She may recline her aching head
On her ancestral purple bed,
There, where at eve so oft she lay,
I' the deep-embrasured window-bay,
Giving her vision open reign
Over the chequered world of plain-
Of hues that rest and hues that pass,
Sunset and autumn and tinted glass;
While the buck's clear bell and the cattle's low,
And every sound that is heard below,
Were melted into one murmur soft
Ere they could reach that couch aloft.
Witness of that triumphant scene!
Little you know what doom has been :—
How at a blow the heavens were split,
Words on the wall spontaneous writ,
As with a pen of burning brass,
"Vanitas, omnia Vanitas:
How disappointment bared her hand,
Vivid and red as the levin brand,
Struck on the tower's sublimest crown,
Shattered the sturdiest buttress down,-
Till the poor Soul would fain have died
'Mid her annihilated pride.
Speed her along, tho' night be drear,—
Night be her cover, for none is here;
Seek her a rest where'er you may,
Not in this shelterless decay!
There is a bower, a way-side bower,
Rich with brede of berry' and flower,--
Fair to dwell in and behold
How the green is turning gold,
Till the leafy screen repeat
All the life without the heat :
Music comes not here and there,
Does not fill, but is, the air:
Perfumes delicate and fine,
Flower of orange, flower of vine,
Take their place, without pretence,
In the harmony of sense;
Where the floating spirit dreams,
Fed by odours, sounds, and gleams,
Of this royal region hight,
"Youth's dominion of delight."
Why then farther? why not here?
Soul of sorrow, Mind of fear!
Rest, as thou wert wont to rest,
On the swell of Nature's breast.
Hear that voice in angel's frame,
Singing, "Youth is still the same;
Cheery faces glimpsing round,–
Limber feet on mossy ground;
Circumstance, the God of clay,
We have fairly laughed away,
And a power of other face,
Hope, is seated in his place.
Enter, all that come from far,
Poor and naked as ye are ;
Very breath is here divine,—
Bacchus has no need of wine!"
"Friends!" the tearful soul replies, "Keep, oh ! keep your Paradise! Once I gained your happy place, Ardent in the healthy race,
One of many braced together,
Comrades of the way and weather;
Now alone I falter by,--
Youth's the same, but what am I?
Just as sweet, as free from cares,
Are your smiles,--but are not theirs:
When the lips I pressed of old
Lie beneath the sullen mould:
When the voices I have known
In hosannas like your own
Answer to my yearning call,
Thin and feeble, if at all;
When the golden locks are grey,
That made sunshine all my day;
When my fibres fall together
In your genial summer-weather ;—
How can I repose an hour
In the graces of your bower?
How should I take up my rest,
As a strange unnatural guest,
In this home of truth, in this
My retreat of ancient bliss?
Blasts of death-impregnate air
Would, with all the flowers, be there,—
Storms thro' all the blue be spread
In thick battalia o'er my head;
Pallid looks of friendships broken,
Phantom words unwisely spoken,
Thoughts of love and self-reproof
Mingled in a fearful woof,-
Wishes, when not wished in vain,
Only realised for pain,—
Things ye could not hear or see
Would be all my company!"
Disheartened spirit! thou art then
In vain distinct from common men,
If all thy weary quest of mind
No true abiding-place can find,
Whose charms the busy life subdue,
And lure it from the outer view!
No region of thy mortal lot
Where Peace is native to the spot,
Ready to greet, when care-begone,
Imagination's pilgrim son.
Yet onward ;-it is well to stray
Along this bleak and homeless way,
Till thou canst raise thy conscious eyes
Where Childhood's Atalantis lies,
And recognise that idyl scene,
Where all mild creatures, void of awe,
Amid field-flowers and mountains green,
Fulfil their being's gentle law.
They will not fear thee; safe they dwell Within this armless citadel,
Embastioned in the self-defence
Of self-regardless innocence :
On Sin or Sorrow's bosom lingers
Each infant head in slumbers bland,—
Secure the tender tiny fingers
Enclasp the dark and withered hand.
Abysms of thought and sense must be
Between those simple souls and thee;
But as the parent is beguiled
Into the nature of the child,
So mayst thou, tho' an alien here,
By careful duty take thy part
In all the feelings that endear
The kingdom of the virgin heart.
And thou wilt taste once more the rills
Fresh gushing from the eternal hills,
And feel delight in living air
Without research of when and where;
And hear the birds their song dispense
With free descant, on branch and wing,
Careless of other audience
Than God who made and bade them sing.
Till haply pausing some noon-day
Amid the fairy-people's play,
Along thy limbs the stony sleep
That rounds our life shall calmly creep,
And thou from Present and from Past,
And things to come at once be freed,
To rest for aye, or wake at last
In God's own arms, a child indeed.
SOUL! that may'st have been divine,
Now I claim and take thee mine;
Now thy mortal bliss must be
In thy loyalty to me.
|