ODE, ADDRESSED TO H. FUSELI, ESQ. R. A. On seeing Engravings from his Designs. MIGHTY Magician! who on Torneo's brow, When sullen tempests wrap the throne of night, Art wont to sit and catch the gleam of light That shoots athwart the gloom opaque below; And listen to the distant death-shriek long From lonely mariner foundering in the deep, Serenely chaunt the orbs on high, And mark the northern meteor's dance, (While far below the fitful oar Flings its faint pauses on the steepy shore.) And list the music of the breeze, That sweeps by fits the bending seas; And often bears with sudden swell By the spirits sung who keep Their night watch on the treacherous deep, And guide the wakeful Helms-man's eye And there upon the rock inclin'd With mighty visions fill'st the mind, * Him who grasp'd the gates of Hell, And bursting Pluto's dark domain Held to the day the Terrors of his reign. Genius of Horror and romantic awe, Whose eye explores the secrets of the deep, Whose power can bid the rebel fluids creep, Can force the inmost soul to own its law; Who shall now, sublimest spirit, Who shall now thy wand inherit, From him thy darling child who best Thy shuddering images exprest? Sullen of soul and stern and proud, His gloomy spirit spurn'd the croud, And now he lays his aching head In the dark mansion of the silent dead. Mighty Magician! long thy wand has lain Fuesslin waves thy wand,-again they rise, Again thy wildering forms salute our ravish'd eyes. Him didst thou cradle on the dizzy steep Where round his head the volley'd light'nings flùng, And the loud winds that round his pillow rung Wooed the stern infant to the arms of sleep. Or on the highest top of Teneriffe, Thou saw'st how danger fir'd his breast, And in his young hand couch'd the visionary spear. She bore the boy to Odin's Hall, The savage feast and spectred fight; And summon'd from his mountain tomb While fierce Hresvelger flapp'd his wing; Which on the mists of evening gleam |