Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
The Masque of PandoraVI. In the Garden
Is but the sovereign Zeus, who like a swan
Flies to fair-ankled Leda!
Ixion’s cloud, the shadowy shape of Hera,
That bore the Centaurs.
Rocked by all the winds that blow,
Bright with sunshine from above,
Dark with shadow from below,
Beak to beak and breast to breast
In the cradle of their nest,
Lie the fledglings of our love.
The feathered flute-players pipe their songs of love,
And Echo answers, love and only love.
Every note of song we sing,
Every murmur, every tone,
Is of love and love alone.
Changed like Callisto to a star in heaven?
Like Semele consumed and burnt to ashes?
He told me all the history of the Gods.
In the reeds of Arcady,
Evermore a low lament
Of unrest and discontent,
As the story is retold
Of the nymph so coy and cold,
Who with frightened feet outran
The pursuing steps of Pan.
And when he plays upon it to the shepherds
They pity him, so mournful is the sound.
Be thou not coy and cold as Syrinx was.
A sound unwelcome and inopportune
As was the braying of Silenus’ ass,
Once heard in Cybele’s garden.
I would not be found here. I would not see him.
Ere too late,
In these thickets intricate;
Lest Prometheus
See and chide thee,
Lest some hurt
Or harm betide thee,
Haste and hide thee!
Flitting among the trees.
That I have warned thee? Let me now implore.
Thou harborest in thy house a dangerous guest.
Thou art descended from Titanic race,
And hast a Titan’s strength and faculties
That make thee godlike; and thou sittest here
Like Heracles spinning Omphale’s flax,
And beaten with her sandals.
Thou drivest me to madness with thy taunts.
Come with me to my tower on Caucasus:
See there my forges in the roaring caverns,
Beneficent to man, and taste the joy
That springs from labor. Read with me the stars,
And learn the virtues that lie hidden in plants,
And all things that are useful.
I am not as thou art. Thou dost inherit
Our father’s strength, and I our mother’s weakness:
The softness of the Oceanides,
The yielding nature that cannot resist.
Shake from thy soul these dreams effeminate,
These passions born of indolence and ease.
Resolve, and thou art free. But breathe the air
Of mountains, and their unapproachable summits
Will lift thee to the level of themselves.
The rushing of a mighty wind, with loud
And undistinguishable voices calling,
Are in my ear!
Their foreheads wrinkled and rifted
Helios crowns by day,
Pallid Selene by night;
From their bosoms uptossed
The snows are driven and drifted,
Like Tithonus’ beard
Streaming dishevelled and white.
Their trumpets blow in the vastness;
Phantoms of mist and rain,
Cloud and the shadow of cloud,
Pass and repass by the gates
Of their inaccessible fastness;
Ever unmoved they stand,
Solemn, eternal, and proud.
In their inexhaustible sources,
Swollen by affluent streams
Hurrying onward and hurled
Headlong over the crags,
The impetuous water-courses
Rush and roar and plunge
Down to the nethermost world.
Into streams of silver been melted,
Flowing over the plains,
Spreading to lakes in the fields?
Or have the mountains, the giants,
The ice-helmed, the forest-belted,
Scattered their arms abroad;
Flung in the meadows their shields?
That bolts of thunder have shattered,
Storm-winds muster and blow
Trumpets of terrible breath;
Then from the gateways rush,
And before them routed and scattered
Sullen the cloud-rack flies,
Pale with the pallor of death.
And flee for shelter the shepherds;
White are the frightened leaves,
Harvests with terror are white;
Panic seizes the herds,
And even the lions and leopards,
Prowling no longer for prey,
Crouch in their caverns with fright.
Majestic the forests are standing,
Bright are their crested helms,
Dark is their armor of leaves;
Filled with the breath of freedom
Each bosom subsiding, expanding,
Now like the ocean sinks,
Now like the ocean upheaves.
With foreheads stern and defiant,
Loud they shout to the winds,
Loud to the tempest they call;
Naught but Olympian thunders,
That blasted Titan and Giant,
Them can uproot and o’erthrow,
Shaking the earth with their fall.
Of winds and forests and fountains,
Voices of earth and of air,
Murmur and rushing of streams,
Making together one sound,
The mysterious voice of the mountains,
Waking the sluggard that sleeps,
Waking the dreamer of dreams.
That speak of endless endeavor,
Speak of endurance and strength,
Triumph and fulness of fame,
Sounding about the world,
An inspiration forever,
Stirring the hearts of men,
Shaping their end and their aim.