Raph. Farewell, thou earth! Ye wretched sons of clay, 'Tis decreed! I cannot, must not, aid you. [Exit RAPHAEL. Japh. Some clouds sweep on as vultures for their prey, While others, fix'd as rocks, await the word At which their wrathful vials shall be pour'd. No azure more shall robe the firmament, Nor spangled stars be glorious: Death hath risen : Hath wound itself around the dying air. Aza. Come, Anah ! quit this chaos-founded prison, To which the elements again repair, To turn it into what it was: beneath The shelter of these wings thou shalt be safe, Its mother's.-Let the coming chaos chafe With all its elements! heed not their din! A brighter world than this, where thou shalt breathe These darken'd clouds are not the only skies. [AZAZIEL and SAMIASA fly off, and disappear with ANAH and AHOLIBAMAH. Japh. They are gone! They have disappear'd amidst the roar Of the forsaken world; and never more, Whether they live, or die with all earth's life, Anah unto these eyes. Chorus of MORTALS. Oh son of Noah! mercy on thy kind! What, wilt thou leave us all-all-all behind? While safe amidst the elemental strife, Thou sitt'st within thy guarded ark? A mother (offering her infant to JAPHET). Oh, let this child embark! I brought him forth in woe, But thought it joy To see him to my bosom clinging so. What hath he done My unwean'd son To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn? What is there in this milk of mine, that Death My boy, And roll the waters o'er his placid breath? Save him, thou seed of Seth! Or cursed be-with Him who made Thee and thy race, for which we are betray'd! Japh. Peace! 'tis no hour for curses, but for prayer. Chorus of MORTALS. For prayer!!! Shall prayer ascend When the swoln clouds unto the mountains bend And gushing oceans every barrier rend, Be He, who made thee and thy sire! We deem our curses vain; we must expire; But as we know the worst, Why should our hymn be raised, our knees be bent Before the implacable Omnipotent, Since we must fall the same? If He hath made earth, let it be His shame, And with their roar make wholesome Nature dumb! When Paradise upsprung, Ere Eve gave Adam knowledge for her dower, Or Adam his first hymn of slavery sung), Their summer blossoms by the surges lopp'd Vainly we look up to the low'ring skies- And shut out God from our beseeching eyes. And view, all floating o'er the element, The corpses of the world of thy young days: Thy song of praise! A Mortal. Blessed are the dead Who die in the Lord! And though the waters be o'er earth outspread, Be the decree adored! He gave me life-He taketh but The breath which His is own: And though these eyes should be for ever shut, Still blessèd be the Lord, For what is past, For that which is: For all are His, From first to last Time-space-eternity-life-death The vast known and immeasurable unknown. He made, and can unmake; No; let me die, as I have lived, in faith, Chorus of MORTALS. Where shall we fly? Not to the mountains high; For now their torrents rush, with double roar, Nor leaves an unsearch'd cave. Enter a WOMAN. Woman. Oh, save me, save! Our valley is no more: My father and my father's tent, My brethren and my brethren's herds, The pleasant trees that o'er our noonday bent And sent forth evening songs from sweetest birds, The little rivulet which freshen'd all Our pastures green, No more are to be seen. When to the mountain cliff I climb'd this morn, I turn'd to bless the spot, And not a leaf appear'd about to fall ; And now they are not! Why was I born? Japh. To die! in youth to die! And happier in that doom, Than to behold the universal tomb Which I Am thus condemn'd to weep above in vain. [The Waters rise; Men fly in every direction; EXTRACTS FROM DON JUAN. THE ISLES OF GREECE.* THE isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! The Scian and the Teian muse, The hero's harp, the lover's lute, The mountains look on Marathon- I dream'd that Greece might still be free; I could not deem myself a slave. A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; And men in nations ;-all were his! And where are they? and where art thou, The heroic bosom beats no more! The Pieces following, to the end, are, from their great beauty and unobjectionable character, extracted from Don Juan. The "Islands of the Blest," of the Greek poets were supposed to have been the Cape de Verd Islands or the Canaries. "Deep were the groans of Xerxes, when he saw This havoc; for his seat, a lofty mound And through his troops embattled on the shore 'Tis something, in the dearth of fame, Must we but weep o'er days more blest? What, silent still? and silent all? And answer, "Let one living head, In vain-in vain; strike other chords; Fill high the cup with Samian wine! Leave battles to the Turkish hordes, And shed the blood of Scio's vine! Hark! rising to the ignoble callHow answers each bold Bacchanal ! You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet, The nobler and the manlier one? Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! He served but served Polycrates A tyrant; but our masters then The tyrant of the Chersonese Was freedom's best and bravest friend; That tyrant was Miltiades! Oh! that the present hour would lend Another despot of the kind! Such chains as his were sure to bind. Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! Such as the Doric mothers bore; |