Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, INVOCATION, by HORACE SMITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INVOCATION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Spirits! Intelligences! Passions! Dreams!
Last Line: Who would not give his life for such a death?
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio
Subject(s): Death; Dreams; Life; Muses; Praise; Dead, The; Nightmares


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 you 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?





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