Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=499106" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Wanderer: A Vision: Canto II</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">While thus a mind humane, and wise, he shows,<br>All-eloquent of truth his language flows.<br>Youth, tho' depress'd, thro' all his form appears;<br>Thro' all his sentiments the depth of years.<br>Thus he-Yet farther Industry behold,<br>Which conscious waits new wonders to unfold.<br>Enter my chapel next-Lo! here begin<br>The hallow'd rites, that check the growth of sin.<br>When first we met, how soon you seem'd to know<br>My bosom, lab'ring with the throbs of woe!<br>Such racking throbs!-Soft! when I rouse those cares,<br>On my chill'd mind pale Recollection glares!<br>When moping Frenzy strove my thoughts to sway,<br>Here prudent labours chas'd her pow'r away.<br>Full, and rough-rising from yon sculptur'd wall,<br>Bold prophets, nations to repentance call!<br>Meek martyrs smile in flames! gor'd champions groan!<br>And muse-like cherubs tune their harps in stone!<br>Next shadow'd light a rounding force bestows,<br>Swells into life, and speaking action grows!<br>Here pleasing, melancholy subjects find,<br>To calm, amuse, exalt the pensive mind!<br>This figure tender grief, like mine, implies,<br>And semblant thoughts, that earthly pomp despise.<br>Such penitential Magdalene reveals;<br>Loose-veil'd, in negligence of charms she kneels.<br>Tho' dress, near-stor'd, its vanity supplies,<br>The vanity of dress unheeded lies.<br>The sinful world in sorrowing eye she keeps,<br>As o'er Jerusalem Messiah weeps.<br>One hand her bosom smites; in one appears<br>The lifted lawn, that drinks her falling tears.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Since evil outweighs good, and sways mankind,<br>True fortitude assumes the patient mind:<br>Such prov'd Messiah's, tho' to suff'ring born,<br>To penury, repulse, reproach and scorn.<br>Here, by the pencil, mark his flight design'd:<br>The weary'd virgin by a stream reclin'd,<br>Who feeds the child. Her looks a charm express,<br>A modest charm, that dignifies distress.<br>Boughs o'er their heads with blushing fruits depend,<br>Which angels to her busied consort bend.<br>Hence by the smiling infant seems discern'd,<br>Trifles, concerning Him, all heav'n, concern'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Here the transfigur'd Son from earth retires:<br>See! the white form in a bright cloud aspires!<br>Full on his foll'wers bursts a flood of rays,<br>Prostrate they fall beneath th' o'erwhelming blaze!<br>Like noon-tide summer-suns the rays appear,<br>Unsuff'rable, magnificent, and near!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>What scene of agony the garden brings;<br>The cup of gall; the suppliant king of kings!<br>The crown of thorns; the cross, that felt him die;<br>These, languid in the sketch, unfinish'd lie.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>There, from the dead, centurions see him rise,<br>See! but struck down with horrible surprize!<br>As the first glory seem'd a sun at noon,<br>This casts the silver splendor of the moon.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Here peopled day, th' ascending God surveys!<br>The glory varies, as the myriads gaze!<br>Now soften'd, like a sun at distance seen,<br>When thro' a cloud bright-glancing, yet serene!<br>Now fast-encreasing to the croud amaz'd,<br>Like some vast meteor high in ether rais'd!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>My labour, yon high-vaulted altar stains<br>With dies, that emulate etherial plains.<br>The convex glass which in that opening glows,<br>Mid circling rays a pictur'd Saviour shows!<br>Bright it collects the beams, which, trembling, all,<br>Back from the God, a show'ry radiance fall.<br>Light'ning the scene beneath! a scene divine!<br>Where faints, clouds, seraphs, intermingled shine!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Here water-falls, that play melodious round,<br>Like a sweet organ, swell a lofty sound!<br>The solemn notes bid earthly passions fly,<br>Lull all my cares, and lift my soul on high!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>This monumental marble-this I rear<br>To one-Oh! ever mourn'd!-Oh! ever dear!<br>He stopt-pathetic sighs the pause supply.