From the cavern deep and dank, Bonds that burst and chains that clank, Proclaim the griesly form canine Loosen'd from his long confine : Signs abroad portentous lour; 'Tis Desolation's fatal hour: Fiery shapes the aether wing; Surtur calls, they know their King. Dark encircling clouds absorb The lustre of light's central orb; Conscious stars no more dispense Their gently beaming influence; But, bursting from their shaken sphere, Unsubstantial disappear. No more this pensile mundane ball Rolls thro' the wide aëreal hall; Ingulphed sinks the vast machine. Who shall say, the things have been ! THE RENOVATION OF THE WORLD, AND FUTURE RETRIBUTION. By the Same. The Gods (or Daemones) meet on the top of mount Inda, and sing the following prophetic Song of Triumph. Now the Spirit's plastic might, O'er the dusk abysm of night, Bids Creation cease to sleep. Instant from the riven main Gods on Inda spread the board; "Pour the sparkling beverage high; "Odin next inspire the verse, "Where is now his vaunted might "Lo! they fleet in radiant round, "From the kindly teeming soil, Ripen'd harvests wave unsown; "Wherefore need the peasant's toil? "Nature works, and works alone. "Ask you whose the scepter'd sway ? "Hoder holds united reign; “ Latest times their strength shall prove; "Monarchs of the bleak domain. "Know'st thou now what's done above? "Is it blest delusion's hour? "Rolls mine eye in frenzied trance ? "Beams of glory round me show'r; "Troops of radiant forms advance. "Founded on that firm-set rock, "Rising view the dome of gold, "Fix'd secure from wintry shock: "There the good, and there the bold. "High in tracts of troubled air "Justice waves her awful sword: "Vice appall'd, with hideous stare, "Shrinks ere spoke the dooming word. "Conscience comes, a tort'ring fiend, "In Nastronda's northern plain, "Dog-ey'd Lust, Adult'ry foul, "At the fatal entrance scowl, "Bound in adamantine chain. |