55
Gape like a hell within!  I speak in grief,
Not exultation, for I hate no more,
As then ere misery made me wise.  The curse
Once breathed on thee I would recall.  Ye Mountains,
Whose many-voiced Echoes, through the mist 60
Of cataracts, flung the thunder of that spell! 
Ye icy Springs, stagnant with wrinkling frost,
Which vibrated to hear me, and then crept
Shuddering through India!  Thou serenest Air,
Through which the Sun walks burning without beams! 65
And ye swift Whirlwinds, who on poised wings
Hung mute and moveless o’er yon hushed abyss,
As thunder, louder than your own, made rock
The orbed world!  If then my words had power,
Though I am changed so that aught evil wish 70
Is dead within; although no memory be
Of what is hate, let them not lose it now! 
What was that curse? for ye all heard me speak.

NOTE: 
54 thro’ wide B; thro’ the wide 1820.

FIRST VOICE (FROM THE MOUNTAINS): 
Thrice three hundred thousand years
O’er the Earthquake’s couch we stood:  75
Oft, as men convulsed with fears,
We trembled in our multitude.

SECOND VOICE (FROM THE SPRINGS): 
Thunderbolts had parched our water,
We had been stained with bitter blood,
And had run mute, ’mid shrieks of slaughter, 80
Thro’ a city and a solitude.

THIRD VOICE (FROM THE AIR): 
I had clothed, since Earth uprose,
Its wastes in colours not their own,
And oft had my serene repose
Been cloven by many a rending groan. 85

FOURTH VOICE (FROM THE WHIRLWINDS): 
We had soared beneath these mountains
Unresting ages; nor had thunder,
Nor yon volcano’s flaming fountains,
Nor any power above or under
Ever made us mute with wonder. 90

FIRST VOICE: 
But never bowed our snowy crest
As at the voice of thine unrest.

SECOND VOICE: 
Never such a sound before
To the Indian waves we bore. 
A pilot asleep on the howling sea 95
Leaped up from the deck in agony,
And heard, and cried, ‘Ah, woe is me!’
And died as mad as the wild waves be.

THIRD VOICE: 
By such dread words from Earth to Heaven
My still realm was never riven:  100
When its wound was closed, there stood
Darkness o’er the day like blood.

FOURTH VOICE: 
And we shrank back:  for dreams of ruin
To frozen caves our flight pursuing
Made us keep silence—­thus—­and thus—­ 105
Though silence is a hell to us.

THE EARTH: 
The tongueless caverns of the craggy hills
Cried, ‘Misery!’ then; the hollow Heaven replied,
‘Misery!’ And the Ocean’s purple waves,
Climbing the land, howled to the lashing winds, 110
And the pale nations heard it, ‘Misery!’