s: Wronged love, spoiled hope, mistrust and ageing fears,


s: Mr. Cripps alone permits his Muse a gravely jocund note in his


s: "Seasons' Comfort." He, too, of the four fellow-versifiers shows


s: the greater aptitude for experiments, though it may perhaps be


s: felt that his touch is nowhere quite so sure, nor his artistic


s: It is difficult to lay the critic's hand lightly enough upon


s: poems like these, or to make it clear what particular attraction


s: they possess. With all the charm of rathe spring-flowers, they


s: suggest the possibilities of varied personality not yet


s: accentuated in the authors. Let us hope that the four Muses of


s: the four friends will not, like the primroses,


s: but that we shall profit by their summer-songs, while ever


s: remaining grateful for their _Primavera_.


s: GUARINI. _Pastor Fido_, Atto iii, Sc. I.


s: Lo! where she sits, breathing, yet all but dead.


s: She loved the heavens of old, she thought them fair;


s: And dream'd of Gods in Tempe's golden air.


s: For her the wind had voice, the sea its cry;


s: She deem'd heroic Greece could never die.


s: Breathless was she, to think what nymphs might play


s: In clear green depths, deep-shaded from the day;


s: She thought the dim and inarticulate god


s: But hoped what seem'd might not be all untrue,


s: And feared to look beyond the eternal blue.


s: But now the heavens are bared of dreams divine.


s: Still murmurs she, like Autumn, _This was mine!_


s: How should she face the ghastly, jarring Truth,


s: That questions all, and tramples without ruth?


s: And still she clings to Ida of her dreams,


s: And sobs, _Ah! let the world be what it seems!_


s: Then the shy nymph shall softly come again;


s: The world, once more, make music for her pain.


s: For, sitting in the dim and ghostly night,


s: She fain would stay the strong approach of light;


s: While later bards cleave to her, and believe


s: That in her sorrow she can still conceive!


s: Oh, let her dream; still lovely is her sigh;


s: Oh, rouse her not, or she shall surely die.


s: From vague delights, rapt musings, twilight hours,


s: Turns restless, seeking some great deed to do,


s: To sum his foster'd dreams; when that fresh birth


s: Unveils the real, the throng'd and spacious Earth,


s: And he awakes to those more ample skies,


s: By other aims and by new powers possess'd:


s: Is fill'd with pangs of longing! how his eyes


s: Drink in the enchanted prospect! Fair it lies


s: Before him, with its plains expanding vast,


s: Peopled with visions, and enrich'd with dreams;


s: Dim cities, ancient forests, winding streams,


s: In welcome, and with festal robes array'd!


s: And pierce him with inexplicable sweetness;


s: And, in her smiles delighting, and the fires


s: As his thought leaps to the long-distant goal.


s: Are bounds and barriers, tales of Destiny,


s: To kindle with new thoughts degenerate nations,


s: Even such as swell'd the breasts of Bacchus' throng,


s: When that triumphal burst of joy was hurl'd


s: When from the storied, sacred East afar,


s: With flower-rein'd tigers and with ivory car


s: Beautiful Bacchus, ivy-crown'd, his hair


s: Blown on the wind, and flush'd limbs bare,


s: And ears that caught the coming melodies,


s: As wave on wave of revellers swept abroad;


s: Wreathed with vine-leaves, shouting, trampling onwards,


s: With toss'd timbrel and loud tambourine.


s: Alas! the disenchanting years have roll'd


s: Mirth is gone from us; and the world is old.


s: O bright new-comer, fill'd with thoughts of joy,


s: Joy to be thine amid these pleasant plains,


s: Know'st thou not, child, what surely coming pains


s: Await thee, for that eager heart's annoy?


s: Wrong'd love, spoil'd hope, mistrust and ageing fears,


s: Thou proud and pure of spirit, how must thou bear


s: To have thine infinite hates and loves confined,


s: School'd, and despised? How keep unquench'd and free


s: Tamed to the measure of the common kind?


s: How hard for thee, swept on, for ever hurl'd


s: From hour to hour, bewilder'd and forlorn,


s: To move with clear eyes and with steps secure,


s: To keep the light within, to fitly scorn


s: Vain, vain such warning to those happy ears!


s: Disturb not their delight! By unkind powers


s: Doom'd to keep pace with the relentless Hours,


s: He, too, ere long, shall feel Earth's glory change;


s: Familiar names shall take an accent strange,


s: The things that then shall be beheld through tears.


s: Who, if men's hearts be hard, art always mild;


s: O fields and streams, and places undefiled,


s: Let your sweet airs be ever on his brow,


s: Thou too, O human world, if old desires,


s: If thoughts, not alien once, can move thee now,


s: Where thou hast fail'd; not soon let it be plain,


s: That all who seek in thee for nobler fires,


s: For generous passion, spend their hopes in vain:


s: Lest that insidious Fate, foe of mankind,


s: With whispers his unnerved and faltering mind,


s: Palsy his powers; for she has spells to dry,


s: Like the March blast, his blood, turn flesh to stone,


s: Freeze the quick will, and make him all her own.


s: Come, then, as ever, like the Wind at morning!


s: Joyous, O Youth, in the aged world renew


s: Freshness to feel the eternities around it,


s: Rains, stars, and clouds, light and the sacred dew.


s: 'Tis my twentieth year: dim, now, youth stretches behind me;


s: Breaking fresh at my feet, lies, like an ocean, the world.


s: And despised seem, now, those quiet fields I have travell'd:


s: Eager to thee I turn, Life, and thy visions of joy.


s: Fame I see, with her wreath, far off approaching to crown me;


s: Love, whose starry eyes fever my heart with desire:


s: And impassion'd I yearn for the future, all unconscious,


s: Ah, poor dreamer! what ills life in its circle enfolds.


s: Not more restless the boy, whose eager, confident bosom


s: The wide, unknown sea fills with a hunger to roam.


s: Often beside the surge of the desolate ocean he paces;


s: Ingrate, dreams of a sky brighter, serener than his.


s: Passionate soul! light holds he a mother's tearful entreaties,


s: Lightly leaves he behind all the sad faces of home;


s: Never again, perchance, to behold them; lost in the tempest,


s: Or on some tropic shore dying in fever and pain!


s: I cannot raise my eyelids up from sleep,


s: As the sweet morn, that wakes my heart anew.


s: But you straightway steal on me with delight:


s: My deepest thought finds you the truth most bright.


s: Yet, since 'tis you that rule me, I but find


s: Were the world's anxious kingdoms govern'd so,


s: Lost were their wrongs, and vanish'd half their woe!


s: And yet, at times, thou still shalt feel


s: Close, close, thy soft arms cling to mine:


s: Ah, 'gainst its power not death shall stay!


s: Thou know'st that heavenly charm; how well,


s: Yet, drinking sweetness from the ground,


s: From her sweet brows; and she, the while,


s: Yet now, too soon, the world's strong strife


s: My heart's delight, my tongue's despair.


s: Through those enchanted lands of Spring.


s: Then, freed from tyrannous Fate's control,


s: In the deep West the heavens grow heavenlier,


s: As her song with the nightingale's was blent:


s: And one yearn'd for a love, and one sigh'd for a soul!


s: Moonlight and starlight alike seemed cold,


s: As their silver glanced on her locks of gold;


s: And the dream on her face was a dream of old,


s: Whose sorrow no sunrise might smile away.


s: As her song rang sadder and sadder the while,


s: Where some might have rest, but never might she!


s: She was but as wind, or as wave, or as dream,


s: To play for a while in life's glory and gleam:


s: But what would be left at the end of the day?


s: As she stitches away in her tatter'd dress,


s: With a song on her lips, that sinks in a sigh.


s: But no sunlight may soften that soulless stare.


s: And the eyes that would be, but are not, dry;


s: And I catch the voice of that voiceless cry


s: For a moment to rest, for a moment to weep.


s: Why was she sent, save to work and to go


s: With feet that will ever more weary grow?


s: By the love of a soul from her trammels was freed:


s: Sure on the earth lingers yet such a soul!


s: Thou who hast follow'd far with eyes of love


s: The shy and virgin sights of Spring to-day,


s: Sad soul, what dost thou in this happy grove?


s: Hast thou no pipe to touch, no strain to play,


s: Where Nature smiles so fair and seems to ask a lay?


s: Ah! she needs none! she is too beautiful.


s: How should I sing her? for my heart would tire,


s: Seeking a lovelier verse each time to cull,


s: In striving still to pitch my music higher:


s: Lovelier than any muse is she who gives the fire!


s: No impulse I beseech; my strains are vile:


s: To escape thee, Nature, restless here I rove.


s: Look not so sweet on me, avert thy smile!


