36. 
’All is not lost!  There is some recompense 3145
For hope whose fountain can be thus profound,
Even throned Evil’s splendid impotence,
Girt by its hell of power, the secret sound
Of hymns to truth and freedom—­the dread bound
Of life and death passed fearlessly and well, 3150
Dungeons wherein the high resolve is found,
Racks which degraded woman’s greatness tell,
And what may else be good and irresistible.

37. 
’Such are the thoughts which, like the fires that flare
In storm-encompassed isles, we cherish yet 3155
In this dark ruin—­such were mine even there;
As in its sleep some odorous violet,
While yet its leaves with nightly dews are wet,
Breathes in prophetic dreams of day’s uprise,
Or as, ere Scythian frost in fear has met 3160
Spring’s messengers descending from the skies,
The buds foreknow their life—­this hope must ever rise.

38. 
’So years had passed, when sudden earthquake rent
The depth of ocean, and the cavern cracked
With sound, as if the world’s wide continent 3165
Had fallen in universal ruin wracked: 
And through the cleft streamed in one cataract
The stifling waters—­when I woke, the flood
Whose banded waves that crystal cave had sacked
Was ebbing round me, and my bright abode 3170
Before me yawned—­a chasm desert, and bare, and broad.

39. 
’Above me was the sky, beneath the sea: 
I stood upon a point of shattered stone,
And heard loose rocks rushing tumultuously
With splash and shock into the deep—­anon 3175
All ceased, and there was silence wide and lone. 
I felt that I was free!  The Ocean-spray
Quivered beneath my feet, the broad Heaven shone
Around, and in my hair the winds did play
Lingering as they pursued their unimpeded way. 3180

40. 
’My spirit moved upon the sea like wind
Which round some thymy cape will lag and hover,
Though it can wake the still cloud, and unbind
The strength of tempest:  day was almost over,
When through the fading light I could discover 3185
A ship approaching—­its white sails were fed
With the north wind—­its moving shade did cover
The twilight deep; the mariners in dread
Cast anchor when they saw new rocks around them spread.

41. 
’And when they saw one sitting on a crag, 3190
They sent a boat to me;—­the Sailors rowed
In awe through many a new and fearful jag
Of overhanging rock, through which there flowed
The foam of streams that cannot make abode. 
They came and questioned me, but when they heard 3195
My voice, they became silent, and they stood
And moved as men in whom new love had stirred
Deep thoughts:  so to the ship we passed without a word.