Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HYMN TO DEATH Oh ! could I hope the wise and pure in heart Might hear my song without a frown, nor deem My voice unworthy of the theme it tries, ? I would take up the hymn to Death, and say To the grim power, The world hath slandered thee 5 And mocked thee. On thy dim and shadowy brow They place an iron crown, and call thee king Of terrors, and the spoiler of the world, Deadly assassin, that strik'st down the fair, The loved, the good ? that breathest on the lights 10 Of virtue set along the vale of life, And they go out in darkness. I am come, Not with reproaches, not with cries and prayers, Such as have stormed thy stern, insensible ear From the beginning. I am come to speak 15 Thy praises. True it is, that I have wept Thy conquests, and may weep them yet again: And thou from some I love wilt take a life Dear to me as my own. Yet while the spell Is on my spirit, and I talk with thee In sight of all thy trophies, face to face, Meet is it that my voice should utter forth Thy nobler triumph; I will teach the world To thank thee. ? Who are thine accusers ? ? Who ? The living ! ? they who never felt thy power, 25 And know thee not. The curses of the wretch Whose crimes are ripe, his sufferings when thy hand Is on him, and the hour he dreads is come, Are writ among thy praises. But the good ? Does he whom thy kind hand dismissed to peace, 30 Upbraid the gentle violence that took off His fetters, and unbarred his prison cell ? Raise then the hymn to Death. Deliverer! God hath anointed thee to free the oppressed And crush the oppressor. When the armed chief, 35 The conqueror of nations, walks the world, And it is changed beneath his feet, and all Its kingdoms melt into one mighty realm ? Thou, while his hea…
