XVII. “O how my supplications eve and morn, Wrestled for him! how frantic my appeal!— And when he was not, I, a thing forlorn! Waylaid and robbed of hope, did cease to kneel, For Heaven no balsam had my hurt to heal, And oft I wished that thou hadst ne’er been born.”
XVIII. The Spirit ceased, her humid eyes still bent On the prone form to which she fain would cleave; Then thus the Angel: “Weak is thy lament! The joys of earth but sparkle to deceive,— And know you not that he for whom you grieve Awaits our coming in the firmament?
XIX. “Dear to the people dwelling in the skies Is he who for his country copes with death, And, vanquished or victorious, nobly dies; The air that gives and takes his latest breath Is thence inhaled by souls of feeble faith, And freedom flashes from their lifted eyes.
XX. “Come! dear Eudora, while the waning light Burns on the lakes and on the mountain tops; My arm shall aid thee in thy upward flight:— Soon shall we pass beyond those shining drops, Where utmost telescopic vision stops, The limit of a Herschel’s baffled sight.
XXI. “See! chaste Andromeda unbinds her hair For us to tread upon; we need not fear Proud Leo wakeful in his azure lair, Nor Taurus’ rampant horns and brow severe, Nor all the glittering terrors that appear In Ursa’s stormy mouth and hungry glare.
XXII. “Come! every star now beckons us to come, O timid sister! spread thy budded wings. Dost thou not hear the sanctifying hum Of airy voices? precious whisperings? List! on the verge of heaven a seraph sings:— ‘Come home, come hither, weary wanderers, come!’”
XXIII. No more she spoke, but tremulous, amazed, With hands upon her panting bosom crost, Far, far away abstractedly she gazed, As if in beatific vision lost,— As one just freed from earth’s sepulchral frost, And suddenly to ’wildering glories raised.
XXIV. Only an instant thus, for now her Ward Became transfigured, robed in awful light; Too beautiful for mortal man’s regard; And swift through cloudy rifts, with moonbeams bright, These two immortals winged their starry flight, Their home revealed, the golden gates unbarred.