XXX.

"For me the world is grown too void and cold,
Since hope pursues immortal destiny

With steps thus slow-therefore shall ye behold
How those who love, yet fear not, dare to die ;
Tell to your children this!' Then suddenly
He sheathed a dagger in his heart and feli;
My brain grew dark in death, and yet to me
There came a murmur from the crowd, to tell
Of deep and mighty change which suddenly befell.

XXXI.

"Then suddenly I stood a winged Thought
Before the immortal Senate, and the seat
Of that star-shining spirit, whence is wrought
The strength of its dominion, good and great,
The better Genius of this world's estate.

His realm around one mighty Fane is spread,
Elysian islands bright and fortunate,

Calm dwellings of the free and happy dead,

Where I am sent to lead !" These winged words she said,

XXXII.

And with the silence of her eloquent smile,

Bade us embark in her divine canoe;
Then at the helm we took our seat, the while
Above her head those plumes of dazzling hue
Into the winds' invisible stream she threw,
Sitting beside the prow: like gossamer,

On the swift breath of morn, the vessel flew

O'er the bright whirlpools of that fountain fair,

Whose shores receded fast, while we seemed lingering there

XXXIII.

Till down that mighty stream, dark, calm, and fleet,
Between a chasm of cedarn mountains riven,
Chased by the thronging winds whose viewless feet
As swift as twinkling beanis, had, under Heaven,
From woods and waves wild sounds and odours driven,
The boat fled visibly-three nights and days,

Borne like a cloud through morn, and noon, and even,
We sailed along the winding watery ways

Of the vast stream, a long and labyrinthine maze.

XXXIV.

A scene of joy and wonder to behold

That river's shapes and shadows changing ever,
Where the broad sunrise, filled with deepening gold,
Its whirlpools, where all hues did spread and quiver,
And where melodious falls did burst and shiver
Among rocks clad with flowers, the foam and spray
Sparkled like stars upon the sunny river,

Or when the moonlight poured a holier day,

One vast and glittering lake around green islands lay.

XXXV.

Morn, noon, and even, that boat of pearl outran
The streams which bore it, like the arrowy cloud
Of tempest, or the speedier thought of man,
Which flieth forth and cannot make abode,
Sometimes through forests, deep like night, we glode,
Between the walls of mighty mountains crowned

With Cyclopean piles, whose turrets proud,

The homes of the departed, dimly frowned

O'er the bright waves which girt their dark foundations round.

XXXVI.

Sometimes between the wide and flowering meadows,
Mile after mile we sailed, and 'twas delight
To see far off the sunbeams chase the shadows
Over the grass; sometimes beneath the night

Of wide and vaulted caves, whose roofs were bright
With starry gems, we fled, whilst from their deep
And dark-green chasms, shades beautiful and white,
Amid sweet sounds across our path would sweep,

Like swift and lovely dreams that walk the waves of sleep.

XXXVII.

And ever as we sailed, our minds were full
Of love and wisdom, which would overflow
In converse wild, and sweet, and wonderful;

And in quick smiles whose light would come and go,
Like music o'er wide waves, and in the frow
Of sudden tears, and in the mute caress-
For a deep shade was cleft, and we did know,
That virtue, though obscured on Earth, not less
Survives all mortal change in lasting loveliness.

XXXVIII.

Three days and nights we sailed, as thought and feeling
Number delightful hours-for through the sky
The sphered lamps of day and night, revealing
New changes and new glories, rolled on high,
Sun, Moon, and moonlike lamps, the progeny
Of a diviner Heaven, serene and fair:

On the fourth day, wild as a wind-wrought sea
The stream became, and fast and faster bare
The spirit-winged boat, steadily speeding there.

XXXIX.

Steady and swift, where the waves rolled like mountains

Within the vast ravine, whose rifts did pour

Tumultuous floods from their ten thousand fountains,

The thunder of whose earth-uplifting roar

Made the air sweep in whirlwinds from the shore,

Calm as a shade the boat of that fair child

Securely fled, that rapid stress before,

Amid the topmost spray, and sunbows wild,

Wreathed in the silver mist: in joy and pride we smiled.

XL.

