ODE TO SUPERSTITION. 1 I. 1. HENCE, to the realms of Night, dire Demon, hence! Thy chain of adamant can bind That little world, the human mind, And sink its noblest powers to impotence. Clot his shaggy mane with gore, With flashing fury bid his eyeballs shine; Meek is his savage, sullen soul, to thine! Thy touch, thy deadening touch has steeled the breast, To all the silent pleadings of his child.2 At thy command he plants the dagger deep, At thy command exults, tho' Nature bids him weep! I. 2. When, with a frown that froze the peopled earth,3 Ha! what withering phantoms glare! As blows the blast with many a sudden swell, 1 Written in 1785. 2 The sacrifice of Iphigenia. 3 Lucretius, i. 63. The sheeted spectre, rising from the tomb, The spirit of the water rides the storm, I. 3. O'er solid seas, where Winter reigns, And, while the panting tigress hies To quench her fever in the stream, Smit by the scorchings of the noontide beam. Blooming in her bridal vest : She hurls the torch! she fans the fire! She clasps her lord to part no more, And, wrapt in clouds, in tempests tost, Weave the airy web of Fate; While the lone shepherd, near the shipless main,3 Sees o'er her hills advance the long-drawn funeral train. 1 The funeral rite of the Hindoos. 2 The Fates of the Northern Mythology. (See Mallet's Antiquities.) 3 An allusion to the second sight. II. I. Thou spak'st, and lo! a new creation glowed. Was clad in horrors not its own, And at its base the trembling nations bowed. Grasped the globe with iron hand. Circled with seats of bliss, the Lord of Light And braves the efforts of a host of years. Sweet Music breathes her soul into the wind; And bright-eyed Painting stamps the image of the mind. II. 2. Round the rude ark old Egypt's sorcerers rise! A timbrelled anthem swells the gale, And bids the God of Thunders hail; Scaly monarch of the Nile!3 But ah! what myriads claim the bended knee !* Go, count the busy drops that swell the sea. Charmed with perennial sweets, and smiling at decay? 1 Æn. ii. 172, &c. 2 The bull, Apis. 3 The Crocodile. • According to an ancient proverb, it was less difficult in Egypt to find a gol than a man. The Hieroglyphics. A A 6 The Catacombs. II. 3. On yon hoar summit, mildly bright' High o'er the world, the white-robed Magi gaze Silver notes ascend the skies: The Sibyl speaks, the dream is o'er, The holy harpings charm no more. In vain she checks the God's control; His madding spirit fills her frame, And moulds the features of her soul, The cavern frowns; its hundred mouths unclose; III. I. Mona, thy Druid-rites awake the dead! Rites thy brown oaks would never dare Even whisper to the idle air; Rites that have chained old Ocean on his bed. Shivered by thy piercing glance, Pointless falls the hero's lance. 1 "The Persians," says Herodotus, "have no temples, altars, or statues. They sacrifice on the tops of the highest mountains." (i. 131.) 2 Æn. vi. 46, &c. Thy magic bids the imperial eagle fly,1 And blasts the laureate wreath of victory. Hark, the bard's soul inspires the vocal string! III. 2. Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears! And mow thro' infancy and age; Veiling from the eye of day, Penance dreams her life away; In cloistered solitude she sits and sighs, While from each shrine still, small responses rise. III. 3. Lord of each pang the nerves can feel, Hope to obscure that latent spark Destined to shine when suns are dark? 1 See Tacitus, 1. xiv. c. 29. 2 This remarkable event happened at the siege and sack of Jerusalem in the last year of the eleventh century. (Matth. Paris, iv. 2.) |