Monody on the Death of Chatterton

1. 1O what a wonder seems the fear of death,
2. 2Seeing how gladly we all sink to sleep,
3. 3Babes, Children, Youths, and Men,
4. 4Night following night for threescore years and ten!
5. 5But doubly strange, where life is but a breath
6. 6To sigh and pant with, up Want's rugged steep.

1. 7Away, Grim Phantom! Scorpion King, away!
2. 8Reserve thy terrors and thy stings display
3. 9For coward Wealth and Guilt in robes of State!
4. 10Lo! by the grave I stand of one, for whom
5. 11A prodigal Nature and a niggard Doom
6. 12(That all bestowing, this withholding all)
7. 13Made each chance knell from distant spire or dome
8. 14Sound like a seeking Mother's anxious call,
9. 15Return, poor Child! Home, weary Truant, home!

1. 16Thee, Chatterton! these unblest stones protect
2. 17From want, and the bleak freezings of neglect.
3. 18Too long before the vexing Storm-blast driven
4. 19Here hast thou found repose! beneath this sod!
5. 20Thou! O vain word! thou dwell'st not with the clod!
6. 21Amid the shining Host of the Forgiven
7. 22Thou at the throne of mercy and thy God
8. 23The triumph of redeeming Love dost hymn
9. 24(Believe it, O my Soul!) to harps of Seraphim.

1. 25Yet oft, perforce ('tis suffering Nature's call),
2. 26I weep that heaven-born Genius so should fall;
3. 27And oft, in Fancy's saddest hour, my soul
4. 28Averted shudders at the poison'd bowl.
5. 29Now groans my sickening heart, as still I view
6. 30Thy corse of livid hue;
7. 31Now Indignation checks the feeble sigh,
8. 32Or flashes through the tear that glistens in mine eye!

1. 33Is this the land of song-ennobled line?
2. 34Is this the land, where Genius ne'er in vain
3. 35Pour'd forth his lofty strain?
4. 36Ah me! yet Spenser, gentlest bard divine,
5. 37Beneath chill Disappointment's shade,
6. 38His weary limbs in lonely anguish lay'd.
7. 39And o'er her darling dead
8. 40Pity hopeless hung her head,
9. 41While 'mid the pelting of that merciless storm,'
10. 42Sunk to the cold earth Otway's famish'd form!
11. 43Sublime of thought, and confident of fame,
12. 44From vales where Avon winds the Minstrel came.
13. 45Light-hearted youth! aye, as he hastes along,
14. 46He meditates the future song,
15. 47How dauntless Ælla fray'd the Dacyan foe;
16. 48And while the numbers flowing strong
17. 49In eddies whirl, in surges throng,
18. 50Exulting in the spirits' genial throe
19. 51In tides of power his life-blood seems to flow.

1. 52And now his cheeks with deeper ardors flame,
2. 53His eyes have glorious meanings, that declare
3. 54More than the light of outward day shines there,
4. 55A holier triumph and a sterner aim!
5. 56Wings grow within him; and he soars above
6. 57Or Bard's or Minstrel's lay of war or love.
7. 58Friend to the friendless, to the sufferer health,
8. 59He hears the widow's prayer, the good man's praise;
9. 60To scenes of bliss transmutes his fancied wealth,
10. 61And young and old shall now see happy days.
11. 62On many a waste he bids trim gardens rise,
12. 63Gives the blue sky to many a prisoner's eyes;
13. 64And now in wrath he grasps the patriot steel,
14. 65And her own iron rod he makes Oppression feel.
15. 66Sweet Flower of Hope! free Nature's genial child!
16. 67That didst so fair disclose thy early bloom,
17. 68Filling the wide air with a rich perfume!
18. 69For thee in vain all heavenly aspects smil'd;
19. 70From the hard world brief respite could they win--
20. 71The frost nipp'd sharp without, the canker prey'd within!
21. 72Ah! where are fled the charms of vernal Grace,
22. 73And Joy's wild gleams that lighten'd o'er thy face?
23. 74Youth of tumultuous soul, and haggard eye!
24. 75Thy wasted form, thy hurried steps I view,
25. 76On thy wan forehead starts the lethal dew,
26. 77And oh! the anguish of that shuddering sigh!

