s: A window opened, and a voice called out:


s: "Now he will fall to trembling, like the rest,


s: And bid me hence." But, lo! a moment more


s: The bolts were drawn, and arms whose very touch


s: Was life, lifted and clasped and bore me in.


s: I know not, care not which, be welcome here!


s: Welcome, thrice welcome, to this heart of mine!"


s: I heard him say, and then I heard no more.


s: To hear fierce voices wrangling by my bed,--


s: My father's and my husband's; for, with dawn,


s: Gathering up valor, they had sought the tomb,


s: Had found me gone, and tracked my bleeding feet


s: Dead, they cared nothing: living, I was, theirs.


s: Hot raged the quarrel; then came Justice in,


s: And to the court we swept--I in my shroud--


s: Made fast and left and locked in with the dead;


s: Who at her husband's door has stood and plead


s: For entrance, and has heard her prayer denied;


s: Who from her father's house is urged and chased,


s: Must be adjudged as dead in law and fact.


s: The Court pronounces the defendant--dead!


s: Or may renounce them, if such be her will.


s: Unless she choose, and is set free to form


s: That very day we knelt before the priest,


s: My love and I, were wed, and life began.


s: Child of my child, child of Antonio's child,


s: Bend down and let me kiss your wondering face.


s: 'Tis a strange tale to tell a rose like you.


s: But time is brief, and, had I told you not,


s: Haply the story would have met your ears


s: Now turned to gall, whose foul and bitter lips


s: And thou hast seen my wrongs. Thou wilt forgive.)


s: Now go, my dearest. When they wake thee up,


s: I, who have died once, do not fear to die.


s: Sweet was that waking, sweeter will be this.


s: Close to Heaven's gate my own Antonio sits


s: Waiting, and, spite of all the Frati say,


s: I know I shall not stand long at that gate,


s: Or knock and be refused an entrance there,


s: For he will start up when lie hears my voice,


s: The saints will smile, and he will open quick.


s: Darlings of June and brides of summer sun,


s: Chill pipes the stormy wind, the skies are drear;


s: Dull and despoiled the gardens every one:


s: We looked to see your gracious blooms arise


s: Mid soft and wooing airs in gardens green,


s: Where venturesome brown bees and butterflies


s: They fled on rapid wings before the snow:


s: Your sister lilies laid them down to die,


s: And here, amid the slowly dropping rain,


s: We keep our Easter feast, with hearts whose care


s: Mars the high cadence of each lofty strain,


s: But not a shadow dims your joyance sweet,


s: You lay your whiteness at the Lord's dear feet,


s: O coward soul! arouse thee and draw near,


s: Let their sweet confidence rebuke thy fear,


s: Come with thy darkness to the healing light,


s: Come with thy bitter, which shall be made sweet,


s: And lay thy soil beside the lilies white,


s: Like wounded birds, their flight denied,


s: Come, pulse of God; come, heavenly thrill!


s: All night the thirsty beach has listening lain,


s: Counting the slow, sad moments of her pain;


s: And with the morn the punctual tide again.


s: I hear the white battalions down the bay


s: The sun's gold lances prick them on their way,--


s: Foam-plumed and snowy-pennoned, they are here!


s: The roused shore, her bright hair backward blown,


s: And waves a smiling welcome, beckoning on


s: While round her feet, like doves, the billows crowd and urge.


s: Her glad lips quaff the salt, familiar wine;


s: All hungering creatures know the sound, the sign,--


s: With glad expectance crowd and banquet at their will.


s: I, too, the rapt contentment join and share;


s: There is new happiness in earth, in air:


s: And fresh the world but now so bare and dull.


s: But while we raise the cup of bliss so high,


s: And thirsts with sad complainings still denied.


s: On earth's remotest bound she sits and waits


s: Marring our song, her sighings rise in vain.


s: To each his turn--the ebb-tide and the flood,


s: God metes his portions justly out, I know;


s: My mind forever floats that pale and grieving shore.


s: She whom we love, her white soul shriven,


s: And wandering thoughts, half there, half here,


s: And Heaven behind, just shining through.


s: Have passed and crossed and touched each day,


s: Like rivers twain their course have run;


s: She, storm-tossed once, is safe with Him,


s: Each day upon the yellow Nile, 'tis said.


s: Joseph, the youthful ruler, cast forth wheat,


s: That haply, floating to his father's feet,--


s: The sad old father, who believed him dead,--


s: And thus the patriarch, past the desert sands


s: And scant oasis fringed with thirsty green,


s: Be lured toward the love that yearned unseen.


s: So, flung and scattered--ah! by what dear hands?--


s: On the swift-rushing and invisible tide,


s: Small tokens drift adown from far, fair lands,


s: "Are you athirst? Are there no sheaves to bind?


s: Beloved, here is fulness; follow on and find."


s: And the hiss and click of the snow, whirling to and fro.


s: Storm-beaten, buffeted, hopeless, and almost dead.


s: Slow lingering, as fain to lengthen out my pain.


s: How could they live and bear that silence everywhere?


s: Eyes dimmed with wasting tears for weary years on years,--


s: And so for days and days, and still the sail delays.


s: With none to hear his cry, to help him live--or die!


s: Of the great listening Love which caught


s: Nor lost one faintest word, but always, always heard.


s: For there, as here, by sea or land, the pitying Lord stood


s: That, lonely though thou seemest to be, the Lord is near,


s: It is when soul meets soul, and they embrace


s: As souls may, stooping from each separate sphere


s: That is the joy of brighter worlds to be;


s: And yet, Thy bidden guests about Thy board,


s: Ah! wherefore tarry thus our lingering feet?


s: That never yet was deaf to sinner's call;


s: We will not linger, and we dare not fear,


s: Only half loathed, only half wished away,


s: And those clear eyes of Love that look within


s: Mine own, for whom my precious life I gave,


s: Am I so little prized, remembered, loved,


s: Sorrow awakes; we kneel with eyelids wet,


s: Of the sore burden, pressing day by day,


s: The importunate longing which no man may see;


s: We ask it humbly, or, more restful still,


s: Of precious names we thread, and soft and low


s: We crave for each beloved, or near or far,


s: All dark perplexities seem light and fair,


s: Our sky which was so blue and sweetly fair;


s: Night is not terrible that we should sigh.


s: Will there not be more sunshine--by and by?


s: Flowerless and chill the winter draweth nigh;


s: Closed are the blithe and fragrant lips which made


s: Cheerless we take our way, but not afraid:


s: Will there not be more roses--by and by?


s: Out of our pain we bless you as you fly;


s: Was worth whole days of black and stormy sky;


s: Shall we not see, as by the waves we sit,


s: Your bright sail winging shoreward--by and by?


s: All questionless you came, unquestioned go;


s: What does it mean to live, or what to die?


s: Smiling we watch you vanish, for we know


s: Each sea-weed waved its long brown hair,


s: The white foam-feet which spurned the sand


s: Wheeled, wavered, turned them to the land,


s: Rear their dark fronts where once was sea;


s: From out night's gray and cloudy sheath;


s: When once thy day shall burst to flower,


s: "Although St. Franceses was unwearied in her devotions, yet if,


s: during her prayers, she was called away by her husband or any


s: domestic duty, she would close the book cheerfully, saying that a


s: Thou liest an ocean round my world of care,


s: Pour Thy strong tides through all my crevices,


s: That Thy full glory may abound, increase,


s: And so Thy likeness shall be formed in me,


s: I pray; the answer is not rest or peace,


s: Till there seems room for everything but Thee,


s: And I should fear, but lo! amid the press,


s: The whirl and hum and pressure of my day,


s: I hear Thy garment's sweep, Thy seamless dress,


s: Discern Thy gracious form, not far away,


s: But very near, O Lord, to help and bless.


s: Only the glancing needle which they hold,


s: But all my life it, blossoming inwardly,


s: While through each labor, like a thread of gold,


s: Is woven the sweet consciousness of Thee.


s: With those new friends, whom "new" we call,


s: Darling, we count your eighteen years,--


s: Fifteen in Heaven, on earth but three,--


s: Of wolves, which scents and chases prey.


s: Rebuke this hovering, following Death,--


s: "Good-by, Old World," we said with a smile,


s: No storm-swept bird, no drifting branch,


s: And a blithesome south-wind caught the sails


s: And the stars swung low their silver lamps


s: Past its gray folds, there she would be,


s: "Think, when the hooks seem dull and tame,


s: "Entre deux amants il y a toujours l'an qui baise et l'autre qui


s: Which claims my love for his love's sake.


s: All strength--though kneeling at my feet.


s: Wondering if still faint breaths are shed


s: Should mark the poor heart waiting nigh,


s: Should know it his, should lift it,--why,


s: Peace brimmed the skies, a cool and fragrant air


s: The radiant webs, by hope and fancy spun,


s: Then came a noon, hot, breathless, still,--


s: No wind to visit the dew-thirsty flowers,


s: Only the dust, the road, the urging hours;


s: And, pressing on, I never guessed or knew


s: And when the pomp of purple lit the sky,


s: And sheaves of golden lances tipped with red


s: Danced in the west, wondering I gazed, and said,


s: "Lo, a new morning comes, my hopes to crown!"


s: Which made room, laughing, and the serried rank


s: Of yellow lances flashed, and, turning, sank


s: After their chieftain, as he led the way,


s: Startled and pale, I stood to see them go;


s: Then a long, stealing shadow to me crept,


s: And laid his cold hand on me, and I wept


s: And hid my eyes, and shivered with affright


s: But as I wept and shuddered, a warm thrill


s: Smote on my sense. I raised my eyes, and lo!


s: The skies, so dim but now, were all aglow


s: With a new flush of tender rose and gold,


s: Higher and higher soared the gracious beam,


s: Deeper and deeper glowed the heavenly hues,


s: The beautiful embrace which clasped and kissed


s: Draining the last drops from its wondrous urn,


s: Departed, and the swart shades in their turn,


s: I front the night, nor wish its hours away;


s: For in that message from my banished day


s: I read his pledge of dawn, and soon or late


s: And stretched her fair right hand to me,


s: We started in the morning, a morning full of glee,


s: All in the early morning, a goodly company;


s: And some were full of merriment, and all were kind and dear:


s: But the others have pursued their way, and left me sitting here.


s: My feet were not so fleet as theirs, my courage soon was gone,


s: And so I lagged and fell behind, although they cried "Come on!"


s: They cheered me and they pitied me, but one by one went by,


s: For the stronger must outstrip the weak; there is no remedy.


s: Some never looked behind, but smiled, and swiftly, hand in hand,


s: Departed with, a strange sweet joy I could not understand;


s: I know not by what silver streams their roses bud and blow,


s: Rut I am glad--O very glad--they should be happy so.


s: And some they went companionless, yet not alone, it seemed;


s: For there were sounds of rustling wings, and songs,--or else we


s: And a glow from lights invisible to us lit up the place,


s: And tinged, as if with glory, each dear and parting face.


