THE COMPLAINT. NIGHT I. ON LIFE, DEATH AND IMMORTALITY. TO THE RIGHT HON. ARTHUR ONSLOW, ESQ. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. TIRED Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep! From short (as usual) and disturb'd repose Tumultuous; where my wreck'd, desponding thought, 11 At random drove, her helm of reason lost. Though now restored, 'tis only change of pain, (A bitter change !) severer for severe. The Day too short for my distress; and Night, 15 Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, Is sunshine to the colour of my fate. In rayless majesty, now stretches forth 20 . 25 And let her prophecy be soon fulfill'd: Fate! drop the curtain; I can lose no more. Silence and Darkness! solemn sisters! twins The grave your kingdom: there this frame shall fail A victim sacred to your dreary shrine. But what are ye? Thou who didst put to flight Primeval Silence, when the morning stars, Exulting, shouted o'er the rising ball; O Thou! whose word from solid darkness struck 30 35 45 That spark, the Sun, strike wisdom from my soul; 40 30 50 The bell strikes one. We take no note of time 55 But from it s loss: to give it then a tongue Is wise in quan As if an angel spoke I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, It is the knell of my departed hours. Where are 1 hey? With the years beyond the flood. 60 It is the signal that demands despatch: How much is to be done! My hopes and fears Start up alar n'd, and o'er life's narrow verge Look down-on what? A fathomless abyss. 65 Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour? How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man! 70 How passing wonder He who made hiin such! 95 'Tis past conjecture; all things rise in proof: While o'er my limbs Sleep's soft dominion spreads, What though my soul fantastic measures trod O'er fairy fields, or mourn'd along the gloom Of pathless woods, or down the craggy steep Hurl'd headlong, swam with pain the mantled pool, Or scaled the cliff, or danced on hollow winds With antic shapes, wild natives of the brain! Her ceaseless flight, though devious, speaks her nature Of subtler essence than the trodden clcd; Active, aerial, towering, unconfined, 100 |