From lips that moved not and unbreathing frame, Like cavern'd winds, the hollow accents came. Saul saw, and fell to earth, as falls the oak, At once, and blasted by the thunder-stroke. II. "Why is my sleep disquieted? SONG OF SAUL BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE. I. WARRIORS and chiefs! should the shaft or the sword Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord, Heed not the corse, though a king's, in your path: Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath! II. Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the foe, Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet ! Mine be the doom which they dared not to meet. III. Farewell to others, but never we part, "ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE I. FAME, wisdom, love, and power were mine, II. I strive to number o'er what days There rose no day, there roll'd no hour And not a trapping deck'd my power III. The serpent of the field, by art WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS SUFFERING CLAY. I. WHEN coldness wraps this suffering clay, Ah! whither strays the immortal mind? It cannot die, it cannot stay, But leaves its darken'd dust behind. By steps each planet's heavenly way? II. Eternal, boundless, undecay'd, In one broad glance the soul beholds, III. Before Creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the furthest heaven had birth, The spirit trace its rising track. And where the future mars or makes, Its glance dilate o'er all to be, While sun is quench'd or system breaks, Fix'd in its own eternity. IV. Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear, O'er all, through all, its thought shall fly, A nameless and eternal thing, Forgetting what it was to die. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. I. THE King was on his throne, The godless Heathen's wine! II. In that same hour and hall, And wrote as if on sand: Along the letters ran, And traced them like a wand. III. The monarch saw, and shook, IV. Chaldea's seers are good, But here they have no skill; Are wise and deep in lore; But now they were not sage, They saw-but knew no more. V. A captive in the land, A stranger and a youth, He heard the king's command, He saw that writing's truth. |