s: O cease at length this fever'd breast to move!


s: I have loved thee in vain; I cannot speak my love.


s: Here sense with apathy seems gently wed:


s: The gloom is starr'd with flowers; the unseen trees


s: Spread thick and softly real above my head;


s: And the far birds add music to the peace,


s: In this dark place of sleep, where whispers never cease.


s: Hush, then, my pipe; vain is thy passion here;


s: Forever hush'd, let me this silence hear,


s: Hushes her voice, to catch the happier voices by her.


s: In night, where not a leaf its neighbour knows;


s: And, far from all delights, prepare my heart's repose.


s: Still burns that sleepless beauty on the mind;


s: An answer in the leaves, a warning on the wind.


s: 'O crave not silence thou! too soon, too sure,


s: Shall Autumn come, and through these branches weep:


s: Soon birds shall cease, and flowers no more endure;


s: And thou beneath the mould unwilling creep,


s: And silent soon shalt be in that eternal sleep.


s: 'Green still it is, where that fair goddess strays;


s: Then follow, till around thee all be sere.


s: Nor miss the sound of her soft robes, that here


s: Sweep over the wet leaves of the fast-falling year.'


s: Me in far lands did Justice call, cold queen


s: Among the dead, who after heat and haste


s: At length have leisure for her steadfast voice,


s: That gathers peace from the great deeps of hell.


s: She call'd me, saying: 'I heard a cry by night!


s: Go thou, and question not; within thy halls


s: Be strong, and I will show thee wise in time;


s: For, though my face be dark, yet unto those


s: Who truly follow me through storm or shine,


s: For these the veil shall fall, and they shall see


s: They walked with Wisdom, though they knew her not.'


s: So sped I home; and from the under-world


s: Forever came a wind that fill'd my sails,


s: Cold, like a spirit! and ever her still voice


s: Spoke over shoreless seas and fathomless deeps,


s: And in great calms, as from a colder world;


s: Nor slack'd I sail by day, nor yet when night


s: Fell on my running keel, and now would burn,


s: So sped I on, fill'd with a voice divine:


s: Possess'd me; fired to do the will of gods,


s: Nor took I note of sandbank, nor of storm,


s: Nor of the ocean's thunders, when the shores


s: I knew I could not die, till I had slain!


s: But, when I came once more upon the land


s: That rear'd me, all the sweetness of old days


s: Came back on me: I stood, as from a dream


s: And when, far off, I saw those ancient towers,


s: And tell a thousand tales of near escapes.


s: And lo! the nurse, that fondled me of yore,


s: Fell with glad tears upon my neck, and told


s: How she, and how my mother, all this while


s: Had dream'd of all I was to do, and said


s: How dear I should be to my mother's eyes.


s: Her words shook me, but shook not my resolve.


s: For even then there came that sterner voice,


s: Echoing to what was highest in the soul.


s: Then, like to those who have a work on earth,


s: And put far from them lips of wife or child,


s: And gird them to the accomplishment; so I


s: Strode in, nor saw at all mine ancient halls;


s: And struck my father's murderess, not my mother.


s: And, when I had smitten, lo, the strength of gods


s: Pass'd from me, and the old, familiar halls


s: Reel'd back on me; dim statues, that of old


s: Holding my mother's hand I marvell'd at,


s: And questioned her of each. And she lies there,


s: That once I play'd with in these halls! O eyes


s: And lighten'd up, and trembled into love;


s: The next were darkened by my hand! Ah me!


s: Yet thou, perchance, art happier, if thou go'st


s: Into some land of wind and drifting leaves,


s: Hell hungers, and the restless Furies wait.


s: Then the dark Curse, that sits upon the towers,


s: Bow'd down her awful head, thus satisfied,


s: And I fled forth, a murderer, through the world.


s: Dry thine eyes, Doll! the stars above us shine;


s: God of His goodness made them mine and thine;


s: His silver have we gotten, and His gold,


s: Whilst there's a sun to call us in the morn


s: To ply the hook among amid the yellow corn,


s: That such a mine of pretty gems doth hold:


s: And the corn-flower, dainty tire for a sweetheart sunny-poll'd.


s: Dry thine eyes, Doll! the woods are all our own,


s: The woods that soon shall take a braver tone,


s: What time the frosts first silver Nature's hair;


s: The birds shall sing their best for thee and me;


s: And so of singing get the goodliest share;


s: But our hearts dance time instead in the throbbing matin air.


s: Dry thine eyes, Doll! there's Love to feed our fire,


s: Winter ne'er quenched a blaze so bravely fed.


s: And Sleep, I wot, will grudge us not his best:


s: In winter earlier sink the suns to rest,


s: And eke the sooner shall our toils be sped;


s: There'll be love-charms worth the knowing,


s: Or, at Yule-tide, mazes threaded, with the mistletoe o'erhead.


s: O cheerful human noise, O busy glittering street!


s: What hour shall Fate in all the future find,


s: Only to taste the warmth, the light, the wind,


s: Only to be alive, and feel that life is sweet?


s: The fall of ev'n such short-lived things


s: brevity, and the colouring of human passion,--have been excluded.


s: In the arrangement, the most poetically effective order has been


s: hesitation and regret,--far less that they have been slighted.


s: The Elizabethan Poetry, as it is rather vaguely termed, forms the


s: Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king;


s: Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,


s: Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,


s: The palm and may make country houses gay,


s: Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,


s: And we hear aye birds tune their merry lay,


s: The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,


s: Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,


s: In every street these tunes our ears do greet,


s: Rouse Memnon's mother from her Tithon's bed


s: That she may thy career with roses spread:


s: The nightingales thy coming eachwhere sing:


s: Give life to this dark world which lieth dead;


s: In larger locks than thou wast wont before,


s: Which serves but to make dear thy glorious light.


s: This is the morn should bring unto this grove


s: My Love, to hear and recompense my love.


s: Shalt see than those which by Penéus' streams


s: Now, Flora, deck thyself in fairest guise:


s: Beyond the hills, to shun his flaming wheels:


s: The fields with flowers are deck'd in every hue,


s: The clouds with orient gold spangle their blue;


s: When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced


s: The rich proud cost of out-worn buried age;


s: When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,


s: And the firm soil win of the watery main,


s: Increasing store with loss, and loss with store.


s: When I have seen such interchange of state,


s: That Time will come and take my Love away.


s: --This thought is as a death, which cannot choose


s: But weep to have that which it fears to lose.


s: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,


s: But sad mortality o'ersways their power,


s: How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,


s: Whose action is no stronger than a flower?


s: O how shall summer's honey breath hold out,


s: Against the wreckful siege of battering days,


s: When rocks impregnable are not so stout,


s: Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays?


s: Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,


s: O! none, unless this miracle have might,


s: That in black ink my love may still shine bright.


s: The shepherd swains shall dance and sing


s: In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,


s: In spring time, the only pretty ring time,


s: Absence doth join, and Time doth settle.


s: Being your slave what should I do but tend


s: Upon the hours and times of your desire?


s: I have no precious time at all to spend,


s: Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour


s: Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,


s: Nor think the bitterness of absence sour


s: When you have bid your servant once adieu:


s: Nor dare I question with my jealous thought


s: Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,


s: But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought


s: Save where you are, how happy you make those;--


s: So true a fool is love, that in your will,


s: Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.


s: From Thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!


s: What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,


s: What old December's bareness everywhere!


s: And yet this time removed was summer's time:


s: The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,


s: Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:


s: But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit;


s: For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,


s: And, thou away, the very birds are mute;


s: Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,


s: That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.


s: When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes


s: And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,


s: And look upon myself, and curse my fate;


s: Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,


s: Featured like him, like him with friends possest,


s: Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,


s: Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,


s: Haply I think on Thee--and then my state,


s: Like to the lark at break of day arising


s: From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;


s: For thy sweet love remember'd, such wealth brings


s: That then I scorn to change my state with kings.


s: Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify:


s: As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie;


s: That is my home of love, if I have ranged,


s: Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,


s: So that myself bring water for my stain.


s: Never believe, though in my nature reign'd


s: All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,


s: That it could so preposterously be stain'd


s: To leave for nothing all thy sum of good:


s: Save thou, my rose, in it thou art my all.


s: To me, fair Friend, you never can be old,


s: For as you were when first your eye I eyed


s: Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold


s: Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;


s: Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd,


s: Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,


s: Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green.


s: Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;


s: So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,


s: Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:


s: For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,--


s: Ere you were born, was beauty's summer dead.


s: How blest were I if thou would'st prove me.


s: For dead, thy breath to life might move me.


s: Heigh ho, my heart! would God that she were mine!


