So Virtue blooms, brought forth amid the storm Obscure and unobserved, While every bleaching breeze that on her blows, And hardens her to bear SONNET. What art thou, Mighty One! and where thy seat? Dost thou repose? or in the solitude Of sultry tracts, where the lone caravan Hears nightly howl the tiger's hungry brood? Vain thought! the confines of his throne to trace Who glows through all the fields of boundless space. BRITAIN A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. Where now is Britain?- Where her laurelled names, Some second Vandal hath reduced her pride, Through her depopulated vales, the scream Of bloody superstition hollow rings, And the scared native to the tempest howls Even as the savage sits upon the stone That marks where stood her capitols, and hears - Her bards Sing in a language that hath perished; And their wild harps, suspended o'er their graves, Meanwhile the arts, in second infancy, Rise in some distant clime, and then perchance At science in that solitary nook, Far from the civil world: and sagely sighs THE CHRISTIAD. (Concluding stanzas, written shortly before his death.) Thus far have I pursued my solemn theme, Of godlike deeds, far loftier than beseem The lyric which I in early days have strung; And now my spirits faint, and I have hung The shell, that solaced me in saddest hour, On the dark cypress; and the strings which rung With Jesus' praise, their harpings now are o'er, Or, when the breeze comes by, moan, and are heard no more. And must the harp of Judah sleep again? Shall I no more reanimate the lay? Oh! Thou who visitest the sons of men,. Thou who dost listen when the humble pray, One little space prolong my mournful day; One little lapse suspend thy last decree! I am a youthful traveler in the way, And this slight boon would consecrate to thee, Ere I with Death shake hands, and smile that I am free. τα HITE, JOSEPH BLANCO, an English clergyman and poet; born at Seville, Spain, July 11, 1775; died at Liverpool, England, May 20, 1841. He edited in England, in the interests of Spanish independence, a monthly journal, El Español (1810-1814); also Las Variedades (1822-1825); and the London Review (1829). He evolved from a Catholic priest through the Church of England into a Unitarian minister. Some of his publications are: Letters from Spain, by Leucadio Doblado (1822); Practical and Internal Evidence Against Catholicism (1825); The Poor Man's Preservative against Popery (1825); Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion (2 vols. 1833). Coleridge pronounced his Night and Death the finest sonnet in the English language. SONNET ON NIGHT. Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew This glorious canopy of light and blue? Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, And lo! Creation widened in man's view! |