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PAPERS ON LITERATURE AND ART.
Dædalus we must quote.
| DÆDALUS. |
| 1. |
| Wail for Dædalus all that is fairest! |
| All that is tuneful in air or wave! |
| Shapes, whose beauty is truest and rarest, |
| Haunt with your lamps and spells his grave! |
| 2. |
| Statues, bend your heads in sorrow, |
| Ye that glance ’mid ruins old, |
| That know not a past, nor expect a morrow, |
| On many a moonlight Grecian wold! |
| 3. |
| By sculptured cave and speaking river, |
| Thee, Dædalus, oft the Nymphs recall; |
| The leaves with a sound of winter quiver, |
| Murmur thy name, and withering fall. |
| 4. |
| Yet are thy visions in soul the grandest |
| Of all that crowd on the tear-dimmed eye, |
| Though, Dædalus, thou no more commandest |
| New stars to that ever-widening sky. |
| 5. |
| Ever thy phantoms arise before us, |
| Our loftier brothers, but one in blood; |
| By bed and table they lord it o’er us, |
| With looks of beauty and words of Good. |
| 6. |
| Calmly they show us mankind victorious |
| O’er all that’s aimless, blind, and base; |
| Their presence has made our nature glorious, |
| Unveiling our night’s illumined face. |
| 7. |
| Thy toil has won them a godlike quiet, |
| Thou hast wrought their path to a lovely sphere; |
| Their eyes to peace rebuke our riot, |
| And shape us a home of refuge here. |
