Ode To Beauty

33Ah! what avails it

34To hide or to shun

35Whom the Infinite One

36Hath granted his throne?

37The heaven high over

38Is the deep's lover,

39The sun and sea

40Informed by thee,

41Before me run,

42And draw me on,

43Yet fly me still,

44As Fate refuses

45To me the heart Fate for me chooses,

46Is it that my opulent soul

47Was mingled from the generous whole,

48Sea valleys and the deep of skies

49Furnished several supplies,

50And the sands whereof I'm made

51Draw me to them self-betrayed?

52I turn the proud portfolios

53Which hold the grand designs

54Of Salvator, of Guercino,

55And Piranesi's lines.

56I hear the lofty Pæans

57Of the masters of the shell,

58Who heard the starry music,

59And recount the numbers well:

60Olympian bards who sung

61Divine Ideas below,

62Which always find us young,

63And always keep us so.

64Oft in streets or humblest places

65I detect far wandered graces,

66Which from Eden wide astray

67In lowly homes have lost their way.

68Thee gliding through the sea of form,

69Like the lightning through the storm,

70Somewhat not to be possessed,

71Somewhat not to be caressed,

72No feet so fleet could ever find,

73No perfect form could ever bind.

74Thou eternal fugitive

75Hovering over all that live,

76Quick and skilful to inspire

77Sweet extravagant desire,

78Starry space and lily bell

79Filling with thy roseate smell,

80Wilt not give the lips to taste

81Of the nectar which thou hast.

82All that's good and great with thee

83Stands in deep conspiracy.

84Thou hast bribed the dark and lonely

85To report thy features only,

86And the cold and purple morning

87Itself with thoughts of thee adorning,

88The leafy dell, the city mart,

89Equal trophies of thine art,

90E'en the flowing azure air

91Thou hast touched for my despair,

92And if I languish into dreams,

93Again I meet the ardent beams.

94Queen of things! I dare not die

95In Being's deeps past ear and eye,

96Lest there I find the same deceiver,

97And be the sport of Fate forever.

98Dread power, but dear! if God thou be,

99Unmake me quite, or give thyself to me.