s: While falsehood and cunning are ruling alone


s: The man who can look upon death without fear--


s: The soldier,--is now the sole freeman left here.


s: The cares of this life, he casts them away,


s: He rides to his fate with a countenance gay,


s: And if 'tis to-morrow, to-day we'll employ


s: To drink full deep of the goblet of joy,


s: To drink full deep of the goblet of joy.


s: The skies o'er him shower his lot filled with mirth,


s: He gains, without toil, its full measure;


s: The peasant, who grubs in the womb of the earth,


s: Believes that he'll find there the treasure,


s: Through lifetime he shovels and digs like a slave,


s: And digs--till at length he has dug his own grave.


s: The horseman, as well as his swift-footed beast,


s: When glimmer the lamps at the wedding feast,


s: He woos not long, and with gold he ne'er buys,


s: But carries by storm love's blissful prize.


s: Why weeps the maiden? Why sorrows she so?


s: Let me hence, let me hence, girl, I pray thee?


s: The soldier on earth no sure quarters can know,


s: Fate hurries him onward with fury blind,


s: (Taking his two neighbors by the hand. The rest do the same,


s: Away, then, my comrades, our chargers let's mount!


s: Youth boils, and life's goblet still foams at the fount,


s: Unless ye have courage your life to stake,


s: The lake forms an inlet in the land; a cottage is near the shore;


s: Bright smiles the lake, as it woos to its deep,--


s: A boy on its margin of green lies asleep;


s: And when he awakens, with ecstasy blest,


s: The waters are playing all over his breast,


s: We depart to the mountain; we'll come back again,


s: When the cuckoo is calling,--when wakens the strain,--


s: When the earth is tricked out with her flowers so gay,


s: When the stream sparkles bright in the sweet month of May.


s: CHAMOIS-HUNTER (appearing on the top of a rock).


s: AIR--Second Variation of the Ranz des Vaches.


s: O'er the heights growls the thunder, while quivers the bridge,


s: Yet no fear feels the hunter, though dizzy the ridge;


s: And, a broad sea of mist lying under his feet,


s: Man's dwellings his vision no longer can greet;


s: E'en in mid race from earth he's driven.


s: Let me in long and in thirsty draughts here


s: Drink in the breezes, so free, so divine


s: Thanks, thanks, ye trees, in smiling verdure dressed,


s: In that ye veil my prison-walls from sight!


s: Why should I waken from a dream so bright?


s: Do not the spacious heavens encompass me?


s: Pierces with joy the trackless realms of light!


s: There, where the gray-tinged hills of mist project,


s: Yon clouds, that tow'rd the south their course direct,


s: Swiftly-flying clouds, hardy sailors through air!


s: Mortal hath roamed with ye, sailed with ye, ne'er!


s: Greetings of love to my youthful home bear!


s: Free through the air hath your path ever been,


s: Ye are not subject to England's proud queen!


s: E'en that frail skiff from all danger might tear me,


s: And to the dwellings of friends it might bear me.


s: Scarcely his earnings can keep life afloat.


s: Richly with treasures his lap I'd heap over,--


s: Oh! what a draught should reward him to-day!


s: Fortune held fast in his nets he'd discover,


s: Hear'st thou the horn of the hunter resound,


s: Wakening the echo through forest and plain?


s: Once more to join in the mirth-stirring train!


s: Hark! how the dearly-loved tones come again!


s: Blissful, yet sad, the remembrance they wake;


s: Oft have they fallen with joy on mine ear,


s: When in the highlands the bugle rang clear,


s: Rousing the chase over mountain and brake.


s: From The Maid of Orleans, Prologue, scene 4.


s: Farewell, ye mountains, and ye pastures dear,


s: Ye still and happy valleys, fare ye well!


s: No longer may Joan's footsteps linger here,


s: Joan bids ye now a long, a last farewell!


s: Ye meadows that I watered, and each bush


s: Set by my hands, ne'er may your verdure fail!


s: Farewell, ye grots, ye springs that cooling gush


s: Thou echo, blissful voice of this sweet vale,


s: So wont to give me back an answering strain,--


s: Joan must depart, and ne'er return again!


s: Disperse, ye lambs, far o'er the trackless wold!


s: She now hath gone who tended you of yore!


s: On yonder field of danger, stained with gore.


s: 'Tis no vain earthly longing drives me on.


s: And bade him stand in haughty Pharaoh's sight,


s: He who made choice of Jesse's pious son,


s: The shepherd, as his champion in the fight,--


s: He who to shepherds grace hath ever shown,


s: He thus addressed me from this lofty tree:


s: "Go hence! On earth my witness thou shalt be!


s: "In rugged brass, then, clothe thy members now,


s: In steel thy gentle bosom must be dressed!


s: No mortal love thy heart must e'er allow,


s: With earthly passion's sinful flame possessed.


s: Ne'er will the bridal wreath adorn thy brow,


s: No darling infant blossom on thy breast;


s: Yet thou with warlike honors shalt be laden,


s: Raising thee high above each earthly maiden.


s: "For when the bravest in the fight despair,


s: When France appears to wait her final blow,


s: And, as the ripened corn the reapers mow,


s: Hew down the conqueror as he triumphs there;


s: His fortune's wheel thou thus wilt overthrow,


s: Deliver Rheims once more, and crown thy king!"


s: The Lord hath promised to send down a sign


s: A helmet he hath sent, it comes from Him,--


s: His sword endows mine arm with strength divine,


s: A raging tempest thrills through every limb;


s: The summons to the field bursts on mine ear,


s: My charger paws the ground, the trump rings clear.


s: From The Maid of Orleans, act iv. scene 1.


s: Each weapon rests, war's tumults cease to sound,


s: While dance and song succeed the bloody fray;


s: Through every street the merry footsteps bound,


s: Altar and church are clad in bright array,


s: And gates of branches green arise around,


s: Over the columns twine the garlands gay;


s: Rheims cannot hold the ever-swelling train


s: One single thought is thrilling every breast;


s: What, until now, was severed by fierce hate,


s: Is by the general rapture truly blessed.


s: By each who called this land his parent-state,


s: The name of Frenchman proudly is confessed;


s: And to her regal son France homage pays.


s: Yet I who have achieved this work of pride,


s: My heart is changed, my heart is turned aside,


s: 'Tis in the British camp it seeks to hide,--


s: 'Tis on the foe my yearning glances fall;


s: And from the joyous circle I must steal,


s: My bosom's crime o'erpowering to conceal.


s: (The music behind the scene changes into a soft, melting melody.)


s: Would that spears were whizzing round me


s: (The flutes are again heard--she falls into a silent melancholy.)


s: A pointless satire upon Klopstock and his Messias.


s: Schiller, who is not very particular about the quantities of


s: An allusion to the appointment of regimental surgeon, conferred


s: Oh, here in the shop the machines roar so wildly,


s: That oft, unaware that I am, or have been,


s: I sink and am lost in the terrible tumult;


s: And void is my soul... I am but a machine.


s: I work and I work and I work, never ceasing;


s: Create and create things from morning till e'en;


s: For what?--and for whom--Oh, I know not! Oh, ask not!


s: Who ever has heard of a conscious machine?


s: No, here is no feeling, no thought and no reason;


s: This life-crushing labor has ever supprest


s: The noblest and finest, the truest and richest,


s: The deepest, the highest and humanly best.


s: The seconds, the minutes, they pass out forever,


s: They vanish, swift fleeting like straws in a gale.


s: I drive the wheel madly as tho' to o'ertake them,--


s: Give chase without wisdom, or wit, or avail.


s: The clock in the workshop,--it rests not a moment;


s: It points on, and ticks on: Eternity--Time;


s: And once someone told me the clock had a meaning,--


s: Its pointing and ticking had reason and rhyme.


s: And this too he told me,--or had I been dreaming,--


s: The clock wakened life in one, forces unseen,


s: And something besides;... I forget what; Oh, ask not!


s: At times, when I listen, I hear the clock plainly;--


s: The reason of old--the old meaning--is gone!


s: The tick of the clock is the Boss in his anger!


s: The face of the clock has the eyes of a foe;


s: The clock--Oh, I shudder--dost hear how it drives me?


s: It calls me "Machine!" and it cries to me "Sew!"


s: At noon, when about me the wild tumult ceases,


s: And gone is the master, and I sit apart,


s: And dawn in my brain is beginning to glimmer,


s: The wound comes agape at the core of my heart;


s: And tears, bitter tears flow; ay, tears that are scalding;


s: They moisten my dinner--my dry crust of bread;


s: They choke me,--I cannot eat;--no, no, I cannot!


s: Oh, horrible toil I born of Need and of Dread.


s: The sweatshop at mid-day--I'll draw you the picture:


s: A battlefield bloody; the conflict at rest;


s: Around and about me the corpses are lying;


s: The blood cries aloud from the earth's gory breast.


s: A moment... and hark! The loud signal is sounded,


s: The dead rise again and renewed is the fight...


s: They struggle, these corpses; for strangers, for strangers!


s: They struggle, they fall, and they sink into night.


s: I gaze on the battle in bitterest anger,


s: And pain, hellish pain wakes the rebel in me!


s: The clock--now I hear it aright!--It is crying:


s: "An end to this bondage! An end there must be!"


s: It quickens my reason, each feeling within me;


s: It shows me how precious the moments that fly.


s: Oh, worthless my life if I longer am silent,


s: And lost to the world if in silence I die.


s: The man in me sleeping begins to awaken;


s: The thing that was slave into slumber has passed:


s: Now; up with the man in me! Up and be doing!


s: No misery more! Here is freedom at last!


s: When sudden: a whistle!--the Boss--an alarum!--


s: I sink in the slime of the stagnant routine;--


s: There's tumult, they struggle, oh, lost is my ego;--


s: I know not, I care not, I am a machine!...


s: Fair summer is here, glad summer is here!


s: The sun is all gold in a heaven of blue,


s: The birds in the forest are trilling for you,


s: The little brook babbles--its secret is sweet.


s: The loveliest flowers would circle your feet,--


s: Come forth! Nature loves you. Come forth! Do not fear!


s: Fair summer is here, glad summer is here,


s: All creatures drink deep; and they pour wine anew


s: In the old cup of life, and they wonder at you.


s: Your portion is waiting since summer began;


s: Then take it, oh, take it, you laboring man!


s: The mountains are covered with greenness again,


s: The sheep frisk about in the flowery vale,


s: The shepherd and shepherdess pause in the dale,


s: Come, throttle your wheel's grinding power!...


s: Your worktime is bitter and endless in length;


s: And have you not foolishly lavished your strength?


s: O think not the world is with bitterness rife,


s: But drink of the wine from the goblet of life.


s: O, summer is here, sweet summer is here!


s: I flee on the morrow. Then, you, have a care!


s: The crow, from the perch I am leaving, the air


s: O, while I am singing to you from my tree


s: Of love, and of life, and of joy yet to be,


s: The heavens remain not so blue and so clear;--


s: Now summer is here! Come, summer is here!


s: Reach out for the joys that are thrilling!


s: For like you who fade at your wheel, day by day,


s: Soon all things will fade and be carried away.


s: Our lives are but moments; and sometimes the cost


s: Of a moment o'erlooked is eternity lost.


