Was now heard there; her dark and intricate eyes,
Orb within orb, deeper than sleep or death,
Absorbed the glories of the burning skies,
Which, mingling with her heart’s deep ecstasies,
Burst from her looks and gestures; and a light
Of liquid tenderness, like love, did rise
From her whole frame — an atmosphere which quite
Arrayed her in its beams, tremulous and soft and bright.
VI
She would have clasped me to her glowing frame;
Those warm and odorous lips might soon have shed
On mine the fragrance and the invisible flame
Which now the cold winds stole; she would have laid
Upon my languid heart her dearest head;
I might have heard her voice, tender and sweet;
Her eyes, mingling with mine, might soon have fed
My soul with their own joy. — One moment yet
I gazed — we parted then, never again to meet!
VII
Never but once to meet on earth again!
She heard me as I fled — her eager tone
Sunk on my heart, and almost wove a chain
Around my will to link it with her own,
So that my stern resolve was almost gone.
‘I cannot reach thee! whither dost thou fly?
My steps are faint. — Come back, thou dearest one —
Return, ah me! return!’ — the wind passed by
On which those accents died, faint, far, and lingeringly.
VIII
Woe! woe! that moonless midnight! Want and Pest
Were horrible, but one more fell doth rear,
As in a hydra’s swarming lair, its crest
Eminent among those victims — even the Fear
Of Hell; each girt by the hot atmosphere
Of his blind agony, like a scorpion stung
By his own rage upon his burning bier
Of circling coals of fire. But still there clung
One hope, like a keen sword on starting threads uphung: —
IX
Not death — death was no more refuge or rest;
Not life — it was despair to be! — not sleep,
For fiends and chasms of fire had dispossessed
All natural dreams; to wake was not to weep,
But to gaze, mad and pallid, at the leap
To which the Future, like a snaky scourge,
Or like some tyrant’s eye which aye doth keep
Its withering beam upon his slaves, did urge
Their steps; they heard the roar of Hell’s sulphureous surge.
X
Each of that multitude, alone and lost
To sense of outward things, one hope yet knew;
As on a foam-girt crag some seaman tossed
Stares at the rising tide, or like the crew
Whilst now the ship is splitting through and through;
Each, if the tramp of a far steed was heard,
Started from sick despair, or if there flew
One murmur on the wind, or if some word
Which none can gather yet the distant crowd has stirred.
XI
Why became cheeks, wan with the kiss of death,
Paler from hope? they had sustained despair.
Why watched those myriads with suspended breath
Sleepless a second night? the are not here,
The victims — and hour by hour, a vision drear,
Warm corpses fall upon the clay-cold dead;
And even in death their lips are wreathed with fear.
The crowd is mute and moveless — overhead
Silent Arcturus shines — ha! hear’st thou not the tread
XII
Of rushing feet? laughter? the shout, the scream
Of triumph not to be contained? See! hark!
They come, they come! give way! Alas, ye deem
Falsely—’t is but a crowd of maniacs stark
Driven, like a troop of spectres, through the dark
From the choked well, whence a bright death-fire sprung,
A lurid earth-star, which dropped many a spark
From its blue train, and, spreading widely, clung
To their wild hair, like mist the topmost pines among.
XIII
And many, from the crowd collected there,
Joined that strange dance in fearful sympathies;
There was the silence of a long despair,
When the last echo of those terrible cries
Came from a distant street, like agonies
Stifled afar. — Before the Tyrant’s throne
All night his agèd Senate sate, their eyes
In stony expectation fixed; when one
Sudden before them stood, a Stranger and alone.
Dark Priests and haughty Warriors gazed on him
With baffled wonder, for a hermit’s vest
Concealed his face; but when he spake, his tone
Ere yet the matter did their thoughts arrest —
Earnest, benignant, calm, as from a breast
Void of all hate or terror — made them start;
For as with gentle accents he addressed
His speech to them, on each unwilling heart
Unusual awe did fall — a spirit-quelling dart.
XV
‘Ye Princes of the Earth, ye sit aghast
Amid the ruin which yourselves have made;
Yes, Desolation heard your trumpet’s blast,
And sprang from sleep! — dark Terror has obeyed
Your bidding. Oh, that I, whom ye have made
Your foe, could set my dearest enemy free
From pain and fear! but evil casts a shade
Which cannot pass so soon, and Hate must be
The nurse and parent still of an ill progeny.
XVI
‘Ye turn to Heaven for aid in your distress;
Alas, that ye, the mighty and the wise,
Who, if ye dared, might not aspire to less
Than ye conceive of power, should fear the lies
Which thou, and thou, didst frame for mysteries
To blind your slaves! consider your own thought —
An empty and a cruel sacrifice
Ye now prepare for a vain idol wrought
Out of the fears and hate which vain desires have brought.
