POEMS.

1.

1826.

Vellem ego per vitreas sedes et lucida regna
Ire iter, aeriâque ad te delabier alâ;

Vellem ego dilectas sedes sacrataque amore
Tesqua tuo, et dulces tandem cognoscere campos,
Felices campos qui te lætantur alumno.

Sed quoniam non æqua mihi mea fata fuerunt, Nec tanta est precibus nostris concessa voluptas.

2.

1826.

To night my dreary course is run,

And at the setting of the sun,

Far beneath the western wave,

I seek my quiet grave:

Amid the silent halls of fate,

Where lie in long and shadowy state,
The embryos of the things that be,
Waiting the hour of destiny.

High on the stately wall

The spear of Arvad hung;

Through corridor and hall

Gemaddin's war-note rung.

Where are they now? the note is o'er ;
Yes! for a thousand years and more.

Five fathom deep beneath the sea
Those halls have lain all silently;

Nought listing save the mermaid's song,
While rude sea-monsters roam the corridors along.

Far from the wondering East

Tubal and Javan came;

And Araby the blest,

And Kedar, mighty name—
Now on that shore, a lonely guest,
Some dripping fisherman may rest,
Watching on rock or naked stone

His dark net spread before the sun,
Unconscious of the dooming lay

That broods o'er that dull spot, and there shall brood for

aye.

4. LOT'S SONS IN LAW.

1833.

"All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

"Sunk not the sun behind yon dusky hill

Glorious as he was wont? The starry sky
Spread o'er the earth in tranquil majesty,
Discern'st thou in its clear deep aught of ill?
Or in this lower world, so fair and still,

Its palaces and temples towering high;
Or where old Jordan, gliding calmly by,
Pours o'er the misty plain his mantle chill?

Dote not of fear, old man, where all is joy;
And heaven and earth thy augury disown;
And Time's eternal course rolls smoothly on,
Fraught with fresh blessings as day follows day.
The All-bounteous hath not given to take away;
The All-wise hath not created to destroy."

5. FAREWELL TO TORYISM.

1833.

"Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not."

"Tis sad to watch Time's desolating hand

Doom noblest things to premature decay :
The Feudal court, the Patriarchal sway

Of kings, the cheerful homage of a land
Unskill'd in treason, every social band

That taught to rule with sweetness, and obey
With dignity, swept one by one away ;

While proud Empirics rule in fell command.

Yet, Christian! faint not at the sickning sight;

Nor vainly strive with that Supreme Decrée.

Thou hast a treasure and an armoury

Locked to the spoiler yet: Thy shafts are bright:

Faint not: HEAVEN'S KEYS are more than sceptred might;

Their Guardians more than king or sire to thee.

6.

1833.

"Be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart."

Lord, I have fasted, I have prayed,
And sackcloth has my girdle been,
To purge my soul I have essayed
With hunger blank and vigil keen.
O Father of mercies! why am I
Still haunted by the self I fly?

Sackcloth is a girdle good,

O bind it round thee still;
Fasting, it is Angels' food,

And Jesus loved the night-air chill;

Yet think not prayer and fast were given
To make one step 'twixt earth and heaven '.

As well might sun and rain contending
Their sweet influence array

On the new fallen seed descending

To raise a forest in a day.

Eph. ii. 8.

Thinkest thou prayer and fast alone

Can animate a heart of stone.

It must be rooted in charity.

Thinkest thou art fit for fasting at all yet?

The food of saints is not for thee 1.

1

[These verses are valuable, as showing to those who did not know the Author, what those who knew do not need to be told, that even when years had elapsed, and his views of religion, were matured, and his mind freed from the solicitudes which at one time troubled it, he preserved the same ascetic, and the same lowly feelings which are exhibited in his Journal and Letters in 1826-27.]