The good and evil thing, in human lore Undisciplin'd. For lowly was her birth, And Heaven had doom'd her early years to toil She climbs of that steep upland, on whose top The pilgrim-man, who long since eve had watch'd The alien shine of unconcerning stars, Shouts to himself, there first the Abbeylights That pure from tyranny's least deed, herself bench The sweltry man had stretch'd him, and aloft Vacantly watch'd the rudely pictured board Which on the mulberry-bough with welcome creek Swung to the pleasant breeze. Here, too, the Maid Learnt more than schools could teach: Man's shifting mind, His vices and his sorrows! And full oft At tales of cruel wrong and strange distress Had wept and shiver'd. To the tottering Eld Still as a Daughter would she run: she plac'd His cold limbs at the sunny door, and lov'd To hear him story, in his garrulous sort, Of his eventful years, all come and gone. So twenty seasons past. The Virgin's Form, Active and tall, nor Sloth nor Luxury Had shrunk or paled. Her front sublime and broad, Her flexile eye-brows wildly hair'd and low, And her full eye, now bright, now unillum'd, Spake more than woman's thought: and all her face Was moulded to such features, as declared, Guilt was a thing impossible in her! In the first entrance of the level road But stiff and cold, stood motionless, their manes Hoar with the frozen night-dews. Dismally The dark-red dawn now glimmer'd; but its gleams Disclosed no face of man. The maiden paused, Then hail'd who might be near. No voice replied. From the thwart wain at length there reach'd her ear A sound so feeble that it almost seem'd Saw crowded close beneath the coverture She shudder'd: but, each vainer pang subdued, Quick disentangling from the foremost horse The rustic bands, with difficulty and toil The stiff, crampt team forced homeward. There arrived Anxiously tends him she with healing herbs, And weeps and prays-but the numb power of Death Spreads o'er his limbs; and ere the noontide-hour The hov'ring spirits of his wife and babes Hail him immortal! Yet amid his pangs, With interruptions long from ghastly throes, His voice had falter'd out this simple tale. The Village, where he dwelt an Husband man, By sudden inroad had been seiz'd and fired Uproar and shrieks! and terror-struck drove | Of CHAOS the adventurous progeny on Through unfrequented roads, a weary way! But saw nor house nor cottage. All had quench'd Their evening-hearth-fire: for the alarm had spread. The air clipt keen, the night was fang'd with frost, And they provisionless! The weeping wife Ill-hush'd her children's moans; and still they moan'd, Till Fright and Cold and Hunger drank their life. They closed their eyes in sleep, nor knew 'twas Death. He only, lashing his o'er-wearied team, Then hopeless, strengthless, sick for lack of food, He crept beneath the coverture, entranced, Till waken'd by the maiden.-Such his tale. Ah! suffering to the height of what was suffered, Stung with too keen a sympathy, the Maid Brooded with moving lips, mute, startful, dark! And now her flush'd tumultuous features shot Such strange vivacity, as fires the eye she sate, Ghastly as broad-eyed Slumber! a dim anguish Breath'd from her look! and still with pant and sob Inly she toil'd to flee, and still subdued Felt an inevitable Presence near. Thus as she toil'd in troublous extacy, An horror of great darkness wrapt her round, And a voice uttered forth unearthly tones, Calming her soul:--Oh Thou of the Most High Chosen, whom all the perfected in Heaven Behold expectant (The following fragments were intended to form part of the Poem when finished.] Maid belov'd of Heaven! (To her the tutelary Power exclaimed) Thou seest; foul missionaries of foul sire, Over the abyss flutter'd with such glad noise, And thus they witness'd God! But now the | Nor did not the large blood-drops fall from Heaven clouds they soar Treading, and storms beneath their feet, Portentous! while aloft were seen to float, Like hideous features looming on the mist, Wan stains of ominous light! Resign'd, yet sad, The fair Form bow'd her olive-crowned brow: Then o'er the Plain with oft reverted eye Fled till a place of tombs she reach'd, and there Within a ruin'd sepulchre obscure Found hiding-place. The delegated Maid Gaz'd thro' her tears, then in sad tones exclaim'd: Higher, and higher soar, and soaring sing The white-robed multitude of slaughter'd Thou mild-ey'd FORM! wherefore, ah! wherefore fled? At Heaven's wide-open'd portals gratulant mony Stept a fair form, repairing all she might, Fresh flowrets rose and many a foodful herb. And nurs'd each plant that fair and virtuous grew. But soon a deep precursive sound moan'd Black rose the clouds, and now (as in a Light, Then WAR and all its dread vicissitudes Pleasingly agitate their stagnant hearts; Yet if LEVIATHAN, weary of case, In sports unwieldy toss his Island-bulk, Ocean behind him billows, and before A storm of waves breaks foamy on the strand. And hence, for times and seasons bloody and dark, Short Peace shall skin the wounds of causeless War, And War, his strained sinews knit anew, Still violate th' unfinish'd works of Peace. But yonder look! for more demands thy view! He said: and straightway from the opposite Isle A Vapor sail'd, as when a cloud, exhaled From Egypt's fields that steam hot pestilence, Travels the sky for many a trackless league, Till o'er some death-doom'd land, distant in vain, It broods incumbent. Forthwith from the Facing the Isle, a brighter cloud arose, went. ALAS! they had been friends in youth; With Roland and Sir Leoline. Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; The marks of that which once hath been. BRACY'S DREAM. THY words, thou sire of Christabel, Are sweeter than my harp can tell; Yet might I gain a boon of thee, This day my journey should not be; So strange a dream hath come to me, That I had vow'd with music loud To clear yon wood from thing unblest, Warn'd by a vision in my rest! For in my sleep I saw that dove, That gentle bird, whom thou dost love, And callst by thy own daughter's nameSir Leoline! I saw the same, Fluttering, and uttering fearful moan, Among the green herbs in the forest alone. Which when I saw and when I heard, I wonder❜d what might ail the bird: For nothing near it could I see, Save the grass and green herbs underneath the old tree. And in my dream, methought, I went To search out what might there be found; And what the sweet bird's trouble meant, That thus lay fluttering on the ground. I went and peer'd, and could descry No cause for her distressful cry; But yet for her dear lady's sake, I stoop'd, methought the dove to take, When lo! I saw a bright green snake Coil'd around its wings and neck. Green as the herbs on which it couch'd, Close by the dove's its head it crouch'd; And with the dove it heaves and stirs, Swelling its neck as she swell'd hers! I woke; it was the midnight-hour, The clock was echoing in the tower; But tho' my slumber was gone by, This dream it would not pass awayIt seems to live upon my eye! And thence I vow'd this self-same day, With music strong and saintly song To wander thro' the forest bare, Lest aught unholy loiter there. NOTE S. America to Great Britain. [p. 305. This poem, written in the year 1810, by an American Gentleman, a valued and dear friend, I communicate to the reader for its moral, no less than its poetic spirit. We are One. [p. 306. This alludes merely to the moral union of the two Countries. The Author would not have it supposed that the tribute of respect, offered in these Stanzas to the Land of his Ancestors, would be paid by him, if at the expense of the independence of that which gave him birth. Or Balda-Zhiok, or the mossy stone Of Solfar-Kapper, while the snowy blast Drifts arrowy by, or eddies round his sledge, Making the poor babe at its mother's back Scream in its scanty cradle. [p. 307. Balda-Zhiok: i. e. mons altitudinis, the highest mountain in Lapland. Solfar Kapper: capitium Solfar, hic locus omnium, quotquot veterum Lap ponum superstitio sacrificiis religiosoque cultui dedicavit, celebratissimus erat, in parte sinus australis situs, semimilliaris spatio a mari distans. Ipse locus, quem curiositatis gratia aliquando me invisisse memini, duabus præaltis lapidibus, sibi invicem oppositis, quorum alter musco circumdatus erat, constabat. LEEMIUs, de Lapponibus. The Lapland women carry their infants at their back in a piece of excavated wood, which serves them for a cradle Opposite to the infant's mouth there is a hole for it to breathe through.-Mirandum prorsus est et vix credibile nisi cui vidisse contigit. Lappones hyeme iter facientes per vastos montes, perque horrida et invia tesqua, eo presertim tempore quo omnia perpetuis nivibus obtecta sunt et nives ventis agitantur et in gyros aguntur, viam ad destinata loca absque errore in a great venire posse, lactantem autem infantem, si quem habeat, ipsa mater in dorso bajulat, in excavate ligno quod pro cunis utuntur in hoc infans pannis et pellibus convolutus colligatus jacet. LEEMIUS, Armed with Torngarsuck's power (p. 307 They call the Good Spirit, Torngarsuck. The other great but malignant spirit is a nameless Female; she dwells under the sea in house, where she can detain in captivity all the animals of the ocean by her magic power. When a dearth befalls the Greenlanders, an Angekok or magician must undertake a journey thither: he passes through the kingdom of souls, over an horrible abyss into the palace of this phantom, and by his enchantments causes the captive creatures to ascend directly to the surface of the ocean. Eboe, or Koromantyn's plain of Palms, What time departing from their native shores, The infuriate spirits of the Murdered make Fierce merriment, and vengeance ask of Hearen p.311. The Slaves in the West-Indies consider death timent is thus expressed in the introduction to a as a passport to their native country. This senGreek Prize-Ode on the Slave-Trade: LITERAL TRANSLATION. Leaving the Gates of Darkness, oh Death! hasten thou to a Race yoked with Misery! Thon wilt not be received with lacerations of cheeks, nor with funereal ululation-but with eireling dances, and the joy of songs. Thou art terrible indred, yet thou dwelleth with LIBERTY, stern GENITs' Borne on thy dark pinions over the swelling of Ocean, they return to their native country. There, by the side of Fountains beneath Citron-groves, the lovers tell to their beloved what horrors, being Men, they had endured from Men. |