CONTENTSO F P A G E I.
_____The Merry Hour.
The Virgin of the North.
The Glove. From Schiller.
To N. F. I....va.
Night.
The Thunderstorm.
The Star.
To the Caucasus.
Epitaph.
Ossian's Grave.
To ***. Lines written upon having read
a biography of Byron by Moore.
_____
THE MERRY HOUR.
THE ORIGINAL POEM WAS FOUND IN FRANCE ON THE WALLS OF A STATE GAOL.WHAT for do you at me,
My courteous company,
Look through the lattice so?
Cry not, look not so low!
Would that I die this hour
If in my prison cell
But once my spirits turn'd sour,
And eyes with tears did swell!..
Rejoice ye by yourselves
And days in drinking spend,
Love's maddening dream who delves,
As once we would, descend,
But emptying the wine shelves,
Remember your dear friend!..I'll in your honour too
Of oaths to fondness think,
Begin dry bread to chew,
And putrid water drink!..
There's a great table here,
Both rickety and aged,
And e'er the floor has assuaged
With asses' tunes my ear.
Light through the window glances;
I everywhere o' th' wall
Write poems with a coal,
I scold whom e'er it chances,
I praise whom e'er I am for,
With laughter often roar
That so 't with him advances!Or if a rat, by night,
Should at my cap be gnawing,
I give him not a fight:
Next day I'll be guffawing
At toils he has made in vain.
I make a stir and then!..
He letting out a yelp
Makes off with all God's help!..The guardsman at the door
I've laughing before long,
I know I'll be fed more
And almost ne'er am wrong.
* * * * *
* * * * *
And then I sing a song:
* * * * *
* * * * *"He is happy in whose power
Is ne'er his spirits to lower.
Though all his days he suffer,
But life shall have to offer
Him one right merry hour!"
_____WRAPT in the secrecies' light net,
At midnights on the mountain stones
She not too rarely would be met
In days of Sorcery's strange boons.
And would of Finn the savage sons
Oft in her honour fanes erect,
Of gods as to a potent child;
And in the woods yet unbeguiled
The scalds her name with music deck'd.
When one beheld her, he did die.
And in the gloomy night, the word
Did go that from her any eye
Could leap as though a bluish sword.
And only could the scalds look forth
To mark the Maiden of the North.
With rapt chant-singing they repaid
For the hour's flame that made rejoice;
And, by the apparition sway'd,
Concordant was their fleeting voice!..
______DID stand the grandees in a crowd,
Awaiting the spectacle vow'd.
Amid them sate
The King on his throne loftily;
Around, on the high balkony,
The dames flash'd with beauty great.Now heed they the sign of the King,
They ope the great door with a swing,
And lo! the lion comes out.
He 's striding about,
And suddenly
Looks silently.
He yawns to the train,
Tosses his mane,
And, done with the tests,
The lion rests.The King waved once more,
And in a wild soar
The tiger severe
Leapt in and, scowling
At lion austere,
Let out a howling.
His limbs he flex'd,
Next
Circled his sovereign's spot,
Off took the bloody eyes not...But threatening in front of his lord
Vainly a slave would be:
And unwillingly he
Lay down in accord.Would so it happen that fell
A glove from a hand of a belle
Just then in a play of luck.
Earth 'twixt the rivals it struck.And turning suddenly towards her knight,
Quoth Kunigunda, with sly delight:
"Sire, to try hearts ye well know I love.
If be as great of your love the power
As ye proclaim to me every hour,
Then for your lady retrieve ye her glove!"And running 's the knight from the balkony swift,
And enters the ring he, audacious,
Between the wild beasts sees the glove he must lift,
And takes it with grip tenacious.*
And round for the youth all the spectators, shaking,
Had timidly waited, no move or sound making.
But now had the hero already return'd,
High praises were everywhere said,
And tender the gaze at him burn'd
Bespeaking he had happiness earn'd
That him did greet with the hand of the maid.
But ablaze with the flame of vexation e'er sore,
The glove in her face did he hurl:
"Of your gratitude have I no need any more!"
And left he with that the proud girl.
______FROM life's beginning have I loved
To sulk in solitary fashion,
When freely through my soul I moved,
My sadness to the rest unproved,
Awakening not thus men's compassion.Methought, the happy'd ne'er conceive
What I myself could not sort out,
And sombre thoughts would ne'er believe,
Or to the friend who ne'er does grieve,
Or to the flaming passion's bout.What of my fancies I did know,
I had set down with ink and pen,
Then wouldst have read these sheets of woe,
And wouldst have reconciled me thou
With my wild passions and with men.But was thy gaze, unnerved and pure,
On me but wonder-stricken fix'd,
Thou didst but shake thy head, unsure,
And say my wit may not endure
When with such spurious wishes mix'd.Thus I, believing in thy speech,
Immersed myself deep in my heart,
Yet this myself I there did teach:
My thoughts no trifles tried to reach,
They would in something hid take part,In that of which the pledge at night
Hath been the heavens' starry climb,
Which God hath sworn shall be our right,
And which delineate I might
Through contemplation and through time.But rending, harrowing seeds are sown
From birth inside my soul's dark frame...
'Mid endless ills e'er having grown,
I'll die, my heart ne'er having known
Of dolorous thoughts the dolorous aim.
_____EXTINGUISH'D was the day of night the darkness
The heavenly vaults as by a cerecloth cover'd.
There but in places spun and oscillated
Some spots that light emitted,
And 'midst them spun the earth which we inhabit.
