“The noise of life begins again,
And ghastly thro’ the drizzling rain
On the bald street breaks the blank day.”
VIII.
He next compares himself to the disappointed lover who “alights” from his horse, calls at the home of his mistress,
“And learns her gone and far from home.”
So, as the disappointed lover, to whom the whole place has at once become a desert, wanders into the garden, and culls a rain-beaten flower, which she had fostered; even thus will he cherish and plant “this poor flower of poesy” on Hallam’s tomb,[9] because his friend when alive had been pleased with his poetic power.
IX.
This poem commences an address to the ship that brings Hallam’s body from Vienna to England—
“My lost Arthur’s loved remains.”
No words can be more touching than his appeal to the vessel,[10] for care and tenderness in transporting its precious freight. He bids it come quickly; “spread thy full wings,” hoist every sail; “ruffle thy mirror’d mast;” for the faster the ship is driven through the water, the more will the reflected mast be “ruffled” on its agitated surface. May no rude wind “perplex thy sliding keel,” until Phosphor the morning star, Venus shines; and during the night may the lights[11] above and the winds around be gentle as the sleep of him—
“My Arthur, whom I shall not see,
Till all my widow’d race be run—”