Italy and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Thus far of Light first-form'd, and thy pure beam,
Regent of Day!—To other pow'rs I turn
My numbers: thine, fix'd Element of Heat!
In ministration of unbounded sway,
Servant of heav'n. Dost thou not, Spirit unseen!
Lift up th' aërial canopy, and hold
Apart each atom in the boundless bed
Of ocean, leaving free the billowy flood,
To wind its mutability of wave
In ceaseless flow? Thro' earth's wide realms thou dwell'st
Subservient: else thy rage had burst the chain
Wherewith the omnipotent arm binds down thy strength
Resistless. Oh, how oft, as one on watch,
In ambush, from still bondage, under earth,

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Some cave, on whose unpillar'd emptiness
The city fix'd its greatness, thou hast heard
The voice of vengeance, and array'd in flame,
Like an exterminating angel, swept,
Wasting the wide Creation!—And thou cam'st
With uproar, and fierce onset, winds and waves
Contending. Ask of them, the delug'd race
Swept off at lost Messina. On their brow
The sun, at morn, shone beauteous, and long life
Danc'd in their day-dreams—ask of those, whose bones
'Mid fanes, and marble palaces, in dust,
Moulder, a nameless heap, unsepulchred,
Still wept of Lisbon.—Ah! not yet has ceas'd
Their deep lament, who, when the faithless ground
Toss'd, like the billowy main, rock'd on the edge
Of yon precipitous chasm, and, wild with fear,
Fled at the death-cry, heard beneath, when earth
Clave, and clos'd o'er the nation.—There, yet roams
The maniac, and, with age and woe bow'd down,
Duly, the year gone by, casts on that heap
Her silver hair, and in strange murmurs wild,
Calls on her perish'd babe, and greets her lord:
All hopeless, as her cry comes echo'd back,
Sole response. And anon, the fix'd mount seems

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To heave and roll beneath her, and pale shapes,
Deform'd, float ghastly round.

Oh, ye! who muse
Where tow'r and temple fell; and they, the race,
Sunk as one man, recall to mind that voice
Which spake of those at Siloim!—All have sinn'd:
Yea, and this earth must bear the chastisement,
Fore-doom'd for man's offence. Ah beauteous world!
Ye, high hills, and wide forests! ye, proud rocks!
That bear the burden up; streams, and still lakes
So passing fair; ye all, and yon vast Deep,
Shall, like a scroll before the furnace heat,
Smoke, and no more be seen: and thou, oh, Flame!
Borne on the tempest's thundering pennons, pass
Lone o'er Creation's void.—Till then, repose,
And fill thy gentler office, and sustain
All nature! Ne'er be seen in upper air
Lights, fiercer than the gleams that paint the clouds
At morn, or eve: or those, that round the Pole,
Changeful of hue, immix in aery dance,
Not without voice of lambent flame, and now
Cease, fanciful: or sport upon the wing
Of summer lightnings, that elicit down
Kind drops, and fill the lap of earth with flow'rs.

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Play ye in painted clouds! far other fire
Rests ministrant on earth. Came not the flame
From heav'n? and mark'd th' acceptance of his God,
What time, himself the criminal, Man bow'd
His forehead to the dust, and wet with tears
The ground, repentant, when his falt'ring hand
First smote the blameless sacrifice, and laid
On th' unhewn stone. So will'd the voice divine,
In token of offence, and death deserv'd,
His doom forewarn'd: nor less, mysterious type
Of thee, oh, Son of God! whose offer'd blood
Flow'd, price of our redemption. Thus, the flame
Came down; and Man went forth, not without God,
To tame and till the earth.

Hence, various arts:
Whate'er (so Fables sing) Prometheus first
Taught rude mankind, when, guest of highest Jove,
The dauntless Titan from the sun purloin'd
Forbidden flames, and earth's dark race illum'd.

Far otherwise my song, that tracts his course,
The bold adventurer, from life's cultur'd realms,
Who, bent on far discoveries, steers his bark
'Mid untried oceans. Such, as oft thy prow,
From pole to pole lone traversing the globe,

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Explor'd: heroic Chief!
Whose memory, and last remains, rever'd
As one scarce mortal, consecrate the isle
Where thy long course of toil and glory clos'd;
And ruthless men, whose weapons drank thy blood,
Wept, as they knelt around thy hallow'd corse,
Proud Albion's boast, brave Cook!

