Scenes From “Iphigenia.”

A FRAGMENT.

There is a charm of antique grace, of the majestic repose resulting from a faultless symmetry, about the whole of this composition, which inclines us to rank it as among the most consummate works of art ever achieved by the master-mind of its author. The perfection of its design and finish is analogous to that of a Grecian temple, seen as the crown of some old classic height, with all its pure outlines--all the delicate proportions of its airy pillars--brought into bold relief by the golden sunshine, and against the unclouded blue of its native heavens. Complete within itself, the harmonious edifice is thus also to the mind and eye of the beholder; they are filled, and desire no more--they even feel that more would be but encumbrance upon the fine adjustment of the well-ordered parts constituting the graceful whole. It sends no vague dreams to wander through infinity, such as are excited by a Gothic minster, where the slight pinnacles striving upward, like the free but still baffled thought of the architect--the clustering pillars and high arches imitating the bold combinations of mysterious forests--the many-branching cells, and long visionary aisles, of which waving torchlight or uncertain glimpses of the moon seem the fittest illumination--ever suggest ideas of some conception in the originally moulding mind, far more vast than the means allotted to human accomplishment--of struggling endeavour, and painfully submitted will. Akin to the spirit of such creations is that of the awful but irregular Faust, and other works of Goethe, in which the restless questionings, the lofty aspirations, and dark misgivings of the human soul, are perpetually called up to “come like shadows, so depart,” across the stormy splendours of the scene; and the mind is engaged in ceaseless conflict with the interminable mysteries of life. It is otherwise with the work before us: overshadowed, as it were, by the dark wings of the inflexible Destiny which hovers above the children of Tantalus, the spirit of the imaginary personages, as well as of the reader, here moves acquiescently within the prescribed circle of events, and is seldom tempted beyond, to plunge into the abyss of general speculations upon the lot of humanity.

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I.

JOY OF PYLADES ON HEARING HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE.

O sweetest voice! O bless’d familiar sound Of mother-words heard in the stranger’s land! I see the blue hills of my native shore, The far blue hills again! those cordial tones, Before the captive bid them freshly rise For ever welcome! Oh, by this deep joy, Know the true son of Greece!

II.

EXCLAMATIONS OF IPHIGENIA ON SEEING HER BROTHER.

Oh, hear me! look upon me! How my heart, After long desolation, now unfolds Unto this new delight, to kiss thy head, Thou dearest, dearest one of all on earth! To clasp thee with my arms, which were but thrown On the void winds before! Oh, give me way! Give my soul’s rapture way! The eternal fount Leaps not more brightly forth from cliff to cliff Of high Parnassus, down the golden vale, Than the strong joy bursts gushing from my heart, And swells around me to a flood of bliss-- Orestes!--O my brother!

III.

LOT OF MAN AND WOMAN COMPARED BY IPHIGENIA.

Man by the battle’s hour immortalised May fall, yet leave his name to living song; But of forsaken woman’s countless tears, What recks the after-world? The poet’s voice Tells naught of all the slow, sad, weary days, And long, long nights, through which the lonely soul Pour’d itself forth, consumed itself away, In passionate adjurings, vain desires, And ceaseless weepings for the early lost, The loved and vanish’d!

IV.

LONGING OF ORESTES FOR REPOSE.

One draught from Lethe’s flood!--reach me one draught, One last cool goblet fill’d with dewy peace! Soon will the spasm of life departing leave My bosom free! Soon shall my spirit flow Along the deep waves of forgetfulness, Calmly and silently! away to you, Ye dead! Ye dwellers of the eternal cloud! Take home the son of earth, and let him steep His o’erworn senses in your dim repose For evermore.

V.

CONTINUATION OF ORESTES’ SOLILOQUY.

Hark! in the trembling leaves Mysterious whispers: hark! a rushing sound Sweeps through yon twilight depth!--e’en now they come, They throng to greet their guest! And who are they Rejoicing each with each in stately joy, As a king’s children gather’d for the hour Of some high festival! Exultingly, And kindred-like, and godlike, on they pass-- The glorious, wandering shapes! aged and young, Proud men and royal women! Lo! my race-- My sire’s ancestral race!

RECORDS OF THE SPRING OF 1834.

[These sonnets, written in the months of April, May, and June, were intended, together with the Records of the Autumn of 1834, to form a continuation of the series entitled “Sonnets, Devotional and Memorial.”]

A VERNAL THOUGHT.

O festal Spring! midst thy victorious glow, Far-spreading o’er the kindled woods and plains, And streams, that bound to meet thee from their chains, Well might there lurk the shadow of a woe For human hearts, and in the exulting flow Of thy rich songs a melancholy tone, Were we of mould all earthly--we alone, Sever’d from thy great spell, and doom’d to go Farther, still farther, from our sunny time, Never to feel the breathings of our prime, Never to flower again! But we, O Spring! Cheer’d by deep spirit-whispers not of earth, Press to the regions of thy heavenly birth, As here thy flowers and birds press on to bloom and sing.

TO THE SKY.

Far from the rustlings of the poplar-bough, Which o’er my opening life wild music made, Far from the green hills with their heathery glow And flashing streams whereby my childhood play’d; In the dim city, midst the sounding flow Of restless life, to thee in love I turn O thou rich Sky! and from thy splendours learn How song-birds come and part, flowers wane and blow. With thee all shapes of glory find their home, And thou hast taught me well, majestic dome! By stars, by sunsets, by soft clouds which rove Thy blue expanse, or sleep in silvery rest, That Nature’s God hath left no spot unbless’d With founts of beauty for the eye of love.