a

And lips half-opening with the dread of sound, Was moulded to such features as declared
Unsleeping Silence guards, worn out with fear, That Pity there had oft and strongly work d,
Lest, haply escaping on some treacherous blast, And sometimes Indignation. Bold her mien
The fateful word let slip the Elements,

And like a haughty Huntress of the woods
And frenzy Nature. Yet the wizard her,

She mov'd: yet sure she was a gentle maid ! Arm’d with Torngarsuck's* power, the Spirit of And in each motion her most innocent soul Good,

Beam'd forth so brightly, that who sảw would say Forces to unchain the foodful progeny

Guilt was a thing impossible in her!
Of the Ocean's stream.-Wild phantasies! yet wise, Nor idly would have said—for she had lived
On the victorious goodness of High God

In this bad World as in a place of Tombs, 'Teaching Reliance, and Medicinal Hope,

And touch'd not the pollutions of the Dead.
Till from Bethabra northward, heavenly Truth,
With gradual steps winning her dificult way,

"T was the cold season, when the Rustic's eye Transfer their rude Faith perfected and pure.

From the drear desolate whiteness of his fields If there be Beings of higher class than Man,

Rolls for relief to watch the skiey tints I deem no nobler province they possess,

And clouds slow varying their huge imagery;

When now, as she was wont, the healthful Maid Than by disposal of apt circumstance To rear up Kingdoms: and the deeds they prompt,

Had left her pallet ere one beam of day Distinguishing from mortal agency,

Slanted the fog-smoke. She went forth alone, They choose their human ministers from such states Urged by the indwelling angel-guide, that oft, As still the Epic song half fears to name,

With dim inexplicable sympathies Repell'd from all the Minstrelsies that strike

Disquieting the Heart, shapes out Man's course The Palace-roof and soothe the Monarch's pride.

To the predoom'd adventure. Now the ascent

She climbs of that steep upland, on whose top And such, perhaps, the Spirit, who (if words

The Pilgrim-Man, who long since eve had watch d Witness'd by answering deeds may claim our Faith) Shouts to himself, there first the Abbey-lights

The alien shine of unconcerning Stars, Held commune with that warrior-maid of France Who scourged the Invader. From her infant days, The winding sheep-track vale-ward : when, behold

Seen in Neufchatel's vale; now slopes adown With Wisdom, Mother of retired Thoughts,

In the first entrance of the level road Her soul had dwelt; and she was quick to mark

An unattended Team! The foremost horse The good and evil thing, in human lore

Lay with stretch'd limbs; the others, yet alive, Undisciplined. For lowly was her Birth, And Heaven had doom'd her early years to Toil,

But stiff and cold, stood motionless, their manes

Hoar with the frozen night-dews. Dismally That pure from Tyranny's least deed, herself

The dark-red down now glimmer'd ; but its gleams Unfear'd by Fellow-natures, she might wait

Disclosed no face of man. The Maiden paused, On the poor Laboring man with kindly looks,

Then hail'd who might be near No voice replied.
And minister refreshment to the tired
Way-wanderer, when along the rough-hewn Bench From the thwart wain at length there reach'd her
The sweltry man had stretch'd him, and aloft

A sound so feeble that it almost seem'd
Vacantly watch'd the rudely pictured board
Which on the Mulberry-bough with welcome creak Distant: and feebly, with slow effort push'd,
Swung to the pleasant breezo. Here, too, the Maid The silent frost had eat, scathing like fire.

A miserable man crept forth : his limbs Learnt more than Schools could teach: Man's shift- Faint on the shafts he rested. She, meantime, ing mind,

Saw crowded close beneath the coverture
His Vices and his Sorrows! And full oft

A mother and her children-lifeless all,
At Tales of cruel Wrong and strange Distress
Ilad wept and shiver’d. To the tottering Eld

Yet lovely! not a lineament was marrid-
Still as a Daughter would she run: she placed ,

Death had put on so slumber-like a form! His cold Limbs at the sunny Door, and loved

It was a pitesus sight; and one, a babe, To hear him story, in his garrulous sort,

The crisp milk frozen on its innocent lips, Of his eventful years, all come and gone.

