 | Lays of Melpomene |  |
A REVERIE.
Morn wakes upon the mountain height,
And dim and duskily along
The woodland dale glides pensive night,
Listening to nature's matin song;
Her russet robes and tresses dark
Far floating o'er the pale-blue sky,
While arrow-like, the wild-wing'd lark
Fans heaven with joyous minstrelsy.
And dim and duskily along
The woodland dale glides pensive night,
Listening to nature's matin song;
Her russet robes and tresses dark
Far floating o'er the pale-blue sky,
While arrow-like, the wild-wing'd lark
Fans heaven with joyous minstrelsy.
But why wakes man with drooping eye,
And burning brow, and heart of gloom?
Why comes no soothing melody
From his dark spirit's breathing tomb?
The bursting sigh, the pallid cheek,
The quivering voice, and look of care,
An unblest soul too loudly speak,
A heart enthroned by grim despair.
And burning brow, and heart of gloom?
Why comes no soothing melody
From his dark spirit's breathing tomb?
The bursting sigh, the pallid cheek,
65
An unblest soul too loudly speak,
A heart enthroned by grim despair.
Morn's glories bring no joy to him,
Eve's vermil beauties fade unseen,
His hopes are gone, his eye is dim,
The present pictures what has been;
Life is a dream of wretchedness,
The world a prison barr'd by woe,
The earth a grave where myriads press,
And heaven a place that none can know.
Eve's vermil beauties fade unseen,
His hopes are gone, his eye is dim,
The present pictures what has been;
Life is a dream of wretchedness,
The world a prison barr'd by woe,
The earth a grave where myriads press,
And heaven a place that none can know.
Starting from visions, whose false light,
Like fire-flies round a cataract,
Deludes the wretch to endless night,
He hurries forth to feel the rack
Of ductile malice, and to tread
Among the snares of villain guile;
To sigh in doubt, and gaze in dread,
And fall beneath a dagger-smile.
Like fire-flies round a cataract,
Deludes the wretch to endless night,
He hurries forth to feel the rack
Of ductile malice, and to tread
Among the snares of villain guile;
To sigh in doubt, and gaze in dread,
And fall beneath a dagger-smile.
The spirit that can span the skies,
And walk divinely realms above,
Is torn with sorrow, stung with lies,
And murdered by the fiends of love;
For angels oft their robes impart
To shroud a demon's venom'd thrust,
And 'tis the madness of the heart
That makes the world supremely curst.
And walk divinely realms above,
Is torn with sorrow, stung with lies,
And murdered by the fiends of love;
For angels oft their robes impart
To shroud a demon's venom'd thrust,
And 'tis the madness of the heart
That makes the world supremely curst.
The iron mantle, flung by grief
O'er bosoms scorched by lava tears,
The savage feeling, past relief,
That centres all the pain of years;
The wild-fire rush of boiling blood,
The thought that seems to burst the brain,
Conquer at last pride's hardihood,
And time, fate, life and death disdain.
O'er bosoms scorched by lava tears,
The savage feeling, past relief,
That centres all the pain of years;
The wild-fire rush of boiling blood,
The thought that seems to burst the brain,
Conquer at last pride's hardihood,
And time, fate, life and death disdain.
66
Vain is the searching thought intense,
That struggles in the expanding mind,
And vainer still the joys of sense,
For hell and demons rush behind;
Gloomy 'mid mirth, in crowds alone,
Distrusting good, adopting ill,
Man is the thing he dares not own,
The victim of his own wild will.
That struggles in the expanding mind,
And vainer still the joys of sense,
For hell and demons rush behind;
Gloomy 'mid mirth, in crowds alone,
Distrusting good, adopting ill,
Man is the thing he dares not own,
The victim of his own wild will.
Youth withers 'neath the blight of wrong,
And minds of mighty birth are doomed
To perish in convulsions strong,
And by earth's reptiles be entombed;
While, lanced by hatred's gory blade,
And probed by misery's venomed steel,
The heavenliest hearts are naked laid
For vice to balm, and hell to heal.
And minds of mighty birth are doomed
To perish in convulsions strong,
And by earth's reptiles be entombed;
While, lanced by hatred's gory blade,
And probed by misery's venomed steel,
The heavenliest hearts are naked laid
For vice to balm, and hell to heal.
A wanderer, seeking hope's pale ghost,
A shadow in the world's wide blaze,
In labyrinthine mazes lost
For blackening nights and midnight days,
Led by delusion, girt by woe,
Followed by horror and remorse,
Man could not render life below
More dreary, nor the world make worse.
A shadow in the world's wide blaze,
In labyrinthine mazes lost
For blackening nights and midnight days,
Led by delusion, girt by woe,
Followed by horror and remorse,
Man could not render life below
More dreary, nor the world make worse.
| Lays of Melpomene | |