Poems (Whitney)/Tasso
TASSO.
How darkly in the far silenceOf my pitiless prison-walls,I through the night-watches sit!
High over me speed Orion,The seven stars and Aldebaran,Sirius and the twin beauteous gods.
Radiant in celestial spaces,Beautiful; and free, and peaceful,As calm as the pure heart of God!
Ye winds, that have leave to wanderDeep into remotest heavens,Waft me to those glad spheres.
Far from the terrible noises,And stillness yet more terrific,Wild with its dread interruptions.
Might I, for an hour behind me,Leave the long-eating anguish and fear—Yes, O God! the madness—
And feel the cool touch of midnight,And the dew's most fresh benediction,And the freedom of life—of life!
Away 'mid the purple bloomOf the hills, the south wind is strengthenedWith the sweet, wild vigor of pine.
The rock meets the fern's soft caress,And that flower that meek salutationSends starward, looks timid to earth.
Ah! the lark in the cloud-rack bathes,And drinks at the air's still fountains,And is he not thirstless and pure?
O for life that is life!—
Joy in being; hopes o'er-fillingThe blessed to-day with to-morrow,Faith, the queenly, that rules all hap;
Love, the ever-compassionate,The dear love of man and of woman,That affection whose sweets hide no sting!
O bitter! that ever the heart,Still asking impossible treasure,Should cast from it aught that is loving!
Dear heart of my mother, motherLong resting from earth and anguish,Pity—pity, pity thy child!
O what have they taken from me?Thought, and will, and affection,And left for my brain but a throb,
For my heart but endless thirsting,And the blank, burnt desert of beingSpread awful, and blinding, and mute.
Yet sometimes in the great PresenceOf moments fallen from heaven,Whose law, though not known, I obey,
Once more is thought disentangled,And there come the beautiful childrenOf the eternal spring unto me.
O welcome then anguish and pain,And welcome bitter oppression!Am I mad then?—so let me remain.