March'd armies o'er thy tomb with thundering tread,
O'erthrew Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis,
And shook the Pyramids with fear and wonder,
When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder?
8. If the tomb's secrets may not be confess'd,
The nature of thy private life unfold :-
A heart has throbb'd beneath that leathern breast,
And tears adown that dusky cheek have rolled :—
Have children climb'd those knees, and kissed that face?
What was thy name and station, age, and race?
9. Statue of flesh-immortal of the dead!
Imperishable type of evanescence!
Posthumous man, who quitt'st thy narrow bed,
And standest undecayed within our presence,
Thou wilt hear nothing till the Judgment morning,
When the great trump shall thrill thee with its warning
10. Why should this worthless tegument endure,
If its undying guest be lost forever?
O let us keep the soul embalmed and pure
In living virtue; that when both must sever, Although corruption may our frame consume, Th' immortal spirit in the skies may bloom.
1. Mov'n by a strange mysterious power,
That hastes along the rapid hour,
I touch the deep ton'd string;
E'en now I see his wither'd face,
Beneath yon tower's mouldering base,
Where mossy vestments cling.
2. Dark roll'd his cheerless eye around,
Severe his grisly visage frown'd,--
No locks his head array'd,-
He grasp❜d a hero's antique bust,
The marble crumbled into dust,
And sunk amidst the shade.
3. Malignant triumph filled his eyes,
"See, hapless mortals, see," he cries,
"How vain your idle schemes!
Beneath my grasp, the fairest form
Dissolves and mingles with the worm;
Thus vanish mortal dreams.
4. The works of God! and man I spoil;
The proudest proofs of human toil,
treat as childish toys:
I crush the noble and the brave,
Beauty I mar, and in the grave
I bury human joys.
5. Hold! ruthless phantom--hold! I cried,
If thou canst mock the dreams of pride,
And meaner hopes devour,
Virtue, beyond thy reach, shall bloom,
When other charms sink to the tomb,-
She scorns thy envious power.
6. On frosty wings the demon fled,
Howling as o'er the wall he sped,-
Another year is gone!"
The ruin'd spire-the crumbling tow'r,
Nodding, obey'd his awful pow'r,
As time flew swiftly on.
7. Since beauty then, to time must bow
And age deform the fairest brow,
Let brighter charms be yours:
The virtuous mind embalm'd in truth,
Shail bloom in everlasting youth,
While Time himself endures.
The Silent Expression of Nature.
1. WHEN thoughtful to the vault of heaven
I lift my wondering eyes,
And see the clear and quiet even,
To night resign the skies,-
The moon, in silence, rear her crest,
The stars, in silence, shine,-
A secret rapture fills my breast,
That speaks its birth divine.
2. Unheard, the dews around me fall,
And heavenly influence shed;
And, silent, on this earthly ball,
Celestial footsteps tread.
Aerial music wakes the spheres,
Touch'd by harmonious powers:
With sounds, unheard by mortal ears,
They charm the lingering hours.
3. Night reigns, in silence, o'er the pole,
And spreads her gems unheard:
Her lessons penetrate the soul,
Yet borrow not a word.
Noiseless the sun emits his fire,
And pours his golden streams;
And silently the shades retire
Before his rising beams.
4. The hand that moves, and regulates,
And guides the vast machine,—
That governs wills, and times, and fates,—
Retires, and works unseen.
Angelic visitants forsake
Their amaranthine bowers;
On silent wing their stations take,
And watch th' allotted hours.
5. Sick of the vanity of man,-
His noise, and pomp, and show -
I'll move upon great Nature's plan,
And, silent, work below.
With inward harmony of soul,
I'll wait the upper sphere;
Shining, I'll mount above the pole
And break my silence there.
Let me record
His praise the man of great benevolence,
Who charity with glowing heart embraced,
And to her gentle bidding, made his feet
Swift ministers.-Of all mankind, his soul
Was most in harmony with heaven: as one
Sole family of brothers, sisters, friends;
One in their origin, one in their rights
To all the common gifts of providence,
And in their hopes, their joys, and sorrows one,
He viewed the universal human race.
2. He needed not a law of state to force
Grudging submission to the law of God;
The law of love was in his heart alive.
What he possessed, he counted not his own,
But, like a faithful steward in a house
Of public alms, what freely he received,
He freely gave; distributing to all
The helpless, the last mite beyond his own
Temperate support, and reckoning still the gift
But justice, due to want; and so it was;
Altho' the world, with compliment not ill
Applied, adorned it with a fairer name.
3. Nor did he wait till to his door the voice
Of supplication came, but went abroad,
With foot as silent as the starry dews,
In search of misery that pined unseen,
And would not ask. And who can tell what sights
He saw! what groans he heard in that cold world
Below! where Sin, in league with gloomy Death,
March'd daily thro' the length and breadth of all
The land, wasting at will, and making earth,
Fair earth! a lazar-house, a dungeon dark;
Where Disappointment fed on ruined Hope;
Where guilt, worn out, leaned on the triple edge
Of want, remorse, despair; where Cruelty
Reached forth a cup of wornwood to the lips
Of sorrow, that to deeper sorrow wailed;
Where Mockery, and Disease, and Poverty,
Met miserable Age, erewhile sare bent
With his own burthen; where the arrowy winds
Of winter pierced the naked orphan babe,
And chilled the mother's heart who had no home,
And where, alas! in mid-time of his day,
The honest man, robb'd by some villain's hand,
Or with long sickness pale, and paler yet
With want and hunger, oft drank bitter draughts
Of his own tears, and had no bread to eat.
4. Oh! who can tell what sights he saw, what shapes Of wretchedness! or who describe what smiles Of gratitude illumed the face of wo,
While from his hand he gave the bounty forth!
As when the sun, from cancer wheeling back,
Returned to capricorn, and showed the north,
That long had lain in cold and cheerless night,
His beamy countenance ;-all nature then
Rejoiced together glad; the flower looked up
And smiled; the forest from his locks shook off
The hoary frosts, and clapp'd his hands; the birds
Awoke, and, singing, rose to meet the day ;
And from his hollow den, where many months
He slumbered sad in darkness, blithe and light
Of heart the savage sprung, and saw again
His mountains shine; and with new songs of love,
Allured the virgin's ear; so did the house,
The prison-house of guilt, and all th' abodes
Of unprovided helplessness, revive,
As on them looked the sunny messenger
Of charity,-by angels tended still,
That marked his deeds, and wrote them in the book
Of God's remembrance:-careless he to be
Observed of men; or have each mite bestowed,
Recorded punctual with name and place
In every bill of news: pleased to do good,
He gave and sought no more.
1. WHEN music, heavenly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung,
The passions oft, to hear her shell,
Throng'd around her magic cell,
Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting,
Possess'd beyond the Muse's painting;
By turns, they felt the glowing mind
Disturb'd, delighted, rais'd, refin'd;
Till once, 'tis said, when all were fired,
Fill'd with fury, rapt, inspir'd,
From the supporting myrtles round,
They snatch'd her instruments of sound;
And, as they oft had heard apart,
Sweet lessons of her forceful art,
Each-for madness rul'd the hour-
Would prove his own expressive power.
2. First, Fear, his hand its skill to try,
Amid the chords bewilder'd laid;
And back recoil'd, he knew not why,
E'en at the sound himself had made.
3. Next Anger rush'd;-his eyes on fire,
In lightnings own'd his secret stings;
In one rude clash he struck the lyre,
And swept with hurried hand the strings.
4. With woful measures wan Despair,
In sullen sounds his grief beguil'd-
A solemn, strange, and mingled air-
'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.
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