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Title: The Witch of Atlas

Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Release date: November 1, 2003 [eBook #4696]

Most recently updated: December 28, 2020

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4696

Credits: Produced by Sue Asscher

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WITCH OF ATLAS ***

Produced by Sue Asscher

The Witch of Atlas

by

Percy Bysshe Shelley

TO MARY (ON HER OBJECTING TO THE FOLLOWING POEM, UPON THE SCORE OF ITS CONTAINING NO HUMAN INTEREST).

1.

How, my dear Mary,—are you critic-bitten

(For vipers kill, though dead) by some review,

That you condemn these verses I have written,

Because they tell no story, false or true?

What, though no mice are caught by a young kitten, _5

May it not leap and play as grown cats do,

Till its claws come? Prithee, for this one time,

Content thee with a visionary rhyme.

2.

What hand would crush the silken-winged fly,

The youngest of inconstant April's minions, _10

Because it cannot climb the purest sky,

Where the swan sings, amid the sun's dominions?

Not thine. Thou knowest 'tis its doom to die,

When Day shall hide within her twilight pinions

The lucent eyes, and the eternal smile, _15

Serene as thine, which lent it life awhile.

3.

To thy fair feet a winged Vision came,

Whose date should have been longer than a day,

And o'er thy head did beat its wings for fame,

And in thy sight its fading plumes display; _20

The watery bow burned in the evening flame.

But the shower fell, the swift Sun went his way—

And that is dead.—O, let me not believe

That anything of mine is fit to live!

4.

Wordsworth informs us he was nineteen years _25

Considering and retouching Peter Bell;

Watering his laurels with the killing tears

Of slow, dull care, so that their roots to Hell

Might pierce, and their wide branches blot the spheres

Of Heaven, with dewy leaves and flowers; this well _30

May be, for Heaven and Earth conspire to foil

The over-busy gardener's blundering toil.

5.

My Witch indeed is not so sweet a creature

As Ruth or Lucy, whom his graceful praise

Clothes for our grandsons—but she matches Peter, _35

Though he took nineteen years, and she three days

In dressing. Light the vest of flowing metre

She wears; he, proud as dandy with his stays,

Has hung upon his wiry limbs a dress

Like King Lear's 'looped and windowed raggedness.' _40

6.

If you strip Peter, you will see a fellow

Scorched by Hell's hyperequatorial climate

Into a kind of a sulphureous yellow:

A lean mark, hardly fit to fling a rhyme at;

In shape a Scaramouch, in hue Othello. _45

If you unveil my Witch, no priest nor primate

Can shrive you of that sin,—if sin there be

In love, when it becomes idolatry.

THE WITCH OF ATLAS.

1.

Before those cruel Twins, whom at one birth

Incestuous Change bore to her father Time, _50

Error and Truth, had hunted from the Earth

All those bright natures which adorned its prime,

And left us nothing to believe in, worth

The pains of putting into learned rhyme,

A lady-witch there lived on Atlas' mountain _55

Within a cavern, by a secret fountain.

2.

Her mother was one of the Atlantides:

The all-beholding Sun had ne'er beholden

In his wide voyage o'er continents and seas

So fair a creature, as she lay enfolden _60

In the warm shadow of her loveliness;—

He kissed her with his beams, and made all golden

The chamber of gray rock in which she lay—

She, in that dream of joy, dissolved away.

3.

'Tis said, she first was changed into a vapour, _65

And then into a cloud, such clouds as flit,

Like splendour-winged moths about a taper,

Round the red west when the sun dies in it:

And then into a meteor, such as caper

On hill-tops when the moon is in a fit: _70

Then, into one of those mysterious stars

Which hide themselves between the Earth and Mars.

4.

Ten times the Mother of the Months had bent

Her bow beside the folding-star, and bidden

With that bright sign the billows to indent _75

The sea-deserted sand—like children chidden,

At her command they ever came and went—

Since in that cave a dewy splendour hidden

Took shape and motion: with the living form

Of this embodied Power, the cave grew warm. _80

5.

