If thine or theirs were treasures to be bought XIX Paused, and the spirit of that mighty singing When the bolt has pierced its brain; 270 275 As summer clouds dissolve, unburdened of their rain; As a far taper fades with fading night; As a brief insect dies with dying day, My song, its pinions disarrayed of might, 280 Drooped; o'er it closed the echoes far away Of the great voice which did its flight sustain, As waves which lately paved his watery way Hiss round a drowner's head in their tempestuous play. 1820. THE SENSITIVE PLANT PART I A SENSITIVE PLANT in a garden grew, And the Spring arose on the garden fair, 285 5 And each flower and herb on earth's dark breast Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. But none ever trembled and panted with bliss 10 sweet want, As the companionless Sensitive Plant. The snowdrop, and then the violet, 14 Arose from the ground with warm rain wet, sent From the turf, like the voice and the instrument. Then the pied wind-flowers and the tulip tall, And the Naiad-like lily of the vale, Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale, 20 And the hyacinth, purple, and white, and blue, 25 It was felt like an odour within the sense; And the rose like a nymph to the bath addrest, 29 Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air The soul of her beauty and love lay bare; And the wand-like lily, which lifted up, Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky; And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose- And on the stream whose inconstant bosom Broad water-lilies lay tremulously, 35 40 45 And around them the soft stream did glide and dance With a motion of sweet sound and radiance. And the sinuous paths of lawn and of moss, Which led through the garden along and across, 50 Were all paved with daisies and delicate bells, And flow'rets which, drooping as day drooped too, 55 And from this undefiled Paradise The flowers (as an infant's awakening eyes Smile on its mother, whose singing sweet When Heaven's blithe winds had unfolded them For each one was interpenetrated With the light and the odour its neighbour shed, Like young lovers whom youth and love make dear Wrapt and filled by their mutual atmosphere. 60 65 But the Sensitive Plant, which could give small fruit 70 Of the love which it felt from the leaf to the root, Received more than all, it loved more than ever, Where none wanted but it, could belong to the giver; For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower: It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full; The light winds, which from unsustaining wings The beams which dart from many a star The pluméd insects swift and free, 75 80 85 The unseen clouds of the dew, which lie The quivering vapours of dim noontide, Each and all like ministering angels were And when evening descended from Heaven above, And the Earth was all rest, and the air was all love, And delight, though less bright, was far more deep, And the day's veil fell from the world of sleep, 90 95 101 And the beasts, and the birds, and the insects were drowned In an ocean of dreams without a sound, Whose waves never mark, though they ever impress The light sand which paves it, consciousness; (Only overhead the sweet nightingale Ever sang more sweet as the day might fail, 105 Were mixed with the dreams of the Sensitive Plant.) The Sensitive Plant was the earliest 110 |