^o. O. Shelf No. WHITHER shall I go from Thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy Presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- most parts of the sea ; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. Psalm cxxxix, v. 7 10. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DEITY. BY ROBERT MONTGOMERY. PHILADELPHIA : CAREY, LEA AND CAREY CHESNUT STREET. SOLD IN NEW YORK BY G. AND C. CARVILL IN BOSTON BY MONROE AND FRANCIS. 1828. THOMAS KITE, Printer. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM HOWLEY, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. THIS POEM IS (BY PERMISSION) MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY HIS VERT GRATEFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR, CONTENTS. The Omnipresence of the Deity - - Page Part I. 13 Part II. - 43 Part III. - - - - - 91 Morning, Noon, and Night - 123 Marius 131 Stanzas for Music - 135 Starlight on Marathon - 138 Stanzas - - 143 Caesar on the Banks of the Rubicon - 145 Stanzas - 149 The Death of Corinne 153 The Pains of Genius - 155 The Trance - 157 Vive 1'Empercur - - 161 A Daughter's Apostrophe to a Departed Mother 166 The Dreadful Prayer - 169 The Crucifixion 172 London by Midnight - - - - 182 'Tis midnight : from unnumbered shadowy spires Tunereal wails for the departing day Arise, as from a host of yawning tombs ; Awhile the pealing echoes float around, Then faintly ebb upon the breezy air, And wind away into the starry skies I There is a -voiceless melanch'ly that wakes The heart's mysterious chords, until they stir Like air, by music charm'd, when on the verge Of Time's unfathom'd gulf, the dying hours Drop into dark eternity ! A Day Is dead ! and with it, many a breathing shape Of life, shall breathe no more. Many an eye That smiled upon the morn, is film'd and cold ; Many a heart that leapt with living joy Is spiritless and still. A solemn thought, Truth-born, and deep ; but life o'ershadows Death Beneath her brilliant wings ; and day on day, And hour on hour is piled ; yet unappall'd We glitter on life's varied road, until at last The death-knell mutters o'er our tombs, and some Communer with the midnight, when he hears The dusky steeples moaning to the clouds, Shall close his eye, and say "Another day is dead !"- And thus rolls on the busy, battling world, Clogg'd with a weighty mass of joy and woe. 'Tis midnight ; and before me lies outspread A sleeping city, with its towers and domes All shapeless and sublime, and darkly girt With funeral air, save where the casement sheds Its lambent smile around : And here, alone, XI With few to bless, and bless'd by lew, 1 sit And muse, until Imagination grasp The universe ! and trace in every isle That gems the sea, and every land that blooms Beneath the sun, the sleepless power of God, That with a veil of love invests the world. But see! the Moon unrobes, and from her face Beauty goes forth, and fills the heavens with light Till the vast concave blossometh with stars ! At such an hour, while weary Nature sleeps, And Silence walks the world, pervading God! Awe-smote, before thy viewless throne I lay A sacrifice of feelings, flash M from Thee Into immortal man! But who shall paint, Or mete witli words, the majesty of God ? Ineffable, sublime, supreme -beyond The lip of cherubim to tell Alone ! Xll Glimps'd in the lightning in the thunder heard Creation in Thy grasp, Thy throne in heaven Eternity unrolPd beneath thine eye! Still on the earth Thy shadow's seen ; and oh ! Among the meads, or by the mazy rills, Or on the mountains mantled by thy smile, Or by the wave-beat shore, where'er I roam In sweet companionship with Thought, I feel Thee by ; an unseen Presence ruling All. If aught, then, of the mind's devotion warm The poet's page ; if feelings from the soul Gush into glowing verse, from Thee derived, Receive it, God ! and may it glide around The world, and win to heaven harmonious Bath, March 2, 182C. UNIVERSITY THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DEITY. ANALYSTS OF PART I. THE Poem opens with an apostrophe to the DEITY He was, ere Time began Vision of the Creation We cannot escape the Omnipresent God He pervades all things Allusion to his appearance on Mount Sinai The Red Sea Nature attests the presence of her Architect The im- possibility of perfectly tracing the Deity's influence ; we can only select those scenes which impressively demon- strate it The thunder The ocean-tempest The Presence of the Deity felt in the repose of Nature The calm which succeeds a storm Aspirations awakened by a view of the setting sun. The hand of God b next traced in a rapid view of the Seasons : Spring Mountains Sacred feelings kindled by the sight of an august ruin The Convalescent The Hea- vens A moonlight Walk The soul conscious of its celes- tial origin Every clime an object of the Deity's care Condensed view of His Providence Not only nature, but human life, in all its diversified forms, regulated by Him. Uim PART 1. THOU UNCREATE, UNSEEN, and UNDEFINED, Source of all life, and fountain of the mind ; Pervading SPIRIT, whom no eye can trace, Fejt through all time, and working in all space, Imagination cannot paint that spot, Around, above, beneath, where thou art not ! Before the glad stars hymn'd to new-born Earth, Or young Creation re veil' d in its birth, B2 18 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Thy Spirit moved upon the pregnant deep, Unchain'd the waveless waters from their sleep, Bade Time's majestic wings to be unfurPd, And out of Darkness drew the breathing World! Primeval Power! before Thy thunder rang, And Nature from Eternity outsprang! Ere matter form'd at thy creative tone, Thou wert ; Almighty, Endless, and alone ; In thine own essence, all that was to be, Sublime, unfathomable Deity ; Thou said'st and lo ! a Universe was born, And light flash'd from thee for her birth-day morn ! The Earth urishrouded all her beauty now ; The mountain monarch bared his awful brow, Flowers, fruits, and trees felt instantaneous life ; But, hark ! Creation trembles with the strife < I.] OF THE DEITT. 19 Of roaring waves in wild commotion hmTd. 'Tia Ocean winding round the rocking world! And next, triumphant o'er the green-clad Earth, The universal Sun burst into birth, And dash'd from off his altitude sublime The first dread ray that mark'd commencing Time ! Last came the moon upon the wings of light, And sat in glory on the throne of Night, While, fierce and fresh, a radient host of stars Wheel'd round the heavens upon their burning cars ! But all was dismal as a world of dead, Till the great Deep her living swarms outspread : Forth from her teeming bosom, sudden came Immingled monsters, mighty, without name ; Then plumy tribes wing'd into being there, And play'd their gleamy pinions on the air, I 20 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Till thick as dews upon a twilight green, Earth's living creatures rose upon the scene ! Creation's master-piece ! a breath of God, Ray of His glory, quickened at His nod, Immortal Man came next, divinely grand, Glorious and perfect from his Maker's hand ; Last, softly beautiful as music's close, Angelic Woman into being rose. And now, the gorgeous Universe was rife, Full, fair, and glowing with created life ; And when the Eternal, from his starry height, Beheld the young world basking in his light, And breathing incense of deep gratitude, He bless' d it, for his mercy made it good ! I.] OF THE DEITY, 21 And thus, THOU wert, and art, the Fountain Soul, And countless worlds around Thee live and roll ; In sun and shade, in ocean and in air, Diffused, yet undiminished everywhere : All life and motion from Thy source began, From worlds to atoms, angels down to man. Lord of all being ! where can Fancy fly, To what far realms, unmeasured by Thine eye ? Where can we hide beneath Thy blazing sun, Where dwell'st Tiiounot, the boundless, viewless One ? Shall Guilt couch down within the cavern's gloom, And quivering, groaning, meditate her doom ? Or scale the mountains, where the whirlwinds rest, And in the night-blast cool her fiery breast ? In vain, in vain, may guilt-stung Fancy fly, Creation's mirror M on Thy sleepless eye ; 22 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Within the cavern-gloom, Thine eye can see, The sky-clad mountains lift their heads to Thee ! Thy Spirit rides upon the thunder-storms, Dark'ning the skies into terrific forms ! Beams in the lightning, rocks upon the seas, Roars in the blast, and whispers in the breeze ; In calm and storm, in Heaven and Earth Thou art, Trace but Thy works they bring Thee to the heart ! The fulness of Thy Presence who can see ? Man cannot live, great God ! and look on Thee ; Around thy form eternal lightnings glow, Thy voice appals the shuddering world below. Oh ! Egypt felt Thee when, by signs unscared, To mock Thy might, the rebel monarch dared ; Thou look'dst and Ocean sever'd at the glance ! Undaunted, still the charioteers advance ; I.] OF THE DEIT^4 23 Thou look'dst again she clash'd her howling waves, And gorg'd the tyrants in unfathom'd graves ! On Sinai's mountain, when thy glory came In rolls of thunder, and in clouds of flame ; There, while volcanic smoke Thy throne o'ercast, And the mount shrunk beneath the trumpet-blast, How did Thy Presence smite all Israel's eye ! How dreadful were the gleams of Deity ! There is a voiceless eloquence on Earth, Telling of Him who gave her wonders birth ; And long may I remain the adoring child Of nature's majesty, sublime or wild ; Hill, flood, and forest, mountain, rock, and sea, All take their terrors and their charms from Thee, From Thee, whose hidden but supreme control Moves through the world, a universal soul. 24 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part But who can trace Thine unrestricted course, Though Fancy followed with immortal force ? There's not a blossom fondled by the breeze, There's not a fruit that beautifies the trees, There's not a particle in sea or air, But nature owns Thy plastic influence there I With fearful gaze, still be it mine to see How all is filPd and vivified by Thee ; Upon Thy mirror, earth's majestic view, To paint Thy presence, and to feel it too. Ye giant winds ! that from your gloomy sleep Rise in your wrath, and revel on the deep; Lightnings ! that are the mystic gleams of God, That glanc'd when on the sacred mount he trod ; And ye, ye thunders ! that begird His form, Pealing your loud hosaunahs o'er the storm i !] OF THE DEITY. 