Ionica Part 3

I cheer the games I cannot play; As stands a crippled squire To watch his master through the fray, Uplifted by desire.

I roam, where little pleasures fall, As morn to morn succeeds, To melt, or ere the sweetness pall, Like glittering manna-beads.

The wishes dawning in the eyes, The softly murmured thanks; The zeal of those that miss the prize On clamorous river-banks;

The quenchless hope, the honest choice, The self-reliant pride, The music of the pleading voice That will not be denied;

The wonder flushing in the cheek, The questions many a score, When I grow eloquent, and speak Of England, and of war--

Oh, better than the world of dress And pompous dining, out, Better than simpering and finesse Is all this stir and rout.

I'll borrow life, and not grow old; And nightingales and trees Shall keep me, though the veins be cold, As young as Sophocles.

And when I may no longer live, They'll say, who know the truth, He gave whatever he had to give To freedom and to youth.

PROSPERO

Farewell, my airy pursuivants, farewell.

We part to-day, and I resign This lonely island, and this rocky cell, And all that hath been mine.

"Ah, whither go we? Why not follow thee, Our human king, across the wave, The man that rescued us from rifted tree, Bleak marsh, and howling cave."

Oh no. The wand I wielded then is buried, Broken, and buried in the sand.

Oh no. By mortal hands I must be ferried Unto the Tuscan strand.

You came to cheer my exile, and to lift The weight of silence off my lips: With you I ruled the clouds, and ocean-drift, Meteors, and wandering ships.

Your fancies glinting on my central mind Fell off in beams of many hues, Soft lambent light. Yet, severed from mankind, Not light, but heat, I lose.

I go, before my heart be chilled. Behold, The bark that bears me waves her flag, To chide my loitering. Back to your mountain-hold, And flee the tyrant hag.

Away. I hear your little voices sinking Into the wood-notes of the breeze: I hear you say: "Enough, enough of thinking; Love lies beyond the seas."

AMATURUS

Somewhere beneath the sun, These quivering heart-strings prove it, Somewhere there must be one Made for this soul, to move it;

Some one that hides her sweetness From neighbours whom she slights, Nor can attain completeness, Nor give her heart its rights;

Some one whom I could court With no great change of manner, Still holding reason's fort, Though waving fancy's banner;

A lady, not so queenly As to disdain my hand, Yet born to smile serenely Like those that rule the land;

n.o.ble, but not too proud; With soft hair simply folded, And bright face crescent-browed, And throat by Muses moulded;

And eyelids lightly falling On little glistening seas, Deep-calm, when gales are brawling, Though stirred by every breeze:

Swift voice, like flight of dove Through minster arches floating, With sudden turns, when love Gets overnear to doting;

Keen lips, that shape soft sayings Like crystals of the snow, With pretty half-betrayings Of things one may not know;

Fair hand, whose touches thrill, Like golden rod of wonder, Which Hermes wields at will Spirit and flesh to sunder;

Light foot, to press the stirrup In fearlessness and glee, Or dance, till finches chirrup, And stars sink to the sea.

Forth, Love, and find this maid, Wherever she be hidden: Speak, Love, be not afraid, But plead as thou art bidden;

And say, that he who taught thee His yearning want and pain, Too dearly, dearly bought thee To part with thee in vain.

MORTEM, QUAE VIOLAT SUAVI A PELLIT AMOR

The plunging rocks, whose ravenous throats The sea in wrath and mockery fills, The smoke, that up the valley floats, The girlhood of the growing hills;

The thunderings from the miners' ledge, The wild a.s.saults on nature's h.o.a.rd, The peak, that stormward bares an edge Ground sharp in days when t.i.tans warred;

Grim heights, by wandering clouds embraced Where lightning's ministers conspire, Grey glens, with tarn and streamlet laced, Stark forgeries of primeval fire;

These scenes may gladden many a mind Awhile from homelier thoughts released, And here my fellow-men may find A Sabbath and a vision-feast.

I bless them in the good they feel; And yet I bless them with a sigh: On me this grandeur stamps the seal Of tyrannous mortality.

The pitiless mountain stands so sure, The human breast so weakly heaves; That brains decay, while rocks endure, At this the insatiate spirit grieves.

But hither, oh ideal bride!

For whom this heart in silence aches, Love is unwearied as the tide, Love is perennial as the lakes;

Come thou. The spiky crags will seem One harvest of one heavenly year, And fear of death, like childish dream, Will pa.s.s and flee, when thou art here.

TWO FRAGMENTS OF CHILDHOOD

When these locks were yellow as gold, When past days were easily told, Well I knew the voice of the sea, Once he spake as a friend to me.

Thunder-roarings carelessly heard, Once that poor little heart they stirred.

Why, oh, why?

Memory, Memory!

She that I wished to be with was by.