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hesus--Visions. ST JOHN IN PATMOS. War, and the noise of battle, and the hum Of armies, by their watch-fires, in the night, And charging squadrons, all in harness bright, The sword, the shield, the trumpet, and the drum-- Themes such as these, too oft, in lofty song Have been resounded, while the poet strung His high heroic lyre, and louder sung Of chariots flashing through the armed throng:-- But other sights and other sounds engage, Fitlier, the thoughts of calm-declining age, More worthy of the Christian and the sage; Who, when deep clouds his country have o'ercast, And sadder comes the moaning of the blast, To God would consecrate a parting lay Of holier homage, ere he pass away. PART FIRST. Cave in Patmos--Apparition--Mysterious Visitant--Day, Night, and Morning. 'Twas in the rugged and forsaken isle Of Patmos, dreariest of the sister isles Which strew the AEgean, where the pirate, wont To rove the seas with scymitar of blood, Now scowled in sullen exile, an old man, Tranquilly listening to the ocean-sounds, And resting on his staff, beside a cave, 7 Gazed on the setting sun, as it went down In glory o'er the distant hills of Greece. Pale precipices frowned above the track Of dark gray sands and stone; nor wood nor stream Cheered the lone valleys, desolate, and sad, And silent; not a goat amid the crags Wandering, and picking here and there a blade Of withered grass, above the sea-marge hung. The robber[114] scowled, and spoke not; his dark eye Still flashed unconquered pride, and sullen hate To man, and, looking on his iron chain, He muttered to himself a deeper curse. The old man had his dwelling in a cave, 20 Half-way upon the desert mountain's side, Now bent with the full weight of eighty years And upwards; and that caverned mountain-crag Five years had been his dwelling:[115] there he sat, Oft holding converse, not with forms of earth, But, as was said, with spirits of the blessed, Beyond this cloudy sphere, or with the dead Of other days. A girdle bound his loins; Figs and Icarian honey were his food; An ill-carved cup by a clear fount was seen; 30 His long locks and his white descending beard Shook when he tottered down into t
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