Miscellaneous Poems | Page 2

my God so lost, that He,?In His large view should pass me by.
Thus blest with children, friend, and wife,?Blest far beyond the vulgar lot;?Of all that gladdens human life,?Where was the good that I had not??But my vile heart had sinful spot,?And Heaven beheld its deep'ning stain;?Eternal justice I forgot,?And mercy sought not to obtain.
Come near,--I'll softly speak the rest! -?Alas! 'tis known to all the crowd,?Her guilty love was all confess'd;?And his, who so much truth avow'd,?My faithless friend's.--In pleasure proud?I sat, when these cursed tidings came;?Their guilt, their flight was told aloud,?And Envy smiled to hear my shame!
I call'd on Vengeance; at the word?She came: --Can I the deed forget??I held the sword--the accursed sword?The blood of his false heart made wet;?And that fair victim paid her debt,?She pined, she died, she loath'd to live; -?I saw her dying--see her yet:?Fair fallen thing! my rage forgive!
Those cherubs still, my life to bless,?Were left; could I my fears remove,?Sad fears that check'd each fond caress,?And poison'd all parental love??Yet that with jealous feelings strove,?And would at last have won my will,?Had I not, wretch! been doom'd to prove?Th' extremes of mortal good and ill.
In youth! health! joy! in beauty's pride!?They droop'd--as flowers when blighted bow;?The dire infection came: --they died,?And I was cursed--as I am now; -?Nay, frown not, angry friend,--allow?That I was deeply, sorely tried;?Hear then, and you must wonder how?I could such storms and strifes abide.
Storms!--not that clouds embattled make,?When they afflict this earthly globe;?But such as with their terrors shake?Man's breast, and to the bottom probe;?They make the hypocrite disrobe,?They try us all, if false or true;?For this one Devil had power on Job;?And I was long the slave of two.
PHYSICIAN.
Peace, peace, my friend; these subjects fly;?Collect thy thoughts--go calmly on. -
PATIENT.
And shall I then the fact deny??I was--thou know'st--I was begone,?Like him who fill'd the eastern throne,?To whom the Watcher cried aloud;?That royal wretch of Babylon,?Who was so guilty and so proud.
Like him, with haughty, stubborn mind,?I, in my state, my comforts sought;?Delight and praise I hoped to find,?In what I builded, planted! bought!?Oh! arrogance! by misery taught -?Soon came a voice! I felt it come;?"Full be his cup, with evil fraught,?Demons his guides, and death his doom!"
Then was I cast from out my state;?Two fiends of darkness led my way;?They waked me early, watch'd me late,?My dread by night, my plague by day!?Oh! I was made their sport, their play,?Through many a stormy troubled year;?And how they used their passive prey?Is sad to tell: --but you shall hear.
And first before they sent me forth.?Through this unpitying world to run,?They robb'd Sir Eustace of his worth,?Lands, manors, lordships, every one;?So was that gracious man undone,?Was spurn'd as vile, was scorn'd as poor,?Whom every former friend would shun,?And menials drove from every door.
Then rose ill-favour'd Ones, whom none?But my unhappy eyes could view,?Led me, with wild emotion, on,?And, with resistless terror, drew.?Through lands we fled, o'er seas we flew,?And halted on a boundless plain;?Where nothing fed, nor breathed, nor grew,?But silence ruled the still domain.
Upon that boundless plain, below,?The setting sun's last rays were shed,?And gave a mild and sober glow,?Where all were still, asleep, or dead;?Vast ruins in the midst were spread,?Pillars and pediments sublime,?Where the gray mass had form'd a bed,?And clothed the crumbling spoils of time.
There was I fix'd, I know not how,?Condemn'd for untold years to stay:?Yet years were not;--one dreadful Now?Endured no change of night or day;?The same mild evening's sleeping ray?Shone softly solemn and serene,?And all that time I gazed away,?The setting sun's sad rays were seen.
At length a moment's sleep stole on, -?Again came my commission'd foes;?Again through sea and land we're gone,?No peace, no respite, no repose;?Above the dark broad sea we rose,?We ran through bleak and frozen land;?I had no strength their strength t'oppose,?An infant in a giant's hand.
They placed me where those streamers play,?Those nimble beams of brilliant light;?It would the stoutest heart dismay,?To see, to feel, that dreadful sight:?So swift, so pure, so cold, so bright,?They pierced my frame with icy wound;?And all that half-year's polar night,?Those dancing streamers wrapp'd me round.
Slowly that darkness pass'd away,?When down upon the earth I fell, -?Some hurried sleep was mine by day;?But soon as toll'd the evening bell,?They forced me on, where ever dwell?Far-distant men, in cities fair,?Cities of whom no travellers tell,?Nor feet but mine were wanderers there.
Their watchmen stare, and stand aghast,?As on we hurry through the dark;?The watch-light blinks as we go past,?The watch-dog shrinks and fears to bark;?The watch-tower's bell sounds shrill; and, hark?The free wind blows--we've left the town -?A wild sepulchral ground I mark,?And on a tombstone place me down.
What monuments of mighty dead!?What tombs of various kinds are found!?And stones erect their shadows shed?On humble graves, with wickers bound,?Some risen fresh,