To him a Voice floats down from every star;
An Angel bends from every cloud that rolls;
Life has no mystery from our sight more far
Than the still joy in solemn Poet-souls.
As some vast river, fresh'ning lands unknown
Where never yet a human footstep trod,
Leave the grand Song to flow majestic on
And hymn delight, from all its waves, to God.
VIII.
A death-bell ceased;—beneath the vault were laid
A great man's bones;—and when the rest were gone,
Veil'd, and in sable widow-'d weeds array'd,
An aged woman knelt upon the stone.
Low as she pray'd, the wailing notes were sweet
With the strange music of a foreign tongue:
Thrice to that spot came feeble, feebler feet,
Thrice on that stone were humble garlands hung.
On the fourth day some formal hand in scorn
The flowers that breathed of priestcraft cast away;
But the poor stranger came not with the morn,
And flowers forbidden deck'd no more the clay.
A heart was broken!—and a spirit fled!
Whither—let those who love and hope decide—
But in the faith that Love rejoins the dead,
The heart was broken ere the garland died.
FOOTNOTES
[A] In the story of Cupid and Psyche, told in Apuleius, it is said that the lamp itself gladdened at the aspect of the god.—"Cujus aspectu lucernæ quoque lumen hilaratum increbuit."
[B] Galileo—according to the popular legend of Milton's visit to him.
[C] Plato.
[D] The foliage of the Corinthian capital is borrowed from the acanthus.
[E] The Council of State ordered, January 1649-50, "That Mr. Milton do prepare something in answer to the book of Salmasius, and when he hath done itt, bring itt to the Council." He was present, says his biographer, at the discussion which led to the order, and though warned that the loss of sight would be the certain consequence of obeying it, did so.—He called to mind, to use his own image, the two destinies the oracle announced to Achilles:—"If he stay before Troy, he will return to his land no more, but have everlasting glory—if he withdraw, long will be his life and short his fame."
[F] Burnett.