Among mankind what thence befell...

Among mankind what thence befell Of strife, how vain, is known too well; When Liberty's dear paean fell ‘ Mid murderous howls. To Lionel,

Though of great wealth and lineage high, Yet through those dungeon walls there came Thy thrilling light, O Liberty! And as the meteor's midnight flame

Startles the dreamer, sun-like truth Flashed on his visionary youth, And filled him, not with love, but faith, And hope, and courage mute in death;

For love and life in him were twins, Born at one birth: in every other First life then love its course begins, Though they be children of one mother;

And so through this dark world they fleet Divided, till in death they meet; But he loved all things ever. Then He passed amid the strife of men,

And stood at the throne of armed power Pleading for a world of woe: Secure as one on a rock-built tower O'er the wrecks which the surge trails to and fro,

‘ Mid the passions wild of human kind He stood, like a spirit calming them; For, it was said, his words could bind Like music the lulled crowd, and stem

That torrent of unquiet dream Which mortals truth and reason deem, But is revenge and fear and pride. Joyous he was; and hope and peace

On all who heard him did abide, Raining like dew from his sweet talk, As where the evening star may walk Along the brink of the gloomy seas,

Liquid mists of splendour quiver. His very gestures touched to tears The unpersuaded tyrant, never So moved before: his presence stung

The torturers with their victim's pain, And none knew how; and through their ears The subtle witchcraft of his tongue Unlocked the hearts of those who keep

Gold, the world's bond of slavery. Men wondered, and some sneered to see One sow what he could never reap: For he is rich, they said, and young,

And might drink from the depths of luxury. If he seeks Fame, Fame never crowned The champion of a trampled creed: If he seeks Power, Power is enthroned

‘ Mid ancient rights and wrongs, to feed Which hungry wolves with praise and spoil, Those who would sit near Power must toil; And such, there sitting, all may see.

What seeks he? All that others seek He casts away, like a vile weed Which the sea casts unreturningly. That poor and hungry men should break

The laws which wreak them toil and scorn, We understand; but Lionel We know, is rich and nobly born. So wondered they: yet all men loved

Young Lionel, though few approved; All but the priests, whose hatred fell Like the unseen blight of a smiling day, The withering honey dew, which clings

Under the bright green buds of May, Whilst they unfold their emerald wings: For he made verses wild and queer On the strange creeds priests hold so dear,

Because they bring them land and gold. Of devils and saints and all such gear, He made tales which whoso heard or read Would laugh till he were almost dead.

So this grew a proverb:‘ Do n't get old Till Lionel's “Banquet in Hell” you hear, And then you will laugh yourself young again.’ So the priests hated him, and he

Repaid their hate with cheerful glee. Ah, smiles and joyance quickly died, For public hope grew pale and dim In an altered time and tide,

And in its wasting withered him, As a summer flower that blows too soon Droops in the smile of the waning moon, When it scatters through an April night

The frozen dews of wrinkling blight. None now hoped more. Gray Power was seated Safely on her ancestral throne; And Faith, the Python, undefeated,

Even to its blood-stained steps dragged on Her foul and wounded train, and men Were trampled and deceived again, And words and shows again could bind

The wailing tribes of human kind In scorn and famine. Fire and blood Raged round the raging multitude, To fields remote by tyrants sent

To be the scorned instrument With which they drag from mines of gore The chains their slaves yet ever wore: And in the streets men met each other,

And by old altars and in halls, And smiled again at festivals. But each man found in his heart's brother Cold cheer; for all, though half deceived,

The outworn creeds again believed, And the same round anew began, Which the weary world yet ever ran. Many then wept, not tears, but gall

Within their hearts, like drops which fall Wasting the fountain-stone away. And in that dark and evil day Did all desires and thoughts, that claim

Men's care — ambition, friendship, fame, Love, hope, though hope was now despair — Indue the colours of this change, As from the all-surrounding air

The earth takes hues obscure and strange, When storm and earthquake linger there. And so, my friend, it then befell To many, most to Lionel,

Whose hope was like the life of youth Within him, and when dead, became A spirit of unresting flame, Which goaded him in his distress

Over the world's vast wilderness. Three years he left his native land, And on the fourth, when he returned, None knew him: he was stricken deep

With some disease of mind, and turned Into aught unlike Lionel. On him, on whom, did he pause in sleep, Serenest smiles were wont to keep,

And, did he wake, a winged band Of bright persuasions, which had fed On his sweet lips and liquid eyes, Kept their swift pinions half outspread

To do on men his least command; On him, whom once‘ twas paradise Even to behold, now misery lay: In his own heart‘ twas merciless,

To all things else none may express Its innocence and tenderness. ‘ Twas said that he had refuge sought In love from his unquiet thought

In distant lands, and been deceived By some strange show; for there were found, Blotted with tears as those relieved By their own words are wont to do,

These mournful verses on the ground, By all who read them blotted too. ‘ How am I changed! my hopes were once like fire: I loved, and I believed that life was love.

How am I lost! on wings of swift desire Among Heaven's winds my spirit once did move. I slept, and silver dreams did aye inspire My liquid sleep: I woke, and did approve

All nature to my heart, and thought to make A paradise of earth for one sweet sake. ‘ I love, but I believe in love no more. I feel desire, but hope not. O, from sleep

Most vainly must my weary brain implore Its long lost flattery now: I wake to weep, And sit through the long day gnawing the core Of my bitter heart, and, like a miser, keep,

Since none in what I feel take pain or pleasure, To my own soul its self-consuming treasure.’ He dwelt beside me near the sea; And oft in evening did we meet,

When the waves, beneath the starlight, flee O'er the yellow sands with silver feet, And talked: our talk was sad and sweet, Till slowly from his mien there passed

The desolation which it spoke; And smiles,— as when the lightning's blast Has parched some heaven-delighting oak, The next spring shows leaves pale and rare,

But like flowers delicate and fair, On its rent boughs,— again arrayed His countenance in tender light: His words grew subtile fire, which made

The air his hearers breathed delight: His motions, like the winds, were free, Which bend the bright grass gracefully, Then fade away in circlets faint:

And winged Hope, on which upborne His soul seemed hovering in his eyes, Like some bright spirit newly born Floating amid the sunny skies,

Sprang forth from his rent heart anew. Yet o'er his talk, and looks, and mien, Tempering their loveliness too keen, Past woe its shadow backward threw,

Till like an exhalation, spread From flowers half drunk with evening dew, They did become infectious: sweet And subtle mists of sense and thought:

Which wrapped us soon, when we might meet, Almost from our own looks and aught The wild world holds. And so, his mind Was healed, while mine grew sick with fear:

For ever now his health declined, Like some frail bark which cannot bear The impulse of an altered wind, Though prosperous: and my heart grew full

‘ Mid its new joy of a new care: For his cheek became, not pale, but fair, As rose-o'ershadowed lilies are; And soon his deep and sunny hair,

In this alone less beautiful, Like grass in tombs grew wild and rare. The blood in his translucent veins Beat, not like animal life, but love

Seemed now its sullen springs to move, When life had failed, and all its pains: And sudden sleep would seize him oft Like death, so calm, but that a tear,

His pointed eyelashes between, Would gather in the light serene Of smiles, whose lustre bright and soft Beneath lay undulating there.

His breath was like inconstant flame, As eagerly it went and came; And I hung o'er him in his sleep, Till, like an image in the lake

Which rains disturb, my tears would break The shadow of that slumber deep: Then he would bid me not to weep, And say, with flattery false, yet sweet,

That death and he could never meet, If I would never part with him. And so we loved, and did unite All that in us was yet divided:

For when he said, that many a rite, By men to bind but once provided, Could not be shared by him and me, Or they would kill him in their glee,

I shuddered, and then laughing said — ‘ We will have rites our faith to bind, But our church shall be the starry night, Our altar the grassy earth outspread,

And our priest the muttering wind.’ ‘ Twas sunset as I spoke: one star Had scarce burst forth, when from afar The ministers of misrule sent,

Seized upon Lionel, and bore His chained limbs to a dreary tower, In the midst of a city vast and wide. For he, they said, from his mind had bent

Against their gods keen blasphemy, For which, though his soul must roasted be In hell's red lakes immortally, Yet even on earth must he abide

The vengeance of their slaves: a trial, I think, men call it. What avail Are prayers and tears, which chase denial From the fierce savage, nursed in hate?

What the knit soul that pleading and pale Makes wan the quivering cheek, which late It painted with its own delight? We were divided. As I could,

I stilled the tingling of my blood, And followed him in their despite, As a widow follows, pale and wild, The murderers and corse of her only child;

And when we came to the prison door And I prayed to share his dungeon floor With prayers which rarely have been spurned, And when men drove me forth and I

Stared with blank frenzy on the sky, A farewell look of love he turned, Half calming me; then gazed awhile, As if thro’ that black and massy pile,

And thro’ the crowd around him there, And thro’ the dense and murky air, And the thronged streets, he did espy What poets know and prophesy;

And said, with voice that made them shiver And clung like music in my brain, And which the mute walls spoke again Prolonging it with deepened strain:

‘ Fear not the tyrants shall rule for ever, Or the priests of the bloody faith; They stand on the brink of that mighty river, Whose waves they have tainted with death:

It is fed from the depths of a thousand dells, Around them it foams, and rages, and swells, And their swords and their sceptres I floating see, Like wrecks in the surge of eternity.’

I dwelt beside the prison gate; And the strange crowd that out and in Passed, some, no doubt, with mine own fate, Might have fretted me with its ceaseless din,

But the fever of care was louder within. Soon, but too late, in penitence Or fear, his foes released him thence: I saw his thin and languid form,

As leaning on the jailor's arm, Whose hardened eyes grew moist the while, To meet his mute and faded smile, And hear his words of kind farewell,

He tottered forth from his damp cell. Many had never wept before, From whom fast tears then gushed and fell: Many will relent no more,

Who sobbed like infants then; aye, all Who thronged the prison's stony hall, The rulers or the slaves of law, Felt with a new surprise and awe

That they were human, till strong shame Made them again become the same. The prison blood-hounds, huge and grim, From human looks the infection caught,

And fondly crouched and fawned on him; And men have heard the prisoners say, Who in their rotting dungeons lay, That from that hour, throughout one day,

The fierce despair and hate which kept Their trampled bosoms almost slept: Where, like twin vultures, they hung feeding On each heart's wound, wide torn and bleeding,—

Because their jailors’ rule, they thought, Grew merciful, like a parent's sway. I know not how, but we were free: And Lionel sate alone with me,

As the carriage drove thro’ the streets apace; And we looked upon each other's face; And the blood in our fingers intertwined Ran like the thoughts of a single mind,

As the swift emotions went and came Thro’ the veins of each united frame. So thro’ the long long streets we passed Of the million-peopled City vast;

Which is that desert, where each one Seeks his mate yet is alone, Beloved and sought and mourned of none; Until the clear blue sky was seen,

And the grassy meadows bright and green, And then I sunk in his embrace, Enclosing there a mighty space Of love: and so we travelled on

By woods, and fields of yellow flowers, And towns, and villages, and towers, Day after day of happy hours. It was the azure time of June,

When the skies are deep in the stainless noon, And the warm and fitful breezes shake The fresh green leaves of the hedgerow briar, And there were odours then to make

The very breath we did respire A liquid element, whereon Our spirits, like delighted things That walk the air on subtle wings,

