A VISION OF LIFE

I sat brewing awhile, one even’s close, Life’s Destiny and Purpose. In the grate A flickering fire shone, Withered and wan, Dishevelled as a hectic Autumn rose. So, as I sate, With elfish toe leaping the shrinking embers A spiritous Presence passed, and on my thought Visions of faded days, paled friendships, dreams Of rapturous Mays smitten to drear Decembers, In evanescent postures wrought From forth the flickering gleams. So death-still ranged the Night athwart the gloom Icy and cavernous, that the embers’ tune Spake sharp and sudden, chasing the shade and flame In elfish gambol round the sombre room. So stepped the Night’s high noon; While Time, steady of sinew and of brow Implacable, upwound upon its spool The fitful hours of innocence and shame. Nor solitary, Night in its high rule, Reigned, for from forth the frosty bowers Deft messengers of airy fashion came The rude Earth to endow With heavenly mysteries of flowers. So sat I, and my mood grew calm and still: Irk fretted away; care, soilure, and distress, The smutch of strife, at the gaunt Night’s caress Unruffled into lofty peace. A will Ineffable, previsionary, swelled My thought to something of a twilit mood. Earth faded awhile; the frame of sensible things Obliviously smote my sensitive touch; The populous warm walls, the grate that held Ashes and smoulderings, The frore behoof, and all of fashion such, Transmuted were unto the larger scope Of visionary aspect. Thus on wings Of guideless flight, and thought I fain would cope, A Vision fared on me whate’er I would. Then seemed the twilight heavy with filmy glows: Forth from before my sight two several ways In opposite invitation rose, Oweing no kith, diverse of hue as aim. Darkling the Right ran, thro’ a drear amaze Craggy and barren, fulfilled of sloughs and mire; Most straitly was it limned, and oft each side Fell sheer to plumbless horror steep, that swept Spaceless, in ebon vastiness awide. Surmounted it thus dizzily; o’erleapt Fell chasms perilously athwart; abysms gaunt, Remorseless bracken tarns, the desert’s haunt, Each slippery spiss and slough, it overcame, Winding and wending ever higher and higher Tortuous yet steady-sure. Even so, despite I could not see Aught goal, withal its callow brow to daunt The hazardous soul, it bore a subtle lure Touching the deepest founts of high desire. Stretched on my Left, thus did it seem to me, Broadly a rich demesne lay, liberal And affluent, in spacious festival Arrayed. Mirth and the wealth of song Swelled thro’ its gaily caparisoned cope, Whose portals swung wide ope— Falling upon my ears in ribaldry And merry laughter lewd: Nowhither led it seemingly; soft and strong Giddily sprang its mirth and ultimate hope. Yet scarce could I resolve it, for its air Quivered and scintillated glamours dense, A palpable mist of golden vapour, whence, On my amazing sight, there flitted nude The flash of forms voluptuous and rare, Whose ruby lips soft ruddy juices woo’d. Pondering I hovered; each the several ways Touched its responsive motion: this, that wound Whither I knew not, travail amid and stain, Awoke the fount of thought; that, the sheer gain Of liberal ecstasy, of flowing days And nightless hours forgetful, bound around Of irkless ease: this spake Olympus found, Endeavour’s glowing thew, Achievement high; That struck all blood to fever, till I fain Had slipped the leash. Perplexedly sat I. Then from the mirth and ribaldry outstept Beauty her very self: Of motion free, In grace voluptuous she swam on me, Her pursed lips murmurous of a mellow strain. Soft as the stars at evenfall Smiled her rare eyes from forth the shimmering air Hanging about her yet—her veriest pall, Save that an all-exuberant tide of hair Entwound her soft and sensuous flesh. So swept She, gracious; I her other-heedless thane. Rare love, mellow voluptuous love, Shone from her wondrous eyes, fell from her tongue Melodious, dwelt on the delicate bloom Of her seductive