Νίκος Σφαμένος, 4 Ανέκδοτα Ποιήματα

Νίκος Σφαμένος

Κάτι όμορφες νύχτες

περπατάς νύχτα στους έρημους δρόμους

στο μυαλό σου στριφογυρίζουν κάτι

παράξενες λέξεις

θυμάσαι τις απορρίψεις και χαμογελάς

χλευάζεις τη ποίηση της εποχής

τραγουδάς στη σιωπή

τα αστέρια γέρνουν στον ώμο σου

απλώνεις τα χέρια σου για να εκτοξευθείς

τρέμεις για ουρανό

γελάς δυνατά

επιστρέφεις στη κάμαρα σου

σκόρπια τα βιβλία

στο πάτωμα ποιήματα που ποτέ

δε διαβάστηκαν

κατεβάζεις μια γουλιά κόκκινο κρασί ενώ

στη τηλεόραση τα ταλέντα σχηματίζουν ουρές

χα χα

κάποιες νύχτες είναι τόσο όμορφες

Αυγουστιάτικο τραγούδι

το αηδόνι τραγουδά μονάχο του στις σκεπές

στη μέση τούτης της καλοκαιριάτικης

νύχτας

ανοίγω τα παραθύρια

ξαφνικά γίνομαι δυνατός

όπως πάντα ήθελα

Για έναν αναγνώστη

όχι

δεν είμαι σπουδαίος

είμαι εκείνος που θα ξενυχτήσει

κι αυτό το βράδυ

-με αγωνία ίδια με τη δικιά σου-

εκείνος που θα κοιτά απ’ τις κουρτίνες

όχι φίλε

εγώ καίγομαι εδώ

ακροβατώ σε λεηλατημένες πολιτείες

θα συναντηθούμε ίσως

στα άδεια μας μπουκάλια

στα βρώμικα παγκάκια

στις θολές λέξεις

κράτα τα καλά σου λόγια γι αλλού

γιατί εγώ καίγομαι

-και οι πόρτες της άνοιξης δε θ’ανοίξουν ποτέ-

Επιτυχία

μη ξεκινήσεις να γράφεις εάν δε βυθιστείς

εάν δε πεθάνεις χιλιάδες φορές

εάν δεν έχεις τίποτα να πεις για ό,τι βλέπεις

-τότε μη γράψεις-

ν’ αποφεύγεις τις ποιητικές βραδιές

κλείσου σε μια κάμαρα και δώστου να καταλάβει

να θυμάσαι πως το μεγαλύτερο μέρος της

σύγχρονης ποίησης

δεν είναι για ανάγνωση

ν’ αδιαφορείς για τους επαίνους

και ένας μοναχικός τύπος να ξετρυπώσει κάποτε

τα ποιήματα σου

και να βρει το κουράγιο

να κρατηθεί μια κρύα νύχτα

όπως και συ έκανες μ αυτά κάποτε

μόνο αυτό να σου αρκεί

-θα σημαίνει πως πέτυχες φιλαράκο-

***

Ο Νίκος Σφαμένος γεννήθηκε το 1982 στη Μυτιλήνη όπου και ζει. Σπούδασε Αγγλική Φιλολογία στο Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης. Εξέδωσε εκτός εμπορίου τις συλλογές Ακούγοντας Βαλς στο Σκοτάδι (2007), Οργή και Λουλούδια σε μια Χώρα Νεκρών (2007), Αυτά που γράφτηκαν κάτω από βρώμικο φως (2008).

Αφιέρωμα: Ελληνική ποίηση 1952 – 1974

Jackson Pollock, The Moon-Woman

Μαντώ Αραβαντινού

ΓΡΑΦΗ Β´

(1964)

Στις προσόψεις των υπόγειων διαβάσεων σταματώ με οδυνηρά οξυμένη την όραση, χωρίς σχέδιο μνήμης, χωρίς καθορισμένη πορεία. Χωρίς υποψία ονείρου. Αγνοώ την πολεοδομία του Νότου, το σχέδιο της πόλεως, τις προεκτάσεις οδών μονής κατευθύνσεως, τις εκπλήξεις των αφυλάκτων διαβάσεων. Πλανώμαι στους δρόμους του Νότου.

Ακολουθώ παρόδους διπλής κατευθύνσεως, στις συγκεκριμένες διαστάσεις ξηραμένης ρίζας φυτού ενδεδυμένη το ένδυμα του φόβου.

Η ασαφής γνώσις των σχηματικών μου ορίων, η άγνοια της ιδίας βουλήσεως αποκλείουν το σχήμα αντιτιθεμένων μορφών στο χώρο του οποίου αγνοώ τις διαστάσεις.

