Called on the Spirit within. Disdaining flight,
Calmly she rose, collecting all her might.
Dire was the dark encounter! Long unquelled,
Her sacred seat, sovereign and pure, she held.
At length the great foe binds her for his prize,
And awful, as in death, the body lies!
Not long to slumber! In an evil hour
Informed and lifted by the unknown power,
It starts, it speaks! "We live, we breathe no more!
The fatal wind blows on the dreary shore!
On yonder cliffs beckoning their fellow-prey,
The spectres stalk, and murmur at delay!"
-Yet if thou canst (not for myself I plead!
Mine but to follow where 't is thine to lead),
O, turn and save! To thee, with streaming eyes,
To thee each widow kneels, each orphan cries!
Who now, condemned the lingering hours to tell,
Think and but think of those they loved so well!"’
All melt in tears! but what can tears avail?
These climb the mast, and shift the swelling sail.
These snatch the helm; and round me now I hear
Smiting of hands, outcries of grief and fear
(That in the aisles at midnight haunt me still,
Turning my lonely thoughts from good to ill).
"Were there no graves- none in our land," they cry,
"That thou hast brought us on the deep to die?"
Silent with sorrow, long within his cloak
His face he muffled then the HERO spoke.
"Generous and brave! when God himself is here,
Why shake at shadows in your mid career?
He can suspend the laws himself designed,
He walks the waters, and the wingéd wind;
Himself your guide! and yours the high behest,
To lift your voice, and bid a world be blest!
And can you shrink? to you, to you consigned
The glorious privilege to serve mankind!
O, had I perished, when my failing frame 19
Clung to the shattered oar mid wrecks of flame!
Was it for this I lingered life away,
The scorn of Folly, and of Fraud the prey;"
Bowed down my mind, the gift His bounty gave,
At courts a suitor, and to slaves a slave?
-Yet in His name whom only we should fear
('T is all, all I shall ask, or you shall hear)
Grant but three days." He spoke not uninspired;"
And each in silence to his watch retired.
At length among us came an unknown Voice!
"Go, if ye will; and, if ye can, rejoice.
Go, with unbidden guests the banquet share.
In his own shape shall Death receive you there."
TWICE in the zenith blazed the orb of light;
No shade, all sun, insufferably bright!
Then the long line found rest
Silent and dark, where the sea-lion roves :
And all on deck, kindling to life again,
Sent forth their anxious spirits o'er the main.
"O whence, as wafted from Elysium, whence These perfumes, strangers to the raptured sense?
These boughs of gold, and fruits of heavenly hue,
Tinging with vermeil light the billows blue?
And (thrice, thrice blessed is the eye that spied,
The hand that snatched it sparkling in the tide)
Whose cunning carved this vegetable bowl,1
Symbol of social rites and intercourse of soul?"
Such to their grateful ear the gush of springs,
Who course the ostrich, as away she wings;
Sons of the desert! who delight to dwell
'Mid kneeling camels round the sacred well;
Who, ere the terrors of his pomp be passed,
Fall to the demon in the reddening blast.2
The sails were furled; with many a melting close,
Solemn and slow the evening-anthem rose,
Rose to the Virgin.3 'Twas the hour of day
When setting suns o'er summer-seas display.
A path of glory, opening in the west
To golden climes, and islands of the blest;
And human voices, on the silent air,
Went o'er the waves in songs of gladness there!
Chosen of Men ! 4 'T was thine, at noon of night, First from the prow to hail the glimmering light;" (Emblem of Truth divine, whose secret ray
Enters the soul, and makes the darkness day!)
"PEDRO RODRIGO! there, methought, it shone!
There in the west! and now, alas ! 't is gone!
'T was all a dream! we gaze and gaze in vain!
-But mark and speak not, there it comes again!
It moves! what form unseen, what being there
With torch-like lustre fires the murky air?
His instincts, passions, say, how like our own?
O! when will day reveal a world unknown?"
LONG on the deep the mists of morning lay,
Then rose, revealing, as they rolled away,
Half-circling hills, whose everlasting woods
Sweep with their sable skirts the shadowy floods:
And say, when all, to holy transport given,
Embraced and wept as at the gates of Heaven,
When one and all of us, repentant, ran,
And, on our faces, blessed the wondrous man;
Say, was I then deceived, or from the skies
Burst on my ear seraphic harmonies?
"Glory to God!" unnumbered voices sung,
"Glory to God!" the vales and mountains rung,
Voices that hailed Creation's primal morn,
And to the shepherds sung a Saviour born.
Slowly, bare-headed, through the surf we bore
The sacred cross,' and, kneeling, kissed the shore.
But what a scene was there? Nymphs of romance,3
Youths graceful as the Faun, with eager glance,
Spring from the glades, and down the alleys peep,
Then headlong rush, bounding from steep to steep,
And clap their hands, exclaiming as they run,
"Come and behold the Children of the Sun!"
When hark, a signal-shot! The voice, it came
Over the sea in darkness and in flame!
They saw, they heard; and up the highest hill,
As in a picture, all at once were still!
Creatures so fair, in garments strangely wrought,
From citadels, with Heaven's own thunder fraught,
Checked their light footsteps-statue-like they stood,
As worshipped forms, the Genii of the Wood!
At length the spell dissolves! The warrior's lance
Rings on the tortoise with wild dissonance!
And see, the regal plumes, the couch of state!
Still, where it moves, the wise in council wait!
See now borne forth the monstrous mask of gold,
And ebon chair of many a serpent-fold;
These now exchanged for gifts that thrice surpass
The wondrous ring, and lamp, and horse of brass."
What long-drawn tube transports the gazer home,"
Kindling with stars at noon the ethereal dome?
"T is here and here circles of solid light
Charm with another self the cheated sight;
As man to man another self disclose,
That now with ferror starts, with triumph glows!
Cora Luxuriant Vegetation - The Humming-bird- The Fountain of
THEN CORA came, the youngest of her race,
And in her hands she hid her lovely face;
Yet oft by stealth a timid glance she cast,
And now with playful step the mirror passed,
Each bright reflection brighter than the last!
And oft behind it flew, and oft before;
The more she searched, pleased and perplexed the more!
And looked and laughed, and blushed with quick surprise;
Her lips all mirth, all ecstasy her eyes!
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