The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 17

'"We drag afar from pastoral vales the fairest _3415 Among the daughters of those mountains lone, We drag them there, where all things best and rarest Are stained and trampled:--years have come and gone Since, like the ship which bears me, I have known No thought;--but now the eyes of one dear Maid _3420 On mine with light of mutual love have shone-- She is my life,--I am but as the shade Of her,--a smoke sent up from ashes, soon to fade.

26.

'"For she must perish in the Tyrant's hall-- Alas, alas!"--He ceased, and by the sail _3425 Sate cowering--but his sobs were heard by all, And still before the ocean and the gale The ship fled fast till the stars 'gan to fail; And, round me gathered with mute countenance, The Seamen gazed, the Pilot, worn and pale _3430 With toil, the Captain with gray locks, whose glance Met mine in restless awe--they stood as in a trance.

27.

'"Recede not! pause not now! Thou art grown old, But Hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth Are children of one mother, even Love--behold! _3435 The eternal stars gaze on us!--is the truth Within your soul? care for your own, or ruth For others' sufferings? do ye thirst to bear A heart which not the serpent Custom's tooth May violate?--Be free! and even here, _3440 Swear to be firm till death!" They cried, "We swear! We swear!"

28.

'The very darkness shook, as with a blast Of subterranean thunder, at the cry; The hollow sh.o.r.e its thousand echoes cast Into the night, as if the sea and sky, _3445 And earth, rejoiced with new-born liberty, For in that name they swore! Bolts were undrawn, And on the deck, with unaccustomed eye The captives gazing stood, and every one Shrank as the inconstant torch upon her countenance shone. _3450

29.

'They were earth's purest children, young and fair, With eyes the shrines of unawakened thought, And brows as bright as Spring or Morning, ere Dark time had there its evil legend wrought In characters of cloud which wither not.-- _3455 The change was like a dream to them; but soon They knew the glory of their altered lot, In the bright wisdom of youth's breathless noon, Sweet talk, and smiles, and sighs, all bosoms did attune.

30.

'But one was mute; her cheeks and lips most fair, _3460 Changing their hue like lilies newly blown, Beneath a bright acacia's shadowy hair, Waved by the wind amid the sunny noon, Showed that her soul was quivering; and full soon That Youth arose, and breathlessly did look _3465 On her and me, as for some speechless boon: I smiled, and both their hands in mine I took, And felt a soft delight from what their spirits shook.

CANTO 9.

1.

'That night we anch.o.r.ed in a woody bay, And sleep no more around us dared to hover _3470 Than, when all doubt and fear has pa.s.sed away, It shades the couch of some unresting lover, Whose heart is now at rest: thus night pa.s.sed over In mutual joy:--around, a forest grew Of poplars and dark oaks, whose shade did cover _3475 The waning stars pranked in the waters blue, And trembled in the wind which from the morning flew.

2.

'The joyous Mariners, and each free Maiden Now brought from the deep forest many a bough, With woodland spoil most innocently laden; _3480 Soon wreaths of budding foliage seemed to flow Over the mast and sails, the stern and prow Were canopied with blooming boughs,--the while On the slant sun's path o'er the waves we go Rejoicing, like the dwellers of an isle _3485 Doomed to pursue those waves that cannot cease to smile.

3.

'The many ships spotting the dark blue deep With snowy sails, fled fast as ours came nigh, In fear and wonder; and on every steep Thousands did gaze, they heard the startling cry, _3490 Like Earth's own voice lifted unconquerably To all her children, the unbounded mirth, The glorious joy of thy name--Liberty!

They heard!--As o'er the mountains of the earth From peak to peak leap on the beams of Morning's birth: _3495

4.

'So from that cry over the boundless hills Sudden was caught one universal sound, Like a volcano's voice, whose thunder fills Remotest skies,--such glorious madness found A path through human hearts with stream which drowned _3500 Its struggling fears and cares, dark Custom's brood; They knew not whence it came, but felt around A wide contagion poured--they called aloud On Liberty--that name lived on the sunny flood.

