And all the everlasting cataracts, And all the headlong torrents far and near, It was Hyperion :- His bright feet touch'd, and there he stay'd to view To the most hateful seeing of itself. In midst of his own brightness, like the bulk To one who travels from the dusking East: And Phorcus, sea-born, and together strode There those four shouted forth old Saturn's name; Saturn sat near the Mother of the Gods, 66 Saturn! In whose face was no joy, though all the Gods HYPERION. BOOK III. THUS in alternate uproar and sad peace, Amazed were those Titans utterly. O leave them, Muse! O leave them to their woes; For thou art weak to sing such tumults dire: A solitary sorrow best befits Thy lips, and antheming a lonely grief. Leave them, O Muse! for thou anon wilt find Wandering in vain about bewildered shores. And his twin-sister sleeping in their bower, Full ankle-deep in lilies of the vale. The nightingale had ceas'd, and a few stars Unhaunted by the murmurous noise of waves, Though scarcely heard in many a green recess. He listen'd, and he wept, and his bright tears Went trickling down the golden bow he held. Thus with half-shut suffused eyes he stood, While from beneath some cumbrous boughs hard by With solemn step an awful Goddess came, And there was purport in her looks for him, Which he with eager guess began to read Perplex'd, the while melodiously he said: "How cam'st thou over the unfooted sea? "Or hath that antique mien and robed form "Mov'd in these vales invisible till now? "Sure I have heard those vestments sweeping o'er "The fallen leaves, when I have sat alone "In cool mid-forest. Surely I have traced "The rustle of those ample skirts about "These grassy solitudes, and seen the flowers "Lift up their heads, as still the whisper pass'd. "Goddess! I have beheld those eyes before, "And their eternal calm, and all that face, "Or I have dream'd."-"Yes," said the supreme shape, "Thou hast dream'd of me; and awaking up "Didst find a lyre all golden by thy side, "Whose strings touch'd by thy fingers, all the vast "Unwearied ear of the whole universe "Listen'd in pain and pleasure at the birth "Of such new tuneful wonder. Is't not strange "That thou shouldst weep, so gifted? Tell me, youth, "What sorrow thou canst feel; for I am sad "When thou dost shed a tear: explain thy griefs "To one who in this lonely isle hath been "The watcher of thy sleep and hours of life, "From the young day when first thy infant hand 66 "I strive to search wherefore I am so sad, Until a melancholy numbs my limbs ; "And then upon the grass I sit, and moan, "Like one who once had wings.-O why should I "Feel curs'd and thwarted, when the liegeless air "Yields to my step aspirant? why should I 'Spurn the green turf as hateful to my feet? "Goddess benign, point forth some unknown thing: "Are there not other regions than this isle? "What are the stars? There is the sun, the sun! "And the most patient brilliance of the moon! "And stars by thousands! Point me out the way "To any one particular beauteous star, "And I will fit into it with my lyre, "And make its silvery splendour pant with bliss. 66 I have heard the cloudy thunder: Where is power? "Whose hand, whose essence, what divinity "Makes this alarum in the elements, "While I here idle listen on the shores 66 Knowledge enormous makes a God of me. Names, deeds, gray legends, dire events, rebellions, "Majesties, sovran voices, agonies, Her arms as one who prophesied.—At length Celestial * * * * * * * THE END. |