IX. 6 Shriek not-but hearken! WE HAVE REIGNED ON EARTH, AND ARE NOT!' it is well; Rest, hoary Elder, unprofaned, Within thy dark and narrow cell! What voice, grim WARRIOR, to the spell X. Speak, for thou hear'st! I LIVED-I LOVED, Thy fire and Luther's, stands restored! OF ALL! thy poets, did not they Vaunt thee immortal, and bribe Fame With thousand songs to keep thy name Triumphant o'er decay? XI. Speak, then, thy history; unclose 'I CHARMED,- -AND AM NOT!'-Heav'n befriend Thy gentle shade; 'tis sooth!-ev'n so, We, for whose pleasure Nature showers Like you, but come to go. XII. On the same antique throne forlorn I sit, where British kings were crowned, Which ULPH himself in battle wound,- XIII. Ages on ages have not marred The ivory tusk, the regal chair, But all is passed beside-the bard, Chief, maiden, king, where are they, where! Will do for us what they have done With them: sing on, thou lonely bird, Our grateful songs shall yet be heard Above the shining Sun! XIV. Earth's aged aspects all may change, Shrines be destroyed, fanes weed-o'ergrown; Customs and rites wax quaint and strange, And ev❜n our names no more be known; What then? the SACRIFICE, foreshown By thousand prophecies, has giv'n And, in the book where Angels write XV. Then, though this earthly form decay Shall rob me of my brightest trust! TIME! raise no marble o'er My dust To boast of virtues ne'er possessed; Enough for me, if I but so Live now, as, ages hence, to know I WEPT, BELIEVED, AND REST! Woburn Abbey, 11th Mo. 12th, 1825. THE PAST AND THE FUTURE; An Entroductory Poem FOR THE THIRTEENTH VOLUME OF TIME'S TELESCOPE. BY DELTA OF BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE; Author of the Legend of Genevieve. I. UPROSE the full Moon in a heaven of blue, And sweetly sang the hermit nightingale, And all was hushed beside me and remote; Or 'neath the sallows dank seclusion sought; The stars, dim-twinkling in celestial mirth, Seemed sleepless eyes that watched the slumber-mantled earth. II. Awhile I strayed beneath arbútus trees, As the scarce-breathing west-wind, with a sigh, Commingled their blown richness; perfume sweet O'er earth and air a slumberous influence stole, C III. So, as reclining 'mid the blooms I lay, The moonlight and the landscape bland declined, Into the distance, hills o'er hills arose, Of mighty shapes and shades irregular, — Here green with verdurc, and there capped in snows; Here gorgeous groves, there desert wastes sublime; And, gazing, well I knew the changeful realm of Time. IV. In the midst a temple stood, whose arches shewed Carved columns reared their summits to the skies, And vaults, wherein both bird and beast made homes; And part was mantled o'er by Ruin grey; V. Methought a Spirit led me up the tower, And bade me gaze to the east ;-there, calmly bright, In that deep glow of Inspiration's hour, As changed the vision.—On Moriah's steeps For God hath known thee just, Heav'n murmurs of thy faith." |