Poems, second period | Page 3

magic shore,
Can we the footstep of
sweet fable trace!
The meadows mourn for the old hallowing life;

Vainly we search the earth of gods bereft;
Where once the warm and

living shapes were rife,
Shadows alone are left!
Cold, from the north, has gone
Over the flowers the blast that killed
their May;
And, to enrich the worship of the one,
A universe of
gods must pass away!
Mourning, I search on yonder starry steeps,

But thee no more, Selene, there I see!
And through the woods I call,
and o'er the deeps,
And--Echo answers me!
Deaf to the joys she gives--
Blind to the pomp of which she is
possessed--
Unconscious of the spiritual power that lives
Around,
and rules her--by our bliss unblessed--
Dull to the art that colors or
creates,
Like the dead timepiece, godless nature creeps
Her
plodding round, and, by the leaden weights,
The slavish motion
keeps.
To-morrow to receive
New life, she digs her proper grave to-day;

And icy moons with weary sameness weave
From their own light
their fulness and decay.
Home to the poet's land the gods are flown,

Light use in them that later world discerns,
Which, the diviner
leading-strings outgrown,
On its own axle turns.
Home! and with them are gone
The hues they gazed on and the tones
they heard;
Life's beauty and life's melody:--alone
Broods o'er the
desolate void, the lifeless word;
Yet rescued from time's deluge, still
they throng
Unseen the Pindus they were wont to cherish:
All, that
which gains immortal life in song,
To mortal life must perish!
RESIGNATION.
Yes! even I was in Arcadia born,
And, in mine infant ears,
A vow of rapture was by Nature sworn;--

Yes! even I was in Arcadia born,
And yet my short spring gave me only--tears!

Once blooms, and only once, life's youthful May;
For me its bloom hath gone.
The silent God--O brethren, weep
to-day--
The silent God hath quenched my torch's ray,
And the vain dream hath flown.
Upon thy darksome bridge, Eternity,
I stand e'en now, dread thought!
Take, then, these joy-credentials
back from me!
Unopened I return them now to thee,
Of happiness, alas, know naught!
Before Thy throne my mournful cries I vent,
Thou Judge, concealed from view!
To yonder star a joyous saying
went
With judgment's scales to rule us thou art sent,
And call'st thyself Requiter, too!
Here,--say they,--terrors on the bad alight,
And joys to greet the virtuous spring.
The bosom's windings thou'lt
expose to sight,
Riddle of Providence wilt solve aright,
And reckon with the suffering!
Here to the exile be a home outspread,
Here end the meek man's thorny path of strife!
A godlike child,
whose name was Truth, they said,
Known but to few, from whom the
many fled,
Restrained the ardent bridle of my life.
"It shall be thine another life to live,--

Thy youth to me surrender!
To thee this surety only can I give"--
I
took the surety in that life to live;
And gave to her each youthful joy so tender.
"Give me the woman precious to thy heart,
Give up to me thy Laura!
Beyond the grave will usury pay the
smart."--
I wept aloud, and from my bleeding heart
With resignation tore her.
"The obligation's drawn upon the dead!"
Thus laughed the world in scorn;
"The lying one, in league with
despots dread,
For truth, a phantom palmed on thee instead,
Thou'lt be no more, when once this dream has gone!"
Shamelessly scoffed the mockers' serpent-band
"A dream that but prescription can admit
Dost dread? Where now thy
God's protecting hand,
(The sick world's Saviour with such cunning
planned),
Borrowed by human need of human wit?"
"What future is't that graves to us reveal?
What the eternity of thy discourse?
Honored because dark veils its
form conceal,
The giant-shadows of the awe we feel,
Viewed in the hollow mirror of remorse!"
"An image false of shapes of living mould,
(Time's very mummy, she!)
Whom only Hope's sweet balm hath
power to hold
Within the chambers of the grave so cold,--

Thy fever calls this immortality!"
"For empty hopes,--corruption gives the lie--
Didst thou exchange what thou hadst surely done?
Six thousand years
sped death in silence by,--
His corpse from out the grave e'er mounted
high,
That mention made of the Requiting One?"
I saw time fly to reach thy distant shore,
I saw fair Nature lie
A shrivelled corpse behind him evermore,--
No
dead from out the grave then sought to soar
Yet in that Oath divine still trusted I.
My ev'ry joy to thee I've sacrificed,
I throw me now before thy judgment-throne;
The many's scorn with
boldness I've despised,--
Only--thy gifts by me were ever prized,--
I ask my wages now, Requiting One!
"With equal love I love each child of mine!"
A genius hid from sight exclaimed.
"Two flowers," he cried, "ye
mortals, mark the sign,-- Two flowers to greet the Searcher wise
entwine,--
Hope and Enjoyment they are named."
"Who of these flowers plucks one, let him ne'er yearn
To touch the other sister's bloom.
Let him enjoy, who has no faith;
eterne
As earth, this truth!--Abstain, who faith can learn!
The world's long