Prince Athanase. A Fragment.

PART 1.     There was a youth, who, as with toil and travel,     Had grown quite weak and gray before his time;     Nor any could the restless griefs unravel     Which burned within him, withering up his prime     And goading him, like fiends, from land to land.     Not his the load of any secret crime,     For nought of ill his heart could understand,     But pity and wild sorrow for the same; -     Not his the thirst for glory or command,     Baffled with blast of hope-consuming shame;     Nor evil joys which fire the vulgar breast,     And quench in speedy smoke its feeble flame,     Had left within his soul their dark unrest:     Nor what religion fables of the grave     Feared he, - Philosophy's accepted guest.     For none than he a purer heart could have,     Or that loved good more for itself alone;     Of nought in heaven or earth was he the slave.     What sorrow, strange, and shadowy, and unknown,     Sent him, a hopeless wanderer, through mankind? -     If with a human sadness he did groan,     He had a gentle yet aspiring mind;     Just, innocent, with varied learning fed;     And such a glorious consolation find     In others' joy, when all their own is dead:     He loved, and laboured for his kind in grief,     And yet, unlike all others, it is said     That from such toil he never found relief.     Although a child of fortune and of power,     Of an ancestral name the orphan chief,     His soul had wedded Wisdom, and her dower     Is love and justice, clothed in which he sate     Apart from men, as in a lonely tower,     Pitying the tumult of their dark estate. -     Yet even in youth did he not e'er abuse     The strength of wealth or thought, to consecrate     Those false opinions which the harsh rich use     To blind the world they famish for their pride;     Nor did he hold from any man his dues,     But, like a steward in honest dealings tried,     With those who toiled and wept, the poor and wise,     His riches and his cares he did divide.     Fearless he was, and scorning all disguise,     What he dared do or think, though men might start,     He spoke with mild yet unaverted eyes;     Liberal he was of soul, and frank of heart,     And to his many friends - all loved him well -     Whate'er he knew or felt he would impart,     If words he found those inmost thoughts to tell;     If not, he smiled or wept; and his weak foes     He neither spurned nor hated - though with fell     And mortal hate their thousand voices rose,     They passed like aimless arrows from his ear -     Nor did his heart or mind its portal close     To those, or them, or any, whom life's sphere     May comprehend within its wide array.     What sadness made that vernal spirit sere? -     He knew not. Though his life, day after day,     Was failing like an unreplenished stream,     Though in his eyes a cloud and burthen lay,     Through which his soul, like Vesper's serene beam     Piercing the chasms of ever rising clouds,     Shone, softly burning; though his lips did seem     Like reeds which quiver in impetuous floods;     And through his sleep, and o'er each waking hour,     Thoughts after thoughts, unresting multitudes,     Were driven within him by some secret power,     Which bade them blaze, and live, and roll afar,     Like lights and sounds, from haunted tower to tower     O'er castled mountains borne, when tempest's war     Is levied by the night-contending winds,     And the pale dalesmen watch with eager ear; -     Though such were in his spirit, as the fiends     Which wake and feed an everliving woe, -     What was this grief, which ne'er in other minds     A mirror found, - he knew not - none could know;     But on whoe'er might question him he turned     The light of his frank eyes, as if to show     He knew not of the grief within that burned,     But asked forbearance with a mournful look;     Or spoke in words from which none ever learned     The cause of his disquietude; or shook     With spasms of silent passion; or turned pale:     So that his friends soon rarely undertook     To stir his secret pain without avail; -     For all who knew and loved him then perceived     That there was drawn an adamantine veil     Between his heart and mind, - both unrelieved     Wrought in his brain and bosom separate strife.     Some said that he was mad, others believed     That memories of an antenatal life     Made this, where now he dwelt, a penal hell;     And others said that such mysterious grief     From God's displeasure, like a darkness, fell     On souls like his, which owned no higher law     Than love; love calm, steadfast, invincible     By mortal fear or supernatural awe;     And others, - ''Tis the shadow of a dream     Which the veiled eye of Memory never saw,     'But through the soul's abyss, like some dark stream     Through shattered mines and caverns underground,     Rolls, shaking its foundations; and no beam     'Of joy may rise, but it is quenched and drowned     In the dim whirlpools of this dream obscure;     Soon its exhausted waters will have found     'A lair of rest beneath thy spirit pure,     O Athanase! - in one so good and great,     Evil or tumult cannot long endure.     So spake they: idly of another's state     Babbling vain words and fond philosophy;     This was their consolation; such debate     Men held with one another; nor did he,     Like one who labours with a human woe,     Decline this talk: as if its theme might be     Another, not himself, he to and fro     Questioned and canvassed it with subtlest wit;     And none but those who loved him best could know     That which he knew not, how it galled and bit     His weary mind, this converse vain and cold;     For like an eyeless nightmare grief did sit     Upon his being; a snake which fold by fold     Pressed out the life of life, a clinging fiend     Which clenched him if he stirred with deadlier hold; -     And so his grief remained - let it remain - untold. [1]     PART 2.     FRAGMENT 1.     Prince Athanase had one beloved friend,     An old, old man, with hair of silver white,     And lips where heavenly smiles would hang and blend     With his wise words; and eyes whose arrowy light     Shone like the reflex of a thousand minds.     He was the last whom superstition's blight     Had spared in Greece - the blight that cramps and blinds, -     And in his olive bower at Oenoe     Had sate from earliest youth. Like one who finds     A fertile island in the barren sea,     One mariner who has survived his mates     Many a drear month in a great ship - so he     With soul-sustaining songs, and sweet debates     Of ancient lore, there fed his lonely being: -     'The mind becomes that which it contemplates,' -     And thus Zonoras, by for ever seeing     Their bright creations, grew like wisest men;     And when he heard the crash of nations fleeing     A bloodier power than ruled thy ruins then,     O sacred Hellas! many weary years     He wandered, till the path of Laian's glen     Was grass-grown - and the unremembered tears     Were dry in Laian for their honoured chief,     Who fell in Byzant, pierced by Moslem spears: -     And as the lady looked with faithful grief     From her high lattice o'er the rugged path,     Where she once saw that horseman toil, with brief     And blighting hope, who with the news of death     Struck body and soul as with a mortal blight,     She saw between the chestnuts, far beneath,     An old man toiling up, a weary wight;     And soon within her hospitable hall     She saw his white hairs glittering in the light     Of the wood fire, and round his shoulders fall;     And his wan visage and his withered mien,     Yet calm and gentle and majestical.     And Athanase, her child, who must have been     Then three years old, sate opposite and gazed     In patient silence.     FRAGMENT 2.     Such was Zonoras; and as daylight finds     One amaranth glittering on the path of frost,     When autumn nights have nipped all weaker kinds,     Thus through his age, dark, cold, and tempest-tossed,     Shone truth upon Zonoras; and he filled     From fountains pure, nigh overgrown and lost,     The spirit of Prince Athanase, a child,     With soul-sustaining songs of ancient lore     And philosophic wisdom, clear and mild.     And sweet and subtle talk they evermore,     The pupil and the master, shared; until,     Sharing that undiminishable store,     The youth, as shadows on a grassy hill     Outrun the winds that chase them, soon outran     His teacher, and did teach with native skill     Strange truths and new to that experienced man;     Still they were friends, as few have ever been     Who mark the extremes of life's discordant span.     So in the caverns of the forest green,     Or on the rocks of echoing ocean hoar,     Zonoras and Prince Athanase were seen     By summer woodmen; and when winter's roar     Sounded o'er earth and sea its blast of war,     The Balearic fisher, driven from shore,     Hanging upon the peaked wave afar,     Then saw their lamp from Laian's turret gleam,     Piercing the stormy darkness, like a star     Which pours beyond the sea one steadfast beam,     Whilst all the constellations of the sky     Seemed reeling through the storm...They did but seem -     For, lo! the wintry clouds are all gone by,     And bright Arcturus through yon pines is glowing,     And far o'er southern waves, immovably     Belted Orion hangs - warm light is flowing     From the young moon into the sunset's chasm. -     'O, summer eve! with power divine, bestowing     'On thine own bird the sweet enthusiasm     Which overflows in notes of liquid gladness,     Filling the sky like light! How many a spasm     'Of fevered brains, oppressed with grief and madness,     Were lulled by thee, delightful nightingale, -     And these soft waves, murmuring a gentle sadness, -     'And the far sighings of yon piny dale     Made vocal by some wind we feel not here. -     I bear alone what nothing may avail     'To lighten - a strange load!' - No human ear     Heard this lament; but o'er the visage wan     Of Athanase, a ruffling atmosphere     Of dark emotion, a swift shadow, ran,     Like wind upon some forest-bosomed lake,     Glassy and dark. - And that divine old man     Beheld his mystic friend's whole being shake,     Even where its inmost depths were gloomiest -     And with a calm and measured voice he spake,     And, with a soft and equal pressure, pressed     That cold lean hand: - 'Dost thou remember yet     When the curved moon then lingering in the west     'Paused, in yon waves her mighty horns to wet,     How in those beams we walked, half resting on the sea?     