limbs: munificence Of love rioted in her wayward hair Falling heedlessly, and clung Ecstatic in the tremulous air’s perfume. Visionary I gazed; my mutinous blood, Each drop particularly fraught with so Complete an ecstasy, coursed thro’ my sense With populous colloquy, pouring a vast flood Of dizzy whispers on my ears awhile. Invitingly oped she her arms; a smile Broke her soft lips; then, rapturously and low, Fluted this murmurous music thro’ the air, In woven assonances, liquid measures, Her blissful syllables spelling the pleasures Her wares that were. “Sweet, come with me; learn out my rare requite! Sweet, come to me, so shall I be to thee A passionate delight! Let us enwrap us in the robes of Pleasure; Owe no confining marge, but full and free Hold Love’s exultant measure. Claim lordship on these lips; make this embrace Of strenuous limbs thine to the tilth of days; The exquisitry of this face, If so to thee, scan with thine eager eyes: Flash linking flash, all in a wondering gaze, Twin in our ecstasies. The fragrant largess of this liberal hair Shall twine us twain about as we shall twine Hid in Love’s secret lair; Or mantle down thy shoulder as I lay This peach-soft bloom of loveliness on thine And Love’s low message say. Then come to me; yea, let me be to thee Love’s veriest scope of all; in these soft eyes Spell thine Eternity. Ah, wherefore hesitant hang? These plenteous halls Hunger for thee, as I, with full surmise: Lords be we all, not thralls!” So ceased she: flashing from her challenging eyes Arch invitations, boldly coy. The air, Loth to let slip such bliss, Clung to its echoing whispers, murmurous-wise, In passionate ecstasy. And yet, howe’er Each swollen vein of mine with knotted strain Stood high, content for one celestial kiss To cheapen Life and Thought, a distant pain Fettered me with disturbed uncertainty. Hesitant I glanced away; held of a doubt; Tost ’twixt passion and fear: tentatively My eye shot roundabout, Each freighting all my venture on a thought. Then from the silvery glooms, a wizardry, fraught With an imperative touch, fell on my soul, Drawing all my thought thither with harsh control. So, as I glowered upon its portals, wan, Gaunt, lofty, lifting up a parlous height Of shadowy phantasy, before its brink Palely the air shivered, and its atoms shone Pregnant with waking light. Unknowing what its purport, what to think Scarce dared I hazard—gazing, smote to trance, Riveted there with every thought and glance. The pallid atoms, hither-thither mazed, Smitten with iridescent rigours, shaped As to an outline—gaunt and leanly draped With flowing vesture, bony arms upraised Talon-befingered. Its Visage all was wan, Harrowed and sexless, like some skeleton Draped o’er with lifeless skin. Its Brow, or what Seemed like to Brow, hungered the heavy skies. Its glittering eyes Gleamed coldly in great orbs. ’Twas steely-lipped. Its Trunk, Its ruinous Midst—oh, tell it not! Most like ’twas to a livid dream forgot, And waked to horror at fell Memory’s whims! A sweaty Terror sat upon my limbs; My natural Fell awoke to life, and stood Erect with palpable horror; and all my blood Crowded its mart of motion, fear-begot, Thither to escape. Then from the Phantom chill Upon the palpitant air these measures dripped In numbers ill. “Mortal, be not deceived! Despise these cloying measures, they are false! Withhold imagination from the calls Of sensuous privilege. Straightway be cleaved Thence, and away! And hearken now to me. Heed these rare strictures! Prize not thy frail self: Strive for a larger Weal; Felicity Foots only thus. Perplex thy brain for Man, And his complacent peace: eschew the pelf Of isolate happiness; so shall thy span Compound the highest achievement. Manacles Spell subtler bliss than liberty; in sooth Are veriest liberty; yet if not so, Thine the dear joy of conning out the cells Of worthier constraint. Scan virtuous Truth; Search out her compeers with a quickening throe