1. 78Such were the struggles of the gloomy hour,
2. 79When Care, of wither'd brow,
3. 80Prepar'd the poison's death-cold power:
4. 81Already to thy lips was rais'd the bowl,
5. 82When near thee stood Affection meek
6. 83(Her bosom bare, and wildly pale her cheek)
7. 84Thy sullen gaze she bade thee roll
8. 85On scenes that well might melt thy soul;
9. 86Thy native cot she flash'd upon thy view,
10. 87Thy native cot, where still, at close of day,
11. 88Peace smiling sate, and listen'd to thy lay;
12. 89Thy Sister's shrieks she bade thee hear,
13. 90And mark thy Mother's thrilling tear;
14. 91See, see her breast's convulsive throe,
15. 92Her silent agony of woe!
16. 93Ah! dash the poison'd chalice from thy hand!

1. 94And thou hadst dashed it, at her soft command,
2. 95But that Despair and Indignation rose,
3. 96And told again the story of thy woes;
4. 97Told the keen insult of the unfeeling heart,
5. 98The dread dependence on the low-born mind;
6. 99Told every pang, with which thy soul must smart,
7. 100Neglect, and grinning Scorn, and Want combined!
8. 101Recoiling quick, thou badest the friend of pain
9. 102Roll the black tide of Death through every freezing vein!
10. 103O spirit blest!
11. 104Whether the Eternal's throne around,
12. 105Amidst the blaze of Seraphim,
13. 106Thou pourest forth the grateful hymn,
14. 107Or soaring thro' the blest domain
15. 108Enrapturest Angels with thy strain,--
16. 109Grant me, like thee, the lyre to sound,
17. 110Like thee with fire divine to glow;--
18. 111But ah! when rage the waves of woe,
19. 112Grant me with firmer breast to meet their hate,
20. 113And soar beyond the storm with upright eye elate!

1. 114Ye woods! that wave o'er Avon's rocky steep,
2. 115To Fancy's ear sweet is your murmuring deep!
3. 116For here she loves the cypress wreath to weave;
4. 117Watching with wistful eye, the saddening tints of eve.
5. 118Here, far from men, amid this pathless grove,
6. 119In solemn thought the Minstrel wont to rove,
7. 120Like star-beam on the slow sequester'd tide
8. 121Lone-glittering, through the high tree branching wide.
9. 122And here, in Inspiration's eager hour,
10. 123When most the big soul feels the mastering power,
11. 124These wilds, these caverns roaming o'er,
12. 125Round which the screaming sea-gulls soar,
13. 126With wild unequal steps he pass'd along,
14. 127Oft pouring on the winds a broken song:
15. 128Anon, upon some rough rock's fearful brow
16. 129Would pause abrupt--and gaze upon the waves below.

1. 130Poor Chatterton! he sorrows for thy fate
2. 131Who would have prais'd and lov'd thee, ere too late.
3. 132Poor Chatterton! farewell! of darkest hues
4. 133This chaplet cast I on thy unshaped tomb;
5. 134But dare no longer on the sad theme muse,
6. 135Lest kindred woes persuade a kindred doom:
7. 136For oh! big gall-drops, shook from Folly's wing,
8. 137Have blacken'd the fair promise of my spring;
9. 138And the stern Fate transpierc'd with viewless dart
10. 139The last pale Hope that shiver'd at my heart!

1. 140Hence, gloomy thoughts! no more my soul shall dwell
2. 141On joys that were! no more endure to weigh
3. 142The shame and anguish of the evil day,
4. 143Wisely forgetful! O'er the ocean swell
5. 144Sublime of Hope I seek the cottag'd dell
6. 145Where Virtue calm with careless step may stray;
7. 146And, dancing to the moon-light roundelay,
8. 147The wizard Passions weave an holy spell!

1. 148O Chatterton! that thou wert yet alive!
2. 149Sure thou would'st spread the canvass to the gale,
3. 150And love with us the tinkling team to drive
4. 151O'er peaceful Freedom's undivided dale;
5. 152And we, at sober eve, would round thee throng,
6. 153Would hang, enraptur'd, on thy stately song,
7. 154And greet with smiles the young-eyed Poesy
8. 155All deftly mask'd as hoar Antiquity.

1. 156Alas, vain Phantasies! the fleeting brood
2. 157Of Woe self-solac'd in her dreamy mood!
3. 158Yet will I love to follow the sweet dream,
4. 159Where Susquehannah pours his untamed stream;
5. 160And on some hill, whose forest-frowning side
6. 161Waves o'er the murmurs of his calmer tide,
7. 162Will raise a solemn Cenotaph to thee,
8. 163Sweet Harper of time-shrouded Minstrelsy!
9. 164And there, sooth'd sadly by the dirgeful wind,
10. 165Muse on the sore ills I had left behind.