Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-08-03
Nv. clSro OF cHlLpE HAROLD.
fConcluded.1

AUu TIC uiltoCIt 40 ioehihG ~ hS
Aught but phantasy, and could be class'd
With forms which live and suffer, let that
PISS ..
His shadow fades away into distractions
. mass,
(which gathers shadow, substance, life,
and all
That we inherit in its mortal shroud,.
And spreads the dim and universal PAIL
IThrosgh which all things grow phantoms |;
and the cloud
Between US sinks and all which ever glow'd d,
Till glory's self is twilight, and displays
A melancholy halo, scarce allowed
! To hover on the verge Of darkness rays
Sadder than saddest night, for they distrae;
theca1e
And send US prying into the abyss,
To gather what we shall be when the frame
Shall be resolv'd to something less than this
Its wretched essence; and TO dream OF fame,
And wipe the d1st from of the idle name
We never more shall hear--but never more,
On, happier thought! can we be made the
same:
II is enough, in sooth, that once we bore
These fardels OF the heart-the heart whose
sweat was gore.
Harkl forth from the abyss voice pro-
ceeds,
A long, low, distant r,urmur Of dread sound,
Such as arises when nation bleeds
With some deep and immedicable wound
Through storm and darkness yawns the
rending ground,
The gulf J i 'h''1 with pAant0ms' but the
Seems royal still, though with her head dis
crown'd,
And pale, but lovely, with maternal grief
She clasps babe to whom her breast yields
no relief
"Scion Of chiefs and monarchs,a where art
thou?
Fond hope Of many nations, art thou dead ?
Could not the grave forget thee, andlay low
Some less majestic, less beloved head?
In the sad midnight, while thy heart still
bled
The mother of moment, DER Thy boy
Death hush'd that pang for ever: with thee
fed,
The present happiness and promised joy,
Which filed the imperial isles 80 full il
seemed to cloy.
9" Peasants bring forth in safey.--Cani lit be,
Oh thou that vert so happy, so adoredi
Those who weep not for kings shall weep
for thee;
Aud freedoms heart, grown heavy, cease
IN hoard
Her many griefs for ONE for she had pour'd
Her prisons for thee, and DER thy head
Reheld her Iris.--Thou, too, lonely lord,
And desclate consort-vainly vert thou
The husband Of year! the father of the
dead
"Of sack-cloth wa, thy wedding garment
The brid,Ps fruit is ashes; in the dust
The fair haired daughter of the isles is laid,
The lope of millions! How we did entrust
Futurity to her! and though il must
Darken above our bones, yet fondly deem'd
Our children , should obey her child and
Her and her hoped-for seed, whose promise
seem'd
Like stars to shepherds eyes twas but
meteor beam'd.
" Woe unto US, not her, for she sleeps well:
The tickle reed Of popular breath, the
tongue
ofhollpw counsel, the false oracle,
Which from the birth Of monarchy hath
rung
Its knell 10 princely ears, till the o'er-stung
Nations have arm'd in madness, the strange
fate
Which tumbles brightest sovereigus, and
bath flung
Against their blind omnipotence weight
Within the opposing scale, which crushes
soon or late,--
" These might have been her destiny but
Our hearts deny Il: and SO young, so fair,
Good without effort, great without foe;
But now a bride and mother-and now
there!
How many ties did that stern moment tear!
From thy sire's to his humblest subjects
breast,
Is linked the electric chain OF that despair,
Whose shock was as an earthquakes and
opprest
The land which loved thee so that none
could love thee best"
The canto then draws to a conclusion
with an address to the ocean, which con-
tains some stanzas, in my judgment, not in
Terror TO any in the works-as for instance,
" Rell on thou deep and dark blue ocean-
rolil vain;
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with The shosei upon the wstery plain
The wrecks are hthy deed, nor doth re.
main -