A lovely lady garmented in light

From her own beauty—deep her eyes, as are

Two openings of unfathomable night

Seen through a Temple's cloven roof—her hair

Dark—the dim brain whirls dizzy with delight. _85

Picturing her form; her soft smiles shone afar,

And her low voice was heard like love, and drew

All living things towards this wonder new.

6.

And first the spotted cameleopard came,

And then the wise and fearless elephant; _90

Then the sly serpent, in the golden flame

Of his own volumes intervolved;—all gaunt

And sanguine beasts her gentle looks made tame.

They drank before her at her sacred fount;

And every beast of beating heart grew bold, _95

Such gentleness and power even to behold.

7.

The brinded lioness led forth her young,

That she might teach them how they should forego

Their inborn thirst of death; the pard unstrung

His sinews at her feet, and sought to know _100

With looks whose motions spoke without a tongue

How he might be as gentle as the doe.

The magic circle of her voice and eyes

All savage natures did imparadise.

8.

And old Silenus, shaking a green stick _105

Of lilies, and the wood-gods in a crew

Came, blithe, as in the olive copses thick

Cicadae are, drunk with the noonday dew:

And Dryope and Faunus followed quick,

Teasing the God to sing them something new; _110

Till in this cave they found the lady lone,

Sitting upon a seat of emerald stone.

9.

And universal Pan, 'tis said, was there,

And though none saw him,—through the adamant

Of the deep mountains, through the trackless air, _115

And through those living spirits, like a want,

He passed out of his everlasting lair

Where the quick heart of the great world doth pant,

And felt that wondrous lady all alone,—

And she felt him, upon her emerald throne. _120

10.

And every nymph of stream and spreading tree,

And every shepherdess of Ocean's flocks,

Who drives her white waves over the green sea,

And Ocean with the brine on his gray locks,

And quaint Priapus with his company, _125

All came, much wondering how the enwombed rocks

Could have brought forth so beautiful a birth;—

Her love subdued their wonder and their mirth.

11.

The herdsmen and the mountain maidens came,

And the rude kings of pastoral Garamant— _130

Their spirits shook within them, as a flame

Stirred by the air under a cavern gaunt:

Pigmies, and Polyphemes, by many a name,

Centaurs, and Satyrs, and such shapes as haunt

Wet clefts,—and lumps neither alive nor dead, _135

Dog-headed, bosom-eyed, and bird-footed.

12.

For she was beautiful—her beauty made

The bright world dim, and everything beside

Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade:

No thought of living spirit could abide, _140

Which to her looks had ever been betrayed,

On any object in the world so wide,

On any hope within the circling skies,

But on her form, and in her inmost eyes.

13.

Which when the lady knew, she took her spindle _145

And twined three threads of fleecy mist, and three

Long lines of light, such as the dawn may kindle

The clouds and waves and mountains with; and she

As many star-beams, ere their lamps could dwindle

In the belated moon, wound skilfully; _150

And with these threads a subtle veil she wove—

A shadow for the splendour of her love.

14.

The deep recesses of her odorous dwelling

Were stored with magic treasures—sounds of air,

Which had the power all spirits of compelling, _155

Folded in cells of crystal silence there;

Such as we hear in youth, and think the feeling

Will never die—yet ere we are aware,

The feeling and the sound are fled and gone,

And the regret they leave remains alone. _160

15.

And there lay Visions swift, and sweet, and quaint,

Each in its thin sheath, like a chrysalis,

Some eager to burst forth, some weak and faint

With the soft burthen of intensest bliss.

It was its work to bear to many a saint _165

Whose heart adores the shrine which holiest is,

Even Love's:—and others white, green, gray, and black,

And of all shapes—and each was at her beck.

16.

And odours in a kind of aviary

Of ever-blooming Eden-trees she kept, _170

Clipped in a floating net, a love-sick Fairy

Had woven from dew-beams while the moon yet slept;

As bats at the wired window of a dairy,

They beat their vans; and each was an adept,

When loosed and missioned, making wings of winds, _175

To stir sweet thoughts or sad, in destined minds.

17.

And liquors clear and sweet, whose healthful might

Could medicine the sick soul to happy sleep,

And change eternal death into a night

Of glorious dreams—or if eyes needs must weep, _180

Could make their tears all wonder and delight,

She in her crystal vials did closely keep:

If men could drink of those clear vials, 'tis said

The living were not envied of the dead.

