Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FESTAL HOUR, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FESTAL HOUR, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When are the lessons given
Last Line: So darkly pressed and girdled in by death!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Antony, Marc (83-30 B.c.); Dryads; Rome, Italy; Stonehenge; Marcus Antonius; Anthony, Mark


WHEN are the lessons given
That shake the startled earth? When wakes the foe
While the friend sleeps? When falls the traitor's blow?
When are proud sceptres riven,
High hopes o'erthrown? -- It is when lands rejoice,
When cities blaze and lift the exulting voice,
And wave their banners to the kindling heaven!

Fear ye the festal hour!
When mirth o'erflows, then tremble! -- 'Twas a night
Of gorgeous revel, wreaths, and dance, and light,
When through the regal bower
The trumpet pealed, ere yet the song was done,
And there were shrieks in golden Babylon,
And trampling armies, ruthless in their power.

The marble shrines were crowned:
Young voices, through the blue Athenian sky,
And Dorian reeds, made summer melody,
And censers waved around;
And lyres were strung, and bright libations poured!
When, through the streets, flashed out the avenging sword,
Fearless and free, the sword with myrtles bound!

Through Rome a triumph passed,
Rich in their sun-god's mantling beams went by
That long array of glorious pageantry,
With shout and trumpet-blast.
An empire's gems their starry splendor shed
O'er the proud march; a king in chains was led;
A stately victor, crowned and robed, came last.

And many a Dryad's bower
Had lent the laurels which, in waving play,
Stirred the warm air, and glistened round his way,
As a quick-flashing shower.
-- O'er his own porch, meantime, the cypress hung,
Through his fair halls a cry of anguish rung --
Woe for the dead! the father's broken flower.

A sound of Iyre and song,
In the still night, went floating o'er the Nile,
Whose waves, and many an old mysterious pile,
Swept with that voice along;
And lamps were shining o'er the red wine's foam
Where a chief revelled in a monarch's dome,
And fresh rose-garlands decked a glittering throng.

'Twas Antony that bade
The joyous chords ring out! -- but strains arose
Of wilder omen at the banquet's close!
Sounds, by no mortal made,
Shook Alexandria through her streets that night,
And passed -- and with another sunset's light,
The kingly Roman on his bier was laid.

Bright 'midst its vineyards lay
The fair Campanian city, with its towers
And temples gleaming through dark olive-bowers,
Clear in the golden day;
Joy was around it as the glowing sky;
And crowds had filled its halls of revelry,
And all the sunny air was music's way.

A cloud came o'er the face
Of Italy's rich heaven! -- its crystal blue
Was changed, and deepened to a wrathful hue
Of night, o'ershadowing space,
As with the wings of death! -- in all his power
Vesuvius woke, and hurled the burning shower,
And who could tell the buried city's place?

Such things have been of yore,
In the gay regions where the citrons blow,
And purple summers all their sleepy glow
On the grape clusters pour;
And where the palms to spicy winds are waving,
Along clear seas of melting sapphire, laving,
As with a flow of light, their southern shore.

Turn we to other climes! --
Far in the Druid-Isle a feast was spread,
'Midst the rock-altars of the warrior dead:
And ancient battle-rhymes
Were chanted to the harp; and yellow mead
Went flowing round, and tales of martial deed,
And lofty songs of Britain's elder time;

But, ere the giant-fane
Cast its broad shadows on the robe of even,
Hushed were the bards, and in the face of heaven,
O'er that old burial-plain
Flashed the keen Saxon dagger! -- Blood was streaming
Where late the mead cup to the sun was gleaming,
And Britain's hearths were heaped that night in vain --

For they returned no more!
They that went forth at morn, with reckless heart,
In that fierce banquet's mirth to bear their part;
And, on the rushy floor,
And the bright spears and bucklers of the walls,
The high-wood fires were blazing in their halls;
But not for them -- they slept -- their feast was o'er!

Fear ye the festal hour!
Ay, tremble when the cup of joy o'erflows!
Tame down the swelling heart! -- the bridal rose,
And the rich myrtle's flower
Have veiled the sword! -- Red wines have sparkled fast
From venomed goblets, and soft breezes passed,
With fatal perfume, through the revel's bower.

Twine the young glowing wreath!
But pour not all your spirit in the song,
Which through the sky's deep azure floats along,
Like summer's quickening breath!
The ground is hollow in the path of mirth:
Oh! far too daring seems the joy of earth,
So darkly pressed and girdled in by death!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net