25 Around me rally in your mingled might, And strike my being with a dread delight ; Sublimely musing, let me pause and see, And pour my awe-struck soul, O God ! to Thee. A thunder-storm ! the eloquence of heaven, When every cloud is from its slumber riven, Who hath not paused beneath its hollow groan, And felt Omnipotence around him thrown ? With what a gloom the ush'ring scene appears ! The leaves all fluttering with instinctive fears, The waters curling with a fellow dread, A breezeless fervour round creation spread, And, last, the heavy rain's reluctant shower, With big drops patt'ring on the tree and bower, While wizard shapes the bowing sky deform, All mark the coming of the thunder-storm ! 26 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Oh ! now to be alone, on some grand height, Where heaven's hlack curtains shadow all the sight, And watch the swollen clouds their bosom clash, While fleet and far the living lightnings flash, To mark the caverns of the sky disclose The furnace flames that in their wombs repose, And see the flery arrows fall and rise, In dizzy chase along the rattling skies, How stirs the spirit while the echoes roll, And God, in thunder, rocks from pole to pole ! And Thou, vast Ocean ! on whose awful face Time's iron feet can print no ruin-trace, By breezes lull'd, or by the storm-blasts driv'n, Thy majesty uplifts the mind to heaven. Tremendous art thou ! in thy tempest-ire, When the mad surges to the clouds respire^ !] OF THE DEITY. 27 And, like new Apennines from out the sea, Thy waves march on in mountain majesty ! Oh ! never did the dark-souPd ATHEIST stand, And watch the breakers boiling on the strand, And while Creation stagger 'd at his nod, Mock the dread presence of the mighty God ! We hear Him in the wind-heav'd ocean's roar, Hurling her billowy crags upon the shore ; We hear Him in the riot of the blast, And shake, while rush the raving whirlwinds past ! But not alone, when waves and whirlwinds rise, And wing their voices through the startled skies ; Not in the storm, the thunder, or the sea, Alone, we feel thy dread UBIQUITY : In calmer scenes, and the unruffled hour, Our stilPd hearts own Thine omnipresent power. 28 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part List ! now the cradled winds have hush'd their roar, And infant waves curl pouting to the shore, While Nature seems to wake up fresh and clear As Hope emerging from the gloom of fear, And the bright dew-bead on the bramble lies, Like liquid rapture upon beauty's eyes, How heavenly 'tis to take the pensive range, And mark 'tween storm and calm the lovely change ! First comes the Sun, unveiling half his face, Like a coy virgin, with reluctant grace, While dark clouds, skirted with his slanting ray Sink, one by one, in azure depths away, Till pearly shapes, like molten billows, lie, Along the tinted bosom of the sky : Next, breezes murmur with harmonious charm, Panting and wild, as children of the storm ; I.] OF THE DEITY. 29 Now sipping flowers, now making blossoms shake, Or weaving ripples on the grass-green lake ; And thus the Tempest dies ; and bright, and still, The rainbow drops upon the distant hill ; And now while bloom and breeze their charms unite, And all is glowing with a rich delight, =God ! who can tread upon the breathing ground, Nor feel Thee present, where Thy smiles abound ! When Day hath roll'd into his rosy bower, And Twilight comes the Poet's pensive hour ; When dream-like murmurs from the mazy wind Romantic glide into his gentle mind ; Then Nature's beauty, cloth'd with dewy light, Melts on the heart, like music through the Night. And, not in vain, voluptuous Eventide, Thy dappled clouds along th' horizon glide, 30 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part For, oh ! while heaven and earth grow dumb with bliss, In homage to an hour divine as this, How sweet, upon yon mountain's azure brow, While ruddy sun-beams gild the crags below, To stand, and mark, with meditative view, Where the far ocean faints in hazy blue, While on the bosom of the midway deep The emerald waves in flashing dimples leap ; Here, as we view the burning god of time, Wrapp'd in a shroud of glory, sink sublime, Thoughts of immortal beauty spring to birth, And waft the soul beyond the dreams of earth. And who hath gazed upon the bright- wing'd Morn, Breezy and fresh, from out the ocean born ; Her rich-wove cloud-wreaths, and the rainbow hues From heaven reflected on Creation's views ; I.] OF THE DEITY. 31 Or mark'd the wonders of a day depart, Nor felt a heaven-caught influence at his heart ? Through all the seasons' varying course of love, Who hath not traced the Spirit from above ? The howl of winter in the leafless wood, The sleepy snow-storm, and the whelming flood, Or Summer's flush, or Autumn, robed in grey, Whirling the red leaves round her bleak- worn way, All tell one tale of Heaven. But thou, young Spring, Glad as the wild bee on his glossy wing, Bedeck'dwith bloom, and breathing life around. Within thy bosom, charms supreme abound. The mercy-fountains of Divinity Now stream through all, with vigour full and free ; As if unloosen'd from their living source, To carry with them Spring's creative force ! 32 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part The sky is garlanded with waves of blue, Like ocean dawning on the distant view ; The sun lies mirror'd on the radiant streams, The sea-waves gambol in his noon-tide beams, The boughs hang glitt'ring in their locks of green, The meadow-minstrels carol to the scene ; While sea, and sky, and air, and beauteous Earth With her rich promise budding into birth, Seem, like a heart o'erfilPd with sacred love, Glowing with gratitude to Him above ! Terrific giants that o'erlook the sea 1 Enormous masses of sublimity ! Ye mountain-piles ! Earth's monuments to Heaven Around whose brows the giddy storms are driven, E'er since your daring heads have pierced the sky, Almighty Majesty has linger 1 d by ; !] OF THE DEITY. 33 Whether in climes where 'bove the ice-chain'd deep Ye rise in piles magnificently steep ; Or where in living bloom your bosoms swell, And fierce and far the flashing torrents yell, Where snow-drifts whiten, or where sun-beams warm, Your brows are girdled with a dreadful charm. When drops the sun in yonder western deep, The waves unruffled, and the winds asleep ; And isles of beauty float the brilliant sky, While Fancy muses with enamour'd eye ; Then comes the hour to commune with the sight, Where the wild mountain rears its massy height : There, as we gaze, gigantic thoughts begin To stir the immortal spark that burns within ; Till wonder starts with a be wild' ring fear, As if the shadow of a God were near \ 34 THE OMNIPRESENCE [ Part And where, beneath the wasting wings of Time, Towers and temples sink in age sublime ; Where by the grey-worn battlements are heard The dismal dirges of the midnight bird ; While low winds mutter through the roofless halls, And ivy-boughs bend weeping o'er the walls ; Imagination loves to stand and dream, And mark the ruin in the moonlight gleam, Till summon' d Ages startle from their sleep, And musing Mem'ry turns aside to weep. Or view, when Sunset drinks the forest breeze, Where some grey abbey glimmers through the trees, And on the turrets Evening's pallid rays Gleam like the glory of departed days ! How soon the cloister 'd stillness of the spot 1 Brings heaven around us, till the world's forgot ; While Retrospection draws the moral sigh, And dreams embodied flit before her eye 1 I-J OF THE DEITY. 35 Great Architect of worlds ! whose wond'rous power Presided o'er Creation's natal hour, Stamp'd man Thy miniature, and bade him run A race of glory, till his goal be won ; When wan Disease exhales her with'ring breath, And dims his beauty with the damp of death ; At some still hour the holy sigh will swell, The gushing tear of gratitude will tell That Thou art by, to temper and to tame The trembling anguish of the fever'd frame. But oh ! when heal'd by love and heaven, we rise, With radiant cheek, and re-illumin'd eyes, Bright as a new-born sun, all nature beams, And through the spirit darts immortal dreams ! Now for the breezy hills, and blooming plains, And pensive ramble when the noon-tide wanes , 36 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Now for the walk beside some haunted wood, And dreamy music of the distant flood ; While far and wide, the wand'ring eye surveys, And the heart leaps to pour away its praise ! Thus Adam felt, when, like a morning ray Shot from the shrine of light, at dawning day, He sprang in beauty on the new-made ground, And hail'd the virgin sky that glow'd around, And wafted up to heaven on every wind The untaught worship of his wond'ring mind. Now, turn from earth, to yonder glorious sky Th' imagin'd dwelling-place of Deity ! Ye quenchless stars ! so eloquently bright, Untroubled sentries of the shadowy night, While half the world is lapp'd in downy dreams, And round the lattice creep your midnight beams, I.] OF THE DEITY. 