STILL dost thou urge thy pinions, hoary Time!
With speedy sweep, and still, from day to day,
Restless as wont, winging thine onward way,
Hast sunk another year in swift decline!
And not as yet that ancient frame of thine
Hath waxed weak, nor yearned for repose-
That frame, which erst the Architect sublime
Will'd into being, and forthwith arose
A noble form, and one whose god-like force
Promis'd to run an everlasting course—
Then thou exulted'st in thy glad career,
Young Time! and sportive leading on the year
Burden'd with bliss, thou in thy boundless flight
Fed'st the fresh-springing fountains of delight
That gush'd eternal in each golden sphere-
But now full long, they say, thy wrinkled brow
Hath loveless been and bare; full long hath lost
Its tressed beauties, or what few still flow
Are blanch'd and faded with a thawless frost.
And better were it now that thou should'st fold Thy flagging wings in everlasting rest
So never more in chronicles unblest
Man's foul misdeeds should be by thee enroll'd;
So should thy guilty records never more
Blush deep with sins and shames unknown before.
O! for the might of him at whose command
In the mid heaven the sun imprisoned lay,
And bent on earth a strange and fixed ray;
Or her of Endor's charms, or sorcerer's wand!
That I might strive, tho' with unlawful force,
Relentless Time! to stay thy fatal course,
And bid with thee the fiends of war to stand
And death-for earth herself is drunk with blood
That from the pall'd and sicken'd ground doth rise,
Like the thick-curling smoke of sacrifice;
While ravenous murder and her haggard brood,
With hungry howlings crave for fresh supplies,
And banish from the world all peaceful interlude.
Why should'st thou journey further? They are
The god-like comrades of thine earlier way,
Suns, that around thee beam'd a glorious day,
And sped thy course majestically on.
O read thine hoary locks, and lower bend
That head, age-bow'd already!—for the fire
Of former things hath shone, and on my lyre
The spirit of past ages doth descend!
I see them rise around me! Shall I
Unpunish'd? Should my vision, tho' endued
With more than eagle keenness, unsubdued
Endure the force of that unrivall'd blaze?
Lo! first and fairest of the heavenly train,
The light of freedom shines, such as of yore
Ere yet her brilliancy was taught to wane,
She rose on elder Greece, or that fam'd shore,
The Eden of the world, sweet Italy-
And with her they, who dwell but with the free,
Twin-born, immortal sisters, Peace and Truth,
Advancing hand in hand. Unfading youth
Preludes their steps-an angel troop behind-
Resplendent virtue, Majesty of mind,
Justice, and she whose look her wrath beguiles,
Benignant Mercy, milder than the dove;
Magnanimous valour, pity link'd with love,
Fresh joys, and graces, and perennial smiles.
Sad and forsaken, melancholy Time!
What darken'd path may yet remain, pursue-
For these, the bright attendants of thy prime,
Tempestuous fortunes and obscuring crime
Long since have quench'd-or but a distant view
Of scanty glory thro' the gloom is thrown-
Yet when this mournful task of thine is o'er,
And thou, before the Great Eternal Throne
Shall render up thy mission, there once more
Expect to meet their beautiful array
Perfect, and cloth'd with never-ending day.
Meanwhile, not wholly dark-one starry gem
That dawn'd upon thy birth, for ever new,
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