Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/315

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CANTO III.]
CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE.
279

Of torrents, where he listeneth, to the vines
Which slope his green path downward to the shore,
Where the bowed Waters meet him, and adore,
Kissing his feet with murmurs; and the Wood,
The covert of old trees, with trunks all hoar,
But light leaves, young as joy, stands where it stood,[1]
Offering to him, and his, a populous solitude.


CII.

A populous solitude of bees and birds,
And fairy-formed and many-coloured things,
Who worship him with notes more sweet than words,[2]
And innocently open their glad wings,
Fearless and full of life: the gush of springs,
And fall of lofty fountains, and the bend
Of stirring branches, and the bud which brings
The swiftest thought of Beauty, here extend
Mingling—and made by Love—unto one mighty end.


CIII.

He who hath loved not, here would learn that lore,[3]

And make his heart a spirit; he who knows
  1. But branches young as Heaven——.—[MS. erased.]
  2. ——with sweeter voice than words.—[MS.]
  3. [Compare the Pervigilium Veneris

    "Cras amet qui nunquam amavit,
    Quique amavit cras amet."
    ("Let those love now, who never loved before;
    Let those who always loved, now love the more.")

    Parnell's Vigil of Venus: British Poets, 1794, vii. 7.]