The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 64

'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, First Freedom, and then Glory--when that fails, Wealth--Vice--Corruption,--Barbarism at last.

And History, with all her volumes vast, Hath but _one_ page,--'tis better written here, Where gorgeous Tyranny hath thus ama.s.sed All treasures, all delights, that Eye or Ear, Heart, Soul could seek--Tongue ask--Away with words! draw near,

CIX.

Admire--exult--despise--laugh--weep,--for here There is such matter for all feeling:--Man![og]

Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear, Ages and Realms are crowded in this span, This mountain, whose obliterated plan The pyramid of Empires pinnacled, Of Glory's gewgaws shining in the van[oh]

Till the Sun's rays with added flame were filled!

Where are its golden roofs?[486] where those who dared to build?

CX.

Tully was not so eloquent as thou, Thou nameless column[487] with the buried base!

What are the laurels of the Caesar's brow?

Crown me with ivy from his dwelling-place.

Whose arch or pillar meets me in the face, t.i.tus or Trajan's? No--'tis that of Time: Triumph, arch, pillar, all he doth displace[oi]

Scoffing; and apostolic statues[488] climb To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime,

CXI.

Buried in air, the deep blue sky of Rome, And looking to the stars: they had contained A Spirit which with these would find a home, The last of those who o'er the whole earth reigned, The Roman Globe--for, after, none sustained, But yielded back his conquests:--he was more Than a mere Alexander, and, unstained With household blood and wine, serenely wore His sovereign virtues--still we Trajan's[489] name adore.

CXII.

Where is the rock of Triumph,[490] the high place Where Rome embraced her heroes?--where the steep Tarpeian?--fittest goal of Treason's race, The Promontory whence the Traitor's Leap[oj]

Cured all ambition?[491] Did the conquerors heap Their spoils here? Yes; and in yon field below, A thousand years of silenced factions sleep-- The Forum, where the immortal accents glow, And still the eloquent air breathes-burns with Cicero![ok][492]

CXIII.

The field of Freedom--Faction--Fame--and Blood: Here a proud people's pa.s.sions were exhaled, From the first hour of Empire in the bud To that when further worlds to conquer failed; But long before had Freedom's face been veiled, And Anarchy a.s.sumed her attributes; Till every lawless soldier who a.s.sailed Trod on the trembling Senate's slavish mutes, Or raised the venal voice of baser prost.i.tutes.

CXIV.

Then turn we to her latest Tribune's name, From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee, Redeemer of dark centuries of shame-- The friend of Petrarch--hope of Italy-- Rienzi! last of Romans![493] While the tree Of Freedom's withered trunk puts forth a leaf, Even for thy tomb a garland let it be-- The Forum's champion, and the people's chief-- Her new-born Numa thou--with reign, alas! too brief.

CXV.

Egeria! sweet creation of some heart[27.H.]

Which found no mortal resting-place so fair As thine ideal breast; whate'er thou art Or wert,--a young Aurora of the air, The nympholepsy[494] of some fond despair--[ol]

Or--it might be--a Beauty of the earth, Who found a more than common Votary there Too much adoring--whatsoe'er thy birth, Thou wert a beautiful Thought, and softly bodied forth.

CXVI.

The mosses of thy Fountain[495] still are sprinkled With thine Elysian water-drops; the face Of thy cave-guarded Spring, with years unwrinkled, Reflects the meek-eyed Genius of the place, Whose green, wild margin now no more erase Art's works; nor must the delicate waters sleep Prisoned in marble--bubbling from the base Of the cleft statue, with a gentle leap The rill runs o'er--and round, fern, flowers, and ivy, creep

CXVII.

Fantastically tangled: the green hills Are clothed with early blossoms--through the gra.s.s The quick-eyed lizard rustles--and the bills Of summer-birds sing welcome as ye pa.s.s; Flowers fresh in hue, and many in their cla.s.s, Implore the pausing step, and with their dyes Dance in the soft breeze in a fairy ma.s.s; The sweetness of the Violet's deep blue eyes, Kissed by the breath of heaven, seems coloured by its skies.[496]

CXVIII.