Lay on the woman's arm, its little hand

Stretch'd on her bosom.
So twenty seasons past. The Virgin's Form,
Active and tall, nor Sloth nor Luxury

Mutely questioning,
Had shrunk or paled. Her front sublime and broad, The Maid gazed wildly at the living wretch.
Her flexile eye-brows wildly hair'd and low, He, his head feebly turning, on the group
And her full eye, now bright, now unillum'd, Look'd with a vacant stare, and his eye spoke
Spake more than Woman's Thought; and all her The drowsy pang that steals on worn-out anguish.
face

She shudder'd: but, each vainer pang subdued,

Quick disentangling from the foremost horse * They call the Good Spirit Torngarsuck. The other great The rustic bands, with difficulty and toil but malignant spirit is a nameless Female; she dwells under The stiff cramp'd team forced homeward. There the sea in a great house, where she can detain in captivity all

arrived, the animals of the ocean by her magic power. When a dearth befalls the Greenlanders, an Angekok or magician must under- Anxiously tends him she with healing herbs, lake a journey thither. He passes through the kingdom of And weeps and prays-but the numb power of Death wouls, over an horrible abyss into the Palace of this phantom, Spreads o'er his limbs; and ere the noontide hour and by his enchantments causes the captive creatures to ascend The hovering spirits of his Wife and Babes directly to the surface of the ocean.--Sec Crantz'

Hail him immortal! Yet amid his pangs, Greenland, vol. i. 206.

28

ear

:

With interruptions long from ghastly throes, Sent forth, when she the Protoplast beheld
His voice had falter'd out this simple tale.

Stand beauteous on Confusion's charmed wave.

Moaning she fled, and entered the Profound The Village, where he dwelt an Husbandman,

That leads with downward windings to the Cave By sudden inroad had been seized and fired Of darkness palpable, Desert of Death Late on the yester-evening. With his wife Sunk deep beneath Gehenna's massý roots. And little ones he hurried his escape.

There many a dateless age the Beldame lurk'd They saw the neighboring Hamlets name, they And trembled; till engender’d fierce late, heard

Fierce Hate and gloomy Hope, a Dream arose, Uproar and shrieks! and terror-struck drove on Shaped like a black cloud mark'd with streaks of Through unfrequented roads, a weary way!

fire. But saw nor house nor cottage. All had quench'd It roused the Hell-Hag: she the dew damp wiped Their erening hearth-fire: for the alarm had spread. From off her brow, and through the uncouth maze The air clipt keen, the night was fang'd with frost, Retraced her steps ; but ere she reach'd the mouth And they provisionless! The weeping wife Of that drear labyrinth, shuddering she paused, mi hush'd her children's moans; and still they Nor dared re-enter the diminish'd Gulf. moan'd,

As through the dark vaults of some moulder'd Till Fright and Cold and Hunger drank their life.

Tower They closed their eyes in sleep, nor knew 't was (Which, fearful to approach, the evening Hind Death.

Circles at distance in his homeward way) He only, lashing his o'er-wearied team,

The winds breathe hollow, deem'd the plaining groan Gain'd a sad respite, till beside the base

Of prison’d spirits; with such fearful voice Of the high hill his foremost horse dropp'd dead.

Night murmur'd, and the sound through Chaos went Then hopeless, strengthless, sick for lack of food, Leap'd at her call her hideous-fronted brood! He crept beneath the coverture, entranced, A dark behest they heard, and rush'd on earth ; Bill waken'd by the maiden.—Such his tale. Since that sad hour, in Camps and Courts adored,

Rebels from God, and Monarchs o'er Mankind!" Ah! suffering to the height of what was sufferid, Stung with too keen a sympathy, the Maid Brooded with moving lips, mute, startful, dark!

From his obscure haunt And now her flush'd tumultuous features shot

Shriek'd Fear, of Cruelty the ghastly Dam, Such strange vivacity, as fires the eye

Feverish yet freezing, eager-paced yet slow, Of misery Fancy-crazed ! and now once more

As she that creeps from forth her swampy reeds, Naked, and void, and fix'd, and all within

Ague, the biform Hag! when early Spring

Beams on the marsh-bred vapors.
The unquiet silence of confused thought
And shapeless feelings. For a mighty hand
Was strong upon her, till in the heat of soul
To the high hill-top tracing back her steps,

“ Even so" (the exulting Maiden said; Aside the beacon, up whose smoulder'd stones

“ The sainted Heralds of Good Tidings fell, The tender ivy-trails crept thinly, there,

And thus they witness'd God! But now the clouds Unconscious of the driving element,

Treading, and storms beneath their feet, they soar Yea, swallow'd up in the ominous dream, she sate Higher, and higher soar, and soaring sing Ghastly as broad-eyed Slumber! a dim anguish Loud songs of Triumph! O ye spirits of God, Breathed from her look! and still, with pant and sob, Hover around my mortal agonies !” Inly she toil'd to flee, and still subdued,

She spake, and instantly faint melody Felt an inevitable Presence near.

Melts on her ear, soothing and sad, and slow,

Such Measures, as at calmest midnight heard Thus as she toil'd in troublous ecstasy,' By aged Hermit in his holy dream, An horror of great darkness wrapt her round, Foretell and solace death ; and now they rise And a voice uttered forth unearthly tones, Louder, as when with harp and mingled voice Calming her soul,—“Thou of the Most High The white-robed* multitude of slaughter'd saints Chosen, whom all the perfected in Heaven At Heaven's wide-open'd portals gratulant Behold expectant

Receive some martyr'd Patriot. The harmony

Entranced the Maid, till each suspended sense (The following fragments were intended to form part of the Brief slumber seized, and confused ecstasy. Poem when finished.)

At length awakening slow, she gazed around : · Maid beloved of Heaven !" And through a Mist, the relic of that trance To her the tutelary Power exclaim'd)

Still thinning as she gazed, an Isle appear'd, • Of Chaos the adventurous progeny

Its high, o'er-hanging, white, broad-breasted cliffs, Thou seest ; foul missionaries of foul sire, Glass'd on the subject ocean. A vast plain Fierce to regain the losses of that hour

Stretch'd opposite, where ever and anon
When Love rose glittering, and his gorgeous wings
Over the abyss flutter'd with such glad noise,
As what time after long and pestful calms,

• Revel. vi. 9, 11. And when he had opened the fifth sent, I The Plow

man, following sad his meagre team, (Victims at once and Executioners),
Turn'd up fresh sculls unstartled, and the bones The congregated Husbandmen lay waste
Of fierce hate-breathing combatants, who there The Vineyard and the Harvest. As long
All mingled lay beneath the common earth, The Bothnic coast, or southward of the Line,
Death's gloomy reconcilement! O'er the Fields Though hush'd the Winds and cloudless the high
Stept a fair form, repairing all she might,

Noon,
Her temples olive-wreathed; and where she trod Yet if Leviathan, weary of ease,
Fresh flowerets rose, and many a foodful herb. In sports unwieldy toss his Island-bulk,
But wan her cheek, her footsteps insecure,

Ocean behind him billows, and before
And anxious pleasure beam'd in her faint eye, A storm of waves breaks foamy on the strand.
As she had newly left a couch of pain,

And hence, for times and seasons bloody and dark, Pale Convalescent! (yet some time to rule

Short Peace shall skin the wounds of causeless War With power exclusive o'er the willing world, And War, his strained sinews knit anew, That bless'd prophetic mandate then fulfill’d, Still violate the unfinish'd works of Peace. Peace be on Earth!) A happy while, but brief, But yonder look! for more demands thy view!” She seemd to wander with assiduous feet,

He said: and straightway from the opposite Isle And heal'd the recent harm of chill and blight, A Vapor sailed, as when a cloud, exhaled And nursed each plant that sair and virtuous grew. From Egypt's fields that steam hot pestilence,

Travels the sky for many a trackless league, But soon a deep precursive sound moan'd hollow: Till o'er some Death-doom'd land, distant in vain,

It broods incumbent. Forthwith from the Plain, Black rose the clouds, and now (as in a dream) Their reddening shapes, transformed to Warrior- Facing the Isle, a brighter cloud arose,

And steer'd its course which way the Vapor went hosts, Coursed o'er the Sky, and battled in mid-air. The Maiden paused, musing what this might mean. Nor did not the large blood-drops fall from Heaven But long time pass'd not, ere that brighter cloud Portentous! while aloft were seen to float,