Συγκεκριμένα λοιπόν μεμονωμένα στοιχεία· οι δεσμίδες φωτός· η φορά του διαδρόμου· η έλλειψη ονείρου ή μνήμης· τα καινούργια κομψά υποδήματα. Οι υπόγειες διαβάσεις.

Οι αλλαγές ενδυμάτων και υποδημάτων πορείας αναγνωρίζονται εύκολα από τους περιοικούντας τις Νότιες συνοικίες της πόλεως.

Μεταθέτω συνεχώς την εστία κινδύνου. Με αβέβαιες κινήσεις και το συγκεκριμένο ένδυμα φόβου. Υπακούω στα σήματα αφυλάκτων διαβάσεων στον ρυθμό ακινδύνων οδών διπλής κατευθύνσεως, με ασαφή σήματα εκκινήσεως και ελευθέρως μετατιθέμενα τέρματα.

Στον ασαφή προσανατολισμό των υπογείων διαβάσεων.

Πλανώμαι στους δρόμους του Νότου εκτεθειμένη στις ριπές του Νοτίου ανέμου που διευκολύνουν τους βηματισμούς και την μνήμη ονείρου.

Πλανώμαι στους δρόμους του Νότου χωρίς σχέδιο μνήμης, χωρίς σχέδιο πορείας, παρακολουθώντας τα σχήματα φωτεινών διαφημίσεων, αριθμώντας ακριβώς τις εγκοπές των πλακοστρώτων προσβάσεων που πλαισιώνουν τους δρόμους διπλής κατευθύνσεως στην πληκτική μοναχική μου πορεία.

Στην αριθμητική ενημέρωση και καταγραφή των λαμπτήρων απολαυστικά επιμένω.

Παρακολουθώ τα σχήματα προσφάτως αναρτηθείσης φωτεινής διαφημίσεως στην πρόσοψη ισογείου χώρου παραπλεύρως κειμένης αιθούσης – υπογείας αιθούσης – κινηματογράφου ανακαλύπτω.

Πλανώμαι στους δρόμους του Νότου.

Επιγραφή αναρτημένη στα δεξιά της φωτισμένης προσόψεως βεβαιώνει και υποδεικνύει την τοπογραφία του άγνωστου χώρου.

Χωρίς ουσιαστικές εναντιώσεις στις βολικές διαστάσεις ξηραμένης ρίζας φυτού, χωρίς γνώση προσφάτου ή αχανούς παρελθόντος στα κεχαραγμένα όρια του Νότου. Πλανώμαι.

Μετακινούμαι αποκλειστικά κατά την φορά του διαδρόμου των επικλινών επιπέδων, με αυξημένη ευαισθησία στα κάτω μου άκρα.

Υπακούω στην επιγραφή της προσόψεως υπογείας αιθούσης κεντρικού κινηματογράφου στην ένταση των δεσμίδων φωτός αγνώστου προς το παρόν προελεύσεως, με αιφνιδίως οξυμένη την όραση και ευαισθησία κινδύνου.

Λαμβάνω συνείδησιν των υπογείων διαβάσεων.

Απομονώνω σε αρραγές περιχαρακωμένο περίβλημα την οποιαδήποτε υπόνοια ονείρου ή μνήμης.

Αλλάζω ταχύτατα το ένδυμα του φόβου.

Αποκτώ καινούργια κομψά υποδήματα.

Βραδύνω την μετακίνηση στο επικλινές του διαδρόμου με συνεχώς αυξανόμενη την υγρασία στα κάτω μου άκρα, και πλήθος ερωτηματικών αφορώντων αποκλειστικώς τον εξαερισμό της αιθούσης την εξεύρεσιν θέσεως την ένταση των δεσμίδων φωτός που ακολουθώ από ώρα.

Υπακούω σχολαστικά στην επιγραφή της προσόψεως, στις υποδείξεις των ασαφών φωτεινών προεκτάσεων, στο επικλινές του διαδρόμου.

Η θερμοκρασία του χώρου γενικώς ανεκτή, εύκρατη ίσως, ελαφρώς υγραμένη, διευκολύνει την αναπνοή των ασθματικών, αλλεργικών περιπτώσεων, προβλήματα του αμέσου παρόντος. Ουδέποτε μνήμη κινδύνου ανέκοψε τη δική μου πορεία στο επικλινές του διαδρόμου ή των στιλπνών λεωφόρων.

Την υγρασία αρκούντως δεν την υπελόγισα.

Τα βρεγμένα μου πόδια, τα λασπωμένα παπούτσια, τον τετραγωνισμένο άδενδρο χώρο αυλής εκπαιδευτηρίου, υψηλοτάτου κτιρίου φαιού στον άκρον της πόλεως. Στις διαστάσεις λεωφόρων αγνώστων.

Πόλεως αγνώστου.

