Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems — 1829 text — reading text

keep — The sound of the rain Which leaps down to the flower, And dances again In the rhythm of the shower — * The murmur that springs From the growing of grass Are the music of things — But are modell'd, alas! — Away, then my dearest, O! hie thee away To springs that lie clearest Beneath the moon ray — To lone lake that smiles, In its dream of deep rest, At the many star-isles That enjewel its breast — Where wild flowers, creeping, Have mingled their shade, On its margin is sleeping Full many a maid — Some have left the cool glade, and * Have slept with the bee — Arouse them my maiden, On moorland and lea — Go! breathe on their slumber, All softly in ear, The musical number They slumber'd to hear — For what can awaken An angel so soon Whose sleep hath been taken Beneath the cold moon As the spell which no slumber Of witchery may test, The rythmical number Which lull'd him to rest?” Spirits in wing, and angels to the view, A thousand seraphs burst th' Empyrean thro', Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight — Seraphs in all but “Knowledge,” the keen light That fell, refracted, thro' thy bounds, afar O! Death! from eye of God upon that star: Sweet was that error — sweeter still that death — Sweet was that error — ev'n with us the breath Of science dims the mirror of our joy — To them 'twere the Simoom, and would destroy — For what [to them] availeth it to know That Truth is Falsehood — or that Bliss is Woe? Sweet was their death — with them to die was rife With the last extacy of satiate life — Beyond that death no immortality — But sleep that pondereth and is not “to be” — And there — oh! may my weary spirit dwell — * Apart from Heaven's Eternity — and yet how far from Hell! What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim, Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn? But two: they fell: for Heaven no grace imparts To those who hear not for their beating hearts. A maiden-angel and her seraph-lover — O! where (and ye may seek the wide skies over) Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known? † Unguided Love hath fallen — 'mid “tears of perfect moan:” He was a goodly spirit — he who fell: A wanderer by mossy mantled well — A gazer on the lights that shine above — A dreamer in the moonbeam by his love: What wonder? for each star is eye-like there, And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hair — And they, and ev'ry mossy spring were holy To his love haunted heart and melancholy. The night had found (to him a night of wo) Upon a mountain crag, young Angelo — Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky, And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie. Here sate he with his love — his dark eye bent With eagle gaze along the firmament: Now turn'd it upon her — but ever then It trembled to one constant star again. “Ianthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray! How lovely 'tis to look so far away! She seem'd not thus upon that autumn eve I left her gorgeous halls — nor mourn'd to leave: That eve — that eve — I should remember well — The sun-ray dropp'd, in Lemnos, with a spell On th' ‘Arabesq’ carving of a gilded hall Wherein I sate, and on the drapried wall — And on my eye lids — O! the heavy light! How drowsily it weigh'd them into night! On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan: But O! that light! — I slumber'd — Death, the while, Stole o'er my senses in that lovely isle So softly that no single silken hair Awoke that slept — or knew that it was there. The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon * Was a proud temple call'd the Parthenon — More beauty clung around her column'd wall † Than ev'n thy glowing bosom beats withal, And when old Time my wing did disenthral Thence sprang I — as the eagle from his tower, And years I left behind me in an hour. What time upon her airy bounds I hung One half the garden of her globe was flung Unrolling as a chart unto my view — Tenantless cities of the desert too! Ianthe, beauty crowded on me then, And half I wish'd to be again of men. “My Angelo! and why of them to be? A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee — And greener fields than in yon world above, And women's loveliness — and passionate love. “But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft * Fail'd, as my pennon'd spirit leapt aloft, Perhaps my brain grew dizzy — but the world I left so late was into chaos hurl'd — Sprang from her station, on the winds apart, And roll'd, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart. Methought, my sweet one, then I ceas'd to soar And fell — not swiftly as I rose before, But with a downward, tremulous motion thro' Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto! Nor long the measure of my falling hours, For nearest of all stars was thine to ours — Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth, A red Dædalion on the timid Earth! “We came — and to thy Earth — but not to us Be given our lady's bidding to discuss: We came, my love; around, above, below, Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go, Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod She grants to us, as granted by her God — But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl'd Never his fairy wing o'er fairier world! Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes Alone could see the phantom in the skies, When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be Headlong thitherward o'er the starry sea — But when its glory swell'd upon the sky, As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye, We paus'd before the heritage of men, And thy star trembled — as doth Beauty then!” Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away The night that waned and waned and brought no day They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts Who hear not for the beating of their hearts. