; BRIGHT STAR! WOULD I WERE Her march is o'er the mountain waves, STEADFAST AS THOU ART Her home is on the deep. With thunders from her native oak Bright star! would I were steadfast as She quells the floods belowthou art As they roar on the shore, Not in lone splendor hung aloft the When the stormy winds do blow; night, When the battle rages loud and long, And watching, with eternal lids apart, And the stormy winds do blow. Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite, The meteor flag of England The moving waters at their priestlike Shall yet terrific burn, task 5 Till danger's troubled night depart Of pure ablution round earth's human And the star of peace return. shores, Then, then, ye ocean-warriors! Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask and feast shall flow Of snow upon the mountains and the To the fame of your name, moorsNo-yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, When the fiery fight is heard no more, When the storm has ceased to blow; Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening And the storm has ceased to blow. 40 breast, To feel forever its soft fall and swell, Awake forever in a sweet unrest, THOMAS MOORE (1779-1862) Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever-or else swoon to death. THE TIME I'VE LOST IN WOOING 30 35 Our song IO |