University of Virginia Library

The Conflagration.

An ODE.

I.

Supine as men before the deluge lay,
In melting joys and luxury dissolv'd,
Till swift destruction swept them all away,
The stupid world will then be found;
In all licentiousness and sin involv'd,
When loud to judgment the last trumpets sound.
Then time shall be no more,
Nor months and years proportion'd by the sun;
Which ne'er again shall run,
With vig'rous pride, the shining Zodiac o'er.

II.

A sudden change the living shall translate
To an immortal from a mortal state:
While those that slumber in the grave awake
In crowds, their former vehicles to take,
Endu'd with principles that may sustain
Celestial pleasure, or infernal pain.

III.

And now begins the universal wreck;
The wheels of nature stand, or change their course,
And backward hurrying with disorder'd force,
The long establish'd laws of motion break.
The refluent rivers to their fountains run,
Their antient paths and well-known channels shun.
The seas their sandy banks deride,
And know their bounds no more,
Against the rocks, with stormy pride,
The angry billows roar:
Now swelling, like transparent mounts appear,
Which to the clouds their lofty summits rear,
And mingle with the virgin waters there:
Here, like the mouth of hell, vast whirlpools yawn,
And down the rapid gulph whole floods and isles are drawn.

IV.

Prodigious thunders shake the sky,
As from their cells with clam'rous rage they break;
Prodigious lightnings kindle as they fly,
And trace the clouds with many a fiery streak:
While in the darken'd air
With horrid beams malignant comets glare.
Encountring tempests strive,
Which mighty winds across each other drive;
Loos'd from the spacious cavities below,
From all th' adverse points of heav'n they blow,
And murmur from afar with stormy sound;
While burning bolts and hail-stones rake the ground.
Resistless whirlwinds bluster here and there,
Trees from their roots, stones from their rocks they tear.

V.

The central fire within its prison raves,
And all the globe with strong concussions shakes,
As from its urn in sulph'rous waves
The dreadful element breaks;
Thro' all the gloomy vaults around it flows,
Thro' ev'ry cleft and winding fissure glows,
And wild excursions makes.
Its course no subterranean damps oppose,
From vein to vein the active particles take fire,
And towards the surface of the globe aspire;
Whole groves, and hills, and buildings undermine,
Whole groves, and hills, and palaces drop in:
Wide gapes the direful gulph, and where
Tall mountains stood, prodigious chasms appear.
With wilder fury here
The fierce materials outward rush,
And where, ev'n now, a level plain was spread,
Vast rocks and frowning steeps erect their hideous head;
From whose dark entrails livid torrents gush,
And glowing cataracts spout:
Like Ætna now the new Volcano roars,
Unweildy stones, and burning craggs throws out,
With show'rs of sand, and seas of melted ores.

VI.

While louder still on high the trumpets sound,
And reach the dreary kingdoms under ground.
Hell's deep foundations the strange echoes shake,
With terrors fill each raging fiend,
The earth with strong concussions rend,
And wide disclose the vast infernal lake,
With all the execrable dens below,
The dwellings of unutterable woe.
Thick steams from the unbottom'd gulph arise,
And blacken all the skies:
The startled sun winks at the horrid sight,
And robs the moon of all her silver light;
While ev'ry gay, ethereal flame expires,
Or to its first original retires.
Now mightier pangs the whole creation feels;
Each planet from its shatter'd axis reels,
And orbs immense on orbs immense drop down,
Like scatt'ring leaves from off their branches blown.

VII.

Again the great archangel's summons fly
Thro' earth, thro' hell, and all the ample vaults on high.
Wide fly the portals of eternal day,
To give the king of glory way:
And lo! the Son of God descends,
Heav'n's everlasting frame beneath him bends;
On louring clouds he sits enthron'd,
Whence ruddy flames, and pointed lightnings play,
And bellowing thunders with shrill voices sound:
To judge the world he comes with awful state,
Ten thousand times ten thousand on him wait,
Cherub and seraphim,
With mighty chiefs, and splendid dignities,
Dominions, potentates and pow'rs,
Of heav'nly thrones the num'rous regencies.
And (if a muse might dare
Things so extremely distant to compare;)
Like Hesperus leading on the countless stars,
The God before his radiant train appears;
Divine his form, ineffable his air,
At once benignant, solemn, and severe;
Around him dart refulgent beams,
And from his eyes approachless glory streams.

VIII.

The waters see, and downward sink,
The mountains melt like wax before the fire,
The folding heav'ns together shrink,
And with a mighty noise the clashing orbs retire.
Despairing, trembling, mad, the vitious fly,
And to the falling rocks for shelter cry;
To hell's impenetrable shades would run,
The face of their vindictive judge to shun.
The shudd'ring fiends t'avoid his sight,
Beneath the burning deeps would hide;
Unable now to bear celestial light,
Or the resplendence of his looks abide.

IX.

Unmov'd alone the virtuous now appear,
And in their looks a calm assurance wear,
Nor hell, nor all its horrors fear.
From east, from west, from north and south they come,
To take from the most righteous judge their doom;
Who thus, to them, with a serene regard;
(The books of life before him laid,
And all the secret records wide display'd)
‘According to your works be your reward;
‘As my reproach and cross you did not fear,
‘To men and angels I approve you here;
‘Possess immortal kingdoms as your due,
‘Prepar'd from an eternal date for you.’

X.

The glitt'ring legions shout above,
And down ten thousand heav'nly guardians fly,
T'attend their joyful charges to the sky:
And upward now with wond'rous state they move,
Melodious welcomes they receive on high,
With shining robes, victorious palms and crowns,
Celestial dignities, and everlasting thrones;
While beauty, life, and joy, with love divine,
Break from their eyes, and on their faces shine.

XI.

XII.

Like stings these fatal accents wound,
And all the wretched sinners pleas confound;
Opprest with shame, confusion, and despair,
They sink, nor can the heavy judgment bear.
Th' unfathom'd deep to swallow them gapes wide;
And now without controul
The fiery surges roll,
And hell extends itself on ev'ry side:
Where, without intermission, without end,
Howling and lamentations loud ascend;
With flames and hellish smother, which appear
To form about the globe a dreadful atmosphere.

XIII.

Why vice was prosp'rous, virtue why distrest,
With all the deep-writ sense,
The dark mysterious ways of providence,
To men and angels now are manifest.