CANTO THE SECOND.
O YE,
that ’tend my course with vent’rous sail,
Where my
bold Vessel spooms before the gale,
Lur’d by
that melody, whose distant strains
Smoothly
conducts her gliding Bark along
The
shoreless Sea with inexpressive Song,
Turn !
while your native shore in sight remains !
II.
If in this Sea, where never sail
before
Shadow’d the wave, you dip the bending oar,
My track you soon may lose, and wander far :
MINERVA gives the gale, APOLLO steers,
The Maids of Pindus charm the list’ning Spheres,
And point my eye-beam to the leading Star.
III.
But ye, selected few, that long to join
The hymeneal Choirs of Love divine,
And share the feast that Languor never knows,
The coming breeze invites ; your sails expand,
Launch boldly in the deep, and leave the land,
In my long track, before the waters close.
IV.
To you those far-fam’d Voyagers of yore,
Who stemm’d the wild waves to the Phasian shore,
The pal of immortality must yield ;
Tho’ by their Chief the Dragon seed was sown,
With more exalted hopes from Zone to Zone
You sped, when Heav’n the glorious prize reveal’d.
V.
Fix’d on the Stars the Virgin kept her eye,
And I on her, as thro’ the ample Sky
Swift as an arrow from the sounding yew
I wing’d my flight : but soon, disclosing wide,
A wond’rous prospect drew mine eyes aside ;
Soft smil’d the Maid, for all my thoughts she knew.
VI.
Soft as the rising Moon, an orient Light
On he features shone serenely bright.
“ Bless Heav’n,” she cry’d, “ that on the lunar Sphere
has landed you at last.” While thus she spoke,
It seem’d a shining Cloud around us broke,
And o’er the welkin roll’d in billows clear.
VII.
From the broad surge reflex the solar ray
Flash’d round, but far within the shafts of Day ;
Th’ ætherial lymph that form’d the subtle tide,
With our dimensions mingling, as we pass’d,
Our essence enter’d, and our limbs embrac’d,
As thro’ the limpid wave we seem’d to glide.
VIII.
How bodies in each other can be lost,
And the same space by diff’rent Forms engross’d,
Seem’d strange ; but these perplexing doubts are giv’n
By FAITH, our fervent longing to inflame
For that bless’d union, when, with wond’rous claim,
Man forms alliance with the FIRST in Heav’n.
IX.
Great Mystery of Heav’n ! we here beheld
Thy wond’rous emblem in the floating field,
Which made thee to my inward sense as bright
As the first elements of Truth descry’d
To the Mind’s eye ; then, ’midst the lucid tide,
I thus address’d the Denizen of Light :
X.
“ Such a grateful sense as mortal Soul can show
I feel for him, that from the World of Woe
Wafted to this fair Star my wond’rous flight :
But where are those deep Shades that mark her face,
When she begins her long nocturnal race,
XI.
“ No wonder Reason fail’d, “ the Guide rejoin’d,
“ When keenest Sense, the Harbinger of Mind,
Her confines meets ; when, ev’n within her bound,
Where she with Reason shares the whole domain,
She with her Sisters labours on with pain,
For ever baffled in her search profound.”
XII.
“ But what you think, you boldly may declare,”
I quick return’d ; “ its substance, dense or rare,
Gives that appearance to HER heav’nly mien,
Where joy seems dawning thro’ the dim remains
Of grief.”---“ Strong error still your Soul enchains,”
My Guide reply’d, “ the truth will soon be seen.
XIII.
“ Yon’ awful dome behold, that rounds the Pole,
In which yon’ twinkling Orbs by myriads roll,
Flaming intense, or, with a fainter light,
Spangling the depth of Heav’n : if ev’ry Star
Its various light diffus’d, as dense or rare,
Small were the influence of these Squadrons bright.
XIV.
“ Their various energy, from many a cause,
Derives its source by Heav’n’s primæval laws ;
All these, but formless quantity alone,
On your hypothesis would sink to nought,
All substance, blended by capricious lot,
No other stamp nor character would own.
XV.
“ If thro’ its rarer parts the mimic ray
Pass’d on, while from the dense a fainter Day
Reflected came, and cheer’d the face on Night ;
Aspects still various would the Planet show,
Oft as it rose upon the world below,
As it return’d, or lost its Brother’s light.”