s: The winds blew calm, the birds did sing,


s: Thou art more lovely and more temperate:


s: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,


s: And summer's lease hath all too short a date:


s: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,


s: And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,


s: And every fair from fair sometime declines,


s: By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd.


s: Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;


s: Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade,


s: When in eternal lines to time thou growest.


s: So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,


s: So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.


s: I see descriptions of the fairest wights,


s: In praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights;


s: Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best


s: Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,


s: I see their antique pen would have exprest


s: And for they look'd but with divining eyes,


s: They had not skill enough your worth to sing:


s: For we, which now behold these present days,


s: Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.


s: O if thou knew'st how thou thyself does harm,


s: And dost prejudge thy bliss, and spoil thy rest;


s: Then thou would'st melt the ice out of thy breast


s: And thy relenting heart would kindly warm.


s: O if thy pride did not our joys controul,


s: What world of loving wonders should'st thou see!


s: For if I saw thee once transform'd in me,


s: Then all my thoughts should in thy visage shine,


s: And if that aught mischanced thou should'st not moan


s: Nor bear the burthen of thy griefs alone;


s: No, I would have my share in what were thine:


s: And whilst we thus should make our sorrows one,


s: This happy harmony would make them none.


s: Let me not to the marriage of true minds


s: That looks on tempests and is never shaken;


s: Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.


s: Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks


s: Within his bending sickle's compass come;


s: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,


s: But bears it out ev'n to the edge of doom:--


s: My true love hath my heart, and I have his,


s: By just exchange one to the other given:


s: I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,


s: There never was a better bargain driven:


s: My true love hath my heart, and I have his.


s: His heart in me keeps him and me in one,


s: My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:


s: He loves my heart, for once it was his own,


s: My true-love hath my heart, and I have his.


s: And you, my Love, as high as heaven above,


s: Yet should the thoughts of me your humble swain


s: Were I as high as heaven above the plain,


s: Whereso'er you were, with you my love should go.


s: Were you the earth, dear Love, and I the skies,


s: My love should shine on you like to the sun,


s: And look upon you with ten thousand eyes


s: Till heaven wax'd blind, and till the world were done.


s: Whereso'er I am, below, or else above you,


s: Whereso'er you are, my heart shall truly love you.


s: O, stay and hear! your true-love's coming


s: That time of year thou may'st in me behold


s: When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang


s: Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,


s: Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.


s: In me thou seest the twilight of such day


s: Which by and by black night doth take away,


s: Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.


s: In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,


s: Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.


s: --This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,


s: To love that well which thou must leave ere long.


s: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought


s: I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,


s: And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste


s: Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,


s: For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,


s: And weep afresh love's long-since-cancell'd woe,


s: And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight.


s: Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,


s: --But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,


s: All losses are restored, and sorrows end.


s: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore


s: Each changing place with that which goes before,


s: In sequent toil all forwards do contend.


s: Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,


s: Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,


s: And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.


s: Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,


s: And delves the parallels in beauty's brow;


s: Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,


s: And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.


s: And yet, to times in hope, my verse shall stand


s: Praising Thy worth, despite his cruel hand.


s: Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,


s: And like enough thou know'st thy estimate:


s: The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing,


s: For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?


s: And for that riches where is my deserving?


s: The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,


s: And so my patent back again is swerving.


s: Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing,


s: Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking;


s: So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,


s: Comes home again, on better judgement making.


s: Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter;


s: In sleep, a king; but waking, no such matter.


s: They that have power to hurt, and will do none,


s: That do not do the thing they most do show,


s: Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,


s: Unmovéd, cold, and to temptation slow,--


s: They rightly do inherit Heaven's graces,


s: And husband nature's riches from expense;


s: They are the lords and owners of their faces,


s: Others, but stewards of their excellence.


s: The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,


s: But if that flower with base infection meet,


s: For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;


s: Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.


s: Ruthless beasts, they will not cheer thee;


s: Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,


s: Brother to Death, in silent darkness born,


s: Relieve my anguish, and restore the light;


s: The shipwreck of my ill adventured youth:


s: Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn,


s: Without the torment of the night's untruth.


s: Cease, dreams, the images of day-desires,


s: To model forth the passions of the morrow;


s: To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow:


s: Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain,


s: And never wake to feel the day's disdain.


s: Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part,--


s: Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;


s: And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart,


s: Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,


s: Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,


s: When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,


s: When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,


s: --Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,


s: From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!


s: My lute, be as thou wert when thou did'st grow


s: With thy green mother in some shady grove,


s: When immelodious winds but made thee move,


s: And birds their ramage did on thee bestow.


s: Since that dear Voice which did thy sounds approve,


s: Which wont in such harmonious strains to flow,


s: Is reft from Earth to tune those spheres above,


s: Thy pleasing notes be pleasing notes no more,


s: But orphan's wailings to the fainting ear;


s: Each stroke a sigh, each sound draws forth a tear;


s: Or if that any hand to touch thee deign,


s: Like widow'd turtle still her loss complain.


s: O me! what eyes hath love put in my head


s: Which have no correspondence with true sight:


s: Or if they have, where is my judgment fled


s: That censures falsely what they see aright?


s: If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,


s: What means the world to say it is not so?


s: If it be not, then love doth well denote,


s: Love's eye is not so true as all men's: No,


s: How can it? O how can love's eye be true,


s: That is so vex'd with watching and with tears?


s: No marvel then though I mistake my view:


s: The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.


s: O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,


s: Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find!


s: Scorchéd the fruits in vale and mountain,


s: Your mind is light, soon lost for new love.


s: I was your heart, your soul, and treasure;


s: If women could be fair, and yet not fond,


s: Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,


s: I would not marvel that they make men bond


s: By service long to purchase their good will;


s: But when I see how frail those creatures are,


s: I muse that men forget themselves so far.


s: To mark the choice they make, and how they change,


s: How oft from Phoebus they do flee to Pan;


s: Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range,


s: These gentle birds that fly from man to man;


s: Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist,


s: And let them fly, fair fools, which way they list?


s: Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,


s: To pass the time when nothing else can please,


s: And train them to our lure with subtle oath,


s: Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease;


s: And then we say when we their fancy try,


s: To play with fools, O what a fool was I!


s: Heigh ho! sing heigh ho! unto the green holly:


s: Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:


s: Oft call that prince which here doth monarchise:


s: Who caitiffs scorns, and doth the blest surprise,


s: Late having deck'd with beauty's rose his tomb,


s: Disdains to crop a weed, and will not come.


s: My poor corpse, where my bones shall thrown:


s: Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,


s: To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm


s: And (when gay tombs are robb'd) sustain no harm;


s: But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,


s: For with his nails he'll dig them up again.


s: When that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover,


s: And shalt by fortune once more re-survey


s: These poor rude lines of thy deceaséd lover:


s: Compare them with the bettering of the time,


s: And though they be outstripp'd by every pen,


s: Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme


s: O then vouchsafe me but this loving thought--


s: "Had my friend's muse grown with this growing age,


s: A dearer birth than this his love had brought,


s: But since he died, and poets better prove,


s: Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love."


s: Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell


s: Give warning to the world, that I am fled


s: From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell;


s: Nay, if you read this line, remember not


s: The hand that writ it; for I love you so,


s: That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot


s: If thinking on me then should make you woe.


s: Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,


s: But let your love even with my life decay;


s: Lest the wise world should look into your moan,


s: His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;


s: Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);


s: Calm was the day, and through the trembling air


s: Sweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play--


s: Hot Titan's beams, which then did glister fair;


s: Through discontent of my long fruitless stay


s: Like empty shadows, did afflict my brain)


s: Along the shore of silver-streaming Thames;


s: Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems,


s: And all the meads adorn'd with dainty gems


s: Against the bridal day, which is not long:


s: Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.


s: All lovely daughters of the flood thereby,


s: With goodly greenish locks all loose untied


s: Made of fine twigs, entrailéd curiously,


s: In which they gather'd flowers to fill their flasket,


s: And with fine fingers cropt full feateously


s: They gather'd some; the violet, pallid blue,


s: The little daisy that at evening closes,


s: Against the bridal day, which was not long:


s: Come softly swimming down along the lee;


s: The snow which doth the top of Pindus strow,


s: Nor Jove himself, when he a swan would be


s: Yet not so white as these, nor nothing near;


s: That even the gentle stream, the which them bare,


s: Seem'd foul to them, and bade his billows spare


s: To wet their silken feathers, lest they might


s: Soil their fair plumes with water not so fair,


s: Against their bridal day, which was not long:


s: Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.


