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The infidel king of the last days: a dramatic poem
The infidel king of the last days a dramatic poem Author:Henry Edwards Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Assyria. The battle-field, as before. The tent of Ocyrus. He has just started up from sleep, with a cry of terror, and ivith visible alarm on his countenanc... more »e—not however, heard, orobseived, by any of his band. Time—the same day, twelve o'clock. Ocyrus (to himself). I HERE am I ? oh ! the joy of waking up From troubled sleep, and visions so appalling As mine have been, to find—it was a dream ! A dream r it made my sleep one lengthen'd horror. Whence come such visions ? and what causes them ? Quiet should be the sleep of innocence, And such was once my own. And why not now r Alas ! if I have had a great revenge, It was a cruel one: for none were spar'd. Like demons, more than men, fought those Immortals ; Ask'd, or unask'd—no quarter granted they. And, madden'd, as it seem'd, by their example, My band and I were just as merciless. Can I then wonder, that when laid to sleep, Conscience and memory should recall the past, And bring to view the dreadful scene again ? The blameless and the harmless sleep in quiet. Such rest, I fear, will never more be mine. On what an enterprise have I set forth ! War on the world: the conquest of the world! The glittering pomp and pageantry of war May offer much to dazzle and delight, And make it irresistibly attractive, To those who look but on the brighter side Of the vast picture it presents to view. But—when tts darker, sadder shades are seen, The captive's galling chain, the patriot's anguish, Hopelessly striving for his country's freedom, The ruin'd dynasties, impoverish'd kingdoms, The horrors of the battle-field, the woes Of broken hearts, and desolated homes, War ceases to be glorious to the sight, And conquest shows itself in its true colou...« less