5.

'We reached the port.--Alas! from many spirits _3505 The wisdom which had waked that cry, was fled, Like the brief glory which dark Heaven inherits From the false dawn, which fades ere it is spread, Upon the night's devouring darkness shed: Yet soon bright day will burst--even like a chasm _3510 Of fire, to burn the shrouds outworn and dead, Which wrap the world; a wide enthusiasm, To cleanse the fevered world as with an earthquake's spasm!

6.

'I walked through the great City then, but free From shame or fear; those toil-worn Mariners _3515 And happy Maidens did encompa.s.s me; And like a subterranean wind that stirs Some forest among caves, the hopes and fears From every human soul, a murmur strange Made as I pa.s.sed; and many wept, with tears _3520 Of joy and awe, and winged thoughts did range, And half-extinguished words, which prophesied of change.

7.

'For, with strong speech I tore the veil that hid Nature, and Truth, and Liberty, and Love,-- As one who from some mountain's pyramid _3525 Points to the unrisen sun!--the shades approve His truth, and flee from every stream and grove.

Thus, gentle thoughts did many a bosom fill,-- Wisdom, the mail of tried affections wove For many a heart, and tameless scorn of ill, _3530 Thrice steeped in molten steel the unconquerable will.

8.

'Some said I was a maniac wild and lost; Some, that I scarce had risen from the grave, The Prophet's virgin bride, a heavenly ghost:-- Some said, I was a fiend from my weird cave, _3535 Who had stolen human shape, and o'er the wave, The forest, and the mountain, came;--some said I was the child of G.o.d, sent down to save Woman from bonds and death, and on my head The burden of their sins would frightfully be laid. _3540

9.

'But soon my human words found sympathy In human hearts: the purest and the best, As friend with friend, made common cause with me, And they were few, but resolute;--the rest, Ere yet success the enterprise had blessed, _3545 Leagued with me in their hearts;--their meals, their slumber, Their hourly occupations, were possessed By hopes which I had armed to overnumber Those hosts of meaner cares, which life's strong wings enc.u.mber.

10.

'But chiefly women, whom my voice did waken _3550 From their cold, careless, willing slavery, Sought me: one truth their dreary prison has shaken,-- They looked around, and lo! they became free!

Their many tyrants sitting desolately In slave-deserted halls, could none restrain; _3555 For wrath's red fire had withered in the eye, Whose lightning once was death,--nor fear, nor gain Could tempt one captive now to lock another's chain.

11.

'Those who were sent to bind me, wept, and felt Their minds outsoar the bonds which clasped them round, _3560 Even as a waxen shape may waste and melt In the white furnace; and a visioned swound, A pause of hope and awe the City bound, Which, like the silence of a tempest's birth, When in its awful shadow it has wound _3565 The sun, the wind, the ocean, and the earth, Hung terrible, ere yet the lightnings have leaped forth.

12.

'Like clouds inwoven in the silent sky, By winds from distant regions meeting there, In the high name of truth and liberty, _3570 Around the City millions gathered were, By hopes which sprang from many a hidden lair,-- Words which the lore of truth in hues of flame Arrayed, thine own wild songs which in the air Like homeless odours floated, and the name _3575 Of thee, and many a tongue which thou hadst dipped in flame.

13.

'The Tyrant knew his power was gone, but Fear, The nurse of Vengeance, bade him wait the event-- That perfidy and custom, gold and prayer, And whatsoe'er, when force is impotent, _3580 To fraud the sceptre of the world has lent, Might, as he judged, confirm his failing sway.

Therefore throughout the streets, the Priests he sent To curse the rebels.--To their G.o.ds did they For Earthquake, Plague, and Want, kneel in the public way. _3585

14.

'And grave and h.o.a.ry men were bribed to tell From seats where law is made the slave of wrong, How glorious Athens in her splendour fell, Because her sons were free,--and that among Mankind, the many to the few belong, _3590 By Heaven, and Nature, and Necessity.

