240. From ‘The Mistress of Vision’

WHERE is the land of Luthany,

Where is the tract of Elenore?

I am bound therefor.

‘Pierce thy heart to find the key;

With thee take

Only what none else would keep;

Learn to dream when thou dost wake,

Learn to wake when thou dost sleep.

Learn to water joy with tears,

Learn from fears to vanquish fears;

To hope, for thou dar’st not despair,

Exult, for that thou dar’st not grieve;

Plough thou the rock until it bear;

Know, for thou else couldst not believe;

Lose, that the lost thou may’st receive;

Die, for none other way canst live.

When earth and heaven lay down their veil,

And that apocalypse turns thee pale;

When thy seeing blindeth thee

To what thy fellow-mortals see;

When their sight to thee is sightless;

Their living, death; their light, most lightless;

Search no more—

Pass the gates of Luthany, tread the region Elenore.’

Where is the land of Luthany,

And where the region Elenore?

I do faint therefor.

‘When to the new eyes of thee

All things by immortal power,

Near or far,

Hiddenly

To each other linkèd are,

That thou canst not stir a flower

Without troubling of a star;

When thy song is shield and mirror

To the fair snake-curlèd Pain,

Where thou dar’st affront her terror

That on her thou may’st attain

Perséan conquest; seek no more,

O seek no more!

Pass the gates of Luthany, tread the region Elenore.’