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diff --git a/27221-h/27221-h.htm b/27221-h/27221-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c7a99b --- /dev/null +++ b/27221-h/27221-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4377 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Minstrel, or the Progress of Genius, by James Beattie + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + + h1 {line-height: 150%;} + + h2 {padding-top: 2em; + line-height: 150%;} + + h3 {padding-top: 1em;} + + hr {width: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + height: 1px; + background-color: black; + color: black; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + width: 65%; + } + + td.leftalign {text-align: left; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -1.5em;} + + td.rightalign {text-align: right; + padding-left: 4em;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + p.dedication {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + line-height: 150%; + padding-top: 2em; + padding-bottom: 2em;} + + p.stanzano {margin-top: 2em; + margin-left: 25%; + text-indent: 0em;} + + p.publisher {margin-top: 4em; + text-align: center; + font-size: smaller; + margin-bottom: 3em; + text-indent: 0em; + line-height: 150%; + } + + p.author {margin-top: 4em; + text-indent: 0em; + border-top: black; + border-bottom: black; + border-top-style: groove; + border-bottom-style: groove; + border-width: medium; + font-size: 110%; + text-align: center; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + width: 30%; + padding-top: 1em; + padding-bottom: 1em;} + + div.latinquote {width: 50%; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto;} + + img {border-style: none; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + right: 1%; + font-size: x-small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + font-style: normal; + letter-spacing: 0ex; + text-indent: 0em; + } + + a:link {text-decoration: none; + color: #104E8B; + background-color: inherit; + } + + a:visited {text-decoration: none; + color: #8B0000; + background-color: inherit; + } + + a:hover {text-decoration: underline;} + + a:active {text-decoration: underline;} + + .center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em;} + + .right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + } + + .poem {margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; + } + + .poem br {display: none;} + + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + + .poem span.i0 {display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; + } + + .poem span.i1 {display: block; + margin-left: 1em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; + } + + .poem span.i2 {display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; + } + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Minstrel; or the Progress of Genius, by James Beattie + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Minstrel; or the Progress of Genius + with some other poems + +Author: James Beattie + +Release Date: November 9, 2008 [EBook #27221] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINSTREL; PROGRESS OF GENIUS *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1><span style="font-size: 60%">THE</span><br /> +MINSTREL,<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">WITH</span><br /> +SOME OTHER POEMS.</h1> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px; padding-top: 2em"> +<img src="images/beattie.jpg" width="250" height="321" alt="frontispiece" title="James Beattie" /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/signature.jpg" width="250" height="72" alt="signature" title="Signature: James Beattie" /> +</div> + +<h2 style="line-height: 150%"><span style="font-size: 60%">THE</span><br /> +MINSTREL;<br /> +<span style="font-size: 60%">OR,</span><br /> +THE PROGRESS OF GENIUS.<br /><br /> + +<span style="font-size: 60%">WITH</span><br /> +SOME OTHER POEMS.</h2> + +<p class="author"> +By JAMES BEATTIE, LL. D. +</p> + +<p class="publisher"><span style="font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold">EDINBURGH:</span><br /> + +PRINTED BY JAMES BALLANTYNE,<br /> +FOR WILLIAM CREECH, MANNERS AND MILLER,<br /> +AND A. CONSTABLE AND CO.<br /> +<span style="font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold">1805.</span></p> + +<p class="dedication"> +<small>TO</small><br /> +<big>SIR WILLIAM FORBES,</big><br /> +<small>OF PITSLIGO, BARONET,</small><br /><br /> +<small>AS A MARK OF RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER,</small><br /> +<small>AND AS AN APPROPRIATE TRIBUTE TO ONE OF THE MOST</small><br /> +<small>VALUED FRIENDS OF THE AUTHOR,</small><br /><br /> +THIS EDITION<br /> +<small>OF THE</small><br /> +POETICAL WORKS OF DR BEATTIE,<br /> +<i>IS INSCRIBED</i><br /> +<small>BY</small><br /> +THE PUBLISHERS.<br /> +</p> + + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<hr /> + +<table summary="table of contents"> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="rightalign"><small>Page.</small></td></tr> +<tr><td class="leftalign">The Minstrel, Book I.</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="leftalign"><span style="padding-left: 5.2em">Book II.</span></td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Retirement</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Elegy</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Ode to Hope</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Pygmæo-gerano-machia: The Battle of the Pigmies and Cranes</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Epistle to the Hon. C. B.</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">The Hares: A Fable</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Epitaph: being Part of an Inscription for a Monument, +to be erected by a Gentleman to the Memory +of his Lady</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Ode on Lord H* * *’s Birth-Day</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">To the Right Hon. Lady Charlotte Gordon, dressed in +a Tartan Scotch Bonnet, with Plumes, &c.</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">The Hermit</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Ode to Peace</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="leftalign">Triumph of Melancholy</td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<h2>PREFACE<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">TO</span><br /> +THE MINSTREL.</h2> + +<hr /> + + +<p><span class="smcap"><big>T</big>he</span> design was, to trace the progress of a +Poetical Genius, born in a rude age, from +the first dawning of fancy and reason, till +that period at which he may be supposed capable +of appearing in the world as a <span class="smcap">Minstrel</span>, +that is, as an itinerant Poet and Musician;—a +character, which, according to the +notions of our fore-fathers, was not only respectable, +but sacred.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">I have</span> endeavoured to imitate <span class="smcap">Spenser</span> +in the measure of his verse, and in the harmony, +simplicity, and variety, of his composition. +Antique expressions I have avoided; +admitting, however, some old words, where +they seemed to suit the subject; but I hope +none will be found that are now obsolete, or +in any degree unintelligible to a reader of +English poetry.</p> + +<p>To those, who may be disposed to ask, +what could induce me to write in so difficult +a measure, I can only answer, that it pleases +my ear, and seems, from its Gothic structure +and original, to bear some relation to +the subject and spirit of the Poem. It admits +both of simplicity and magnificence of +sound and of language, beyond any other +stanza that I am acquainted with. It allows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> +the sententiousness of the couplet, as well as +the more complex modulation of blank verse. +What some critics have remarked, of its uniformity +growing at last tiresome to the ear, +will be found to hold true, only when the +poetry is faulty in other respects.</p> + + + +<h2 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><span style="font-size: 70%">THE</span><br /> +MINSTREL;<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">IN TWO BOOKS.</span></h2> + +<div class="latinquote"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musæ,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Quarum sacra fero, ingenti perculsus amore,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Accipiant.——</i><br /></span> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Virgil.</span></p> +</div></div></div> + + + + +<h2 style="line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size: 50%">THE</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span><br /> +MINSTREL;<br /> +<span style="font-size: 50%">OR,</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">THE PROGRESS OF GENIUS.</span></h2> +<hr /> + + + +<h3>BOOK FIRST.</h3> + + +<p class="stanzano">I.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><span class="smcap"><big>A</big>h</span>! who can tell how hard it is to climb<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The steep, where Fame’s proud temple shines afar!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Has felt the influence of malignant star,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And waged with Fortune an eternal war!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Checked by the scoff of Pride, by Envy’s frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Poverty’s unconquerable bar,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In life’s low vale remote has pined alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then dropt into the grave, unpitied and unknown!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And yet, the languor of inglorious days<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Not equally oppressive is to all.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Him, who ne’er listened to the voice of praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The silence of neglect can ne’er appal.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There are, who, deaf to mad Ambition’s call,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Would shrink to hear th’ obstreperous trump of Fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Supremely blest, if to their portion fall<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Health, competence, and peace. Nor higher aim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had He, whose simple tale these artless lines proclaim.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">This sapient age disclaims all classic lore;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Else I should here, in cunning phrase, display,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How forth <span class="smcap">The Minstrel</span> fared in days of yore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Right glad of heart, though homely in array;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His waving locks and beard all hoary grey:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And, from his bending shoulder, decent hung<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His harp, the sole companion of his way,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which to the whistling wind responsive rung:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever as he went some merry lay he sung.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">IV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Fret not yourselves, ye silken sons of pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That a poor Wanderer should inspire my strain.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Muses fortune’s fickle smile deride,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor ever bow the knee in Mammon’s fane;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For their delights are with the village-train,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whom Nature’s laws engage, and Nature’s charms:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They hate the sensual, and scorn the vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The parasite their influence never warms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor him whose sordid soul the love of wealth alarms.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">V.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Though richest hues the peacock’s plumes adorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet horror screams from his discordant throat.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rise, sons of harmony, and hail the morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While warbling larks on russet pinions float;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or seek, at noon, the woodland scene remote,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where the grey linnets carol from the hill.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O let them ne’er, with artificial note,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To please a tyrant, strain the little bill!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But sing what heaven inspires, and wander where they will.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">VI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Liberal, not lavish, is kind Nature’s hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor was perfection made for man below.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet all her schemes with nicest art are planned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Good counteracting ill, and gladness woe.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With gold and gems if Chilian mountains glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If bleak and barren Scotia’s hills arise;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There, plague and poison, lust and rapine grow;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here, peaceful are the vales, and pure the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And freedom fires the soul, and sparkles in the eyes.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">VII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Then grieve not, thou, to whom the indulgent Muse<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Vouchsafes a portion of celestial fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor blame the partial fates, if they refuse<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The imperial banquet, and the rich attire.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Know thine own worth, and reverence the lyre.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wilt thou debase the heart which God refined?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No; let thy heaven-taught soul to heaven aspire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To fancy, freedom, harmony, resigned;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ambition’s grovelling crew for ever left behind.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">VIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Canst thou forego the pure ethereal soul<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In each fine sense so exquisitely keen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On the dull couch of Luxury to loll,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Stung with disease, and stupified with spleen;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fain to implore the aid of Flattery’s screen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even from thyself thy loathsome heart to hide,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(The mansion, then, no more of joy serene)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where fear, distrust, malevolence, abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And impotent desire, and disappointed pride?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">IX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">O, how canst thou renounce the boundless store<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of charms which Nature to her votary yields!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All that the genial ray of morning gilds,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all that echoes to the song of even,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All that the mountain’s sheltering bosom shields,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all the dread magnificence of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">X.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">These charms shall work thy soul’s eternal health,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And love, and gentleness, and joy, impart.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But these thou must renounce, if lust of wealth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">E’er win its way to thy corrupted heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For ah! it poisons like a scorpion’s dart;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Prompting the ungenerous wish, the selfish scheme,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The stern resolve, unmoved by pity’s smart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The troublous day, and long distressful dream.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Return, my roving Muse! resume thy purposed theme.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">There lived, in Gothic days, as legends tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A shepherd-swain, a man of low degree;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose sires, perchance, in Fairyland might dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sicilian groves, or vales of Arcady;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But he, I ween, was of the North Countrie:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A nation famed for song, and beauty’s charms;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Zealous, yet modest; innocent, though free;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Patient of toil; serene amidst alarms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inflexible in faith; invincible in arms.