37 How sweet to gaze upon your placid eyes, In lambent beauty looking from the skies ! And when, oblivious of the world, we stray At dead of night along some noiseless way, How the heart mingles with the moon-lit hour, As if the starry heavens suffused a power ! See ! not a cloud careers yon pensile sweep, A waveless sea of azure, still as sleep ; Full in her dreamy light, the Moon presides, Shrin'd in a halo, mellowing as she rides ; And far around, the forest and the stream Bathe in the beauty of her emerald beam : The lulPd winds, too, are sleeping in their caves, No stormy murmurs roll upon the waves ; Nature is hush'd, as if her works adored, StuTd by the presence of her living Lord I 38 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part And now, while through the ocean-mantling haze A dizzy chain of yellow lustre plays, And moonlight loveliness hath veil'd the land, Go, stranger, muse thou by the wave-worn strand : Cent'ries have glided o'er the balanc'd earth, Myriads have bless'd, and myriads cursed their birth ; Still, yon sky-beacons keep a dimless glare, Unsullied as the God who thron'd them there ! Though swelling earthquakes heave the astounded world, And king and kingdom from their pride are hurPd, Sublimely calm, they run their bright career, Unheedful of the storms and changes here. We want no hymn to hear, or pomp to see, For all around is deep divinity ! The soul aspiring pants its source to mount, As streams meander level with their fount ; I-] OF THE DEITY. 39 While other years unroll their cloudy tide, And with them all the bliss they once supplied ! Oh ! if belov'd ones, from their viewless sphere, May witness warm Affection's faithful tear, At this deep hour, they hear the mourner's sigh, And waft a blessing from their homes on high ! Stupendous God ! how shrinks our bounded sense To track the triumphs of Omnipotence ; From the dread mountain, to the deepest den, From the mean insects, to immortal men ; Bless'd with Thy brightest smile, dare we confine Paternal Providence, supreme as thine ? Far as the fancy flies, or life-stream flows, From Georgia's deserts to the Greenland snows, Where space exists, Thine eyes of mercy see, Creation lives, and moves, and breathes in Thee t 40 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Yes ! pause and think, within one fleeting hour, How vast a universe obeys Thy power , Unseen, but felt, Thine interfused control Works in each atom, and pervades the whole ; Expands the blossom, and erects the tree, 2 Conducts each vapour, and commands each sea, Beams in each ray, bids whirlwinds be unfurl'd, Unrols the thunder, and upheaves a world ! Yet not alone created realms engage Thy faultless wisdom, grand, primeval Sage ! For all the thronging woes to life allied Thy mercy tempers, and Thy cares provide. E'en now, while voiceless Midnight walks the land, And spreads the wings of Darkness with her wand, What scenes are witnessed by thy watchful eye ! What millions waft to Thee the prayer and sigh ! I. J OF THE DEITY. 41 Some gaily vanish to an unfear'd grave, Fleet as the sun-flash o'er a summer wave ; Some wear out life in smiles, and some in tears, Some dare with hope, while others droop with fears; The vagrant's roaming in his tatter'd vest, The babe is sleeping on its mother's breast ; The captive mutt'ring o'er his rust- worn chain, The widow weeping for her lord again, While many a mourner shuts his languid eye, To dream of heaven, and view it ere he die . And yet no sigh can swell, no tear-drop fall, But thou wilt see, and guide, and solace all ! END OF FART I. D 2 PART II. ANALYSIS OF PART II. THE second part of the Poem is devoted to a consideration of the Presence of the Deity, as influencing Human Life In our journey through the world, we cannot but admit an overruling Power The mental independence of him who relies on it No lot too miserable to engage the paternal care of the Deity Consolation derived from this certainty in scenes of woe Pictures of a street-wanderer and an ex- iled captive The hopes imparted to the soldier, by his confidence in the Presence of God Battle-plain by moon- light described God's viewless Spirit attendant The sailor's farewell on the sea-shore His mistress's prayer to Heaven Storm and wreck described The mariner's in- tense consciousness of Preserving Providence. As misfortune is observed by God, so, in like manner, the crimes of the wicked cannot escape Him Picture of a murderer Darkness : its varied influence depicted The 46 ANALYSIS. misery of remorse without His attending mercy Penitence The young convict. The Sabbath Feelings excited by the tones of an organ swelling through a cathedral The village christening de- scribed Rapid survey of the common lot. As God has been defined 4 Love,' we may be assured that he eminently favours virtuous affection The marriage- scene Divine raptures arising from the retrospections of the virtuous Picture of a grandsire, sitting by his winter fire, and retracing the scenes of his life Friendship. Death Apostrophe Picture of a dying old man, attend- ed by his daughter The blank misery that waits the return from the funeral The Almighty present, to relieve. PART II. ALONG the barren world as doom'd we roam By devious paths to one perennial home, In tears or smiles, we own th' overruling hand That beckons on to that celestial land, Where, liarbour'd all, life's billows sink away, And the bright spirits bask in heaven's immortal ray. And happy thou ! through all the change of time, Whom sorrow cannot burden with a crime ; 48 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Whose joyless heart and never-lighten'd care Can proudly scorn the refuge of despair ; Like ocean's wand'rer guided by his star, Thy heaven-taught spirit looks to him afar. Say, ye whose hearts unclouded can enjoy The bliss of life without the world's alloy ; What can illume their melancholy way, Where want begins, and misery crowns the day ? When bowed by woe, and bleach' d by with' ring age, Alone the mourner roams the world's wide stage ; His fortune wreck'd, his friends beneath the sod, Where shall he fly, but to the arms of God ? And blest yon viewless Spirit thron'd on high ! No heart's too wretched to engage his eye ; No lot too lowly to deserve his love, And snatch a smile of mercy from above ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 49 He gazes on the sleepless couch of woe, And bids the dying light of hope to glow, Unarms the peril, heals the wounded mind, And wins each feeling home to fate resigned. At wintry eve, when warring night-winds blow, Pierce his cold cheek, and drift his locks of snow, As oil the vagrant shivers through the street, No voice to pity, and no hand to greet, With many a pause he marks that window-pane, Whose cheering blaze recalls his home again ; The friend and face, the music and the mirth, And social magic of his evening hearth, Awaked by memory, warm his widow'd heart. Till real woes in fancied bliss depart ; And one by one, as happier days appear, To each he pays the homage of a tear ; 50 THE OMNIPRESENCE Though homeless, still he loves home's joyous glare, Looks up to heaven, and feels his home is. there. Within a dungeon, mildew ? d by the night, Earr'd from salubrious air and blessed light, Lo! the pale captive pines in hostile lands, Chain'd to his doom by adamantine bands. Oh ! how he pants to face the fresh-wing'd breeze, And list the voices of the summer trees ; To breathe, and live, and move, and be as free As nature is, and man was made to be ! And when at night, upon his flinty bed, Silent and sad, he lays his grief-worn head, There as the durigeon-bell, with dismal sound, Tolls midnight through the sleeping air around, Remembrance wafts him to congenial climes, And frames a fairy world of happier times. II-] OF THE DEITY. 51 The woodland haunts around his native scene, The village dance upon the festive green, His sloping garden where he loved to ply, And smil'd as peeping flower buds hail'd his eye, His beauteous partner, and her blue-ey'd boy, Who prattled, play'd and fed his soul with joy, By thought created, crowd around his heart, And force the pangs of forid regret to start ; Each dear delusion claims a parent sigh, Each dream of happiness bedims his eye ; Till warm'd by Heaven, his home- wed bosom glows With hopes that triumph o'er remember'd woes ; And far away the chainless spirit flies, To vision'd realms of rest beyond the skies ! Spirit of Light and Life ! when Bailie rears Her fiery brow amid terrific spears ; 52 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part When red-mouth' d cannons to the clouds uproar, And gasping hosts sleep shrouded in their gore, E'en then, th' intrepid heart that nobly glows To face the fury of invading foes, May look to Thee for mercy and for power, To brave the peril of the carnage hour ; Or, doom'd to die amid the dreadful din, While Battle storms without, may find a peace within. List, ! war-peals thunder on the battle-field ; And many a hand grasps firm the glitt'ring shield, As on, with helm and plume, the warriors come, Arid the glad hills repeat the stormy drum ! And now are seen the youthful and the grey, With bosoms burning to partake the fray : The first, with hearts that consecrate the deed, All eager rush to vanquish or to bleed ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 53 Like young waves racing in the morning sun, That rear and leap with reckless fury on ! But, mark yon war-worn man, who looks on high, With musing valour mirror' d in his eye ; Not all the bloody revels of the day Can fright the vision of his home away ; The home of love, and its harmonious smiles, His wife's endearment, and his baby's wiles ; Fights he less brave through recollected bliss, With step retreating, or with sword remiss ? Ah no ! remember'd home 's the warrior's charm, Speed to his sword, and vigour to his arm ; For this he supplicates the God afar, Fronts the steel' d foe, and mingles in the war. The cannon 's hush'd ; nor drum, nor clarion sound ; Helmet and hauberk gleam upon the ground ; 54 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Horseman and horse lie welt'ring in their gore j Patriots are dead, and heroes dare no more ; And solemnly the moonlight shrouds the plain, And lights the lurid features of the slain ! And see ! where swift the banner M coursers past, A battle-steed beneath his rider cast ; Oh ! never more he'll rear with fierce delight, Roll his red eyes, and rally for the fight ; Pale on his bleeding breast the warrior lies, While from his ruffled lids, the white-swelPd eyes Ghastly and grimly stare upon the skies ! But who, upon the battle-wasted plain, Shall count the faint, the gasping, and the slain ? Angel of Mercy ! ere the blood-fount chill, And the brave heart be spiritless and still, II.] OF THE DEITY. 