Vigili Or NightWatches a Poem Author:William Ball General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1835 Original Publisher: Richard Bentley Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can... more » select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: NIGHT-WATCHES. BOOK II. Water and Land, twin giants , that one l)irlh Gave to existence , with their thousand powers, Now rise before my mind and people it With forms elect of beauty or of dread. The vapour on the hill with forests wreathed , That tumbles onward like a goblin grey, Or sits , as slumb'ring, on the haunted tower , Glides , like Suspicion, down the lonely cliffs, Or grovels poorly in the darkened vale , Is drawn upon my fancy with the hues, Given as a largess when the setting sun Doffs all his royal robes as to repose. Anon the mist seems, by its shapes grotesque, Imprinted by the changing breath of heav'n, Genie or monster , noble dame or knight , Or turban'd sultan on a throne of pearl, Or Jove victorious and his maiden page, Or vanquished Titans , chained in dismal hell With the thrice-bolted thunder's twisted links , Or jammed for ever 'twixt its burning rocks And gulping crimson streams of sulph'rous fire. Again the scene is changed ; the twilight slopes Seem thronged with spectral figures that advance From tombs of earth or caverns of the main, As 'twere to judgment mustering, or called To mystic orgies by a wizard's spell. Perchance a gale sweeps all the mists away While yet, though dimly, in the glooming sky, Are seen , as rising from the breast of Earth, The hill's large limbs, to sink again at once Lapsed i'th' immensity of total night. Or on some Alpine rock I stand alone, And see the torrent take his dreadful leap To dash himself a hundred fathom down, Swift as an angel's sword of rainbow die, And ...« less