Thou camest; but which when Wisdom's self be held, Rightly she augured what thy visions meant, Shadow'd in doubtful hues by some immortal hand; When breathing mystic truths divine, Full many a seer and prophet thou hast taught, Behests of dread command and import high; In cloudless perspective the future caught: Converse with man; the midnight hour And coruscations of eternal day Waved, queen of silence! o'er thy darksome bower; Heaven oped her golden portals wide, And far within her glittering courts were spied The' angelic phalanx robed in vestments bright* To earth descending slow from yon fair worlds of light. And still thy gracious forms await The good man on the verge of fate; When this world and the next between, Unfolding opens heaven; then floods the scene, And tyrants oft have heard with dread The cry of vengeance thundering in their ear, * Genesis xxviii. 12. While the pale spectre Fear Hangs her dire portents round the regal bed, Horrors and woes and death: Night's demons loud Shriek to the moon afar, from many a passing cloud. Beneath the dim Earth's centre deep, And busy murmurs creep: While dreams in clusters thick are spread, Like hovering mists about thy head, That with fantastic wing thy dewy eyelids sweep. About thy sable standard pass Of Hopes and Fears a mingled mass, From Thetis' coral-woven bed, Lifts o'er the wave his beaming head: No more the lover's arms enfold The fair, snatch'd sudden from his view; Slips from the miser's grasp the evanescent gold. Vast and stupendous beyond aught, And airy voices wake that whisper fear: Oft by the paly star [wild, His steps thou lead'st to shadowy wood scenes Or, where stupendous precipices piled Gleam through the' untrodden wilderness afar; Mute wonder and astonishment; And seeks Oblivion's shore, and melts before the light. Ye visions of the night, farewell! Yet with impassion'd fond regret I quit thy shadowy realms, where, brought Far off Night's sullen spirit sails, Yet shall yon golden lamp of day More lasting forms more happy scenes display? II. SOFT queen of shadows, gentle Sleep, Expatiates 'midst thy visionary reign, And bathes in slumbers bland the wakeful sense of pain. Sweet are thy foldings, when, to bless The paths where childhood loved to stray; Where playful at the cottage door, [man. To mimic, midst their sports, the graver cares of Scenes of enchantment! ye are fled; Yet Fancy oft your flight pursues, While evening shadows dim O'er earth's pale surface swim, [hues. And eyes your transient forms, and pranks in golden But most when mortal eyelids close, Lock'd in Sleep's profound repose, The' enchantress wakes, and lo, anew Hope relumes her sickly fires, The bard's ecstatic breast inspires, Expressing subjects high, and worthy of the Muse. And oft has Friendship known The kind relief that Sleep alone, VOL. III. M |