Black--as thy will or others would create: 90
Till thy hard heart be calcined into dust,
And thy soul welter in its hideous crust.
Oh, may thy grave be sleepless as the bed,
The widowed couch of fire, that thou hast spread!
Then, when thou fain wouldst weary Heaven with prayer,
Look on thine earthly victims--and despair!
Down to the dust!--and, as thou rott'st away,
Even worms shall perish on thy poisonous clay.[sl]
But for the love I bore, and still must bear,
To her thy malice from all ties would tear-- 100
Thy name--thy human name--to every eye
The climax of all scorn should hang on high,
Exalted o'er thy less abhorred compeers--
And festering[437] in the infamy of years.[sm]

[First draft, _March_ 29, 1816.
First printed as published, April 4, 1816.]

STANZAS TO AUGUSTA.[438]

When all around grew drear and dark,[sn]
And reason half withheld her ray--
And Hope but shed a dying spark
Which more misled my lonely way;
In that deep midnight of the mind,
And that internal strife of heart,
When dreading to be deemed too kind,
The weak despair--the cold depart;
When Fortune changed--and Love fled far,[so]
And Hatred's shafts flew thick and fast,
Thou wert the solitary star[sp]
Which rose and set not to the last.[sq]
Oh! blest be thine unbroken light!
That watched me as a Seraph's eye,
And stood between me and the night,
For ever shining sweetly nigh.
And when the cloud upon us came,[sr]
Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray--[ss]
Then purer spread its gentle flame,[st]
And dashed the darkness all away.
Still may thy Spirit dwell on mine,[su]
And teach it what to brave or brook--
There's more in one soft word of thine
Than in the world's defied rebuke.
Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,[sv]
That still unbroke, though gently bent,
Still waves with fond fidelity
Its boughs above a monument.
The winds might rend--the skies might pour,
But there thou wert--and still wouldst be
Devoted in the stormiest hour
To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.
But thou and thine shall know no blight,
Whatever fate on me may fall;
For Heaven in sunshine