Worn by the senseless wind, shall live alone 1815. THE TWO SPIRITS. An Allegory. FIRST SPIRIT. O THOU, who plumed with strong desire Bright are the regions of the air, SECOND SPIRIT. The deathless stars are bright above; And the moon will smile with gentle light On my golden plumes where'er they move; The meteors will linger round my flight, And make night day. FIRST SPIRIT. But if the whirlwinds of darkness waken The red swift clouds of the hurricane Yon declining sun have overtaken, The clash of the hail sweeps over the plain— Night is coming! SECOND SPIRIT. I see the light, and I hear the sound; And thou, when the gloom is deep and stark, Some say there is a precipice Where one vast pine is frozen to ruin O'er piles of snow and chasms of ice 'Mid Alpine mountains; And that the languid storm pursuing That winged shape, for ever flies Round those hoar branches, aye renewing Some say when nights are dry and clear, 33 And a silver shape like his early love doth pass Upborne by her wild and glittering hair, And when he awakes on the fragrant grass, He finds night day. LINES. THE cold earth slept below; Above the cold sky shone; With a chilling sound, From caves of ice and fields of snow, The breath of night like death did flow The wintry hedge was black, The green grass was not seen, On the bare thorn's breast, Whose roots, beside the pathway track, D 1820. Thine eyes glowed in the glare On a sluggish stream, Gleams dimly—so the moon shone there, The moon made thy lips pale, beloved; On thy dear head Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie Where the bitter breath of the naked sky 1815. |