Strophes CI à CX

Woos both the sun’s light, and the cool shade
Of the umbrageous woods to its embrace.
What deep imaginings of Peace pervade
Its heavenly repose, as Nature’s face
Peers down, in mild, unutterable grace,
Like a calm Student seeking Pearls of Thought
In some fair Beauty’s mind, where he can trace
Through her warm slumber, how her soul is fraught
With pure deep Love, by heavenly inspiration taught.

Strong, eager thoughts come crowding to my eyes,
Earnest and swift, like Romans in the race,
As instern grandeur, looming up the skies,
This Monarch of the Bluffs,* with kingly grace,
Stands firmly fixed in his eternal place,
Like the great Samson of the Saguenay,
The stately parent of the giant race
Of mountains, scattered—thick as ocean spray
Sown by the tempest—up this granite-guarded way.

My lips are mute. I cannot speak the thought
That, like a bubble on the placid sea,
Bursts ere it tells the tale with which ’tis fraught.
Another comes, and so, eternally,
They rise in hope, to wander spirit-free

    About the earth. °”I were best they should not break
    The Silence, which itself is ecstacy
    And Godlike Eloquence, or my frail voice shake
A single echo, the expressive Calm to break.

    Like tears of Gladness o’er a giant’s face,
    The streams leap perpendicularly down
    The polished sides of the steep precipice,
    That glooms the waters with its sullen frown,
    Until they seem as massive as the brown,
    Bold, naked rock, that rears its swarthy crest,
    Its anatomic form, and triple crown
    Of granite, far above the earth’s unrest,
Claiming a lofty seat, like Truth made manifest.

Let us return, love,* for the goal is won.
Here, by this Rock, ’tis doomed that we must part,
And part forever; for the glorious Sun
Of Love, that quickeneth my earnest heart,
Shines not for thee, alone. The Dream of Art
That calms the happy Student’s sweet repose,
Is like our Dream of Love—the first swift dart
Shot by young Phœbus from his chamber, goes
Like lightning through his vision’s blooming heart of rose-

Already thou art gone, with one last look
Of love from those exalted eyes of thine,
That cheered me as we read from nature’s book
Together, and partook of the divine
Ambrosial draught of love’s celestial wine.
Another earnest being at my side!—
Not her whose Girlhood’s dreamy love was mine;
Not her whose heart Affliction’s fire has tried;
Not her of the Artistic soul, and stately pride,

Who shook my being as the autumn winds
Shake down the timid leaves. Loved-one! I hear
The voice within syllabl’ing words that bind
Our souls, and blend them for a nobler sphere
Of usefulness and action—year by year
Ascending in the scale of being, far
Above the trifling mind’s obscure career,
And mounting to Perfection, like a star
For whose triumphant flight heaven’s crystalline gates unbar,

My love is strong as yon enduring Rock!
Deep as the thoughtful waters at its feet |—
Oh! could my willing voice find words t’ unlock
Its depths, and free the sleeping echoes, fleet
As the swift-footed chamois, they would greet
The far-surrounding hills with such a tale
Of passion as had never left its seat
Within the heart of man. The bounding gale,
And the low-whispering breeze, should chant it to the vale.

And the dread Silence, seated on the brow
Of the exalted Bluff, would start, and find
An hundred tongues to utter vow for vow;
Startling the browsing elk and slumbering hind,
In the resounding woods. Like Truth enshrined
Within the well, so in my steadfast soul
Love waited for thee, as the patient mind
Waits for the coming thought that will extol
Some lofty purpose struggling skyward to its goal.

All, all is thine, love, now: Each thought and hope
In the long future must be shared with thee.
Lean on my bosom; let my strong heart ope
Its founts of love, that the wild ecstacy
That quickens every pulse, and makes me free
Asa God’s wishes, may serenely move
Thy inmost being with the mystery
Of the new life that has just dawned, and prove
How unutterably deep and strong is Human Love.