Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

“Astronomers are expecting the appearance this year of the Comet called that of Charles V., and so named from having caused that monarch to abdicate and retire to the Convent of St. Just.”—Newspaper Paragraph.

O Comet, blessing man's poor eyes
When God the earth's cries' deigns to hear,
O blessed wanderer of the skies,
O longed-for star, again appear!
If many a people thou hast freed
From many a despot's cursèd power,
See, earth had never greater need
Of thee, O star! than at this hour.
How despots vex poor Europe still:
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destined purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

An Emperor's word was iron law,
Two worlds beneath his ruling groan'd;
O star! thy fiery glare he saw,
And straight his sins in sackcloth own'd.
How many now, with sway more foul
Than his, God's trampled earth offend!
Oh! to the cell—the whip—the cowl,
How many, star, thou well might'st send.
See, despots vex our poor earth still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destined purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

Thy destined power one Stuart felt,
Who sought our fathers to enslave,
When at the block aghast he knelt
And his pale head to justice gave.
Nor long to be by tyrants vex'd
By thee, O wanderer, were we left;

306

A second Stuart, star, you next
Of sceptre and of crown bereft.
See, despots vex our poor earth still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destin'd purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

Then next the Bourbons' fated race,
Long doom'd—long spared—awoke thine ire;
Well might weak Louis trembling trace
Along the night thy train of fire.
Thy glare along the ghastly skies
Its tyrant's doom to France foretold;
Thou heard'st the people's anguish'd cries;
A king's head on their scaffold roll'd.
See, despots vex our poor earth still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destin'd purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

Then, ere you sank from human eyes,
How, wild with terror, Europe rung,
How often, with the dying cries
Of tyrants from the people sprung!
Marat—fierce Danton—Robespierre,
All drunk with blood, by you were hurl'd
To death, no more to shake with fear
The kings and nations of the world.
See, despots vex poor Europe still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destin'd purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

A tyrant from the people sprung,
Napoleon trod on prostrate thrones;
A despot still, his ruling wrung
From trampled Europe tears and groans,
And thou didst hear; his doom to tell,
Upon the night thy terrors rose,

307

And, false to freedom's rights, he fell,
Struck down by nations made his foes.
See, despots vex our poor earth still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destin'd purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

Again across the ghastly night,
O star, thy vengeful terrors sped;
Friend of the people, from thy sight,
Again the baffled Bourbons fled.
But better influence thou didst shed;
The people's foes thou didst not slay;
He, too, the despot in their stead
Thou didst but, crownless, scare away.
See, despots vex our poor earth still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destin'd purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

But woe unto the nations! woe!
To tyrants, tyrants still succeed;
Look on this Europe, star, and know
How much thy coming still we need;
For souls and tongues are fetter'd sore,
And slaves are they who should be free,
And nations wildly watch once more
Thy thrice-blest gleams, O star, to see.
See, despots vex our poor earth still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destin'd purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O wanderer, re-appear!

How long thy coming blaze to see,
In vain the weary nations pine;
When wilt thou come? When will there be
A nobler, purer '89?
Come, and a worthier '30 bring;
How long—how long we watch and wait!

308

Come, star, and let the glad earth ring
With the free shouts of '48.
See, despots vex our poor earth still;
Oh, haste upon its tyrants here
Thy destin'd purpose to fulfil;
Appear, O star, again appear!

1858.