<br>And the prompt tear starts, quiv'ring, on his eye!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>I look'd-two columns near the wall were seen,<br>An imag'd beauty stretch'd at length between.<br>Near the wept fair, her harp Cecilia strung;<br>Leaning, from high, a list'ning angel hung!<br>Friendship, whose figure at the feet remains,<br>A phoenix, with irradiate crest, sustains:<br>This grac'd one palm, while one extends t'impart<br>Two foreign hands, that clasp a burning heart.<br>A pendent veil two hov'ring seraphs raise,<br>Which opening heav'n upon the roof displays!<br>And two, benevolent, less-distant, hold<br>A vase, collective of perfumes uproll'd!<br>These from the heart, by Friendship held, arise,<br>Od'rous as incense gath'ring in the skies,<br>In the fond pelican is love exprest,<br>Who opens to her young her tender breast.<br>Two mated turtles hov'ring hang in air,<br>One by a faulcon struck!-In wild despair,<br>The hermit cries-So death, alas! destroys<br>The tender consort of my cares and joys!<br>Again soft tears upon his eye-lid hung,<br>Again check'd sounds dy'd, flutt'ring, on his tongue.<br>Too well his pining inmost thought I know!<br>Too well e'en silence tells the story'd woe!<br>To his my sighs, to his my tears reply!<br>I stray o'er all the tomb a wat'ry eye!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Next, on the wall her scenes of life I gaz'd,<br>The form back-leaning, by a globe half-rais'd!<br>Cherubs a proffer'd crown of glory show,<br>Ey'd wistful by th' admiring fair below.<br>In action eloquent dispos'd her hands,<br>One shows her breast, in rapture one expands!<br>This the fond hermit seiz'd!-o'er all his soul,<br>The soft, wild, wailing, am'rous passion stole!<br>In stedfast gaze his eyes her aspect keep,<br>Then turn away, awhile dejected weep;<br>Then he reverts 'em; but reverts in vain,<br>Dimm'd with the swelling grief that streams again.<br>Where now is my philosophy? (he cries)<br>My joy, hope, reason, my Olympia dies!<br>Why did I e'er that prime of blessings know?<br>Was it, ye cruel fates, t'embitter woe?<br>Why would your bolts not level first my head?<br>Why must I live to weep Olympia dead?<br>-Sir, I had once a wife! fair bloom'd her youth,<br>Her form was beauty, and her soul was truth!<br>Oh, she was dear! How dear, what words can say?<br>She dies!-my heav'n at once is snatch'd away!<br>Ah! what avails, that, by a father's care,<br>I rose a wealthy and illustrious heir?<br>That early in my youth I learn'd to prove<br>Th' instructive, pleasing, academic grove?<br>That in the senate eloquence was mine?<br>That valour gave me in the field to shine?<br>That love show'r'd blessings too-far more than all<br>High rapt ambition e'er could happy call?<br>Ah!-What are these, which e'en the wise adore?<br>Lost is my pride!-Olympia is no more!<br>Had I, ye persecuting pow'rs! been born<br>The world's cold pity, or, at best, its scorn;<br>Of wealth, of rank, of kindred warmth bereft;<br>To want, to shame, to ruthless censure left!<br>Patience, or pride, to this, relief supplies!<br>But a lost wife!-there! there distraction lies!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Now three sad years I yield me all to grief,<br>And fly the hated comfort of relief:<br>Tho' rich, great, young, I leave a pompous seat,<br>(My brother's now) to seek some dark retreat:<br>Mid cloister'd solitary tombs I stray,<br>Despair and horror lead the cheerless way!<br>My sorrow grows to such a wild excess,<br>Life, injur'd life, must wish the passion less!<br>Olympia!-My Olympia's lost! (I cry.)<br>Olympia's lost, the hollow vaults reply!<br>Louder I make my lamentable moan;<br>The swelling echoes learn like me to groan;<br>The ghosts to scream, as thro' lone aisles they sweep!<br>The shrines to shudder, and the saints to weep!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Now grief and rage, by gath'ring sighs, supprest,<br>Swell my full heart, and heave my lab'ring breast!<br>With struggling starts, each vital string they strain,<br>And strike the tott'ring fabric of my brain!<br>O'er my sunk spirits frowns a vap'ry scene,<br>Woe's dark retreat! the madding maze of spleen!<br>A deep damp gloom o'erspreads the murky cell;<br>Here pining thoughts, and secret terrors dwell!<br>Here learn the Great unreal wants to feign!<br>Unpleasing truths here mortify the vain!<br>Here learning, blinded first, and then beguil'd,<br>Looks dark as Ignorance, as Frenzy wild!<br>Here first Credulity on Reason won!<br>And here false Zeal mysterious rants begun!<br>Here Love inpearls each moment with a tear,<br>And Superstition owes to Spleen her fear!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Fantastic lightnings, thro' the dreary way,<br>In swift short signals flash the bursting day!<br>Above, beneath, across, around, they fly!<br>A dire deception strikes the mental eye!<br>By the blue fires, pale phantoms grin severe!<br>Shrill, fancy'd echoes wound th' affrighted ear!<br>Air-banish'd spirits flag in fogs profound,<br>And, all-obscene, shed baneful damps around!<br>Now whispers, trembling in some feeble wind,<br>Sigh out prophetic fears, and freeze the mind!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Loud laughs the hag!-She mocks complaint away,<br>Unroofs the den, and lets in more than day.<br>Swarms of wild Fancies, wing'd in various flight,<br>Seek emblematic shades, and mystic light!<br>Some drive with rapid steeds the shining car!<br>These nod from thrones! Those thunder in the war!<br>Till, tir'd, they turn from the delusive show,<br>Start from wild joy, and fix in stupid woe.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Here the lone hour, a blank of life displays,<br>Till now bad thoughts a fiend more active raise;<br>A fiend in evil moments ever nigh!<br>Death in her hand, and frenzy in her eye!<br>Her eye all red, and sunk!-A robe she wore,<br>With life's calamities embroider'd o'er.<br>A mirror in one hand collective shows,<br>Varied, and multiply'd that group of woes.<br>This endless foe to gen'rous toil and pain<br>Lolls on a couch for ease; but lolls in vain;<br>She muses o'er her woe-embroider'd vest,<br>And self-abhorrence heightens in her breast.<br>To shun her care, the force of sleep she tries,<br>Still wakes her mind, tho' slumbers doze her eyes:<br>She dreams, starts, rises, stalks from place to place,<br>With restless, thoughtful, interrupted pace;<br>Now eyes the sun, and curses ev'ry ray,<br>Now the green ground, where colour fades away.<br>Dim spectres dance! Again her eye she rears;<br>Then from the blood-shot ball wipes purpled tears;<br>Then presses hard her brow, with mischief fraught,<br>Her brow half bursts with agony of thought!<br>From me (she cries) pale wretch, thy comfort claim,<br>Born of Despair, and Suicide my name!<br>Why should thy life a moment's pain endure?<br>Here ev'ry object proffers grief a cure.<br>She points where leaves of hemlock black'ning shoot!<br>Fear not! pluck! eat (said she) the sov'reign root!<br>Then Death, revers'd, shall bear his ebon lance!<br>Soft o'er thy sight shall swim the shadowy trance!<br>Or leap yon rock, possess a wat'ry grave,<br>And leave wild sorrow to the wind and wave!<br>Or mark-this poniard thus from mis'ry frees!<br>She wounds her breast!-the guilty steel I seize!<br>Straight, where she struck, a smoaking spring of gore<br>Wells from the wound, and floats the crimson'd floor,<br>She faints! she fades!-Calm thoughts the deed revolve,<br>And now, unstartling, fix the dire resolve;<br>Death drops his terrors, and, with charming wiles,<br>Winning, and kind, like my Olympia smiles!<br>He points the passage to the seats divine,<br>Where poets, heroes, sainted lovers shine!<br>I come, Olympia!-My rear'd arm extends;<br>Half to my breast the threat'ning point descends!<br>Straight thunder rocks the land! new lightnings play!<br>When, lo! a voice resounds-Arise! away!<br>Away! nor murmur at th' afflictive rod!<br>Nor tempt the vengeance of an angry God!<br>Fly'st thou from Providence for vain relief?<br>Such ill-sought ease shall draw avenging grief.<br>Honour, the more obstructed, stronger shines,<br>And zeal by persecution's rage refines.<br>By woe, the soul to daring actions swells;<br>By woe, in paintless patience it excels;<br>From patience, prudent clear experience springs,<br>And traces knowledge thro' the course of things!<br>Thence hope is form'd, thence fortitude, success,<br>Renown:-whate'er men covet and caress.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>The vanish'd fiend thus sent a hollow voice-<br>Would'st thou be happy! Straight be death thy choice.<br>How mean are those, who passively complain;<br>While active souls, more free, their fetters strain?<br>Tho' knowledge thine, hope, fortitude, success,<br>Renown:-whate'er men covet and caress;<br>On earth success must in its turn give way,<br>And ev'n perfection introduce decay.<br>Never the world of spirits thus-their rest<br>Untouch'd! entire! once happy, ever blest!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Earnest the heav'nly voice responsive cries,<br>Oh, listen not to subtilty unwise!<br>Thy guardian saint, who mourns thy hapless fate,<br>Heav'n grants to prop thy virtue, ere too late.<br>Know, if thou wilt thy dear-lov'd wife deplore,<br>Olympia waits thee on a foreign shore;<br>There in a cell thy last remains be spent;<br>Away! deceive Despair, and find Content!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>I heard, obey'd; nor more of fate complain'd;<br>Long seas I measur'd, and this mountain gain'd.<br>Soon to a yawning rift, chance turn'd my way;<br>A den it prov'd where a huge serpent lay!<br>Flame-ey'd he lay!-He rages now for food,<br>Meets my first glance, and meditates my blood!<br>His bulk, in many a gather'd orb uproll'd,<br>Rears spire on spire! His scales, be-dropt with gold,<br>Shine burnish'd in the sun! Such height they gain,<br>They dart green lustre on the distant main!<br>Now writh'd in dreadful slope, he stoops his crest,<br>Furious to fix on my unshielded breast!<br>Just as he springs, my sabre smites the foe!<br>Headless he falls beneath th' unerring blow!<br>Wrath yet remains, tho' strength his fabric leaves,<br>And the meant hiss, the gasping mouth deceives;<br>The length'ning trunk slow-loosens ev'ry fold,<br>Lingers in life; then stretches stiff, and cold,<br>Just as th' invet'rate son of mischief ends,<br>Comes a white dove, and near the spot descends:<br>I hail this omen! all bad passions cease,<br>Like the slain snake, and all within is peace.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Next, to Religion this plain roof I raise!<br>In duteous rites my hallow'd tapers blaze!<br>I bid due incense on my altar smoke!<br>Then, at this tomb, my promis'd Love invoke!<br>She hears!-She comes!-My heart what raptures warm?<br>All my Olympia sparkles in the form!<br>No pale, wan, livid mark of Death she bears!<br>Each roseate look a quick'ning transport wears!<br>A robe of light, high-wrought, her shape invests;<br>Unzon'd the swelling beauty of her breasts!<br>Her auburn hair each flowing ring resumes,<br>In her fair hand, Love's branch of myrtle blooms!<br>Silent, awhile, each well-known charm I trace;<br>Then thus, (while nearer she avoids th' embrace)<br>Thou dear deceit!-must I a shade pursue?<br>Dazzled I gaze!-thou swimm'st before my view!<br>Dipt in etherial dews, her bough divine<br>Sprinkles my eyes, which, strengthen'd, bear the shine:<br>Still thus I urge (for still the shadowy bliss<br>Shuns the warm grasp, nor yields the tender kiss)<br>Oh, fly not!-fade not! listen to Love's call!<br>She lives!-no more I'm man!-I'm spirit all!<br>Then let me snatch thee!-press thee!-take me whole!<br>Oh, close!-yet closer!-closer to my soul!<br>Twice, round her waist, my eager arms entwin'd,<br>And, twice deceiv'd, my frenzy clasp'd the wind!<br>Then thus I rav'd-Behold thy husband kneel,<br>And judge! O judge, what agonies I feel!<br>Oh! be no longer, if unkind, thus fair;<br>Take Horror's shape, and fright me with despair!<br>Rather than thus, unpitying, see my moan,<br>Far rather frown, and fix me here in stone!<br>But mock not thus-Alas! (the charmer said,<br>Smiling; and, in her smile, soft radiance play'd)<br>Alas! no more eluded strength employ,<br>To clasp a shade!-What more is mortal joy?<br>Man's bliss is, like his knowledge, but surmis'd;<br>One ignorance, the other pain disguis'd!<br>Thou wert (had all thy wish been still possest)<br>Supremely curst from being greatly blest;<br>For oh! so fair, so dear was I to thee,<br>Thou hadst forgot thy God, to worship me;<br>This he foresaw, and snatch'd me to the tomb;<br>Above I flourish in unfading bloom.<br>Think me not lost: for thee I heav'n implore!<br>Thy guardian angel, tho' a wife no more!<br>I, when abstracted from this world you seem,<br>Hint the pure thought, and frame the heav'nly dream!<br>Close at thy side, when morning streaks the air,<br>In Music's voice I wake thy mind to pray'r!