Section 11

I have spent my life in these prison walls, With a bursting heart and a brain of fire ;
And I've sadly v^ept for my father's halls, Till it seemed that my life would expire.
The dream is past, its hues have fled ; The heart-wish now departed :
For hope is crushed and joy is dead, ,:,
And I am broken-hearted. %
tt-"'
I hear at last the 'death trump call ;
My soul shall have its meed ; And from my limbs the chains shall fall —
These prison walls recede. The music of celestial wings,
In breezy murmurs low, ,^
Unto my heart a joyance brings, ^;'
Like strains of long ago.
Mine eyes wax dim, and faint mine ear j
Life's earth-born sounds depart ; Death's pulseless hand, with grasp severe,
Is laid upon my heart. Yield, yield — O, dying heart give o'er ;
Of joys superne these raptures tell — O poor crushed heart — forever more.
The spirit weeps to thee. Farewell.
The wail hath ceased, and on the voiceless air mute silence reigns.
^OLIAN MELODIES.
173
^S nr *!• *l* *!* '^
List, list — in hollow moans, Its own wild requiem of solemn plaints. The grieving spirit breathes, all fraught with sad
unrest, And inborn woe.
Euthanasia.
Oh, were it not better far to die. And in the Lethean tomb to lie ; Than thus to live and tortured be, In burning chains of misery ? There's nought in life for me to quaff, But pain and woe — a bitter draught. Joy sends no sweetened chalice here, No sunshine on my path to cheer The wand'rer o'er life's dreary wild ; Nor gleam of hope with radiance mild, To chase the glooms that o'er my way. Shuts out the light of life and day. No tone from life's great lyre around, Falls on mine ear — a pleasant sound ; No soul akin or answering tone Responds unto my spirit's moan ; No hue of bliss, except in dreams. That sometimes o'er my slumber gleams, As shines the pale sweet wand'ring light Of Cynthia thro' the clouds of night —
174 MRS. munday's poems.
Too sweet to last, too bright to rest,
Like vermil fading from the West;
And joy and hope, and glory's beams,
Are but the light of passing dreams —
Shadows of some supernal clime,
When God shall close the Book of Time,
And open on our yearning sight,
A volume of seraphic light.
Then, at his word the soul shall soar
Through bright infinitudes of lore —
Eternity's broad page explore,
And quaff its truths and thirst no more.
Oh, could I sleep the sleep of death, I'd gladly yield my struggling breath. Could I but find that dreamless rest- That long deep slumber of the blest : For they are blest who die at last. Shut out from life's dread battle blast. And sink to that serene repose, O'er which the sable wings shall close, Of death and night, forever more. Would I might leave Time's dreary shore. And find oblivion of the soul. Where cold the Stygian surges roll — Death's solemn folds across my breast I'd gently wrap, and seek my rest. Grant me, ye fates, this last behest : Let me but sleep, and I am blest.
iEOLIAN MELODIES.
175
» 4: ^ :t: 4c 4e
Away, like ocean's swelling surges, died,
On distant hills, those sad Euterpean strains. * * * * * %
And now, methinks, deep organ-tones I hear,
Borne on the stately winds, sad, solemn, an^
sublime.
Sorrows of Genius.
Long years I have toiled in the mines of thought,
With a yearning soul and a brain o'er-wrought ;
I have shut myself out from the haunts of men —
From Fashion's mart and Deception's fen ;
From the festive board and the halls of mirth —
The social throng, round the cheerful hearth ;
From the youthful band, who with twinkling feet,
In the gay, glad measures of joyance meet.
Where the syrens of love in their sweet bow'rs sing.
And over young hearts their soft spells fling.
Aye, the things of all time, for this lonely cell
I have left, with my thoughts and my soul to dwell ;
Till with heart-sick'ning woe and with sorrow of mind
For some kindred tone, my lonesome soul pined ;
Till mine eyes waxed dim and my cheeks grew pale.
And the heaven-borrowed hues of earth did fail ;
Thro' blight, and thro' pains, and thro' struggling tears,
It hath lain on my heart and burnt for years ;
This deep mountain thirst for God-given truth,
176
MRS. MUNDAY^S POEMS.
For all science and lore ; till the fires of youth, And its vigor of thought are extinguished and dead — Till hope hath departed and Love's light hath fled j In multitudes mixed my soul stands alone, I^ow distanced from men, by the mind's wave
upborne ; In the great harp of being there's no answering tone— There's nothing in life to love or to mourn. I have worshiped wildly in Learning's fane — Through blood and through fire, through anguish and
pain ; And thus I had madly hoped to have caught The undying hues of God-gifted thought ; Some heart-breathing tone from Apollo's rapt lyrt, Or soul-waking spark of Promethean fire. That should mount o'er the storms and the ruins of
time,. Like a star en the night, immortal, sublime. But, where is the wealth in the temple of lore, The glittering thought-gems the brain had in store ; The spoils of the mind, and the deep soul-strain ? Are they gone with the dreams that return not again } Oh, what can assuage the deep thirst of my soul.'' The race is not won, and unreached the goal ; For the grasp of the mind stops not with the stars, But still soaring on till eternity bars The soul's deathless fount, and the source of all light From the spirit's deep thirst and its yearning sight. Oh, a fearful boon to my soul was given !
