XXXVI. Our Adonais has drunk poison-oh! Whose prelude held all envy, hate, and wrong, Whose master's hand is cold, whose silver lyre unstrung. XXXVII. 320 Live thou, whose infamy is not thy fame! 325 Live! fear no heavier chastisement from me, 330 XXXVIII. Nor let us weep that our delight is fled Far from these carrion-kites that scream below; 335 He wakes or sleeps with the enduring dead; Dust to the dust! but the pure spirit shall flow 340 XXXIX. Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep He hath awakened from the dream of life 'Tis we, who, lost in stormy visions, keep 345 With phantoms an unprofitable strife, And in mad trance strike with our spirit's knife Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief 350 And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay. XL. He has outsoared the shadow of our night; 355 A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain ; Nor when the spirit's self has ceased to burn, With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn. 360 XLI. He lives, he wakes-'tis Death is dead, not he; 365 Cease ye faint flowers and fountains, and thou Air, XLII. He is made one with Nature: there is heard 370 In darkness and in light, from herb and stone, Spreading itself where'er that Power may move Which has withdrawn his being to its own; Which wields the world with never wearied love. Sustains it from beneath, and kindles it above. XLIII. He is a portion of the loveliness 375 Torturing th' unwilling dross that checks its flight Which once he made more lovely: he doth bear 380 385 From trees and beasts and men into the Heaven's light. XLIV. The splendours of the firmament of time And move like winds of light on dark and stormy air. XLV. The inheritors of unfulfilled renown Rose from their thrones, built beyond mortal thought, Rose pale, his solemn agony had not Yet faded from him; Sidney, as he fought Sublimely mild, a Spirit without spot, Arose; and Lucan, by his death approved; 390 395 400 Oblivion as they rose shrank like a thing reproved. 405 XLVI. And many more, whose names on Earth are dark, But whose transmitted effluence cannot die So long as fire outlives the parent spark, Rose, robed in dazzling immortality. "Thou art become as one of us," they cry; 410 "It was for thee yon kingless sphere has long Swung blind in unascended majesty, Silent alone amid a Heaven of song. Assume thy winged throne, thou Vesper of our throng!" XLVII. Who mourns for Adonais? oh come forth, 415 Fond wretch! and know thyself and him aright. Clasp with thy panting soul the pendulous Earth; Satiate the void circumference: then shrink 420 Even to a point within our day and night; And keep thy heart light, lest it make thee sink When hope has kindled hope, and lured thee to the brink. XLVIII. Or go to Rome, which is the sepulchre, 425 Lie buried in the ravage they have wrought; For such as he can lend,-they borrow not Glory from those who made the world their prey; 430 And of the past are all that cannot pass away. A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread. L. And grey walls moulder round, on which dull Time And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, 445 Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath A field is spread, on which a newer band Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath. 450 LI. Here pause these graves are all too young as yet Its charge to each; and if the seal is set, Here, on one fountain of a mourning mind, Break it not thou! too surely shalt thou find 455 Thine own well full, if thou returnest home, Of tears and gall. From the world's bitter wind What Adonais is, why fear we to become? LII. The One remains, the many change and pass; 460 Heaven's light for ever shines, Earth's shadows fly; Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Until Death tramples it to fragments. -Die, If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek! 465 Follow where all is fled !-Rome's azure sky, Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words are weak The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak. LIII. Why linger, why turn back, why shrink, my Heart? 470 And man, and woman; and what still is dear 475 No more let Life divide what Death can join together. LIV. That light whose smile kindles the Universe, LV. 480 485 The breath whose might I have invoked in song 490 I am borne darkly, fearfully afar; Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, The soul of Adonais, like a star, Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. 495 |