If you imagine changes slowly wrought, Not wished for; sometimes noticed with a sigh (Whate'er of good or lovely they might bring,) Sighs of regret, for the familiar good And loveliness endeared which they removed. "Seven years of occupation undisturbed With thoughts and wishes bounded to this world, For different lot, or change to higher sphere, From some dark seat of fatal But, at once, power was urged A claim that shattered all. Our blooming girl, Caught in the gripe of death, with such brief time To struggle in as scarcely would allow Her cheek to change its color, was conveyed From us to inaccessible worlds, to regions Where height, or depth, admits not the approach Of living man, though longing to pursue. - - With even as brief a warning,—and how soon With what short interval of time between, I tremble yet to think of, our last prop, The brother followed; and was seen no more "Calm as a frozen lake when ruthless winds Blow fiercely, agitating earth and sky, The Mother now remained; as if in her, Who, to the lowest region of the soul, Had been erewhile unsettled and disturbed. This second visitation had no power To shake; but only to bind up and seal; And to establish thankfulness of heart In Heaven's determinations, ever just. The eminence whereon her spirit stood, Mine was unable to attain. Immense The space that severed us! But, as the sight That consolation may descend from far, And partner of my loss. O heavy change! Insensibly; the immortal and divine Yielded to mortal reflux; her pure glory, As from the pinnacle of worldly state Wretched ambition drops astounded, fell And keen heart-anguish, of itself ashamed, And, so consumed, she melted from my arms; "What followed cannot be reviewed in thought; I called on dreams and visions, to disclose To appear and answer; to the grave I spake It occupies, what consciousness retains Of former loves and interests. Then my soul By pain of heart now checked, and now impelled, The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way! And from those transports, and these toils abstruse, Of time, else lost; -existing unto me "From that abstraction I was roused, and how? Even as a thoughtful shepherd by a flash Of lightning startled in a gloomy cave Of these wild hills. For, lo! the dread Bastile, Dazzling the soul. Meanwhile, prophetic harps My melancholy voice the chorus joined: 'Be joyful, all ye nations; in all lands, Ye that are capable of joy be glad! In others ye shall promptly find ; and all, Enriched by mutual and reflected wealth, Shall with one heart honor their common kind.' "Thus was I reconverted to the world; Society became my glittering bride, And airy hopes my children. From the depths Of natural passion seemingly escaped, My soul diffused herself in wide embrace Of institutions, and the forms of things ; Upon life's surface. What though in my veins minds, my voice |