"Oft, ev'n on earth, by Heaven's unfathom'd doom,
She breaks thro' her dark fortune's circling gloom,
And thro' the dim-dissolving cloud of woe
Refulgent mounts, and gilds the world below.
Pale Envy pines, and sickens in the dust,
And gazing nations learn that Heaven is just.
"Such are the truths thy vision would relate,
And such the secret of thy doubtful fate.
"Go, then—thy God has fix'd thy future doom,
And light and transient are thy woes to come:
Those sorrows past, ev'n Earth has joys in store;
And Heaven expects thee on her happy shore.
Go—and, by chilling grief no more oppress'd,
Hold firm thy heart—to stand, is to be bless'd!"
Quick-glancing from his sight the Seraph sped,
And all the dream in gay confusion fled.
Soft o'er the wave the summer-breezes sigh'd,
The moon play'd quivering on the restless tide.
He rose, and now with new ideas fraught,
Revolv'd the vision in his alter'd thought;
An eye of meek contrition upward cast,
And stretch'd in lonely prayer, bewail'd the past;
Traced all his years, and with a tranquil eye
Exulting scann'd his promised destiny;
Then steer'd his bark, with Providence his guide,
To realms unknown, and oceans yet untried.
TO THE COMET, 1811.
WRITTEN ON ITS APPEARANCE.
Be ye not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. Jer. x. 2.
Comet! who from yon' dusky sky
Dart'st o'er a shrinking world thy fiery eye,
Scattering from thy burning train
Diffusive terror o'er the earth and main;
What high behest dost thou perform
Of Heaven's Almighty Lord? what coming storm
Of war or woe does thy etherial flame
To thoughtless man proclaim?
Dost thou commissioned shine
The silent harbinger of wrath divine?
Or does thy unprophetic fire
Thro' the wide realms of solar day
Mad Heat or purple Pestilence inspire?
Thro' all her lands, Earth trembles at thy ray;
And starts, as she beholds thee sweep
With fiery wing Air's far-illumined deep.