FullReads

20.
And the marsh-meteors, like tame beasts, at night
Came licking with blue tongues his veined feet;
And he would watch them, as, like spirits bright,
In many entangled figures quaint and sweet 115
To some enchanted music they would dance–
Until they vanished at the first moon-glance.

21.
He mocked the stars by grouping on each weed
The summer dew-globes in the golden dawn;
And, ere the hoar-frost languished, he could read 120
Its pictured path, as on bare spots of lawn
Its delicate brief touch in silver weaves
The likeness of the wood’s remembered leaves.

22.
And many a fresh Spring morn would he awaken–
While yet the unrisen sun made glow, like iron 125
Quivering in crimson fire, the peaks unshaken
Of mountains and blue isles which did environ
With air-clad crags that plain of land and sea,–
And feel … liberty.

23.
And in the moonless nights when the dun ocean 130
Heaved underneath wide heaven, star-impearled,
Starting from dreams…
Communed with the immeasurable world;
And felt his life beyond his limbs dilated,
Till his mind grew like that it contemplated. 135

24.
His food was the wild fig and strawberry;
The milky pine-nuts which the autumn-blast
Shakes into the tall grass; or such small fry
As from the sea by winter-storms are cast;
And the coarse bulbs of iris-flowers he found 140
Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground.

25.
And so were kindled powers and thoughts which made
His solitude less dark. When memory came
(For years gone by leave each a deepening shade),
His spirit basked in its internal flame,– 145
As, when the black storm hurries round at night,
The fisher basks beside his red firelight.

26.
Yet human hopes and cares and faiths and errors,
Like billows unawakened by the wind,
Slept in Marenghi still; but that all terrors, 150
Weakness, and doubt, had withered in his mind.
His couch…

…

27.
And, when he saw beneath the sunset’s planet
A black ship walk over the crimson ocean,–
Its pennon streaming on the blasts that fan it, 155
Its sails and ropes all tense and without motion,
Like the dark ghost of the unburied even
Striding athwart the orange-coloured heaven,–

28.
The thought of his own kind who made the soul
Which sped that winged shape through night and day,– 160
The thought of his own country…

…

NOTES:
3 Who B.; Or 1870.
6 Marenghi’s 1870; Mazenghi’s B.
7 town 1870; sea B.
8 ruined 1870; squalid B. (‘the whole line is cancelled,’ Locock).
11 threw 1870; cancelled, B.
17 A Sacrament more B.; At Sacrament: more 1870.
18 mid B.; with 1870.
19 forests when… B.; forests. 1870.
23, 24 that band Of free and glorious brothers who had 1870; omitted, B.
25 a 1870; one B.
27 wise, just–do they 1870; omitted, B.
28 Does 1870; Doth B. prey 1870; spoil B.
33 angel 1824; Herald [?] B.
34 to welcome thee 1824; cancelled for… by thee B.
42 direst 1824; Desert B.
45 sits amid 1824 amid cancelled for soils (?) B.
53-57 Albert…sent B.; omitted 1824, 1870. Albert cancelled B.:
Pietro is the correct name.
53 Marenghi]Mazenghi B.
55 farm doubtful: perh. fame (Locock).
62 he 1824; thus B.
70 Amid the mountains 1824; Mid desert mountains [?] B.
71 toil, and cold]cold and toil editions 1824, 1839.
92, 93 And… there B. (see Editor’s Note); White bones, and locks of
dun and yellow hair, And ringed horns which buffaloes did wear– 1870.
94 at the utmost point 1870; cancelled for when (where?) B.
95 reed B.; weed 1870.
99 after B.; upon 1870.
100 burned within Marenghi’s breast B.;
lived within Marenghi’s heart 1870.
101 and B.; or 1870.
103 free B.; the 1870.
109 freshes B.; omitted, 1870.
118 by 1870; with B.
119 dew-globes B.; dewdrops 1870.
120 languished B.; vanished 1870.
121 path, as on [bare] B.; footprints, as on 1870.
122 silver B.; silence 1870.
130 And in the moonless nights 1870; cancelled, B. dun B.;
dim 1870.
131 Heaved 1870; cancelled, B. wide B.;
the 1870. star-impearled B.; omitted, 1870.
132 Starting from dreams 1870; cancelled for He B.
137 autumn B.; autumnal 1870.
138 or B.; and 1870.
155 pennon B.; pennons 1870.
158 athwart B.; across 1870.