And the falchion by thy side 30 SONG OF SAUL BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE I WARRIORS and chiefs! should the shaft or the sword Heed not the corse, though a king's, in your path : II Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, III Farewell to others, but never we part, Heir to my royalty, son of my heart! Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway, Or kingly the death, which awaits us to-day! "ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE PREACHER " I FAME, wisdom, love, and power were mine, My goblets blush'd from every vine, ΤΟ 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 And spells, is won from harming; ΤΟ 20 WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS SUFFERING CLAY I WHEN coldness wraps this suffering clay, 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, ΙΟ Each fainter trace that memory holds In one broad glance the soul beholds, III Before Creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the future mars or makes, While sun is quench'd or system breaks, 20 IV Above or Love, Hope, Hate, or Fear, O'er all, through all, its thought shall fly, 30 A nameless and eternal thing, Forgetting what it was to die. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR I THE King was on his throne, In Judah deem'd divine- The godless Heathen's wine! SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS! SUN of the sleepless! melancholy star! Which shines, but warms not with its powerless rays; WERE MY BOSOM AS FALSE AS THOU DEEM'ST IT TO BE I WERE my bosom as false as thou deem'st it to be, It was but abjuring my creed to efface The curse which, thou say'st, is the crime of my race. II If the bad never triumph, then God is with thee! III I have lost for that faith more than thou canst bestow, As the God who permits thee to prosper doth know; In his hand is my heart and my hope-and in thine The land and the life which for him I resign. |