A ballad.
See you the towers, that, gray and
old,
Frown through the sunlights liquid gold,
Steep sternly fronting steep?
The Hellespont beneath them swells,
And roaring cleaves the Dardanelles,
The rock-gates of the deep!
Hear you the sea, whose stormy wave,
From Asia, Europe clove in thunder?
That sea which rent a world, cannot
Rend love from love asunder!
In Heros, in Leanders
heart,
Thrills the sweet anguish of the
dart
Whose feather flies from love.
All Hebes bloom in Heros
cheek-
And his the hunters steps
that seek
Delight, the hills above!
Between their sires the rival feud
Forbids their plighted hearts
to meet;
Loves fruits hang over dangers
gulf,
By danger made more sweet.
Alone on Sestos rocky tower,
Where upward sent in stormy shower,
The whirling waters foam,-
Alone the maiden sits, and eyes
The cliffs of fair Abydos rise
Afar-her lovers
home.
Oh, safely thrown from strand to
strand,
No bridge can love to love
convey;
No boatman shoots from yonder shore,
Yet Love has found the way.-
That love, which could the labyrinth
pierce-
Which nerves the weak, and curbs
the fierce,
And wings with wit the dull;-
That love which oer the furrowed
land
Bowed-tame beneath young
Jasons hand-
The fiery-snorting bull!
Yes, Styx itself, that ninefold
flows,
Has love, the fearless, ventured
oer,
And back to daylight borne the bride,
From Plutos dreary
shore!
What marvel then that wind and wave,
Leander doth but burn to brave,
When love, that goads him,
guides!
Still when the day, with fainter
glimmer,
Wanes pale-he leaps,
the daring swimmer,
Amid the darkening tides;
With lusty arms he cleaves the waves,
And strikes for that dear
strand afar;
Where high from Heros lonely
tower
Lone streams the beacon-star.
In vain his blood the wave may chill,
These tender arms can warm it still-
And, weary if the way,
By many a sweet embrace, above
All earthly boons-can
liberal love
The lovers toil repay,
Until Aurora breaks the dream,
And warns the loiterer to
depart-
Back to the oceans icy bed,
Scared from that loving heart.
So thirty suns have sped their flight-
Still in that theft of sweet delight
Exult the happy pair;
Caress will never pall caress,
And joys that gods might envy, bless
The single bride-night there.
Ah! never he has rapture known,
Who has not, where the waves
are driven
Upon the fearful shores of hell,
Plucked fruits that taste
of heaven!
Now changing in their season are,
The morning and the Hesper star;-
Nor see those happy eyes
The leaves that withering droop
and fall,
Nor hear, when, from its northern
hall,
The neighboring winter sighs;
Or, if they see, the shortening
days
But seem to them to close
in kindness;
For longer joys, in lengthening
nights,
They thank the heaven in blindness.
It is the time, when night and day,
In equal scales contend for sway
-
Lone, on her rocky steep,
Lingers the girl with wistful eyes
That watch the sun-steeds down the
skies,
Careering towards the deep.
Lulled lay the smooth and silent
sea,
A mirror in translucent calm,
The breeze, along that crystal realm,
Unmurmuring, died in balm.
In wanton swarms and blithe array,
The merry dolphins glide and play
Amid the silver waves.
In gray and dusky troops are seen,
The hosts that serve the ocean-queen,
Upborne from coral caves:
They-only they-have
witnessed love
To rapture steal its secret
way:
And Hecate seals the only lips
That could the tale betray!
She marks in joy the lulled water,
And Sestos, thus thy tender daughter,
Soft-flattering, woos the
sea!
Fair god-and canst
thou then betray?
No! falsehood dwells with them that
say
That falsehood dwells with
thee!
Ah! faithless is the race of man,
And harsh a fathers
heart can prove;
But thee, the gentle and the mild,
The grief of love can move!
Within these hated walls
of stone,
Should I, repining, mourn alone,
And fade in ceaseless care,
But thou, though oer thy
giant tide,
Nor bridge may span, nor boat may
glide,
Dost safe my lover bear.
And darksome is thy solemn deep,
And fearful is thy roaring
wave;
But wave and deep are won by love-
Thou smilest on the brave!
Nor vainly, sovereign of
the sea,
Did Eros send his shafts to thee
What time the rain of gold,
Bright Helle, with her brother bore,
How stirred the waves she wandered
oer,
How stirred thy deeps of old!
Swift, by the maidens charms
subdued,
Thou camst from out
the gloomy waves,
And in thy mighty arms, she sank
Into thy bridal caves.
