THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM.* "Twas in the prime of summer time, An evening calm and cool, When four-and-twenty happy boys Came bounding out of school; There were some that ran, and some that leapt, Away they sped, with gamesome minds To a level mead they came, and there Like sportive deer they coursed about, But the usher sat remote from all, A melancholy man! * The late Admiral Burney went to school at an establishment where the unhappy Eugene Aram was usher, subsequent to his crime. The Admiral stated that Aram was generally liked by the boys; and that he used to discourse to them about murder, in somewhat of the spirit which is attributed to him in this poem. His hat was off, his vest apart, To catch Heaven's blessed breeze; For a burning thought was on his brow, And his bosom ill at ease: So he leaned his head on his hands, and read The book between his knees. Leaf after leaf he turn'd it o'er, Nor ever glanced aside; For the peace of his soul he read that book, Much study had made him very lean At last he shut the ponderous tome; Then leaping on his feet upright, Now up the mead, then down the mead, And past a shady nook And, lo! he saw a little boy "My gentle lad, what is 't you read— Romance, or fairy fable! Or is it some historic page, Of kings and crowns unstable ?" The young boy gave an upward glance"It is the Death of Abel." The usher took six hasty strides, Then slowly back again; And down he sat beside the lad, And talked with him of Cain. And long since then, of bloody men, And how the sprites of injured men And unknown facts of guilty acts He told how murderers walked the earth With crimson clouds before their eyes, "And well," quoth he, "I know, for truth, Their pangs must be extreme Wo, wo, unutterable wo Who spill life's sacred stream! For why? Methought, last night, I wrought A murder in a dream! "One that had never done me wrong— A feeble man and old; I led him to a lonely field, The moon shone clear and cold; Now here, said I, this man shall die, And I will have his gold! "Two sudden blows with a ragged stick, And one with a heavy stone, One horrid gash with a hasty knife- "Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone, And yet I feared him all the more, There was a manhood in his look, "And lo! the universal air Seemed lit with ghastly flame— "Oh God! it made me quake to see But when I touched the lifeless clay, My head was like an ardent coal, A dozen times I groan'd; the dead "And now from forth the frowning sky, From the heaven's topmost height I heard a voice-the awful voice Of the blood-avenging sprite ; "I took the dreary body up, "Down went the corse with a hollow plunge And vanish'd in a pool; Anon I cleaned my bloody hands, And wash'd my forehead cool, And sat among the urchins young That evening in the school. "Oh heaven! to think of their white souls, And mine so black and grim! I could not share in childish prayer, Like a devil of the pit I seem'd 'Mid holy cherubim. "And peace went with them one and all, And each calm pillow spread; And drew my midnight curtains round, "All night I lay in agony, From weary chime to chime, With one besetting horrid hint, That racked me all the time, A mighty yearning, like the first, Fierce impulse unto crime! |