Stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone;
The bars survive the captive they enthral;
The day drags through though storms keep out the sun;[hq]
And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on:[295]

XXXIII.

Even as a broken Mirror,[296] which the glass
In every fragment multiplies--and makes
A thousand images of one that was,
The same--and still the more, the more it breaks;
And thus the heart will do which not forsakes,
Living in shattered guise; and still, and cold,
And bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches,
Yet withers on till all without is old,
Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold.

XXXIV.

There is a very life in our despair,
Vitality of poison,--a quick root
Which feeds these deadly branches; for it were
As nothing did we die; but Life will suit
Itself to Sorrow's most detested fruit,
Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore,[7.B.]
All ashes to the taste: Did man compute
Existence by enjoyment, and count o'er
Such hours 'gainst years of life,--say, would he name threescore?

XXXV.

The Psalmist numbered out the years of man:
They are enough; and if thy tale be _true_,[hr]
Thou, who didst grudge him even that fleeting span,[297]
More than enough, thou fatal Waterloo!
Millions of tongues record thee, and anew
Their children's lips shall echo them, and say--
"Here, where the sword united nations drew,[hs]
Our countrymen were warring on that day!"
And this is much--and all--which will not pass away.

XXXVI.

There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men,
Whose Spirit, antithetically mixed,
One moment of the mightiest, and again
On little objects with like firmness fixed;[ht]
Extreme in all things! hadst thou been betwixt,
Thy throne had still been thine, or never been;
For Daring made thy rise as fall: thou seek'st[hu][298]
Even now to re-assume the imperial mien,[299]
And shake again the world, the Thunderer of the scene!

XXXVII.

Conqueror and Captive of the Earth art thou!
She trembles at thee still, and thy wild name[hv]
Was ne'er more bruited in men's minds than now
That thou art no