s: Eftsoons the nymphs, which now had flowers their fill,


s: Ran all in haste to see that silver brood


s: As they came floating on the crystal flood;


s: Whom when they saw, they stood amazéd still


s: Them seem'd they never saw a sight so fair


s: Of fowls, so lovely, that they sure did deem


s: Them heavenly born, or to be that same pair


s: Which through the sky draw Venus' silver team;


s: Yet were they bred of summer's heat, they say,


s: In sweetest season, when each flower and weed


s: Even as their bridal day, which was not long:


s: Then forth they all out of their baskets drew


s: Great store of flowers, the honour of the field,


s: That to the sense did fragrant odours yield,


s: All which upon those goodly birds they threw


s: That like old Peneus' waters they did seem


s: When down along by pleasant Tempe's shore


s: Scatter'd with flowers, through Thessaly they stream,


s: That they appear, through lilies' plenteous store,


s: Two of those nymphs meanwhile two garlands bound


s: Of freshest flowers which in that mead they found,


s: Their snowy foreheads therewithal they crown'd


s: Against their bridal day, which was not long:


s: Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.


s: "Ye gentle birds! the world's fair ornament,


s: And Heaven's glory, whom this happy hour


s: Doth lead unto your lovers' blissful bower,


s: Joy may you have, and gentle hearts content


s: And let fair Venus, that is queen of love,


s: With her heart-quelling son upon you smile,


s: Whose smile, they say, hath virtue to remove


s: All love's dislike, and friendship's faulty guile


s: Let endless peace your steadfast hearts accord,


s: And blesséd plenty wait upon your board;


s: And let your bed with pleasures chaste abound,


s: Upon your bridal day, which is not long:


s: Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song."


s: Which said their bridal day should not be long:


s: And gentle Echo from the neighbour ground


s: So forth those joyous birds did pass along


s: Adown the lee that to them murmur'd low,


s: As he would speak but that he lack'd a tongue,


s: Yet did by signs his glad affection show,


s: And all the fowl which in his flood did dwell


s: 'Gan flock about these twain, that did excel


s: The lesser stars. So they, enrangéd well,


s: Against their wedding day, which was not long:


s: Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.


s: At length they all to merry London came,


s: That to me gave this life's first native source,


s: Though from another place I take my name,


s: There when they came whereas those bricky towers


s: The which on Thames' broad agéd back do ride,


s: Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers,


s: There whilome wont the Templar-knights to bide,


s: Next whereunto there stands a stately place,


s: Where oft I gainéd gifts and goodly grace


s: Of that great lord, which therein wont to dwell,


s: Whose want too well now feels my friendless case;


s: Against the bridal day, which is not long:


s: Yet therein now doth lodge a noble peer,


s: Great England's glory and the world's wide wonder,


s: Whose dreadful name late thro' all Spain did thunder,


s: Fair branch of honour, flower of chivalry!


s: That fillest England with thy triumphs' fame


s: That through thy prowess and victorious arms,


s: Thy country may be freed from foreign harms,


s: And great Eliza's glorious name may ring


s: Through all the world, fill'd with thy wide alarms


s: Sweet Thames! run softly till I end my song.


s: From those high towers this noble lord issúing,


s: Like radiant Hesper, when his golden hair


s: In th' ocean billows he hath bathéd fair,


s: Two gentle knights of lovely face and feature,


s: With gifts of wit and ornaments of nature,


s: That like the twins of Jove they seem'd in sight


s: Which deck the baldric of the Heavens bright;


s: They two, forth pacing to the river's side,


s: Received those two fair brides, their love's delight;


s: Against their bridal day, which is not long:


s: Sweet Thames! run softly, till I end my song.


s: Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?


s: Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexéd?


s: Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexéd


s: To add to golden numbers, golden numbers?


s: O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!


s: Canst drink the waters of the crispéd spring?


s: Swimm'st thou in wealth, yet sink'st in thine own tears?


s: Then he that patiently want's burden bears,


s: And strive who can most motion it bequeath.


s: And though it sometimes seem of its own might


s: Like to an eye of gold to be fix'd there,


s: --But in that pomp it doth not long appear;


s: For when 'tis most admiréd, in a thought,


s: Because it erst was nought, it turns to nought.


s: Poor Soul, the centre of my sinful earth,


s: Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array,


s: Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth,


s: Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?


s: Why so large cost, having so short a lease,


s: Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?


s: Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end?


s: Then, Soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,


s: And let that pine to aggravate thy store;


s: Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;


s: Within be fed, without be rich no more:--


s: So shall thou feed on death, that feeds on men,


s: And death once dead, there's no more dying then.


s: The World's a bubble, and the Life of Man


s: In his conception wretched, from the womb


s: Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years


s: Who then to frail mortality shall trust,


s: But limns on water, or but writes in dust.


s: Yet whilst with sorrow here we live opprest,


s: And where's a city from foul vice so free,


s: But may be term'd the worst of all the three?


s: Domestic cares afflict the husband's bed,


s: Those that live single, take it for a curse,


s: Some would have children: those that have them, moan


s: What is it, then, to have, or have no wife,


s: But single thraldom, or a double strife?


s: Our own affections still at home to please


s: Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease,


s: What then remains, but that we still should cry


s: Of this fair volume which we World do name


s: If we the sheets and leaves could turn with care,


s: Of Him who it corrects, and did it frame,


s: We clear might read the art and wisdom rare:


s: Find out His power which wildest powers doth tame,


s: His justice which proud rebels doth not spare,


s: But silly we, like foolish children, rest


s: Well pleased with colour'd vellum, leaves of gold,


s: Fair dangling ribbands, leaving what is best,


s: On the great Writer's sense ne'er taking hold;


s: Or if by chance we stay our minds on aught,


s: It is some picture on the margin wrought.


s: Doth then the world go thus, doth all thus move?


s: Is this the justice which on Earth we find?


s: Is this that firm decree which all doth bind?


s: Are these your influences, Powers above?


s: Those souls which vice's moody mists most blind,


s: Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove;


s: And they who thee, poor idle Virtue! love,


s: Ply like a feather toss'd by storm and wind.


s: Why should best minds groan under most distress?


s: Or why should pride humility make thrall,


s: Heavens! hinder, stop this fate; or grant a time


s: When good may have, as well as bad, their prime!


s: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry--


s: And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,


s: And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,


s: And captive Good attending captain Ill:--


s: --Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,


s: Save that, to die, I leave my Love alone.


s: The last and greatest Herald of Heaven's King


s: Girt with rough skins, hies to the deserts wild,


s: Among that savage brood the woods forth bring,


s: Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.


s: His food was locusts, and what there doth spring


s: With honey that from virgin hives distill'd;


s: Parch'd body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing


s: Made him appear, long since from earth exiled.


s: There burst he forth: All ye whose hopes rely


s: On God, with me amidst these deserts mourn,


s: Repent, repent, and from old errors turn!


s: --Who listen'd to his voice, obey'd his cry?


s: Rung from their flinty caves, Repent! Repent!


s: This is the month, and this the happy morn


s: Wherein the Son of Heaven's Eternal King


s: Our great redemption from above did bring;


s: That He our deadly forfeit should release,


s: And with His Father work us a perpetual peace.


s: That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,


s: Wherewith He wont at Heaven's high council-table


s: And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.


s: Say, heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein


s: Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain


s: Now while the heaven, by the sun's team untrod,


s: Hath took no print of the approaching light,


s: And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?


s: See how from far, upon the eastern road,


s: The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet:


s: Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet,


s: From out His secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire.


s: All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies


s: To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.


s: To hide her guilty front with innocent snow;


s: The saintly veil of maiden white to throw;


s: Should look so near upon her foul deformities.


s: She crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding


s: With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing;


s: She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.


s: The idle spear and shield were high up hung;


s: The trumpet spake not to the arméd throng;


s: As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.


s: His reign of peace upon the earth began:


s: While birds of calm sit brooding on the charméd wave.


s: Bending one way their precious influence;


s: Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence;


s: Until their Lord Himself bespake, and bid them go.


s: The sun himself withheld his wonted speed,


s: The new-enlightn'd world no more should need:


s: Then his bright throne, or burning axletree, could bear.


s: Was kindly come to live with them below;


s: Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep


s: Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.


s: As all their souls in blissful rapture took:


s: With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close.


s: Of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling,


s: And that her reign had here its last fulfilling;


s: Could hold all heaven and earth in happier union.


s: That with long beams the shamefaced night array'd;


s: Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd,


s: With unexpressive notes, to Heaven's new-born Heir.


s: But when of old the sons of morning sung,


s: And the well-balanced world on hinges hung;


s: And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.


s: If ye have power to touch our senses so;


s: And let the bass of heaven's deep organ blow;


s: Make up full concert to the angelic symphony.


s: Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold;


s: And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould;


s: And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.


s: Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,


s: With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;


s: Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.


