| I. 1. | O thou, who gladd'st the pensive soul, More than Aurora's smile the swain forlorn, Left all night long to mourn Where desolation frowns, and tempests howl, And shrieks of woe, as intermits the storm, Far o'er the monstrous wilderness resound, And 'cross the gloom darts many a shapeless form, And many a fire-eyed visage glares around! O come, and be once more my guest: Come, for thou oft thy suppliant's vow hast heard, And oft with smiles indulgent cheer'd And soothed him into rest. |
| I. 2. | Smit by thy rapture-beaming eye Deep flashing through the midnight of their mind, The sable bands combined, Where Fear's black banner bloats the troubled sky, Appall'd retire. Suspicion hides her head, Nor dares the obliquely gleaming eyeball raise; Despair, with gorgon-figured veil o'erspread, Speeds to dark Phlegethon's detested maze. Lo! startled at the heavenly ray, With speed unwonted Indolence upsprings, And, heaving, lifts her leaden wings, And sullen glides away: |
| I. 3. | Ten thousand forms, by pining Fancy view'd, Dissolve.—Above the sparkling flood, When Phoebus rears his awful brow, From lengthening lawn and valley low The troops of fen-born mists retire. Along the plain The joyous swain Eyes the gay villages again, And gold-illumined spire; While on the billowy ether borne Floats the loose lay's jovial measure; And light along the fairy Pleasure, Her green robes glittering to the morn, Wantons on silken wing. And goblins all To the damp dungeon shrink, or hoary hall, Or westward, with impetuous flight, Shoot to the desert realms of their congenial night. |
| II. 1. | When first on childhood's eager gaze Life's varied landscape, stretch'd immense around, Starts out of night profound, Thy voice incites to tempt the untrodden maze. Fond he surveys thy mild maternal face, His bashful eye still kindling as he views, And, while thy lenient arm supports his pace, With beating heart the upland path pursues: The path that leads, where, hung sublime, And seen afar, youth's gallant trophies, bright In Fancy's rainbow ray, invite His wingy nerves to climb. |
| II. 2. | Pursue thy pleasurable way, Safe in the guidance of thy heavenly guard, While melting airs are heard, And soft-eyed cherub-forms around thee play: Simplicity, in careless flowers array'd, Prattling amusive in his accent meek; And Modesty, half turning as afraid, The smile just dimpling on his glowing cheek! Content and Leisure, hand in hand With Innocence and Peace, advance and sing; And Mirth, in many a mazy ring, Frisks o'er the flowery land. |
| II. 3. | Frail man, how various is thy lot below! To-day though gales propitious blow, And Peace soft gliding down the sky Lead Love along and Harmony, To-morrow the gay scene deforms! Then all around The Thunder's sound Rolls rattling on through Heaven's profound, And down rush all the storms. Ye days that balmy influence shed, When sweet childhood, ever sprightly, In paths of pleasure sported lightly, Whither, ah! whither are ye fled? Ye cherub train, that brought him on his way, O leave him not 'midst tumult and dismay; For now youth's eminence he gains; But what a weary length of lingering toil remains! |
| III. 1. | They shrink, they vanish into air, Now slander taints with pestilence the gale; And mingling cries assail, The wail of Woe, and groan of grim Despair, Lo! wizard Envy from his serpent eye Darts quick destruction in each baleful glance; Pride smiling stern, and yellow Jealousy, Frowning Disdain, and haggard Hate advance. Behold, amidst the dire array, Pale wither'd Care his giant stature rears, And, lo! his iron hand prepares To grasp its feeble prey. |
| III. 2. | Who now will guard bewilder'd youth Safe from the fierce assault of hostile rage? Such war can Virtue wage, Virtue, that bears the sacred shield of Truth? Alas! full oft on Guilt's victorious car The spoils of Virtue are in triumph borne; While the fair captive, mark'd with many a scar, In lone obscurity, oppress'd, forlorn, Resigns to tears her angel form. Ill-fated youth, then whither wilt thou fly? No friend, no shelter now is nigh, And onward rolls the storm. |
| III. 3. | But whence the sudden beam that shoots along? Why shrink aghast the hostile throng? Lo! from amidst affliction's night Hope bursts all radiant on the sight: Her words the troubled bosom soothe. "Why thus dismay'd? Though foes invade, Hope ne'er is wanting to their aid Who tread the path of truth. 'Tis I, who smoothe the rugged way, I, who close the eyes of Sorrow, And with glad visions of to-morrow Repair the weary soul's decay. When Death's cold touch thrills to the freezing heart, Dreams of Heaven's opening glories I impart, Till the freed spirit springs on high In rapture too severe for weak mortality." |
[Ode to Peace]
| I. 1. | Peace, heaven-descended maid! whose powerful voice From ancient darkness call'd the morn, Of jarring elements composed the noise; When Chaos, from his old dominion torn, With all his bellowing throng, Far, far was hurl'd the void abyss along; And all the bright angelic choir To loftiest raptures tune the heavenly lyre, Pour'd in loud symphony the impetuous strain; And every fiery orb and planet sung, And wide through night's dark desolate domain Rebounding long and deep the lays triumphant rung. |