55 Amid the havoc Thou art ho v" ring nigh, To calm each groan, and close each dying eye, And waft the spirit to that halcyon shore, Where war's loud thunders lash the winds no more. And on Thy deep, the girdle of the world, When the fierce hurricanoes have unfuiTd Their rapid wings, to battle and to rave, Sweep down the rock, and scourge the yelling wave ; When skies in tempest-agonies outgroan, And the mad elements seem left alone, Lord of the Storm ! oh, Thou art present there, In the loud thunder, and the lightning glare ; And from the roaring of the midnight sea The mariner's last shriek ascends to thee 1 Lo ! to the yellow beach a maiden hies, Love at. her heart, and sorrow in her eyes ; 56 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Warm down her cheek impassion M drops of woe, Through fearful omens, for her lover flow : Oh ! will he, far by faithless ocean borne, Dream of his lonely maid who lives to mourn ? Will he, whene'er by palmy streams he roams, Muse on their twilight walks, and woodbine homes, And that first spring, when in the cowslip dale She blush'd an answer to his wooing tale ? The beach is won ; before her swells the sea, In all its dark and dread immensity ! Wide o'er the wave a wistful glance she throws, Till the fond lover smiles away her woes ; Voiceless awhile he clasps his dark-eyed maid, Then looks the promise love has often said : But, ere his vessel in the horizons blue, Mist-mingling, dwindle from her aching view, uNIVERSITY II.] Sweet mourner ! heaven-ward Hope uplifts her mind To Him who wings the storm, and walks the wind ! Thrice has the sun upon his green- wav'd bed, 'Mid rosy clouds his vesper radiance shed ; And thrice the moon from out the ocean rose, Like pale-eyed beauty waking from repose ; While glad beneath, the lustre-weaving wave Murmur'd o'er many a seaman's weedy grave. The morn is up ; and in her mellow ray Millions of youthful billows pant and play ; Greeting the stately vessels as they glide In white-wing'd triumph o'er the breezy tide. But lo ! around the marsh'lling clouds unite, Like thick battalions halting for the fight ; 58 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Fart The sun sinks back, the tempest spirits sweep Fierce through the air, and flutter on the deep, Till from their caverns rush the maniac blasts, Tear the loose sails, and split the creaking masts, And the lash'd billows, rolling in a train, Rear their white heads, and race along the main ! And, see ! hurFd backward from a hidden rock, A shattered vessel reeling with the shock, Like one appall'd by an unearthly sight, Who stands, and shivers with convulsive fright : There, in a den of waves, she rocks awhile, Till on her deck the howling surges pile ; Then struggling sinks, beneath the water's leap, Like a huge monster wrestling with the deep ! Alone, and bark'd upon the bounding waves, Behold a mariner the tempest braves ! II.] OF THE DEITY. 59 Home, life, and love, and near-imagin'd death, Nerve the stout limb, and lengthen out his breath : A rock is reach' d ; dash'd on a wave- worn peak Lies the wreck'd sailor, shiv'ring, wan, and weak ; With livid face, and look of ghastly dread, And locks, like sea-weeds, streaming from his head ; Unmov'd his lips, but with his upturn'd eyes, He shadows forth a Saviour in the skies ; Visions a viewless temple in the air, Feels God around, and silence is his prayer 1 Can Guilt, though hidden from the gaze of earth* Fly from His view, who gave all being birth ? From its first shadow on the sullied heart, To the dark hour that consummates its part, His sleepless eye detects each buried plan, And bares the bosom secret of the man. 60 THE OMNIPRESENCE L Part Yes ! oft he locks the weapon in the hand, And makes the murd'rer for his capture stand ; Or, when the flood of years has rolled away The darksome horrors of the blood-curs' d day, His vengeance frowns upon the felon's sleep, Forcing his haggard eye to wake and weep. Upon the midnight heath, where fierce winds growl, Like famish'd wolves careering as they howl, While cloudy billows darkly swell and rise As if an ocean brooded in the skies, Aghast and quaking, see the murd'rer stand, Shrink from himself, and clench his crimson hand ; Unearthly terror gripes his shudd'ring frame, While Conscience writhes .upon the rack of Shame : Beneath him gasps the victim of his deed, In that faint struggle ere the spirit's freed ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 61i One piteous gaze his languid eyelids close, And life and torture sink to dead repose. Why stands the murd'rer fetter'd to the spot r Life, fame, and judgment in his guilt forgot ? With ashy lips in cold convulsion spread, And fear drops oozing from his tortur'd head ;, Chain'd by his crime, he cannot dare not fly r A spirit seems to grasp him from the sky ! And though no human eye the murder sees, A curse from heaven comes mutter'd in each breeze. Though Crime entomb herself within the heart, And veil her anguish with dissembling art ; Though 'mid the glare of day, and dazzling strife That flutters on the shadowy stream of life, She move as merry as the morning air, Unmarr'd by grief, unsorrow'd by a care, F 62 THE OMNIPRESENCE Darkness shall bare the burden of her sin, Arid fan the hell of thought that flames within !' At deep dead night, when not an earthly sound Jars on the brooding air that sleeps around ; When all the drossy feelings of the day, Touch'd by the wand of Truth, dissolve away, Unhallow'd Guilt shall in her bosom feel A rack too fierce for language to reveal ; A sense unutterable within the soul Of him pervading living through the whole ; On every limb shall creeping terror come, Lock her white lips, and strike her anguish dumb , Vengeance shall utter a tremendous yell, And Fancy flutter round the gulf of Hell ! Not so comes Darkness to the good man's breast* When night brings on the holy hour of rest ; II-] OF THE DEITY. Tir'd of the day, a pillow laps his head, While heavenly vigils watch around the bed ; His spirit bosom'd on the God of All, Peace to the hour! whate'er the night befall : Then pleasing Memory unrolls her chart, To raise, refine, and regulate the heart ; Exulting boyhood, and its host of smiles, Next busy manhood battling with its toils, Delights and dreams that made the heart run o'er, The love forgotten, and the friends no more The panorama of past life appears, Warms his pure mind and melts it into tears ! Till, like a shutting flower, the senses close, And on him lies the beauty of repose. Yes, in the dark, Imagination seems Girt with a shadowy brood of awful dreams, 64 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part That round her in appalling visions fly, Dread as the phantoms on a thunder sky ; And Guilt starts back, by gloomy horror driven, But virtue braves them with a smile from Heaven ! 5 Tis night : and mutt'ring comes the winter wind, While cloud-battalions slowly march behind ; Alone the way-worn pilgrim winds his track, His wallet resting on his weary back ; Though dark the path, and dreary grows the night, And not a heaven-lamp beams its holy light, Firm o'er the starless w r ild he moves his way, For He pervades the night, who formed the day ! Thus on he plods beneath the brooding sky, Till, lo ! a lattice twinkles on his eye, ^ And merrily from out his woodland dome, His babes bound forth, and hail the wand'rer home ! II.] OF THE DEITY. 65 When Conscience darts her stings into the mind, And heart-broke Folly turns to look behind, Then righteous Heaven ! without thy hopeful ray, What dark despair would lower on our way ! Where should we light the burden of our woes ? How should we lull our anguish to repose ? Oh ! when the rebel heart has ceas'd to roam, And yearns repentant for its hallow'd home, Thy love will hail the weeping wand'rer there, And hush to peace the tempest of despair. And not more beautiful beneath the ray Of risen morn, night-shades dissolve away, And the unmantled world, embathed in light, Awakes in chasten' d glory, clear and bright, Than do the sinful mists that shroud the soul Melt oft beneath remorse's stern control, 66 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Till the full impress of the God appears, Made pure and brilliant by repentant tears ! Now day by day celestial feelings rise Fresh from the heart, and reach th' immortal skies ! Now comes the hour, when rambling all unseen, Save by the stars, upon the dusky green ; When winds are voiceless, and the breezes still, Save truant ones, that roam the wooded hill ; Eternal glories dawn upon the heart, Till drops of rapture from the soul-fount start ; And Sorrow, bursting from Cimmerian gloom, Darts up to Heaven, and triumphs o'er the tomb. But when the erring heart at Passion's shrine Hath basely sacrific'd each trait divifte ; When Guilt hath stain' d it with her deepest dye, And blood for blood is Nature's dreadful cry, II.] OP THE DEITY. 