In Guernsey

TO THEODORE WATTS I.     The heavenly bay, ringed round with cliffs and moors,     Storm-stained ravines, and crags that lawns inlay,     Soothes as with love the rocks whose guard secures     The heavenly bay.     O friend, shall time take ever this away,     This blessing given of beauty that endures,     This glory shown us, not to pass but stay?     Though sight be changed for memory, love ensures     What memory, changed by love to sight, would say -     The word that seals for ever mine and yours     The heavenly bay. II.     My mother sea, my fostress, what new strand,     What new delight of waters, may this be,     The fairest found since time's first breezes fanned     My mother sea?     Once more I give me body and soul to thee,     Who hast my soul for ever: cliff and sand     Recede, and heart to heart once more are we.     My heart springs first and plunges, ere my hand     Strike out from shore: more close it brings to me,     More near and dear than seems my fatherland,     My mother sea. III.     Across and along, as the bay's breadth opens, and o'er us     Wild autumn exults in the wind, swift rapture and strong     Impels us, and broader the wide waves brighten before us     Across and along.     The whole world's heart is uplifted, and knows not wrong;     The whole world's life is a chant to the sea-tide's chorus;     Are we not as waves of the water, as notes of the song?     Like children unworn of the passions and toils that wore us,     We breast for a season the breadth of the seas that throng,     Rejoicing as they, to be borne as of old they bore us     Across and along. IV.     On Dante's track by some funereal spell     Drawn down through desperate ways that lead not back     We seem to move, bound forth past flood and fell     On Dante's track.     The grey path ends: the gaunt rocks gape: the black     Deep hollow tortuous night, a soundless shell,     Glares darkness: are the fires of old grown slack?     Nay, then, what flames are these that leap and swell     As 'twere to show, where earth's foundations crack,     The secrets of the sepulchres of hell     On Dante's track? V.     By mere men's hands the flame was lit, we know,     From heaps of dry waste whin and casual brands:     Yet, knowing, we scarce believe it kindled so     By mere men's hands.     Above, around, high-vaulted hell expands,     Steep, dense, a labyrinth walled and roofed with woe,     Whose mysteries even itself not understands.     The scorn in Farinata's eyes aglow     Seems visible in this flame: there Geryon stands:     No stage of earth's is here, set forth to show     By mere men's hands. VI.     Night, in utmost noon forlorn and strong, with heart athirst and     fasting,     Hungers here, barred up for ever, whence as one whom dreams affright     Day recoils before the low-browed lintel threatening doom and casting     Night.     All the reefs and islands, all the lawns and highlands, clothed with     light,     Laugh for love's sake in their sleep outside: but here the night     speaks, blasting     Day with silent speech and scorn of all things known from depth to     height.     Lower than dive the thoughts of spirit-stricken fear in souls     forecasting     Hell, the deep void seems to yawn beyond fear's reach, and higher     than sight     Rise the walls and roofs that compass it about with everlasting     Night. VII.     The house accurst, with cursing sealed and signed,     Heeds not what storms about it burn and burst:     No fear more fearful than its own may find     The house accurst.     Barren as crime, anhungered and athirst,     Blank miles of moor sweep inland, sere and blind,     Where summer's best rebukes not winter's worst.     The low bleak tower with nought save wastes behind     Stares down the abyss whereon chance reared and nursed     This type and likeness of the accurst man's mind,     The house accurst. VIII.     Beloved and blest, lit warm with love and fame,     The house that had the light of the earth for guest     Hears for his name's sake all men hail its name     Beloved and blest.     This eyrie was the homeless eagle's nest     When storm laid waste his eyrie: hence he came     Again, when storm smote sore his mother's breast.     Bow down men bade us, or be clothed with blame     And mocked for madness: worst, they sware, was best:     But grief shone here, while joy was one with shame,     Beloved and blest.