'' r 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 
 UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. | 
 
MIDNIGHT, 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER JPOEMS. 
 
 NEW-YORK; 
 
 n 
 FOR SALE BY T. J. CROWEN, 699 BROADWAY, 
 
 1858. 
 c. 
 
^t^^ 
 
 JOHN A. GRAY, 
 
 Printer and Stereotyper, 
 16 and 18 Jacob st., Fire-Proof Buildings. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 - 1. Midnight, 5 
 
 II. The Meeting, 33 
 
 III. The Moonlight Sail,' 36 
 
 IT. A Sunset on the Sea, . . . . . 39 
 
 Y. The Contest ; a Scene in Ancient Gaul, . . 41 
 
 VI. The Poet, 49 
 
 YII. To the Lark, 56 
 
 VIII. Yearnings, 58 
 
 IX. Hope, 61 
 
 X. Stewart Holland, 63 
 
 XI. To Silence, 67 
 
 XII. Littleness, 15 
 
 XIII. To THE Butterfly, . . , . . . 76 
 
 XIY. To THE Jews, . 11 
 
 XV. Justice and Mercy, 79 
 
 XYL Columbus, 82 
 
 XYII. Adam at Eve's Grave, 86 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 The king Josiah mentioned in the following, was that 
 pious monarch of Judah of the same name, who overthrew 
 the idolatrous images and temples which the people had 
 erected to Baal, and the other prevalent heathen deities ; 
 Obadiah is his favorite counsellor, one who incites and en- 
 courages him in his pious warfare with idolatry ; and is 
 merely imagined, there being none such mentioned in the 
 Bible. The poem, of which the following was the Second 
 Book, proving to be longer than the opportunities and pa- 
 tience of the author allowed, was intended to carry an entire 
 course of action to a greater length ; but from the above 
 reason, as much as is given below, was arranged as a sepa- 
 rate poem,complete in itself / 
 
 Night, covering all the land, concealed base men, 
 
 Who, at their altars various and wide, 
 
 Polluted all her silent hours with cries 
 
 Of foolish madness offered to the moon, 
 
 With human sacrifices ; Satan kept 
 
 These ever in his sight, and stationed round 
 
 With subtle watching demons whose command 
 
6 MIDNIGHT, 
 
 Was madness to instill in them that cried, 
 And keep off cooler thoughts, the slow return 
 Of reason, which if harbored, would destroy 
 Their loose insanity : this guard he keeps 
 Always about immortals, mortal here. 
 For everlasting slavery to him 
 Hereafter, and so builds his growing state. 
 He shares himself this watch, for often placed 
 He is his own close sentinel ; so plans 
 This subtle monster ; darkness is his home ; 
 Light which discloses his deformity, 
 Deformity disclosed to angel's ken. 
 He fears and shuns ; yet light and day he meets 
 Audacious, oft unpunished, when his schemes 
 Compel him leave his shade ; but in mid air 
 Before the morning or the noonday sun 
 He loathes to meet with seraphs, lest their eyes 
 See him less glorious than of old he winged 
 Superior flight to theirs, when raised aloft, 
 He swept heaven's empyrean, seen afar 
 Archangel proudest, nearest to the throne, 
 Brightest and thought the happiest ; when he fell 
 Astonishment was boundless throughout heaven. 
 To-night he thus addressed his dark compeer, 
 Beelzebub, that other flend scarce less 
 In power and pride : " How often shall we dread, 
 O friend ! being gods, our failing votaries. 
 These changeful men, who never keep the same ? 
 
MIDNIGHT. / 
 
 To-day observant, rebels all to-morrow ? 
 Thee king, O Baal ! declare what crowds obeyed 
 Last night, yea, do this hour, esteeming thee 
 A god, who devil art : to thy dark wings 
 They add effulgence ; power where thou art weak, 
 In heaven I mean, o'erlooking occupant 
 The mighty Presence who controls all things. 
 But forward look in time, see and despise. 
 Behold these same admiring multitudes 
 Ashamed to mention Baal, afraid to lift 
 Their adoration to the full-orbed moon ! 
 Thee they regard and others thy compeers, 
 ]N"o longer honorable, potent gods. 
 But wicked, base, and shameful ; led by one 
 Puffed up with pride to abolish from his land 
 Both thee and me, with all our train ; his hope 
 Our overthrow, when after drawing out 
 From hell her fullest forces, then by prayer, 
 To call for Heaven's strong succor, and condemn 
 Back whence they came, our proud advancing 
 
 hosts. 
 But me he loathes, he loathes ! then am I scorn 
 Even to a king? By this whereon I sit. 
 Hell's throne, thou shalt endure worse fate than 
 
 fall 
 From thine distracted, haughty man ! than be 
 Trodden and sick at heart ! for here dragged down 
 Beneath this seat implore and sue in vain. 
 
8 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 Then shalt thou see him glorious whom thy tongue 
 
 Presumes to spurn ! O sad uncertain state ! 
 
 O destiny not fit for one that flew 
 
 Unclouded in his splendor once through heaven! 
 
 To be at times the thing despised of men ! 
 
 To be a mortal's spue ! What does it help 
 
 My dignity once marred, if hundreds die, 
 
 If millions here come crawling racked by fear. 
 
 And all be hurled far off to ceaseless woe 
 
 And undecaying fire ? the blot remains. 
 
 The insult is repeated or may be ! 
 
 Thus I, hell's sovereign, hold a lame control. 
 
 Thee, too, Beelzebub, such fate attends." 
 
 The other answered choking with his spleen : 
 " "Wliat things are hourly done I hear and see, 
 O Satan ! and I wish we used more wrath 
 Against these fickle crowds whom I despise 
 As much as thou, and altogether hate. 
 Call not unfaithful devils ! men display 
 "Worse treachery, for which if it occurred 
 Within hell's limits, neither thou nor I 
 Would mutter what they underwent for dread." 
 Thus he, enraged ; to whom the subtle fiend 
 Disclosed his purpose. *' Hear, Beelzebub ! 
 Thou chief of many legions, never liked 
 So much as when important things require 
 Thy ready skill and daring enterprise ! 
 This King Josiah, whom thou and I detest, 
 
MIDNIGHT. 9 
 
 Is bold to rise against us, he a man, 
 And we strong spirits ; therefore we shall go 
 Superior in this contest 'gainst his pride ; 
 Let us afflict his soul with midnight fears ; 
 By secret art raise in his bosom dread, 
 Strange horrors and disquiet unexplained : 
 These shall obstruct him ; or by plans which fail, 
 Failing by us, his weary heart will droop 
 Discouraged and give o'er when he shall see 
 Else up rebelling every where his realm. 
 Though he be king, yet must he still respect 
 His meanest subject, not forbidding him 
 Encourage and retain his private thonghts. 
 The sentiments of all men are their own : 
 The king may rule the land, but not their minds 
 Who there inhabit ; if he use his power 
 Unjust, the pure unconquerable thought 
 Defies his chains, and struggles unto death. 
 Come, I will soon stir up this latent fire, 
 Which needs but touch to set it on a blaze ! 
 Fair human right ! I hold thee as a gem, 
 Precious and rare, found by a miner's hand 
 Beneath the earth ! Who can oppose a plea 
 So fond, though men be various and false ? 
 This most will lead the sober minds astray ; 
 Sages will cherish it, the good revere. 
 Esteeming statutes impotent to mar 
 Man's inner liberty of thought and faith. 
 
10 . MIDNIGHT. 
 
 All human government is meant to be 
 Outward and open ; inwardly the soul 
 Retires inviolate, and laughs to scorn 
 The peeping hindrances, which can not force 
 Their ingress, but are barred and bolted out. 
 Though now be not the age to practise this 
 With full success, (a later time shall give 
 More scope,) yet still what I can do I will, 
 And raise Josiah a foe not understood. 
 Unknown till now, portentous and not quelled." 
 " O chief!" the other fiend exclaimed, " how 
 dark. 
 How wise thy counsel ! now I do not doubt 
 Thy greater skill, nor thy true right to be 
 Acknowledged above all shrewdest in hell ! 
 I^or wonder that thy plans first sprang to birth, 
 To compass heaven when firmest and untouched 
 By our rebellion : not a word had yet 
 Been whispered, nor a sidelong glance been cast 
 By discontented seraph, until thou 
 Didst gather from thyself thy subtlety. 
 And by thy strength didst wage disastrous war ; 
 ITor when thy mind inventive framed new arms, 
 Explosive forces, bearing ruin vast 
 Amidst the heavenly battle-fields, thou wert 
 Wiser than now in raising up for men 
 This latest idol plausible and true. 
 It seems a virtue ; yea, it often is 
 
MIDNIGHT. 11 
 
 Genuine good when despots o'erstep 
 
 Their settled bounds, and give their private will 
 
 For universal law ; then liberty 
 
 Shines out with candor, loved and praised by all. 
 
 But subtle questions blind the intellect ; 
 
 Wrong goes for right ; right suffers for a wrong. 
 
 Advance, O Satan ! multiply their doubts ! 
 
 Confuse their minds, and make them choose thy 
 
 thoughts ; 
 Instill with wary art, and loose their hold 
 On goodness, truth, and old stability ! 
 By this most can we thwart this upstart king, 
 Who, young, esteems as naught experience 
 And all our powers ; and calling out in prayer, 
 Gets aid, and causes us much shame and loss." 
 
 Then Satan answered : " Well I know, O Baal ! 
 This will increase his troubles, but I wish 
 To chill with fear his proud triumphant heart. 
 Ere day approach, (lo ! now the midnight hour !) 
 I'll summon yonder imp and send him forth 
 On secret errand." Speaking thus, he waved 
 His hand where crouched frightened and mute a 
 
 fiend 
 For fear of him, lest some outrageous wrath 
 Sudden as felt before arise, and hell 
 Quake measureless with terror ; such the dread 
 They have whom Satan rules ; beneath his eye 
 They cower, and flee when flight betrays no scorn. 
 
