Page:Poems Sigourney 1827.pdf/162

Joy from the artless brow with radiance flow'd,
And pleasure revell'd in the king's abode.—
—When war, once more aroused Judea's plain,
And Gath's proud legions dared her hostile train,
The shepherd youth forsook his tuneful reed,
For stern contention, and the victor's meed.
But envy follow'd where his glory shone,
And hatred darted from the monarch's throne:
The glittering javelin pointed at his heart,
And home besieged compel him to depart.—
While she, whose smile that gentle home endear'd,
His first-espoused, whose love his sadness cheer'd,
With trembling hand assists his hasty flight,
Beneath the covert of the gloomy night,
Checks the fond tear, assumes heroic fire,
And bids him shun the madness of her sire.—
In mountain caves his exiled head he lays,
With serpents slumbers, or with monsters strays,
Till venturing where Judea's forests rise,
The pensive prince salutes his eager eyes,
With breathless ardour from the shades he breaks,
And choked with tears his plaint of anguish makes.
—"Oh thou!—the only solace of a heart
Which throbs with pain, and longs with life to part,
With thy loved voice assuage my deep despair,
My unknown crime, my secret sin declare,
For which thy father still my blood desires,
With bitter hatred's unrelenting fires,
While I, an outcast, scarce his shafts elude
Like the spent partridge o'er the cliffs pursued."—
—"Thou, dearer made by adverse fortune's dart,
Bound by these sorrows closer to my heart,