The rugged metal of the mine Must burn before its surface shine, But plunged within the furnace-flame, It bends and melts-though still the same; Let those who shape its edge, beware! 925 930 935 The vacant bosom's wilderness Might thank the pang that made it less. 940 Even bliss-'twere wo alone to bear; 945 And shudder, as the reptiles creep Whose beak unlocks her bosom's stream To still her famish'd nestlings' scream, Nor mourns a life to them transferr'd, 950 955 And find them flown her empty nest. The keenest pangs the wretched find The waste of feelings unemploy❜d. Who would be doom'd to gaze upon 960 965 Than moulder piecemeal on the rock! 970 * * * "Father! thy days have pass'd in peace, ""Mid counted beads, and countless prayer; "To bid the sins of others cease, "Save transient ills that all must bear, 975 "Has been thy lot from youth to age; "And thou wilt bless thee from the rage "Whose secret sins and sorrows rest 980 "Within thy pure and pitying breast. "Yet still in hours of love or strife, "I've 'scaped the weariness of life: "Now leagued with friends, now girt by foes, "I loathed the languor of repose. "Now nothing left to love or hate, "Most noxious o'er a dungeon's walls, "And I shall sleep without the dream "Of what I was, and would be still, "Dark as to thee my deeds may seem: "My memory now is but the tomb "Of joys long dead; my hope, their doom: "Though better to have died with those “Than bear a life of lingering woes. 985 990 995 1000 66 'My spirit shrunk not to sustain "The searching throes of ceaseless pain; "Nor sought the self-accorded grave "Of ancient fool and modern knave: "Yet death I have not fear'd to meet; 1005 "And in the field it had been sweet, "Had danger woo'd me on to move 1010 "The slave of glory, not of love. "I've braved it-not for honour's boast; "I smile at laurels won or lost; "To such let others carve their way, "For high renown, or hireling pay: "But place again before my eyes 1015 66 Aught that I deem a worthy prize; "The maid I love, the man I hate, "And I will hunt the steps of fate, "To save or slay, as these require, 66 1020 Through rending steel, and rolling fire; "Nor need'st thou doubt this speech from one "Who would but do-what he hath done. "Death is but what the haughty brave, "The weak must bear, the wretch must crave; 1025 "Then let Life go to him who gave: "I have not quail'd to danger's brow "When high and happy-need I now? "I loved her, friar! nay, adored But these are words that all can use 1050 "I proved it more in deed than word; "A stain its steel can never lose: "Was wormwood to his Paynim spleen. Impatient at the prophet's gate. "I loved her-love will find its way 1035 1040 1045 1050 Through paths where wolves would fear to prey, "And if it dares enough, 'twere hard "If passion met not some reward— "No matter how, or where, or why, “I did not vainly seek, nor sigh: "Yet sometimes, with remorse, in vain "I wish she had not loved again. 1055 "She died-I dare not tell thee how; "But look-'tis written on my brow! "There read of Cain the curse and crime, "In characters unworn by time: |