IV.

But stay! these walls-these ivy-clad arcades—
These mouldering plinths-these sad and blackened
shafts-

These vague entablatures-this crumbling frieze-
These shattered cornices-this wreck- this ruin-
These stones, alas! these gray stones, are they all,
All of the famed and the colossal left

By the corrosive hours to Fate and ine?

V.

"Not all!" the echoes answer me; "not all!
Prophetic sounds and loud arise for ever
From us, and from all ruin, unto the wise,

As melody from Memnon to the sun.
We rule the hearts of mightiest men-we rule
With a despotic sway all giant minds.
We are not impotent, we pallid stones;

Not all our power is gone-not all our fame-
Not all the magic of our high renown—
Not all the wonder that encircles us--

Not all the mysteries that in us lie-
Not all the memories that hang upon
And cling around about us as a garment,
Clothing us in a robe of more than glory."

I SAW thee once-once only-years ago-
I must not say how many, but not many:

It was a July midnight; and from out

A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven, There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,

With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,

Upon the upturned faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe-
Fell on the upturned faces of these roses,
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death--
Fell on the upturned faces of these roses,
That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
By thee and by the poetry of thy presence.

II.

Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturned faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd, alas, in sorrow!

III.

Was it not Fate that, on this July midnight,-
Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me-(O Heaven! O God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused-I looked-

And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out;
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more; the very roses' odours
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.

All-all expired save thee-save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes—
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.

I saw but them—they were the world to me;
I saw but them-saw only them for hours-
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to lie enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!

How dark a woe! yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!

How daring an ambition! yet how deep,

How fathomless a capacity for love!

IV.

But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained.
They would not go-they never yet have gone.
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night.

They have not left me (as my hopes have) since.
They follow me-they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers-yet I their slave.

Their office is to illumine and enkindle-
My duty, to be saved by their bright light,
And purified in their electric fire,

And sanctified in their elysian fire.

They fill my soul with beauty (which is hope),
And are far up in heaven-the stars I kneel to
In the sad silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still-two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!