Of ecstasied thought. Love Justice. Knowledge sue And track, following on tho’ dark disruth Dog all thy painful way. Think nobly true; Compassionately soothe the sick of soul, Life’s troubled children. Learn a high control, And abdicate thyself, Love’s grace to woo. Let Equity thine equal fingers turn On low and lofty, sleek and lean alike, Achievement’s sons and whoso hungering yearn: Discriminate not ’twixt, for all are one And indivisible. Base passions shun And flee: strike not at all; yet if thou strike, Strike for the high and meritorious claim, As thou may’st judge: let not thy wrath Abide the twilight fall; nor let thy shame Of liverous passions issue forth On days that step not yet, sullying thy thought And others’ peace—weightier these than thine! Be kind, be true, be sweet, to all and aught. Ponder these principles; deep at thy soul Will commendation leap in greeting; lo, Even now bestirs thy thought. Arise, divine Life as a loftier scroll To trace thy character on, come weal or woe. Passion is soon be-charred; but elevate thought Strews an increasing largess. Turn aside Yon ruddy Whore mellisonant; malign She and her subtle craft are, howsoe’er Deceit encompasses her feverous lair. This thy true lot of life, withal ’tis fraught With hardihood and hazard so: abide Its mandate to thee, tread it dauntlessly. ’Tis its abundant recompense; and a court All-continent. As is my tongue allied With thy quick thought, so hearken thou to me, Fearful of nought!” Joint with its utterance so, Twisting, It thrust Its talon fingers thro’ The misty portals, spare and gaunt. Below Fearfully sat I then, tho’ less of fear Shook o’er my limbs; for thought had spurned the soil, Touched by the words, and broken on my ear A callow incongruity betwixt The lips that uttered what the words did woo. The pale air drank the silence, as the coil Of tortuous precepts ceased. Then, intermixt, Dizzy, as was each thought and riotous sense, There unwound thence Vivid upon my soul this nucleus clear: So forth I uttered:— “Tell, tell me thy Name! Who art thou that so bidd’st me? Whence thy claim: Wherefrom derives it? Whither its purport high? Art thou thine own? If so, declare me now What rare enfranchisement shall bondage ply At thy behest? Else, forth produce thy script; Unwind thy high commission, whereto bow Perforce I need, heedless of pleasures clipt, Or purple rapture, on yon path awry To attempt a hazardous snare!” Toward me then turned It; and with baneful stare Struck chill my mood defiant. Irked with thought, Fear, and the lees of passion, sat I thus; While the dim Spectre touched Its answer, wrought Icily dolorous. “I am Duty: I Sway all the lot of man. His tentative life Steps subtly to my measures; in fine deed Is my attenuate speech:—at very strife His tongue invokes mine arm. I ratify His hesitant counsels, troublous thoughts, with thrall And edict; or annul his querulous creed. Evanishment were very loss of all: It would evacuate the World of what Coheres its several elements; social peace, Concord and Amity, the common lot Of neighbourly calm, would rot and palter. Cease Rebellious queries; heed my formulate call: Strip to it, and proceed!” Then borne upon a breath Melodious, swept a wonder-wealth of song Vivifying all the air. Again my blood It wrought to populous utterance, hot as strong In riotous desire. Were it to Death, My passion mouthed no bit, but in a flood Tumultuous had swept me on its wide Revelry high, out to the perilous Main Lawless as limnless, save that the Spectral Bane Fettered me helpless. So once more My tongue uprose: “Show me thy script!” I cried, Poised ’twixt the blushing ecstasy, and the frore Spectre of ruinous side. “What is’t to me, this social affluence, The agglomerate frame of peace, when ecstasy Raps loudly at my soul? What gain hast thou? Yon dismal gloom, barren and dim and chill, Say, what felicity Commensurate with this Lady’s exquisite sense Bestows it? Utter thy delightful