 | The progress of mind |  |
II.
1.
O'er the gold-encrusted sandOf a sun-browned land
The Ganges widens to the sea,
Islanded by lotus and banian tree;
Upon its shore rise towers,
And domes by pillar'd roofs upborne,
And paths are through its mountains worn
By art's concentred powers.
But from those caverns deep
What feezing whispers shrilly creep!
The yearning of man diseased, for more
Than he may find in nature's store.
Tradition clothes itself in life,
And in the throes of manhood's strife
With ignorance, to the forms that stand
Around, the work of his own hand,
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From humble adoration grows.”
Oh, well these lyre-like names he knows,
And manhood bows for hoped release
From mastering fear and from his pains repose.
But fear, not love, from their marble eyes
Falls on him kneeling, and there he lies.
2.
A cypher'd tongue is formed, a scrollThat thoughts laborious doth unroll
On the papyrus dried appears—
Oh, strange! the wisdom of the sages' years,
The life-time of the world is there,
By fable and by prophecy laid bare.
Thence speculations dark as is their cause,
Shed their sepulchral glimmering on the shrine,
That by the herd is bowed to as divine,
While the initiated scoffers pause
To bid them kneel again,
That they may tighten still their soul-inearthing chain.
3.
And now a luminous train doth passFrom gardens, porticoes, and gates of brass.
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The juices and the sweets of wine;
Who taught the husbandman to hail
The Twins, the Virgin, and the Scale;
Who taught the miner's armed hand
O'er radiant gold and steel command;
And he who taught the pains that creep
Through life's pulse to be soothed in sleep;
And lo, before the obedient gale
The oar-limbed car doth sail,
And the joyful song of mariners,
The hearts of waiting thousands stirs:
What treasure doth it bear,
What gold of distant streams, what sweets of distant air,
What diamond's starrier sheen,
What emerald's livelier green,
To enthrone luxury,
To strengthen or to beautify?
4.
Another pageant more augustPasses unscathed by the charnel's dust,
Cinctures of adamant around
Their Promethean temples bound.
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And echoed it to mortal ears;
Who carved from plane-tree boughs the Dorian flute,
And gave their breath to the lyre and lute.
They whose tongue's enwreathen speech,
Mightier than the thunders roll,
That over heaven's whole breadth doth reach,
Captive hath led the wide-eyed soul.
A vastly circled theatre
By Attic multitudes astir—
Hark! as a storm across the sky,
The shout of fame that cannot die,—
Triumph! the poet bows,
While the votive wreath sinks o'er his brows.
And now the queen of nations rears
Many a conquered monument;
And, lictor-guarded, there appears
A senate on high councils bent:
Before the judges stands with arms outspread,
And eager port and regal head,—
While reason's fire his eyes illume—
The living eloquence of Rome;
And through the empire's girdless realms afar
His voice decrees, for peace or war.
| The progress of mind | |