JEOLIAN MELODIES.
177
Too brightly tinged — too much of heaven,
Are my hfe's burning dreams, and too strong the chain
That around my deep heart-affection hath lain.
The web of my being's too etherially wrought—
Too heaven-born the music my soul's ear hath caught:)
For the raptures of earth too spiritually given,
And too much of earth for a dweller of heaven.
Yet the chain will burst and the bars be riven,
And the quest of my soul at last be given.
It shall stretch forth its wings and soar at last
From heav'n to heav'n in those realms vast ;
It shall bask in the light of eternal truth.
And quench its thirst in the fountain of youth. * * * * * *
Hark ! again mine ear drinks in a tone profound,
Like the far roar of ocean's liquid thunder,
Or voices of assembled storms remote —
So strangely, terribly, with life-sounds blent ;
Yet musical and clear, that it would seem
The earth-encircling hymn of some strong angel's lyre ;
While on its cadences sublime methinks I hear
The stirring sounds of martial strains or battle's yell :
As if the viewless heav'n-sent wanderer,
D'er fall'n myriads from Mars' red field,
f2s cloud-clearing wings had swept.
'Twould seem, 0 eagle-winged winds of heaven,
Ye were the earth-directed harbingers of ill.
Unto a world guilt-stricken, from the great god of
storms,
178 MRS. MUNDAT'S POEMS.
Who full of power rides in majestic wrath,
On chariot clouds, whose winged steeds
Are the embattling elements, lightning-reigned.
And full of speed — whose word is fate etern,
And his voice thunders.
Now madly shrieks
The spirit-voice along the arching sky,
Dying afar like peans o'er the slain. . ♦ ♦ * 4: ♦
1
J
INDEX.
Page. 3
23 30 30
T^rpfticp ^ •■ ■• ^ "
Memoirs of Mrs. L. A. H. Munday, - .' t AcAciAN Lyrics, -""'_, Jerusalem, -
Three Friends and the Jewel, - - 1
Stanzas for the Year, - - , 'II
Lines on the Death of Austin J. Moms, 18
An Allegory, - - " " Miscellaneous Pieces,
Reminiscences, " " ' qr
Lone Tree and Solitary Grave, - ' t^
Song of the Genii, ' " " 49
Oceola's Lament, - - - "44
Musings, " ' " " 40
Rosseau's Heloise, - - - " k?
Autumn Winds are Sighing, ' ' ^t
To a Young Poetess, - - ' -t
The Shipwreck, - " " ?^
The Graduate's Farewell, - - ' ^^
The Moon, _ - - - t>0
To an Absent One,
To Leonore, - - " "
Music, - ~ " " " '^n
Lines on the Death of a Lady, " " ' ^
The Daguerrean Gallery, - - 'It The Pen, .---'» (181)
62 64 67
182 Index.
Childhood's Rambles,
s
.
- 78
A Portrait,
-
-
-
83
Genius,
-
-
- 84
The Wandering Ship,
-
-
-
91
The Maniac,
-
-
- 94
My Native Land,
-
-
-
101
Musings,
-
-
- 103
To — , -
-
-
-
106
Paganini,
-
-
- 109
Epithelamium, -
-
-
-
112
Lyrics,
-
-
- 113
Songs of War,
-
-
-
121
The Departure,
-
-
- 121
The March,
-
-
.
123
Rio Grande,
.
-
- 125
Palo Alto,
.
~
-
127
Notes to War Songs,
-
-
-131
Sonnets and Songs,
-
-
.
133
Song of the Flowers,
-
.
- 133
Spring, -
-
-
-
134
To a Friend,
-
-
- 135
Stanzas, -
-
-
-
137
Isabel,
-
-
- 138
Written in a Lady's Album,
-
-
140
To a Portrait,
-
-
- 141
To ^,
-
-
-
141
Stanzas,
-
-
- 143
Song, -
-
-
-
144
Stanzas,
-
-
- 145
Fantasies, -
-
-
- 146
To Amanda Harte,
-
-
-.
148
Song,
-
-
- 149
To Mary Bell, -
-
-
-
15!
Song,
-
-
- 162
A Dream of the Past,
152
- J
Index. 1S3
The Serenade, - - • . j54
S^^gj 155
-^OUAN Melodies, - - • . I57
The Exiles Lament, - - - 159
The Broken Hearted, - - - 160
The Dying Boy, - - - 163
The Mother's Lament, - - . 164
The Orphans, - - - - 166
The Bereaved, - - - - 168
The Captive Chief, - - - 169
The Captive Exile, - « - 170
Euthanasia, - - - » 173
Sorrows of Genius, - * - - 175
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