Poems (Hornblower)/Destiny
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DESTINY.
'Mid anxious bodings of futurity,
Sleep fell upon me, and methought I stood,
Trembling and pale, amid the battle flood,
Compassed with terror and calamity.
It was a bitter conflict, and mine eye
Shrank from the fearful wildness of the sight:
When lo! a deep voice—"This is destiny—
Gird on thy heavenly armour for the fight.
Face the world's trials."—Wondering I turned,
And viewed a form of gentleness and grace,
High thoughts and youth sat glowing on his face,
And in his eye a holy ardor burned:—
"O who art thou?" I cried:—he smiling spread
A shield before me, and the darts around
Played harmless on it:—my weak steps he led,
And if I slightly sighed, he caught the sound:—"
Art thou my guardian angel?" "Sent by Heaven"
I come," said he, "to share thy mortal doom—
One common pilgrimage to both is given,
One heart, one home, one summons, and one tomb!"
Sleep fell upon me, and methought I stood,
Trembling and pale, amid the battle flood,
Compassed with terror and calamity.
It was a bitter conflict, and mine eye
Shrank from the fearful wildness of the sight:
When lo! a deep voice—"This is destiny—
Gird on thy heavenly armour for the fight.
Face the world's trials."—Wondering I turned,
And viewed a form of gentleness and grace,
High thoughts and youth sat glowing on his face,
And in his eye a holy ardor burned:—
"O who art thou?" I cried:—he smiling spread
A shield before me, and the darts around
Played harmless on it:—my weak steps he led,
And if I slightly sighed, he caught the sound:—"
Art thou my guardian angel?" "Sent by Heaven"
I come," said he, "to share thy mortal doom—
One common pilgrimage to both is given,
One heart, one home, one summons, and one tomb!"