s: So happy, happy did they look, as one by one they went,


s: That we, who missed them sorely, were fain to be content;


s: And I, who sit the last of all, left far behind, alone,


s: Cannot be sorry for their sakes, but only for my own.


s: My eyes seek out the different paths by which they went away,


s: And oft I wish to follow, but oftener wish to stay;


s: For fair as may the new things be, the farther things they know,


s: This is a pleasant resting-place, a pleasant place also.


s: There are flowers for the gathering, which grow my path anear,


s: The skies are fair, and everywhere the sun is warm and clear:


s: I may have missed the wine of life, the strong wine and the new,


s: But I have my wells of water, my sips of honey-dew.


s: So when I turn my thoughts from those who shared my dawn of day,


s: My fresh and joyous morning prune, and now are passed away,


s: I can see just how sweet all is, how good, and be resigned


s: To sit thus in the afternoon, alone and left behind.


s: While Thou, knowing all, dost not despise


s: The hearts, which were of cares so full,


s: The drowsy summer in the flowering limes


s: Lulled by soft, sportive winds, whose tinkling chimes


s: To feast, and dance, and hold high carnival


s: Within that vast and fragrant banquet-hall.


s: And drew the long, green branches down to show


s: The humming-bird's, small nest and pearls of blue.


s: Fair as the summer's self she stood, and smiled,


s: Wistful and glad, half-matron and half-child,


s: Her sweet head framed against the blossoming bough,


s: She stood a moment,--and she stands there now!


s: 'Tis sixteen years since, trustful, unafraid,


s: She passed beneath the grass's curtaining shade,


s: And springs and summers, bearing gifts to men,


s: And long, long winters have gone by since then.


s: And each some little gift has brought to dress


s: Or purpling leaf, or mantle, pure and cold,


s: Of winnowed snow, wrapped round it, fold on fold.


s: Yet still she stands, a glad and radiant shape,


s: That vanished morn which had such swift escape.


s: The arch, sweet smile, the bending, graceful head;


s: And, seeing thus, why do I call her dead?


s: Through storm and sun and night and day,


s: "Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and


s: laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of


s: Peter, passing by, might overshadow some of them."


s: Mid the thronged bustle of the city street,


s: I wait, with folded hands and nerveless feet.


s: Long are the hours in which I lie and wait,


s: But He will come ere evening. Soon or late


s: Shall hear His dear voice, all the clangor through;


s: "If Thou but wilt, Lord, Thou canst make me clean."


s: And He will touch me, as He walks serene;


s: This couch, so long my prison-house of pain,


s: In that dear shadow, like some healing spell,


s: Its balm of peace enwrapped me as it fell;


s: It is enough, Lord, though Thy face divine


s: Although no touch, no questioning voice was mine,


s: And, if Thy shadow brings such bliss to me,


s: The fairy clocks strike their inaudible hour


s: In field and woodland, and each punctual flower


s: Glides on her way with scarcely a good-night;


s: The Violets tie their purple nightcaps tight;


s: Hand clasped in hand, the dancing Columbines,


s: Flit from the scene, and couch them for their rest;


s: And hides it 'neath the Grasses' lengthening green;


s: On the blue pond, and raises golden eyes


s: To court the golden splendor of the skies,--


s: The sudden signal comes, and down she goes


s: Depart in crowds, a brave and cheery crew;


s: While Golden-rod, still wide awake and gay,


s: And, like a little hero, meets his fate.


s: The Gentians, very proud to sit up late,


s: Next follow. Every Fern is tucked and set


s: No little seedling voice is heard to grieve


s: Or make complaints the folding woods beneath;


s: No lingerer dares to stay, for well they know


s: Dear flowers, till we shall dare to part like you,


s: Willing God's will, sure that his clock strikes true,


s: That his sweet day augurs a sweeter morrow,


s: Lonely and cold and fierce I keep my way,


s: Scourge of the lands, companioned by the storm,


s: Tossing to heaven my frontlet, wild and gray,


s: And brooding presence close to mine all day.


s: What is this alien thing, so near, so far,


s: Close to my life always, but blending never?


s: Hemmed in by walls whose crystal gates unbar


s: Not at the instance of my strong endeavor


s: To pierce the stronghold where their secrets are?


s: Rise the clear, mocking walls. I strive in vain


s: To reach the pulsing heart that beats within,


s: To quell the gladness which I may not win.


s: Linked by a bond whose spell I may not guess,


s: Our hostile, yet embracing currents run;


s: Such wedlock lonelier is than loneliness.


s: Baffled, withheld, I clasp the bride I shun.


s: Against the borders of that calmer life,


s: Beside whose course my wrathful course is set.


s: Are vain to daunt her gladness; all the while


s: Catching the soft irradiance of her smile,


s: More dazzling fair than summer roses are,


s: Petalled with rays like a clear rounded star,


s: When winds pipe chilly, and red sunsets glow,


s: Sweet with a freshening fragrance, all their own,


s: In which a faint, dim breath of bitter lies,


s: Like wholesome breath mid honeyed flatteries;


s: When other blooms are dead, and birds have flown,


s: Fronting the winter with a fearless grace,


s: Flavoring the odorless gray autumn chill,


s: Nipped by the furtive frosts, but cheery still,


s: Lifting to heaven from the bare garden place


s: Roses are fair, but frail, and soon grow faint,


s: Nor can endure a hardness; violets blue,


s: Short-lived and sweet, live but a day or two;


s: The nun-like lily bows without complaint,


s: Each following each they hasten them away,


s: Dear, hardy lover, keep your faith and stay


s: And so we choose you out from all the rest,


s: Which blazoned on your petals seems to be;


s: Winter is near,--stay with us; be our guest,


s: Why should I weary you, dear heart, with words,


s: Words all discordant with a foolish pain?


s: Thoughts cannot interrupt or prayers do wrong,


s: Mine fall upon your pathway all day long.


s: Giving as God gives, counting not the cost


s: Of broken box or spilled and fragrant oil,


s: I know that, spite of your strong carelessness,


s: Rest must be sweeter, worthier must be toil,


s: Touched with such mute, invisible caress.


s: One of these days, our weary ways quite trod,


s: I shall draw near and reach to you my hand.


s: And you? Ah! well, we shall be spirits then,


s: I think you will be glad and understand.


s: Wherefore, friend,--for friend thou art,--


s: The baby Summer lies asleep and dreaming--


s: Dreaming and blooming like a guarded rose;


s: And March, a kindly nurse, though rude of seeming,


s: Is watching by the cradle hung with snows.


s: Her blowing winds but keep the rockers swinging,


s: And deepen slumber in the shut blue eyes,


s: And the shrill cadences of her high singing


s: She draws the coverlet white and tucks it trimly,


s: She folds the little sleeper safe from harm;


s: Or bends to lift the veil, and, peering inly,


s: Makes sure it lies all undisturbed and warm.


s: And so she sits, till in the still, gray dawning


s: Two fairer nurses come, her place to take,


s: And smiling, beaming, with no word of warning,


s: Draw off the quilt, and kiss the babe awake.


s: Save for cricket's chirr or the bee's low hum,


s: Glared down with a yellow and terrible eye;


s: Glared down in the woods, where the breathless boughs


s: Hung heavy and faint in a languid drowse,


s: And the ferns were curling with thirst and heat;


s: Glared down on the fields where the sleepy cows


s: Stood munching the grasses, dry and sweet.


s: Then a single cloud rose up in the west,


s: With a base of gray and a white, white crest;


s: And swooped at the sun, though he did his best


s: And struggled and fought like a wounded thing.


s: And the woods awoke, and the sleepers heard,


s: With a little expectant quiver and thrill,


s: As the cloud bent over and uttered a word,--


s: And once and again came the deep, low tone


s: And scattering the blessed, long-harvested rains.


s: After the earthquake shock or lightning dart


s: Comes a recoil of silence o'er the lands,


s: And then, with pulses hot and quivering hands,


s: Earth calls up courage to her mighty heart,


s: Draws her green, flowery veil above the scar,


s: Fills the shrunk hollow, smooths the riven plain,


s: And with a century's tendance heals again


s: The seams and gashes which her fairness mar.


s: So we, when sudden woe like lightning sped,


s: Finds us and smites us in our guarded place,


s: After one brief, bewildered moment's space,


s: By the same heavenly instinct taught and led,


s: Adjust our lives to loss, make friends with pain,


s: Bind all our shattered hopes and bid them bloom again.


s: "For behold, the kingdom of God is within you."


s: Was that dear kingdom all the while so near?


s: Which, shining out as from Thy very face,


s: Thy blessed Paradise, which seemed so far?


s: Moves each fair saint who in Thy presence dwells.


s: Lord Jesus, rend these walls of self and sin;


s: Beat down the gate, that I may enter it.


s: Broiders her garments, heaps her sheaves,


s: Life higher seems, the world more sweet,


s: Trembled with quickening thrills, and stirred.


s: The flocks increased, increased the herd,


s: Till Kintu's sons waxed fierce and strong;


s: They learned to war, they loved to slay;


s: Blood stained the green and holy places;


s: Mourned all the tribe, in vain, in vain;


s: Their gentle rule next owned and shared,


s: And heaped the graves and filled the tent.


s: Would have ordained, but with wild rite,


s: At last, when thousand years were flown,


s: Follow the stream, and thou shall find."


s: Three several nights the voice was heard,


s: Which this way, that way, turned and sped,


s: The shepherd. "Good, thou speakest well.


s: "'Tis rightly said, thou answerest true.


s: Nor stopped for sleep, nor stopped for bread,


s: Who clasped his knees with wailing screams;


s: Too well to suffer such strange thing,--


s: They reached, where, ranged in order, sat,


s: Each king in turn has sought since then,


s: Vain was his search, and vain were thine,


s: And deep things, secret things, shall learn.


s: But stay,"--the old man's voice grew stern,--


s: Then seized his spear, and poised and drave.


s: Like lightning bolt it hissed and whirred,


s: And, pierced and stricken through and through,


s: But still with love no death could chase,


s: Which shook and filled the startled air;


s: Gone was the old man. Stunned and blind,


s: With mocking booms their long aisles through,


s: Their grievous journey through the wood,


s: And songs were sung, and prayers were prayed,


s: The dear saints feel an answering thrill.


s: With whitest flowers their hands they fill;


s: With which your Easter flowers are stained;


s: The Love that deigned, the Love that died;


s: Are Christ's, but none the less are yours;


s: Blending, the while we strive and grope,


s: Till, following where our treasures are,


s: Its cup-shaped blossoms, brimmed with dew,


s: Hark! upon the east-wind, piping, creeping,


s: Comes a voice all clamorous with despair;


s: O'er the chilly earth, so brown and bare.


s: "When I went away," she murmurs, sobbing,


s: "All my violet-banks were starred with blue;


s: Who, O, who has been here, basely robbing


s: "Who has reft the robin's hidden treasure,--


s: All the speckled spheres he loved so well?


s: And the buds which danced in merry measure


s: "Where are all my hedge-rows, flushed with Maying?


s: And the leafy rain, that tossed so fair,


s: Like the spray from silver fountains playing,


s: Where the elm-tree's column rose in air?


