(WRITTEN IN THE AUTHOR'S SEVENTEENTH YEAR) My lids with grief were tumid yet, And still my sullied cheek was wet With briny tears, profusely shed For venerable Winton dead; When Fame, whose tales of saddest sound, Alas! are ever truest found, The news through all our cities spread Of yet another mitred head By ruthless Fate to death consigned-- Ely, the honour of his kind! At once a storm of passion heaved My boiling bosom; much I grieved, But more I raged, at every breath Devoting Death himself to death. With less revenge did Naso teem, When hated Ibis was his theme; With less Archilochus denied The lovely Greek, his promised bride. But lo! while thus I execrate, Incensed, the minister of fate, Wondrous accents, soft, yet clear, Wafted on the gale I hear. "Ah, much deluded! lay aside "Thy threats, and anger misapplied! "Art not afraid with sounds like these "To offend, where thou canst not appease? "Death is not (wherefore dream'st thou thus?) "The son of Night and Erebus; "Nor was of fell Erinnys born "On gulfs where Chaos rules forlorn: "But, sent from God, His presence leaves, "To gather home His ripened sheaves, "To call encumbered souls away "From fleshly bonds to boundless day, "(As when the winged Hours excite "And summon forth the morning light) "And each to convoy to her place "Before the Eternal Father's face. "But not the wicked:--them, severe "Yet just, from all their pleasures here "He hurries to the realms below, "Terrific realms of penal woe! "Myself no sooner heard his call, "Than, 'scaping through my prison wall, "I bade adieu to bolts and bars, "And soared, with angels, to the stars, "Like him of old, to whom 'twas given "To mount on fiery wheels to heaven. "Bootes' waggon, slow with cold, "Appalled me not; nor to behold "The sword that vast Orion draws, "Or even the Scorpion's horrid claws. "Beyond the Sun's bright orb I fly, "And far beneath my feet descry "Night's dread goddess, seen with awe, "Whom her winged dragons draw. "Thus, ever wondering at my speed, "Augmented still as I proceed, "I pass the planetary sphere, "The Milky Way--and now appear "Heaven's crystal battlements, her door "Of massy pearl, and emerald floor. "But here I cease. For never can "The tongue of once a mortal man "In suitable description trace "The pleasures of that happy place; "Suffice it, that those joys divine "Are all, and all for ever, mine!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DIRTY OLD MAN by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM FLAMMONDE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON TO A SKYLARK (1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH FIRST CYCLE OF LOVE POEMS: 3 by GEORGE BARKER ON TURNING A STONE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN IN MEMORIAM by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN |