Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GEBIR: 3, by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR



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GEBIR: 3, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O for the spirit of that matchless man
Last Line: And bent toward them his bewilder'd way.
Subject(s): Death; Egypt; Giants; Nymphs; Dead, The


O FOR the spirit of that matchless man
Whom Nature led throughout her whole domain,
While he embodied breath'd ethereal air!
Tho' panting in the play-hour of my youth
I drank of Avon too, a dangerous draught,
That rous'd within the feverish thirst of song,
Yet never may I trespass o'er the stream
Of jealous Acheron, nor alive descend
The silent and unsearchable abodes
Of Erebus and Night, nor unchastised
Lead up long-absent heroes into day.
When on the pausing theatre of earth
Eve's shadowy curtain falls, can any man
Bring back the far-off intercepted hills,
Grasp the round rock-built turret, or arrest
The glittering spires that pierce the brow of Heaven?
Rather can any with outstripping voice
The parting Sun's gigantic strides recall?
Twice sounded Gebir! twice th' Iberian king
Thought it the strong vibration of the brain
That struck upon his ear; but now descried
A form, a man, come nearer: as he came
His unshorn hair (grown soft in these abodes)
Waved back, and scatter'd thin and hoary light.
Living men called him Aroar, but no more
In celebration or recording verse
His name is heard, no more by Arnon's side
The well-wall'd city, which he rear'd, remains.
Gebir was now undaunted, for the brave
When they no longer doubt, no longer fear,
And would have spoken, but the shade began.
"Brave son of Hesperus! no mortal hand
Has led thee hither, nor without the Gods
Penetrate thy firm feet the vast profound.
Thou knowest not that here thy fathers lie,
The race of Sidad; theirs was loud acclaim
When living, but their pleasure was in war;
Triumphs and hatred followed: I myself
Bore, men imagin'd, no inglorious part;
The Gods thought otherwise, by whose decree
Depriv'd of life, and more, of death depriv'd,
I still hear shrieking thro' the moonless night
Their discontented and deserted shades.
Observe these horrid walls, this rueful waste!
Here some refresh the vigour of the mind
With contemplation and cold penitence.
Nor wonder, while thou hearest, that the soul,
Thus purified, hereafter may ascend
Surmounting all obstruction, nor ascribe
The sentence to indulgence; each extreme
Hath tortures for ambition; to dissolve
In everlasting languor, to resist
Its impulse, but in vain; to be enclosed
Within a limit, and that limit fire;
Sever'd from happiness, from eminence,
And flying, but hell bars us, from ourselves.
Yet rather all these torments most endure
Than solitary pain, and sad remorse,
And towering thoughts on their own breast o'erturn'd
And piercing to the heart: such penitence,
Such contemplation theirs! thy ancestors
Bear up against them, nor will they submit
To conquering Time the asperities of Fate:
Yet could they but revisit earth once more,
How gladly would they poverty embrace,
How labour, even for their deadliest foe!
It little now avails them to have rais'd
Beyond the Syrian regions, and beyond
Phenicia, trophies, tributes, colonies:
Follow thou me: mark what it all avails."
Him Gebir follow'd, and a roar confused
Rose from a river rolling in its bed,
Not rapid, that would rouse the wretched souls,
Nor calmly, that might lull them to repose;
But with dull weary lapses it upheaved
Billows of bale, heard low, yet heard afar;
For when hell's iron portals let out night,
Often men start and shiver at the sound,
And lie so silent on the restless couch,
They hear their own hearts beat. Now Gebir breath'd
Another air, another sky beheld:
Twilight broods here, lull'd by no nightingale
Nor waken'd by the shrill lark dewy-wing'd,
But glowing with one sullen sunless heat.
Beneath his foot nor sprouted flower nor herb,
Nor chirpt a grasshopper; above his head
Phlegethon form'd a fiery firmament;
Part were sulphurous clouds involving, part
Shining like solid ribs of molten brass;
For the fierce element, which else aspires
Higher and higher and lessens to the sky,
Below, Earth's adamantine arch rebuft.
