Hero And Leander

See you the towers, that, gray and old,
Frown through the sunlight's liquid gold,
 Steep sternly fronting steep?
The Hellespont beneath them swells,
And roaring cleaves the Dardanelles,
 The rock-gates of the deep!
Hear you the sea, whose stormy wave,
 From Asia, Europe clove in thunder?
That sea which rent a world, cannot
 Rend love from love asunder!

In Hero's, in Leander's heart,
Thrills the sweet anguish of the dart
 Whose feather flies from love.
All Hebe's bloom in Hero's cheek--
And his the hunter's steps that seek
 Delight, the hills above!
Between their sires the rival feud
 Forbids their plighted hearts to meet;
Love's fruits hang over danger's gulf,
 By danger made more sweet.

Alone on Sestos' rocky tower,
Where upward sent in stormy shower,
 The whirling waters foam,--
Alone the maiden sits, and eyes
The cliffs of fair Abydos rise
 Afar--her lover's home.
Oh, safely thrown from strand to strand,
 No bridge can love to love convey;
No boatman shoots from yonder shore,
 Yet Love has found the way.--

That love, which could the labyrinth pierce--
Which nerves the weak, and curbs the fierce,
 And wings with wit the dull;--
That love which o'er the furrowed land
Bowed--tame beneath young Jason's hand--
 The fiery-snorting bull!
Yes, Styx itself, that ninefold flows,
 Has love, the fearless, ventured o'er,
And back to daylight borne the bride,
 From Pluto's dreary shore!

What marvel then that wind and wave,
Leander doth but burn to brave,
 When love, that goads him, guides!
Still when the day, with fainter glimmer,
Wanes pale--he leaps, the daring swimmer,
 Amid the darkening tides;
With lusty arms he cleaves the waves,
 And strikes for that dear strand afar;
Where high from Hero's lonely tower
 Lone streams the beacon-star.

In vain his blood the wave may chill,
These tender arms can warm it still--
 And, weary if the way,
By many a sweet embrace, above
All earthly boons--can liberal love
 The lover's toil repay,
Until Aurora breaks the dream,
 And warns the loiterer to depart--
Back to the ocean's icy bed,
 Scared from that loving heart.

So thirty suns have sped their flight--
Still in that theft of sweet delight
 Exult the happy pair;
Caress will never pall caress,
And joys that gods might envy, bless
 The single bride-night there.
Ah! never he has rapture known,
 Who has not, where the waves are driven
Upon the fearful shores of hell,
 Plucked fruits that taste of heaven!

Now changing in their season are,
The morning and the Hesper star;--
 Nor see those happy eyes
The leaves that withering droop and fall,
Nor hear, when, from its northern hall,
 The neighboring winter sighs;
Or, if they see, the shortening days
 But seem to them to close in kindness;
For longer joys, in lengthening nights,
 They thank the heaven in blindness.

It is the time, when night and day,
In equal scales contend for sway--
 Lone, on her rocky steep,
Lingers the girl with wistful eyes
That watch the sun-steeds down the skies,
 Careering towards the deep.
Lulled lay the smooth and silent sea,
 A mirror in translucent calm,
The breeze, along that crystal realm,
 Unmurmuring, died in balm.

In wanton swarms and blithe array,
The merry dolphins glide and play
 Amid the silver waves.
In gray and dusky troops are seen,
The hosts that serve the ocean-queen,
 Upborne from coral caves:
They--only they--have witnessed love
 To rapture steal its secret way:
And Hecate [36] seals the only lips
 That could the tale betray!

She marks in joy the lulled water,
And Sestos, thus thy tender daughter,
 Soft-flattering, woos the sea!
"Fair god--and canst thou then betray?
No! falsehood dwells with them that say
 That falsehood dwells with thee!
Ah! faithless is the race of man,
 And harsh a father's heart can prove;
But thee, the gentle and the mild,
 The grief of love can move!"

"Within these hated walls of stone,
Should I, repining, mourn alone,
 And fade in ceaseless care,
But thou, though o'er thy giant tide,
Nor bridge may span, nor boat may glide,
 Dost safe my lover bear.
And darksome is thy solemn deep,
 And fearful is thy roaring wave;
But wave and deep are won by love--
 Thou smilest on the brave!"

"Nor vainly, sovereign of the sea,
Did Eros send his shafts to thee
 What time the rain of gold,
Bright Helle, with her brother bore,
How s