67 Angel of Mercy ! thy supernal power Alone can tame the terrors of the hour ; Thine is the charm that bids the heart unbind, Mount on the wings of Faith, and leave Despair behind; Thine is the voice that soothes the dying breath, And Breathes a halo round the brow of death. * And hark ! the midnight bars have ceased to sound, The dungeon guard has paced his clanking round, And all is dark, and dismal as the deep, When weary storms sink mutt'ring into sleep : When daybreak gleams, a scaffold-floor will be The felon's step-place to eternity ! And one there is in yonder glimm'ring cell, Whose young heart wept, and wonder 'd while it fell ; A wreck of crime, upon his flinty bed, With eye wild-rolling and bewildered 'head : 68 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part 'Tis not the chain that clinks upon his straw, 'Tia not the blow of violated law, But racking thoughts that rive his shudd'ring heart And make the fibres of his bosom start ! Yes ! they have borne him to his native streams, Where young-ey'd Fancy wove her fairy dreams ; To each green glade where Boyhood lov'd to roam Till Twilight came, and call'd the truant home : And where is she who rock'd him to repose, And sang, and smil'd, to lull his infant woes ? And he who greeted with paternal joy The dawning virtues of his darling boy ? The rank grass waves upon their lonely grave ! No hand was by to solace or to save ; Affection wept not o'er their childless gloom, Nor passed them onward to a peaceful tomb : That working eye, and palpitating cheek, Those wringing hands, and that delirious shriek, II.] OF THE DEITY. 69 But ill betray the burning load of pain 1 Remembrance piles upon his phrensied' brain ! Till Faith descend ;upon her wings of Love, Raise the droop'd soul, and point to realms above ; Then, firm his glance, hush'd every groan and cry, And Hypocrites might shake to view a felon die. 'Tis sad to see tfce eye forget its ray, And sorrow sit, where smiles were wont to play ; 'Tis sad when youth is fair, and fresh, and warm, And life is fraught with every sweeter charm, To see it close the lip, and droop the head, Wane from the earth, and mingle with the dead ; But, oh ! nor death nor woe can ever seem So darkly dismal .as that wild' ring dream That life in death a desolated mind, Around whose wreck the weeds of madness wind 1 W THE OMNIPRESENCE [ Part Down yon romantic dale, where hamlets few Arrest the summer pilgrim's pensive view, The village wonder, and the widow's joy, Dwells the poor, mindless, pale-faced maniac boy : He lives and breaths, and rolls his vacant eye, 'To greet the glowing fancies of the sky ; But on his cheek unmeaning shades of woe Reveal the wither'd thoughts that sleep below ! A soulless thing, a spirit 'of the woods, He loves to commune with the fields and floods : Sometimes along the woodland's winding glade, He starts, and smiles upon his pallid shade ; Or scolds with idiot threat the roaming wind, But re\>el music to the ruined mind! Or on the shell-strewn beach, delighted strays Playing his finggts in the noon-tide rays ; And when tlfe sea- waves swell their hollow roar, lie counts the billows plunging to the shore ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 7T And oft beneath the glimmer of the moon. He chants some wild and melancholy tune ;. Till o'er his soft'ning features seems to play A shadowy gleam of mind's reluctant sway. Thus, like a living dream, apart from men, From morn to eve he haunts the wood and glen ; But round him, near him wheresoe'er he rove, A guardian angel tracks him from above ! Nor harm from flood or fen shall e'er destroy The mazy wand'rings of the maniac boy. Thou unimagin'd God 1 though every hour, And ev'ry day, speak Thy tremendous power, Upon the seventh creation's work was crown'd, When the glad universe career'd around ! Then ever hallow'd be Thy chosen day, Till Nature die, and Time shall roll away. 72 THE OMNIPRESENCE [ Part Sweet Sabbath morn! from childhood's dimpled prime, I've lov'd to hail thy calm-renewing time ? Soft steal thy bells upon the pensive mind, 3 In mingling murmurs floating on the wind, Telling of friends and times long wing'd away, And blissful hopes, harmonious with the day. On thy still dawn, while holy music peals, And far around the ling 'ring echo steals, What heart communes not with the day's repose, And, lapp'd in angel dreams, forgets its woes. Who, in His temple, gives to God a prayer, Nor feels the majesty of heaven is there ? The sacred stillness of the vaulted pile, ^ Where gather'd hearts their homage breathe awhile ; The mingled burst of penitential sighs, The choral anthem pealing to the skies, II.] OF THE DEITY. 73 Exalt the soul to energies sublime, Chain the wild thought, and solemnize the time. Emblem of Peace ! upon the village plain Thou dawn'st a blessing to the toil-worn swain ; Soon as thy smiles upon the upland play, His bosom gladdens with the bright'ning day ; Humble and happy, to his lot resigned, He owns the inward sabbath of the mind. And when, with bending knee and sainted tone, His vows are breathed unto Jehovah's throne, Serene the thoughts that o'er his bosom steal, When homeward winding for the Sabbath meal : There shall kind Plenty wear her sweetest smiles ; There shall his rosy children play their wiles ; And there the meek-ey'd mother muse and joy, And court with frequent kiss her infant boy : 74 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part At noon, a ramble round the burial ground, A moral tear on some lamented mound* Or breezy walk along the green expanse, Where summer beauty charms the lingering glance, These are the wonted blessings of the day, That all his weekly toils and woes repay : And when aerial Night hath veil'd the view, And star-gleams twinkle on the meadow dew r Some elder boy beside his father's knee Shall stand and read the Holy History ; Or peaceful prayer, or chanted hymn shall close The hour that woos him ta a sweet repose. And Melody ! an echo breathed from heaven 1! By her, divine, august delight is giveji ; Whether she melt a passion from the mindy Or with ^Eolian languish lull the wind ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 75 Whether she madden in the mingled roar Of wrathful billows bounding to the shore ; Or on the downy pinions of a breeze Cradle with wooing lullabies the trees ; Alike divine ! But deeper through the soul Glides Melody's omnipotent control, When, from the fluted organ, full and deep, Billows of music through the dim aisles sweep : Ear, eye, and heart confess the awful spell, While soul and being with the magic swell, And as the spiral echoes upward wind, Die off and scarcely leave the man behind ! And now, while faintly-ebbing murmurs roll Entrancing music o'er the prostrate soul, Sublimely sad ! to linger in some aisle, Where, through the blazon'd panes, the vesper smile 76 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part With pallid radiance quivers in the gloom, Or crowns, like seraph light, the inspiring tomb ; And feel at such an hour the heart unfold, Struck by the presence of the sage and bold I The tomb-like echoes of the vaulted ground, The monumental awe suffused around, The fretted arch with its gigantic sweep, The world's great spirits throned in marble sleep, Subdue each earthly passion into fear, While Fancy's shapeless beings hover near ! But not alone the stately-vaulted pile, The echoing cloister, or the pillar'd aisle, Hallow the mind : the humblest fanes impart A holy magic to the feeling heart. ^ And see ! down where yon arches shed their gloom, And mottos speak from many a time-worn tomb, II. J OF THE DEITY. 77 There, where the font uprears its marble brow, The village sponsors breathe their solemn vow While pensively a mother, young and mild, Offers to heaven the homage of her child ; And oft she gazes on the sleeping boy, Lock'd to her breast with all a mother's joy ; Fearful and fond, and twining for repose, Like a young bud around the parent rose. But who shall paint her meditative eye, Her look of love, and heaven-appealing sigh, When on the cherub brow, with hope divine, The holy preacher prints the liquid sign ? Joy, doubt, and fear in mingling torrent rise, Gush through her heart, and glitter in her eyes. Whene'er I gaze upon a sinless child, Tossing its merry head of ringlets wild, G 2 78 THE OMNIPRESENCE fP Lip, cheek, and eye, all in that lovely glow Young spirits feel, as yet unchill'd by woe, A voiceless wonder animates each sense, To think how Mercy watches innocence. Survey the scene of life : in yonder_room, Pillow 'd in beauty 'mid the cradle glooin, While o'er its features plays an angel smile, A breathing cherub slumbers for awhile : Those budding lips, that faintly-fringed eye, That placid cheek, and uncomplaining sigh, The little limbs in soft embrace entwined, Like flower-leaves folded from the gelid wind ; All in their tender charms, her babe endear, I And feed the luxury of a mother's fear. Next, mark her infant rais'd to childhood's stage, Bound in the bloom of that delightful age, II.] OF THE DEITY. 79 With heart as light as sunshine on the deep, And eye that woe has scarcely taught to weep ! The tip-toe gaze, the pertinacious ken, Each rival attribute of mimick'd men, The prompt decision, and presuming way. Now picture forth his yet auspicious day. Whether at noon he guides his tiny boat By winding streams, and woody banks remote, Or climbs the meadow tree, or trails the kite, Till clouds aerial veil his ravish' d sight ; Or roams the shady wood at dying day, To list with charmed ear the cuckoo's lay ; A hand above o'errules the daring boy, And draws the daily circle of his joy. And thus, when manhood brings its weight of care, To swell the soul, and curb the giddy air, 80 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part The father, friend, the patriot, and the man, Share in the love of Heaven's parental plan ; Till age o'ersteal his mellow'd form at last, And wintry locks tell summer youth is past ; Then like the sun, slow- wheeling to the wave, He sinks in glory to a welcome grave. Lord of the Universe ! supreme ! sublime ! Who fathomest the ocean-depths of time, Though oft thy red- wing' d lightnings sear the sky, And mutt' ring thunders mark thy track on high, One omnipresent, ever-sleepless Love Pervades, directs, and tempers from above : When from Thy hands primeval Earth outsprang, And starry music o'er the launch' d world rang, Thine emblem, GOD, was LOVE ! nor eye can see Where love is not the master trait of Thee. II.] OF THE DEITY. 