Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/251

 1830-40.] WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE. 235 Seen by the Titan in his pains Wrought by the frost, the vukure and the chains : Yes, Titan still, despite of Jove's red ire, Who sees, through calm and storm, Earth's ancient vales rejoicing in his fire. The homes and loves of men — those beings wrought To many a beauteous form In the grand quiet of his own great thought. And over all, white, beautiful, serene, And changeless in thy prime, Thou, Psyche, shalt be seen Whispering forever that one word sublime, Down the dim peopled galleries of Time — ' Eternity ! ' in whose dread circle stand Men and their Deities alike on common land." Like far-off stars that glimmer in a cloud, Deathless, Gods ! shall ye illume the Past: To ye the poet-voice will call aloud, "Faithful among the faithless" to the last. Ye must not die ! Long as the dim robes of the Ages trail O'er Ida's steep, or' Tempe's flowery vale. Ye shall not die ! Your mouldering Delphos only did make moan. And feel eclipse Fall like a storm-cloud from Jehovah's throne Upon her withered lips. Though time and tempest your old temples rend. And rightly men to our One Only bend, Ye were the forms in which the ancient mind Its darkling sense of Deity enshrined. No pious hand need weave your royal palls : To Sinai now Olympus, reverent, calls, And Ida leans to hear Mount Zion's Gods of the Past ! your shapes ai'e in our halls. Upon our clime your glorious presence falls, And Christian hearts with Grecian souls rejoice. THE LIBERTY BELL.* A SOUND like a sound of thunder rolled, And the heart of a nation stirred — For the bell of Freedom, at midnight tolled. Through a mighty land was heard. And the chime still rung From its iron tongue Steadily swaying to and fro ; And to some it came Like a breath of tiarae — And to some a sound of wo. Above the dark mountain, above the blue wave It was heard by the fettered, and heai'd by the brave — It was heard in the cottage, and heard in the hall — And its chime gave a glorious summons to all— The saber was sharpened — the time-rusted blade Of the Bond started out in the pioneer's glade Like a herald of wrath : And tlie host was arrayed ! Along the dark mountain, along the blue wave Swept the ranks of the Bond — swept the ranks of the Brave ; And a shout as of waters went up to the dome, When a star-blazing banner unfurled. Like the wing of some Seraph flashed out from his home. Uttered freedom and hope to the world. tion of Independence.
 * Kung in Philadelpliia on the passage of the Declara-