Page:Aurora Leigh a Poem.djvu/300

And nightmare of the mountains. Out, at last,
To catch the dawn afloat upon the land!
—Hills, slung forth broadly and gauntly everywhere,
Not crampt in their foundations, pushing wide
Rich outspreads of the vineyards and the corn
(As if they entertained i’ the name of France)
While, down their straining sides, streamed manifest
A soil as red as Charlemagne’s knightly blood,
To consecrate the verdure. Some one said,
‘Marseilles!’ And lo, the city of Marseilles,
With all her ships behind her, and beyond,
The scimitar of ever-shining sea,
For right-hand use, bared blue against the sky!
That night we spent between the purple heaven
And purple water: I think Marian slept;
But I, as a dog a-watch for his master’s foot,
Who cannot sleep or eat before he hears,
I sate upon the deck and watched all night,
And listened through the stars for Italy.
Those marriage-bells I spoke of, sounded far,
As some child’s go-cart in the street beneath
To a dying man who will not pass the day,
And knows it, holding by a hand he loves.
I, too, sate quiet, satisfied with death,
Sate silent: I could hear my own soul speak,
And had my friend,—for Nature comes sometimes
And says, ‘I am ambassador for God.’
I felt the wind soft from the land of souls;
The old miraculous mountains heaved in sight,