18.

Her cave was stored with scrolls of strange device, _185

The works of some Saturnian Archimage,

Which taught the expiations at whose price

Men from the Gods might win that happy age

Too lightly lost, redeeming native vice;

And which might quench the Earth-consuming rage _190

Of gold and blood—till men should live and move

Harmonious as the sacred stars above;

19.

And how all things that seem untameable,

Not to be checked and not to be confined,

Obey the spells of Wisdom's wizard skill; _195

Time, earth, and fire—the ocean and the wind,

And all their shapes—and man's imperial will;

And other scrolls whose writings did unbind

The inmost lore of Love—let the profane

Tremble to ask what secrets they contain. _200

20.

And wondrous works of substances unknown,

To which the enchantment of her father's power

Had changed those ragged blocks of savage stone,

Were heaped in the recesses of her bower;

Carved lamps and chalices, and vials which shone _205

In their own golden beams—each like a flower,

Out of whose depth a fire-fly shakes his light

Under a cypress in a starless night.

21.

At first she lived alone in this wild home,

And her own thoughts were each a minister, _210

Clothing themselves, or with the ocean foam,

Or with the wind, or with the speed of fire,

To work whatever purposes might come

Into her mind; such power her mighty Sire

Had girt them with, whether to fly or run, _215

Through all the regions which he shines upon.

22.

The Ocean-nymphs and Hamadryades,

Oreads and Naiads, with long weedy locks,

Offered to do her bidding through the seas,

Under the earth, and in the hollow rocks, _220

And far beneath the matted roots of trees,

And in the gnarled heart of stubborn oaks,

So they might live for ever in the light

Of her sweet presence—each a satellite.

23.

'This may not be,' the wizard maid replied; _225

'The fountains where the Naiades bedew

Their shining hair, at length are drained and dried;

The solid oaks forget their strength, and strew

Their latest leaf upon the mountains wide;

The boundless ocean like a drop of dew _230

Will be consumed—the stubborn centre must

Be scattered, like a cloud of summer dust.

24.

'And ye with them will perish, one by one;—

If I must sigh to think that this shall be,

If I must weep when the surviving Sun _235

Shall smile on your decay—oh, ask not me

To love you till your little race is run;

I cannot die as ye must—over me

Your leaves shall glance—the streams in which ye dwell

Shall be my paths henceforth, and so—farewell!'— _240

25.

She spoke and wept:—the dark and azure well

Sparkled beneath the shower of her bright tears,

And every little circlet where they fell

Flung to the cavern-roof inconstant spheres

And intertangled lines of light:—a knell _245

Of sobbing voices came upon her ears

From those departing Forms, o'er the serene

Of the white streams and of the forest green.

26.

All day the wizard lady sate aloof,

Spelling out scrolls of dread antiquity, _250

Under the cavern's fountain-lighted roof;

Or broidering the pictured poesy

Of some high tale upon her growing woof,

Which the sweet splendour of her smiles could dye

In hues outshining heaven—and ever she _255

Added some grace to the wrought poesy.

27.

While on her hearth lay blazing many a piece

Of sandal wood, rare gums, and cinnamon;

Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is—

Each flame of it is as a precious stone _260

Dissolved in ever-moving light, and this

Belongs to each and all who gaze upon.

The Witch beheld it not, for in her hand

She held a woof that dimmed the burning brand.

28.

This lady never slept, but lay in trance _265

All night within the fountain—as in sleep.

Its emerald crags glowed in her beauty's glance;

Through the green splendour of the water deep

She saw the constellations reel and dance

Like fire-flies—and withal did ever keep _270

The tenour of her contemplations calm,

With open eyes, closed feet, and folded palm.

29.

And when the whirlwinds and the clouds descended

From the white pinnacles of that cold hill,

She passed at dewfall to a space extended, _275

Where in a lawn of flowering asphodel

Amid a wood of pines and cedars blended,

There yawned an inextinguishable well

Of crimson fire—full even to the brim,

And overflowing all the margin trim. _280

30.

