From the high watch-tower, Fancy, through the air, Destruction menace on our timorous way. Ye ramparts strong! of wrath yourselves disarm ; 180 185 Dead silence reigns o'er all the battlements; No warriors awe us; and no guard prevents; Even on the cannon we securely lean, And, wondering, gaze o'er all the enchanting scene; 190 Or, round the northern heights, delighted, go, And trace the ramblings we pursued below; At last, when Contemplation has her fill 195 That gives admission to St. Michael's halls. 200 The rust-clad knocker, form'd in days of old, Oft plied by noble Dames, and Barons bold, The bolt-bound-gate now shakes; the thund'ring sound At intervals, we place the longing ear, Th' obsequious tread of menial steps to hear: List! feet are heard: we, through a hole, descry The cautious porter's scrutinizing eye; 205 And, having view'd each visage keenly o'er, He, courteously, sets wide the heavy-creaking door. 210 END OF CANTO FIRST. ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. GOOD-FRIDAY MORNING; April, 1810. Canto Second. "O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are thy beams, O Sun! thy everlasting light ?-----Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty; the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave ;---the oaks of the mountains fall: the mountains themselves decay with years: the ocean shrinks and grows again: the moon herself is lost in the heavens: but thou art for ever the same.----- When the world is dark with tempests; when thunder rolls, and lightning flies; thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the storm. But to Ossian thou lookest in vain!” OSSIAN'S Address to the Sun. ARGUMENT. Introduction.---Entrance into the Castle.---The 'Drawing Rooms.-- The Hall.---The Principal Characters that have occupied or possessed it; St. Keyna; De Pomeroy; An Ecclesiastic; Trerise; St. Aubyn.---Chapel.---Quire of Angels.---Song of the Angels. ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. My earliest Friend! like insects of a day, Though roses bloom, for us, in vain, they bloom; 5 10 |