XXXV.

"And thus my prison was the populous earthWhere I saw-even as misery dreams of morn Before the east has given its glory birthReligion'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.

XXXVII.

"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.

ΧΧΧΙΧ.

"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.

L

"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 soli-
tude?

V.

"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 vain-
The 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.

"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.

XXX.

"But one was mute, her cheeks and lips most fair,
Changing their hue like lilies newly blown,
Beneath a bright acacia's shadowy hair,
Waved by the wind amid the sunny noon,
Showed that her soul was quivering; and full soon
That Youth arose, and breathlessly did look
On her and me, as for some speechless boon:
I smiled, and both their hands in mine I took,
And felt a soft delight from what their spirits shook.

CANTO IX.

I.

"THAT night we anchored in a woody bay,
And sleep no more around us dared to hover
Than, when all doubt and fear has past away,
It shades the couch of some unresting lover,
Whose heart is now at rest: thus night past over
In mutual joy :-around, a forest grew

Of poplars and dark oaks, whose shade did cover The waning stars, prankt in the waters blue, And trembled in the wind which from the morning flew.

II.

"The joyous mariners, and each free maiden, Now brought from the deep forest many a bough, With woodland spoil most innocently laden; Soon wreaths of budding foliage seemed to flow Over the mast and sails, the stern and prow Were canopied with blooming boughs, the while On the slant sun's path o'er the waves we go Rejoicing, like the dwellers of an isle

Doomed to pursue those waves that cannot cease to smile.

III.

"The many ships spotting the dark blue deep
With snowy sails, fled fast as ours came nigh,
In fear and wonder; and on every steep
Thousands did gaze, they heard the startling cry,
Like earth's own voice lifted unconquerably
To all her children, the unbounded mirth,
The glorious joy of thy name-Liberty!
They heard! As o'er the mountains of the earth
From peak to peak leap on the beams of morning's
birth:

IV.

"So from that cry over the boundless hills, Sudden was caught one universal sound, Like a volcano's voice, whose thunder fills Remotest skies,-such glorious madness found A path through human hearts with stream which drowned

Its struggling fears and cares, dark custom's brood; They knew not whence it came, but felt around A wide contagion poured-they called aloud On Liberty-that name lived on the sunny flood.

"We reached the port-alas! from many spirits The wisdom which had waked that cry, was fled, Like the brief glory which dark Heaven inherits From the false dawn, which fades ere it is spread, Upon the night's devouring darkness shed: Yet soon bright day will burst-even like a chasm Of fire, to burn the shrouds outworn and dead, Which wrap the world; a wide enthusiasm, To cleanse the fevered world as with an earthquake's spasm!