Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-09-19
Ma, Error,
NIk, IsUITUN,
win YOU nerni, me 10 send you two f .

FIRST possessing a species OF blasted rum OF
mind tie second, conveying the beauties
Of a higl,Iy gifted poetical one, with SOM
bre coloring, which is infinitely attractive.
The first, which follows, arises from a
conversation b. wen Manf' ed and holy
AbLot who attempted 20 exhori him to re-
repentance:
Man. sv-h,her! have had those
caitlly visions
And nogi aspiTGuut, in my youth,
r. make my own the mind of other men,
II = eniigh,ener of nations; and 10 rise
I knew not whitl,er-it might be to III
Blu, fall, even as the mountain cataract,
Whi:h having le,pt from its more dazzling
height,
Even in tie ioaming strength oil It's abyss,
(Wlnrh casts M misty columns that become
Clouds r-iniug from the rP-aScended skies, J
Lies low bu' mi, b V st.ll.-But b is past,
NV thoughts misIook themselves.
.qJboi Aud Why not live and act with
other men
Nan. because my nature was ayerse
from life;
And We not cruel; for would not make,
But find a desOlatiOn like the wind,
The red-hot breath a the most lone d.
NOON,
Which dweils but in the desert, and sweeps
Ger
The barren sands which bearno shrubs TO
blast,
And revels Ger :heir wild and arid waves,
And seeketh noi, so that il is not sought,
But oeing met is deadly such hath been
The course of my existence but there
came
Things in my path which are no mere.
The foregoing shews, too truly, mind
Of desolation. lis contrast follows in astyle
of great beauty, being an address TO the set
ting sun.
Man. The stars are forth, The moon above
the tops
OF the Shining mountains
full!
linger yet with Nature, for the night
Hath been to me more familiar lace
Than that of man and in her starry shade
OF dim and solitary loneliness,
learn'd the language of anq:ber world,
| do remember me, that in ny youth,
When was wondering, -upon such a night
stood within the Coloseum's wall,
Midst the chief relics oil almighty Rome:
The trees which grew along the broken
arches
Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the
stars
Shone through the rents of ruin; from a(ar
The watchdog bayed beyond the Tiber;
More near from out the Cesars' palace came
The owls long cry, and, interruptedly,
OF distant sentinels the httul song
Begun and died upon the gentle wind.
Some expresses beyond the time-wom
breach
Appeared to skirt the horizon, yet they
stood
Within bowshot--where theCesars dwelt,
And dwell the tuneless birds OF night, a
midst
A grove which springs through levell'd bat
dement's,
And ta ines It's roots with the imperial
hearrIS,
Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth -
Bu the gladia,ors' bloody Circus stands,
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection
While Cesir's chambers, and the Augustan
halls,
GroyeI on earth in indistinct decay
And thou Gitlst shine, thou roiiing moon,
upon
All this, and cast wide aud tender light,
Which sotteaed down the boar austerity
Ofugged desO!atiun, and hlled up,
As 'iYere, anew the gaps OF centuries
Leaving that beautiful which still was so,
And making that which was not, TILL the
place
Became religion, and the heart ran DER
With silent worship OF the great OF old!-
Here, to use the language Of Shake
speare, is the poets eye iii a hne phvensy
rolling from earth TO heayen-from heaven
10 earth, and as he BODIES FORTH" &c.
The lcitiness OF the description of this
scene, shews how much more grandeur OF
imagination can be expressed in blank
vsrse, than whsn trammeiled by metrical
measure particularly by the Spcnserian,
so much adopted by lord Byron.
His iordship, while fine in his imagery,
describes with much accuracy aud tact; Of
which the writer of this had personal OBJ
seryation, as regards some of his striking
descriptions in the ttird canto OF ChIlde
Harold, OH the Rhine. II.
*The scene lies in the Alps.