The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 141

ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME.

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870, from the Trelawny ma.n.u.script of Edward Williams's play, "The Promise: or, A Year, a Month, and a Day".]

BOYS SING: Night! with all thine eyes look down!

Darkness! weep thy holiest dew!

Never smiled the inconstant moon On a pair so true.

Haste, coy hour! and quench all light, _5 Lest eyes see their own delight!

Haste, swift hour! and thy loved flight Oft renew!

GIRLS SING: Fairies, sprites, and angels, keep her!

Holy stars! permit no wrong! _10 And return, to wake the sleeper, Dawn, ere it be long!

O joy! O fear! there is not one Of us can guess what may be done In the absence of the sun:-- _15 Come along!

BOYS: Oh! linger long, thou envious eastern lamp In the damp Caves of the deep!

GIRLS: Nay, return, Vesper! urge thy lazy car! _20 Swift unbar The gates of Sleep!

CHORUS: The golden gate of Sleep unbar, When Strength and Beauty, met together, Kindle their image, like a star _25 In a sea of gla.s.sy weather.

May the purple mist of love Round them rise, and with them move, Nourishing each tender gem Which, like flowers, will burst from them. _30 As the fruit is to the tree May their children ever be!

LOVE, HOPE, DESIRE, AND FEAR.

[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Sh.e.l.ley", 1862. 'A very free translation of Brunetto Latini's "Tesoretto", lines 81-154.'--A.C.

Bradley.]

And many there were hurt by that strong boy, His name, they said, was Pleasure, And near him stood, glorious beyond measure Four Ladies who possess all empery In earth and air and sea, _5 Nothing that lives from their award is free.

Their names will I declare to thee, Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear, And they the regents are Of the four elements that frame the heart, _10 And each diversely exercised her art By force or circ.u.mstance or sleight To prove her dreadful might Upon that poor domain.

Desire presented her [false] gla.s.s, and then _15 The spirit dwelling there Was spellbound to embrace what seemed so fair Within that magic mirror, And dazed by that bright error, It would have scorned the [shafts] of the avenger _20 And death, and penitence, and danger, Had not then silent Fear Touched with her palsying spear, So that as if a frozen torrent The blood was curdled in its current; _25 It dared not speak, even in look or motion, But chained within itself its proud devotion.

Between Desire and Fear thou wert A wretched thing, poor heart!

Sad was his life who bore thee in his breast, _30 Wild bird for that weak nest.

Till Love even from fierce Desire it bought, And from the very wound of tender thought Drew solace, and the pity of sweet eyes Gave strength to bear those gentle agonies, _35 Surmount the loss, the terror, and the sorrow.

Then Hope approached, she who can borrow For poor to-day, from rich tomorrow, And Fear withdrew, as night when day Descends upon the orient ray, _40 And after long and vain endurance The poor heart woke to her a.s.surance.

--At one birth these four were born With the world's forgotten morn, And from Pleasure still they hold _45 All it circles, as of old.

When, as summer lures the swallow, Pleasure lures the heart to follow-- O weak heart of little wit!

The fair hand that wounded it, _50 Seeking, like a panting hare, Refuge in the lynx's lair, Love, Desire, Hope, and Fear, Ever will be near.

FRAGMENTS WRITTEN FOR h.e.l.lAS.

[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Sh.e.l.ley", 1862.]

1.

Fairest of the Destinies, Disarray thy dazzling eyes: Keener far thy lightnings are Than the winged [bolts] thou bearest, And the smile thou wearest _5 Wraps thee as a star Is wrapped in light.

2.

Could Arethuse to her forsaken urn From Alpheus and the bitter Doris run, Or could the morning shafts of purest light _10 Again into the quivers of the Sun Be gathered--could one thought from its wild flight Return into the temple of the brain Without a change, without a stain,-- Could aught that is, ever again _15 Be what it once has ceased to be, Greece might again be free!

3.

A star has fallen upon the earth Mid the benighted nations, A quenchless atom of immortal light, _20 A living spark of Night, A cresset shaken from the constellations.