| I. 2. | Oh, whither art thou fled, Saturnian reign? Roll round again, majestic Years! To break fell Tyranny's corroding chain, From Woe's wan cheek to wipe the bitter tears, Ye Years, again roll round! Hark, from afar what loud tumultuous sound, While echoes sweep the winding vales, Swells full along the plains, and loads the gales! Murder deep-roused, with the wild whirlwind's haste And roar of tempest, from her cavern springs; Her tangled serpents girds around her waist, Smiles ghastly stern, and shakes her gore-distilling wings. |
| I. 3. | Fierce up the yielding skies The shouts redoubling rise: Earth shudders at the dreadful sound, And all is listening, trembling round. Torrents, that from yon promontory's head Dash'd furious down in desperate cascade, Heard from afar amid the' lonely night, That oft have led the wanderer right, Are silent at the noise. The mighty ocean's more majestic voice, Drown'd in superior din, is heard no more; The surge in silence sweeps along the foamy shore. |
| II. 1. | The bloody banner streaming in the air, Seen on yon sky-mix'd mountain's brow, The mingling multitudes, the madding car, Pouring impetuous on the plain below, War's dreadful lord proclaim. Bursts out by frequent fits the expansive flame. Whirl'd in tempestuous eddies flies The surging smoke o'er all the darken'd skies. The cheerful face of heaven no more is seen, Fades the morn's vivid blush to deadly pale: The bat flits transient o'er the dusky green, Night's shrieking birds along the sullen twilight sail. |
| II. 2. | Involved in fire-streak'd gloom the car comes on. The mangled steeds grim Terror guides. His forehead writhed to a relentless frown, Aloft the angry Power of Battles rides: Grasp'd in his mighty hand A mace tremendous desolates the land; Thunders the turret down the steep, The mountain shrinks before its wasteful sweep; Chill horror the dissolving limbs invades, Smit by the blasting lightning of his eyes; A bloated paleness beauty's bloom o'erspreads, Fades every flowery field, and every verdure dies. |
| II. 3. | How startled Frenzy stares, Bristling her ragged hairs! Revenge the gory fragment gnaws; See, with her griping vulture-claws Imprinted deep, she rends the opening wound! Hatred her torch blue-streaming tosses round: The shrieks of agony and clang of arms Re-echo to the fierce alarms Her trump terrific blows. Disparting from behind, the clouds disclose Of kingly gesture a gigantic form, That with his scourge sublime directs the whirling storm. |
| III. 1. | Ambition, outside fair! within more foul Than fellest fiend from Tartarus sprung, In caverns hatch'd, where the fierce torrents roll Of Phlegethon, the burning banks along, Yon naked waste survey: Where late was heard the flute's mellifluous lay; Where late the rosy-bosom'd Hours In loose array danced lightly o'er the flowers; Where late the shepherd told his tender tale; And, waked by the soft-murmuring breeze of morn, The voice of cheerful labour fill'd the dale; And dove-eyed Plenty smiled, and waved her liberal horn. |
| III. 2. | Yon ruins sable from the wasting flame But mark the once resplendent dome; The frequent corse obstructs the sullen stream, And ghosts glare horrid from the sylvan gloom. How sadly silent all! Save where outstretch'd beneath yon hanging wall Pale Famine moans with feeble breath, And Torture yells, and grinds her bloody teeth— Though vain the muse, and every melting lay, To touch thy heart, unconscious of remorse! Know, monster, know, thy hour is on the way, I see, I see the Years begin their mighty course. |
| III. 3. | What scenes of glory rise Before my dazzled eyes! Young Zephyrs wave their wanton wings, And melody celestial rings: Along the lilied lawn the nymphs advance, Plush'd with love's bloom, and range the sprightly dance: The gladsome shepherds on the mountain-side, Array'd in all their rural pride, Exalt the festive note, Inviting Echo from her inmost grot— But ah! the landscape glows with fainter light, It darkens, swims, and flies for ever from my sight. |
| IV. 1. | Illusions vain! Can sacred Peace reside, Where sordid gold the breast alarms, Where cruelty inflames the eye of Pride, And Grandeur wantons in soft Pleasure's arms? Ambition! these are thine; These from the soul erase the form divine; These quench the animating fire That warms the bosom with sublime desire. Thence the relentless heart forgets to feel, Hate rides tremendous on the o'erwhelming brow, And midnight Rancour grasps the cruel steel, Blaze the funereal flames, and sound the shrieks of Woe. |
| IV. 2. | From Albion fled, thy once beloved retreat, What region brightens in thy smile, Creative Peace, and underneath thy feet Sees sullen flowers adorn the rugged soil? In bleak Siberia blows, Waked by thy genial breath, the balmy rose? Waved over by thy magic wand, Does life inform fell Libya's burning sand? Or does some isle thy parting flight detain, Where roves the Indian through primeval shades, Haunts the pure pleasures of the woodland reign, And led by Reason's ray the path of Nature treads? |
| [IV. 3.] | On Cuba's utmost steep[1], Far leaning o'er the deep, The Goddess' pensive form was seen. Her robe of Nature's varied green Waved on the gale; grief dimm'd her radiant eyes, Her swelling bosom heaved with boding sighs: She eyed the main; where, gaining on the view. Emerging from the ethereal blue, 'Midst the dread pomp of war Gleam'd the Iberian streamer from afar. She saw; and, on refulgent pinions borne, Slow wing'd her way sublime, and mingled with the morn. |
Footnote 1:
� This alludes to the discovery of America by the Spaniards under Columbus. These ravagers are said to have made their first descent on the islands in the Gulf of Florida, of which Cuba is one.