The Poetical Works of the Rev. George Croly :: :: University of Virginia Library

Morn came in clouds; the tempest's heavy swell
Stoop'd ominous; it bore no birthday peal!
Egypt! when Heaven's high wrath thy heart assail'd,
And o'er its wrath that heart of stone prevail'd,
Where smote the final plague, the conquering woe?
'T was in the sword that laid thy first-born low!
Guilt was on England, and the blow was given
On England's heart,—in mercy be it, Heaven!

That morn the mighty city silence kept;
Grief was upon her, and her spirit wept.

329

'T was no dissembled woe; the sudden stroke,
Strong as an earthquake, on her hope had broke;
That morn she sat beneath the hand of fate,
In sackcloth on the dust, pale, desolate.
Yet, she had wept before; the glorious grave
More glorious by the tribute that she gave;
But o'er this bier a deeper anguish thrill'd,
A fonder tear was shed;—she wept her child.
There lay the nation's nurseling! lingering years
Had roll'd away of parent hopes and fears;
She saw her reach life's golden height; and now
She saw Joy's richest chaplet o'er her brow;
Another day, an hour,—posterity
Had smiled, and bless'd her!—It was not to be!

She fell! and there was in that sudden fall
Some sorrow that came heavy, home to all,—
The high prophetic fears, that in the range
Of dark'ning years prefigured empire's change;
The parent hearts that shared a parent's woe;
And ev'n the ruder eyes which saw that blow

330

But prostrate a young, lovely one, so nigh
The prize of life, a mother's ecstasy;
England! how many bosoms on that morn
Wept inly! Nay, what sterner pangs were borne!
With what a sudden, shuddering sympathy
The father on his daughter turn'd his eye!
He saw the glance of joy, the ripen'd bloom,
And saw them—but the signals for the tomb.
On his young wife the husband's shaded look
Betray'd how deep within the omen strook;
The pallid mother, as her hour drew near,
Shrank from the pang with more than nature's fear;
The self-same flash had wrapt the cot and throne,
'Twas prince and people's heart—bound—pierced in one.