XVII.

"Methought I was about to be a mother-
Month after month went by, and still I dreamed
That we should soon be all to one another,
I and my child; and still new pulses seemed
To beat beside my heart, and still I deemed
There was a babe within-and when the rain
Of winter through the rifted cavern streamed,
Methought, after a lapse of lingering pain,

I saw that lovely shape, which near my heart had lain.

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!-'twas a dream divine;
Even to remember how it fled, how swift,
How utterly, might make the heart repine,-
Though 'twas a dream."-Then Cythna did uplift
Her looks on mine, as if some doubt she sought to
shift:

XIX.

A doubt which would not flee, a tenderness Of questioning grief, a source of thronging tears; Which, having past, as one whom sobs oppress, She spoke: "Yes, in the wilderness of years Her memory, aye, like a green home appears. She sucked 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 watched 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, [pave,

From the swift lights which might that fountain She would mark one, and laugh,when that command Slighting, it lingered 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
Weary with joy, and tired with our delight, [grown
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.

XXXV.

"And thus my prison was the populous earth-
Where I saw-even as misery dreams of morn
Before the east has given its glory birth-
Religion's pomp made desolate by the scorn
Of Wisdom's faintest smile, and thrones uptorn,
And dwellings of mild people interspersed
With undivided fields of ripening corn,

And love made free,-a hope which we have nurst Even with our blood and tears,-until its glory burst.

XXXVI.

"All is not lost! There is some recompense For hope whose fountain can be thus profound, Even throned Evil's splendid impotence, Girt by its hell of power, the secret sound Of hymns to truth and freedom,-the dread bound

Of life and death passed fearlessly and well, Dungeons wherein the high resolve is found, Racks which degraded woman's greatness tell, And what may else be good and irresistible.

ΧΧΧΥΠ.

"Such are the thoughts which, like the fires that flare

In storm-encompassed isles, we cherish yet In this dark ruin-such were mine even there; As in its sleep some odorous violet, While yet its leaves with nightly dews are wet, Breathes in prophetic dreams of day's uprise, Or, as ere Scythian frost in fear has met Spring's messengers descending from the skies, The buds foreknow their life-this hope must ever rise.

XXXVIII.

"So years had past, when sudden earthquake rent The depth of ocean, and the cavern crackt With sound, as if the world's wide continent Had fallen in universal ruin wrackt; And through the cleft streamed in one cataract The stifling waters :-when I woke, the flood, Whose banded waves that crystal cave had sacked, Was ebbing round me, and my bright abode Before me yawned-a chasm desert, and bare, and broad.

XXXIX.

"Above me was the sky, beneath the sea: I stood upon a point of shattered stone, And heard loose rocks rushing tumultuously With splash and shock into the deep-anon All ceased, and there was silence wide and lone. I felt that I was free! The Ocean-spray Quivered beneath my feet, the broad Heaven shone Around, and in my hair the winds did play, Lingering as they pursued their unimpeded way.

XL.

"My spirit moved upon the sea like wind Which round some thymy cape will lag and hover, Though it can wake the still cloud, and unbind The strength of tempest: day was almost over, When through the fading light I could discover A ship approaching-its white sails were fed With the north wind-its moving shade did cover The twilight deep;—the mariners in dread Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread.

XLI.

"And when they saw one sitting on a crag,
They sent a boat to me ;-the sailors rowed
In awe through many a new and fearful jag
Of overhanging rock, through which there flowed
The foam of streams that cannot make abode.
They came and questioned me, but, when they heard
My voice, they became silent, and they stood
And moved as men in whom new love had stirred
Deep thoughts: so to the ship we past without a word.

CANTO VIII.

I.

"I SATE beside the steersman then, and, gazing Upon the west, cried, 'Spread the sails! behold! The sinking moon is like a watch tower blazing Over the mountains yet ;-the City of Gold Yon Cape alone does from the sight withhold; The stream is fleet-the north breathes steadily Beneath the stars; they tremble with the cold! Ye cannot rest upon the dreary sea ;— Haste, haste to the warm home of happier destiny!'

II.

"The Mariners obeyed the Captain stood
Aloof, and, whispering to the Pilot, said,
Alas, alas! I fear we are pursued

By wicked ghosts: a Phantom of the Dead,
The night before we sailed, came to my bed
In dream, like that!' The Pilot then replied,
"It cannot be she is a human Maid-

Her low voice makes you weep-she is some bride, Or daughter of high birth-she can be nought beside.'

III.