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">The shepherd-swain, of whom I mention made,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On Scotia’s mountains fed his little flock;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sickle, scythe, or plough, he never swayed;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">An honest heart was almost all his stock;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His drink the living water from the rock:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The milky dams supplied his board, and lent<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their kindly fleece to baffle winter’s shock;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And he, though oft with dust and sweat besprent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did guide and guard their wanderings, wheresoe’er they went.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">From labour health, from health contentment springs.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Contentment opes the source of every joy.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He envied not, he never thought of kings;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor from those appetites sustained annoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which chance may frustrate, or indulgence cloy:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor fate his calm and humble hopes beguiled;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He mourned no recreant friend, nor mistress coy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For on his vows the blameless Phœbe smiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her alone he loved, and loved her from a child.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">No jealousy their dawn of love o’ercast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor blasted were their wedded days with strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each season looked delightful, as it past,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To the fond husband, and the faithful wife.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Beyond the lowly vale of shepherd life<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They never roamed; secure beneath the storm<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which in Ambition’s lofty land is rife,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where peace and love are cankered by the worm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of pride, each bud of joy industrious to deform.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">The wight, whose tale these artless lines unfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Was all the offspring of this simple pair.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His birth no oracle or seer foretold:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No prodigy appeared in earth or air,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor aught that might a strange event declare.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">You guess each circumstance of <span class="smcap">Edwin</span>’s birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The parent’s transport, and the parent’s care;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The gossip’s prayer for wealth, and wit, and worth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one long summer-day of indolence and mirth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Deep thought oft seemed to fix his infant eye.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dainties he heeded not, nor gaude, nor toy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Save one short pipe of rudest minstrelsy.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Silent when glad; affectionate, though shy;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now his look was most demurely sad,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now he laughed aloud, yet none knew why.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The neighbours stared and sighed, yet blessed the lad:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some deemed him wondrous wise, and some believed him mad.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">But why should I his childish feats display?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Concourse, and noise, and toil, he ever fled;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of squabbling imps; but to the forest sped,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or roamed at large the lonely mountain’s head;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or, where the maze of some bewildered stream<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To deep untrodden groves his footsteps led,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There would he wander wild, ’till Phœbus’ beam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shot from the western cliff, released the weary team.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">The exploit of strength, dexterity, or speed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To him nor vanity nor joy could bring.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His heart, from cruel sport estranged, would bleed<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To work the woe of any living thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By trap, or net; by arrow, or by sling;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These he detested, those he scorned to wield:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He wished to be the guardian, not the king,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tyrant, far less, or traitor, of the field.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sure the sylvan reign unbloody joy might yield.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Lo! where the stripling, wrapt in wonder, roves<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Beneath the precipice o’erhung with pine;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sees, on high, amidst the encircling groves,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From cliff to cliff the foaming torrents shine:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While waters, woods, and winds, in concert join,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Echo swells the chorus to the skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Would Edwin this majestic scene resign<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For aught the huntsman’s puny craft supplies?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! no: he better knows great Nature’s charms to prize.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XX.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And oft he traced the uplands, to survey,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When o’er the sky advanced the kindling dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The crimson cloud, blue main, and mountain grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And lake, dim-gleaming on the smoky lawn;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Far to the west the long, long vale withdrawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where twilight loves to linger for a while;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now he faintly kens the bounding fawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And villager abroad at early toil.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, lo! the sun appears! and heaven, earth, ocean, smile.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And oft the craggy cliff he loved to climb,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When all in mist the world below was lost.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Like shipwrecked mariner on desert coast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And view the enormous waste of vapour, tost<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In billows, lengthening to the horizon round,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now scooped in gulfs, with mountains now embossed!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And hear the voice of mirth and song rebound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flocks, herds, and waterfalls, along the hoar profound!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fond of each gentle, and each dreadful scene.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In darkness, and in storm, he found delight:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor less, than when on ocean-wave serene<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The southern sun diffused his dazzling shene.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even sad vicissitude amused his soul:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And if a sigh would sometimes intervene,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And down his cheek a tear of pity roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A sigh, a tear, so sweet, he wished not to controul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘O ye wild groves, O where is now your bloom!’<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(The Muse interprets thus his tender thought.)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Your flowers, your verdure, and your balmy gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Of late so grateful in the hour of drought!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Why do the birds, that song and rapture brought<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To all your bowers, their mansions now forsake?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ah! why has fickle chance this ruin wrought!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For now the storm howls mournful through the brake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And the dead foliage flies in many a shapeless flake.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Where now the rill, melodious, pure, and cool,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And meads, with life, and mirth, and beauty, crowned!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ah! see, the unsightly slime, and sluggish pool,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Have all the solitary vale imbrowned;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Fled each fair form, and mute each melting sound.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The raven croaks forlorn on naked spray:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And, hark! the river, bursting every mound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Down the vale thunders; and, with wasteful sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Uproots the grove, and rolls the shattered rocks away.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Yet such the destiny of all on earth:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘So flourishes and fades majestic man.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Fair is the bud his vernal morn brings forth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And fostering gales awhile the nursling fan.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘O smile, ye heavens, serene; ye mildews wan,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ye blighting whirlwinds, spare his balmy prime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Nor lessen of his life the little span.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Borne on the swift, though silent, wings of Time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Old-age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘And be it so. Let those deplore their doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Whose hope still grovels in this dark sojourn.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Can smile at Fate, and wonder how they mourn.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Shall spring to these sad scenes no more return?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Is yonder wave the sun’s eternal bed?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Soon shall the orient with new lustre burn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And spring shall soon her vital influence shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Again attune the grove, again adorn the mead.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Shall I be left abandoned in the dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘When Fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Shall Nature’s voice, to man alone unjust,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Bid him, though doomed to perish, hope to live?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Is it for this fair Virtue oft must strive<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘With disappointment, penury, and pain?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘No: Heaven’s immortal spring shall yet arrive;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And man’s majestic beauty bloom again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Bright through the eternal year of Love’s triumphant reign.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">This truth sublime his simple sire had taught.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In sooth, ’twas almost all the shepherd knew.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">No subtle nor superfluous lore he sought,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor ever wished his Edwin to pursue.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Let man’s own sphere (quoth he) confine his view,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Be man’s peculiar work his sole delight.’<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And much, and oft, he warned him, to eschew<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Falsehood and guile, and aye maintain the right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By pleasure unseduced, unawed by lawless might.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘And, from the prayer of Want, and plaint of Woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘O never, never turn away thine ear.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Forlorn, in this bleak wilderness below,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ah! what were man, should Heaven refuse to hear!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To others do (the law is not severe)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘What to thyself thou wishest to be done.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Forgive thy foes; and love thy parents dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And friends, and native land; nor those alone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘All human weal and woe learn thou to make thine own.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXX.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">See, in the rear of the warm sunny shower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The visionary boy from shelter fly!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For now the storm of summer-rain is o’er,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And cool, and fresh, and fragrant is the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And, lo! in the dark east, expanded high,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The rainbow brightens to the setting sun!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fond fool, that deem’st the streaming glory nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How vain the chace thine ardour has begun!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Tis fled afar, ere half thy purposed race be run.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Yet couldst thou learn, that thus it fares with age,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When pleasure, wealth, or power, the bosom warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This baffled hope might tame thy manhood’s rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Disappointment of her sting disarm.——<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But why should foresight thy fond heart alarm?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Perish the lore that deadens young desire!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pursue, poor imp, the imaginary charm,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Indulge gay hope, and fancy’s pleasing fire:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fancy and Hope too soon shall of themselves expire.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">When the long-sounding curfew, from afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Loaded with loud lament the lonely gale,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Young Edwin, lighted by the evening star,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lingering and listening, wandered down the vale.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There would he dream of graves, and corses pale;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And ghosts, that to the charnel-dungeon throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And drag a length of clanking chain, and wail,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Till silenced by the owl’s terrific song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or blast that shrieks by fits the shuddering aisles along.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Or, when the setting moon, in crimson dyed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hung o’er the dark and melancholy deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To haunted stream, remote from man, he hied,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where fays, of yore, their revels wont to keep;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And there let Fancy roam at large, till sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A vision brought to his entranced sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And first, a wildly murmuring wind ’gan creep<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shrill to his ringing ear; then tapers bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With instantaneous gleam, illumed the vault of night.