The legend of the rocks : and other poems

Front matter

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Ex Llbrls

OALLAUDET COLLEGE

2. Amid a throng in deep attention bound

To catch the accents that from others fall, The flow of eloquence — the heav'nly sound

Breath'd from the soul of melody, while all Instructed or delighted list around,

Vacant unconsciousness must me enthral ! I can but watch each animated face, And there attempt th' inspiring theme to trace.

3. Unheard, unheeded are the lips by me

To others that unfold some heav'n-born art;--- And melody — Oh dearest melody !

How had thine accents, thrilling to my heart, Awaken'd all its strings to sympathy,

Bidding the spirit at thy magic start ! How had my heart responsive to the strain, Throb'd in love's wild delight, or soothing pain!

4. In vain — alas, in vain ! thy numbers roll

Within my heart no echo they inspire ; Though form'd by nature in thy sweet control

To melt with tenderness, or glow with fire, Misfortune clos'd the portals of the soul,

And till an Orpheus rise to sweep the lyre That can to animation kindle stone, To me thy thrilling power must be unknown.

5. Yet not that every portal of the mind

Is clos'd against me, I my lot deplore ; Although debar'd by destiny unkind

From one that never shall be open'd more, Still from my lot at times relief I find,

When science, I thy temple stand before, Whose portal thou hast open'd, to my sight ; The gems displaying there enshrin'd in light.

6. Blest Science! but for thee what were I now ?

Denied the rights of man, as to employ Those rights incapable— mankind, if thou

Hadst not aris'n the barrier to destroy, No human blessings would to me allow ;

The sensual pleasures which the brutes enjoy Alone were mine, than brutes a nobler name Entitled only by my form to claim !

■•7.

Friends of misfortune's race, whose heart and hand Are never clos'd against affliction's prayer,

To heathens can your charity expand ! Will you to them the gospel tidings bear ?

And yet neglect your own, your native land ? O shall the gospel be a stranger there?

Behold the Deaf and Dumb ! What heathens need

More eloquently for your aid can plead ?

8. Strangers to God ! — And shall they still be so ?

Will you not lift a hand the veil to rend — Their intellectual eyes to heaven throw,

And lead them to a father and a friend 1 Will you not snatch them from the gulfs of woe,

To which they else unrescued must descend ? O save them ! save them ! that the Deaf and Dumb May bless you in this world, and in the world to come!

9. Spirit of philanthropy! thou hast srriil'd

AVhere the attempt already has been made, To cultivate the mind's deserted wild ;

Though eloquence were pow'rless to persuade, None can compare the unenlighten'd child

With those who have already known thine aid, But in a difference so wide must feel A deep, an irresistible appeal.

10. None can behold how eagerly they cling

Around the new creator of their mind, Who, the Prometheus of the anxious ring,

The hallow'd flame in learning's fane enshrin'd Kindles within them, yet refuse to bring

Where they with these may equalblessings find,

The numbers who unaided still demand Those blessings from a benefactor's hand.

11. Neglect you will not suffer to efface

The work that your benevolence began ; Nor bid them grovel still in thraldom base,

Who claim from you the faculties of man ; You will not if you love the human race,

You will not, cannot, for no christian can, In whom the God of christians has imprest This truth, — in blessing we indeed are blest !

12. Would that of eloquence I own'd the might

To paint the feelings in my breast enshrin'cl. For those enwrapt in the Cimmerian night

Whose darkness had encanopied my mind, If Science on me had not stream'd her light, And rais'd me to a level with mankind ! When I my happier lot with their's compare, Can 1 to feel or plead for them forbear 1

13. Of life to cheer my desolated scene

The rays of friendship beam but for a while ; ; ' Like angel visits few and far between,"

Are those my dreary moments that beguile ;

And oft, alas, misfortunes intervene, To tear me from a friend's endearing smile ;

But e'en in solitude the cultur'd mind Society within itself can find.

14. The works of genius lying at my side

I claim in each an ever welcome friend, From whose society, whate'er betide,

Misfortunes have no power my mind to rend ; On whom, when human intercourse denied,

I may for rational delight depend ; And till these eyes are clos'd in endless night, I cannot be bereft of that delight,

15. Shall I of utter loneliness repine

While I with a delighted eye can see The spirit of genius, breathing in the line

That kindles with its wild sublimity, While beauty dazzles in the lay divine,

And pathos melts the soul to sympathy, And fancy wafts my thoughts upon her pinions, Roving the fairy land of her dominions?

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To me, when beauty's fingers lightly tread The quiv'ring strings, no rapture they impart ;

Yet, melody, though to thine accents dead, Whose witchery had else subdu'd my heart,

From infancy my spirit has been led In blissful thraldom by thy sister art ;

Sweet poetry! still shall it own thy sway,

Till on the wings of death it soars away.

17. Ye sacred nymphs, that in Elysium steep

The spirit form'd by nature for your sway •, Who when their strings your favour'd vot'ries sweep,

The inspiration breathe into the lay That fires the dead, and bids the marble weep,

Deign to illuminate me with a ray That, though it beam on a neglected lyre, May only with the life it cheers expire.

18. Perhaps unhonour'd I must live and die

And when the Minstrel Boy is swept away, His harp within his grave unreck'd shall lie,

A.nd with his name become oblivion's prey ; — Well, be it so — I care not if no eye

But thine, shall ever dwell upon my lay, Should thine embalm these pages with a tear For him, who had but thee to value here.