Part III

Like one by wonder reft of speech, I stoodPond'ring the mournful scene in pensive mood,As one that waits advice. My guide in hasteBegan:--"You let the moments run to wasteWhat objects hold you here?--my doom you know;Compell'd to wander with the sons of woe!"--"Oh, yet awhile afford your friendly aid!You see my inmost soul;" submiss I said."The strong unsated wish you there can read;The restless cravings of my mind to feedWith tidings of the dead."--In gentler toneHe said, "Your longings in your looks are known;You wish to learn the names of those behindWho through the vale in long procession wind:I grant your prayer, if fate allows a space,"He said, "their fortunes, as they come, to trace.--See that majestic shade that moves along,And claims obeisance from the ghostly throng:'Tis Pompey; with the partner of his vows,Who mourns the fortunes of her slaughter'd spouse,By Egypt's servile band.--The next is heWhom Love's tyrannic spell forbade to seeThe danger by his cruel consort plann'd;Till Fate surprised him by her treacherous hand.--Let constancy and truth exalt the nameOf her, the lovely candidate for fame,Who saved her spouse!--Then Pyramus is seen,And Thisbe, through the shade, with pensive mien;--Then Hero with Leander moves along,--And great Ulysses, towering in the throng:His visage wears the signs of anxious thoughtThere sad Penelope laments her lot:With trickling tears she seems to chide his stay,While fond Calypso charms her love-delay.--Next he who braved in many a bloody fight.For years on years, the whole collected mightOf Rome, but sunk at length in Cupid's snareThe shameful victim of th' Apulian fair!--Then she, that, in a servile dress pursued,(Reft of her golden locks) o'er field and flood,With peerless faith, her exiled spouse unknown,With whom of old she fill'd a lofty throne.--Then Portia comes, who fire and steel defied,And Julia, grieved to see a second brideEngage her consort's love.--The Hebrew swainAppears, who sold himself his love to gainFor seven long summers--a vivacious flame,Which neither years nor constant toil could tame!--Then Isaac, with his father, joins the band,Who, with his consort, left at God's command,Led by the lamp of faith, his native land.--David is next, by lawless passion sway'd;And, adding crime to crime, at last betray'dTo deeds of blood, till solitude and tearsWash'd his dire guilt away, and calm'd his fears.The sensual vapour, with Circean fume,Involved his royal son in deeper gloom,And dimm'd his glory, till, immersed in vice,His heart renounced the Ruler of the Skies,Adopting Stygian gods.--The changeful hueOf his incestuous brother meets your view,Who lurks behind: observe the sudden turnOf love and hatred blanch his cheek, and burn!His ruin'd sister there, with frantic speed,To Absalom recounts the direful deed.--Samson behold, a prey to female fraud!Strong, but unwise, he laid the pledge of GodIn her fallacious lap, who basely soldHer husband's honour for Philistian gold.--Judith is nigh, who, mid a host in arms,With gentle accents and alluring charmsTheir chief o'ercame, and, at the noon of night,From his pavilion sped her venturous flightWith one attendant slave, who bore alongThe tyrant's head amid the hostile throng;Adoring Him who arms the feeble hand.And bids the weak a mighty foe withstand.--Unhappy Sichem next is seen, who paidA bloody ransom for an injured maid:His guiltless sire and all his slaughter'd race,With many a life, attend the foul disgrace.Such was the ruin by a sudden gustOf passion caused, when murder follow'd lust!--That other, like a wise physician, curedAn abject passion, long with pain endured:To Vashti for an easy boon he sued;She scorn'd his suit, and rage his love subdued:Soon to its aid a softer passion came,And from his breast expell'd the former flame:Like wedge by wedge displaced, the nuptial tiesHe breaks, and soon another bride supplies.--But if you wish to see the bosom (warOf Jealousy and Love) in deadly jar,Behold that royal Jew! the dire controlOf Love and Hate by turns besiege his soul.Now Vengeance wins the day--the deed is done!And now, in fell remorse, he hates the sun,And calls his consort from the realms of night,To which his fatal hand had sped her flight--Behold yon hapless three, by passion lost,Procris, and Artemisia's royal ghost;And her, whose son (his mother's grief and joy)Razed with paternal rage the walls of Troy,--Another triple sisterhood is seen;This characters of Hades. Mark their mienWith sin distain'd: their downcast looks discloseA conscience of their crimes, and dread of coming woes.--Semiramis, and Byblis (famed of old)Her mother's rival there you next behold;With many a warrior, many a lovely dameOf old, ennobled by romantic fame.--There Lancelot and Tristram (famed in fight)Are seen, with many a dame and errant knight;--Genevra, Belle Isonde, and hundreds more;With those who mingled their incestuous goreShed by paternal rage; and chant beneath,In baneful symphony, the Song of Death."He scarce had spoken, when a chill presage(What warriors feel before the battle's rage,When in the angry trump's sonorous breathThey hear, before it comes, the sound of Death)My heart possess'd; and, tinged with deadly pale,I seem'd escaped from Death's eternal jail;When, fleeting to my side with looks of Love,A phantom brighter than the Cyprian doveMy fingers clasp'd; which, though of power to wieldThe temper'd sabre in the bloody fieldAgainst an armed foe, a touch subdued;And gentle words, and looks that fired the blood,My friend addressed me (I remember well),And from his lips these dubious accents fell:--"Converse with whom you please, for all the trainAre mark'd alike the slaves of Cupid's reign."