A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear, A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief, Which finds no natural outlet, no relief, In word or sigh or tear-
O Lady! in this wan and heartless mood,
To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd, 30 All this long eve, so balmy and serene, Have I been gazing on the western sky,
And its peculiar tint of yellow green: .And still I gaze--and with how blank an eye! 34 And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars, That give away their motion to the stars; Those stars that glide behind them or between, Now sparkling, now bedimmed, but always
For hope grew round me like the twining vine,
And fruits and foliage, not my own, seemed mine.
But now afflictions bow me down to earth: Nor care I that they rob me of my mirth,
But oh! each visitation
Suspends what nature gave me at my birth, My shaping spirit of Imagination. For not to think of what I needs must feel, But to be still and patient, all I can;
And haply by abstruse research to steal
From my own nature all the natural manThis was my sole resource, my only plan: Till that which suits a part infects the whole, And now is almost grown the habit of my
To lift the smothering weight from off my
It were a vain endeavour,
Though I should gaze forever
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted 15 By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail; And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw;
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
Ere I was old? Ah woful Ere, Which tells me, Youth's no longer here! O Youth! for years so many and sweet, "Tis known, that Thou and I were one, I'll think it but a fond conceit― It cannot be that Thou art gone! Thy vesper-bell hath not yet toll'd:- And thou wert aye a masker bold! What strange disguise hast now put on, To make believe, that Thou art gone?
I see these locks in silvery slips, This drooping gait, this altered size: But Spring-tide blossoms on thy lips And tears take sunshine from thine eyes! Life is but thought: so think I will That Youth and I are house-mates still.
And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.
YOUTH AND AGE (1822-1832)
Verse, a breeze mid blossoms straying, Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee- Both were mine! Life went a-maying With Nature, Hope, and Poesy, When I was young! When I was young?-Ah, woful When! Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then! This breathing house not built with hands, This body that does me grievous wrong, O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands, How lightly then it flashed along:- Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore, On winding lakes and rivers wide, That ask no aid of sail or oar,
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