No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows, 255 Come, Abelard! for what hast thou to dread? The torch of Venus burns not for the dead. Nature stands checked; religion disapproves : Ev'n thou art cold—yet Eloisa loves. Ah hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn 260 265 To light the dead, and warm the unfruitful urn. 270 While prostrate here in humble grief I lie, Kind, virtuous drops just gathering in my eye, While praying, trembling, in the dust I roll, And dawning grace is opening on my soul: 280 Come, if thou dar'st, all charming as thou art! Oppose thyself to Heaven; dispute my heart; Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes Blot out each bright idea of the skies; Take back that grace, those sorrows, and those tears; 285 Take back my fruitless penitence and prayers; Snatch me, just mounting, from the blest abode; Assist the fiends and tear me from my God! No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole; Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll! 290 Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me, Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee. Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign; Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine. Fair eyes, and tempting looks, (which yet I view!) Long loved, adored ideas, all adieu ! O grace serene! oh virtue heavenly fair ! 295 Fresh blooming hope, gay daughter of the sky! Enter, each mild, each amicable guest: See in her cell sad Eloisa spread, 300 Propped on some tomb, a neighbour of the dead. 305 310 In each low wind methinks a spirit calls, 321 Thou, Abelard! the last sad office pay, 330 (That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy,) In trance ecstatic may thy pangs be drowned, Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee round, 340 From opening skies may streaming glories shine, And saints embrace thee with a love like mine. May one kind grave unite each hapless name,' And graft my love immortal on thy fame! Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er, 345 When this rebellious heart shall beat no more; If ever chance two wandering lovers brings To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs, O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads, 1 Abelard and Eloisa were interred in the same grave, or in monuments adjoining, in the monastery of the Paraclete. He died in the year 1142, she in 1163.-P. Their remains were removed more than once, but in 1817 they were finally deposited in the cemetery of Père la Chaise, at Paris. And drink the falling tears each other sheds; heaven, 355 One human tear shall drop, and be forgiven. . And sure, if fate some future bard shall join, In sad similitude of griefs to mine, 360 Condemned whole years in absence to deplore, And image charms he must behold no more; Such if there be, who loves so long, so well, Let him our sad, our tender story tell; The well-sung woes will sooth my pensive ghost; 365 He best can paint them who shall feel them most. 1 The ritual term.-Steevens. |