ODE
AGAINST
DESPAIR
.
BY
THE
SAME
.
FArewell
thou
dimpled
cherub
Joy
,
Thou
rose-crown'd
,
ever-smiling
boy
,
Wont
thy
sister
Hope
to
lead
To
dance
along
the
primrose
mead
!
No
more
,
bereft
of
happy
hours
,
I
seek
thy
lute-resounding
bowers
,
But
to
yon
ruin'd
tower
repair
,
To
meet
the
God
of
groans
,
Despair
;
Who
,
on
that
ivy-darken'd
ground
,
Still
takes
at
eve
his
silent
round
,
Or
sits
yon
new-made
grave
beside
,
Where
lies
a
frantic
Suicide
:
While
labouring
sighs
my
heart-strings
break
,
Thus
to
the
sullen
Power
I
speak
:
"
Haste
,
with
thy
poison'd
dagger
,
haste
,
"
To
pierce
this
sorrow-laden
breast
;
"
Or
lead
me
at
the
dead
of
night
,
"
To
some
sea-beat
mountain's
height
,
"
Whence
with
headlong
haste
I'll
leap
"
To
the
dark
bosom
of
the
deep
;
"
Or
shew
me
far
from
human
eye
,
"
Some
cave
to
muse
in
,
starve
,
and
die
,
"
No
weeping
friend
or
brother
near
,
"
My
last
fond
,
faultering
words
to
hear
?
"
'Twas
thus
with
weight
of
woes
opprest
,
I
sought
to
ease
my
bruised
breast
:
When
straight
more
gloomy
grew
the
shade
,
And
lo
!
a
tall
majestic
maid
!
Her
limbs
,
not
delicately
fair
,
Robust
,
and
of
a
martial
air
;
She
bore
of
steel
a
polish'd
shield
,
Where
highly-sculptur'd
I
beheld
Th'
Athenian
Socrates
.
martyr
smiling
stand
,
The
baleful
goblet
in
his
hand
;
Sparkled
her
eyes
with
lively
flame
,
And
Patience
was
the
seraph's
name
;
Sternly
she
look'd
,
and
stern
began
—
"
Thy
sorrows
cease
,
complaining
man
,
"
Rouse
thy
weak
soul
,
appease
thy
moan
,
"
Soon
are
the
clouds
of
sadness
gone
;
"
Tho'
now
in
Grief's
dark
groves
you
walk
,
"
Where
griesly
fiends
around
you
stalk
,
"
Beyond
,
a
blissful
city
lies
,
"
Far
from
whose
gates
each
anguish
flies
:
"
Take
thou
this
shield
,
which
once
of
yore
"
Ulysses
and
Alcides
wore
,
"
And
which
in
later
days
I
gave
"
To
Regulus
and
Raleigh
brave
;
"
In
exile
or
in
dungeon
drear
"
Their
mighty
minds
could
banish
fear
;
"
Thy
heart
no
tenfold
woes
shall
feel
,
"
'Twas
Virtue
temper'd
the
rough
steel
,
"
And
,
by
her
heavenly
fingers
wrought
,
"
To
me
the
precious
present
brought
.
"