Συγκεκριμένου κτιρίου φαιού.

Βρέχει. Εκτίθεμαι στις βρώμικες μαρμάρινες σκάλες, προφυλάσσω το κορίτσι που διασχίζει διαγωνίως τον χώρο.

Έχασε ένα τρύπιο λασπωμένο παπούτσι. Η αργοπορία μας θα έχει προφανώς επιπτώσεις. Όμως μπορώ με προσπάθεια να ανοίξω την θύρα αιθούσης. Αιθούσης μαθήσεως. Υψηλοτάτου κτιρίου φαιού.

Βρώμικων βρεμμένων μαλλιών και υγρών παιδικών εσωρούχων.

Η αίσθηση έντονου κόκκινου πιθανώς εσάρπας· αδρύ μάλλινο κόκκινο σχεδόν μια λουρίδα, εντείνει το κίτρινο χρώμα λαιμού μικρού κοριτσιού που σφίγγεται, τρέμει κοντά μου στον πάγκο που είναι για δύο.

Την υγρασία των γυμνών μας ποδιών την γεύση του ξύλου.

Την αφυδατωμένη σάρκα μικρού κοριτσιού στην θέση κοντά μου, στον πάγκο για δύο. Τα αβέβαια πρωινά του χειμώνα.

Στις διαστάσεις αγνώστων οδών ανώνυμης πόλεως.

Τη μυρουδιά του βρεμένου μαλλιού της εσάρπας. Την επιδερμίδα του αδύνατου μαύρου χεριού με τα βρώμικα νύχια. Τα ανεκάλυψα στην πρώτη πάροδο δεξιά του υψηλοτάτου κτιρίου φαιού.

Εκεί που περίμενα στο πέτρινο ρείθρο του δρόμου. Τα πρωινά του χειμώνα και άγνωστες αιθρίες Μαΐου.

Περίμενα. Την οριζόντια γραμμή χαλασμένων δοντιών. Το άρυθμο βήμα.

Την σκληρή επαφή του μαύρου ρικνωμένου χεριού της.

Οικεία η θέση δεξιά μου στο πάγκο που είναι για δύο και η άκρη του πέτρινου ρείθρου.

Έχασα τον προσανατολισμό του διαδρόμου, την ακριβή κλίση των επικλινών επιπέδων, την κατεύθυνση των δεσμίδων φωτός, την επαφή των χεριών μας. Αλλοίωσα τη γεύση του χρόνου.

Βρήκα τις ακριβείς διαστάσεις αιθούσης μαθήσεως υψηλοτάτου κτιρίου φαιού. Την θέση των ψηλών παραθύρων. Την σιδερένια θερμάστρα που θερμαίνει μακριά μου. Το όνομα παιδιού που δεν το θυμάμαι και δύσκολα μπορώ να ψελλίσω.

Ξαναβρήκα τη γεύση του ξύλου. Ή μήπως δεν ήταν; Χωρίστηκα απ’ τον εαυτό μου;

Η μνήμη δεν προδίδει ποτέ, μα ποτέ τον θυμό μου. Αυτού έχω πλήρη εικόνα και γεύση.

Γεύση θυμού και βροχής.

Πρωινά του χειμώνα που περίμενα στην άκρη του πέτρινου ρείθρου την κόκκινη εσάρπα λαιμού, την οριζόντια γραμμή χαλασμένων δοντιών. Στον άδενδρο χώρο αυλής εκπαιδευτηρίου φαιού.

Απαιτώ την επαφή του χεριού της.

Την μυρουδιά των βρεμμένων μαλλιών.

Απουσία δεξιά μου.

Αρχή και γεύση του μοναχικού παιχνιδιού μου.

Ο χρόνος που δεν υπακούει στην μνήμη λαμβάνει διαστάσεις ημέρας.

Ένας μακρύς παγωμένος χειμώνας στον πάγκο που δεν είναι για δύο.

Χωρίς την κόκκινη εσάρπα λαιμού. Χωρίς την επαφή του χεριού της.

Έχασα τις διαστάσεις του χώρου και την μυρουδιά των πουλιών.

Η μνήμη δεν προδίδει ποτέ τον θυμό μου.

Έψαξα την βρεμμένη εσάρπα λαιμού στη βρώμικη μαρμάρινη σκάλα, στους οριζόντιους διαδρόμους εκπαιδευτήριου φαιού.

Στον άδενδρο χώρο αυλής, στο πέτρινο ρείθρο του δρόμου υψηλοτάτου κτιρίου, στις διαστάσεις των αδυνάτων μαύρων πουλιών.

Στους πάγκους που δεν είναι για δύο.

Στον πάγκο που δεν είναι πια για κανέναν.

Έψαξα το αδύνατο μαύρο πουλί. Τη μυρουδιά του λαιμού και τη χαλασμένη γραμμή των δοντιών της.

