Page images
PDF
EPUB

And now they roared at drum-beat from their stations

On every citadel;

Each answering each, with morning salutations,
That all was well.

And down the coast, all taking up the burden,
Replied the distant forts,

As if to summon from his sleep the Warden
And Lord of the Cinque Ports.

Him shall no sunshine from the fields of azure,
No drum-beat from the wall,

No morning-gun from the black fort's embrasure
Awaken with their call.

No more surveying with an eye impartial
The long line of the coast,

Shall the gaunt figure of the old Field-Marshal
Be seen upon his post.

For in the night, unseen, a single warrior,
In sombre harness mailed,

Dreaded of man, and surnamed the Destroyer.
The rampart wall has scaled.

He passed into the chamber of the sleeper,
The dark and silent room;

And, as he entered, darker grew and deeper
The silence and the gloom.

He did not pause to parley or dissemble,

But smote the Warden hoar;

Ah! what a blow! that made all England tremble,

And groan from shore to shore.

Meanwhile, without the surly cannon waited,

The sun rose bright o'erhead;

Nothing in Nature's aspect intimated
That a great man was dead!

[ocr errors]

THE TWO ANGELS.

[Inspired by the birth of a child to the writer, and the death of Mrs. Maria Lowell, the wife of another American poet, on the same day, at Cambridge, U.S.]

Two Angels, one of Life, and one of Death,

Passed o'er the village as the morning broke ; The dawn was on their faces; and beneath,

The sombre houses capped with plumes of smoke.

Their attitude and aspect were the same;

Alike their features and their robes of white; And one was crowned with amaranth, as with flame, And one with asphodels, like flakes of light.

I saw them pause on their celestial way :-
Then said I, with deep fear and doubt oppressed,
"Beat not so loud, my heart, lest thou betray
The place where thy beloved are at rest!"

And he who wore the crown of asphodels,
Descending at my door, began to knock ;
And my soul sank within me, as in wells

The waters sink before an earthquake's shock.

I recognized the nameless agony

The terror, and the tremour, and the pain— That oft before had filled and haunted me,

And now returned with threefold strength again.

The door I opened to my heavenly guest,

And listened, for I thought I heard God's voice; And, knowing whatsoe'er He sent was best,

Dared neither to lament nor to rejoice.

Then with a smile that filled the house with light-
"My errand is not Death, but Life," he said;
And, ere I answered, passing out of sight,
On his celestial embassy he sped.

'Twas at thy door, O friend, and not at mine,
The angel with the amaranthine wreath,
Pausing, descended; and, with voice divine,
Whispered a word, that had a sound like Death.

Then fell upon the house a sudden gloom-
A shadow on those features fair and thin ;
And softly, from that hushed and darkened room,
Two angels issued, where but one went in.

All is of God! If He but wave His hand,
The mists collect, the rain falls thick and loud;
Till, with a smile of light on sea and land,

Lo! He looks back from the departing cloud.

Angels of Life and Death alike are His ;

Without His leave they pass no threshold o'er Who, then, would wish or dare, believing this, Against His messengers to shut the door?

THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

De vitiis [St. Augustine has said in his third sermon, De Ascensione: nostris scalam nobis facimus, si vitia ipsa calcamus." "Of our vices we make to ourselves a ladder, if we tread on the vices themselves."]

SAINT AUGUSTINE! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread

Beneath our feet each deed of shame!

All common things, each day's events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.

The low desire, the base design,
That makes another's virtues less;
The revel of the treacherous wine,
And all occasions of excess;

The longing for ignoble things;

The strife for triumph more than truth;
The hardening of the heart, that brings

Irreverence for the dreams of youth;

« PreviousContinue »