 | The Judgment of Prometheus |  |
41
THE BAY OF LERICI.
Leap, wildly leap, Ligurian sea,
Where Shelley on his wandering way,
Ere thy embraces set him free,
Made his last halt in earthly day.
Where Shelley on his wandering way,
Ere thy embraces set him free,
Made his last halt in earthly day.
Low on the beach I see it stand,
Flecked by the flying shreds of foam,
A mourner on that magic strand,
Shut up and sealed, his lonely home.
Flecked by the flying shreds of foam,
A mourner on that magic strand,
Shut up and sealed, his lonely home.
Beyond the headland to and fro
Italia's mail-clad navies glide;
Their gallant crews nor reck nor know
That here a poet dwelt and died.
Italia's mail-clad navies glide;
Their gallant crews nor reck nor know
That here a poet dwelt and died.
42
Yet if they knew it, might they own
Some debt, howe'er remote, to one
Whose voice with sterner voices blown
About the world, beneath a sun
Some debt, howe'er remote, to one
Whose voice with sterner voices blown
About the world, beneath a sun
Mocked evermore by human night,
Called to the slaves of sloth and fear
To wake, to strive, for lo, the light,
Unseen, unhoped for, drew anear.
Called to the slaves of sloth and fear
To wake, to strive, for lo, the light,
Unseen, unhoped for, drew anear.
No throne of intellectual state
Held him from men apart, above;
Nor thought nor art nor life could sate
That soul whose longing was for love.
Held him from men apart, above;
Nor thought nor art nor life could sate
That soul whose longing was for love.
Earth's ill could cloud but not deform
His spirit born for gentler air,
As even now a transient storm
Marred this bright bay, divinely fair.
His spirit born for gentler air,
As even now a transient storm
Marred this bright bay, divinely fair.
43
But lo, the drifted clouds divide,
The glad spring sunlight glimmering through,
The hurrying waves forget to chide,
A rainbow fades into the blue.
The glad spring sunlight glimmering through,
The hurrying waves forget to chide,
A rainbow fades into the blue.
Ah haply, far from wrath and wrong,
Finds he, where never loves grow dim,
That answer to his Ariel-song
No earthly voice might render him?
Finds he, where never loves grow dim,
That answer to his Ariel-song
No earthly voice might render him?
| The Judgment of Prometheus | |