Gebir, tho' now such languor held his limbs,
Scarce aught admir'd he, yet he this admir'd;
And thus addrest him then the conscious guide.
"Beyond that river lie the happy fields;
From them fly gentle breezes, which when drawn
Against you crescent convex, but unite
Stronger with what they could not overcome.
Thus they that scatter freshness thro' the groves
And meadows of the fortunate, and fill
With liquid light the marble bowl of Earth,
And give her blooming health and sprightly force,
Their fire no more diluted, nor its darts
Blunted by passing thro' thick myrtle-bowers,
Neither from odours rising half dissolved,
Point forward Phlegethon's eternal flame;
And this horizon is the spacious bow
Whence each ray reaches to the world above."
The hero pausing, Gebir then besought
What region held his ancestors, what clouds,
What waters, or what Gods, from his embrace.
Aroar then sudden, as tho' rous'd, renew'd.
"Come thou, if ardour urges thee and force
Suffices..mark me, Gebir, I unfold
No fable to allure thee..on! behold
Thy ancestors!" and lo! with horrid gasp
The panting flame above his head recoil'd,
And thunder through his heart and life-blood throb'd.
Such sound could human organs once conceive,
Cold, speechless, palsied, not the soothing voice
Of friendship or almost of Deity
Could raise the wretched mortal from the dust;
Beyond man's home condition they! With eyes
Intent, and voice desponding, and unheard
By Aroar, tho' he tarried at his side,
"They know me not," cried Gebir, "O my sires,
Ye know me not! they answer not, nor hear.
How distant are they still! what sad extent
Of desolation must we overcome!
Aroar! what wretch that nearest us? what wretch
Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow?
Listen! him yonder, who, bound down supine,
Shrinks yelling from that sword there engine-hung;
He too among my ancestors?" "O King!
Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst
Inclement winds blew blighting from north-east."
"He was a warrior then, nor fear'd the Gods?"
"Gebir! he fear'd the Demons, not the Gods,
Tho' them indeed his daily face adored,
And was no warrior; yet the thousand lives
Squander'd as stones to exercise a sling,
And the tame cruelty and cold caprice..
Oh madness of mankind! addrest, adored!
O Gebir! what are men? or where are Gods?
Behold the giant next him, how his feet
Plunge floundering mid the marshes yellow-flower'd,
His restless head just reaching to the rocks,
His bosom tossing with black weeds besmear'd,
How writhes he 'twixt the continent and isle!
What tyrant with more insolence e'er claim'd
Dominion? when from the heart of Usury
Rose more intense the pale-flamed thirst for gold?
And call'd forsooth Deliverer! False or fools
Who prais'd the dull-ear'd miscreant, or who hoped
To soothe your folly and disgrace with praise!
Hearest thou not the harp's gay simpering air
And merriment afar? then come, advance;
And now behold him! mark the wretch accurst
Who sold his people to a rival king:
Self-yoked they stood two ages unredeem'd."
"O horror! what pale visage rises there!
Speak, Aroar! me perhaps mine eyes deceive,
Inured not, yet methinks they there descry
Such crimson haze as sometimes drowns the moon.
What is yon awful sight? why thus appears
That space between the purple and the crown?"
"I will relate their stories when we reach
Our confines," said the guide; "for thou, O king,
Differing in both from all thy countrymen,
Seest not their stories and hast seen their fates.
But while we tarry, lo again the flame
Riseth, and murmuring hoarse, points straighter; haste,
'Tis urgent, we must hence." "Then O adieu!"
Cried Gebir and groan'd aloud: at last a tear
Burst from his eyes turn'd back, and he exclaimed:
"Am I deluded? O ye powers of hell!
Suffer me . . O my fathers! am I torn . ."