s: "All are vanished, and my heart is breaking;


s: Thus she plaineth. Then ten million voices.


s: Raised in song as when the wind rejoices,


s: "We were hiding, April. Did you miss us?


s: Stoop thy pretty head and gently kiss us


s: "Here are all the clustering burls of roses,


s: Little points of green push out to greet her,


s: Little creepers grasp her garment's hem,


s: As she bends and brightly smiles at them.


s: Every high with songs and laughter blent,


s: Apple-blooms upon the breezes toss them.


s: The same wild thrill irradiates our blood;


s: The bounteous Autumn. Like a mocking tune


s: Spring's last-born darling, clear-eyed, sweet,


s: Pauses a moment, with white twinkling feet,


s: Still from the smile a comfort may we glean;


s: Although our "must-be's," "shall-be's," idle seem,


s: Close to our hearts one little word we lay:


s: In the long, bright summer, dear to bird and bee,


s: When the woods are standing in liveries green and gay,


s: Merry little voices sound from every tree,


s: If we knew the language, we should hear strange things;


s: Mrs. Chirry, Mrs. Flurry, deep in private chat.


s: "How are all your nestlings, dear? Do they use their wings?


s: "Where is your new cottage?" "Hush! I pray you, hush".


s: Please speak very softly, dear, and make no noise.


s: It is on the lowest bough of the lilac bush.


s: "Mr. Chirry chose the spot, without consulting me;


s: Such a very public place, and insecure for it,


s: I can scarcely sleep at night for nervousness; but he


s: Says I am a silly thing and doesn't mind a bit."


s: "So the Bluebirds have contracted, have they, for a house?


s: And a nest is under way for little Mr. Wren?


s: Hush, dear, hush! Be quiet, dear; quiet as a mouse.


s: These are weighty secrets, and we must whisper them."


s: Close the downy dowagers nestle on the bough


s: While the timorous voices soften low with dread,


s: And we, walking underneath, little reckon their


s: Mysteries are couching in the tree-tops overhead.


s: Ah, the pretty whisperers! It was very well


s: When the leaves were thick and green, awhile ago--


s: Leaves are secret-keepers; but since the last leaf fell


s: There is nothing hidden from the eyes below.


s: Bared are the brown tenements, and all the world may see


s: What Mrs. Chirry, Mrs. Flurry, hid so close that day.


s: In the place of rustling wings, cold winds rustling be,


s: And thickly lie the icicles where once the warm brood lay.


s: Shall we tease the birdies, when they come back in spring,--


s: Tease and tell them we have fathomed all their secrets small,


s: Every secret hiding-place and dear and precious, thing,


s: Which they left behind the leaves, the red leaves, in the fall?


s: They would only laugh at us and wink their saucy eyes,


s: And answer, "Last year's secrets are all past and told.


s: New years bring new happenings and fresh mysteries,


s: You are very welcome to the stale ones of the old!"


s: "You're getting sleepy, Yellow and Brown,


s: And ere the leaves could urge their prayer


s: The great bare Tree looked down and smiled.


s: "Good-night, dear little leaves" he said;


s: Urging my gondola with oar-strokes light,


s: I pause and peer, with eager, jealous sight,


s: Wooing the hungry pigeons from their flight.


s: Dark the canal; but she shines like the sun,


s: With yellow hair and dreaming, wine-brown eyes.


s: Thick crowd the doves for food. She gives ME none.


s: She sees and will not see. Vain are my sighs.


s: One slow, reluctant stroke. Aha! she turns,


s: Gestures and smiles, with coy and feigned surprise.


s: Shifting and baffling is our Lido track,


s: Blind and bewildering all the currents flow.


s: Me they perplex not. In the midnight black


s: But ah! what chart have I to her, my Sea,


s: Whose fair, mysterious depths I long to know?


s: She seems, and, pressing ever on in vain,


s: I yearn across the mocking, tempting blue.


s: A furlong's space toward where she sits and a miles;


s: Smiles and cares nothing for my love and pain.


s: How shall I win her? What may strong arm do


s: No more than this, that when she stands to woo


s: And when I look and long, sometimes--she smiles


s: Perhaps she will do more than smile one day!


s: She has said "yes," and the world is a-smite.


s: There she sits, and the blue waves gleam,


s: And the current bears us along the while


s: And the sunset lingers to hear their swell,


s: Like the middle heart of a red, red shell.


s: Tumbles and chimes, and the perfect hour


s: In the world to-night? Or tears or sighs


s: What is it, beloved? Why point you there,


s: Like a mourner's veil in the bridal array,


s: A shade on the sun, in the feast a dearth,


s: All bitter and pallid and heavy with night,


s: Let us hurry away from her face unblest,


s: But, trembling and full of a vague unrest,


s: Who knows me best and loves me most has ordered this for me.


s: The crowding, struggling world of men fight through their busy


s: But I have rights as a woman, and here I claim my right.


s: If it reaches a root or points, a thorn, as even a rose-tree may.


s: For all its pliant slenderness, kin to the stronger trees.


s: I may stand as a cipher does after a numeral writ.


s: Taking with free hands freely and after an ordered plan.


s: With none to call or question, by never a look gainsaid.


s: And God, who made man's body strong, made too the woman's soul


s: O, life in death, sweet plucked from pain!


s: And the shining hours speed noiselessly,


s: Flits like a dream,--or seems to flit,--


s: A fair, swift bark from some radiant realm,


s: Noiseless and fast as a sea-bird's, flight,


s: It will hover, will pause, and I shall feel


s: A hand which beckons, and, shivering, steal


s: Whence the fathomless, trackless waters flow.


s: And through black wave and stormy blast,


s: And out of the fog-wreath dense and dun,


s: Which, when October frost is in the near,


s: And subtle voice thrills all their veins:


s: And with its scorching breath makes haste


s: O, many there were to be housed and fed,


s: And there was no place in the inn, they said,


s: To lodge with the cattle and not with men.


s: The ox and the ass they munched their hay


s: They munched and they slumbered, wondering not,


s: The shepherds slept, and the sheep slept too,


s: Till the angels' song and the bright star ray


s: But only the wise men knelt and praised,


s: And the rest of the world cared not at all


s: For the little Christ in the oxen's stall;


s: We ring the bells and we raise the strain,


s: Thank God for life: life is not sweet always.


s: Hands may he heavy-laden, hearts care full,


s: And dreams divine end in awakenings dull.


s: Still it is life, anil life is cause for praise.


s: This ache, this restlessness, this quickening sting,


s: Prove me of Him who is of life the Spring.


s: Thank God for Love: though Love may hurt and wound


s: Though set with sharpest thorns its rose may be,


s: Must be the earth, full of soft stir, and free


s: And warm ere dawns the rose upon its tree.


s: Fresh currents through my frozen pulses run;


s: And I can thank Thee, Lord, although not one


s: Quantum scire licet. Venit aetas omnis in unam


s: Congeriem, miserumque premunt tot saecula pectus.


s: Yet both so passing strange and wonderful!


s: Whose reign is in the tainted sepulchres,


s: To the hell dogs that couch beneath his throne


s: Cast that fair prey? Must that divinest form,


s: Without a beating heart, whose azure veins


s: Steal like dark streams along a field of snow,


s: Whose outline is as fair as marble clothed


s: On which the lightest heart might moralize?


s: Have charmed their nurse coy Silence near her lids


s: Seek far from noise and day some western cave,


s: Where woods and streams with soft and pausing winds


s: Doth Henry hear her regular pulses throb,


s: With interchange of hues mock the broad moon,


s: On their translucent lids, whose texture fine


s: Scarce hides the dark blue orbs that burn below


s: When west winds sigh and evening waves respond


s: Which from the unseen lyres of dells and groves


s: Floating on waves of music and of light,


s: Its shape reposed within: slight as some cloud


s: That catches but the palest tinge of day


s: Bright as that fibrous woof when stars indue


s: Four shapeless shadows bright and beautiful


s: Draw that strange car of glory, reins of light


s: Check their unearthly speed; they stop and fold


s: The Daemon leaning from the ethereal car


s: A shape so wild, so bright, so beautiful,


s: As that which o'er the maiden's charmed sleep


s: Such sounds as breathed around like odorous winds


s: Filling the chamber and the moonlight sky.


s: Custom, and Faith, and Power thou spurnest;


s: It ceased, and from the mute and moveless frame


s: Disparting as it went the silver clouds,


s: It moved towards the car, and took its seat


s: The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew;


s: Eddied above the mountain's loftiest peak


s: Far, far below the chariot's stormy path,


s: Its broad and silent mirror gave to view


s: That cradled in their folds the infant dawn.


s: Through the abyss of an immense concave,


s: Radiant with million constellations, tinged


s: The winged shadows seemed to gather speed.


s: The sea no longer was distinguished; earth


s: Appeared a vast and shadowy sphere, suspended


s: Parted around the chariot's swifter course,


s: The smallest light that twinkles in the heavens,


s: It was a sight of wonder! Some were horned,


s: And like the moon's argentine crescent hung


s: In the dark dome of heaven; some did shed


s: A clear mild beam like Hesperus, while the sea


s: Yet glows with fading sunlight; others dashed


s: Athwart the night with trains of bickering fire,


s: Like sphered worlds to death and ruin driven;


s: Some shone like stars, and as the chariot passed


s: That lurks in graves and fattens on the dead,


s: Seemed resting on the fiery line of ocean,


s: Thou must have marked the braided webs of gold


s: Thou must have marked the billowy mountain clouds,


s: Peers like a star o'er ocean's western edge,


s: When those far clouds of feathery purple gleam


s: Like fairy lands girt by some heavenly sea:


s: Where in the midst of all existing things


s: The temple of the mightiest Daemon stands.


s: That gleam amid yon flood of purple light,


s: That canopy the sun's resplendent couch,


s: Can frame of lovely or sublime, did join


s: To rear the fabric of the fane, nor aught


s: Yet likest evening's vault that faery hall,


s: As heaven low resting on the wave it spread


s: Where crystal battlements o'erhang the gulf


s: Of the dark world, ten thousand spheres diffuse


s: Their lustre through its adamantine gates.


s: With the ethereal footsteps trembled not;


s: Through the vast columns and the pearly shrines.


s: Below lay stretched the boundless universe!


s: In eloquent silence through the depths of space


s: Yet soon she saw, as the vast spheres swept by,


s: Strange things within their belted orbs appear.


s: Shadows, and skeletons, and fiendly shapes,


s: Thronging round human graves, and o'er the dead


s: In verse, such as malignant gods pronounce,


s: Blasting the hopes of men, when heaven and hell


s: Confounded burst in ruin o'er the world:


s: And they did build vast trophies, instruments


s: Skins torn from living men, and towers of skulls


s: With sightless holes gazing on blinder heaven,


s: Mitres, and crowns, and brazen chariots stained


s: With blood, and scrolls of mystic wickedness,


s: When these had passed, bearing upon his brow


s: A threefold crown; his countenance was calm.


