Selected Poems (22 page)

Best prize of better acts, they bear away,

And all that kings or chiefs e’er gain their toils repay.

LXXIV

In costly sheen and gaudy cloak array’d,

But all afoot, the light-limb’d Matadore

740

Stands in the centre, eager to invade

The lord of lowing herds; but not before

The ground, with cautious tread, is traversed o’er,

Lest aught unseen should lurk to thwart his speed:

His arms a dart, he fights aloof, nor more

745

Can man achieve without the friendly steed –

Alas! too oft condemn’d for him to bear and bleed.

LXXV

Thrice sounds the clarion; lo! the signal falls,

The den expands, and Expectation mute

Gapes round the silent circle’s peopled walls.

750

Bounds with one lashing spring the mighty brute,

And, wildly staring, spurns, with sounding foot,

The sand, nor blindly rushes on his foe:

Here, there, he points his threatening front, to suit

His first attack, wide waving to and fro

755

His angry tail; red rolls his eye’s dilated glow.

LXXVI

Sudden he stops; his eye is fix’d: away,

Away, thou heedless boy! prepare the spear:

Now is thy time, to perish, or display

The skill that yet may check his mad career.

760

With well-timed croupe the nimble coursers veer;

On foams the bull, but not unscathed he goes;

Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear:

He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes;

Dart follows dart; lance, lance; loud bellowings speak his woes.

LXXVII

765

Again he comes; nor dart nor lance avail,

Nor the wild plunging of the tortured horse;

Though man and man’s avenging arms assail,

Vain are his weapons, vainer is his force.

One gallant steed is stretch’d a mangled corse;

770

Another, hideous sight! unseam’d appears,

His gory chest unveils life’s panting source;

Though death-struck, still his feeble frame he rears;

Staggering, but stemming all, his lord unharm’d he bears.

LXXVIII

Foil’d, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last,

775

Full in the centre stands the bull at bay,

Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast,

And foes disabled in the brutal fray:

And now the Matadores around him play,

Shake the red cloak, and poise the ready brand:

780

Once more through all he bursts his thundering way -

Vain rage! the mantle quits the conynge hand,

Wraps his fierce eye – ’tis past – he sinks upon the sand!

LXXIX

Where his vast neck just mingles with the spine,

Sheathed in his form the deadly weapon lies.

785

He stops – he starts – disdaining to decline:

Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries,

Without a groan, without a struggle dies.

The decorated car appears – on high

The corse is piled – sweet sight for vulgar eyes –

790

Four steeds that spurn the rein, as swift as shy,

Hurl the dark bulk along, scarce seen in dashing by.

LXXX

Such the ungentle sport that oft invites

The Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain.

Nurtured in blood betimes, his heart delights

795

In vengeance, gloating on another’s pain.

What private feuds the troubled village stain!

Though now one phalanx’d host should meet the foe,

Enough, alas! in humble homes remain,

To meditate ’gainst friends the secret blow,

800

For some slight cause of wrath, whence life’s warm stream must flow.

LXXXI

But Jealousy has fled: his bars, his bolts,

His wither’d centinel, Duenna sage!

And all whereat the generous soul revolts,

Which the stern dotard deem’d he could encage,

805

Have pass’d to darkness with the vanish’d age.

Who late so free as Spanish girls were seen,

(Ere War uprose in his volcanic rage,)

With braided tresses bounding o’er the green,

While on the gay dance shone Night’s lover-loving Queen?

LXXXII

810

Oh! many a time, and oft, had Harold loved,

Or dream’d he loved, since Rapture is a dream;

But now his wayward bosom was unmoved,

For not yet had he drunk of Lethe’s stream;

And lately had he learn’d with truth to deem

815

Love has no gift so grateful as his wings:

How fair, how young, how soft soe’er he seem,

Full from the fount of Joy’s delicious springs

Some bitter o’er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.
¹

LXXXIII

Yet to the beauteous form he was not blind,

820

Though now it moved him as it moves the wise;

Not that Philosophy on such a mind

E’er deign’d to bend her chastely-awful eyes:

But Passion raves itself to rest, or flies;

And Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb,

825

Had buried long his hopes, no more to rise:

Pleasure’s pall’d victim! life-abhorring gloom

Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain’s unresting doom.

LXXXIV

Still he beheld, nor mingled with the throng;

But view’d them not with misanthropic hate:

830

Fain would be now have join’d the dance, the song;

But who may smile that sinks beneath his fate?

Nought that he saw his sadness could abate:

Yet once he struggled ’gainst the demon’s sway,

And as in Beauty’s bower he pensive sate,

835

Pour’d forth this unpremeditated lay,

To charms as fair as those that soothed his happier day.

To Inez

I

Nay, smile not at my sullen brow;

Alas! I cannot smile again:

Yet Heaven avert that ever thou

840

Shouldst weep, and haply weep in vain.

2

And dost thou ask, what secret woe

I bear, corroding joy and youth?

And wilt thou vainly seek to know

A pang, ev’n thou must fail to soothe?

3

845

It is not love, it is not hate,

Nor low Ambition’s honours lost,

That bids me loathe my present state,

And fly from all I prized the most:

4

It is that weariness which springs

850

From all I meet, or hear, or see:

To me no pleasure Beauty brings;

Thine eyes have scarce a charm for me.

5

It is that settled, ceaseless gloom

The fabled Hebrew wanderer bore;

855

That will not look beyond the tomb,

But cannot hope for rest before.

6

What Exile from himself can flee?

To zones, though more and more remote,

Still, still pursues, where-e’er I be,

860

The blight of life – the demon Thought.

7

Yet others rapt in pleasure seem,

And taste of all that I forsake;

Oh! may they still of transport dream,

And ne’er, at least like me, awake!

8

865

Through many a clime ‘tis mine to go,

With many a retrospection curst;

And all my solace is to know,

Whate’er betides, I’ve known the worst.

9

What is that worst? Nay do not ask –

870

In pity from the search forbear:

Smile on – nor venture to unmask

Man’s heart, and view the Hell that’s there.

LXXXV

Adieu, fair Cadiz! yea, a long adieu!

Who may forget how well thy walls have stood?

875

When all were changing thou alone wert true,

First to be free and last to be subdued:

And if amidst a scene, a shock so rude,

Some native blood was seen thy streets to die;

A traitor only fell beneath the feud;1

880

Here all were noble, save Nobility;

None hugg’d a conqueror’s chain, save fallen Chivalry!