Chevy Chase

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE FEAST. r AIR art thou, midst thy realms of air, Son of the morning! thou art fair; As rolling back the mists of night, With conquering floods of crimson light, Thou marchest forth, in godlike state, From out thy golden eastern gate, Like a strong giant, flush'd with wine, To run that heavenly race of thine. What hand may veil thy living rays, What eye endure thine ardent blaze, Against thy might what heart rebel, And where thou art can darkness dwell Already, lo! the stormy west Discloses wide her teeming breast, And pours abroad a death-like shroud, A growing mass of gloomy cloud; The murky volumes dim the skies; Thy splendor fades, thy glory dies ! How art thou fallen now, and shorn Thy radiant beams, thou son of morn! So fickle life's uncertain state, So low the proud, so weak the great! So human foresight's steadiest views Are frail and faint as morning hues! So the full tide of bliss runs high; What foe alarms ? What storm is nigh ? We see no storm?we fear no foe-? And perish, ere we feel the blow. Who's he that speaks of foe or fear ? Such warning sound were slighted here; Here yeomen whistle in the shade, Plying the woodman's hardy trade; Here round the bulky forest-king A hundred keen-edg'd axes ring; The biting metal rends his side, Start the thick splinters far and wide; And soon his broad colossal form Shivers before the driving storm, Thro' all its arms and branches grey, From solid trunk to slender spray. Still stands he firm?Another blow! Scarce seen to move, reluctant, slow, With all his weight of wood he bends; That treacherous weight its succour lends, And drags him groaning to the ground, With jarring crash and thundering sound. Full many a time, from oak or ash, That day was heard the thundering crash, And thro' the valley thickets broke ...