Critical and Miscellaneous Essays

If beyond our mortal sight, In some glorious realm of light, Poets pass their happy hours, Far from this cold world of ours, Oh, how sweet to cast away This frail tenement of clay, And in spirit soar above

To the home of endless Love.

And if in that world of bliss, Thou rememberest aught of this, If not-Being's higher scene Have a glimpse of what has been, Poet! from the seats divine, Let thy spirit answer mine.

THE FIFTH OF MAY.

IMITATED FROM THE ITALIAN OF MANZONI.

[Boston Miscellany, November, 1842.]

HE too reposes from his toil :
The giant mind has fled;
And motionless the mortal coil
Upon the earth is laid.

Methinks, that, at a blow so rude,

Earth's self a moment must have stood,

As motionless and mute; Reflecting on the fatal hour

Of him who sway'd so

vast

And doubting if the foot

a power,

Of one so great would ever place
Its track again upon her face.

II.

I saw him, thron'd in glory, reign
In his refulgent hall:

I saw him sink,— ascend again, —
And then forever fall.

I flatter'd not his hour of state,
Nor meanly mock'd his adverse fate:
But o'er his funeral urn

I come to chant a mournful song,
On which, perhaps, the curious throng
A passing glance may turn,
When future centuries shall cast
Their eyes on the recorded Past.

III.

From Egypt's flood to St. Bernard,
From Madrid to the Don,

His crashing thunderbolts were heard,
His lightning terrors shone.

From North to South, from sea to sea, His very name was victory.

Was this the true renown?

Let other times the question scan!
We humbly bow before the plan
Of that Most Holy One,

Who deign'd so copiously to shower
Upon his head the gift of power.

IV.

The joy of wild Ambition's dream,
Its inly-gnawing care

Were his; and his the last extreme
Of good and ill to share :
Success, by danger made more sweet,
Dominion, glory, base defeat,

The palace and the jail:

Twice master of the subject world,
And twice in fury headlong hurl'd
From that proud pinnacle