286 THE PHANTOM LAND. 



I looked, and saw strange forms along the shore, 

 Gliding like exhalations with slow pace,, 

 Wrapt in the dusky costumes which they wore 

 On earth, in days whereof remains no trace. 

 Their visages the marks of sadness wore ; 

 And oft their garments of thin mist they tore, 

 And gazed upon the sea with wistful face. 

 * 



I stood bewildered with the shadowy sight, 

 But soon th' impatient angel seized my hand, 

 And hastened me away o'er rocky height 

 And vale precipitous of sliding sand, 

 Fast by the caves of ever-during night, 

 And where a river rolled of burning light. 

 We left the ancient boatman on the strand. 



The grandeur of obscurity was round- 

 Mountains on either side rose steep and bare ; 

 Their dark foundations lost in the profound ; 

 Their peaks enveloped in the dreamy air. 

 Full in the midst that broad, red river wound 

 Leisurely lei su rely, with murmuring sound. 

 Phantoms might be discovered by its glare. 



As o'er our path the lurid blaze was shed, 



Slowly we walked, and, as we walked, discerned 



The phantoms of the long-forgotten dead 



Of tongues extinct, and empires overturned ; 



Of men who lived ere Rome bowed down her head, 



Ere Athens fell, ere royal Priam bled, 



Or ever Sodom and Gomorrah burned. 



As o'er our path the lurid blaze was shed, 

 Slowly we walked, I saw by that dim light 

 The grave Egyptian, and the sage Chaldee, 

 The Ethiopian and the Ishmaelite ; 

 The warrior of the islands of the sea, 

 Europe's pale son, and the fierce Cherokee : 

 I never gazed upon so strange a sight. 



Female and male I saw ; female and male, 

 Clothed or unclothed, as they were wont to go 

 While sojourners on earth ; along the vale 

 They stood in groups, or wandered to and fro, 

 Suffering the doom that evil deeds entail : 

 Clenched hands, and livid eyes, and many a wail, 

 And beatings of the breast bespoke their woe. 



I also saw, wandering with sullen pace, 

 Forms of proud aspect melancholy forms 

 Forms of surpassing symmetry and grace ; 

 Such as the poet sees aloft in storms, 

 When rolling clouds along heaven's pathway race, 

 And winds sing wildly to the thunder's bass ; 

 While frenzy his enchanted spirit warms. 



