Gebir by Walter Savage Landor
page 52 of 66 (78%)
page 52 of 66 (78%)
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And casts no shadow as he comes along:
But after his embrace the marble chills The pausing foot, the closing door sounds loud, The fiend in triumph strikes the roof, then falls The eye uplifted from his lurid shade. Tamar, depress thyself, and miseries Darken and widen: yes, proud-hearted man! The sea-bird rises as the billows rise; Nor otherwise when mountain floods descend Smiles the unsullied lotus glossy-haired. Thou, claiming all things, leanest on thy claim Till overwhelmed through incompliancy. Tamar, some silent tempest gathers round!" "Round whom?" retorted Tamar; "thou describe The danger, I will dare it." "Who will dare What is unseen?" "The man that is unblessed." "But wherefore thou? It threatens not thyself, Nor me, but Gebir and the Gadite host." "The more I know, the more a wretch am I." Groaned deep the troubled youth, "still thou proceed." "Oh, seek not destined evils to divine, Found out at last too soon! cease here the search, 'Tis vain, 'tis impious, 'tis no gift of mine: I will impart far better, will impart What makes, when winter comes, the sun to rest So soon on ocean's bed his paler brow, And night to tarry so at spring's return. And I will tell sometimes the fate of men |
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