The Poems of Schiller - Second period Part 2

"For empty hopes,--corruption gives the lie-- Didst thou exchange what thou hadst surely done?

Six thousand years sped death in silence by,-- His corpse from out the grave e'er mounted high, That mention made of the Requiting One?"

I saw time fly to reach thy distant sh.o.r.e, I saw fair Nature lie A shrivelled corpse behind him evermore,-- No dead from out the grave then sought to soar Yet in that Oath divine still trusted I.

My ev'ry joy to thee I've sacrificed, I throw me now before thy judgment-throne; The many's scorn with boldness I've despised,-- Only--thy gifts by me were ever prized,-- I ask my wages now, Requiting One!

"With equal love I love each child of mine!"

A genius hid from sight exclaimed.

"Two flowers," he cried, "ye mortals, mark the sign,-- Two flowers to greet the Searcher wise entwine,-- Hope and Enjoyment they are named."

"Who of these flowers plucks one, let him ne'er yearn To touch the other sister's bloom.

Let him enjoy, who has no faith; eterne As earth, this truth!--Abstain, who faith can learn!

The world's long story is the world's own doom."

"Hope thou hast felt,--thy wages, then, are paid; Thy faith 'twas formed the rapture pledged to thee.

Thou might'st have of the wise inquiry made,-- The minutes thou neglectest, as they fade, Are given back by no eternity!"

THE CONFLICT.

No! I this conflict longer will not wage, The conflict duty claims--the giant task;-- Thy spells, O virtue, never can a.s.suage The heart's wild fire--this offering do not ask

True, I have sworn--a solemn vow have sworn, That I myself will curb the self within; Yet take thy wreath, no more it shall be worn-- Take back thy wreath, and leave me free to sin.

Rent be the contract I with thee once made;-- She loves me, loves me--forfeit be the crown!

Blessed he who, lulled in rapture's dreamy shade, Glides, as I glide, the deep fall gladly down.

She sees the worm that my youth's bloom decays, She sees my spring-time wasted as it flees; And, marvelling at the rigor that gainsays The heart's sweet impulse, my reward decrees.

Distrust this angel purity, fair soul!

It is to guilt thy pity armeth me; Could being lavish its unmeasured whole, It ne'er could give a gift to rival thee!

Thee--the dear guilt I ever seek to shun, O tyranny of fate, O wild desires!

My virtue's only crown can but be won In that last breath--when virtue's self expires!

THE ARTISTS.

How gracefully, O man, with thy palm-bough, Upon the waning century standest thou, In proud and n.o.ble manhood's prime, With unlocked senses, with a spirit freed, Of firmness mild,--though silent, rich in deed, The ripest son of Time, Through meekness great, through precepts strong, Through treasures rich, that time had long Hid in thy bosom, and through reason free,-- Master of Nature, who thy fetters loves, And who thy strength in thousand conflicts proves, And from the desert soared in pride with thee!

Flushed with the glow of victory, Never forget to prize the hand That found the weeping orphan child Deserted on life's barren strand, And left a prey to hazard wild,-- That, ere thy spirit-honor saw the day, Thy youthful heart watched over silently, And from thy tender bosom turned away Each thought that might have stained its purity; That kind one ne'er forget who, as in sport, Thy youth to n.o.ble aspirations trained, And who to thee in easy riddles taught The secret how each virtue might be gained; Who, to receive him back more perfect still, E'en into strangers' arms her favorite gave-- Oh, may'st thou never with degenerate will, Humble thyself to be her abject slave!

In industry, the bee the palm may bear; In skill, the worm a lesson may impart; With spirits blest thy knowledge thou dost share, But thou, O man, alone hast art!

Only through beauty's morning gate Didst thou the land of knowledge find.

To merit a more glorious fate, In graces trains itself the mind.

What thrilled thee through with trembling blessed, When erst the Muses swept the chord, That power created in thy breast, Which to the mighty spirit soared.

When first was seen by doting reason's ken, When many a thousand years had pa.s.sed away, A symbol of the fair and great e'en then, Before the childlike mind uncovered lay.

Its blessed form bade us honor virtue's cause,-- The honest sense 'gainst vice put forth its powers, Before a Solon had devised the laws That slowly bring to light their languid flowers.

Before Eternity's vast scheme Was to the thinker's mind revealed, Was't not foreshadowed in his dream, Whose eyes explored yon starry field?

Urania,--the majestic dreaded one, Who wears a glory of Orions twined Around her brow, and who is seen by none Save purest spirits, when, in splendor shrined, She soars above the stars in pride, Ascending to her sunny throne,-- Her fiery chaplet lays aside, And now, as beauty, stands alone; While, with the Graces' girdle round her cast, She seems a child, by children understood; For we shall recognize as truth at last, What here as beauty only we have viewed.

When the Creator banished from his sight Frail man to dark mortality's abode, And granted him a late return to light, Only by treading reason's arduous road,-- When each immortal turned his face away, She, the compa.s.sionate, alone Took up her dwelling in that house of clay, With the deserted, banished one.