81 And since that time, when to her Eden bower The god-like Adam led his beauty dower, And there, while music harmoniz'd the grove, Attun'd each rapture to requited love, Have souls commingled in affection's flame, In weal unsever'd, and in woe the same. Young, chaste, and lovely pleas'd, yet half afraid, Before yon altar droops a plighted maid, Clad in her bridal robes of taintless white, Dumb with the scene, and trepid with delight ; Around her hymeneal guardians stand, Each with a tender look and feeling bland ; And oft she turns her beauty-beaming eye, Dimm'd with a tear for happiness gone by ! Then coyly views, in youth's commanding pride, Her own adored one panting by her side ; 82 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Like lilies bending from the noon-tide blaze, Her bashful eye-lids droop beneath his gaze ; While love and homage blend their blissful power, And shed a halo round his marriage hour ! What though his chance-abounding life ordain A path of anguish and precarious pain ; By want or woe, where'er compell' d he rove, ^ _ A cot's a palace by the light of love ! There beats one heart which, until death, will be A gushing, glowing fount of sympathy ; One frownless eye to kindle with his own, One changeless friend, when other friends are flown ; O ! sanction Thou the love-united pair, Fountain of love ! for Thou art present there. There are some heart-entwining hours in life, With sweet seraphic inspiration rife ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 83 When mellowing thoughts, like music on the ear. Melt through the soul, and revel in a tear 1 And such are they, when, tranquil and alone, We sit and ponder on long periods flown ; And, charm'd by Fancy's retrospective gaze, Live in an atmosphere of other days ; Till friends and faces flashing on the mind, Conceal the havoc Time has left behind I Yon aged man, with what a musing eye He dreams and lingers o'er the days fled by, When pensive sitting by his evening fire, To Mem'ry's peaceful glade his thoughts retire ; While cherub grandsons pat his willing knee, Shake their bright curls, and prattle off their glee 1 Now gently fleet back joy-wingM days of old, When hope led forward, and the eye look'd bold ; 84 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part With holy calm he thinks of place and time, Belov'd when left, imblotted with a crime ; Gone friendship's smiles are re-illumined now, And gleams of fancy brighten on his brow! What hand puissant gave to life each form, Scatter' d the cloud, and piloted the storm ? Guided him onward through his thorny road, Bestow'd each joy, and brightened each abode ? Ah ! see the pious tear of memory roll A welling rapture from his grateful soul, That trembles, like the waking wings of Joy, To feel Who rais'd the man, and rear'd the boy ! Chained to the car of Time, as on we roll Through storm and tempest to th' eternal goal, How favour'd he ! whose sapient soul refined, Meets by the way some all-partaking mind ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 85 Some feeling friend by Nature mark'd our own, And moulded true to every tender tone. Let fortune frown, congenial scenes depart, And farewell ! rive the fetters of the heart ! 'Tis sweet when roaming by the wave-girt strand, To weave fond visions of our own far land ; Or dream, while faintly chimes the convent bell, On distant friends, and each domestic spell, And feel one Spirit marks our lone career, And dwells in every heart, to Friendship dear. And if brief absence in our stormy life Force in fond bosoms sympathetic strife, How crack the heart-strings when Death's giant hand Tears a lov'd victim to his shadowy land ! O Death ! thou dreadless vanquisher of earth, The Elements shrunk blasted at thy birth I 86 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Careering round the world like tempest wind, Martyrs before, and victims strew' d behind, Ages on ages cannot grapple thee, Dragging the World into Eternity ! And, say, when panting on our couch we lie, And scan the future with uncheated eye, How coils Imagination from the tomb, Shrinks into awe, and shudders at its doom ; What shapes of horror glide around our bed, Damp from the ghastly regions of the dead ; While Fancy hovers o'er that fearful brink, Where Faith turns wild, and Thought too weak to think ; Trembling and starting, like a shade in sleep, Or a lone vessel on the wind-lash' d deep ; Till Revelation's heaven-directed beam Melts every doubt in a celestial dream; II.] OP THE DEITY. 87 Oh ! then no more convulsing terrors roll ! Then, then, the hallelujah of the Soul! Wrapt in the blaze of heaven, it wings away To the bright bowers of everlasting day. Lo ! on his curtain'd couch, with pillow' d head, And pallid limbs in dewy languor spread, The dying parent, like a wailing breeze, Moans in the feverish grasp of wan Disease ; While, sad and watching, with a sleepless eye, His lovely daughter sits, and muses by : So Gabriel sat within the Saviour's tomb, When his pure Spirit walk'd the unearthly gloom t There, as the melancholy midnight bell Knolls o'er the drowsy world the day's farewell, Frequent she glances at his wrinkled brow, And those dear eyes, so dim and deathful now 88 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Till all his love and all his care returns, And memory through her brain and bosom burns. That drooping hand, so delicately weak, How often had it smoothed her infant cheek ; Or danc'd her, lightly-tripping by his side, And prattling sweetly with delighted pride ; Or pluck' d the painted flower that charm 'd her age, Or gently oped Instruction's pictured page, Or pointed to the trepid beauty-star That twinkled in the vesper sky afar. And see ! no more the arrowy throes of pain Pierce his bound head, or force the plaintive strain ; Slumber hath heaPd them with assuasive balm, And chain 'd the senses in oblivion's calm : Pleas' d at his quiet mein, with timid breath She stirs to see alas ! the sleep of Death ; II.] OF THE DEITY. 89 Pulseless and pale, beneath the taper's glow, Lies her loved parent, but a lifeless show ! She shook not, shriek'd not, rais'd no maniac cry, Nor wrung her hand, nor heav'd one heart-deep sigh ; But stood aghast, too dreadful for relief, Mute, stiff, and white, a monument of Grief I To hear the dying their faint murmurs speak, And watch the death-glaze smooth the waxen cheek ; To see the fiery eye-ball fiercely roll, As if it wrestlM with the parting soul ; Or hear the last clod crumble on the bed, And sound the hollow mansion of the dead ; This, this is woe ! But deeper far that gloom That haunts us when we pace the desert room, And shadow forth an image of our love, Rapt to Elysian realms of light above : 90 THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DEITY. [Part II. 'Tig now, while low and long the heavy knell Rolls on the breeze a parted soul's farewell, Despair and Anguish darken round our view, And all but Sorrow seems to be untrue. How sadly vacant turns the frequent gaze, To where the mourn'd one smiled in other days I The eye that glitter 'd with the gen'rous thought, The glowing mind with worth and wisdom fraught ; The twilight walk by some romantic stream, Where Friendship warm'd, while Fancy wove her dream ; The smile, and wit, all, all the faithful heart Delights to trace on memory's mazy chart, Return upon us : OMNIPRESENT POWER ! 'Tis Thine to lull this agonizing hour ; To charm the burden from the soul and give The tears that solace, and the hopes that live. END OF PART II. PART III. ANALYSTS OF PART III. IF there be no God, the former parts of this Poem are raised on fanciful feelings and superstitious fiction : Can we ob- serve the wonders of Creation, and deem Chance their origin ? The consequences that accrue from this distem- pered doctrine : By a natural, but melancholy digression, we are here led to glance at Atheism, as partially influenc- ing the horrors of the French Revolution Marie Antoi- nette Her appearance on the balcony during the tumults at Versailles. Return to a consideration of Atheism It is a sorry boast to triumph over a belief of man's immortality If the soul be not immortal, how are we to account for those aspira- tions which are never satisfied with the highest attainment of earthly enjoyment ? The dismal doctrine of believing all ties of love eternally severed by Death : when we reflect on the master-spirits of gone time, can we imagine them eternally quenched ? Consolations derived from a belief in 94 ANALYSIS. a future state The different feelings with which the Athe- ist and the Christian face death Pictures of the death-bed of a Sceptic and a Christian The Poem concludes with a description of the Final Doom. PART III. Now, while the starry choirs aerial rise, And liquid moonlight mellows all the skies, Oh ! let sublime Imagination soar High as the lightnings rage, or thunders roar ; Ride on the deep, or travel with the sun, Far as Creation smiles, or Time has run : So shall her eagle eye divinely see A living universe of Deity ! In every wave and wind, arid fruit and flower, The beauty, grace, and terror of His power. 96 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Who hung yon planet in its airy shrine, And dash'd the sunbeam from its burning mine ? Who bade the ocean-mountains swell and leap, And thunder rattle from the skiey deep ? Through hill and vale who twined the healthful stream, Made rain to nurture, and the fruit to teem ? Who charm' d the clod into a breathing shrine, And filPd it with a living flame divine ? One Great Enchanter helm'd the harmonious whole, Creator ! God ! the grand primeval Soul ! And dare men dream that dismal Chance has framed All that the eye perceives, or tongue has named ; The spacious world, and all its wonders, born Designless, self-created, and forlorn ; Like to the flashing bubbles on a stream, Fire from the cloud, or phantom in a dream ? III.] OF THE DEITY. 