Return'd more bright; along the plain it swept ; Like hideous features booming on the mist,

And soon from forth its bursting sides emerged Wan Stains of ominous Light! Resign’d, yet sad, A dazzling form, broad-bosom'd, bold of eye, The fair Form bowed her olive-crowned Brow, And wild her hair, save where with laurels bound. Then o'er the plain with ost-reverted eye

Not more majestic stood the healing God, Fled till a Place of Tombs she reach'd, and there When from his bow the arrow sped that slew Within a ruined Sepulchre obscure

Huge Python. Shriek'd Ambition's giant throng, Found Hiding-place.

And with them hissed the Locust-fiends that crawl'd

And glitter'd in Corruption's slimy track.
The delegated Maid

Great was their wrath, for short they knew their Gazed through her tears, then in sad tones exclaim'd,

reign; Thou mild-eyed Form! wherefore, ah! wherefore And such commotion made they, and uproar, fied ?

As when the mad Tornado bellows through The power of Justice, like a name all Light,

The guilty islands of the western main, Shone from thy brow; but all they, who unblamed What time departing from their native shores, Dwelt in thy dwellings, call thee Happiness.

Eboe, or Koromantyn's* plain of Palms,
Ah! why, uninjured and unprofited,
Should multitudes against their brethren rush ?

• The slaves in the West Indies consider death as a passport Why sow they guilt, still reaping Misery?

to their native country. This sentiment is thus expressed in Lenient of care, thy songs, O Peace! are sweet, the introduction to a Greek Prize-Ode on the Slave-Trade, of As after showers the perfumed gale of eve,

which the ideas are better than the language in which they That flings the cool drops on a feverous cheek:

are conveyed. And gay the grassy altar piled with fruits.

Ω σκοτου πυλας, Θανατε, προλειπων But boasts the shrine of Dæmon War one charm,

Ες γενος σπευδοις υποζευχθεν Ατα: Save that with many an orgie strange and foul,

Ου ξενισθη στη γενυων σπαραγμοι και
Dancing around with interwoven arms,

Ουδ' ολολυγμω,
The Maniac Suicide and Giant Murder
Exult in their fierce union ? I am sad,

Αλλα και κυκλοισι χοροι τυποισι
And know not why the simple Peasants crowd

Κ' ασματων χαρα: φοβερος μεν εσσι Beneath the Chieftains' standard !” Thus the Maid.

AXX' ομως Ελευθερια συνοικείς,

Στυγνε Τυραννε!

Δασκιοις επει πτερυγεσσι σησι To her the tutelary Spirit replied :

Α! θαλασσιον καθορωντες οισμα * When Luxury and Lust's exhausted stores

Αιθεροπλαγτοις υπο ποσσ’ ανεισι
No more can rouse the appetitos of Kings;

Πατριό επ' αιαν.
When the low flattery of their reptile Lords
Falls flat and heavy on the accustom'd ear;

Ενθα μας Ερασαι Ερωμενησιν
When Eunuchs sing, and Fools buffoonery make,

Αμφι πηγησιν κιτρινων υπ' αλσων, And Dancers writhe their harlot-limbs in vain;

Οσσ'υπο βρoτοις επαθον βροτσι, τα
Then War and all its dread vicissitudes

Δεινα λεγοναι.
Pleasingly agitate their stagnant Hearts ;
Its hopes, its fears, its victories, its defeats,
Insipid Royalty's keen condiment !

Leaving the Gates of Darkness, O Death! hasten thou to a Therefore uninjured and unprofited

Race yoked with Misery! Thou wilt not be received with

66

LITERAL TRANSLATION.

The infuriate spirits of the Murder'd make Thus saying, from the answering Maid he passid,
Fierce merriment, and vengeance ask of Heaven.' And with him disappear'd the Heavenly Vision.
Warm’d with new influence, the unwholesome plain
Sent up its foulest fogs to meet the Morn :

Glory to Thee, Father of Earth and Heaven! The Sun that rose on Freedom, rose in blood!

All-conscious Presence of the Universe !

