PRINCE ATHANASE. A FRAGMENT. 1817. PART I. THERE was a youth who, as with toil and travel, Had grown quite weak and grey before his time Nor any could the restless griefs unravel Which burned within him, withering up his prime And goading him, like fiends, from land to land. Not his the load of any secret crime, For naught of ill his heart could understand, Baffled with blast of hope-consuming shame; 10 Had left within his soul their dark unrest : For none than he a purer heart could have, What sorrow strange, and shadowy, and unknown, Sent him, a hopeless wanderer, through mankind? If with a human sadness he did groan, He had a gentle yet aspiring mind; In others' joy, when all their own is dead: He loved, and laboured for his kind in grief, And yet, unlike all others, it is said That from such toil he never found relief; His soul had wedded wisdom, and her dower Is love and justice, clothed in which he sate Apart from men, as in a lonely tower, Pitying the tumult of their dark estate- 20 30 The strength of wealth or thought, to consecrate Those false opinions which the harsh rich use To blind the world they famish for their pride; Nor did he hold from any man his dues, But, like a steward in honest dealings tried, 40 With those who toiled and wept, the poor and wise, His riches and his cares he did divide. Fearless he was, and, scorning all disguise, What he dared do or think, though men might start, He spoke with mild yet unaverted eyes; Liberal he was of soul, and frank of heart, And to his many friends-all loved him wellWhate'er he knew or felt he would impart, If words he found those inmost thoughts to tell; If not, he smiled or wept; and his weak foes 50 He neither spurned nor hated, though with fell And mortal hate their thousand voices rose,They passed like aimless arrows from his earNor did his heart or mind its portal close To those, or them, or any whom life's sphere May comprehend within its wide array. What sadness made that vernal spirit sere ? He knew not. Though his life, day after day, Was failing like an unreplenished stream, Though in his eyes a cloud and burthen lay, 60 Through which his soul, like Vesper's serene beam Piercing the chasms of ever rising clouds, Shone, softly burning; though his lips did seem Like reeds which quiver in impetuous floods; And through his sleep, and o'er each waking hour, Thoughts after thoughts, unresting multitudes, Were driven within him, by some secret power, Which bade them blaze, and live, and roll afar, Like lights and sounds, from haunted tower to tower O'er castled mountains borne, when tempest's war Is levied by the night-contending winds, 70 Though such were in his spirit, as the fiends Which wake and feed on everliving woe,What was this grief, which ne'er in other minds A mirror found,-he knew not-none could know; But on whoe'er might question him he turned The light of his frank eyes, as if to show He knew not of the grief within that burned, But asked forbearance with a mournful look; 80 Or spoke in words from which none ever learned The cause of his disquietude; or shook To stir his secret pain without avail;— Between his heart and mind,-both unrelieved Wrought in his brain and bosom separate strife. Some said that he was mad, others believed 90 That memories of an antenatal life Made this, where now he dwelt, a penal hell; And others said that such mysterious grief From God's displeasure, like a darkness, fell On souls like his which owned no higher law Than love; love calm, steadfast, invincible By mortal fear or supernatural awe; 66 66 'Tis the shadow of a dream Which the veiled eye of memory never saw "But through the soul's abyss, like some dark 66 stream 100 Through shattered mines and caverns under ground "Rolls, shaking its foundations; and no beam "Of joy may rise, but it is quenched and drowned "In the dim whirlpools of this dream obscure : "Soon its exhausted waters will have found "A lair of rest beneath thy spirit pure, "O Athanase!-in one so good and great, So spake they idly of another's state Babbling vain words and fond philosophy; 110 This was their consolation; such debate Men held with one another; nor did he |