Within the which she lay when the fierce war

Of wintry winds shook that innocuous liquor

In many a mimic moon and bearded star

O'er woods and lawns;—the serpent heard it flicker

In sleep, and dreaming still, he crept afar— _285

And when the windless snow descended thicker

Than autumn leaves, she watched it as it came

Melt on the surface of the level flame.

31.

She had a boat, which some say Vulcan wrought

For Venus, as the chariot of her star; _290

But it was found too feeble to be fraught

With all the ardours in that sphere which are,

And so she sold it, and Apollo bought

And gave it to this daughter: from a car

Changed to the fairest and the lightest boat _295

Which ever upon mortal stream did float.

32.

And others say, that, when but three hours old,

The first-born Love out of his cradle lept,

And clove dun Chaos with his wings of gold,

And like a horticultural adept, _300

Stole a strange seed, and wrapped it up in mould,

And sowed it in his mother's star, and kept

Watering it all the summer with sweet dew,

And with his wings fanning it as it grew.

33.

The plant grew strong and green, the snowy flower _305

Fell, and the long and gourd-like fruit began

To turn the light and dew by inward power

To its own substance; woven tracery ran

Of light firm texture, ribbed and branching, o'er

The solid rind, like a leaf's veined fan— _310

Of which Love scooped this boat—and with soft motion

Piloted it round the circumfluous ocean.

34.

This boat she moored upon her fount, and lit

A living spirit within all its frame,

Breathing the soul of swiftness into it. _315

Couched on the fountain like a panther tame,

One of the twain at Evan's feet that sit—

Or as on Vesta's sceptre a swift flame—

Or on blind Homer's heart a winged thought,—

In joyous expectation lay the boat. _320

35.

Then by strange art she kneaded fire and snow

Together, tempering the repugnant mass

With liquid love—all things together grow

Through which the harmony of love can pass;

And a fair Shape out of her hands did flow— _325

A living Image, which did far surpass

In beauty that bright shape of vital stone

Which drew the heart out of Pygmalion.

36.

A sexless thing it was, and in its growth

It seemed to have developed no defect _330

Of either sex, yet all the grace of both,—

In gentleness and strength its limbs were decked;

The bosom swelled lightly with its full youth,

The countenance was such as might select

Some artist that his skill should never die, _335

Imaging forth such perfect purity.

37.

From its smooth shoulders hung two rapid wings,

Fit to have borne it to the seventh sphere,

Tipped with the speed of liquid lightenings,

Dyed in the ardours of the atmosphere: _340

She led her creature to the boiling springs

Where the light boat was moored, and said: 'Sit here!'

And pointed to the prow, and took her seat

Beside the rudder, with opposing feet.

38.

And down the streams which clove those mountains vast, _345

Around their inland islets, and amid

The panther-peopled forests whose shade cast

Darkness and odours, and a pleasure hid

In melancholy gloom, the pinnace passed;

By many a star-surrounded pyramid _350

Of icy crag cleaving the purple sky,

And caverns yawning round unfathomably.

39.

The silver noon into that winding dell,

With slanted gleam athwart the forest tops,

Tempered like golden evening, feebly fell; _355

A green and glowing light, like that which drops

From folded lilies in which glow-worms dwell,

When Earth over her face Night's mantle wraps;

Between the severed mountains lay on high,

Over the stream, a narrow rift of sky. _360

40.

And ever as she went, the Image lay

With folded wings and unawakened eyes;

And o'er its gentle countenance did play

The busy dreams, as thick as summer flies,

Chasing the rapid smiles that would not stay, _365

And drinking the warm tears, and the sweet sighs

Inhaling, which, with busy murmur vain,

They had aroused from that full heart and brain.

41.

And ever down the prone vale, like a cloud

Upon a stream of wind, the pinnace went: _370

Now lingering on the pools, in which abode

The calm and darkness of the deep content

In which they paused; now o'er the shallow road

Of white and dancing waters, all besprent

With sand and polished pebbles:—mortal boat _375

In such a shallow rapid could not float.

42.

And down the earthquaking cataracts which shiver

Their snow-like waters into golden air,

Or under chasms unfathomable ever

Sepulchre them, till in their rage they tear _380

A subterranean portal for the river,

It fled—the circling sunbows did upbear

Its fall down the hoar precipice of spray,

Lighting it far upon its lampless way.