Floated and mingled far away, ‘ Mid the warm winds of the sunny day. And when the evening star came forth Above the curve of the new bent moon,

And light and sound ebbed from the earth, Like the tide of the full and the weary sea To the depths of its own tranquillity, Our natures to its own repose

Did the earth's breathless sleep attune: Like flowers, which on each other close Their languid leaves when daylight's gone, We lay, till new emotions came,

Which seemed to make each mortal frame One soul of interwoven flame, A life in life, a second birth In worlds diviner far than earth,

Which, like two strains of harmony That mingle in the silent sky Then slowly disunite, passed by And left the tenderness of tears,

A soft oblivion of all fears, A sweet sleep: so we travelled on Till we came to the home of Lionel, Among the mountains wild and lone,

Beside the hoary western sea, Which near the verge of the echoing shore The massy forest shadowed o'er. The ancient steward, with hair all hoar,

As we alighted, wept to see His master changed so fearfully; And the old man's sobs did waken me From my dream of unremaining gladness;

The truth flashed o'er me like quick madness When I looked, and saw that there was death On Lionel: yet day by day He lived, till fear grew hope and faith,

And in my soul I dared to say, Nothing so bright can pass away: Death is dark, and foul, and dull, But he is — O how beautiful!

Yet day by day he grew more weak, And his sweet voice, when he might speak, Which ne'er was loud, became more low; And the light which flashed through his waxen cheek

Grew faint, as the rose-like hues which flow From sunset o'er the Alpine snow: And death seemed not like death in him, For the spirit of life o'er every limb

Lingered, a mist of sense and thought. When the summer wind faint odours brought From mountain flowers, even as it passed His cheek would change, as the noonday sea

Which the dying breeze sweeps fitfully. If but a cloud the sky o'ercast, You might see his colour come and go, And the softest strain of music made

Sweet smiles, yet sad, arise and fade Amid the dew of his tender eyes; And the breath, with intermitting flow, Made his pale lips quiver and part.

You might hear the beatings of his heart, Quick, but not strong; and with my tresses When oft he playfully would bind In the bowers of mossy lonelinesses

His neck, and win me so to mingle In the sweet depth of woven caresses, And our faint limbs were intertwined, Alas! the unquiet life did tingle

From mine own heart through every vein, Like a captive in dreams of liberty, Who beats the walls of his stony cell. But his, it seemed already free,

Like the shadow of fire surrounding me! On my faint eyes and limbs did dwell That spirit as it passed, till soon, As a frail cloud wandering o'er the moon,

Beneath its light invisible, Is seen when it folds its gray wings again To alight on midnight's dusky plain, I lived and saw, and the gathering soul

Passed from beneath that strong control, And I fell on a life which was sick with fear Of all the woe that now I bear. Amid a bloomless myrtle wood,

On a green and sea-girt promontory, 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;’ 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. 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.

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, 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 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, 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

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 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 — 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, 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,

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, 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 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! 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,

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.’ 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, 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; 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

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 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 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 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

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; 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 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, 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,

And the mortal lightning is veiled again. O that I were now dead! but such ( Did they not, love, demand too much, Those dying murmurs? ) he forbade.

O that I once again were mad! And yet, dear Rosalind, not so, For I would live to share thy woe. Sweet boy! did I forget thee too?

Alas, we know not what we do When we speak words. No memory more Is in my mind of that sea shore.

Madness came on me, and a troop Of misty shapes did seem to sit Beside me, on a vessel's poop, And the clear north wind was driving it.

