And now in opener skies Moved every heart. Stars yet unnamed of purer radiance rise! Stars, milder suns, that love a shade to cast, And on the bright wave fling the trembling mast! Singly or clustering, round the Southern pole! Ah, how forget when to my ravished sight, The Cross shone forth in everlasting light! 'Twas the mid hour, when He, whose accents dread Still wandered thro' the regions of the dead, (MERION, Commissioned with his host to sweep From age to age the melancholy deep) To elude the seraph-guard that watched for man, In pomp of plumage sailed, deepening the shades of night. Roc of the West! to him all empire given! Mountains and seas fled backward as he passed From the ANTARCTIC, from the Land of Fire* Erom mines of gold, and giant-sons of earth, * Now 'mid angelic multitudes he flies, That hourly come with blessings from the skies; CANTO VII. A Mutiny excited. WHAT tho' Despondence reigned, and wild Affright— * Tierra del Fuego. Blest with each gift indulgent Fortune sends, Birth and its rights, wealth and its train of friends, Starlike he shone! Now beggared and alone, Danger he wooed, and claimed her for his own. O'er him a Vampyre his dark wings displayed. Thrice, with a cry that thrilled the mortal frame, 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, All melt in tears! but what can tears avail? Turning my lonely thoughts from good to ill) 66 66 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. 66 Generous and brave! when God himself is here, Why shake at shadows in your mid career? *Euripides in Alcest. v. 255. Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle.-DANTE. Himself your guide! and yours the high behest, The scorn of Folly, and of Fraud the prey; -Yet in His name whom only we should fear, ('Tis 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." |