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 15:] *On Santa Maura — olim Deucadia. †Sappho. ‡This flower is much noticed by Lewehoeck and Tournefort. The bee, feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 16:] *Clytia — The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ a better-known term — the turnsol which turns continually towards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country from which it comes, with dewy clouds which cool and refresh its flowers during the most violent heat of the day. — B. de. St. Pierre. †There is cultivated in the king's garden at Paris, a species of serpentine aloes without prickles, whose large and beautiful flower exhales a strong odour of the vanilla, during the time of its expansion, which is very short — It does not blow till towards the month of July — you then perceive it gradually open its petals — expand them — fade and die. — St. Pierre. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 17:] *There is found, in the Rhone, a beautiful lily of the Valisnerian kind. Its stem will stretch to the length of three or four feet — thus preserving its head above water in the swellings of the river. †The Hyacinth. ‡It is a fiction of the Indians, that Cupid was first seen floating in one of these down the river Ganges — and that he still loves the cradle of his childhood. §And golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints. — Rev. St. John. [The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 18:] *The Humanitarians held that God was to be understood as having really a human form. — Vide Clarke's Sermons, vol. 1, page 26, fol. edit. The drift of Milton's argument, leads him to employ language which would appear, at first sight, to verge upon their doctrine; but it will be seen immediately, that he guards himself against the charge of having adopted one of the most ignorant errors of the dark ages of the church. — Dr. Sumner's Notes on Milton's Christian Doctrine. This opinion, in spite of many testimonies to the contrary, could never have been very general. Andeus, a Syrian of Messopotamia, was condemned for the opinion, as heretical. He lived in the beginning of the 4th century. His disciples were called Anthropmorphites. — Vide Du Pin. Among Milton's poems are these lines: — Dicite sacrorum præsides nemorum Deæ, &c. Quis ille primus cujus ex imagine Natura solers finxit humanum genus? Eternus, incorruptus, æquævus polo Unusque et universus exemplar Dei. — And afterwards, Non cui profundum Cæcitas lumen dedit Dircæus augur vidit hunc alto sinu, &c. [The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 19:] *Seltsamen Tochter Jovis Seinem Schosskinde Der Phantasie. — Goethe. [The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 20:] *Sightless — too small to be seen. — Legge. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 21:] *I have often noticed a peculiar movement of the fire-fly — They will collect in a body and fly off, from a common centre into innumerable radii. †Therasæa, or Therasea, the island mentioned by Seneca, which, in a moment, arose from the sea to the eyes of astonished mariners. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 25:] * Some star which, from the ruin'd roof Of shak'd Olympus, by mischance, did fall — Milton. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 26:] * Voltaire, in speaking of Persepolis, says, “Je conmois bien l'admiration qu'inspirent ces ruines — mais un palais erige au pied du'ne chaine des rochers sterils — peut il etre un chef doevure des arts!” — Voila les arguments de M. Voltaire. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 27:] † “Oh! the wave” — Ula Deguisi is the Turkish appellation; but, on its own shores, it is called Bahar Loth, or Almotanah. There were undoubtedly more than two cities engluphed in the “dead sea.” In the valley of Siddim were five — Adrah, Zeboin, Zoar, Sodom and Gomorrah. Stephen of Byzantium mentions eight, and Strabo thirteeen, (engulphed) — but the last is out of all reason. It is said, [Tacitus, Strabo, Josephus, Daniel of St. Saba, Nau, Maundrell, Troilo, D'Arvieux] that, after an excessive drought, the vestiges of columns, walls, &c. are seen above the surface. At any season, such remains may be discoverd by looking down into the transparent lake, and at such distances as would argue the existence of many settlements in the space now usurped by the “Asphaltites.” †Eyraco — Chaldea. ‡I have often thought I could distinctly hear the sound of the darkness as it stole over the horizon. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 28:] *Fairies use flowers for their charactery. — Merry Wives of Windsor. †In Scripture is this passage — “The sun shall not harm thee by day, nor the moon by night.” It is, perhaps, not generally known that the moon, in Egypt, has the effect of producing blindness to those who sleep with the face exposed to its rays, to which circumstance the passage evidently alludes. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 30:] *The Albatross is said to sleep on the wing. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 31:] *I met with this idea in an old English tale, which I am now unable to obtain and quote from memory: — “The verie essence and, as it were, springe-heade, and origine of all musiche is the verie pleasaunte sounde which the trees of the forest do make when they growe.” [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 32:] *The wild bee will not sleep in the shade if there be moonlight. The rhyme in this verse, as in one about 60 lines before, has an appearance of affectation. It is, however, imitated from Sir W. Scott, or rather from Claud Halcro — in whose mouth I admired its effect. O! were there an island, Tho' ever so wild Where woman might smile, and No man be beguil'd, &c. [The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 34:] *With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven and Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that tranquil and even happiness which they suppose to be characteristic of heavenly enjoyment. Un no rompido sueno — Un dia puro — allegre — libre Quiera — Libre de amor — de zelo — De odio — de esperanza — de rezelo, Luis Ponce de Leon. Sorrow is not excluded from “Al Aaraaf,” but it is that sorrow which the living love to cherish for the dead, and which, in some