--Thus, in security and peace trepann'd,I was enlisted in that wayward band,Who short-lived joys by anguish long obtain,And whom the pleasures of a rival painMore than their proper joys. Remembrance showsToo clear at last the source of all my woes,When Jealousy, and Love, and Envy drewThat nurture from my heart by which they grew.As feverish eyes on air-drawn features dwell,My fascinated eyes, by magic spell,Dwell'd on the heavenly form with ardent look,And at a glance the dire contagion tookThat tinged my days to come; and each delight,But those that bore her stamp, consign'd to night.I blush with shame when to my inward viewThe devious paths return where Cupid drewHis willing slave, with all my hopes and fears--When Phoebus seem'd to rise and set in tearsFor many a spring--and when I used to dwellA lonely hermit in a silent cell.How upwards oft I traced the purling rillsTo their pure fountains in the misty hills!The rocks I used to climb, the solemn woods,Where oft I wander'd by the winding floods!And often spent, whene'er I chanced to stray,In amorous ditties all the livelong day!What mournful rhymes I wrote and 'rased again,Spending the precious hours of youth in vain!'Twas in this school I learn'd the mystic thingsOf the blind god, and all the secret springsFrom which his hopes and fears alternate rise:'Graved on his frontlet, the detection lies,Which all may read, for I have oped their eyes.And she, the cause of all my lengthen'd toils,Disdains my passion, though she boasts my spoils.Of rigid honour proud, she smiles to seeThe fatal triumph of her charms in me.Not Love himself can aid, for Love retires,And in her sacred presence veils his fires:He feels his genius by her looks subdued,And all his spells by stronger spells withstood.Hence my despair; for neither force nor artCan wound her bosom, nor extract the dartThat rankles here, while proudly she defiesThe power that makes a captive world his prize.She is not one that dallies with the foe,But with unconquer'd soul defies the blow;And, like the Lord of Light, displays afarA splendour which obscures each lesser star.Her port is all divine; her radiant smile,And e'en her scorn, the captive heart beguile;Her accents breathe of heaven; her auburn hair(Whether it wanton with the sportive air,Or bound in shining wreaths adorns her face,)Secures her conquests with resistless grace;Her eyes, that sparkle with celestial fire,Have render'd me the slave of fond desire.But who can raise his style to match her charms?What mortal bard can sing the soft alarmsThat flutter in the breast, and fire the veins?Alas! the theme surmounts the loftiest strains.Far as the ocean in its ample bedExceeds the purling stream that warbles through the mead,Such charms are hers--as never were reveal'dOn earth, since Phoebus first the world beheld!And voices, tuned her peerless form to praise,Suffer a solemn pause with mute amaze.Thus was I manacled for life; while she,Proud of my bonds, enjoy'd her liberty.With ceaseless suit I pray'd, but all in vain;One prayer among a thousand scarce could gainA slight regard--so hopeless was my state,And such the laws of Love imposed by fate!For stedfast is the rule by Nature given,Which all the ranks of life, from earth to heaven.With reverent awe and homage due obey,And every age and climate owns its sway.I know the cruel pangs by lovers borne,When from the breast the bleeding heart is tornBy Love's relentless gripe; the deadly harmsOf Cupid, when he wields resistless arms;Or when, in dubious truce, he drops his dart,And gives short respite to the tortured heart.The vital current's ebb and flood I know,When shame or anger bids the features glow,Or terror pales the cheek; the deadly snakeI know that nestles in the flowery brake,And, watchful, seems to sleep, and languor feigns,When health-inspiring vigour fills the veins.I know what hope and fear assail the mindWhen I pursue my love, yet dread to find.I know the strange and sympathetic tie,When, soul in soul transfused, a fond allyFor ever seems another and the same,Or change with mutual love their mortal frame.From transient smiles to long protracted woeThe various turns and dark degrees I know;And hot and cold, and that unequall'd smartWhen souls survive, though sever'd from the heart.I know, I cherish, and detect the cheatOf every hour; but still, with eager feetAnd fervent hope, pursue the flying fair,And still for promised rapture meet despair.When absent, I consume in raging fire;But, in her presence check'd, the flames expire,Repress'd by sacred awe. The boundless swayOf cruel Love I feel, that makes a preyOf all those energies that lift the soulTo her congenial climes above the poleI know the various pangs that rend the heart;I know that noblest souls receive the dartWithout defence, when Reason drops the shieldAnd, recreant, to her foe resigns the field.--I saw the archer in his airy flight,I saw him when he check'd his arrow's flight:And when it reach'd the mark, I watched the god,And saw him win his way by force or fraud,As best befits his ends. His whirling throneTurns short at will, or runs directly on.The rapid follies which his axle bear,Are short fallacious hope and certain fear;And many a promise given of Halcyon days,Whose faint and dubious gleam the heart betrays.I know what secret flame the marrow fries,How in the veins a dormant fever lies;Till, fann'd to fury by contagious breath,It gains tremendous head, and ends in death.I know too well what long and doubtful strifeForms the dire tissue of a lover's life;The transient taste of sweet commix'd with gall,What changes dire the hapless crew befall.Their strange fantastic habitudes I know,Their measured groans in lamentable flow;When rhyming-fits the faltering tongue employ,And love sick spasms the mournful Muse annoy;The smile that like the lightning fleets away,The sorrows that for half a life delay;Like drops of honey in a wormwood bowl,Drain'd to the dregs in bitterness of soul.