Page:Some soldier poets.djvu/136

Rh So, but from toil less sign of profit reaping,

The sullen Spectre to her purpose bowed,

Sweeping—vehemently sweeping—

No pause admitted, no design avowed!

'Avaunt, inexplicable Guest!—avaunt,'

Exclaimed the Chieftain—'Let me rather see

The coronal that coiling vipers make;

The torch that flames with many a lurid flake,

And the long train of doleful pageantry

Which they behold, whom vengeful Furies haunt;

Who, while they struggle from the scourge to flee,

Move where the blasted soil is not unworn,

And, in their anguish, bear what other minds have born!'

But Shapes that come not at an earthly call,

Will not depart when mortal voices bid;

Lords of the visionary eye whose lid,

Once raised, remains aghast, and will not fall!

Ye Gods, thought He, that servile implement

Obeys a mystical intent!

Your minister would brush away

The spots that to my soul adhere;

But should she labour night and day,

They will not, cannot disappear;

Whence angry perturbations,—and that look

Which no philosophy can brook!

Ill-fated chief! there are whose hopes are built

Upon the ruins of thy glorious name;

Who, through the portal of one moment's guilt,

Pursue thee with their deadly aim!

O matchless perfidy! portentous lust

Of monstrous crime!—that horror-striking blade,

Drawn in defiance of the Gods, hath laid

The noble Syracusan low in dust!

Shudder'd the walls—the marble city wept—

And sylvan places heaved a pensive sigh;

But in the calm peace the appointed Victim slept,

As he had fallen in magnanimity; 132