s: The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep;


s: While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake:


s: Shall from the surface to the centre shake,


s: The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread His throne.


s: Swinges the scaly horrour of his folded tail.


s: Runs through the archéd roof in words deceiving:


s: With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving:


s: Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.


s: A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;


s: The parting Genius is with sighing sent;


s: The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.


s: The Lars and Lemurés moan with midnight plaint;


s: Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;


s: While each peculiar Power forgoes his wonted seat.


s: With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine


s: Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine;


s: In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.


s: Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.


s: Trampling the unshower'd grass with lowings loud:


s: Naught but profoundest hell can be his shroud;


s: The sable stoléd sorcerers bear his worshipt ark.


s: The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;


s: Can in his swaddling bands control the damnéd crew.


s: Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several grave;


s: Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze.


s: Time is, our tedious song should here have ending:


s: Her sleeping Lord with hand-maid lamp attending:


s: Bright-harness'd angels sit in order serviceable.


s: Through all the compass of the notes it ran,


s: What passion cannot Music raise and quell?


s: Less than a God they thought there could not dwell


s: Charge, charge, 'tis too late to retreat!"


s: Whose dirge is whisper'd by the warbling lute.


s: But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher:


s: When to her Organ vocal breath was given


s: Avenge, O Lord! Thy slaughter'd Saints, whose bones


s: Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold;


s: Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old


s: When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones.


s: Forget not: In Thy book record their groans


s: Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold


s: Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that roll'd


s: Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans


s: The vales redoubled to the hills, and they


s: To Heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow


s: O'er all the Italian field, where still doth sway


s: The triple tyrant, that from these may grow


s: A hundred-fold, who, having learnt Thy way,


s: And like the three-fork'd lightning first


s: _Elegy on a Friend drowned in the Irish Channel._


s: Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more


s: I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,


s: Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.


s: Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear


s: For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,


s: Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer:


s: Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.


s: Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,


s: Without the meed of some melodious tear.


s: That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring;


s: Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string;


s: With lucky words favour my destined urn:


s: And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.


s: For we were nursed upon the self-same hill,


s: Fed the same flock by fountain, shade, and rill:


s: Together both, ere the high lawns appear'd


s: We drove a-field, and both together heard


s: What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,


s: Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night,


s: Oft till the star that rose at evening bright


s: Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel.


s: Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute;


s: Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel


s: From the glad sound would not be absent long;


s: And old Damoetas loved to hear our song.


s: But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone,


s: Now thou art gone and never must return!


s: Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves,


s: With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,


s: Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays:--


s: Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,


s: Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,


s: Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds' ear.


s: Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep


s: Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas?


s: For neither were ye playing on the steep


s: Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie,


s: Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream.


s: Had ye been there--for what could that have done?


s: What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore,


s: The Muse herself, for her enchanting son,


s: When by the rout that made the hideous roar


s: His gory visage down the stream was sent,


s: Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?


s: To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade


s: And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?


s: Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise


s: To scorn delights and live laborious days;


s: But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,


s: And think to burst out into sudden blaze,


s: Comes the blind Fury with the abhorréd shears


s: And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise,"


s: Phoebus replied, and touch'd my trembling ears;


s: "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,


s: Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies:


s: But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes


s: And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;


s: Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed."


s: O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood


s: Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds!


s: That strain I heard was of a higher mood:


s: He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon winds,


s: What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain?


s: And question'd every gust of rugged wings


s: That blows from off each beakéd promontory:


s: And sage Hippotadés their answer brings,


s: That not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd;


s: The air was calm, and on the level brine


s: Sleek Panopé with all her sisters play'd.


s: Built in the eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark,


s: That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.


s: Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow,


s: Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge


s: Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe:


s: "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge!"


s: (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain);


s: He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake:


s: "How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,


s: Enow of such, as for their bellies' sake


s: Creep and intrude and climb into the fold!


s: Of other care they little reckoning make


s: Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast,


s: Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold


s: A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else the least


s: That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!


s: What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;


s: And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs


s: Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;


s: The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,


s: But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw


s: Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:


s: Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw


s: --But that two-handed engine at the door


s: Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."


s: Return, Alphéus; the dread voice is past


s: That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse,


s: And call the vales, and bid them hither cast


s: Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.


s: Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use


s: Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks


s: On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks;


s: Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes


s: That on the green turf suck the honey'd showers


s: And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.


s: Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,


s: The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,


s: The white pink, and the pansy freak'd with jet,


s: The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,


s: With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,


s: And every flower that sad embroidery wears:


s: And daffodillies fill their cups with tears


s: To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.


s: Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise;


s: Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas


s: Wash far away,--where'er thy bones are hurl'd;


s: Where thou perhaps, under the whelming tide


s: Visitest the bottom of the monstrous world;


s: Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied,


s: Where the great Vision of the guarded mount


s: Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold,


s: --Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth:


s: --And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth!


s: Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,


s: Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor;


s: And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore


s: Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:


s: Through the dear might of Him that walk'd the waves;


s: Where, other groves and other streams along,


s: With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,


s: In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.


s: There entertain him all the saints above


s: That sing, and singing, in their glory move,


s: And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.


s: Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more;


s: Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore,


s: In thy large recompense, and shalt be good


s: To all that wander in that perilous flood.


s: Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills,


s: While the still morn went out with sandals gray;


s: He touch'd the tender stops of various quills,


s: With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:


s: And now the sun had stretch'd out all the hills,


s: At last he rose, and twitch'd his mantle blue:


s: To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.


s: Who now want strength to stir their hands,


s: Where from their pulpits seal'd with dust


s: They preach, "In greatness is no trust."


s: "Though gods they were, as men they died!"


s: Death calls ye to the crowd of common men.


s: A smile or kiss, as he will use the art,


s: Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart.


s: Some men with swords may reap the field,


s: And plant fresh laurels where they kill:


s: But their strong nerves at last must yield;


s: When they, pale captives, creep to death.


s: Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,


s: Guard them, and him within protect from harms.


s: He can requite thee; for he knows the charms


s: That call fame on such gentle acts as these.


s: And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas,


s: Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms.


s: Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower:


s: The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower


s: Went to the ground: and the repeated air


s: To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.


s: Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,


s: And that one talent which is death to hide


s: Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent


s: To serve therewith my Maker, and present


s: My true account, lest He returning chide,--


s: Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?


s: That murmur, soon replies; God doth not need


s: Either man's work, or His own gifts: who best


s: Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best: His state


s: Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed


s: And post o'er land and ocean without rest:--


s: They also serve who only stand and wait.


s: Whose state can neither flatterers feed,


s: Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,


s: To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:


s: In small proportions we just beauties see;


s: And in short measures life may perfect be.


s: Having a glass of blessings standing by;


s: Let us (said he) pour on him all we can:


s: Let the world's riches, which disperséd lie,


s: Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:


s: When almost all was out, God made a stay,


s: Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure,


s: And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:


s: But keep them with repining restlessness:


s: Let him be rich and weary, that at least,


s: That I might once more reach that plain,


s: Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,


s: Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire,


s: Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire


s: Help waste a sullen day, what may be won


s: From the hard season gaining? Time will run


s: The frozen earth, and cloth in fresh attire


s: The lily and rose, that neither sow'd nor spun.


s: What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,


s: Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise


s: To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice


s: He who of those delights can judge, and spare


s: Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench


s: Of British Themis, with no mean applause


s: Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws,


s: Which others at their bar so often wrench;


s: To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench


s: In mirth, that after no repenting draws;


s: And what the Swede intends, and what the French.


s: To measure life learn thou betimes, and know


s: Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;


s: For other things mild Heaven a time ordains,


s: And disapproves that care, though wise in show,


s: That with superfluous burden loads the day,


s: And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.


s: Of crystal flesh, through which to shine:


s: Can crown old Winter's head with flowers.


s: And when it comes, say, "Welcome friend."


s: And this same flower that smiles to-day,


s: By your weak accents; what's your praise


s: Daughter to that good earl, once President


s: Who lived in both, unstain'd with gold or fee,


s: And left them both, more in himself content.


s: Till the sad breaking of that parliament


s: Kill'd with report that old man eloquent;--


s: Though later born than to have known the days


s: Wherein your father flourish'd, yet by you,


s: So well your words his noble virtues praise,


s: That all both judge you to relate them true,


s: Your breasts, where Cupid tumbling lies,


s: Did Helen's breast, though ne'er so soft,


s: For crystal brows there's nought within;


s: All hearts your captives; yours yet free:


s: Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,


s: They look like rose-buds fill'd with snow:


s: Threat'ning with piercing frowns to kill


s: My Love in her attire doth shew her wit,


s: For every season she hath dressings fit,


s: Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair:


s: For I would change each hour, like them,


s: Pity from blustering wind, or swallowing wave.


