| |
| TWO worlds hast thou to dwell in, Sweet,— | |
| The virginal, untroubled sky, | |
| And this vexed region at my feet.— | |
| Alas, but one have I! | |
| |
| To all my songs there clings the shade, | 5 |
| The dulling shade, of mundane care; | |
| They amid mortal mists are made,— | |
| Thine, in immortal air. | |
| |
| My heart is dashed with griefs and fears; | |
| My song comes fluttering, and is gone. | 10 |
| O high above the home of tears, | |
| Eternal Joy, sing on! | |
| |
| Not loftiest bard, of mightiest mind, | |
| Shall ever chant a note so pure, | |
| Till he can cast this earth behind | 15 |
| And breathe in heaven secure. | |
| |
| We sing of Life, with stormy breath | |
| That shakes the lute’s distempered string: | |
| We sing of Love, and loveless Death | |
| Takes up the song we sing. | 20 |
| |
| And born in toils of Fate’s control, | |
| Insurgent from the womb, we strive | |
| With proud, unmanumitted soul | |
| To burst the golden gyve. | |
| |
| Thy spirit knows nor bounds nor bars; | 25 |
| On thee no shreds of thraldom hang: | |
| Not more enlarged, the morning stars | |
| Their great Te Deum sang. | |
| |
| But I am fettered to the sod, | |
| And but forget my bonds an hour; | 30 |
| In amplitude of dreams a god, | |
| A slave in dearth of power. | |
| |
| And fruitless knowledge clouds my soul, | |
| And fretful ignorance irks it more. | |
| Thou sing’st as if thou knew’st the whole, | 35 |
| And lightly held’st thy lore! | |
| |
| Sing, for with rapturous throes of birth, | |
| And arrowy labyrinthine sting, | |
| There riots in the veins of Earth | |
| The ichor of the Spring! | 40 |
| |
| Sing, for the beldam Night is fled, | |
| And Morn the bride is wreathed and gay; | |
| Sing, while her revelling lord o’erhead | |
| Leads the wild dance of day! | |
| |
| The serpent Winter sleeps upcurled: | 45 |
| Sing, till I know not if there be | |
| Aught else in the dissolving world | |
| But melody and thee! | |
| |
| Sing, as thou drink’st of heaven thy fill, | |
| All hope, all wonder, all desire— | 50 |
| Creation’s ancient canticle | |
| To which the worlds conspire! | |
| |
| Somewhat as thou, Man once could sing, | |
| In porches of the lucent morn, | |
| Ere he had felt his lack of wing, | 55 |
| Or cursed his iron bourn. | |
| |
| The springtime bubbled in his throat, | |
| The sweet sky seemed not far above, | |
| And young and lovesome came the note;— | |
| Ah, thine is Youth and Love! | 60 |
| |
| Thou sing’st of what he knew of old, | |
| And dreamlike from afar recalls; | |
| In flashes of forgotten gold | |
| An orient glory falls. | |
| |
| And as he listens, one by one | 65 |
| Life’s utmost splendors blaze more nigh; | |
| Less inaccessible the sun, | |
| Less alien grows the sky. | |
| |
| For thou art native to the spheres, | |
| And of the courts of heaven art free, | 70 |
| And carriest to his temporal ear | |
| News from eternity; | |
| |
| And lead’st him to the dizzy verge, | |
| And lur’st him o’er the dazzling line, | |
| Where mortal and immortal merge, | 75 |
| And human dies divine. | |
| |