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Anon in view a portal’s blazoned arch<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Arose; the trumpet bids the valves unfold;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And forth an host of little warriors march,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Grasping the diamond lance, and targe of gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their look was gentle, their demeanour bold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And green their helms, and green their silk attire;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And here and there, right venerably old,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The long-robed minstrels wake the warbling wire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And some with mellow breath the martial pipe inspire.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">With merriment, and song, and timbrels clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A troop of dames from myrtle bowers advance;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The little warriors doff the targe and spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And loud enlivening strains provoke the dance.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">They meet, they dart away, they wheel askance;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To right, to left, they thrid the flying maze;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now bound aloft with vigorous spring, then glance<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rapid along: with many-coloured rays<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of tapers, gems, and gold, the echoing forests blaze.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">The dream is fled. Proud harbinger of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who scar’dst the vision with thy clarion shrill,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fell chanticleer! who oft hast reft away<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My fancied good, and brought substantial ill!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O to thy cursed scream, discordant still,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let Harmony aye shut her gentle ear:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy boastful mirth let jealous rivals spill,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Insult thy crest, and glossy pinions tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ever in thy dreams the ruthless fox appear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Forbear, my Muse. Let love attune thy line.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Revoke the spell. Thine Edwin frets not so.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For how should he at wicked chance repine,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who feels, from every change, amusement flow?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even now his eyes with smiles of rapture glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As on he wanders through the scenes of morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where the fresh flowers in living lustre blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where thousand pearls the dewy lawns adorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand notes of joy in every breeze are borne.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">But who the melodies of morn can tell?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The wild brook babbling down the mountain side;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The lowing herd; the sheepfold’s simple bell;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pipe of early shepherd, dim descried<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In the lone valley; echoing far and wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The clamorous horn, along the cliffs above;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The hollow murmur of the ocean-tide;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The hum of bees, and linnet’s lay of love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the full choir that wakes the universal grove.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">The cottage-curs at early pilgrim bark;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Crowned with her pail the tripping milkmaid sings;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The whistling ploughman stalks afield; and, hark!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Down the rough slope the ponderous waggon rings;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through rustling corn the hare astonished springs;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Slow tolls the village-clock the drowsy hour;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The partridge bursts away on whirring wings;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Deep mourns the turtle in sequestered bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shrill lark carols clear from her aërial tour.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XL.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">O Nature, how in every charm supreme!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose votaries feast on raptures ever new!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O for the voice and fire of seraphim,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To sing thy glories with devotion due!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Blessed be the day I ’scaped the wrangling crew,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From Pyrrho’s maze, and Epicurus’ sty;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And held high converse with the godlike few,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who to the enraptured heart, and ear, and eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Teach beauty, virtue, truth, and love, and melody.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Hence! ye, who snare and stupify the mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sophists, of beauty, virtue, joy, the bane!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Greedy and fell, though impotent and blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who spread your filthy nets in Truth’s fair fane,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And ever ply your venomed fangs amain!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hence to dark Error’s den, whose rankling slime<br /></span> +<span class="i1">First gave you form! hence! lest the Muse should deign,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(Though loath on theme so mean to waste a rhyme),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With vengeance to pursue your sacrilegious crime.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">But hail, ye mighty masters of the lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nature’s true sons, the friends of man and truth!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose song, sublimely sweet, serenely gay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Amused my childhood, and informed my youth.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O let your spirit still my bosom sooth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Inspire my dreams, and my wild wanderings guide!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Your voice each rugged path of life can smooth;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For well I know, wherever ye reside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There harmony, and peace, and innocence, abide.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Ah me! abandoned on the lonesome plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">As yet poor Edwin never knew your lore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Save when against the winter’s drenching rain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And driving snow, the cottage shut the door.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then, as instructed by tradition hoar,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her legends when the Beldam ’gan impart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or chant the old heroic ditty o’er,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wonder and joy ran thrilling to his heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Much he the tale admired, but more the tuneful art.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Various and strange was the long-winded tale;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And halls, and knights, and feats of arms, displayed;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or merry swains, who quaff the nut-brown ale,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And sing, enamoured of the nut-brown maid;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The moon-light revel of the fairy glade;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or hags, that suckle an infernal brood,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And ply in caves the unutterable trade,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">’Midst fiends and spectres, quench the moon in blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yell in the midnight storm, or ride the infuriate flood.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">But when to horror his amazement rose,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A gentler strain the Beldam would rehearse,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A tale of rural life, a tale of woes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The orphan-babes, and guardian uncle fierce.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O cruel! will no pang of pity pierce<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That heart by lust of lucre seared to stone!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For sure, if aught of virtue last, or verse,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To latest times shall tender souls bemoan<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those helpless orphan-babes by thy fell arts undone.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Behold, with berries smeared, with brambles torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The babes, now famished, lay them down to die;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">’Midst the wild howl of darksome woods forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Folded in one another’s arms they lie;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor friend, nor stranger, hears their dying cry:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For from the town the man returns no more.’<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But thou, who Heaven’s just vengeance darest defy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This deed with fruitless tears shalt soon deplore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Death lays waste thy house, and flames consume thy store.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">A stifled smile of stern vindictive joy<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Brightened one moment Edwin’s starting tear.—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘But why should gold man’s feeble mind decoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And innocence thus die by doom severe?’<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O Edwin! while thy heart is yet sincere,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The assaults of discontent and doubt repel:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Dark even at noontide is our mortal sphere;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But let us hope; to doubt, is to rebel;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us exult in hope, that all shall yet be well.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Nor be thy generous indignation checked,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor checked the tender tear to misery given;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From Guilt’s contagious power shall that protect,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This soften and refine the soul for heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But dreadful is their doom, whom doubt hath driven<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To censure Fate, and pious hope forego;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Like yonder blasted boughs by lightning riven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Perfection, beauty, life, they never know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But frown on all that pass, a monument of woe.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Shall he, whose birth, maturity, and age,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Scarce fill the circle of one summer-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall the poor gnat, with discontent and rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Exclaim that Nature hastens to decay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If but a cloud obstruct the solar ray,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If but a momentary shower descend!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or shall frail man Heaven’s dread decree gainsay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which bade the series of events extend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wide through unnumbered worlds, and ages without end!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">L.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">One part, one little part, we dimly scan,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through the dark medium of life’s feverish dream;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">If but that little part incongruous seem.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor is that part, perhaps, what mortals deem;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O then, renounce that impious self-esteem,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That aims to trace the secrets of the skies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thou art but of dust; be humble, and be wise.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Thus, Heaven enlarged his soul in riper years.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For Nature gave him strength, and fire, to soar,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On Fancy’s wing above this vale of tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where dark cold-hearted sceptics, creeping, pore<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through microscope of metaphysic lore:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And much they grope for truth, but never hit.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For why? their powers, inadequate before,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This art preposterous renders more unfit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet deem they darkness light, and their vain blunders wit.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Nor was this ancient dame a foe to mirth.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Her ballad, jest, and riddle’s quaint device,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Oft cheered the shepherds round their social hearth;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whom levity or spleen could ne’er entice<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To purchase chat or laughter at the price<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of decency. Nor let it faith exceed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That Nature forms a rustic taste so nice.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah! had they been of court or city breed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such delicacy were right marvellous indeed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Oft when the winter-storm had ceased to rave,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He roamed the snowy waste at even, to view<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The cloud stupendous, from the Atlantic wave<br /></span> +<span class="i1">High-towering, sail along the horizon blue:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where, ’midst the changeful scenery ever new,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fancy a thousand wondrous forms descries,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">More wildly great than ever pencil drew;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rocks, torrents, gulfs, and shapes of giant size,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glittering cliffs on cliffs, and fiery ramparts rise.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Thence, musing, onward to the sounding shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The lone enthusiast oft would take his way,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Listening, with pleasing dread, to the deep roar<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of the wide-weltering waves. In black array<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When sulphurous clouds rolled on the vernal day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Even then he hastened from the haunt of man,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Along the darkening wilderness to stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What time the lightning’s fierce career began,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o’er heaven’s rending arch the rattling thunder ran.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Responsive to the sprightly pipe, when all<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In sprightly dance the village-youth were joined,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Edwin, of melody aye held in thrall,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From the rude gambol far remote reclined,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Soothed with the soft notes warbling in the wind.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah then, all jollity seemed noise and folly.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To the pure soul, by Fancy’s fire refined,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah, what is mirth, but turbulence unholy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When with the charm compared of heavenly melancholy!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Is there a heart that music cannot melt?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah me! how is that rugged heart forlorn!