s: Well, say you the world is a chamber of sleep,


s: Then I too would dream: and would joyously reap


s: The dream-flow'rs of hope and of freedom, perchance,


s: In Love's eyes I'd fancy the joy of romance;


s: Or say you the world is a banquet, a ball,


s: I too wish to sit like a lord in the hall


s: I too can enjoy what is wholesome and good,


s: I have in my body the same sort of blood


s: A garden you say is the world, where abound


s: Then would I, no leave asking, saunter around


s: Of thorns I am sure I would make me no wreath;


s: But ah! if the world is a battlefield wild,


s: Where struggle the weak with the stronger,


s: Then heed I no storm and no wife and no child!--


s: Rush into the fire of the battle nor yield,


s: Well, if I am struck--I can die on the field;


s: No rest--not one day in the seven for me?


s: Not one, from the maddening yoke to be free?


s: Not one to escape from the boss on the prowl,


s: His sinister glance and his furious growl,


s: The cry of the foreman, the smell of the shop,--


s: To feel for one moment the manacles drop?


s: --_'Tis rest then you want, and you fain would forget?


s: To rest and oblivion they'll carry you yet._


s: The flow'rs and the trees will have withered ere long,


s: The last bird already is ending his song;


s: And soon will be leafless and shadeless the bow'rs...


s: I long, oh I long for the perfume of flow'rs!


s: To feel for a moment ere stripped are the trees,


s: In meadow lands open, the breath of the breeze.


s: --_You long for the meadow lands breezy and fair?


s: O, soon enough others will carry you there._


s: The rivulet sparkles with heavenly light,


s: The wavelets they glisten, with diamonds bedight.


s: Oh, but for a moment to leap in the stream,


s: And play in the waters that ripple and gleam!


s: My body is weakened with terrible toil.--


s: The bath would refresh me, renew me the while.


s: --_You dream of a bath in the shimmering stream?


s: 'Twill come--when forever is ended your dream._


s: The sweatshop is smoky and gloomy and mean--


s: I strive--oh, how vainly I strive to be clean!


s: All day I am covered with grime and with dirt.


s: You'd laugh,--but I long for a spotless white shirt!


s: For life that is noble, 'tis needful, I ween,


s: To work as a man should; and still be as clean.


s: --_So now 'tis your wish all in white to be dressed?


s: In white they will robe you, and lay you to rest._


s: The woods they are cool, and the woods they are free;--


s: To dream and to wander, how sweet it would be!


s: The birds their eternal glad holiday keep;


s: With song that enchants you and lulls you to sleep.


s: 'Tis hot here,--and close! and the din will not cease.


s: I long for the forest, its coolth and its peace.


s: --_Ay, cool you will soon be; and not only cool,


s: But cold as no forest can make you, O Fool!_


s: I long for a friend who will comfort and cheer,


s: And fill me with courage when sorrow is near;


s: A comrade, of treasures the rarest and best,


s: Who gives to existence its crown and its crest;


s: No friend or companion to call me his own.


s: --_Companions a-plenty--they're numberless too;


s: They're swarming already and waiting for you._


s: What aid can'st hope then from the night?


s: Night's deaf and blind!--Oh whither, child,


s: Tho' pain flares its fires in my breast.


s: My veins; and all through me goes creeping


s: With bones that are creaking and breaking,


s: What aid then?--from whom will they borrow


s: Then start!... In the east light is breaking!--


s: In Hester Street, hard by a telegraph post,


s: There sits a poor woman as wan as a ghost.


s: Her pale face is shrunk, like the face of the dead,


s: And yet you can tell that her cheeks once were red.


s: But love, ease and friendship and glory, I ween,


s: May hardly the cause of their fading have been.


s: Poor soul, she has wept so, she scarcely can see.


s: A skeleton infant she holds on her knee.


s: It tugs at her breast, and it whimpers and sleeps,


s: But soon at her cry it awakens and weeps--


s: "Two cents, my good woman, three candles will buy,


s: As bright as their flame be my star in the sky!"


s: Tho' few are her wares, and her basket is small,


s: She earns her own living by these, when at all.


s: She's there with her baby in wind and in rain,


s: In frost and in snow-fall, in weakness and pain.


s: She trades and she trades, through the good times and slack--


s: No home and no food, and no cloak to her back.


s: She's kithless and kinless--one friend at the most,


s: And that one is silent: the telegraph post!


s: Altho' she is wretched, forsaken and ill,


s: She cries Sabbath candles to those that come nigh,


s: And all that she pleads is, that people will buy.


s: To honor the sweet, holy Sabbath, each one


s: With joy in his heart to the market has gone.


s: To shops and to pushcarts they hurriedly fare;


s: But who for the poor, wretched woman will care?


s: A few of her candles you think they will take?--


s: They seek the meat patties, the fish and the cake.


s: She holds forth a hand with the pitiful cry:


s: "Two cents, my good women, three candles will buy!"


s: But no one has listened, and no one has heard:


s: Her voice is so weak, that it fails at each word.


s: Perchance the poor mite in her lap understood,


s: She hears mother's crying--but where is the good


s: I pray you, how long will she sit there and cry


s: Her candles so feebly to all that pass by?


s: How long will it be, do you think, ere her breath


s: Gives out in the horrible struggle with Death?


s: How long will this frail one in mother-love strong,


s: Give suck to the babe at her breast? Oh, how long?


s: The child mother's tears used to swallow before,


s: But mother's eyes, nowadays, shed them no more.


s: Oh, dry are the eyes now, and empty the brain,


s: The heart well-nigh broken, the breath drawn with pain.


s: Yet ever, tho' faintly, she calls out anew:


s: "Oh buy but two candles, good women, but two!"


s: In Hester Street stands on the pavement of stone


s: A small, orphaned basket, forsaken, alone.


s: Beside it is sitting a corpse, cold and stark:


s: The seller of candles--will nobody mark?


s: No, none of the passers have noticed her yet.


s: The rich ones, on feasting are busily set,


s: And such as are pious, you well may believe,


s: Have no time to spare on the gay Sabbath eve.


s: So no one has noticed and no one has seen.


s: And now comes the nightfall, and with it, serene,


s: The Princess, the Sabbath, from Heaven descends,


s: And all the gay throng to the synagogue wends.


s: Within, where they pray, all is cleanly and bright,


s: The cantor sings sweetly, they list with delight.


s: But why in a dream stands the tall chandelier,


s: As dim as the candles that gleam round a bier?


s: The candles belonged to the woman, you know,


s: Who died in the street but a short time ago.


s: The rich and the pious have brought them tonight,


s: For mother and child they have set them alight.


s: The rich and the pious their duty have done:


s: Her tapers are lighted who died all alone.


s: The rich and the pious are nobly behaved:


s: A body--what matters? But souls must be saved!


s: O synagogue lights, be ye witnesses bold


s: That mother and child died of hunger and cold


s: Where millions are squandered in idle display;


s: That men, all unheeded, must starve by the way.


s: Then hold back your flame, blessed lights, hold it fast!


s: The great day of judgment will come at the last.


s: Before the white throne, where imposture is vain,


s: Ye lights for the soul, ye'll be lighted again!


s: And upward your flame there shall mount as on wings,


s: And damn the existing false order of things!


s: It is not the strength of the creature,--


s: They fall o'er his thin cheek in streams,


s: How long shall the wheel yet, I pray you,


s: For their's (maybe you guess!) the crime


s: "I bore and nursed them, struggling still


s: But groans the slave through sense of wrong,


s: And thus the end comes swift and sure...


s: Who's there? who's there? who was it tried


s: An 'twere a friend, I'd gladly borne it,


s: But no--'twas Want! I could have sworn it.


s: I heard thy voice, old witch, I know thee!


s: God's curse! why seekest thou to find me?


s: Begone, most wretched thou of creatures,


s: And hide for aye thine hateful features!


s: The night is bleak, the snowflakes fall.


s: --'Tis true! yet those must wait my leisure.


s: Just now with thee they're playing kindly,


s: To grind thy pleasures ere thou know it--


s: Blood-stained banners, torn and tattered,


s: Thou more than friend, and more than brother,


s: The same small eyes and dim watched o'er me,


s: To school thou led'st me--home did'st bring,


s: And thine were all the blooms that brightened


s: And still, while sorrow's storm is breaking


s: Look forth, look forth! without the door


s: I've often laughed and oftener still have wept,


s: A sighing always through my laughter crept,


s: I've spoken much and oftener held by tongue,


s: For still the most was neither said nor sung.


s: I've hated much and loved, oh so much more!


s: Fierce contrasts at my very heartstrings tore...


s: If but one year ere Thou dost call me Thither,


s: Lord, at this blighting task let me not wither."


s: My blood!... you sweatshop leeches, you!...


s: "Since write you must, in prose or rhyme,


s: "My strength and skill, like yours, are gain


s: Strange the birds and strange the flowers,


s: And through the spears have fought our way,


s: Have threshed us, yet we have not blenched:


s: I asked of my Muse, had she any objection


s: To laughing with me,--not a word for reply!


s: You see, it is Sfere, our time for dejection,--


s: You laughed then, you say? 'tis a sound to affright one!


s: For laughing and groaning with him are the same.


s: The Spring calls and beckons with gracious insistence,--


s: The garden is green and the woodland rejoices:


s: How cool are the breezes, with fragrance how blent!


s: But Spring calls not _you_ with her thousand sweet voices!--


s: With you it is Sfere,--sit still and lament!


s: The beautiful summer, this life's consolation,


s: In moaning and sighing glides quickly away.


s: What hope can it offer to one of my nation?


s: What joy can he find in the splendors of May?


s: Bewildered and homeless, of whom whoso passes


s: May fearlessly stop to make sport at his ease,--


s: Say, is it for him to seek flowers and grasses,


s: For him to be thinking on meadows and trees?


s: And if for a moment, forgetting to ponder


s: On grief and oppression, song breaks out anew,


s: I hear in his lay only: "Wander and wander!"


s: A skilful musician, and one who is versed


s: It touches his heart and it moves him to tears.


s: The blast of the Ram's-horn that quavers and trembles,--


s: To grief and contrition its host it assembles,


s: And causes the stoniest heart to relent.


s: The wail that went up when the Temple was shattered,--


s: The song of Atonement, the Suppliant's psalm,--


s: These only he loves, since they took him--and scattered,--


s: Away from the land of the balsam and balm.


s: Of all the sweet instruments, shiver'd and broken,


s: That once in the Temple delighted his ear,


s: The Ram's-horn alone has he kept, as a token,


s: And sobs out his soul on it once in the year.


s: Instead of the harp and the viol and cymbal,


s: Instead of the lyre, the guitar and the flute,


s: He has but the dry, wither'd Ram's-horn, the symbol


s: Of gloom and despondence; the rest all are mute.


s: He laughs, or he breaks into song, but soon after,


s: Tho' fain would he take in man's gladness a part,


s: One hears, low resounding athwart the gay laughter,


s: The Suppliant's psalm, and it pierces the heart.


s: I asked of my Muse, had she any objection


s: To laughing with me,--not a word for reply!


s: You see, it is Sfere, our time for dejection,--


s: "Speechless here the ground they cumber,


s: Wicks will make, to search the treasure,


s: "Dive in, dive in, my child, with haste!


s: The time, dear heart, we must not waste:


s: Atonement Day--evening pray'r--sadness profound.


s: The soul-lights, so clear once, are dying around.


s: The reader is spent, and he barely can speak;


s: The people are faint, e'en the basso is weak.


s: The choristers pine for the hour of repose.


s: Just one--two chants more, and the pray'r book we close!


s: And Nilah* approaching, and twilight descended.


s: The blast of the New Year is blown on the horn,


s: All go; by the Ark I am standing forlorn,


s: And thinking: "How shall it be with us anon,


s: When closed is the temple, and ev'ryone gone!"


