Classic Poem

Companion of the Muse, creative pow'r,
Imagination! at whose great command
Arise unnumber'd images of things,
Thy hourly offspring; thou who canst at will
People with air-born shapes the silent wood
And solitary vale, thy own domain,
Where Contemplation haunts; oh! come, invok'd,
To waft me on thy many-tinctur'd wing
O'er earth's extended space; and thence, on high,
Spread to superior worlds thy bolder flight,
Excursive, unconfin'd: hence from the haunts
Of vice and folly, vanity and man.—
To you expanse of plains where Truth delights,
Simple of heart, and hand in hand with her
Where blameless Virtue walks. Now parting Spring,
Parent of beauty and of song, has left
His mantle, flower-embroider'd, on the ground,
While Summer laughing comes, and bids the Months
Crown his prime season with their choicest stores,
Fresh roses opening to the solar ray,
And fruits slow-swelling on the loaded bough.
Here let me frequent roam, preventing morn,
Attentive to the cock, whose early throat,
Heard from the distant village in the vale,
Crows cheerly out, far-sounding through the gloom:
Night hears from where, wide-hovering in mid-sky,
She rules the sable hour, and calls her train
Of visionary fears, the shrouded ghost,
The dream distressful, and the' incumbent hag,
That rise to Fancy's eye in horrid forms,
While Reason slumbering lies: at once they fly,
As shadows pass, nor is their path beheld.
And now, pale-glimmering on the verge of heav'n,
From east to north, in doubtful twilight seen,
A whitening lustre shoots its tender beam,
While shade and silence yet involve the ball:
Now sacred Morn, ascending, smiles serene
A dewy radiance, brightening o'er the world:
Gay daughter of the Air, for ever young,
For ever pleasing, lo! she onward comes,
In fluid gold and azure loose-array'd,
Sun-tinctur'd, changeful hues: at her approach,
The western gray of yonder breaking clouds
Slow-reddens into flame; the rising mists,
From off the mountain's brow, roll blue away
In curling spires, and open all his woods,
High waving in the sky; the' uncolour'd stream
Beneath her glowing ray translucent shines:
Glad Nature feels her through her boundless realm
Of life and sense, and calls forth all her sweets,
Fragrance and song: from each unfolding flower
Transpires the balm of life that Zephyr wafts,
Delicious, on his rosy wing: each bird,
Or high in air or secret in the shade,
Rejoicing warbles wild his matin hymn,
While beasts of chase, by secret instinct mov'd,
Scud o'er the lawns, and, plunging into night,
In brake or cavern slumber out the day.
Invited by the cheerful Morn abroad,
See, from his humble roof the good man comes
To taste her freshness, and improve her rise
In holy musing: rapture in his eye
And kneeling wonder speak his silent soul
With gratitude o'erflowing, and with praise.
Now Industry is up: the village pours
Her useful sons abroad to various toil;
The labourer here with every instrument
Of future plenty arm'd, and there the swain,
A rural king amid his subject-flocks,
Whose bleatings wake the vocal hills afar
The traveller, too, pursues his early road
Among the dews of morn. Aurora calls,
And all the living landscape moves around.
But see, the flush'd horizon flames intense
With vivid red, in rich profusion stream'd
O'er Heaven's pure arch. At once the clouds assume
Their gayest liveries; these with silvery beams,
Fring'd lovely, splendid those in liquid gold,
And speak their sovereign's state. He comes; behold
Fountain of light and colour, warmth and life!
The king of Glory round his head divine
Diffusive showers of radiance circling flow,
As o'er the Indian wave up-rising fair
He looks abroad on Nature, and invests,
Where'er his universal eye surveys,
Her ample bosom, earth, air, sea, and sky,
In one bright robe with heavenly tinctures gay.
