English

SCENE III.

MOUNT HERMON. — SUNSET.

IRAD .

How motionless the time and scene! earth lies
Basking beneath broad heaven, feeling the life
Existent between her and yonder sun.
The dews, her respirations, float above her,
Folding as with a mantle, from the gaze
Of his too ardent eye, while in her deep
And silent gladness she doth feel his rays
Inspiring her as with a living soul
Watcher of life! all-seeing, fount of light!

SCENE II.

A ZOARA ; A STARTE .

AZOARA .

My sister! listening to the Adamite,
In tears? nay, then, his tongue was eloquent,
If unsuccessful.

ASTARTE .

Thy light laugh is vain;
I feel the heart returns to its first love:
I cannot give that love again to Irad;
I dare not take it from another.

AZOARA .

Live,
As Lillah lives with Hammon Toil and spin,

SCENE I

DESERTS OF MOUNT HERMON

IRAD .

Ay, this is loneliness, no life is here;
The black woods frown on me as if I were
The first to break their solemn solitudes,
Talking of human griefs. Methinks rebuke
Looks from their brows, that Nature answers me;
Voices of love and wrath alike are hers,
And I have felt silent communion
While dwelling on her face.
I may confess
My bosom here, unheard; what hath love taught me?

PART XII.

There are three Powers that rule mankind, time, life,
And circumstance, on whose material shrines
We sacrifice ourselves. There is no good
Sent forth by them without the attendant ill
Its following shadow; and no wrong but brings
Awarding retribution, that ungrasped
By the quick hand and ever-watchful eye
Is lost for ever. Chance no substance owns,
Which is necessity.
Great Day came forth,
And the sun looked upon the rolling world.

PART XI.

Joy lives within the halls of the great Earl;
The massive portals closed erewhile, are thrown
Open to feasting and to revelry.
The grass-grown areas and corridors,
Where the weeds bristled in rebellious strife,
Are tenanted again with life and mirth.
Years lapsed are dead, joy lives but in the hour.
That grey and antique mansion that had slept
Now basks in luxury of light. The eyes
Of the dark casements are expanded, bright
With joyous flowers and laughing faces thronged;

PART X.

Sublimest heroism emanates
From virtue only, all else fitful is;
Passion or impulse triumphing in things
Forgotten or outlived. The brightest gem
Is perseverance in her dazzling crown
To suffer and be silent still is great;
But to contend with wordless agony,
To feel the drops of disappointment fall
Chilling the heart; to mark the whitening hair,
The throbbings of faint hope beneath the dust
Cast over it of cold forgetfulness,
Which is oblivion; still to persevere

There is a ray of stationary light
That shines on earth, less human than divine,
Calm, though allied with elements perturbed;
There is a Spirit ministrant on man,
That moulds his loftiest purposes to form,
Or gentle or heroic, that instils
Into his life the feeling of her own;
Watcher of griefs, beside the couch of pain
Presiding still; a comforter to hearts
Stricken with suffering, the nurse of hope
Whose cradle is her soul. All virtues rise
From her; love, faith, and meek-eyed charity.

PART VIII.

The Autumn is a glory and a joy;
The pageantry of Nature passing by
In her last grand procession. Gorgeous days,
When, like twin Angels, time and life stand still;
When earth puts on her crown and richest robes
For feasting and for mirth and revelry,
Ere Death, the Shadow, enters at the door;
When wreathed with golden honours, the woods wear
Mantles of regal grandeur; when the eye
Looks to the azure where the mountainous clouds
Dwarf, as in mockery, the domes of earth,

PART VII.

Now robed in veils of shadow, twilight stole
Round that dim grot, dews floated on the air;
The breath of rose and jessamine infused
And steeped the senses in their quietude.
Repose reigned o'er the landscape like a god
Whose tabernacle was the central soul.
From the empyrean the brightest star
Looked through that still and leafy vestibule.
And there he stood alone within the grot.
Was it a vision or reality,
The form that had been there, and leaned on him?

PART VI.

They sate as one within the grot that rose
Crowning a grassy lawn which overruled
The paradise beneath them. She reclined
Upon the seat, Astrophel on the sward;
Her hand was gathered in his own; his eyes
Raised, as if in the mirror of that face
He saw a life revealed.
The Hebe she,
With the deep azure eyes and golden hair,
With lips half-opened, through their roses showing
The witchery of laughter as she smiled,
A thing of joy and of abounding life;