12 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 Then Satan gave him orders while he heard : 
 
 " Go close Abdiah, and whisper in the ear 
 
 Of Jiidah's king wild monstrous thoughts ; his 
 
 heart 
 While he sleeps touch, sit nightmare on his 
 
 breast ; 
 Distract his soul with yagaries, or chill 
 With ennui, languor, weariness, and woe. 
 Assume all shapes, and if in light there be 
 More fitting power appear in this, or seem 
 Seraph with virtue's garb about thee thrown !" 
 The fiend with low obeisance mounting flew 
 With either arm outspread, and crossed the space 
 Of outer hell ; thence entering on the void 
 Which separates his dark abode from worlds, 
 Faster he strained his flight with skillful wing 
 And steadfast searching eye. Afar ahead 
 First scarce detected, glimmer out faint stars,' 
 Acquiring light and place ; a comet gleams 
 Upon the verge of worlds, and now grows less 
 Departing ; other stars in crowds appear. 
 And forward heaven glitters and shines like night 
 To men on earth, save those familiar groups 
 Whose names and shapes we know ; soon he ar- 
 rives 
 Among their ranks, and cuts the comet's path 
 Athwart his orbit, skirting front and rear 
 Unnumbered suns ; he traverses wide fields 
 
MIDNIGHT. 13 
 
 Of nebular and mazy light, and marks 
 Far opposite our sun, and with approach 
 Detects the planets rolling round his fire : 
 Unwearied yet his spirit-wings of flight : 
 By Mars he shoots from having nearly touched 
 More distant Jupiter amid his moons. 
 And crossed the broken planet's ancient path ; 
 At dead of night descending silently 
 He reaches earth, and casting towards the seats 
 Of Egypt eyes of longing, reads her crime 
 In lighted halls and shameless revelry : 
 Then turns to fair Jerusalem, whose streets 
 More silent, do not glare with ruddy lamps 
 From open doors, but lay in sombre shade, 
 Save where they widen and the moon's full orb 
 By nothing hid, or tower or wall shines down 
 With flood of solemn light ; though still the walks 
 The close shut tenements with impious rites 
 Were then profaned, if any there feared Baal, 
 And held their orgies, disregarding that 
 Determined law which King Josiah gave, 
 That unto idols none should ofier up 
 Erroneous worship ; him they disobeyed. 
 Subservient unto sin and secretly 
 Corrupt ; so half the entire city led 
 This life of disobedience, to the eye 
 Of heaven now deemed mature for overthrow : 
 1* 
 
14 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 But those that feared the king and reverenced 
 
 God, 
 Invaded not the night with wakeful acts, 
 But slumbering let repose steal hours away, 
 While thej in placid dreams renewed their 
 
 strength. 
 These faithful servants of their God and king 
 He sorrowful observed : " In slumbers drowned 
 Too blest for me to meditate upon, 
 Fortunate mortals ! ye prolong your peace ! 
 By day contented, night has no alarms. 
 For you no terrors lurk in loneliness" 
 Or silent shade, because your breasts are clear. 
 Your peace casts no soft ray of tenderness 
 On our parched souls, nor do your glances light 
 A beam in ours ; we miserable view 
 And still despair from certainty of pain 
 And endless permanence of woe : bnt you. 
 Ye other class, who weary night with cries. 
 Mistaken fools ! slaves to a wily snare 
 Towards us you tend, towards us and our hard 
 
 lot! 
 We see the hour when we shall stand disclosed 
 Before you, not as Bel or Astoreth 
 Great, powerful, and glorious gods, but base 
 In our deformity and gloomy lieat : 
 Ye, sliuddering and confounded, shall shrink 
 
 back, 
 
MIDNIGHT. 15 
 
 But can not far ; before, behind, all sides, 
 
 We unrelenting stand, and shall inflict 
 
 Your penalties more real than affright ; 
 
 Thence to thick glooms and heavy sorrows drive." 
 
 Such things revolving as he reached the door 
 
 Before the royal palace he observed 
 
 A shape not there unknown ; but whom he left 
 
 Behind when leaving hell, whom after him 
 
 To try good Obadiah with like arts. 
 
 And secret subtleties, Beelzebub 
 
 Dismissed with speed ; their salutation made 
 
 And objects known, Abbon, (so name the fiend,) 
 
 Casting a scowl of fury, thus exclaimed : 
 
 *' How hard is this our servitude become ! 
 
 What pitiful and feeble lackeys I I, 
 
 For pride compels me utter burning thoughts, 
 
 I can not longer bend and play the fool. 
 
 My sovereign nods, I rise and prostrate fall ; 
 
 He speaks, I am attentive ; he commands, 
 
 To other end of universe I flee ; 
 
 In all a slave ; yet he's inferior 
 
 To many and many an angel that now roams 
 
 Celestial scenes where shackless fancy leads. 
 
 Ah ! blest existence whence we fools were cast ! 
 
 Were cast ! and by whose means ? by his that now 
 
 Condemns us to new hardships, using us 
 
 As if our nature were beneath his own, 
 
 And not his kin ; the same in origin. 
 
16 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 In fall, in wickedness ; but power to him, 
 To us its lack : he schemed of old in heaven ; 
 Be this our pattern now ; as he once taught 
 Let us be apt and give him what he gave 
 His King, rebellion ; let us stir up Hell 
 "With blind confusion, drawing after us 
 His discontented armies, and engage 
 With these his menial remnant in a war 
 Horrid and fatal to his easy state. 
 Him, when the rumor comes, his heart shall fail ; 
 His boastful courage shall die out, because 
 An equal, yea, superior fortitude 
 Shall meet his own, and injuries shall add 
 What most he lacks, a thirst for quick revenge." 
 He paused to mark th' effect of what he said, 
 But noticed that Abdiah trembled lest 
 For words so rash, secreted Satan might 
 Appear with hundred horrors, and with ire ; 
 For one so various and forever found 
 Where least expected, was not surely known 
 To be where being, and where absent fled ; 
 At one, or both, or none, their subtle lord ; 
 And not his chosen counsellors could guess 
 At any time where he retired or staid. 
 Abdiah, therefore, shuddering while his ear 
 Eeceived such bold intelligence, exclaimed: 
 *' Abbon, fool-hardy fiend, once I esteemed 
 Thy nature cautious, but these words have shown 
 
MIDNIGHT. IT 
 
 How foolish tlion and weak ; reflect how long 
 Satan has held unquestioned power and ruled 
 Spirits mightier and warier than thou ! 
 Has Moloch ever risen against his face, 
 Beelzebub, and whom the wiliest fiend 
 We hold in Hell ? Abandon idle dreams ; 
 Eest, troubled spirit, much as devil can ! 
 Repress ambition, for remember now 
 How pitiless is Satan when aroused 
 To active fury ; merely now contempt 
 He casts at thee ; provoke him not to drag 
 To unexampled tortures thy weak frame." 
 To him retorted Abbon : " Oh ! how base ! 
 How cowardly ! who once before the front 
 Of Michael, ledst a gallant troop to war ! 
 Not then did I surmise that servitude 
 Could wear thy courage, quell thine ardent soul, 
 Till they that followed thee grew shamed to see 
 Thy valor falter ! Though thy band were few, 
 Subordinate division of a host 
 Obeying Moloch, by him brought to meet 
 Heaven's warlike legions, still none gained a name 
 Upon that field for courage more than thou 
 And thy companions ; I recalling this, 
 Am now astonished at the sudden change : 
 Though well I know the wearisome hard lot 
 Which thou hast borne, and still dost bear, and 
 learn 
 
18 MIDXIGHT. 
 
 From every hand how it subdues the heart, 
 
 Controlling it with heaviness, and cold 
 
 Inanimate indifference to the call 
 
 Of furious spirit ; yet remember now 
 
 That magnanimity is chiefly shown 
 
 By bearing up against the blows of fate ; 
 
 And if oppression sinks with heavy load 
 
 Upon the soul, and they that injure us 
 
 Mean our complete destruction, we rise up 
 
 And throw their shackles from us in our rage : 
 
 But if not potent for our liberty 
 
 Our souls endure in silence, keeping up 
 
 Their pristine nature undecayed and bright 
 
 For future fit occasion, when they shall 
 
 Excite strong action, renovate dull life. 
 
 And blow the trumpet for a scathing war 
 
 On them that bind our freedom. This I thought 
 
 Was thine imperial nature, unsubdued. 
 
 Glowing within thy bosom, if not seen 
 
 By outward eye ; but, imbecile, thou art 
 
 Afraid to strike for liberty and live !" 
 
 Abdiah answered coldly to his heat : 
 " Go forth and stir up whom thy blindness thinks 
 Confederate and faithful bosom friends ; 
 I should have thought suspicion of their zeal 
 And ultimate adhesion would suspend 
 Too hasty action, with the memory fresh 
 Of what they rendered Satan in his war. 
 
MIDNIGHT. 19 
 
 Against the heavenly powers ; then if a way 
 Of reconciliation had been left 
 How numerous the press had been to gain 
 Their late rejected seats, and worship Him 
 Whom all before opposed ! but now too late 
 Heaven sternly frowned ; their disobedience 
 And foulest taint of sin madt, them unfit 
 For second entrance, and the Awful King 
 Forbade them come, who never can expect 
 To be forgiven their rebellious war. 
 But being thus disdained, their common lot 
 Did not impel them as their leader hoped 
 Might afterward transpire, to rest in him 
 Their undivided confidence, and be 
 One firm united state confederate ; 
 For every one distrusted his right hand. 
 While spleen and envy thickened ; every where 
 Wide discontent and busy tongues at work : 
 Till Satan gathered all about himself 
 By his unequalled power, and held by force 
 What he had not obtained before by art. 
 By their associate lot, or other cause. 
 From this learn constancy is not their trait 
 Whom you would govern, for I see your aim. 
 Satan is hated now, and widely feared ; 
 For him no loyalty, no faithful band ; 
 But impotent rebellion mutters low 
 What it refrains from fear to utter loud. 
 
20 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 From this infer, foresee what thou shalt reap 
 
 Even if success attend ; no settled power, 
 
 'No order, no stability ; keen care 
 
 And a continual hungering to know 
 
 Thine enemies, in order to destroy 
 
 Their plots, and lead to instant punishment. 
 
 ISTot only this, but when some other fiend, 
 
 As bold as thou, and now more fortunate, 
 
 Climb up thy throne, then how shalt thou endure 
 
 The accumulated pangs he will inflict, 
 
 When he shall so degrade thee that thenceforth 
 
 No more for fresh dominion any shall 
 
 Eecall thy shattered glory ? What is shamed 
 
 May never issue laws to haughty thrones. 
 
 Methinks 'tis more magnanimous to stay 
 
 Forever constant to a private spot. 
 
 Than raised a little higher thence to plunge 
 
 Beneath the proper station which we may 
 
 Preserve without dishonor ; once I felt 
 
 Thy fiery fancies, but am wiser now : 
 
 Be thou like me, content, and cease from this 
 
 Extravagance, which certainly will end. 
 
 If thou pursue, in ignominious pain !" 
 
 He paused, and Abbon thus with wrath ex- 
 claimed : 
 " Oh ! prudent safe exemplary advice ! 
 Whence do I hear such counsels ? do I stand 
 By opening heaven, and do I hear the speech 
 
MIDNIGHT. 21 
 
 Of seraph uttering virtue ? am I he 
 "Whom, planning first a monarchy 'mong men, 
 His guardian angel whispered to dissuade 
 From wrong and bloodshed, to embrace the 
 
 sweets 
 Of quiet life, and linger in repose, 
 Blameless and pure ? Well I remember he 
 Turned off from that soft counsellor, and fought 
 His conquering way, and gained a dazzling 
 
 throne. 
 And sat secure ; and when he died, his child. 
 Born while his father was a king, stepped in 
 The vacant seat, and scattered far and wide 
 Paternal and peculiar laws, and grew 
 Into a monarch greater and more feared 
 Than was his sire : their names are yet retained ; 
 Their ancient sites of grandeur, though the 
 
 towers 
 Have long since fallen and crumbled into dust. 
 Suppose this conqueror listened to the voice 
 Of that soft seraph, would his power and fame 
 Have grown, and he be glorious as to rule 
 First among monarchs ? Things on earth I choose 
 To show infernal states and my desire." 
 
 "But," answered him Abdiah, "you have forgot 
 The king you mentioned grovels now in Hell ; 
 A lowly neighbor, once a friend of his 
 When he was private, (by his public eye 
 
22 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 O'erlooked,) having died upon a virtuous life, 
 Now reaps serene enjoyment past all speech, 
 Beyond comparison more blest than he 
 When reigning sole and undistracted king : 
 Your case is lame ; seek more substantial fool 
 To illustrate what rewards Ambition gives 
 To those that following, lose all other good." 
 