Βρήκα τη γεύση του χαμένου ερωτικού παιγνιδιού.

Και πλήρη απουσία εντός μου.

Από την βομβαρδισμένη μου μνήμη απαιτώ την αλήθεια.

Την συγκεκριμένη στιγμή. Την πόση συγκίνηση.

Την πόση ερωτική επαφή των χεριών μας.

Απαιτώ την δική της εικόνα. Το γέλιο των βρώμικων χαλασμένων δοντιών.

Την γεύση κρύου βροχής και χειμώνα.

Τα μεσημέρια των μοναχικών παιγνιδιών. Στο πέτρινο ρείθρο του δρόμου. Στον πάγκο αυλής κτιρίου φαιού.

Στον πάγκο του ερωτικού παιγνιδιού μου.

Στο επικλινές του διαδρόμου φέρω τη λευκή γαλακτώδη μορφή μου· κατά την αντίθετη φορά των δεσμίδων φωτός. Προς Βορράν των επικλινών επιπέδων.

Κορίτσι δάνεισε μου ένα πρόσωπο.

Ενδεδυμένη νέο ένδυμα φόβου αναγνωρίζω τη διακοσμημένη μορφή μου.

Εμμέσω.

Στα νοτιοδυτικά του κτιρίου στο ασαφές της διαβάσεως υπογείας αιθούσης, στις αλλαγές υποδημάτων πορείας. Εμμέσω.

Στο ευτελές του σχεδίου της μνήμης. Εμμέσω.

Εμμέσω στην μνήμη των πλαγίων του ονείρου.

Συνείδηση σημαδεμένη απ’ τη μοναξιά και το γέλιο χαλασμένων δοντιών.

***

Σε συνεργασία με την Επιθεώρηση Ποιητικής Τέχνης – Ποιείν:

http://www.poiein.gr/archives/4151/index.html

Project Romanticism

John Keats (1795 – 1821)

Ωδές

και μια ελεγεία του Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

Odes

Ode to a Nightingale

1.

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
’Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

2.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

3.

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
And leaden-eyed despairs,
Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

4.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

5.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves;
And mid-May’s eldest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

6.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.

7.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

8.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam’d to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now ’tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

***

Ode to Psyche

O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
Surely I dreamt today, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awakened eyes?
I wandered in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:

'Mid hushed, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing on the bedded grass;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touched not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The winged boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!

O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-regioned star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heaped with flowers;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouthed prophet dreaming.

O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retired
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swinged censer teeming;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouthed prophet dreaming.

Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-clustered trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain dryads shall be lulled to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreathed trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same:
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm Love in!

***

Ode on Melancholy

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kissed
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Imprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

She dwells with Beauty -Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veiled Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine:
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

***

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Thou still unravished bride of quietness!
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flow'ry tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal -yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,
For ever panting and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," -that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

***

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

Adonais

An Elegy on the Death of John Keats

I WEEP for Adonais—he is dead!

O, weep for Adonais! though our tears

Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!

And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years

To mourn our loss, rouse thy obscure compeers, 5

And teach them thine own sorrow! Say: ‘With me

Died Adonais; till the Future dares

Forget the Past, his fate and fame shall be

An echo and a light unto eternity!’

Where wert thou, mighty Mother, when he lay, 10

When thy Son lay, pierced by the shaft which flies

In darkness? where was lorn Urania

When Adonais died? With veilèd eyes,

’Mid listening Echoes, in her Paradise

She sate, while one, with soft enamoured breath, 15

Rekindled all the fading melodies

With which, like flowers that mock the corse beneath,

He had adorned and hid the coming bulk of death.

Oh weep for Adonais—he is dead!

Wake, melancholy Mother, wake and weep! 20

Yet wherefore? Quench within their burning bed

Thy fiery tears, and let thy loud heart keep,

Like his, a mute and uncomplaining sleep;

For he is gone, where all things wise and fair

Descend;—oh, dream not that the amorous Deep 25

Will yet restore him to the vital air;

Death feeds on his mute voice, and laughs at our despair.

Most musical of mourners, weep again!

Lament anew, Urania!—He died,

Who was the Sire of an immortal strain, 30

Blind, old, and lonely, when his country’s pride,

The priest, the slave, and the liberticide,

Trampled and mocked with many a loathèd rite

Of lust and blood; he went, unterrified,

Into the gulf of death; but his clear Sprite 35

Yet reigns o’er earth; the third among the sons of light.

Most musical of mourners, weep anew!