97 That no grand Builder plied His plastic force, Gave to each object, form, to motion, course ? Then, blood-stain'd Murder, bare thy hideous arm, And thou, Rebellion, welter in thy storm : Awake, ye spirits of avenging crime ; Burst from your bonds, and battle with the time ! Why should the orphans of the world who roam O'er earth's bleak waste, without a friend a home, With resignation mark their fellow clay Bask in the sunshine of a better day ? Why should the vagrant shiver at the door, Nor 'spoil the miser of his treasured ore ! Save Faith's sweet music harmonized the mind r Whispered of Heaven, and bade it be resign'd. And here, let Memory turn her tearful glance On the dark horrors of tumultuous France ; i 98 THE OMNIPRESENCE [P*rt When blood and blasphemy defiled her land, And fierce Rebellion shook her savage hand, While women flung their female hearts away, Rear'd the red pike, and butcher'd for their pay. 4 No more the tocsin for the carnage tolls, No death-piled tumbril from the slaughter rolls ; The blood has dried upon the wither'd plain, And brave La Vende'e blooms in peace again ; Still may we raise an image of the times, And draw a moral from a nation's crimes. Unhappy land ! did godless wisdom pour Delightful Liberty from shore to shore ? Ah no ! perverted Freedom curs'd the day With nameless deeds of horror and dismay ; Till heaven avenging seized its ravish'd power, And crush'd an empire to decide her hour. Ill-] OF THE DEITY. 99 Let streets of blood, let dungeons choked with dead, The tortur'd brave, the royal hearts that bled ; Let plunder'd cities, and polluted fanes, The butcher'd thousands piled upon the plains Let the foul orgies of infuriate crime Picture the raging havoc of that time, When leagued Rebellion march'd to kindle man, Fright in her rear, and Murder at her van ! And thou, sweet flower of Austria, slaughtered Queen, Who dropp'd no tear upon the dreadful scene, When gush'd the life-stream from thine angel form, And martyr'd beauty perish'd in the storm ; Once worshipped paragon of all who saw, Thy look obedience, and thy smile a law : When midnight tumults agoniz'd thy head, And rebel daggers pierced thy regal bed ; 100 THE OMNIPRESENCE [ Part While loud below, the assassin raised Ms yell,. And howl'd for victims while his hatchet fell - T Brave to the last, methinks I see thee stand, Thine infants clinging to thy faithful hand, And face majestical the murd'rous throng That ramp'd and foam'd and scream' d their loath- some song ! E'en then thy queenly prowess hush'd their roar, Till Mercy smiled, and Treason dared no more. Unhallowed men ! whose thankless eyes can glance On all around, and deem it born of Chance ; Self-martyr' d victims to unfathom'd gloom,. Your life a vision, and your heart a tomb ; The source and end of being in the ground, Where all is silent and your goal is found. How charmless time must stream away with you ;. To struggle, wish, and weep, and then Adieu ! ITI.J OP THE DFJTT. 101 Ye cannot stifle Sorrow at her r By hopes prevailing o'er the woes of earth ; Nor fire the lukewarm passions of the soul By immortality's sublime control ; Share with the majesty of earth and sky, Mount on a thought, and talk with DEITY ! Boast not of wisdom, if her precepts say Th' immortal essence mingles with the clay ; In polar isles, where Wisdom's mellow beam Ne'er chasten'd beauty's glance, or rapture's dream, E'en there a Deity pervades the mind, Speaks in the storm* and travels on the wind. 5 And shall the soul, the fount of reason, die, When dust and darkness round its temple lie ? Did God breathe in it no etherial fire, Dimless and quenchless, though the breath expire ? 12 102 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part Then why were godlike aspirations given, That, scorning earth, so often frame a heaven ? Why does the ever-craving wish arise, For better, nobler, than the world supplies ? Ah, no ! it cannot be that men were sent To live and languish on in discontent ; That Soul was moulded to betrayful trust, To feel like God, and perish like the dust. If Death for ever doom us to the clod, And earth-born Pleasure be our only god, The rapid years shall bury all we love, Nor leave one hope to re-unite above ; No more the voice of Friendship shall beguile, No more the mother on her infant smile ; But vanishing, like rain upon the deep, Nature shall perish in eternal sleep ! HI.] OF THE DEITY. 103 Illustrious beacons, spirits of the just, Are ye embosom'd in perennial dust ? Shall ye, whose names, undimm'd by ages, shine Bright as the flame that mark'd ye for divine, For ever slumber never meet again, Too pure for sorrow, too sublime for pain ? Ah, no ! celestial Fancy loves to fly With eager pinion, and prophetic eye, To radient dwellings of immortal bliss Far from a world so woe-begone as this ; There, as the choral melodies career, Sublimely rolling through the seraph sphere, In angel-forms you all again unite, And bathe in streams of everlasting light. When friends have vanish' d to their viewless home, And we are left companionless to roam, 104 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part O, what can cheer our melancholy way, But hopes of union in the Land of Day ? Soul-loved ! companions of our greener years, Warm'd at our joys, and weeping at our tears, How oft renewing Memory paints each hour, When Friendship triumphed and the heart had power ! Yes, hallow' d are those visions of the brain, When Heaven unveils, and loved ones smile again. And thou, for ever fond, for ever true, Beneath whose smile the boy to manhood grew ; To sorrow gentle, and to error mild, Shall death for ever tear thee from thy child ? Ah, no ! when thy bewilder' d days are o'er, And toils and troubles shall prevail no more, Thy renovated soul shall breathe above, In amaranthine bowers of bliss and love ; III.] OF THE DEITY. 105 There shall we muse amid the starry glow, Or hear the fiery streams of Glory flow ; Or, on the living cars of lightning driven, Triumphant wheel around the plains of heaven. And say ! how will the sceptic brave the hour Of Death's divine, inexorable power, When all this fairy world shall glide away, Like midnight dreams before the morning day ? See ! how he shudders at the thought of death ; What doubt and horror hang upon his breath ; The gibb'ring teeth, glaz'd eye, and marble limb,- Shades from the tomb stalk out, and stare on him ! Lo ! there, in yonder fancy-haunted room, What mutter'd curses trembled through the gloom > When pale, and shiv'ring, and bedew'd with fear, The dying sceptic felt his hour drew near ! 106 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part From his parch'd tongue no sainted murmurs fell, No bright hopes kindled at his faint farewell ; As the last throes of death convulsed his cheek, He gnash' d, and scowl' d, and raised a hideous shriek, Rounded his eyes into a ghastly glare, Lock'd his white lips and all was mute despair ! Go, child of darkness, see a Christian die ; No horror pales his lip, or rolls his eye ; No dreadful doubts, or dreamy terrors, start The hope Religion pillows on his heart, When with a dying hand he waves adieu To all who love so well, and weep so true : Meek, as an infant to the mother's breast Turns fondly longing for its wonted rest, He pants for where congenial spirits stray, Turns to his God, and sighs his soul away 1 III.] OF THE DEITY. 107 But what is death, or danger, storm, or sea, What are the loudest thunders launched by Thee, Eternal Spirit ! to a blazing world, A universe from its foundations hurl'd ? Then, then will come thine OMNIPRESENT hour. And ruin'd worlds dissolve beneath its power. Ages has awful Time been travelling on T And all his children to one tomb have gone ; The varied wonders of the peopled earth, In equal turn, have gloried in their birth : We live, and toil, we triumph, and decay, Thus age on age rolls unperceiv'd away ; And thus 'twill be, till heaven's last thunders roar, And Time and Nature shall exist no more. O ! say, what Fancy, though endow'd sublime, Can picture truly that tremendous time, 108 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part When the last sun shall blaze upon the sea, And Earth be dash'd into Eternity ! A cloudy mantle will enwrap that sun, Whose face so many worlds have gaz'd upon ; The placid moon, beneath whose pensive beam We all have loved to wander and to dream, Dyed into blood, shall glare from pole to pole, And light the airy tempests as they roll ; And those sweet stars, that, like familiar eyes, Are wont to smile a welcome from the skies, Thick as the hail-drops, from their depths will bound, And far terrific meteors flash around ; But while the skies are scatter'd by the war Of planet, moon, rent cloud, and down-shot star, Stupendous wreck below a burning world ! As if the flames of hell were on the winds unfurl'dl III.] OF THE DEITY. 