[16] For the benefit of the uninitiated, assistant-deputy-paymaster-general; A. A. D. P. M. G., acting-assistant-deputy-paymaster-general; a long title, but not so long, by four syllables, as that of the letter-carrier of a certain German war-office--Ober-kriegsversammlungrathsverhandlungpapieraufhebergehülfe. DISENCHANTMENT. BY DELTA. I. Although from Adam stained with crime, A halo girds the path of time, As 'twere things humble with sublime, Divine with mortal blending, And that which is, with that which seems,-- Till blazoned o'er were Jacob's dreams With heaven's angelic hosts, in streams, Descending and ascending. II. Ask of the clouds, why Eden's dyes Have vanished from the sunset skies? Ask of the winds, why harmonies Now breathe not in their voices? Ask of the spring, why from the bloom Of lilies comes a less perfume? And why the linnet, 'mid the broom, Less lustily rejoices? III. Silent are now the sylvan tents; The elves to airy elements Resolved are gone; grim castled rents No more show demons gazing, With evil eyes, on wandering men; And, where the dragon had his den Of fire, within the haunted glen, Now herds unharmed are grazing.[17] IV. No more, as horror stirs the trees, The path-belated peasant sees Witches, adown the sleety breeze, To Lapland flats careering:[18] As on through storms the Sea-kings sweep, No more the Kraken huge, asleep, Looms like an island, 'mid the deep, Rising and disappearing. V. No more, reclined by Cona's streams, Before the seer, in waking dreams, The dim funereal pageant gleams, Futurity fore-showing; No more, released from churchyard trance, Athwart blue midnight, spectres glance, Or mingle in the bridal dance, To vanish ere cock-crowing.[19] VI. Alas! that Fancy's fount should cease! In rose-hues limn'd, the myths of Greece Have waned to dreams--the Colchian fleece, And labours of Alcides:-- Nay, Homer, even thy mighty line-- Thy living tale of Troy divine-- The sceptic scholiast doubts if thine, Or Priam, or Pelides! VII. As silence listens to the lark, And orient beams disperse the dark, How sweet to roam abroad, and mark Their gold the fields adorning: But, when we think of where are they, Whose bosoms like our own were gay, While April gladdened life's young day, Joy takes the garb of mourning. VIII. Warm gushing thro' the heart come back The thoughts that brightened boyhood's track; And hopes, as 'twere from midnight black, All star-like re-awaken; Until we feel how, one by one, The faces of the loved are gone, And grieve for those left here alone, Not those who have been taken. IX.