I.
THE METAMORPHOSIS.
1.
When in our world, where all was strange and new,
The morn of life first kindling burn'd,
All things it touch'd with golden alchemy.
Then sights and sounds at length familiar grew;
We felt the cold bounds of reality,
And gathering wings o'er-leap'd them all, and turn'd
To other worlds than those we see,
Delighting in wild fancy's realms to range,
While shapes and sights of transformation strange
The bosom fill;
For Childhood with her talisman had arm'd,
'Mid Pleasure's tainted scenes to rove unharm'd,
Yet innocent and ignorant of ill.
2.
What purple-vision'd memories seem to rest
Upon those wild Arabian tales of old,
When young Imagination was the guest
Of Caliphs, and of Viziers, dress'd in gold,
Haron Alraschid's court and Bagdad's magic sound.—
Thence issuing forth with wand of ease
Into Aladdin's palaces,
Enchantments o'er and under ground,
Or marble cities 'neath blue Ocean halls,
Pearl-glittering corridors and jewell'd walls;
Or Wonder sail'd with Sinbad on the seas;
Or heard of souls that pined in speechless animals.
3.
Then, older grown, the Classic tale prolong'd
Those fabling sweet delusions of the child,
With things all new and wild,
Which on the wonder-page of Ovid throng'd.
The cradle of Creation
as it sprung
From Chaos, when the stars around it sung;
And forms in “golden age” of Paradise
Walking the threshold of the opening skies.
Then burning-bright the Palace of the Sun
,
Harmonious with its silent orison,
Burning yet unconsumed, empyreal proof;
Pillars of carbuncle and ivory roof
And silver doors; there duly-ranged aloof
Days, Months, and Years, and Ages glide and stir,
And Seasons, each of varied character.
Where first Aurora, with her veil half-drawn,
Opens the purple portals of the dawn,
And rose-besprinkled halls;
Stars, and horn'd Moon before her flee; the Hours
Harness the steeds from their ambrosial stalls;
Then the full flood of Day-light pours.
4.
Then Souls imprison'd in the living cage
Of Creatures multiform that fill the earth,
Or seas or stream or skies,—run, swim, or fly,
Or branch from rooted trees of leafy birth,
There shrined for periods of long pilgrimage.
Sweet Echo, vocal Maid, that melts to air
In rock-embowering cave or wood unseen;
Or mirror'd in the stream Narcissus flowering fair.
All new, grotesque, and uncouth images,
Beauteous withal as sights in summer seas.
5.
Of such that Seer
of Seers in Samian cell
Would speak in transmigration strange to tell;
Thence for the harmless creatures did he plead,
That men no more on blood of life should feed,
Like ravening beasts that in the forest dwell:
But on the stores and fruitage manifold
Which nature's teeming bosom freely yields,
In forest, shore, or fields,
E'en as mankind amid that age of gold.
6.
He saw and mourn'd o'er nature's laws,
Which for the slaughtering knife had sanction won,
But knew not the primeval cause;
Nor those remedial ways, in silence seal'd,
How the true Lamb of God, the Holy One,
Upon Whose Blood alone souls feed and live,
Doth hallowed and mysterious sanction give,
Yet Sacramental silence hangs thereon.
O wondrous type, yet unreveal'd,
Whereby the creatures of the field and flood,
That we may live, yield up their innocent blood!
We who the family of Pain let in
Behold them share our woes, but not our sin.
7.
That Sage would bind us in strange brotherhood
With beasts beneath us, as with forms endued
With spirits, upon one alternate road.
Such spells we need not; better Love shall make
All things anew, for His sake render dear
The objects of Creation which appear,
Around, above, below our daily path,
Created by our Father for our sake,
And for our sake suffering beneath His wrath.
8.
And haply something too of wisdom lies
In fabling tales of those strange deities,
Assuming every creature's guise around,
Thus multiplying near unearthly eyes.
Or some inverted truth may there be found;
As Satan thus transform'd hath trail'd the ground:
For great the secrets are which our frail knowledge bound.
9.
Beautiful visions, gilt with Childhood's rays,
I watch you, one by one, thus fade and die,
Like sparks as an extinguish'd fire decays;
Or, one by one, passes each lingering star
From the nocturnal sky,
When the Sun lifts his purple beams afar;
Or Morning's roses in the orient halls,
As to the ground each fades and falls,
Then fail and vanish as the sun mounts high.
Be it so.—In that Childhood from above
Realities are fairer than your dreams;—
Wonderful changes that await the soul;
And strange and new creations shall unrol
Around her upward path, like clouded gleams,
And there disclose unveil'd a Father's love.
On other worlds, greater than now beseems,
Imagination pours forth golden youth,
Lighting her torch at the eternal truth.