With drooping wing she hovers here Around her darling, near the senses' land, And on his prison-walls so drear Elysium paints with fond deceptive hand.

While soft humanity still lay at rest, Within her tender arms extended, No flame was stirred by bigots' murderous zest, No guiltless blood on high ascended.

The heart that she in gentle fetters binds, Views duty's slavish escort scornfully; Her path of light, though fairer far it winds, Sinks in the sun-track of morality.

Those who in her chaste service still remain, No grovelling thought can tempt, no fate affright; The spiritual life, so free from stain, Freedom's sweet birthright, they receive again, Under the mystic sway of holy might.

The purest among millions, happy they Whom to her service she has sanctified, Whose mouths the mighty one's commands convey, Within whose b.r.e.a.s.t.s she deigneth to abide; Whom she ordained to feed her holy fire Upon her altar's ever-flaming pyre,-- Whose eyes alone her unveiled graces meet, And whom she gathers round in union sweet In the much-honored place be glad Where n.o.ble order bade ye climb, For in the spirit-world sublime, Man's loftiest rank ye've ever had!

Ere to the world proportion ye revealed, That every being joyfully obeys,-- A boundless structure, in night's veil concealed, Illumed by naught but faint and languid rays, A band of phantoms, struggling ceaselessly, Holding his mind in slavish fetters bound, Unsociable and rude as be, a.s.sailing him on every side around,-- Thus seemed to man creation in that day!

United to surrounding forms alone By the blind chains the pa.s.sions had put on, Whilst Nature's beauteous spirit fled away Unfelt, untasted, and unknown.

And, as it hovered o'er with parting ray, Ye seized the shades so neighborly, With silent hand, with feeling mind, And taught how they might be combined In one firm bond of harmony.

The gaze, light-soaring, felt uplifted then, When first the cedar's slender trunk it viewed; And pleasingly the ocean's crystal flood Reflected back the dancing form again.

Could ye mistake the look, with beauty fraught, That Nature gave to help ye on your way?

The image floating on the billows taught The art the fleeting shadow to portray.

From her own being torn apart, Her phantom, beauteous as a dream, She plunged into the silvery stream, Surrendering to her spoiler's art.

Creative power soon in your breast unfolded; Too n.o.ble far, not idly to conceive, The shadow's form in sand, in clay ye moulded, And made it in the sketch its being leave.

The longing thirst for action then awoke,-- And from your breast the first creation broke.

By contemplation captive made, Ensnared by your discerning eye, The friendly phantom's soon betrayed The talisman that roused your ecstasy.

The laws of wonder-working might, The stores by beauty brought to light, Inventive reason in soft union planned To blend together 'neath your forming hand.

The obelisk, the pyramid ascended, The Hermes stood, the column sprang on high, The reed poured forth the woodland melody, Immortal song on victor's deeds attended.

The fairest flowers that decked the earth, Into a nosegay, with wise choice combined, Thus the first art from Nature had its birth; Into a garland then were nosegays twined, And from the works that mortal hands had made, A second, n.o.bler art was now displayed.

The child of beauty, self-sufficient now, That issued from your hands to perfect day, Loses the chaplet that adorned its brow, Soon as reality a.s.serts its sway.

The column, yielding to proportion's chains, Must with its sisters join in friendly link, The hero in the hero-band must sink, The Muses' harp peals forth its tuneful strains.

The wondering savages soon came To view the new creation's plan "Behold!"--the joyous crowds exclaim,-- "Behold, all this is done by man!"

With jocund and more social aim The minstrel's lyre their awe awoke, Telling of t.i.tans, and of giant's frays And lion-slayers, turning, as he spoke, Even into heroes those who heard his lays.

For the first time the soul feels joy, By raptures blessed that calmer are, That only greet it from afar, That pa.s.sions wild can ne'er destroy, And that, when tasted, do not cloy.

And now the spirit, free and fair, Awoke from out its sensual sleep; By you unchained, the slave of care Into the arms of joy could leap.

Each brutish barrier soon was set at naught, Humanity first graced the cloudless brow, And the majestic, n.o.ble stranger, thought, From out the wondering brain sprang boldly now.

Man in his glory stood upright, And showed the stars his kingly face; His speaking glance the sun's bright light Blessed in the realms sublime of s.p.a.ce.

Upon the cheek now bloomed the smile, The voice's soulful harmony Expanded into song the while, And feeling swam in the moist eye; And from the mouth, with spirit teeming o'er, Jest, sweetly linked with grace, began to pour.

Sunk in the instincts of the worm, By naught but sensual l.u.s.t possessed, Ye recognized within his breast Love-spiritual's n.o.ble germ; And that this germ of love so blest Escaped the senses' abject load, To the first pastoral song he owed.

Raised to the dignity of thought, Pa.s.sions more calm to flow were taught From the bard's mouth with melody.

The cheeks with dewy softness burned; The longing that, though quenched, still yearned, Proclaimed the spirit-harmony.