Earth’s Shadows.
O perishable brother, let us pause,1
Here on the bald crown of the crag, and mark,2
With tight-held breath and passionate deep eyes,3
The many-coloured picture. Far beneath4
Sleepeth the silent water like a sheet5
Of liquid mother-o’-pearl ; and on its rim6
A ship sleeps, and the shadow of the ship.7
Astern the red sharks basking, tiny specks8
Upon the brine : oh, hark ! how softly sings9
A wild weird ditty, to a watery tune,10
The fisher among his nets upon the shore !11
And yonder, far away, his shouting bairns12
Are running, dwarf’d by distance, small as mice,13
Along the yellow sands. Behind us, see14
The immeasurable mountains, rising silent15
From bourne to bourne, from heathery thymy slopes,16
To the grey slopes of granite ; from the slopes17
Of granite to the dim and ashen heights,18
Where, with a silver glimmer, silently19
The white cloud, pausing, sheds miraculous snow20
On the heights, untravell’d, whither we are bound !21
O perishable brother, what a world !22
How wondrous and how beauteous ! Look ! and think23
What magic mixed the tints of yonder heaven,24
Wherein, upon a cushion soft as moss,25
A heaven pink-tinted like a maiden’s flesh,26
The dim Star of the gloaming lieth cool27
In palpitating silver, while beneath28
Her image, putting luminous feelers forth,29
Streams liquid, like a living thing o’ the sea !30
What magic ? What magician ? O, my brother,31
What grand magician, mixing up those tints,32
Pouring the water down, and sending forth33
The crystal air like breath—snowing the heavens34
With luminous jewels of the day and night,35
Look’d down and saw thee lie, a lifeless clod,36
And lifted thee, and moulded thee to shape !37
Colour’d thee with the sunlight till thy blood38
Ran ruby, pour’d the chemic tints o’ the air39
Thro’ eyes that kindled into azure, stole40
The flesh tints of the lily and the rose41
To make thee wondrous fair unto thyself,42
Knitted thy limbs with ruby bands, and blew43
Into thy hollow heart until it stirred ;44
Then, to the inmost chamber of his heaven45
Withdrawing, left, in midst of such a world,46
The living apparition of a Man,47
A mystery amid the mysteries,48
A lonely semblance with a wild appeal49
To which no thing that lives, however dear,50
Hath given a tearless answer; a shapen Soul,51
Projecting ever as it ages on,52
A Shade—which is a silence and a sleep !53
Yet not companionless, within this waste54
Of splendour, dwellest thou ; here by thy side55
I linger, girdled for the road like thee,56
With pilgrim’s staff and scrip, and thro’ the vales57
Below, the race of people like to us58
Moves on together like a single cloud,59
Uttering a common moan, and to our eyes60
Casting a common shadow ; yet each soul61
Therein now moveth, with a want like thine,62
Westward unto the bourne. Nor those alone,63
Thy perishable brethren, share thy want,64
And wander, haunted, thro’ the world ; but beasts,65
With that dumb hunger in their eye proejcts,66
Their darkness: by the yeanling lambkin’s side67
Its shadow plays, and the lithe lizard hath68
Its image on the flat stone in the sun.69
And these, the greater and the less like we,70
Shall perish in their season. In the mere71
The slender water-lily sees her shade,72
And sheddeth sweetly on the summer air73
Her farewell breathing ; and the forest tree,74
That standeth for a hundred years, fulfils75
Its daily sunset prophecy at last,76
And falleth, faileth ! Art thou comforted ?77
Nay, then, behold the shadows of the Hills,78
Attesting they are perishable too,79
And cry no more thou art companionless.80