 He ceased, but Abbon could not make reply 
 To truth so broad, truth recognized in Hell, 
 Where all ambition tendeth, and from whence 
 Its sources rise ; one bitter cry he raised, 
 Then mounting, borne on wings, was seen no 
 
 more. 
 But the other fiend, Abdiah, silently 
 Pressed where Josiah lay, whom now in dreams 
 Easy and pleasant, happy fancies led. 
 First, sinking heavily, he wore his breast, 
 Remaining like dead weight, and by his art 
 Made mental horrors gradually arise 
 Across his brain ; now suddenly are lost 
 Day and fair joyance, lost the smiles and love 
 Of tender-hearted friends ; old memories. 
 Just dreamed of, vanish, as an azure sky 
 Gloomed by a sudden tempest, black and huge 
 Advancing ruinous ; so o'er his soul 
 The fiend compelled dark anxious fears to pass. 
 With pain and sorrowing despair ; he made 
 Life as life was in dreams, appear a blank. 
 
MIDNIGHT. 23 
 
 A sad, unnoticed, solitary waste, 
 
 By which none came, and over it shrieked winds. 
 
 Beginning with this milder form of grief 
 
 As nearest change to happiness, the fiend 
 
 Led next across his spirit a sharp line 
 
 Of keen vexation, mortifying rage , 
 
 First subtle, next unmastered. In his bed 
 
 Still sleeping, rose the King, and with both hands 
 
 Clutched vacant foes ; his eyes glared stone ; he 
 
 cried 
 Angry and sudden, till his chamber filled 
 With guards who entered hastily, alarmed 
 For him by whom they watched. Into their 
 
 hands 
 Spread out to catch him falling, dropped the 
 
 King 
 And woke astonished. " What is this, young 
 
 men ?" 
 He asked, with part of anger in his tone ; 
 Then they declared the matter as it was ; 
 To whom he answered. " 'Twas a dream, no 
 
 more ; 
 Leave me again to sleep ; the night is calm, 
 The gentle moon subdues all things with light." 
 They left him, yielding up his frame to sleep 
 Quiescently, not dreading solitude. 
 Soon things grow dim ; the shaded lamp which 
 
 hangs 
 
24 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 Sidelong, no longer sheds its softened ray, 
 'Nov from the open window comes the air 
 Of summer freshly on his heated brow ; 
 He listens not to zephyrs, thinks no more ; 
 For now hath slumber shut him out from these 
 And ushered him upon another life, 
 A place where heavy shadows shade themselves 
 With frequent night. He hears by him move 
 
 past 
 Forms unperceived. What dismal realm is this ? 
 And tenanted by whom ? He loses thought 
 That he is king, and at his call should come 
 An army ; accustomed courage leaves his breast ; 
 And this is not the least which he endures 
 To whom, when waked, fear never comes ; he 
 
 stands 
 Awaiting What may issue from the gloom, 
 Anxious and trembling. ITow a hand descends 
 Upon his shoulder, cold as ice, and weight 
 Like lead ; while on his ear low mutterings fall — 
 " Doomed, doomed ! Seize him, ye fiends, for 
 
 this is he 
 That fights against us, puny adversary !" 
 Then as he feels an hundred talons sink 
 Into his flesh, and hears an hundred yells. 
 Timorous he asks what crime ? " O weak 
 
 Josiah ! 
 Hemember how you broke our images, 
 
MIDNIGHT. 25 
 
 And cut our chosen groves, and killed our priests, 
 And made our name a by- word ! it is crime. 
 Distract ye hounds, this prey, no more a king !" 
 Then from their secret passages emerged 
 Bands without number, glaring with their eyes 
 As red as coals. All these began at once 
 To fly against him as a rushing flock 
 Of seabirds beat a cliff by strenuous wings 
 Impelled ; or which the maddened hurricane 
 Drives pitiless in fury on the crags, 
 Maiming their tender breasts ; but while he 
 
 shrinked 
 Suddenly the blackness vanished, and glad day 
 Shone on the gloom ; the fiends retired in haste, 
 And fairer beings moving quickly up, 
 Turned fear to joy ; no more he saw a pit 
 Full of strange horrors, but prospect fair and 
 
 large 
 Backed by a purple mountain, and in front 
 A murmuring stream, by forests shaded o'er ; 
 On either hand lay bounteous fields of flowers, 
 As wild as nature, mixed with fruitful trees 
 And running vines ; kind, happy faces smiled 
 Between the leaves, and tender voices spake ; 
 One whom he heard address him, uttered these : 
 "O prosperous Prince! to thee His smiles are 
 
 given 
 Who made both heaven and earth ; to thee he 
 
 adds 
 
26 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 Long life and full success, the name of Good 
 Prefixed to King, and long security. 
 Rebellion though it rise shall never harm. 
 All this, because the law of God is writ 
 Upon thy heart, and thou hast set thyself 
 To cleanse thy borders, and thy nation bring 
 To Him, whose laws so long they have despised. 
 Then turning, He'll forgive and strengthen all." 
 So dreamt the King ; so foiled Abdiah left 
 With shame ; for when the guardian angels saw 
 His wicked schemes, while bending o'er the 
 
 couch, 
 Regarding how the King, by him opprest 
 Dreamt wildly, racked by horror and dismay. 
 And nearly mad, then they approached and 
 
 cheered 
 With whispers low and sweet ; their fingers 
 
 touched 
 His temples that he felt the meshes break 
 Which first Abdiah wove ; as at the hand 
 Of dewy Spring the frozen brooks run free ; 
 While baifled far fled oif Abdiah fiend, 
 Disheartened with defeat, and Hellward bound 
 To lay before his chief his ill-success. 
 He had not far pursued his sullen course 
 When, flying madly, with his visage flushed, 
 And fiery as Mars, upon the sky 
 He noticed Abbon ; testily he fiew, 
 
MIDNIGHT. 27 
 
 ITow here, now there ; by sudden points and 
 
 turns, 
 Yet swiftly, wandering like a worried star, 
 And cast red glare. Abdiah learned by this 
 He also suffered shameful overthrow, 
 And was enraged, for none more furious lived 
 In Hell than Abbon, equal in his ire 
 To Moloch, but less strong. Towards him he 
 
 veered, 
 And overtaking by his steadfast flight 
 The other's zigzag course, thus called aloud : 
 " Say who discomfited thy wiles, fiend ? 
 Was Obadiah proof, or did he need 
 An angel, or a band to soothe his soul ?" 
 
 " Accost me not ! I hate the human race, 
 I hate their name, their memory ; I loath 
 Both what I went to do and him that sent ; 
 And whom I met my very soul abhors. 
 For while he was a mortal unprepared, 
 And I a devil come prepared, he rose 
 And drove me off; this to Beelzebub 
 Must I declare shamefaced, while he derides ! 
 But first, wert thou successful, and so soon. 
 Why hither come, who shouldst be active there ?" 
 
 The other speaking calmer, thus replied : 
 " Abbon, some men are favored : this is one. 
 My arts were useless ; twice I called them forth. 
 Twice was I foiled ; the hovering angels swept 
 
28 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 My nightmare meshes from his throbbing brain ; 
 They brought him scenes of pleasure ; on his ear 
 They let glad voices fall with cadence sweet ; 
 Before his eyes young Happiness displayed 
 His beatific charms : this I beheld, 
 And knowing Sol would shortly climb the sky, 
 Fled off three hours ere dawn ; continued flight 
 I^ow brings me here to learn of your defeat." 
 
 " Thine was a nobler contest, for thy foes 
 Were spirit ; angels were thy conquerors. 
 But mine (how the fates use me !) was a man^ 
 One man, and he from slumber half-awaked. 
 I came where my opponent lay asleep ; 
 I breathed upon his soul, which was as calm 
 As mountain lakes, protected from the wind ; 
 Better, thought I, to cast this placid rest 
 Than meet unquiet rage ; it is to me 
 A greater joy to mar than only add. 
 How soundly sleep these mortals ! how they lose 
 Their discontent and trouble ! Cares forgot, 
 Fears banished, nature renovates her strength 
 When locked in sound repose. Forthwith I sank 
 So sudden as to wake him ; up he sprang. 
 Confounded with astonishment, and looked 
 To find the heavy hand that struck his breast. 
 For he imagined human blows had fallen. 
 He woke his slaves, and made a careful search ; 
 None found, he sought again his welcome couch. 
 
MIDNIGHT. 29 
 
 But first he prayed, and powerful in prayer, 
 Beseeching Heaven's unfailing help to-night, 
 I stood disclosed ; from me made visible 
 Thin air retired, so was the higher Will. 
 l!^ot conscious that my presence was laid bare, 
 I kept my place, until I saw amazed 
 The soldier rise and grasp his sword and strike 
 My crest, thinking me mortal who am spirit. 
 My separated parts adhered again ; 
 I felt my fury rise ; then I had seized 
 My victim and destroyed him, but I feared 
 Apparent Heaven ; for round about I saw 
 Countless legions, whom Hell itself were weak 
 One moment to resist : we saw the same 
 On our last battle-field, when opened gates 
 Discharged in ordered rank and flashing plumes 
 Our mighty enemies. But when he saw 
 Twain merge in one and fissure left nowhere, 
 Ko more he clove, but sternly eyeing me. 
 Invoked a !N"ame too holy to be heard, 
 And banished me far off; compelled I fled. 
 Still hearing his stern virtue and that name. 
 Through stars I urged my hurried flight, till now 
 We meet ; thou not my leader in this war." 
 
 Conversing thus, and sharing mutual shame. 
 They traced their sullen journey towards the 
 
 mouth 
 Of miserable Hell, where come, they mixed 
 2 
 
80 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 With multitudes of devils either sent 
 
 On errand ruinous to men and good, 
 
 Or else returning laden with the spoils 
 
 Of their invasions fierce ; earth was the scene 
 
 And man their prey. These passing by, they 
 
 pressed 
 Within, where Satan seated, held the lots 
 Of all his subjects, haughty arbiter. 
 Their errand here delivered, Satan cried : 
 " Oh ! weak, and chiefly thou, rash fiend !" but 
 
 here 
 Broke in Beelzebub, " I rule yon slave, 
 I am his lord : deal with Abdiah thou. 
 But leave me Abbon 1" hastily he spake, 
 Forgetting his great wrath whom he assailed. 
 To whom his 'King : " Beelzebub, for this 
 I now would hurl thee from thy seat of power 
 And make thee menial who before wert chief 
 Of many thrones ; but that I know thy heat, 
 Thy quick intemperance and present fear ! 
 Withdraw forgiven now, but dread to break 
 Again upon me, lest, less merciful, 
 Thy crime may meet no pardon at my hand !" 
 So threatened he, and his black forehead scowled. 
 Then Hell shrunk back alarmed, and left the 
 
 space 
 Around them open, if by any chance 
 Such powers engage ; but Satan politic 
 
MIDNIGHT. 81 
 
 Desired no civil war arise in Hell, 
 
 And therefore added : "This is trivial cause, 
 
 Prince ! for our estrangement, who are bound 
 By kindred interests ! more worthy seek 
 
 To make me your great foe. With this perform 
 What pleases you ; among thy slaves he stands ; 
 l^ot therefore less mine own, who rule all Hell, 
 Both mightiest and lowest : what I want 
 
 1 take without a pledge ; so ye subsist 
 
 By me, your monarch holding sway o'er all." 
 Thus Satan, proudly speaking, dignified 
 Maintained priority ; and he that raved, 
 Grown prudent with reflection, bowed his head 
 In mute acknowledgment : Satan no more 
 Exacted, conscious of unshaken power. 
 
