XXVIII 'The herded wolves, bold only to pursue; 245 And whose wings rain contagion ;-how they fled, 250 XXIX 'The sun comes forth, and many reptiles spawn; A godlike mind soars forth, in its delight It sinks, the swarms that dimmed or shared its light XXX Thus ceased she: and the mountain shepherds came, Over his living head like Heaven is bent, An early but enduring monument, Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song In sorrow; from her wilds Ierne sent The sweetest lyrist of her saddest wrong, 255 260 265 And Love taught Grief to fall like music from his tongue. 270 XXXI Midst others of less note, came one frail Form, A phantom among men; companionless As the last cloud of an expiring storm Whose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess, With feeble steps o'er the world's wilderness, Pursued, like raging hounds, their father and their prey. XXXII A pardlike Spirit beautiful and swift A Love in desolation masked ;-a Power Girt round with weakness;-it can scarce uplift It is a dying lamp, a falling shower, 252 lying low ed. 1839; as they go ed. 1821. 275 280 A breaking billow;-even whilst we speak 285 The life can burn in blood, even while the heart may break. XXXIII His head was bound with pansies overblown, Shook the weak hand that grasped it; of that crew A herd-abandoned deer struck by the hunter's dart. XXXIV All stood aloof, and at his partial moan Smiled through their tears; well knew that gentle band Who in another's fate now wept his own, 290 295 300 As in the accents of an unknown land He sung new sorrow; sad Urania scanned The Stranger's mien, and murmured: 'Who art thou?' 305 Which was like Cain's or Christ's-oh! that it should be so! XXXV What softer voice is hushed over the dead? What form leans sadly o'er the white death-bed, 310 The heavy heart heaving without a moan? If it be He, who, gentlest of the wise, Taught, soothed, loved, honoured the departed one, 315 The silence of that heart's accepted sacrifice. XXXVI Our Adonais has drunk poison-oh! What deaf and viperous murderer could crown It felt, yet could escape, the magic tone Whose prelude held all envy, hate, and wrong, Whose master's hand is cold, whose silver lyre unstrung. 320 XXXVII Live thou, whose infamy is not thy fame! To spill the venom when thy fangs o'erflow: XXXVIII Nor let us weep that our delight is fled Far from these carrion kites that scream below; He wakes or sleeps with the enduring dead; Thou canst not soar where he is sitting nowDust to the dust! but the pure spirit shall flow Back to the burning fountain whence it came, A portion of the Eternal, which must glow Through time and change, unquenchably the same, Whilst thy cold embers choke the sordid hearth of shame. XXXIX Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep- "Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep With phantoms an unprofitable strife, And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife Invulnerable nothings.-We decay Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief Convulse us and consume us day by day, And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay. 325 330 335 340 345 350 XL He has outsoared the shadow of our night; A heart grown cold, a head grown gray in vain; Nor, when the spirit's self has ceased to burn, With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn. XLI He lives, he wakes-'tis Death is dead, not he; 355 360 Ye caverns and ye forests, cease to moan! XLII He is made one with Nature: there is heard In darkness and in light, from herb and stone, XLIII He is a portion of the loveliness 365 370 375 Which once he made more lovely: he doth bear 380 All new successions to the forms they wear; Sweeps through the dull dense world, compelling there, Torturing th' unwilling dross that checks its flight From trees and beasts and men into the Heaven's light. XLIV 385 The splendours of the firmament of time Like stars to their appointed height they climb, 390 The brightness it may veil. When lofty thought Lifts a young heart above its mortal lair, Shall be its earthly doom, the dead live there 395 And move like winds of light on dark and stormy air. XLV The inheritors of unfulfilled renown Rose from their thrones, built beyond mortal thought, Rose pale, his solemn agony had not 400 Yet faded from him; Sidney, as he fought And as he fell and as he lived and loved Sublimely mild, a Spirit without spot, Arose; and Lucan, by his death approved: Oblivion as they rose shrank like a thing reproved. 405 XLVI And many more, whose names on Earth are dark, Thou art become as one of us,' they cry, 'It was for thee yon kingless sphere has long Swung blind in unascended majesty, Silent alone amid an Heaven of Song. Assume thy winged throne, thou Vesper of our throng!' 410 XLVII Who mourns for Adonais? Oh, come forth,. 415 Beyond all worlds, until its spacious might Clasp with thy panting soul the pendulous Earth; 420 And keep thy heart light lest it make thee sink When hope has kindled hope, and lured thee to the brink. XLVIII Or go to Rome, which is the sepulchre, Oh, not of him, but of our joy: 'tis nought That ages, empires, and religions there Lie buried in the ravage they have wrought; For such as he can lend, they borrow not Glory from those who made the world their prey; XLIX 425 430 Go thou to Rome,-at once the Paradise, The grave, the city, and the wilderness; And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, 435 And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress Where, like an infant's smile, over the dead 440 A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread; L And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand; And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, Pavilioning the dust of him who planned 445 This refuge for his memory, doth stand Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath, Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath. 450 |