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is there, who ne’er those mystic transports felt,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of solitude and melancholy born?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He needs not woo the Muse; he is her scorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sophist’s rope of cobweb he shall twine;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mope o’er the schoolman’s peevish page; or mourn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And delve for life, in Mammon’s dirty mine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sneak with the scoundrel fox, or grunt with glutton swine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">For Edwin, Fate a nobler doom had planned;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Song was his favourite and first pursuit.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The wild harp rang to his adventurous hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And languished to his breath the plaintive flute.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His infant muse, though artless, was not mute:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of elegance, as yet, he took no care;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For this of time and culture is the fruit;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Edwin gained, at last, this fruit so rare:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As in some future verse I purpose to declare.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Meanwhile, whate’er of beautiful, or new,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sublime, or dreadful, in earth, sea, or sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By chance, or search, was offered to his view,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He scanned with curious and romantic eye.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whate’er of lore tradition could supply<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From Gothic tale, or song, or fable old,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Roused him, still keen to listen and to pry.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">At last, though long by penury controuled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And solitude, his soul her graces ’gan unfold.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Thus, on the chill Lapponian’s dreary land,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For many a long month lost in snow profound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When Sol from Cancer sends the season bland,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And in their northern cave the storms hath bound;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From silent mountains, straight, with startling sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Torrents are hurled; green hills emerge; and lo,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The trees with foliage, cliffs with flowers are crowned;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Pure rills through vales of verdure warbling go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wonder, love, and joy, the peasant’s heart o’erflow.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LX.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Here pause, my Gothic lyre, a little while.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The leisure hour is all that thou can’st claim.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But on this verse if <span class="smcap">Montagu</span> should smile,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">New strains, ere long, shall animate thy frame:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And his applause to me is more than fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For still with truth accords his taste refined.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">At lucre or renown let others aim,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I only wish to please the gentle mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Nature’s charms inspire, and love of humankind.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></div></div> + + + +<h2 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span><span style="font-size: 50%">THE</span><br /> +MINSTREL;<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">BOOK SECOND.</span></h2> + + +<div class="latinquote"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Rectique cultus pectora roborant.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right" style="padding-right: 4em"><span class="smcap">Horat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></span></p> +</div> + + +<h2 style="line-height: 200%"><span style="font-size: 50%">THE</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span><br /> +MINSTREL;<br /> +<span style="font-size: 50%">OR,</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">THE PROGRESS OF GENIUS.</span></h2> +<hr /> + + + +<h3>BOOK SECOND.</h3> + + +<p class="stanzano">I.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1"><span class="smcap"><big>O</big>f</span> chance or change, O let not man complain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Else shall he never never cease to wail:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For, from the imperial dome, to where the swain<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Rears the lone cottage in the silent dale,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All feel the assault of fortune’s fickle gale;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doomed;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vale;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And gulfs the mountain’s mighty mass entombed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where the Atlantic rolls wide continents have bloomed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">But sure to foreign climes we need not range,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor search the ancient records of our race,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To learn the dire effects of time and change,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which in ourselves, alas! we daily trace.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yet, at the darkened eye, the withered face,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or hoary hair, I never will repine:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But spare, O Time, whate’er of mental grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of candour, love, or sympathy divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whate’er of fancy’s ray, or friendship’s flame, is mine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">So I, obsequious to Truth’s dread command,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shall here, without reluctance, change my lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And smite the Gothic lyre with harsher hand;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now when I leave that flowery path, for aye,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of childhood, where I sported many a day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Warbling, and sauntering carelessly along;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where every face was innocent and gay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each vale romantic, tuneful every tongue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet, wild, and artless all, as Edwin’s infant song.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">IV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Perish the lore that deadens young desire,’<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is the soft tenor of my song no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Edwin, though loved of heaven, must not aspire<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To bliss, which mortals never knew before.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On trembling wings let youthful fancy soar,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor always haunt the sunny realms of joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But now and then the shades of life explore;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Though many a sound and sight of woe annoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a qualm of care his rising hopes destroy.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">V.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Vigour from toil, from trouble patience grows.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The weakly blossom, warm in summer bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Some tints of transient beauty may disclose;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But ah, it withers in the chilling hour.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mark yonder oaks! Superior to the power<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of all the warring winds of heaven, they rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And from the stormy promontory tower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And toss their giant arms amid the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While each assailing blast increase of strength supplies.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">VI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And now the downy cheek and deepened voice<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gave dignity to Edwin’s blooming prime;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And walks of wider circuit were his choice,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And vales more wild, and mountains more sublime.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">One evening, as he framed the careless rhyme,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It was his chance to wander far abroad,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And o’er a lonely eminence to climb,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Which heretofore his foot had never trode;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A vale appeared below, a deep retired abode.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">VII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Thither he hied, enamoured of the scene:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For rocks on rocks piled, as by magic spell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here scorched with lightning, there with ivy green,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fenced from the north and east this savage dell;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Southward a mountain rose with easy swell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose long long groves eternal murmur made;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And toward the western sun a streamlet fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where, through the cliffs, the eye, remote, surveyed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blue hills, and glittering waves, and skies in gold arrayed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">VIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Along this narrow valley, you might see<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The wild deer sporting on the meadow ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And, here and there, a solitary tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or mossy stone, or rock with woodbine crowned.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Oft did the cliffs reverberate the sound<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Of parted fragments tumbling from on high;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And, from the summit of that craggy mound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The perching eagle oft was heard to cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or on resounding wings to shoot athwart the sky.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">IX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">One cultivated spot there was, that spread<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Its flowery bosom to the noon-day beam,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where many a rose-bud rears its blushing head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And herbs, for food, with future plenty teem.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Soothed by the lulling sound of grove and stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Romantic visions swarm on Edwin’s soul:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He minded not the sun’s last trembling gleam,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor heard from far the twilight curfew toll,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When slowly on his ear these moving accents stole.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">X.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Hail, awful scenes, that calm the troubled breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And woo the weary to profound repose;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Can passion’s wildest uproar lay to rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And whisper comfort to the man of woes!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Here Innocence may wander, safe from foes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And Contemplation soar on seraph wings.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘O Solitude, the man who thee foregoes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘When lucre lures him, or ambition stings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Shall never know the source whence real grandeur springs.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Vain man, is grandeur given to gay attire?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Then let the butterfly thy pride upbraid:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To friends, attendants, armies, bought with hire?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘It is thy weakness that requires their aid:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To palaces, with gold and gems inlaid?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘They fear the thief, and tremble in the storm:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To hosts, through carnage who to conquest wade?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Behold the victor vanquished by the worm!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Behold what deeds of woe the locust can perform!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘True dignity is his, whose tranquil mind<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Virtue has raised above the things below;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Who, every hope and fear to heaven resigned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Shrinks not, though Fortune aim her deadliest blow.’<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This strain, from midst the rocks, was heard to flow<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In solemn sounds. Now beamed the evening-star;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And from embattled clouds, emerging slow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Cynthia came riding on her silver car;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hoary mountain-cliffs shone faintly from afar.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Soon did the solemn voice its theme renew;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(While Edwin, wrapt in wonder, listening stood)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ye tools and toys of tyranny, adieu;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Scorned by the wise, and hated by the good!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ye only can engage the servile brood<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Of Levity and Lust, who, all their days,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ashamed of truth and liberty, have wooed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And hugged the chain, that, glittering on their gaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Seems to outshine the pomp of heaven’s empyreal blaze.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Like them, abandoned to Ambition’s sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘I sought for glory in the paths of guile;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And fawned and smiled, to plunder and betray,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Myself betrayed and plundered all the while;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘So gnawed the viper the corroding file.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘But now, with pangs of keen remorse, I rue<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Those years of trouble and debasement vile.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Yet why should I this cruel theme pursue?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Fly, fly, detested thoughts, for ever from my view!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘The gusts of appetite, the clouds of care,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And storms of disappointment, all o’erpast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Henceforth, no earthly hope with heaven shall share<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘This heart, where peace serenely shines at last.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And if for me no treasure be amassed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And if no future age shall hear my name,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘I lurk the more secure from fortune’s blast,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And with more leisure feed this pious flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Whose rapture far transcends the fairest hopes of fame.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘The end and the reward of toil is rest.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Be all my prayer for virtue and for peace.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Of wealth and fame, of pomp and power possessed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Who ever felt his weight of woe decrease!