s: His eye severe and cold; but his right hand


s: Was charged with bloody coin, and he did gnaw


s: By fits, with secret smiles, a human heart


s: Concealed beneath his robe; and motley shapes,


s: A multitudinous throng, around him knelt.


s: With bosoms bare, and bowed heads, and false looks


s: Of true submission, as the sphere rolled by.


s: Brooking no eye to witness their foul shame,


s: Which human hearts must feel, while human tongues


s: Tremble to speak, they did rage horribly,


s: Breathing in self-contempt fierce blasphemies


s: Against the Daemon of the World, and high


s: Hurling their armed hands where the pure Spirit,


s: To which those restless powers that ceaselessly


s: Throng through the human universe aspire;


s: Thou glorious prize of blindly-working will!


s: Whose rays, diffused throughout all space and time,


s: Verge to one point and blend for ever there:


s: Of purest spirits thou pure dwelling-place!


s: Where care and sorrow, impotence and crime,


s: Languor, disease, and ignorance dare not come:


s: Genius has seen thee in her passionate dreams,


s: Haunting the human heart, have there entwined


s: Those rooted hopes, that the proud Power of Evil


s: Shall not for ever on this fairest world


s: Shake pestilence and war, or that his slaves


s: With blasphemy for prayer, and human blood


s: For sacrifice, before his shrine for ever


s: With all its banded fiends shall not uprise


s: The dauntless and the good, who dare to hurl


s: With Death's omnipotence. Thou hast beheld


s: His empire, o'er the present and the past;


s: It was a desolate sight--now gaze on mine,


s: Render thou up thy half-devoured babes,--


s: Where millions lie lulled to their portioned sleep


s: By the deep murmuring stream of passing things,


s: Tear thou that gloomy shroud.--Spirit, behold


s: Smile in the lap of Chaos, and the sense


s: Of hope thro' her fine texture did suffuse


s: Such varying glow, as summer evening casts


s: On undulating clouds and deepening lakes.


s: Like the vague sighings of a wind at even,


s: That wakes the wavelets of the slumbering sea


s: And sinks and rises, fails and swells by fits,


s: Was the sweet stream of thought that with wild motion


s: Flowed o'er the Spirit's human sympathies.


s: The mighty tide of thought had paused awhile,


s: Which from the Daemon now like Ocean's stream


s: The wonders of the human world to keep--


s: Space, matter, time and mind--let the sight


s: Renew and strengthen all thy failing hope.


s: Of consentaneous love inspires all life:


s: The fertile bosom of the earth gives suck


s: To myriads, who still grow beneath her care,


s: Rewarding her with their pure perfectness:


s: Her virtues, and diffuse them all abroad:


s: Health floats amid the gentle atmosphere,


s: Glows in the fruits, and mantles on the stream;


s: No storms deform the beaming brow of heaven,


s: Nor scatter in the freshness of its pride


s: But fruits are ever ripe, flowers ever fair,


s: And Autumn proudly bears her matron grace,


s: Kindling a flush on the fair cheek of Spring,


s: Whose virgin bloom beneath the ruddy fruit


s: Reflects its tint and blushes into love.


s: Those wastes of frozen billows that were hurled


s: By everlasting snow-storms round the poles,


s: Where matter dared not vegetate nor live,


s: But ceaseless frost round the vast solitude


s: Bound its broad zone of stillness, are unloosed;


s: And fragrant zephyrs there from spicy isles


s: Ruffle the placid ocean-deep, that rolls


s: Its broad, bright surges to the sloping sand,


s: Whose roar is wakened into echoings sweet


s: To murmur through the heaven-breathing groves


s: And melodise with man's blest nature there.


s: The vast tract of the parched and sandy waste


s: Now teems with countless rills and shady woods,


s: Corn-fields and pastures and white cottages;


s: And where the startled wilderness did hear


s: A savage conqueror stained in kindred blood,


s: Crushing the bones of some frail antelope


s: Offering sweet incense to the sunrise, smiles


s: Share with the green and golden basilisk


s: That comes to lick his feet, his morning's meal.


s: Those trackless deeps, where many a weary sail


s: Morning on night and night on morning rise,


s: Whilst still no land to greet the wanderer spread


s: Its shadowy mountains on the sunbright sea,


s: Where the loud roarings of the tempest-waves


s: So long have mingled with the gusty wind


s: But vocal to the sea-bird's harrowing shriek,


s: The bellowing monster, and the rushing storm,


s: Now to the sweet and many-mingling sounds


s: Those lonely realms bright garden-isles begem,


s: With lightsome clouds and shining seas between,


s: And fertile valleys resonant with bliss,


s: Which like a toil-worn labourer leaps to shore,


s: To meet the kisses of the flowerets there.


s: Man chief perceives the change, his being notes


s: Each movement of its progress on his mind.


s: Man, where the gloom of the long polar night


s: Lowered o'er the snow-clad rocks and frozen soil,


s: Where scarce the hardiest herb that braves the frost


s: Basked in the moonlight's ineffectual glow,


s: Shrank with the plants, and darkened with the night;


s: Nor where the tropics bound the realms of day


s: With a broad belt of mingling cloud and flame,


s: Where blue mists through the unmoving atmosphere


s: Scattered the seeds of pestilence, and fed


s: Teemed with all earthquake, tempest and disease,


s: Had crushed him to his country's blood-stained dust.


s: Blighting his being with unnumbered ills,


s: Spread like a quenchless fire; nor truth availed


s: Till late to arrest its progress, or create


s: That peace which first in bloodless victory waved


s: Her snowy standard o'er this favoured clime:


s: There man was long the train-bearer of slaves,


s: The bloodhound of religion's hungry zeal.


s: Here now the human being stands adorning


s: This loveliest earth with taintless body and mind;


s: Blest from his birth with all bland impulses,


s: All kindly passions and all pure desires.


s: Him, still from hope to hope the bliss pursuing,


s: Which from the exhaustless lore of human weal


s: Dawns on the virtuous mind, the thoughts that rise


s: With self-enshrined eternity, that mocks


s: And man, once fleeting o'er the transient scene


s: He slays the beast that sports around his dwelling


s: Or drinks its vital blood, which like a stream


s: Of poison thro' his fevered veins did flow


s: His feeble frame, and kindling in his mind


s: Hatred, despair, and fear and vain belief,


s: The germs of misery, death, disease and crime.


s: That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,


s: Flee from the form of man; but gather round,


s: And prune their sunny feathers on the hands


s: Which little children stretch in friendly sport


s: Towards these dreadless partners of their play.


s: All things are void of terror: man has lost


s: And science dawn though late upon the earth;


s: Peace cheers the mind, health renovates the frame;


s: Disease and pleasure cease to mingle here,


s: Reason and passion cease to combat there;


s: Whilst mind unfettered o'er the earth extends


s: The tranquil spirit fails beneath its grasp,


s: Waste in the human frame, and Nature gifts


s: With choicest boons her human worshippers.


s: How vigorous now the athletic form of age!


s: Where neither avarice, cunning, pride, or care,


s: How sweet the smiles of taintless infancy.


s: Within the massy prison's mouldering courts,


s: Fearless and free the ruddy children play,


s: Weaving gay chaplets for their innocent brows


s: With the green ivy and the red wall-flower,


s: That mock the dungeon's unavailing gloom;


s: The ponderous chains, and gratings of strong iron,


s: Now mingling slowly with their native earth:


s: There the broad beam of day, which feebly once


s: With a pale and sickly glare, now freely shines


s: On the pure smiles of infant playfulness:


s: No more the shuddering voice of hoarse despair


s: Peals through the echoing vaults, but soothing notes


s: Of ivy-fingered winds and gladsome birds


s: The fanes of Fear and Falsehood hear no more


s: The voice that once waked multitudes to war


s: Thundering thro' all their aisles: but now respond


s: To the death dirge of the melancholy wind:


s: The works of faith and slavery, so vast,


s: Even as the corpse that rests beneath their wall.


s: A thousand mourners deck the pomp of death


s: To-day, the breathing marble glows above


s: In silence and in darkness seize their prey.


s: These ruins soon leave not a wreck behind:


s: Their elements, wide-scattered o'er the globe,


s: To happier shapes are moulded, and become


s: Thus human things are perfected, and earth,


s: Even as a child beneath its mother's love,


s: Is strengthened in all excellence, and grows


s: Fairer and nobler with each passing year.


s: Now Time his dusky pennons o'er the scene


s: Closes in steadfast darkness, and the past


s: Fades from our charmed sight. My task is done:


s: Thy lore is learned. Earth's wonders are thine own,


s: With all the fear and all the hope they bring.


s: My spells are past: the present now recurs.


s: Yet, human Spirit, bravely hold thy course,


s: The gradual paths of an aspiring change:


s: For birth and life and death, and that strange state


s: Before the naked powers that thro' the world


s: Wander like winds have found a human home,


s: The restless wheels of being on their way,


s: Whose flashing spokes, instinct with infinite life,


s: Bicker and burn to gain their destined goal:


s: Whose mighty streams might else in silence flow


s: Thro' the vast world, to individual sense


s: Of outward shows, whose unexperienced shape


s: New modes of passion to its frame may lend;


s: Life is its state of action, and the store


s: Death is a gate of dreariness and gloom,


s: That leads to azure isles and beaming skies


s: Therefore, O Spirit! fearlessly bear on:


s: Though storms may break the primrose on its stalk,


s: Though frosts may blight the freshness of its bloom,


s: Yet spring's awakening breath will woo the earth,


s: To feed with kindliest dews its favourite flower,


s: That blooms in mossy banks and darksome glens,


s: Lighting the green wood with its sunny smile.


s: Fear not then, Spirit, death's disrobing hand,


s: So welcome when the bigot's hell-torch flares;


s: The transient gulf-dream of a startling sleep.


s: But what is thine may never cease to be;


s: Death is no foe to virtue: earth has seen


s: Love's brightest roses on the scaffold bloom,


s: Mingling with freedom's fadeless laurels there,


s: And presaging the truth of visioned bliss.


s: Are there not hopes within thee, which this scene


s: Of linked and gradual being has confirmed?


s: Hopes that not vainly thou, and living fires


s: Have shone upon the paths of men--return,


s: Surpassing Spirit, to that world, where thou


s: The germs of misery from the human heart.


s: Thine is the hand whose piety would soothe


s: Watching its wanderings as a friend's disease:


s: Thine is the brow whose mildness would defy


s: Its fiercest rage, and brave its sternest will,


s: When fenced by power and master of the world.


s: Thou art sincere and good; of resolute mind,


s: Free from heart-withering custom's cold control,


s: Earth's pride and meanness could not vanquish thee,


s: And therefore art thou worthy of the boon


s: Which thou hast now received: virtue shall keep


s: Thy footsteps in the path that thou hast trod,


s: And many days of beaming hope shall bless


s: Thy spotless life of sweet and sacred love.


s: Speechless with bliss the Spirit mounts the car,


s: That rolled beside the crystal battlement,


s: The steep descent of Heaven's untrodden way.


s: Lessened by slow degrees, and soon appeared


s: With borrowed light pursued their narrower way.


