Classic Poem

Manuel . [ Watching the body of A RMIDA .]…It may not be!
I watch in vain. At dawn, at noon, at eve,
And ever through the mystic midnight hour,
I watch by her, who was so late my bride;
Yet see no change. Midway, 'tween life and death,
He stays; the tinct still red upon her lip;
And a hue, like that the blush-rose wears, when June
Bares her sweet breast to day, redeems her cheek
From everlasting death: and yet,—she 's dead!
I saw, (too well!) amidst my useless tears,
Her life dissolve away: so,—though she lies
As yet of no one beauty disarrayed,
We'll give her tender burial. Open, earth!

[ Music. The following I NCANTATION is heard .]

Change!—The clay is changing:
The Spirit is through its chambers ranging;
 And the blood begins to flow!
With his subtle and fiery breath,
 He is waking the streams below,
And is flushing the face of Death.
He hurries from vein to vein,
Hither and thither, and back again,
All over the tingling nerves,
O'er muscles and bones, and never swerves;
And now—he is in the brain,
With a sharp but a pleasant pain!

Awake, thou wonder of wonders,
 Thou beautiful ghastly bride;
For the ground is shaken by thunders,
 And swells with a gloomy pride;
That the Soul which so lately fled
 Should return on the wings of life,
And escape from the ghostly dead;
 And mingle again in the tearing strife;
Where Power and Sin, allied,
Go triumphing still through the regions wide;
Where Hunger is left to die,
And Grief, with the streaming eye,
And Beauty and Youth, and Fear and Pain,
Fall down at the Conqueror's feet, in vam.

  Man. Ha!—God!
  Arm. What seest thou?—Manuel, dear Manuel!
  Man. Speak! earth-like, tomb-like—Speak! a word, a word;
Low as the whisper of death.
  Arm. Dear Manuel!
  Man. The music comes again. Like sighing cypress,—
Like organ dirges, heard midst tears and prayer,
It floats about my brain:—But she is dead!
  Arm. Have I slept long?
  Man. A life!—thy feet have trod
The bubbling burning waters, and come back
From Hell, like Orpheus' lover, whom the gods
Dashed into death once more.
  Arm. Thy reason 's troubled:
Sit by me, and we 'll talk.
  Man. Darest thou betray
The dumb dark secrets thou hast learned below?
Beware! their gods may stir: dæmons may rise,
Armed with revenge and hate; and, passing the bound
That doth divide us from the worlds of fire,
Seize on thee for their own. Art thou not theirs?
Their right? their prey? their subjects? oh! if so,
They 'll drag thee down to torment (o' that be sure)
Though I stand strong beside thee. Look, she smiles.
  Arm. If thou 'rt unhappy, if thy dreams be wild,
Thy heart in anger, or thine honour hurt,
Come unto me . Am I not she who swore
To love thee ever?
  Man. Ay; through life and death,—
Through death, and through all dim eternity,
Thou swor'st to follow me,—above,—below,—
Forsaking all things, Heaven itself, if Love
Might be o'er Time triumphant.
  Arm. And it is.
  Man. It is, it is. O heart, be calm! she lives!
  Arm. I live: I love.—I love; what more should be?
  Man. Nothing: the world's complete.