Apelles. ‘Never finish: for always in absolute
beauty there is somewhat above art.’”
LYLY’S Campaspe.
And now, what song should I sing to unveil my Isis, if indeed she was present unseen? I hurried away to the white hall of Phantasy, heedless of the innumerable forms of beauty that crowded my way: these might cross my eyes, but the unseen filled my brain. I wandered long, up and down the silent space: no songs came. My soul was not still enough for songs. Only in the silence and darkness of the soul’s night, do those stars of the inward firmament1 sink to its lower surface from the singing realms beyond, and shine upon the conscious spirit. Here all effort was unavailing. If they came not, they could not be found.
Next night, it was just the same. I walked through the red glimmer2 of the silent hall; but lonely as there I walked, as lonely trod my soul up and down the halls of the brain. At last I entered one of the statue-halls. The dance had just commenced, and I was delighted to find that I was free of their assembly. I walked on till I came to the sacred corner. There I found the pedestal just as I had left it, with the faint glimmer as of white feet still resting on the dead black. As soon as I saw it, I seemed to feel a presence which longed to become visible; and, as it were, called to me to gift it with self-manifestation, that it might shine on me. The power of song came to me. But the moment my voice, though I sang low and soft, stirred the air of the hall, the dancers started; the quick interweaving crowd shook, lost its form, divided; each figure sprang to its pedestal, and stood, a self-evolving life no more, but a rigid3, life-like, marble shape, with the whole form composed into the expression of a single state or act. Silence rolled like a spiritual thunder through the grand space. My song had ceased, scared at its own influences. But I saw in the hand of one of the statues close by me, a harp4 whose chords yet quivered. I remembered that as she bounded past me, her harp had brushed against my arm; so the spell of the marble had not infolded it. I sprang to her, and with a gesture of entreaty5, laid my hand on the harp. The marble hand, probably from its contact with the uncharmed harp, had strength enough to relax its hold, and yield the harp to me. No other motion indicated life. Instinctively6 I struck the chords and sang. And not to break upon the record of my song, I mention here, that as I sang the first four lines, the loveliest feet became clear upon the black pedestal; and ever as I sang, it was as if a veil were being lifted up from before the form, but an invisible veil, so that the statue appeared to grow before me, not so much by evolution, as by infinitesimal degrees of added height. And, while I sang, I did not feel that I stood by a statue, as indeed it appeared to be, but that a real woman-soul was revealing itself by successive stages of imbodiment, and consequent manifestatlon and expression.
I sprang to her, and laid my hand on the harp
Feet of beauty, firmly planting
Arches white on rosy7 heel!
Whence the life-spring, throbbing8, panting,
Pulses upward to reveal!
Fairest things know least despising;
Foot and earth meet tenderly:
’Tis the woman, resting, rising
Upward to sublimity9,
Rise the limbs, sedately10 sloping,
Strong and gentle, full and free;
Soft and slow, like certain hoping,
Drawing nigh the broad firm knee.
Up to speech! As up to roses
Pants the life from leaf to flower,
So each blending change discloses,
Nearer still, expression’s power.
Lo! fair sweeps, white surges, twining
Up and outward fearlessly!
Temple columns, close combining,
Lift a holy mystery.
Heart of mine! what strange surprises
Mount aloft on such a stair!
Some great vision upward rises,
Curving, bending, floating fair.
Bands and sweeps, and hill and hollow
Lead my fascinated eye;
Some apocalypse will follow,
Some new world of deity11.
Zoned12 unseen, and outward swelling13,
With new thoughts and wonders rife14,
Queenly majesty15 foretelling16,
See the expanding house of life!
Sudden heaving, unforbidden
Sighs eternal, still the same —
Mounts of snow have summits hidden
In the mists of uttered flame.
But the spirit, dawning nearly
Finds no speech for earnest pain;
Finds a soundless sighing merely —
Builds its stairs, and mounts again.
Heart, the queen, with secret hoping,
Sendeth out her waiting pair;
Hands, blind hands, half blindly groping,
Half inclasping visions rare;
And the great arms, heartways bending;
Might of Beauty, drawing home
There returning, and re-blending,
Where from roots of love they roam.
Build thy slopes of radiance beamy
Spirit, fair with womanhood!
Tower thy precipice17, white-gleamy,
Climb unto the hour of good.
Dumb space will be rent asunder18,
Now the shining column stands
Ready to be crowned with wonder
By the builder’s joyous19 hands.
All the lines abroad are spreading,
Like a fountain’s falling race.
Lo, the chin, first feature, treading,
Airy foot to rest the face!
Speech is nigh; oh, see the blushing,
Sweet approach of lip and breath!
Round the mouth dim silence, hushing,
Waits to die ecstatic death.
Span across in treble curving,
Bow of promise, upper lip!
Set them free, with gracious swerving20;
Let the wing-words float and dip.
DUMB ART THOU? O Love immortal21,
More than words thy speech must be;
Childless yet the tender portal
Of the home of melody.
Now the nostrils22 open fearless,
Proud in calm unconsciousness,
Sure it must be something peerless
That the great Pan would express!
Deepens, crowds some meaning tender,
In the pure, dear lady-face.
Lo, a blinding burst of splendour! —
’Tis the free soul’s issuing grace.
Two calm lakes of molten glory
Circling round unfathomed deeps!
Lightning-flashes, transitory,
Cross the gulfs where darkness sleeps.
This the gate, at last, of gladness,
To the outward striving me:
In a rain of light and sadness,
Out its loves and longings23 flee!
With a presence I am smitten24
Dumb, with a foreknown surprise;
Presence greater yet than written
Even in the glorious eyes.
Through the gulfs, with inward gazes,
I may look till I am lost;
Wandering deep in spirit-mazes,
In a sea without a coast.
Windows open to the glorious!
Time and space, oh, far beyond!
Woman, ah! thou art victorious25,
And I perish, overfond.
Springs aloft the yet Unspoken
In the forehead’s endless grace,
Full of silences unbroken;
Infinite, unfeatured face.
Domes26 above, the mount of wonder;
Height and hollow wrapt in night;
Hiding in its caverns27 under
Woman-nations in their might.
Passing forms, the highest Human
Faints away to the Divine
Features none, of man or woman,
Can unveil the holiest shine.
Sideways, grooved28 porches only
Visible to passing eye,
Stand the silent, doorless, lonely
Entrance-gates of melody.
But all sounds fly in as boldly,
Groan29 and song, and kiss and cry
At their galleries, lifted coldly,
Darkly, ‘twixt the earth and sky.
Beauty, thou art spent, thou knowest
So, in faint, half-glad despair,
From the summit thou o’erflowest
In a fall of torrent30 hair;
Hiding what thou hast created
In a half-transparent shroud31:
Thus, with glory soft-abated,
Shines the moon through vapoury cloud.
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收听单词发音
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1
firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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2
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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3
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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4
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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5
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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6
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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7
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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8
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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9
sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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10
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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11
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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12
zoned
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| adj.划成区域的，束带的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的现在分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨 | |
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13
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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14
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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15
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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16
foretelling
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的现在分词 ) | |
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17
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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18
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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19
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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20
swerving
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的现在分词 ) | |
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21
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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22
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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23
longings
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| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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24
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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25
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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26
domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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27
caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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28
grooved
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| v.沟( groove的过去式和过去分词 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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29
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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30
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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31
shroud
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| n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏 | |
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