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VOICE OF THE THIRD SPIRIT. In the blue depth of the waters, Where the wave hath no strife, Where the wind is a stranger,

And the sea-snake hath life, Where the Mermaid is decking

Her green hair with shells, Like the storm on the surface Came the sound of thy spells; O'er my calm Hall of Coral

The deep echo rolled

To the Spirit of Ocean

Thy wishes unfold!

FOURTH SPIRIT.

Where the slumbering earthquake
Lies pillowed on fire,
And the lakes of bitumen

Rise boilingly higher;
Where the roots of the Andes
Strike deep in the earth,
As their summits to heaven

Shoot soaringly forth;
I have quitted my birthplace,
Thy bidding to bide-
Thy spell hath subdued me,
Thy will be my guide!

FIFTH SPIRIT.

I am the Rider of the wind,
The Stirrer of the storm;
The hurricane I left behind

Is yet with lightning warm;
To speed to thee, o'er shore and sea
I swept upon the blast:

The fleet I met sailed well, and yet 'T will sink ere night be past.

SIXTH SPIRIT.

My dwelling is the shadow of the night,

Why doth thy magic torture me with light?

SEVENTH SPIRIT.

The star which rules thy destiny
Was ruled, ere earth began, by me:
It was a world as fresh and fair
As e'er revolved round sun in air;
Its course was free and regular,
Space bosomed not a lovelier star.
The hour arrived-and it became
A wandering mass of shapeless flame,
A pathless comet, and a curse,
The menace of the universe;
Still rolling on with innate force,
Without a sphere, without a course,

A bright deformity on high,

The monster of the upper sky!
And thou! beneath its influence born-
Thou worm! whom I obey and scorn-
Forced by a power (which is not thine,
And lent thee but to make thee mine)
For this brief moment to descend,
Where these weak spirits round thee
bend,

And parley with a thing like theeWhat wouldst thou, Child of Clay! with me?

SONGS OF THE SPIRITS IN "MANFRED."

THE SEVEN SPIRITS.

Earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, thy star,
Are at thy beck and bidding, Child of Clay!
Before thee at thy quest their Spirits are-

What wouldst thou with us, son of mortals-say?

MANFRED. Forgetfulness

FIRST SPIRIT.

Of what-of whom-and why?

MANFRED. Of that which is within me; read it thereYe know it, and I cannot utter it.

SPIRIT. We can but give thee that which we possess:
Ask of us subjects, sovereignty, the power

O'er earth-the whole or portion--or a sign
Which shall control the elements, whereof

We are the dominators,-each and all,
These shall be thine.

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Can ye not wring from out the hidden realms

Ye offer so profusely what I ask?

SPIRIT. It is not in our essence, in our skill; But thou may'st die.

MANFRED.

Will death bestow it on me?

SPIRIT. We are immortal, and do not forget;

We are eternal, and to us the past

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