Part 3 (1/2)

The wisest's wisdom, and the strongest's vigor,-- The meekest's meekness, and the n.o.blest's grace, By you were knit together in one figure, Wreathing a radiant glory round the place.

Man at the Unknown's sight must tremble, Yet its refulgence needs must love; That mighty Being to resemble, Each glorious hero madly strove; The prototype of beauty's earliest strain Ye made resound through Nature's wide domain.

The pa.s.sions' wild and headlong course, The ever-varying plan of fate, Duty and instinct's twofold force, With proving mind and guidance straight Ye then conducted to their ends.

What Nature, as she moves along, Far from each other ever rends, Become upon the stage, in song, Members of order, firmly bound.

Awed by the Furies' chorus dread, Murder draws down upon its head The doom of death from their wild sound.

Long e'er the wise to give a verdict dared, An Iliad had fate's mysteries declared To early ages from afar; While Providence in silence fared Into the world from Thespis' car.

Yet into that world's current so sublime Your symmetry was borne before its time, When the dark hand of destiny Failed in your sight to part by force.

What it had fas.h.i.+oned 'neath your eye, In darkness life made haste to die, Ere it fulfilled its beauteous course.

Then ye with bold and self-sufficient might Led the arch further through the future's night: Then, too, ye plunged, without a fear, Into Avernus' ocean black, And found the vanished life so dear Beyond the urn, and brought it back.

A blooming Pollux-form appeared now soon, On Castor leaning, and enshrined in light-- The shadow that is seen upon the moon, Ere she has filled her silvery circle bright!

Yet higher,--higher still above the earth Inventive genius never ceased to rise: Creations from creations had their birth, And harmonies from harmonies.

What here alone enchants the ravished sight, A n.o.bler beauty yonder must obey; The graceful charms that in the nymph unite, In the divine Athene melt away; The strength with which the wrestler is endowed, In the G.o.d's beauty we no longer find: The wonder of his time--Jove's image proud-- In the Olympian temple is enshrined.

The world, transformed by industry's bold hand, The human heart, by new-born instincts moved, That have in burning fights been fully proved, Your circle of creation now expand.

Advancing man bears on his soaring pinions, In grat.i.tude, art with him in his flight, And out of Nature's now-enriched dominions New worlds of beauty issue forth to light.

The barriers upon knowledge are o'erthrown; The spirit that, with pleasure soon matured, Has in your easy triumphs been inured To hasten through an artist-whole of graces, Nature's more distant columns duly places.

And overtakes her on her pathway lone.

He weighs her now with weights that human are, Metes her with measures that she lent of old; While in her beauty's rites more practised far, She now must let his eye her form behold.

With youthful and self-pleasing bliss, He lends the spheres his harmony, And, if he praise earth's edifice, 'Tis for its wondrous symmetry.

In all that now around him breathes, Proportion sweet is ever rife; And beauty's golden girdle wreathes With mildness round his path through life; Perfection blest, triumphantly, Before him in your works soars high; Wherever boisterous rapture swells, Wherever silent sorrow flees, Where pensive contemplation dwells, Where he the tears of anguish sees, Where thousand terrors on him glare, Harmonious streams are yet behind-- He sees the Graces sporting there, With feeling silent and refined.

Gentle as beauty's lines together linking, As the appearances that round him play, In tender outline in each other sinking, The soft breath of his life thus fleets away.

His spirit melts in the harmonious sea, That, rich in rapture, round his senses flows, And the dissolving thought all silently To omnipresent Cytherea grows.

Joining in lofty union with the Fates, On Graces and on Muses calm relying, With freely-offered bosom he awaits The shaft that soon against him will be flying From the soft bow necessity creates.

Favorites beloved of blissful harmony, Welcome attendants on life's dreary road, The n.o.blest and the dearest far that she, Who gave us life, to bless that life bestowed!

That unyoked man his duties bears in mind, And loves the fetters that his motions bind, That Chance with brazen sceptre rules him not,-- For this eternity is now your lot, Your heart has won a bright reward for this.

That round the cup where freedom flows, Merrily sport the G.o.ds of bliss,-- The beauteous dream its fragrance throws, For this, receive a loving kiss!

The spirit, glorious and serene, Who round necessity the graces trains,-- Who bids his ether and his starry plains Upon us wait with pleasing mien,-- Who, 'mid his terrors, by his majesty gives joy, And who is beauteous e'en when seeking to destroy,-- Him imitate, the artist good!

As o'er the streamlet's crystal flood The banks with checkered dances hover, The flowery mead, the sunset's light,-- Thus gleams, life's barren pathway over, Poesy's shadowy world so bright.

In bridal dress ye led us on Before the terrible Unknown, Before the inexorable fate, As in your urns the bones are laid, With beauteous magic veil ye shade The chorus dread that cares create.

Thousands of years I hastened through The boundless realm of vanished time How sad it seems when left by you-- But where ye linger, how sublime!

She who, with fleeting wing, of yore From your creating hand arose in might, Within your arms was found once more, When, vanquished by Time's silent flight, Life's blossoms faded from the cheek, And from the limbs all vigor went, And mournfully, with footstep weak, Upon his staff the gray-beard leant.

Then gave ye to the languis.h.i.+ng, Life's waters from a new-born spring; Twice was the youth of time renewed, Twice, from the seeds that ye had strewed.

When chased by fierce barbarian hordes away, The last remaining votive brand ye tore From Orient's altars, now pollution's prey, And to these western lands in safety bore.

The fugitive from yonder eastern sh.o.r.e, The youthful day, the West her dwelling made; And on Hesperia's plains sprang up once more Ionia's flowers, in pristine bloom arrayed.

Over the spirit fairer Nature shed, With soft refulgence, a reflection bright, And through the graceful soul with stately tread Advanced the mighty Deity of light.

Millions of chains were burst asunder then, And to the slave then human laws applied, And mildly rose the younger race of men, As brethren, gently wandering side by side, With n.o.ble inward ecstasy, The bliss imparted ye receive, And in the veil of modesty, With silent merit take your leave.

If on the paths of thought, so freely given, The searcher now with daring fortune stands, And, by triumphant Paeans onward driven, Would seize upon the crown with dauntless hands-- If he with grovelling hireling's pay Thinks to dismiss his glorious guide-- Or, with the first slave's-place array Art near the throne his dream supplied-- Forgive him!--O'er your head to-day Hovers perfection's crown in pride, With you the earliest plant Spring had, Soul-forming Nature first began; With you, the harvest-chaplet glad, Perfected Nature ends her plan.

The art creative, that all-modestly arose From clay and stone, with silent triumph throws Its arms around the spirit's vast domain.

What in the land of knowledge the discoverer knows, He knows, discovers, only for your gain The treasures that the thinker has ama.s.sed, He will enjoy within your arms alone, Soon as his knowledge, beauty-ripe at last.