s: Speeded like thought upon the light of Heaven.


s: A gentle start convulsed Ianthe's frame:


s: Moveless awhile the dark blue orbs remained:


s: Henry, who kneeled in silence by her couch,


s: Watching her sleep with looks of speechless love,


s: edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets, from which a few only of


s: The eldest of the Poets here discussed were Samuel Garth, Charles


s: Philips and Rowe were born in 1671 and 1673, and Isaac Watts in


s: wrote "Rule Britannia"--was of Thomson's age.


s: The other writers of whose lives Johnson here gives his note were


s: little patrimony, was born in 1714; Thomas Gray, in 1716; William


s: consideration as a young man's first venture for fame.  He spent


s: much of the rest of his life in overloading it with valueless


s: From Westminster School, where he was a scholar on the foundation


s: thousand odd hundred books and manuscripts.  The books were


s: In 1688, the same year in which he was made Master of Arts, he


s: published a confutation of Varillas's account of Wickliffe; and,


s: subordination and government is endangered.


s: Though he was a regular advocate in the courts of civil and canon


s: business which interrupted his voluptuary dreams or forced him to


s: The expense of his pleasures, and neglect of business, had now


s: But it is vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not


s: purity of sentiment; and in 1709 imitated Horace in an "Art of


s: Cookery," which he published with some letters to Dr. Lister.


s: In 1710 he appeared as a lover of the Church, on the side of


s: Sacheverell; and was supposed to have concurred at least in the


s: projection of the Examiner.  His eyes were open to all the


s: operations of Whiggism; and he bestowed some strictures upon Dr.


s: produced without the powers of King.  The same year he published


s: In 1711, competence, if not plenty, was again put into his power.


s: In the autumn of 1712 his health declined; he grew weaker by


s: degrees, and died on Christmas Day.  Though his life had not been


s: After this relation it will be naturally supposed that his poems


s: necessary to think well of his opinions.


s: expedients, and combating opposition, and exposed to the


s: Charles Montague was born April 16, 1661, at Horton, in


s: Cambridge, without waiting for the advantages of another year.


s: It seemed indeed time to wish for a removal, for he was already a


s: which continued through his life, and was at last attested by a


s: In 1685 his verses on the death of King Charles made such an


s: impression on the Earl of Dorset that he was invited to town, and


s: purchased for 1,500 pounds the place of one of the clerks of the


s: After he had written his epistle on the victory of the Boyne, his


s: high treason; and in the midst of his speech falling into some


s: confusion, was for a while silent; but, recovering himself,


s: Council.  In 1694 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer; and the


s: At the accession of Queen Anne he was dismissed from the Council;


s: conformity.  He headed the inquiry into the danger of the Church.


s: with slight censure, and Pope, in the character of Bufo, with


s: He was, as Pope says, "fed with dedications;" for Tickell affirms


s: discover great ignorance of human nature and human life.  In


s: determinations depending not on rules, but on experience and


s: patronage may be in time so increased that modest praise will no


s: esteemed no honour, by a contributor to the monthly bundles of


s: verses, to be told that, in strains either familiar or solemn, he


s: The life of Dr. Parnell is a task which I should very willingly


s: decline, since it has been lately written by Goldsmith, a man of


s: such variety of powers, and such felicity of performance, that he


s: confusion; whose language was copious without exuberance, exact


s: without constraint, and easy without weakness.


s: descended to the poet, who was born at Dublin in 1679; and, after


s: About three years afterwards he was made a priest and in 1705 Dr.


s: amiable lady, by whom he had two sons, who died young, and a


s: At the ejection of the Whigs, in the end of Queen Anne's reign,


s: inquire for him, and to bid him welcome; and, as may be inferred


s: fortune, which, however, was in no great need of improvement.


s: preferment.  As he thought himself qualified to become a popular


s: preacher, he displayed his elocution with great success in the


s: pulpits of London; but the Queen's death putting an end to his


s: expectations, abated his diligence; and Pope represents him as


s: falling from that time into intemperance of wine.  That in his


s: latter life he was too much a lover of the bottle, is not denied;


s: But his prosperity did not last long.  His end, whatever was its


s: He seems to have been one of those poets who take delight in


s: writing.  He contributed to the papers of that time, and probably


s: opinion, and his criticism it is seldom safe to contradict.  He


s: happiest of Parnell's performances.  The hint of "The Hymn to


s: Contentment" I suspect to have been borrowed from Cleveland.


s: The general character of Parnell is not great extent of


s: comprehension or fertility of mind.  Of the little that appears,


s: still less is his own.  His praise must be derived from the easy


s: sweetness of his diction:  in his verses there is more happiness


s: than pains; he is sprightly without effort, and always delights,


s: they are going.  They stand upon the faith of the compilers.


s: where he resided till he became Doctor of Physic on July the 7th,


s: obtain very extensive practice; and, if a pamphlet of those times


s: Radcliffe had of the other.  He is always mentioned as a man of


s: benevolence; and it is just to suppose that his desire of helping


s: Whether what Temple says be true, that physicians have had more


s: dignity of sentiment, very prompt effusion of beneficence, and


s: willingness to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope of


s: Candidates, and Licentiates to give gratuitous advice to the


s: neighbouring poor.  This edict was sent to the Court of Aldermen;


s: should be extended, the College answered that it should be


s: After a year's experience the physicians found their charity


s: Mayor and Aldermen, who appointed a committee to treat with the


s: College and settle the mode of administering the charity.


s: It was desired by the aldermen that the testimonials of


s: considered as POOR.  This likewise was granted by the College.


s: apothecaries to undertake the dispensation, and offered that the


s: warden and company of the apothecaries should adjust the price.


s: This offer was rejected; and the apothecaries who had engaged to


s: assist the charity were considered as traitors to the company,


s: ventured upon public opposition, and presented a kind of


s: The physicians still persisted; and in 1696 a subscription was


s: raised by themselves according to an agreement prefixed to "The


s: Dispensary."  The poor were, for a time, supplied with medicines;


s: About the time of the subscription begins the action of "The


s: speaking of the mischiefs done by quacks, has these expressions:


s: "Non tamen telis vulnerat ista agyrtarum colluvies, sed theriaca


s: defended or excused by Mr. Addison that, for the sake of the


s: Marlborough; and was made Physician-in-Ordinary to the King, and


s: Physician-General to the army.  He then undertook an edition of


s: Ovid's "Metamorphoses," translated by several hands; which he


s: recommended by a preface, written with more ostentation than


s: ability; his notions are half-formed, and his materials


s: His personal character seems to have been social and liberal.  He


s: Pope afterwards declared himself convinced that Garth died in the


s: perpetual doubt, willingly seeks repose in the bosom of an


s: proportion to the subject; the means and end have no necessary


s: connection.  Resnel, in his preface to Pope's Essay, remarks that


s: The general design is, perhaps, open to criticism; but the


s: composition can seldom be charged with inaccuracy or negligence.


s: The author never slumbers in self-indulgence; his full vigour is


s: improvement.  It appears, however, to want something of poetical


s: popularity, it has been scarcely able to support itself.


s: house, at Lambertoun in Devonshire.  The ancestor from whom he


s: descended in a direct line received the arms borne by his


s: Dallison's Reports in the reign of James the Second, when, in


s: several languages are said to have been written with uncommon


s: learning sufficient to qualify him for the study of law, and was


s: precepts, but as a system of rational government and impartial


s: been arbitrarily assigned him by his poet, for I know not that


s: withheld from him, that it might not be thrown away was bestowed


s: The Fair Penitent, his next production (1703), is one of the most


s: delightful by the language.  The story is domestic, and therefore


s: spectator's kindness.  It was in the power of Richardson alone to


s: correspond with the behaviour of Calista, who at last shows no


s: evident signs of repentance, but may be reasonably suspected of


s: feeling pain from detection rather than from guilt, and expresses


s: His next (1706) was Ulysses; which, with the common fate of


s: adventures, is to offend by violating received notions.


s: "The Royal Convert" (1708) seems to have a better claim to


s: objects are imperfectly seen, they easily take forms from


s: personage truly tragical, of high spirit, and violent passions,


s: great with tempestuous dignity, and wicked with a soul that would


s: Rowe does not always remember what his characters require.  In


s: anticipated blessings of union are not very naturally introduced,


s: great vehemence, whenever he had, in his own opinion, produced a


s: conceive.  The numbers, the diction, the sentiments, and the


s: conduct, everything in which imitation can consist, are remote in


s: Being by a competent fortune exempted from any necessity of


s: under-secretary for three years when the Duke of Queensberry was


s: fluently, and the other two tolerably well.  He had likewise read


s: expressed on all occasions his full persuasion of the truth of


s: revealed religion; and, being a sincere member of the Established


s: tincture of affectation or pedantry; and his inimitable manner of


s: provocations he met with at any time, he passed them over without


s: "The love of learning and poetry made him not the less fit for


s: immediately before his last agony, with the same tranquillity of


s: daughter of Mr. Parsons, one of the auditors of the revenue; and


s: afterwards to a daughter of Mr. Devenish, of a good family in


s: Dorsetshire.  By the first he had a son; and by the second a


s: daughter, married afterwards to Mr. Fane.  He died 6th December,


s: Pope has left behind him another mention of his companion less


s: advantageous, which is thus reported by Dr. Warburton:--


s: felt very severely.  Mr. Pope, their common friend, knowing this,


s: heard I was going to be hanged.'  Mr. Pope said he could not deny


s: This censure time has not left us the power of confirming or


s: Rowe is chiefly to be considered as a tragic writer and a


s: translator.  In his attempt at comedy he failed so ignominiously


s: that his Biter is not inserted in his works:  and his occasional


s: poems and short compositions are rarely worthy either praise or


s: done by Rowe, in the middle of an act, is to add more acts to the


s: without interruption.  Rowe, by this licence, easily extricates


s: himself from difficulties; as in Jane Grey, when we have been


s: terrified with all the dreadful pomp of public execution; and are


s: Shore, who is always seen and heard with pity.  Alicia is a


s: without any attempt at innovation or improvement, seldom wants


s: either melody or force.  His author's sense is sometimes a little


s: John Gay, descended from an old family that had been long in


s: possession of the manor of Goldworthy, in Devonshire, was born in


s: poetry.  Being born without prospect of hereditary riches, he was


s: mercer.  How long he continued behind the counter, or with what


s: degree of softness and dexterity he received and accommodated the


s: servility of his occupation, and easily persuaded his master to


s: attractions in his manners and conversation that he seems to have


s: poets, nor knowledge of the critical dispute.


s: dedicated his "Shepherd's Week" to Bolingbroke, which Swift


s: Of this performance the value certainly is but little; but it was


s: Marriage, a comedy written, as there is sufficient reason for


s: believing, by the joint assistance of Pope and Arbuthnot.  One


s: purpose of it was to bring into contempt Dr. Woodward, the


s: directly and apparently ridiculed, by the introduction of a mummy


s: driven off the stage with general condemnation.