So trace in thought
The voyager. His tempest-wearied sails
Rest, as the anchor bites an unknown coast.
His light skiff rides the surge, and forth he leaps,
Lone, on the rocky sea-beach. High in air
His torch, long beck'ning, flames: and lo! far off,
With faltering step, and wild eye turn'd askance,
One from the thick shade ventures, where he wont
With beasts to make his lair: or, couch'd beneath
Dark caverns, start at the tremendous roar
Of ocean, hurling its vex'd flood, by night,
Against the storm-rent promontory. Forth
He comes, a naked creature, comfortless;
His lip, and the dark tangles of his beard,
Stain'd with fresh blood, warm from the living prey
That battled long for mastery.—“Draw near!
“(The Stranger calls) break off the feast of blood.
“Satiate no more fell appetite, 'mid cries

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“Of quivering agony! So feel, oh, Man!
“Thy nature, temper'd with celestial touch
“Of pity, and soft sense of woe not thine.”

He speaks: the wild man listens, and his heart
Thrills, opening to humanity.—Again
Th' Instructor speaks benign, as once the voice
That spake to our first sire: “Thou, sole on earth
“Sole kind endow'd with reason! thine alone
“This Element; the air, the earth, the flood,
“Free boon alike to all: thou, Lord of Fire!
“Go, sov'reign 'mid creation, and bear rule
“Resistless.—Each, within his realm, subdue,
“The beast and bird, and those that in their rage
“Tempest the deep.—But not for this alone,
“To lord it o'er the brute, hold under rule
“At will the fiery element. Look o'er
“Yon desert, the dark wilderness.”—Around
The savage stilly gazes. Dreary, all,
Wild as th' immense savannahs, whose dank waste
Struck horror on the hapless exile, doom'd
To tame the new-found world. Between the range
Of distant mountains, on whose summit slept
Th' eternal snows, a mighty champain spread
On all sides its low level. Giant woods

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There once claim'd space and flourish'd; and the storms
Of Winter, from their pride had shatter'd down
Th' exuberant growth, and Spring, as oft, renew'd,
Thro' untold generations. Lifeless lay
On earth's dank bed their cumbrous bulk, and stay'd
The floods, that labouring down their channels, work'd
Toilsome their way obscure, upheaving slow
The soil with all its roots: while bristling round
Its borders, proudly rose in perplex'd fence,
Impassable, rank thickets that immix'd
Thorns, and huge spikes, and canes whose rattling stems
Tow'r'd, each a warrior's lance: and all throughout,
In intertwining growth exuberant,
Glow'd clusters swoln with venom. In these shades
The wild beast litter'd, and sad birds there hung
Their nests, and thick along the ooze huge snakes
Trail'd on their folds voluminous, and 'mid these,
Fierce eagles gorging the fang'd prey, coil'd round
Their beak in battle. And the troubled air
Rung with thick swarms, that, borne on whizzing wing,
Stream'd up like exhalations into birth,

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And dimm'd the noon-beam. “Lo! (his Guide exclaim'd)
“Thy realm!—yon wild wood fire—subdue, and reign.”

The Savage waves the torch, and fires the wood:
It flames, it roars, and sinks, a silent waste;
And they that tenanted the wilderness,
Bird, and wild beast, and serpent fang'd with death,
Fly diverse: and the Man stands there, alone,
Stands in his strength.

“Now learn thy pow'r, pursue
“The triumph. Nature (hark! 'tis God commands)
“Claims of thy race due culture: all, save thine,
“All, reckless, on her bosom, whence they draw
“Their nurture, idly sleep. Thou, sole, deserve
“Her largess. Bid yon mound, that stays the flood,
“Give way, and the free current flow, as once,
“Prolific: call again the sunbeams down
“To look upon the soil, and flow'rs and fruit,
“All kind, shall spring luxuriant. Some, uproot,
“Some, kindly prune, others, their savage strength
“Tam'd gradual into mildness, make unite
“In spousal, and engender happiest race.
“Nor envy thou the animals! Along

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“The champain let the courser, in his speed,
“Challenge the winds: the goat, yon mountains browse,
“Give the gay kid to spring from crag to crag,
“And balancing his posture, light as air,
“Dance on the pointed fore-cliff: give the flock,
“Whose silver fleece thy covering shall inweave,
“The summer upland, and the shelter'd vale
“When winter smites. And when the larger herd
“Wind, lowing, down thy pastures, mantled o'er
“With trefoil, and the purple bloom lure on
“To meadows freshly water'd; for they come,
“Peaceful, heav'n-destin'd, to submit their neck
“Of prowess to thy handling, and beneath
“An iron yoke, which way the stripling turns,
“Bow'd from the rising to the setting sun,
“To tame the earth. 'Tis vanquish'd: Plenty bursts
“The clod, and guardians of the golden grain,
“Fair Order, and right Governance arise.
“And hark! the populous hum, and cheerful strife
“Of industry, and voice of elders met
“In council.—Hail, Religion, and her rites.
“Hail, wedded Love, link'd by domestic ties
“Endearing, sire and child!—These, all, await
“Thy culture. Haste! the mighty mother calls,

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“Who, not ungrateful, asks but to repay
“Ten thousand fold: nor negligent herself
“To fit thee for her ministry.”—He speaks,
And shows, where 'mid the ashes, as they smoke,
Flows from rich veins the all-subduing ore,
And fashions into use.

Thus, man to man,
Taught by their common sire, transmitted down
Heav'n's gracious gift, and cultur'd Arts arose
Successive.—Some, from earth, with hand uncouth,
Scoop'd the harsh clay, and from the fire brought forth
Unshapely vessels rude. The potter's wheel
Anon knew motion, nor found rest, till skill,
Wrought slowly out from want, the sense refin'd
Of pleasure, born of beauty: such as charm'd
The Tuscan, when th' attemper'd clay resign'd
Its patient flexibility of form
To the fine fingering of his taste: beneath
Whose touch Grace shap'd the vase, and round its orb,
Imag'd in mystic symbol, the fair form
Of Nature faint reclining: o'er whose brow
Pow'rs, Spirits of Creation, hung on wing
Descendent, and, with torch Promethean, rous'd

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The slumberer into life: or shadowy shapes
Fantastic, of the volant pencil born:
That, lonely, or in groups, not without pipe
And timbrel, loosely cinctur'd, toss'd on high
The thyrsus, and their streaming locks wav'd back
In airy dance.

Some rais'd the tile-fenc'd roof
Impervious: and the stormy gust unfelt
Died off, and lulling, clos'd the slumberous eye.
So rose the sheltering roof: succeeding years
Saw taste, and proud embellishment: the porch
And portico, and dome that tow'r'd aloft
On pillar'd strength. The Doric column, first,
Like some gigantic cedar, tempest-shorn,
Awful in unadorn'd severity,
Rose baseless from earth's solid bed, and prop'd
The ponderous mass above.

So—Hercules
Stood, when bow'd Atlas rested.

Next, arose
Th' Ionian, with pure graces chastely adorn'd.
The Grecian matron, there, of stately port,
Gave to its polish'd shaft the female form,

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And delicate proportions. Down the flutes
Of the long column fell in simple folds,
What seem'd her plaited stole: and from its brow
The ornamented capital diffus'd
What seem'd the ringlet that round either cheek
Wav'd, as the free breeze curl'd it.

Last, the skill
Of Corinth, in its wanton wildness trac'd
Th' acanthus, as the graceful leaf o'erhung
The funeral urn, and round her chaptrel twin'd
Its gay luxuriance.—Thus th' embellish'd shaft
Shot tapering into air, and charm'd the sight,
Virginly shap'd, her likest, in life's prime
A bride by Love adorned. Nor wanted these
High architrave, or fretted frieze, emboss'd
With sculptur'd imag'ry: the pomp of games,
Triumphs, and Amazonian wars, and chase
Of beasts, or sport of Gods at Hebe feasts
With Saturn's race.

Meantime the sound arose
Of men, who, labouring at huge anvils, tax'd
Their strength. Now swift the clattering hammers rung;
Now with slow swing, the sledge, blow after blow,

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In measur'd chime fell regular. So these:
And ever as they drew the glowing mass
From forth the furnace, show'r of sparkles flew
Around. By dint of toil, these taught the share
To take its griding curve: those, pointing, shod
The ponderous harrow: some, more artful, edg'd
The biting axe, or tooth'd the serried saw.
Others, by patient touches, o'er and o'er,
Smooth'd temper'd steel, and polish'd for the loom
Tools o'er whose play Sidonian virgins rais'd
The song that lighten'd labour.

Other part,
Men, in sad gloom, beneath embowell'd earth,
Slow min'd: regardless they, on toil intent,
Whether the sun, o'er misty mount, or lawn
Gemm'd with fresh dew, rose beauteous on mankind,
Or moon-beams lit the labourer to repose:
Regardless, while they arch'd the sparry roof,
And from deep veins the buried ore purloin'd,
That, heard above, the unrelenting roar
Of ocean, as the rocky fragments roll'd,
Burst from the world of waters o'er their brow.

To each his task. And some went forth, and brought

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Weeds of the refluent spring-tide, and loose sand,
And 'mid the furnace flung: and lo! a flood
Pellucid: this, ere yet its current cool'd,
Art fashion'd into shape: and interpos'd
Its crystal, calling in the beams of light,
And gladsome sunshine, while stern winter swept
Without, unheeded. Hence, 'mid realms unblest,
Where Tanais freezes as it flows, and earth,
Lies sepulchred in snow, Art, underneath
The lucid roof, gay flow'rs and fruits arrays,
Cull'd from each happier clime: and all their hues
Calls forth, and all their fragrance. There, methinks,
As in some central mart (such, Hormuz, once,
Now a lone rock) at yearly fair, the throng
Of traffickers, a princely train, from Nile,
Tagus and Thames, and isles of th' eastern main,
From Trebisond, and Teflis, over-land,
Meet, vying in their merchandise: so these
In flavour, bloom, and fragrance. There the grape
Of Schiraz, clust'ring into vintage, views
The mail'd Anana, and the golden groves
Of Lusitane.

Nor fragrant shrub there fails: with some, the Cape
Deck'd her gay wilds: some, boast of orient Ind:
The jasmine, and nyctanthus, whose rare bloom

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This to the day gives fragrance, that, in turn,
To night its odour. Melianthus, there,
Bends gracefully; and as it looks on earth,
Drops dew of Hybla sweetness. Thou too, last,
Delight of tropic islands: rich thy leaf
Of glossy verdure, garlanded with pomp
Of blossoms, white as snow, that loosely float
In clusters, waving fragrance: cool thy walks
Thro' dark arcades, where never weed, nor plant
Entangles the free foot, nor from without
Pierces the noon-tide beam: but ah! thy charms
Are poison'd: for there wanders one, whose eye
Rests not on thy snow-blossoms, and whose heart
Fever'd with woe, in shade and cool retreat
Finds no allay: one, forc'd from Niger's flood.
Behold him, faint, at interval of toil
Climb up the mountain brow, thence, sea-ward, gaze
Which way his country lies, and beat his breast
In anguish, as th' interminable waves
Roll, sund'ring him for ever from his home.
Once, once thou hadst a home, endear'd by those
Whose age found rest on thee: endear'd by those
Who, smiling, nam'd thee “Father:” doubly endear'd
By her, who bore, and at her bosom fed
Each proof and pledge of love—Heav'n still thy groan!

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But woe to him who, fettering the free,
Trafficks in blood! Crush, Albion! 'neath thy foot,
Crush its last link!—

Some of the molten mass
Fram'd instruments, whose subtle pow'r disclos'd
God in his works. Forms long familiar, rose
All wond'rous: and the Air, and Earth, and Main,
Show'd like new worlds, where swarming myriads know
Joy in their generation. These detect
The many-vision'd orbs, that serve the wants
Of reptile, or wing'd life, outnumb'ring those
That held dire watch o'er Io: or, behold
Where, thro' a thousand mouths, the green leaf drinks
Th' aerial spirit; whence the unfolding rose
Draws from the sun its hue; and how, ere ceas'd
The harvest shout, another golden year
Teems, where the great Creator, provident,
Garners the infant Autumn in the grain,
And decks with branch and leaf the tree, in bud,
Yet patient of a cradle.

While these trace
A God on earth, others behold the heav'ns

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Rob'd in his brightness. The ethereal zones
Stretch back their ancient boundary; and beyond,
Realms, whose far gleams from multitudinous fires
Flow like a silver ocean, other suns
Than thine, Earth's greater Light! and moons, whose disc
Borrows no radiance to adorn our globe,
Come forth: not slowly seen, as those pale stars
That, singly, from their dim recesses, steal,
Each after each, and on the rear of eve
Look like the lone vedettes of some vast march
Succeeding orderly: but, all at once,
In multiplied magnificence, at once
Throughout the firmament, heav'n's gathered host
Refulgent, in thick bands, and close array,
Planets and suns, and satellites, pour forth
Their pomp on the empyrean. These proclaim
A God: and ever as they wheel their fires
Erratic, in each orb of changeful curve,
All, in harmonious maze, surround thy throne,
Omnipotence! and trace th' eternal paths
Thou mad'st ere Light had birth.

Oh thou, who dwell'st
Sole, 'mid infinitude! whose Word, that form'd,
Alone upholds creation, and goes forth

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Each moment, thro' the amplitude of space,
Sole source of life and motion: thou alone
Art—ever.—Yon bright stars, each in itself
A central sun, and light of other worlds,
Each, like this earth, created fair, and form'd
And peopled for beatitude: these all,
Their ministration done, shall pass away,
And all the revolutions of their spheres
Cease, as a moment told.—But thou! who art
One, yesterday, to-morrow, and to-day,
Thou—ever:—and the Spirits of the Just
Made perfect by thy Presence!