 Thus quiet was restored. Then called the King 
 Again Abdiah, from the dusky throng 
 That fleeing stopped far off, and thus gave word : 
 Though thou wert foiled, I know thee prudent ; 
 
 go! 
 Seek out again Josiah ! That perform 
 With which I trusted thee to-night, and act 
 Kightly the same, and ever through the day 
 Beset his various path with newer snares. 
 Obstruct with hardships unforeseen ; seduce 
 With gay declining pleasure ; if thou canst 
 Pervert his virtue : for I know if once 
 He fall from his firm goodness, and love vice, 
 
82 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 My kingdom loses then her greatest foe. 
 Be all to him ; and when the noontide burns 
 Inflame his passions like a spark thrown in 
 Combustible material ; when toil 
 Has wearied him at close of some hard day 
 From which he seems to reap no fit reward, 
 Do thou instill discouragement and doubt, 
 Doubt in that Power, whom piously he serves. 
 Thus doing, well ; but fear to disobey." 
 
 He heard and left, by Satan's eye pursued 
 Beyond the separating void till lost 
 Among the stars ; yet then the spot he eyed 
 Although his keener sight could not detect 
 Figure or shadow : in his mind he turned 
 His various chances, like a gamester plays 
 With his uncertain cards, and chiefly hopes 
 To win when his opponent's off his guard. 
 So Satan counting on man's ignorance, 
 Anticipated triumph and success. 
 
THE MEETING. 
 
 She came true to appointment, but not there 
 She found him : was he false ? had he forgotten 
 That there she'd be, and there would hope all day 
 For his expected coming ? What had been 
 Since they had parted ? Was he false ? Oh ! no ! 
 But him some harm had met, or accident, 
 Or irresistible necessity, 
 And he can not, although he would, be here. 
 How fast the driving sun descends the sky ! 
 How fleeting are the hours, and yet how long 
 Is waiting ! late it grows towards hastening night, 
 And soon the twilight over all will charm 
 Sea, earth, and heaven ; and then the moon will 
 
 rise 
 Unclouded, for no clouds are visible 
 As yet, and pleasant is the afternoon. 
 And nearly past. 
 
 A little while has fled : 
 He is not come. O heart ! what sorrow checks 
 
34 THE MEETING. 
 
 Thj previous rapture, thy enchanting hopes, 
 And stifles thy breast's swelling exstasies, 
 Leaving all vacant ! neither joy nor woe 
 Inhabiting the bosom neither claims, 
 Until assurance be established there 
 Whether he come or come not ! Let time fly ; 
 Banish corroding fears. O Evening fair ! 
 Now just begun, what holy spell is thine ! 
 What eyes are thine, and how more lustrous 
 
 beams 
 Yenus, of all bright queen ! to her attends 
 The nightingale, high sitting in the bough, 
 And thence attuning mellowly her throat 
 To a delicious warbling ; is it love ? 
 At least her mate is faithful ; faithful, said I ? 
 But so is mine. Ah ! bosom not at rest, 
 Thou unbelieving love, uncharitable, 
 ITot tried before, and failing now when tried, 
 Know he is true and full of honor, moved 
 By tenderest affection, never swayed 
 By aught but honesty and truest candor. 
 How pensive is the night ! the dreamy boughs 
 How dark and murmuring, how soft against 
 The silver moonlight ! Eye of heaven, look out. 
 Traverse the lonely road, the dusky fields. 
 See if he comes ! look forth, dear placid moon ! 
 Call for him, nightingale ! extend to him 
 Ye branches, unto him extend your arms. 
 And beckon him near ! 
 
THE MEETING. 35 
 
 A footstep ! Hark ! whose ? 
 She paused ; the fluttering of her breast drowned 
 
 sound ; 
 I^earer she catches it again. He darts — 
 'Tis he — he rushes up, and, ere she drops, 
 Supports her agitated frame, and hears 
 Her faint voice welcome in the fondest tones 
 Of love, which cold delay chilled not. 
 
 He tells 
 The reason of his waiting ; how he longed 
 To be upon the spot, but how a cause 
 "Which I need not repeat, and which once told, 
 She asked not for again ; an urgency 
 Making it then impossible to come, 
 Such as sometimes occurs, and gives alarm 
 Till all is afterwards explained, withheld 
 His punctual presence : but, Maria dear. 
 He says, to make for this complete amends, 
 I hence depart not, till mine own thou art, 
 And I am thine. Be witness, silent moon 
 And night, and ye dark solitudes ! Their hands 
 In one another joined, they leave the spot, 
 Anticipating how the morrow shall 
 Dawn for them happiest of their happy lives. 
 And afterwards new mornings see them one 
 Who yet are two ; although but one in mind. 
 
A MOONLIGHT SAIL. 
 
 The lake lay silent 'neath. the silver moon, 
 
 Which threw upon its bosom a soft light 
 
 Of gentle beantj ; o'er the banks hung out 
 
 Deep boughs which ever trembled ; underneath, 
 
 The rippling waves seemed willing to be stilled, 
 
 So languidly they moved, save when a gale 
 
 Arose, and far across the ruffled lake 
 
 A flood came rolling up : if on the beach 
 
 You bent your ear and listened, then you might 
 
 Detect the presence of the silent swell. 
 
 The lapsing of the ripples ; as it were 
 
 A sound that can not be remarked, but known 
 
 There to exist, and needing finer ears 
 
 To catch its soft impulses. As you lie 
 
 Oh ! what a fairy scene the quiet lake 
 
 Seems burnished to the eye ! for all the waves 
 
 Shine silvery or gold. But rise ! not this, 
 
 Nor this abstraction ; for the boat awaits, 
 
 And she, our fair commander, one who gives 
 
 Orders and we obey ; she calls to us 
 
A MOOKLIGHT SAIL. 37 
 
 And says our mutiny is manifest. 
 
 'Now enter we our shallop and launch out 
 
 Upon the bosom of the lake, to her 
 
 Attending, and there steering where she bids. 
 
 Ah ! Helen, thee, and none but thee, we wish 
 
 To lead us over fairy floating realms, 
 
 And underneath such silvery moons, in reach 
 
 Of whispers from the trees, where ever roam 
 
 E'ight breezes, tending all one way, all here 
 
 By thee attracted ! is not Zephyr now 
 
 Among thy tresses truant, having fled 
 
 His home among the wild-flowers? Hear his 
 
 voice ! 
 Almost our ears can catch his whispers, meant 
 For you and love ! unravel us our doubts ; 
 Instruct us in his pleading, so that we 
 Ejiow how to plead, and taking speech from him, 
 Succeed in our best wishes ! Oh ! the charm 
 Of sitting by the side of her we love 
 More than all else, and underneath a sky 
 Tenderer than day, and moving o'er the expanse 
 Of calm still waters, bearing in our soul. 
 Peace, pure and tranquil, with no looming care 
 Before us in the future hours ; no sense 
 Of conscience wronged that in His eye who made 
 IJs and these several joys, we blameless are. 
 And all our thoughts acceptable ! The charm, 
 O Helen ! in thy presence of this night, 
 2* 
 
88 A MOONLIGHT SAIL. 
 
 This silent lake, those trees along the shore ! 
 We float, and float, and care not where we float, 
 So but the lake be round ns, and, above 
 The moonlit skj, and silence on the air. 
 
A SUNSET ON THE SEA. 
 
 I SAW the Sun go down npon the wave ; . . 
 The western skj was all ablaze with red 
 And golden light, but softened air and sad 
 As summer settings are ; the orb remained 
 One instant on the water like a god 
 Departing, yet who lingers o'er the earth 
 One last retiring glance to throw, and then 
 Yanish, but vanishing to leave a train 
 Of glory in his passage. On the sea 
 The deepened colors heaving lay, and wed 
 The water unto heaven ; and so they seemed 
 But one, both having kindred beauty. Soon 
 The hues change line by line, as darkness sinks 
 Gradually down ; the eastern sky grows dim, 
 E"ight comes, but stops midway across the heaven, 
 Gazing on Twilight, sister of a blush 
 Not given to her and very beautiful : 
 Night looks and is enamored, and refrains 
 To banish what is lovely in her eye : 
 Therefore they linger, till yearning after him 
 
40 A SUNSET ON THE SEA. 
 
 From whom she gets her warmth, sad Twilight 
 
 hastes 
 And follows on the Smi ; the vacant clouds, 
 The solitary heaven then ISTight asserts. 
 And muses on the beauties fled away ; 
 The heaving Ocean shares her memories, 
 And both brood over Twilight gone, bjit he 
 Eecalls the Sun and thinks of more than Night. 
 
THE CONTEST 
 
 A SCENE IN ANCIENT GAUL. 
 
 The morn awaked is moving in the east : 
 One too awakes to lift liis tempered dart 
 "With heavy grasp, and bid farewell to wife 
 And press his sleeping babe ; for now the hour 
 Is near for combat, and the foe awaits 
 Perchance the earlier man upon the field : 
 Fires his soul with fury at the thought ! 
 He dashes out ; the trees surround his form. 
 Abandoned, weeps his gentle partner ; weeps 
 Aroused, his babe unconscious why it wept, 
 Eyeing its mother's water-coursing cheeks. 
 She takes him in her arms and urges out 
 Fleeter than hound. Whom hurries anger so, 
 Or hot ambition in our mortal chase, 
 As love, divine propeller of the feet ? 
 So fled she swiftly on : now she attains 
 The field of contest bristling on the view 
 
42 THE CONTEST. 
 
 With horrors of harsh war ; her lord she marks 
 With his accustomed step and haughty mien, 
 And countenance of courage ; and opposed 
 The hated chief that would cut down his pride. 
 
 Meanwhile the chiefs (so Gallic custom holds) 
 Approach and sing their glorious ancestors, 
 Arid mingle taunts, and insults, and deride 
 The baseness of their adversaries. Such 
 Betrays no cowardice in these sons of war ; 
 But more like beasts of prey that dare provoke 
 The deadly clutch and fury of their kind, 
 So these to probe each other's rage essay. 
 And first she listened to her husband's voice. 
 
 " Come, mark our contest, O my godlike sires 1 
 Come with your unseen spirit-steeds, and blow 
 Into my soul your ardent breaths ! I fight 
 Anew your ancient battles ; lend me fire, 
 Thrice-heated flame, that I may burn yon wretcli, 
 This, that presumes to stand upon my path ! 
 Have I slain nobler men, and shall I stoop 
 To this poor form ? Now while I sing of you, 
 Let yon pale shiverer listen ; let him loose 
 His limbs for flight when terror comes upon him. 
 A coward's like the wind ; but if he wait 
 My story ended, let us clash our arms. 
 
 'Afar in time Hesittan left his vale 
 With bear-skin round his loins, and knotted club 
 Grasped in his fist. Rude were our fathers then. 
 
THE CONTEST. 43 
 
 But wortli a hundred now. He met six wolves, 
 
 With blows as many slew them ; this he scorned 
 
 To think twice on. Then roaming south he took 
 
 A lion 'scaped from negro-land and tore 
 
 His teeth-fixed jaws apart ; in deadly strain 
 
 The monster worked for very life, and aimed 
 
 To eat our noble father, but he lay 
 
 A carcass at the close of that hard fight. 
 
 Staining the club with blood and brains : his skin 
 
 Succeeded to the bear's, cast now aside, 
 
 And clothed the giant's frame. Towards southern 
 
 Rome 
 Peopled that day by warriors, men of steel. 
 My noble sire next wended : there three knights 
 Beneath the city walls he squeezed too hard 
 'Tween thumb and finger, and against the gates 
 Did hurl them screaming on the way of death. 
 Outpoured the city much amazed and wroth, 
 Four hundred soldiers, but the giant mowed 
 Some dozen scores, and laughed at them, and 
 
 cried ; 
 ' Come out all Rome !' and waited : Rome de- 
 layed, 
 When in contempt he left her seven hills. 
 This same fought with the Germans, piled their 
 
 skulls 
 In heaps on every highway, laid a fear 
 A hundred miles in circuit on the roads. 
 
