Touched his wide shoulders, after bending low Had stood a pigmy's height: she would have ta'en Or with a finger stayed Ixion's wheel. Her face was large as that of Memphian sphinx. When sages looked to Egypt for their lore As if the vanward clouds of evil days Leaning with parted lips, some words she spake Some mourning words, which in our feeble tongue To that large utterance of the early Gods! "Saturn, look up!-though wherefore, poor old King? "I have no comfort for thee, no not one: "I cannot say, 'O wherefore sleepest thou?' "For heaven is parted from thee, and the earth "Knows thee not, thus afflicted, for a God; "And ocean too, with all its solemn noise, "Has from thy sceptre passed; and all the air "Is emptied of thine hoary majesty. 66 Thy thunder, conscious of the new command, "Rumbles reluctant o'er our fallen house; "And thy sharp lightning in unpractised hands "Scorches and burns our once serene domain. 'Oaching time! O moments big as years! "All as ye pass swell out the monstrous truth, "And press it so upon our weary griefs "That unbelief has not a space to breathe. "Saturn, sleep on :-O thoughtless, why did I "Thus violate thy slumbrous solitude? "Why should I ope thy melancholy eyes? "Saturn, sleep on! while at thy feet I weep." As when, upon a tranced summer-night, Which comes upon the silence, and dies off, So came these words and went; the while in tears It was Hyperion :- a granite peak His bright feet touched, and there he staid to view To the most hateful seeing of itself. To one who travels from the dusking East: MILLMAN. FROM "THE FALL OF JERUSALEM." OH Thou! thou who canst melt the heart of stone, And make the desert of the cruel breast A paradise of soft and gentle thoughts! The darkness of my father's soul? Thou knowest For thou wert born of woman! thou didst come And not by thunders strewed Nor indignation burnt before thee on thy way. In the rude manger laid to rest From off her virgin breast. The heavens were not commanded to prepare Nor stooped their lamps th' enthroned fires on high: A single silent star Came wandering from afar, Gliding unchecked and calm along the liquid sky; As at a kingly throne, The earth and ocean were not hushed to hear [along. Poured through the host of heaven the charmed clouds One angel troop the strain began, By simple shepherds heard alone, |