fill Alternate for my choice; hereafter, now, Or how thou wilt! Yet if not so, declare Thy dread commission, bounden upon my soul! Expound me aught for iridescent goal Whereto this region stretches! Do I fall, Pale Ogre, how shall large omnipotence Brace thy lean thew? Oh, speak! I conjure thee, speak! If on a bleak Perilous pivot swung; if in the abyss Of Failure clutched, while subtle whispers hiss Sinuous about me—say, what benison fair Awakes to comfort from thy callow thrall? If Ill and Sorrow rear Spectral athwart my eyes, and this hued cheek Fall ashen like thine own, what then thy cheer, Grim Apparition? what thy comfort then, Dim Spectre? Hold tho’; have enough of this! Fearless I ask again, Art uttered of another; or art weak, Continent in thyself? Comest thou with bliss For largess? Else, declare thy peerless script, Disclose thy high commission, Ogre blear, Thou talon-fingered Horror, steely-lipped!” Doubtfully ceased I: wound amid my frame Raged complicated elements. Aerial thought On metaphysic pinion soared aloft; While tremulous passion struck my blood, and wrought Sensual within me, fell and subtly soft. Fear, anger, scorn and doubt, in complex claim Tost all disorderly. Yet most to cleave Decision knew I then, whate’er might be, Out from the tangled elements. So I turned Whither the Shape let fall Its jaw to weave Its chill articulation passionlessly. Ill-eeriely fell Its speech, as tho’ It spurned Life’s various intonation, to answer me What in high mien I sought. “Mortal, not mine Scripts to declare; neither attorneys high To sate thy heart wherewith. My voice proceeds Swift to thy nobler self. Didst thou apply Reason thereto, or thought deliberative, What hesitancy were there? Loftier than creeds Is my transcendent Word; that yet doth twine Rooted amid thy need. They that supine Wallow in fell lasciviousness, are brutes Trivial, corporeal; their weary bliss, Blinding their very selves, I say, despise: Esteem not that they misesteem. Rare fruits, Self-generative, of elevate thought, and mind Delicately poised, I proffer thee. Be wise; Set up on high thy pleasure: so to live Were to be quit of chance.—That thou amiss Shouldst cast thy fluttering days were piteous-blind, Seeing they are all, and veriest all: fulfil Thy days, then, with a high felicity. Too soon shall Death sweep up thy militant will; And bind thee in the dark. Yet heed thou this: Tho’ thou snuff out; a thing that was; yet still, The texture of thy thought, the workmanship Of hand or utterant lip, Thy heart’s aroma, personality In sooth, shall flourish yet, for good or ill, Upon the broad Earth’s face. So take my voice, And, knowing it true, utterly cast thy choice! I am thine Ultimate Good, Supreme, and Free, Nothing above me in the wide Universe.” Then from my lips broke there a bitter curse. Glib the words struck with subtle irony Traverse athwart my hope. Vivid and strong My thought had stood dilate, passionately Grappling amid the eternal verities, Touched to it by the conflict; and seemed now Clutching the air. A whelming sense of wrong Flushed all my mood. As one who sees All things, and nothing clearly, fearless of brow I shook my answer free. “My nobler Self! Mine ultimate Good! Trickster with subtle speech! What nobler self have I, what high, what low, Contradistinguished, save what thou wouldst teach Arbitrary of choice? What ultimate good, But as my heart dictates, throbbing to know The exquisite peak of pleasure, if the deep Swallow me utterly up? But what I would That should I, if thou art the ultimate All, And I no more than this! Thou Thing unkempt, Pallid of tongue and hue, so wouldst thou tempt My feet from blushful sweets aside? So charm My hazardous soul to climb Yon dizzy pinnacle, that hath no prime Nor cause of being, with this riotous balm,— To sweat, to stint, to travail, and to fall Sheer out of time in night. Begone, thou Gloom! Away, thou Shape of ill! Come when the tomb, ’Twixt this