The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 18

'The seeds are sleeping in the soil: meanwhile The Tyrant peoples dungeons with his prey, Pale victims on the guarded scaffold smile Because they cannot speak; and, day by day, The moon of wasting Science wanes away _3680 Among her stars, and in that darkness vast The sons of earth to their foul idols pray, And gray Priests triumph, and like blight or blast A shade of selfish care o'er human looks is cast.

25.

'This is the winter of the world;--and here _3685 We die, even as the winds of Autumn fade, Expiring in the frore and foggy air.

Behold! Spring comes, though we must pa.s.s, who made The promise of its birth,--even as the shade Which from our death, as from a mountain, flings _3690 The future, a broad sunrise; thus arrayed As with the plumes of overshadowing wings, From its dark gulf of chains, Earth like an eagle springs.

26.

'O dearest love! we shall be dead and cold Before this morn may on the world arise; _3695 Wouldst thou the glory of its dawn behold?

Alas! gaze not on me, but turn thine eyes On thine own heart--it is a paradise Which everlasting Spring has made its own, And while drear Winter fills the naked skies, _3700 Sweet streams of sunny thought, and flowers fresh-blown, Are there, and weave their sounds and odours into one.

27.

'In their own hearts the earnest of the hope Which made them great, the good will ever find; And though some envious shade may interlope _3705 Between the effect and it, One comes behind, Who aye the future to the past will bind-- Necessity, whose sightless strength for ever Evil with evil, good with good must wind In bands of union, which no power may sever: _3710 They must bring forth their kind, and be divided never!

28.

'The good and mighty of departed ages Are in their graves, the innocent and free, Heroes, and Poets, and prevailing Sages, Who leave the vesture of their majesty _3715 To adorn and clothe this naked world;--and we Are like to them--such perish, but they leave All hope, or love, or truth, or liberty, Whose forms their mighty spirits could conceive, To be a rule and law to ages that survive. _3720

29.

'So be the turf heaped over our remains Even in our happy youth, and that strange lot, Whate'er it be, when in these mingling veins The blood is still, be ours; let sense and thought Pa.s.s from our being, or be numbered not _3725 Among the things that are; let those who come Behind, for whom our steadfast will has bought A calm inheritance, a glorious doom, Insult with careless tread, our undivided tomb.

30.

'Our many thoughts and deeds, our life and love, _3730 Our happiness, and all that we have been, Immortally must live, and burn and move, When we shall be no more;--the world has seen A type of peace; and--as some most serene And lovely spot to a poor maniac's eye, _3735 After long years, some sweet and moving scene Of youthful hope, returning suddenly, Quells his long madness--thus man shall remember thee.

31.

'And Calumny meanwhile shall feed on us, As worms devour the dead, and near the throne _3740 And at the altar, most accepted thus Shall sneers and curses be;--what we have done None shall dare vouch, though it be truly known; That record shall remain, when they must pa.s.s Who built their pride on its oblivion; _3745 And fame, in human hope which sculptured was, Survive the perished scrolls of unenduring bra.s.s.

32.

'The while we two, beloved, must depart, And Sense and Reason, those enchanters fair, Whose wand of power is hope, would bid the heart _3750 That gazed beyond the wormy grave despair: These eyes, these lips, this blood, seems darkly there To fade in hideous ruin; no calm sleep Peopling with golden dreams the stagnant air, Seems our obscure and rotting eyes to steep _3755 In joy;--but senseless death--a ruin dark and deep!

33.

'These are blind fancies--reason cannot know What sense can neither feel, nor thought conceive; There is delusion in the world--and woe, And fear, and pain--we know not whence we live, _3760 Or why, or how, or what mute Power may give Their being to each plant, and star, and beast, Or even these thoughts.--Come near me! I do weave A chain I cannot break--I am possessed With thoughts too swift and strong for one lone human breast. _3765

34.

'Yes, yes--thy kiss is sweet, thy lips are warm-- O! willingly, beloved, would these eyes, Might they no more drink being from thy form, Even as to sleep whence we again arise, Close their faint orbs in death: I fear nor prize _3770 Aught that can now betide, unshared by thee-- Yes, Love when Wisdom fails makes Cythna wise: Darkness and death, if death be true, must be Dearer than life and hope, if unenjoyed with thee.

35.

'Alas, our thoughts flow on with stream, whose waters _3775 Return not to their fountain--Earth and Heaven, The Ocean and the Sun, the Clouds their daughters, Winter, and Spring, and Morn, and Noon, and Even, All that we are or know, is darkly driven Towards one gulf.--Lo! what a change is come _3780 Since I first spake--but time shall be forgiven, Though it change all but thee!'--She ceased--night's gloom Meanwhile had fallen on earth from the sky's sunless dome.

36.

Though she had ceased, her countenance uplifted To Heaven, still spake, with solemn glory bright; _3785 Her dark deep eyes, her lips, whose motions gifted The air they breathed with love, her locks undight.

'Fair star of life and love,' I cried, 'my soul's delight, Why lookest thou on the crystalline skies?

O, that my spirit were yon Heaven of night, _3790 Which gazes on thee with its thousand eyes!'

She turned to me and smiled--that smile was Paradise!

NOTES: _3573 hues of grace edition 1818.

CANTO 10.

1.

Was there a human spirit in the steed, That thus with his proud voice, ere night was gone, He broke our linked rest? or do indeed _3795 All living things a common nature own, And thought erect an universal throne, Where many shapes one tribute ever bear?

And Earth, their mutual mother, does she groan To see her sons contend? and makes she bare _3800 Her breast, that all in peace its drainless stores may share?

2.

