The hand of the reaper

Takes the ears that are hoary,
But the voice of the weeper
Wails manhood in glory.
The autumn winds rushing
Waft the leaves that are serest,
But our flower was in flushing
When blighting was nearest.
Fleet foot on the correi,1
Sage counsel in cumber,2
Red hand in the foray,

How sound is thy slumber!
Like the dew on the mountain,
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and for ever!

92.

SIR W. SCOTT.

"And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."

The Destruction of Sennacherib, King of

Assyria.

THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed, with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride:
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

I Covert on a hillside.

I

2 Trouble.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

93. Laodamia.

LORD BYRON.

Laodamía's husband, Protesiláus, was one of the Greeks who went to fight in the war of Troy. He was the first to set foot on the Trojan shore, and, as such, being doomed by the oracle to die, was killed by Hector

"WITH sacrifice before the rising morn

Vows have I made by fruitless hope inspired;
And from the infernal gods, mid shades forlorn,
Of night, my slaughtered lord have I required:
Celestial pity I again implore ;—

Restore him to my sight-great Jove, restore!"

So speaking, and by fervent love endowed

With faith, the suppliant heavenward lifts her hands;
While, like the sun emerging from a cloud,

Her countenance brightens--and her eye expands;
Her bosom heaves and spreads, her stature grows;
And she expects the issue in repose.

O terror! what hath she perceived?-O joy!
What doth she look on?-whom doth she behold?
Her hero slain upon the beach of Troy?
His vital presence—his corporeal mould?
It is if sense deceive her not 'tis he!

And a god leads him-wingèd Mercury !1

Mild Hermes spake, and touched her with his wand
That calms all fear: "Such grace hath crowned thy prayer,
Laodamia! that at Jove's command

Thy husband walks the paths of upper air:

He comes to tarry with thee three hours' space;

Accept the gift-behold him face to face!"

I

Mercury, or Hermes, was the messenger of the gods, and is generally represented with winged feet.

Forth sprang the impassioned queen her lord to clasp ;
Again that consummation she essayed;
But unsubstantial form eludes her grasp
As often as that eager grasp was made.
The phantom parts—but parts to re-unite,
And re-assume his place before her sight.

"Protesilaus, lo! thy guide is gone!
Confirm, I pray, the vision with thy voice:
This is our palace,-yonder is thy throne;
Speak, and the floor thou tread'st on will rejoice.
Not to appal me have the gods bestowed
This precious boon,-and blest a sad abode."

"Great Jove, Laodamia! doth not leave
His gifts imperfect :-Spectre though I be,
I am not sent to scare thee or deceive;
But in reward of thy fidelity.

And something also did my worth obtain ;
For fearless virtue bringeth boundless gain.

"Thou know'st, the Delphic' oracle foretold
That the first Greek who touched the Trojan strand
Should die; but me the threat could not withold :
A generous cause a victim did demand;
And forth I leapt upon the sandy plain;
A self-devoted chief-by Hector slain."

"Supreme of heroes-bravest, noblest, best!
Thy matchless courage I bewail no more,
Which then, when tens of thousands were deprest
By doubt, propelled thee to the fatal shore ;
Thou found'st-and I forgive thee-here thou art-
A nobler counsellor than my poor heart.

"But thou, though capable of sternest deed,
Wert kind as resolute, and good as brave;
And he, whose power restores thee, hath decreed
That thou shouldst cheat the malice of the grave;
Redundant are thy locks, thy lips as fair

As when their breath enriched Thessalian air.

I In the temple dedicated to Apollo at Delphi, in the north of Greece, the god was supposed to give answers to questions that were put to him. These pretended answers were called oracles.

"No spectre greets me,—no vain shadow this:
Come, blooming hero, place thee by my side!
Give, on this well-known couch, one nuptial kiss
To me, this day a second time thy bride!"
Jove frowned in heaven: the conscious Parcæ1 threw
Upon those roseate lips a Stygian hue.

"This visage tells thee that my doom is past :
Know, virtue were not virtue if the joys
Of sense were able to return as fast
And surely as they vanish.-Earth destroys
Those raptures duly-Erebus2 disdains:
Calm pleasures there abide-majestic pains.
"Be taught, O faithful consort, to control
Rebellious passion: for the gods approve
The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul;
A fervent, not ungovernable, love.

Thy transports moderate; and meekly mourn
When I depart, for brief is my sojourn—

"Ah, wherefore?- Did not Hercules by force
Wrest from the guardian monster of the tomb
Alcestis,3 a reanimated corse

Given back to dwell on earth in vernal bloom?
Medea's spells dispersed the weight of years,
And Æson stood a youth 'mid youthful peers.
"The gods to us are merciful-and they
Yet further may relent: for mightier far
Than strength of nerve and sinew, or the sway
Of magic, potent over sun and star,

Is love, though oft to agony distrest,

And though his favourite seat be feeble woman's breast.

"But if thou go'st, I follow————”

"Peace!" he saidShe looked upon him and was calmed and cheered; The ghastly colour from his lips had fled;

In his deportment, shape, and mien, appeared

I Three goddesses who presided over the life of mankind. Clotho, the youngest, supreme at the moment of birth, held a distaff in her hand; Lachesis spun the events of life; Atropos cut its thread with her scissors. 2 A deity of Hell. The word is also used to mean Hell itself, more often that part of it in which dwelt the souls of the virtuous.

3 Alcestis sacrificed her own life to save that of her husband. Hercules, it is told, rescued her from the Infernal Regions.

4 Medea, a magician, restored youth to Eson (the father of her husband, Jason) by mixing with his blood the juice of certain herbs.

Elysian beauty, melancholy grace,
Brought from a pensive, though a happy place.
He spake of love, such love as spirits feel
In worlds whose course is equable and pure;
No fears to beat away-no strife to heal-
The past unsighed for, and the future sure;
Spake of heroic arts in graver mood
Revived, with finer harmony pursued ;

Of all that is most beauteous-imaged there
In happier beauty; more pellucid streams,
An ampler ether, a diviner air,

And fields invested with purpureal gleams;
Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day
Earth knows, is all unworthy to survey.

Yet there the soul shall enter which hath earned
That privilege by virtue.—“ Ill,” said he,
"The end of man's existence I discerned,
Who from ignoble games and revelry

Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight
While tears were thy best pastime,-day and night :
"And while my youthful peers, before my eyes
(Each hero following his peculiar bent)
Prepared themselves for glorious enterprise
By martial sports,-or, seated in the tent,
Chieftains and kings in council were detained;
What time the fleet at Aulis' lay enchained.

"The wished-for wind was given :-I then revolved
The oracle, upon the silent sea;

And, if no worthier led the

way, resolved

That, of a thousand vessels, mine should be

The foremost prow in pressing to the strand,
Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan sand.

"Yet bitter, oftimes bitter, was the pang
When of thy loss I thought, beloved wife!
On thee too fondly did my memory hang,
And on the joys we shared in mortal life,—

The paths which we had trod-these fountains-flowers; My new-planned cities, and unfinished towers.

Owing to the displeasure of the goddess Diana, the Greek fleet had

been kept from starting for Troy by contrary winds.