The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser

FOR THE INTELLIGENCER.

I've seen the trembling moonlight gleam,
O'er temples, by their Gods forsaken,
And heard the vulture's distant scream,
When Music once did joy awaken;

I've seen the tower, by time laid low
Whose summit did the clouds arrest
I've seen the thorn and thistle grow,
'Mid gardens, once in beauty drest-

I've seen the stream in silence run,
With ruin pictured on its breast:
And mark'd, full oft, the setting sun,
Gild sadly Desolation's crest.-

I've heard, at midnight's solemn hour,
In fancy, through deserted halls,
The spectre of departed power,
Shriek, as each falling fragment falls!

The Cities, once a nation's pride
Have moulder'd by the touch of time;
And mirth and joy no more reside,
In their once congenial clime!

Then vain is wild Ambition's aim,
To build and say, "This e'er shall stand,
Proclaiming to the world my name,
Thro'ev'ry age, thro'ev'ry land"

For Fate to Time his mandate gave,
To whet his Scythe on all below
And wield it, 'till in ruin's grave,
All, all, on earth, should darkly go!

Tho' o'er the frame and works of man,
The wasting power of Time extends;
'The soul, exulting, nobly can
Resist the shock which Nature rends!

PARVUS.