Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Till its old sense shall come renewed by change,

Like some clear thought which harsh words veiled before;

Feeling God loves us, and that all which errs
Is but a dream which death will dissipate.
And then what need of longer exile ? Seek
My England, and, again there, calm approach
All I once fled from, calmly look on those
The works of my past weakness, as one views
Some scene where danger met him long before.
Ah that such pleasant life should be but dreamed!

But whate'er come of it, and though it fade, And though ere the cold morning all be gone, - tho' music wait to wile,

As it

may

be;

980

990

And strange eyes and bright wine lure, laugh like sin
Which steals back softly on a soul half saved,
And I the first deny, decry, despise,
With this avowal, these intents so fair,
Still be it all my own, this moment's pride!
No less I make an end in perfect joy.
E'en in my brightest time, a lurking fear
Possessed me: I well knew my weak resolves,
I felt the witchery that makes mind sleep
Dver its treasure, as one half afraid
To make his riches definite: but now
These feelings shall not utterly be lost,
I shall not know again that nameless care
Lest, leaving all undone in youth, some new
And undreamed end reveal itself too late :
For this song shall remain to tell forever
That when I lost all hope of such a change,
Suddenly beauty rose on me again.
No less I make an end in perfect joy,

1000

For I, who thus again was visited,

Shall doubt not many another bliss awaits,

1009

And, though this weak soul sink and darkness whelm,

Some little word shall light it, raise aloft,
To where I clearlier see and better love,
As I again go o'er the tracts of thought
Like one who has a right, and I shall live
With poets, calmer, purer still each time,
And beauteous shapes will come for me to seize,
And unknown secrets will be trusted me
Which were denied the waverer once; but
I shall be priest and prophet as of old.

now

Sun-treader, I believe in God and truth
And love; and as one just escaped from death
Would bind himself in bands of friends to feel
He lives indeed, so, I would lean on thee!
Thou must be ever with me, most in gloom
If such must come, but chiefly when I die,
For I seem, dying, as one going in the dark
To fight a giant: but live thou forever,
And be to all what thou hast been to me !
All in whom this wakes pleasant thoughts of me
Know my last state is happy, free from doubt
Or touch of fear. Love me and wish me well.
RICHMOND: October 22, 1832.

[Note on passage beginning with line 822.]

1020

1030

Je crains bien que mon pauvre ami ne soit pas toujours parfaitement compris dans ce qui reste à lire de cet étrange fragment, mais il est moins propre que tout autre à éclaircir ce qui de sa nature ne peut jamais être que songe et confusion. D'ailleurs je ne sais trop si er

cherchant à mieux co-ordonner certaines parties l'on ne courrait pas le risque de nuire au seul mérite auquel une production si singulière peut prétendre, celui de donner une idée assez précise du genre qu'elle n'a fait qu'ébaucher. Ce début sans prétention, ce remuement des passions qui va d'abord en accroissant et puis s'apaise par degrés, ces élans de l'âme, ce retour soudain sur soimême, et par-dessus tout, la tournure d'esprit tout particulière de mon ami, rendent les changemens presque impossibles. Les raisons qu'il fait valoir ailleurs, et d'autres encore plus puissantes, ont fait trouver grâce à mes yeux pour cet écrit qu'autrement je lui eusse conseillé de jeter au feu. Je n'en crois pas moins au grand principe de toute composition à ce principe de Shakespeare, de Rafaelle, de Beethoven, d'où il suit que la concentration des idées est due bien plus à leur conception qu'à leur mise en exécution: j'ai tout lieu de craindre que la première de ces qualités ne soit encore étrangère à mon ami, et je doute fort qu'un redoublement de travail lui fasse acquérir la seconde. Le mieux serait de brûler ceci ; mais que faire ?

Je crois que dans ce qui suit il fait allusion à un certain examen qu'il fit autrefois de l'âme, ou plutôt de son âme, pour découvrir la suite des objets auxquels il lui serait possible d'atteindre, et dont chacun une fois obtenu devait former une espèce de plateau d'où l'on pouvait apercevoir d'autres buts, d'autres projets, d'autres jouissances qui, à leur tour, devaient être surmontés. Il en résultait que l'oubli et le sommeil devaient tout terminer. Cette idée, que je ne saisis pas parfaitement, lui est peut-être aussi inintelligible qu'à moi.

PAULINE.

[blocks in formation]

SCENE.

PERSONS.

AUREOLUS PARACELSUS, a student.
FESTUS and MICHAL, his friends.
APRILE, an Italian poet.

I. PARACELSUS ASPIRES.

-Würzburg; a garden in the environs. 1512.

FESTUS, PARACELSUS, MICHAL.

Paracelsus. Come close to me, dear friends; still closer ; thus!

Close to the heart which, though long time roll by
Ere it again beat quicker, pressed to yours,

As now it beats

[ocr errors]

perchance a long, long time -
At least henceforth your memories shall make
Quiet and fragrant as befits their home.
Nor shall my memory want a home in yours -
Alas, that it requires too well such free
Forgiving love as shall embalm it there!
For if you would remember me aright,

-

IO

As I was born to be, you must forget
All fitful strange and moody waywardness
Which e'er confused my better spirit, to dwell
Only on moments such as these, dear friends!

[ocr errors]

My heart no truer, but my words and ways
More true to it: as Michal, some months hence,
Will say,
"this autumn was a pleasant time,”
For some few sunny days; and overlook
Its bleak wind, hankering after pining leaves.
Autumn would fain be sunny; I would look
Liker my nature's truth: and both are frail,
And both beloved, for all our frailty.

Michal.

Aureole !

20

Paracelsus. Drop by drop! she is weeping like a child!

Not so! I am content- more than content;
Nay, autumn wins you best by this its mute
Appeal to sympathy for its decay :

Look up, sweet Michal, nor esteem the less
Your stained and drooping vines their

grapes bow

down, Nor blame those creaking trees bent with their fruit, That apple-tree with a rare after-birth

Of peeping blooms sprinkled its wealth among!
Then for the winds what wind that ever raved
Shall vex that ash which overlooks you both,
So proud it wears its berries? Ah, at length,
The old smile meet for her, the lady of this
Sequestered nest!- this kingdom, limited
Alone by one old populous green wall
Tenanted by the ever-busy flies,

Gray crickets and shy lizards and quick spiders,
Each family of the silver-threaded moss

Which, look through near, this way, and it appears

30

40

« AnteriorContinuar »