So fondly the panting camel flies, Where the glassy vapour cheats his eyes, And the dove from the falcon seeks her nest, And the infant shrinks to its mother's breast. And though her dying voice be mute, Or faint as the tones of an unstrung lute, And though the glow from her cheek be fled, And her pale lips cold as the marble dead, Her eye still beams unwonted fires With a woman's love and a saint's desires, And her last fond lingering look is given To the love she leaves, and then to Heaven, As if she would bear that love away To a purer world and a brighter day.
Sume superbiam Quæsitam meritis.
YES! bury me deep in the infinite sea, Let my heart have a limitless grave; For my spirit in life was as fierce and free As the course of the tempest-wave.
As far from the stretch of all earthly control Were the fathomless depths of my mind And the ebbs and flows of my single soul Were as tides to the rest of mankind.
Then my briny pall shall engirdle the world, As in life did the voice of my fame;
And each mutinous billow that's sky-ward curl'd Shall seem to re-echo my name.
That name shall be storied in annals of crime
In the uttermost corners of earth;
Now breathed as a curse- now a spell-word sublime,
In the glorified land of my birth.
Ay! plunge my dark heart in the infinite sea; It would burst from a narrower tomb;
Shall less than an ocean his sepulchre be
Whose mandate to millions was doom?
And I saw another mighty Angel come down from Heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head; and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, and cried with a loud voice. And the Angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to Heaven: and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created Heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things that therein are, that there should be time no longer!
I SAW an Angel on a cloud, Come floating through the air;
The Heaven's look'd like the world's dark shroud, All blacken'd with despair : With mighty stride he stalked forth, Encompassing the south and north, And eke the middle clime;
Earth reel'd beneath his ponderous weight, The ocean roll'd all agitate,
Tumultuous and sublime.
Earth quaked at the fatal sound, And to its centre shook,·
It reach'd creation's utmost bound; Then with majestic look,
He stretch'd his arm up to the sun, And thence pull'd forth that mighty one, And hurl'd him to the sea:
The moon grew pale with wild affright, The stars withdrew their glimmering light,- For light no more could be!
The mountains melted to their base, The Heavens fled away; The sea could find itself no place, Where it might longer stay: Mankind in wild confusion fled, The living mingling with the dead, Thrones and dominions fell: The huge ship sank into the wave, Ingulf'd in ocean's yawning grave, Buried beneath its swell!
The light still dim and dimmer grew, Till swallowed up in night; And then the Angel, to my view, Shone like a meteor bright;
The tempest ceased its raging breath, - All nature yielded up to death, The earth, the sky, the sea: A dark cloud rose upon my sight, And shrouded all in tenfold night,- "T was blank Eternity!
LOVE is a plant of holier birth, Than any that takes root on earth; A flower from heaven, which 't is a crime To number with the things of time; Hope in the bud is often blasted, And beauty on the desert wasted; And joy, a primrose early gay, Care's lightest foot-fall treads away.
But love shall live, and live for ever, And chance and change shall reach it never;
Can hearts in which true love is plighted,
By want or wo be disunited?
Ah! no; like buds on one stem born, They share between them even the thorn Which round them dwells, but parts them not; A lorn, yet undivided lot.
Can death dissever love, or part The loved one from the lover's heart? No, no; he does but guard the prize Sacred from moral injuries, Making it purer, holier seem, As the ice closing o'er the stream,
Keeps, while storms ravage earth and air, All baser things from mingling there.
a long farewell to thee,
My own, my native land!
Now would to God that I were free Upon thy rugged strand!
If but for one last look to bless Thy hills and deep-blue sky, And all my love for thee confess: Then lay me down and die.
But now I am alone, and none Will hear when I am dead: Perchance ere sets that glorious Sun, My spirit shall be fled!
I watch him yet-and faintly smile In death, to think that he Will rise so bright upon that isle, Where I may never be !
My Country! while I bless thee, how My feelings in me swell:
Alas, I never knew till now
I loved thee half so well!
But when alone among strange men, When friends forget, and false ones flee; Something the heart must love, and then It can but turn to thee!
Farewell, farewell! the sun's last gleams Are sinking in the sea; Along the shore the sea-bird screams, Unheard, unreck'd by me; I feel my ebbing breath decay, And fail my darkening sight: Yet ere I pass away, away, My native land-good night!
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