XVII
‘Ye seek for happiness — alas the day!
Ye find it not in luxury nor in gold,
Nor in the fame, nor in the envied sway
For which, O willing slaves to Custom old,
Severe task-mistress, ye your hearts have sold.
Ye seek for peace, and, when ye die, to dream
No evil dreams; — all mortal things are cold
And senseless then; if aught survive, I deem
It must be love and joy, for they immortal seem.
XVIII
‘Fear not the future, weep not for the past.
Oh, could I win your ears to dare be now
Glorious, and great, and calm! that ye would cast
Into the dust those symbols of your woe,
Purple, and gold, and steel! that ye would go
Proclaiming to the nations whence ye came
That Want and Plague and Fear from slavery flow;
And that mankind is free, and that the shame
Of royalty and faith is lost in freedom’s fame!
XIX
‘If thus ‘t is well — if not, I come to say
That Laon—’ While the Stranger spoke, among
The Council sudden tumult and affray
Arose, for many of those warriors young
Had on his eloquent accents fed and hung
Like bees on mountain-flowers; they knew the truth,
And from their thrones in vindication sprung;
The men of faith and law then without ruth
&
nbsp; Drew forth their secret steel, and stabbed each ardent youth.
XX
They stabbed them in the back and sneered — a slave,
Who stood behind the throne, those corpses drew
Each to its bloody, dark and secret grave;
And one more daring raised his steel anew
To pierce the Stranger: ‘What hast thou to do
With me, poor wretch?’ — Calm, solemn and severe,
That voice unstrung his sinews, and he threw
His dagger on the ground, and, pale with fear,
Sate silently — his voice then did the Stranger rear.
XXI
‘It doth avail not that I weep for ye —
Ye cannot change, since ye are old and gray,
And ye have chosen your lot — your fame must be
A book of blood, whence in a milder day
Men shall learn truth, when ye are wrapped in clay;
Now ye shall triumph. I am Laon’s friend,
And him to your revenge will I betray,
So ye concede one easy boon. Attend!
For now I speak of things which ye can apprehend.
XXII
‘There is a People mighty in its youth,
A land beyond the Oceans of the West,
Where, though with rudest rites, Freedom and Truth
Are worshipped; from a glorious Mother’s breast,
Who, since high Athens fell, among the rest
Sate like the Queen of Nations, but in woe,
By inbred monsters outraged and oppressed,
Turns to her chainless child for succor now,
It draws the milk of Power in Wisdom’s fullest flow.
XXIII
‘That land is like an Eagle, whose young gaze
Feeds on the noontide beam, whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm, and in the blaze
Of sunrise gleams when earth is wrapped in gloom;
An epitaph of glory for the tomb
Of murdered Europe may thy fame be made,
Great People! as the sands shalt thou become;
Thy growth is swift as morn when night must fade;
The multitudinous Earth shall sleep beneath thy shade.
XXIV
‘Yes, in the desert there is built a home
For Freedom. Genius is made strong to rear
The monuments of man beneath the dome
Of a new Heaven; myriads assemble there,
Whom the proud lords of man, in rage or fear,
Drive from their wasted homes. The boon I pray
Is this — that Cythna shall be convoyed there, —
Nay, start not at the name — America!
And then to you this night Laon will I betray.
XXV
‘With me do what ye will. I am your foe!’
The light of such a joy as makes the stare
Of hungry snakes like living emeralds glow
Shone in a hundred human eyes.—’Where, where
Is Laon? haste! fly! drag him swiftly here!
We grant thy boon.’—’I put no trust in ye,
Swear by the Power ye dread.’—’We swear, we swear!’
The Stranger threw his vest back suddenly,
And smiled in gentle pride, and said, ‘Lo! I am he!’
REVOLT OF ISLAM: Canto Twelfth
I
THE transport of a fierce and monstrous gladness
Spread through the multitudinous streets, fast flying
Upon the winds of fear; from his dull madness
The starveling waked, and died in joy; the dying,
Among the corpses in stark agony lying,
Just heard the happy tidings, and in hope
Closed their faint eyes; from house to house replying
With loud acclaim, the living shook Heaven’s cope,
And filled the startled Earth with echoes. Morn did ope
II
Its pale eyes then; and lo! the long array
Of guards in golden arms, and Priests beside,
Singing their bloody hymns, whose garbs betray
The blackness of the faith it seems to hide;
And see the Tyrant’s gem-wrought chariot glide
Among the gloomy cowls and glittering spears —
A Shape of light is sitting by his side,
A child most beautiful. I’ the midst appears
Laon — exempt alone from mortal hopes and fears.
