Chapter 2 Composed at Midnight
From broken visions of perturbed rest
I wake, and start, and fear to sleep again.
How total a privation of all sounds,
Sight, and familiar objects, man, bird, beast,
Herb, tree, or flower, and prodigal light of heaven.
Twere some relief to catch the drowsy cry
Of the mechanic watchman, or the noise
Of revel reeling home from midnight cups.
Those are the moanings of the dying man,
Who lies in the upper chamber; restless moans.
And interrupted only by a cough
Consumtive, torturing the wasted lungs.
So in the bitterness of death he lies,
And waits in anguish for the mornings light.
What can that do for him, or what restore?
Short taste, faint sense, affecting notices,
And little images of pleasures past,
Of health, and active life--health not yet slain,
Nor the other grace of life, a good name, sold
For sins black wages. On his tedious bed
He writes, and turns him from the accusing light,
And finds no comfort in the sun, but says
"When night comes I shall get a little rest."
Some few groans, more, death comes, and there is an end.
Tis darkness and conjecture all beyond;
Weak Nature fears, though Charity must hope,
And Fancy, most licentious on such themes
Where decent reverence will have kept her mute,
Hath oer-stockd hell with devils, and brought down,
By her enormous fablings and mad lies,
Discredit on the gospels serious truths
And salary fears. The man of parts,
Poet, or prose declarer, on his couch
Lolling, like one indifferent, fabricates
A heave of gold, where he, and such as he,
Their heads encompassed with crowns, their heels
With fine wings garlanded, shall tread the stars
Beneath their feet, heavens pavement, far removed
From damned spirits, and the torturing cries
Of men, his brethren, fashioned of the earth,
As he was nourished with the self-same bread,
Belike his kindred or companions once--
Through everlasting ages now divorced,
In chains and savage torments to repent
Short years of folly on earth. Their groans unheard
In heavn, the saint nor pity feels, nor care,
For those thus sentenced--pity might disturb
The delicate sense and most divine repose
Of spirits angelical. Blessed be God,
The measure of His judgments is not fixed
By mans erroneous standard. He discerns
No such inordinate difference and vast
Betwixt the sinner and the saint, to doom
Such disproportiond fates. Compared with Him,
No man on earth is holy call: they best
Stand in His sight approved, who at His feet
Their little crowns of virtue cast, and yield
To Him of His won works the praise, His due.