The peripatetic or, Sketches of the heart, of nature and society; In a series of politico-sentimental journals, in verse and prose, of the eccentric excursions of Sylvanus Theophrastus; Supposed to be written by himself [by John Thelwall] |
 | [I]. |
 | II. |
[O giant fiend! whose haggard eye] |
| III. |
 | The peripatetic |  |
96
[O giant fiend! whose haggard eye]
O giant fiend! whose haggard eye,
Blasting each hope of future joy,
In wildering terror restless roves;
Intent, with savage pride, to seize
Whate'er the frantic purpose moves,
Whate'er may Reason's current freeze,
And Resolution's guardian pow'r
Pervert in Sorrow's languid hour
(While keen Remorse aloof attends)
To fell Destruction's baneful ends!
Blasting each hope of future joy,
In wildering terror restless roves;
Intent, with savage pride, to seize
Whate'er the frantic purpose moves,
Whate'er may Reason's current freeze,
And Resolution's guardian pow'r
Pervert in Sorrow's languid hour
97
To fell Destruction's baneful ends!
O fell Despair! should e'er my soul
Dejected feel thy dark controul,
May then, as I eccentric stray,
In lonely grief retir'd to mourn,
No yawning chasm cross my way,
No rapid torrents winding bourn,
No cliff that o'er the raging main
Projecting lours, and turns his brain,
Who, forward bent, with 'ventrous gaze
The foaming surge beneath surveys.
Dejected feel thy dark controul,
May then, as I eccentric stray,
In lonely grief retir'd to mourn,
No yawning chasm cross my way,
No rapid torrents winding bourn,
No cliff that o'er the raging main
Projecting lours, and turns his brain,
Who, forward bent, with 'ventrous gaze
The foaming surge beneath surveys.
Ah! when the melancholy pang assails,
And pale Despondence wrings the feeling heart,
Too oft, dread fiend! thy sullen power prevails,
And barbs too oft the self-destroying dart.
There are who yielding to affliction's smart,
Cherish each sullen fiend of Fancy's train,
To every scene the darkest hues impart,
And conjure phantoms in the working brain;—
Who, all alive in every throbbing vein
To wild Imagination's lawless power,
The gloomy perturbation scarce restrain
When lonely Silence rules the darkling hour.
To such,—if chance along the level meads
(While o'er its breast the weeping oziers play)
Whispering soft murmurs to the waving reeds,
The purling riv'lets slow meanders stray;—
E'en scenes like these—(what time the lunar ray
Spangles the dimpling wave, and tolling slow,
The solemn knell, as holy legends say,
Scares from the death-bed scene the hovering fiend away)
—E'en scenes like these may feed the desperate woe
Till fearful fancies rise; and dark Dismay
The seat of guiding Reason overthrow:
Prompting the deed that Nature shrinks to hear,
And meek Compassion waters with a tear.
Ah! ne'er may such, while throbs the wildering brain,
With devious step this tottering brink attain.
And pale Despondence wrings the feeling heart,
Too oft, dread fiend! thy sullen power prevails,
And barbs too oft the self-destroying dart.
There are who yielding to affliction's smart,
Cherish each sullen fiend of Fancy's train,
To every scene the darkest hues impart,
And conjure phantoms in the working brain;—
Who, all alive in every throbbing vein
To wild Imagination's lawless power,
The gloomy perturbation scarce restrain
When lonely Silence rules the darkling hour.
To such,—if chance along the level meads
(While o'er its breast the weeping oziers play)
Whispering soft murmurs to the waving reeds,
The purling riv'lets slow meanders stray;—
E'en scenes like these—(what time the lunar ray
Spangles the dimpling wave, and tolling slow,
The solemn knell, as holy legends say,
Scares from the death-bed scene the hovering fiend away)
98
Till fearful fancies rise; and dark Dismay
The seat of guiding Reason overthrow:
Prompting the deed that Nature shrinks to hear,
And meek Compassion waters with a tear.
Ah! ne'er may such, while throbs the wildering brain,
With devious step this tottering brink attain.
| The peripatetic | |