Page images
PDF
EPUB

Anointed of God--Lo! thy glory is gone,
With victory's star that once o'er thee hath shone.

No more shall the voices be heard o'er the plain, Saul! Saul! our defender, his thousands hath slain ; Ere the sun of the morrow shall sink in the sea, Both thou and thy children shall slumber with me.

And the fate of the host shall be fearful as thine, They shall fall by the sword of the fierce Philistine: Yea--thy loveliest and bravest to earth shall be cast, Like the roses of Sharon that fade in the blast.'

And Samuel hath gone, and the King is alone,
And he groaned as he sunk on the desolate earth;
And sorrow and sin vere burning within,

For he thought on the valley and shadow of death.

DARKNESS.

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars

1

W. D.

Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless; and the icy earth

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came, and went and came and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread

Of this their desolation: and all hearts

Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light:

And they did live by watchfires-and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings-the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,

Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed,
And men were gathered round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;

eye

Happy were those who dwelt within the
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contained;
Forests were set on fire-but hour by hour
They fell and faded-and the crackling trunks
Extinguished with a crash-and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled;

And others hurried to and fro, and fed

[blocks in formation]

Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again

With curses cast them down upon the dust,

And gnashed their teeth and howled; the wild birds shrieked,
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,

And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawled
And twined themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless-they were slain for food;
And war, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again; a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom : no love was left;
All earth was but one thought—and that was death,
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang

Of famine fed upon all entrails-men

Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devoured;
Even dogs assailed their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept

The birds and beasts and famished men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the drooping dead
Lured their lank jaws! himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan

And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand

Which answered not with a caress-he died.

The crowd was famished by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,

And they were enemies; they met beside

The dying embers of an altar-place,

Where had been heaped a mass of holy things

For an unholy usage; they raked up,

And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands

The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath

Blew for a little life, and make a flame

Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their

eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld

Each other's aspects-saw, and shrieked, and died

Even of their mutual hideousness they died,

Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless-
A lump of death-a chaos of hard clay,
The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still,

And nothing stirred within their silent depths:
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,

And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped

They slept on the abyss without a surge

[ocr errors]

The waves were dead; the tides were in their

The moon their mistress had expired before;

grave,

The winds were withered in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perished; darkness had no need
Of aid from them-She was the universe.

Byron.

Prostrate in the dust

WAR.

Those walls were laid, and towns and temples stood
Tottering in frightful ruins, as the flame

Had left them, black and bare; and through the streets,

All with the recent wreck of war bestrewn,

Helmet and turban, scymitar and sword,

Christian and Moor in death promiscuous lay,

Each where they fell; and blood flakes, parched and

cracked,

Like the dry slime of some receding flood;

And half-burnt bodies, which allured from far

The wolf and raven, and to impious food

Tempted the houseless dog.

A thrilling pang,

A sweat like death, a sickness of the soul
Came over Roderick. Soon they past away,..

And admiration in their stead arose,

« EelmineJätka »