Golden Numbers Part 23

Timotheus, placed on high Amid the tuneful quire, With flying fingers touched the lyre: The trembling notes ascend the sky, And heavenly joys inspire.

The song began from Jove, Who left his blissful seats above, (Such is the power of mighty love.) A dragon's fiery form belied the G.o.d: Sublime on radiant spires he rode.

The listening crowd admire the lofty sound, A present deity, they shout around; A present deity, the vaulted roofs rebound: With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, a.s.sumes the G.o.d, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres.

_Chorus._

_With ravish'd ears_ _The monarch hears,_ _a.s.sumes the G.o.d,_ _Affects to nod,_ _And seems to shake the spheres._

JOHN DRYDEN.

_From "Ode on St. Cecilia's Day."_

_Kubla Khan_

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man, Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But O! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift, half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale, the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me Her sympathy and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flas.h.i.+ng eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

_The Magic Car Moved On_

The Fairy and the Soul proceeded; The silver clouds disparted; And, as the car of magic they ascended, Again the speechless music swelled, Again the coursers of the air Unfurled their azure pennons, and the Queen, Shaking the beamy reins, Bade them pursue their way.

The magic car moved on.

The night was fair, and countless stars Studded heaven's dark-blue vault,-- The eastern wave grew pale With the first smile of morn.

The magic car moved on.

From the celestial hoofs The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew; And, where the burning wheels Eddied above the mountain's loftiest peak, Was traced a line of lightning.

Now far above a rock, the utmost verge Of the wide earth, it flew-- The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow Loured o'er the silver sea.

Far far below the chariot's path, Calm as a slumbering babe, Tremendous Ocean lay.

The mirror of its stillness showed The pale and waning stars, The chariot's fiery track, And the grey light of morn Tingeing those fleecy clouds That cradled in their folds the infant dawn.

The chariot seemed to fly Through the abyss of an immense concave, Radiant with million constellations, tinged With shades of infinite colour, And semicircled with a belt Flas.h.i.+ng incessant meteors.

The magic car moved on.

As they approached their goal, The coursers seemed to gather speed.

The sea no longer was distinguished; earth Appeared a vast and shadowy sphere; The sun's unclouded orb Rolled through the black concave; Its rays of rapid light Parted around the chariot's swifter course, And fell like ocean's feathery spray Dashed from the boiling surge Before a vessel's prow.

The magic car moved on.

Earth's distant orb appeared The smallest light that twinkles in the heavens Whilst round the chariot's way Innumerable systems rolled, And countless spheres diffused An ever-varying glory.

It was a sight of wonder: some Were horned like the crescent moon; Some shed a mild and silver beam Like Hesperus o'er the western sea; Some dashed athwart with trains of flame, Like worlds to death and ruin driven; Some shone like stars, and, as the chariot pa.s.sed, Bedimmed all other light.

PERCY BYSSHE Sh.e.l.lEY.

_From "Queen Mab."_

_Arethusa_

Arethusa arose From her couch of snows In the Acroceraunian mountains,-- From cloud and from crag, With many a jag, Shepherding her bright fountains.

She leapt down the rocks With her rainbow locks Streaming among the streams; Her steps paved with green The downward ravine Which slopes to the western gleams: And gliding and springing, She went, ever singing, In murmurs as soft as sleep; The Earth seemed to love her, And Heaven smiled above her, As she lingered towards the deep.

Then Alpheus bold, On his glacier cold, With his trident the mountains strook And opened a chasm In the rocks;--with the spasm All Erymanthus shook.

And the black south wind It concealed behind The urns of the silent snow, And earthquake and thunder Did rend in sunder The bars of the springs below.

The beard and the hair Of the River-G.o.d were Seen through the torrent's sweep, As he followed the light Of the fleet nymph's flight To the brink of the Dorian deep.

"Oh! save me! Oh! guide me!

And bid the deep hide me!

For he grasps me now by the hair!"

The loud Ocean heard, To its blue depth stirred, And divided at her prayer; And under the water The Earth's white daughter Fled like a sunny beam, Behind her descended, Her billows unblended With the brackish Dorian stream.

Like a gloomy stain On the emerald main, Alpheus rushed behind,-- As an eagle pursuing A dove to its ruin Down the streams of the cloudy wind.

Under the bowers Where the Ocean Powers Sit on their pearled thrones; Through the coral woods Of the weltering floods; Over heaps of unvalued stones; Through the dim beams Which amid the streams Weave a network of colored light; And under the caves Where the shadowy waves Are as green as the forest's night; Outspeeding the shark, And the swordfish dark,-- Under the ocean foam, And up through the rifts Of the mountain clifts,-- They pa.s.sed to their Dorian home.

And now from their fountains In Enna's mountains, Down one vale where the morning basks, Like friends once parted Grown single-hearted, They ply their watery tasks.

At sunrise they leap From their cradles steep In the cave of the shelving hill; At noontide they flow Through the woods below And the meadows of asphodel; And at night they sleep In the rocking deep Beneath the Ortygian sh.o.r.e;-- Like the spirits that lie In the azure sky, When they love but live no more.

PERCY BYSSHE Sh.e.l.lEY.

_The Culprit Fay_

(Extracts)

III

_Fairy Dawn_

'Tis the hour of fairy ban and spell: The wood-tick has kept the minutes well; He has counted them all with click and stroke, Deep in the heart of the mountain oak, And he has awakened the sentry elve Who sleeps with him in the haunted tree, To bid him ring the hour of twelve, And call the fays to their revelry; Twelve small strokes on his tinkling bell-- ('Twas made of the white snail's pearly sh.e.l.l)-- "Midnight comes, and all is well!

Hither, hither, wing your way!

'Tis the dawn of the fairy-day."

IV

_The a.s.sembling of the Fays_