"We past the islets, borne by wind and stream, And as we sailed, the Mariners came near And thronged around to listen ;-in the gleam Of the pale moon I stood, as one whom fear May not attaint, and my calm voice did rear: "Ye are all human-yon broad moon gives light To millions who the self-same likeness wear. Even while I speak-beneath this very night, Their thoughts flow on like ours, in sadness or delight.

IV.

"What dream ye? Your own hands have built a Even for yourselves on a beloved shore: [home, For some, fond eyes are pining till they come, How they will greet him when his toils are o'er, And laughing babes rush from the well-known door! Is this your care? ye toil for your own good— Ye feel and think-has some immortal power Such purposes? or in a human mood, Dream ye some Power thus builds for man in solitude?

"What is that Power? Ye mock yourselves, and
A human heart to what ye cannot know: [give
As if the cause of life could think and live!
"Twere as if man's own works should feel, and show
The hopes, and fears, and thoughts, from which they
And he be like to them. Lo! Plague is free [flow,
To waste, Blight, Poison, Earthquake, Hail, and
Disease, and Want, and worse Necessity [Snow,
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 worshipped was his own,
His likeness in the world's vast mirror shown;
And 'twere 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, aye, 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 tenfold 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 fixed 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 vainThe will of strength is right-this human state Tyrants, that they may rule, with lies thus desolate.

IX.

"Alas, what strength? Opinion is more frail
Than yon dim cloud now fading on the moon
Even while we gaze, though it awhile avail
To hide the orb of truth-and every throne
Of Earth or Heaven, though shadow rests thereon,
One shape of many names:-for this ye plough
The barren waves of ocean; hence each one
Is slave or tyrant; all betray and bow,
Command, or kill, or fear, or wreak, or suffer woe.

X.

"Its names are each a sign which maketh holy All power-aye, the ghost, the dream, the shade, Of power-lust, falsehood, hate, and pride, and folly;

The pattern whence all fraud and wrong is made, A law to which mankind has been betrayed; And human love, is as the name well known Of a dear mother, whom the murderer laid In bloody grave, and, into darkness thrown, Gathered her wildered babes around him as his own.

XI.

"O love! who to the hearts of wandering men
Art as the calm to Ocean's weary waves!
Justice, or truth, or joy! thou only can
From slavery and religion's labyrinth caves
Guide us, as one clear star the seaman saves.
To give to all an equal share of good,

To track the steps of freedom, though through She pass, to suffer all in patient mood, [graves To weep for crime, though stained with thy friend's dearest blood.

XII.

"To feel the peace of self-contentment's lot,
To own all sympathies, and outrage none,
And, in the inmost bowers of sense and thought,
Until life's sunny day is quite gone down,
To sit and smile with Joy, or, not alone,
To kiss salt tears from the worn cheek of Woe;
To live, as if to love and live were one,—
This is not faith or law, nor those who bow
To thrones on Heaven or Earth, such destiny may
know.

XIII.

"But children near their parents tremble now,
Because they must obey-one rules another,
And as one Power rules both high and low,
So man is made the captive of his brother,
And Hate is throned on high with Fear her mother,
Above the Highest-and those fountain-cells,
Whence love yet flowed when faith had choked
all other,

Are darkened-Woman, as the bond-slave, dwells Of man, a slave; and life is poisoned in its wells.

XIV.

"Man seeks for gold in mines, that he may weave
A lasting chain for his own slavery ;—
In fear and restless care that he may live
He toils for others, who must ever be
The joyless thralls of like captivity;
He murders, for his chiefs delight in ruin;
He builds the altar, that its idol's fee
May be his very blood; he is pursuing
O, blind and willing wretch! his own obscure un-
doing.

XV.

"Woman!-she is his slave, she has become A thing I weep to speak-the child of scorn, The outcast of a desolated home.

Falsehood, and fear, and toil, like waves have worn Channels upon her cheek, which smiles adorn, As calm decks the false Ocean:-well ye know What Woman is, for none of Woman born Can choose but drain the bitter dregs of woe, Which ever from the oppressed to the oppressors flow.

XVI.

"This need not be; ye might arise, and will That gold should lose its power, and thrones their glory;

That love, which none may bind, be free to fill The world, like light; and evil faith, grown hoary With crime, be quenched and die.-Yon promonEven now eclipses the descending moon!— [tory Dungeons and palaces are transitory High temples fade like vapour-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.

G

"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 unaccustomed 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 unawakened 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 altered lot,
In the bright wisdom of youth's breathless noon,
Sweet talk, and smiles, and sighs, all bosoms did

attune.