Thy sullen gaze she bade thee roll On scenes that well might melt thy soul; Thy native cot she flashed upon thy view, Thy native cot, where still, at close of day. Peace smiling sate, and listened to thy lay; Thy Sister's shrieks she bade thee hear, And mark thy Mother's thrilling tear;
See, see her breast's convulsive throe, Her silent agony of woe!
Ah! dash the poisoned chalice from thy hand!
And thou had'st dashed it, at her soft command, But that Despair and Indignation rose, And told again the story of thy woes; Told the keen insult of the unfeeling heart; The dread dependence on the low-born mind: Told every pang, with which thy soul must smart, Neglect, and grinning Scorn, and Want combined! Recoiling quick, thou bad'st the friend of pain
Roll the black tide of Death through every freezing vein !
Whether the Eternal's throne around, Amidst the blaze of Seraphim, Thou pourest forth the grateful hymn; Or soaring thro' the blest domain Enrapturest Angels with thy strain,-- Grant me, like thee, the lyre to sound, Like thee with fire divine to glow ;-
But ah! when rage the waves of woe,
Grant me with firmer breast to meet their hate, And soar beyond the storm with upright eye elate!
Ye woods! that wave o'er Avon's rocky steep, To Fancy's ear sweet is your murmuring deep, For here she loves the cypress wreath to weave Watching, with wistful eye, the saddening tints of eve. Here, far from men, amid this pathless grove, In solemn thought the Minstrel wont to rove, Like star-beam on the slow sequestered tide Lone-glittering, thro' the high tree branching wide.
And here, in Inspiration's eager hour, When most the big soul feels the mastering power, These wilds, these caverns roaming o'er, Round which the screaming sea-gulls soar, With wild unequal steps he passed along, Oft pouring on the winds a broken song: Anon, upon some rough rock's fearful brow Would pause abrupt and gaze upon the waves below.
Poor Chatterton! he sorrows for thy fate
Who would have praised and loved thee, ere too late. Poor Chatterton! farewell! of darkest hues This chaplet cast I on thy unshaped tomb; But dare no longer on the sad theme muse, Lest kindred woes persuade a kindred doom: For oh! big gall-drops, shook from Folly's wing, Have blackened the fair promise of my spring: And the stern Fate transpierced with viewless dart The last pale Hope that shivered at my heart!
Hence, gloomy thoughts! no more my soul shall dwell On joys that were! No more endure to weigh The shame and anguish of the evil day,
Wisely forgetful! O'er the ocean swell Sublime of Hope I seek the cottaged dell Where Virtue calm with careless step may stray; And, dancing to the moon-light roundelay, The wizard Passions weave a holy spell!
O Chatterton! that thou wert yet alive! Sure thou would'st spread the canvass to the gale, And love with us the tinkling team to drive O'er peaceful Freedom's undivided dale; And we, at sober eve, would round thee throng, Would hang, enraptured, on thy stately song, And greet with smiles the young-eyed Poesy All deftly masked, as hoar Antiquity.
Alas, vain Phantasies! the fleeting brood Of Woe self-solaced in her dreamy mood! Yet will I love to follow the sweet dream, Where Susquehana pours his untamed stream; And on some hill, whose forest-frowning side Waves o'er the murmurs of his calmer tide, Will raise a solemn Cenotaph to thee, Sweet Harper of time-shrouded Minstrelsy! And there, soothed sadly by the dirgeful wind, Muse on the sore ills I had left behind.
"Content, as random Fancies might inspire, If his weak harp at times or lonely lyre He struck with desultory hand, and drew Some softened tones to Nature not untrue."
My heart has thanked thee, Bowles! for those soft strains Whose sadness soothes me, like the murmuring Of wild-bees in the sunny showers of spring! For hence not callous to the mourner's pains Through Youth's gay prime and thornless paths I went: And when the mightier throes of mind began, And drove me forth, a thought-bewildered man, Their mild and manliest melancholy lent A mingled charm, such as the pang consigned To slumber, though the big tear it renewed; Bidding a strange mysterious Pleasure brood Over the wavy and tumultuous mind,
As the great Spirit erst with plastic sweep Moved on the darkness of the unformed deep.
As late I lay in slumber's shadowy vale, With wetted cheek and in a mourner's guise, I saw the sainted form of Freedom rise:
She spake! not sadder moans the autumnal gale—
"Great Son of Genius! sweet to me thy name, Ere in an evil hour with altered voice
Thou bad'st Oppression's hireling crew rejoice Blasting with withered spell my laurelled fame. Yet never, Burke ! thou drank'st Corruption's bowl! Thee stormy Pity and the cherished lure Of Pomp, and proud Precipitance of soul Wildered with meteor fires. Ah Spirit pure! That error's mist had left thy purged eye: So might I clasp thee with a Mother's joy!"
NOT always should the tear's ambrosial dew Roll its soft anguish down thy furrowed cheek! Not always heaven-breathed tones of suppliance meek Beseem thee, Mercy! Yon dark Scowler view, Who with proud words of dear-loved Freedom came- More blasting than the mildew from the South! And kissed his country with Iscariot mouth (Ah! foul apostate from his Father's fame !) Then fixed her on the cross of deep distress, And at safe distance marks the thirsty lance Pierce her big side! But O! if some strange trance The eyelids of thy stern-browed Sister press, Seize, Mercy! thou more terrible the brand, And hurl her thunderbolts with fiercer hand!
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