Lines, Inscribed To An Amiable, And Affectionate Mother

Lines, Inscribed to an amiable, and affectionate Mother, upon the Death of her eldest Son, who fell a victim to yellow fever.

Insatiate death! How vast is thy domain!
What desolating horrors swell thy train!
Famine, and war, and pestilence combine!
While still to point the barbed shaft is thine!

The bud of life, by vernal zephyr fann’d,
Fades at thy glance–and falls beneath thy hand;
Thy icy touch the pulse of youth arrests,
Insiduous all the springs of health infests;
In the strong veins the purple stream congeals,
And Man in vain against thy pow’r appeals!
Born to submit to thy imperious sway,
Thy gloomy mandates fated to obey,
Prostrate humanity thy spoil decreed,
Nature’s best gifts can no exemption plead!

Yet VIRTUE braves thy most envenom’d dart,
VIRTUE, impervious to thy morbid art,
Victorious VIRTUE, soars above the grave,
Around its paths triumphant banners wave,
Such VIRTUE as the blest Redeemer crown’d,
When hell’s dark Monarch aim’d a fatal wound.
And, as the fragrant breath of life was giv’n,
By Jesus, Sire of men–and God of heav’n,
No missive shafts its vital paths can find,
Imperishable wreaths its altars bind.

Th’ refluent flutterer the combat meets,
Urges defence–and oft the foe defeats–
But when the fiend with searching ken invades,
And rosy health beneath his progress fades
When his red lance the Citadel assails,
And burning ruin every where prevails–
When the frail post untenable appears,
And the last blow the fell destroyer rears!
Then the glad spirit new plum’d pinions tries,
Evades the mischief–gains its native skies–
And each transcendant excellence possess’d,
By pow’r divine indelibly impress’d,

Scap’d from the wreck–yon destin’d heav’n attains
And there immortal as its source remains–
VIRTUE–to nerve humanity design’d,
Blest emancipation of the Eternal Mind,
Earnest of future bliss bequeath’d to Man,
Whose restoration marks the gen’ral plan–
Twain’d in close concord with the vital breath,
From the lorn tenement despoiled by death,
Mounts upwards to the realms of endless day,
Shaping to other worlds its lucid way.

Can bounteous heav’n a richer solace give,
Than that which whispers–Friends deported here?
Assnasive charm, with consolation fraught,
Pale sorrow, by thy honied accents taught,
Lifts from the tomb its anguish swol’n eye,
Forgets to weep; forgets the murm’ring sigh;
E’en pensive melancholy wakes to joy,
While reason, hope, and faith their pow’rs employ,
To sacred rapture elevate the soul,
The passions bending to their just control.

Go then, Blest truth, and with thy seraph voice,
Bid the lov’d friends of SALTONSTALL rejoice;
Say how he bounded from this scene of woe,
To where successive pleasures ever flow:
Just as some prisoner quits the hostile strand,
Spreads his white sails, and seeks his native land,
So the freed spirit to Elysium flew,
To realms that brooding sorrow never knew.

By education to religion train’d,
The soul its direful weight of ills sustain’d!
And faith, with broad, and ever piercing eye,
Pointed its passage to the opening sky.

Cease to lament–beloved kindred cease–
Let truth and reason hush your woes to peace,
Nor VIRTUE–no–nor SALTONSTALL are dead,
Associates still, expansive wings they spread,
While fame exults her echoing notes to swell,
And memory on the past delights to dwell.

True–tender friendship drops th’embalming tear,
And social circles clad in weeds appear,
Yet time, like gathering mists shall pass away,
And they shall join him in unclouded day:
The rays of heaven shall pierce the vaulted tomb
And death no more tyrannic sway assume;
True–clustering virtues gem’d his ardent mind,
By honor form’d, for rectitude design’d;
By talents, and by erudition blest,
Of elegance and dignity possess’d;
The graces with integrity entwin’d,
Polish’d his manners, and his heart refin’d,
While sweet his converse, as the breathing spring,
When vernal nature spreads her broider’d wing;
Evincing goodness, wisdom, science, truth,
The fruits of age upon the stem of youth.
By many a tongue his merit was confess’d,
Lov’d, and admir’d, applauded, and carress’d.

Rich was the promise of his future years,
As the full harvest to the view appears,
When fertile show’rs, and mellowing suns combine,
To swell the pulp. And shape the circling rind.
The cherub hope his early worth enhanc’d,
And every hour his righteous claims advanc’d;
While on the tablets of his gen’rous breast,
Philanthropy her high wrote code impress’d.
True–thus exalted was his young career,
VIRTUE his guide, his goal, his radiant sphere:
And hence perhaps his passport obtain’d,
His seat, in paradise thus early gain’d–

Probation pass’d–The ordeal expir’d–
The curtain dropt–and heaven its own requir’d–
As erst the youths who merited so well,
Whose names celebrious, storied records tell,
From instantaneous fate their exit found,
In life’s gay morn with full plum’d vict’ry crown’d,
Mounting the pinions of eternal day,
With the swift light’ning wing’d azure way;
So SALTONSTALL–the destin’d voyage complete–
A parent Deity prepar’d to meet–
And as he sweeps wide o’er the ethereal plain,
Attending angels swell the plausive strain.

Melodious sounds–‘rapt fancy wafts the notes–
On zephyr’s wing aerial music floats–
Soft may it vibrate on pale sorrow’s ear,
And from the cheek of woe wipe off the tear.
May weeping kindred the blest shade pursue,
And as they plaintive breathe the fond adieu,
Submissive bend to that august decree,
Which will from every ill the spirit free:
The son, the brother, and the friend restore,
Where fevers blast, and Demons vex no more.
The Almighty bids the throbbing pulse surcease,

These frames enfolding in the shades of peace.
But from the couch of unrelenting death,
Obedient seraphs snatch the lingering breath,
Triumphant bear it to a Saviour God,
The purchas’d trophy of redeeming blood.
Thus God destroy’d but to make alive,
And Man, in bliss immortal, shall survive.