564
POEMS WRITTEN IN 1818
XXIII
And in the moonless nights,[1] when the dun[1] ocean 130
Heaved[2] underneath wide[2] heaven, star-impearled,[2]
Starting from dreams[3] . . .
Communed with the immeasurable world;
And felt his life beyond his limbs dilated,
Till his mind grew like that it contemplated. 135
And in the moonless nights,[1] when the dun[1] ocean 130
Heaved[2] underneath wide[2] heaven, star-impearled,[2]
Starting from dreams[3] . . .
Communed with the immeasurable world;
And felt his life beyond his limbs dilated,
Till his mind grew like that it contemplated. 135
XXIV
His food was the wild fig and strawberry;
The milky pine-nuts which the autumn[4]-blast
Shakes into the tall grass; or[5] such small fry
As from the sea by winter-storms are cast;
And the coarse bulbs of iris-flowers he found 140
Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground.
His food was the wild fig and strawberry;
The milky pine-nuts which the autumn[4]-blast
Shakes into the tall grass; or[5] such small fry
As from the sea by winter-storms are cast;
And the coarse bulbs of iris-flowers he found 140
Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground.
XXV
And so were kindled powers and thoughts which made
His solitude less dark. When memory came
(For years gone by leave each a deepening shade),
His spirit basked in its internal flame,— 145
As, when the black storm hurries round at night,
The fisher basks beside his red firelight.
And so were kindled powers and thoughts which made
His solitude less dark. When memory came
(For years gone by leave each a deepening shade),
His spirit basked in its internal flame,— 145
As, when the black storm hurries round at night,
The fisher basks beside his red firelight.
XXVI
Yet human hopes and cares and faiths and errors,
Like billows unawakened by the wind,
Slept in Marenghi still; but that all terrors, 150
Weakness, and doubt, had withered in his mind.
His couch . . .
········
Yet human hopes and cares and faiths and errors,
Like billows unawakened by the wind,
Slept in Marenghi still; but that all terrors, 150
Weakness, and doubt, had withered in his mind.
His couch . . .
········
XXVII
And, when he saw beneath the sunset's planet
A black ship walk over the crimson ocean,—
Its pennon[6] streaming on the blasts that fan it, 155
Its sails and ropes all tense and without motion,
Like the dark ghost of the unburied even
Striding athwart[7] the orange-coloured heaven,—
And, when he saw beneath the sunset's planet
A black ship walk over the crimson ocean,—
Its pennon[6] streaming on the blasts that fan it, 155
Its sails and ropes all tense and without motion,
Like the dark ghost of the unburied even
Striding athwart[7] the orange-coloured heaven,—
XXVIII
The thought of his own kind who made the soul
Which sped that winged shape through night and day,— 160
The thought of his own country . . .
········
The thought of his own kind who made the soul
Which sped that winged shape through night and day,— 160
The thought of his own country . . .
········
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 130 And in the moonless nights 1870; cancelled, B. dun B.; dim 1870.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 131 Heaved 1870; cancelled, B. wide B.; the 1870. star-impearled B.; omitted, 1870
- ↑ 132 Starting from dreams 1870; cancelled for He B.
- ↑ 137 autumn B.; autumnal 1870.
- ↑ 138 or B.; and 1870.
- ↑ 155 pennon B.; pennons 1870.
- ↑ 158 athwart B.; across 1870.
