Had spared in Greece—the blight that cramps and blinds,
And in his olive bower at Enoe
Had sate from earliest youth. Like one who finds
A fertile island in the barren sea,
One mariner who has survived his mates
Many a drear month in a great ship—so he
With soul-sustaining songs, and sweet debates
Of ancient lore, there fed his lonely being :
"The mind becomes that which it contemplates," —
And thus Zonoras, by for ever seeing
Their bright creations, grew like wisest men ;
And when he heard the crash of nations fleeing
A bloodier power than ruled thy ruins then,
O sacred Hellas ! many weary years
He wandered, till the path of Laian’s glen
Was grass-grown-and the unremembered tears
Were dry in Laian for their honoured chief,
Who fell in Byzant, pierced by Moslem spears :-
And as the lady looked with faithful grief
From her high lattice o'er the rugged path,
Where she once saw that horseman toil, with brief
And blighting hope, who with the news of death
Struck body and soul as with a mortal blight,
She saw beneath the chesnuts far beneath,
An old nian toiling up, a weary wight;
And soon within her hospitable hall
She saw his white hairs glittering in the light
Of the wood fire, and round his shoulders fall,
And his wan visage and his withered mien,
Yet calm and gentle and majestical.
pines and dies. “On his death-bed the lady, who can really reply to his soul, comes and kisses his lips.”—The Death-bed of Athanase. The poet describes her
Her hair was brown, her sphered eyes were brown,
And in their dark and liquid moisture swam,
Like the dim orb of the eclipsed moon;
Yet when the spirit flashed beneath, there camo
The light from them, as when tears of delight
Double the western planet's serene frame.
This slender note is all we have to aid our imagination in shaping out the form of the poem, such as its author imaged.-M.S.
And Athanase, her child, who must have been
Then three years old, sate opposite and gazed
In patient silence.
SUCH was Zonoras; and as daylight finds
One amaranth glittering on the path of frost,
When autumn nights have nipt all weaker kinds,
Thus through his age, dark, cold, and tempest-tost,
Shone truth upon Zonoras; and he filled
From fountains pure, nigh overgrown and lost,
The spirit of Prince Athanase, a child,
With soul-sustaining songs of ancient lore
And philosophic wisdom, clear and mild.
And sweet and subtle talk now evermore,
The pupil and the master shared ; until,
Sharing that undiminishable store,
The youth, as shadows on a grassy hill
Outrun the winds that chase them, soon outran
His teacher, and did teach with native skill
Strange truths and new to that experienced man.
Still they were friends, as few have ever been
Who mark the extremes of life's discordant span.
So in the caverns of the forest green,
Or by the rocks of echoing ocean hoar,
Zonoras and Prince Athanase were seen
By summer woodmen; and when winter's roar
Sounded o'er earth and sea its blast of war,
The Balearic fisher, driven from shore,
Hanging upon the peaked wave afar,
Then saw their lamp from Laian's turret gleam,
Piercing the stormy darkness, like a star
Which pours beyond the sea one steadfast beam,
Whilst all the constellations of the sky
Seemed reeling through the storm; they did but seem—
For, lo ! the wintry clouds are all gone by,
And bright Arcturus through yon pines is glowing,
And far o'er southern waves, immoveably
........................................................
Belted Orion hangg—warm light is flowing
From the young moon into the sunset's chasm.-
“O summer eve! with power divine, bestowing
“On thine own bird the sweet enthusiasm
Which overflows in notes of liquid gladness,
Filling the sky like light! How many a spasm
“Of fevered brains, oppressed with grief and madness,
Were lulled by thee, delightful nightingale !
