Selected Poems (86 page)

Lines (On Hearing that Lady Byron mas Ill)

And thou wert sad – yet I was not with thee;

And thou wert sick, and yet I was not near;

Methought that joy and health alone could be

Where I was not — and pain and sorrow here!

5

And is it thus? – it is as I foretold,

And shall be more so; for the mind recoils

Upon itself, and the wreck’d heart lies cold,

While heaviness collects the shatter’d spoils

It is not in the storm nor in the strife

10

We feel benumb’d, and wish to be no more,

But in the after-silence on the shore,

When all is lost, except a little life.

I am too well avenged! – but ’twas my right;

Whate’er my sins might be,
thou
wert not sent

15

To be the Nemesis who should requite –

Nor did Heaven choose so near an instrument.

Mercy is for the merciful! – if thou

Hast been of such, ’twill be accorded now.

Thy nights are banish’d from the realms of sleep! –

20

Yes! they may flatter thee, but thou shalt feel

A hollow agony which will not heal,

For thou art pillow’d on a curse too deep;

Thou hast sown in my sorrow, and must reap

The bitter harvest in a woe as real!

25

I have had many foes, but none like thee;

For ’gainst the rest myself I could defend

And be avenged, or turn them into friend;

But thou in safe implacability

Hadst nought to dread – in thy own weakness shielded,

30

And in my love, which hath but too much yielded,

And spared, for thy sake, some I should not spare –

And thus upon the world – trust in thy truth –

And the wild fame of my ungovern’d youth –

On things that were not, and on things that are —

35

Even upon such a basis hast thou built

A monument, whose cement hath been guilt!

The moral Clytemnestra of thy lord,

And hew’d down, with an unsuspected sword,

Fame, peace, and hope — and all the better life

40

Which, but for this cold treason of thy heart,

Might still have risen from out the grave of strife,

And found a nobler duty than to part.

But of thy virtues didst thou make a vice,

Trafficking with them in a purpose cold,

45

For present anger, and for future gold –

And buying other’s grief at any price.

And thus once enter’d into crooked ways,

The early truth, which was thy proper praise,

Did not still walk beside thee — but at times,

50

And with a breast unknowing its own crimes,

Deceit, averments incompatible,

Equivocations, and the thoughts which dwell

In Janus-spirits – the significant eye

Which learns to lie with silence — the pretext

55

Of Prudence, with advantages annex’d —

The acquiescence in all things which tend,

No matter how, to the desired end —

All found a place in thy philosophy.

The means were worthy, and the end is won –

60

I would not do by thee as thou hast done!

September, 1816.

MANFRED
A Dramatic Poem

‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’

Dramatis Personæ

MANFRED

CHAMOIS HUNTER

ABBOT OF ST MAURICE

MANUEL

HERMAN

WITCH OF THE ALPS

ARIMANES

NEMESIS

THE DESTINIES

SPIRITS, &C.

The Scene of the Drama is amongst the Higher Alps — partly in the Castle of Manfred, and partly in the Mountains.

Act I

SCENE I

MANFRED
alone. — Scene, a Gothic Gallery. — Time, Midnight.

MANFRED
: The lamp must be replenish’d, but even then

It will not burn so long as I must watch:

My slumbers — if I slumber — are not sleep,

But a continuance of enduring thought,

5

Which then I can resist not: in my heart

There is a vigil, and these eyes but close

To look within; and yet I live, and bear

The aspect and the form of breathing men.

(But grief should be the instructor of the wise;)

10

Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most

Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth,

The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.

Philosophy and science, and the springs

Of wonder, and the wisdom of the world,

15

I have essay’d, and in my mind there is

A power to make these subject to itself—

But they avail not: I have done men good,

And I have met with good even among men –

But this avail’d not: I have had my foes,

20

And none have baffled, many fallen before me –

But this avail’d not: – Good, or evil, life,

Powers, passions, all I see in other beings,

Have been to me as rain unto the sands,

Since that all-nameless hour. I have no dread,

25

And feel the curse to have no natural fear,

Nor fluttering throb, that beats with hopes or wishes,

Or lurking love of something on the earth. –

Now to my task. —

Mysterious Agency!

Ye spirits of the unbounded Universe!

