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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343058" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Julia, or the Convent of St. Claire</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Stranger, that massy, mouldering pile,<br>Whose ivied ruins load the ground,<br>Reechoed once to pious strains<br>By holy sisters breathed around.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There many a noble virgin came<br>To bid the world she loved....adieu;<br>There, victim of parental pride,<br>To years of hopeless grief withdrew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yes, proud St. Claire! thy costly walls<br>Have witnessed oft the mourner's pain;<br>And hearts in joyless durance bound,<br>Which sighed for kindred hearts in vain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But never more within thy cells<br>Shall beauty breathe the fruitless sigh,<br>Nor hid beneath the envious veil<br>Shall sorrow dim the sparkling eye.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For now, a sight by reason blest,<br>Thy gloomy dome in ruins falls,<br>While bats and screechowls harbour there,<br>Sole tenants of thy crumbling walls.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And soon, blest change! as those dread plains,<br>Where Etna's burning torrents poured,<br>Become, when Time its power has shed,<br>With softly-smiling verdure stored:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So, when thy darkly-frowning towers<br>The verdant plain no longer load,<br>These scenes, where sorrow reigned, may prove<br>Fond, faithful lovers' blest abode.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And they shall pledge the nuptial vow,<br>Where once far different vows were heard;<br>And where thy pining virgins mourned,<br>Shall babes, sweet smiling babes, be reared.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hail, glorious change, to Nature dear!<br>Methinks I see the bridal throng;<br>And hark, where lonely sisters prayed,<br>How sweetly swells the social song!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But nought, O! nought can her restore<br>To social life, to happy love,<br>Who once amidst thy cloistered train<br>With passion's hopeless sorrow strove.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Lamented maid! my faithful Muse<br>To pity's ear shall tell thy tale;<br>Shall tell, at midnight's awful hour<br>Why groaning ghosts affright the vale.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On Julia's softly dimpled cheek<br>Just bloom'd to view youth's opening rose,<br>When, proudly stern, her father bade<br>St. Claire's dark walls her bloom enclose.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But no reluctance to obey<br>With tears bedewed her beauteous cheek,<br>Since love with soft persuasive power<br>Not yet had taught her heart to speak.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Yes,....be a nun's vocation mine,<br>So I my brother's bliss improve;<br>His be their wealth," sweet Julia cried,<br>So I may boast my parent's love!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Proud Clermont blessed his generous child;<br>Her gentler mother dropped a tear,<br>As if her boding heart foretold<br>That love and Julia's woes were near.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For lo! where glows the nuptial feast,<br>And Clermont's heir leads in his bride,<br>While Julia, called that feast to grace,<br>Sits by a blooming baron's side.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dear, fatal hour! the feast is o'er,<br>But still in faithful memory charms,<br>And Julia's conscious heart has learnt<br>To throb with passion's new alarms.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Now then I feel the power of love,"<br>She on her sleepless pillow cried,<br>"Then must I still my sire obey,<br>And this warm heart in cloisters hide?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"But hold, fond girl! thy throbbing breast<br>May be with hopeless fondness fraught;<br>Yet sure Montrose's speaking eyes<br>Declared he felt the love he taught."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And well her hopes his glance had read,....<br>Montrose a mutual passion felt,<br>Nor long his tender pangs concealed,<br>But at her feet impassioned knelt.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Her downcast eye, her blush, her smile<br>To crown her lover's suit conspired,<br>Who, bold in hope, to Clermont told<br>The artless wish by fondness fired.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But told in vain--"Away!" he cried;<br>"O'er me your pleadings boast no power:<br>Think not my son his rights shall yield,<br>To swell my pining daughter's dower."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"No:--let his rights still sacred be,"<br>Montrose with throbbing heart replied,<br>"Give me but Julia's willing hand,<br>I ask, I wish for nought beside."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"And darest thou think that Clermont's child<br>Shall e'er pronounce the nuptial vow<br>Unless," he said, "I could a dower<br>Equal to Clermont's rank bestow!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Away, young lord! entreat no more!<br>Nor thus with vain complainings mourn;<br>For, ere tomorrow's sun has set,<br>My child shall to her cell return."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He spoke, and frown'd.--Alas, Montrose!<br>In vain thy manly bosom mourned<br>For, ere tomorrow's sun had set,<br>Thy Julia to her cell returned.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But changed indeed! Youth's opening rose<br>Now on her cheek no longer glowed;<br>And now, with earthly cares opprest,<br>Before the holy shrine she bowed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now to religion's rites no more<br>Her heart with ready zeal impelled;<br>No more with genuine fervour warm,<br>Her voice the holy anthem swelled.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Whence thy pale cheek? and whence, my child,<br>Proceeds this change?" the abbess said,<br>"Why heaves thy breast with deep-drawn sighs,<br>And wherefore droops thy youthful head?"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Yes,....you shall know," the sufferer cried,<br>"And let my fate your pity move!<br>See Passion's victim! Morn and eve<br>This struggling soul is lost in love.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"And I yon sacred shrine profane;<br>The cross with languid zeal I press;<br>Montrose's image claims the vows<br>Which my false lips to Heaven address.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Yes:--while I drop the sacred bead,<br>His form obtrudes upon my view,<br>And love's warm tears my rosary wet,<br>Love claims the sigh devotion's due.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Inhuman Father! wilt thou risk<br>My peace on earth, and hopes of heaven?<br>Tremble, tyrannic parent, think<br>What love may do to madness driven!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With pitying heart the abbess heard;<br>For she an answering pang had known,<br>And well her gentle soul could mourn<br>A fate, a grief, so like her own.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"But why despair, my child?" she said,<br>"Before thy father lowly kneel,<br>And teach that heart, though fenced by pride,<br>Compassion's generous throb to feel."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Julia the kind advice obeyed;<br>And when the haughty Clermont came,<br>Before his feet she lowly knelt,<br>And hailed him by a parent's name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Think'st thou to wrong thy brother's rights<br>I e'er can be by thee beguiled?"<br>"Father!" her trembling lips replied,<br>"Say, is not Julia too your child?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"For him you bid the nuptial feast,<br>And all life's dearest blessings glow,<br>While I, alike your child, you doom<br>To hopeless love, and lonely woe."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But vain remonstrance, tears, and prayers;<br>The Count's proud heart could all deride,<br>For Nature's voice can never melt<br>The callous bosom fenced by pride.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Urge me no more," he fiercely said,<br>"But know, not long these prayers can last;<br>Reflect, fond girl! at morning's dawn<br>The year of thy probation's past!"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Pale, pale grew then her youthful cheek,<br>Heart-piercing seemed her mournful cry:<br>"Clermont! relent," her mother cried,<br>"Nor coldly doom thy child to die."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But vain was Julia's piercing shriek;<br>Nor justice he nor mercy knew:<br>"Receive," he said, "my last embrace,"....<br>Then from the mournful scene withdrew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Loud called the evening bell to prayers,<br>But still on Julia vainly called,<br>Who, leaning on her mother's breast,<br>With desperate words that breast appalled.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Suppress, suppress thy grief, my child,<br>Or fear to call dread vengeance down:<br>Wouldst thou not tremble, impious girl!<br>Before thy God's avenging frown?"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Paint not that gracious God in frowns,<br>Did not for us a Saviour bleed?<br>In mercy clothe his awful power,<br>For I shall soon that mercy need."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Dark, cheerless, awful is the night<br>When tempests load the troubled air;<br>But darker, gloomier is the mind<br>Where reigns the ghastly fiend Despair.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fond mother! in thy Julia's eyes<br>Canst thou not see his reign is near?<br>Inhuman father! hark! loud groans<br>Shall swell the blast;....Beware! beware!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Mother, the hour commands thee hence,"<br>Sad Julia cried, "we now must part;<br>And never may thy bosom know<br>A grief like that which rends my heart!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"In all thy prayers tonight for me,<br>The awful throne of Heaven address,<br>While I with grateful bosom kneel,<br>And bid its power thy goodness bless."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Speechless the mourning mother heard;<br>Her tongue denied the word 'farewell!'<br>At length her quivering lips she pressed,<br>And Julia hurried to her cell.....</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now chill and loud the North wind blew,<br>Through the long aisles hoarse murmurs ran;<br>The shuddering sisters' cheeks were pale,<br>When they their midnight tasks began.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Mock'd by deep groans each anthem seemed,<br>The vaulted roofs still gloomier grew:<br>The blast of night was swelled by shrieks,<br>The bird of night ill-omened flew.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The trembling tapers grew more pale,<br>While, where their languid radiance fell,<br>A phantom dimly seemed to glide,<br>And loud was heard the passing bell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Did you not see a phantom flit?<br>Did you not hear the passing bell?"<br>Each sister cried; while, pale with dread,<br>With hurried steps she sought her cell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At length arose the fatal morn<br>Decreed to seal sad Julia's doom,<br>And make the worm of hopeless love<br>Feed on her beauty's opening bloom.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Julia, thy bridal vest prepare;<br>Thy heavenly spouse expects thee; rise!"<br>The abbess cried.--"Oh, stay awhile,"<br>Julia with broken tones replies.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"The tapers burn, the altar glows,<br>Robed are the priests in costly pride,<br>The organ sounds! Prepare!"--Again<br>"One moment stay!" the victim cried.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When through the long and echoing aisles<br>An unknown voice the abbess hears--<br>It seems with wild, impatience fraught--<br>And lo! Montrose himself appears!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"I come," he cries, "to claim my bride;<br>A father's frown no more impedes:<br>His son's no more!--and Julia now<br>To Clermont's wealth and power succeeds."</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Distrest, yet pleased, the abbess heard,<br>While on to Julia's cell she led,<br>And, as she went, to pitying Heaven<br>Her arms in pious homage spread.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Julia, come forth! come forth, my child!<br>Unlock thy cell, Montrose's bride!<br>Now thou art his, a father's frown<br>No longer will your fates divide.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Behold him here to snatch thee hence,<br>And give thee to thy father's sight."<br>"How! silent still?" Montrose exclaimed;<br>"Why thus thy lover's soul affright?"</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The door with trembling speed he forced....<br>Ah me! what object meets their eyes!<br>Stretcht on her bed in death's last pangs,<br>And bathed in blood, his Julia lies.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Presumptuous girl! when Heaven afflicts<br>Should we its dread decrees arraign?<br>Lo! Heaven thy woe with mercy saw,<br>But thou hast made its mercy vain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Behold the work of rash despair!"<br>In fluttering, feeble words she said:<br>"Had I been patient still, Montrose,<br>This day had blessings on me shed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Didst thou not say my father's heart<br>Had deigned at length thy vows to hear?<br>Too late remorse! but oh, to him<br>My pardon, and my blessing bear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"But must I die? and canst not thou<br>Thy Julia from death's terrors save?<br>We should have been so blest, Montrose!<br>And must I leave thee for the grave?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">"Help me! they tear me from thy arms,<br>Save me, O save thy destin'd bride!<br>It will not be;....forgive me, Heaven!"<br>She feebly said, then groaned and died.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Oh! who can paint the lover's woe,<br>Or childless father's deep remorse,<br>While, bending o'er the blood-stained bed,<br>He clasped his daughter's pallid corse!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But from this scene of dreadful woe,<br>Learn why the village swain turns pale,<br>When he at midnight wanders near<br>The mouldering Convent in the vale.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">There, faintly heard through whispering trees,<br>A mournful voice on Julia calls;<br>There, dimly seen, a blood-stained vest<br>Streams ghastly o'er the ivied walls.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Amelia+Opie">Amelia Opie</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=343058" data-title="Julia, or the Convent of St. Claire de Amelia Opie" data-description="Stranger, that massy, mouldering pile, Whose ivied ruins load the ground, Reechoed once to pious strains By holy sisters breathed around. There many a noble virgin came To bid the world she loved....adieu; There, victim of parental pride, To year..."></div> </div> </div>
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