Here didst thou dwell, in this enchanted cover,[497]

Egeria! thy all heavenly bosom beating For the far footsteps of thy mortal lover; The purple Midnight veiled that mystic meeting With her most starry canopy[498]--and seating Thyself by thine adorer, what befel?

This cave was surely shaped out for the greeting Of an enamoured G.o.ddess, and the cell Haunted by holy Love--the earliest Oracle!

CXIX.

And didst thou not, thy breast to his replying, Blend a celestial with a human heart;[om]

And Love, which dies as it was born, in sighing, Share with immortal transports? could thine art Make them indeed immortal, and impart The purity of Heaven to earthly joys, Expel the venom and not blunt the dart-- The dull satiety which all destroys-- And root from out the soul the deadly weed which cloys?

CXX.

Alas! our young affections run to waste, Or water but the desert! whence arise But weeds of dark luxuriance, tares of haste, Rank at the core, though tempting to the eyes Flowers whose wild odours breathe but agonies, And trees whose gums are poison; such the plants Which spring beneath her steps as Pa.s.sion flies O'er the World's wilderness, and vainly pants For some celestial fruit forbidden to our wants.

CXXI.

Oh, Love! no habitant of earth thou art--[on]

An unseen Seraph, we believe in thee,-- A faith whose martyrs are the broken heart,-- But never yet hath seen, nor e'er shall see The naked eye, thy form, as it should be;[499]

The mind hath made thee, as it peopled Heaven, Even with its own desiring phantasy, And to a thought such shape and image given, As haunts the unquenched soul--parched--wearied--wrung--and riven.

CXXII.

Of its own beauty is the mind diseased, And fevers into false creation:--where, Where are the forms the sculptor's soul hath seized?

In him alone. Can Nature show so fair?

Where are the charms and virtues which we dare Conceive in boyhood and pursue as men, The unreached Paradise of our despair, Which o'er-informs[500] the pencil and the pen, And overpowers the page where it would bloom again?

CXXIII.

Who loves, raves[501]--'tis youth's frenzy--but the cure Is bitterer still, as charm by charm unwinds Which robed our idols, and we see too sure Nor Worth nor Beauty dwells from out the mind's Ideal shape of such; yet still it binds The fatal spell, and still it draws us on, Reaping the whirlwind from the oft-sown winds; The stubborn heart, its alchemy begun, Seems ever near the prize--wealthiest when most undone.

CXXIV.

We wither from our youth, we gasp away-- Sick--sick; unfound the boon--unslaked the thirst, Though to the last, in verge of our decay, Some phantom lures, such as we sought at first-- But all too late,--so are we doubly curst.

Love, Fame, Ambition, Avarice--'tis the same, Each idle--and all ill--and none the worst-- For all are meteors with a different name,[oo]

And Death the sable smoke where vanishes the flame.

CXXV.

Few--none--find what they love or could have loved, Though accident, blind contact, and the strong Necessity of loving, have removed Antipathies--but to recur, ere long, Envenomed with irrevocable wrong; And Circ.u.mstance, that unspiritual G.o.d And Miscreator, makes and helps along Our coming evils with a crutch-like rod,[502]

Whose touch turns Hope to dust,--the dust we all have trod.

CXXVI.

Our life is a false nature--'tis not in The harmony of things,--this hard decree, This uneradicable taint of Sin, This boundless Upas, this all-blasting tree, Whose root is Earth--whose leaves and branches be The skies which rain their plagues on men like dew-- Disease, death, bondage--all the woes we see, And worse, the woes we see not--which throb through The immedicable soul,[503] with heart-aches ever new.

CXXVII.

Yet let us ponder boldly--'tis a base Abandonment of reason[504] to resign Our right of thought--our last and only place Of refuge; this, at least, shall still be mine: Though from our birth the Faculty divine Is chained and tortured--cabined, cribbed, confined, And bred in darkness,[505] lest the Truth should shine Too brightly on the unprepared mind, The beam pours in--for Time and Skill will couch the blind.

CXXVIII.