Streets of Baltimore
WOMAN WEAK and woman mortal, through the spirit's open portal
I would read the Punic record of mine earthly being o'er —
I would feel that fire returning which within my soul was burning
When my star was quenched in darkness, set to rise on earth no more.
When I sank beneath Life's burdens in the streets of Baltimore.
Ah, those memories sore and saddening! Ah, that night of anguish maddening!
When my lone heart suffered shipwreck on a demon-haunted shore —
When the fiends grew wild with laughter, and the silence following after
Was more awful and appalling than the cannon's deadly roar —
Than the tramp of mighty armies thro' the streets of Baltimore.
Like a fiery serpent crawling, like a maelstrom madly boiling,
Did this Phlegethon of fury sweep my shuddering spirit o'er,
Rushing onward, blindly reeling — tortured by intensest feeling
Like Prometheus when the vultures to his quivering vitals tore —
Swift I fled from death and darkness thro' the streets of Baltimore.
No one near to save or love me, no kind face to watch above me,
Though I heard the sound of footsteps like the waves upon the shore —
Beating — beating — beating — beating — now advancing — now retreating
With a dull and dreary rhythm, with a long, continuous roar —
Heard the sound of human footsteps in the streets of Baltimore.
There, at length, they found me lying, weak and 'wildered, sick and dying,
And my shattered wreck of being to a kindly refuge bore;
But my woe was past enduring, and my soul cast off its mooring,
Crying, as I floated onward, " I am of the earth no more!
I have forfeited Life's blessings in the streets of Baltimore. "
Where wast thou, O Power Eternal, when the fiery fiend infernal
Beat me with his burning fasces till I sank to rise no more!
Oh! was all my lifelong error crowded in that night of terror?
Did my sin find expiation which to judgment went before,
Summoned to a dread tribunal in the streets of Baltimore?
Nay, with deep, delirious pleasure I had drained my life's full measure
Till the fatal fiery serpent fed upon my being's core;
Then, with force and fire volcanic, summoning a strength Titanic,
Did I burst the bonds that bound me — battered down my being's door —
Fled, and left my shattered dwelling to the dust of Baltimore.
I would read the Punic record of mine earthly being o'er —
I would feel that fire returning which within my soul was burning
When my star was quenched in darkness, set to rise on earth no more.
When I sank beneath Life's burdens in the streets of Baltimore.
Ah, those memories sore and saddening! Ah, that night of anguish maddening!
When my lone heart suffered shipwreck on a demon-haunted shore —
When the fiends grew wild with laughter, and the silence following after
Was more awful and appalling than the cannon's deadly roar —
Than the tramp of mighty armies thro' the streets of Baltimore.
Like a fiery serpent crawling, like a maelstrom madly boiling,
Did this Phlegethon of fury sweep my shuddering spirit o'er,
Rushing onward, blindly reeling — tortured by intensest feeling
Like Prometheus when the vultures to his quivering vitals tore —
Swift I fled from death and darkness thro' the streets of Baltimore.
No one near to save or love me, no kind face to watch above me,
Though I heard the sound of footsteps like the waves upon the shore —
Beating — beating — beating — beating — now advancing — now retreating
With a dull and dreary rhythm, with a long, continuous roar —
Heard the sound of human footsteps in the streets of Baltimore.
There, at length, they found me lying, weak and 'wildered, sick and dying,
And my shattered wreck of being to a kindly refuge bore;
But my woe was past enduring, and my soul cast off its mooring,
Crying, as I floated onward, " I am of the earth no more!
I have forfeited Life's blessings in the streets of Baltimore. "
Where wast thou, O Power Eternal, when the fiery fiend infernal
Beat me with his burning fasces till I sank to rise no more!
Oh! was all my lifelong error crowded in that night of terror?
Did my sin find expiation which to judgment went before,
Summoned to a dread tribunal in the streets of Baltimore?
Nay, with deep, delirious pleasure I had drained my life's full measure
Till the fatal fiery serpent fed upon my being's core;
Then, with force and fire volcanic, summoning a strength Titanic,
Did I burst the bonds that bound me — battered down my being's door —
Fled, and left my shattered dwelling to the dust of Baltimore.
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