ODE TO SUPERSTITION.* I. 1. HENCE, to the realms of Night, dire Demon, hence! That little world, the human mind, Clot his shaggy mane with gore, With flashing fury bid his eye-balls shine; At thy command he plants the dagger deep, I. 2. When, with a frown that froze the peopled earth,‡ And, brooding, gave her shapeless shadows birth. Written in 1785. The sacrifice of Iphigenia. (123) Rocking on the billowy air, Ha! what withering phantoms glare! As blows the blast with many a sudden swell, At each dead pause, what shrill-toned voices yell! The sheeted spectre, rising from the tomb, Points to the murderer's stab, and shudders by; In every grove is felt a heavier gloom, That veils its genius from the vulgar eye: The spirit of the water rides the storm, And, thro' the mist, reveals the terrors of his form. I. 3. O'er solid seas, where Winter reigns, Smit by the scorching of the noontide beam. She hurls the torch! she fans the fire! She clasps her lord to part no more, *The funeral rite of the Hindoos. O'ershadowing Scotia's desert coast, And, wrapt in clouds, in tempests tost, While the lone shepherd, near the shipless main,† Sees o'er her hills advance the long-drawn funeral train. II. 1. Thou spak'st, and lo! a new creation glowed. Was clad in horrors not its own, And at its base the trembling nations bowed. Grasped the globe with iron hand. Circled with seats of bliss, the Lord of Light Sweet Music breathes her soul into the wind; And bright-eyed Painting stamps the image of the mind. II. 2. Round the rude ark old Egypt's sorcerers rise! And bids the God of Thunders hail; § *The Fates of the Northern Mythology. See MALLET'S Antiquities. † An allusion to the Second Sight. The bull, Apis. Æn. II. 172, &c. The Crocodile. But ah! what myriads claim the bended knee?* Charmed with perennial sweets, and smiling at decay? II. 3. On yon hoar summit, mildly bright § High o'er the world, the white-robed Magi gaze Silver notes ascend the skies: Oh catch it, ere it dies! * According to an ancient proverb, it was less difficult in Egypt to find a god than a man. The Hieroglyphics. The Catacombs. ૐ "The Persians," says Herodotus, "have no temples, altars, or statues. They sacrifice on the tops of the highest mountains." I. 131. En. VI. 46, &c. The Sibyl speaks, the dream is o'er, And moulds the features of her soul, The cavern frowns; its hundred mouths unclose! And, in the thunder's voice, the fate of empire flows! III. 1. Mona, thy druid-rites awake the dead! Rites that have chained old Ocean on his bed. Pointless falls the hero's lance. Thy magic bids the imperial eagle fly,* And blasts the laureate wreath of victory. Hark, the bard's soul inspires the vocal string! At every pause dread Silence hovers o'er: While murky Night sails round on raven-wing, Deepening the tempest's howl, the torrent's roan; Chased by the Morn from Snowdon's awful brow, Where late she sate and scowled on the black wave below. III. 2.. Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears! And mow thro' infancy and age; Then kiss the sacred dust and melt in tears. *See Tacitus, 1. xiv. c. 29. †This remarkable event happened at the siege and sack of Jerusalem in the last year of the eleventh century. Matth. Paris, IV. 2. |