From this hoar hill, that climbs above the plain
Half-way up Heav'n ambitious, brown with woods
Of broadest shade, and terrac'd round with walks
Winding and wild, that deep embowering rise,
Maze above maze, through all its shelter'd height,
From hence the' aërial concave without cloud,
Translucent, and in purest azure dress'd;
The boundless scene beneath, hill, dale, and plain;
The precipice abrupt; the distant deep,
Whose shores remurmur to the sounding surge;
The nearest forest in wide circuit spread,
Solemn recess, whose solitary walks
Fair Truth and Wisdom love; the bordering lawn,
With flocks and herds enrich'd; the daisied vale;
The river's crystal, and the meadow's green—
Grateful diversity! allure the eye
Abroad to rove amid ten thousand charms.
These scenes, where every Virtue, every Muse,
Delighted range, serene the soul, and lift,
Borne on Devotion's wing, beyond the pole,
To highest Heav'n, her thought; to Nature's God ,
First source of all things lovely, all things good,
Eternal, infinite! before whose throne
Sits sovereign Bounty, and through Heav'n and earth
Careless diffuses plenitude of bliss:
Him all things own; he speaks, and it is day
Obedient to his nod, alternate Night
Obscures the world: the Seasons at his call
Succeed in train, and lead the year around.
While reason thus and rapture fill the heart,
Friends of mankind, good angels, hovering near,
Their holy influence, deep-infusing, lend,
And in still whispers, soft as Zephyr's breath
When scarce the green leaf trembles, through her pow'rs
Inspire new vigour, purer light supply,
And kindle every virtue into flame.
Celestial intercourse! superior bliss,
Which Vice ne'er knew! health of the' enliven'd soul,
And Heav'n on earth begun! Thus, ever fix'd
In solitude, may I, obscurely safe,
Deceive mankind, and steal through life along,
As slides the foot of Time, unmark'd, unknown.
Exalted to his noon the fervent sun,
Full-blazing o'er the blue immense, burns out
With fierce effulgence. Now the' embowering maze
Of vale sequester'd or the fir-crown'd side
Of airy mountain, whence with lucid lapse
Falls many a dew-fed stream, invites the step
Of musing poet, and secures repose
To weary pilgrim. In the flood of day,
Oppressive brightness deluging the world,
Sick Nature pants; and from the cleaving earth
Light vapours, undulating through the air,
Contagious fly, engendering dire disease,
Red plague and fever, or in fogs aloft
Condensing, show a ruffling tempest nigh.
And see, exhaling from the' Atlantic surge,
Wild world of waters! distant clouds ascend
In vapoury confluence, deepening cloud on cloud,
Then rolling dust along to east and north,
As the blast bears them on his humid wing,
Draw total night and tempest o'er the noon.
Lo! bird and beast, impress'd by Nature's hand,
In homeward-warnings through each feeling nerve
Haste from the hour of terror and of storm.
The Thunder now, from forth his cloudy shrine,
Amid conflicting elements, where Dread
And Death attend, the servants of his nod,
First in deaf murmurs sounds the deep alarm,
Heard from afar, awakening awful thought.
Dumb sadness fills this nether world; the gloom
With double blackness lours; the tempest swells,
And expectation shakes the heart of man.
Where yonder clouds in dusky depth extend
Broad o'er the south, fermenting in their womb,
Pregnant with fate, the fiery tempest swells,
Sulphureous steam and nitrous, late exhal'd
From mine or unctuous soil; and, lo! at once,
Forth darted in slant stream, the ruddy flash,
Quick glancing, spreads a moment's horrid day.
Again it flames expansive, sheets the sky,
Wide and more wide, with mournful light around,
On all sides burning; now the face of things
Disclosing, swallow'd now in tenfold night.
Again the Thunder's voice, with pealing roar,
From cloud to cloud continuous roll'd along,
Amazing bursts! Air, sea, and shore, resound;
Horror sits shuddering in the felon breast,
And feels the deathful flash before it flies:
Each sleeping sin, excited, starts to view,
And all is storm within. The murderer, pale
With conscious guilt, though hid in deepest shade,
Hears and flies wild, pursued by all his fears,
And sees the bleeding shadow of the slain
Rise hideous, glaring on him through the gloom.
