 | Poems, and a tragedy |  |
201
SACRED TO THE HEIRS OF **** CASTLE.
Oh thou whose hopes these fair domains inspire,
The awful lesson here bestow'd attend,
With pensive Eve here let thy steps retire,
What time rapt Fancy's shadowy forms descend.
The awful lesson here bestow'd attend,
With pensive Eve here let thy steps retire,
What time rapt Fancy's shadowy forms descend.
Hark! from yon Hall as headlong waste purveys,
What Bachanalian revels loud resound,
With festive fires the midnight windows blaze,
And fever'd tumult reels his giddy round.
What Bachanalian revels loud resound,
With festive fires the midnight windows blaze,
And fever'd tumult reels his giddy round.
'Tis past—the Mansion owns another Lord,
The ousted Heir so riotous erewhile,
Now sits a Suppliant at his wonted board,
Insulted by the base-born Menial's smile.
The ousted Heir so riotous erewhile,
Now sits a Suppliant at his wonted board,
Insulted by the base-born Menial's smile.
By the base Menials taunted from the door,
With anguish'd heart resistless of his woe,
Forlorn he strays those lawns, his own no more,
Unknowing where, on trembling knees and slow.
With anguish'd heart resistless of his woe,
Forlorn he strays those lawns, his own no more,
Unknowing where, on trembling knees and slow.
202
'Till here beneath an aged Elm's bleak shade,
Fainting he sinks—Ah! let thy mind descry,
On the cold Turf how low his humbled head,
On yon fair Dome how fixt his ghastly eye.
Fainting he sinks—Ah! let thy mind descry,
On the cold Turf how low his humbled head,
On yon fair Dome how fixt his ghastly eye.
By his mad Revels, by his last Heart-sigh,
Oh thou of these proud Towers the promis'd Heir,
By every manly Virtue's holy tie,
By honour's fairest bloom, Oh Fortune's child, beware.
Oh thou of these proud Towers the promis'd Heir,
By every manly Virtue's holy tie,
By honour's fairest bloom, Oh Fortune's child, beware.
| Poems, and a tragedy | |