Poems and Plays :: :: University of Virginia Library

Hail to thee, gloomy spectre, Death!
So seldom hail'd by human breath
With vital vigour warm!
Approach!—let me thy features know,
For my undaunted eye would grow
Familiar with thy form!

I see thee well, and all thy train,
The horrid armament of pain,
Who execute thy will:
I know their force: with rapid aim,
Early they fasten'd on my frame,
And only fail'd to kill.

176

O Death! I know thy utmost sway;
This flesh is thy devoted prey:
My soul derides thy power;
Derides each wound, which thou canst give,
Safe from thy stroke, and form'd to live
Beyond thy final hour.

I own thee not as Terror's king,
Tho' shrieking slaves thy title ring,
Around the trembling globe:
The hand of Faith thy mantle tore,
And Fear can dress thy form no more
In Horror's ghastly robe.

I see thee, stript of all thy pride,
A simple herald, doom'd to guide
The Spirit's destin'd march:
Thy trumpet, with no dreadful blast,
Proclaims the victor soul has past
The tomb's triumphal arch.—

177

Ah! why should age, with weak delay,
In vain contention wish to stay,
When robb'd of vigour's shield?
What labourer, call'd to take his hire,
Persists his worn-out limbs to tire
Around the stubble field?

This motley scene of jest and strife,
This tragi-comedy of life,
On observation palls:
Its fancied joys too slightly touch;
Its fancied woes afflict too much,
Before the curtain falls.

Eager I pant, with fond presage,
To gaze on a sublimer stage
Above yon starry pole:
That stage, by kindred angels trod,
Illumin'd by the throne of God,
Must fill the raptur'd soul.

178

O Death! I hear thy stern reply:—
“Dar'st thou presume, Mortality!
“So abject, so infirm!
“Fearless that Presence to abide,
“Before whose blaze celestial pride
“Has shrunk into a worm?”

Of follies sick, not sunk by crimes,
With filial hope my spirit climbs,
Nor fears a Father's rod.
I go with awe, but not dismay:
My soul is on the wing:—away!
And lead me to my God!