They said, that age was truth, and that the young Marred with wild hopes the peace of slavery, With which old times and men had quelled the vain and free.

15.

'And with the falsehood of their poisonous lips _3595 They breathed on the enduring memory Of sages and of bards a brief eclipse; There was one teacher, who necessity Had armed with strength and wrong against mankind, His slave and his avenger aye to be; _3600 That we were weak and sinful, frail and blind, And that the will of one was peace, and we Should seek for nought on earth but toil and misery--

16.

'"For thus we might avoid the h.e.l.l hereafter."

So spake the hypocrites, who cursed and lied; _3605 Alas, their sway was past, and tears and laughter Clung to their h.o.a.ry hair, withering the pride Which in their hollow hearts dared still abide; And yet obscener slaves with smoother brow, And sneers on their strait lips, thin, blue and wide, _3610 Said that the rule of men was over now, And hence, the subject world to woman's will must bow;

17.

'And gold was scattered through the streets, and wine Flowed at a hundred feasts within the wall.

In vain! the steady towers in Heaven did shine _3615 As they were wont, nor at the priestly call Left Plague her banquet in the Ethiop's hall, Nor Famine from the rich man's portal came, Where at her ease she ever preys on all Who throng to kneel for food: nor fear nor shame, _3620 Nor faith, nor discord, dimmed hope's newly kindled flame.

18.

'For gold was as a G.o.d whose faith began To fade, so that its worshippers were few, And Faith itself, which in the heart of man Gives shape, voice, name, to spectral Terror, knew _3625 Its downfall, as the altars lonelier grew, Till the Priests stood alone within the fane; The shafts of falsehood unpolluting flew, And the cold sneers of calumny were vain, The union of the free with discord's brand to stain. _3630

19.

'The rest thou knowest.--Lo! we two are here-- We have survived a ruin wide and deep-- Strange thoughts are mine.--I cannot grieve or fear, Sitting with thee upon this lonely steep I smile, though human love should make me weep. _3635 We have survived a joy that knows no sorrow, And I do feel a mighty calmness creep Over my heart, which can no longer borrow Its hues from chance or change, dark children of to-morrow.

20.

'We know not what will come--yet, Laon, dearest, _3640 Cythna shall be the prophetess of Love, Her lips shall rob thee of the grace thou wearest, To hide thy heart, and clothe the shapes which rove Within the homeless Future's wintry grove; For I now, sitting thus beside thee, seem _3645 Even with thy breath and blood to live and move, And violence and wrong are as a dream Which rolls from steadfast truth, an unreturning stream.

21.

'The blasts of Autumn drive the winged seeds Over the earth,--next come the snows, and rain, _3650 And frosts, and storms, which dreary Winter leads Out of his Scythian cave, a savage train; Behold! Spring sweeps over the world again, Shedding soft dews from her ethereal wings; Flowers on the mountains, fruits over the plain, _3655 And music on the waves and woods she flings, And love on all that lives, and calm on lifeless things.

22.

'O Spring, of hope, and love, and youth, and gladness Wind-winged emblem! brightest, best and fairest!

Whence comest thou, when, with dark Winter's sadness _3660 The tears that fade in sunny smiles thou sharest?

Sister of joy, thou art the child who wearest Thy mother's dying smile, tender and sweet; Thy mother Autumn, for whose grave thou bearest Fresh flowers, and beams like flowers, with gentle feet, _3665 Disturbing not the leaves which are her winding-sheet.

23.

'Virtue, and Hope, and Love, like light and Heaven, Surround the world.--We are their chosen slaves.

Has not the whirlwind of our spirit driven Truth's deathless germs to thought's remotest caves? _3670 Lo, Winter comes!--the grief of many graves, The frost of death, the tempest of the sword, The flood of tyranny, whose sanguine waves Stagnate like ice at Faith the enchanter's word, And bind all human hearts in its repose abhorred. _3675

24.