Poems of Places Volume 21 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ... should I add to this dark catalogue? Who would believe it? The sonorous trumpet Speaks to my ears in an appalling voice; And fills the heart of Saul with deep dismay. Thou seest clearly that Saul's tottering house Is desolate, bereft of all its splendor; Thou seest that God hath cast me off forever. That selfsame voice, Imperative and visionary voice, Which as a youth my nightly slumbers broke, When I in privacy securely lived Far from the throne, and all aspiring thoughts For sundry nights hath that same voice been heald In menacing, denunciatory tones; Like the deep murmur of the stormy waves, Thundering repulsively, to me it cried, --"Depart, depart, O Saul." The sacred aspect, The venerable aspect of the prophet, Which I had seen in dreams before he had Made manifest that God had chosen me For Israel's king, that Samuel, in a dream, Now with far different aspect I behold, I, from a hollow, deep, and horrible vale, Behold him sitting on a radiant mount: David is humbly prostrate at his feet: The.holy prophet on his forehead pours The consecrated oil: with the other hand Stretched to my head, a hundred cubits length, He snatches from my brow the royal crown, And would replace it on the brow of David: But wouldst thou think it? David prostrate falls, With piteous gesture, at the prophet's feet, Refusing to receive it; and he weeps, And cries, and intercedes so fervently, That he refits it on my head at last. Vittorio Alfieri. Tr. C. Lloyd. Oilead, the Mount. MOUNT GILEAB. ON Gilead's hills a voice of wail is heard, Tis not the sighing wind or plaining bird; Where yon cool fountain flows, beneath the shade Of arching willows sits the Hebrew maid: Young girls around her raise those cries of woe, But from sweet Miriam's lips no...