[Page 37]

ON MR HOWARD'S ACCOUNT OF LAZARETTOS.

1 Mortal! who, armed with holy fortitude,
2 The path of good right onward hast pursued;
3 May He, to whose eternal throne on high
4 The sufferers of the earth with anguish cry,
5 Be thy protector! On that dreary road
6 That leads thee patient to the last abode
7 Of wretchedness, in peril and in pain,
8 May He thy steps direct, thy heart sustain! [Page 38]
9 'Mid scenes, where pestilence in darkness flies;
10 In caverns, where deserted misery lies;
11 So safe beneath His shadow thou may'st go,
12 To cheer the dismal wastes of human woe.
13 O Charity! our helpless nature's pride,
14 Thou friend to him who knows no friend beside,
15 Is there in morning's breath, or the sweet gale
16 That steals o'er the tired pilgrim of the vale,
17 Cheering with fragrance fresh his weary frame,
18 Aught like the incense of thy sacred flame?
19 Is aught in all the beauties that adorn
20 The azure heaven, or purple lights of morn;
21 Is aught so fair in evening's lingering gleam,
22 As from thine eye the meek and pensive beam
23 That falls like saddest moonlight on the hill
24 And distant grove, when the wide world is still!
25 Thine are the ample views, that unconfined
26 Stretch to the utmost walks of human kind:
27 Thine is the spirit that with widest plan
28 Brother to brother binds, and man to man.
29 But who for thee, O Charity! will bear
30 Hardship, and cope with peril and with care!
31 Who, for thy sake, will social sweets forego
32 For scenes of sickness, and the sights of woe!
33 Who, for thy sake, will seek the prison's gloom,
34 Where ghastly Guilt implores her lingering doom;
35 Where Penitence unpitied sits, and pale,
36 That never told to human ears her tale;
37 Where Agony, half-famished, cries in vain;
38 Where dark Despondence murmurs o'er her chain;
39 Where gaunt Disease is wasted to the bone,
40 And hollow-eyed Despair forgets to groan!
41 Approving Mercy marks the vast design,
42 And proudly cries — Howard, the task be thine! [Page 39]
43 Already 'mid the darksome vaults profound,
44 The inner prison deep beneath the ground,
45 Consoling hath thy tender look appeared:
46 In horror's realm the voice of peace is heard!
47 Be the sad scene disclosed; fearless unfold
48 The grating door — the inmost cell behold!
49 Thought shrinks from the dread sight; the paly lamp
50 Burns faint amid the infectious vapours damp;
51 Beneath its light full many a livid mien,
52 And haggard eye-ball, through the dusk are seen.
53 In thought I see thee, at each hollow sound,
54 With humid lids oft anxious gaze around.
55 But oh! for him who, to yon vault confined,
56 Has bid a long farewell to human kind;
57 His wasted form, his cold and bloodless cheek,
58 A tale of sadder sorrow seem to speak:
59 Of friends, perhaps now mingled with the dead;
60 Of hope, that, like a faithless flatterer, fled
61 In the utmost hour of need; or of a son
62 Cast to the bleak world's mercy; or of one
63 Whose heart was broken, when the stern behest
64 Tore him from pale affection's bleeding breast.
65 Despairing, from his cold and flinty bed,
66 With fearful muttering he has raised his head:
67 What pitying spirit, what unwonted guest,
68 Strays to this last retreat, these shades unblest?
69 From life and light shut out, beneath this cell
70 Long have I bid the cheering sun farewell.
71 I heard for ever closed the jealous door,
72 I marked my bed on the forsaken floor,
73 I had no hope on earth, no human friend:
74 Let me unpitied to the dust descend!
75 Cold is his frozen heart — his eye is reared
76 To Heaven no more — and on his sable beard[Page 40]
77 The tear has ceased to fall. Thou canst not bring
78 Back to his mournful heart the morn of spring; —
79 Thou canst not bid the rose of health renew
80 Upon his wasted cheek its crimson hue;
81 But at thy look, (ere yet to hate resigned,
82 He murmurs his last curses on mankind),
83 At thy kind look one tender thought shall rise,
84 And his full soul shall thank thee ere he dies!
85 Oh ye, who list to Pleasure's vacant song,
86 As in her silken train ye troop along;
87 Who, like rank cowards, from affliction fly,
88 Or, whilst the precious hours of life pass by,
89 Lie slumbering in the sun! Awake, arise,
90 To these instructive pictures turn your eyes;
91 The awful view with other feelings scan,
92 And learn from Howard what man owes to man!
93 These, Virtue! are thy triumphs, that adorn
94 Fitliest our nature, and bespeak us born
95 For loftier action; not to gaze and run
96 From clime to clime; nor flutter in the sun,
97 Dragging a droning flight from flower to flower,
98 Like summer insects in a gaudy hour;
99 Nor yet o'er love-sick tales with fancy range,
100 And cry — 'Tis pitiful, 'tis wondrous strange!
101 But on life's varied views to look around,
102 And raise expiring sorrow from the ground: —
103 And he who thus has borne his part assigned
104 In the sad fellowship of human kind,
105 Or for a moment soothed the bitter pain
106 Of a poor brother, has not lived in vain!
107 But 'tis not that Compassion should bestow
108 An unavailing tear on want or woe:
109 Lo! fairer Order rises from thy plan,
110 Befriending virtue, and adorning man. [Page 41]
111 That Comfort cheers the dark abode of pain,
112 Where wan Disease prayed for relief in vain;
113 That Mercy soothes the hard behest of law;
114 That Misery smiles upon her bed of straw;
115 That the dark felon's clan no more, combined,
116 Murmur in murderous leagues against mankind;
117 That to each cell, a mild yet mournful guest,
118 Contrition comes, and calms the laboring breast,
119 Whilst long-forgotten tears of virtue flow;
120 Thou, generous friend of all — to thee we owe!
121 To thee, that Pity sees her views expand
122 To many a cheerless haunt, and distant land!
123 Whilst warm Philanthropy extends her ray,
124 Wide as the world, and general as the day!
125 Howard! I view those deeds, and think how vain
126 The triumphs of weak man, the feeble strain
127 That Flattery brings to Conquest's crimson car,
128 Amid the bannered host, and the proud tents of war!
129 From realm to realm the hideous War-fiend hies
130 Wide o'er the wasted earth; before him flies
131 Affright, on pinions fleeter than the wind;
132 Whilst Death and Desolation fast behind
133 The havoc of his echoing march pursue:
134 Meantime his steps are bathed in the warm dew
135 Of bloodshed, and of tears; — but his dread name
136 Shall perish — the loud clarion of his fame
137 One day shall cease, and, wrapt in hideous gloom,
138 Forgetfulness bestride his shapeless tomb!
139 But bear thou fearless on; — the God of all,
140 To whom the afflicted kneel, the friendless call,
141 From His high throne of mercy shall approve
142 The holy deeds of Mercy and of Love:
143 For when the vanities of life's brief day
144 Oblivion's hurrying wing shall sweep away,[Page 42]
145 Each act by Charity and Mercy done,
146 High o'er the wrecks of time, shall live alone,
147 Immortal as the heavens, and beauteous bloom
148 To other worlds, and realms beyond the tomb.

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Title (in Source Edition): ON MR HOWARD'S ACCOUNT OF LAZARETTOS.
Author: William Lisle Bowles
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Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street..., 1855, pp. 37-42.  (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)

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