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ah! what avails the lore of Rome and Greece,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The lay, heaven-prompted, and harmonious string,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The dust of Ophir, or the Tyrian fleece,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘All that art, fortune, enterprise, can bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘If envy, scorn, remorse, or pride, the bosom wring!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Let Vanity adorn the marble tomb<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘With trophies, rhymes, and scutcheons of renown,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In the deep dungeon of some Gothic dome,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Where night and desolation ever frown.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Mine be the breezy hill that skirts the down;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Where a green grassy turf is all I crave,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘With here and there a violet bestrown,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Fast by a brook, or fountain’s murmuring wave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘And thither let the village swain repair;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And, light of heart, the village maiden gay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To deck with flowers her half-dishevelled hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And celebrate the merry morn of May.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘There let the shepherd’s pipe, the live-long day,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Fill all the grove with love’s bewitching woe;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And when mild Evening comes with mantle grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Let not the blooming band make haste to go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘No ghost, nor spell, my long and last abode shall know.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘For though I fly to ’scape from fortune’s rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And bear the scars of envy, spite, and scorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Yet with mankind no horrid war I wage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Yet with no impious spleen my breast is torn:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For virtue lost, and ruined man, I mourn.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘O Man! creation’s pride, heaven’s darling child,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Whom Nature’s best, divinest, gifts adorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Why from thy home are truth and joy exiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And all thy favourite haunts with blood and tears defiled!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XX.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Along yon glittering sky what glory streams!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘What majesty attends night’s lovely queen!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Fair laugh our vallies in the vernal beams;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And mountains rise, and oceans roll between,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And all conspire to beautify the scene.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘But, in the mental world, what chaos drear!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘What forms of mournful, loathsome, furious mien!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘O when shall that eternal morn appear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘These dreadful forms to chace, this chaos dark to clear!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘O Thou, at whose creative smile, yon heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In all the pomp of beauty, life, and light,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Rose from the abyss; when dark Confusion, driven<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Down down the bottomless profound of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Fled, where he ever flies thy piercing sight!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘O glance on these sad shades one pitying ray,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To blast the fury of oppressive might,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Melt the hard heart to love and mercy’s sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And cheer the wandering soul, and light him on the way.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Silence ensued: and Edwin raised his eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i1">In tears, for grief lay heavy at his heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And is it thus in courtly life,’ (he cries)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘That man to man acts a betrayer’s part?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And dares he thus the gifts of heaven pervert,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Each social instinct, and sublime desire?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Hail Poverty! if honour, wealth, and art,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘If what the great pursue, and learned admire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Thus dissipate and quench the soul’s ethereal fire!’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">He said, and turned away; nor did the Sage<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O’erhear, in silent orisons employed.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Youth, his rising sorrow to assuage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Home as he hied, the evening scene enjoyed:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For now no cloud obscures the starry void;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The yellow moonlight sleeps on all the hills;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor is the mind with startling sounds annoyed;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A soothing murmur the lone region fills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of groves, and dying gales, and melancholy rills.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">But he, from day to day, more anxious grew.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The voice still seemed to vibrate on his ear.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor durst he hope the Hermit’s tale untrue;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For man he seemed to love, and heaven to fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And none speaks false, where there is none to hear.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Yet, can man’s gentle heart become so fell?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘No more in vain conjecture let me wear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘My hours away, but seek the Hermit’s cell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Tis he my doubt can clear, perhaps my care dispel.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">At early dawn the youth his journey took,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And many a mountain passed, and valley wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Then reached the wild; where, in a flowery nook,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And seated on a mossy stone, he spied<br /></span> +<span class="i1">An ancient man: his harp lay him beside.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A stag sprang from the pasture at his call,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And, kneeling, licked the withered hand, that tied<br /></span> +<span class="i1">A wreath of woodbine round his antlers tall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hung his lofty neck with many a floweret small.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And now the hoary Sage arose, and saw<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The wanderer approaching: innocence<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Smiled on his glowing cheek, but modest awe<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Depressed his eye, that feared to give offence.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Who art thou, courteous stranger? and from whence?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Why roam thy steps to this abandoned dale?’<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘A shepherd-boy (the Youth replied), far hence<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘My habitation; hear my artless tale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Nor levity nor falsehood shall thine ear assail.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Late as I roamed, intent on Nature’s charms,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘I reached, at eve, this wilderness profound;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And, leaning where yon oak expands her arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Heard these rude cliffs thine awful voice rebound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘(For, in thy speech, I recognise the sound.)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘You mourned for ruined man, and virtue lost,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And seemed to feel of keen remorse the wound,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Pondering on former days, by guilt engrossed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Or in the giddy storm of dissipation tossed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘But say, in courtly life can craft be learned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Where knowledge opens, and exalts the soul?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Where Fortune lavishes her gifts unearned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Can selfishness the liberal heart controul?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Is glory there achieved by arts, as foul<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘As those which felons, fiends, and furies plan?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Spiders ensnare, snakes poison, tygers prowl;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Love is the godlike attribute of man.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘O teach a simple Youth this mystery to scan!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Or else the lamentable strain disclaim,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And give me back the calm, contented mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Which, late, exulting, viewed, in Nature’s frame,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Goodness untainted, wisdom unconfined,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Grace, grandeur, and utility combined.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Restore those tranquil days, that saw me still<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Well pleased with all, but most with humankind;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘When Fancy roamed through Nature’s works at will,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Unchecked by cold distrust, and uninformed of ill.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXX.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Wouldst thou (the Sage replied) in peace return<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To the gay dreams of fond romantic youth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Leave me to hide, in this remote sojourn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘From every gentle ear the dreadful truth:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For if my desultory strain with ruth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And indignation make thine eyes o’erflow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Alas! what comfort could thy anguish sooth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Shouldst thou the extent of human folly know?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Be ignorance thy choice, where knowledge leads to woe.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘But let untender thoughts afar be driven;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Nor venture to arraign the dread decree:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For know, to man, as candidate for heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The voice of The Eternal said, Be free:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And this divine prerogative to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Does virtue, happiness, and heaven convey;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For virtue is the child of liberty,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And happiness of virtue; nor can they<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Be free to keep the path, who are not free to stray.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Yet leave me not. I would allay that grief,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Which else might thy young virtue overpower;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And in thy converse I shall find relief,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘When the dark shades of melancholy lower:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For solitude has many a dreary hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Even when exempt from grief, remorse, and pain:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Come often then; for, haply, in my bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Amusement, knowledge, wisdom, thou may’st gain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘If I one soul improve, I have not lived in vain.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And now, at length, to Edwin’s ardent gaze<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Muse of History unrolls her page.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But few, alas! the scenes her art displays,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To charm his fancy, or his heart engage.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here, chiefs their thirst of power in blood assuage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And straight their flames with tenfold fierceness burn:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here, smiling Virtue prompts the patriot’s rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But lo, ere long, is left alone to mourn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And languish in the dust, and clasp the abandoned urn.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Ah, what avails (he said) to trace the springs<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘That whirl of empire the stupendous wheel!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ah, what have I to do with conquering kings,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Hands drenched in blood, and breasts begirt with steel!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To those, whom Nature taught to think and feel,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Heroes, alas! are things of small concern.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Could History man’s secret heart reveal,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And what imports a heaven-born mind to learn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Her transcripts to explore what bosom would not yearn!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘This praise, O Cheronean Sage, is thine.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘(Why should this praise to thee alone belong!)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘All else from Nature’s moral path decline,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Lured by the toys that captivate the throng;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To herd in cabinets and camps, among<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Spoil, carnage, and the cruel pomp of pride;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Or chaunt of heraldry the drowsy song,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘How tyrant blood, o’er many a region wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Rolls to a thousand thrones its execrable tide.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘O, who of man the story will unfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ere victory and empire wrought annoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In that elysian age (misnamed of gold)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The age of love, and innocence, and joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘When all were great and free! man’s sole employ<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To deck the bosom of his parent earth;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Or toward his bower the murmuring stream decoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To aid the floweret’s long-expected birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And lull the bed of peace, and crown the board of mirth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Sweet were your shades, O ye primeval groves,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Whose boughs to man his food and shelter lent,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Pure in his pleasures, happy in his loves,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘His eye still smiling, and his heart content.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Then, hand in hand, Health, Sport, and Labour went.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Nature supplied the wish she taught to crave.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘None prowled for prey, none watched to circumvent.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To all an equal lot Heaven’s bounty gave:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘No vassal feared his lord, no tyrant feared his slave.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘But ah! the Historic Muse has never dared<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To pierce those hallowed bowers: ’tis Fancy’s beam,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Poured on the vision of the enraptured Bard,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘That paints the charms of that delicious theme.