TO A YOUNG LADY, WHO ASKED ME TO WRITE SOMETHING ORIGINAL FOR ALBUM. AN original something, fair maid, you would win me FRAGMENT OF AN ORATORIO, FROM THE BOOK OF JOB. HAVING met my illustrious friend the Composer Neukomm, at Algiers, several years ago, I commenced this intended Oratorio at his desire, but he left the place before I proceeded farther in the poem; and it has been thus left unfinished. CRUSHED by misfortune's yoke, Job lamentably spoke : "My boundless curse be on The day that I was born; Quenched be the star that shone Upon my natal morn. In the grave I long To shroud my breast; Where the wicked cease to wrong, And the weary are at rest." Then Eliphaz rebuked his wild despair: "What Heaven ordains, 'tis meet that man should bear. Lately, at midnight drear, A vision shook my bones with fear; A spirit passed before my face, And yet its form I could not trace; It stopped, it stood, it chilled my blood, With freezing dread! Deep silence reigned, and at its close I heard a voice that said 'Shall mortal man be more pure and just The Earth demands his death, And the Heavens reveal his shame."" JOB. Is this your consolation? Is it thus that ye condole With the depth of my desolation, And the anguish of my soul! Short and evil is his hour; He fadeth like a flower. My days are past; my hope and trust Is but to moulder in the dust. CHORUS. Bow, mortal, bow, before thy God, Hark! from the whirlwind forth Thy Maker speaks - "Thou child of earth, Creation's corner-stone? When the sons of God rejoicing made, And the morning stars together sang and shone? Hadst thou power to bid above Heaven's constellations glow; Or shape the forms that live and move On Nature's face below? Hast thou given the horse his strength and pride? He paws the valley with nostril wide, He smells far off the battle; He neighs at the trumpet's sound As he sweeps to where the quivers rattle, And the thunder of the fight. |