Your fame be chiseled in unblemished stone,
Your hearts be modeled on the plummet's line,
Your faith be guided by the Book divine;
And when at last the gavel's beat above
Calls you from labor to the feast of love,
May mighty Boaz, pillar'd at that gate
Which seraphs tyle and where archangels wait,
Unloose the bandage from your dazzled eyes,
Spell out the _Password_ to Arch-Royal skies;
Upon your bosom set the signet steel,
Help's sign disclose, and Friendship's grip reveal;
Place in your grasp the soul's unerring rod,
And light you to the Temple of your God!
[Decoration]
XXII.
_POLLOCK'S EUTHANASIA._
He is gone! the young, and gifted!
By his own strong pinions lifted
To the stars;
Where he strikes, with minstrels olden,
Choral harps, whose strings are golden,
Deathless bars.
There, with Homer's ghost all hoary,
Not with years, but fadeless glory,
Lo! he stands;
And through that open portal,
We behold the bards immortal
Clasping hands!
Hark! how Rome's great epic master
Sings, that death is no disaster
To the wise;
Fame on earth is but a menial,
But it reigns a king perennial
In the skies!
Albion's blind old bard heroic,
Statesman, sage, and Christian stoic,
Greets his son;
Whilst in paeans wild and glorious,
Like his "Paradise victorious,"
Sings, Well done!
Lo! a bard with forehead pendent,
But with glory's beams resplendent
As a star;
Slow descends from regions higher,
With a crown and golden lyre
In his car.
All around him, crowd as minions,
Thrones and sceptres, and dominions,
Kings and Queens;
Ages past and ages present,
Lord and dame, and prince and peasant,
His demesnes!
Approach! young bard hesperian,
Welcome to the heights empyrean,
Thou did'st sing,
Ere yet thy trembling fingers
Struck where fame immortal lingers,
In the string.
Kneel! I am the bard of Avon,
And the Realm of song in Heaven
Is my own;
Long thy verse shall live in story,
And
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