Nature's vast Ever-acting Energy! “Maiden beloved, and Delegate of Heaven!”

In Will, in Deed, Impulse of All to All ! "To her the tutelary Spirit said)

Whether thry love with unrefracted ray * Soon shall the Morning struggle into Day,

Beam on the Prophet's purged eye, or if

Diseasing realms the enthusiast, wild of thought, The stormy Morning into cloudless Noon. Much hast thou seen, nor all canst understand

Scatter new frenzies on the infected throng,
But this be thy best Omen—Save thy Country!”

Thou both inspiring and predooming both,
Fit instruments and best, of perfect end :

Glory to Thee, Father of Earth and Heaven!” lacerations of cheeks, nor with funeral ululation-but with circling dances and the joy of songs. Thou art terrible indeed,

And first a landscape rose, yet thou dwellest with Liberty, stern Genius! Borne on thy More wild and waste and desolate than where dark pinions over the swelling of ocean, they return to their native country. There, by the side of Fountains beneath The white bear, dristing on a field of ice, Citron-groves, the lovers tell to their beloved what horrors, Howls to her sunder'd cubs with piteous rage being Men, they had endured from Men.

And savage agony.

Sibylline Leaves.

I POEMS OCCASIONED BY POLITICAL |may appear to mortals. The second Strophe calls EVENTS OR FEELINGS CONNECTED on men to suspend their private joys and sorrows.

and devote them for a while to the cause of human WITH THEM.

nature in general. The first Epode speaks of the Empress of Russia, who died of an apoplexy on the

17th of November, 1796; having just concluded a When I have borne in memory what has tamed subsidiary treaty with the Kings combined against Great nations, how ennobling thoughts depart

France. The first and second Antistrophe describe When men change swords for legers, and desert

the Image of the Departing Year, etc. as in a vision. The student's bower for gold, some fears unnamed

The second Epode prophesies, in anguish of spirit, I had, my country! Am I to be blamed ? But, when I think of Thee, and what Thou art,

the downfall of this country. Verily, in the bottom of my heart, of those unfilial fears I am ashamed. But dearly must we prize thee; we who find

I. In thee a bulwark of the cause of men ;

Spirit who sweepest the wild Harp of Time ! And I by my affection was beguiled.

It is most hard, with an untroubled ear
What wonder if a poet, now and then,
Among the many movements of his mind,

Thy dark inwoven harmonies to hear!
Felt for thee as a Lover or a Child.

Yet, mine eye fix'd on Heaven's unchanging clime,
Wordsworth. Long when I listen'd, free from mortal fear,

With inward stillness, and submitted mind;
ODE TO THE DEPARTING YEAR.*

When lo! its folds far waving on the wind,

I saw the train of the DEPARTING YEAR!
Ιού, ιού, ώώ κακά.

Starting from my silent sadness,
Υπ' αυ με δεινός ορθομαντείας πόνος

Then with no unholy madness, Στροβεί, ταράσσων φροιμίοις εφημίοις.

Ere yet the enter'd clond foreclosed my sight,

I raised the impetuous song, and solemnized his Το μέλλον ήξει. Και συ μην πάχει παρών

flight.
'Αγαν γ' αληθόμαντιν μ' έρείς.
Æschyl. Agam. 1225.

II.
Hither, from the recent tomb,

From the prison's direr gloom,
ARGUMENT.

From Distemper's midnight anguish;
The Ode commences with an Address to the Divine And thence, where Poverty doth waste and languish,
Providence, that regulates into one vast harmony all

Or where, his two bright torches blending, the events of time, however calamitous some of them

Love illumines manhood's maze ;
Or where, o'er cradled infants bending,

Hope has fix'd her wishful gaze,
* This Ode was composed on the 24th, 25th, and 26th days
of December, 1796: and was first published on the last day of

Hither, in perplexed dance,
Ye Woes! ye young-eyed Joys! advance'

*

*

*

VI.

By Time's wild harp, and by the hand

“ Thou in stormy blackness throning
Whose indefatigable sweep

Love and uncreated Light,
Raises its fateful strings from sleep,

By the Earth's unsolaced groaning,
I bid you haste, a mix'd tumultuous band !

