The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 129

13.

England yet sleeps: was she not called of old?

Spain calls her now, as with its thrilling thunder Vesuvius wakens Aetna, and the cold Snow-crags by its reply are cloven in sunder: O'er the lit waves every Aeolian isle _185 From Pithecusa to Pelorus Howls, and leaps, and glares in chorus: They cry, 'Be dim; ye lamps of Heaven suspended o'er us!'

Her chains are threads of gold, she need but smile And they dissolve; but Spain's were links of steel, _190 Till bit to dust by virtue's keenest file.

Twins of a single destiny! appeal To the eternal years enthroned before us In the dim West; impress us from a seal, All ye have thought and done! Time cannot dare conceal. _195

14.

Tomb of Arminius! render up thy dead Till, like a standard from a watch-tower's staff, His soul may stream over the tyrant's head; Thy victory shall be his epitaph, Wild Baccha.n.a.l of truth's mysterious wine, _200 King-deluded Germany, His dead spirit lives in thee.

Why do we fear or hope? thou art already free!

And thou, lost Paradise of this divine And glorious world! thou flowery wilderness! _205 Thou island of eternity! thou shrine Where Desolation, clothed with loveliness, Wors.h.i.+ps the thing thou wert! O Italy, Gather thy blood into thy heart; repress The beasts who make their dens thy sacred palaces. _210

15.

Oh, that the free would stamp the impious name Of KING into the dust! or write it there, So that this blot upon the page of fame Were as a serpent's path, which the light air Erases, and the flat sands close behind! _215 Ye the oracle have heard: Lift the victory-flas.h.i.+ng sword.

And cut the snaky knots of this foul gordian word, Which, weak itself as stubble, yet can bind Into a ma.s.s, irrefragably firm, _220 The axes and the rods which awe mankind; The sound has poison in it, 'tis the sperm Of what makes life foul, cankerous, and abhorred; Disdain not thou, at thine appointed term, To set thine armed heel on this reluctant worm. _225

16.

Oh, that the wise from their bright minds would kindle Such lamps within the dome of this dim world, That the pale name of PRIEST might shrink and dwindle Into the h.e.l.l from which it first was hurled, A scoff of impious pride from fiends impure; _230 Till human thoughts might kneel alone, Each before the judgement-throne Of its own aweless soul, or of the Power unknown!

Oh, that the words which make the thoughts obscure From which they spring, as clouds of glimmering dew _235 From a white lake blot Heaven's blue portraiture, Were stripped of their thin masks and various hue And frowns and smiles and splendours not their own, Till in the nakedness of false and true They stand before their Lord, each to receive its due! _240

17.

He who taught man to vanquish whatsoever Can be between the cradle and the grave Crowned him the King of Life. Oh, vain endeavour!

If on his own high will, a willing slave, He has enthroned the oppression and the oppressor _245 What if earth can clothe and feed Amplest millions at their need, And power in thought be as the tree within the seed?

Or what if Art, an ardent intercessor, Driving on fiery wings to Nature's throne, _250 Checks the great mother stooping to caress her, And cries: 'Give me, thy child, dominion Over all height and depth'? if Life can breed New wants, and wealth from those who toil and groan, Rend of thy gifts and hers a thousandfold for one! _255

18.

Come thou, but lead out of the inmost cave Of man's deep spirit, as the morning-star Beckons the Sun from the Eoan wave, Wisdom. I hear the pennons of her car Self-moving, like cloud charioted by flame; _260 Comes she not, and come ye not, Rulers of eternal thought, To judge, with solemn truth, life's ill-apportioned lot?

Blind Love, and equal Justice, and the Fame Of what has been, the Hope of what will be? _265 O Liberty! if such could be thy name Wert thou disjoined from these, or they from thee: If thine or theirs were treasures to be bought By blood or tears, have not the wise and free Wept tears, and blood like tears?--The solemn harmony _270

19.

