Part 2 (1/2)
”For empty hopes,--corruption gives the lie-- Didst thou exchange what thou hadst surely done?
Six thousand years sped death in silence by,-- His corpse from out the grave e'er mounted high, That mention made of the Requiting One?”
I saw time fly to reach thy distant sh.o.r.e, I saw fair Nature lie A shrivelled corpse behind him evermore,-- No dead from out the grave then sought to soar Yet in that Oath divine still trusted I.
My ev'ry joy to thee I've sacrificed, I throw me now before thy judgment-throne; The many's scorn with boldness I've despised,-- Only--thy gifts by me were ever prized,-- I ask my wages now, Requiting One!
”With equal love I love each child of mine!”
A genius hid from sight exclaimed.
”Two flowers,” he cried, ”ye mortals, mark the sign,-- Two flowers to greet the Searcher wise entwine,-- Hope and Enjoyment they are named.”
”Who of these flowers plucks one, let him ne'er yearn To touch the other sister's bloom.
Let him enjoy, who has no faith; eterne As earth, this truth!--Abstain, who faith can learn!
The world's long story is the world's own doom.”
”Hope thou hast felt,--thy wages, then, are paid; Thy faith 'twas formed the rapture pledged to thee.
Thou might'st have of the wise inquiry made,-- The minutes thou neglectest, as they fade, Are given back by no eternity!”
THE CONFLICT.
No! I this conflict longer will not wage, The conflict duty claims--the giant task;-- Thy spells, O virtue, never can a.s.suage The heart's wild fire--this offering do not ask
True, I have sworn--a solemn vow have sworn, That I myself will curb the self within; Yet take thy wreath, no more it shall be worn-- Take back thy wreath, and leave me free to sin.
Rent be the contract I with thee once made;-- She loves me, loves me--forfeit be the crown!
Blessed he who, lulled in rapture's dreamy shade, Glides, as I glide, the deep fall gladly down.
She sees the worm that my youth's bloom decays, She sees my spring-time wasted as it flees; And, marvelling at the rigor that gainsays The heart's sweet impulse, my reward decrees.
Distrust this angel purity, fair soul!
It is to guilt thy pity armeth me; Could being lavish its unmeasured whole, It ne'er could give a gift to rival thee!
Thee--the dear guilt I ever seek to shun, O tyranny of fate, O wild desires!
My virtue's only crown can but be won In that last breath--when virtue's self expires!
THE ARTISTS.
How gracefully, O man, with thy palm-bough, Upon the waning century standest thou, In proud and n.o.ble manhood's prime, With unlocked senses, with a spirit freed, Of firmness mild,--though silent, rich in deed, The ripest son of Time, Through meekness great, through precepts strong, Through treasures rich, that time had long Hid in thy bosom, and through reason free,-- Master of Nature, who thy fetters loves, And who thy strength in thousand conflicts proves, And from the desert soared in pride with thee!
Flushed with the glow of victory, Never forget to prize the hand That found the weeping orphan child Deserted on life's barren strand, And left a prey to hazard wild,-- That, ere thy spirit-honor saw the day, Thy youthful heart watched over silently, And from thy tender bosom turned away Each thought that might have stained its purity; That kind one ne'er forget who, as in sport, Thy youth to n.o.ble aspirations trained, And who to thee in easy riddles taught The secret how each virtue might be gained; Who, to receive him back more perfect still, E'en into strangers' arms her favorite gave-- Oh, may'st thou never with degenerate will, Humble thyself to be her abject slave!
In industry, the bee the palm may bear; In skill, the worm a lesson may impart; With spirits blest thy knowledge thou dost share, But thou, O man, alone hast art!
Only through beauty's morning gate Didst thou the land of knowledge find.
To merit a more glorious fate, In graces trains itself the mind.
What thrilled thee through with trembling blessed, When erst the Muses swept the chord, That power created in thy breast, Which to the mighty spirit soared.
When first was seen by doting reason's ken, When many a thousand years had pa.s.sed away, A symbol of the fair and great e'en then, Before the childlike mind uncovered lay.
Its blessed form bade us honor virtue's cause,-- The honest sense 'gainst vice put forth its powers, Before a Solon had devised the laws That slowly bring to light their languid flowers.
Before Eternity's vast scheme Was to the thinker's mind revealed, Was't not foreshadowed in his dream, Whose eyes explored yon starry field?
Urania,--the majestic dreaded one, Who wears a glory of Orions twined Around her brow, and who is seen by none Save purest spirits, when, in splendor shrined, She soars above the stars in pride, Ascending to her sunny throne,-- Her fiery chaplet lays aside, And now, as beauty, stands alone; While, with the Graces' girdle round her cast, She seems a child, by children understood; For we shall recognize as truth at last, What here as beauty only we have viewed.