Visions of the Daughters of Albion

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Frontispiece.

Plate 1 Visions

Enslav'd, the Daughters of Albion weep: a trembling lamentation

Upon their mountains, in their valleys sigh toward America.

For the soft soul of America, Oothoon, wander'd in woe

Along the vales of Leutha, seeking flowers to comfort her;

And thus she spoke to the bright Marygold of Leutha's vale:

'Art thou a flower? art thou a nymph? I see thee now a flower,

Now a nymph! I dare not pluck thee from thy dewy bed!'

The Golden nymph replied: 'Pluck thou my flower, Oothoon

the mild.

Another flower shall spring, because the soul of sweet delight

Can never pass away.' She ceas'd & clos'd her goldn shrine.

Then Oothoon pluck'd the flower, saying, 'I pluck thee from

thy bed,

Sweet flower, and put thee here to glow between my breasts,

And thus I turn my face to where my whole soul seeks.'

Over the waves she went in wing'd exulting swift delight,

And over Theotormon's reign took her impetuous course.

Bromion rent her with his thunders; on his stormy bed

Lay the faint maid, and soon her woes appall'd his thunders

hoarse.

Bromion spoke: 'Behold this harlot here on Bromion's bed,

And let the jealous dolphins sport around the lovely maid.

The soft American plains are mine, and mine thy north &

south.

Stampt with my signet are the swarthy children of the sun;

They are obedient, they resist not, they obey the scourage;

Their daughters worship terrors and obey the violent.

Plate 4

plate 4.

Plate 4

Wave shadows of discontent? and in what houses dwell the wretched,

Drunken with woe, forgotten and shut up from the cold despair?

'Tell me where dwell the thoughts of forgotten till thou call them forth?

Tell me where dwell the joys of old? & where the ancient loves?

And when will they renew again & the night of oblivion past?

Thet I might traverse times & spaces far remote and bring

Comforts into a present sorrow and a night of pain.

Where goest thou, O thought? to what remote land is thy flight?

If thou returnest to the present moment of affliction

Wilt thou bring comforts on thy wings, and dews and honey and balm,

Or poison from the desart wilds, from the eyes of the envier?'

Then Bromion said, and shook the cavern with his lamentations:

'Thou knowest that the ancient trees seen by thine eyes have fruit,

But knowest thou that trees and fruits flourish upon the earth

To gratify senses unknown? trees, beasts and birds unknown:

Uknown, not perceiv'd, spread in the infinite microscope,

In places yet unvisited by the voyager, and in worlds

Over another kind of seas, and in atmospheres unknown?

Ah! are there other wars beside the wars of sword and fire?

And are there other sorrows beside the sorrows of poverty?

And are there other joys besides the joys of riches and ease?

And is there not one law for both the lion and the ox?

And is there not eternal fire, and eternal chains

To bind the phantoms of existence from eternal life?'

Then Oothoon waited silent all the day, and all the night;



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