and that omnipotent time Each tottering moment shall be packed with twice Its fraught of pleasures; or come surfeit, to illume The shadow of joy, shall every rare device Rivet the transient hour. Tread yon dread way? Nay, that I will not! Unto thee I turn, Vision ecstatic, tangible withal, From thee to learn All the soft wonders of thy disarray.” So, fearless, turned I: yet ere thought to deed Quickened my members, swift upon the air Luxuriously this song sped, deft and rare, Beckoning me to speed. “Come, my love, to love me; come! Life is but the tangled sum Of thy being’s bitter hum. Tarry not, the days flit by; Soon thy bloom shall wither: I Proffer fruits that never fly. Never; for thy brief decree Folds in all eternity: Nought survives thee; so to me Come, to taste the liberal treasure I bestrew whose name is Pleasure; Share mine overflowing measure. Ah! come to me; then will I show All that thine utmost heart would know: Laughter loud, and whispers low, Ruddy joy, soft lips and kisses, Opening out Life’s raptest blisses. This thy Heaven; yea, whoso misses This, shall slip the rarest worth Possible to his strenuous girth, In the delicious garden of Earth. So come to me, dear love, my sweet, Time and the Hours are all too fleet; Quaff my goblet, rarely meet For superb humanity. Confines spurn; be large, be free; ’Tis thy true Felicity! What is Duty’s blatant call? I am Duty, I am All; I am Beauty: none may fall On aught supremer arm than mine; I am God, I am divine; Life’s uttermost largess is my shrine. Wouldst thou live to wander wan? Dearest, never! freedom con, And share my fearless halcyon. Life is all thy tangled sum, Then hold not so, fearful and numb, But come to me, dear husband, come, Come!” Wildered I hearkened; held my tremulous limbs Awhile, and heard, impassioned. From her eyes Soft messages flashed o’er their lidded brims Coyly upon me. Throwing forth her arms She yearned on me, her hair’s luxuriant guise Falling carelessly and free, while she her charms Spun, threading in her woof of thought. The air, Murmuring her music yet, hung over me As heaving breast to breast we stood, surmise Holding me feeble and faint, ecstatically. Then did I burst away Restraint; tossing off wrinkled Care I strode toward the dear Angel of my Dream. Nigh had I touched her palm; when, swift and clear, Loud with the trumpet’s tongue, imperative, Dulcent to hear, A Voice of awful import thundered— “Stay!” Sudden I reared. As doth revulsion give Thought interwound with thought, so did it seem I hung halting. Furtively, distractedly, I cast my gaze about, so to divine Whence the high edict sprang. The Ogre blear Was gone: fled with its eye malign As it had never been. Far up the course Precipitous and steep I seemed to see, Anew upon my eyes, a burning dome Scintillating, radiating from its source A hesitant gleam adown the path. Entranced I hung upon the sight. Then fear fell on me; for from thence did come, Stately, magnificent, tenfold more bright Than the sun’s vivid noontide, crystal-clear, A Shape surpassing loveliness. On my thought Paled all things else save that transcendent Fear. Steadily it advanced: From small to great, from great unreckonable, Stately, deliberative, supreme, of port Serene and lofty, steadily so it came Sweeping the callow path. Struck with its spell I burned with aching eyes. Subtly a Flame Encircled it, of silver and of gold, Sardine and jasper iridescent, blue, Purple and exquisite scarlet, all inwrought To one pure hue too vivid to behold. So as it nearer swept I threw My face upon the dust, and thrust my eyes Upon my veiling palms, dizzy to death, Sick with amaze; when a most mellow breath Softly outspake, “Frail child of Man, arise! For I would speak with thee!” No choice had I Save to obey that voice imperative; However it seemed to me to look and live Crost opposite elements. Dazedly I cast Upward a timorous glance, encountered by So mellow a gaze; wherein which very beam