51.6
‘Victory, Victory to the prostrate nations!
Bear witness Night, and ye mute Constellations
Who gaze on us from your crystalline cars!
Thoughts have gone forth whose powers can sleep no more! _2260
Victory! Victory! Earth’s remotest shore,
Regions which groan beneath the Antarctic stars,
The green lands cradled in the roar
Of western waves, and wildernesses
Peopled and vast, which skirt the oceans _2265
Where morning dyes her golden tresses,
Shall soon partake our high emotions:
Kings shall turn pale! Almighty Fear,
The Fiend-God, when our charmed name he hear,
Shall fade like shadow from his thousand fanes, _2270
While Truth with Joy enthroned o’er his lost empire reigns!’
51.52.
Ere she had ceased, the mists of night entwining
Their dim woof, floated o’er the infinite throng;
She, like a spirit through the darkness shining,
In tones whose sweetness silence did prolong, _2275
As if to lingering winds they did belong,
Poured forth her inmost soul: a passionate speech
With wild and thrilling pauses woven among,
Which whoso heard was mute, for it could teach
To rapture like her own all listening hearts to reach. _2280
53.
Her voice was as a mountain stream which sweeps
The withered leaves of Autumn to the lake,
And in some deep and narrow bay then sleeps
In the shadow of the shores; as dead leaves wake,
Under the wave, in flowers and herbs which make _2285
Those green depths beautiful when skies are blue,
The multitude so moveless did partake
Such living change, and kindling murmurs flew
As o’er that speechless calm delight and wonder grew.
54.
Over the plain the throngs were scattered then _2290
In groups around the fires, which from the sea
Even to the gorge of the first mountain-glen
Blazed wide and far: the banquet of the free
Was spread beneath many a dark cypress-tree,
Beneath whose spires, which swayed in the red flame, _2295
Reclining, as they ate, of Liberty,
And Hope, and Justice, and Laone’s name,
Earth’s children did a woof of happy converse frame.
55.
Their feast was such as Earth, the general mother,
Pours from her fairest bosom, when she smiles _2300
In the embrace of Autumn;—to each other
As when some parent fondly reconciles
Her warring children, she their wrath beguiles
With her own sustenance, they relenting weep:
Such was this Festival, which from their isles _2305
And continents, and winds, and oceans deep,
All shapes might throng to share, that fly, or walk or creep,—
56.
Might share in peace and innocence, for gore
Or poison none this festal did pollute,
But, piled on high, an overflowing store _2310
Of pomegranates and citrons, fairest fruit,
Melons, and dates, and figs, and many a root
Sweet and sustaining, and bright grapes ere yet
Accursed fire their mild juice could transmute
Into a mortal bane, and brown corn set _2315
In baskets; with pure streams their thirsting lips they wet.
57.
Laone had descended from the shrine,
And every deepest look and holiest mind
Fed on her form, though now those tones divine
Were silent as she passed; she did unwind _2320
Her veil, as with the crowds of her own kind
She mixed; some impulse made my heart refrain
From seeking her that night, so I reclined
Amidst a group, where on the utmost plain
A festal watchfire burned beside the dusky main. _2325
58.
And joyous was our feast; pathetic talk,
And wit, and harmony of choral strains,
While far Orion o’er the waves did walk
That flow among the isles, held us in chains
Of sweet captivity which none disdains _2330
Who feels; but when his zone grew dim in mist
Which clothes the Ocean’s bosom, o’er the plains
The multitudes went homeward, to their rest,
Which that delightful day with its own shadow blessed.
NOTES: _2295 flame]light edition 1818.