THE MARTYR STUDENT. 205 



Which oft subdued, in momentary power, 



That Martyr Student in his cloistral bower : 



The while his mid-night lamp witli wasted ray 



Burned dim beneath the morning's earliest gray, 



And but expired, when robed in power and light. 



The great Sun scaled his heaven, and blessed tlie height. 



Thus day by day he panted for the prize, 



And prodigal of youth-hood's energies, 



E'en as his frame grew weaker, overbore 



The potent harm that crushed his hearths deep core ; 



Revelling in secret, where the fountain rill 



Of the warm bosom nursed the insidious ill. 



And as its current journeyed, only fed 



That hidden grief, and more its influence spread. 



Sad were the task, might kindred thought explain, 

 What glorious phantoms fired the Student's brain ; 

 W^hat radiant scenes his starting slumbers knew, 

 Revealed in vision to his prophet view : — 

 Young — yet resolved e'en youth itself to wreck 

 For that impassioned hope, which without check 

 Dauntless he so pursued, until ye there 

 Witness what all its dreams of greatness were ! 



Such is the meed ! Death's rigid finger lay 



Twined in the garland, eager for his prey, * 



And as the trial of intellect drew near 



Flushed him in hope or palsied o'er with fear : 



Now quick with fever boiled the bosom's flood, 



Now icy doubt repelled the lingering blood ; 



Yet hope was strongest, and for that essay 



Strung every fibre of the obedient clay, 



Ardent the wreath of conquering mind to win, 



And still in triumph, all its fears within ! 



Yes ! Mind was greatest — and that mind o'ercame 

 Pain, weakness, doubt, impatient after fame ; 

 Yet then too mighty, also breathed aside 

 The mastered earth to which it half was tied ; — 

 The link long since was loosened, and that hour 

 Snapped short its hold with a resistless power ; 

 As some fair bark 'mid Ocean's billowy plain 

 Hath stemmed the violence of tlie troubled ^ain ; 