<br>By me, thy hymns, like purest incense, rise,<br>Fragrant with grace, and pleasing to the skies!<br>And when that form shall from its clay refine,<br>(That only bar betwixt my soul and thine!)<br>When thy lov'd spirit mounts to realms of light,<br>Then shall Olympia aid thy earliest flight;<br>Mingled we'll flame in raptures, that aspire<br>Beyond all youth, all sense, and all desire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>She ended. Still such sweetness dwells behind,<br>Th' inchanting voice still warbles in my mind:<br>But lo! th' unbodied vision fleets away!-<br>-Stay, my Olympia!-I conjure thee, stay!<br>Yet stay-for thee my mem'ry learns to smart!<br>Sure ev'ry vein contains a bleeding heart!<br>Sooner shall splendor leave the blaze of day,<br>Than love, so pure, so vast as mine, decay,<br>From the same heav'nly source its lustre came,<br>And glows, immortal, with congenial flame!<br>Ah!-let me not with fires neglected burn;<br>Sweet mistress of my soul, return, return!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>Alas!-she's fled!-I traverse now the place,<br>Where my enamour'd thoughts her footsteps trace.<br>Now, o'er the tomb, I bend my drooping head,<br>There tears, the eloquence of sorrow, shed.<br>Sighs choak my words, unable to express<br>The pangs, the throbs of speechless tenderness!<br>Not with more ardent, more transparent flame,<br>Call dying saints on their Creator's name,<br>Than I on hers;-but, thro' yon yielding door,<br>Glides a new phantom o'er th' illumin'd floor!<br>The roof swift-kindles from the beaming ground,<br>And floods of living lustre flame around!<br>In all the majesty of light array'd,<br>Awful it shines!-'tis Cato's honour'd shade!<br>As I, the heav'nly visitant pursue,<br>Sublimer glory opens to my view!<br>He speaks!-But, oh! what words shall dare repeat<br>His thoughts!-they leave me fir'd with patriot heat<br>More than poetic raptures now I feel,<br>And own that godlike passion, public zeal!<br>But, from my frailty, it receives a stain,<br>I grow, unlike my great Inspirer, vain;<br>And burn, once more, the busy world to know,<br>And would, in scenes of action foremost glow!<br>Where proud ambition points her dazzling rays!<br>Where coronets and crowns, attractive, blaze!<br>When my Olympia leaves the realms above,<br>And lures me back to solitary love.<br>She tells me truth, prefers an humble state,<br>That genuine greatness shuns the being great!<br>That mean are those, who false-term'd honour prize;<br>Whose fabricks, from their country's ruin rise;<br>Who look the traitor, like the patriot fair;<br>Who, to enjoy the vineyard, wrong the heir.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>I hear!-thro' all my veins new transpots roll!<br>I gaze!-warm love comes rushing on my soul!<br>Ravish'd I gaze!-again her charms decay!<br>Again my manhood to my grief gives way!<br>Cato returns!-Zeal takes her course to reign!<br>But zeal is in ambition lost again!<br>I'm now the slave of fondness!-now of pride!<br>-By turns they conquer, and by turns subside!<br>These balanc'd each by each, the golden mean,<br>Betwixt them found, gives happiness serene;<br>This I'll enjoy!-He ended!-I reply'd:<br>O Hermit! thou art worth severely try'd!<br>But had not innate grief produc'd thy woes,<br>Men, barb'rous men, had prey'd on thy repose.<br>When seeking joy, we seldom sorrow miss,<br>And often mis'ry points the path to bliss.<br>The soil, most worthy of the thrifty swain,<br>Is wounded thus, ere trusted with the grain;<br>The struggling grain must work obscure its way,<br>Ere the first green springs upward to the day;<br>Up-sprung, such weed-like coarseness it betrays,<br>Flocks on th' abandon'd blade permissive graze;<br>Then shoots the wealth, from imperfection clear,<br>And thus a grateful harvest crowns the year.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Richard+Savage">Richard Savage</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=499106" data-title="The Wanderer: A Vision: Canto II de Richard Savage" data-description="While thus a mind humane, and wise, he shows,
All-eloquent of truth his language flows.
Youth, tho' depress'd, thro' all his form appears;
Thro' all his sentiments the depth of years.
Thus he-Yet farther Industry behold,
Which conscious waits new ..."></div>
</div>
</div>