Every turn and glance of thine, And the steady sunset glow, That stays upon thee? For in thee Is nothing sudden, nothing single; Like two streams of incense free From one censer in one shrine, Thought and motion mingle, Mingle ever. Motions flow To one another, even as tho' They were modulated so To an unheard melody, Which lives about thee, and a sweep Of richest pauses, evermore Drawn from each other mellow-deep; Who may express thee, Eleänore? V. I stand before thee, Eleänore; I see thy beauty gradually unfold, Daily and hourly, more and more. I muse, as in a trance, the while Slowly, as from a cloud of gold, Comes cut thy deep ambrosial smile. I muse, as in a trance, whene'er The languors of thy love-deep eyes Float on to me. I would I were So tranced, so rapt in ecstasies, VI. Sometimes, with most intensity Thought folded over thought, smiling asleep, Slowly awaken'd, grow so full and deep Ev'n while we gaze on it, Should slowly round his orb, and slowly grow To a full face, there like a sun remain And draw itself to what it was before; VII. As thunder-clouds that, hung on high, Falling into a still delight, And luxury of contemplation : As waves that up a quiet cove Rolling slide, and lying still Shadow forth the banks at will: Or sometimes they swell and move, Pressing up against the land, With motions of the outer sea: And the self-same influence Controlleth all the soul and sense Of Passion gazing upon thee. His bow-string slacken'd, languid Love, Leaning his cheek upon his hand, Droops both his wings, regarding thee, And so would languish evermore, Serene, imperial Eleänore. VIII. But when I see thee roam, with tresses unconfined, While the amorous, odorous wind Breathes low between the sunset and the moon; Or, in a shadowy saloon, On silken cushions half reclined; I watch thy grace; and in its place Thro' my veins to all my frame, Dissolvingly and slowly soon From thy rose-red lips My name Floweth; and then, as in a swoon, With dinning sound my ears are rife, My tremulous tongue faltereth, I lose my colour, I lose my breath, I drink the cup of a costly death, Brimm'd with delirious draughts of warmest life. I die with my delight, before I hear what I would hear from thee; Yet tell my name again to me, I would be dying evermore, So dying ever, Eleanore. I. My life is full of weary days, But good things have not kept aloof, Nor wander'd into other ways: I have not lack'd thy mild reproof, Nor golden largess of thy praise. And now shake hands across the brink Of that deep grave to which I go : Shake hands once more: I cannot sink So far-far down, but I shall know Thy voice, and answer from below. II. When in the darkness over me Nor wreathe thy cap with doleful crape, To scare church-harpies from the master's feast; Our dusted velvets have much need of thee: Thou art no sabbath-drawler of old saws, Distill'd from some worm-canker'd homily; But spurr'd at heart with fieriest energy To embattail and to wall about thy cause With iron-worded proof, hating to hark The humming of the drowsy pulpit-drone Half God's good sabbath, while the wornout clerk Brow-beats his desk below. Thou from a throne IV. ALEXANDER. WARRIOR of God, whose strong right arm debased The throne of Persia, when her Satrap bled At Issus by the Syrian gates, or fled Beyond the Memmian naphtha-pits, disgraced For ever-thee (thy pathway sand-erased) Gliding with equal crowns two serpents led Joyful to that palm-planted fountain-fed Ammonian Oasis in the waste. Mounted in heaven wilt shoot into the There in a silent shade of laurel brown dark Arrows of lightnings. I will stand and mark. III. MINE be the strength of spirit, full and free, Like some broad river rushing down alone, With the selfsame impulse wherewith he was thrown From his loud fount upon the echoing lea: Apart the Chamian Oracle divine Shelter'd his unapproached mysteries : High things were spoken there, unhanded down; Only they saw thee from the secret shrine Returning with hot cheek and kindled eyes. V. BUONAPARTE. Which with increasing might doth forward HE thought to quell the stubborn hearts flee of oak, By town, and tower, and hill, and cape, Madman !—to chain with chains, and bind Mine be the power which ever to its When from her wooden walls,-lit by 26 Cries to Thee, 'Lord, how long shall How long this icy-hearted Muscovite And woke her with a lay from fairy land. For Hope is other Hope and wanders Nor cares to lisp in love's delicious And Fancy watches in the wilderness, That sets at twilight in a land of VIII. THE form, the form alone is eloquent! rest And win all eyes with all accomplish ment : Yet in the whirling dances as we went, Forgive, who smiled when she was torn That once had power to rob it of content. in three ; Us, who stand now, when we should aid the right A matter to be wept with tears of blood! VII. CARESS'D or chidden by the slender hand, A moment came the tenderness of tears, A ghost of passion that no smiles restore What is there in the great sphere of the 'O happy bridesmaid, make a happy And range of evil between death and And all at once a pleasant truth I learn'd, For while the tender service made thee birth, That I should fear, -if I were loved by thee? All the inner, all the outer world of pain weep, I loved thee for the tear thou couldst not hide, Clear Love would pierce and cleave, if And prest thy hand, and knew the press thou wert mine, As I have heard that, somewhere in the return'd, And thought, 'My life is sick of single sleep : bride !' Fresh-water springs come up through O happy bridesmaid, make a happy main, bitter brine. |