FROM THE NOVEL OF EMMELINE. <br />THOU spectre of terrific mien! <br />Lord of the hopeless heart and hollow eye, <br />In whose fierce train each form is seen <br />That drives sick Reason to insanity! <br />I woo thee with unusual prayer, <br />'Grim visaged, comfortless Despair:' <br />Approach; in me a willing victim find, <br />Who seeks thine iron sway--and calls thee kind! <br />Ah! hide for ever from my sight <br />The faithless flatterer Hope--whose pencil, gay, <br />Portrays some vision of delight, <br />Then bids the fairy tablet fade away; <br /> <br />While in dire contrast, to mine eyes, <br />Thy phantoms, yet more hideous, rise, <br />And Memory draws from Pleasure's wither'd flower, <br />Corrosives for the heart--of fatal power! <br />I bid the traitor Love adieu! <br />Who to this fond believing bosom came, <br />A guest insidious and untrue, <br />With Pity's soothing voice--in Friendship's name; <br />The wounds he gave, nor Time shall cure, <br />Nor Reason teach me to endure. <br />And to that breast mild Patience pleads in vain, <br />Which feels the curse--of meriting its pain. <br />Yet not to me, tremendous Power! <br />Thy worst of spirit-wounding pangs impart, <br />With which, in dark conviction's hour, <br />Thou strik'st the guilty unrepentant heart; <br />But of illusion long the sport, <br />That dreary, tranquil gloom I court, <br />Where my past errors I may still deplore, <br />And dream of long-lost happiness no more! <br />To thee I give this tortured breast, <br />Where Hope arises but to foster pain; <br />Ah! lull its agonies to rest! <br />Ah! let me never be deceived again! <br />But callous, in thy deep repose, <br />Behold, in long array, the woes <br />Of the dread future, calm and undismay'd, <br />Till I may claim the hope--that shall not fade!<br /><br />Charlotte Smith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-despair-2/