I have heard friendly sounds from many a tongue Which was not human--the lone nightingale Has answered me with her most soothing song, Out of her ivy bower, when I sate pale _3805 With grief, and sighed beneath; from many a dale The antelopes who flocked for food have spoken With happy sounds, and motions, that avail Like man's own speech; and such was now the token Of waning night, whose calm by that proud neigh was broken. _3810

3.

Each night, that mighty steed bore me abroad, And I returned with food to our retreat, And dark intelligence; the blood which flowed Over the fields, had stained the courser's feet; Soon the dust drinks that bitter dew,--then meet _3815 The vulture, and the wild dog, and the snake, The wolf, and the hyaena gray, and eat The dead in horrid truce: their throngs did make Behind the steed, a chasm like waves in a s.h.i.+p's wake.

4.

For, from the utmost realms of earth came pouring _3820 The banded slaves whom every despot sent At that throned traitor's summons; like the roaring Of fire, whose floods the wild deer circ.u.mvent In the scorched pastures of the South; so bent The armies of the leagued Kings around _3825 Their files of steel and flame;--the continent Trembled, as with a zone of ruin bound, Beneath their feet, the sea shook with their Navies' sound.

5.

From every nation of the earth they came, The mult.i.tude of moving heartless things, _3830 Whom slaves call men: obediently they came, Like sheep whom from the fold the shepherd brings To the stall, red with blood; their many kings Led them, thus erring, from their native land; Tartar and Frank, and millions whom the wings _3835 Of Indian breezes lull, and many a band The Arctic Anarch sent, and Idumea's sand,

6.

Fertile in prodigies and lies;--so there Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill.

The desert savage ceased to grasp in fear _3840 His Asian s.h.i.+eld and bow, when, at the will Of Europe's subtler son, the bolt would kill Some shepherd sitting on a rock secure; But smiles of wondering joy his face would fill, And savage sympathy: those slaves impure, _3845 Each one the other thus from ill to ill did lure.

7.

For traitorously did that foul Tyrant robe His countenance in lies,--even at the hour When he was s.n.a.t.c.hed from death, then o'er the globe, With secret signs from many a mountain-tower, _3850 With smoke by day, and fire by night, the power Of Kings and Priests, those dark conspirators, He called:--they knew his cause their own, and swore Like wolves and serpents to their mutual wars Strange truce, with many a rite which Earth and Heaven abhors. _3855

8.

Myriads had come--millions were on their way; The Tyrant pa.s.sed, surrounded by the steel Of hired a.s.sa.s.sins, through the public way, Choked with his country's dead:--his footsteps reel On the fresh blood--he smiles. 'Ay, now I feel _3860 I am a King in truth!' he said, and took His royal seat, and bade the torturing wheel Be brought, and fire, and pincers, and the hook, And scorpions, that his soul on its revenge might look.

9.

'But first, go slay the rebels--why return _3865 The victor bands?' he said, 'millions yet live, Of whom the weakest with one word might turn The scales of victory yet;--let none survive But those within the walls--each fifth shall give The expiation for his brethren here.-- _3870 Go forth, and waste and kill!'--'O king, forgive My speech,' a soldier answered--'but we fear The spirits of the night, and morn is drawing near;

10.

'For we were slaying still without remorse, And now that dreadful chief beneath my hand _3875 Defenceless lay, when on a h.e.l.l-black horse, An Angel bright as day, waving a brand Which flashed among the stars, pa.s.sed.'--'Dost thou stand Parleying with me, thou wretch?' the king replied; 'Slaves, bind him to the wheel; and of this band, _3880 Whoso will drag that woman to his side That scared him thus, may burn his dearest foe beside;

11.

'And gold and glory shall be his.--Go forth!'

They rushed into the plain.--Loud was the roar Of their career: the hors.e.m.e.n shook the earth; _3885 The wheeled artillery's speed the pavement tore; The infantry, file after file, did pour Their clouds on the utmost hills. Five days they slew Among the wasted fields; the sixth saw gore Stream through the city; on the seventh, the dew _3890 Of slaughter became stiff, and there was peace anew:

12.

Peace in the desert fields and villages, Between the glutted beasts and mangled dead!

Peace in the silent streets! save when the cries Of victims to their fiery judgement led, _3895 Made pale their voiceless lips who seemed to dread Even in their dearest kindred, lest some tongue Be faithless to the fear yet unbetrayed; Peace in the Tyrant's palace, where the throng Waste the triumphal hours in festival and song! _3900

13.

Day after day the burning sun rolled on Over the death-polluted land--it came Out of the east like fire, and fiercely shone A lamp of Autumn, ripening with its flame The few lone ears of corn;--the sky became _3905 Stagnate with heat, so that each cloud and blast Languished and died,--the thirsting air did claim All moisture, and a rotting vapour pa.s.sed From the unburied dead, invisible and fast.

14.

First Want, then Plague came on the beasts; their food _3910 Failed, and they drew the breath of its decay.

Millions on millions, whom the scent of blood Had lured, or who, from regions far away, Had tracked the hosts in festival array, From their dark deserts; gaunt and wasting now, _3915 Stalked like fell shades among their perished prey; In their green eyes a strange disease did glow, They sank in hideous spasm, or pains severe and slow.

15.

The fish were poisoned in the streams; the birds In the green woods perished; the insect race _3920 Was withered up; the scattered flocks and herds Who had survived the wild beasts' hungry chase Died moaning, each upon the other's face In helpless agony gazing; round the City All night, the lean hyaenas their sad case _3925 Like starving infants wailed; a woeful ditty!

And many a mother wept, pierced with unnatural pity.