Miscellaneous Poems | Page 2

my care.
I doubted: --fool I was to doubt!
If that all-piercing eye could see, -



If He who looks all worlds throughout,
Would so minute and careful
be
As to perceive and punish me: -
With man I would be great and
high,
But with my God so lost, that He,
In His large view should
pass me by.
Thus blest with children, friend, and wife,
Blest far beyond the vulgar
lot;
Of all that gladdens human life,
Where was the good that I had
not?
But my vile heart had sinful spot,
And Heaven beheld its
deep'ning stain;
Eternal justice I forgot,
And mercy sought not to
obtain.
Come near,--I'll softly speak the rest! -
Alas! 'tis known to all the
crowd,
Her guilty love was all confess'd;
And his, who so much
truth avow'd,
My faithless friend's.--In pleasure proud
I sat, when
these cursed tidings came;
Their guilt, their flight was told aloud,

And Envy smiled to hear my shame!
I call'd on Vengeance; at the word
She came: --Can I the deed forget?

I held the sword--the accursed sword
The blood of his false heart
made wet;
And that fair victim paid her debt,
She pined, she died,
she loath'd to live; -
I saw her dying--see her yet:
Fair fallen thing!
my rage forgive!
Those cherubs still, my life to bless,
Were left; could I my fears
remove,
Sad fears that check'd each fond caress,
And poison'd all
parental love?
Yet that with jealous feelings strove,
And would at
last have won my will,
Had I not, wretch! been doom'd to prove
Th'
extremes of mortal good and ill.
In youth! health! joy! in beauty's pride!
They droop'd--as flowers
when blighted bow;
The dire infection came: --they died,
And I was
cursed--as I am now; -
Nay, frown not, angry friend,--allow
That I
was deeply, sorely tried;
Hear then, and you must wonder how
I
could such storms and strifes abide.

Storms!--not that clouds embattled make,
When they afflict this
earthly globe;
But such as with their terrors shake
Man's breast, and
to the bottom probe;
They make the hypocrite disrobe,
They try us
all, if false or true;
For this one Devil had power on Job;
And I was
long the slave of two.
PHYSICIAN.
Peace, peace, my friend; these subjects fly;
Collect thy thoughts--go
calmly on. -
PATIENT.
And shall I then the fact deny?
I was--thou know'st--I was begone,

Like him who fill'd the eastern throne,
To whom the Watcher cried
aloud;
That royal wretch of Babylon,
Who was so guilty and so
proud.
Like him, with haughty, stubborn mind,
I, in my state, my comforts
sought;
Delight and praise I hoped to find,
In what I builded,
planted! bought!
Oh! arrogance! by misery taught -
Soon came a
voice! I felt it come;
"Full be his cup, with evil fraught,
Demons his
guides, and death his doom!"
Then was I cast from out my state;
Two fiends of darkness led my
way;
They waked me early, watch'd me late,
My dread by night, my
plague by day!
Oh! I was made their sport, their play,
Through
many a stormy troubled year;
And how they used their passive prey

Is sad to tell: --but you shall hear.
And first before they sent me forth.
Through this unpitying world to
run,
They robb'd Sir Eustace of his worth,
Lands, manors, lordships,
every one;
So was that gracious man undone,
Was spurn'd as vile,
was scorn'd as poor,
Whom every former friend would shun,
And
menials drove from every door.

Then rose ill-favour'd Ones, whom none
But my unhappy eyes could
view,
Led me, with wild emotion, on,
And, with resistless terror,
drew.
Through lands we fled, o'er seas we flew,
And halted on a
boundless plain;
Where nothing fed, nor breathed, nor grew,
But
silence ruled the still domain.
Upon that boundless plain, below,
The setting sun's last rays were
shed,
And gave a mild and sober glow,
Where all were still, asleep,
or dead;
Vast ruins in the midst were spread,
Pillars and pediments
sublime,
Where the gray mass had form'd a bed,
And clothed the
crumbling spoils of time.
There was I fix'd, I know not how,
Condemn'd for untold years to
stay:
Yet years were not;--one dreadful Now
Endured no change of
night or day;
The same mild evening's sleeping ray
Shone softly
solemn and serene,
And all that time I gazed away,
The setting
sun's sad rays were seen.
At length a moment's sleep stole on, -
Again came my commission'd
foes;
Again through sea and land we're gone,
No peace, no respite,
no repose;
Above the dark broad sea we rose,
We ran through bleak
and frozen land;
I had no strength their strength t'oppose,
An infant
in a giant's hand.
They placed me where those streamers play,
Those nimble beams of
brilliant light;
It would the stoutest heart dismay,
To see, to feel,
that dreadful sight:
So swift, so pure, so cold, so bright,
They
pierced my frame with icy wound;
And all that half-year's polar night,

Those dancing streamers wrapp'd me round.
Slowly that darkness pass'd away,
When down upon the earth I fell, -

Some hurried sleep was mine by day;
But soon as toll'd the
evening bell,
They forced me on, where ever dwell
Far-distant men,
in cities fair,
Cities of whom no travellers tell,
Nor feet but mine

were wanderers there.
Their watchmen stare, and stand aghast,
As on we hurry through the
dark;
The watch-light