Not all to that bright station dared to climb;

And happier they their happiness who knew,

Whose tapers yet burn through that night of time 40

In which suns perished; others more sublime,

Struck by the envious wrath of man or god,

Have sunk, extinct in their refulgent prime;

And some yet live, treading the thorny road,

Which leads, through toil and hate, to Fame’s serene abode. 45

But now, thy youngest, dearest one has perished,

The nursling of thy widowhood, who grew,

Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished,

And fed with true-love tears, instead of dew;

Most musical of mourners, weep anew! 50

Thy extreme hope, the loveliest and last,

The bloom, whose petals nipt before they blew

Died on the promise of the fruit, is waste;

The broken lily lies—the storm is overpast.

To that high Capital, where kingly Death 55

Keeps his pale court in beauty and decay,

He came; and bought, with price of purest breath,

A grave among the eternal—Come away!

Haste, while the vault of blue Italian day

Is yet his fitting charnel-roof! while still 60

He lies, as if in dewy sleep he lay;

Awake him not! surely he takes his fill

Of deep and liquid rest, forgetful of all ill.

He will awake no more, oh, never more!—

Within the twilight chamber spreads apace, 65

The shadow of white Death, and at the door

Invisible Corruption waits to trace

His extreme way to her dim dwelling-place;

The eternal Hunger sits, but pity and awe

Soothe her pale rage, nor dares she to deface 70

So fair a prey, till darkness, and the law

Of change shall o’er his sleep the mortal curtain draw.

Oh weep for Adonais!—The quick Dreams,

The passion-wingèd Ministers of thought,

Who were his flocks, whom near the living streams 75

Of his young spirit he fed, and whom he taught

The love which was its music, wander not,—

Wander no more, from kindling brain to brain,

But droop there, whence they sprung; and mourn their lot

Round the cold heart, where, after their sweet pain, 80

They ne’er will gather strength, or find a home again.

And one with trembling hands clasps his cold head,

And fans him with her moonlight wings, and cries;

‘Our love, our hope, our sorrow, is not dead;

See, on the silken fringe of his faint eyes, 85

Like dew upon a sleeping flower, there lies

A tear some Dream has loosened from his brain.’

Lost Angel of a ruined Paradise!

She knew not ’twas her own; as with no stain

She faded, like a cloud which had outwept its rain. 90

One from a lucid urn of starry dew

Washed his light limbs as if embalming them;

Another clipt her profuse locks, and threw

The wreath upon him, like an anadem,

Which frozen tears instead of pearls begem; 95

Another in her wilful grief would break

Her bow and wingèd reeds, as if to stem

A greater loss with one which was more week;

And dull the barbèd fire against his frozen cheek.

Another Splendour on his mouth alit, 100

That mouth, whence it was wont to draw the breath

Which gave it strength to pierce the guarded wit,

And pass into the panting heart beneath

With lightning and with music: the damp death

Quenched its caress upon his icy lips; 105

And, as a dying meteor stains a wreath

Of moonlight vapour, which the cold night clips,

It flushed through his pale limbs, and passed to its eclipse.

And others came … Desires and Adorations,

Wingèd Persuasions and veiled Destinies, 110

Splendours and Glooms, and glimmering Incarnations

Of hopes and fears, and twilight Phantasies;

And Sorrow, with her family of Sighs,

And Pleasure, blind with tears, led by the gleam

Of her own dying smile instead of eyes, 115

Came in slow pomp;—the moving pomp might seem

Like pageantry of mist on an autumnal stream.

All he had loved, and moulded into thought,

From shape, and hue, and odour, and sweet sound,

Lamented Adonais. Morning sought 120

Her eastern watch-tower, and her hair unbound,

Wet with the tears which should adorn the ground,

Dimmed the ae¨rial eyes that kindle day;

Afar the melancholy thunder moaned,

Pale Ocean in unquiet slumber lay, 125

And the wild winds flew round, sobbing in their dismay.

Lost Echo sits amid the voiceless mountains,

And feeds her grief with his remembered lay,

And will no more reply to winds or fountains,

Or amorous birds perched on the young green spray, 130

Or herdsman’s horn, or bell at closing day;

Since she can mimic not his lips, more dear

Than those for whose disdain she pined away

Into a shadow of all sounds:—a drear

Murmur, between their songs, is all the woodmen hear. 135

Grief made the young Spring wild, and she threw down

Her kindling buds, as if she Autumn were,

Or they dead leaves; since her delight is flown

For whom should she have waked the sullen year?

To Phoebus was not Hyacinth so dear 140

Nor to himself Narcissus, as to both

Thou, Adonais: wan they stand and sere

Amid the faint companions of their youth,

With dew all turned to tears; odour, to sighing ruth.

Thy spirit’s sister, the lorn nightingale, 145

Mourns not her mate with such melodious pain;

Not so the eagle, who like thee could scale

Heaven, and could nourish in the sun’s domain

Her mighty youth with morning, doth complain,

Soaring and screaming round her empty nest, 150

As Albion wails for thee; the curse of Cain

Light on his head who pierced thy innocent breast,

And scared the angel soul that was its earthly guest!