XVI.
If thro’ its rarer parts the radiance ran,
When o’er
the Sun, in faded splendour wan,
By PHOEBE’s
disk a dim eclipse were sped ;
Oft to our
eyes th’ unconquerable ray
Thro’ the
thin mask would force its glaring way,
And fright the
world with GORGON looks of dread.
XVII.
“ This
notion Truth repels, nor less remote
From fact
you soon will find your second thought,
That where
the Moon its shadowy vales display’d,
Back from
the guplhy tract the beam will flow :
Yet the
dark medium gives a fainter glow,
Than where
her polish’d plain remits the rays.
XVIII.
“ Or, if
her caves repel the radiance back,
As lucid
Mirrors give the tints they take ;
You think
that distance gives the dusky hue
To bright
HYPERION’s beam, reflected far
From the
dim vallies of the CYNTHIAN Star,
And thence
with twilight beam salutes the view.
XIX.
“ Consult
Experience, still the sober Guide
Of Art ;
his verdict will the cause decide :
Two
Mirrors, at an equal distance place
In front,
and more remote a third suspend ;
Behind you,
let a lamp its radiance lend
To the
three lucid planes that meet its rays :
XX.
“ The
distant glass will throw upon the sight,
With equal
force, the vivid stream of light,
( Altho’
upon the visual nerve it slings
A lesser image,)
as the Mirror nigh,
Whose broad effulgence strikes the gazer’s
eye
And to he
sight a double Image brings.
XXI.
“ Now, as
when vernal SOL begins to glow,
Down sinks
the wint’ry mass of drifted snow
From
Nature’s face, before his burning gaze ;
Thus from
your Mind the darksome vest shall fall,
That hides
your intellect in sombrous pall,
When Truth
divides the veil with piercing rays.
XXII.
“ Beneath
those Climes where Peace eternal reigns,
Runs that
stupendous Wheel, whose Orb contains
And put sin
motion all the lower Spheres :
That Orb,
whose ever-burring eyes survey
The pendent
world, and pours a mingled day,
Its
deathless energy sustains and steers.
XXIII.
“ From the
PRIME MOVER, sent thro’ boundless space,
Immortal
ardour stimulates the Race
Of yon’
bright Couriers, as around they run ;
With
diff’rent pow’rs and energies they shine,
Supply’d
for ever by the hand divine
With the
same terror that it first begun.
XXIV.
“ The
nether Spheres, whose planetary dance
Illumes the
Seasons with alternate glance,
From this
their various energy and name
With each
distinctive mark of essence draw,
Circling
their orbs as Nature’s eldest law
In CHAOS
kindled first the various flame.
XXV.
“ Those
great machines of him that rules above,
In just
degrees and due proportion move,
And al
their heav’n-sent energies employ,
In various
operations here below ;
Thus by
deduction to the scope I go,
Which
dubious erst you labour’d to descry.
XXVI.
“ These
Orbs that wheel around, from heav’nly pow’r
Take their due
impulse, as the molten ore
From
plastic art ; yon’ Squadrons of the Sky,
Which move
in pomp of light and shade combin’d,
Are wielded
by infinitude of Mind,
And give
his image to Reflection’s eye.
XXVII.
“ And, as
the Soul that moves your mortal clay
Keeps up at
once the complicated play
Of Reason,
Passion, and the plastic force
Of life
organic, in each pliant limb ;
So all
these worlds their life derive from him,
Whose hand
repels, or draws them to their source.
XXVIII.
“ This
Pow’r divine with various lustre glows,
As thro’
each diff’rent medium still it flows,
With which
in vital league its essence joins,
HERE
sparkling like the beam of dawning joy,
When first
it kindles in the raptur’d eye,
With
lessen’s splendour THERE absorpt it shines.
XXIX.
“ No
diff’rent texture here, of dense or rare,
Such
various aspect gives to every Star ;
But HE,
whose wisdom, join’d with goodness, shews
Hi glory in
majestic shade conceal’d,
Or in the
bright expanse of Noon reveal’d,
As best his
high perfections to disclose.”
END OF THE
SECOND CANTO.
END OS THE SECOND CANTO.