Doth, as the herald of its coming, bear

The ghost of its dead mother, whose dim form
Bends in dark ether from her infant's chair,—

So came a chariot on the silent storm
Of its own rushing splendour, and a Shape
So sat within, as one whom years deform,

Beneath a dusky hood and double cape,
Crouching within the shadow of a tomb;
And o'er what seemed the head a cloud-like crape

Was bent, a dun and faint ethereal gloom
Tempering the light upon the chariot beam.
A Janus-visaged shadow did assume

The guidance of that wonder-winged team;

The shapes which drew it in thick lightnings
Were lost-I heard alone on the air's soft stream

The music of their ever-moving wings.

All the four faces of that charioteer
Had their eyes banded; little profit brings

Speed in the van and blindness in the rear,
Nor then avail the beams that quench the sun,
Or that with banded eyes could pierce the sphere

Of all that is, has been, or will be dore;
So ill was the car guided-but it past
With solemn speed majestically on.

The crowd gave way, and I arose aghast,
Or seemed to rise, so mighty was the trance,
And saw, like clouds upon the thunder's blast,

The million with fierce song and maniac dance
Raging around—such seemed the jubilee
As when, to meet some conqueror's advance,

Imperial Rome poured forth her living sea
From senate-house, and forum, and theatre,
When [
] upon the free

Had bound a yoke, which soon they stooped to bear; Nor wanted here the just similitude

Of a triumphal pageant, for where'er

The chariot rolled, a captive multitude

Was driven;-all those who had grown old in power Or misery, all who had their age subdued

By action or by suffering, and whose hour
Was drained to its last sand in weal or woe,
So that the trunk survived both fruit and flower;

All those whose fame or infamy must grow
Till the great winter lay the form and name
Of this green earth with them for ever low;

All but the sacred few who could not tame
Their spirits to the conquerors—but as soon
As they had touched the world with living flame,

Fled back like eagles to their native noon,
Or those who put aside the diadem

Of earthly thrones or gems [

Were they of Athens or Jerusalem,

Were neither 'mid the mighty captives seen,
Nor 'mid the ribald crowd that followed them,

Nor those who went before fierce and obscene. The wild dance maddens in the van, and those Who lead it-fleet as shadows on the green,

Outspeed the chariot, and without repose
Mix with each other in tempestuous measure
To savage music, wilder as it grows;

They, tortured by their agonizing pleasure,
Convulsed and on the rapid whirlwinds spun
Of that fierce spirit whose unholy leisure

Was soothed by mischief since the world begun,-Throw back their heads and loose their streaming

hair;

And in their dance round her who dims the sun

Maidens and youths fling their wild arms in air As their feet twinkle; they recede, and now Bending within each other's atmosphere

Kindle invisibly-and as they glow,
Like moths by light attracted and repelled,
Oft to their bright destruction come and go,

Till like two clouds into one vale impelled

That shake the mountains when their lightnings

mingle

And die in rain-the fiery band which held

Their natures, snaps-the shock still may tingle;
One falls and then another in the path
Senseless-nor is the desolation single,

Yet ere I can say where-the chariot hath
Past over them-nor other trace I find
But as of foam after the ocean's wrath

Is spent upon the desert shore ;-behind,
Old men and women foully disarrayed,
Shake their gray hairs in the insulting wind,

And follow in the dance, with limbs decayed, Seeking to reach the light which leaves them still Farther behind and deeper in the shade.

But not the less with impotence of will
They wheel, though ghastly shadows interpose
Round them and round each other, and fulfil

Their part, and in the dust from whence they rose Sink, and corruption veils them as they lie,

And past in these performs what [

] in those.

Struck to the heart by this sad pageantry,

Half to myself I said-And what is this?
Whose shape is that within the car?

And why-

I would have added-is all here amiss? But a voice answered, “Life!”—I turned, and knew (O Heaven, have mercy on such wretchedness!)

That what I thought was an old root which grew
To strange distortion out of the hill-side,
Was indeed one of that* deluded crew,

And that the grass, which methought hung so wide And white, was but his thin discoloured hair, And that the holes it vainly sought to hide,

Were or had been eyes :-" If thou canst, forbear To join the dance, which I had well forborne!" Said the grim Feature, (of my thought aware;)

"I will unfold that which to this deep scorn
Led me and my companions, and relate
The progress of the pageant since the morn;

"If thirst of knowledge shall not then abate, Follow it thou even to the night, but I Am weary.”—Then like one who with the weight

Of his own words is staggered, wearily
He paused; and, ere he could resume, I cried,
First, who art thou?"-" Before thy memory,

*Altered from those.