A goddess with a god, to
keep
In endless youth, beneath the deep,
Her solemn ocean-court!
And still she smooths thine angry
tides,
Tames thy wild heart, and favoring
guides
The sailor to the port!
Beautiful Helle, bright one, hear
Thy lone adoring suppliant
pray!
And guide, O goddess-guide
my love
Along the wonted way!
Now twilight dims the waters
flow,
And from the tower, the beacons
glow
Waves flickering oer
the main.
Ah, where athwart the dismal stream,
Shall shine the beacons faithful
beam
The lovers eyes shall
strain!
Hark! sounds moan threatening from
afar-
From heaven the blessed stars
are gone-
More darkly swells the rising sea
The tempest labors on!
Along the oceans boundless
plains
Lies night-in torrents
rush the rains
From the dark-bosomed cloud-
Red lightning skirs the panting
air,
And, loosed from out their rocky
lair,
Sweep all the storms abroad.
Huge wave on huge wave tumbling
oer,
The yawning gulf is rent asunder,
And shows, as through an opening
pall,
Grim earth-the
ocean under!
Poor maiden! bootless wail or vow-
Have mercy, Jove-be
gracious, thou!
Dread prayer was mine before!
What if the gods have heard-and
he,
Lone victim of the stormy sea,
Now struggles to the shore!
Theres not a sea-bird on
the wave-
Their hurrying wings the shelter
seek;
The stoutest ship the storms have
proved,
Takes refuge in the creek.
Ah, still that heart, which
oft has braved
The danger where the daring saved,
Love lureth oer the
sea;-
For many a vow at parting morn,
That naught but death should bar
return,
Breathed those dear lips to
me;
And whirled around, the while I
weep,
Amid the storm that rides
the wave,
The giant gulf is grasping down
The rash one to the grave!
False Pontus! and the calm
I hailed,
The awaiting murder darkly veiled-
The lulled pellucid flow,
The smiles in which thou wert arrayed,
Were but the snares that love betrayed
To thy false realm below!
Now in the midway of the main,
Return relentlessly forbidden,
Thou loosenest on the path beyond
The horrors thou hadst hidden.
Loud and more loud the tempest raves
In thunder break the mountain waves,
White-foaming on the rock-
No ship that ever swept the deep
Its ribs of gnarled oak could keep
Unshattered by the shock.
Dies in the blast the guiding torch
To light the struggler to
the strand;
Tis death to battle with
the wave,
And death no less to land!
On Venus, daughter of the seas,
She calls the tempest to appease-
To each wild-shrieking wind
Along the ocean-desert borne,
She vows a steer with golden horn-
Vain vow-relentless
wind!
On every goddess of the deep,
On all the gods in heaven
that be,
She calls-to soothe in
calm, awhile
The tempest-laden sea!
Hearken the anguish of my
cries!
From thy green halls, arise-arise,
Leucothoe the divine!
Who, in the barren main afar,
Oft on the storm-beat mariner
Dost gently-saving shine.
Oh,-reach to him thy
mystic veil,
To which the drowning clasp
may cling,
And safely from that roaring grave,
To shore my lover bring!
And now the savage winds are hushing.
And oer the arched horizon,
blushing,
Days chariot gleams
on high!
Back to their wonted channels rolled,
In crystal calm the waves behold
One smile on sea and sky!
All softly breaks the rippling tide,
Low-murmuring on the rocky
land,
And playful wavelets gently float
A corpse upon the strand!
Tis he!-who even
in death would still
Not fail the sweet vow to fulfil;
She looks-sees-knows
him there!
From her pale lips no sorrow speaks,
No tears glide down her hueless
cheeks;
Cold-numbed in her despair-
She looked along the silent deep,
She looked upon the brightening
heaven,
Till to the marble face the soul
Its light sublime had given!
Ye solemn powers men shrink
to name,
Your might is here, your rights
ye claim-
Yet think not I repine
Soon closed my course; yet I can
bless
The life that brought me happiness-
The fairest lot was mine!
Living have I thy temple served,
Thy consecrated priestess
been-
My last glad offering now receive
Venus, thou mightiest queen!
Flashed the white robe along the
air,
And from the tower that beetled
there
She sprang into the wave;
Roused from his throne beneath the
waste,
Those holy forms the god embraced-
A god himself their grave!
Pleased with his prey, he glides
along-
More blithe the murmured music
seems,
A gush from unexhausted urns
His everlasting streams!
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