Imatges de pàgina
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If sightless eyes transcend in darkness, night;
"Twas only now I knew their ravish'd light.—
A stygian gloom eclips'd my senses now ;
I felt it lying heavy on my brow,

And dreadful demons crowded on my brain,'
As if they long'd to burst life's fragile chain!
All was a blank-all Nature seem'd rubb'd out,
And my identity robed deep in doubt;

My youthful walks, ah! they were all forgot;
My friends, my flowers, my all, I knew them not.-
All sights that lately met my busy eyes,

In lowly earth and also in the skies,
Appear'd a mere fantasia of the brain,

And yet their memory deepen'd much my pain.
Light had erased those blessings from my mind,
That charm'd, when I knew only to be blind;
When pleased to hear what others would relate,
I nothing envied their superior state;
But now-ah, now! what angel-voice will charm!
What sympathizing soul know all I know?
What high-born joys shall make this bosom warm,
Or sage prescribe a balsam for my woe!

Ah! ye are happier far, who, blind from birth, Ne'er oped your eyes to view the teeming Earth;

To mark the boundless splendour of the sky,
Or read the glance of love in woman's eye;-
To see the great phenomena of all

The light and life of this terraqueous ball;
To see the solemn spot you soon must fill,
When the pulsation of the heart is still,—
Where those, whose silvery accents met the ear
Lie mouldering in that shady vale of tear.-
To see all sights-the sunless life resume,
Alas, how shall I name the direful gloom-
Thicker, than darkest shadow round the tomb!

So now farewell to day,-to all I love ;—
To all that smiles around me and above.—
My heart melts in my bosom as I speak,
And rolls in fiery tear-drops o'er my cheek.-
The curtain, which I gazed in gladness through,
Till soul-enamour'd of the dazzling view,

Is now for ever drawn across mine eyes,

And where are ye, green earth and glorious skies! And where each cherish'd friend, each fragrant flower; Each spot that chain'd my soul with syren-power, Each upland free, each mountain towering high, That like the heavenly ladder reach'd the sky!

144 THE SECOND SENSE RESTORED AND LOST.

And where the boundless ocean dancing clear,
While one embrace enfolds our hemisphere?
Whose billows load the clouds; and also where
Are ye, each lovely traveller of the air?

And where each bush that trembles in the gale,
And morning's dew-drops spangling all the vale—
Bright nectar for the Sun to empty up

With glowing lips, from every vernal cup ;-
Where are the countless creatures of delight,

Who never fail'd to charm my marvelling sight,
But fann'd my grateful fervour to a flame
Of holy love?—All perish'd as they came!
Wrapt up in denser gloom-torn from mine eyes,
As if no more on earth, or in the skies!

So now farewell to Day-to holy Light!
And welcome Darkness in the robes of Night!

END OF PART THIRD.

NOTES TO PART I.

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