The torrent of that wide and raging river
Is past, and our aërial speed suspended.
We look behind; a golden mist did quiver
When its wild surges with the lake were blended :
Our bark hung there, as one line suspended

Between two heavens, that windless waveless lake ;
Which four great cataracts from four vales, attended
By mists, aye feed; from rocks and clouds they break,
And of that azure sea a silent refuge make.

XLI.

Motionless resting on the lake awhile,

I saw its marge of snow-bright mountains rear
Their peaks aloft, I saw each radiant isle,
And in the midst, afar, even like a sphere
Hung in one hollow sky, did there appear

The Temple of the Spirit; on the sound

Which issued thence, drawn nearer and more near,

Like the swift moon this glorious earth around,

The charmed boat approached, and there its haven found.

NOTE.

EXTRACTED FROM PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS POEM.

"I trust," says Shelley, "that the reader will carefully distinguish between those opinions which have a dramatic propriety in reference to the characters which they are designed to elucidate, and such as are properly my own. The erroneous and degrading idea which men have conceived of a Supreme Being, for instance, is spoken against, but not the Supreme Being itself. The belief which some superstitious persons whom I have brought upon the stage, entertain of the Deity, as injurious to the character of his benevolence, is widely different from my own. In recommending also a great and important change in the spirit which animates the social institutions of mankind, I have avoided all flattery to those violent and malignant passions of our nature, which are ever on the watch to mingle with and to alloy the most beneficial innovations. There is no quarter given to Revenge, or Envy, or Prejudice. Love is celebrated everywhere as the sole law which should govern the moral world."

1818.

ROSALIND AND HELEN.

Rosalind, Helen and her Child.

Scene, the shore of the Lake of Como.

HELEN.

COME hither, my sweet Rosalind.

'Tis long since thou and I have met;
And yet methinks it were unkind
Those moments to forget.

Come sit by me. I see thee stand
By this lone lake, in this far land,
Thy loose hair in the light wind flying,
Thy sweet voice to each tone of even
United, and thine eyes replying
To the hues of yon fair heaven.
Come, gentle friend: wilt sit by me?
And be as thou wert wont to be
Ere we were disunited?

None doth behold us now: the power
That led us forth at this lone hour
Will be but ill requited

If thou depart in scorn: oh! come,
And talk of our abandoned home.
Remember, this is Italy,

And we are exiles. Talk with me

Of that our land, whose wilds and floods,
Barren and dark although they be,
Were dearer than these chestnut woods :
Those heathy paths, that inland stream,
And the blue mountains, shapes which seem
Like wrecks of childhood's sunny dream :
Which that we have abandoned now,
Weighs on the heart like that remorse

Which altered friendship leaves. I seek

No more our youthful intercourse.

That cannot be ! Rosalind speak,

Speak to me. Leave me not.- When morn did come, When evening fell upon our common home,

When for one hour we parted,—de not frown:

I would not chide thee, though thy faith is broken :
But turn to me. Oh! by this cherished token,
Of woven hair, which thou wilt not disown,
Turn, as 'twere but the memory of me,
And not my scorned self who prayed to thee.

ROSALIND.

Is it a dream, or do I see

And hear frail Helen? I would flee
Thy tainting touch; but former years
Arise, and bring forbidden tears;
And my o'erburthened memory
Seeks yet its lost repose in thee.
I share thy crime. I cannot choose

But weep for thee: mine own strange grief
But seldom stoops to such relief:

Nor ever did I love thee less,

Though mourning o'er thy wickedness
Even with a sister's woe. I knew

What to the evil world is due,
And therefore sternly did refuse
To link me with the infamy
Of one so lost as Helen. Now
Bewildered by my dire despair,
Wondering I blush, and weep that thou
Shouldst love me still,-thou only !-There,
Let us sit on that grey stone,

Till our mournful talk be done.

HELEN.

Alas! not there; I cannot bear
The murmur of this lake to hear.
A sound from thee, Rosalind dear,
Which never yet I heard elsewhere
But in our native land, recurs,

Even here where now we meet. It stirs
Too much of suffocating sorrow!
In the dell of yon dark chestnut wood
Is a stone seat, a solitude

Less like our own. The ghost of peace
Will not desert this spot. To-morrow
If thy kind feelings should not cease,
We may sit here.

ROSALIND.

Thou lead, my sweet,

And I will follow.

HENRY.

"Tis Fenici's seat.

Where are you going? This is not the way, Mamma; it leads behind those trees that grow Close to the little river.