1829.] 
A Reverie. 121 
Who long had battened on the yellow corse, 
Had crumbled piecemeal too, was fashioned 
To form distinct: before the throne of Him, 
The Unknown, I stood—when once again the trump 
Rang through the affrighted world. 
Earth, sea, and sky, 
Decked with its infinite isles of splendour, set 
Like gems upon an Indian coronal, 
Rocked to the centre ; Night, tremendous Night! 
Fell like a cold blight on the world, and shrunk, 
As a guilty thing, from the dread sight of death. 
Hark! *twas the parting groan that Nature gave, 
Conscious of fate ; Time heard the awful sound, 
And knew his hour was come, and spreading wide 
His pinions, black as Erebus, he flew 
To where proud Chimboraco’s regal front 
Soars like some giant of the elder time, 
Glorying in might omnipotent. 
Thrice the fierce trump awoke an echo ; thrice 
The wide world reeled in conscious dread, as one 
From fit of deepest inebriety 
Shocked into sudden soberness ; above 
Glory came streaming forth, and a bright form, 
Begirt with flame, companioned by a choir 
Of sun-lit souls, broke the dunnest gloom, 
And all was light again ; Time saw the God, 
And crumbled into nothing ; Nature paused 
But for an instant, and the thunders rolled 
Their last sad peal. Oh! then commenced the work 
Of desolation ! from the livid sky 
The sun dependant dropped, the billows boomed 
And lashed themselves to madness, and the face 
Of Nature, reverend in years, grew black 
With the convulsive spasms of decay. 
The world—a fearful sight—was gone, and heaven 
Flamed as a scroll, by whose sulphureous light, 
Swathed in the shroud of dead Eternity, 
The ghost of buried ages moved along. 
Then voices broke from the abyss ; and Time, 
And Fate, and Death the skeleton, athwart 
The deep gloom flitted, waiting the behest 
Of Sovereign Deity. I saw no more ; 
Sense fled my vision ; feeling lost her helm; 
Existence, but not life, of negative 
Dominion, governed me ; I knew I lived— 
But where, or how, or in what character, 
Was all a blank. ' £) 
M.M. Nem Series.—Vou. VII. No. 37. R 
