Read Ebook: The Sylphs of the Season with Other Poems by Allston Washington

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The Sylphs of the Seasons; a Poet's Dream The Two Pointers; a Tale Eccentricity The Paint King Myrtilla: addressed to a Lady, who lamented that she had never been in love To a Lady who spoke slightingly of Poets Sonnet on a Falling Group in the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo, in the Cappella Sistina Sonnet on the Group of the Three Angels before the Tent of Abraham, by Raffaelle, in the Vatican Sonnet, on seeing the Picture of AEolus, by Peligrino Tibaldi, in the Institute at Bologna Sonnet on Rembrant; occasioned by his Picture of Jacob's Dream Sonnet on the Luxembourg Gallery Sonnet to my venerable Friend, the President of the Royal Academy The Mad Lover at the Grave of his Mistress First Love: a Ballad The Complaint Will, the Maniac: a Ballad

The Sylphs of the Seasons;

Prefatory Note to The Sylphs of the Seasons.

If the above be admitted, it is needless to add more; if it be not, it would be useless.

The Sylphs of the Seasons.

Long has it been my fate to hear The slave of Mammon, with a sneer, My indolence reprove. Ah, little knows he of the care, The toil, the hardship that I bear, While lolling in my elbow-chair, And seeming scarce to move:

But would the Man of Lucre know What riches from my labours flow?-- A DREAM is my reply. And who for wealth has ever pin'd, That had a World within his mind, Where every treasure he may find, And joys that never die!

One night, my task diurnal done, Fatigued, I sought the couch of rest; My wonted pray'r to Heaven address'd; But scarce had I my pillow press'd When thus a vision rose.

Methought within a desert cave, Cold, dark, and solemn as the grave, I suddenly awoke. It seem'd of sable Night the cell, Where, save when from the ceiling fell An oozing drop, her silent spell No sound had ever broke.

There motionless I stood alone, Like some strange monument of stone Upon a barren wild; Or like, A man that's buried under ground, Where pyramids are pil'd.

Thus fix'd, a dreadful hour I past, And now I heard, as from a blast, A voice pronounce my name: Nor long upon my ear it dwelt, When round me 'gan the air to melt. And motion once again I felt Quick circling o'er my frame.

Again it call'd; and then a ray, That seem'd a gushing fount of day, Across the cavern stream'd. Half struck with terror and delight, I hail'd the little blessed light, And follow'd 'till my aching sight An orb of darkness seem'd.

Nor long I felt the blinding pain; For soon upon a mountain plain I gaz'd with wonder new. There high a castle rear'd its head; And far below a region spread, Where every Season seem'd to shed Its own peculiar hue.

Now at the castle's massy gate, Like one that's blindly urged by fate, A bugle-horn I blew. The mountain-plain it shook around, The vales return'd a hollow sound, And, moving with a sigh profound. The portals open flew.

Then ent'ring, from a glittering hall I heard a voice seraphic call, That bade me "ever reign, All hail!" it said in accent wild, "For thou art Nature's chosen child, Whom wealth nor blood has e'er defil'd, Hail, Lord of this Domain!"

And now I paced a bright saloon, That seem'd illumin'd by the moon, So mellow was the light. The walls with jetty darkness teem'd, While down them chrystal columns streamed, And each a mountain torrent seem'd. High-flashing through the night.

Rear'd in the midst, a double throne. Like burnish'd cloud of evening shone; While, group'd the base around, Four Damsels stood of Faery race; Who, turning each with heavenly grace Upon me her immortal face, Transfix'd me to the ground.

For we, the sisters of a birth, Do rule by turns the subject earth To serve ungrateful man; But since our varied toils impart No joy to his capricious heart, 'Tis now ordain'd that human art Shall rectify the plan.

When thou, at call of vernal breeze, And beck'ning bough of budding trees, Hast left thy sullen fire; And stretch'd thee in some mossy dell. And heard the browsing wether's bell, Blythe echoes rousing from their cell To swell the tinkling quire:

Or heard from branch of flow'ring thorn The song of friendly cuckoo warn The tardy-moving swain; Hast bid the purple swallow hail; And seen him now through ether sail, Now sweeping downward o'er the vale. And skimming now the plain;

Then, catching with a sudden glance The bright and silver-clear expanse Of some broad river's stream. Beheld the boats adown it glide, And motion wind again the tide, Where, chain'd in ice by Winter's pride, Late roll'd the heavy team:

Or, lur'd by some fresh-scented gale, That woo'd the moored fisher's sail To tempt the mighty main, Hast watch'd the dim receding shore, Now faintly seen the ocean o'er, Like hanging cloud, and now no more To bound the sapphire plain;

Then, wrapt in night the scudding bark, Beheld, from thy most fearful height, Beneath the dolphin's azure light Cleave, like a living meteor bright, The darkness of the deep:

'Twas mine the warm, awak'ning hand That made thy grateful heart expand, And feel the high control Of Him, the mighty Power, that moves Amid the waters and the groves, And through his vast creation proves His omnipresent soul.