44 THE CONTEST. 
 
 And seemed some grim avenger from tlie gods 
 Sent down for human punishment. He died ; 
 'Twas of no common sickness, but one day 
 Grew black the heaven with thunder-clouds and 
 
 flashed 
 The rapid lightning, blasting over oaks 
 And stately pines : he marking how they fell, 
 Crushing the undergrowth, swore heavily 
 To tear them like the lightning did, and bent 
 His strength to twist a tree ; a sapling seemed 
 The rounded trunk beneath his human toil : 
 'Aha !' he cried, * in labors of the gods 
 I take my part and bear my trophies too !' 
 With that the thunderbolt descended swift ; 
 He moved to shake it off, but here his might 
 Grew paralyzed and with the tree close-hugged, 
 He sank to earth disfigured by the flame. 
 A neighboring city came and buried him. 
 
 " His wife was of his nature ; her blue eye 
 Had gazed permitted on the seats of gods : 
 Something of heaven was in her milky breast, 
 For often Pity, native to the skies, 
 Moulded her thoughts and actions for some 
 
 wretch. 
 Else doomed with death before her sterner spouse. 
 From her the giant drew a noble race 
 Of sturdy sons like him, and girls like her ; 
 Her wisdom to his strength they joined, and led 
 
THE CONTEST. 45 
 
 Paternal and maternal virtues down 
 
 The honored line ; of which the sixth I stand. 
 
 Whose sire Rome feared, and nations quaked to 
 
 see, 
 Tremble to call to battle, else thj corpse 
 Shall stretch the plain and women weep beside." 
 
 To him the other party : " What will stop 
 This boaster save the javelin ? words are vain 
 With such a tonguey fool ; but that these men 
 May know my line is kingly, and enrolled 
 Had heroes great and feared, I sing their deeds : 
 Let this thin bravery vanish while I tell. 
 
 "A kingdom bore my fifth forefather's sway ; 
 Its breadth consumed a month of travelled toil ; 
 Here browsing flocks and numberless brave 
 
 men; 
 Here terror shook her tresses at the foe, 
 Which, often vanquished, came as often back 
 Provoking fresh defeat : at last, annoyed, 
 My sire resolved to subjugate the world. 
 And yoke them into quiet, that his rest 
 Might flow on undisturbed in latter days. 
 He fought a border battle first, and won ; 
 Then traversed three small kingdoms ; at the 
 
 fourth 
 A wall of mountainous crags, precipitous, 
 Frowned sudden prohibition ; this to pass 
 Leaped his great spirit, and the fixed command 
 
46 THE CONTEST. 
 
 Went through his hosts ; whereat grew noisy 
 
 tongues 
 Into a tumult, for the thing they held 
 Was all impossible ; then scarlet flushed 
 His cheeks with blood and anger, and he made 
 A dozen targets of those noisy men 
 For twelve good bowmen ; each one pierced his 
 
 mark; 
 'Twas death to miss before so hot a king. 
 They now began the ascent, and followed goats 
 Where neither highway nor a path appeared ; 
 And separate often, often met by fews. 
 Toiled up the rugged mountains ; here swift darts 
 Toppled some down the chasms, direct by hands 
 Unseen and deadly ; but the foe was small 
 And small his slaughter. Thus they labored on 
 Till three weeks later, sunny plains below 
 Attracted softest ease, and happiness 
 That all thought fled forever, came again, 
 And drank her usual draughts by murmuring 
 
 founts. 
 And chose again her cool arboreous spots. 
 
 " Thence stretched his way toward Kome ; but 
 
 this is doubt 
 Whether he laid a siege or passed her by : 
 But legend says the king refrained to war 
 On such a strength of wall, from want of means 
 To shake their rocky lines ; for engines vast 
 
THE CONTEST. 47 
 
 Are needed to subdue this sort of foe : 
 But had the Eomans left their stony seat 
 And met him on the plain, thej braver men 
 Had shown them on that day, and with the strife 
 The world from end to end had echoed round, 
 So strong so numerous both the rival hosts ! 
 But they content to miss illustrious fame 
 For safety, live till now. The king pursued 
 His path of battles till for home with spoils, 
 Satiate, he turned his course, and laid his life 
 Towards close in lap of plenteous peace ; his name 
 Bear to this day some rivers, mounts, and capes." 
 The chieftains now seize on their horrid arms : 
 They cast the javelin, beat the shining shield, 
 Assail, retreat, provoke, descend, uprise, 
 Flee sidelong, plant the blow, till nature spent, 
 Demands a space for strength and wind's return : 
 This used for flashing anger, scorn, and scowls, 
 They urge again the contest, blows on blows. 
 The crash of limb on limb, of sword on sword ; 
 Shakes the whole frame till like a bullock felled 
 A vanquished chieftain drops ; the soil resounds 
 Kear to an earthquake. Motionless surveys 
 The victor o'er his prostrate enemy. 
 And gathers breath with patience, till he learn 
 Him overcome or willful to renew 
 The heavy trial : but no sound escapes 
 The other senseless on his fatal field. 
 
48 THE CONTEST. 
 
 The silent conqueror leaves him with his slaves, 
 While o'er his face his wife weeps burning tears ; 
 His kinsmen mourn ; his dog creeps mutely close; 
 But to the other flies his thankful wife, 
 Her eyes all love, her arms put forth to lay 
 Upon his heaving breast their smiling babe. 
 
THE POET. 
 
 Steange beings are we men, 
 
 And strangely moved ! 
 In joyous boyhood when 
 
 Our hearts have loved 
 Deeply, tenderly, 
 A cheerfulness and zest abound, 
 And like a maiden's voice is sound. 
 
 Darkens soon the heaven a cloud ; 
 Thunder rumbles, but not loud- 
 Low and far as boding ills ; 
 Dull become the distant hills ; 
 All the lands we loved appear ' 
 Fruitless, sunless, lone, and drear. 
 
 We have such delicate souls when young, 
 Gold is base, deceit our tongue 
 Has never known, and oft the skies 
 Receive the scrutiny of our eyes. 
 All unselfish, we admit 
 
50 THE POET. 
 
 Least as well as great to sit 
 
 Within our limits, and employ 
 
 Still our souls with some new joy. 
 
 Then we weep with those that weep, 
 
 Wake with wakeful ones, and sleep 
 
 Side by side with heavy lids ; 
 
 Never little pride forbids. 
 
 Of truth, of beauty votaries we, 
 
 And love the land, but more the sea ; 
 
 We climb the rocks which breast the waves. 
 
 And feel with winds we are no slaves, 
 
 IsTor ever could resign the right 
 
 To welcome day with chainless sight ; 
 
 And soon we toss along the brine 
 
 And flounder where the fishes shine. 
 
 And bear the sun on dripping backs 
 
 Where the gay dolphin shows his tracks. 
 
 Again, the land we tread alone 
 And search for spots before unknown. 
 And sigh that man's all-present tread 
 An earlier advent here has led. 
 "Is man then every where " the heart 
 Exclaims, stung with the sudden smart ; 
 " Are we, so late in time, forbid 
 To take away the door that hid 
 One place on earth? are all things known, 
 And nothing left to call our own ?" 
 
 Then to the stars we turn and gaze 
 
THE POET. 51 
 
 Upon their distant lessened days 
 Lent feebly unto earth in rays, 
 And in our soul's great wonderment 
 Desire to probe the firmament ; 
 Yet not like science, rule by rule, 
 And make sublimity a school, 
 But as the Arab would who leans 
 Above his steed and marks their scenes 
 At midnight when the Pleiads sail 
 In solemn silence, six sisters pale. 
 From whom one went in starry wail : 
 In such a mood as this we try 
 To bind the influence of the sky. 
 And bring ourselves by Job who saw 
 These silent spots long years before. 
 
 But business calls us soon away 
 From these charmed things, as night calls day, 
 And darker than night our souls become 
 Like little children long from home. 
 We walk with Memory through past years, 
 Their light our joy, their gloom our fears, 
 And once again, and yet once more. 
 As loath to break our dream, the roar 
 Accustomed rises from the shore ; 
 And merry infants then are we 
 Joining the ocean's sturdy glee. 
 Some dear companion sails our soul. 
 And holds again his first control, 
 
52 THE POET. 
 
 For faithful artist, Memory, 
 Revives liis image by the sea ; 
 And our full heart breathes forth a prayer 
 That Heaven make him peculiar care, 
 Direct to good and snatch from snare. 
 But chief to parents kind and true 
 Our soul goes forth as seeks the blue 
 Of day's unchecked expanse the bird 
 Whose voice at early dawn is heard : 
 Our father much, but mother more. 
 Calls forth our love, and on her breast 
 We sink in dear protected rest 
 As we have rested years before ; 
 Always to lie thus we implore. 
 Return our home and early scenes, 
 The dear old rooms and outside greens ; 
 Each spot is sacred with its own, 
 And with our thoughts lies overgrown ; 
 As rocks which nourish generous flowers. 
 Are covered by their grateful bowers. 
 
 But Memory mostly fails through grief, 
 And present sorrows overcome 
 The power to think ; the soul is dumb ; 
 Till lastly slumber brings relief, 
 And rest o'ertakes us like a thief. 
 
 Awaked, refreshed. Ambition sings 
 His syren song of chainless wings. 
 Of planet-fame, and just applause ; 
 
THE POET. 63 
 
 And soon th' unwary spirit draws. 
 He enters on the arduous course, 
 And conquers first through native force ; 
 Soon vanity the fledgling breaks 
 The egg's thin shell, and he awakes 
 To cast a weary glance behind 
 On things which only vexed his mind. 
 Then for repose his spirit weeps ; 
 Mid constant labor little sleeps 
 The heart of man, but for this boon 
 He prays in life's high sultry noon ; 
 Come down upon his temples then 
 Great actions done by other men, 
 High thoughts of genius, beauty's way 
 Of noble words ; with this essay 
 He cheers his mounting soul and moves 
 Amid new joys, superior loves. 
 While round his brow's poetic glow 
 Bright beings heavenly chaplets throw. 
 He mingles now with all the great 
 That on the earth held grandest state, 
 Either of kingdom or of mind, 
 The proud, the wise, the strong, the kind ; 
 All ages did he see, though past. 
 The earliest vivid as the last. 
 And future years were opened by 
 Imagination's daring eye ; 
 Almost prophetic grew his glance 
 3 
 
64 THE POET. 
 
 Thrown out long seasons in advance. 
 His theme was human progress oft ; 
 'Twas then his spirit sailed aloft 
 On highest wafting ; then her spark 
 Grew sun, and left no shade of dark : 
 At other times his tender strain 
 Made company with the dove's soft plain, 
 And heard at evening's mellow haze 
 Composed the soul from heated days : 
 Some words he uttered were like sobs, 
 None listens but upon them throbs ; 
 Like love were others ; maidens placed 
 Them where their breasts were overlaced, 
 And youths, with knowledge where they lay. 
 Attempted plunder, for they say, 
 "These thoughts received from you will read 
 To both of us our dearest need." 
 
