Tasso and the Sisters Tasso's Spirit: The Nuptials of Juno: The Skeletons: The Spirits of the Ocean. Poems, By Thomas Wade |
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 | Tasso and the Sisters |  |
But who is the Maiden that sits in the hall
Of that Palace of Ocean, the palest of all?
Without motion, or life, and appearing alone
Some statue cut out from a half-livid stone?
Without or a smile, or a beauty to cheer?
Whence came she? await, and ye quickly shall hear,
On an emerald throne, drest in glittering state
And by splendor surrounded, that dead Maiden sate:
Her pale brow was adorn'd with a crown of pure gold,
Where the ruby and topaz were seen to unfold
Their beautiful glories, whose radiance might vie
With the colors of earth—the rich tints of the sky,
When the Lord of the Daylight is hiding his car
In the breast of the waters wild, flowing afar:
A necklace of amber, as bright as was ever
By the Heliads shed over stream of a river,
Glow'd on her shrunk bosom and rendered its chill,
Fix'd paleness sepulchral more death-seeming still,
As flowers that are dying more desolate seem
When fresh verdure round them in beauty doth gleam.
A robe of light azure encircled each limb,
Which made her dull eyes look more ghastly and dim;
And rings of rare price from her withering finger
Seem'd falling, as if all unwilling to linger
Where tints of young blood to their brightness could add
No beauty, and where e'en their splendor look'd sad:
But still o'er her eyes and her face and her neck
Of loveliness rare might be traced the pale wreck,
And the hair that escap'd from her glittering crown,
And far as the gem-cover'd pavement flow'd down,
Still kept its rich colors, all glossy and bright,
O'ersprinkled with ringlets, divine to the sight:—
It seem'd as if Death from his whole prey forbore
To make the half-ruin his horrors shew more;
Or else, ere the work of destruction was done,
The Tyrant bewail'd at the ruin begun;—
Then suddenly ceas'd the fair form to devour,
And left it a mark of his pity and power!
Of that Palace of Ocean, the palest of all?
Without motion, or life, and appearing alone
Some statue cut out from a half-livid stone?
Without or a smile, or a beauty to cheer?
Whence came she? await, and ye quickly shall hear,
On an emerald throne, drest in glittering state
And by splendor surrounded, that dead Maiden sate:
Her pale brow was adorn'd with a crown of pure gold,
Where the ruby and topaz were seen to unfold
Their beautiful glories, whose radiance might vie
With the colors of earth—the rich tints of the sky,
When the Lord of the Daylight is hiding his car
In the breast of the waters wild, flowing afar:
A necklace of amber, as bright as was ever
By the Heliads shed over stream of a river,
Glow'd on her shrunk bosom and rendered its chill,
Fix'd paleness sepulchral more death-seeming still,
As flowers that are dying more desolate seem
When fresh verdure round them in beauty doth gleam.
A robe of light azure encircled each limb,
Which made her dull eyes look more ghastly and dim;
And rings of rare price from her withering finger
Seem'd falling, as if all unwilling to linger
Where tints of young blood to their brightness could add
No beauty, and where e'en their splendor look'd sad:
But still o'er her eyes and her face and her neck
Of loveliness rare might be traced the pale wreck,
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And far as the gem-cover'd pavement flow'd down,
Still kept its rich colors, all glossy and bright,
O'ersprinkled with ringlets, divine to the sight:—
It seem'd as if Death from his whole prey forbore
To make the half-ruin his horrors shew more;
Or else, ere the work of destruction was done,
The Tyrant bewail'd at the ruin begun;—
Then suddenly ceas'd the fair form to devour,
And left it a mark of his pity and power!
| Tasso and the Sisters | |