Or, brooding o'er some forest rill, Fring'd with the early daffodil, And quiv'ring maiden-hair, When thou hast mark'd the dusky bed, With leaves and water-rust o'erspread, That seem'd an amber light to shed On all was shadow'd there;

And thence, as by its murmur call'd, The current traced to where it brawl'd Beneath the noontide ray; And there beheld the checquer'd shade Of waves, in many a sinuous braid, That o'er the sunny channel play'd, With motion ever gay:

'Twas I to these the magick gave, That made thy heart, a willing slave, To gentle Nature bend; And taught thee how with tree and flower, And whispering gale, and dropping shower, In converse sweet to pass the hour, As with an early friend:

That mid the noontide sunny haze Did in thy languid bosom raise The raptures of the boy; When, wak'd as if to second birth, Thy soul through every pore look'd forth, And gaz'd upon the beauteous Earth With myriad eyes of joy:

That made thy heart, like HIS above, To flow with universal love For every living thing. And, oh! if I, with ray divine, Thus tempering, did thy soul refine, Then let thy gentle heart be mine, And bless the Sylph of Spring.

Oft by the heat of noon opprest, With flowing hair and open vest, Thy footsteps have I won To mossy couch of welling grot, Where thou hast bless'd thy happy lot. That thou in that delicious spot May'st see, not feel, the sun:

Thence tracing from the body's change, In curious philosophic range, The motion of the mind; And how from thought to thought it flew, Still hoping in each vision new The faery land of bliss to view, But ne'er that land to find.

And then, as grew thy languid mood, To some embow'ring silent wood I led thy careless way; Where high from tree to tree in air Thou saw'st the spider swing her snare. So bright!--as if, entangled there, The sun had left a ray:

Or lur'd thee to some beetling steep To mark the deep and quiet sleep That wrapt the tarn below; And mountain blue and forest green Inverted on its plane serene, Dim gleaming through the filmy sheen That glaz'd the painted show;

Perchance, to mark the fisher's skiff Swift from beneath some shadowy cliff Dart, like a gust of wind; And, as she skimm'd the sunny lake, In many a playful wreath her wake Far-trailing, like a silvery snake, With sinuous length behind.

Nor less when hill and dale and heath Still Evening wrapt in mimic death. Thy spirit true I prov'd: Around thee, as the darkness stole, Before thy wild, creative soul I bade each faery vision roll, Thine infancy had lov'd.

Then o'er the silent sleeping land, Thy fancy, like a magick wand, Forth caird the Elfin race: And now around the fountain's brim In circling dance they gaily skim; And now upon its surface swim, And water-spiders chase;

Each circumstance of sight or sound Peopling the vacant air around With visionary life: For if amid a thicket stirr'd, Or flitting bat, or wakeful bird, Then straight thy eager fancy heard The din of Faery strife;

Now, in the passing beetle's hum The Elfin army's goblin drum To pigmy battle sound; And now, where dripping dew-drops plash On waving grass, their bucklers clash, And now their quivering lances flash, Wide-dealing death around:

Or if the moon's effulgent form The passing clouds of sudden storm In quick succession veil; Vast serpents now, their shadows glide, And, coursing now the mountain's side, A band of giants huge, they stride O'er hill, and wood, and dale.

And still on many a service rare Could I descant, if need there were, My firmer claim to bind. But rest I most my high pretence On that my genial influence, Which made the body's indolence The vigour of the mind.

And now, in accents deep and low, Like voice of fondly-cherish'd woe, The Sylph of Autumn sad: Though I may not of raptures sing, That grac'd the gentle song of Spring, Like Summer, playful pleasures bring, Thy youthful heart to glad;

Yet still may I in hope aspire Thy heart to touch with chaster fire, And purifying love: For I with vision high and holy, And spell of quick'ning melancholy, Thy soul from sublunary folly First rais'd to worlds above.

What though be mine the treasures fair Of purple grape and yellow pear, And fruits of various hue, And harvests rich of golden grain, That dance in waves along the plain To merry song of reaping swain, Beneath the welkin blue;

With these I may not urge my suit, Of Summer's patient toil the fruit, For mortal purpose given: Nor may it fit my sober mood To sing of sweetly murmuring flood, Or dies of many-colour'd wood, That mock the bow of heaven.

But, know, 'twas mine the secret power That wak'd thee at the midnight hour, In bleak November's reign: 'Twas I the spell around thee cast, When thou didst hear the hollow blast In murmurs tell of pleasures past, That ne'er would come again:

'Twas I, when thou, subdued by woe, Didst watch the leaves descending slow, To each a moral gave; And as they mov'd in mournful train, With rustling sound, along the plain, Taught them to sing a seraph's strain Of peace within the grave.

And then uprais'd thy streaming eye, I met thee in the western sky In pomp of evening cloud; That, while with varying form it roll'd; Some wizard's castle seem'd of gold, And now a crimson'd knight of old, Or king in purple proud.

And last, as sunk the setting sun, And Evening with her shadows dun, The gorgeous pageant past, 'Twas then of life a mimic shew, Of human grandeur here below, Which thus beneath the fatal blow Of Death must fall at last.

Oh, then with what aspiring gaze Didst thou thy tranced vision raise To yonder orbs on high, And think how wondrous, how sublime 'Twere upwards to their spheres to climb, And live, beyond the reach of Time, Child of Eternity!

And last the Sylph of Winter spake; The while her piercing voice did shake The castle-vaults below. Oh, youth, if thou, with soul refin'd, Hast felt the triumph pure of mind, And learnt a secret joy to find In deepest scenes of woe;

If e'er with fearful ear at eve Hast heard the wailing tempest grieve Through chink of shatter'd wall; The while it conjur'd o'er thy brain Of wandering ghosts a mournful train, That low in fitful sobs complain, Of Death's untimely call:

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