Cristall, Ann Batten. Poetical Sketches
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CARMEL he seeks: the wandering maid he found,
And with each look inflicts a deeper wound;
She strove to veil her blushes from his sight,
And hide her terrors by a sudden flight;
Yet could not fly, nor scarce resolve to stay,
Her burning heart contending passions sway.
Approaching her, with awe serene he spoke,
While from his eyes the light of virtue broke;
With humble dignity his crimes confess'd,
No rage against himself his words express'd:
Too well he knew, when swell'd by passion's tide,
How hard the task the throbbing heart to guide;
And penitence he felt, devoid of pride.
He view'd her with surprize, for while he speaks,
Delight -- not anger, flush'd her modest cheeks;
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Th' emotions of her soul her eyes pourtray,
Where transient fires in vivid flashes play:
Rekindling transports as he gaz'd arise,
Which ting'd his lips, and fir'd his rapt'rous eyes;
New sympathies within his bosom sprung,
Which warm in hope impel his glowing tongue:
Pure and refin'd his passions now appear,
His virtues strengthen'd, and his heart sincere;
His voice sublime his eyes alike inspire,
Pervade her soul, and fill her breast with fire:
Dubious no more, she seeks not to retreat,
Too strongly love did in her bosom beat;
Fast from her eyes the tears of transport flow,
Joy takes the language of her former woe;
Amid the shower a smile seraphic broke --
She gave her hand, and thus impassion'd spoke:
"I seek not to restrain my throbbing heart,
"Nor veil its candour with the show of art;
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"Forgiveness beams upon thee from mine eyes,
"While all thy virtues to my memory rise.
"Within I feel such powerful sympathy,
"Such strong attraction of my soul to thee,
"That no false pride in this important hour
"Swerves my pure heart with its tyrannic power.
"With agony I saw excess controul
"A mind whose grandeur ever aw'd my soul;
"Thy wonderous songs, replete with genuine fire,
"The love of nature which those songs inspire,
"Were in my heart impress'd with power divine;
"In vain I strove thine image to resign,
"And mourn'd the fall of such a soul as thine:
"But now thy penitence o'erjoy'd I view,
"And yield my heart, as to thy virtue due."
He heard, while joy redoubled in his breast,
And strong emotions every look express'd;
Sublime his soul its ardent love pourtray'd,
But most his future life his gratitude display'd.
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COME, let us dance and sing,
While our spirits lightly wing;
Youth's gay fantastic spring
Wreathes the mystic bow'rs!
Bend here thy quivering feet,
Fancy thy smiles shall greet,
Dimples 'mid roses sweet,
And fruits with glowing flowers!
Glide along,
Join my song,
Meet me in the varied throng;
Crown'd with May,
Laughing gay,
Hailing like a lark the day!
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Thus the sweet spring we taste,
Ere our genial warmth shall waste,
With Nature's blessings grac'd,
We sport the hours away.
Life's an uncertain joy,
Let's the rosy hours employ;
Ere they our powers destroy
They shall scatter charms:
Grey dawn shall see them rise,
Silvering the opening skies,
Sparkling with dewy eyes,
And blushing spread their arms.
Tripping gay,
They burst with day,
Blazing with a gaudy ray;
'Midst the bowers
Blooming flowers
Opening, hail the noontide hours.
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Then gliding down the hills,
Silent eve its dew distils,
With rapture each bosom thrills:
Night's songstress music pours.
Deep then their blush appears,
'Mid their saffron-tinged hairs,
Wav'd o'er the rising stars,
Dissolving into night.
Borne next on Cynthia's horns,
Glitering 'mid the lakes and lawns,
Elves, sprights, and sylvan fawns,
Dance in vapours dight:
Nightly beams,
Northern gleams,
Magic fire through ether streams;
Round the sky
The hours fly,
Launching to eternity!
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Thus ever on the wing,
Come, let us dance and sing,
Trampling on sorrow's sting,
Laughing at each sigh.
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THE eve descends with radiant streaks,
Sweetly serene and grandly gay,
While western tinges flush the cheeks,
And insects 'mid the zephyrs play.
Young CYMON, with a rapt'rous heart,
Whom woodland scenes and pleasures drew,
Rov'd while his sweet poetic art
From Nature stole its noblest hue.
On wild-thyme banks the poet sung,
Harmonious thither call'd his fair,
Where blooming roses clustering hung,
And every sweet perfum'd the air.
Attentive to the well-known song
Whose warbled sounds pervade the grove,
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Blushing she heard, and sped along,
Her thrilling bosom fir'd with love.
As on the odorous bank he pours
A lover's song, a lover's sighs,
He saw her glowing, deck'd with flowers,
Affection beaming from her eyes.
As summer suns unfold the rose,
Or heightening sweets embalm the grove,
So as he gaz'd she deeper glows,
And every look was fraught with love.