s: Unseen, unknown; and greet as Angels greet.


s: In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.


s: Quit, quit for shame! This will not move,


s: And tell thy silent master's humble tale


s: Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony.


s: And, though the moving hand approach not near,


s: Revenge upon her ear the conquests of her eye.


s: Is useless here, since thou art only found


s: Physic to other ills, thou'rt nourishment to love.


s: For thou canst never tell my humble tale


s: Sleep, sleep again, my Lyre, and let thy master die.


s: Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley;


s: Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.


s: Thy hue, dear pledge, is pure and bright


s: Whose wrath and hate have sworn to dwell


s: A breast whose blood's a troubled ocean,


s: Each throb the earthquake's wild commotion!


s: Nor heaven nor earth could then reprove me


s: Not then this world's wild joys had been


s: And soothed each wound which pride inflamed:--


s: If thou hadst lived, and lived to love me!


s: And shake the green leaves aff the tree?


s: Curst be the heart that thought the thought,


s: When my Love dropt down and spak nae mair!


s: We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.


s: O'er his white banes, when they are bare,


s: While all the flowers and trees do close


s: Cut in these trees their mistress' name:


s: Fair trees! where'er your barks I wound,


s: How could such sweet and wholesome hours


s: Be reckon'd, but with herbs and flowers!


s: 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy!


s: Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings


s: There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks


s: The frolic wind that breathes the spring


s: Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures


s: His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn


s: And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length,


s: Where throngs of knights and barons bold,


s: The melting voice through mazes running,


s: Or fill the fixéd mind with all your toys!


s: And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess


s: As the gay motes that people the sunbeams,


s: The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.


s: O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue;


s: Or that starr'd Ethiop queen that strove


s: The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended.


s: And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,


s: Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet,


s: That in trim gardens takes his pleasure:--


s: But first, and chiefest, with thee bring


s: --Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,


s: Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career,


s: Not trick'd and frounced as she was wont


s: Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt.


s: As may with sweetness, through mine ear,


s: Safe from the storms, and prelate's rage:


s: Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy,


s: Sphere-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Verse,


s: Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ


s: Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce,


s: Ay sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne


s: Where the bright Seraphim in burning row


s: Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;


s: And the Cherubic host in thousand quires


s: Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,


s: With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms


s: That we on earth, with undiscording voice


s: May rightly answer that melodious noise;


s: As once we did, till disproportion'd sin


s: Jarr'd against nature's chime, and with harsh din


s: Broke the fair music that all creatures made


s: To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd


s: In first obedience, and their state of good.


s: And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long


s: To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light!


s: Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound


s: In flower of youth and beauty's pride:--


s: And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world.


s: --The listening crowd admire the lofty sound!


s: A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound!


s: The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung:


s: Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes!


s: Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain;


s: And thrice he routed all his foes; and thrice he slew the slain!


s: --With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,


s: --The many rend the skies with loud applause;


s: So Love was crown'd, but Music won the cause.


s: And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd,


s: At length, with love and wine at once opprest


s: The vanquish'd victor sunk upon her breast.


s: And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder.


s: And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!


s: Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain


s: Behold how they toss their torches on high,


s: And glittering temples of their hostile gods.


s: --The princes applaud with a furious joy:


s: And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;


s: And like another Helen, fired another Troy!


s: Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.


s: The sweet enthusiast from her sacred store


s: With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before.


s: It is more difficult to characterise the English Poetry of the


s: Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,


s: Still had she gazed, but 'midst the tide


s: She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize--


s: Rule Brittania! Brittania rules the waves!


s: Whilst thou shalt flourish great and free


s: Blest Isle, with matchless beauty crown'd,


s: Rule Britannia! Brittania rules the waves!


s: Nor e'en thy virtues, tyrant, shall avail


s: To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,


s: From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!"


s: --Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride


s: Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay,


s: As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side


s: He wound with toilsome march his long array:--


s: Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance;


s: "To arms!" cried Mortimer, and couch'd quivering lance.


s: Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air)


s: And with a master's hand and prophet's fire


s: "Hark, how each giant oak and desert-cave


s: Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!


s: O'er thee, O King! their hundred arms they wave,


s: Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;


s: Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,


s: To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.


s: Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head.


s: Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail;


s: The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by.


s: Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes,


s: Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,


s: Ye died amidst your dying country's cries--


s: And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.


s: The shrieks of death thro' Berkley's roof that ring,


s: She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs


s: That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate,


s: From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs


s: The scourge of Heaven! What terrors round him wait!


s: Amazement in his van, with Flight combined,


s: And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.


s: Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead.


s: The swarm that in thy noon-tide beam were born?


s: Fair laughs the Morn, and soft the zephyr blows,


s: While proudly riding o'er the azure realm


s: Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm:


s: Regardless of the sweeping Whirlwind's sway,


s: That hush'd in grim repose expects his evening prey.


s: Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast.


s: A baleful smile upon their baffled guest.


s: Long years of havock urge their destined course,


s: And thro' the kindred squadrons mow their way.


s: Ye Towers of Julius! London's lasting shame,


s: With many a foul and midnight murder fed,


s: Revere his Consort's faith, his Father's fame,


s: Twined with her blushing foe, we spread:


s: Now, brothers, bending o'er the accurséd loom,


s: Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.


s: (Weave we the woof; the thread is spun;)


s: Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn:


s: In yon bright track that fires the western skies


s: But O! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height


s: Descending slow, their glittering skirts unroll?


s: Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,


s: No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail:--


s: All hail, ye genuine Kings! Britannia's issue, hail!


s: Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-Line:


s: What strings symphonious tremble in the air,


s: What strains of vocal transport round her play?


s: Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear;


s: They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.


s: Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings,


s: Waves in the eye of Heaven her many-colour'd wings.


s: And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.


s: With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.


s: Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud


s: Raised by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day?


s: And warms the nations with redoubled ray.


s: He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height


s: Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.


s: To bless the turf that wraps their clay,


s: I've heard them lilting at our ewe-milking,


s: But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning--


s: The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.


s: At bughts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning,


s: Nae daffin', nae gabbin', but sighing and sabbing,


s: Ilk ane lifts her leglin and hies her away.


s: In har'st, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering,


s: Bandsters are lyart, and runkled and gray;


s: At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching--


s: At e'en, in the gloaming, nae younkers are roaming


s: 'Bout stacks wi' the lasses at bogle to play;


s: But ilk ane sits drearie, lamenting her dearie--


s: The Flowers of the Forest are weded away.


s: Dool and wae for the order, sent out lads to the border!


s: The English, for ance, by guile wan the day;


s: The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost,


s: The prime of our land, are cauld in the clay.


s: We'll hear nae mair lilting at the ewe-milking;


s: Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning--


s: The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.


s: The green-wood path to meet her brother;


s: They sought him east, they sought him west,


s: They sought him all the forest thorough;


s: And then with thee I'll sleep in Yarrow.


s: "The lav'rock there, wi' her white breast


s: Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true


s: If my sweet William sails among the crew."


s: The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands,


s: And quick as lightning on the deck he stands.


s: If chance his mate's shrill call he hear,


s: The noblest captain in the British fleet


s: Might envy William's lip those kisses sweet


s: Change as ye list, ye winds; my heart shall be


s: The faithful compass that still points to thee.


s: Who tempt with doubts thy constant mind:


s: Yes, yes, believe them when they tell thee so,


s: Wakes in my soul some charm of lovely Sue.


s: Though cannons roar, yet safe from harms


s: Love turns aside the balls that round me fly,


s: Lest precious tears should drop from Susan's eye."


s: They kiss'd, she sigh'd, he hung his head.


s: Her lessening boat unwilling rows to land;


s: "Adieu!" she cries; and waved her lily hand.


s: Sweet stream, that winds through yonder glade,


s: She starts, she trembles, and she weeps!


s: I sung, and gazed; I play'd, and trembled:


s: Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird


s: And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.


s: A thousand rills their mazy progress take:


s: The laughing flowers that round them blow


s: Now the rich stream of Music winds along


s: Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign;


s: The rocks and nodding groves re-bellow to the roar.


s: Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,


s: And frantic Passions hear thy soft control.


s: And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command.


s: Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king


s: The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.


s: With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures,


s: Slow-melting strains their Queen's approach declare:


s: Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay:


s: With arms sublime that float upon the air


s: O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move


s: The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.


s: And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate!


s: Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse?


s: Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry


s: Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of war.


s: Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam,


s: To cheer the shivering native's dull abode.


s: She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat


s: Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves.


s: Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame.


s: Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour


s: Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.


s: Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power,


s: And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.


s: They sought, O Albion! next, thy sea-encircled coast.


s: In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid,


s: Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled.


