FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   >>  
falls the stubborn oak. The lightning keen, in wasteful ire, Fierce darting on the lofty spire, Wide rends in twain the ir'n-knit stone, And stately tow'rs are lowly thrown. Wild flames o'erscour the wide campaign, And plough askance the hissing main. Nor strength of man may brave the storm, Nor shelter skreen the shrinking form; Nor castle wall its fury stay, Nor masy gate may bar its way. It visits those of low estate, It shakes the dwellings of the great, It looks athwart the secret tomb, And glares upon the prison's gloom; While dungeons deep, in unknown light, Flash hidious on the wretches' fight, And lowly groans the downward cell, Where deadly silence wont to dwell. Now upcast eyes to heav'n adore, And knees that never bow'd before. In stupid wonder flares the child; The maiden turns her glances wild, And lifts to hear the coming roar: The aged shake their locks so hoar: And stoutest hearts begin to fail, And many a manly cheek is pale; Till nearer closing peals astound, And crashing ruin mingles round; Then 'numbing fear awhile up-binds The pausing action of their minds, Till wak'd to dreadful sense, they lift their eyes, And round the stricken corse, shrill shrieks of horror rise. Now thinly spreads the falling hall A motly winter o'er the vale, The hailstones bounding as they fall On hardy rock, or storm-beat' wall. The loud beginning peal its fury checks, Now full, now fainter, with irreg'lar breaks, Then weak in force, unites the scatter'd found; And rolls its lengthen'd grumblings to the distant bound. A thick and muddy whiteness clothes the sky, In paler flashes gleams the lightning by; And thro' the rent cloud, silver'd with his ray, The sun looks down on all this wild affray; As high enthron'd above all mortal ken, A greater Pow'r beholds the strife of men: Yet o'er the distant hills the darkness scowls, And deep, and long, the parting tempest growls. WIND. Pow'r uncontrollable, who hold'st thy sway In the unbounded air, whose trackless way Is in the firmament, unknown of fight, Who bend'st the sheeted heavens in thy might, And lift'st the ocean from its lowest bed To join in middle space the conflict dread; Who o'er the peopled earth in ruin scours, And buffets the firm rock that proudly low'rs, Thy signs are in the heav'ns. The upper clouds Draw shapeless o'er the sky their misty shrowds; Whilst darker fragments rove in lower bands, And mournful purple cloaths
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55  
56   >>  



Top keywords:
unknown
 

distant

 

lightning

 

gleams

 

affray

 

silver

 
flashes
 
beginning
 

checks

 
winter

hailstones

 

bounding

 
fainter
 

grumblings

 

lengthen

 

whiteness

 

scatter

 

breaks

 
unites
 
clothes

buffets

 

scours

 
proudly
 
peopled
 

middle

 

conflict

 

mournful

 
cloaths
 

purple

 

fragments


darker

 

clouds

 

shapeless

 

Whilst

 
shrowds
 

lowest

 
scowls
 

darkness

 
parting
 

growls


tempest

 

strife

 

enthron

 
mortal
 

beholds

 

greater

 

uncontrollable

 

firmament

 

sheeted

 
heavens