FRAGMENTS FROM THE IPHIGENIA.

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fully submitted will. Akin to the spirit of such creations is that of the awful but irregular Faust, and other works of Goethe, in which the restless questionings, the lofty aspirations, and dark misgivings of the human soul, are perpetually called up to "come like shadows, so depart," across the stormy splendours of the scene; and the mind is engaged in ceaseless conflict with the interminable mysteries of life. It is otherwise with the work before us; overshadowed, as it were, by the dark wings of the inflexible destiny which hovers above the children of Tantalus, the spirit of the imaginary personages, as well as of the reader, here moves acquiescently within the prescribed circle of events, and is seldom tempted beyond, to plunge into the abyss of general speculations upon the lot of humanity.

*

FRAGMENTS FROM THE IPHIGENIA.

I.

JOY OF PYLADES ON HEARING HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE.

Он, sweetest voice! Oh, bless'd familiar sound
Of mother-words heard in the stranger's land!
I see the blue hills of my native shore,
The far blue hills again! those cordial tones
Before the captive bid them freshly rise
For ever welcome! Oh, by this deep joy,
Know the true son of Greece!

II.

EXCLAMATIONS OF IPHIGENIA ON SEEING HER BROTHER

Oh hear me, look upon me! how my heart,

After long desolation, now unfolds

Unto this new delight, to kiss thy head,

Thou dearest, dearest one of all on earth!

To clasp thee with my arms, which were but thrown
On the void winds before! Oh give me way,
Give my soul's rapture way! The eternal fount
Leaps not more brightly forth from cliff to cliff
Of high Parnassus, down the golden vale,
Than the strong joy bursts gushing from my heart,
And swells around me to a flood of bliss-
Orestes!-oh, my brother!

III.

LOT OF MAN AND WOMAN COMPARED BY IPHIGENIA.

Man by the battle's hour immortalized
May fall, yet leave his name to living song;
But of forsaken woman's countless tears,
What recks the after-world? the poet's voice
Tells nought of all the slow, sad, weary days,
And long, long nights, through which the lonely soul
Pour'd itself forth, consumed itself away,

In passionate adjurings, vain desires,
And ceaseless weepings for the early lost,
The loved and vanish'd!

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303

IV.

LONGING OF ORESTES FOR REPOSE.

One draught from Lethe's flood! reach me
draught,

One last cool goblet fill'd with dewy peace!
Soon will the spasm of life departing leave
My bosom free! Soon shall my spirit flow
Along the deep waves of forgetfulness,
Calmly and silently! away to you,

Ye dead! Ye dwellers of the eternal cloud,
Take home the son of earth, and let him steep
His o'erworn senses in your dim repose

For evermore.

one

V.

CONTINUATION OF ORESTES' SOLILOQUY.

Hark! in the trembling leaves

Mysterious whispers: hark! a rushing sound
Sweeps through yon twilight depth!-e'en now they

come,

They throng to greet their guest! and who are they!
Rejoicing each with each in stately joy,

As a king's children gather'd for the hour
Of some high festival! Exultingly,

And kindred-like, and godlike, on they pass,
The glorious wandering shapes! aged and young,
Proud men and royal women! Lo my race,
My sire's ancestral race!

THE HUGUENOT'S FAREWELL.

I STAND upon the threshold stone

Of mine ancestral hall;

I hear my native river moan;

I see the night o'er my old forests fall.

I look round on the darkening vale

That saw my childhood's plays:

The low wind in its rising wail

Hath a strange tone, a sound of other days.

But I must rule my swelling breast:

A sign is in the sky;

Bright o'er yon grey rock's eagle nest

Shines forth a warning star-it bids me fly.

My father's sword is in my hand,

His deep voice haunts mine ear;

He tells me of the noble band

Whose lives have left a brooding glory here.

He bids their offspring guard from stain

Their pure and lofty faith;

And yield up all things, to maintain

The cause for which they girt themselves to death.

And I obey.-I leave their towers

Unto the stranger's tread;

Unto the creeping grass and flowers;

Unto the fading pictures of the dead.

THE HUGUENOT'S FAREWELL.

I leave their shields to slow decay,

Their banners to the dust;

I go, and only bear away

I

Their old majestic name— a solemn trust!

go up to the ancient hills,

Where chains may never be,

Where leap in joy the torrent rills,

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Where man may worship God, alone and free.

There shall an altar and a camp

Impregnably arise;

There shall be lit a quenchless lamp,

To shine, unwavering, through the open skies.

And song shall 'midst the rocks be heard,
And fearless prayer ascend;

While, thrilling to God's holy word,

The mountain pines in adoration bend.

And there the burning heart no more
Its deep thought shall suppress,
But the long-buried truth shall pour

Free currents thence, amidst the wilderness.

Then fare thee well, my mother's bower,
Farewell, my father's hearth;

Perish my home! where lawless power
Hath rent the tie of love to native earth.

Perish let deathlike silence fall
Upon the lone abode :

Spread fast, dark ivy, spread thy pall;-
I go up to the mountains with my God.