He spake, and would have spoken more, but flames
Enwrapt him round and round intense; he turn'd
And stood held breathless in a ghost's embrace.
"Gebir! my son! desert me not! I heard
Thy calling voice, nor fate withheld me more:
One moment yet remains; enough to know
Soon will my torments, soon will thine, expire.
O that I e'er exacted such a vow!
When dipping in the victim's blood thy hand,
First thou withdrew'st it, looking in my face
Wondering; but when the priest my will explain'd,
Then swarest thou, repeating what he said,
How against Egypt thou wouldst raise that hand
And bruise the seed first risen from our line.
Therefore in death what pangs have I endured!
Rackt on the fiery centre of the sun,
Twelve years I saw the ruin'd world roll round.
Shudder not; I have borne it; I deserved
My wretched fate; be better thine; farewell."
"O stay, my father! stay one moment more . .
Let me return thee that embrace . . 'tis past . .
Aroar! how could I quit it unreturn'd!
And now the gulf divides us, and the waves
Of sulphur bellow thro' the blue abyss.
And is he gone for ever! and I come
In vain?" Then sternly said the guide: "In vain!
Sayst thou? what wouldst thou more? alas, O prince,
None come for pastime here! but is it nought
To turn thy feet from evil? is it nought
Of pleasure to that shade if they are turn'd?
For this thou camest hither: he who dares
To penetrate this darkness, nor regards
The dangers of the way, shall reascend
In glory, nor the gates of hell retard
His steps, nor demon's nor man's art prevail.
Once in each hundred years, and only once,
Whether by some rotation of the world,
Or whether will'd so by some pow'r above,
This flaming arch starts back, each realm descries
Its opposite, and Bliss from her repose
Freshens and feels her own security."
"Security!" cried out the Gadite king,
"And feel they not compassion?" "Child of Earth,"
Calmly said Aroar at his guest's surprise,
"Some so disfigur'd by habitual crimes,
Others are so exalted, so refined,
So permeated by heaven, no trace remains
Graven on earth: here Justice is supreme;
Compassion can be but where passions are.
Here are discover'd those who tortured Law
To silence or to speech, as pleas'd themselves;
Here also those who boasted of their zeal
And lov'd their country for the spoils it gave.
Hundreds, whose glitt'ring merchandise the lyre
Dazzled vain wretches drunk with flattery,
And wafted them in softest airs to Heaven,
Doom'd to be still deceiv'd, here still attune
The wonted strings and fondly woo applause:
Their wish half granted, they retain their own,
But madden at the mockery of the shades.
Upon the river's other side there grow
Deep olive groves; there other ghosts abide,
Blest indeed they, but not supremely blest.
We can not see beyond, we can not see
Aught but our opposite; and here are fates
How opposite to ours! here some observ'd
Religious rites, some hospitality:
Strangers, who from the good old men retired,
Closed the gate gently, lest from generous use
Shutting and opening of its own accord,
It shake unsettled slumbers off their couch:
Some stopt revenge athirst for slaughter, some
Sow'd the slow olive for a race unborn.
These had no wishes, therefore none are crown'd:
But theirs are tufted banks, theirs umbrage, theirs
Enough of sunshine to enjoy the shade,
And breeze enough to lull them to repose."
Then Gebir cried: "Illustrious host, proceed.
Bring me among the wonders of a realm
Admired by all, but like a tale admired.
We take our children from their cradled sleep,
And on their fancy from our own impress
Ethereal forms and adulating fates!
But, ere departing for such scenes ourselves,
We seize the hand, we hang upon the neck,
Our beds cling heavy round us with our tears,
Agony strives with agony. Just Gods!
Wherefore should wretched mortals thus believe,
Or wherefore should they hesitate to die?"
Thus while he question'd, all his strength dissolv'd
Within him, thunder shook his troubled brain,
He started, and the cavern's mouth survey'd
Near, and beyond his people; he arose,
And bent toward them his bewilder'd way.





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