 But when the opening of the year, 
 Heviving Spring brought bashful joy 
 That has with smiles and tears employ, 
 He caught her smile of sunny cheer 
 And lent it to his song ; it glows 
 Where just unchained, the streamlet flows, 
 And widens with dissolving snows ; 
 It hangs upon the fresh green leaf; 
 It lives within the heart's belief 
 Of noble blooms a few weeks hence. 
 Of which these are the evidence ; 
 
THE POET. 55 
 
 It lives in myriad insects roused 
 
 From those dark holes where they were 
 
 housed, 
 To walk, to hop, to fly, to sing. 
 Glad in the happiness of spring. 
 Her tears he caught when sudden showers 
 Pressed with their weight the fragile 
 
 flowers, 
 But tears of joy, to see when o'er 
 They rose more lovely than before. 
 He so loved nature that beside 
 She always walked his careful guide, 
 Keeping his simple pathway free 
 From ill conceits and pedantry, 
 And moulding all his thoughts to her, 
 Pleased with her closest worshipper. 
 
TO THE LARK. 
 
 Sweet Lark ! if bards liave oft been moved by 
 thee 
 To join their song with thine, because a bird 
 So joyous by their hearts could ne'er be heard 
 Without a wish to magnify 
 Its voice and presence in the sky ; 
 1^0 more can I refrain from thy pure melody ; 
 No more can I refuse to praise thy flight, 
 Mount like the soul of morn amid her light. 
 
 Deep in thy dewy nest where tender lie 
 Thy young, thou sattest patient till the eye 
 Of slow-ascending day began to streak with red 
 The eastern dome, and chase the gray 
 Across the heaven till the display 
 Of gathered splendor darted ; then thou thy 
 lifted head 
 Heldst to the apex of the new-born blue 
 And spedst thy way even as passing through. 
 
TO THE LARK. 57 
 
 Thou seemst a winged prayer ; or like a soul 
 That long dark hours has suffered sin's control, 
 But made electric by the Sun of Righteousness, 
 Carols with Hope's clear tone to ask 
 Mercy's great boon — delightful task ! 
 Eejoiced to climb fresh skies for Father's voice to 
 
 Or any other thing of this pure kind, 
 Thou shapest, leaving gross behind ! 
 
YEARNINGS 
 
 There are heart-sorrows whicli we speak not of, 
 Sorrows of long account, which give their hue 
 To all our pleasures, making them less bright. 
 
 I recollect what joy it gave me once 
 To read the pages of old authors, where 
 More honorable and stronger nature lived 
 Than present times admit of : I recall 
 How glad I read in Sallust what they spake 
 Who lived at Eome when Catiline arose 
 And filled the entire city with distrust ; 
 What he performed, and how his energy 
 Was not effaced in death, but lingered still 
 Upon his rigid features. And of him 
 That pleaded (ah ! in vain) before the seats 
 Of Roman demagogues, to save his throne, 
 Himself an exile from his rightful court ; 
 While potent there his father's charity 
 Jugurtha, whom his sire had reared and fed. 
 What inward joy these pages gave my mind ! 
 
YEARNINGS. 69 
 
 And other books, or Yirgil's noble verse, 
 Or Cicero, with cultured eloquence ! 
 
 Those days have fled ; I read no more their 
 thoughts. 
 Me hard necessity, associates 
 Dissimilar in their desires and aims. 
 And cramped occasion fetter, that I lose 
 The genial glow of that springtime of thought. 
 
 Ah ! let the muses claim their votary ! 
 Let them descend with heaven within their 
 
 glance. 
 And me inspire with ardor to pursue 
 Amid the trials of these darksome days 
 The course they once laid out. Oh ! ye that wait 
 To ease the troubles of the sorrowful, 
 On me take pity ! me illume and cheer ! 
 Fill me with other passions than these base 
 Which prompt the careless multitude ; grant fire 
 And energy of thought ; make beautiful 
 What in me lies disordered ; make my soul 
 Ardent and pure ; and bid me follow you ! 
 
 Then from the contact of mere selfish things, 
 Into an higher region, where enthroned 
 Sits Love, and where sublimity resides, 
 My spirit yearning shall escape and mount. 
 Eeturn, ye Nine ! ye that in earlier days 
 More friendly lingered round my boyish path ! 
 Then seeing you I thought ye would remain. 
 
60 YEARNINGS. 
 
 All ! wherefore fled ? and why am I alone ? 
 Why do I call and hear no answering voice ? 
 Fair Fugitives, oh ! now return, lest woe 
 O'erwhelm without respite my troubled soul. 
 
HOPE. 
 
 Ah ! what a cheat is Hope ! His voice decoys 
 Onward, still onward, still Excelsior ! 
 Ambition, clothed in armor, with a sword 
 Advances toward the blue-eyed smiling youth, 
 And begs him gratify his ardent wish : 
 " Inspire these haughty men," he cries, " with 
 
 hope ! 
 Make them believe in future power and gain." 
 Hope promises ; the greedy multitudes 
 Pursue and peril peace, until at last 
 They find they're tricked by Hope ; but he is 
 
 gone. 
 His joyous eye no longer beams, his voice 
 'No more incites ; behind is weariness. 
 The conscience of a ruthless life all lost ; 
 Before, a prospect void of smiling hope : 
 Ambition's gone ; despair alone is near. 
 
 Hope seeks another class ; he finds the good. 
 He tells of constant pleasure for the just ; 
 Of a serene and prosperous sky o'erhead ; 
 3* 
 
62 HOPE. 
 
 Fresh airs to waft ; and at the evening close 
 Maturity, with full content ; like fruit 
 Which having passed its spring, and safely blushed 
 In ripeness yet unplucked, now loosening drops 
 Its lengthened hold upon the tree of life. 
 Such, Hope assures the good, will be their lot. 
 Ah ! inexperienced, they believe his words ! 
 But soon a partner or a child is lost. 
 Then is the sting of sharp bereavement felt ; 
 Next comes misfortune ; how the sickening blow 
 Falls on the fullness of his first content ! 
 Things now go wrong ; embarrassment and loss ; 
 And censure then not wanting, cuts his soul ; 
 False friends depart, the good and true remain ; 
 In them for once no liar Hope ; these prove 
 All what his cheerful voice assured they were. 
 Perhaps disease next follows ; after that 
 Worn out, and weary. Death asserts his claim : 
 The hour is reached ; his troubled eye must look 
 On what no mortal ever gazed upon. 
 Gazed on and lived ; Heaven grant he die serene ! 
 Oh ! here at last let Hope be true, not false ! 
 Whate'er he whispered, fondly whispered once, 
 O Christian ! let my earnest prayer be met. 
 That saved, the gates of pardoning Heaven un- 
 close. 
 Thou entering to reap immortal joys. 
 
STEWART HOLLAND. 
 
 What stir is this among the sea-green girls ? 
 
 This that compelleth hiirryings to and fro, 
 And breaketh each one from her cherished curls ? 
 
 "A man !" they whisper, " whither shall we go ? 
 A man from earth descended ! let ns fly 
 Ere this overtake us with his human eye !" 
 
 But Neptune : " Fear not, daughters ! this is one 
 Whom bring your choicest flowers to deck and 
 bloom ; 
 
 Who but an hour ago beheld the sun. 
 Beheld, and all unconscious of his doom ; 
 
 And when that doom gaped, never did his eye 
 
 Forget to look on truth ; him do not fly !" 
 
 Advance they then, and move before the seat 
 Where Holland just from firing of his gun 
 
 Was placed, while gentler waters laved his feet ; 
 But yet his head was bare to be set on 
 
 By chaplets due to heroes, which their hands 
 
 Convey of buds, and leaves, and golden strands. 
 
64 STEWART HOLLAND. 
 
 " Bring him my liquid-gliding coursei'S now ; 
 
 Bring him my reins of guidance ; him upraised 
 Enchant in progress at my chariot's prow 
 
 With whispered music. Lo ! my lights have 
 blazed 
 Into their brilliant colors, and my pearls 
 Hang out like stars for him ! Attend, my girls !" 
 
 Then opened all those maids their dewy voices 
 
 Breathing out like many dying swans, 
 At first so sad like dirge ; but soon rejoices 
 
 The changing measure by degrees, as wanes 
 Dim night at day's approach ; they thread the 
 
 sea ; 
 Pleased with their eyes, young dolphins round 
 them play. 
 
 Now how the monarch prideth in his guest, 
 Exulting over many a league of sea, 
 
 They sing ; and how "a charmed disturbless rest 
 Is waiting far beyond, O youth ! for thee ! 
 
 Beyond these watery realms from which a ghost 
 
 Thou travellest soon unguided and unlost." 
 
 " But wander, wander, dreamily wander now, 
 
 By coral rocks and N^eptune's old abode ; 
 See here the mermaids with their woman's brow ! 
 And here great halls where ancient giants trod ! 
 
STEWART HOLLAND. 65 
 
 There Yenus rose, and rising, all the sea 
 Curled round her waist, reluctant thence to flee. 
 
 " Yiew far before yon murky coil of surge 
 That dashes furious 'gainst its central rock ; 
 
 There do the fates forever chant their dirge, 
 High seated on the apex of the shock : 
 
 Fell Scylla and Oharybdis, famed of old ; 
 
 To tempt their wrath no prince of ours is bold. 
 
 ''These things, O Holland! by our lord's com- 
 mand. 
 
 And thousand more, as many as the sea 
 Contains, we show thee, thou who hast on land 
 
 ]^ow gained a noble fame eternally ; 
 !N"ations shall speak of thee with pride, and hear 
 Thine action oft retold with grateful ear. 
 
 *' 'Tis this impelled these coursers and this wreath, 
 Thine own to be whilst here a guest ; 'tis this 
 
 Moved E"eptune airs on thee divine to breathe, 
 And mix thy spirit with the keenest bliss : 
 
 Thy noble fortitude, thy swerveless aim. 
 
 Thy duty unto death — the hero's fame." 
 
 Thus spake the nymphs, and he entranced awhile 
 Lay in his car rejoicing ; till a thought 
 
 Came o'er his soul, and with a happy smile, 
 " I wish," he said, " that higher life, for naught 
 
66 STEWART HOLLAND. 
 
 Are these, though pleasure's here, beside that 
 
 bliss." 
 The maidens trembled as he uttered this. 
 
 " Ah youth ! no more consider that far land, 
 Consider not her distant jojs, for here 
 
 Are scarcely less, and with as full a hand 
 Dispensed ; and now thy presence has grown 
 dear 
 
 To all our tribes ; we will attend on thee. 
 
 Dismiss that country for this boundless sea." 
 
 But Holland, and his voice with sorrow moved : 
 '^ To you, fair creatures and your king, I give 
 
 A grateful heart ; but I have ever loved 
 To muse upon that land ; in thought I live 
 
 Among her meads and mountains, hear her 
 sounds. 
 
 Fear in her worship, walk beside her bounds." 
 
 Then like to many dying swans again, 
 Their voices modulate, and all the sea 
 
 Hung motionless upon their soft complain 
 With silence both of woe and mystery : 
 
 An unknown feeling filled great Holland's heart, 
 
 He wept, and moved his pinions to depart. 
 
TO SILENCE. 
 
 Mystic Power ! that binds the soul 
 In a tender charmed control ; 
 Thou by name of Silence known, 
 Though thou hast an inner tone ; 
 Thou hast dropped thy chain once more 
 On my spirit as before. 
 
 Kow all thoughts of action cease ; 
 N'aught can satisfy but peace ; 
 All the strife and search for power 
 Which incite mankind an hour, 
 All the phantoms of the brain 
 Travelling o'er a darkened plain, 
 Yexed ambition — pass away ; 
 All have left us calm to-day. 
 
