The Works of Mrs. Hemans Volume 2; With a Memoir of Her Life (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 Excerpt: ... E'en as their barks have left no traces on your tide. VII. Hush'd are the Paeans whose exulting tone Swell'd o'er that tide2--the sons of battle sleep--The wind's wild sigh, the halcyon's voice alone Blend with the plaintive murmur of the deep. Yet when those waves have caught the splendid hues Of morn's rich firmament, serenely bright, Or setting suns the lovely shore suffuse With all their purple mellowness of light, Oh who could view the scene, so calmly fair, Nor dream that peace, and j oy, andliberty, were there? VIII. Where soft the sunbeams play, the zephyrs blow, 'Tis hard to deem that misery can be nigh; Where the clear heavens in blue transparence glow, Life should be calm and cloudless as the sky;--Yet o'er the low, dark dwellings of the dead, Verdure and flowers in summer-bloom may smile, And ivy-boughs their graceful drapery spread In green luxuriance o'er the ruin'd pile; And mantling woodbine veil the wither'd tree, --And thus it is, fair land forsaken Greece, with thee. IX. For all the loveliness, and light, and bloom, That yet are thine, surviving many a storm, Are but as heaven's warm radiance on the tomb, The rose's blush that masks the canker-worm: --And thou art desolate--thy morn hath pass'd So dazzling in the splendour of its way, That the dark shades the night hath o'er thee cast Throw tenfold gloom around thy deep decay. Once proud in freedom, still in ruin fair, Thy fate hath been unmatch'd--in glory and despair. X. For thee, lost land the hero's blood hath flow'd, The high in soul have brightly lived and died; For thee the light of soaring genius glow'd O'er the fair arts it form'd and glorified. Thine were the minds, whose energies sublime So distanced ages in their lightning-race, The task they left the sons of later time Was ...