Ah, woe is me! Winter is come and gone,

But grief returns with the revolving year; 155

The airs and streams renew their joyous tone:

The ants, the bees, the swallows reappear;

Fresh leaves and flowers deck the dead Seasons’ bier;

The amorous birds now pair in every brake,

And build their mossy homes in field and brere; 160

And the green lizard, and the golden snake,

Like unimprisoned flames, out of their trance awake.

Through wood and stream and field and hill and Ocean

A quickening life from the Earth’s heart has burst

As it has ever done, with change and motion, 165

From the great morning of the world when first

God dawned on Chaos; in its stream immersed

The lamps of Heaven flash with a softer light;

All baser things pant with life’s sacred thirst;

Diffuse themselves; and spend in love’s delight, 170

The beauty and the joy of their renewèd might.

The leprous corpse touched by this spirit tender

Exhales itself in flowers of gentle breath;

Like incarnations of the stars, when splendour

Is changed to fragrance, they illumine death 175

And mock the merry worm that wakes beneath;

Nought we know, dies. Shall that alone which knows

Be as a sword consumed before the sheath

By sightless lightning?—the intense atom glows

A moment, then is quenched in a most cold repose. 180

Alas! that all we loved of him should be

But for our grief, as if it had not been,

And grief itself be mortal! Woe is me!

Whence are we, and why are we? of what scene

The actors or spectators? Great and mean 185

Meet massed in death, who lends what life must borrow.

As long as skies are blue, and fields are green,

Evening must usher night, night urge the morrow,

Month follow month with woe, and year wake year to sorrow.

He will awake no more, oh, never more! 190

‘Wake thou,’ cried Misery, ‘childless Mother, rise

Out of thy sleep, and slake, in thy heart’s core,

A wound more fierce than his, with tears and sighs.’

And all the Dreams that watched Urania’s eyes,

And all the Echoes whom their sister’s song 195

Had held in holy silence, cried: ‘Arise!’

Swift as a Thought by the snake Memory stung,

From her ambrosial rest the fading Splendour sprung.

She rose like an autumnal Night, that springs

Out of the East, and follows wild and drear 200

The golden Day, which, on eternal wings,

Even as a ghost abandoning a bier,

Had left the Earth a corpse. Sorrow and fear

So struck, so roused, so rapt Urania;

So saddened round her like an atmosphere 205

Of stormy mist; so swept her on her way

Even to the mournful place where Adonais lay.

Out of her secret Paradise she sped,

Through camps and cities rough with stone, and steel,

And human hearts, which to her airy tread 210

Yielding not, wounded the invisible

Palms of her tender feet where’er they fell:

And barbèd tongues, and thoughts more sharp than they

Rent the soft Form they never could repel,

Whose sacred blood, like the young tears of May, 215

Paved with eternal flowers that undeserving way.

In the death-chamber for a moment Death,

Shamed by the presence of that living Might,

Blushed to annihilation, and the breath

Revisited those lips, and Life’s pale light 220

Flashed through those limbs, so late her dear delight.

‘Leave me not wild and drear and comfortless,

As silent lightning leaves the starless night!

Leave me not!’ cried Urania: her distress

Roused Death: Death rose and smiled, and met her vain caress. 225

‘Stay yet awhile! speak to me once again;

Kiss me, so long but as a kiss may live;

And in my heartless breast and burning brain

That word, that kiss, shall all thoughts else survive,

With food of saddest memory kept alive, 230

Now thou art dead, as dead, as if it were a part

Of thee, my Adonais! I would give

All that I am to be as thou now art!

But I am chained to Time, and cannot thence depart!

‘O gentle child, beautiful as thou wert, 235

Why didst thou leave the trodden paths of men

Too soon, and with weak hands though mighty heart

Dare the unpastured dragon in his den?

Defenceless as thou wert, oh where was then

Wisdom the mirrored shield, or scorn the spear? 240

Or hadst thou waited the full cycle, when

Thy spirit should have filled its crescent sphere,

The monsters of life’s waste had fled from thee like deer.

‘The herded wolves, bold only to pursue;

The obscene ravens, clamorous o’er the dead; 245

The vultures to the conqueror’s banner true

Who feed where Desolation first has fed,

And whose wings rain contagion;—how they fled,

When, like Apollo, from his golden bow,

The Pythian of the age one arrow sped 250

And smiled!—The spoilers tempt no second blow,

They fawn on the proud feet that spurn them lying low.