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Then hail sweet Fancy’s ray! and hail the dream<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘That weans the weary soul from guilt and woe!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Careless what others of my choice may deem,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘I long where Love and Fancy lead to go,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And meditate on heaven; enough of earth I know.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XXXIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘I cannot blame thy choice (the Sage replied),<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For soft and smooth are Fancy’s flowery ways.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And yet, even there, if left without a guide,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The young adventurer unsafely plays.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Eyes, dazzled long by Fiction’s gaudy rays,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In modest Truth no light nor beauty find.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And who, my child, would trust the meteor-blaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘That soon must fail, and leave the wanderer blind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘More dark and helpless far, than if it ne’er had shined?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XL.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Fancy enervates, while it sooths, the heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And, while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To joy each heightening charm it can impart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘But wraps the hour of woe in tenfold night.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And often, where no real ills affright,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Its visionary fiends, an endless train,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Assail with equal or superior might,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And through the throbbing heart, and dizzy brain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘And yet, alas! the real ills of life<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Claim the full vigour of a mind prepared;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Prepared for patient, long, laborious strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Its guide Experience, and Truth its guard.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘We fare on earth, as other men have fared:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Were they successful? Let not us despair.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Was disappointment oft their sole reward?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Yet shall their tale instruct, if it declare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘How they have borne the load ourselves are doomed to bear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘What charms the Historic Muse adorn, from spoils,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And blood, and tyrants, when she wings her flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To hail the patriot Prince, whose pious toils<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Sacred to science, liberty, and right,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And peace, through every age divinely bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Shall shine the boast and wonder of mankind!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Sees yonder sun, from his meridian height,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘A lovelier scene, than Virtue thus inshrined<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘In power, and man with man for mutual aid combine!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Hail, sacred Polity, by Freedom reared!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Hail, sacred Freedom, when by Law restrained!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Without you what were man? A grovelling herd,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In darkness, wretchedness, and want enchained.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Sublimed by you, the Greek and Roman reigned<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In arts unrivalled: O, to latest days,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In Albion may your influence, unprofaned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To godlike worth the generous bosom raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And prompt the Sage’s lore, and fire the Poet’s lays.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘But now let other themes our care engage.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For lo, with modest, yet majestic grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To curb Imagination’s lawless rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And from within the cherished heart to brace,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Philosophy appears. The gloomy race,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘By Indolence and moping Fancy bred,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Fear, Discontent, Solicitude give place,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And Hope and Courage brighten in their stead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘While on the kindling soul her vital beams are shed.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Then waken from long lethargy to life<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The seeds of happiness, and powers of thought;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Then jarring appetites forego their strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘A strife by ignorance to madness wrought.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Pleasure by savage man is dearly bought<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘With fell revenge, lust that defies controul,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘With gluttony and death. The mind untaught,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Is a dark waste, where fiends and tempests howl;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘As Phœbus to the world, is Science to the soul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘And Reason, now, through Number, Time, and Space,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Darts the keen lustre of her serious eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And learns, from facts compared, the laws to trace,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Whose long progression leads to Deity.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Can mortal strength presume to soar so high?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Can mortal sight, so oft bedimmed with tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Such glory bear?—for lo, the shadows fly<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘From Nature’s face; Confusion disappears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And order charms the eyes, and harmony the ears.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘In the deep windings of the grove, no more<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The hag obscene, and grisly phantom dwell;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Nor in the fall of mountain-stream, or roar<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Of winds, is heard the angry spirit’s yell;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘No wizard mutters the tremendous spell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Nor sinks convulsive in prophetic swoon;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Nor bids the noise of drums and trumpets swell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘To ease of fancied pangs the labouring moon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Or chace the shade that blots the blazing orb of noon.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Many a long lingering year, in lonely isle,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Stunned with the eternal turbulence of waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Lo, with dim eyes, that never learned to smile,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And trembling hands, the famished native craves<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Of Heaven his wretched fare: shivering in caves,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Or scorched on rocks, he pines from day to day;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘But Science gives the word; and lo, he braves<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The surge and tempest, lighted by her ray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And to a happier land wafts merrily away.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">XLIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘And even where Nature loads the teeming plain<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘With the full pomp of vegetable store,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Her bounty, unimproved, is deadly bane:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Dark woods and rankling wilds, from shore to shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Stretch their enormous gloom; which, to explore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Even Fancy trembles, in her sprightliest mood;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘For there, each eyeball gleams with lust of gore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Nestles each murderous and each monstrous brood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Plague lurks in every shade, and streams from every flood.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">L.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘’Twas from Philosophy man learned to tame<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The soil, by plenty to intemperance fed.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Lo, from the echoing axe, and thundering flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Poison, and plague, and yelling rage, are fled.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The waters, bursting from their slimy bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Bring health and melody to every vale:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And, from the breezy main, and mountain’s head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Ceres and Flora, to the sunny dale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘To fan their glowing charms, invite the fluttering gale.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘What dire necessities, on every hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Our art, our strength, our fortitude, require!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Of foes intestine, what a numerous band<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Against this little throb of life conspire!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Yet Science can elude their fatal ire<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Awhile, and turn aside Death’s levelled dart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Sooth the sharp pang, allay the fever’s fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And brace the nerves once more, and cheer the heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And yet a few soft nights and balmy days impart.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘Nor less to regulate man’s moral frame<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Science exerts her all-composing sway.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Flutters thy breast with fear, or pants for fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Or pines, to indolence and spleen a prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Or avarice, a fiend more fierce than they?<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Flee to the shade of Academus’ grove;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Where cares molest not, discord melts away<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘In harmony, and the pure passions prove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘How sweet the words of truth, breathed from the lips of Love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LIII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘What cannot Art and Industry perform,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘When Science plans the progress of their toil!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘They smile at penury, disease, and storm;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And oceans from their mighty mounds recoil.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘When tyrants scourge, or demagogues embroil<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘A land, or when the rabble’s headlong rage<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Order transforms to anarchy and spoil,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Deep-versed in man, the philosophic Sage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Prepares, with lenient hand, their phrenzy to assuage.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LIV.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">‘’Tis he alone, whose comprehensive mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘From situation, temper, soil, and clime<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Explored, a nation’s various powers can bind,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘And various orders, in one form sublime<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Of polity, that, midst the wrecks of time,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘Secure shall lift its head on high, nor fear<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘The assault of foreign or domestic crime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">‘While public Faith, and public Love sincere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘And Industry and Law maintain their sway severe.’<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Enraptured by the Hermit’s strain, the Youth<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Proceeds the path of science to explore.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now, expanding to the beams of truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">New energies, and charms unknown before,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His mind discloses: Fancy now no more<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wantons on fickle pinion through the skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But, fixed in aim, and conscious of her power,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sublime from cause to cause exults to rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Creation’s blended stores arranging as she flies.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LVI.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Nor love of novelty alone inspires,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Their laws and nice dependencies to scan;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For, mindful of the aids that life requires,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And of the services man owes to man,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He meditates new arts on Nature’s plan;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The cold desponding breast of Sloth to warm,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The flame of Industry and Genius fan,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Emulation’s noble rage alarm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the long hours of Toil and Solitude to charm.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LVII.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">But She, who set on fire his infant heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And all his dreams, and all his wanderings shared<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And blessed, the Muse, and her celestial art,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Still claim the Enthusiast’s fond and first regard.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From Nature’s beauties variously compared,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And variously combined, he learns to frame<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Those forms of bright perfection, which the Bard,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While boundless hopes and boundless views inflame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enamoured consecrates to never-dying fame.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LVIII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Of late, with cumbersome, though pompous show,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Edwin would oft his flowery rhyme deface,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through ardour to adorn; but Nature now<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To his experienced eye a modest grace<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Presents, where Ornament the second place<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Holds, to intrinsic worth and just design<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Subservient still. Simplicity apace<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Tempers his rage: he owns her charm divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And clears the ambiguous phrase, and lops the unwieldy line.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LIX.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Fain would I sing (much yet unsung remains)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What sweet delirium o’er his bosom stole,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When the great Shepherd of the Mantuan plains<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His deep majestic melody ’gan roll:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fain would I sing, what transport stormed his soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How the red current throbbed his veins along,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When, like Pelides, bold beyond controul,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Gracefully terrible, sublimely strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Homer raised high to heaven the loud, the impetuous song.