'Tis just one year - sure thou dost not forget -     'Then Plato's words of light in thee and me     Lingered like moonlight in the moonless east,     For we had just then read - thy memory     'Is faithful now - the story of the feast;     And Agathon and Diotima seemed     From death and dark forgetfulness released...'     FRAGMENT 3.     And when the old man saw that on the green     Leaves of his opening ... a blight had lighted     He said: 'My friend, one grief alone can wean     A gentle mind from all that once delighted: -     Thou lovest, and thy secret heart is laden     With feelings which should not be unrequited.'     And Athanase ... then smiled, as one o'erladen     With iron chains might smile to talk (?) of bands     Twined round her lover's neck by some blithe maiden,     And said...     FRAGMENT 4.     'Twas at the season when the Earth upsprings     From slumber, as a sphered angel's child,     Shadowing its eyes with green and golden wings,     Stands up before its mother bright and mild,     Of whose soft voice the air expectant seems -     So stood before the sun, which shone and smiled     To see it rise thus joyous from its dreams,     The fresh and radiant Earth. The hoary grove     Waxed green - and flowers burst forth like starry beams; -     The grass in the warm sun did start and move,     And sea-buds burst under the waves serene: -     How many a one, though none be near to love,     Loves then the shade of his own soul, half seen     In any mirror - or the spring's young minions,     The winged leaves amid the copses green; -     How many a spirit then puts on the pinions     Of fancy, and outstrips the lagging blast,     And his own steps - and over wide dominions     Sweeps in his dream-drawn chariot, far and fast,     More fleet than storms - the wide world shrinks below,     When winter and despondency are past.     FRAGMENT 5.     'Twas at this season that Prince Athanase     Passed the white Alps - those eagle-baffling mountains     Slept in their shrouds of snow; - beside the ways     The waterfalls were voiceless - for their fountains     Were changed to mines of sunless crystal now,     Or by the curdling winds - like brazen wings     Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow -     Warped into adamantine fretwork, hung     And filled with frozen light the chasms below.     Vexed by the blast, the great pines groaned and swung     Under their load of [snow] -     ...     ...     Such as the eagle sees, when he dives down     From the gray deserts of wide air, [beheld]     [Prince] Athanase; and o'er his mien (?) was thrown     The shadow of that scene, field after field,     Purple and dim and wide...     FRAGMENT 6.     Thou art the wine whose drunkenness is all     We can desire, O Love! and happy souls,     Ere from thy vine the leaves of autumn fall,     Catch thee, and feed from their o'erflowing bowls     Thousands who thirst for thine ambrosial dew; -     Thou art the radiance which where ocean rolls     Investeth it; and when the heavens are blue     Thou fillest them; and when the earth is fair     The shadow of thy moving wings imbue     Its deserts and its mountains, till they wear     Beauty like some light robe; - thou ever soarest     Among the towers of men, and as soft air     In spring, which moves the unawakened forest,     Clothing with leaves its branches bare and bleak,     Thou floatest among men; and aye implorest     That which from thee they should implore: - the weak     Alone kneel to thee, offering up the hearts     The strong have broken - yet where shall any seek     A garment whom thou clothest not? the darts     Of the keen winter storm, barbed with frost,     Which, from the everlasting snow that parts     The Alps from Heaven, pierce some traveller lost     In the wide waved interminable snow     Ungarmented,...     ANOTHER FRAGMENT (A)     Yes, often when the eyes are cold and dry,     And the lips calm, the Spirit weeps within     Tears bitterer than the blood of agony     Trembling in drops on the discoloured skin     Of those who love their kind and therefore perish     In ghastly torture - a sweet medicine     Of peace and sleep are tears, and quietly     Them soothe from whose uplifted eyes they fall     But...     ANOTHER FRAGMENT (B)     Her hair was brown, her sphered eyes were brown,     And in their dark and liquid moisture swam,     Like the dim orb of the eclipsed moon;     Yet when the spirit flashed beneath, there came     The light from them, as when tears of delight     Double the western planet's serene flame.