 | My Mind and its Thoughts, in Sketches, Fragments, and Essays |  |
70
STANZAS TO DISAPPOINTMENT.
Offspring of earth! whose sullen eye,
Glooms with the still increasing care,
Why throw thy mad glance on the sky!
Why court the curse that hovers there.
Glooms with the still increasing care,
Why throw thy mad glance on the sky!
Why court the curse that hovers there.
Whether of luckless love thy claim,
To chill the warm heart's passion'd glow,
Or under friendship's treacherous name,
To strike the meditated blow.
To chill the warm heart's passion'd glow,
Or under friendship's treacherous name,
To strike the meditated blow.
Or when ambition upward springs,
Conscious of fortune's vernal ray,
To clip the young hope's soaring wings,
And snatch the tasted joy away:
Conscious of fortune's vernal ray,
To clip the young hope's soaring wings,
And snatch the tasted joy away:
Whether on lucre's toiling train
Thou turn thy hard and heavy form,
While scorn redoubles every pain,
That breaks the wearied spirit down:
Thou turn thy hard and heavy form,
While scorn redoubles every pain,
That breaks the wearied spirit down:
Or on retarded justice wait,
Where slow Potomack's waters roll,
Assume the answering nod of state,
And reach the Georgian's harrowed soul:
Where slow Potomack's waters roll,
Assume the answering nod of state,
And reach the Georgian's harrowed soul:
71
Still dreaded, and still dreadful known,
Thine is the broad and phrenzied stare;
And thine the deep and deadly groan,
Which lead thy victim to despair.
Thine is the broad and phrenzied stare;
And thine the deep and deadly groan,
Which lead thy victim to despair.
Has not thy coldly grasping fold,
Strong as the serpent's venomed twine,
Known this quick nerve of life to hold,
Till every stagnant pulse was thine.
Strong as the serpent's venomed twine,
Known this quick nerve of life to hold,
Till every stagnant pulse was thine.
Though wide as earth thy crushing sway,
Child of the world! to that confined,
One heavenly hope shall charm away
Thy wrongs—and heal the suffering mind.
Child of the world! to that confined,
One heavenly hope shall charm away
Thy wrongs—and heal the suffering mind.
Hope, kind preserver! angel power,
Wilt thou the imprisoned spirit free!
In disappointment's palsying hour,
Turn thy electric glance on me.
Wilt thou the imprisoned spirit free!
In disappointment's palsying hour,
Turn thy electric glance on me.
The Georgian.—Intended to designate that company of unfortunate citizens, who had been induced to purchase a large tract of country in the state of Georgia; which purchase being disputed as illicit, or illegal, the supplicants were seen every season, returning from the GREAT CITY on the Potomack, to their desolate homes, unanswered, and unrequited—for the most part ruined, ere partial redress was awarded.
| My Mind and its Thoughts, in Sketches, Fragments, and Essays | |