s: Farewell to the feast-day! the pray'r book is stained


s: With tears; of the booth scarce a trace has remained;


s: The lime branch is withered, the osiers are dying,


s: And pale as a corpse the fair palm-frond is lying;


s: The boughs of grey willow are trodden and broken--


s: Friend, these are your hopes and your longings unspoken!


s: Lo, there lie your dreamings all dimm'd and rejected,


s: And there lie the joys were so surely expected!


s: And there is the happiness blighted and perished,


s: And all that aforetime your soul knew and cherished,


s: The loved and the longed for, the striven for vainly--


s: Your whole life before you lies pictured how plainly!


s: The branches are sapless, the leaves will decay,


s: An end is upon us, and whence, who shall say?


s: The broom of the beadle outside now has hustled


s: The lime and the palm that so pleasantly rustled.


s: There blew a cold gust, from our sight all is banished--


s: The shaft from a cross-bow less swiftly had vanished!


s: Father of nations! Help of the feeble hand!


s: Strength of the strong! to whom the nations kneel!


s: Stay and destroyer, at whose just command


s: Earth's kingdoms tremble and her empires reel!


s: Who dost the low uplift, the small make great,


s: Of our scant people mould a mighty state,


s: To the strong, stern,--to Thee in meekness bowed!


s: Weld, interfuse them in the patriot's flame,--


s: In blood late shed to purge the common shame;


s: That so our hearts, the fever of faction done,


s: Banish old feud in our young nation's name.


s: Why rest with babes and slaves? Seek higher


s: Thy swift keels cleave the furthest seas;


s: From whose triumphant throats the cheers,


s: Strange floods that northward rave and fall,--


s: With strangers housed, in stranger lands;--


s: I have lived long, and watched out many days,


s: And seen the showers fall and the light shine down


s: I have lived long, and served the gods, and drawn


s: Small joy and liberal sorrow,--scorned the gods,


s: And drawn no less my little meed of good,


s: Suffered my ill in no more grievous measure.


s: I have been glad--alas, my foolish people,


s: I have been glad with you! And ye are glad,


s: Seeing the gods in all things, praising them


s: In yon their lucid heaven, this green world,


s: Ye err, your feet transgress, and the bolt falls!


s: Ay, have I sung, and dreamed that they would hear;


s: And worshipped, and made offerings;--it may be


s: They heard, and did perceive, and were well pleased,--


s: A little music in their ears; perchance,


s: A grain more savor to their nostrils, sweet


s: Tho' scarce accounted of. But when for me


s: And horror was shed round me; when my knees


s: Relaxed, my tongue clave speechless, they forgot.


s: And when my sharp cry cut the moveless night,


s: And days and nights my wailings clamored up


s: And beat about their golden homes, perchance


s: They shut their ears. No happy music this,


s: Eddying through their nectar cups and calm!


s: Then I cried out against them, and died not;


s: So all day long, with bare, uplift right arm,


s: Drew out the strong thread from the carded wool,


s: Or wrought strange figures, lotus-buds and serpents,


s: In Purple on the himation's saffron fold;


s: Nor uttered praise with the slim-wristed girls


s: Nor poured out bowls of wine and smooth bright oil,


s: Nor brake and gave small cakes of beaten meal


s: Required; nor offered apples summer-flushed,


s: Scarlet pomegranates, poppy-bells, or doves.


s: All this with scorn, and waiting all day long,


s: And night long with dim fear, afraid of sleep,--


s: Seeing I took no hurt of all these things,


s: And seeing mine eyes were drièd of their tears


s: So that once more the light grew sweet for me,


s: Once more grew fair the fields and valley streams,


s: I thought with how small profit men take heed


s: To worship with bowed heads, and suppliant hands,


s: Who take small thought of them to curse or bless,


s: Girt with their purples of perpetual peace!


s: Thus blindly deemed I of them;--yet--and yet--


s: Have late well learned their hate is swift as fire,


s: Ay, have I seen a multitude of good deeds


s: Fly up in the pan like husks, like husks blown dry.


s: Hereafter let none question the high gods!


s: I questioned; but these watching eyes have seen


s: Godlike for sweet speech and great deeds, hurled down


s: To hideous death,--scarce suffered space to breathe


s: Ere the wild heart in his changed quivering side


s: Burst with mad terror, and the stag's wide eyes


s: Stared one sick moment 'mid the dogs' hot jaws.


s: Cithaeron, mother mount, set steadfastly


s: Of seas, beyond Corinthian waves withdrawn,


s: Girt with green vales awake with brooks or still,


s: Towers up mid lesser-browed Boeotian hills--


s: These couched like herds secure beneath its ken--


s: And watches earth's green corners. At mid-noon


s: Right over it, and top its crest with pride.


s: Men of Eleusis look toward north at dawn


s: To see the long white fleeces upward roll,


s: Smitten aslant with saffron, fade like smoke,


s: And leave the gray-green dripping glens all bare,


s: The drenched slopes open sunward; slopes wherein


s: What gods, what godlike men to match with gods,


s: Have roamed, and grown up mighty, and waxed wise


s: Reverence, and call Cheiron! He, made wise


s: With knowledge of all wisdom, had made wise


s: Actaeon, till there moved none cunninger


s: To drive with might the javelin forth, or bend


s: But him the Centaur shall behold no more


s: With long stride making down the beechy glade,


s: Clear-eyed, with firm lips laughing,--at his heels


s: The clamor of his fifty deep-tongued hounds;


s: Him the wise Centaur shall behold no more.


s: I have lived long, and watched out many days,


s: And am well sick of watching. Three days since,


s: I had gone out upon the slopes for herbs,


s: Snake-root, and subtle gums; and when the light


s: Fell slantwise through the upper glens, and missed


s: The sunk ravines, I came where all the hills


s: Circle the valley of Gargaphian streams.


s: Reach beyond reach all down the valley gleamed,--


s: Thick branches ringed them. Scarce a bowshot past


s: My platan, thro' the woven leaves low-hung,


s: A yellow-sanded pool, shallow and clear,


s: Lay sparkling, brown about the further bank


s: From scarlet-berried ash-trees hanging over.


s: With laughter and light voices, and I saw


s: Bane of swift beasts, and deadly for straight shaft


s: Came to the pool from the hither bank to bathe.


s: Their cross-thonged yellow buskins scattered off,


s: Unloosed their knotted hair; and thus the pool


s: Received them stepping, shrinking, down to it.


s: Here they flocked white, and splashed the water-drops


s: Than the washed clouds athwart the morning's blue,--


s: Fresher than river grasses which the herds


s: Pluck from the river in the burning noons.


s: Their tresses on the summer wind they flung;


s: And some a shining yellow fleece let fall


s: For the sun's envy; others with white hands


s: Lifted a glooming wealth of locks more dark


s: Than deepest wells, but purple in the sun.


s: And She, their mistress, of the heart unstormed,


s: Stood taller than they all, supreme, and still,


s: Perfectly fair like day, and crowned with hair


s: The color of nipt beech-leaves: Ay, such hair


s: Was mine in years when I was such as these.


s: Its soft thick coils about my throat and arms;


s: Its color like nipt beech-leaves, tawny brown,


s: Even as thus they played, and some lithe maids


s: Upreached white arms to grasp the berried ash,


s: And, plucking the bright bunches, shed them wide


s: With long stride making down the beechy glade,


s: Clear-eyed, with firm lips laughing, at his heels


s: The clamor of his fifty deep-tongued hounds,


s: But unto bath and bathers hid from view,


s: His wont was to be stretched at dip of eve,


s: When frogs are loud amid the tall-plumed sedge


s: Deeming his life was very sweet, his day


s: A pleasant one, the peopled breadths of earth


s: Most fair, and fair the shining tracts of sea;


s: Green solitudes, and broad low-lying plains


s: Made brown with frequent labors of men's hands,


s: And salt, blue, fruitless waters. But this mount,


s: Cithaeron, bosomed deep in soundless hills,


s: Its fountained vales, its nights of starry calm,


s: Its high chill dawns, its long-drawn golden days,--


s: Was dearest to him. Here he dreamed high dreams,


s: And felt within his sinews strength to strive


s: Where strife was sorest and to overcome,


s: And in his heart the thought to do great deeds,


s: With power in all ways to accomplish them.


s: For had not he done well to men, and done


s: Well to the gods? Therefore he stood secure.


s: But him,--for him--Ah that these eyes should see!--


s: Approached a sudden stumbling in his ways!


s: Not yet, not yet he knew a god's fierce wrath,


s: Nor wist of that swift vengeance lying in wait.


s: Against the pool. With startled cry the maids


s: Shrank clamoring round their mistress, or made flight


s: Stirred not; but pitiless anger paled her eyes,


s: Stood with his head thrust forward, while his curls


s: Sun-lit lay glorious on his mighty neck,--


s: Let fall his bow and clanging spear, and gazed


s: Dilate with ecstasy; nor marked the dogs


s: Hush their deep tongues, draw close, and ring him round,


s: And fix upon him strange, red, hungry eyes,


s: And crouch to spring. This for a moment. Then


s: It seemed his strong knees faltered, and he sank.


s: Then I cried out,--for straight a shuddering stag


s: Sprang one wild leap over the dogs; but they


s: Fastened upon his flanks with a long yell,


s: And reached his throat; and that proud head went down


s: Beneath their wet, red fangs and reeking jaws.


s: I have lived long, and watched out many days,


s: Yet have not seen that ought is sweet save life,


s: Nor learned that life hath other end than death.


s: Thick horror like a cloud had veiled my sight,


s: Were shut from hearing; but when sense grew clear


s: Unrippled,--only saw the dreadful sward.


s: Where dogs lay gorged, or moved in fretful search,


s: The slope, and some at the low water's edge,


s: With snouts set high in air and straining throats


s: Uttered keen howls that smote the echoing hills.


s: They missed their master's form, nor understood


s: Where was the voice they loved, the hand that reared;--


s: And some lay watching by the spear and bow


s: And paling stream arose a noiseless wind


s: Out of the yellow west awhile, and stirred


s: The branches down the valley; then blew off


s: To eastward toward the long gray straits, and died


s: These busy crowds, these rocking trees--


s: What strange note hast thou caught from these?


s: Where past the dikes the red flood glides,


s: Still-winged, the gray hawk wheels on high;


s: Tempe, vale of the gods, deep-couched amid woodland and woodland,


s: Hid by the shadows of dreams, not found by the curious footstep,


s: Sacred and secret forever, Tempe, vale of the gods.


s: Breathes no laurel her balm but Phoebus' fingers caress.


s: Here is a nook. Two rivulets fall to mix with Penëus,


s: Loiter a space, and sleep, checked and choked by the reeds.


s: Hither comes Pan, to this pregnant earthy spot, when his piping


s: Flags; and his pipes outworn breaking and casting away,


s: Fits new reeds to his mouth with the weird earth-melody in them,


s: Piercing, alive with a life able to mix with the god's.


s: God-breath lurks in each fragment forever. Dispersed by Penëus


s: Wandering, caught in the ripples, wind-blown hither and there,


s: Over the whole green earth and globe of sea they are scattered,


s: Coming to secret spots, where in a visible form


s: Or in the depths of noonday plunged to shadiest coverts,


s: Spy them, and set to their lips; blow, and fling them away!


s: Ay, they fling them away,--but never wholly! Thereafter


s: Passion for woods and wild life, the solitude of the hills.