While o'er her face the zephyrs play,
A thousand charms delight each sense,
Join'd to the blushing bloom of May
The sweeter hue of innocence.
Her lovely hands a garland bound,
Then on his head she plac'd the wreath,
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His locks with flowering myrtles crown'd,
Laurels and roses wav'd beneath.
The vivid fires thrill'd through his breast
As energetic strains he sung;
Her artless eyes still more express'd
Than the wild fervour of his tongue.
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TO A LADY, ON THE RISE OF MORN.
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RISE, blossom of the spring,
The dews of morn
Still linger on the barren thorn;
Arise, and sing!
O! join my rapt'rous song!
And o'er the wild bleak hills
And unfledg'd fields along
Pursue the trickling rills:
O, rise!
Cloath'd with that modest grace
That veils the glowing beauties of thy face,
And downward points the radiance of thine eyes.
I wait thee on the thawing mountains,
Where spring dissolves the lingering fountains;
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O! trace with me the opening flowers;
Brave the sharp breeze, damp dews, and vernal showers.
Wild various Nature strews her charms,
And storms surround her mildest calms;
O! to her frowns let us superior be,
Taste each delight, and hail the coming spring,
Singing the heavenly song of liberty!
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THROUGH spring-time walks, which flowers perfum'd,
I chas'd a wild capricious fair,
Where hyacinths and jonquils bloom'd,
Chanting gay sonnets through the air:
Hid amid a briary dell,
Or 'neath a hawthorn tree,
Her sweet enchantments led me on,
And still deluded me.
While summer's splendent glory smiles
My ardent love in vain essay'd,
I strove to win her heart by wiles,
But still a thousand pranks she play'd;
Still o'er each sun-burnt furzy hill,
Wild, playful, gay, and free,
She laugh'd and scorn'd, I chas'd her still,
And still she banter'd me.
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When autumn waves her golden ears,
And wafts o'er fruits her pregnant breath,
The sprightly lark its pinions rears,
I chas'd her o'er the daisy'd heath;
Sweet hare-bells trembled in the vale,
And all around was glee;
Still, wanton as the timid hart,
She swiftly flew from me.
Now winter lights its chearful fire,
While jests with frolic mirth resound,
And draws the wand'ring beauty nigher,
'Tis now too cold to rove around:
The Christmas game, the playful dance,
Incline her heart to glee,
Mutual we glow, and kindling love
Draws every wish to me.
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BOTH gloomy and dark was the shadowy night,
The leaden-surg'd ocean heav'd slowly each wave,
Silence solemn as death succeeded the light,
And each ravenous prowler stole forth from its cave.
Now to a sea-beach, where a black baleful yew
O'er venomous weeds its dark shadows impress'd,
Disorder'd by grief the wild TAMARA flew,
As the wind was her brain, as the ocean her breast.
Then frequent and loud were her cries o'er the main,
With passion she heav'd, with distraction was torn;
The dead shore long-murm'ring re-echo'd in vain,
Nor will peace e'er again to her bosom return.
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She mourns for the dead, the cold senseless dead,
Her love, who beneath the salt billows doth lie,
And the deep grave she seeks, where rests his fair head,
Loose-flying her tresses, distracted her eye.
The night as it darkens encreases her pain,
Her mind teems with horrors, which deepen the gloom;
She hears his lov'd voice, shrill it calls her again,
And his cold breast she seeks in the billowy tomb.
Distracted and lost, her poor shatter'd heart
With passions was urg'd, which no force could controul,
Deep-plunging, in death she subdues her fierce smart,
And from its torn mansion thus freed her young soul.
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WANDER, my troubled soul, sigh 'mid the night thy pain,
While from my cloud-hung brow stream showers of briny rain;
My spirit flies the earth, the darkest gloom pervades,
Hovers around the dead, and mingles with the shades.
O! friend of my breast! thou'rt entomb'd within my heart,
I still to thee alone my inmost thoughts impart;
Solac'd no more by thee, vain is the power of song,
Sighs check each tuneful lay, and murmuring glide along.
Thou wert unto my soul what the sun is to my sight,
But thou art set in death, and I am lost in night;
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All nature seems a void of element'ry strife,
Where the soul is all cloud, and fraught with pain all life.
When near thy faithful breast I heeded not the storm,
Nor thought of wasting time, nor death's consuming worm;
Thy genius woke my thought, as oft we stray'd alone,
And rais'd me to that heaven to which thou now art flown.
Silent oft I mourn, sad wandering 'mid the gloom,
Or on the sea-beat shore I weep my bitter doom;
To thee, among the bless'd, my feeble soul would soar,
And 'mid the starry spheres th' Almighty Pow'r adore.
