Snatch half a glimpse at Concert, Opera, Ball, ; A meteor, traced by none, tho' seen by all Last the grey Dowager, in ancient flounces, Like her own birds that clamour from their cages; Like some old Ruin, ❝ nodding to its fall!" Thus WOMAN makes her entrance and her exit; Not least an actress when she least suspects it. Yet Nature oft peeps out and mars the plot, Each lesson lost, each poor pretence forgot; Full oft, with energy that scorns controul, At once lights up the features of the soul; Unlocks each thought chained down by coward Art, And to full day the latent passions start! -And she, whose first, best wish is your applause, Herself exemplifies the truth she draws. Born on the stage-thro' every shifting scene, Still has your smile her trembling spirit fired! All skill, all practice, now unmeaning things! ON.. ASLEEP. SLEEP on, and dream of Heaven awhile. And move, and breathe delicious sighs!— Ah, now soft blushes tinge her cheeks, Ah, now she murmurs, now she speaks She starts, she trembles, and she weeps! Her fair hands folded on her breast. -And now, how like a saint she sleeps! A seraph in the realms of rest! Sleep on secure! Above controul, Thy thoughts belong to Heaven and thee! From Delphi's venerable shade? Her figure swells! she foams, she raves! Silver notes ascend the skies: Wake, Echo, wake and catch the song, Oh catch it, ere it dies ! The Sibyl speaks, the dream is o'er, In vain she checks the God's controul; And moulds the features of her soul, Breathing a prophetic flame. The cavern frowns; its hundred mouths unclose! And, in the thunder's voice, the fate of empire flows! III. 1. 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. • Æn. VI. 46, &c. Shivered by thy piercing glance, Pointless falls the hero's lance. Thy magic bids the imperial eagle fly,* III. 2. Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears! And mow thro' infancy and age; Then kiss the sacred dust and melt in tears. Veiling from the eye of day, Penance dreams her life away; In cloistered solitude she sits and sighs, While from each shrine still, small * See Tacitus, 1. xiv. c. 29. responses rise. + This remarkable event happened at the siege and sack of Jerusalem in the last year of the eleventh century. Matth. Paris, IV 2. |