s: Therefore they fly the heedless throngs and traffic of cities,


s: While yet the long, bright afternoons are warm,


s: The air is filled with gathering wings for flight;


s: Yet with the shrill mirth and the loud delight


s: Comes the foreboding sorrow of this cry--


s: "Till the storm scatter and the gloom dispel,


s: In these soft hours, this sweeter month than June?


s: The liquid air floats over field and tree


s: A veil of dreams;--where do ye find the sting?


s: And purple hills;--why have ye taken wing?


s: But faint, far-heard, the answers fall and swell--


s: Stung, but a faint, swift, sulphurous smell


s: And marked the hard, white sparkles glance,


s: On heaped-up leopard skins she crouched,


s: And scarlet stuffs where she was couched,


s: Burned lurid with black stains, and smote


s: The fair face, wan with haunting pain;--


s: Clear-stamped, as by white lightning when


s: The swift flame rends the night, wide-eyed


s: Our hearts, the fiery scourge that smote


s: This morning, full of breezes and perfume,


s: Brimful of promise of midsummer weather,


s: When bees and birds and I are glad together,


s: Breathes of the full-leaved season, when soft gloom


s: Chequers thy streets, and thy close elms assume


s: Round roof and spire the semblance of green billows;


s: Yet now thy glory is the yellow willows,


s: The yellow willows, full of bees and bloom.


s: Under their dusty blossoms blackbirds meet,


s: Thro' the still elms I hear the ferry's beat.


s: The swallows chirp about the towering spire;


s: The whole air pulses with its weight of sweet,


s: My heart is wide awake, yet full of dreams.


s: The air, alive with hushed confusion, teems


s: With scent of grain-fields, and a mystic rune,


s: Keeps swelling and subsiding, till there seems


s: O'er all the world of valleys, hills, and streams,


s: My heart is full of dreams, yet wide awake.


s: I lie and watch the topmost tossing boughs


s: Of tall elms, pale against the vaulted blue;


s: But even now some yellowing branches shake,


s: Some hue of death the living green endows:--


s: If beauty flies, fain would I vanish too.


s: --What's that, Brother? Did you speak?--


s: Thick strewn with drift of leaves. Beneath


s: Faithful reports of them have reached me oft!


s: By golden pomp, and breathless-heard consort


s: Many their speeding herald, whose light feet


s: Make pause at wayside brooks, and fords of streams,


s: Leaving transfigured by an effluence fleet


s: No wind from out the solemn wells of night


s: But hath its burden of strange messages,


s: That steals from noon-stilled waters, woven in shade,


s: Beckons somewhither, with cool fingers slim.


s: No dawn but hath some subtle word conveyed


s: One moment throbs the hearing, yearns the sight.


s: But tho' not far, yet strangely hid--the way,


s: And our sense slow; nor long for us delay


s: The breath goes by; the word, the light, elude;


s: And we stay wondering. But there comes an hour


s: When splits her husk the finer sense with power,


s: Here Homer came, and Milton came, tho' blind.


s: Omar's deep doubts still found them nigh and nigher,


s: And learned them fashioned to the heart's desire.


s: Of Shakspere took their sovereignty, and smiled.


s: Those passionate Israelitish lips that poured


s: The Song of Songs attained them; and the wild


s: Child-heart of Shelley, here from strife restored,


s: Sweet, tho' world on world withhold thee,


s: Crimson swims the sunset over far Pelorus;


s: Burning crimson tops its frowning crest of pine.


s: Purple sleeps the shore and floats the wave before us,


s: Eachwhere from the oar-stroke eddying warm like wine.


s: Soundless foams the creamy violet wake behind us;


s: We but see the creaking of the labored oar;


s: We have stopped our ears,--mad were we not to blind us,


s: Lest our eyes behold our Ithaca no more.


s: See the purple splendor o'er the island streaming,


s: O'er the prostrate sails and equal-sided ship!


s: Windless hangs the vine, and warm the sands lie gleaming;


s: Droop the great grape-clusters melting for the lip.


s: Sweet the golden calm, the glowing light elysian.


s: Sweet were red-mouthed plenty mindless grown of pain.


s: Sweeter yet behold--a sore-bewildering vision!


s: Idly took we thought, and stopped our ears in vain.


s: Idly took we thought, for still our eyes betray us.


s: Lo, the white-limbed maids, with love-soft eyes aglow,


s: Gleaming bosoms bare, loosed hair, sweet hands to slay us,


s: Warm lips wild with song, and softer throats than snow!


s: See the King! he hearkens,--hears their song,--strains forward,--


s: Now with urgent hand he bids us turn us shoreward,--


s: Bend the groaning oar now; give the King no heed!


s: Mark the luring music by his eyes' wild yearning,


s: Eager lips, and mighty straining at the cords!


s: Well we guess the song, the subtle words and burning,


s: Sung to him, the subtle king of burning words.


s: "Much-enduring Wanderer, wondrous-tongued, come nigher!


s: Sage of princes, bane of Ilion's lofty walls!


s: Whatsoe'er in all the populous earth befalls


s: We will teach thee, to thine uttermost desire."


s: So, we rise up twain, and make his bonds securer.


s: Seethes the startled sea now from the surging blade.


s: Leaps the dark ship forth, as we, with hearts grown surer,


s: Eyes averse, and war-worn faces made afraid,


s: O'er the waste warm reaches drive our prow, sea-cleaving,


s: Past the luring death, into the folding night.


s: Home shall hold us yet, and cease our wives from grieving,--


s: Safe from storm, and toil, and flame, and clanging fight.


s: The loud black flight of the storm diverges


s: Where, crowned with summer and sun, emerges


s: And here, of its sweet queen grown full fain,--


s: By whose kisses the whole broad earth seems poor,--


s: Tarries the wave-worn prince, Troy's bane,


s: To her voice our sweetest songs are dirges.


s: She gives him all things, counting it gain.


s: Ringed with the rocks and ancient surges,


s: New knowledge, new lands, new loves allure;


s: Forgotten the perils, and toils, and pain,


s: So he spurns her kisses and gifts, and urges


s: His weak skiff over the wind-vext plain,


s: Till the gray of the sky in the gray sea merges,


s: And nights reel round, and waver, and wane.


s: But ah, for the love he shall clasp not again


s: To the one good gift of the gods hold sure,


s: Sharp drives the rain, sharp drives the endless rain.


s: The rain-winds wake and wander, lift and blow.


s: The slow smoke-wreaths of vapor to and fro


s: Wave, and unweave, and gather and build again.


s: Over the far gray reaches of the plain--


s: Gray miles on miles my passionate thought must go,--


s: I strain my sight, grown dim with gazing so,


s: Pressing my face against the streaming pane.


s: How the rain beats! Ah God, if love had power


s: Thro' time and bitter distance, not in vain,


s: Surely Her heart would hear me at this hour,


s: Look thro' the years, and see! But would She know


s: The white face pressed against the streaming pane?


s: Its hand compassionate guards our restless sight


s: Against how many a harshness, many an ill!


s: Tender as sleep, its shadowy palms distil


s: Weird vapors that ensnare our eyes with light.


s: Rash eyes, kept ignorant in their own despite,


s: It lets not see the unsightliness they will,


s: But paints each scanty fairness fairer still,


s: And still deludes us to our own delight.


s: It fades, regathers, never quite dissolves.


s: And ah that life, ah that the heart and brain


s: Might keep their mist and glamour, not to know


s: So soon the disenchantment and the pain!


s: Stript and cast forth as time's slow wheel revolves.


s: Many and many a sorrow has all but died from remembrance,


s: Many a dream of joy fall'n in the shadow of pain.


s: Hands of chance and change have marred, or moulded, or broken,


s: Busy with spirit or flesh, all I most have adored;


s: Even the bosom of Earth is strewn with heavier shadows,--


s: Only in these green hills, aslant to the sea, no change!


s: Stained with time, set warm in orchards, and meadows, and wheat,


s: Skirting the sunbright uplands stretches a riband of meadow,


s: Shorn of the laboring grass, bulwarked well from the sea,


s: Fenced on its seaward border with long clay dikes from the turbid


s: Yonder, toward the left, lie broad the Westmoreland marshes,--


s: Miles on miles they extend, level, and grassy, and dim,


s: Miles on miles outrolled, and the river-channels divide them,--


s: Miles on miles of green, barred by the hurtling gusts.


s: Miles on miles beyond the tawny bay is Minudie.


s: There are the low blue hills; villages gleam at their feet.


s: Nearer a white sail shines across the water, and nearer


s: Still are the slim, gray masts of fishing boats dry on the flats.


s: Pale with scurf of the salt, seamed and baked in the sun!


s: Well I remember the piles of blocks and ropes, and the net-reels


s: Wound with the beaded nets, dripping and dark from the sea!


s: Softly at will, or they lie heaped in the gloom of a loft.


s: Now at this season the reels are empty and idle; I see them


s: Over the lines of the dikes, over the gossiping grass.


s: Near about sunset the crane will journey homeward above them;


s: Round them, under the moon, all the calm night long,


s: Winnowing soft gray wings of marsh-owls wander and wander,


s: Now to the broad, lit marsh, now to the dusk of the dike.


s: Sparkle and wave, where late sea-spoiling fathoms of drift-net


s: Myriad-meshed, uploomed sombrely over the land.


s: Well I remember it all. The salt raw scent of the margin;


s: While, with men at the windlass, groaned each reel, and the net,


s: Surging in ponderous lengths, uprose and coiled in its station;


s: Then each man to his home,--well I remember it all!


s: Yet, as I sit and watch, this present peace of the landscape,--


s: Stranded boats, these reels empty and idle, the hush,


s: One gray hawk slow-wheeling above yon cluster of haystacks,--


s: More than the old-time stir this stillness welcomes me home.


s: Ah the old-time stir, how once it stung me with rapture,--


s: Old-time sweetness, the winds freighted with honey and salt!


s: Yet will I stay my steps and not go down to the marsh-land,--


s: Muse and recall far off, rather remember than see,--


s: Lest on too close sight I miss the darling illusion,


s: Spy at their task even here the hands of chance and change.


s: Shedding cool drops upon the sun-baked clay,


s: The dripping jar, brimful, she rests a space


s: On the well's dry white brink, and leans her face,


s: Heavy with tears and many a heartsick day,


s: Down to the water's lip, whence slips away


s: A rivulet thro' the hot, bright square apace,


s: And lo! her brow casts off each servile trace--


s: The wave's cool breath hath won her thoughts astray.


s: Ah desolate heart! Thy fate thou hast forgot


s: One moment; the dull pain hath left those eyes


s: Whose yearning pierces time, and space, and tears.


s: Thou seest what was once, but now is not,--


s: Unscathed of flame, and foe, and hostile spears.


s: "Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me"--Whitman


s: Not yet, for all their quest of it, have men


s: Cast wholly by the ignoble dread of truth!


s: Each of God's laws, if but so late discerned


s: Their faiths upgrew unsuckled in it, fills


s: Their hearts with angry fears, perchance lest God


s: Be dwarfed behind his own decrees, or made


s: Superfluous through his perfectness of deed!


s: But large increase of knowledge in these days


s: Is come about us, fraught with ill for them


s: Whose creeds are cut too straight to hold new growth,


s: Whose faiths are clamped against access of wisdom;


s: Fraught with some sadness, too, for those just souls


s: Who, clothed in rigid teachings found too scant,


s: Are fain to piece the dear accustomed garb,


s: Till here a liberal, there a literal fragment,


s: Here new, there old, here bright, there dark, disclose


s: Their vestiture a strange discordant motley.


s: But O rare motley,--starred with thirst of truth,


s: Patched with desire of wisdom, zoned about


s: With passion for fresh knowledge, and the quest


s: Of right! Such motley may be made at last,


s: Through grave sincerity, a dawn-clear garment!


s: But, for the enfranchised spirit, this expanse


s: What rapt, considerate awe it summons forth,


s: Unfold through age-long silences, through surge


s: As swerveless in fit time as tho' His finger


s: But yesterday ordained, and wrought to-day.


s: Omnipotence that hath not dreamed of haste,--


s: Is graven in granite-moulding aeons' gloom;


s: Of long Silurian storms, and tempests huge


s: Is whispered in the noiseless mists, the gray


s: Soft drip of clouds about rank fern-forests,


s: Through dateless terms that stored the layered coal;


s: Is uttered hoarse in strange Triassic forms


s: Of monstrous life; or stamped in ice-blue gleams


s: Athwart the death-still years of glacial sleep!


s: Down the stupendous sequence, age on age,


s: Thro' storm and peace, thro' shine and gloom, thro' warm


s: And seething realms of thunderous overthrow,--


s: In the obscure and formless dawn of life,


s: In gradual march from simple to complex,


s: From lower to higher forms, and last to Man


s: Through faint prophetic fashions,--stands declared


s: The God of order and unchanging purpose.


s: Creation, which He covers, Him contains,


s: The impulse and the quickening germ, whereby


s: All things strive upward, reach toward greater good;


s: Till craving brute, informed with soul, grows Man,


s: And Man turns homeward, yearning back to God.


s: A brown sad-colored hillside, where the soil,


s: Fresh from the frequent harrow, deep and fine,


s: Lies bare; no break in the remote sky-line,


s: Save where a flock of pigeons streams aloft,


s: Startled from feed in some low-lying croft,


s: Or far-off spires with yellow of sunset shine;


s: Exerts the silent forethought of his toil.


s: Alone he treads the glebe, his measured stride


s: Dwell in his heavy face, as spreads the blind


s: Pale grain from his dispensing palm aside,


s: This plodding churl grows great in his employ;--


s: Godlike, he makes provision for mankind.


s: A high bare field, brown from the plough, and borne


s: Washing the ridge, a clamor of crows that fly


s: In from the wide flats where the spent tides mourn


s: To yon their rocking roosts in pines wind-torn;


s: A line of gray snake-fence, that zigzags by


s: A pond, and cattle, from the homestead nigh


s: The long deep summonings of the supper horn.


s: Black, on the ridge, against that lonely flush,


s: A cart, and stoop-necked oxen; ranged beside,


s: Some barrels, and the day-worn harvest folk,


s: Here emptying their baskets, jar the hush


s: With hollow thunders; down the dusk hillside


s: Lumbers the wain; and day fades out like smoke.


s: All the wide, bright world of the night;


s: We have fled from the crowd in our flight,


s: All the turmoil has sunk from our sight.


s: Turn your head, Love, a little, and note


s: The mists of the horizon-line drench it,


s: The beams of the moon all but quench it,


s: Yet it shines thro' this flood-tide of light.


s: Of the day, of our life, and our sorrow,


s: Still is seen the pale beam of the star,


s: Cannot quench the remembrance of morrow.


s: Though the wings of all winds are upfurled


s: And the past we have banished not quite.


s: With this splendor, this shining moon, set not!


s: We might drift with the tide-flow, and lift


s: To speak with you, Love, to be near you,--


s: I should reckon this life, well content.


s: We have known and endured them, full share,--


s: Should have power to approach us! Suppose


s: This one hour were our life,--all the past


s: All the future a trance, that should last


s: And this dream, hadst thou courage to hear


s: But the love of the flesh, tho' at first


s: Pierce the seventh and innermost sphere;


s: From the world of the flesh and its power!


s: What matter that the sad gray city sleeps,


s: Sodden with dull dreams, ill at ease, and snow


s: Still falling chokes the swollen drains! I know


s: That even with sun and summer not less creeps


s: My spirit thro' gloom, nor ever gains the steeps


s: Where Peace sits, inaccessible, yearned for so.


s: Well have I learned that from my breast my woe


s: Starts,--that as my own hand hath sown, it reaps.


s: I have had my measure of achievement, won


s: Most I have striven for; and at last remains


s: This one thing certain only, that who gains


s: Success hath gained it at too sore a cost,


s: If in his triumph hour his heart have lost


s: Youth, and have found its sorrow of age begun.


s: When first did I perceive you, when take heed


s: Of what is now so deep in heart and brain


s: That tears shall not efface it, nor the greed


s: Of time or fate destroy, nor scorn, nor pain?


s: Long summers back I trembled to the vision


s: That he you loved might hold in like derision


s: This in my heart of hearts, while outwardly


s: Nor speech nor guarded glance my dream betrayed;


s: Till one day, so past thought you maddened me,


s: My dream escaped my lips, glad and afraid.


s: Afraid, where no fear was. For lo, the gift


s: (Worlds could not purchase it) was mine, was mine!


s: And oh, my Sweet, how swift we went adrift


s: On wild sweet waters, warmer-hued than wine!


s: At your recalled caresses. Peace, my heart!


s: She whom you beat so wild for lies to-night


s: And you shall listen, passionately still;


s: Think, heart, all this does fealty to your will!


s: All this,--a lithe and perfect-moulded form,


s: Instinct with subtle gesture, soft, intense.


s: Head small and queenlike, dainty feet that warm


s: Even the dull world's ways into rapturous sense.


s: Clear, broad, white forehead, crowned low down with hair


s: Darker than night, more soft than sleep or tears.


s: Nose neither small nor great, but straight, and fair.


s: Like naught but smooth sea-shells her delicate ears.


s: But how to tell about her mouth and eyes!


s: Her strange, sweet, maddening eyes, her subtle mouth!


s: Mouth in whose closure all love's sweetness lives,--


s: Eyes with the warm gleam of the lustrous south!


s: Fathomless dusk by night, the day lets in


s: Glimmer of emerald,--thus those eyes of hers!


s: Above the firm sweep of the moulded chin


s: The lips, than whose least kiss Heaven's gifts were worse.


s: Her bosom,--ah that now my head were laid!


s: Warm in that resting-place! But, heart, be still!


s: I will refrain, and break my dreams, afraid


s: Hear you no voice divide the night like flame?


s: In these gray walls the inmost soul of me


s: Is swooning with the music of your name.


s: Till wrinkling winds and seas are smooth,--


s: Puff seaward dreams from the inner land,--


s: Till, lapped in mild half-lights, our dream-blown boat


s: Lolls in the pines in drowsed half-swoon;


s: And thin moon-shades pace out to us, and shift


s: The night-spell holds us one with these,


s: Till, Love, we scarce know life from sleep,--we seem


s: Through the still dusk how sighs the ebb-tide out,


s: Reluctant for the reed-beds! Down the sands


s: It washes. Hark! Beyond the wan gray strand's


s: Low limits how the winding channels grieve,


s: Aware the evasive waters soon will leave


s: Them void amid the waste of desolate lands,


s: Where shadowless to the sky the marsh expands,


s: And the noon-heats must scar them, and the drought.


s: Yet soon for them the solacing tide returns


s: To quench their thirst of longing. Ah, not so


s: Works the stern law oar tides of life obey!


s: Scarce known ere fled forever is the flow;


s: And in parched channel still the shrunk stream mourns.


s: Dear Heart, between us can be no farewell.


s: We have so long to live, so much to endure,


s: What ills despair might work us who can tell,


s: Had we not help in that one trust secure!


s: Time cannot sever, nor space keep long apart,


s: Those whom Love's sleepless yearning would draw near.


s: And firm-fixt will.--What room have we for fear!


s: Now, for the night is hushed and blind with rain,


s: My soul desires communion, Dear, with thee.


s: But hour by hour my spirit gets not free,--


s: Hour by still hour my longing strives in vain.


s: The thick dark hems me, ev'n to the restless brain.


s: The wind's confusion vague encumbers me.


s: Ev'n passionate memory, grown too faint to see


s: Thy features, stirs not in her straitening chain.


s: And thou, dost thou too feel this strange divorce


s: Of will from power? The spell of night and wind,


s: Baffling desire and dream, dost thou too find?


s: Not distance parts us, Dear; but this dim force,


s: Intangible, holds us helpless, hushed with pain,


s: Love, if you love me, love with heart and soul!


s: Accepting small return, and scanty dole,


s: Ah, love me passionately, or not at all!


s: For love that counts the cost I have small need.


s: My fingers would with laughing scorn let fall


s: That poor half-love so many lovers heed.


s: Then be mine wholly,--body, soul, and brain!


s: Your memory shall outlive kings. For Time


s: Her whose name rings along the poet's rhyme.


s: Set in the fierce red desert for a sword,


s: Drawn and deep-driven implacably! The tide


s: Of scorching sand that chafes thy landward side


s: Storming thy palms; and past thy front outpoured


s: The Nile's vast dread and wonder! Late there roared


s: (While far off paused the long war, long defied)


s: Mad tumult thro' thy streets; and Gordon died,


s: Slaughtered amid the yelling rebel horde!


s: Yet, spite of shame and wrathful tears, Khartoum,


s: We owe thee certain thanks, for thou hast shown


s: How still the one a thousand crowds outweighs,--


s: Still one man's mood sways millions,--one man's doom


s: Smites nations;--and our burning spirits own


s: A child, I set the thirsting of my mouth


s: To the gold chalices of loves that craze.


s: Surely, alas, I have found therein but drouth,


s: Surely has sorrow darkened o'er my days.


s: While worldlings chase each other madly round


s: Dreamer, my dream earth's utmost longings bound:


s: One love alone is mine, my love is Liberty.


s: I have sung them all;--youth's lightsomeness that fleets,


s: Pure friendship, my most fondly cherished dreams,


s: Wild blossoms and the winds that steal their sweets,


s: Wood odors, and the star that whitely gleams.


s: But our hearts change; the spirit dulls its edge


s: These vanished like the foam-bells on the sedge:


s: I sing one burden now, my song is Liberty.


s: I drench my spirit in ecstasy, consoled,


s: And my gaze trembles toward the azure arc,


s: Flame like a meteor God's finger thro' the dark


s: Wherein man crawls toward immortality,--


s: Beholding here how sore his suffering is,


s: I make my prayer with tears, it is for Liberty.


s: You have garnered your sheaf, with the tares


s: Poet and Flute-player, that flute of thine


s: Tho' strenuously with breath divine inspired,


s: To thy strait law is due thy deathless line.


s: This antique song, new sung in fashion new,


s: From me, half silent fallen, with love to you,


s: O singer of unvexed scenes and virgin themes


s: In strait, quaint, ancient metres, thronged with dreams!


s: And here the tongue of the thrush was awake.


s: For the tongue of the singer needs must sing.


s: Sat; and I thought--"She grieves for the sake


s: But the thrushes were hushed at evening.


s: Then I waited to hear the brown bird try,--


s: And I said--"The thought of the thrushes Will shake


s: With rapture remembered her heart; and her shy


s: Hark now!"--for the upraised quivering wing,


s: And the tongue of the singer needs must sing!


s: But the bird dropped dead with only a cry.


s: I found its tongue was withered, poor thing!


s: Then I no whit wondered, for well knew I


s: That the heart of the singer will break or sing.


s: When o'er my sense this Magian flower enweaves


s: His charm of slumbrous summer, green and warm,


s: Whilst these rich blooms burn red about my face,


s: Where Autumn broods o'er purple deeps of space!


s: Here is a breathing time, and rest for a little season.


s: Here have I drained deep draughts out of the springs of life.


s: Lo, out of failure triumph! Renewed the wavering courage,


s: Tense the unstrung nerves, steadfast the faltering knees


s: Weary no more, nor faint, nor grieved at heart, nor despairing,


s: Hushed in the earth's green lap, lulled to slumber and dreams!


s: Awake, my country, the hour is great with change!


s: Under this gloom which yet obscures the land,


s: From ice-blue strait and stern Laurentian range


s: To where giant peaks our western bounds command,


s: A deep voice stirs, vibrating in men's ears


s: As if their own hearts throbbed that thunder forth,


s: A sound wherein who hearkens wisely hears


s: The voice of the desire of this strong North,--


s: Clearly, but dreams, and murmurs in the dream.


s: The hour of dreams is done. Lo, on the hills the gleam!


s: Awake, my country, the hour of dreams is done!


s: Doubt not, nor dread the greatness of thy fate.


s: Tho' faint souls fear the keen confronting sun,


s: And fain would bid the morn of splendor wait;


s: Tho' dreamers, rapt in starry visions, cry


s: "Lo, yon thy future, yon thy faith, thy fame!"


s: And stretch vain hands to stars, thy fame is nigh,


s: Here in Canadian hearth, and home, and name;--


s: Loyal to our native earth, our own Canadian land!


s: O strong hearts, guarding the birthright of our glory,


s: Worth your best blood this heritage that ye guard!


s: These mighty streams resplendent with our story,


s: These iron coasts by rage of seas unjarred,--


s: What fields of peace these bulwarks well secure!


s: What vales of plenty those calm floods supply!


s: Shall not our love this rough, sweet land make sure,


s: Her bounds preserve inviolate, though we die?


s: And put the craven and base to an open shame,


s: Till earth shall know the Child of Nations by her name!


s: And forgotten were paddle, and rod, and gun,


s: And the low, bright planets, one by one,


s: Lit in the pine-tops their lamps of gold


s: To us by the fire, in our blankets rolled,


s: "In those days came the moose from the east,


s: And as leaves before him were man and beast.


s: Are strong,--they were but straw in his way.


s: "His breath was a storm and a flame; his feet


s: In the mountains thundered, fierce and fleet,


s: Till men's hearts were as milk, and ceased to beat.


s: "But in those days dwelt Clote Scarp with men.


s: It is long to wait till he comes again,--


s: But a Friend was near and could hear us, then!


s: Where the ash-trees over the water look,


s: "He rose, and took his bow from the wall,


s: And listened; he heard his people's call


s: Pierce up from the villages one and all.


s: "From village to village he passed with cheer;


s: And the people followed; but when drew near


s: The stride of the moose, they fled in fear.


s: "Like smoke in a wind they fled at the last


s: But he in a pass of the hills stood fast,


s: "That terrible forehead, maned with flame,


s: As shrinks in the rains of spring the snow,


s: So shrank the monster beneath that blow,


s: "Till scarce the bulk of a bull he stood.


s: And Clote Scarp led him down to the wood,


s: And gave him the tender shoots for food."


s: He ceased; and a voice said, "Understand


s: When stayed by a prompt and steady hand!"


s: Forget what gladness was, and how the earth


s: Gave corn in plenty, and the rivers fish,


s: And the woods meat, before he went away.


s: And words and ways of men and beasts became


s: Evil, and all their thoughts continually


s: That takes the setting sun, he ordered it,


s: And called the beasts thereto. Only the men


s: He called not, seeing them evil utterly.


s: He fed the panther's crafty brood, and filled


s: The lean wolf's hunger; from the hollow tree


s: His honey stayed the bear's terrific jaws;


s: And the brown rabbit couched at peace, within


s: The circling shadow of the eagle's wings.


s: And when the feast was done he told them all


s: That now, because their ways were evil grown,


s: On that same day he must depart from them,


s: And they should look upon his face no more.


s: Then all the beasts were very sorrowful.


s: It was near sunset, and the wind was still,


s: And down the yellow shore a thin wave washed


s: Slowly; and Clote Scarp launched his birch canoe,


s: And spread his yellow sail, and moved from shore,


s: Though no wind followed, streaming in the sail,


s: Or roughening the clear waters after him.


s: And all the beasts stood by the shore, and watched.


s: Then to the west appeared a long red trail


s: Over the wave; and Clote Scarp sailed and sang


s: And black, and vanished in the shining trail.


s: And when the beasts could see his form no more,


s: They still could hear him, singing as he sailed,


s: And still they listened, hanging down their heads


s: In long row, where the thin wave washed and fled.


s: But when the sound of singing died, and when


s: They lifted up their voices in their grief,


s: Lo! on the mouth of every beast a strange


s: New tongue! Then rose they all and fled apart,


s: To breathe new mystery, breathed by you.


s: Moon-tranced, and passion-still, were stirred


s: The goal, and rent the heavens with praise;--


s: Where's the mirth that with morn was begun,


s: Some sweet thieves have made off with our fun!


s: Then more blithely we'd sing than we do--


s: Crowned with rose, or myrtle-wreath, or laurel,


s: And come where more than lanes are shady.


s: The side on which your bread is buttered!


s: Things you have sung, but ah, not seen--


s: Wrought quaintly, on the Arcadian pattern.


s: While a lamb leads them--to the shearing!


s: But, should you miss your farm-yard sunny,


s: We'll make you ducks and drakes--of money!


s: And should you set your heart upon them,


s: And soon you'll leave your uplands flowery,


s: You've piped at home, where none could pay,


s: Blossom that spread'st, as spring brings in


s: trade, I found little opportunity of attaining anything like


s: proficiency in literary composition. Many of my minor pieces have


s: visited. Crossthwaite, Underbarrow, Lake Windermere, Esthwaite.


s: Discovers reasons in Man's inbred corruption, temptations, etc.


s: thoughts, and employments in Autumn. The Autumnal garb of trees.


s: Address to Memory. Spring time described. Thoughts and fancies


s: Inconveniences in it. An incident. Discouragements in trade.


s: The Inebriate's Daughter's Appeal to her Father


s: Stanzas on hearing an Auctioneer quote Scripture


s: Stanzas suggested by the Railway Accident at Desjardin's Canal


s: Verses on the Railroad Accident near Copetown


s: Lines suggested by _New York Tribune's_ Account of Lincoln's


s: Departure from Springfield for Washington


s: Lines Composed at Mr. McLarty's, West Missouri


s: To my dear little Boys, James, Christopher and Alfred


s: _"Let not Ambition mock their useful toil."--


s: visited: Crossthwaite, Underbarrow, Lake Windermere, Esthwaite.


s: Incidents, poetic tastes, etc. Conclusion.


s: My harp awakes! And as I touch each string,


s: Eighteen eventful years, or rather more,


s: Have fled since first he left his native shore--


s: That much-loved shore! that dear old English home!


s: So oft regretted since first led to roam.


s: My Muse, 'tis thine to give in artless lays,


s: Make known the place where first he saw the light,


s: Portray the scenes which pleased his boyish sight,


s: Unfold his parentage, and backward trace


s: Their line, descended from no common race;


s: Speak of his eagerness to learn a trade,


s: Glance at his love scenes, and a lesson show,


s: Which youths in general would do well to know.


s: Fail not to tell how, in his eighteenth year,


s: He did, as _Christian_, publicly appear.


s: Make known the cause that led him first to feel


s: A strong desire to seek his future weal,


s: Where flow great rivers, and loud cataracts roar;


s: Where mighty lakes afford the fullest scope


s: For future commerce, and the settler's hope.


s: Go with him to his home in the wild woods--


s: That rude log cottage where he stored his goods;


s: Paint faithfully the scenes through which he passed,


s: What then befel him in successive years,


s: Or aught which to thee suitable appears,


s: By high-born race, or those more lowly bred.


s: Let usefulness be still thy constant aim,


s: Help me to seek, by constant, earnest prayer


s: That God's approval be my chiefest care.


s: And if a Poet thou would'st wish to make


s: Thy guide and pattern, gentle COWPER take.


s: Some happy hours, until my task shall end.


s: And when 'tis finished, may it ne'er be said


s: That we a useless memoir have displayed.


s: In the northwest of England's verdant isle,


s: Where beauteous scenery meets one with a smile,


s: Where lakes and rivers burst upon the sight


s: And fill the mind with transports of delight,


s: Where lofty hills unite with lowly dales


s: To furnish matter for instructive tales,


s: Which, should enjoy a share of high renown.


s: My native place! I need not sink the name--


s: Such act, sweet KENDAL! thou might'st justly blame,


s: A place so dear, I trust I still shall love,


s: It has its site fast by a pleasant stream,


s: Beside whose banks our hero learned to dream.


s: Though quiet, it gave birth to many a name,


s: Which for good deeds obtained a moderate fame.


s: Some few there were well skilled in Science deep,


s: Who now within its several graveyards sleep.


s: Its once-proud Castle that in ruin lies,


s: The birthplace was of one who lived to rise


s: And the eighth HENRY as her lord to own.


s: Within this town some very rich men live;


s: As their low birthright, with the fullest share


s: Of its attendants, constant toil and care!


s: These oft, though poor, in honesty may vie


s: With most of those who hold their heads so high.


s: Of this large class young COOPER'S parents were;


s: To peace inclined, they heeded not the stir


s: To gain such objects as their pride may sate.


s: E'er since this father was a little boy,


s: Hard out-door labor did his hands employ.


s: The mother, too, to work was early taught,


s: And take delight in what her hands had wrought.


s: This hardy training proved of use to them,


s: For 'twas the means of gaining honest bread--


s: In course of time four children needed care,


s: And claimed from them of food and clothes a share.


s: Nor did they grudge them what they could afford--


s: For they had learned to live and serve the Lord!


s: But soon Affliction, with her visage dire,


s: Called them to pass through purifying fire!


s: And first a smiling girl was snatched away--


s: The mother next, to Death became a prey.


s: The father, too, was sick, and laid aside


s: For many weeks; thus sorely was he tried.


s: And she was laid by her dear mother's side.


s: Such fearful strokes, to one in poverty,


s: Were hard to bear, as all may clearly see.


s: But this poor man, all strong in holy faith,


s: Was led to take a proper view of death--


s: And view his loved ones but as gone before.


s: To Canaan's blest and truly happy shore!


s: To aid this Christian, and his sorrow share.


s: A goodly sum, and keep her needs supplied.


s: This virtuous woman thus became "a crown"


s: To that poor man, by trials well bowed down.


s: Of household comforts, and had much less care.


s: Thus early schooled, our WILLIAM grew apace,


s: And though still young, wore oft a thoughtful face.


s: He needful tasks most eagerly did learn.


s: On winter nights, and by their frugal fire,


s: That his dear father should to him make known


s: What kind of ancestry they chanced to own.


s: To this the father, with a smiling face,


s: Soon made reply, "We spring from noble race!


s: Who liked him well and deemed his music good.


s: They soon contrived each others' minds to learn,


s: And felt Love's flame within their bosoms burn;


s: But knowing well this would not be allowed,


s: Disguised, away they fled amongst a crowd.


s: Soon they were fast in honest wedlock tied;


s: And thus the Minstrel gained a lovely bride!


s: Yet were they destined not to live in peace--


s: For ELLEN'S brother vowed he would not cease


s: To search for them through all the country wide,


s: And quick return with ELLEN at his side!


s: Long time he searched, then gave them up for lost,


s: And proved his boasting vain, unto his cost.


s: But on one night he, weary, sad and faint,


s: Espied a house, and to that house he went--


s: Just reached the threshold, and sank down quite spent.


s: The fair young mistress, with a piteous eye,


s: Beheld the man, and feared that he would die.


s: She loosed his vest, then laid his bosom bare,


s: And spied a mark which well might make her stare.


s: It was her brother! and her gentle heart


s: With love o'erflowed to act a sister's part.


s: Most earnest efforts quick the man restored,


s: And ELLEN felt most grateful to the Lord.


s: She, fully conscious of strict rectitude,


s: Confessed her kindred, and for pardon sued.


s: The astonished brother clasped her in his arms;


s: Their early love afresh their spirit warms,


s: This Minstrel, with his lovely ELLEN, were


s: Young COOPER heard, and could not well conceal


s: Some stirring thoughts that he began to feel.


s: Far, far too young to feel Ambition's rage.


s: But he had heard of Dukes, and Earls, and Lords,


s: And all the splendor which their rank affords;


s: Had seen in prints their castles and their halls;


s: Had heard of servants who obeyed their calls;


s: Of their vast parks, well filled with noble deer,


s: Their tables loaded with the best of cheer;


s: Of horses, carriages, and fleetest hounds,


s: And cattle feeding over all their grounds;


s: Of gardens filled with precious fruits and flowers,


s: And of sweet music to beguile their hours;


s: Fancied their mansions full of lovely girls,


s: With beauteous eyes, and richly flowing curls;


s: In short, conceived that these men were no less


s: Than mighty lords whom every eye should bless.


s: This boy indulged with greatest frequency.


s: But years flew by, with all their constant care,


s: New hopes, new scenes, and feelings of despair.


s: Would better health in change of air oft seek.


s: At times like these, his second mother's care


s: Did send him forth with relatives to fare.


s: And then sweet Crossthwaite, with its paper mill,


s: Its pretty brooks, and many a trickling rill,


s: With dearest pleasure would his bosom fill.


s: That purer kindness could not be displayed


s: Than they still showed to him while living there,


s: As their own child, he did their goodness share.


s: Dear, aged friends! grim Death has laid you low,


s: And you no more to him can kindness show!


s: Has cheered his spirit and dispelled his sorrow!


s: Thy hazel copses, and thy rugged _Scaur_,


s: With yellow-blooming whins have banished far


s: All thoughts of his poor, weak and sickly frame,


s: And raised his love of Nature to a flame!


s: Yes, often now, though living o'er the sea,


s: And many years have fled since he saw thee,


s: Dear Memory brings thy early charms to view,


s: And all their pleasures to his mind seem new!


s: Again, fresh scenes would his attention crave,


s: Ev'n noble Windermere with rippling wave;


s: And frequently he crossed o'er its short ferry,


s: In huge flat-boats, or pleasant sailing wherry,


s: And viewed, well pleased, its many lovely isles,


s: Clothed with rich verdure and sweet Summer's smiles;


s: Or watched the fishes, darting to and fro,


s: As o'er its crystal waves the boat would go;


s: And still remembers those rich wooded hills,


s: While deep emotion all his spirit thrills.


s: Sometimes tired Nature would assert her sway,


s: Then gloomy thoughts rose up in dark array;


s: Listening the breezes in their fitful moan,


s: As in their anger they swept through the woods,


s: While thunder-clouds sent down their copious floods,


s: Why some were wealthy, and could take their ease,


s: And ride about wherever they should please?


s: While he, poor lad, on foot his weary way


s: Kept plodding still, till nearly close of day!


s: At other times a pleasant lodge was seen,


s: Where life seemed spent in happiness serene;


s: Its graceful lawn, its gardens and its fields,


s: Spoke loudly of the comfort _money_ yields;


s: And oft he vainly dreamed that he possessed


s: Just such a home, and with such comforts blest.


s: Sweet day-dreams these, quite frequently indulged;


s: Too oft, alas! were all his thoughts divulged.


s: Before him soon more charming views arise,


s: Enchanting scenes meet everywhere his eyes.


s: See Low Wood Inn, a sweet, secluded spot,


s: Most lovely sight, not soon to be forgot!


s: And of it all things round conspire to make


s: A mansion such as poets well might choose--


s: Fit habitation for the heaven-born Muse!


s: Well might he linger with entranced delight,


s: Though Sol gave warning of approaching night.


s: Aroused by this, ere long he forward hied


s: To that small village still called Ambleside.


s: We now again will cross with him the lake,


s: And thence the road that leads to Hawkshead take;


s: There Esthwaite water on a smaller scale


s: Reflects the mansions that her margins grace.


s: Those mansions fair are seen on every hand,


s: (What may not wealth, in such a place, command?)


s: And mark their owners men of wealth and taste;


s: Near this small lake does a rude hamlet stand,


s: In which there dwelt a poor, hard-working band.


s: The parents, both, were well advanced in age,


s: And yet, from kindness, they at once engage


s: To give this youth a welcome to their board,


s: And all the comforts that their means afford.


s: To see him happy was their chief desire,


s: Which did his soul with gratitude inspire.


s: They now are dead! Oh, may their ashes rest


s: In peace, and still their memories be bless'd!


s: WILLIAM oft thinks of all the pleasant scenes


s: He there enjoyed before he reached his _teens_;


s: And well remembers how he loved to stray


s: By that pure lake, soon after break of day.


s: 'Twas at such time, that once he chanced to spy


s: A splendid _pike_ upon the beach quite dry


s: He viewed the prize; it had not long been dead,


s: Surprised, he gazed about, on every hand,


s: Then thought, since no one came the fish to claim,


s: Take it he might, and yet incur no blame.


s: He seized the fish, and carried it away.


s: When he reached home, friends thought it would be best


s: 'Gainst noon-tide hour to have it nicely dressed.


s: That the right owner soon appeared next day;


s: But, while he went still farther up the lake,


s: To draw some lines, and other fishes take,


s: A dog, or person, had purloined that one:


s: A cousin told him WILL the deed had done!


s: Told how he brought to them, with boyish glee,


s: This heard, the loser took it in good part,


s: Enjoyed the joke, and showed a kindly heart.


s: Indebted to thee for same pleasing scene;


s: Although our race have sadly fallen low,


s: Thou still appearest like the heavenly bow,


s: And where, dear Angel, thou art to be found,


s: Sweet peace and comfort flow to all around!


s: Which may, perchance, be now and then of use


s: In leading youths to greater carefulness,


s: When to sweet pleasure they themselves address.


s: Near Esthwaite's foot exists a lonely spot,


s: Named by the country people "The Priest's Pot";


s: A strange, deep hole, with crystal water filled,


s: By land surrounded which was never tilled;


s: Of spongy texture, yielding to the foot--


s: Quite full of danger is this marshy spot.


s: To this place WILLIAM once a fishing went,


s: And, ere his patience was completely spent,


s: His foothold proved but little else than grass.


s: While sinking fast he, with a fluttering heart,


s: Gave one quick spring and reached a firmer part.


s: This proved a lesson which he ne'er forgot--


s: Before this time, for years, he went to school,


s: And caught some learning by the common rule;


s: In _parsing_ showed a fair amount of skill,


s: Wrote a plain hand, and _read_ with right good will;


s: Almost a "book-worm," seemed he to devour


s: What books he got, and read from hour to hour.


s: And, oh! how pleased and gratified was he,


s: Of orphan "Lubin," who, while tending sheep


s: For a hard master, oft was seen to weep.


s: While this pathetic tale was read aloud,


s: The tears to WILLIAM'S eyes would quickly crowd;


s: Though still so young he, at this very time,


s: Oft framed rude numbers, and poured forth his rhyme;


s: And 'twas no wonder if, by Nature taught,


s: He wrapped himself in sweet poetic thought.


s: He, to this day, is pleased to recollect


s: What few, who knew him then, would e'er suspect--


s: How much he loved to wander in the woods,


s: And watch the trees put forth their opening buds;


s: Which sought a passage through the leaves to find.


s: To gaze on flowers bedecked with glory bright;


s: In pleasing contrast with the ribbon-grass;


s: On wall-flower, too, with richest odor filled,


s: Like sweet frankincense daintily distilled;


s: Or scented violet, which scarce shows its head,


s: On prince's feather, wearing stately plume,


s: With much of show, but nothing of perfume;


s: Loved tulips, lilies, pinks and gilliflowers,


s: With woodbines trained o'er lovely garden bowers,


s: That give forth sweetness and their charms display,


s: While, in rich robes, they stand in full array;


s: The foxglove, daisy, and demure monk's-hood,


s: With lilacs, and the scented southern wood;


s: The guelder-rose, with its fair, whited balls,


s: And creeping plants, high climbing up the walls,


s: These at all times our hero warmly loved,


s: And showed it, too, when he in gardens roved.


s: While, to himself, he had a patch of ground,


s: Where, at his leisure, he was mostly found.


s: Thus passed, most pleasantly, his youthful days,


s: And sometimes meriting a need of praise.


s: others. Narrow escape from a cut-throat. Courtship and its


s: Domestic bliss! what tongue can speak thy praise!


s: What poet give, even in his noblest lays,


s: An eulogy that shall thy charms express,


s: Clothed in Truth's language, thy own native dress?


s: To thy sweet influence do we owe the choice


s: Of all mankind, whoever raised their voice


s: In Freedom's cause, or stood on battle-ground,


s: To thee, when governed by God's holy book,


s: To keep thee shining brightly round each hearth,


s: Is worth the wealth contained in all the earth!


s: (Who knows the secret? Would some Angel tell?)


s: The best of means by which to foster this


s: Great earthly blessing, pure domestic bliss!


s: Hail sweet conjugal union! Hail to thee!


s: Take thee away, and each dear earthly home


s: Would soon a scene of dreadful strife become;


s: And from this source would spring a thousand woes


s: Which to imagine has my heart's blood froze!


s: Dear fellow countrymen! Stand forward now,


s: And faithful prove unto your marriage vow.


s: By which you're bound unto your families,


s: Whatever faults, through weakness, you display,


s: Why will you leave the wife you swore to love,


s: Who should to you be as a precious dove,


s: And bring disgrace upon a father's name?


s: Why will you pierce yourselves with sorrow through,


s: Oh! let a broken-hearted wife's deep sighs,


s: And children's woes, bring tears into your eyes!


s: Give to yourselves no rest, by day or night,


s: Till you have made their saddened faces bright.


s: Oh! there is One above who sees you now,


s: If you repent not he will bring you low!


s: Regard this warning, flee to God for peace,


s: From loving your dear families never cease.


s: And ye, whose task it is to make our laws,


s: Lend your strong influence to aid this cause;


s: See that your hands are clean--or make them so--


s: You've much to answer for, of weal or woe.


s: Young COOPER'S parents did on him impress


s: They their dear children sought to lead along


s: Their constant conduct to each other told


s: What they preferred before the richest gold.


s: That they themselves would evermore deny,


s: Ere they would risk their own or family's peace,


s: As some have done, who scarce from jarring cease.


s: True discipline met not with long neglect.


s: And this, employed aright, the Lord will bless,


s: In spite of childhood's frequent waywardness.


s: Trained in this manner, WILLIAM soon arrived


s: Just to the time when means should he contrived


s: It was his choice that he might he employed


s: In marble works, and had the thought enjoyed


s: That some good master would his service need;


s: Some other places then the father tried,


s: But all with _boys_ appeared to be supplied.


s: The youth more anxious grew from day to day,


s: Nor could well brook what seemed such sad delay.