‘The sun comes forth, and many reptiles spawn;

He sets, and each ephemeral insect then

Is gathered into death without a dawn, 255

And the immortal stars awake again;

So is it in the world of living men:

A godlike mind soars forth, in its delight

Making earth bare and veiling heaven, and when

It sinks, the swarms that dimmed or shared its light 260

Leave to its kindred lamps the spirit’s awful night.’

Thus ceased she: and the mountain shepherds came,

Their garlands sere, their magic mantles rent;

The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame

Over his living head like Heaven is bent, 265

An early but enduring monument,

Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song

In sorrow; from her wilds Ierne sent

The sweetest lyrist of her saddest wrong,

And Love taught Grief to fall like music from his tongue. 270

Midst others of less note, came one frail Form,

A phantom among men; companionless

As the last cloud of an expiring storm

Whose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess,

Had gazed on Nature’s naked loveliness, 275

Actæon-like, and now he fled astray

With feeble steps o’er the world’s wilderness,

And his own thoughts, along that rugged way,

Pursued, like raging hounds, their father and their prey.

A pardlike Spirit beautiful and swift— 280

Love in desolation masked;—a Power

Girt round with weakness;—it can scarce uplift

The weight of the superincumbent hour;

It is a dying lamp, a falling shower,

A breaking billow;—even whilst we speak 285

Is it not broken? On the withering flower

The killing sun smiles brightly: on a cheek

The life can burn in blood, even while the heart may break.

His head was bound with pansies overblown,

And faded violets, white, and pied, and blue; 290

And a light spear topped with a cypress cone,

Round whose rude shaft dark ivy tresses grew

Yet dripping with the forest’s noonday dew,

Vibrated, as the ever-beating heart

Shook the weak hand that grasped it; of that crew 295

He came the last, neglected and apart;

A herd-abandoned deer struck by the hunter’s dart.

All stood aloof, and at his partial moan

Smiled through their tears; well knew that gentle band

Who in another’s fate now wept his own; 300

As in the accents of an unknown land,

He sung new sorrow; sad Urania scanned

The Stranger’s mien, and murmured: ‘Who art thou?’

He answered not, but with a sudden hand

Made bare his branded and ensanguined brow, 305

Which was like Cain’s or Christ’s—oh, that it should be so!

What softer voice is hushed over the dead?

Athwart what brow is that dark mantle thrown?

What form leans sadly o’er the white death-bed,

In mockery of monumental stone, 310

The heavy heart heaving without a moan?

If it be He, who, gentlest of the wise,

Taught, soothed, loved, honoured the departed one;

Let me not vex, with inharmonious sighs

The silence of that heart’s accepted sacrifice. 315

Our Adonais has drunk poison—Oh!

What deaf and viperous murderer could crown

Life’s early cup with such a draught of woe?

The nameless worm would now itself disown:

It felt, yet could escape, the magic tone 320

Whose prelude held all envy, hate, and wrong,

But what was howling in one breast alone,

Silent with expectation of the song,

Whose master’s hand is cold, whose silver lyre unstrung.

Live thou, whose infamy is not thy fame! 325

Live! fear no heavier chastisement from me,

Thou noteless blot on a remembered name!

But be thyself, and know thyself to be!

And ever at thy season be thou free

To spill the venom when thy fangs o’erflow: 330

Remorse and Self-contempt shall cling to thee;

Hot Shame shall burn upon thy secret brow,

And like a beaten hound tremble thou shalt—as now.

Nor let us weep that our delight is fled

Far from these carrion kites that scream below; 335

He wakes or sleeps with the enduring dead;

Thou canst not soar where he is sitting now.—

Dust to the dust! but the pure spirit shall flow

Back to the burning fountain whence it came,

A portion of the Eternal, which must glow 340

Through time and change, unquenchably the same,

Whilst thy cold embers choke the sordid hearth of shame.

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep—

He hath awakened from the dream of life—

’Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep 345

With phantoms an unprofitable strife,

And in mad trance, strike with our spirit’s knife

Invulnerable nothings.—We decay

Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief

Convulse us and consume us day by day, 350

And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.

He has outsoared the shadow of our night;

Envy and calumny and hate and pain,

And that unrest which men miscall delight,

Can touch him not and torture not again; 355

From the contagion of the world’s slow stain

He is secure, and now can never mourn

A heart grown cold, a head grown gray in vain;

Nor, when the spirit’s self has ceased to burn,

With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn. 360

He lives, he wakes—’tis Death is dead, not he;

Mourn not for Adonais.—Thou young Dawn,

Turn all thy dew to splendour, for from thee

The spirit thou lamentest is not gone;

Ye caverns and ye forests, cease to moan! 365

Cease, ye faint flowers and fountains, and thou Air

Which like a mourning veil thy scarf hadst thrown

O’er the abandoned Earth, now leave it bare

Even to the joyous stars which smile on its despair!