43.

And when the wizard lady would ascend _385

The labyrinths of some many-winding vale,

Which to the inmost mountain upward tend—

She called 'Hermaphroditus!'—and the pale

And heavy hue which slumber could extend

Over its lips and eyes, as on the gale _390

A rapid shadow from a slope of grass,

Into the darkness of the stream did pass.

44.

And it unfurled its heaven-coloured pinions,

With stars of fire spotting the stream below;

And from above into the Sun's dominions _395

Flinging a glory, like the golden glow

In which Spring clothes her emerald-winged minions,

All interwoven with fine feathery snow

And moonlight splendour of intensest rime,

With which frost paints the pines in winter time. _400

45.

And then it winnowed the Elysian air

Which ever hung about that lady bright,

With its aethereal vans—and speeding there,

Like a star up the torrent of the night,

Or a swift eagle in the morning glare _405

Breasting the whirlwind with impetuous flight,

The pinnace, oared by those enchanted wings,

Clove the fierce streams towards their upper springs.

46.

The water flashed, like sunlight by the prow

Of a noon-wandering meteor flung to Heaven; _410

The still air seemed as if its waves did flow

In tempest down the mountains; loosely driven

The lady's radiant hair streamed to and fro:

Beneath, the billows having vainly striven

Indignant and impetuous, roared to feel _415

The swift and steady motion of the keel.

47.

Or, when the weary moon was in the wane,

Or in the noon of interlunar night,

The lady-witch in visions could not chain

Her spirit; but sailed forth under the light _420

Of shooting stars, and bade extend amain

Its storm-outspeeding wings, the Hermaphrodite;

She to the Austral waters took her way,

Beyond the fabulous Thamondocana,—

48.

Where, like a meadow which no scythe has shaven, _425

Which rain could never bend, or whirl-blast shake,

With the Antarctic constellations paven,

Canopus and his crew, lay the Austral lake—

There she would build herself a windless haven

Out of the clouds whose moving turrets make _430

The bastions of the storm, when through the sky

The spirits of the tempest thundered by:

49.

A haven beneath whose translucent floor

The tremulous stars sparkled unfathomably,

And around which the solid vapours hoar, _435

Based on the level waters, to the sky

Lifted their dreadful crags, and like a shore

Of wintry mountains, inaccessibly

Hemmed in with rifts and precipices gray,

And hanging crags, many a cove and bay. _440

50.

And whilst the outer lake beneath the lash

Of the wind's scourge, foamed like a wounded thing,

And the incessant hail with stony clash

Ploughed up the waters, and the flagging wing

Of the roused cormorant in the lightning flash _445

Looked like the wreck of some wind-wandering

Fragment of inky thunder-smoke—this haven

Was as a gem to copy Heaven engraven,—

51.

On which that lady played her many pranks,

Circling the image of a shooting star, _450

Even as a tiger on Hydaspes' banks

Outspeeds the antelopes which speediest are,

In her light boat; and many quips and cranks

She played upon the water, till the car

Of the late moon, like a sick matron wan, _455

To journey from the misty east began.

52.

And then she called out of the hollow turrets

Of those high clouds, white, golden and vermilion,

The armies of her ministering spirits—

In mighty legions, million after million, _460

They came, each troop emblazoning its merits

On meteor flags; and many a proud pavilion

Of the intertexture of the atmosphere

They pitched upon the plain of the calm mere.

53.

They framed the imperial tent of their great Queen _465

Of woven exhalations, underlaid

With lambent lightning-fire, as may be seen

A dome of thin and open ivory inlaid

With crimson silk—cressets from the serene

Hung there, and on the water for her tread _470

A tapestry of fleece-like mist was strewn,

Dyed in the beams of the ascending moon.

54.

And on a throne o'erlaid with starlight, caught

Upon those wandering isles of aery dew,

Which highest shoals of mountain shipwreck not, _475

She sate, and heard all that had happened new

Between the earth and moon, since they had brought

The last intelligence—and now she grew

Pale as that moon, lost in the watery night—

And now she wept, and now she laughed outright. _480

55.

