FROM HYPERION." Deep in the shady sadness of a vale Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Like cloud on cloud. No stir of air was there, Robs not one light seed from the feathered grass, Spreading a shade: the Naiad 'mid her reeds Along the margin-sand large foot-marks went, It seemed no force could wake him from his place; But there came one, who with a kindred hand Touched his wide shoulders, after bending low Had stood a pigmy's height: she would have ta’en Or with a finger stayed Ixion's wheel. Her face was large as that of Memphian sphinx, When sages looked to Egypt for their lore. Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue To that large utterance of the early Gods! "Saturn, look up!—though wherefore, poor old King? "I have no comfort for thee, no not one: "I cannot say, 'O wherefore sleepest thou?' "For heaven is parted from thee, and the earth "Knows thee not, thus afflicted, for a God; And ocean too, with all its solemn noise, "Has from thy sceptre passed; and all the air Is emptied of thine hoary majesty. 66 Thy thunder, conscious of the new command, "Rumbles reluctant o'er our fallen house; And thy sharp lightning in unpractised hands Scorches and burns our once serene domain. "O aching time! O moments big as years! "All as ye pass swell out the monstrous truth, And press it so upon our weary griefs 66 That unbelief has not a space to breathe. Saturn, sleep on :-O thoughtless, why did I "Thus violate thy slumbrous solitude? Why should I ope thy melancholy eyes? "Saturn, sleep on! while at thy feet I weep." As when, upon a tranced summer-night, Which comes upon the silence, and dies off, So came these words and went; the while in tears * * * * * * * It was Hyperion:-a granite peak His bright feet touched, and there he stayed to view To the most hateful seeing of itself. In midst of his own brightness, like the bulk To one who travels from the dusking East: On Thou! thou who 'canst melt the heart of stone, And make the desert of the cruel breast A paradise of soft and gentle thoughts! The darkness of my father's soul? Thou knowest |