s: Gay is represented as a man easily incited to hope, and deeply


s: depressed when his hopes were disappointed.  This is not the


s: character of a hero, but it may naturally imply something more


s: generally welcome, a soft and civil companion.  Whoever is apt to


s: fortune of its author, and, finding nothing done, sunk into


s: dejection.  His friends endeavoured to divert him.  The Earl of


s: Burlington sent him (1716) into Devonshire, the year after Mr.


s: Pulteney took him to Aix, and in the following year Lord Harcourt


s: Being now generally known, he published (1720) his poems by


s: subscription, with such success that he raised a thousand pounds,


s: particular tenderness, his health was restored; and, returning to


s: screen.  The Princess started, the ladies screamed, and poor Gay,


s: unexampled success of the Beggar's Opera.  This play, written in


s: "Dr. Swift had been observing once to Mr. Gay what an odd pretty


s: stronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause."


s: Its reception is thus recorded in the notes to the "Dunciad":--


s: thirtieth and fortieth time; at Bath and Bristol fifty, etc.  It


s: made its progress into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where it was


s: furnished with it in screens.  The fame of it was not confined to


s: became all at once the favourite of the town; her pictures were


s: engraved and sold in great numbers; her life written, books of


s: Of this performance, when it was printed, the reception was


s: different, according to the different opinions of its readers.


s: Swift commended it for the excellence of its morality, as a piece


s: light;" but others, and among them Dr. Herring, afterwards


s: Both these decisions are surely exaggerated.  The play, like many


s: purpose, and is therefore not likely to do good; nor can it be


s: impressed with the preconception of some misfortune.


s: After his death was published a second volume of "Fables," more


s: As a poet he cannot be rated very high.  He was, I once heard a


s: must be allowed to the author of a new species of composition,


s: though it be not of the highest kind.  We owe to Gay the ballad


s: audience that it is likely to keep long possession of the stage.


s: His first performance, the Rural Sports, is such as was easily


s: delivers ready to the hand, but which, like other things that lie


s: naturally retires from a new tale of Venus, Diana, and Minerva.


s: His "Fables" seem to have been a favourite work; for, having


s: Apologue, such as is now under consideration, seems to be, in its


s: abstracted allegory; and from some, by whatever name they may be


s: To "Trivia" may be allowed all that it claims; it is sprightly,


s: superfluous; a shoe-boy could have been produced by the casual


s: cohabitation of mere mortals.  Horace's rule is broken in both


s: "Dione" is a counterpart to "Amynta" and "Pastor Fido" and other


s: trifles of the same kind, easily imitated, and unworthy of


s: Thomas Tickell, the son of the Rev. Richard Tickell, was born in


s: comply with the statutes by taking orders, he obtained a


s: regard, for they contain some of the most elegant encomiastic


s: And wreaths of myrtle crown the lovely maid.


s: While now perhaps with Dido's ghost she roves,


s: And hears and tells the story of their loves,


s: Alike they mourn, alike they bless their fate,


s: Since Love, which made them wretched, made them great.


s: Which gained a Virgil and an Addison."--TICKELL.


s: "Then future ages with delight shall see


s: How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's, looks agree;


s: Or in fair series laurelled bards be shown,


s: A Virgil there, and here an Addison."--POPE.


s: He produced another piece of the same kind at the appearance of


s: Cato, with equal skill, but not equal happiness.


s: When the Ministers of Queen Anne were negotiating with France,


s: Tickell published "The Prospect of Peace," a poem of which the


s: party, I know not; this poem certainly did not flatter the


s: practices, or promote the opinions, of the men by whom he was


s: Mr. Addison, however he hated the men then in power, suffered his


s: Spectator such praises of Tickell's poem that when, after having


s: long wished to peruse it, I laid hold of it at last, I thought it


s: himself, an apparent opposition to Pope's "Homer," of which the


s: first part made its entrance into the world at the same time.


s: Addison declared that the rival versions were both good, but that


s: wits, his adherents and followers, were certain to concur.  Pope


s: Pope did not long think Addison an impartial judge, for he


s: (Budgell and Philips).  He went accordingly, and after dinner Mr.


s: communicate to the other whatever verses they wrote, even to the


s: surprise of Dr. Young, together with what Steele has said against


s: there was some underhand dealing in that business; and indeed


s: Tickell himself, who is a very fair worthy man, has since, in a


s: manner, as good as owned it to me.  When it was introduced into a


s: Upon these suspicions, with which Dr. Warburton hints that other


s: To compare the two translations would be tedious; the palm is now


s: When the Hanover succession was disputed, Tickell gave what


s: assistance his pen would supply.  His "Letter to Avignon" stands


s: high among party poems; it expresses contempt without coarseness,


s: friendship seems to have continued without abatement; for, when


s: beauties to the assistance which might be suspected to have


s: afterwards (about 1725) made secretary to the Lords Justices of


s: character, he is said to have been a man of gay conversation, at


s: least a temperate lover of wine and company, and in his domestic


s: Of Mr. Somervile's life I am not able to say anything that can


s: satisfy curiosity.  He was a gentleman whose estate lay in


s: Warwickshire; his house, where he was born in 1693, is called


s: country, where he was distinguished as a poet, a gentleman, and a


s: quaerimus.  I can now excuse all his foibles; impute them to age,


s: sense; to be forced to drink himself into pains of the body, in


s: order to get rid of the pains of the mind is a misery."--He died


s: July 19, 1742, and was buried at Wotton, near Henley on Arden.


s: His distresses need not be much pitied:  his estate is said to be


s: commonly be said at least, that "he writes very well for a


s: gentleman."  His serious pieces are sometimes elevated; and his


s: trifles are sometimes elegant.  In his verses to Addison, the


s: couplet which mentions Clio is written with the most exquisite


s: lines; but in the second Ode he shows that he knew little of his


s: hero, when he talks of his private virtues.  His subjects are


s: commonly such as require no great depth of thought or energy of


s: sufficient rapidity of narration.  His great work is his Chase,


s: lines give a bad specimen.  To this poem praise cannot be totally


s: transition and variety could easily effect; and has with great


s: propriety enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other


s: crippled prose; and familiar images in laboured language have


s: nothing to recommend them but absurd novelty, which, wanting the


s: attractions of nature, cannot please long.  One excellence of the


s: Roxburgh, of which his father was pastor.  His mother, whose name


s: friends with poetical compositions; with which, however, he so


s: little pleased himself that on every New Year's Day he threw into


s: From the school he was removed to Edinburgh, where he had not


s: money a mortgage could afford; and, removing with her family to


s: Edinburgh, lived to see her son rising into eminence.


s: The design of Thomson's friends was to breed him a minister.  He


s: explaining a psalm.  His diction was so poetically splendid, that


s: reported to have repressed his thoughts of an ecclesiastical


s: character, and he probably cultivated with new diligence his


s: His first want was a pair of shoes.  For the supply of all his


s: "Winter" was dedicated to Sir Spencer Compton, but attracted no


s: regard from him to the author; till Aaron Hill awakened his


s: Thomson's credit was now high, and every day brought him new


s: friends; among others Dr. Rundle, a man afterwards unfortunately


s: well known.  Why the dedications are, to "Winter" and the other


s: philosopher by the instruction of Mr. Gray; and of "Britannia," a


s: Opposition, and had therefore no favour to expect from the Court.


s: Thomson, having been some time entertained in the family of Lord


s: "Autumn," the season to which the "Spring" and "Summer" are


s: preparatory, still remained unsung, and was delayed till he


s: He produced in 1727 the tragedy of Sophonisba, which raised such


s: expectation that every rehearsal was dignified with a splendid


s: This gave occasion to a waggish parody--


s: which for a while was echoed through the town.


s: Thomson was not long afterwards, by the influence of Dr. Rundle,


s: sent to travel with Mr. Charles Talbot, the eldest son of the


s: resolved to write a very long poem, in five parts, upon Liberty.


s: The poem of "Liberty" does not now appear in its original state;


s: but, when the author's works were collected after his death, was


s: though the Lord Hardwicke delayed for some time to give it away,


s: Thomson's bashfulness or pride, or some other motive perhaps not


s: struggling for popularity, and by the influence of Mr. Lyttelton


s: Being now obliged to write, he produced (1738) the tragedy of


s: till a friendly hint frighted him to silence.  Pope countenanced


s: About this time (1737) the Act was passed for licensing plays, of


s: Alfred, which was acted before the Prince at Cliefden House.


s: His next work (1745) was, Tancred and Sigismunda, the most


s: successful of all his tragedies, for it still keeps its turn upon


s: The last piece that he lived to publish was the "Castle of


s: Indolence," which was many years under his hand, but was at last


s: inscription; but a monument has been erected to his memory in


s: Thomson was of stature above the middle size, and "more fat than


s: bard beseems," of a dull countenance and a gross, unanimated,


s: raised, of which part discharged his debts, and the rest was


s: "Hagley in Worcestershire, October the 4th, 1747.


s: "My Dear Sister,--I thought you had known me better than to


s: ever prove an unkind friend and brother.  I must do myself the


s: "I esteem you for your sensible and disinterested advice to Mr.


s: delicacy of difficult old bachelors.  I am, however, not a little


s: infectious subject.  Pray let me hear from you now and then; and


s: offices of intervention or solicitation he could not conquer his


s: sluggishness sufficiently to perform.  The affairs of others,


s: however, were not more neglected than his own.  He had often felt


s: peculiarities was a very unskilful and inarticulate manner of


s: Yet Savage always spoke with the most eager praise of his social


s: numbers, his pauses, his diction, are of his own growth, without


s: transcription, without imitation.  He thinks in a peculiar train,


s: impresses.  His is one of the works in which blank verse seems


s: appearances subsisting all at once, no rule can be given why one


s: applied to wines in its primitive sense, means the flavour of the


s: "Liberty," when it first appeared, I tried to read, and soon


s: "No line which, dying, he could wish to blot."


s: Isaac Watts was born July 17, 1674, at Southampton, where his


s: father, of the same name, kept a boarding-school for young


s: Isaac, the eldest of nine children, was given to books from his


s: infancy, and began, we are told, to learn Latin when he was four


s: years old--I suppose, at home.  He was afterwards taught Latin,


s: taught by Mr. Rowe, where he had for his companions and fellow


s: exercises at this academy, show a degree of knowledge, both


s: philosophical and theological, such as very few attain by a much


s: neglect of all metrical rules as is without example among the


s: devotion at the house of his father, who treated him with great


s: tenderness, and had the happiness, indulged to few parents, of


s: living to see his son eminent for literature and venerable for


s: himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures; and, being chosen


s: which it brought upon him he never perfectly recovered.  This


s: years with all the kindness that friendship could prompt, and all


s: eight years afterwards, but he continued with the lady and her


s: benefits, deserves a particular memorial; and I will not withhold


s: what is known likewise to multitudes besides:--


s: "Our next observation shall be made upon that remarkably kind


s: without any care of his own, he had everything which could


s: contribute to the enjoyment of life, and favour the unwearied


s: excellent sermons and works which he drew up and published during


s: that of her daughter, the present Mrs. Elizabeth Abney, who in a


s: If this quotation has appeared long, let it be considered that it


s: From the time of his reception into this family his life was no


s: sermons, but, having adjusted the heads and sketched out some


s: weighty sentences he gave time, by a short pause, for the proper


s: To stated and public instruction he added familiar visits and


s: only in his book, but in his mind, that orthodoxy was united with


s: In his metaphysical disquisitions it was observed by the late


s: Few books have been perused by me with greater pleasure than his


s: care of instructing others may be charged with deficiency in his


s: I have mentioned his treatises of theology as distinct from his


s: other productions; but the truth is that whatever he took in hand


s: wishing, to be better.  The attention is caught by indirect


s: instruction; and he that sat down only to reason is on a sudden


s: diploma, by which he became a Doctor of Divinity.  Academical


s: honours would have more value if they were always bestowed with


s: increased, and at last confined him to his chamber and his bed,


s: where he was worn gradually away without pain, till he expired


s: November 25th 1748, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.


