Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ENTHUSIAST, by ANNE BATTEN CRISTALL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ENTHUSIAST, by                    
First Line: The pious sire of arla reared her youth
Last Line: Her trembling lips poured potently in song.


ARLA.
THE pious sire of ARLA reared her youth
Strongly to feel the great Creator's power;
In her pure bosom sowed the seeds of truth,
And opened Nature's inexhaustless store:
Early he led her mind
To pure religion's unadultered stream;
The young musician caught thextatic theme,
And sung GOD'S glories to the sounding wind.
Called by his king to war,
He left her young,
To those impressions which his tender care
Had on her pliant heart imprinted strong.


Her lively senses music's influence found;
Her fingers struck the sacred organ's keys;
With pious hopes and heavenly extasies
Her soul flew upward, winged by lofty sound.
So sweet she sung
That infidels would hear;
The hallowed notes which fired her sacred tongue
Infused her faith, and taught them to revere.
Her soul was meek, her energy was strong,
And force divine fired each seraphic song.


Her simple frame no ornaments adorned,
No earthly radiance blushed,
But every look her mental force informed;
The infant soul with beams immortal dawned,
And breaking forth her eyes and bosom flushed.
Her temperament was so replete with fires
She scarcely seemed to feel the earthly part;
Her genius with excentric force aspires,
Its boundless flights with strong conceptions dart:
But dazzled by its light, and led astray,
Her inexperienced reason fell a prey;
Thentrancing Muse seduced her early youth,
More fraught with energy than fed with truth.


Her soul, enriched by Nature's noblest stores,
Gave to wild fancy mad and sovereign sway;
Imagination drew her finer powers,
Until the balance of her soul gave way;
And, its pure tenor thus destroyed and broke,
The dormant passions of her nature woke:
For minds with innate force and quickness fired,
To their own operations left in youth,
Too oft, by fostered prejudice inspired,
Are warped from the more simple paths of truth.
Strong inclination points the unknown way,
And licensed passions blindly lead astray.


Her strengthening Muse still more enchanting glows;
Deluded the frail mortal strains her powers,
While giant weeds in her rich soil arose,
Vainly the self-supposed saint adores.
Till lost in feverish dreams,
'Mid fancy's fires she heavenly visions saw,
As rapt she sang her wild melodious themes,
Nature she thought relaxed its rigid law;
Angels she saw descending from on high,
Unfolding all the wonders of the sky,
And caught a glimpse of the DIVINITY.


One noon amid the sea-girt rocks she strayed,
Thexpansive ocean and the heavens surveyed;
Her soul was awed, while lost in zeal she stood,
And the majestic wilds of nature viewed.
The air condensed, to sullen mists transforms,
The sky frowned awful, big with threatening storms,
And gathering clouds unite;
The blackening ocean foams upon the shore,
While distant thunders 'mid the mountains roar,
And pelting drops fast o'er the rocks alight.


The angry clouds in troops convolving part,
The dun horizon gleams with horrid dye;
From sulph'rous vapours bursting lightenings dart,
And louder thunders echo through the sky.
Shelter amid the rocky caves she sought,
From the large shower and vivid flash retires,
While solemn peals woke every awful thought,
And the fierce lightenings filled the cave with fires.
Still rolling on terrific o'er her head,
The rain in hasty torrents burst the clouds,
Which spent like smoke cross the blue ether fled,
Whose brightness following vapours dimly shroud;
Trembling her face amid the rocks she hides,
Till the fierce horror of the storm subsides.


Flushed by her fears, with awe she reared her head,
By all the grandeur of the scene inspired;
As distantly the solemn clouds retired,
She quits the cave, and hailed them as they fled,
With wild imagination strongly fired:
While lambent still the lightnings flashed around,
And the hoarse thunders rolled a sullen sound;
Her lifted eyes the clouded heavens transpierce,
Divinest strains she sang of heavenly verse.


