[29] All these stanzas were added in 1842. In 1833 appear the following stanzas, excised in 1842:—
As some rich tropic mountain, that infolds
All change, from flats of scattered palms
Sloping thro’ five great zones of climate, holds
His head in snows and calms—
Full of her own delight and nothing else,
My vain-glorious, gorgeous soul
Sat throned between the shining oriels,
In pomp beyond control;
With piles of flavorous fruits in basket-twine
Of gold, upheaped, crushing down
Musk-scented blooms—all taste—grape, gourd or pine—
In bunch, or single grown—
Our growths, and such as brooding Indian heats
Make out of crimson blossoms deep,
Ambrosial pulps and juices, sweets from sweets
Sun-changed, when sea-winds sleep.
With graceful chalices of curious wine,
Wonders of art—and costly jars,
And bossed salvers. Ere young night divine
Crowned dying day with stars,
Making sweet close of his delicious toils,
She lit white streams of dazzling gas,
And soft and fragrant flames of precious oils
In moons of purple glass
Ranged on the fretted woodwork to the ground.
Thus her intense untold delight,
In deep or vivid colour, smell and sound,
Was nattered day and night.[[A]]
[A] If the poem were not already too long, I should have inserted in the text the following stanzas, expressive of the joy wherewith the soul contemplated the results of astronomical experiment. In the centre of the four quadrangles rose an immense tower.
Hither, when all the deep unsounded skies
Shuddered with silent stars she clomb,
And as with optic glasses her keen eyes
Pierced thro’ the mystic dome,
Regions of lucid matter taking forms,
Brushes of fire, hazy gleams,
Clusters and beds of worlds, and bee-like swarms
Of suns, and starry streams.
She saw the snowy poles of moonless Mars,
That marvellous round of milky light
Below Orion, and those double stars
Whereof the one more bright
Is circled by the other, etc.
[30] Thus in 1833:—
And many more, that in their lifetime were
Full-welling fountain heads of change,
Between the stone shafts glimmered, blazoned fair
In divers raiment strange.
[31] The statue of Memnon near Thebes in Egypt when first struck by the rays of the rising sun is said to have become vocal, to have emitted responsive sounds. See for an account of this Pausanias, i., 42; Tacitus, Annals, ii., 61; and Juvenal, Sat., xv., 5:
“Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone Chordæ,”
and compare Akenside’s verses, Plea. of Imag., i., 109-113:—
Old Memnon’s image, long renown’d
By fabling Nilus: to the quivering touch
Of Titan’s ray, with each repulsive string
Consenting, sounded thro’ the warbling air
Unbidden strains.
[32] 1833. O’.
[33] Here added in 1842 and remaining till 1851 when they were excised are two stanzas:—
“From shape to shape at first within the womb
The brain is modell’d,” she began,
“And thro’ all phases of all thought I come
Into the perfect man.
“All nature widens upward. Evermore
The simpler essence lower lies:
More complex is more perfect, owning more
Discourse, more widely wise.”
[34] These stanzas were added in 1851.
[35] Added in 1842, with the following variants which remained till 1851, when the present text was substituted:—
“I take possession of men’s minds and deeds.
I live in all things great and small.
I sit apart holding no forms of creeds,
But contemplating all.”
[36] 1833. Sometimes.