I touched sustaining succour. Towering vast He stood dilate with wonder; and did seem To crowd the heavens with majesty, tho’ within My wandering vision. Neath his snowy hair, Lit with intrinsic brilliance, shone his eyes, Where loomed long mysteries of eternity. His misty brow domed firmamental-wise, Swelling beneath its locks. ’Twas wondrous fair: Fair unto tottering thought! His very robes, Like the unblemished snow, thrice-purged, wherein Flowed his proportions spacious, moved and shone Instinct with sinuous life. Hesitantly I stammered— “Stranger fair, thy Name! Forgive My curious temper! Yield me strength to live!” He bent on me twin eyes: and spake. Then did the whirling stars and heavenly globes, The ravenous winds, awake, And hang in poise ecstatic. Sweet upon My aching ears, incontinent of such bliss Celestial, there awoke a halcyon Of various, high, mellifluous harmony: In measures like to this: “Wouldst thou my Name, Mortal immortal; wouldst acquaint thy thought With my Renown? How shall I tell it thee? Speech may not utter it, for words are wrought Empirical, in the stout smithy of life. Couldst thou envisage its supremacy Then were toil done; and the pure spirit’s strife, Tempering the thew withal, wrought purposeless And cheap. Considerest thou not Man’s Aim, The Ages down, to utter Loveliness, Or to plumb Truth, to measure Equity, Or Justice poise; affixing phrases so Unto what trailing robes he sees. These all Am I, one and complete. When he shall know Freedom, deck on a larger life, each thrall Corporeal shudder off, standing superb, Munificent, then shall he see me face To spiritous face: till then must I disturb His manifold sense, to win him worthy of me. Before his soul awoke was I: nay, more, I touched his thought to life. From forth of nought I bad him issue, setting my seal thereon:— So doth the veriest hind of all his race Grope tentative after me. Then when he bore Manhood erect, unparagoned, upon Earth’s lucent air I woke the soul of song Choired by the sons of morning. All the court Of glittering Heaven, in the dread womb of Night; The stately march celestial; throng on throng Wheeling from gloom to gloom, in perilous flight Over the unsearched deeps; the air; the seas; The bountiful Earth;—my handiwork were these In the wide crucibles of steady Time. Withal, tho’ such I seem to be, Yet am I not at all: the voiceless clod Owns substance more than I. Spaceless, sublime, I am the Breath Divine; the Voice of God; His concentrate Radiation: thence wend I, Thither to trend again, dependently; Aerial, effulgent, winging the formless deeps. Ecstatic Wisdom called they me awhile Who touched my billowy robes. Yet, tho’ I ply Authoritative edict, bidding thee Heed, as my fount is high, my voice o’erleaps Articular creed, swift to thy resonant soul Brooding deliberative. Well knowest thou That evanescent languors do beguile The soul’s high bent. Wherefore,—save that thine eye Hath glimpsed a billowy Vision, subtly spun, Floating upon thy thought, of high control Fashioning a peerless state, noble and pure, Whose stately essence not the clammy brow Of Death shall dissipate? Thou dreamest this: And this I utter now. That thou wouldst not Forego the Tempter’s vivid lure, Most truly tell I, Pleasure is not one But twain, nor think licentious libertine bliss Befits the splendour of thy soul, begot Divine, bred for eternal pride. Above Each fell delight, debased upon the soil, Soars a pure counterpart, winging the air: Thou canst but lust upon the one; but Love Impassioned doth the other wake. ’Tis toil; I cloak it not; yet ’tis a joy that bides, Swelling the more the hoarier, till Day dawn And shadows flit away. Decide thee then! Cast thy free choice! These portals lead thee where, Soul-plumed, new realms upon thy flight are borne. Brace up thy thew! Tread out this path, that guides Whither pure bliss shall rock thy dizzy ken, And end thy weary coil!” Wondering the Angel bound me; scarce