XII. ELEGIAC STANZAS. 1824. O for a dirge! But why complain? Ask rather a triumphal strain A garland of immortal boughs We pay a high and holy debt; Ill-worthy, Beaumont! were the grief That flings itself on wild relief When Saints have passed away. Sad doom, at Sorrow's shrine to kneel, For ever covetous to feel, And impotent to bear : Such once was hers to think and think On severed love, and only sink From anguish to despair! But nature to its inmost part Had Faith refined, and to her heart Calm as the dew-drop's, free to rest Was ever Spirit that could bend So graciously ? - that could descend, . Another's need to suit, So promptly from her lofty throne?— In works of love, in these alone, How restless, how minute ! Pale was her hue; yet mortal cheek When aught had suffered wrong, When aught that breathes had felt a wound; Such look the Oppressor might confound, However proud and strong. But hushed be every thought that springs From out the bitterness of things; Her quiet is secure ; No thorns can pierce her tender feet, As snowdrop on an infant's grave, As Vesper, ere the star hath kissed The mountain top, or breathed the mist That from the vale ascends. Thou takest not away, O Death! Thou strik'stand absence perisheth, Indifference is no more; The future brightens on our sight; XIII. INVOCATION TO THE EARTH. FEBRUARY, 1816. 1. "REST, rest, perturbed Earth! "O rest, thou doleful Mother of Mankind!" A Spirit sang in tones more plaintive than the wind: "From regions where no evil thing has birth "I come 66 thy stains to wash away, Thy cherished fetters to unbind, "To open thy sad eyes upon a milder day. "The Heavens are thronged with martyrs that have risen "From out thy noisome prison; "The penal caverns groan "With tens of thousands rent from off the tree 66 Of hopeful life, by Battle's whirlwind blown "Into the deserts of Eternity. 66 Unpitied havoc ! Victims unlamented! "But not on high, where madness is resented, "And murder causes some sad tears to flow, 66 Though, from the widely-sweeping blow, "The choirs of Angels spread, triumphantly augmented. 2. "False Parent of Mankind! "Obdurate, proud, and blind, "I sprinkle thee with soft celestial dews, "Thy lost maternal heart to re-infuse! "Scattering this far-fetched moisture from my wings, Upon the act a blessing I implore, 66 "Of which the rivers in their secret springs, "The rivers stained so oft with human gore, "Are conscious;—may the like return no more! 66 May she, who once disturbed the seats of bliss "These mortal spheres above, "Be chained for ever to the black abyss ! "And thou, O rescued Earth, by peace and love, "And merciful desires, thy sanctity approve The Spirit ended his mysterious rite, |