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LX.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">And how his lyre, though rude her first essays,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now skilled to sooth, to triumph, to complain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Warbling at will through each harmonious maze,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Was taught to modulate the artful strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I fain would sing: but ah! I strive in vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sighs from a breaking heart my voice confound.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With trembling step, to join yon weeping train,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I haste, where gleams funereal glare around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, mixed with shrieks of woe, the knells of death resound.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LXI.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Adieu, ye lays, that fancy’s flowers adorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The soft amusement of the vacant mind!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He sleeps in dust, and all the Muses mourn,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He, whom each virtue fired, each grace refined,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Friend, teacher, pattern, darling of mankind!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He sleeps in dust. Ah! how should I pursue<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My theme! To heart-consuming grief resigned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Here, on his recent grave I fix my view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pour my bitter tears.—Ye flowery lays, adieu!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">LXII.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Art thou, my <span class="smcap">Gregory</span>, for ever fled!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And am I left to unavailing woe!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When fortune’s storms assail this weary head,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where cares long since have shed untimely snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah, now for comfort whither shall I go!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +<span class="i1">No more thy soothing voice my anguish chears:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy placid eyes with smiles no longer glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My hopes to cherish, and allay my fears.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +<span class="i0">’Tis meet that I should mourn:—flow forth afresh my tears.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + + + +<h2 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>POEMS<br /> +<span style="font-size: 50%">ON</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">SEVERAL OCCASIONS.</span></h2> + +<hr /> + +<h3>RETIREMENT.<br /> + +1758.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>W</big>hen</span>, in the crimson cloud of Even,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lingering light decays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Hesper, on the front of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His glittering gem displays;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep in the silent vale, unseen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beside a lulling stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pensive Youth, of placid mien,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Indulged this tender theme.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye cliffs, in hoary grandeur piled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High o’er the glimmering dale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye woods, along whose windings wild,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Murmurs the solemn gale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Melancholy strays forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Woe retires to weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What time the wan moon’s yellow horn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gleams on the western deep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To you, ye wastes, whose artless charms<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne’er drew Ambition’s eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Scaped a tumultuous world’s alarms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To your retreats I fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep in your most sequestered bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let me at last recline,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Solitude, mild, modest power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leans on her ivy’d shrine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How shall I woo thee, matchless Fair!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy heavenly smile how win!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy smile, that smooths the brow of care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stills the storm within.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O wilt thou to thy favourite grove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine ardent votary bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bless his hours, and bid them move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Serene, on silent wing.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oft let remembrance sooth his mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With dreams of former days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, in the lap of peace reclined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He framed his infant lays;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Fancy roved at large, nor Care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor cold Distrust alarmed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Envy, with malignant glare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His simple youth had harmed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’Twas then, O Solitude, to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His early vows were paid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From heart sincere, and warm, and free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Devoted to the shade.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah why did Fate his steps decoy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In stormy paths to roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Remote from all congenial joy?—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O take the Wanderer home!<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy shades, thy silence, now be mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy charms my only theme;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My haunt the hollow cliff, whose pine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waves o’er the gloomy stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence the scared owl, on pinions grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breaks from the rustling boughs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And down the lone vale sails away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To more profound repose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O! while to thee the woodland pours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its wildly warbling song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And balmy from the bank of flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The zephyr breathes along;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let no rude sound invade from far,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No vagrant foot be nigh,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">No ray from Grandeur’s gilded car,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flash on the startled eye.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But if some pilgrim through the glade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy hallowed bowers explore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O guard from harm his hoary head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And listen to his lore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he of joys divine shall tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That wean from earthly woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And triumph o’er the mighty spell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That chains this heart below.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For me, no more the path invites<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ambition loves to tread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more I climb those toilsome heights<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By guileful Hope misled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leaps my fond fluttering heart no more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Mirth’s enlivening strain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For present pleasure soon is o’er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the past is vain.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3>ELEGY.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></h3> +<hr /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>S</big>till</span> shall unthinking man substantial deem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The forms, that fleet through life’s deceitful dream?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On clouds, where Fancy’s beam amusive plays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall heedless Hope the towering fabric raise?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till at Death’s touch the fairy visions fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And real scenes rush dismal on the eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, from Elysium’s balmy slumber torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The startled soul awakes, to think, and mourn.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O ye, whose hours in jocund train advance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose spirits to the song of gladness dance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who flowery vales in endless view survey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glittering in beams of visionary day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, yet while Fate delays the impending woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be roused to thought, anticipate the blow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest, like the lightning’s glance, the sudden ill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flash to confound, and penetrate to kill;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lest, thus encompassed with funereal gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like me, ye bend o’er some untimely tomb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pour your wild ravings in Night’s frighted ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And half pronounce Heaven’s sacred doom severe.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Wise, beauteous, good! O every grace combined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That charms the eye, or captivates the mind!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair, as the floweret opening on the morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose leaves bright drops of liquid pearl adorn!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet, as the downy-pinioned gale, that roves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To gather fragrance in Arabian groves!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mild, as the strains, that, at the close of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Warbling remote, along the vales decay!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, why with these compared? What tints so fine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What sweetness, mildness, can be matched with thine?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why roam abroad? Since still, to Fancy’s eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see, I see thy lovely form arise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still let me gaze, and every care beguile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gaze on that cheek, where all the Graces smile;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That soul-expressing eye, benignly bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where meekness beams ineffable delight;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">That brow, where Wisdom sits enthroned serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each feature forms, and dignifies the mein:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still let me listen, while her words impart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweet effusions of the blameless heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till all my soul, each tumult charmed away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yields, gently led, to Virtue’s easy sway.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">By thee inspired, O Virtue! Age is young,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And music warbles from the faltering tongue:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy ray creative cheers the clouded brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And decks the faded cheek with rosy glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brightens the joyless aspect, and supplies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pure heavenly lustre to the languid eyes:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when Youth’s living bloom reflects thy beams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resistless on the view the glory streams;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love, Wonder, Joy, alternately alarm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Beauty dazzles with angelic charm.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! whither fled! ye dear illusions, stay!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, pale and silent lies the lovely clay!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How are the roses on that cheek decay’d,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which late the purple light of youth display’d!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Health on her form each sprightly grace bestow’d;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With life and thought each speaking feature glow’d.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair was the flower, and soft the vernal sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Elate with hope, we deemed no tempest nigh;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When lo! a whirlwind’s instantaneous gust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left all its beauties withering in the dust!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">All cold the hand, that soothed Woe’s weary head!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And quenched the eye, the pitying tear that shed!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mute the voice, whose pleasing accents stole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Infusing balm into the rankled soul!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Death! why arm with cruelty thy power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spare the idle weed, yet lop the flower?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why fly thy shafts in lawless error driven?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is Virtue then no more the care of Heaven?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But peace, bold thought! be still my bursting heart!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We, not <span class="smcap">Eliza</span>, felt the fatal dart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scaped the dark dungeon, does the slave complain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor bless the hand that broke the galling chain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Say, pines not Virtue for the lingering morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On this dark wild condemned to roam forlorn?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Reason’s meteor-rays, with sickly glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er the dun gloom a dreadful glimmering throw?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Disclosing dubious to the affrighted eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’erwhelming mountains tottering from on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Black billowy seas in storm perpetual toss’d,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And weary ways in wildering labyrinths lost.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O happy stroke, that bursts the bonds of clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Darts through the rending gloom the blaze of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wings the soul with boundless flight to soar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where dangers threat, and fear alarms no more!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Transporting thought! here let me wipe away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tear of grief, and wake a bolder lay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ah! the swimming eye o’erflows anew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor check the sacred drops to pity due;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo! where in speechless, hopeless anguish, bend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er her loved dust, the Parent, Brother, Friend!