| |
| AND here he paced! These glimmering pathways strewn | |
| With faded leaves his light, swift footsteps crushed; | |
| The odor of yon pine was o’er him blown: | |
| Music went by him in each wind that brushed | |
| Those yielding stems of ilex! Here, alone, | 5 |
| He walked at noon, or silent stood and hushed | |
| When the ground-ivy flashed the moonlight sheen | |
| Back from the forest carpet always green. | |
| |
| Poised as on air the lithe elastic bower | |
| Now bends, resilient now against the wind | 10 |
| Recoils, like Dryads that one moment cower | |
| And rise the next with loose locks unconfined. | |
| Through the dim roof like gems the sunbeams shower; | |
| Old cypress-trunks the aspiring bay-trees bind, | |
| And soon will have them wholly underneath: | 15 |
| Types eminent of glory conquering death. | |
| |
| Far down upon the shelves and sands below | |
| The respirations of a southern sea | |
| Beat with susurrent cadence, soft and slow: | |
| Round the gray cave’s fantastic imagery, | 20 |
| In undulation eddying to and fro, | |
| The purple waves swell up or backward flee; | |
| While, dewed at each rebound with gentlest shock, | |
| The myrtle leans her green breast on the rock. | |
| |
| And here he stood; upon his face that light, | 25 |
| Streamed from some furthest realm of luminous thought, | |
| Which clothed his fragile beauty with the might | |
| Of suns forever rising! Here he caught | |
| Visions divine. He saw in fiery flight | |
| “The hound of Heaven,” with heavenly vengeance fraught, | 30 |
| “Run down the slanted sunlight of the morn”— | |
| Prometheus frown on Jove with scorn for scorn. | |
| |
| He saw white Arethusa, leap on leap, | |
| Plunge from the Acroceraunian ledges bare | |
| With all her torrent streams, while from the steep | 35 |
| Alpheus bounded on her unaware: | |
| Hellas he saw, a giant fresh from sleep, | |
| Break from the night of bondage and despair. | |
| Who but had sung as there he stood and smiled, | |
| “Justice and truth have found their winged child!” | 40 |
| |
| Through cloud and wave and star his insight keen | |
| Shone clear, and traced a god in each disguise, | |
| Protean, boundless. Like the buskined scene | |
| All nature rapt him into ecstasies: | |
| In him, alas! had reverence equal been | 45 |
| With admiration, those resplendent eyes | |
| Had wandered not through all her range sublime | |
| To miss the one great marvel of all time. | |
| |
| The winds sang loud; from this Elysian nest | |
| He rose, and trod yon spine of mountains bleak, | 50 |
| While stormy suns descending in the west | |
| Stained as with blood yon promontory’s beak. | |
| That hour, responsive to his soul’s unrest, | |
| Carrara’s marble summits, peak to peak, | |
| Sent forth their thunders like the battle-cry | 55 |
| Of nations arming for the victory. * * * * * | |
| |
