Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

170

A like cheer to their sons, who, in turn, fill the South and the North With the radiance thy deed was the germ of. Carouse in the past!

But the license of age has its limit; thou diest at last.

As the lion when age dims his eyeball, the rose at her height,

So with man

so his power and his beauty

forever take flight. No! Again a long draught of my soul

wine! Look forth o'er the years! 175 Thou hast done now with eyes for the

actual: begin with the seer's!

Is Saul dead? In the depth of the vale make his tomb: bid arise

A gray mountain of marble heaped foursquare, till, built to the skies,

Let it mark where the great First King slumbers, whose fame would ye know?

Up above, see the rock's naked face, where the record shall go

180

In great characters cut by the scribe,
Such was Saul, so he did;
With the sages directing the work, by the
populace chid,

For not half, they'll affirm, is comprised there! Which fault to amend,

In the grove with his kind grows the cedar, whereon they shall spend

(See, in tablets 'tis level before them) their praise, and record

185

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

he slowly resumed

His old motions and habitudes kingly. The right hand replumed

His black locks to their wonted composure, adjusted the swathes Of his turban; and see,

210

- the huge sweat that his countenance bathes, He wipes off with the robe; and he girds now his loins as of yore,

And feels slow for the armlets of price, with the clasp set before.

He is Saul ye remember in glory,

error had bent

ere

The broad brow from the daily communion; and still, though much spent

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

This perfection, - succeed with life's day- So shall crown thee the topmost, in

[blocks in formation]

From the dream, the probation, the prelude, Turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation to find himself set

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

joins issue with death!

As thy Love is discovered almighty,

almighty be proved

305

[blocks in formation]

'Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for! my flesh, that I seek

E'en the serpent that slid away silent, he felt the new law.

In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. O The same stared in the white humid faces Saul, it shall be

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

upturned by the flowers,

The same worked in the heart of the cedar and moved the vine-bowers:

And the little brooks, witnessing, murmured, persistent and low,

With their obstinate, all but hushed voices, "E'en so, it is so!"

[ocr errors]

"DE GUSTIBUS-"
(1855)

Your ghost will walk, you lover of trees, (If our loves remain),

In an English lane,

335

[blocks in formation]

What I love best in all the world
Is a castle, precipice-encurled,
In a gash of the wind-grieved Apennine.
Or look for me, old fellow of mine,
(If I get my head from out the mouth
O' the grave, and loose my spirit's bands,
And come again to the land of lands),
In a sea-side house to the farther South:
Where the baked cicala dies of drouth;
And one sharp tree- 'tis a cypress
stands,

By the many hundred years red-rusted,
Rough iron-spiked, ripe fruit-o'ercrusted,-
My sentinel to guard the sands
To the water's edge. For, what expands
Before the house, but the great opaque
Blue breadth of sea without a break?
While, in the house, forever crumbles

15

20

26

30

[blocks in formation]
« НазадПродовжити »