Anointed of God--Lo! thy glory is gone, 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, For he thought on the valley and shadow of death. DARKNESS. I had a dream, which was not all a dream. 1 W. D. Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; Of this their desolation: and all hearts Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light: And they did live by watchfires-and the thrones, Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed, eye Happy were those who dwelt within the And others hurried to and fro, and fed Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up With curses cast them down upon the dust, And gnashed their teeth and howled; the wild birds shrieked, And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes Of famine fed upon all entrails-men Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; The birds and beasts and famished men at bay, And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand Which answered not with a caress-he died. The crowd was famished by degrees; but two 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 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 And nothing stirred within their silent depths: And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped They slept on the abyss without a surge 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, Byron. Prostrate in the dust WAR. Those walls were laid, and towns and temples stood 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 And admiration in their stead arose, |