Seize thy terrors, Arm of might!
From every private bower,

By Peace with proffer'd insult sacred,
And each domestic hearth,

Masked Hate and envying Scorn!
Haste for one solemn hour ;

By Years of Havoc yet unborn!
And with a loud and yet a louder voice, And Hunger's bosom to the frost-winds bare.l!
O'er Nature struggling in portentous birth

But chief by Afric's wrongs,
Weep and rejoice!

Strange, horrible, and foul !
Still echoes the dread Name that o'er the earth

By what deep guilt belongs Let slip the storm, and woke the brood of Hell :

To the deaf Synod, · full of gifts and lies" And now advance in saintly Jubilee

By Wealth's insensate laugh! by Torture's howl! Justice and Truth! They too have heard thy spell,

Avenger, rise !
They too obey thy name, Divinest Liberty! For ever shall the thankless Island şcowl,

Her quiver full, and with unbroken bow?

Speak! from thy storm-black Heaven, O speak aloud III.

And on the darkling foe I mark'd Ambition in his war-array!

Open thine eye of fire from some uncertain cloud ! I heard the mailed Monarch's troublous cry- O dart the flash! O rise and deal the blow! « Ah! wherefore does the Northern Conqueress stay! The past to thee, to thee the future cries ! Groans not her chariot on its onward way ?”

Hark! how wide Nature joins her groans Wow! Fly, mailed Monarch, fly!

Rise, God of Nature ! rise."
Stunn'd by Death's twice mortal mace,

No more on Murder's lurid face
The insatiate hag shall gloat with drunken eye!

Manes of the unnumber'd slain !
Ye that gasp'd on Warsaw's plain!

The voice had ceased, the vision fled;
Ye that erst at Ismail's tower,

Yet still I gasp'd and reelid with dread. When human ruin choked the streams,

And ever, when the dream of night Fell in conquest's glutted hour,

Renews the phantom to my sight, 'Mid women's shrieks and infants' screams!

Cold sweat-drops gather on my limbs ; Spirits of the uncoffin'd slain,

My ears throb hot; my eye-balls start; Sudden blasts of triumph swelling,

My brain with horrid tumult swims ; Oft, at night, in misty train,

Wild is the tempest of my heart; Rush around her narrow dwelling!

And my thick and struggling breath The exterminating fiend is fled

Imitates the toil of Death ! (Foul her life, and dark her doom)

No stronger agony confounds Mighty armies of the dead

The Soldier on the war-Field spread, Dance like death-fires round her tomb!

When all foredone with toil and wounds, Then with prophetic song relate,

Death-like he dozes among heaps of dead Each some tyrant-murderer's fate!

(The strise is o'er, the day-light fed,

And the night-wind clamors hoarse!

See! the starting wretch's head
IV.

Lies pillow'd on a brother's corse!)
Departing Year! 't was on no earthly shore

My soul beheld thy visioħ! Where alone,
Voiceless and stern, before the cloudy throne,

VII.
Aye Memory sits : thy robe inscribed with gore,

Not yet enslaved, not wholly vile, With many an unimaginable groan

O Albion! O my mother Isle ! Thou storied'st thy sad hours ! Silence ensued,

Thy valleys, fair as Eden's bowers, Deep silence o'er the ethereal multitude,

Glitter green with sunny showers; Whose locks with wreaths, whose wreaths with

Thy grassy uplands' gentle swells
glories shone.

Echo to the bleat of flocks
Then, his eye wild ardors glancing,

(Those grassy hills, those glittering dells
From the choired Gods advancing,

Proudly ramparted with rocks); The Spirit of the Earth made reverence meet, And Ocean, 'mid his uproar wild And stood up, beautiful, before the cloudy seah

Speaks safety to his ISLAND-CHILD!

Hence, for many a fearless age
V.

Has social Quiet loved thy shore !
Throughout the blissful throng,

Nor ever proud Invader's rage
Hush'd were harp and song :

Or sack'd thy towers, or staind thy fields with gore Till wheeling round the throne the Lampads seven

(The mystic Words of Heaven),
Permissive signal make :

VIII. The fervent Spirit bow'd, then spread his wings and Abandon'd of Heaven' mad Avarice thy guide, spake!

At cowardly distance, yet kindling with pride