Paused, and the Spirit of that mighty singing To its abyss was suddenly withdrawn; Then, as a wild swan, when sublimely winging Its path athwart the thunder-smoke of dawn, Sinks headlong through the aereal golden light _275 On the heavy-sounding plain, When the bolt has pierced its brain; As summer clouds dissolve, unburthened of their rain; As a far taper fades with fading night, As a brief insect dies with dying day,-- _280 My song, its pinions disarrayed of might, Drooped; o'er it closed the echoes far away Of the great voice which did its flight sustain, As waves which lately paved his watery way Hiss round a drowner's head in their tempestuous play. _285

NOTES: _4 into]unto Harvard ma.n.u.script.

_9 inverse cj. Rossetti; in verse 1820.

_92 See the Bacchae of Euripides--[Sh.e.l.lEY'S NOTE].

_113 lore 1839; love 1820.

_116 shattered]scattered cj. Rossetti.

_134 wand 1820; want 1830.

_194 us]as cj. Forman.

_212 KING Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; **** 1820, 1839; CHRIST cj. Swinburne.

_249 Or 1839; O, 1820.

_250 Driving 1820; Diving 1839.

CANCELLED Pa.s.sAGE OF THE ODE TO LIBERTY.

[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Sh.e.l.ley", 1862.]

Within a cavern of man's trackless spirit Is throned an Image, so intensely fair That the adventurous thoughts that wander near it Wors.h.i.+p, and as they kneel, tremble and wear The splendour of its presence, and the light _5 Penetrates their dreamlike frame Till they become charged with the strength of flame.

TO --.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.]

1.

I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden, Thou needest not fear mine; My spirit is too deeply laden Ever to burthen thine.

2.

I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion, _5 Thou needest not fear mine; Innocent is the heart's devotion With which I wors.h.i.+p thine.

ARETHUSA.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated by her 'Pisa, 1820.' There is a fair draft amongst the Sh.e.l.ley ma.n.u.scripts at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. Loc.o.c.k's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 24.]

1.

Arethusa arose From her couch of snows In the Acroceraunian mountains,-- From cloud and from crag, With many a jag, _5 Shepherding her bright fountains.

She leapt down the rocks, With her rainbow locks Streaming among the streams;-- Her steps paved with green _10 The downward ravine Which slopes to the western gleams; And gliding and springing She went, ever singing, In murmurs as soft as sleep; _15 The Earth seemed to love her, And Heaven smiled above her, As she lingered towards the deep.

2.

Then Alpheus bold, On his glacier cold, _20 With his trident the mountains strook; And opened a chasm In the rocks--with the spasm All Erymanthus shook.

And the black south wind _25 It unsealed behind The urns of the silent snow, And earthquake and thunder Did rend in sunder The bars of the springs below. _30 And the beard and the hair Of the River-G.o.d were Seen through the torrent's sweep, As he followed the light Of the fleet nymph's flight _35 To the brink of the Dorian deep.

3.

'Oh, save me! Oh, guide me!

And bid the deep hide me, For he grasps me now by the hair!'

The loud Ocean heard, _40 To its blue depth stirred, And divided at her prayer; And under the water The Earth's white daughter Fled like a sunny beam; _45 Behind her descended Her billows, unblended With the brackish Dorian stream:-- Like a gloomy stain On the emerald main _50 Alpheus rushed behind,-- As an eagle pursuing A dove to its ruin Down the streams of the cloudy wind.

4.

Under the bowers _55 Where the Ocean Powers Sit on their pearled thrones; Through the coral woods Of the weltering floods, Over heaps of unvalued stones; _60 Through the dim beams Which amid the streams Weave a network of coloured light; And under the caves, Where the shadowy waves _65 Are as green as the forest's night:-- Outspeeding the shark, And the sword-fish dark, Under the Ocean's foam, And up through the rifts _70 Of the mountain clifts They pa.s.sed to their Dorian home.

5.

And now from their fountains In Enna's mountains, Down one vale where the morning basks, _75 Like friends once parted Grown single-hearted, They ply their watery tasks.

At sunrise they leap From their cradles steep _80 In the cave of the shelving hill; At noontide they flow Through the woods below And the meadows of asphodel; And at night they sleep _85 In the rocking deep Beneath the Ortygian sh.o.r.e;-- Like spirits that lie In the azure sky When they love but live no more. _90

NOTES: _6 unsealed B.; concealed 1824.

_31 And the B.; The 1824.

_69 Ocean's B.; ocean 1824.

SONG OF PROSERPINE WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA.