University of Virginia Library

XI.

The hubbub of the fool-like crowd
Had such a strange fantastic look,
That Mopus burst to laughter loud,
Nor could the sight demurely brook.
Emperors, kings, princes, and lords,
Ran, eager, grasping chaff and straws;
And warrior's mad, with blood-stain'd swords,
Roared out, “revenge! for broken laws.”
Some stray'd, wrapp'd up in musing deep,
Beside the lone sequester'd stream;
Some grasp'd the wind, as it did sweep
Across the flower-bespangled green.

59

Others, remote, upon the moor
The wild fire chase through dense and rare;
The meteor's flash some to secure
With madlike bounds rise in the air.
Swift, ardent, ran a countless rout
To reach rich Mammon's fleeting dome;
While “ever and anon” they shout,
“Kind Father take us to thy home!”
And, while this strange maniac scene
Did show that madness reign'd in man,
The Sage, with grave commanding mein,
Its explanation thus began.