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Translated by T. W. Parsons
HE was: and motionless in death, | |
| As that unconscious clay, | |
| Robbed of so mighty breath, | |
| In speechless ruin lay, | |
| Even so, bewildered, stunned, aghast, | 5 |
| Earth at the tale is dumb, | |
| Pondering the final agonies | |
| Of him, the man of fate, | |
| And wondering when, with tread like his, | |
| Again to desolate | 10 |
| Her trampled fields, all dust and blood, | |
| A mortal foot shall come. | |
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| Him, upon his refulgent throne, | |
| In silence could my soul survey, | |
| And when, by varying fortunes blown, | 15 |
| He fell, rose—fell again and lay, | |
| My spirit to the millions’ tone | |
| Echoed back no reply; | |
| Virgin alike from servile praise | |
| And cowardly abuse; | 20 |
| But now, as wane the meteor’s rays, | |
| I let my genius loose, | |
| To fall upon his urn one strain | |
| Perchance that shall not die. | |
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| From the Alps to the Pyramids, | 25 |
| From the Manzanar to the Rhine, | |
| He tracked his eagles, as the bolt | |
| Follows its flashing sign. | |
| From Tanais to Scylla glancing, | |
| From the West to the Eastern brine; | 30 |
| Was this true greatness?—That high doom | |
| Let after times declare; | |
| We to the Greatest bow, from whom | |
| He held so large a share | |
| Of the Most High, creative mind, | 35 |
| Stamped by the hand divine. | |
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| The tremulous, tempestuous joy | |
| Of lofty enterprise—the heart | |
| That knew no rest from its employ, | |
| But burned to play the imperial part; | 40 |
| And won and kept a prize whose dream | |
| Had madness seemed, at best— | |
| All he had proved and passed—renown | |
| That after danger brightest smiled, | |
| Defeat and flight, and victory’s crown, | 45 |
| A ruler now, and now exiled,— | |
| Twice humbled in the dust, defiled, | |
| Twice at the altar blest. | |
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| Two ages, ’gainst each other armed, | |
| Him for their umpire named, | 50 |
| Looking on him as Fate: he charmed | |
| To silence their contentions—tamed | |
| Their frantic feuds, and sat supreme | |
| Their factious rage above: | |
| He vanished—and his vacant days | 55 |
| Spent in so small a sphere! | |
| Majestic mark for envy’s gaze, | |
| And pity most sincere— | |
| For unextinguishable hate, | |
| And never-vanquished love. | 60 |
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| As on the shipwrecked seaman’s head | |
| The o’erwhelming breakers pour, | |
| Beyond whose foaming fury spread | |
| Around him and before, | |
| The wretch had vainly gazed to see | 65 |
| The intangible, far strand: | |
| Thus o’er that strong but sinking soul | |
| Swept Memory’s whelming tide, | |
| As oft his actions to enroll | |
| In Fame’s records he tried;— | 70 |
| But from the everlasting scroll | |
| Fell, faint, his harassed hand. | |
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| O, at the silent, dying hour | |
| Of some dull day of rest, | |
| His lightning eyes in sullen lower, | 75 |
| And his arms folded on his breast, | |
| How often have his days of power | |
| Rushed on remembrance thick! | |
| Then to his backward-roving thought | |
| The moving tents, the trench, the course, | 80 |
| The gleaming squadrons have been brought, | |
| The sea-like surging of the horse, | |
| The martial word, the swift command, | |
| The obedience, no less quick. | |
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| Alas! at such an overthrow | 85 |
| Haply that panting spirit failed; | |
| Haply despairing drooped: but, lo! | |
| The Omnipotent from heaven hailed | |
| His child, and unto purer air, | |
| With pitying hand conveyed; | 90 |
| And through the flowery paths of hope | |
| Dismissed him to the eternal fields, | |
| Where more than even his lofty scope | |
| Perfect fruition yields, | |
| And where the glory that hath past | 95 |
| Is silence now, and shade. | |
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| Beneficent, immortal, fair, | |
| Faith holds her wonted triumph yet: | |
| Write this besides: Rejoice! for ne’er | |
| Did haughtier potentate forget | 100 |
| His pride, and meekly bow at last, | |
| To Golgotha’s disgrace. | |
| Thou, o’er his weary dust, each low | |
| Calumnious word forbear; | |
| The God from whom afflictions flow, | 105 |
| All comfort and all care, | |
| Beside him deigned, on his low bed, | |
| To find a resting-place. | |
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