Be you as dull as e'er you could Nor should you go away, dear Rain ! But only now, for this one day, ELEGY, IMITATED FROM ONE OF AKENSIDE'S BLANK-VERSE INSCRIPTIONS. NEAR the lone pile with ivy overspread, Fast by the rivulet's sleep-persuading sound, Where sleeps the moonlight" on yon verdant 66 bed O humbly press that consecrated ground! For there does Edmund rest, the learned swain ! And there his spirit most delights to rove: Young Edmund! famed for each harmonious strain, And the sore wounds of ill-requited love. Like some tall tree that spreads its branches wide, And loads the west-wind with its soft perfume, His manhood blossom'd; till the faithless pride Of fair Matilda sank him to the tomb. But soon did righteous Heaven her guilt pursue! Where'er with wilder'd step she wander'd pale, Still Edmund's image rose to blast her view, Still Edmund's voice accused her in each gale. With keen regret, and conscious guilt's alarms, Go, Traveller! tell the tale with sorrow fraught: SEPARATION. A SWORDED man whose trade is blood, In grief, in anger, and in fear, Thro' jungle, swamp, and torrent flood, The dazzling charm of outward form, The power of gold, the pride of birth, Have taken Woman's heart by stormUsurp'd the place of inward worth. Is not true Love of higher price O! Asra, Asra! couldst thou see (This separation is, alas ! Too great a punishment to bear; O! take my life, or let me pass That life, that happy life, with her!) The perils, erst with steadfast eye ITS EPITAPH ON AN INFANT. TS balmy lips the infant blest Relaxing from its mother's breast, How sweet it heaves the happy sigh Of innocent satiety! And such my infant's latest sigh! TELL'S BIRTH-PLACE.. IMITATED FROM STOLBERG. I. ARK this holy chapel well! MA The birthplace, this, of William Tell. Here, where stands God's altar dread, Stood his parents' marriage-bed. II. Here first, an infant to her breast, And kiss'd the babe, and bless'd the day, III. "Vouchsafe him health, O God! and give The child thy servant still to live!" But God had destined to do more IV. God gave him reverence of laws, Yet stirring blood in Freedom's cause A spirit to his rocks akin, The eye of the hawk, and the fire therein ! V. To Nature and to Holy Writ Alone did God the boy commit: Where flash'd and roar'd the torrent, oft His soul found wings, and soar'd aloft ! VI. The straining oar and chamois chase Had form'd his limbs to strength and grace : VII. He knew not that his chosen hand, HUMAN LIFE. ON THE DENIAL OF IMMORTALITY. A FRAGMENT. F dead, we cease to be; if total gloom Swallow up life's brief flash for aye, we fare As summer-gusts, of sudden birth and doom, Whose sound and motion not alone declare, But are their whole of being! If the breath Be Life itself, and not its task and tent, If even a soul like Milton's can know death; O Man! thou vessel purposeless, unmeant, Yet drone-hive strange of phantom purposes, Surplus of Nature's dread activity, Which, as she gazed on some nigh-finish'd vase, Retreating slow, with meditative pause, She form'd with restless hands unconsciously. Blank accident! nothing's anomaly ! |