 Power divine ! in woods alone 
 Thou'rt not found, where overgrown 
 Heavy trees the eye surround 
 Like the tomb of light and sound ; 
 Neither dost thou only dwell 
 
68 TO SILENCE. 
 
 By some shaded maiden's well, 
 
 Where at sultry noon, bnt she 
 
 Partly slumbers dreamily : 
 
 ISTor exclusive on the main 
 
 In a calm when seamen strain 
 
 Eyes afar for trace of clouds 
 
 Which shall stir their drowsy shrouds : 
 
 Holding over all of these 
 
 Usual sway, thy realms increase ; 
 
 Every where the spirit flies 
 
 Turmoil, there her placid eyes 
 
 Linger in a spell on thee. 
 
 Silence ! and thine own is she. 
 
 Oh ! what scenes and thoughts are thine, 
 Languid power but still divine ! 
 For when winter comes with chill 
 Languor flees the icy hill. 
 Leaving thee, O silent maid ! 
 Much too pure to be afraid. 
 Then thou bringst thy votaries near 
 What was murmuring flood last year, 
 Teaching pale philosophy 
 In the thraldom that we see ; 
 Sadly dost thou pass thy hand 
 Over all the prisoned land, 
 Over all its sheeted snow 
 Where the winds of chilliness blow ; 
 Sadly do we mark bereft 
 
TO SILENCE. 69 
 
 Branches on their bare trunks left, 
 Stiffened now too tight to bend, 
 Though the northern regions send 
 Heaviest blasts with stony hail ; 
 Thej shall break, and with their wail 
 Far the hills reecho round 
 While they're falling to the ground ; 
 But they yield not as they do, 
 "When warm zephyrs come and woo. 
 
 But in summer hours we see 
 Fullest in thy glory thee ; 
 Like a dame of former days 
 Sculptored forth, on which men gaze 
 Awed, and filled with hallowed swell 
 In their bosom's deepest well ; 
 Goddess, which the marble gives 
 And it only ; one that lives 
 In her purity of form, 
 Rounded bust that's all but warm, 
 Attitude, and classic face, 
 Thought's serenest resting-place. 
 Silence ! tell us who have come 
 Making with thee tarried home ! 
 Tell us first in time of him 
 Born with thee, whose fatal whim 
 Broke a blest sequestered state, 
 And was cast disconsolate 
 Over earth to till and sweat. 
 
70 TO SILENCE. 
 
 Ere the bread of work he get ; 
 Yet not all alone, for one, 
 She by whom his sin was done, 
 Close attended, and became 
 His sole joy this side the flame ; 
 He in Eden had his bower 
 l^ot peeped into by a flower. 
 Where through leaves the scanty ray 
 With a feeble power might play ; 
 Where he sat and mused of heaven 
 And the life of mystery given 
 Him a little while ago. 
 And which now may onward flow, 
 Far — how far ? O subtle thought ! 
 Was it thou the serpent brought ? 
 Was thy realm, O Silence ! curst. 
 Teaching man rebellion first ? 
 Whence thy holy charms, oh ! whence 
 Heavenly love's strong evidence 
 Felt 'neath thy control, if thou 
 Hatched for man the fatal woe ? 
 Outside seraphim's sad flame. 
 Solitude he sought the same ; 
 Bitter, oh ! how bitter were 
 Thought, reflection, and the tear ! 
 And if thou his evil wert, 
 ITow he tasted of thy hurt ; 
 Keen with thee was sorrow's sting, 
 
TO SILENCE. 71 
 
 Till the heavenly coursers bring 
 On his silence and his night, 
 Chariots with a pardoning light ; 
 Angels gathering round his head, 
 Then thy reign, O Silence ! fled ; 
 Till, the holy thrones retired. 
 Heaven with usual lights was fired. 
 
 Silence held the patriarch 
 When at evening in the ark 
 Lone he sat above a sea 
 Shoreless in immensity ; 
 His three sons are looking far 
 O'er those waves without a bar. 
 Where no lands nor peaks remain, 
 Since that fatal morn of rain. 
 What his thoughts at this sad view. 
 
 Seeing nothing of the land, 
 ITothing of the sky's mild blue. 
 
 Though he search on either hand ? 
 Thinking of the men that lay 
 Overtaken by the spray ; 
 Locked in death, wave-washen clay ? 
 Thinking of that awful morn. 
 When the sun of beams was shorn. 
 When the deluge-bearing sky 
 Gloomed with wrath for every eye. 
 And the mothers press their sons, 
 And the maiden wildly runs, 
 
72 TO SILENCE. 
 
 And the father speechless stands, 
 And the children flee the sands ? 
 But for Noah 'twas more grief, 
 Sorrow entered like a thief 
 On their scenes before they bent 
 Unto God, all penitent. 
 
 Father of the Hebrews, he 
 Called of God, in silence sat, 
 Knowing nothing yet of that 
 Which was for futurity ; 
 Gazing on the clustered lights, 
 During one of Syria's nights ; 
 When full-blaze, they glitter far. 
 Prompting wish of what they are. 
 He, like Job, perhaps made song 
 With the Hebrew measure strong. 
 Such a night as this did God 
 Open to his eye his road. 
 Speak of journeys westward, and 
 Seed as numerous as the sand ; 
 And by faith he rose and went 
 Whither that sure vision sent. 
 
 'Twas when silence bound the air 
 Jacob saw the shining stair 
 Trod by noiseless feet, and there 
 Waking, lift his matin prayer 
 Tq the presence that can hear 
 What to mention spirits fear, 
 
TO SILENCE. 73 
 
 Both, lest any foreign ear 
 Catch the private thought, and lest 
 Such thoughts may not be expressed ; 
 Quietly he placed the stone 
 For an altar ; he alone 
 Priest and congregation stood, 
 Supplicating God for good ; 
 Then on silence came the vow, 
 '* Earth's great Saviour-stem art thou ; 
 In thy seed born numberless 
 All the nations thou shalt bless." 
 And when silence held his ear 
 Came the voice to Moses clear ; 
 For the sake of Israel, 
 Teaching how the wrath to quell 
 Of the Egyptian, and to guide 
 Hebrews by the passive tide. 
 Passive being petrified. 
 Gathering rage when chariots ride 
 On their tracks, and whelming lost 
 All that proud pursuing host. 
 Passing all until the time, 
 MournfuUest of mournful years. 
 When Gethsemane in tears 
 Viewed her God ; for human crime. 
 For the made the Maker bends 
 Unto grief and pain ; he wends 
 Slow from those that can not keep 
 
74 TO SILENCE. 
 
 Their dull heavy eyes from sleep, 
 Slumbering on the eve when he 
 Was grown nigh to Calvary, 
 And the cross in shadows lay 
 On the front of coming day ; 
 With the thought of scorn and hate 
 From the multitude elate, 
 They by him through ages kept : 
 As he mused great drops he wept ; 
 From his forehead sweat did flow, 
 Blood seemed bursting from his brow. 
 Holiest hour and place are ye, 
 Place and hour, Gethsemane, 
 Next to greater Calvary ! 
 
 But, O Silence ! wherefore, tell 
 How thy spirit often fell 
 On great men and gave them power 
 To endure affliction's hour ? 
 Or to mount aloft, by thee 
 Taught in deep philosophy ? 
 For one parent thou of worth 
 Unto all the men of earth : 
 Thee they seek when they desire 
 To enkindle nobler fire. 
 Be it ours to seek thy rule. 
 Let us learn to love this school. 
 
LITTLENESS. 
 
 'Tis not in size all wonder dwells ; 
 
 Not Himmalaya hills excels ; 
 
 Hills multiplied the mountain make, 
 
 And new are formed when mountains break. 
 
 The greatest men are mostly small ; 
 
 Mind loves the little more than all ; 
 
 The wealthiest ores are fewest found, 
 
 And things most worth less full abound ; 
 
 As if to teach us to descend 
 
 And make the smallest thing our friend. 
 
 And more the weakest is the care 
 
 Of Heaven than mighty tyrants are. 
 
 Then let the small in trust depend, 
 
 And stronger none of these offend. 
 
TO THE BUTTERFLY. 
 
 Dark butterfly ! on purple wing, 
 
 To thee I turn and wondering sing ! 
 
 Whence drewst thou forth those wealthy dyes ? 
 
 And thousands follow where one flies. 
 
 Tell man that troubleth ease and mind, 
 
 Where may he such rich colors find ? 
 
 Then shall he stain the pliant woof, 
 
 And hang these glories on his roof. 
 
 Soft-shaded insect, beauty's thought ! 
 
 'Tis said, from grovelling worm thou'rt brought ; 
 
 Science so speaks, but can not tell 
 
 Who knows to paint the worm so well ; 
 
 But thou perhaps canst bid her lend 
 
 Attentive ears, and wisdom send, 
 
 By praising Him who science made, 
 
 And all these robes on thee arrayed. 
 
TO THE JEWS 
 
 Hebrews ! read the sacred page. 
 Surer with increasing age ; 
 This declares your destiny^ 
 This declares ye shall be free. 
 
 Hebrews, sighing deep with woe, 
 Long 'mid ashes grovelling low ; 
 Raise aloft firm Hope's blue eye. 
 See your noble destiny ! 
 
 Hebrews, long your fathers bore 
 Pharoah's heavy hand of yore ; 
 Moses, called by God's command. 
 Led your fathers from his land. 
 
 Hebrews ! when th' Assyrian hounds 
 Scented over Zion's bounds ; 
 Late at night the angel came. 
 Breathed his quick devouring flame. 
 4 
 
78 TO THE JEWS. 
 
 Hebrews ! which of nations stays 
 Ever fixed, whom Time obeys ; 
 Yielding all his ruinous force, 
 When your path arrests his course ? 
 
 Hebrews ! whom the prophets sang, 
 Lo ! with you has heaven's dome rang ; 
 Lo ! with you the pregnant earth 
 Throbs awild with glorious birth. 
 
 Hebrews ! wake, arise, renewed ! 
 Beings that have now subdued 
 Ages, nations, and shall stand 
 Each a monarch in your land. 
 
JUSTICE AND MERCY 
 
 About the time when Eden's gloom 
 Was sinking down upon the tomb 
 Of pristine happiness, there came 
 Two spirits of opposing flame, 
 And midway over night's domain 
 Halted, and converse thus began : 
 " What errand art thou on, bright one ? 
 What to this sinful orb undone ? 
 Hast thou not heard the dreadful tale 
 Of fallen earth, a theme to pale 
 The roseate hue of cherubim, 
 And make angelic glances dim ? 
 Mine is to alter all that kind 
 Confiding love, from which as blind 
 Weak Adam basely turned aside. 
 When him the fiend successful plied. 
 I've come to curse the earth ; my name 
 Avenging Justice ; sharp my flame." 
 This heard the other with surprise, 
 
80 JUSTICE AND MERCY, 
 
 And spake with both her tearful eyes 
 Wide oped in deepest tenderness, 
 As if they could make Justice less : 
 '^ But 1 am come with kinder aim, 
 To breathe man peace, for in my name 
 Shall he alone repose, and raise 
 His glance aloft in prayer and praise. 
 Ah ! Justice, then, retire and leave, 
 My comfort to the pair that grieve V' 
 
 " Mercy, (for that your title,) no ! 
 For this I've travelled skies, for woe ; 
 A law is broken yet again, 
 And Satan seems to extend his reign ; 
 That others may revere the law. 
 Be these accurst ; but thou withdraw." 
 