He is made one with Nature: there is heard 370

His voice in all her music, from the moan

Of thunder, to the song of night’s sweet bird;

He is a presence to be felt and known

In darkness and in light, from herb and stone,

Spreading itself where’er that Power may move 375

Which has withdrawn his being to its own;

Which wields the world with never wearied love,

Sustains it from beneath, and kindles it above.

He is a portion of the loveliness

Which once he made more lovely: he doth bear 380

His part, while the one Spirit’s plastic stress

Sweeps through the dull dense world, compelling there

All new successions to the forms they wear;

Torturing th’ unwilling dross that checks its flight

To its own likeness, as each mass may bear; 385

And bursting in its beauty and its might

From trees and beasts and men into the Heaven’s light.

The splendours of the firmament of time

May be eclipsed, but are extinguished not;

Like stars to their appointed height they climb 390

And death is a low mist which cannot blot

The brightness it may veil. When lofty thought

Lifts a young heart above its mortal lair,

And love and life contend in it, for what

Shall be its earthly doom, the dead live there 395

And move like winds of light on dark and stormy air.

The inheritors of unfulfilled renown

Rose from their thrones, built beyond mortal thought,

Far in the Unapparent. Chatterton

Rose pale,—his solemn agony had not 400

Yet faded from him; Sidney, as he fought

And as he fell and as he lived and loved

Sublimely mild, a Spirit without spot,

Arose; and Lucan, by his death approved:

Oblivion as they rose shrank like a thing reproved. 405

And many more, whose names on Earth are dark,

But whose transmitted effluence cannot die

So long as fire outlives the parent spark,

Rose, robed in dazzling immortality.

‘Thou art become as one of us,’ they cry, 410

‘It was for thee yon kingless sphere has long

Swung blind in unascended majesty,

Silent alone amid an Heaven of Song.

Assume thy wingèd throne, thou Vesper of our throng!’

Who mourns for Adonais? Oh, come forth, 415

Fond wretch! and know thyself and him aright.

Clasp with thy panting soul the pendulous Earth;

As from a centre, dart thy spirit’s light

Beyond all worlds, until its spacious might

Satiate the void circumference: then shrink 420

Even to a point within our day and night;

And keep thy heart light lest it make thee sink

When hope has kindled hope, and lured thee to the brink.

Or go to Rome, which is the sepulchre

Oh, not of him, but of our joy: ’tis nought 425

That ages, empires, and religions there

Lie buried in the ravage they have wrought;

For such as he can lend,—they borrow not

Glory from those who made the world their prey;

And he is gathered to the kings of thought 430

Who waged contention with their time’s decay,

And of the past are all that cannot pass away.

Go thou to Rome,—at once the Paradise,

The grave, the city, and the wilderness;

And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, 435

And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress

The bones of Desolation’s nakedness,

Pass, till the Spirit of the spot shall lead

Thy footsteps to a slope of green access

Where, like an infant’s smile, over the dead 440

A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread.

And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time

Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand;

And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime,

Pavilioning the dust of him who planned 445

This refuge for his memory, doth stand

Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath,

A field is spread, on which a newer band

Have pitched in Heaven’s smile their camp of death,

Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath. 450

Here pause: these graves are all too young as yet

To have outgrown the sorrow which consigned

Its charge to each; and if the seal is set,

Here, on one fountain of a mourning mind,

Break it not thou! too surely shalt thou find 455

Thine own well full, if thou returnest home,

Of tears and gall. From the world’s bitter wind

Seek shelter in the shadow of the tomb.

What Adonais is, why fear we to become?

The One remains, the many change and pass; 460

Heaven’s light forever shines, Earth’s shadows fly;

Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,

Stains the white radiance of Eternity,

Until Death tramples it to fragments.—Die,

If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek! 465

Follow where all is fled!—Rome’s azure sky,

Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words are weak

The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak.

Why linger, why turn back, why shrink, my Heart?

Thy hopes are gone before: from all things here 470

They have departed: thou shouldst now depart!

A light is passed from the revolving year,

And man, and woman; and what still is dear

Attracts to crush, repels to make thee wither.

The soft sky smiles,—the low wind whispers near; 475

’Tis Adonais calls! oh, hasten thither,

No more let Life divide what Death can join together.

That Light whose smile kindles the Universe,

That Beauty in which all things work and move,

That Benediction which the eclipsing Curse 480

Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love

Which through the web of being blindly wove

By man and beast and earth and air and sea,

Burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of

The fire for which all thirst; now beams on me, 485

Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality.

The breath whose might I have invoked in song

Descends on me; my spirit’s bark is driven,

Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng

Whose sails were never to the tempest given; 490

The massy earth and spherèd skies are riven!

I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;

Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,

The soul of Adonais, like a star,

Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.