Classic Poem

Spirits ! Intelligences! Passions! Dreams!
Ghosts! Genii! Sprites!
Muses, that haunt the Heliconian streams,
Inspiring Lights!
Whose intellectual fires, in Scott combined,
Supplied the sun of his omniscient mind!

Ye who have o'er-informed and overwrought
His teeming soul,
Bidding it scatter galaxies of thought
From pole to pole;
Enlightening others till itself grew dark, —
A midnight heaven, without one starry spark; —

Spirits of Earth and Air — of Light and Gloom!
Awake! arise!
Restore the victim ye have made — relume
His darkling eyes.
Wizards! be all your magic skill unfurl'd,
To charm to health the Charmer of the World!

The scabbard, by its sword outworn, repair;
Give to his lips
Their lore, than Chrysostom's more rich and rare:
Dispel the eclipse
That intercepts his intellectual light,
And saddens all mankind with tears and night.

Not only for the Bard of highest worth,
But best of men,
Do I invoke ye, Powers of Heaven and Earth
Oh! where and when
Shall we again behold his counterpart —
Such kindred excellence of head and heart?

So good and great — benevolent as wise —
On his high throne
How meekly hath he borne his faculties!
How finely shown
A model to the irritable race,
Of generous kindness, courtesy, and grace!

If he must die, how great to perish thus
In Glory's blaze;
A world, in requiem unanimous,
Weeping his praise!
While Angels wait to catch his parting breath —
Who would not give his life for such a death?