XLVIII 425 Or go to Rome, which is the sepulchre, Oh, not of him, but of our joy: 't is nought That ages, empires, and religions, there Lie buried in the ravage they have wrought; For such as he can lend, they borrow not Glory from those who made the world their prey; And he is gathered to the kings of thought Who waged contention with their time's decay, And of the past are all that cannot pass away. XLIX Go thou to Rome, at once the Paradise, The grave, the city, and the wilderness; 430 434 And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress The bones of Desolation's nakedness, Pass, till the Spirit of the spot shall lead 440 A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread ; L 445 And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand; And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, Pavilioning the dust of him who planned This refuge for his memory, doth stand Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath A field is spread, on which a newer band Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, Welcoming him we lose with scarce-extinguished breath. 450 LI Here pause: these graves are all too young as yet To have outgrown the sorrow which consigned Its charge to each; and if the seal is set, Here, on one fountain of a mourning mind, Break it not thou! too surely shalt thou find Thine own well full, if thou returnest home, Of tears and gall. From the world's bitter wind Seek shelter in the shadow of the tomb. What Adonais is, why fear we to become? 455 LII 460 The One remains, the many change and pass; Heaven's light for ever shines, Earth's shadows fly; Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of eternity, Until Death tramples it to fragments. - Die, 464 If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek! Follow where all is fled!- Rome's azure sky, Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words, are weak The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak. LIII Why linger, why turn back, why shrink, my heart? No more let Life divide what Death can join together. LIV That Light whose smile kindles the Universe, Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love 480 The fire for which all thirst, now beams on me, 485 Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality. ᏞᏙ The breath whose might I have invoked in song Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. 495 1821. A DIRGE ROUGH wind, that moanest loud Wild wind, when sullen cloud Sad storm, whose tears are vain, 1822. Wail for the world's wrong! EPITAPH THESE are two friends whose lives were undivided: So let their memory be, now they have glided Under the grave; let not their bones be parted, For their two hearts in life were single-hearted. 1822. LINES WHEN the lamp is shattered, 5 5 No The heart's echoes render song when the spirit is mute,- Like the wind through a ruined cell, That ring the dead seaman's knell. When hearts have once mingled, 15 Love first leaves the well-built nest; To endure what it once possest. O Love! who bewailest The frailty of all things here, Why choose you the frailest 20 For your cradle, your home, and your bier? Its passions will rock thee, As the storms rock the ravens on high: Like the sun from a wintry sky. From thy nest every rafter Will rot, and thine eagle home Leave thee naked to laughter, When leaves fall and cold winds come. 1822. 25 30 A WIDOW bird sate mourning for her love Upon a wintry bough; The frozen wind crept on above, The freezing stream below. |