s: As a poet, had he been only a poet, he would probably have stood


s: high among the authors with whom he is now associated.  For his


s: other subjects seldom rise higher than might be expected from the


s: that, to so much piety and innocence, does not wish for a greater


s: prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his


s: notice of the world by some English verses, in the collection


s: Philips was a zealous Whig, and therefore easily found access to


s: Addison and Steele; but his ardour seems not to have procured him


s: The book is divided into many sections, for each of which, if he


s: received half-a-crown, his reward, as writers then were paid, was


s: In 1712 he brought upon the stage The Distressed Mother, almost a


s: uncommon powers, but the friends of Philips exerted every art to


s: promote his interest. Before the appearance of the play a whole


s: recited twice, and not only continued to be demanded through the


s: run, as it is termed, of the play, but whenever it is recalled to


s: undoubtedly admitted for the sake of the answer, which soon


s: attention.  It may be discovered in the defence that Prior's


s: Budgell, whom Addison used to denominate "the man who calls me


s: Philips was now high in the ranks of literature.  His play was


s: applauded; his translations from Sappho had been published in the


s: that he should be sure of its continuance.  The work which had


s: procured him the first notice from the public was his "Six


s: At the revival of learning in Italy it was soon discovered that a


s: adopted by subsequent writers, and among others by our Spenser.


s: comment, and, as Scaliger complained, received into schools, and


s: taught as classical; his complaint was vain, and the practice,


s: however injudicious, spread far and continued long.  Mantuan was


s: carried their disquisitions beyond the country to censure the


s: corruptions of the Church, and from him Spenser learned to employ


s: Philips thinks it "somewhat strange to conceive how, in an age so


s: Not long afterwards Pope made the first display of his powers in


s: advantage, he gives the preference to Philips.  The design of


s: either praise or satire, there was no proportion between the


s: money; he only delayed, and with sufficient meanness, the


s: gratification of him by whose prosperity he was pained.


s: Men sometimes suffer by injudicious kindness; Philips became


s: lottery (1717), and, what did not much elevate his character, a


s: already acquired, till after nine years he produced (1722) The


s: Briton, a tragedy which, whatever was its reception, is now


s: neglected; though one of the scenes, between Vanoc the British


s: His happiest undertaking was (1711) of a paper called The


s: Freethinker, in conjunction with associates, of whom one was Dr.


s: friendship.  When he was advanced to the height of ecclesiastical


s: After the death of his patron he continued some years in Ireland,


s: returned (1748) to London, having doubtless survived most of his


s: Of his personal character all that I have heard is, that he was


s: Of The Distressed Mother not much is pretended to be his own, and


s: please best are those which, from Pope and Pope's adherents,


s: valued but when they are done by those who can do greater.


s: sublimity; he will be allowed, if he has less fire, to have more


s: smoke.  He has added nothing to English poetry, yet at least half


s: West; perhaps him who published "Pindar" at Oxford about the


s: beginning of this century.  His mother was sister to Sir Richard


s: Temple, afterwards Lord Cobham.  His father, purposing to educate


s: Oxford; but he was seduced to a more airy mode of life, by a


s: commission in a troop of horse, procured him by his uncle.  He


s: himself more inclined to civil employment, he laid down his


s: His adherence to Lord Townshend ended in nothing but a nomination


s: Paul."  These two illustrious friends had for a while listened to


s: Mr. West's income was not large; and his friends endeavoured, but


s: required a more extensive power of superintendence than it was


s: thought proper to allow him.  In time, however, his revenue was


s: improved; he lived to have one of the lucrative clerkships of the


s: rich; but wealth came too late to be long enjoyed; nor could it


s: elegance and its exactness.  He does not confine himself to his


s: author's train of stanzas; for he saw that the difference of


s: languages required a different mode of versification.  The first


s: strophe is eminently happy; in the second he has a little strayed


s: which, however, is less exuberant than the former passage.


s: A work of this kind must, in a minute examination, discover many


s: His "Institution of the Garter" (1742) is written with sufficient


s: process of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preserves the


s: His "Imitations of Spenser" are very successfully performed, both


s: artifice of the copy, the mind has two amusements together.  But


s: such compositions are not to be reckoned among the great


s: achievements of intellect, because their effect is local and


s: There is in the Adventurer a paper of verses given to one of the


s: thought it, as he told me, and as he tells the public.


s: Winchester College, where he was educated by Dr. Burton.  His


s: maintenance; but was, in about half a year, elected a Demy of


s: designed many works; but his great fault was irresolution; or the


s: meditation or remote inquiries.  He published proposals for a


s: "History of the Revival of Learning;" and I have heard him speak


s: with great kindness of Leo X., and with keen resentment of his


s: tasteless successor.  But probably not a page of his history was


s: ever written.  He planned several tragedies, but he only planned


s: them.  He wrote now and then odes and other poems, and did


s: cheerful.  By degrees I gained his confidence; and one day was


s: booksellers, who, on the credit of a translation of Aristotle's


s: "Poetics," which he engaged to write with a large commentary,


s: advanced as much money as enabled him to escape into the country.


s: "Mr. Collins was a man of extensive literature, and of vigorous


s: waterfalls of Elysian gardens.  This was, however, the character


s: efforts sometimes caused harshness and obscurity, they likewise


s: produced in happier moments sublimity and splendour.  This idea


s: which enchains the faculties without destroying them, and leaves


s: reason the knowledge of right without the power of pursuing it.


s: These clouds which he perceived gathering on his intellect he


s: retired to the care of his sister in Chichester, where death, in


s: discernible in his mind by any but himself; but he had withdrawn


s: from study, and travelled with no other book than an English


s: Testament, such as children carry to the school.  When his friend


s: Such was the fate of Collins, with whom I once delighted to


s: converse, and whom I yet remember with tenderness.


s: He was visited at Chichester, in his last illness, by his learned


s: disapprobation of his "Oriental Eclogues," as not sufficiently


s: selected.  He affected the obsolete when it was not worthy of


s: sometimes extort praise when it gives little pleasure.


s: Mr. Collins's first production is added here from the Poetical


s: John Dyer, of whom I have no other account to give than his own


s: probably, unsatisfied with his own proficiency, he, like other


s: married about the same time a lady of the name of Ensor; "whose


s: Leicestershire, of eighty pounds a year, on which he lived ten


s: years, and then exchanged it for Belchford, in Lincolnshire, of


s: seventy-five.  His condition now began to mend.  In 1751 Sir John


s: year; and in 1755 the Chancellor added Kirkby, of one hundred and


s: Dyer is not a poet of bulk or dignity sufficient to require an


s: elaborate criticism.  "Grongar Hill" is the happiest of his


s: productions:  it is not indeed very accurately written; but the


s: scenes which it displays are so pleasing, the images which they


s: neighbourhood of dilapidating edifices, he says,


s: Aghast the voice of Time, disparting tow'rs


s: Rattling around, loud thund'ring to the Moon."


s: SERPENT WITH THE FOWL.  When Dyer, whose mind was not unpoetical,


s: commodity by interspersing rural imagery, and incidental


s: Let me, however, honestly report whatever may counterbalance this


s: poetical question, has a right to be heard, said, "That he would


s: regulate his opinion of the reigning taste by the fate of Dyer's


s: received such delight from books, that he was always calling for


s: When he was young (June, 1724) he was deprived of his father, and


s: brother, who died afterwards unmarried, left to the care of his


s: From school he was sent in 1732 to Pembroke College in Oxford, a


s: diversify his surface, to entangle his walks, and to wind his


s: skilful; a place to be visited by travellers and copied by


s: designers.  Whether to plant a walk in undulating curves, and to


s: place a bench at every turn where there is an object to catch the


s: perhaps a sullen and surly spectator may think such performances


s: innocent amusement, and some praise must be allowed, by the most


s: acquaintance of the little fellow that was trying to make himself


s: The pleasure of Shenstone was all in his eye; he valued what he


s: valued merely for its looks.  Nothing raised his indignation more


s: reparation.  In time his expenses brought clamours about him that


s: He was never married, though he might have obtained the lady,


s: "I have read, too, an octavo volume of Shenstone's Letters.  Poor


s: variety.  The peace of solitude, the innocence of inactivity, and


s: pages.  That of which the essence is uniformity will be soon


s: described.  His elegies have, therefore, too much resemblance of


s: philosophical argument and poetical spirit.  Of the rest I cannot


s: however, more of the epigram than of the ode.


s: But the four parts of his "Pastoral Ballad" demand particular


s: notice.  I cannot but regret that it is pastoral:  an intelligent


s: imitation of Rowe's "Despairing Shepherd."  In the first are two


s: passages, to which if any mind denies its sympathy, it has no


s: And I grieve that I prized them no more.


s: In the second this passage has its prettiness; though it be not


s: I have found where the wood pigeons breed:


s: For he ne'er could be true, she averred,


s: In the third he mentions the common-places of amorous poetry with


s: In the fourth I find nothing better than this natural strain of


s: The flower, and the shrub, and the tree,


s: Which I reared for her pleasure in vain,


s: His "Levities" are by their title exempted from the severities of


s: Of the Moral Poems, the first is the "Choice of Hercules," from


s: Xenophon.  The numbers are smooth, the diction elegant, and the


s: find to be like the blank verses of his neighbours.  "Love and


s: Honour" is derived from the old ballad, "Did you not hear of a


s: Spanish Lady?"--I wish it well enough to wish it were in rhyme.


s: short compositions, contributes much to the increase of pleasure:


s: sentiments, of the original author in the style, and between them


s: "Dear Sir,--In consequence of our different conversations about


s: Woodhay, in Berkshire, styled by Wood, GENTLEMAN.  In September,


s: faculties were impaired through age, his duties were necessarily


s: performed by others.  We learn from Wood that, at a visitation of


s: distributing the holy mysteries, is now laid in the dust.  But he


s: which he merited reward, or no vacancy at Oxford offered them an


s: opportunity to bestow upon him the reward provided for merit by


s: should be qualified to stand for a fellowship at All Souls.  In a


s: father, reflects credit on the conduct of the son.  The manner in


s: On the 23rd of April, 1714, Young took his degree of bachelor of


s: There are who relate that, when first Young found himself


s: independent, and his own master at All Souls, he was not the


s: atheist, "I can always answer, because I always know whence they


s: have their arguments, which I have read a hundred times; but that


s: After all, Tindal and the censurers of Young may be reconcilable.


