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80
THE MASTODON.
Thou ponderous truth, from thy long night's sleep
Through the unrecorded eras
Awaked, and come from their darkness deep
To this day of light chimeras!—
What wast thou, when thy mountain form
Stood forth in vital glory?
O, who can paint thee live and warm,
Or reveal thy life's strange story?
Through the unrecorded eras
Awaked, and come from their darkness deep
To this day of light chimeras!—
What wast thou, when thy mountain form
Stood forth in vital glory?
O, who can paint thee live and warm,
Or reveal thy life's strange story?
Those flinty darts
must have brought thee low,
That were found beneath thee lying!
Some mighty hunter had twanged the bow,
Till he saw Behemoth dying!
Thou, till then, that in pride and power
Hadst walked the earth with thunder,
How great the pang,—the fall,—the hour,—
When thy life-string snapped asunder!
That were found beneath thee lying!
Some mighty hunter had twanged the bow,
Till he saw Behemoth dying!
Thou, till then, that in pride and power
Hadst walked the earth with thunder,
How great the pang,—the fall,—the hour,—
When thy life-string snapped asunder!
The ground, that, shuddering, drank thy blood,
In its clods dared not imbed thee;
And sea and skies gave a whelming flood,
As a pall, to overspread thee.
Age on age, with their stone and mould,
In strata deep, then made thee
A shroud no power could e'er unfold,
Till a day of steam betrayed thee.
In its clods dared not imbed thee;
And sea and skies gave a whelming flood,
As a pall, to overspread thee.
Age on age, with their stone and mould,
In strata deep, then made thee
A shroud no power could e'er unfold,
Till a day of steam betrayed thee.
81
They came,—they found, and they probed thy bed;
And Resurgam o'er thee writing,—
An ancient of the unnumbered dead
For too long repose indicting!—
Thee they brought to the sun's broad blaze,
For this rude court to try thee:—
Of high and low must thou stand the gaze;
And the veriest gnat may eye thee!
And Resurgam o'er thee writing,—
An ancient of the unnumbered dead
For too long repose indicting!—
Thee they brought to the sun's broad blaze,
For this rude court to try thee:—
Of high and low must thou stand the gaze;
And the veriest gnat may eye thee!
For rightful claim, which the world now grudge,
To one's own reserved quietus,
Thou com'st arraigned to each self-made judge,
With thine ironed limbs, to meet us.
Yet, hold on; and thy history still
Let none that pry discover;—
Not though they cast thee in their great mill,
And they grind and mould thee over!
To one's own reserved quietus,
Thou com'st arraigned to each self-made judge,
With thine ironed limbs, to meet us.
Yet, hold on; and thy history still
Let none that pry discover;—
Not though they cast thee in their great mill,
And they grind and mould thee over!
Sublimely wrapt in a mystery be,
As a problem grand propounded;—
The thousands prove, who may question thee,
In their wisdom all confounded.
Heed not thou what the babblers say,—
Be proudly mute to sages:
They 're creatures all of but yesterday,
And thou of the untold ages!
As a problem grand propounded;—
The thousands prove, who may question thee,
In their wisdom all confounded.
Heed not thou what the babblers say,—
Be proudly mute to sages:
They 're creatures all of but yesterday,
And thou of the untold ages!
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