a glance Turned I away upon yon Harlot nude, Chasteless and brazen, touching my coarser sense Distastefully; not wholly impotent. In visionary mood Hung I, swoll’n on the flow of eloquence To thought on thought. Nor less did ravishment, Exhaling music on its wing, uplift my soul, Gazing upon that beauteous Eminence. Enthralled so was I held. Then as my trance Bated awhile, I searched my tongue’s control. “Ecstatic Flame!” I broke, “yet would I know Further one thing. Truly I bow before thee! I yield my due of homage; I adore thee, Eternal Radiance from on high! Thou bright Image immortal! Yet, do I tempt the throe Of yon steep way, what strength shall flush my thew Sinking amid its steeps? Yea, as I woo Its delicate largess, if my feeble might Fail of its scintillant goal, what then? What deed, What earnest, decks my quest, so to exchange For problematical bliss the vivid range Of present sweets. Fool I to chance the meed Of dusk futurity for the portion sprung Flashing upon my sight! Forgive this tongue Imperious, recalcitrant; yet sure, I utter freely, speaking as I read Diverse each several lure.” Tranquil, immovable, in a mien that won Me wholly out, respondent it begun:— “The choice thine own; cast as thou wilt: ’tis mine But to declare the Truth. Who shall assign Aright his lot, him shall I flush with strength, Leaping from might to might. Each vision true Opens to wider bliss: each vanquished thrall Touches to larger freedom; lea on lea Bounding to vision to Life’s uttermost length. I woo not, but am woo’d; and yet withal Woo I; imperative my lineaments woo For sheer vitality. Thus shall I thee. Think’st thou the end shall fail? Who perseveres Assuredly shall clasp the ultimate goal; If ultimate goal there be, for bliss shall roll Boundless before thy view. I say not fears Shall cease, that strife shall vanish, or that all Conjured rhapsodical, dispassionately Shall swim in peace. Nay, all thy passionate days Shall reach from peak to peak, trial amid, Gainsayers athwart, waking Life’s deepest zest. Yet shall the goal gleam rare before thy gaze; And if upon thy quest, Sinking dispirited, the goal be hid Wrapt in a gloomy mist, ’twill pass awhile, And thou be all thy strenuous self again. Ally Thyself to me, nor seek thee to beguile Idly the transient hours, and all that I Have shown before thy sight fulfilled shall be. I say ’t; and am its earnest eternally.” And then methought I stood on quaking limb, Forth to proceed upon that wizard way. Heaven-high the portals towered above me; dim Stretched the precipitous path, tortuous and grey, Leaping from crag to crag. Then all the gloom Seized fast about me, as with hesitant stride I took its edge initiative. Yet on Went I, holding a dauntless pride Steady within me; on and on, upon The slippery crags, amid the dunes and meres, Poised oft o’er bottomless pits, turning beside Pitiless tarns, brackish with mortal tears. As forth I strode, fairer and yet more fair Shone the horizon; rarer did illume Its scintillant goal my passage lofty and strait. And my high Mentor, steady before my eye, Shone so exceeding beauteous, more and more, Increasing so in clarity, scope, and air, That a wild ecstasy possessed my thought, Riotous and fervid in me. Steadily So followed I, with resolute thew where’er It led me forth, casting no glance away: Thus on, yet on; waning and waxing on. Yet, as I sped, methought a dizzy shore Beguiled my feet aside, so to descry What depths the abysm held. Pallid and wan Shrank my Instructor on my curious eye. Treading its perilous edge I did essay To plumb the gulf, with darkness doubly fraught; When, gazing with profound intent, a wind Broke with an awful triumph up its steep Embankments jagged forth on me. All terror-strick’n upstarted I, to find ’Twas but the embers crumbling in the grate, Loud on the icy Night. Awakened so Musing I stood to recollect, and lo! My lips had formed to prayer.— Then thro’ the gloom I gat me to my sleep.