s: favour of virtue, but the potent testimony of experience against


s: vice.  We shall soon see that one of his earliest productions was


s: panegyric with the extravagance of a young man, who thinks his


s: present stock of wealth will never be exhausted.  The poem seems


s: intended also to reconcile the public to the late peace.  This is


s: that in peace "harvests wave, and commerce swells her sail."  If


s: this be humanity, for which he meant it, is it politics?  Another


s: When Addison published "Cato" in 1713, Young had the honour of


s: On the appearance of his poem on the "Last Day," Addison did not


s: time on the composition of it.  While other bards "with Britain's


s: To flatter knaves, or lose his pension."


s: And tune your harps and strew your bays;


s: been regularly called Hirelings, and on the other Patriots?


s: passing the first and second heavens, and leaving the fixed stars


s: The queen was soon called away from this lower world, to a place


s: Before the queen's death, "The Force of Religion, or Vanquished


s: Love," was sent into the world.  This poem is founded on the


s: wrought into a tragedy by Rowe.  The dedication of it to the


s: person ONLY virtuous, stirs in us a prudent regret; to behold a


s: person ONLY amiable to the sight, warms us with a religious


s: poem on the queen's death, and his Majesty's accession to the


s: throne.  It is inscribed to Addison, then secretary to the Lords


s: Justices.  Whatever were the obligations which he had formerly


s: more than praise.  Neither was this deemed one of his excusable


s: pieces.  We do not find it in his works.


s: To the Dean of Sarum's visitation sermon, already mentioned, were


s: Ireland:  where, says the Biographia, "on the score of his


s: extraordinary qualities, he had the honour done him of being


s: others were taking with him an evening walk, about a mile out of


s: Dublin, he stopped short; we passed on; but perceiving he did not


s: earnestly gazing upward at a noble elm, which in its uppermost


s: undeserved and uncommon favour, in an affair of some consequence,


s: quarters at Lerida, in Spain, was some scenes of a tragedy on the


s: poetry, but as the promoter of his fortune.  Young concludes his


s: partiality to one who bears him so sincere a duty and respect, I


s: happen to receive the benefit of it."  That he ever had such a


s: should have remembered that he at the same time concealed his


s: obligation to Wharton for THE MOST BEAUTIFUL INCIDENT in what is


s: "Be this thy partial smile from censure free!


s: 'Twas meant for merit, though it fell on me."


s: While Young, who, in his "Love of Fame," complains grievously how


s: however, was certainly indebted to it for something material; and


s: guides as the oaths of the persons whom they record.  Chancellor


s: Hardwicke was to determine whether two annuities, granted by the


s: Duke of Wharton to Young, were for legal considerations.  One was


s: Of his adventures in the Exeter family I am unable to give any


s: account.  The attempt to get into Parliament was at Cirencester,


s: following lines, if they contain any, it is now vain to seek:


s: "IN JOY ONCE JOINED, in sorrow, now, for years--


s: Partner in grief, and brother of my tears,


s: Tickell, accept this verse, thy mournful due."


s: From your account of Tickell it appears that he and Young used to


s: retirement, seems to make an unusual struggle to escape from


s: chancellor, of whom he clearly appears to have had no kind of


s: Of his Satires it would not have been possible to fix the dates


s: written.  For these internal notes of time we should not have


s: Thou unambitious fool, at this late time?


s: strain of compliment as poetry too often seeks to pay to royalty.


s: "'Midst empire's charms, how Carolina's heart


s: Glowed with the love of virtue and of art."


s: Since the grateful poet tells us, in the next couplet,


s: Excess of goodness! it has dawned on me."


s: To these poems, when, in 1728, he gathered them into one


s: publication, he prefixed a Preface, in which he observes that "no


s: Is it not somewhat singular that Young preserved, without any


s: little subject to blindness, which makes her mistake her way to


s: sister Prose, to utter?  She was always, indeed, taught by him to


s: though nearly related to Poetry, had no connection with her whom


s: behind him.  By "The Universal Passion" he acquired no vulgar


s: fortune--more than three thousand pounds.  A considerable sum had


s: After inscribing his Satires, not perhaps without the hopes of


s: preferments and honours, to such names as the Duke of Dorset, Mr.


s: explains the intention.  If Young must be acknowledged a ready


s: "Oh! how I long, enkindled by the theme,


s: The bounty of the former reign seems to have been continued,


s: "My breast, O Walpole, glows with grateful fire.


s: The streams of royal bounty, turned by thee,


s: Concluding with a Wish."  This wish consists of thirteen stanzas.


s: following stanza of what every reader will discover in it


s: The boiling strait, the monster's shock."


s: We shall soon come to a work, before which we find indeed no


s: Soon after the appearance of "Ocean," when he was almost fifty,


s: Young entered into orders.  In April, 1728, not long after he had


s: The tragedy of The Brothers, which was already in rehearsal, he


s: Of Young's taking orders something is told by the biographer of


s: Pope, which places the easiness and simplicity of the poet in a


s: instructions in theology, but to Pope, who, in a youthful frolic,


s: sought after him, and found him just in time to prevent what


s: Ruffhead calls "an irretrievable derangement."


s: Estimate of Human Life," dedicated, notwithstanding the Latin


s: quotations with which it abounds, to the Queen; and a sermon


s: "Estimate," without which it cannot be called "A True Estimate,"


s: though in 1728 it was announced as "soon to be published," never


s: poetry, and that the Pindaric is the most spirited kind of Ode.


s: "This I speak," he adds, "with sufficient candour at my own very


s: great peril.  But truth has an eternal title to our confession,


s: occasion seems to have been an apprehension lest, from the


s: liveliness of his satires, he should not be deemed sufficiently


s: In July, 1730, he was presented by his College to the Rectory of


s: connection, and to the expectations of that preferment which he


s: The next production of his muse was "The Sea-piece," in two odes.


s: At once we think thee Milton, Death, and Sin."


s: "No stranger, sir, though born in foreign climes.


s: Thy rage provoked who soothed with GENTLE rhymes?"


s: "While with your Dodington retired you sit,


s: Charmed with his flowing Burgundy and wit," etc.


s: "Where, in the secret bower and winding walk,


s: For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay."


s: "Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfettered verse,


s: With British freedom sing the British song,"


s: formal farewell to Ode, which few of Young's readers will regret:


s: "My shell, which Clio gave, which KINGS APPLAUD,


s: Which Europe's bleeding genius called abroad,


s: circumstances, it is probable that the poet had both him and Mrs.


s: "Insatiate archer! could not one suffice?


s: Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain;


s: And thrice, ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn."


s: been pitied for having to pour the "Midnight Sorrows" of his


s: Temple, in 1741.  How could the insatiate archer thrice slay his


s: reflections on the thought of the writer."  It is probable,


s: therefore, that in these three contradictory lines the poet


s: generally supposed, whatever heightening a poet's sorrow may have


s: same pious poet, but we hear less of Philander and Narcissa, and


s: less of the mourner whom he loved to pity.


s: "I flew, I snatched her from the rigid North,


s: only for this reason.  He who runs and reads may remember that in


s: That domestic grief is, in the first instance, to be thanked for


s: happened.  "Night Thoughts" were not uncommon to her, even when


s: first she visited the poet, and at a time when he himself was


s: Frequent at tombs and in the realms of Night."


s: Whether you think with me, I know not; but the famous "De mortuis


s: weakness than of manly reason.  He that has too much feeling to


s: living.  Yet censure is not heard beneath the tomb, any more than


s: world, little satisfied with inventing perhaps a melancholy


s: Young's own son.  "The Biographia," and every account of Young,


s: pretty roundly assert this to be the fact; of the absolute


s: impossibility of which, the "Biographia" itself, in particular


s: From the first line to the last of the "Night Thoughts" no one


s: former companions; one of the Duke of Wharton's set.  The poet


s: styles him "gay friend;" an appellation not very natural from a


s: portrait, from the sight of some of whose features the artist


s: address to the poet's supposed son is:--


s: "Lorenzo, Fortune makes her court to thee."


s: "And burns Lorenzo still for the sublime


s: Of life? to hang his airy nest on high?"


s: Is this a picture of the son of the Rector of Welwyn?  "Eighth


s: "In foreign realms (for thou hast travelled far)"--


s: which even now does not apply to his son.  In "Night Five:"--


s: Who gave that angel-boy on whom he dotes,


s: And died to give him, orphaned in his birth!"


s: At the beginning of the "Fifth Night" we find:--


s: I grant the man is vain who writes for praise."


s: Anti Lucretius, "quo nomine," says Polignac, "quemvis Atheum


s: characters; but a writer does not feign a name of which he only


s: "Tell not Calista.  She will laugh thee dead,


s: Or send thee to her hermitage with L---."


s: forbidden his college at Oxford for misbehaviour.  How such


s: follies who is free?  But, whatever the "Biographia" chooses to


s: beyond the ken of mortals, and descend not to earth but when


s: compelled by necessity.  The prose of ordinary occurrences is


s: Christian may be allowed to observe that Young is one of those


s: concerning whom, as you remark in your account of Addison, it is


s: Of the "Night Thoughts," notwithstanding their author's professed


s: Chancellors of the Exchequer.  In "Night Eight" the politician


s: "Think no post needful that demands a knave:


s: When late our civil helm was shifting hands,


s: So P--- thought:  think better if you can."


s: Yet it must be confessed that at the conclusion of "Night Nine,"


s: weary perhaps of courting earthly patrons, he tells his soul--


s: And leave the racers of the world their own."


s: The "Fourth Night" was addressed by "a much-indebted Muse" to the


s: "Dark, though not blind, like thee, Meonides;


s: Or, Milton, thee.  Ah! could I reach your strain;


s: Oh had he pressed his theme, pursued the track


s: Soared, where I sink, and sung immortal man--


s: How had it blest mankind, and rescued me!"


s: To the author of these lines was dedicated, in 1756, the first


s: volume of an "Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope," which


s: attempted, whether justly or not, to pluck from Pope his "Wing of


s: Part of "paper-sparing" Pope's Third Book of the "Odyssey,"


s: want that instance of your friendship I mentioned in my last; a


s: friendship I am very sensible I can receive from no one but


s: yourself.  I should not urge this thing so much but for very


s: particular reasons; nor can you be at a loss to conceive how a


s: Nay, even after Pope's death, he says in "Night Seven:"--


s: "Pope, who could'st make immortals, art thou dead?"


s: account of Young, two or three short passages, which stand almost


s: picture, by his own hand, from the study of which my readers may


s: Of loitering here, of death defrauded long;


s: Of old so gracious (and let that suffice),


s: I've been so long remembered I'm forgot.


s: When in his courtiers' ears I pour my plaint,


s: They drink it as the Nectar of the Great;