That strife should vanish, battle cease, O why should this thy soul elate? Sweet music's loudest note, the poet's story,Did'st thou ne'er love to hear of fame and glory? V. And is not War a youthful king, Him Earth's majestic monarchs hail Their friend, their playmate! and his bold bright eye Compels the maiden's love-confessing sigh. VI. "Tell this in some more courtly scene, And therefore is my soul elate. War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled, That from the aged father tears his child! VII. "A murderous fiend, by fiends adored, Plunders God's world of beauty; rends away All safety from the night, all comfort from the day. VOL. I. That strife should vanish, battle cease: I'm poor and of a low estate, The Mother of the Prince of Peace. Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn: [born." Peace, Peace on Earth! the Prince of Peace is HUMAN LIFE, ON THE DENIAL OF IMMORTALITY. Ir dead, we cease to be; if total gloom Which, as she gazed on some nigh-finished vase She formed with restless hands unconsciously! Blank accident! nothing's anomaly ! If rootless thus, thus substanceless thy state, Go, weigh thy dreams, and be thy hopes, thy fears, The counter-weights!-Thy laughter and thy tears Mean but themselves, each fittest to create, And to repay the other! Why rejoices Thy heart with hollow joy for hollow good? Why cowl thy face beneath the mourner's hood, Why waste thy sighs, and thy lamenting voices, Image of image, ghost of ghostly elf, That such a thing as thou feel'st warm or cold? Yet what and whence thy gain, if thou withhold These costless shadows of thy shadowy self? Be sad! be glad! be neither! seek, or shun! Thou hast no reason why! Thou can'st have none; Thy being's being is contradiction. MOLES. --THEY shrink in, as Moles (Nature's mute monks, live mandrakes of the ground) Creep back from Light-then listen for its sound;See but to dread, and dread they know not whyThe natural alien of their negative eye. THE VISIT OF THE GODS. IMITATED FROM SCHILLER. NEVER, believe me, Appear the Immortals, Never alone : Scarce had I welcomed the sorrow-beguiler, Iacchus! but in came boy Cupid the smiler; How shall I yield you Due entertainment, Celestial quire? Me rather, bright guests! with your wings of upbuoyance Bear aloft to your homes, to your banquets of joy ance, That the roofs of Olympus may echo my lyre ! Hah! we mount! on their pinions they waft up my soul ! O give me the nectar! O fill me the bowl! Pour out for the poet, Hebe ! pour free! Quicken his eyes with celestial dew, That Styx the detested no more he may view, Forbids me to die! ELEGY, IMITATED FROM ONE OF AKENSIDE'S BLANK- NEAR the lone pile with ivy overspread, For there does Edmund rest, the learned swain ! Like some tall tree that spreads its branches wide, And loads the west-wind with its soft perfume, His manhood blossomed till the faithless pride Of fair Matilda sank him to the tomb. But soon did righteous Heaven her guilt pursue! Where'er with wildered step she wandered 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, Amid the pomp of affluence she pined; Nor all that lured her faith from Edmund's arms Could lull the wakeful horror of her mind. Go, Traveller! tell the tale with sorrow fraught: Some tearful maid perchance, or blooming youth, May hold it in remembrance; and be taught That riches cannot pay for Love or Truth. |