Thus, with enthusiastic raptures blind,
A heavenly vision fired her feverish mind;
GOD'S voice she thought amid the tempest rolled.
And fancied streams of glory filled the skies!
The fires of heaven the awful clouds unfold,
Ethereal essence flushed her mortal eyes!
More wild she dreams a cherub downward flew,
And dimmed the sun as towards the earth he drew.



Her spirit saw him cut the ambient skies,
While ocean burns with radiance as he flies;
Such hues empyreal his bright frame adorn,
He seems a ray of the eternal morn!
So fraught with living fires, his ardent eyes
Shot forth long beams, which sparkled thro' the skies;
From him bright emanations darted round,
And his waved pinions gave celestial sound!


Entranced, nor doubting what her fancy saw,
Her youthful bosom heaved with sacred awe;
She viewed him on the strong rock's pointed height,
Thence breathing strains enchanting mortal ears,
Such as he tuned amid theternal spheres,
Genius immortal winged its ardent flight!
The sea responsive mighty surges rolled,
Bearing each other on, a voice they found,
Heaving, inspired, they laboured with the sound,
And awfully their wondrous nature told.
The winds which roll the clouds along the sky
In every blast sang forth the Maker's praise;
The spirit seemed descended from on high
To catch the song, and to th' Almighty raise.


Then, like a meteor, fierce he shot along;
(Refulgence brake, for mortal eyes too strong)
Amidst the clouds emerged his radiant head,
Wafting the tributes which all nature pays;
Day seemed as twilight while the spirit fled,
The amber clouds received his parting rays.
Then round the shore thenthusiast throws her eyes;
(Still foamed the main, and troubled were the skies)
Dazzled, thro' clouds the watery sun-beams views,
While parting vapours wild and various stray;
Faintly her lucid bow fair IRIS shews;
ARLA conceived it a remaining ray,
And wildly stretched her arms toimplore its stay.


Not unobserved her ecstacies had flown,
Nor the vibrations of her heavenly tongue;
For EDRAN 'mid the rocks surveyed her charms,
And the seraphic phrenzy of her eyes,
Her hair long-streaming o'er her trembling arms,
As from her lips the note of rapture flies.
He saw her with fanatic ardour blind,
And smiled, while passion in his bosom wrought,
And mischief mingling in the villain's thought
With triumphs o'er religion puffed his mind.


He in the world's base school had studied long,
Vain of his parts, devotion to decry,
And learnt bewitching eloquence of tongue
To palliate vice with shifting sophistry:
His ample front deep penetration shows,
Beneath his powerful brows
Strong flashed his eyes,
And with invention strength of actions vies.


Potent in ill; he bent his subtile powers
To draw young ARLA in his wily snare,
Joined in her raptures, while sublime she pours
Entrancing strains of music on his ear.
Her pious fancies he enriched with thought,
She listened to the wisdom of his tongue,
And from his eyes fresh inspiration caught,
Whilst he enamoured on her accents hung.
Her passions were already set on fire,
Without a guard her heart defenceless lay;
Soon to his arts her virtues fell a prey;
Her sweet affections glide to his desire.


Ruined, he left her plunged in deep despair;
The loved delusions of her soul were broke,
'Mid anarchy and horror she awoke,
Tumultuous passions her sad bosom tear:
Love warmly lingering in her mem'ry sat,
Urging her wounded soul to desperate hate;
The rapturous dreams her heart had cherished long
Flew, like the empty echoes of a song.


Devoid of basis, all support decays,
Her frantic mind can no where find relief;
The bubbles burst which shone with glittering rays,
And nought remained save passion, guilt, and grief.
Robed in religion, EDRAN won her heart;
Her faith is broke while she resents the wrong,
Wild-panting with love's agonizing smart
She burns, convulsed with feelings deep and strong;
And oft diseased
With mingled passions, fiery ecstasies
Her trembling lips poured potently in song.






Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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