Earth yawned; he stood the centre of a cloud:

Light changed its hue, retiring from his shroud. Death stood all glassy in his fixed eye;

His hand was withered, and his veins were dry;

His foot, in bony whiteness, glittered there,
Shrunken and sinewless, and ghastly bare:
From lips that moved not and unbreathing frame,
Like caverned 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?

"Who is he that calls the dead?

"Is it thou, Oh King? Behold

"Bloodless are these limbs, and cold:

"Such are mine; and such shall be

"Thine, to-morrow, when with me:

"Ere the coming day is done,

"Such shalt thou be, such thy son.

"Fare thee well, but for a day;

"Then we mix our mouldering clay.

"Thou, thy race, lie pale and low,

"Pierced by shafts of many a bow; "And the falchion by thy side

"To thy heart, thy hand shall guide: "Crownless, breathless, headless fall, "Son and sire, the house of Saul !”

"ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE PREACHER."

I.

FAME, wisdom, love, and power were mine,
And health and youth possessed me;

My goblets blushed from every vine,

And lovely forms caressed me;

I sunned my heart in beauty's eyes,

And felt my soul grow tender;

All earth can give, or mortal prize,
Was mine of regal splendour.

II.

I strive to number o'er what days

Remembrance can discover,

Which all that life or earth displays
Would lure me to live over.

There rose no day, there rolled no hour

Of pleasure unembittered;

And not a trapping decked my power

That galled not while it glittered.

VOL. IV.

N

III.

The serpent of the field, by art

And spells, is won from harming; But that which coils around the heart, Oh! who hath power of charming?

It will not list to wisdom's lore,

Nor music's voice can lure it;

But there it stings for evermore
The soul that must endure it.