Desire with loathing strangely mixed For all seemed guilt, remorse or woe, So two nights passed: the night's dismay Saddened and stunned the coming day. Sleep, the wide blessing, seemed to me Distemper's worst calamity. The third night, when my own loud scream And having thus by tears subdued To natures deepliest stained with sin,— The unfathomable hell within The horror of their deeds to view, And whom I love, I love indeed. A HYMN.* Mr Maker! of thy power the trace From all that meets or eye or ear, Which, like the heavy dew of morn, Refreshes, while it bows the heart forlorn! Great God! thy works how wondrous fair! The whole Earth's voice and mind! * See Note. 1814. HUMAN LIFE, ON THE DENIAL OF IMMORTALITY. IF dead, we cease to be; if total gloom Swallow up life's brief flash for aye, we fare As summer-gusts, of sudden birth and doom, Whose sound and motion not alone declare, Which, as she gazed on some nigh-finished vase, She formed with restless hands unconsciously! Blank accident! nothing's anomaly! If rootless thus, thus substanceless thy state, Go, weigh thy dreams, and be thy hopes, thy fears, The counter-weights!-Thy laughter and thy tears Mean but themselves, each fittest to create, And to repay the other! Why rejoices Thy heart with hollow joy for hollow good? Why cowl thy face beneath the mourner's hood, Why waste thy sighs, and thy lamenting voices, Image of image, ghost of ghostly elf, That such a thing as thou feel'st warm or cold? Yet what and whence thy gain, if thou withhold These costless shadows of thy shadowy self? Be sad! be glad! be neither! seek, or shun! Thou hast no reason why! Thou can'st have none; Thy being's being is a contradiction. 1816. SEPARATION.* A SWORDED man whose trade is blood, The dazzling charm of outward form, The power of gold, the pride of birth, * See Note. Is not true Love of higher price O! Asra, Asra! couldst thou see (This separation is, alas! Too great a punishment to bear; O! take my life, or let me pass That life, that happy life, with her!) The perils, erst with steadfast eye 1816. |