These were tame pleasures; she would often climb

The steepest ladder of the crudded rack

Up to some beaked cape of cloud sublime,

And like Arion on the dolphin's back

Ride singing through the shoreless air;—oft-time _485

Following the serpent lightning's winding track,

She ran upon the platforms of the wind,

And laughed to hear the fire-balls roar behind.

56.

And sometimes to those streams of upper air

Which whirl the earth in its diurnal round, _490

She would ascend, and win the spirits there

To let her join their chorus. Mortals found

That on those days the sky was calm and fair,

And mystic snatches of harmonious sound

Wandered upon the earth where'er she passed, _495

And happy thoughts of hope, too sweet to last.

57.

But her choice sport was, in the hours of sleep,

To glide adown old Nilus, where he threads

Egypt and Aethiopia, from the steep

Of utmost Axume, until he spreads, _500

Like a calm flock of silver-fleeced sheep,

His waters on the plain: and crested heads

Of cities and proud temples gleam amid,

And many a vapour-belted pyramid.

58.

By Moeris and the Mareotid lakes, _505

Strewn with faint blooms like bridal chamber floors,

Where naked boys bridling tame water-snakes,

Or charioteering ghastly alligators,

Had left on the sweet waters mighty wakes

Of those huge forms—within the brazen doors _510

Of the great Labyrinth slept both boy and beast,

Tired with the pomp of their Osirian feast.

59.

And where within the surface of the river

The shadows of the massy temples lie,

And never are erased—but tremble ever _515

Like things which every cloud can doom to die,

Through lotus-paven canals, and wheresoever

The works of man pierced that serenest sky

With tombs, and towers, and fanes, 'twas her delight

To wander in the shadow of the night. _520

60.

With motion like the spirit of that wind

Whose soft step deepens slumber, her light feet

Passed through the peopled haunts of humankind.

Scattering sweet visions from her presence sweet,

Through fane, and palace-court, and labyrinth mined _525

With many a dark and subterranean street

Under the Nile, through chambers high and deep

She passed, observing mortals in their sleep.

61.

A pleasure sweet doubtless it was to see

Mortals subdued in all the shapes of sleep. _530

Here lay two sister twins in infancy;

There, a lone youth who in his dreams did weep;

Within, two lovers linked innocently

In their loose locks which over both did creep

Like ivy from one stem;—and there lay calm _535

Old age with snow-bright hair and folded palm.

62.

But other troubled forms of sleep she saw,

Not to be mirrored in a holy song—

Distortions foul of supernatural awe,

And pale imaginings of visioned wrong; _540

And all the code of Custom's lawless law

Written upon the brows of old and young:

'This,' said the wizard maiden, 'is the strife

Which stirs the liquid surface of man's life.'

63.

And little did the sight disturb her soul.— _545

We, the weak mariners of that wide lake

Where'er its shores extend or billows roll,

Our course unpiloted and starless make

O'er its wild surface to an unknown goal:—

But she in the calm depths her way could take, _550

Where in bright bowers immortal forms abide

Beneath the weltering of the restless tide.

64.

And she saw princes couched under the glow

Of sunlike gems; and round each temple-court

In dormitories ranged, row after row, _555

She saw the priests asleep—all of one sort—

For all were educated to be so.—

The peasants in their huts, and in the port

The sailors she saw cradled on the waves,

And the dead lulled within their dreamless graves. _560

65.

And all the forms in which those spirits lay

Were to her sight like the diaphanous

Veils, in which those sweet ladies oft array

Their delicate limbs, who would conceal from us

Only their scorn of all concealment: they _565

Move in the light of their own beauty thus.

But these and all now lay with sleep upon them,

And little thought a Witch was looking on them.

66.

She, all those human figures breathing there,

Beheld as living spirits—to her eyes _570

The naked beauty of the soul lay bare,

And often through a rude and worn disguise

She saw the inner form most bright and fair—

And then she had a charm of strange device,

Which, murmured on mute lips with tender tone, _575

Could make that spirit mingle with her own.

67.

Alas! Aurora, what wouldst thou have given

For such a charm when Tithon became gray?

