The Minstrel; Or, the Progress of Genius - And Other Poems (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ODE TO HOPE. I. i. O Thou, who gladd'st the pensive soul More than Aurora's smile the swain forlorn, Left all night long to mourn Where desolation frowns, and tempests howl; And shrieks of woe, as intermits the storm, Far o'er the monstrous wilderness resound, And 'cross the gloom darts many a shapeless form, And many a fire-eyed isage glares around. O come, and be once more my gnest: Come, for thou oft thy suppliant's vow hast heard, And oft with smiles indulgent cheer'd And sooth'd him into rest. I. 2. Smit by thy rapture-beaming eye Deep-flashing through the midnight of their mind. The sable bands combined, Where Fear's black banner bloats the troubled sky, Appall'd retire. Suspicion hides her head, Nor dares the' obliquely gleaming eyeball raise; Despair, with gorgon-figured veil o'erspread, Speeds tp dark Phlegethon's detested maze. Lo, startled at the heavenly ray, With speed unwonted Indolence upsprings, And, heaving, lifts her leaden wings, And sullen glides away: I. 3. Ten thousand forms, by pining Fancy view'd, Dissolve.Above the sparkling flood When Phoebus rears his awful brow, From lengthening lawn and valley low The troops of fen-born mists retire. Along the plain The joyous swain Eyes the gay villages again, And gold-illumined spire; While on the billowy ether borne Floats the loose lay's jovial measure; And light along the fairy Pleasure, Her green robes glittering to the morn, Wantons on silken wing. And goblins all To the damp dungeon shrink, or hoary hall, Or westward, with impetuous flight, Shoot to the desert realms of their congenial night.II. 1. When first on childhood's eager gaze Life's varied landscape, stretch'd immense around, Starts...