Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

When man's maturer nature shall disdain
The playthings of its childhood: kingly glare
Shall lose its power to dazzle: its authority
Shall silently pass by: the gorgeous throne
Shall stand unnoticed in the regal hall,
Fast falling to decay; whilst falsehood's trade
Shall be as hateful and unprofitable

As that of truth is now.

He sought to make a Heaven of Earth; and truly if such as he only were the earth's inhabitants, we might have one.

The little poem now republished, is especially valuable on account of the notes affixed to it. It has borne all the virulence of servile criticism; and has come from the ordeal with even an increased popularity. Yet posterity alone will do ample justice to its merits.

QUEEN MAB.

I.

How wonderful is Death!
Death and his brother Sleep!
One, pale as yonder waning moon
With lips of lurid blue;
The other, rosy as the morn

When throned on ocean's wave
It blushes o'er the world;
Yet both so passing wonderful!

Hath then the gloomy Power
Whose reign is in the tainted sepulchres
Seized on her sinless soul?

Must then that peerless form
Which love and admiration cannot view
Without a beating heart, those azure veins
Which steal like streams along a field of snow,
That lovely outline, which is fair

As breathing marble, perish?
Must putrefaction's breath

Leave nothing of this heavenly sight
But loathsomeness and ruin?
Spare nothing but a gloomy theme,

On which the lightest heart might moralize?
Or is it only a sweet slumber

Stealing o'er sensation,

Which the breath of roseate morning
Chaseth into darkness?

Will Ianthe wake again,

And give that faithful bosom joy

Whose sleepless spirit waits to catch

Light, life, and rapture from her smile?

Yes! she will wake again,

Although her glowing limbs are motionless,
And silent those sweet lips,

Once breathing eloquence

That might have soothed a tiger's rage,
Or thawed the cold heart of a conqueror.
Her dewy eyes are closed,

And on their lids, whose texture fine
Scarce hides the dark blue orbs beneath,
The baby Sleep is pillowed:
Her golden tresses shade
The bosom's stainless pride,
Curling like tendrils of the parasite
Around a marble column.

Hark! whence that rushing sound?
"Tis like the wond'rous strain
That round a lonely ruin swells,
Which, wandering on the echoing shore,
The enthusiast hears at evening:
"Tis softer than the west wind's sigh:

"Tis wilder than the unmeasured notes
Of that strange lyre whose strings
The genii of the breezes sweep:
Those lines of rainbow light

Are like the moonbeams when they fall
Through some cathedral window, but the teints
Are such as may not find
Comparison on earth,

Behold the chariot of the Fairy Queen!
Celestial coursers paw the unyielding air;
Their filmy pennons at her word they furl,
And stop obedient to the reins of light:
These the Queen of Spells drew in.
She spread a charm around the spot,
And leaning graceful from the ethereal car,
Long did she gaze, and silently,

Upon the slumbering maid.

Oh! not the visioned poet in his dreams,

When silvery clouds float through the wildered brain,

When every sight of lovely, wild, and grand vill
Astonishes, enraptures, elevates,
When fancy, at a glance, combines
The wondrous and the beautiful,-

So bright, so fair, so wild a shape old name */
Hath ever yet beheld,

As that which reined the coursers of the air,

And poured the magic of her gaze
Upon the maiden's sleep.

The broad and yellow moon Shone dimly through her formThat form of faultless symmetry; The pearly and pellucid car

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Moved not the moonlight's line:
"Twas not an earthly pageant:
Those who had looked upon the sight,
Passing all human glory,

[ocr errors]

Saw not the yellow moon,

Saw not the mortal scene,

Heard not the night-wind's rush,
Heard not an earthly sound,
Saw but the fairy pageant,
Heard but the heavenly strains
That filled the lonely dwelling.

The fairy's frame was slight, yon fibrous cloud,
That catches but the palest tinge of even,
And which the straining eye can hardly seize
When melting into eastern twilight's shadow,
Where scarce so thin, so slight; but the fair star
That gems the glittering coronet of morn,
Sheds not a light so mild so powerful,
As that which bursting from the Fairy's form,
Spread a purpureal halo round the scene,
Yet with an undulating motion,
Swayed to her outline gracefully.

From her celestial car

The Fairy Queen descended,

[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

And thrice she waved her wand the routing, and Circled with wreaths of amaranth: of than 10

Her thin and misty form
Moved with the moving air,
And the clear silver tones,
As thus she spoke, were such
As are unheard by all but gifted ear.

FAIRY.

Stars! your balmiest influence shed!
Elements your wrath suspend!
Sleep, Ocean, in the rocky bounds
That circle thy domain!
Let not a breath be seen to stir
Around yon grass-grown ruin's height,
Let even the restless gossamer
Sleep on the moveless air!

Soul of Ianthe! thou,

Judged alone worthy of the envied boon,

That waits the good and the sincere; that waits
Those who have struggled, and with resolute will
Vanquished earth's pride and meanness, burst the chains
The icy chains of custom, and have shone
The day-stars of their age!-Soul of Ianthe!
Awake! arise!

Sudden arose

Ianthe's soul; it stood

All beautiful in naked purity,
The perfect semblance of its bodily frame
Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace,
Each stain of earthliness
Had passed away, it re-assumed
Its native dignity, and stood
Immortal amid ruin.

Upon the couch the body lay
Wrapt in the depth of slumber;
Its features were fixed and meaningless,
Yet animal life was there,

And every organ yet performed
Its natural functions: "twas a sight
Of wonder to behold the body and soul.

« PředchozíPokračovat »