s: This pencil take (she said) whose colours clear


s: Thine, too, these golden keys, immortal Boy!


s: Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.


s: He pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and Time:


s: He saw; but blasted with excess of light,


s: Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car


s: With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace.


s: Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.


s: Yet oft before his infant eyes would run


s: With orient hues, unborrow'd of the sun:


s: Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way


s: Beneath the Good how far--but far above the Great.


s: 'Till once, 'tis said, when all were fired,


s: And swept with hurried hand the strings.


s: 'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.


s: And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!


s: Still would her touch the strain prolong;


s: She call'd on Echo still through all the song;


s: And, where her sweetest theme she chose,


s: A soft responsive voice was heard at every close:


s: And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair;--


s: Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe!


s: And, though sometimes, each each dreary pause between,


s: Yet still he kept his wild unalter'd mien,


s: While each strain'd ball of sight seem'd bursting from his head.


s: Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fix'd:


s: Of differing themes the veering song was mix'd;


s: And now it courted Love, now raving call'd on Hate.


s: Pour'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul:


s: Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,


s: Or, o'er some haunted stream, with fond delay,


s: But O! how alter'd was its sprightlier tone


s: When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,


s: Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,


s: The hunter's call to Faun and Dryad known!


s: The oak-crown'd Sisters and their chaste-eyed Queen,


s: And Sport leap'd up, and seized his beechen spear.


s: First to the lively pipe his hand addrest:


s: But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol


s: Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best:


s: They would have thought who heard the strain


s: They saw, in Tempe's vale, her native maids


s: While, as his flying fingers kiss'd the stings,


s: Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round:


s: Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;


s: Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.


s: Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch


s: The poplars are fell'd, farewell to the shade


s: And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade;


s: The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,


s: Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.


s: Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view


s: Of my favourite field, and the bank where they grew:


s: And now in the grass behold they are laid,


s: And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.


s: The blackbird has fled to another retreat


s: Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat;


s: And the scene where his melody charm'd me before


s: Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.


s: With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head,


s: Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.


s: 'Tis a sight to engage me, if anything can,


s: To muse on the perishing pleasures of man;


s: Short-lived as we are, our enjoyments, I see,


s: Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we.


s: Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,


s: I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;


s: What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!


s: Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,


s: That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,


s: Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,


s: Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew;


s: Where first our marriage-vows were given,


s: If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song


s: May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear


s: O Nymph reserved,--while now the bright-hair'd sun


s: Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts


s: Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat


s: With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,


s: Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum,--


s: Whose numbers, stealing through thy dark'ning vale,


s: May not unseemly with its stillness suit;


s: And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge


s: And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still


s: Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene;


s: Or find some ruin midst its dreary dells,


s: Or if chill blustering winds or driving rain


s: Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut


s: And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires;


s: And hears their simple bell; and marks o'er all


s: While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,


s: And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!


s: While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves;


s: Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,


s: Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace,


s: The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,


s: The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,


s: The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,


s: And leaves the world to darkness and to me.


s: Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,


s: And all the air a solemn stillness holds,


s: Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,


s: And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:


s: The moping owl does to the moon complain


s: Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,


s: Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,


s: Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,


s: The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.


s: The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,


s: The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,


s: The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,


s: No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.


s: For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn


s: No children run to lisp their sire's return,


s: Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.


s: Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,


s: Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;


s: How jocund did they drive their team afield!


s: How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!


s: Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,


s: Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile


s: The short and simple annals of the Poor.


s: The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,


s: And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,


s: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.


s: Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault


s: If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,


s: Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault,


s: The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.


s: Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?


s: Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,


s: Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?


s: Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;


s: Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,


s: But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page


s: Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;


s: Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,


s: And froze the genial current of the soul.


s: The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:


s: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,


s: And waste its sweetness on the desert air.


s: Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast


s: The little tyrant of his fields withstood,


s: Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,


s: Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood.


s: Th' applause of listening senates to command,


s: The threats of pain and ruin to despise,


s: And read their history in a nation's eyes


s: Their lot forbad; nor circumscribed alone


s: Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;


s: Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne,


s: The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,


s: To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,


s: With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.


s: Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife


s: Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;


s: They kept the noiseless tenour of their way.


s: Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect


s: With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,


s: Their name, their years, spelt by the unletter'd Muse,


s: This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,


s: Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,


s: Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?


s: On some fond breast the parting soul relies,


s: Some pious drops the closing eye requires;


s: E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,


s: E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.


s: For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead,


s: Dost in those lines their artless tale relate;


s: Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,--


s: Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn,


s: Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,


s: There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech


s: That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,


s: His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch,


s: And pore upon the brook that babbles by.


s: Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,


s: Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove;


s: Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn,


s: Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.


s: One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,


s: Along the heath, and near his favourite tree;


s: Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;


s: Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne,--


s: Approach, and read (for thou canst read) the lay


s: Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.


s: Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth


s: A Youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown;


s: Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,


s: Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;


s: Heaven did a recompense as largely send:


s: He gain'd from Heaven, 'twas all he wish'd, a friend.


s: Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,


s: (There they alike in trembling hope repose),


s: Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,


s: Now green's the sod, and cauld's the clay,


s: When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame,


s: The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e,


s: Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride;


s: But saving a croun he had naething else beside:


s: To make the croun a pund, young Jamie gaed to sea;


s: And the croun and the pund were baith for me.


s: When my father brak his arm, and the cow was stown awa;


s: My mother she fell sick, and my Jamie at the sea--


s: My father couldna work, and my mother couldna spin;


s: I toil'd day and night, but their bread I couldna win;


s: Auld Rob maintain'd them baith, and wi' tears in his e'e


s: Said, Jennie, for their sakes, O, marry me!


s: My heart it said nay; I look'd for Jamie back;


s: But the wind it blew high, and the ship it was a wrack;


s: His ship it was a wrack--Why didna Jamie dee?


s: My father urgit sair: my mother didna speak;


s: But she look'd in my face till my heart was like to break:


s: They gi'ed him my hand, but my heart was at the sea;


s: Sae auld Robin Gray he was gudeman to me.


s: I hadna been a wife a week but only four,


s: When mournfu' as I sat on the stane at the door,


s: I saw my Jamie's wraith, for I couldna think it he--


s: Till he said, I'm come hame to marry thee.


s: O sair, sair did we greet, and muckle did we say;


s: We took but ae kiss, and I bad him gang away;


s: I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee;


s: I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin;


s: I daurna think on Jamie, for that wad be a sin;


s: But I'll do my best a gude wife aye to be,


s: Sae true his heart, sae smooth his speech.


s: There's not a bonnie flower that springs,


s: Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among


s: Where once my careless childhood stray'd,


s: 'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint


s: To seize their prey, the murderous band!


s: The stings of Falsehood those shall try,


s: This racks the joints, this fires the veins,


s: Yet ah! why should they know their fate,


s: With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.


s: And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe.


s: Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy,


s: To her they vow their truth, and are again believed.


s: And Pity dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear.


s: With thundering voice, and threatening mien,


s: Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty:


s: What others are to feel, and know myself a Man.


s: Such aid from heaven as some have feign'd they drew,


s: An eloquence scarce given to mortals, new


s: And undebased by praise of meaner things,


s: That ere through age or woe I shed my wings


s: But thou hast little need. There is a Book


s: By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light,


s: On which the eyes of God not rarely look,


s: A chronicle of actions just and bright--


s: There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine;


s: And since, thou own'st that praise, I spare thee mine.


s: 'Twas my distress that brought thee low,


s: But well thou play'dst the housewife's part,


s: And still to love, though press'd with ill,


s: In the downhill of life, when I find I'm declining,


s: Than a snug elbow-chair can afford for reclining,


s: With an ambling pad-pony to pace o'er the lawn,


s: And blithe as the lark that each day hails the dawn


s: With a porch at my door, both for shelter and shade too,


s: And a purse when a friend wants to borrow;


s: From the bleak northern blast may my cot be completely


s: And at night may repose steal upon me more sweetly


s: And while peace and plenty I find at my board,


s: With a heart free from sickness and sorrow,


s: With my friends may I share what to-day may afford,


s: And let them spread the table to-morrow.


s: And when I at last must throw off this frail covering


s: Which I've worn for three-score years and ten,


s: On the brink of the grave I'll not seek to keep hovering,


s: But my face in the glass I'll serenely survey,


s: And with smiles count each wrinkle and furrow;


s: As this old worn-out stuff, which is threadbare to-day


s: Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;


s: 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear--


s: Say not Good Night,--but in some brighter clime


s: achievements of our recent poetry, to an impulse from the frantic


s: essentially civilised of our foreign neighbours. The first French


s: Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold


s: And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;


s: That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:


s: Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:


s: --Then felt I like some watcher of the skies


s: Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes


s: He stared at the Pacific--and all his men


s: Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--


s: All thoughts, all passions, all delights,


s: That crazed that bold and lovely Knight,


s: And how she wept, and clasp'd his knees;


s: She blush'd with love, and virgin shame;


s: O talk not to me of a name great in story;


s: The days of our youth are the days of our glory;


s: And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty


s: Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.


