FullReads

Amid a bloomless myrtle wood,
On a green and sea-girt promontory, 1050
Not far from where we dwelt, there stood
In record of a sweet sad story,
An altar and a temple bright
Circled by steps, and o’er the gate
Was sculptured, ‘To Fidelity;’ 1055
And in the shrine an image sate,
All veiled: but there was seen the light
Of smiles which faintly could express
A mingled pain and tenderness
Through that ethereal drapery. 1060
The left hand held the head, the right–
Beyond the veil, beneath the skin,
You might see the nerves quivering within–
Was forcing the point of a barbed dart
Into its side-convulsing heart. 1065
An unskilled hand, yet one informed
With genius, had the marble warmed
With that pathetic life. This tale
It told: A dog had from the sea,
When the tide was raging fearfully, 1070
Dragged Lionel’s mother, weak and pale,
Then died beside her on the sand,
And she that temple thence had planned;
But it was Lionel’s own hand
Had wrought the image. Each new moon 1075
That lady did, in this lone fane,
The rites of a religion sweet,
Whose god was in her heart and brain:
The seasons’ loveliest flowers were strewn
On the marble floor beneath her feet, 1080
And she brought crowns of sea-buds white
Whose odour is so sweet and faint,
And weeds, like branching chrysolite,
Woven in devices fine and quaint.
And tears from her brown eyes did stain 1085
The altar: need but look upon
That dying statue fair and wan,
If tears should cease, to weep again:
And rare Arabian odours came,
Through the myrtle copses steaming thence 1090
From the hissing frankincense,
Whose smoke, wool-white as ocean foam,
Hung in dense flocks beneath the dome–
That ivory dome, whose azure night
With golden stars, like heaven, was bright– 1095
O’er the split cedar’s pointed flame;
And the lady’s harp would kindle there
The melody of an old air,
Softer than sleep; the villagers
Mixed their religion up with hers, 1100
And, as they listened round, shed tears.

One eve he led me to this fane:
Daylight on its last purple cloud
Was lingering gray, and soon her strain
The nightingale began; now loud, 1105
Climbing in circles the windless sky,
Now dying music; suddenly
‘Tis scattered in a thousand notes,
And now to the hushed ear it floats
Like field smells known in infancy, 1110
Then failing, soothes the air again.
We sate within that temple lone,
Pavilioned round with Parian stone:
His mother’s harp stood near, and oft
I had awakened music soft 1115
Amid its wires: the nightingale
Was pausing in her heaven-taught tale:
‘Now drain the cup,’ said Lionel,
‘Which the poet-bird has crowned so well
With the wine of her bright and liquid song! 1120
Heardst thou not sweet words among
That heaven-resounding minstrelsy?
Heard’st thou not that those who die
Awake in a world of ecstasy?
That love, when limbs are interwoven, 1125
And sleep, when the night of life is cloven,
And thought, to the world’s dim boundaries clinging,
And music, when one beloved is singing,
Is death? Let us drain right joyously
The cup which the sweet bird fills for me.’ 1130
He paused, and to my lips he bent
His own: like spirit his words went
Through all my limbs with the speed of fire;
And his keen eyes, glittering through mine,
Filled me with the flame divine, 1135
Which in their orbs was burning far,
Like the light of an unmeasured star,
In the sky of midnight dark and deep:
Yes, ’twas his soul that did inspire
Sounds, which my skill could ne’er awaken; 1140
And first, I felt my fingers sweep
The harp, and a long quivering cry
Burst from my lips in symphony:
The dusk and solid air was shaken,
As swift and swifter the notes came 1145
From my touch, that wandered like quick flame,
And from my bosom, labouring
With some unutterable thing:
The awful sound of my own voice made
My faint lips tremble; in some mood 1150
Of wordless thought Lionel stood
So pale, that even beside his cheek
The snowy column from its shade
Caught whiteness: yet his countenance,
Raised upward, burned with radiance 1155
Of spirit-piercing joy, whose light,
Like the moon struggling through the night
Of whirlwind-rifted clouds, did break
With beams that might not be confined.
I paused, but soon his gestures kindled 1160
New power, as by the moving wind
The waves are lifted, and my song
To low soft notes now changed and dwindled,
And from the twinkling wires among,
My languid fingers drew and flung 1165
Circles of life-dissolving sound,
Yet faint; in aery rings they bound
My Lionel, who, as every strain
Grew fainter but more sweet, his mien
Sunk with the sound relaxedly; 1170
And slowly now he turned to me,
As slowly faded from his face
That awful joy: with looks serene
He was soon drawn to my embrace,
And my wild song then died away 1175
In murmurs: words I dare not say
We mixed, and on his lips mine fed
Till they methought felt still and cold:
‘What is it with thee, love?’ I said:
No word, no look, no motion! yes, 1180
There was a change, but spare to guess,
Nor let that moment’s hope be told.
I looked, and knew that he was dead,
And fell, as the eagle on the plain
Falls when life deserts her brain, 1185
And the mortal lightning is veiled again.