 | A New Year's Eve, and Other Poems |  |
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ENIGMA.
“Come hearken my riddle, and read me my lay,
And tell me the name of the spell I pourtray.”
And tell me the name of the spell I pourtray.”
Hast thou heard of Circe's
wand,
Which, in that enchantress' hand,
Doomed, by potent mystery,
Man to grovel in the sty?
Or of Prospero's, at whose motion
Tempests roused the slumbering ocean,
Owned alike by mortal man,
Ariel, and Caliban?
Hast thou read of magic words?
Regal sceptres? Conquerors' swords?
And the wonders these can do?
I can work strange marvels too:
And, by my mysterious sway,
Scatter in one fatal day,
All that grandsire, sire, and son,
By long years of toil have won.
Which, in that enchantress' hand,
Doomed, by potent mystery,
Man to grovel in the sty?
Or of Prospero's, at whose motion
Tempests roused the slumbering ocean,
Owned alike by mortal man,
Ariel, and Caliban?
Hast thou read of magic words?
Regal sceptres? Conquerors' swords?
215
I can work strange marvels too:
And, by my mysterious sway,
Scatter in one fatal day,
All that grandsire, sire, and son,
By long years of toil have won.
True it is my power, though strange,
In dispersing cannot change;
But no talisman, or wand,
E'er, at Sorcery's command,
Wrought more magic transformation
In its subjects' rank and station.
Dost thou, reader, ask of me
Of what nature these may be?
Every thing that wealth can buy
Owns, in turn, my mastery:
All that nature can produce,
Or that art, with skilful use,
Forms and fashions; earth and air,
Fire and water; ships that bear
Freightage o'er the stormy seas,
Castles, cottages, and trees,
Books, and pictures;—what you please
Every thing, in short that man
E'er possessed, or ever can,
Every day, ifnot each hour,
Is obedient to my power.
In dispersing cannot change;
But no talisman, or wand,
E'er, at Sorcery's command,
Wrought more magic transformation
In its subjects' rank and station.
Dost thou, reader, ask of me
Of what nature these may be?
Every thing that wealth can buy
Owns, in turn, my mastery:
All that nature can produce,
Or that art, with skilful use,
Forms and fashions; earth and air,
Fire and water; ships that bear
216
Castles, cottages, and trees,
Books, and pictures;—what you please
Every thing, in short that man
E'er possessed, or ever can,
Every day, ifnot each hour,
Is obedient to my power.
Fancy not my potent sway
Shuns the open eye of day;
Mine is no mysterious rite
Shrinking from the public sight;
On the contrary, when I
Deign my potent spell to try,
Views of profit, or of pride,
Spread the tidings far and wide;
Throngs are gathered; one and all
Mark my rise, and wait my fall;
For, like Sampson in his day,
Mightiest found in his decay,
At my most auspicious hour
In my fall is felt my power!
Shuns the open eye of day;
Mine is no mysterious rite
Shrinking from the public sight;
On the contrary, when I
Deign my potent spell to try,
Views of profit, or of pride,
Spread the tidings far and wide;
Throngs are gathered; one and all
Mark my rise, and wait my fall;
For, like Sampson in his day,
Mightiest found in his decay,
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In my fall is felt my power!
Of my substance, form, or size,
Dost thou ask? The muse replies
These are various—all and each;
In my name, and in the speech
Of him who sways me for the hour
Is enshrined my mystic power.
Dost thou ask? The muse replies
These are various—all and each;
In my name, and in the speech
Of him who sways me for the hour
Is enshrined my mystic power.
| A New Year's Eve, and Other Poems | |