Hark! through the' aerial vault the storm, inflam'd,
Comes nearer, hoarsely loud, abrupt and fierce,
Peal harl'd on peal incessant, burst on burst;
Torn from its base, as if the general frame
Were tumbling into chaos—There it fell,
With whirlwind wing, in red diffusion flash'd:
Destruction marks its path. Yon riven oak
Is hid in smouldering fires, surpris'd beneath,
The traveller ill-omen'd prostrate falls,
A livid corse. Yon cottage flames to Heav'n,
And in its farthest cell, to which the hour,
All horrible, had sped their steps, behold!
The parent breathless lies, her orphan babes
Shuddering and speechless round—O Pow'r divine!
Whose will, unerring, points the bolt of Fate,
Thy hand though terrible, shall man decide
If punishment or mercy dealt the blow?
Appeas'd at last, the tumult of the skies
Subsides, the thunder's falling roar is hush'd;
At once the clouds fly scattering, and the sun
Breaks out with boundless splendour o'er the world.
Parent of light and joy! to all things he
New life restores, and from each drooping field
Draws the redundant rain, in climbing mists
Fast-rising to his ray, till every flow'r
Lift up its head, and Nature smiles reviv'd.
At first 'tis awful silence over all,
From sense of late-felt danger, till confirm'd,
In grateful chorus mixing, beast and bird
Rejoice aloud to Heav'n: on either hand
The woodlands warble, and the vallies low.
So pass the songful hours. And now the sun,
Declin'd, hangs verging on the western main,
Whose fluctuating bosom, blushing red,
The space of many seas beneath his eye,
Heaves in soft swellings murmuring to the shore:
A circling glory glows around his disk
Of milder beams; part, streaming o'er the sky,
Inflame the distant azure; part below
In level lines shoot through the waving wood,
Clad half in light and half in pleasing shade,
That lengthens o'er the lawn. Yon evening clouds,
Lucid or dusk, with flamy purple edg'd,
Float in gay pomp the blue horizon round,
Amusive, changeful, shifting into shapes
Of visionary beauty, antique towers
With shadowy domes and pinnacles adorn'd,
Or hills of white extent, that rise and sink
As sportful Fancy lists; till late, the sun
From human eye behind earth's shading orb
Total withdrawn, the' aërial landscape fades.
Distinction fails, and in the darkening west
The last light, quivering, dimly dies away.
And now the' illusive flame, oft seen at eve
Upborne and blazing on the light-wing'd gale,
Glides o'er the lawn, betokening Night's approach:
Arising awful o'er the eastern sky
Onward she comes with silent step and slow,
In her brown mantle wrapt, and brings along
The still, the mild, the melancholy hour,
And Meditation, with his eye on Heav'n.
Musing, in sober mood, of time and life,
That fly with unreturning wing away
To that dark world, untravell'd and unknown,
Eternity! through desert ways I walk,
Or to the cypress-grove, at twilight shunn'd
By passing swains. The chill breeze murmurs low,
And the boughs rustle round me where I stand,
With fancy all arous'd.—Far on the left
Shoots up a shapeless rock of dusky height,
The raven's haunt; and down its woody steep
A dashing flood in headlong torrent hurls
His sounding waters; white on every cliff
Hangs the light foam, and sparkles through the gloom.
Behind me rises huge a reverend pile
Sole on this blasted heath, a place of tombs,
Waste, desolate, where Ruin dreary dwells:
Brooding o'er sightless sculls and crumbling bones
Ghastful he sits, and eyes with stedfast glare
(Sad trophies of his pow'r, where ivy twines
Its fatal green around) the falling roof,
The time-shook arch, the column gray with moss,
The leaning wall, the sculptur'd stone defac'd,
Whose monumental flattery, mix'd with dust,
Now hides the name it vainly meant to raise.
All is dread silence here, and undisturb'd,
Save what the wind sighs, and the wailing owl
Screams solitary to the mournful moon,
Glimmering her western ray through yonder aisle,
Where the sad spirit walks with shadowy foot
His wonted round, or lingers o'er his grave.