Or how much, Venus, of thy silver heaven

Wouldst thou have yielded, ere Proserpina _580

Had half (oh! why not all?) the debt forgiven

Which dear Adonis had been doomed to pay,

To any witch who would have taught you it?

The Heliad doth not know its value yet.

68.

'Tis said in after times her spirit free _585

Knew what love was, and felt itself alone—

But holy Dian could not chaster be

Before she stooped to kiss Endymion,

Than now this lady—like a sexless bee

Tasting all blossoms, and confined to none, _590

Among those mortal forms, the wizard-maiden

Passed with an eye serene and heart unladen.

69.

To those she saw most beautiful, she gave

Strange panacea in a crystal bowl:—

They drank in their deep sleep of that sweet wave, _595

And lived thenceforward as if some control,

Mightier than life, were in them; and the grave

Of such, when death oppressed the weary soul,

Was as a green and overarching bower

Lit by the gems of many a starry flower. _600

70.

For on the night when they were buried, she

Restored the embalmers' ruining, and shook

The light out of the funeral lamps, to be

A mimic day within that deathy nook;

And she unwound the woven imagery _605

Of second childhood's swaddling bands, and took

The coffin, its last cradle, from its niche,

And threw it with contempt into a ditch.

71.

And there the body lay, age after age.

Mute, breathing, beating, warm, and undecaying, _610

Like one asleep in a green hermitage,

With gentle smiles about its eyelids playing,

And living in its dreams beyond the rage

Of death or life; while they were still arraying

In liveries ever new, the rapid, blind _615

And fleeting generations of mankind.

72.

And she would write strange dreams upon the brain

Of those who were less beautiful, and make

All harsh and crooked purposes more vain

Than in the desert is the serpent's wake _620

Which the sand covers—all his evil gain

The miser in such dreams would rise and shake

Into a beggar's lap;—the lying scribe

Would his own lies betray without a bribe.

73.

The priests would write an explanation full, _625

Translating hieroglyphics into Greek,

How the God Apis really was a bull,

And nothing more; and bid the herald stick

The same against the temple doors, and pull

The old cant down; they licensed all to speak _630

Whate'er they thought of hawks, and cats, and geese,

By pastoral letters to each diocese.

74.

The king would dress an ape up in his crown

And robes, and seat him on his glorious seat,

And on the right hand of the sunlike throne _635

Would place a gaudy mock-bird to repeat

The chatterings of the monkey.—Every one

Of the prone courtiers crawled to kiss the feet

Of their great Emperor, when the morning came,

And kissed—alas, how many kiss the same! _640

75.

The soldiers dreamed that they were blacksmiths, and

Walked out of quarters in somnambulism;

Round the red anvils you might see them stand

Like Cyclopses in Vulcan's sooty abysm,

Beating their swords to ploughshares;—in a band _645

The gaolers sent those of the liberal schism

Free through the streets of Memphis, much, I wis,

To the annoyance of king Amasis.

76.

And timid lovers who had been so coy,

They hardly knew whether they loved or not, _650

Would rise out of their rest, and take sweet joy,

To the fulfilment of their inmost thought;

And when next day the maiden and the boy

Met one another, both, like sinners caught,

Blushed at the thing which each believed was done _655

Only in fancy—till the tenth moon shone;

77.

And then the Witch would let them take no ill:

Of many thousand schemes which lovers find,

The Witch found one,—and so they took their fill

Of happiness in marriage warm and kind. _660

Friends who, by practice of some envious skill,

Were torn apart—a wide wound, mind from mind!—

She did unite again with visions clear

Of deep affection and of truth sincere.

80.

These were the pranks she played among the cities _665

Of mortal men, and what she did to Sprites

And Gods, entangling them in her sweet ditties

To do her will, and show their subtle sleights,

I will declare another time; for it is

A tale more fit for the weird winter nights _670

Than for these garish summer days, when we

Scarcely believe much more than we can see.

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Table of Contents

TO MARY (ON HER OBJECTING TO THE FOLLOWING POEM, UPON THE SCORE OF ITS CONTAINING NO HUMAN INTEREST).

THE WITCH OF ATLAS.

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