And these soft waves, murmuring a gentle sadness,
“ And the far sighings of yon piny dale Made vocal by some wind, we feel not here. I bear alone what nothing may avail
“To lighten-a strange load !”-No human ear
Heard this lament; but o'er the visage wan
Of Athanase, a ruffling atmosphere
Of dark emotion, a swift shadow ran,
Like wind upon some forest-bosomed lake,
Glassy and dark. And that divine old man
Beheld his mystic friend's whole being shake,
Even where its inmost depths were gloomiest
And with a calm and measured voice he spake,
And, with a soft and equal pressure, prest
That cold lean hand:“ Dost thou remember yet
When the curved moon then lingering in the west
“Paused, in yon waves her mighty horns to wet,
How in those beams we walked, half resting on the sea ?
'Tis just one year-sure thou dost not forget
“Then Plato's words of light in thee and me Lingered like moonlight in the moonless east, For we had just then read-thy memory
“ Is faithful now—the story of the feast;
And Agathon and Diotima seemed
From death and dark forgetfulness released."
'Twas at the season when the Earth upsprings From slumber, as a sphered angel's child, Shadowing its eyes with green and golden wings,
..................... .................
Stands up before its mother bright and mild,
Of whose soft voice the air expectant seems
So stood before the sun, which shone and smiled
To see it rise thus joyous from its dreams,
The fresh and radiant Earth. The hoary grove
Waxed green-and flowers burst forth like starry beams;
The grass in the warm sun did start and move,
And sea-buds burst beneath the waves serene :
How many a one, though none be near to love,
Loves then the shade of his own soul, half seen
In any mirror-or the spring's young minions,
The winged leaves amid the copses green ;-
How many a spirit then puts on the pinions
Of fancy, and catstrips the lagging blast,
And his own steps—and over wide dominions
Sweeps in his dream-drawn chariot, far and fast,
More fleet than storms—the wide world shrinks below,
When winter and despondency are past.
'Twas at this season that Prince Athanase
Pass'd the white Alps—those eagle-baffling mountains
Slept in their shrouds of snow - beside the ways
The waterfalls were voiceless—for their fountains
Were changed to mines of sunless crystal now,
Or by the curdling winus—like brazen wings
Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow-
Warped into adamantine fretwork, hung
And filled with frozen light the chasm below.
FRAGMENT IV.
Thou art the wine whose drunkenness is all
We can desire, O Love ! and happy souls,
Ere from thy vine the leaves of autumn fall,
Catch thee, and feed from their o'erflowing bowls
Thousands who thirst for thy ambrosial dew;
Thou art the radiance which where ocean rolls
Investest it; and when the heavens are blue
Thou fillest them; and when the earth is fair,
The shadow of thy moving wings imbue
Its deserts and its mountains, till they wear
Beauty like some bright robe;—thou ever soarest
Among the towers of men, and as soft air
In spring, which moves the unawakened forest,
Clothing with leaves its branches bare and bleak,
Thou floatest among men; and aye implorest
That which from thee they should implore :—the weak
Alone kneel to thee, offering up the hearts
The strong have broken-yet where shall any seek
A garment whom thou clothest not?
MARIANNE'S DREAM.
A PALE dream came to a Lady fair,
And said, A boon, a boon, I pray!
I know the secrets of the air;
And things are lost in the glare of day,
Which I can make the sleeping see,
If they will put their trust in me.
And thou shalt know of things unknown,
If thou wilt let me rest between
The veiny lids, whose fringe is thrown
Over thine eyes so dark and sheen:
And half in hope, and half in fright,
The Lady closed her eyes so bright.
At first all deadly shapes were driven
Tumultuously across her sleep,
And o'er the vast cope of bending heaven
All ghastly-visaged clouds did sweep;
And the Lady ever looked to spy
If the gold sun shone forth on high.
And as towards the east she turned,
She saw aloft in the morning air,
Which now with hues of sunrise burned,
A great black Anchor rising there;
And wherever the Lady turned her eyes
It hung before her in the skies.
The sky was blue as the summer sea,
The depths were cloudless over-head.
The air was calm as it could be,
There was no sight nor sound of dread,
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