Beauties of the mind, a poetical sketch :: :: University of Virginia Library

The splendour of the Poet's lyre—
The eloquence of fame—
The spirit's intellectual fire—
The glory and the name—
The eagle wing that leaves behind,
The proud stars in its flight—
The power—the energy—the mind
Unutterably bright:

182

II

The heart that sheds its own bright hues,
And sings its own sweet strain;
Imagination's gorgeous views—
(That rainbow of the brain!)—
Are all but transcripts of one truth—
Reflections of one ray—
And speak to man, and hint to youth,
Of future dust—decay!

III

Sleep!—with thy glory round thy head—
Far from the grasp of wrong;
Sleep!—mightiest of the mighty dead—
Thou idolized of Song!
Sleep!—thou hast won a living tomb,
Within the heart's warm core;
And grief, nor care, nor blight, nor gloom,
Shall never reach thee more!

183

IV

I fling my young song like a leaf,
On Time's disastrous stream;
To find existence frail and brief,
The record of a dream;
But earth shall be a thing forgot—
Existence but a name—
When British hearts remember not
Thy genius and thy fame!

V

Sleep!—in thy majesty alone—
No earthly shroud is thine;
Sleep!—with a kingdom for thy throne—
Eternity thy shrine!
Sleep!—monarch of the human heart—
Until the sign is given
Which calls thee—glorious as thou art—
To melodies of heaven!