109 Around the horizon wheels one furnace blaze, Streaking the black heavens with gigantic rays ; Now bursting into wizard phantoms bright, And now immingled in a sea of light ; Till racing hurricanes unrol on high, And whirl the fire-clouds quiv'ring through the sky Like sea-foam flung upon a mountain-side, When maniac winds upon the surges ride. And, lo ! the Sea : along her ruin'd shore The white waves gallop with delirious roar, Till Ocean, in her agonizing throe, Bounds, swells, and sinks, like leaping hills of snow ! While downward vollied crags and torrents sweep, And wildly mingle with the blaze-lit deep. And now, while shadowy worlds career around, While mountains tremble, and while earthquakes sound, 110 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part While waves and winds rush roaring to the fray, Who shall abide the horrors of the day ? How shall we turn our terror-stricken eye, To gaze upon the fire-throned DEITY ? Hark ! from the deep of heaven, a trumpet sound Thunders the dizzy universe around ; From north to south, from east to west, it rolls, A blast that summons all created souls ; And swift as ripples rise upon the deep T The dead awaken from their dismal sleep : The Sea has heard it ; coiling up with dread r Myriads of mortals flash from out her bed I The graves fly open, and with awful strife? The dust of ages startles into life 1 All who have breathM, or mov'd, or seen, or felt ; All they around whose cradles Kingdoms knelt ; III.] OF THE DEITY. Ill Tyrants and warriors, who career'd in blood ; The great and mean, the glorious and the good, Are raised from every isle, and land, and tomb, To hear the changeless and eternal doom. But while the universe is wrapt in fire, Ere yet the splendid ruin shall expire, Beneath a canopy of flame behold, With starry banners at his feet unrolPd Earth's Judge : around seraphic minstrels throng, Breathing o'er golden harps celestial song ; While melodies aerial and sublime Weave a wild death-dirge o'er departing Time Imagination ! furl thy wings of fire, And on Eternity's dread brink expire ; Vain would thy red and raging eye behold Visions of Immortality unroll' d ! 112 THE OMNIPRESENCE [Part The last, the fiery chaos hath begun, Quench'd is the moon ! and blacken' d is the sun ! The stars have bounded through the airy roar ; Crush'd lie the rocks, and mountains are no more ; The deep unbosom'd, with tremendous gloom Yawns on the ruin, like Creation's tomb ! And lo ! the living harvest of the Earth, Reap'd from the grave to share a second birth ; Millions of eyes, with one deep dreadful stare, Gaze upward through the burning realms of air ; While shapes, and shrouds, and ghastly features gleani Like lurid snow-flakes in the moonlight beam. Upon the flaming Earth one farewell glance ; The billows of Eternity advance ; No motion, blast, or breeze, or waking sound ! In fiery slumber glares the world around ! III.] OF THE DEITY. 113 "Tls o'er ; from yonder cloven vault of heaven, Throned on a car by living thunder driven, Array'd in glory, see ! th' Eternal come ; And, while the Universe is still and dumb, And hell o'ershadow'd with terrific gloom, T' immortal myriads deal the judgment doom ! Wing'd on the wind, and warbling hymns of love, Behold ! the blessed soar to realms above ; The curs'd, with hell uncover'd to their eye, Shriek shriek, and vanish in a whirlwind cry ! Creation shudders with sublime dismay, And in a blazing tempest whirls away ! NOTES. NOTES. Note 1. p. 34. ** How soon the cloistered stillness of the spot." In Mr. Charles Butler's Life of De Ranee', there is a pas- sage which may be quoted as illustrative of that feeling of awe inspired by a venerable ruin. Speaking of the Abbey w : like the worn heart When stormy cares have slept, the river seems, Peaceful and still, save when a wind-sigh stirs The waveless slumber of its breast ; like dreams, That quiver on the marble face of sleep. 184 LONDON B MIDNIGHT. Along each side the darkling mansions frown Funereal in their gloom. Afar, and faint, The bridge-lamps glimmer o'er the tranquil stream, As if enchain' d upon the air : beneath Are thrown out quiv'ring columns of red light; And, here and there, a tower and shadowy spire Are imaged on the water ; sad and shrunk, Like flower-leaves wither'd by the summer blaze. Yonder, in dim magnificence, behold The many-window'd pile ;* apart and proud, In gloomy grandeur, like a lofty mind, Unmingling with the baser crowd. One half Is clothed with moonlight's pallid veil, Beneath a darkness dwells, whence portals yawn In cavern-gloom upon the drowsy tide, Like tombs unbarr'd. * Somerset-House. LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. 185 But, hark ! from yonder dome The Day is tolPd into Eternity ! How hollow, dread, and dismal is the peal, Now rolling up its vast account to Heaven ! Awhile it undulates, then dies away In muttered echoes, like the ebbing groans Of drowning men : and see ! the toiling moon Is in a fane of clouds, and I am lone, Unseen, but by the sleepless One ! Oh, God ! I FEEL Thine eye upon me, and I shrink Awe-smote beneath its gaze, like melting snow Beneath Thy sun ! How noiseless are the streets ; a few hours gone, And all was fierce commotion ; car arid hoof, And bick'ring wheel, and crackling stone, and throats That rang with revelry, and woe were here Immingled in the stir of life ; but now, Q 2 186 LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. A deadness mantles round the midnight scene. Time, with his awful feet, has paced the world, And frown'd her myriads into sleep ! 'Tis hush'd ! Save, when a distant drowsy watch-call breaks Intrusive on the calm ; or rapid cars, That roll them into silence. Beauteous look The train of houses, yellow'd by the moon, Whose tile-roofs slanting down amid the light, Gleam like an azure track of waveless sea ! But who was she, that with a fairy step And dropping lip of smiles, came floating by Like April's merry breeze ? Alas! Alas! Let nights of laughing agony, and crimes That burn in tortures on the tainted heart, Let sated passion, and the fever'd frame Let these betray the orphan of the night ! As on her guilt-worn face, the lamp-beam fell, LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. 187 Reluctantly, methought her eye reveal'd The curse of mis'ry gladness in disguise. The squares how haughtily reposed they stand At this deep hour, with massy sides erect Of stately piles ; where windows broad and bright Like molten mirrors shine ; and freckled walls Are steep'd in light that ripples on the stone : Beneath, amid the laurel leaves that shake Upon the drooping boughs, the lamp-rays flit In twinkling playfulness, like infant eyes. Once more upon the climbing moon, ere yet, Cloud-shaded, she withdraw, a moment glance ; There as we gaze, what undefined awe, What thoughts ethereal flutter round the heart ! On her fair brow we seem to write and read The mind's quick fancies : all the Past awakes, 188 LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. Begirt with sweet creations, till the fount Of Sympathy unlocks; and then, a tear Will steal in brightly on the manliest eye ; A precious tear, pure welling from the soul. The Past ! Oh ! who on London stones can tread, Nor shadow forth the spirits that have been ? An atmosphere of genius genders here Remembrance of the past ! The storied nurse, The ancient mother of the mighty, Thou, UnrivalPd London ! Sages, poets, kings, And all the giant race of glorious fame, Whose world-illuming minds, like quenchless stars, Burn through the wreck of ages, triumph'd here, Or ravish'd hence a beam of Fame ! And now Imagination cites these mighty dead In dismal majesty from out the tomb! LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. 189 And who shall paint the midnight scenes of life In this vast city ? mart of human kind ! Some weary wrecks of woe are lapp'd in sleep, And bless'd in dreams, whose day-life was a curse ! Some, heart-rack' d roll upon a sleepless couch, And from the heated brain create a hell Of agonizing thoughts, and ghostly fears, While Pleasure's moths, around the golden glare Of princely halls, dance off the dull-wing'd hours : And oh ! perchance, in some infectious cell, Far from his home, unaided and alone, The famish' d wand'rer dies : no voice to sound Sweet comfort to his heart no hand to smooth His bed of death, no beaming eye to bless The spirit hov'ring o'er another world ! But list ! the laugh of Pleasure loads the wind ; } Tis Folly's soulless idols, saunt'ring home, 190 LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. Faced with a mask of smiles. And one there is. Upon whose haggard cheek a glance may read A tale of blighted years and buried woes : His dome is reached ; and where the window gleams Dart o'er the street a dizzy chain of light, Awhile he gazes on his mirror'd face, And sighs to see what havoc Pleasure makes ! Then drops upon his couch, while round him float In visionary throngs, the glowing forms That beautified the night : and where are they ? At home ; heart-wearied, gloomy as their dreams, And glad that Time has clutch'd another day. Turn to a nobler victim of the night ; Where yonder casement sheds a dismal gloom Upon the breezeless air, aloft and lone, The unregarded wreck of Genius toils, With burning brain, and dewy brow : The Day LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. 191 Hath gone to rest, but Slumber visits not His sunken eyes. The gnawing fires of thought Have fed upon his youthful cheek, and parch'd His tongue, and drawn the life-stream from his lip,- The lightnings of the soul have sear'd his frame! But Fame stands beckoning, and he battles on Through want and woe, until he win the goal ; A welcome one, though Death should drag him there. And shall this city-queen this peerless mass Of pillar'd domes, and grey-worn towers sublime, Be blotted from the world, and forests wave Where once the second Rome was seen ? Oh say, Will rank grass grow on England's royal streets, And wild beasts howl, where Commerce stalk' d supreme ? Alas ! let Mem'ry dart her eagle-glance Down vanish'd time, till summoned Ages rise 192 LONDON BY MIDNIGHT. With ruin'd empires on their wings ! Thought weeps With patriot truth, to own a funeral day, Heart of the universe ! shall visit thee, When round thy wreck some lonely man shall roam, And, sighing, say " 'Twas here vast London stood !" But, hark! again the heavy bell has peal'd It doleful thunder through the skies : the stars Grow pale, the moon seems weary of her course ; And Morn begins to blossom in the east : Then, let me home ! and Heaven protect my thoughts | THE END. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBP BERKELEY Return to desk from which bori This book is DUE on the last date sta APR 1 IVEu 1996 CIRCULATION DEPT. RECEI DtL , LD 21-95m-ll,'50(2877sl6)476 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES Ill