CHARLES HEAVYSEGE.
A man of worth, a man of mind,Has bade farewell to human kind.No pomp, no sound of muffled drum,No multitudes’ uncertain humHas stirred the air; but stifled sighs,And gleaming tears and shaded eyesAre tokens of a reverence feltFor one who to the Muses knelt,In fealty with noblest vow,And rose with garland on his brow.So child-like, modest, reticent,With head in meditation bent,He walked our streets!—and no one knewThat something of celestial hueHad passed along; a toil-worn manWas seen, no more; the fire that ranElectric through his veins and wroughtSublimity of soul and thought,And kindled into song, no eyeBeheld until a foreign sky[10]Reflected back the wondrous light,And heralded the poet’s might.Though doomed to less of sun than shade,No weak complaint he ever made;But bravely lived, content to letThe great world roar, and fume, and fret.In visions of the days of eldHe revelled, and in joy beheldThe glory of the Hebrew sages,Whose utterance has toned the ages.The sacred mount, the cave, the streamWhere holy seers were wont to dream,He knew and loved, and summoned thenceThe agents of Omnipotence;Fantastic sprites, and buried menTo fight gray battles o’er again.Behold dread Samuel’s shade appear!Behold Goliath’s mighty spear!And lithe-limbed David’s sling and stone,And Saul’s fierce madness; one by oneThey rise before us, march, or stand,Obedient to the Poet’s wand.Dear friend, adieu! if Malzah-likeAn adverse Fate ordained to strike,Beset thee on life’s weary way,And followed close from day to day,He failed to conquer, failed to wrestOne murmur from thy manly breast.Companion of my happiest hours,Would that my words were fadeless flowers!That I might lay them on thy tombTo mitigate its lasting gloom,And evermore above thee bloom.
A man of worth, a man of mind,Has bade farewell to human kind.No pomp, no sound of muffled drum,No multitudes’ uncertain humHas stirred the air; but stifled sighs,And gleaming tears and shaded eyesAre tokens of a reverence feltFor one who to the Muses knelt,In fealty with noblest vow,And rose with garland on his brow.So child-like, modest, reticent,With head in meditation bent,He walked our streets!—and no one knewThat something of celestial hueHad passed along; a toil-worn manWas seen, no more; the fire that ranElectric through his veins and wroughtSublimity of soul and thought,And kindled into song, no eyeBeheld until a foreign sky[10]Reflected back the wondrous light,And heralded the poet’s might.Though doomed to less of sun than shade,No weak complaint he ever made;But bravely lived, content to letThe great world roar, and fume, and fret.In visions of the days of eldHe revelled, and in joy beheldThe glory of the Hebrew sages,Whose utterance has toned the ages.The sacred mount, the cave, the streamWhere holy seers were wont to dream,He knew and loved, and summoned thenceThe agents of Omnipotence;Fantastic sprites, and buried menTo fight gray battles o’er again.Behold dread Samuel’s shade appear!Behold Goliath’s mighty spear!And lithe-limbed David’s sling and stone,And Saul’s fierce madness; one by oneThey rise before us, march, or stand,Obedient to the Poet’s wand.Dear friend, adieu! if Malzah-likeAn adverse Fate ordained to strike,Beset thee on life’s weary way,And followed close from day to day,He failed to conquer, failed to wrestOne murmur from thy manly breast.Companion of my happiest hours,Would that my words were fadeless flowers!That I might lay them on thy tombTo mitigate its lasting gloom,And evermore above thee bloom.
A man of worth, a man of mind,Has bade farewell to human kind.No pomp, no sound of muffled drum,No multitudes’ uncertain humHas stirred the air; but stifled sighs,And gleaming tears and shaded eyesAre tokens of a reverence feltFor one who to the Muses knelt,In fealty with noblest vow,And rose with garland on his brow.
So child-like, modest, reticent,With head in meditation bent,He walked our streets!—and no one knewThat something of celestial hueHad passed along; a toil-worn manWas seen, no more; the fire that ranElectric through his veins and wroughtSublimity of soul and thought,And kindled into song, no eyeBeheld until a foreign sky[10]Reflected back the wondrous light,And heralded the poet’s might.
Though doomed to less of sun than shade,No weak complaint he ever made;But bravely lived, content to letThe great world roar, and fume, and fret.In visions of the days of eldHe revelled, and in joy beheldThe glory of the Hebrew sages,Whose utterance has toned the ages.The sacred mount, the cave, the streamWhere holy seers were wont to dream,He knew and loved, and summoned thenceThe agents of Omnipotence;Fantastic sprites, and buried menTo fight gray battles o’er again.Behold dread Samuel’s shade appear!Behold Goliath’s mighty spear!And lithe-limbed David’s sling and stone,And Saul’s fierce madness; one by oneThey rise before us, march, or stand,Obedient to the Poet’s wand.
Dear friend, adieu! if Malzah-likeAn adverse Fate ordained to strike,Beset thee on life’s weary way,And followed close from day to day,He failed to conquer, failed to wrestOne murmur from thy manly breast.Companion of my happiest hours,Would that my words were fadeless flowers!That I might lay them on thy tombTo mitigate its lasting gloom,And evermore above thee bloom.
[10]The lofty genius of this author attracted no attention in Canada till noticed by theNorth British Reviewin an article on his “Saul,” which appeared in the August number of 1858.
[10]The lofty genius of this author attracted no attention in Canada till noticed by theNorth British Reviewin an article on his “Saul,” which appeared in the August number of 1858.
[10]The lofty genius of this author attracted no attention in Canada till noticed by theNorth British Reviewin an article on his “Saul,” which appeared in the August number of 1858.