The Arkansas Advocate

POETRY.

Translated from Schiller, by Lord F. L. Gower.

PARTITION OF THE EARTH.

When Jove had encircled our planet with light,
And had roll'd the proud orb on its way,
And had given the moon to illume it by night,
And the bright sun to rule it by day;
The reign of its surface he found to agree,
With the wisdom which governed its plan;
He divided the earth and apportioned the sea,
And he gave the dominion to man.

The hunter he sped to the forest and wood,
And the husbandman seized on the plain;
The fisherman launched his canoe on the flood,
And the merchant embarked on the main.
The mighty partition was finished at last,
When a figure came listlessly on;
But fearful and wild were the looks that he cast,
When he found that the labour was done.

The mien of disorder, the wreath which he wore,
And the frenzy that flashed from his eye,
And the lyre of ivory and gold that he bore,
Proclaimed that the Poet was nigh.
And he gushed all in tears at the fatal decree,
To the foot of the Thunderer's throne,
And complained that no spot of the earth or the sea,
Had been given the bard as his own.

And the Thunderer smiled at his prayer and his mein,
Tho' he mourned the request was too late;
And he asked in what regions the poet had been,
When his lot was decided by fate.
"Oh pardon my error," he humbly replied,
"Which sprung from a vision too bright;
My soul at that moment was close at thy side,
Entranced in those regions of light.

I hung on thy visage, it bask'd in thy smile,
And it rode on thy glances of fire;
And forgive, if bewildered and dazzled the while,
It forgot every earthly desire."

"The earth," says the Godhead, "is portioned away,
And I cannot reverse the decree;
But the heavens are mine, and the regions of day,
And their portal is open to thee."