The Zucca

Summer was dead and Autumn was expiring,

And infant Winter laughed upon the land

All cloudlessly and cold;--when I, desiring

More in this world than any understand,

Wept o'er the beauty, which, like sea retiring,

Had left the earth bare as the wave-worn sand

Of my lorn heart, and o'er the grass and flowers

Pale for the falsehood of the flattering Hours.

Summer was dead, but I yet lived to weep

The instability of all but weeping;

And on the Earth lulled in her winter sleep

I woke, and envied her as she was sleeping.

Too happy Earth! over thy face shall creep

The wakening vernal airs, until thou, leaping

From unremembered dreams, shalt ... see

No death divide thy immortality.

I loved--oh, no, I mean not one of ye,

Or any earthly one, though ye are dear

As human heart to human heart may be;--

I loved, I know not what--but this low sphere

And all that it contains, contains not thee,

Thou, whom, seen nowhere, I feel everywhere.

From Heaven and Earth, and all that in them are,

Veiled art thou, like a ... star.

By Heaven and Earth, from all whose shapes thou flowest,

Neither to be contained, delayed, nor hidden;

Making divine the loftiest and the lowest,

When for a moment thou art not forbidden

To live within the life which thou bestowest;

And leaving noblest things vacant and chidden,

Cold as a corpse after the spirit's flight

Blank as the sun after the birth of night.

In winds, and trees, and streams, and all things common,

In music and the sweet unconscious tone

Of animals, and voices which are human,

Meant to express some feelings of their own;

In the soft motions and rare smile of woman,

In flowers and leaves, and in the grass fresh-shown,

Or dying in the autumn, I the most

Adore thee present or lament thee lost.

And thus I went lamenting, when I saw

A plant upon the river's margin lie

Like one who loved beyond his nature's law,

And in despair had cast him down to die;

Its leaves, which had outlived the frost, the thaw

Had blighted; like a heart which hatred's eye

Can blast not, but which pity kills; the dew

Lay on its spotted leaves like tears too true.

The Heavens had wept upon it, but the Earth

Had crushed it on her maternal breast

...

I bore it to my chamber, and I planted

It in a vase full of the lightest mould;

The winter beams which out of Heaven slanted

Fell through the window-panes, disrobed of cold,

Upon its leaves and flowers; the stars which panted

In evening for the Day, whose car has rolled

Over the horizon's wave, with looks of light

Smiled on it from the threshold of the night.

The mitigated influences of air

And light revived the plant, and from it grew

Strong leaves and tendrils, and its flowers fair,

Full as a cup with the vine's burning dew,

O'erflowed with golden colours; an atmosphere

Of vital warmth enfolded it anew,

And every impulse sent to every part

The unbeheld pulsations of its heart.

Well might the plant grow beautiful and strong,

Even if the air and sun had smiled not on it;

For one wept o'er it all the winter long

Tears pure as Heaven's rain, which fell upon it

Hour after hour; for sounds of softest song

Mixed with the stringed melodies that won it

To leave the gentle lips on which it slept,

Had loosed the heart of him who sat and wept.

Had loosed his heart, and shook the leaves and flowers

On which he wept, the while the savage storm

Waked by the darkest of December's hours

Was raving round the chamber hushed and warm;

The birds were shivering in their leafless bowers,

The fish were frozen in the pools, the form

Of every summer plant was dead

Whilst this....

...