Was by tranquillity embraced it; on it
All was asleep and I alone yet slept not.
Alone I slept not... a half-world me daunted,
The in-between of happiness and sorrow
Pent up inside my heart and so desired I
That were the joy or sadness in 't augmented
With of the bygone life the recollection:
The latter, ne'er the less, appear'd the easier!..
Now from the west a Skeleton gigantic
Over the dismal vaults began ascending,
And hidden were the stars behind him...
And all did burst apart beneath his footsteps,
A nullity remain'd where they had trodden!
And did to the terrestrial orb approach now
Th' all-powerful giant all was on it sleeping,
Was nothing readying to rouse itself a single,
A single mortal witness'd what God grant not
A living creature e'er to witness...
And now he raised his bony arms and saw I
That in each hand was holding he a human,
They trembling and to both I had been acquainted
And threw a gaze I on them and was crying!..
And on a sudden, a strange voice was heard: "Thou weakling!
Son of oblivion and of dust, thou was it
Who in excruciating torments had been
Invoking me? I am here: I am Death!..
My sway is boundless!..
Thou seest the two. Thou know'st them thou hast loved them...
One is of them to perish. I permit thee
To fix the lot which cannot be avoided...
And thou shalt die, and shalt in ages perish
And nowhere, nowhere thou a second time shalt see them
Know thou, as time shall vanish, so shall humans,
Who 're born of it is God alone eternal...
O wretch, resolve thou!.."Now all o'er me flowing
Was an involuntary trepidation,
And, clattering wildly, were my teeth preventing
Out of my chest the cruel words escaping;
And, having conquer'd at the last my terror,
Did to the skeleton exclaim I: "Both, both!..
Believe I: there's no meeting there's no parting!..
They long enough have lived, so that for ever
Be on them punishment inflicted.
Ah! take thou me as well, the earthen maggot,
The earth to pieces smash, nest of corruption,
Of folly and of sorrow!..
All, all from us does take it by deception
And never gives us aught except our birthday!..
Accursed be a gift so useless!..
We would without it have of thee no knowledge,
Too, therefore, of our barren, vain existence,
Quite without hopes and full of apprehensions.
May perish now my friends, may now they perish!..
But of one thing shall I be crying:
What for they are not children!.."
And saw I how the bony hands constricted
Around my friends and crush'd them disappear'd they
Was even there no spectres and no shadows...
With fog Death's image then was shrowded thickly
And thus began it moving northward. Long, long
Did wring my hands and did my tears I swallow,
Complaining at the Lord, to pray undaring!
_____THE thunder roars, do smoke the clouds
Above the dark marine abyss,
And gather'd in fermenting crowds,
The waves with foam do seethe and hiss.
Around the crags, of doleful lightning
Does writhe, a fiery strip, the snake,
The elements wait for something frightening
And I stand here, whom nought shall shake.Nought shall or him should daunt the strife
Of all the heavenly forces now,
Whose feelings weren't of use in life
And were by life deceived so?
Round whom, that venom for the soul,
Calumny's judgements made their spire,
As round yon rock's sharp-pointed awl
Dost circle thou, destroyer-fire?O no! O fly, thou aerial flame,
O hiss, ye winds, above my head;
Here am I, cold, to all the same,
And alien to what ever dread.
_____O EVER distant star, shine bright, shine bright,
So I could always find thee in the night,
For thy faint ray, when battling with the dark,
Lets dream my soul by sickness stricken stark;
It flies to thee at ever great a height;
And then this breast feels ever free and light...
I saw a gaze sincere and fiery
(Much time has passed since it was hid from me),
But, as to thee, I to it still aspire;
And though it is forbid to see it desire...
_____THE Caucasus! a distant land!
The home of free and simple hearts!
Misfortunes even thee command,
And war hath bloodied all thy parts!..
Must now thy caverns and thy crags,
The savage mist which on them sags,
Hear too the voice of passions rank,
The fame's, the gold's, the fetters' clank?
No! for thy land the bygone years
Shall ne'er, Circassian, be return'd:
Here Liberty no more appears;
A stronger ally hast thou earn'd.
_____A SIMPLE son of Liberty,
His life for feelings spared he not;
And Nature's truthful symmetry
With fondness often he would jot.He trusted mirky divinations,
And magic talismans, and love,
And to unnatural sensations
He made his days a tribute of.And kept his soul in him a room
For suffering, bliss, and passions blind.
He died. Before thee stands his tomb.
He ought to have left the human kind.
______WHERE all beneath fog's shrowd is wan,
Where grass 'neath stormy skies repine,
There stands the tomb of Ossian,
Up in the hills of Scotland mine.
My spirit, lull'd, is flying home
To breathe the wind with memories rife,
And from the long forgotten tomb
A second time to borrow life!..
_____
TO ***.
LINES WRITTEN UPON HAVING READ A BIOGRAPHY OF BYRON BY MOORE.SUPPOSE it not that I compassion were to merit,
Though even now my words are full of sorrow; no;
No! all the agonies that plague my spirit
Are but a premonition of much deeper woe.I'm young; but in my heart swell forceful sounds,
And aim the chords of Byron I to strike;
We share one soul between us, and endure same wounds;
O, if our destinies were also like!..I've too sought freedom and escape in roaming,
Too burn'd already in my childhood with the soul,
And loved the sunset in the mountains, waters foaming,
Of earthly and of heavenly storms the howl.Like he, I seek repose to no avail,
Am persecuted ever by one thought.
If look I back the past can make me pale;
Ahead I look a soul to love shows not!
____
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