s: With various plans contrived in his young head;


s: But vanished soon were all these well-formed schemes,


s: As though they were so many empty dreams;


s: Until, by "hope deferred," he was made sad,


s: And even home scenes failed to make him glad.


s: He now had nearly reached his thirteenth year,


s: And did a small, weak youth, indeed, appear;


s: Yet though so very young and small, this boy


s: Had felt deep sorrow, and no little joy.


s: Good news at last he heard, with much delight,


s: When his dear father came from work one night;


s: He said a tradesman an apprentice wanted,


s: And told what wages would to him be granted.


s: And met the man next morn with smiling face.


s: 'Twas soon agreed that he a month should try


s: This soon flew past, and he was strongly bound


s: Till seven long years should, in their course, move round.


s: Would please no reader of this tale, perhaps;


s: In his new business, and was soon expert


s: In making up their wares of shining metal--


s: Let none despise him for his occupation,


s: For God has stamped it with His approbation.


s: 'Tis therefore lawful, and should always be


s: Approved of men, though e'en of high degree.


s: God's holy book commands that saints engage


s: In honest callings, throughout every age;


s: That they may lead a just and holy life,


s: Nor needlessly be found in worldly strife;


s: That they themselves and households may maintain,


s: From the just proceeds of a righteous gain.


s: Let none be found so foolish or so base,


s: Who to true honor have no just pretence.


s: Our ranks can boast of one far higher name


s: Than e'er was found in other paths of fame.


s: A puzzle great, while puzzles they do love.


s: Your lowly trades, and Heaven keep still in view.


s: Ye who have naught to boast save rank and wealth,


s: Look round you openly--or look by stealth;


s: See what our factories have done for you--


s: And for the world--whichever side you view!


s: Without them, Ocean ne'er would bear a sail


s: To catch the breeze, or fly before the gale;


s: Without them, where could we obtain the Press--


s: Take it away, and we should back be thrown


s: Into dark ages, which would Science drown.


s: While all the household comforts that we boast


s: Such thoughts as these would ramble through the brain


s: Of our apprentice, while he did maintain


s: A due respect for those above him placed,


s: And kept these things within his mind encased.


s: Let none suppose that he his trade pursued


s: In that small shop he found a vicious youth,


s: Who feared not God, nor yet regarded truth:


s: One who deep drank, who gambled, swore and lied


s: Which, I would hope, he long has learned to rue.


s: 'Twas well for WILLIAM that this vicious youth


s: Howe'er it was, our hero stood his ground,


s: He now acknowledges 'twas God's rich grace


s: Kept him from falling in that dangerous place.


s: And, from his heart, that goodness would adore


s: Which did preserve him 'midst such trials sore.


s: "Corrupt good manners." Who then boldly dares


s: In those who long exposed to them have been?


s: For, well we know, the unregenerate mind


s: The seeds of latent evil, which may spring--


s: And springing, grow, till they destruction bring.


s: Even so it was with WILLIAM'S carnal heart,


s: Some mischief settled in its fleshy part.


s: Nor was this all; he oft became the butt


s: Of journeymen or 'prentice, who would glut


s: Their hardened hearts by showing greatest spite


s: 'Gainst him for following what he thought was right.


s: Would try all means to give him sore distress.


s: And once, with all a dreadful demon's rage--


s: In such acts none but demons would engage--


s: He threw him down, and held him; then applied


s: A lighted candle to his throat and tried


s: Which was as true as most of what he spoke.


s: The sore thus made gave him most cruel pain,


s: And left a scar that does even now remain.


s: I heard the story, and believe it true--


s: The town in which this shocking act was done


s: I have passed through--it was an English one.


s: The scene, a Tinsmith's shop, where several men


s: Were wont to work, and all were present then.


s: Made them quite hot, and, with a fiendish look,


s: Went right behind the boy, and on each side


s: The youth saw one, his head aside he threw,


s: Received a burn, before his fate he knew;


s: He quickly turned it then the other way,


s: Methinks I hear the thoughtful reader ask,


s: "Why was the man, at once, not ta'en to task?


s: With that poor boy, and show a feeling heart?"


s: I am informed _they all enjoyed the joke!_


s: Not one reproachful word they ever spoke.


s: The very thought still makes my blood to boil--


s: And shuddering, from such thoughts I back recoil!


s: I would have dragged the fiend unto a jail,


s: Laid bare his back, and let the lash descend--


s: And, doing this, would still my act defend!


s: Ye masters, foremen, journeymen, and all


s: Who view such scenes, on each of you I call


s: Such shocking deeds, enacted day by day!


s: If this you do not, you deserve the blame,


s: And richly merit good men's scorn and shame.


s: Our WILLIAM'S trials led him oft to think


s: That, while from duty he would never shrink,


s: It would be better far to leave his trade,


s: Than the sad object of such sport be made.


s: And to his father spoke to this effect--


s: Not in ill humor, but with much respect.


s: The father's counsel was, that he should stay.


s: I here may mention he had one good friend,


s: This was his dear young master, who oft took


s: Much pains in reading o'er the Christian's Book--


s: Received its lessons in his gentle heart,


s: And showed by this he chose the better part.


s: He would encourage and defend the youth,


s: Who saw it right to let him know the truth.


s: Alas! this master soon was seized by Death,


s: And died rejoicing in our "common faith."


s: COOPER with grief beheld the sorrowing scene,


s: And called to mind how kind that friend had been;


s: And often wished more like to him were found


s: In all the workshops through the country round.


s: Still time moved on; the elder youth took leave,


s: And those he left had no just cause to grieve.


s: 'Twas WILLIAM'S turn to take the other's place,


s: And do his best to bring it no disgrace.


s: While better work did his own hands employ.


s: The workshop was a cellar, close to th' street,


s: And passers-by would oft the workmen greet.


s: The light came through an iron-grated space,


s: One day a stir was made that street within,


s: And each felt anxious to behold the scene.


s: The errand-boy was busy cleaning knives,


s: As others have done often in their lives.


s: And the huge _carver_ in his hand did clench.


s: WILLIAM was looking up, with outstretched throat,


s: Quite unobservant, being lost in thought.


s: "I'll cut! I'll cut!" fell quickly on his ear;


s: He felt sharp pain, and thus had cause to fear!


s: The boy, for fun, across WILL'S neck had drawn


s: The carving-knife, and stood still as a stone;


s: Quite terrified at sight of blood, he said,


s: "I thought it was th' _back!_" it proved the edge instead.


s: The wound was slight, but might have been far worse--


s: And he might ne'er have figured in my verse.


s: One thing the serious reader would expect--


s: To give God thanks he could not well neglect.


s: Ah, me! his passion drove such thought away--


s: Strong Passion's call he hastened to obey;


s: He beat the boy that it might do him good!


s: Yes, beat him without mercy, and declared


s: 'Twas well, indeed, the lad no worse had fared!


s: God dealt not thus with thee, my hero fine,


s: He long forbore with all those sins of thine;


s: And 'twas but just thou should'st some mercy show,


s: To that poor boy, who did no better know.


s: My Muse, most willingly, would quit these themes--


s: Which are not seemly in a poet's dreams.


s: When he should have been conning grammar's rule--


s: Which, having reached, itself it stationed there,


s: Fixed on some beauty-bud of promise rare!


s: 'Twill not seem strange, then, if in after years


s: Strange, or not strange, our hero's heart was warm,


s: Which made him seek the other sex's charm;


s: And when his mind was brought to fix on one


s: Who, in his eyes, all others far outshone--


s: He loved to ramble, on a moonlight night,


s: With that dear girl--so charming in his sight--


s: And listen to the murmuring of Kent's stream,


s: Whose face reflected full each pale moonbeam;


s: Or wander by the side of some lone wood,


s: In sweet discourse, which both considered good.


s: Or else they clomb, delighted, up that hill,


s: Invite the mind, in pensiveness, to know


s: The end of all things in this world below.


s: Yes, these have stood within that gloomy place,


s: Which now exhibits many a striking trace


s: And, as he stood upon that green hill's brow,


s: To her, who fondly on his arm was leaning


s: With upturned eyes, which well bespoke their meaning.


s: That place is sacred to such lovers' vows--


s: As could be witnessed by each tree that grows


s: Around those ruins; which have also seen


s: Some sad, strange sights within their day, I ween!


s: Sometimes they chose to see a mutual friend,


s: And in sweet singing would the evening spend.


s: At other times through beauteous Gillingrove,


s: They, arm in arm, and rapt in love, would rove.


s: This walk they mostly took on Sunday nights,


s: As most in keeping with that day's delights.


s: For both had long quite strict attendants been


s: At a small Chapel, thought to be too mean


s: Though some would wander to it now and then.


s: As yet nor WILLIAM, nor his girl, professed


s: To be by saving Gospel Truth most bless'd;


s: Yet both went there three times each Sabbath day,


s: To join in singing, if they did not pray.


s: And 'tis but right that Christian parents should


s: To church take children, for the children's good.


s: To lead them to regard the Lord's own day--


s: Nor spend its hours in idleness or play.


s: These two young people might be quite sincere,


s: For all their friends could ever see or hear;


s: But though their love was warm, and pure as day,


s: Time spent in this wise runs to waste away.


s: For every work-day found him at his post;


s: From six at morn till eight o'clock at night,


s: He faithful wrought, as in his Master's sight.


s: Yet oft he wished--that wish was strongest then--


s: Improvement in his _learning_ to obtain;


s: But, such love frolics made that wish in vain.


s: This grieved him much when, afterwards, desire


s: And did regret that youthful follies cost


s: This folly seen, he strove with eager haste


s: To let his leisure run no more to waste,


s: And rose each morn at four or five o'clock,


s: To walk abroad, and gain of health a stock;


s: Or listen to the lark's sweet morning lay,


s: Or let the lively, thrilling blackbird's song,


s: Charm his fond ear as he walked slow along.


s: Sometimes through well-fenced fields of new-mown hay--


s: Breathing out fragrance--he was wont to stray;


s: Or climb a bill with firm, elastic tread,


s: While Sol his early beams in radiance shed.


s: Till he was seized with a strong rhyming fit;


s: Then frame his welling thoughts to some rude verse--


s: Which friends were anxious he should oft rehearse.


s: If thus his leisure was not always spent,


s: He read what books his friends had to him lent.


s: Of such good things he owned but very few--


s: And parents needed all the _cash_ he drew.


s: Thus was his time most constantly employed,


s: While life passed smoothly on--not unenjoyed.


s: Hail, Holidays! To you, with great delight,


s: The schoolboy looks--exulting with his might


s: Ere your propitious dawn he lays his schemes,


s: And pleased, rejoices in his bright day dreams.


s: Of being for days exempt from birchen harm!


s: When, free from tasks--nor caring much for books--


s: With some companion he can fish the brooks;


s: Can ramble through the woods for flowers or nuts,


s: Play with fair girls who live in sylvan huts,


s: And, with a mate, roll full length down the slope;


s: Or take his fill from loaded bramble bushes,


s: Or from rich fruit bedecked in Autumn's blushes.


s: Such is the bliss that's placed before his view,


s: And thus, without a single shade of sorrow,


s: He greets his mates with "Holiday to-morrow!"


s: These pleasures seem unto his boyish mind


s: Of the right sort--and for schoolboys designed.


s: He seldom thinks of all the anxious care


s: His parents feel, to give their son a share


s: Of useful learning, that he may discharge


s: His part to God, to them, and men at large.


s: Their holidays--_O, may they never fail!_


s: Or such sad courses as brings them distress.