| |
| .. AND 1 can I ever bid these joys 2 farewell? | |
| Yes, I must pass them for a nobler life, | |
| Where I may find the agonies, the strife | |
| Of human hearts: for lo! I see afar, | |
| O’er-sailing the blue cragginess, a car | 5 |
| And steeds with streamy manes—the charioteer | |
| Looks out upon the winds with glorious fear: | |
| And now the numerous tramplings quiver lightly | |
| Along a huge cloud’s ridge; and now with sprightly | |
| Wheel downward come they into fresher skies, | 10 |
| Tipt round with silver from the sun’s bright eyes. | |
| Still downward with capacious whirl they glide; | |
| And now I see them on a green hill-side | |
| In breezy rest among the nodding stalks. | |
| The charioteer with wondrous gesture talks | 15 |
| To the trees and mountains; and there soon appear | |
| Shapes of delight, of mystery, and fear, | |
| Passing along before a dusky space | |
| Made by some mighty oaks—as they would chase | |
| Some ever-fleeting music, on they sweep. | 20 |
| Lo! how they murmur, laugh, and smile, and weep | |
| Some with upholden hand and mouth severe; | |
| Some with their faces muffled to the ear | |
| Between their arms; some clear in youthful bloom, | |
| Go glad and smilingly athwart the gloom; | 25 |
| Some looking back, and some with upward gaze… | |
| |
| Most awfully intent | |
| The driver of those steeds is forward bent, | |
| And seems to listen: O that I might know | |
| All that he writes with such a hurrying glow! | 30 |
| |
| The visions all are fled—the car is fled | |
| Into the light of heaven, and in their stead | |
| A sense of real things comes doubly strong, | |
| And, like a muddy stream, would bear along | |
| My soul to nothingness: but I will strive | 35 |
| Against all doubtings, and will keep alive | |
| The thought of that same chariot, and the strange | |
| Journey it went … | |
