36 THE HOSPICE OF ST. BERNARD. 



These are as some wild dream with terror fraught, 

 Which haunts our sleep and awes the waking thought : 

 These fill the soul with feelings more intense 

 Than scenes which win the eye and charm the sense. 



Mournful the tales the holy fathers tell 

 Of those that moulder in that dreary cell. 

 Vainly for them when storms were loud and high, 

 And eddying snows obscured the brooding sky ; 

 When now no more their wearied feet might toil, 

 And the gaunt vulture hovered round his spoil : 

 Vainly the faithful hounds' sagacious bay 

 Resounded o'er the dark and pathless way : 

 Oh } who may paint the anguish and the prayer, 

 The last sad accents of unsoothed despair ? 

 Or who may tell the bitterness to die 

 In desolate and helpless agony ? 

 Not theirs the turf that hides their brethren's graves, 

 Not theirs the yew that o'er their kindred waves; 

 No sorrowing friends around their silent bier 

 Breathe the low sigh or shed the tribute tear ; 

 Tho' haply in some distant region yet 

 For each some heart beats warm, some cheek is wet : 

 Still may some aged mother's memory roam 

 To him who once consoled her widowed home: 

 Some maiden still may wake her pensive strain 

 For him who ne'er shall list its notes again. 

 And with that rose-wreath which he bade her wear, 

 Braid the rich tresses of her raven hair. 

 But scenes of sorrow such as these inspire 

 Alike the savage reed and tutored lyre — 

 Where'er the muse her vocal harp has strung, 

 The song of death must tremble on her tongue: 

 Still must she pour in temple and in cave 

 One common dirge— the music of the grave. 



And shall the tempest's desolating breath 

 Waft o'er those hills the ceaseless voice of death ? 

 Shall mercy sleep, that terror and despair 

 Alone may rouse the trembling echoes there ? 

 Not thus has Wisdom in her judgments kind, 

 To happier climes her boons of love confined : 

 In each wild realm of peril too she gave 

 Some strength to succour and some power to save : 

 Along the Arabian desert's thirsty plain 

 Unwearied toils the camels' patient train ; 

 With foot of speed o'er Siber's* frozen waste 

 The fur-clad wanderer bids his rein-deer haste : 



* Siber, Siberia. Vide " Campbell's Pleasures of Hope." 



