XLVIII Or go to Rome, which is the sepulchre, Oh, not of him, but of our joy: 't is nought 425 prey; 430 XLIX Go thou to Rome, at once the Paradise, 434 And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress 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 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, That Beauty in which all things work and move, That Benediction which the eclipsing curse 480 Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love Which, through the web of being blindly wove By man and beast and earth and air and sea, Burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of The fire for which all thirst, now beams on me, 485 Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality. LV 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, Sweet tones are remembered not; When the lips have spoken, Loved accents are soon forgot. As music and splendour 5 5 Survive not the lamp and the lute, 10 The heart's echoes render No 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, Love first leaves the well-built nest; The weak one is singled To endure what it once possest. O Love! who bewailest The frailty of all things here, Why choose you the frailest 15 20 For your cradle, your home, and your bier? Its passions will rock theė, 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, |