Swifter than the thunder fell To the heart of Earth, the well Where its pulses flow and beat, _25 And unextinct in that cold source Burns, and on ... course Guides the sphere which is its prison, Like an angelic spirit pent In a form of mortal birth, _30 Till, as a spirit half-arisen Shatters its charnel, it has rent, In the rapture of its mirth, The thin and painted garment of the Earth, Ruining its chaos--a fierce breath _35 Consuming all its forms of living death.

FRAGMENT: 'I WOULD NOT BE A KING'.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.]

I would not be a king--enough Of woe it is to love; The path to power is steep and rough, And tempests reign above.

I would not climb the imperial throne; _5 'Tis built on ice which fortune's sun Thaws in the height of noon.

Then farewell, king, yet were I one, Care would not come so soon.

Would he and I were far away _10 Keeping flocks on Himalay!

GINEVRA.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated 'Pisa, 1821.']

Wild, pale, and wonder-stricken, even as one Who staggers forth into the air and sun From the dark chamber of a mortal fever, Bewildered, and incapable, and ever Fancying strange comments in her dizzy brain _5 Of usual shapes, till the familiar train Of objects and of persons pa.s.sed like things Strange as a dreamer's mad imaginings, Ginevra from the nuptial altar went; The vows to which her lips had sworn a.s.sent _10 Rung in her brain still with a jarring din, Deafening the lost intelligence within.

And so she moved under the bridal veil, Which made the paleness of her cheek more pale, And deepened the faint crimson of her mouth, _15 And darkened her dark locks, as moonlight doth,-- And of the gold and jewels glittering there She scarce felt conscious,--but the weary glare Lay like a chaos of unwelcome light, Vexing the sense with gorgeous undelight, _20 A moonbeam in the shadow of a cloud Was less heavenly fair--her face was bowed, And as she pa.s.sed, the diamonds in her hair Were mirrored in the polished marble stair Which led from the cathedral to the street; _25 And ever as she went her light fair feet Erased these images.

The bride-maidens who round her thronging came, Some with a sense of self-rebuke and shame, Envying the unenviable; and others Making the joy which should have been another's _30 Their own by gentle sympathy; and some Sighing to think of an unhappy home: Some few admiring what can ever lure Maidens to leave the heaven serene and pure Of parents' smiles for life's great cheat; a thing _35 Bitter to taste, sweet in imagining.

But they are all dispersed--and, lo! she stands Looking in idle grief on her white hands, Alone within the garden now her own; _40 And through the sunny air, with jangling tone, The music of the merry marriage-bells, Killing the azure silence, sinks and swells;-- Absorbed like one within a dream who dreams That he is dreaming, until slumber seems _45 A mockery of itself--when suddenly Antonio stood before her, pale as she.

With agony, with sorrow, and with pride, He lifted his wan eyes upon the bride, And said--'Is this thy faith?' and then as one _50 Whose sleeping face is stricken by the sun With light like a harsh voice, which bids him rise And look upon his day of life with eyes Which weep in vain that they can dream no more, Ginevra saw her lover, and forbore _55 To shriek or faint, and checked the stifling blood Rushing upon her heart, and unsubdued Said--'Friend, if earthly violence or ill, Suspicion, doubt, or the tyrannic will Of parents, chance or custom, time or change, _60 Or circ.u.mstance, or terror, or revenge, Or wildered looks, or words, or evil speech, With all their stings and venom can impeach Our love,--we love not:--if the grave which hides The victim from the tyrant, and divides _65 The cheek that whitens from the eyes that dart Imperious inquisition to the heart That is another's, could dissever ours, We love not.'--'What! do not the silent hours Beckon thee to Gherardi's bridal bed? _70 Is not that ring'--a pledge, he would have said, Of broken vows, but she with patient look The golden circle from her finger took, And said--'Accept this token of my faith, The pledge of vows to be absolved by death; _75 And I am dead or shall be soon--my knell Will mix its music with that merry bell, Does it not sound as if they sweetly said "We toll a corpse out of the marriage-bed"?

