Red was the battle, but in vain
Hiss'd the hot embers with the rain.
It wasted to a single spark,
That faded, and all round was dark;
Then like a madman who has burst
The chain which made him doubly curst,'
I fled away. I may not tell
The agony that on me fell :
I fled away, for fiends were near,
My brain was fire, my heart was fear!
I was borne on an eagle's wings,
Till with the noon sun perishing;
Then I stood in a world alone,
From which all other life was gone,-
Whence warmth, and breath, and life were fled-
'A world o'er which a curse was said.
The trees stood leafless all, and bare,
The sky spread, but no sun was there:
Night came, no stars were on her way,
Morn came, without a look of day,
As night and day shared one pale shroud,
Without a colour or a cloud.
And there were rivers, but they stood
Without a murmur on the flood,
Waveless and dark-their task was o'er
The sea lay silent on the shore,
Without a sigh upon its breast,
Save of interminable rest.
And there were palaces and halls,
But silence reign'd amid their walls,
Though crowds yet fill'd them, for no sound
Rose from the thousands gather'd round;
All wore the same white bloodless hue,
All the same eyes of glassy blue,
Meaningless, cold, corpse-like as those
No gentle hand was near to close.
And all seem'd as they look'd on me
In wonder, that I yet could be
A moving shape of warmth and breath,
Alone amid a world of death.
'Tis strange how much I still retain
Of these wild tortures of my brain,
Though now they but to memory seem
A curse, a madness, and a dream.
LOVE'S GIFT.-THE RUBY AND THE PEARL.
RUBY, a gem of the Sylphic race,
Glowing with ardour, and beaming with grace;
From whose eyes shot a radiance, chaste, brilliant, and warm, The mellow of splendour, the softness of charm;
Enamour'd became of a graceful girl
Of earthly mould, and he named her Pearl.
And O, that maiden was lily fair,
Perfect her form as true circles are:
And, O, how modest that maid serene,
And, O, how polish'd that maiden's mien ;
Pure as polish'd that graceful girl;
And Ruby he glow'd for the lovely Pearl.
Still as he hover'd the maiden nigh,
And caught the mild ray of her chasten'd eye;
His ardour, while gazing on one so meek,
Reflected a blush on her maiden cheek;
Ah! 'twas not the blush of a graceless girl
That tinted the cheek of the lovely Pearl.
He seem'd a sun, as the sun seems oft,
Ruby red, with mild beams of gold; And she like the moon beam'd rays as soft As brighten the revels that fairies hold; And Ruby he sigh'd for that graceful girl, While artlessly listen'd the lovely Pearl.
sung, "O I am a spirit of air,
A mortal thou, as refin'd as fair;
And sylphs may celestial converse hold
With the pure and the lovely of mortal mould :
And worthy art thou, O graceful girl,
The love of the Ruby, O beauteous Pearl!
"I'll build for thy beauty a jessamine bower,
Type of thyself that virgin flow'r;
And the leaves of that flower shall be emblems seen
Of constancy, grac'd by the emerald's green;
O bless that bower, thou graceful girl,
Where Ruby shall listen to lovely Pearl.
"I'll weave thee a wreath of the golden ray,
And thy tresses shall diamond stars display;
The nymphs of the ocean thy birth shall tell,
And, O, thou shalt ride in their cars of shell ;
In the grots of coral, O graceful girl,
Shall Ruby beam light for the lovely Pearl."
The virgin she listen'd to Love's soft lay,
To love as pure as the moon-beam's ray;
But, O, she had sisters; alike the whole
In face and in form, and in softness and soul;
And, meeting alone each graceful girl,
Ruby fancied that each was his lovely Pearl.
And every virgin the sylph had seen,
And every virgin the sylph had won;
Every sister his song had been,
And ear to his praises refus'd him none : But, meeting together each graceful girl, Ruby glow'd for all round as his lovely Pearl.
The power of witchery saw the scene,
The spirit of spite was fill'd with spleen ;
By magic art in a golden spell
She bound 'em for ever and aye to dwell.
With the Ruby she fixed every graceful girl,
And surrounded he stood by each lovely Pearl.
And Love he wept; and the sylphs complain'd;
But the witching spirit her spell maintained;
Love call'd it a ring, and resolv'd it should prove
A type of the pure and the ardent love;
And love's gift, in a ring, to a graceful girl,
Is Ruby, encircled by lovely Pearl.
No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was still as she might be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion-
Her keel was steady in the ocean.
Without either sign, or sound of their shock,
The waves flow'd over the Inchcape Rock:
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.
The Abbot of Aberbrothok
Had floated that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
On the waves of the storm it floated and swung,
And louder and louder it warning rung.
When the rock was hid by the tempest's swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell;
And then they knew the perilous rock,
And bless'd the priest of Aberbrothok.
The sun, in heav'n shone so gay-
All things were joyful on that day;
The sea-birds scream'd as they sported round,
And there was pleasure in the sound.
The float of the Inchcape Bell was seen,
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph, the rover, walk'd his deck,
And he fix'd his eye on the darker speck.
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