The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842) - Gredos ...

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
Lengthens by fits, and as it lengthens twirls;
The chequer’d warp, for longer days begun,
With changeful shades is in succession run;
In the soft loom the silken tissue flows,
And brighter hues succeed the cloud of woes.
But oft as the gay shuttle glides along,
Skimming with ease the lighter” shades among,
The fatal shears the fragile threads untie,
And the cropt rose gives up her crimson dye;
The distant views that dawn d with early morn
Shut up their vistas e’er the eve’s return;
[107] .
Or sullen night her sable mantle shows,
And round the world her long dark curtain throws;
Such is the lot of man by Fate’s decree,
Nor Jove himself can set the prisoner free.
But still compassion touch’d the mighty mind,
And thus he sorrow’d for oppress’d mankind:
“Shall these poor mortals, tenants of a day,
In life’s rude path but tread the thorny way?
Gay fluttering insects that beneath the sky
Bask in the sun, and the next moment die!
A short-liv d being, whom, so proud of breath,
A weaker insect stings to instant death!
The sport of winds, of sky, and varying showers,
The jest and pity of superior powers!
Shall these who’re doom’d a thousand ills to meet,
And seldom see one growing wish complete,
Shall they all comfortless the journey take,
As onward wandering to the Stygian lake,
Without the aid of some benignant power-
Some heavenly hand to sooth the ruffl’d hour!
Ye blisful Synod who on Ida’s height
Taste but one round of interchange delight,
Is there not one of all your blissful train
Prone to arrest the flying shafts of pain?
If such compassion touch th’ immortal breast,
Be now the generous sentiment confess’d;
Descend to earth, and our protecting eye
Shall look with pleasure as your task ye ply!”
He said: while Pity round her forehead drew
Her filmy veil drench’d with her sacred dew;