Of such late wassailers; yet, oh! where else Shall I inform my unacquainted feet
In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? My brothers, when they saw me wearied out With this long way, resolving here to lodge Under the spreading favour of these pines, Stept, as they said, to the next thicket-side To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit As the kind hospitable woods provide. They left me then, when the gray-hooded Even, Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. But where they are, and why they came not back, Is now the labour of my thought; 'tis likeliest They had engaged their wandering steps too far, And envious darkness, ere they could return, Had stole them from me; else, O thievish Night! Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end, In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars,
That Nature hung in Heaven, and filled their lamps With everlasting oil, to give due light To the misled and lonely traveller?
This is the place, as well as I may guess, Whence even now the tumult of loud Mirth Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear, Yet nought but single darkness do I find. What might this be? A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory,
Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues, that syllable men's names On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. These thoughts may startle well, but not astound The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended By a strong-siding champion-Conscience.— O welcome pure-eyed Faith! white-handed Hope! Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, And thou, unblemished form of Chastity!
I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were, To keep my life and honour unassailed. Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night ?-
I did not err, there does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night, And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. I cannot halloo to my brothers; but
Such noise as I can make to be heard furthest I'll venture, for my new enlivened spirits Prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off.
Sweet Echo! sweetest nymph, that livest unscen
Within thy airy shell,
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroidered vale,
Where the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
That likest thy Narcissus are?
Oh, if thou have
Hid them in some flowery cave
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere!
So mayst thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies.
Com. Can any mortal mixture of Earth's mould Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment?— Sure something holy lodges in that breast, And with these raptures moves the vocal Air To testify his hidden residence: How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence, through the empty-vaulted Night, At every fall smoothing the raven-down
Of Darkness till it smiled! I have oft heard My mother Circè with the Sirens three, Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs,
Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, And lap it in Elysium; Scylla wept,
And chid her barking waves into attention, And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause: Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, And in sweet madness robbed it of itself; But such a sacred and home-felt delight,— Such sober certainty of waking bliss,-
I never heard till now.-I'll speak to her, And she shall be my queen.-Hail foreign wonder! Whom, certain, these rough shades did never breed, Unless the goddess that, in rural shrine,
Dwell'st here with Pan, or Silvan, by blest song
Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog
To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood.
La. Nay, gentle Shepherd! ill is lost that praise That is addressed to unattending ears;
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift How to regain my severed company, Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo
To give me answer from her mossy couch.
Com. What Chance, good Lady! hath bereft you thus? La. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth.
Com. Could that divide you from near-ushering guides? La. They left me weary on a grassy turf. Com. By falsehood? or discourtesy? or why? La. To seek in the valley some cool, friendly spring. Com. And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady? La. They were but twain, and purposed quick return. Com. Perhaps forestalling Night prevented them. La. How easy my misfortune is to hit! Com. Imports their loss, beside the present need? La. No less than if I should my brothers lose. Com. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom? La. As smooth as Hebè's their unrazored lips. Com. Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox In his loose traces from the furrow came, And the swinkt hedger at his supper sat; I saw them under a green, mantling vine, That crawls along the side of yon small hill,
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots; Their port was more than human, as they stood : I took it for a fairy vision
Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play in the plighted clouds. I was awe-struck, And, as I passed, I worshipped ;-if those you seek, It were a journey like the path to Heaven, To help you find them.
What readiest way would bring me to that place?
Com. Due west it rises from this shrubby point.
La. To find out that, good Shepherd! I suppose In such a scant allowance of star-light, Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, Without the sure guess of well practised feet.
Com. I know each lane, and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, And every bosky bourn from side to side,— My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood ;- And if your stray attendants be yet lodged, Or shroud within these limits, I shall know Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark From her thatched pallet rouse; if otherwise, I can conduct you, Lady, to a low
But loyal cottage, where you may be safe Till further quest.
Shepherd! I take thy word, And trust thy honest offered courtesy,
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls, And courts of princes, where it first was named, And yet is most pretended: in a place Less warranted than this, or less secure,
I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. Eye me, blest Providence! and square my trial To my proportioned strength. Shepherd, lead on!
E. Bro. Unmuffle ye faint Stars! and thou fair Moon!
That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here In double night-of darkness, and of shades; Or, if your influence be quite dammed up With black usurping mists, some gentle taper,- Though a rush-candle from the wicker hole
Of some clay habitation,-visit us
With thy long leveled rule of streaming light, And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,
Be barred that happiness, might we but hear The folded flocks penned in their wattled cotes, Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock Count the night watches to his feathery dames, 'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs. But, oh that hapeless virgin, our lost Sister! Where may she wander now, whither betake her, From the chill dew, amidst rude burs and thistles?— Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, Or against the rugged bark of some broad elm Leans her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. What if in wild amazement, and affright;
Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp Of savage hunger, or of savage heat!
E. Bro. Peace, Brother! be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils :
For grant they be so, while they rest unknown, What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid! Or, if they be but false alarms of fears,
How bitter is such self-delusion!
I do not think my sister so to seek,
Or so unprincipled in Virtue's book,
And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, As that the single want of light and noise
(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not)
« السابقةمتابعة » |