Then I heard strange tongues, and saw strange flowers, And the stars methought grew unlike ours, And the azure sky and the stormless sea Made me believe that I had died,

And waked in a world, which was to me Drear hell, though heaven to all beside: Then a dead sleep fell on my mind, Whilst animal life many long years

Had rescued from a chasm of tears; And when I woke, I wept to find That the same lady, bright and wise, With silver locks and quick brown eyes,

The mother of my Lionel, Had tended me in my distress, And died some months before. Nor less Wonder, but far more peace and joy,

Brought in that hour my lovely boy; For through that trance my soul had well The impress of thy being kept; And if I waked, or if I slept,

No doubt, though memory faithless be, Thy image ever dwelt on me; And thus, O Lionel, like thee Is our sweet child.‘ Tis sure most strange

I knew not of so great a change, As that which gave him birth, who now Is all the solace of my woe. That Lionel great wealth had left

By will to me, and that of all The ready lies of law bereft My child and me, might well befall. But let me think not of the scorn,

Which from the meanest I have borne, When, for my child's beloved sake, I mixed with slaves, to vindicate The very laws themselves do make:

Let me not say scorn is my fate, Lest I be proud, suffering the same With those who live in deathless fame. She ceased.—‘ Lo, where red morning thro’ the woods

Is burning o'er the dew;’ said Rosalind. And with these words they rose, and towards the flood Of the blue lake, beneath the leaves now wind With equal steps and fingers intertwined:

Thence to a lonely dwelling, where the shore Is shadowed with steep rocks, and cypresses Cleave with their dark green cones the silent skies, And with their shadows the clear depths below,

And where a little terrace from its bowers, Of blooming myrtle and faint lemon-flowers, Scatters its sense-dissolving fragrance o'er The liquid marble of the windless lake;

And where the aged forest's limbs look hoar, Under the leaves which their green garments make, They come:‘ Tis Helen's home, and clean and white, Like one which tyrants spare on our own land

In some such solitude, its casements bright Shone through their vine-leaves in the morning sun, And even within‘ twas scarce like Italy. And when she saw how all things there were planned,

As in an English home, dim memory Disturbed poor Rosalind: she stood as one Whose mind is where his body cannot be, Till Helen led her where her child yet slept,

And said,‘ Observe, that brow was Lionel's, Those lips were his, and so he ever kept One arm in sleep, pillowing his head with it. You cannot see his eyes — they are two wells

Of liquid love: let us not wake him yet.’ But Rosalind could bear no more, and wept A shower of burning tears, which fell upon His face, and so his opening lashes shone

With tears unlike his own, as he did leap In sudden wonder from his innocent sleep. So Rosalind and Helen lived together Thenceforth, changed in all else, yet friends again,

Such as they were, when o'er the mountain heather They wandered in their youth, through sun and rain. And after many years, for human things Change even like the ocean and the wind,

Her daughter was restored to Rosalind, And in their circle thence some visitings Of joy‘ mid their new calm would intervene: A lovely child she was, of looks serene,

And motions which o'er things indifferent shed The grace and gentleness from whence they came. And Helen's boy grew with her, and they fed From the same flowers of thought, until each mind

Like springs which mingle in one flood became, And in their union soon their parents saw The shadow of the peace denied to them. And Rosalind, for when the living stem

Is cankered in its heart, the tree must fall, Died ere her time; and with deep grief and awe The pale survivors followed her remains Beyond the region of dissolving rains,

Up the cold mountain she was wont to call Her tomb; and on Chiavenna's precipice They raised a pyramid of lasting ice, Whose polished sides, ere day had yet begun,

Caught the first glow of the unrisen sun, The last, when it had sunk; and thro’ the night The charioteers of Arctos wheeled round Its glittering point, as seen from Helen's home,

Whose sad inhabitants each year would come, With willing steps climbing that rugged height, And hang long locks of hair, and garlands bound With amaranth flowers, which, in the clime's despite,

Filled the frore air with unaccustomed light: Such flowers, as in the wintry memory bloom Of one friend left, adorned that frozen tomb. Helen, whose spirit was of softer mould,

Whose sufferings too were less, Death slowlier led Into the peace of his dominion cold: She died among her kindred, being old. And know, that if love die not in the dead

As in the living, none of mortal kind Are blest, as now Helen and Rosalind.