The flowers upon my bridal chamber strewn _80 Will serve unfaded for my bier--so soon That even the dying violet will not die Before Ginevra.' The strong fantasy Had made her accents weaker and more weak, And quenched the crimson life upon her cheek, _85 And glazed her eyes, and spread an atmosphere Round her, which chilled the burning noon with fear, Making her but an image of the thought Which, like a prophet or a shadow, brought News of the terrors of the coming time. _90 Like an accuser branded with the crime He would have cast on a beloved friend, Whose dying eyes reproach not to the end The pale betrayer--he then with vain repentance Would share, he cannot now avert, the sentence-- _95 Antonio stood and would have spoken, when The compound voice of women and of men Was heard approaching; he retired, while she Was led amid the admiring company Back to the palace,--and her maidens soon _100 Changed her attire for the afternoon, And left her at her own request to keep An hour of quiet rest:--like one asleep With open eyes and folded hands she lay, Pale in the light of the declining day. _105

Meanwhile the day sinks fast, the sun is set, And in the lighted hall the guests are met; The beautiful looked lovelier in the light Of love, and admiration, and delight Reflected from a thousand hearts and eyes, _110 Kindling a momentary Paradise.

This crowd is safer than the silent wood, Where love's own doubts disturb the solitude; On frozen hearts the fiery rain of wine Falls, and the dew of music more divine _115 Tempers the deep emotions of the time To spirits cradled in a sunny clime:-- How many meet, who never yet have met, To part too soon, but never to forget.

How many saw the beauty, power and wit _120 Of looks and words which ne'er enchanted yet; But life's familiar veil was now withdrawn, As the world leaps before an earthquake's dawn, And unprophetic of the coming hours, The matin winds from the expanded flowers _125 Scatter their h.o.a.rded incense, and awaken The earth, until the dewy sleep is shaken From every living heart which it possesses, Through seas and winds, cities and wildernesses, As if the future and the past were all _130 Treasured i' the instant;--so Gherardi's hall Laughed in the mirth of its lord's festival, Till some one asked--'Where is the Bride?' And then A bridesmaid went,--and ere she came again A silence fell upon the guests--a pause _135 Of expectation, as when beauty awes All hearts with its approach, though unbeheld; Then wonder, and then fear that wonder quelled;-- For whispers pa.s.sed from mouth to ear which drew The colour from the hearer's cheeks, and flew _140 Louder and swifter round the company; And then Gherardi entered with an eye Of ostentatious trouble, and a crowd Surrounded him, and some were weeping loud.

They found Ginevra dead! if it be death _145 To lie without motion, or pulse, or breath, With waxen cheeks, and limbs cold, stiff, and white, And open eyes, whose fixed and gla.s.sy light Mocked at the speculation they had owned.

If it be death, when there is felt around _150 A smell of clay, a pale and icy glare, And silence, and a sense that lifts the hair From the scalp to the ankles, as it were Corruption from the spirit pa.s.sing forth, And giving all it shrouded to the earth, _155 And leaving as swift lightning in its flight Ashes, and smoke, and darkness: in our night Of thought we know thus much of death,--no more Than the unborn dream of our life before Their barks are wrecked on its inhospitable sh.o.r.e. _160 The marriage feast and its solemnity Was turned to funeral pomp--the company, With heavy hearts and looks, broke up; nor they Who loved the dead went weeping on their way Alone, but sorrow mixed with sad surprise _165 Loosened the springs of pity in all eyes, On which that form, whose fate they weep in vain, Will never, thought they, kindle smiles again.

The lamps which, half extinguished in their haste, Gleamed few and faint o'er the abandoned feast, _170 Showed as it were within the vaulted room A cloud of sorrow hanging, as if gloom Had pa.s.sed out of men's minds into the air.

Some few yet stood around Gherardi there, Friends and relations of the dead,--and he, _175 A loveless man, accepted torpidly The consolation that he wanted not; Awe in the place of grief within him wrought.

Their whispers made the solemn silence seem More still--some wept,... _180 Some melted into tears without a sob, And some with hearts that might be heard to throb Leaned on the table and at intervals Shuddered to hear through the deserted halls And corridors the thrilling shrieks which came _185 Upon the breeze of night, that shook the flame Of every torch and taper as it swept From out the chamber where the women kept;-- Their tears fell on the dear companion cold Of pleasures now departed; then was knolled _190 The bell of death, and soon the priests arrived, And finding Death their penitent had shrived, Returned like ravens from a corpse whereon A vulture has just feasted to the bone.

And then the mourning women came.-- _195