The bridal of Vaumond :: :: University of Virginia Library

And there was many a galley brazen prow'd—
The foaming wave their oars unnumber'd plough'd—
And now pale flight hung maddening o'er the flood
That roll'd its waters red, a sea of blood!
But they have pass'd;—again the sails I greet,
And hurling thunder, moors a gallant fleet.
Lo! from yon battlement, the mid-day dimming
A flood of light intense on high is streaming;
The ocean kindles as it meets the wave,
And fiery billows bear the galleys brave;
They fire the decks—the prow—in their ascent,
They climb the shrouds, and lick the firmament!—

Visions roll on!—the eagle's wings are spread—
Dark came the storm, the while the eagle fled;
Black is the robe of time; above its shroud
Now, spurning heaven mounts the crescent proud—
She glar'd and sunk;—still on the torrents flow,
While scatter'd relics empire's downfal show.
So, where the bellowing mountain's tides have gush'd,
Th' ascending pile points where the lava rush'd.
Still, mind's undying energies have woke,
And lit the darkness when the tempest broke;
So, from the iron plain the verdure shoots,
And laughing summer revels in her fruits!

Ye cannot die—ye mighty ones
Who dar'd the Amreeta cup to drink,
While puny empires' vaunted suns
Like meteors rise, like meteors sink:

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Ye cannot die! though all may perish,
The trophy, column, whelm'd in night,
While story lives, while hearts can cherish
The memory of thy vanish'd light;
Or song can tell, in deathless rhymes,
Th' eternal boast of elder times!