s: What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled?


s: 'Tis but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled:


s: Then away with all such from the head that is hoary--


s: What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory?


s: O Fame!--if I e'er took delight in thy praises,


s: 'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,


s: Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover


s: She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.


s: There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee;


s: Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;


s: When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my story,


s: I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.


s: How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.


s: The smiles that win, the tints that glow


s: Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.


s: Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;


s: Thy mornings showed, thy nights conceal'd,


s: "The floating clouds their state shall lend


s: Grace that shall mould the maiden's form


s: Where rivulets dance their wayward round,


s: For, sore dismay'd, through storm and shade


s: "Come back! come back!" he cried in grief,


s: 'Twas vain: the loud waves lash'd the shore,


s: The priest and bridegroom wait the bride,


s: Laughs and flies, when press'd and bidden.


s: Love's wing moults when caged and captured,


s: When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes,


s: Than e'er, beneath the moonlight's star,


s: The sigh that's breathed for one to hear--


s: Breeze, bird, and flower confess the hour,


s: The village maid steals through the shade


s: Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land,


s: When light rode high, and the dew was gone,


s: Why art thou silent! Is thy love a plant


s: Of such weak fibre that the treacherous air


s: Of absence withers what was once so fair?


s: Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant?


s: Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant,


s: Bound to thy service with unceasing care--


s: The mind's least generous wish a mendicant


s: For nought but what thy happiness could spare.


s: Speak!--though this soft warm heart, once free to hold


s: A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,


s: Than a forsaken bird's-nest fill'd with snow


s: 'Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine--


s: Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know!


s: And there she wept, and sigh'd full sore,


s: Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;


s: Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,


s: For your cradle, your home, and your bier?


s: Nor love's own kiss shall wake those eyes


s: Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art--


s: Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,


s: Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,


s: The moving waters at their priestlike task


s: Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,


s: Of snow upon the mountains and the moors:--


s: No--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,


s: Pillow'd upon my fair Love's ripening breast


s: To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,


s: Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,


s: And so live ever,--or else swoon to death.


s: When I have fears that I may cease to be


s: Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,


s: Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;


s: When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,


s: And think that I may never live to trace


s: Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;


s: And when I feel, fair Creature of an hour!


s: Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,


s: Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.


s: Surprized by joy--impatient as the wind--


s: I turn'd to share the transport--Oh, with whom


s: But Thee--deep buried in the silent tomb,


s: That spot which no vicissitude can find?


s: Love, faithful love recall'd thee to my mind--


s: But how could I forget thee? Through what power


s: To my most grievous loss?--That thought's return


s: Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore


s: Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,


s: Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;


s: That neither present time, nor years unborn


s: Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.


s: At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping,


s: To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in


s: And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions


s: To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to


s: And tell me our love is remember'd even in the sky!


s: Then I sing the wild song it once was rapture to hear


s: When our voices, commingling, breathed like one on


s: And as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison


s: I think, O my love! 'tis thy voice, from the Kingdom


s: Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.


s: There flowers and weeds at will may grow


s: Who didst not change through all the past


s: And, what were worse, thou canst not see


s: The sun that cheers, the storm that lours


s: I might have watch'd through long decay.


s: For the deck it was their field of fame,


s: And her arms along the deep proudly shone;


s: "Hearts of oak!" our captains cried, when each gun


s: Their shots along the deep slowly boom:--


s: As death withdrew his shades from the day:


s: Soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave!


s: And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!


s: They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast.


s: Yet find that other strength, according to their need.


s: But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.


s: My hopes no more must change their name;


s: I long for a repose which ever is the same.


s: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,


s: Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;


s: And the most ancient Heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.


s: And in the light of Truth thy bondman let me live.


s: Brightest in dungeons, Liberty, thou art--


s: The heart which love of Thee alone can bind;


s: And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd,


s: To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,


s: Their country conquers with their martyrdom


s: And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.


s: And thy sad floor an altar, for 'twas trod


s: Worn as if thy cold pavement were a sod,


s: By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface!


s: Two Voices are there; one is of the Sea,


s: One of the Mountains; each a mighty voice:


s: In both from age to age thou didst rejoice,


s: Thou fought'st against him,--but hast vainly striven:


s: Thou from thy Alpine holds at length are driven


s: Where not a torrent murmurs heard by thee.


s: --Of one deep bliss thine ear hath been bereft;


s: Then cleave, O cleave to that which still is left--


s: For, high-soul'd Maid, what sorrow would it be


s: That Mountain floods should thunder as before,


s: And neither awful Voice be heard by Thee!


s: Once did She hold the gorgeous East in fee


s: And was the safeguard of the West; the worth


s: No guile seduced, no force could violate;


s: And what if she had seen those glories fade,


s: Those titles vanish, and that strength decay,--


s: Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid


s: When her long life hath reach'd its final day:


s: Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade


s: Of that which once was great has pass'd away.


s: O Friend! I know not which way I must look


s: To think that now our life is only drest


s: For show; mean handiwork of craftsman, cook,


s: Or groom!--We must run glittering like a brook


s: In the open sunshine, or we are unblest;


s: The wealthiest man among us is the best:


s: Plain living and high thinking are no more:


s: Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,


s: And pure religion breathing household laws.


s: Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:


s: Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,


s: Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,


s: Have forfeited their ancient English dower


s: And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.


s: Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:


s: Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea,


s: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free;


s: So didst thou travel on life's common way


s: In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart


s: When I have borne in memory what has tamed


s: Great nations; how ennobling thoughts depart


s: When men change swords for ledgers, and desert


s: The student's bower for gold,--some fears unnamed


s: Now, when I think of thee, and what thou art,


s: For dearly must we prize thee; we who find


s: Then shook the hills with thunder riven;


s: Then rush'd the steed, to battle driven;


s: "'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,


s: When he who adores thee has left but the name


s: O! say wilt thou weep, when they darken the fame


s: Yes, weep, and however my foes may condemn,


s: For, Heaven can witness, though guilty to them,


s: With thee were the dreams of my earliest love;


s: In my last humble prayer to the Spirit above


s: O! blest are the lovers and friends who shall live


s: But the next dearest blessing that Heaven can give


s: Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,


s: As his corpse to the rampart we hurried;


s: Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot


s: O'er the grave where our hero we buried.


s: By the struggling moonbeam's misty light


s: But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,


s: But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,


s: We thought, as we hollow'd his narrow bed


s: That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,


s: Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,


s: But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on


s: In the grave where a Briton has laid him.


s: When the clock struck the hour for retiring;


s: From the field of his fame fresh and gory;


s: We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,


s: And still there's something in the world


s: Of health, strength, friends, and kindred, see


s: Such stores as silent thought can bring,


s: --I've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds


s: I have had playmates, I have had companions


s: In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days;


s: All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.


s: I have been laughing, I have been carousing,


s: Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies;


s: I loved a Love once, fairest among women:


s: Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her--


s: I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man:


s: Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly;


s: Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces.


s: Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood,


s: Earth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse,


s: Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother,


s: Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling?


s: So might we talk of the old familiar faces,


s: How some they have died, and some they have left me,


s: And some are taken from me; all are departed;


s: With smiles that might as well be tears,


s: There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away


s: When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay;


s: Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness


s: Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt or ocean of excess:


s: The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain


s: The shore to which their shiver'd sail shall never stretch again.


s: That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain of our tears,


s: And though the eye may sparkle still, 'tis where the ice appears.


s: All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath.


s: O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,


s: Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd scene,--


s: There is a flower, the Lesser Celandine,


s: That shrinks like many more from cold and rain,


s: And the first moment that the sun may shine,


s: Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!


s: When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,


s: Or blasts the green field and the trees distrest,


s: In close self-shelter, like a thing at rest.


s: But lately, one rough day, this flower I past,


s: And recognised it, though an alter'd form,


s: Now standing forth an offering to the blast,


s: I stopp'd and said with inly-mutter'd voice,


s: "It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold;


s: This neither is its courage nor its choice,


s: "The sunshine may not cheer it, nor the dew;


s: Stiff in its members, wither'd, changed of hue."


s: And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was gray.


s: To be a prodigal's favourite--then, worse truth,


s: O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth


s: Age might but take the things Youth needed not!


s: The winds', the birds', the ocean-floods'--


s: The City's voice itself is soft like Solitude's.


s: Like light dissolved in star-showers thrown;


s: How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.