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the freedom of thought and will which he mtij enjoy in these solitary wifds , and concluding with the following fine Stanza :
" Thou hast a rich world round thee : mighty sfia Weaving their gorgeous tracery o ' er thy head , With the light melting through their high arcades , As though a pillar ed cloister ' s : but the dead Sleep not beneath : nor doth the sun-beam pass To marble shrines through rain-bow-tinted glass ; Yet thou , by fount and forest murmur led To worship , thou art blest!—to thee is shewn Earth in her holy pomp , deck ' d for her God alone . "
The second part of the Forest Sanctuary opens with an account of the imprisonment which the exile had been doomed to undergo on account of his heresy . The wretched state of those who are thus immured for years in a dungeon , shut out from the beauties of nature , is forcibly drawn , and contrasted with the roving and free life of an Indian hunter :
" Thou know ' st not , wanderer , never may ' st thou know , Of the dark holds wherewith man cumbers earth , To shut from human eyes the dancing seasons' mirth . * ' * There , fetter'd down from day , to think the while How bright in heaven the festal sun is glowing , Making earth ' s loneliest places , with his smile ,
Flush like the tose : and how the streams are flowing With sudden sparkles through the shadowy grass , And water-flowers , all trembling as they pass : And how the rich , dark summer-trees are bowing With their full foliage : this to know , and pine , Bound unto midnight ' s heart , seems a stern lot— 'twas mine . "
There are many touching passages describing the years he spent in prison , but we shall select only one stanza from among many equally beautiful : " Once my soul died witliin me . What had thrown That sickness o ' er it I Even a passing thought
Of a clear spring , whose side , with flowers o ' ergrown , Fondly and oft my boyish steps had sought ! Perchance the damp roof's water-drops , that fell Just then , low tinkling through my vaulted cell , Intensely heard amidst the stillness , caught Some tone from memory , of the music welling Ever with that fresh rill , fron > its deep rocky dwelling . "
At last he makes his escape . Obliged to fly from his country , he embarks with his wife and child for America ; and the description of the voyage , of his wife ' s drooping and fading away , of the grief he felt when he could no longer disguise from himself that she was sinking under a broken heart , caused by her misery at the idea that he , the beloved of her soul , was doomed to everlasting perdition for his errors in faith ,
" Beholding me a » one from hope for ever cast / V forms one of the most touching and beautiful parts of the poem . But we must conclude , and shall- dtf so vHth one of the most exquisite pass&g ? e& i « the poem . It is the description of the husband ' s feelitfgs on committing tt > their ocean-grave the remains of his beloved Leonor :
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334 Review . ' —Mn , HemtfnsPoem& .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/46/
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