Selected Poems (90 page)

From the Byzantine maid’s unsleeping spirit

185

An answer and his destiny – he slew

That which he loved, unknowing what he slew,

And died unpardon’d – though he call’d in aid

The Phyxian Jove, and in Phigalia roused

The Arcadian Evocators to compel

190

The indignant shadow to depose her wrath,

Or fix her term of vengeance – she replied

In words of dubious import, but fulfill’d.
¹

If I had never lived, that which I love

Had still been living; had I never loved,

195

That which I love would still be beautiful –

Happy and giving happiness. What is she?

What is she now? – a sufferer for my sins –

A thing I dare not think upon – or nothing.

Within few hours I shall not call in vain –

200

Yet in this hour I dread the thing I dare:

Until this hour I never shrunk to gaze

On spirit, good or evil – now I tremble,

And feel a strange cold thaw upon my heart.

But I can act even what I most abhor,

205

And champion human fears. - The night approaches.

[
Exit
.]

SCENE III

The Summit of the Jungfrau Mountain.

[
Enter
FIRST DESTINY
.]

The moon is rising broad, and round, and bright;

And here on snows, where never human foot

Of common mortal trod, we nightly tread,

And leave no traces; o’er the savage sea,

5

The glassy ocean of the mountain ice,

We skim its rugged breakers, which put on

The aspect of a tumbling tempest’s foam,

Frozen in a moment – a dead whirlpool’s image:

And this most steep fantastic pinnacle,

10

The fretwork of some earthquake - where the clouds

Pause to repose themselves in passing by –

Is sacred to our revels, or our vigils;

Here do I wait my sisters, on our way

To the Hall of Arimanes, for to-night

15

Is our great festival – ’tis strange they come not.

A Voice without, singing.

The Captive Usurper,

Hurl’d down from the throne,

Lay buried in torpor,

Forgotten and lone;

20

I broke through his slumbers,

I shiver’d his chain,

I leagued him with numbers –

He’s Tyrant again!

With the blood of a million he’ll answer my care,

25

With a nation’s destruction - his flight and despair.

Second Voice, without.

The ship sail’d on, the ship sail’d fast,

But I left not a sail, and I left not a mast;

There is not a plank of the hull or the deck,

30

And there is not a wretch to lament o’er his wreck;

Save one, whom I held, as he swam, by the hair,

And he was a subject well worthy my care;

A traitor on land, and a pirate at sea -

But I saved him to wreak further havoc for me!

FIRST DESTINY
,
answering
.

The city lies sleeping;

35

The morn, to deplore it,

May dawn on it weeping:

Sullenly, slowly,

The black plague flew o’er it —

Thousands lie lowly;

40

Tens of thousands shall perish –

The living shall fly from

The sick they should cherish;

But nothing can vanquish

The touch that they die from.

45

Sorrow and anguish,

And evil and dread,

Envelope a nation –

The blest are the dead,

Who see not the sight

50

Of their own desolation –

This work of a night –

This wreck of a realm – this deed of my doing –

For ages I’ve done, and shall still be renewing!

[
Enter the
SECOND
and
THIRD DESTINIES
.]

The Three.

Our hands contain the hearts of men,

55

Our footsteps are their graves;

We only give to take again

The spirits of our slaves!

FIRST DESTINY
: Welcome! – Where’s Nemesis?

SECOND DESTINY
:At some great work;

But what I know not, for my hands were full.

60

THIRD DESTINY
: Behold she cometh.

[
Enter
NEMESIS
.]

FIRST DESTINY
:Say, where hast thou been?

My sisters and thyself are slow to-night.

NEMESIS
: I was detain’d repairing shatter’d thrones,

Marrying fools, restoring dynasties,

Avenging men upon their enemies,

65

And making them repent their own revenge;

Goading the wise to madness; from the dull

Shaping out oracles to rule the world

Afresh, for they were waxing out of date,

And mortals dared to ponder for themselves,

70

To weigh kings in the balance, and to speak

Of freedom, the forbidden fruit. — Away!

We have outstay’d the hour – mount we our clouds!

[
Exeunt
.]

SCENE
IV

The Hall of Arimanes — Arimanes on his Throne, a Globe of Fire, surrounded by the Spirits.

Hymn of the
SPIRITS

Hail to our Master! – Prince of Earth and Air!

Who walks the clouds and waters – in his hand

The sceptre of the elements, which tear

Themselves to chaos at his high command!

5

He breatheth – and a tempest shakes the sea;

He speaketh – and the clouds reply in thunder;

He gazeth – from his glance the sunbeams flee;

He moveth – earthquakes rend the world asunder.

Beneath his footsteps the volcanoes rise;

10

His shadow is the Pestilence; his path

The comets herald through the crackling skies;

And planets turn to ashes at his wrath.

To him War offers daily sacrifice;

To him Death pays his tribute; Life is his,

15

With all its infinite of agonies –

And his the spirit of whatever is!

[
Enter the
DESTINIES
and
NEMESIS
.]

FIRST DESTINY
: Glory to Arimanes! on the earth

His power increaseth – both my sisters did

His bidding, nor did I neglect my duty!

20

SECOND DESTINY
: Glory to Arimanes! we who bow

The necks of men, bow down before his throne!

THIRD DESTINY
: Glory to Arimanes! we await

His nod!

NEMESIS
: Sovereign of Sovereigns! we are thine,

And all that liveth, more or less, is ours,

25

And most things wholly so; still to increase

Our power, increasing thine, demands our care,

And we are vigilant – Thy late commands

Have been fulfil’d to the utmost.

[
Enter
MANFRED
.]

A SPIRIT
:What is here?

A mortal! – Thou most rash and fatal wretch,

30

Bow down and worship!

SECOND SPIRIT
:I do know the man –

A Magian of great power, and fearful skill!

THIRD SPIRIT
: Bow down and worship, slave! –

What, know’st thou not

Thine and our Sovereign? – Tremble, and obey!

ALL THE SPIRITS
: Prostrate thyself, and thy condemned clay,

35

Child of the Earth! or dread the worst.

MANFRED
:I know it;

And yet ye see I kneel not.

FOURTH SPIRIT
:’Twill be taught thee.

MANFRED
: ’Tis taught already; — many a night on the earth,

On the bare ground, have I bow’d down my face,

And strew’d my head with ashes; I have known

40

The fulness of humiliation, for

I sunk before my vain despair, and knelt