Psyche Borne by Zephyrs to the Island of Pleasure. [336]
“Souvent l’ame, fortifiée par la contemplation des choses divines, voudroit déployer ses ailes vers le ciel. Elle croit qu’au terme de sa carrière un rideau va se lever pour lui découvrir des scènes de lumière: mais quand la mort touche son corps périssable, elle jette un regard en arrière vers les plaisirs terrestres et vers ses compagnes mortelles.”
Schlegel, translated by Madame de Stael.
Fearfully and mournfully
Thou bidd’st the earth farewell;
And yet thou’rt passing, loveliest one!
In a brighter land to dwell.
Ascend, ascend rejoicing!
The sunshine of that shore
Around thee, as a glorious robe,
Shall stream for evermore.
The breezy music wandering
There through th’ Elysian sky,
Hath no deep tone that seems to float
From a happier time gone by.
And there the day’s last crimson
Gives no sad memories birth,
No thought of dead or distant friends,
Or partings—as on earth.
Yet fearfully and mournfully
Thou bidd’st that earth farewell,
Although thou’rt passing, loveliest one!
In a brighter land to dwell.
A land where all is deathless—
The sunny wave’s repose,
The wood with its rich melodies,
The summer and its rose:
A land that sees no parting,
That hears no sound of sighs,
That waits thee with immortal air—
Lift, lift those anxious eyes!
Oh! how like thee, thou trembler!
Man’s spirit fondly clings
With timid love, to this, its world
Of old familiar things!
We pant, we thirst for fountains
That gush not here below!
On, on we toil, allured by dreams
Of the living water’s flow:
We pine for kindred natures
To mingle with our own;
For communings more full and high
Than aught by mortal known:
We strive with brief aspirings
Against our bonds in vain;
Yet summon’d to be free at last,
We shrink—and clasp our chain;
And fearfully and mournfully
We bid the earth farewell,
Though passing from its mists, like thee,
In a brighter world to dwell.
[336] Written for a picture in which Psyche, on her flight upwards, is represented looking back sadly and anxiously to the earth.