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XII.

And then," she said, "he laid me in a cave Above the waters, by that chasm of sea, A fountain round and vast, in which the wave Imprison'd, boil'd and leap'd perpetually, Down which, one moment resting, he did flee, Winning the adverse depth; that spacious cell Like an upaithric temple wide and high, Whose aery dome is inaccessible,

XVIII.

"It was a babe, beautiful from its birth.-
It was like thee, dear love! its eyes were thine.
Its brow, its lips, and so upon the earth
It laid its fingers, as now rest on mine
Thine own beloved :-'t was a dream divine;
Even to remember how it fled, how swift,
How utterly, might make the heart repine,-
Though 't was a dream."-Then Cythna did uplift

Was pierced with one round cleft through which the Her looks on mine, as if some doubt she sought to

sunbeams fell.

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XIX.

A doubt which would not flee, a tenderness Of questioning grief, a source of thronging tears; Which, having past, as one whom sobs opprest, She spoke "Yes, in the wilderness of years Her memory, aye, like a green home appears, She suck'd her fill even at this breast, sweet love, For many months. I had no mortal fears; Methought I felt her lips and breath approve,It was a human thing which to my bosom clove. XX.

"I watch'd the dawn of her first smiles, and soon When zenith-stars were trembling on the wave, Or when the beams of the invisible moon, Or sun, from many a prism within the cave, Their gem-born shadows to the water gave, Her looks would hunt them, and with outspread hand,

From the swift lights which might that fountain pave,

She would mark one, and laugh, when that com mand

Slighting, it linger'd there, and could not understand.

XXI.

"Methought her looks began to talk with me; And no articulate sounds, but something sweet Her lips would frame, so sweet it could not be, That it was meaningless: her touch would meet Mine, and our pulses calmly flow and beat In response while we slept; and on a day When I was happiest in that strange retreat, With heaps of golden shells we two did play,Both infants, weaving wings for time's perpetual way.

XXII.

"Ere night, methought, her waning eyes were grown

Weary with joy, and, tired with our delight, We, on the earth, like sister twins lay down On one fair mother's bosom ;-from that night She fled;-like those illusions clear and bright, Which dwell in lakes, when the red moon on high Pause ere it wakens tempest ;-and her flight, Though 'twas the death of brainless phantasy, Yet smote my lonesome heart more than all misery.

XXIII.

"It seem'd that in the dreary night, the diver Who brought me thither, came again, and bore My child away. I saw the waters quiver, When he so swiftly sunk, as once before: Then morning came-it shone even as of yore, But I was changed-the very life was gone Out of my heart-I wasted more and more, Day after day, and sitting there alone, Vex'd the inconstant waves with my perpetual moan

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"What is that Power? ye mock yourselves, and give
A human heart to what ye cannot know:
As if the cause of life could think and live!
"T were as if man's own works should feel, and show
The hopes, and fears, and thoughts from which they
flow,

And he be like to them. Lo! Plague is free
To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and
Snow,

Disease, and Want, and worse Necessity -
Of hate and ill, and Pride, and Fear, and Tyranny.

VI.

"What is that Power? Some moon-struck sophist stood

Watching the shade from his own soul upthrown Fill Heaven and darken Earth, and in such mood The Form he saw and worshipp'd was his own, His likeness in the world's vast mirror shown; And 't were an innocent dream, but that a faith Nursed by fear's dew of poison, grows thereon, And that men say, that Power has chosen Death On all who scorn its laws, to wreak immortal wrath. VII.

"Men say that they themselves have heard and

seen,

Or known from others who have known such things,
A Shade, a Form, which Earth and Heaven between
Wields an invisible rod-that Priests and Kings,
Custom, domestic sway, ay, all that brings
Man's free-born soul beneath the oppressor's heel,
Are his strong ministers, and that the stings
Of death will make the wise his vengeance feel,
Though truth and virtue arm their hearts with ten-
fold steel.

VIII.

“And it is said, this Power will punish wrong;
Yes, add despair to crime, and pain to pain!
And deepest hell, and deathless snakes among,
Will bind the wretch on whom is fix'd a stain,
Which, like a plague, a burthen, and a bane,
Clung to him while he lived;-for love and hate,
Virtue and vice, they say, are difference vain-
The will of strength is right-this human state
Tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate.

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Even now eclipses the descending moon!—
Dungeons and palaces are transitory-
High temples fade like vapor-Man alone
Remains, whose will has power when all beside is
gone.

XVII.

"Let all be free and equal!-from your hearts
I feel an echo; through my inmost frame
Like sweetest sound, seeking its mate, it darts-
Whence come ye, friends? alas, I cannot name
All that I read of sorrow, toil, and shame,
On your worn faces; as in legends old
Which make immortal the disastrous fame
Of conquerors and impostors false and bold,
The discord of your hearts, I in your looks behold

XVIII.

"Whence come ye, friends? from pouring human blood

Forth on the earth? or bring ye steel and gold,
That Kings may dupe and slay the multitude?
Or from the famish'd poor, pale, weak, and cold,
Bear ye the earnings of their toil? unfold!
Speak! are your hands in slaughter's sanguine hue
Stain'd freshly? have your hearts in guile grown

old?

Know yourselves thus! ye shall be pure as dew, And I will be a friend and sister unto you.

XIX.

"Disguise it not-we have one human heartAll mortal thoughts confess a common home : Blush not for what may to thyself impart Stains of inevitable crime: the doom Is this, which has, or may, or must become Thine, and all human-kind's. Ye are the spoil Which Time thus marks for the devouring tomb, Thou and thy thoughts, and they, and all the toil Wherewith ye twine the rings of life's perpetual coil.

XX.

Disguise it not-ye blush for what ye hate, And Enmity is sister unto Shame; Look on your mind-it is the book of fateAh! it is dark with many a blazon'd name Of misery-all are mirrors of the same; But the dark fiend who with his iron pen Dipp'd in scorn's fiery poison, makes his fame Enduring there, would o'er the heads of men Pass harmless, if they scorn'd to make their hearts his den.

XXI.

"Yes, it is Hate, that shapeless fiendly thing Of many names, all evil, some divine,

Whom self-contempt arms with a mortal sting; Which, when the heart its snaky folds entwine, Is wasted quite, and when it doth repine To gorge such bitter prey, on all beside It turns with ninefold rage, as with its twine When Amphisbæna some fair bird has tied, Soon o'er the putrid mass he threats on every side. XXII.

"Reproach not thine own soul, but know thyself, Nor hate another's crime, nor lothe thine own. It is the dark idolatry of self,

Which, when our thoughts and actions once are

gone,

Demands that man should weep, and bleed, and

groan;

O vacant expiation! be at rest.—

The past is Death's, the future is thine own;

And love and joy can make the foulest breast A paradise of flowers, where Peace might build her

nest.

XXIII.

"Speak thou! whence come ye?'-A Youth

made reply,

Wearily, wearily o'er the boundless deep We sail;-thou readest well the misery Told in these faded eyes, but much doth sleep Within, which there the poor heart loves to keep, Or dare not write on the dishonor'd brow; Even from our childhood have we learn'd to steep The bread of slavery in the tears of woe, And never dream'd of hope or refuge until now.

XXIV.

"Yes-I must speak-my secret should have per. ish'd

Even with the heart it wasted, as a brand Fades in the dying flame whose life it cherish'd, But that no human bosom can withstand Thee, wondrous Lady, and the mild command Of thy keen eyes:-yes, we are wretched slaves Who from their wonted loves and native land Are reft, and bear o'er the dividing waves The unregarded prey of calm and happy graves. XXV.

"We drag afar from pastoral vales the fairest, Among the daughters of those mountains lone, We drag them there, where all things best and rarest

Are stain'd and trampled :-years have come and

gone

Since, like the ship which bears me, I have known No thought; but now the eyes of one dear Maid On mine with light of mutual love have shoneShe is my life,-I am but as the shade Of her,-a smoke sent up from ashes, soon to fade. XXVI.

"For she must perish in the tyrant's hallAlas, alas!'-He ceased, and by the sail Sate cowering-but his sobs were heard by all, And still before the ocean and the gale The ship fled fast till the stars 'gan to fail, And round me gather'd with mute countenance, The Seamen gazed, the Pilot, worn and pale With toil, the Captain with gray locks, whose glance Met mine in restless awe-they stood as in a trance.

XXVII.

"Recede not! pause not now! thou art grown old, But Hope will make thee young, for Hope and

Youth

Are children of one mother, even Love-behold! The eternal stars gaze on us!-is the truth Within your soul? care for your own, or ruth For other's sufferings? do ye thirst to bear A heart which not the serpent custom's tooth May violate?-be free! and even here, Swear to be firm till death! they cried, we swear! we swear!'

XXVIII.

"The very darkness shook, as with a blast Of subterranean thunder at the cry; The hollow shore its thousand echoes cast Into the night, as if the sea, and sky, And earth, rejoiced with new-born Liberty, For in that name they swore! Bolts were undrawn, And on the deck, with unaccustom'd eye, The captives gazing stood, and every one Shrank as the inconstant torch upon her countenance shone.

XXIX.

"They were earth's purest children, young and fair, With eyes the shrines of unawaken'd thought, And brows as bright as spring or morning, ere Dark time had there its evil legend wrought In characters of cloud which wither not.The change was like a dream to them; but soon They knew the glory of their alter'd lot, In the bright wisdom of youth's breathless noon, Sweet talk, and smiles, and sighs, all bosoms did

attune.

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