FullReads

Slave of sense
I have in no wise been;–but slave of thought?…
And who can say: I have been always free,
Lived ever in the light of my own soul?–
I cannot; I have lived in wrath and gloom,
Fierce, disputatious, ever at war with man,
Far from my own soul, far from warmth and light.
But I have not grown easy in these bonds–
But I have not denied what bonds these were.
Yea, I take myself to witness,
That I have loved no darkness,
Sophisticated no truth,
Nursed no delusion,
Allow’d no fear!

And therefore, O ye elements! I know–
Ye know it too–it hath been granted me
Not to die wholly, not to be all enslaved.
I feel it in this hour. The numbing cloud
Mounts off my soul; I feel it, I breathe free.

Is it but for a moment?
–Ah, boil up, ye vapours!
Leap and roar, thou sea of fire!
My soul glows to meet you.
Ere it flag, ere the mists
Of despondency and gloom
Rush over it again,
Receive me, save me!

[He plunges into the crater.

Callicles

(from below)

Through the black, rushing smoke-bursts,
Thick breaks the red flame;
All Etna heaves fiercely
Her forest-clothed frame.

Not here, O Apollo!
Are haunts meet for thee.
But, where Helicon breaks down
In cliff to the sea,

Where the moon-silver’d inlets
Send far their light voice
Up the still vale of Thisbe,
O speed, and rejoice!

On the sward at the cliff-top
Lie strewn the white flocks,
On the cliff-side the pigeons
Roost deep in the rocks.

In the moonlight the shepherds,
Soft lull’d by the rills,
Lie wrapt in their blankets
Asleep on the hills.

–What forms are these coming
So white through the gloom?
What garments out-glistening
The gold-flower’d broom?

What sweet-breathing presence
Out-perfumes the thyme?
What voices enrapture
The night’s balmy prime?–

‘Tis Apollo comes leading
His choir, the Nine.
–The leader is fairest,
But all are divine.

They are lost in the hollows!
They stream up again!
What seeks on this mountain
The glorified train?–

They bathe on this mountain,
In the spring by their road;
Then on to Olympus,
Their endless abode.

–Whose praise do they mention?
Of what is it told?–
What will be for ever;
What was from of old.

First hymn they the Father
Of all things; and then,
The rest of immortals,
The action of men.

The day in his hotness,
The strife with the palm;
The night in her silence,
The stars in their calm.

[Footnote 1:

And that curst treachery on the Mount of Gore.

Mount Haemus, so called, said the legend, from Typho’s blood spilt on it in his last battle with Zeus, when the giant’s strength failed, owing to the Destinies having a short time before given treacherously to him, for his refreshment, perishable fruits. See APOLLODORUS, Bibliotheca, book i. chap. vi.]

[Footnote 2:

Ye Sun-born Virgins! on the road of truth.

See the Fragments of Parmenides:

… [Greek: kourai d’ hodon hegemoneuon,
heliades kourai, prolipousai domata nyktos,
eis phaos]….