Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Poetry.
Poetry .
But why , with silence deep opprest , * Doth Nature sink to sudden rest ? Why droops at once the balmy gale That murmur'd through the roseate vale ? No zephyr ' s evening sigh is heard , No leaf amid the forest stirr'd . Dark grows the horror ofthe storm
, Clouds heap'd on clouds the sky deform , And , densely through the welkin driven , Exclude the mellow light of Heaven . E ' en now , within its gulf profound , Convulsive tumult shakes the ground ; Earth ' s deep foundations groan , and rock Beneath destruction ' s awful shock .
How terrible the scene ' . I hear The piercing shrieks of pain and fear , The mother ' s wail , the virgin ' s cry , And man ' s heart-rending agony : I see the corse with blood defil'd ; I gaze on wrecks around me pil'd ; And at my feet , reveal'd to light , Infernal caverns greet my sight .
Supreme in conquest , there , behold His ghastly terrors Death unfold , And Libitina ' s form display'd In triumph , ' mid the murky shade .
Pregnant with ills that ever last , With hopeless griefs the night is past . Perchance again , in brighter hours , May rise Aleppo ' s walls and towers ; Again the curious eye may trace In new abodes her ancient grace ; But who can to the widow'd spouse Restore the partner of her vows ? Or who with comfort re-invest The childless mourner ' s broken rest ?
'Tis morn : —' mid desolation ' s plain , What meets the traveller ' s gaze again ? Unsightly courts , unpeopled halls , Promiscuous heaps of shatter'd walls , Dismantled towers , deserted fanes , Where melancholy silence reigns , Whose crumbling mass , in solemn mood , The beasts of rapine haunt for food . There in defiling dust is laid Some putrid corse;—ere thus decay'd ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Poetry.
Poetry .
But why , with silence deep opprest , * Doth Nature sink to sudden rest ? Why droops at once the balmy gale That murmur'd through the roseate vale ? No zephyr ' s evening sigh is heard , No leaf amid the forest stirr'd . Dark grows the horror ofthe storm
, Clouds heap'd on clouds the sky deform , And , densely through the welkin driven , Exclude the mellow light of Heaven . E ' en now , within its gulf profound , Convulsive tumult shakes the ground ; Earth ' s deep foundations groan , and rock Beneath destruction ' s awful shock .
How terrible the scene ' . I hear The piercing shrieks of pain and fear , The mother ' s wail , the virgin ' s cry , And man ' s heart-rending agony : I see the corse with blood defil'd ; I gaze on wrecks around me pil'd ; And at my feet , reveal'd to light , Infernal caverns greet my sight .
Supreme in conquest , there , behold His ghastly terrors Death unfold , And Libitina ' s form display'd In triumph , ' mid the murky shade .
Pregnant with ills that ever last , With hopeless griefs the night is past . Perchance again , in brighter hours , May rise Aleppo ' s walls and towers ; Again the curious eye may trace In new abodes her ancient grace ; But who can to the widow'd spouse Restore the partner of her vows ? Or who with comfort re-invest The childless mourner ' s broken rest ?
'Tis morn : —' mid desolation ' s plain , What meets the traveller ' s gaze again ? Unsightly courts , unpeopled halls , Promiscuous heaps of shatter'd walls , Dismantled towers , deserted fanes , Where melancholy silence reigns , Whose crumbling mass , in solemn mood , The beasts of rapine haunt for food . There in defiling dust is laid Some putrid corse;—ere thus decay'd ,