Poems, first period | Page 3

me!
From yonder chords fast-thronging come
Soul-breathing notes with
rapturous speed,
As when from out their heavenly home
The
new-born seraphim proceed;
The strains pour forth their magic might,

As glittering suns burst through the night,
When, by Creation's
storm awoke,
From chaos' giant-arm they broke.
Now sweet, as when the silv'ry wave
Delights the pebbly beach to
lave;
And now majestic as the sound
Of rolling thunder gathering
round;
Now pealing more loudly, as when from yon height

Descends the mad mountain-stream, foaming and bright;
Now in a song of love
Dying away,
As through the aspen grove

Soft zephyrs play:
Now heavier and more mournful seems the strain,

As when across the desert, death-like plain,
Whence whispers
dread and yells despairing rise,
Cocytus' sluggish, wailing current
sighs.
Maiden fair, oh, answer me!
Are not spirits leagued with thee?

Speak they in the realms of bliss
Other language e'er than this?
GROUP FROM TARTARUS.
Hark! like the sea in wrath the heavens assailing,
Or like a brook
through rocky basin wailing,
Comes from below, in groaning agony,

A heavy, vacant torment-breathing sigh!
Their faces marks of bitter
torture wear,
While from their lips burst curses of despair;
Their
eyes are hollow, and full of woe,
And their looks with heartfelt

anguish
Seek Cocytus' stream that runs wailing below,
For the
bridge o'er its waters they languish.
And they say to each other in accents of fear,
"Oh, when will the time
of fulfilment appear?"
High over them boundless eternity quivers,

And the scythe of Saturnus all-ruthlessly, shivers!
RAPTURE--TO LAURA.
From earth I seem to wing my flight,
And sun myself in Heaven's
pure light,
When thy sweet gaze meets mine
I dream I quaff
ethereal dew,
When my own form I mirrored view
In those blue
eyes divine!
Blest notes from Paradise afar,
Or strains from some benignant star

Enchant my ravished ear:
My Muse feels then the shepherd's hour

When silvery tones of magic power
Escape those lips so dear!
Young Loves around thee fan their wings--
Behind, the maddened
fir-tree springs,
As when by Orpheus fired:
The poles whirl round
with swifter motion,
When in the dance, like waves o'er Ocean,
Thy
footsteps float untired!
Thy look, if it but beam with love,
Could make the lifeless marble
move,
And hearts in rocks enshrine:
My visions to reality
Will
turn, if, Laura, in thine eye
I read--that thou art mine!
TO LAURA. (THE MYSTERY OF REMINISCENCE.) [2]
Who and what gave to me the wish to woo thee--
Still, lip to lip, to
cling for aye unto thee?
Who made thy glances to my soul the link--

Who bade me burn thy very breath to drink--
My life in thine to sink?
As from the conqueror's unresisted glaive,

Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave--
So, when to life's
unguarded fort, I see
Thy gaze draw near and near triumphantly--

Yields not my soul to thee?
Why from its lord doth thus my soul
depart?--
Is it because its native home thou art?
Or were they
brothers in the days of yore,
Twin-bound both souls, and in the link
they bore
Sigh to be bound once more?
Were once our beings blent and
intertwining,
And therefore still my heart for thine is pining?
Knew
we the light of some extinguished sun--
The joys remote of some
bright realm undone,
Where once our souls were ONE?
Yes, it is so!--And thou wert
bound to me
In the long-vanish'd Eld eternally!
In the dark troubled
tablets which enroll
The Past--my Muse beheld this blessed scroll--
"One with thy love my soul!"
Oh yes, I learned in awe, when gazing
there,
How once one bright inseparate life we were,
How once, one
glorious essence as a God,
Unmeasured space our chainless footsteps
trod--
All Nature our abode!
Round us, in waters of delight, forever

Voluptuous flowed the heavenly Nectar river;
We were the master of
the seal of things,
And where the sunshine bathed Truth's
mountain-springs
Quivered our glancing wings.
Weep for the godlike life we lost afar--

Weep!--thou and I its scattered fragments are;
And still the
unconquered yearning we retain--
Sigh to restore the rapture and the
reign,
And grow divine again.
And therefore came to me the wish to woo
thee--
Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto thee;
This made thy
glances to my soul the link--
This made me burn thy very breath to
drink--
My life in thine to sink;
And therefore, as before the conqueror's

glaive,
Flies, without strife subdued, the ready slave,
So, when to
life's unguarded fort, I see
Thy gaze draw near and near
triumphantly--
Yieldeth my soul to thee!
Therefore my soul doth from its lord depart,

Because, beloved, its native home thou art;
Because the twins
recall the links they bore,
And soul with soul, in the sweet kiss of
yore,
Meets and unites once more!
Thou, too--Ah, there thy gaze upon me
dwells,
And thy young blush the tender answer tells;
Yes! with the
dear relation still we thrill,
Both lives--though exiles from the
homeward hill--
One life--all glowing still!
MELANCHOLY--TO LAURA.
Laura! a sunrise seems to break
Where'er thy happy looks may glow.

Joy sheds its roses o'er thy cheek,
Thy tears themselves do but
bespeak
The rapture whence they flow;
Blest youth to whom those
tears are given--
The tears that change his earth to heaven;
His best
reward those melting eyes--
For him new