ODE

ADDRESSED TO HENRY FUSELI, ESQ. R.A.

ON SEEING ENGRAVINGS FROM HIS DESIGNS,

BY HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

MIGHTY magician! who on Torneo's brow,
When sullen tempests wrap the throne of night,
Art wont to sit and catch the gleam of light,
That shoots athwart the gloom opaque below,
And listen to the distant death-shriek long,

From lonely mariner foundering in the deep,
Which rises slowly up the rocky steep,
While weird sisters weave the horrid song:
Or when along the liquid sky

Serenely chant the orbs on high,
Dost love to sit in musing trance,

And mark the northern meteor's dance;

(While far below the fitful oar

Flings its faint pauses on the steepy shore,)
And list the music of the breeze,

That sweeps by fits the bending seas;

And often bears with sudden swell
The shipwreck'd sailor's funeral knell,
By the spirits sung, who keep

Their night-watch on the treacherous deep,

And guide the wakeful helms-man's eye
To Helicé in northern sky,

And there, upon the rock inclined,
With mighty visions fill'st the mind,
Such as bound, in magic spell,

Him who grasp'd the gates of Hell,
And bursting Pluto's dark domain,
Held to the day the terrors of his reign.

Genius of horror and romantic awe,

Whose eye explores the secrets of the deep,
Whose power can bid the rebel fluids creep,
Can force the inmost soul to own its law;
Who shall now, sublimest spirit,
Who shall now thy wand inherit,
From him, thy darling child, who best
Thy shuddering images express'd ?
Sullen of soul, and stern, and proud,
His gloomy spirit spurn'd the crowd;
And now he lays his aching head
In the dark mansion of the silent dead.

Mighty magician! long thy wand has lain
Buried beneath the unfathomable deep;
And, oh! for ever must its efforts sleep,
May none the mystic sceptre e'er regain?
Oh, yes, 'tis his!-thy other son;

He throws thy dark-wrought tunic on,
Fuesslin waves thy wand,-again they rise,
Again thy wildering forms salute our ravish'd eyes;

Him didst thou cradle on the dizzy steep,

Where round his head the volley'd lightnings flung, And the loud winds that round his pillow rung, Woo'd the stern infant to the arms of Sleep,

Or on the highest top of Teneriffe
Seated the fearless boy, and bade him look
Where far below the weather-beaten skiff

On the gulf-bottom of the ocean strook.
Thou mark'dst him drink with ruthless ear
The death-sob, and, disdaining rest,

Thou saw'st how danger fired his breast,
And in his young hand couch'd the visionary spear.
Then, Superstition, at thy call,

She bore the boy to Odin's Hall,

And set before his awe-struck sight
The savage feast and spectred fight;
And summon'd from the mountain tomb
The ghastly warrior son of gloom,
His fabled Runic rhymes to sing,
While fierce Hresvelger flapp'd his wing;
Thou show'dst the trains the shepherd sees,
Laid on the stormy Hebrides,

Which on the mists of evening gleam,
Or crowd the foaming desert stream;
Lastly, her storied hand she waves,
And lays him in Florentian caves;
There milder fables, lovelier themes
Enwrap his soul in heavenly dreams;
There Pity's lute arrests his ear,
And draws the half-reluctant tear;
And now at noon of night he roves
Along th' embowering moon-light groves,

And as from many a cavern'd dell
The hollow wind is heard to swell,
He thinks some troubled spirit sighs;
And as upon the turf he lies,

Where sleeps the silent beam of night,
He sees below the gliding sprite,
And hears in Fancy's organs sound
Aërial music warbling round.

Taste lastly comes, and smooths the whole,
And breathes her polish o'er his soul;
Glowing with wild, yet chasten'd heat,
The wonderous work is now complete.

The Poet dreams:-the shadow flies,
And fainting fast its image dies.
But lo! the Painter's magic force
Arrests the phantom's fleeting course;
It lives-it lives-the canvass glows,
And tenfold vigour o'er it flows.
The Bard beholds the work achieved,
And as he sees the shadow rise,
Sublime before his wondering eyes,

Starts at the image his own mind conceived.

H. K. WHite.

The following verses were sent to me anonymously, by the post; as they shew the author to be well acquainted with the works of Mr. Fuseli, I trust the reader will think with me, there needs no apology for inserting them in this place. It is conjectured that

they are from the pen of a young lady, who is alike distinguished for personal attractions and amiability, as for her taste and knowledge; the daughter of a gentleman who has been frequently mentioned in this Memoir.

A VISION.

mind,

LAST night I sunk to sleep's soft power resign'd,
When wizard Fancy's wand, before my
Conjur'd in dreams a visionary shew,

That seem'd with vivid Truth's warm tints to glow.
By young Favonius' fragrant pinions fann'd,
Amidst Elysian groves I seem'd to stand;
Here, when th' immortal spirit quits its clay,
The sons of Genius dwell in endless day:
Not they who empires founded, or o'erthrew,
Who conquer'd worlds, or who discover'd new;
Not Philip's headlong son, not Scipio's foe,
Nor Julius, guilty of his country's woe;
In these fair fields the scourges of mankind

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Reap'd not the meed to virtuous fame assign'd.

Here Music sweeps her lyre; her heav'nly lay
The Passions hear, enraptur'd, and obey:

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Here dwells th' immortal Virgin Poesy,

A noble wildness flashing in her eye;

Inspired Bards around the Goddess throng,

And catch the accents flowing from her tongue.

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Entranced, whilst gazing on the blissful scene,
I mark'd a Deity of matchless mien,

Her port majestic, in each motion grace,

Fairer she shone than nymphs of mortal race:

I recognis'd the Sov'reign of that art,

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Which through the eye finds entrance to the heart;