IN the first edition of Joan of Arc this Vision formed the ninth book, allegorical machinery having been introduced throughout the poem as originally written. All that remained of such machinery was expunged in the second edition, and the Vision was then struck out, as no longer according with the general design. THE VISION OF THE MAID OF ORLEANS. THE FIRST BOOK. ORLEANS was hush'd in sleep. Stretch'd on her couch Her heavy eyelids; not reposing then, For busy phantasy in other scenes Awaken'd: whether that superior powers, By wise permission, prompt the midnight dream, Instructing best the passive faculty; Or that the soul, escaped its fleshly clog, 5 Flies free, and soars amid the invisible world, 10 And all things are that seem. Along a moor, Barren, and wide, and drear, and desolate, She roam'd, a wanderer through the cheerless night. Far through the silence of the unbroken plain 14 The bittern's boom was heard; hoarse, heavy, deep, It made accordant music to the scene. Black clouds, driven fast before the stormy wind, Sweptshadowing; through their broken folds the moon 20 She stands, amid whose stagnate waters, hoarse 30 As ever by a dungeon'd wretch was heard 37 She saw a serpent gnawing at her heart. The plumeless bats with short shrill note flit by, And the night-raven's scream came fitfully, 40 Borne on the hollow blast. Eager the Maid Look'd to the shore, and now upon the bank There, a mouldering pile Stretch'd its wide ruins, o'er the plain below Casting a gloomy shade, save where the moon Shone through its fretted windows: the dark yew, 45 |