 | The poetical works of James Montgomery |  |
THE GNAT.
[_]
Written with pencil round an insect of that kind, which had been accidentally crushed, and remained fixed on a blank page of a lady's album.
Lie here embalm'd, from age to age;
This is the album's noblest page,
Though every glowing leaf be fraught
With painting, poetry, and thought;
Where tracks of mortal hands are seen,
A hand invisible hath been,
And left this autograph behind,
This image from the' eternal Mind;
A work of skill, surpassing sense,
A labour of Omnipotence;
Though frail as dust it meet thine eye,
He form'd this gnat who built the sky.
This is the album's noblest page,
Though every glowing leaf be fraught
With painting, poetry, and thought;
Where tracks of mortal hands are seen,
A hand invisible hath been,
And left this autograph behind,
This image from the' eternal Mind;
A work of skill, surpassing sense,
A labour of Omnipotence;
Though frail as dust it meet thine eye,
He form'd this gnat who built the sky.
Stop—lest it vanish at thy breath,
This speck had life, and suffer'd death.
This speck had life, and suffer'd death.
1832.
| The poetical works of James Montgomery | |