I LOOK'D On Time, whose days were past,
The persecutor fell at last :
Amid the ruins he had made
Himself upon the earth was laid.
Sprung from his ashes came to light
Another Time, with colours bright,
The Time that's present: but, alas!
Youth, like an ideot, held his glass,
I saw his banners, in their pride,
'Whelm'd into dark oblivion's tide-
I heard him on the bed of death
Call on the future for his breath.
"Where is the future?" I exclaim'd,
With passion for its charms inflam'd;
Mute was the dissipated spell-
The vision clos'd, the curtain fell.
YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND TO-MORROW.
YESTERDAY! oh, Time's abuse!
Death alone can thee produce,
Thy existence we disclaim,
When it first receives its name:
The survivor is To-day-
So wert thou call'd, Yesterday;
And, as rolls the wheel of sorrow,
He will have thy name To-morrow.
Now the day begins to rise,
Man's inestimable prize;
All the past its death receives,
And the opening future lives:
Come, To-day! I'll cling to thee;
Pitch thy Arab's tent with me!
What is Yesterday review'd?
Empty as To-morrow's good.
LAST intrudes To-morrow's gloom,
Stern with his imperious doom;
Tells me of the day that flies;
Never lives, but never dies:
Born when it shuts up the night,
Perishing before 'tis light;
Fancy's child, and Folly's queen,
Lov'd and fear'd, but still unseen.
YE Zephyrs, groves, and fountains, hill and shade, The weary'd spirit's renovating aid;
you my fortune pants to be retir'd, And at your image is with hope inspir'd.
Your inmates are the wise :-a wreck implores
Your smiling havens, and your peaceful shores;
To the afflicted heart that cannot rest,
In your deep silence, comfort is address'd.
Here Innocence with Poverty can dwell,
The day that's welcome, and its calm farewell; Here stripp'd is Pleasure of the robe that charm'd, And Peace the King of Terror has disarm'd.
HAPPINESS, by all pursued,
In the heart alone resides;
Though appearances delude,
Feelings are the surest guides.
Hurried joy repents at leisure,
Hope œconomizes pleasure.
AWAY, perfidious charmer, fly;
Nor dupe the follies of the heart!
Without reserve all friendships die,
And Love itself has folds of Art.
My secret faults at once I told,
And bar'd my unsuspecting breast;
In gay security was bold,
And partial ears with joy address'd.
In ambush there a serpent lay,
With shaft unseen he took his aim; Credulity was doom'd his prey,
And biting Wit the serpent's name.
Had cold Mistrust the tale conceal'd,
Affection would have chain'd Esteem;
But against Folly's tale reveal'd,
I arm'd the unrelenting theme.
The genial faith of careless hope,
For an Arcadian scene design'd,
In Tempe's Vale finds ample scope,
But not an inch of Chloe's mind.
BELSHAZZAR, AND THE HAND;
From the Italian of C. J. FRAGONI.
THE hand which tempers to its will the doom
Of change that is to come-amid the bowls
And cups of gold, and shouts that pierce the room,
Its thunder on the guilty banquet rolls:
It writes upon the wall, “Belshazzar, die!
Assyria's impious King shall breathe no more:"
His plumes and garlands in disorder fly,
And groans resound on Pride's unhallow'd floor.
Pale is the feverish coward's quivering cheek,
And scar'd the heart, contemplating the hour
Of desolating Fiends that Heav'n obey:
Exterminating thus, a hand could speak
To that Assyrian:-tremble at the power,
Ye tyrants of the earth- and melt away!
CANTICLE IV.
From ISAIAH and JEREMIAH.
WHAT charm-the Ruler of the World and me
Bears to her God the elevated soul?
Ill-fated mortal!- what is Man to thee?
His glory's fled his trophies are effac'd,
Marks of the bounding vessel o'er the main; Or as the arrow's fleeting path is trac'd,
Ere yet the mark its pointed shafts attain.
Immortal Wisdom from its thunder speaks;
"Oh, child of Man! what bitter fruits are thine ! What fury pours that blood upon thy cheeks, What hopes deferr'd their agonies refine!
The food that I present is Angels' fare,
Nor is it serv'd as diet of the earth.
Approach, if thou wouldst live-a feast is there,
Of precious flavour-and of matchless worth."
Oh, Wisdom, it was thy creating word
That o'er the Universe its mantle spread;
Was in the midst of Ocean's billows heard,
And made the earth sustain her ample bed.
A word—and, as it spoke, the Heaven appear'd,
The Constellations beam'd at thy command;
Her spirit's birth Eternity rever'd,
And what am I, in such a Master's hand?
The Son, bright image of his Parent, came;
For Man he left his Everlasting Throne ;
Came, as of human birth, in Mercy's name,
Affliction cheer'd, and made the Poor his own.
Man to a poison'd fountain bends the knee,
Till the unhallow'd stream his lips deplore;
But, when the Cup of Life is held by thee,
No drop 's unblest and thirst is felt no more.
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