Saw, at a long-drawn gallery's dusky bound,
A Shape of more than mortal size

And hideous aspect, stalking round and round!
A woman's garb the Phantom wore,
And fiercely swept the marble floor,-
Like Auster whirling to and fro,

His force on Caspian foam to try;
Or Boreas when he scours the snow
That skins the plains of Thessaly,
Or when aloft on Mænalus he stops
His flight, 'mid eddying pine-tree tops!

IV.

So, but from toil less sign of profit reaping,
The sullen Spectre to her purpose bowed,
Sweeping vehemently sweeping-
No pause admitted, no design avowed!
"Avaunt, inexplicable Guest!-avaunt,"
Exclaimed the Chieftain-"let ine rather see
The coronal that coiling vipers make;

The torch that flames with many a lurid flake,
And the long train of doleful pageantry

t;

Which they behold, whom vengeful Furies haunt
Who, while they struggle from the scourge to flee,
Move where the blasted soil is not unworn,

And, in their anguish, bear what other minds have borne!"

V.

But Shapes that come not at an earthly call,
Will not depart when mortal voices bid;
Lords of the visionary eye whose lid,

Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall!
Ye Gods, thought He, that servile Implement
Obeys a mystical intent!

Your Minister would brush away

The spots that to my soul adhere;

But should she labour night and day,

They will not, cannot disappear;

Whence angry perturbations,—and that look

Which no Philosophy can brook!

VI.

Ill-fated Chief! there are whose hopes are built
Upon the ruins of thy glorious name ;
Who, through the portal of one moment's guilt,
Pursue thee with their deadly aim!

O matchless perfidy! portentous lust

Of monstrous crime !—that horror-striking blade, Drawn in defiance of the Gods, hath laid

The noble Syracusan low in dust!

Shudder'd the walls-the marble city wept

And sylvan places heaved a pensive sigh ;

But in calm peace the appointed Victim slept,
As he had fallen in magnanimity;

Of spirit too capacious to require

That Destiny her course should change; too just
To his own native greatness to desire

That wretched boon, days lengthened by mistrust.
So were the hopeless troubles, that involved
The soul of Dion, instantly dissolved.
Released from life and cares of princely state,
He left this moral grafted on his Fate;
'Him only pleasure leads, and peace attends,
Him, only him, the shield of Jove defends,
Whose means are fair and spotless as his ends.'

1816.

XXIV.

A FACT, AND AN IMAGINATION;

OR,

CANUTE AND ALFRED, ON THE SEA-SHORE.

THE Danish Conqueror, on his royal chair,
Mustering a face of haughty sovereignty,
To aid a covert purpose, cried-“ O ye
Approaching Waters of the deep, that share
With this green isle my fortunes, come not where
Your Master's throne is set!"-Deaf was the Sea;
Her waves rolled on, respecting his decree
Less than they had a breath of wanton air.
-Then Canute rising from the invaded throne,
Said to his servile Courtiers, "Poor the reach,
The undisguised extent, of mortal sway!
He only is a king, and he alone

Deserves the name (this truth the billows preach)

Whose everlasting laws, sea, earth, and heaven obey.”

This just reproof the prosperous Dane

Drew, from the influx of the main,

For some whose rugged northern mouths would strain

At oriental flattery ;

And Canute (truth more worthy to be known)

From that time forth did for his brows disown

The ostentatious symbol of a crown;
Esteeming earthly royalty
Contemptible and vain.

Now hear what one of elder days, Rich theme of England's fondest praise, Her darling Alfred, might have spoken ; To cheer the remnant of his host

When he was driven from coast to coast,

Distressed and harassed, but with mind unbroken :

My faithful followers, lo! the tide is spent ; That rose, and steadily advanced to fill The shores and channels, working Nature's will Among the mazy streams that backward went, And in the sluggish pools where ships are pent: And now, his task performed, the flood stands still, At the green base of many an inland hill, In placid beauty and sublime content! Such the repose that sage and hero find; Such measured rest the sedulous and good Of humbler name; whose souls do, like the flood Of Ocean, press right on; or gently wind, Neither to be diverted nor withstood,

Until they reach the bounds by Heaven assigned."