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WRITTEN WHEN THE MIND WAS OPPRESSED.
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WANDERING amid the horrors of the night,
Musing, my sighs mix with the whistling wind,
Dim watery shadows shroud my feeble sight,
And deep reflection fills my labouring mind.
Alone, amid the deadly midnight glooms,
I hear the winds rush wildly through the waste,
My strengthen'd soul its various powers assumes,
While painful feelings agitate my breast.
"Alas!" I thought, "Whence tends this toil of life,
"Unhappy, vain, delusive, frail, and short,
"Envelop'd 'mid disease, death, sin, and strife,
"As if weak man was his Creator's sport?"
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Beneath the thunder on the desert strand,
I listen to the solemn ocean's roar,
Aw'd by the powerful elements I stand,
And 'mid their fierce convulsions Heaven adore.
But the more fatal storms which rage within
With stronger fears my youthful mind dismay;
Follies and passions, which engender sin,
Assail the soul, and on the reason prey.
To Nature's sweet enchantments wak'd from nought,
Chaos impenetrably dark behind,
Early possess'd of consciousness and thought,
Impell'd by passions of a new-born mind.
Borne on by hope, our youthful transports fly;
Absolute pain alone we deem an ill,
Unknowing that those dreary voids are nigh
Which restless apathy alone may fill.
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We dream not, that, as blooms each flower or tree,
We blossom, shoot, improve, but to decay,
Some new-felt pleasure springs from all we see,
Till rapid time doth Nature's truths display.
Yet 'midst this beauteous world our sweeten'd state
Would smile, when sooth'd by friendship's kindly breath;
But a drear darkness terminates our fate,
And every human bosom starts from death.
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ARLA.
THE pious sire of ARLA rear'd her youth
Strongly to feel the great Creator's power;
In her pure bosom sow'd the seeds of truth,
And open'd Nature's inexhaustless store:
Early he led her mind
To pure religion's unadultered stream;
The young musician caught th' extatic theme,
And sung GOD'S glories to the sounding wind.
Call'd by his king to war,
He left her young,
To those impressions which his tender care
Had on her pliant heart imprinted strong.
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Her lively senses music's influence found;
Her fingers struck the sacred organ's keys;
With pious hopes and heavenly extasies
Her soul flew upward, wing'd by lofty sound.
So sweet she sung
That infidels would hear;
The hallow'd notes which fir'd her sacred tongue
Infus'd her faith, and taught them to revere.
Her soul was meek, her energy was strong,
And force divine fir'd each seraphic song.
Her simple frame no ornaments adorn'd,
No earthly radiance blush'd,
But every look her mental force inform'd;
The infant soul with beams immortal dawn'd,
And breaking forth her eyes and bosom flush'd.
Her temperament was so replete with fires
She scarcely seem'd to feel the earthly part;
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Her genius with excentric force aspires,
Its boundless flights with strong conceptions dart:
But dazzled by its light, and led astray,
Her inexperienc'd reason fell a prey;
Th' entrancing Muse seduc'd her early youth,
More fraught with energy than fed with truth.
Her soul, enrich'd by Nature's noblest stores,
Gave to wild fancy mad and sovereign sway;
Imagination drew her finer powers,
Until the balance of her soul gave way;
And, its pure tenor thus destroy'd and broke,
The dormant passions of her nature woke:
For minds with innate force and quickness fir'd,
To their own operations left in youth,
Too oft, by foster'd prejudice inspir'd,
Are warp'd from the more simple paths of truth.
Strong inclination points the unknown way,
And licens'd passions blindly lead astray.
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Her strengthening Muse still more enchanting glows;
Deluded the frail mortal strains her powers,
While giant weeds in her rich soil arose,
Vainly the self-supposed saint adores.
Till lost in feverish dreams,
'Mid fancy's fires she heavenly visions saw,
As rapt she sang her wild melodious themes,
Nature she thought relax'd its rigid law;
Angels she saw descending from on high,
Unfolding all the wonders of the sky,
And caught a glimpse of the DIVINITY.
One noon amid the sea-girt rocks she stray'd,
Th' expansive ocean and the heavens survey'd;
Her soul was aw'd, while lost in zeal she stood,
And the majestic wilds of nature view'd.
The air condens'd, to sullen mists transforms,
The sky frown'd awful, big with threatening storms,
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And gathering clouds unite;
The blackening ocean foams upon the shore,
While distant thunders 'mid the mountains roar,
And pelting drops fast o'er the rocks alight.
The angry clouds in troops convolving part,
The dun horizon gleams with horrid dye;
From sulph'rous vapours bursting lightenings dart,
And louder thunders echo through the sky.
Shelter amid the rocky caves she sought,
From the large shower and vivid flash retires,
While solemn peals woke every awful thought,
And the fierce lightenings fill'd the cave with fires.
