A star is seen at the darker end of the gallery: it is stationary; and a voice is heard singing.]
First Spirit.
Mortal! to thy bidding bowed,50
From my mansion in the cloud,
Which the breath of Twilight builds,
And the Summer's sunset gilds
With the azure and vermilion,
Which is mixed for my pavilion;ar Though thy quest may be forbidden, On a star-beam I have ridden, To thine adjuration bowed: Mortal—be thy wish avowed!
Voice of the Second Spirit.
Mont Blanc is the Monarch of mountains;60
They crowned him long ago
On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,
With a Diadem of snow.
Around his waist are forests braced,
The Avalanche in his hand;
But ere it fall, that thundering ball
Must pause for my command.
The Glacier's cold and restless mass
Moves onward day by day;
But I am he who bids it pass,70
Or with its ice delay.as I am the Spirit of the place, Could make the mountain bow And quiver to his caverned base— And what with me would'st Thou?
Voice of the Third Spirit.
In the blue depth of the waters,
Where the wave hath no strife,
Where the Wind is a stranger,
And the Sea-snake hath life,
Where the Mermaid is decking80
Her green hair with shells,
Like the storm on the surface
Came the sound of thy spells;
O'er my calm Hall of Coral
The deep Echo rolled—
To the Spirit of Ocean
Thy wishes unfold!
Fourth Spirit.
Where the slumbering Earthquake
Lies pillowed on fire,
And the lakes of bitumen90
Rise boilingly higher;
Where the roots of the Andes
Strike deep in the earth,
As their summits to heaven
Shoot soaringly forth;
I have quitted my birthplace,
Thy bidding to bide—
Thy spell hath subdued me,
Thy will be my guide!
Fifth Spirit.
I am the Rider of the wind,100
The Stirrer of the storm;
The hurricane I left behind
Is yet with lightning warm;
To speed to thee, o'er shore and sea
I swept upon the blast:
The fleet I met sailed well—and yet
'Twill sink ere night be past.
Sixth Spirit.
My dwelling is the shadow of the Night,
Why doth thy magic torture me with light?
Seventh Spirit.
The Star which rules thy destiny no110
Was ruled, ere earth began, by me:
It was a World as fresh and fair
As e'er revolved round Sun in air;
Its course was free and regular,
Space bosomed not a lovelier star.
The Hour arrived—and it became
A wandering mass of shapeless flame,
A pathless Comet, and a curse,
The menace of the Universe;
Still rolling on with innate force,120
Without a sphere, without a course,
A bright deformity on high,
The monster of the upper sky!
And Thou! beneath its influence born—
Thou worm! whom I obey and scorn—
Forced by a Power (which is not thine,
And lent thee but to make thee mine)
For this brief moment to descend,
Where these weak Spirits round thee bend
And parley with a thing like thee—130
What would'st thou, Child of Clay! with me?112
The Seven Spirits.
Earth—ocean—air—night—mountains—winds—thy Star,
Are at thy beck and bidding, Child of Clay!
Before thee at thy quest their Spirits are—
What would'st thou with us, Son of mortals—say?
Man. Forgetfulness——
First Spirit. Of what—of whom—and why?
Man. Of that which is within me; read it there— Ye know it—and I cannot utter it.
Spirit. We can but give thee that which we possess: Ask of us subjects, sovereignty, the power140 O'er earth—the whole, or portion—or a sign Which shall control the elements, whereof We are the dominators,—each and all, These shall be thine.
Man. Oblivion—self-oblivion! Can ye not wring from out the hidden realms Ye offer so profusely—what I ask?
Spirit. It is not in our essence, in our skill; But—thou may'st die.
Man. Will Death bestow it on me?
Spirit. We are immortal, and do not forget; We are eternal;