Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/301

 ODE TO CONSCIENCE

But with a pang how fierce

Thy vengeance loves to pierce

Their flinty hearts, whose selfish pride

Would human sufferings deride !

When some unwonted grief is brought to birth,

Shrouding in sudden gloom the joys of earth,

The reckless wrong that roused no dread.

While false prosperity protected, Back upon the guilty head

Recoils, resistless, unexpected. And oft, in hours of discontent. When passion its last force hath spent, Or when man's childish rage Dissolves in hoary age, And care no more can be forgot in jollity, Thy frown can dotage fright from its frivolity ; Thou like a breaker from the past wilt roll. And with sad memories overwhelm the soul, And o'er thy surging waves the will hath no control

The man whose power oppressed the weak, Whose face the humble durst not seek. Ready to crush his rival, scourge his slave. Yet by the world named chivalrous and brave. Who, proud of lofty look and lordly eye. Ne'er dreamed that insignificance could fly To higher laws from human tyranny, — He who waxed fat in days of strength. Reduced to helplessness at length, — Trembles with terror as he hears Thy low voice whispering in his ears. For thou wilt come in hour forlorn, And him that laughed thy power to scorn Thou wilt make sweat with fear and dread, Even while he walks with towering head;

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