wn'd;
To-night the Vote upon whose tongue,
The nicely-poised Division hung,
Was thine--beneath that placid brow
What feelings throb exulting now!
Thy rival falls;--on grandeur's base
Go shake the nations in his place!
IV.
FAME, LOVE, AMBITION! what are Ye,
With all your wasting passions' war,
To the great Strife that, like a sea,
O'erswept His soul tumultuously,
Whose face gleams on me like a star--
A star that gleams through murky clouds--
As here begirt by struggling crowds
A spell-bound Loiterer I stand,
Before a print-shop in the Strand?
What are your eager hopes and fears
Whose minutes wither men like years--
Your schemes defeated or fulfill'd,
To the emotions dread that thrill'd
_His_ frame on that October night,
When, watching by the lonely mast,
_He saw on shore the moving light_,
And felt, though darkness veil'd the sight,
The long-sought World was his at last?{A}
V.
How Fancy's boldest glances fail,
Contemplating each hurrying mood
Of thought that to that aspect pale
Sent up the heart's o'erboiling flood
Through that vast vigil, while his eyes
Watch'd till the slow reluctant skies
Should kindle, and the vision dread,
Of all his livelong years be read!
In youth, his faith-led spirit doom'd
Still to be baffled and betray'd,
His manhood's vigorous noon consumed
Ere Power bestow'd its niggard aid;
That morn of summer, dawning grey,{B}
When, from Huelva's humble bay,
He full of hope, before the gale
Turn'd on the hopeless World his sail,
And steer'd for seas untrack'd, unknown,
And westward still sail'd on--sail'd on--
Sail'd on till Ocean seem'd to be
All shoreless as Eternity,
Till, from its long-loved Star estranged,
At last the constant Needle changed,{C}
And fierce amid his murmuring crew
Prone terror into treason grew;
While on his tortured spirit rose,
More dire than portents, toils, or foes,
The awaiting World's loud jeers and scorn
Yell'd o'er his profitless Return;
No--none through that dark watch may trace
The feelings wild beneath whose swell,
As heaves the bark the billows' race,
His Being rose and fell!
Yet over doubt, and pride, and pain,
O'er all that flash'd through breast and brain,
As w
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