Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/83

Wild, snorting fire, the courser rear'd,
As wrapp'd in smoke he disappear'd,
Poor Leonora fell;
The hideous spectres hover round,
Deep groans she hears from under ground,
And fiends ascend from hell.

They dance, and cry, in dreadful howl,
"She asks no mercy for her soul;
Her earthly course is done.
When mortals, rash and impious! dare
Contend with God, and court despair,
We claim them as our own."^[1]

"Yet," thus was heard, in milder strains,
"Call on the Lord, while life remains,
Unite your heart to his;
When Man repents and is resign'd,
God loves to soothe his suff'ring mind,
And grant him future bliss."^[2]

"We claim as ours, who impious dare
Contend with God, and court despair;"
Again the spectres cry'd.
"Fate threats in vain, when man's resign'd,
God loves to soothe the sufFring mind,"
The gentler voice reply'd."^[3]

Leonora, ere her sense was gone,
Thus faint exclaim'd,—"Thy will be done,
"Lord, let thy anger cease."
Soft on the wind was borne the pray'r;
The spectres vanish'd into air,
And all was hushed in peace.

---

1. Second and third lines,
   "Ask Heaven for mercy on her soul,
   "Thy earthly course is done.
   
   
   Manuscript of same lines,
   "Let Heaven have mercy on thy soul,
   The destin'd course is done.
   
   
2. The stanza reads:
   "Who call on God, when press'd with grief,
   Who trust his love for kind relief,
   Ally his heart to his:
   When Man will bear, and be resign'd,
   God ever soothes his suffering mind,
   And grants him future bliss."
   
   
   This stanza closes the poem in the first and second editions. The remaining stanzas appeared first in the third, or "new" edition only.
3. Manuscript version of last three lines,
   "God only soothes the patient mind,
   And grants him bliss, when Man's resign'd,"
   Again a voice replied.