III
His head and feet are bare, his hands are bound
Behind with heavy chains, yet none do wreak
Their scoffs on him, though myriads throng around;
There are no sneers upon his lip which speak
That scorn or hate has made him bold; his cheek
Resolve has not turned pale; his eyes are mild
And calm, and, like the morn about to break,
Smile on mankind; his heart seems reconciled
To all things and itself, like a reposing child.
IV
Tumult was in the soul of all beside,
Ill joy, or doubt, or fear; but those who saw
Their tranquil victim pass felt wonder glide
Into their brain, and became calm with awe. —
See, the slow pageant near the pile doth draw.
A thousand torches in the spacious square,
Borne by the ready slaves of ruthless law,
Await the signal round; the morning fair
Is changed to a dim night by that unnatural glare.
V
And see! beneath a sun-bright canopy,
Upon a platform level with the pile,
The anxious Tyrant sit, enthroned on high,
Girt by the chieftains of the host; all smile
In expectation but one child: the while
I, Laon, led by mutes, ascend my bier
Of fire, and look around; — each distant isle
Is dark in the bright dawn; towers far and near
Pierce like reposing flames the tremulous atmosphere.
VI
There was such silence through the host as when
An earthquake, trampling on some populous town,
Has crushed ten thousand with one tread, and men
Expect the second; all were mute but one,
That fairest child, who, bold with love, alone
Stood up before the king, without avail,
Pleading for Laon’s life — her stifled groan
Was heard — she trembled like one aspen pale
Among the gloomy pines of a Norwegian vale.
VII
What were his thoughts linked in the morning sun,
Among those reptiles, stingless with delay,
Even like a tyrant’s wrath? — the signal-gun
Roared — hark, again! in that dread pause he lay
As in a quiet dream — the slaves obey —
A thousand torches drop, — and hark, the last
Bursts on that awful silence; far away
Millions, with hearts that beat both loud and fast,
Watch for the springing flame expectant and aghast.
VIII
They fly — the torches fall — a cry of fear
Has startled the triumphant! — they recede!
For, ere the cannon’s roar has died, they hear
The tramp of hoofs like earthquake, and a steed
Dark and gigantic, with the tempest’s speed,
Bursts through their ranks; a woman sits thereon,
Fairer it seems than aught that earth can breed,
Calm, radiant, like the phantom of the dawn,
A spirit from the caves of daylight wandering gone.
IX
All thought it was God’s Angel come to sweep
The lingering guilty to their fiery grave;
The Tyrant from his throne in dread did leap, —
Her innocence his child from fear did save;
Scared by
the faith they feigned, each priestly slave
Knelt for His mercy whom they served with blood,
And, like the refluence of a mighty wave
Sucked into the loud sea, the multitude
With crushing panic fled in terror’s altered mood.
X
They pause, they blush, they gaze; a gathering shout
Bursts like one sound from the ten thousand streams
Of a tempestuous sea; that sudden rout
One checked who never in his mildest dreams
Felt awe from grace or loveliness, the seams
Of his rent heart so hard and cold a creed
Had seared with blistering ice; but he misdeems
That he is wise whose wounds do only bleed
Inly for self, — thus thought the Iberian Priest indeed,
XI
And others, too, thought he was wise to see
In pain, and fear, and hate, something divine —
In love and beauty, no divinity.
Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine
Like a fiend’s hope upon his lips and eyne,
He said, and the persuasion of that sneer
Rallied his trembling comrades—’Is it mine
To stand alone, when kings and soldiers fear
A woman? Heaven has sent its other victim here.’
XII
‘Were it not impious,’ said the King, ‘to break
Our holy oath?’—’Impious to keep it, say!’
Shrieked the exulting Priest:—’Slaves, to the stake
Bind her, and on my head the burden lay
Of her just torments; at the Judgment Day
Will I stand up before the golden throne
Of Heaven, and cry,—”To Thee did I betray
An infidel! but for me she would have known
Another moment’s joy!” the glory be thine own.’
XIII
They trembled, but replied not, nor obeyed,
Pausing in breathless silence. Cythna sprung
From her gigantic steed, who, like a shade
Chased by the winds, those vacant streets among
Fled tameless, as the brazen rein she flung
Upon his neck, and kissed his moonèd brow.
A piteous sight, that one so fair and young
The clasp of such a fearful death should woo
With smiles of tender joy as beamed from Cythna now.
XIV
The warm tears burst in spite of faith and fear
From many a tremulous eye, but, like soft dews
Which feed spring’s earliest buds, hung gathered there,
Frozen by doubt, — alas! they could not choose
But weep; for, when her faint limbs did refuse
To climb the pyre, upon the mutes she smiled;
And with her eloquent gestures, and the hues
Of her quick lips, even as a weary child
Wins sleep from some fond nurse with its caresses mild,