30

Whom I have sought in darkness and in light –

Ye, who do compass earth about, and dwell

In subtler essence – ye, to whom the tops

Of mountains inaccessible are haunts,

And earth’s and ocean’s caves familiar things —

35

I call upon ye by the written charm

Which gives me power upon you — Rise! appear!

[
A pause.
]

They come not yet. — Now by the voice of him

Who is the first among you – by this sign,

Which makes you tremble – by the claims of him

40

Who is undying, – Rise! appear! — Appear!

[
A pause
.]

If it be so. – Spirits of earth and air,

Ye shall not thus elude me: by a power,

Deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant-spell,

Which had its birthplace in a star condemn’d,

45

The burning wreck of a demolish’d world,

A wandering hell in the eternal space;

By the strong curse which is upon my soul,

The thought which is within me and around me,

I do compel ye to my will. – Appear!

[
A star is seen at the darker end of the gallery: it is stationary; and a voice is heard singing
.]

FIRST SPIRIT

50

Mortal! to thy bidding bow’d,

From my mansion in the cloud,

Which the breath of twilight builds,

And the summer’s sunset gilds

With the azure and vermilion,

55

Which is mix’d for my pavilion;

Though thy quest may be forbidden,

On a star-beam I have ridden;

To thine adjuration bow’d,

Mortal – be thy wish avow’d!

Voice of the
SECOND SPIRIT

60

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains;

They crown’d him long ago

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,

With a diadem of snow.

Around his waist are forests braced,

65

The Avalanche in his hand;

But ere it fall, that thundering ball

Must pause for my command.

The Glacier’s cold and restless mass

Moves onward day by day;

70

But I am he who bids it pass,

Or with its ice delay.

I am the spirit of the place,

Could make the mountain bow

And quiver to his cavern’d base –

75

And what with me wouldst Thou?

Voice of the
THIRD SPIRIT

In the blue depth of the waters,

Where the wave hath no strife,

Where the wind is a stranger,

And the sea-snake hath life,

80

Where the Mermaid is decking

Her green hair with shells;

Like the storm on the surface

Came the sound of thy spells;

O’er my calm Hall of Coral

85

The deep echo roll’d –

To the Spirit of Ocean

Thy wishes unfold!

FOURTH SPIRIT

Where the slumbering earthquake

Lies pillow’d on fire,

90

And the lakes of bitumen

Rise boilingly higher;

Where the roots of the Andes

Strike deep in the earth,

As their summits to heaven

95

Shoot soaringly forth;

I have quitted my birthplace,

Thy bidding to bide —

Thy spell hath subdued me,

Thy will be my guide!

FIFTH SPIRIT

100

I am the Rider of the wind,

The Stirrer of the storm;

The hurricane I left behind

Is yet with lightning warm;

To speed to thee, o’er shore and sea

105

I swept upon the blast:

The fleet I met sail’d well, and yet

’Twill sink ere night be past.

SIXTH SPIRIT

My dwelling is the shadow of the night,

Why doth thy magic torture me with light?

SEVENTH SPIRIT

110

The star which rules thy destiny

Was ruled, ere earth began, by me:

It was a world as fresh and fair

As e’er revolved round sun in air;

Its course was free and regular,

115

Space bosom’d not a lovelier star.

The hour arrived — and it became

A wandering mass of shapeless flame,

A pathless comet, and a curse,

The menace of the universe;

120

Still rolling on with innate force,

Without a sphere, without a course,

A bright deformity on high,

The monster of the upper sky!

And thou! beneath its influence born –

125

Thou worm! whom I obey and scorn –

Forced by a power (which is not thine,

And lent thee but to make thee mine)

For this brief moment to descend,

Where these weak spirits round thee bend

130

And parley with a thing like thee –

What wouldst thou, Child of Clay! with me?

The
SEVEN SPIRITS

Earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, thy star,

Are at thy beck and bidding, Child of Clay!

Before thee at thy quest their spirits are –

135

What wouldst thou with us, son of mortals – say?

MANFRED
: Forgetfulness –

FIRST SPIRIT
:Of what — of whom — and why?

MANFRED
: Of that which is within me; read it there –

Ye know it, and I cannot utter it.

SPIRIT
: We can but give thee that which we possess:

140

Ask of us subjects, sovereignty, the power

O’er earth, the whole, or portion, or a sign

Which shall control the elements, whereof

We are the dominators, each and all,