©Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

FOREST AND CAVERN
183
With Bwelling rains, foaming from rock to rock,
Along its course of ruin,
On to the inevitable precipice-
Plunges impatient down the blind abyss,
And violently seeks the desperate shock.
And-by the side of such mad stream-was she,
-A child with a child's feelings i-her low cot
In the green field upon the mountain-slope,
And all that she could wish, or love, or hope,
Rer little world, all-all in that poor spot;­
And I-the heaven-detested i-was it not
Enough, that the mad torrent gra.~ped and tore
The rocks, and shivered them to dust, and bore
All, that opposed me, in my downward course
On with me ?-Her, too, her-her peace-her joy­
These must I undermine ?-these too destroy?
Rell! Hell i-this ,ictim also !-Thy support,
Devil! and the dreadful interval make short!
What must be, · be it soon! Let the crush fall
Down on me of her ruin-perish all­
She-I-and these wild thoughts together!
lIIEPffiSTOPHELES. What! in the fever-fit again ?
Row seethes and burns the muddy brain !
-Idiot, go in, and comfort her.
Thus is it ever with the crazy pate,
When difficulties thwart,
Or unforeseen calamities occur:
Fools, when they cannot see their way,
At once grow desperate,
Rave no resource-have nothing to propose­
But fix a dull eye of dismay
Upon the final close.
Success to the stout heart, say I,
That sees it~ fate, and can defy!
-Yet art thou, though of such soft stuff,
In most things pretty devil enough;-
Of all insipid things, I least can bear
That sickening dose-a devil in despair !
©Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia