1 "Drear cell! along whose lonely bounds
2 Unvisited by light
3 Chill silence dwells with night,
4 Save where the clanging fetter sounds!
5 Abyss where mercy never came,
6 Nor hope the wretch can find,
7 Where long inaction wastes the frame,
8 And half annihilates the mind!
9 "Stretch'd helpless in this living tomb,
10 O haste, congenial death!
11 Seize, seize this ling'ring breath,
12 And shroud me in unconscious gloom--
13 Britain! thy exiled son no more
14 Thy blissful vales shall see;
15 Why did I leave thy hallowed shore,
16 Distinguished land, where all are free?"
17 Bastille! within thy hideous pile,
18 Which stains of blood defile,
19 Thus rose the captive's sighs,
20 Till slumber sealed his weeping eyes--
21 Terrific visions hover near!
22 He sees an awful form appear
23 Who drags his step to deeper cells
24 Where stranger wilder horror dwells.
25 "Oh tear me from these haunted walls
26 Or those fierce shapes controul,
27 Lest madness seize my soul;
28 That pond'rous mask of iron falls,
29 I see." "Rash mortal, ha! Beware,
30 Nor breathe that hidden name!
31 Should those dire accents wound the air,
32 Know death shall lock thy stiff'ning frame.
33 "Hark! that loud bell which sullen tolls!
34 It wakes a shriek of woe
35 From yawning depths below;
36 Shrill through this hollow vault it rolls!
37 A deed was done in this black cell
38 Unfit for mortal ear;
39 A deed was done, when tolled that knell,
40 No human heart could live and hear!
41 "Rouse thee from thy numbing trance,
42 Near yon thick gloom advance;
43 The solid cloud has shook;
44 Arm all thy soul with strength to look--
45 Enough! Thy starting locks have rose,
46 Thy limbs have failed, thy blood has froze;
47 On scenes so foul, with mad affright,
48 I fix no more thy fastened sight."
49 "Those troubled phantoms melt away,
50 I lose the sense of care!
51 I feel the vital air--
52 I see, I see the light of day!
53 Visions of bliss, eternal powers!
54 What force has shook those hated walls?
55 What arm has rent those threat'ning towers?
56 It falls-- the guilty fabric falls!"
57 "Now, favoured mortal, now behold!
58 To soothe thy captive state
59 I ope the book of fate--
60 Mark what its registers unfold!
61 Where this dark pile in chaos lies,
62 With nature's execrations hurled,
63 Shall Freedom's sacred temple rise,
64 And charm an emulating world!
65 "'Tis her awak'ning voice commands
66 Those firm, those patriot bands;
67 Armed to avenge her cause,
68 And guard her violated laws!
69 Did ever earth a scene display
70 More glorious to the eye of day
71 Than millions with according mind
72 Who claim the rights of human kind?
73 "Does the famed Roman page sublime
74 An hour more bright unroll
75 To animate the soul
76 Than this, loved theme of future time?
77 Posterity, with rev'rence meet,
78 The consecrated act shall hear;
79 Age shall the glowing tale repeat
80 And youth shall drop the burning tear!
81 "The peasant, while he fondly sees
82 His infants round the hearth
83 Pursue their simple mirth
84 Or emulously climb his knees,
85 No more bewails their future lot,
86 By tyranny's stern rod oppressed,
87 While freedom guards his straw-roofed cot,
88 And all his useful toils are blessed.
89 "Philosophy, oh share the meed
90 Of freedom's noblest deed!
91 'Tis thine each truth to scan,
92 Guardian of bliss and friend of man!
93 'Tis thine all human wrongs to heal,
94 'Tis thine to love all nature's weal;
95 To give each gen'rous purpose birth
96 And renovate the gladdened earth."
----------------------------------------------------
* "Alluding to the prisoner who has excited so many
conjectures in Europe" (Williams' note)
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aezacweb/hmwbast.htm
Revised: 25 October 1999 Copyright © 1996-99
Adriana Craciun, Department of English Studies, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham NG7 2RD, England
Adriana.Craciun@nottingham.ac.uk