What misery most drowningly doth sing
In lone Endymion's ear, now he has caught The goal of consciousness? Ah, 't is the thought, The deadly feel of solitude: for lo!
He cannot see the heavens, nor the flow Of rivers, nor hill-flowers running wild. In pink and purple chequer, nor, up-piled, The cloudy rack slow journeying in the west, Like herded elephants; nor felt, nor prest Cool grass, nor tasted the fresh slumberous air; But far from such companionship to wear An unknown time, surcharged with grief, away, Was now his lot. And must he patient stay, Tracing fantastic figures with his spear ? "No!" exclaim'd he, "why should I tarry here?" No! loudly echoed times innumerable.
At which he straightway started, and 'gan tell His paces back into the temple's chief; Warming and glowing strong in the belief
Of help from Dian: so that when again He caught her airy form, thus did he plain, Moving more near the while. "O Haunter chaste Of river sides, and woods, and heathy waste, Where with thy silver bow and arrows keen Art thou now forested? O woodland Queen, What smoothest air thy smoother forehead woos! Where dost thou listen to the wide halloos
Of thy disparted nymphs?
Glimmers thy crescent!
Through what dark tree Whereso'er it be,
'Tis in the breath of heaven: thou dost taste Freedom as none can taste it, nor dost waste Thy loveliness in dismal elements;
But, finding in our green earth sweet contents,
There livest blissfully. Ah, if to thee It feels Elysian, how rich to me,
An exiled mortal, sounds its pleasant name! Within my breast there lives a choking flame- O let me cool it among the zephyr-boughs! A homeward fever parches up my tongue- O let me slake it at the running springs! Upon my ear a noisy nothing rings—
O let me once more hear the linnet's note ! Before mine eyes thick films and shadows float- O let me 'noint them with the heaven's light! Dost thou now lave thy feet and ankles white? O think how sweet to me the freshening sluice! Dost thou now please thy thirst with berry-juice? O think how this dry palate would rejoice! If in soft slumber thou dost hear my voice,
O think how I should love a bed of flowers!— Young goddess! let me see my native bowers! Deliver me from this rapacious deep!"
Thus ending loudly, as he would o'erleap His destiny, alert he stood: but when Obstinate silence came heavily again, Feeling about for its old couch of space And airy cradle, lowly bow'd his face, Desponding, o'er the marble floor's cold thrill. But 't was not long; for, sweeter than the rill To its old channel, or a swollen tide
To margin sallows, where the leaves he spied, And flowers, and wreaths, and ready myrtle crowns Up heaping through the slab: refreshment drowns
Itself, and strives its own delights to hide- Nor in one spot alone; the floral pride
In a long whispering birth enchanted grew Before his footsteps; as when heaved anew Old ocean rolls a lengthen'd wave to the shore, Down whose green back the short-lived foam, all hoar, Bursts gradual, with a wayward indolence.
Increasing still in heart, and pleasant sense, Upon his fairy journey on he hastes;
So anxious for the end, he scarcely wastes One moment with his hand among the sweets; Onward he goes-he stops-his bosom beats As plainly in his ear, as the faint charm
Of which the throbs were born. This still alarm, This sleepy music, forced him walk tiptoe: For it came more softly than the east could blow Arion's magic to the Atlantic isles;
Or than the west, made jealous by the smiles Of throned Apollo, could breathe back the lyre To seas Ionian and Tyrian.
O did he ever live, that lonely man,
Who loved-and music slew not? 'Tis the pest Of love, that fairest joys give most unrest; That things of delicate and tenderest worth Are swallow'd all, and made a seared dearth, By one consuming flame: it doth immerse And suffocate true blessings in a curse. Half-happy, by comparison of bliss,
Is miserable. 'Twas even so with this Dew-dropping melody, in the Carian's ear;
First heaven, then hell, and then forgotten clear, Vanish'd in elemental passion.
And down some swart abysm he had gone, Had not a heavenly guide benignant led
To where thick myrtle branches, 'gainst his head Brushing, awaken'd: then the sounds again Went noiseless as a passing noontide rain Over a bower, where little space he stood; For as the sunset peeps into a wood, So saw he panting light, and towards it went Through winding alleys; and lo, wonderment! Upon soft verdure saw, one here, one there, Cupids a slumbering on their pinions fair.
After a thousand mazes overgone, At last, with sudden step, he came upon A chamber, myrtle-wall'd, embower'd high, Full of light, incense, tender minstrelsy, And more of beautiful and strange beside: For on a silken couch of rosy pride,
In midst of all, there lay a sleeping youth Of fondest beauty; fonder, in fair sooth, Than sighs could fathom, or contentment reach: And coverlids gold-tinted like the peach,
Or ripe October's faded marigolds,
Fell sleek about him in a thousand folds- Not hiding up an Apollonian curve
Of neck and shoulder, nor the tenting swerve Of knee from knee, nor ankles pointing light; But rather, giving them to the fill'd sight Officiously. Sideway his face reposed On one white arm, and tenderly unclosed, By tenderest pressure, a faint damask mouth To slumbery pout; just as the morning south Disparts a dew-lipp'd rose. Above his head,
Four lily stalks did their white honors wed To make a coronal; and round him grew All tendrils green, of every bloom and hue Together intertwined and tramell'd fresh: The vine of glossy sprout; the ivy mesh, Shading its Ethiop berries; and woodbine, Of velvet leaves and bugle-blooms divine; Convolvulus in streaked vases flush; The creeper, mellowing for an autumn blush; And virgin's-bower, trailing airily; With others of the sisterhood. Hard by, Stood serene Cupids watching silently. One, kneeling to a lyre, touch'd the strings, Muffling to death the pathos with his wings; And, ever and anon, uprose to look At the youth's slumber; while another took A willow bough, distilling odorous dew, And shook it on his hair; another flew In through the woven roof, and fluttering-wise Rain'd violets upon his sleeping eyes.
At these enchantments, and yet many more, The breathless Latmian wonder'd o'er and o'er; Until impatient in embarrassment,
He forthright pass'd, and lightly treading went To that same feather'd lyrist, who straightway, Smiling, thus whisper'd: "Though from upper day Thou art a wanderer, and thy presence here Might seem unholy, be of happy cheer! For 'tis the nicest touch of human honor, When some ethereal and high-favoring donor Presents immortal bowers to mortal sense; As now 't is done to thee, Endymion. Hence
« ZurückWeiter » |