Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose,
That well-known name awakens all my woes. 30
O, name for ever sad, for ever dear!
Still breathed in sighs, still usher'd with a tear.
I tremble too, where'er my own I find;
Some dire misfortune follows close behind.
Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow,
Led through a sad variety of woe:
Now warm in love, now withering in my bloom,
Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!
There stern Religion quench'd the unwilling flame;
There died the best of passions, Love and Fame.
Yet write, O, write me all, that I may join 41
Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine.
Nor foes nor fortune take this power away;
And is my Abelard less kind than they?
Tears still are mine, and those I need not spare ;
Love but demands what else were shed in prayer:
No happier task these faded eyes pursue;
To read and weep is all they now can do.
Then share thy pain; allow that sad relief;
Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief. 50
Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid,
Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid;
They live, they speak, they breathe what love in-
spires,
Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires;
The virgin's wish without her fears impart,
Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart;
Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.
Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame, When love approach'd me under friendship's
My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind,
Some emanation of the all-beauteous Mind.
Those smiling eyes, attempering every ray,
Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day:
Guiltless I gazed; heaven listen'd while you sung;
And truths divine came mended from that tongue.
From lips like those what precept fail'd to move?
Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love :
Back, through the paths of pleasing sense, I ran,
Nor wish'd an angel whom I loved a man.
Dim and remote the joys of saints I see;
Nor envy them that heaven I lose for thee.
How oft, when press'd to marriage, have I said,
Curse on all laws but those which love has made!
Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,
Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.
Let wealth, let honour wait the wedded dame,
August her deed, and sacred be her fame:
Before true passion all those views remove;
Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to Love?
The jealous god, when we profane his fires,
Those restless passions in revenge inspires;
And bids them make mistaken mortals groan,
Who seek in love for aught but love alone.
Should at my feet the world's great master fall,
Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn them all :
Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove;
No, make me mistress to the man I love :
If there be yet another name more free,
More fond than mistress, make me that to thee.
O, happy state! when souls each other draw, 91
When love is liberty, and nature law:
All then is full, possessing and possess'd,
No eraving void left aching in the breast:
E'en thought meets thought, ere from the lips it
part;
And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart.
This sure is bliss, if bliss on earth there be;
And once the lot of Abelard and me.
Alas, how changed! what sudden horrors rise! A naked lover bound and bleeding lies! 100 Where, where was Eloise? her voice, her hand, Her poniard had opposed the dire command. Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke restrain; The crime was common, common be the pain.
I can no more by shame, by rage suppress'd,
Let tears and burning blushes speak the rest.
Canst thou forget that sad, that solemn day,
When victims at yon altar's foot we lay?
Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell,
When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell?
As with cold lips I kiss'd the sacred veil, 111
The shrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale:
Heaven scarce believed the conquest it survey'd,
And saints with wonder heard the vows I made :
Yet then, to those dread altars as I drew,
Not on the cross my eyes were fix'd, but you;
Not grace or zeal, love only was my call;
And if I lose thy love, I lose my all.
Come, with thy looks, thy words, relieve my woe;
Those still at least are left thee to bestow:
Still on that breast enamour'd let me lie,
Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,
Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be press'd:
Give all thou canst-and let me dream the rest.
Ah, no! instruct me other joys to prize;
With other beauties charm my partial eyes;
Full in my view set all the bright abode,
And make my soul quit Abelard for God.
Ah, think at least thy flock deserves thy care,
Plants of thy hand, and children of thy prayer;
From the false world in early youth they fled, 131
By thee to mountains, wilds, and deserts led.
You raised these hallow'd walls; the desert smiled,
And paradise was open'd in the wild.
No weeping orphan saw his father's stores
Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors;
No silver saints, by dying misers given,
Here bribed the rage of ill-requited Heaven;
But such plain roofs as piety could raise,
And only vocal with the Maker's praise.
In these lone walls (their days' eternal bound),
These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crown'd,
Where awful arches make a noon-day night,
And the dim windows shed a solemn light;
Thy eyes diffused a reconciling ray,
And gleams of glory brighten'd all the day.
But now no face divine contentment wears;
'Tis all blank sadness or continual tears.
See how the force of others' prayers I try;
O pious fraud of amorous charity !
But why should I on others' prayers depend?
Come thou, my father, brother, husband, friend!
Ah, let thy handmaid, sister, daughter, move,
And all those tender names in one, thy love!
The darksome pines, that, o'er yon rocks reclined,
Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind;
The wandering streams that shine between the
hills,
The grots that echo to the tinkling rills,
The dying gales that pant upon the trees,
The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze ;-160
No more these scenes my meditation aid,
Or lull to rest the visionary maid.
But o'er the twilight groves and dusky caves,
Long sounding aisles, and intermingled graves,
Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws
A death-like silence and a dread repose:
Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene,
Shades every flower, and darkens every green,
Deepens the murmur of the falling floods,
And breathes a browner horror on the woods. 170
Yet here for ever, ever must I stay;
Sad proof how well a lover can obey!
Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;
And here, e'en then, shall my cold dust remain;
Here all its frailties, all its flames resign;
And wait till 'tis no sin to mix with thine.
Ah, wretch believed the spouse of God in vain,
Confess'd within the slave of love and man!
Assist me, Heaven! but whence arose that prayer?
Sprung it from piety or from despair?
E'en here, where frozen chastity retires,
Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.
I ought to grievé, but cannot what I ought;
I mourn the lover, not lament the fault`
I view my crime, but kindle at the view;
Repent old pleasures, and solicit new ;
Now turn'd to heaven, I weep my past offence;
Now think of thee, and curse my innocence.
Of all affliction taught a lover yet,
"Tis sure the hardest science to forget!
How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense?
And love the offender, yet detest the offence?
How the dear object from the crime remove?
Or how distinguish penitence from love?
Unequal task! a passion to resign,
For hearts so touch'd, so pierced, so lost as mine.
Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state,
How often must it love, how often hate!
How often hope, despair, resent, regret,
Conceal, disdain,-do all things but forget! 200
But let Heaven seize it; all at once 'tis fired;
Not touch'd, but rapt; not waken'd, but inspired!
O, come! O, teach me nature to subdue,
Renounce my love, my life, myself and you :
Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he
Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot : Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd; Labour and rest, that equal periods keep; 'Obedient slumbers, that can wake and weep;' Desires composed, affections ever even; Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven: Grace shines around her with serenest beams, And whispering angels prompt her golden dreams : For her the unfading rose of Eden blooms, And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes; For her the spouse prepares the bridal ring; For her white virgins hymeneals sing; To sounds of heavenly harps she dies away, And melts in visions of eternal day.
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