 " Ah ! Justice, do not frown so black ! 
 Kemember pangs can not call back 
 The former state, nor punishment 
 Reverse things done. See, they repent, 
 xlh ! quench not in a ruthless night 
 This virtue dawning on the sight ! 
 What answer canst thou bear above 
 In telling of their stifled love ? 
 And of this earth become a black 
 And heartless void? Oh ! hasten back V' 
 
 " Mercy ! you weary with your sighs ; 
 What's man ? what all his groans and cries ? 
 I scorn them in the guilty pair. 
 
JUSTICE AND MERCY. 81 
 
 Go ! give me place. I'll hear no prayer." 
 Thus Justice stern, and shook her spear ; 
 Through man there ran a mortal fear ; 
 Dismayed, dear Mercy felt the pain, 
 And dared not longer plead for man ; 
 When came a voice : " Let Justice be 
 Accomplished on depravity ; 
 But Mercy stand thou always near ; 
 'Tis thine to treasure up each tear ; 
 Man's sighs are thine, his woes and pangs : 
 Afar in time deliverance hangs, 
 Which when the ages have rolled by, 
 To earth shall hasten from the sky." 
 Then Mercy sighing took her post, 
 Eelieved to listen rnan not lost ; 
 Thus mingled those opposing wings, 
 As Justice strikes, still Mercy sings. 
 
COLUMBUS 
 
 We trimmed our sails and started with a breeze 
 Well filled with shouts of joy ; and gliding trees 
 Awhile near shore, we launched at last far out 
 Till lost was every tide men knew about ; 
 And any where the eye might turn, the sea 
 Lay in its calm and boundless majesty. 
 Day after day we sailed beneath new skies. 
 And all did wonder with their silent eyes 
 At the vast ocean that we sailed upon, 
 And marvelled when our journey should be done. 
 We sailed for weeks, and never met an isle ; 
 'Twas cheerless there without a land to smile 
 A welcome to us seamen far from home ; 
 And " land," we whispered " land ! when will it 
 
 come ?" 
 Thought urged,came forth, and helped me to pursue 
 My journey with her teachings ; 'tis not true 
 '^ That all before is sea and no where land. 
 Else this unequal earth could never stand. 
 Cheer up, my men ! it is a sober tale, 
 Kound is the earth and balanced : we the veil 
 
COLUMBUS. 83 
 
 Shall draw aside that shuts the world in gloom. 
 And give to nations here a wider room." 
 
 I saw them cluster by their twos and threes ; 
 Sometimes I caught their whispers on the breeze ; 
 I was alone ; none but One Eye could mark ; 
 Here wrong need not delay until the dark. 
 But in the open sun, and on the sea, 
 Also through conscience and their fear of me, 
 And with uncertain knowledge of their path, 
 They spared me life and checked their swelling 
 
 wrath. 
 Thus farther on, and yet there came no land ; 
 Then one rose up, and pointed with his hand : 
 " Look yonder ! mark ! 'tis sea, 'tis naught but 
 
 sea; 
 Look back upon a past immensity. 
 We labor, friends, t' increase this pilot's fame, 
 Or with him perish through an idle dream. 
 IS'ow let us turn and disobey this chief ; 
 If he oppose, the tide affords relief; 
 If passive, let him live : for think how far 
 Perchance we sail our only guide a star." 
 But I ere answer was returned : " Send down 
 On this poor wretch your most indignant frown ! 
 How came he here ? I chose a faithful crew. 
 But one debases, one man blackens you ! 
 As ye do value honor more than life. 
 Condemn his words and cease from fatal strife. 
 4* 
 
S4: COLUMBUS. 
 
 Yoiir looks are clouds ; but wherefore ? Have I 
 
 led 
 Your course in dangers ? Have I basely fled 
 And left you helpless ? yea, you know no way 
 Unless I live and guide you o'er the sea. 
 Then learn by this that I am faithful still ; 
 I lead to glory and direct from ill ; 
 'Tis Heaven that makes our course its constant 
 
 care, 
 Else how could we have safely come so far ? 
 But if a longing after home impels, 
 And any thought of this your bosom swells, 
 Bear with me yet a little space, and then 
 Comes there no land we turn our prows again ; 
 Three days vouchsafe : 'twould be a shame to miss 
 So noble continent, so near as this." 
 They acquiesce and leave witli freshening wind 
 Their anchorage and mutiny behind ; 
 Some signs appear ; a sea-bird cleaves the sky, 
 And later floats the watery rockweed by : 
 And later still, far far beyond the main 
 We catch a glimpse of long-lost land again. 
 Thus far our journey. Let me cease to say 
 What I received at home from Spain, and lay 
 My private griefs before the public eye ; 
 My wish was reached, my dear discovery : 
 Though nations offer tardy laurels, yet 
 All sorrow in this new world I forget. 
 
ADAM AT EVE'S GEAVE. 
 
 The eye of day is sliut : the gentle stars 
 Beam in tlie summer air, and tlie new moon 
 Glimmers upon the western sky's far verge ; 
 When Adam sat, Adam an old man now, 
 Far from that towering form of gracious strengtli 
 Witli which he guided Eve, in happy times 
 Vf hen sin was yet unknown, and God was wont 
 To walk beneath the noon ; or at the hour 
 Of mellow twilight cool ; or such as now 
 Aside the timorous moon, or when she rode 
 Queenlier the middle sky. Ah ! blissful time. 
 Too blissful now for saddened memory, 
 As faint she drags along the present woes 
 With backward eye of tears. Oh ! shall there be 
 Ever such calm again for mortal life, 
 Such quiet happy scenes and holy thoughts, 
 Such walks, such innocence ! So Adam wept. 
 
 He rises and with memory of Eve, 
 (For he recalls her as she oft was seen 
 
86 ADAM AT eve's GRAVE. 
 
 Under the skies of Eden near some shrub, 
 Or by the stream which gently glided through 
 That paradise,) he seeks the hallowed spot 
 Where she was laid, called earlier from the earth. 
 " Dear Eve !" as soon the mound appeared, " my 
 
 life! 
 Thou, thou art gone ; thou travellest now the dark 
 Unutterable realms of which no tongue 
 Can find a word of knowledge, which no thought 
 Can penetrate, even from that wild hour 
 When fell beneath his brother's hand our son. 
 Freshly thy hillock blooms with simple flowers ; 
 Freshly the long grass groweth over thee ; 
 And sits familiar as it were no spot 
 Of treasured grief, the various-throated bird 
 High on her bough and chants her mellow song. 
 But thou, if thou hadst never died, O Eve ! 
 If we had never ate nor disobeyed, 
 Mightst still have sung with voice of changeless 
 
 power. 
 And kept thy youth forever, with no fear 
 Of outward nature sinking with decay. 
 Or of a coming tempest, or disease, 
 And least of such as this, a silent grave. 
 Ah ! truthful were the heavenly guides we had, 
 And most untruthful he, the envious mar 
 Of all our joy !" Thus Adam sad in thouglit 
 Leaned motionless, those earlier memories 
 
87 
 
 Reviewing once again, so oft recalled 
 Since driven from their scenes; while Eve re- 
 mained 
 Thej had not all been lost, for in her eye 
 "Were still reflected angel companies 
 At which she tended, and within her grace 
 The grace appeared of all those airy things 
 That moved in joyance there, and in her voice 
 Were recollected heavenly harmonies. 
 So during sorrow she had been to him 
 A lingering Eden, melancholy touched, 
 A dear associate : but now both lost 
 To him was left of all his former joys 
 But God alone ; He, though averted, kind : 
 To Him he lifts accustomed prayer and longs 
 To fly these griefs, and at his Father's hands 
 Find, as he thinks did Eve, compassionate love. 
 Close by stood Abel's mound, the ruined pile 
 On which his lamb lay bleeding, ruins now. 
 Then firm and stately reared as fit to hold 
 The sacrifice of God : o'er this, the youth 
 Fell stricken, first of men a corpse, for whom 
 Till now an universal pity throbs, 
 And universal wrath is hurled at Cain, 
 The prime destroyer : spotless was thy life. 
 Thou slaughtered youth ! obedient was thy death, 
 Resistless to tliy murderer, lest the stain 
 Lie doubly on you both, in double hate 
 
88 ADAM AT EVJE'S GRAVE. 
 
 And equal ruin ! He was driven fortli 
 With punishment, but thou in quiet slept : 
 His sentence went bejond his strength : his face 
 Men called a shame, a vagabond on earth 
 Cain lived, and human laws evaded him. 
 
 Abel was laid beneath his altar's stones : 
 He slain lay close to Eve. Their two still graves 
 Were gently brushed by passing evening airs, 
 And noticed by the moon between the boughs ; 
 Till Adam rose to go, as oft he had 
 After long hours with solitary thought 
 And melancholy recollections spent. 
 
 But when I saw him leave, ere he was gone, 
 I could not hinder my full clamorous thoughts, 
 From thus addressing : " Father, first of men, 
 Before thou goest, hear me say what things 
 Have moved my breast long since," and when he 
 
 stopped, 
 I thus continued : " First wast thou in time, 
 Beholding nature and the moral world 
 With purity of sight ; thou didst commune 
 With bright celestials ; even God was known 
 To thee in counsel and confiding love : 
 And thou hadst Eve ere mortal days were come, 
 Ye both immortal then : and of the stars 
 And things in earth, though now forgot, thou 
 
 kuewest 
 The many secret Jaws ; and last at noon 
 
89 
 
 When tliou and slie were plucking of fair fruit, 
 "With no concerning hand or careful thought, 
 Then came the blight to happiness and thee, 
 The thrill of sin inbreathed in guardless ears 
 By one beside the ears ; his poison marred 
 That holy quiet Eden and on Time 
 Laid weight amid his wings' swollen purple veins ; 
 ISText came the awful questioning of Him 
 At cool of evening, hitherto to meet 
 Urged by the prompting soul, but now to shun 
 Kept back by her throbbing with sin and woe. 
 Then awfullest fell the curse ; and saddest at 
 The farewell gates the parting made with joy 
 In company of stern and flaming swords 
 And purity of angels, by the fall 
 Kendered too keen for presence to the flesh : 
 And last the still lone undiscovered world. 
 Plains, rivers, mountains, and the settling night 
 On every side round you and Eve, with fear 
 Of what unknown and frightful pu.nishment 
 Might lurk in execution of the curse. 
 I>row Eve is gently sleeping, Abel's calm, 
 Is there no yearning for the quiet grave, 
 O sorrowful Father ! lonely many years f 
 
 He with his aged tremulous voice replied : 
 " Consider me the oldest of mankind, 
 Whose years stretch through a thousand gloomy 
 shades 
 
90 
 
 Of human life, for life is grief though joy 
 Takes sometimes transient peep ; and think how 
 
 full 
 Even to brokenness mj heart has been 
 With suffering and woe endured by those 
 I should have guarded to a sinless birth : 
 And think though fallen once, I do not love 
 This giant sin that stalks along the world, 
 This pictured pleasure where a gloom invests 
 All hearts, nor lend a careless hand to bring 
 The guilt of man's debasement into plaj : 
 Nor have a hard, unpitying breast to grief. 
 Their heritage through me : on these reflect. 
 And fear with me my sighs go vainly up 
 For mercy on my children, broken wide 
 On earth's laborious face ; and as for me, 
 But that I know in watching Eve that hour. 
 Her last of life, that she was pitied then. 
 By God compassionate, I now might fear 
 To lift a prayer for mercy ; but from her 
 I draw a consolation, and at night 
 Still falls anew the comfort on my soul 
 In meditation watching by her grave : 
 Therefore I have a hope, 'tis more, a faith 
 Of free forgiveness whensoe'er from flesh 
 I stand released ; and so I long to go." 
 
V