Still rolling on terrific o'er her head,
The rain in hasty torrents burst the clouds,
Which spent like smoke cross the blue ether fled,
Whose brightness following vapours dimly shroud;
Trembling her face amid the rocks she hides,
Till the fierce horror of the storm subsides.
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Flush'd by her fears, with awe she rear'd her head,
By all the grandeur of the scene inspir'd;
As distantly the solemn clouds retir'd,
She quits the cave, and hail'd them as they fled,
With wild imagination strongly fir'd:
While lambent still the lightnings flash'd around,
And the hoarse thunders roll'd a sullen sound;
Her lifted eyes the clouded heavens transpierce,
Divinest strains she sang of heavenly verse.
Thus, with enthusiastic raptures blind,
A heavenly vision fir'd her feverish mind;
GOD'S voice she thought amid the tempest roll'd.
And fancied streams of glory fill'd the skies!
The fires of heaven the awful clouds unfold,
Ethereal essence flush'd her mortal eyes!
More wild she dreams a cherub downward flew,
And dimm'd the sun as tow'rds the earth he drew.
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Her spirit saw him cut the ambient skies,
While ocean burns with radiance as he flies;
Such hues empyreal his bright frame adorn,
He seems a ray of the eternal morn!
So fraught with living fires, his ardent eyes
Shot forth long beams, which sparkled thro' the skies;
From him bright emanations darted round,
And his wav'd pinions gave celestial sound!
Entranc'd, nor doubting what her fancy saw,
Her youthful bosom heav'd with sacred awe;
She view'd him on the strong rock's pointed height,
Thence breathing strains enchanting mortal ears,
Such as he tun'd amid th' eternal spheres,
Genius immortal wing'd its ardent flight!
The sea responsive mighty surges roll'd,
Bearing each other on, a voice they found,
Heaving, inspir'd, they labour'd with the sound,
And awfully their wondrous nature told.
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The winds which roll the clouds along the sky
In every blast sang forth the Maker's praise;
The spirit seem'd descended from on high
To catch the song, and to th' Almighty raise.
Then, like a meteor, fierce he shot along;
(Refulgence brake, for mortal eyes too strong)
Amidst the clouds emerg'd his radiant head,
Wafting the tributes which all nature pays;
Day seem'd as twilight while the spirit fled,
The amber clouds receiv'd his parting rays.
Then round the shore th' Enthusiast throws her eyes;
(Still foam'd the main, and troubled were the skies)
Dazzled, thro' clouds the watery sun-beams views,
While parting vapours wild and various stray;
Faintly her lucid bow fair IRIS shews;
ARLA conceiv'd it a remaining ray,
And wildly stretch'd her arms t'implore its stay.
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Not unobserv'd her ecstacies had flown,
Nor the vibrations of her heavenly tongue;
For EDRAN 'mid the rocks survey'd her charms,
And the seraphic phrenzy of her eyes,
Her hair long-streaming o'er her trembling arms,
As from her lips the note of rapture flies.
He saw her with fanatic ardour blind,
And smil'd, while passion in his bosom wrought,
And mischief mingling in the villain's thought
With triumphs o'er religion puff'd his mind.
He in the world's base school had studied long,
Vain of his parts, devotion to decry,
And learnt bewitching eloquence of tongue
To palliate vice with shifting sophistry:
His ample front deep penetration shows,
Beneath his powerful brows
Strong flash'd his eyes,
And with invention strength of actions vies.
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Potent in ill; he bent his subtile powers
To draw young ARLA in his wily snare,
Join'd in her raptures, while sublime she pours
Entrancing strains of music on his ear.
Her pious fancies he enrich'd with thought,
She listen'd to the wisdom of his tongue,
And from his eyes fresh inspiration caught,
Whilst he enamour'd on her accents hung.
Her passions were already set on fire,
Without a guard her heart defenceless lay;
Soon to his arts her virtues fell a prey;
Her sweet affections glide to his desire.
Ruin'd, he left her plung'd in deep despair;
The lov'd delusions of her soul were broke,
'Mid anarchy and horror she awoke,
Tumultuous passions her sad bosom tear:
Love warmly lingering in her mem'ry sat,
Urging her wounded soul to desperate hate;
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The rapt'rous dreams her heart had cherish'd long
Flew, like the empty echoes of a song.
Devoid of basis, all support decays,
Her frantic mind can no where find relief;
The bubbles burst which shone with glittering rays,
And nought remain'd save passion, guilt, and grief.
Rob'd in religion, EDRAN won her heart;
Her faith is broke while she resents the wrong,
Wild-panting with love's agonizing smart
She burns, convuls'd with feelings deep and strong;
And oft diseas'd
With mingled passions, fiery ecstasies
Her trembling lips pour'd potently in song.
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