Hail, midnight shades! hail, venerable dome!
By age more venerable; sacred shore,
Beyond Time's troubled sea, where never wave,
Where never wind of passion or of guilt,
Of suffering or of sorrow, shall invade
The calm sound night of those who rest below:
The weary are at peace; the small and great,
Life's voyage ended, meet and mingle here;
Here sleeps the prisoner safe, nor feels his chain,
Nor hears the' oppressor's voice. The poor and old,
With all the sons of Mourning, fearless now
Of want or woe, find unalarm'd repose.
Proud greatness, too, the tyranny of pow'r,
The grace of beauty, and the force of youth,
And name and place, are here—for ever lost!
But, at near distance on the mouldering wall
Behold a monument, with emblem grac'd
And fair inscription, where with head declin'd,
And folded arms, the Virtues weeping round
Lean o'er a beauteous youth who dies below.
Thyrsis—'tis he! the wisest and the best!
Lamented shade! whom every gift of Heav'n
Profusely bless'd; all learning was his own;
Pleasing his speech, by Nature taught to flow,
Persuasive sense and strong, sincere and clear:
His manners greatly plain: a noble grace,
Self-taught, beyond the reach of mimic Art,
Adorn'd him: his calm temper winning mild;
Nor Pity softer, nor was Truth more bright:
Constant in doing well, he neither sought
Nor shunn'd applause. No bashful merit sigh'd
Near him neglected; sympathizing, he
Wip'd off the tear from Sorrow's clouded eye
With kindly hand, and taught her heart to smile.
'Tis morning, and the sun his welcome light
Swift, from beyond dark ocean's orient stream,
Casts through the air, renewing Nature's face
With heav'n-born beauty: o'er her ample breast,
O'er sea and shore, light Fancy speeds along
Quick as the darted beam from pole to pole,
Excursive traveller. Now beneath the north,
Alone with Winter in his inmost realm,
Region of horrors! here amid the roar
Of winds and waves, the drifted turbulence
Of hail-mix'd snows, resides the' ungenial pow'r,
For ever silent, shivering and forlorn!
From Zembla's cliffs on to the streights surmis'd
Of Anian eastward, where both worlds oppose
Their shores contiguous, lies the polar sea,
One glittering waste of ice, and on the morn
Casts cold a cheerless light. Lo! hills of snow,
Hill behind hill, and Alp on Alp, ascend,
Pil'd up from eldest age, and to the sun
Impenetrable, rising from afar
In misty prospect dim, as if on air
Each floating hill, an azure range of clouds:
Yet here, ev'n here, in this disastrous clime,
Horrid and harbourless, where all life dies,
Adventurous mortals, urg'd by thirst of gain,
Through floating isles of ice and fighting storms,
Roam the wild waves in search of doubtful shores,
By west or east, a path yet unexplor'd!
Hence eastward to the Tartar's cruel coast,
By utmost ocean wash'd, on whose last wave
The blue Sky leans her breast, diffus'd immense
In solitary length the Desert lies
Where Desolation keeps his empty court:
No bloom of spring o'er all the thirsty vast,
Nor spiry grass, is found; but sands instead
In sterile hills, and rough rocks rising gray.
A land of fears! where visionary forms
Of grisly spectres from air, flood, and fire,
Swarm, and before them speechless Horror stalks!
Here, night by night, beneath the starless dusk,
The secret hag and soreerer unbless'd
Their sabbath hold, and potent spells compose,
Spoils of the violated grave; and now,
Late at the hour that severs night from morn,
When sleep has silenc'd every thought of man,
They to their revels fall, internal throng!
And as they mix in circling dance, or turn
To the four winds of heav'n with haggard gaze,
Shot streaming from the bosom of the north,
Opening the hollow gloom, red meteors blaze,
To lend them light, and distant thunders roll,
Heard in low murmurs through the lowering sky.
From these sad scenes, the waste abodes of Death,
With devious wing, to fairer climes remote
Southward I stray, where Caucasus in v