And I am conscious of affecting thoughts -To these emotions, whencesoe'er they come, Of moral strength, and intellectual Power ; To Conscience only, and the law supreme 1 sing:-fit audience let me find though few!' So prayed, more gaining than he asked, the Bard In holiest mood. Urania, I shall need Thy guidance, or a greater Muse, if such Descend to earth or dwell in highest heaven! For I must tread on shadowy ground, must sink Deep-and, aloft ascending, breathe in worlds To which the heaven of heavens is but a veil. All strength all terror, single or in bands, That ever was put forth in personal form— Jehovah with his thunder, and the choir Of shouting Angels, and the empyreal thronesI pass them unalarmed. Not Chaos, not The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out By help of dreams—can breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man My haunt, and the main region of my song. -Beauty-a living Presence of the earth, Which craft of delicate Spirits hath composed An hourly neighbour. Paradise, and groves Elysian, Fortunate Fields-like those of old Sought in the Atlantic Main—why should they be A history only of departed things, Or a mere fiction of what never was? Can it be called) which they with blended might Of sorrow, barricadoed evermore Within the walls of cities may these sounds Of those mutations that extend their sway This Vision; when and where, and how he lived;- Express the image of a better time, More wise desires, and simpler manners ;--nurse |