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How vain the hope of man!—But cease the strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Sorrow’s dread solemnity profane;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mixed with yon drooping mourners, on her bier<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In silence shed the sympathetic tear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3>ODE TO HOPE.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></h3> +<hr /> + + +<p class="stanzano">I. 1.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>O</big> thou</span>, who glad’st the pensive soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than Aurora’s smile the swain forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left all night long to mourn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where desolation frowns, and tempests howl;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shrieks of woe, as intermits the storm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far o’er the monstrous wilderness resound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cross the gloom darts many a shapeless form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a fire-eyed visage glares around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O come, and be once more my guest!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come, for thou oft thy suppliant’s vow hast heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oft with smiles indulgent cheer’d,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soothed him into rest.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">I. 2.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Smit by thy rapture-beaming eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep flashing through the midnight of their mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sable bands combined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Fear’s black banner bloats the troubled sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Appalled retire. Suspicion hides her head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor dares th’ obliquely gleaming eye-ball raise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Despair, with gorgon-figured veil o’erspread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speeds to dark Phlegethon’s detested maze.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, startled at the heavenly ray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With speed unwonted Indolence upsprings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, heaving, lifts her leaden wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sullen glides away.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">I. 3.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ten thousand forms, by pining Fancy view’d,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dissolve. Above the sparkling flood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Phœbus rears his awful brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From lengthening lawn and valley low<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The troops of fen-born mists retire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Along the plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The joyous swain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eyes the gay villages again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gold-illumined spire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While, on the billowy ether borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Floats the loose lay’s jovial measure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And light along the fairy Pleasure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her green robes glittering to the morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wantons on silken wing. And goblins all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the damp dungeon shrink, or hoary hall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or westward, with impetuous flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shoot to the desart realms of their congenial Night.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II. 1.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When first on Childhood’s eager gaze<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life’s varied landscape, stretch’d immense around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Starts out of night profound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy voice incites to tempt th’ untrodden maze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fond he surveys thy mild maternal face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His bashful eye still kindling as he views,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, while thy lenient arm supports his pace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With beating heart the upland path pursues:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The path that leads, where, hung sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seen afar, youth’s gallant trophies, bright<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Fancy’s rainbow ray, invite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His wingy nerves to climb.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II. 2.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pursue thy pleasurable way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Safe in the guidance of thy heavenly guard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While melting airs are heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And soft-eyed cherub forms around thee play:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Simplicity, in careless flowers array’d,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prattling amusive in his accent meek;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Modesty, half turning as afraid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The smile just dimpling on his glowing cheek;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Content and Leisure, hand in hand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Innocence and Peace, advance, and sing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Mirth, in many a mazy ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frisks o’er the flowery land.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II. 3.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Frail man, how various is thy lot below!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To-day though gales propitious blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Peace, soft gliding down the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lead Love along and Harmony,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To-morrow the gay scene deforms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then all around<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The thunder’s sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rolls rattling on through heaven’s profound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And down rush all the storms.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye days, that balmy influence shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When sweet Childhood, ever sprightly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In paths of pleasure sported lightly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whither, ah, whither are ye fled!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye cherub train, that brought him on his way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O leave him not midst tumult and dismay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now youth’s eminence he gains:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But what a weary length of lingering toil remains!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III. 1.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They shrink, they vanish into air.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now Slander taints with pestilence the gale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mingling cries assail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wail of Woe, and groans of grim Despair.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, wizard Envy from his serpent eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Darts quick destruction in each baleful glance;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pride, smiling stern, and yellow Jealousy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frowning Disdain, and hagard Hate advance;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behold, amidst the dire array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale wither’d Care his giant-stature rears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo, his iron hand prepares<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To grasp its feeble prey.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III. 2.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who now will guard bewildered youth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Safe from the fierce assaults of hostile rage?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such war can Virtue wage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Virtue, that bears the sacred shield of Truth!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Alas! full oft on Guilt’s victorious car<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spoils of Virtue are in triumph borne;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the fair captive, marked with many a scar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In lone obscurity, oppressed, forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resigns to tears her angel form.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ill-fated youth, then, whither wilt thou fly?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No friend, no shelter now is nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And onward rolls the storm.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III. 3.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But whence the sudden beam that shoots along?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why shrink aghast the hostile throng?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, from amidst Affliction’s night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hope bursts, all radiant, on the sight:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her words the troubled bosom sooth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Why thus dismayed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Though foes invade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Hope ne’er is wanting to their aid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Who tread the path of truth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“’Tis I, who smooth the rugged way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“I, who close the eyes of Sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And with glad visions of to-morrow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Repair the weary soul’s decay.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“When Death’s cold touch thrills to the freezing heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Dreams of heaven’s opening glories I impart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Till the freed spirit springs on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“In rapture too severe for weak Mortality.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span><small><i>PYGMÆO-GERANO-MACHIA</i>,</small><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">THE BATTLE OF</span><br /> +THE PIGMIES AND CRANES.</h3> + +<h4>FROM THE LATIN OF ADDISON.</h4> + +<hr /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>T</big>he</span> pygmy-people, and the feathered train,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mingling in mortal combat on the plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sing. Ye Muses, favour my designs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lead on my squadrons, and arrange the lines;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flashing swords and fluttering wings display,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long bills nibbling in the bloody fray;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cranes darting with disdain on tiny foes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conflicting birds and men, and war’s unnumbered woes!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">The wars and woes of heroes six feet long<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have oft resounded in Pierian song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who has not heard of Colchos’ golden fleece,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Argo, manned with all the flower of Greece?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Thebes’ fell brethren, Theseus, stern of face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Peleus’ son, unrivalled in the race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æneas, founder of the Roman line,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And William, glorious on the banks of Boyne?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who has not learned to weep at Pompey’s woes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over Blackmore’s epic page to doze?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Tis I, who dare attempt unusual strains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of hosts unsung, and unfrequented plains;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The small shrill trump, and chiefs of little size,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And armies rushing down the darkened skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where India reddens to the early dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winds a deep vale from vulgar eyes withdrawn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bosomed in groves the lowly region lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rocky mountains round the border rise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, till the doom of Fate its fall decreed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The empire flourished of the pygmy-breed;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here Industry performed, and Genius planned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And busy multitudes o’erspread the land.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now to these lone bounds if pilgrim stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tempting through craggy cliffs the desperate way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He finds the puny mansion fallen to earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its godlings mouldering on th’ abandoned hearth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And starts, where small white bones are spread around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Or little footsteps lightly print the ground;”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the proud crane her nest securely builds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chattering amid the desolated fields.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But different fates befel her hostile rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While reigned, invincible through many an age,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dreaded Pygmy: roused by war’s alarms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth rushed the madding Mannikin to arms.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce to the field of death the hero flies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The faint crane, fluttering, flaps the ground, and dies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by the victor borne (o’erwhelming load!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bloody bill loose-dangling marks the road.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And oft the wily dwarf in ambush lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And often made the callow young his prey;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">With slaughtered victims heaped his board, and smiled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To visit the sire’s trespass on the child.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oft, where his feathered foe had reared her nest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And laid her eggs and household gods to rest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burning for blood, in terrible array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eighteen-inch militia burst their way:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All went to wreck; the infant foeman fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When scarce his chirping bill had broke the shell.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Loud uproar hence, and rage of arms arose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the fell rancour of encountering foes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hence dwarfs and cranes one general havoc whelms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Death’s grim visage scares the pygmy realms.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not half so furious blazed the warlike fire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Mice, high theme of the Meonian lyre;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When bold to battle marched the accoutered Frogs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the deep tumult thundered through the bogs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pierced by the javelin-bulrush on the shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, agonizing, rolled the mouse in gore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there the frog (a scene full sad to see!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shorn of one leg, slow sprawled along on three:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">He vaults no more with vigorous hops on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But mourns in hoarsest croaks his destiny.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now the day of woe drew on apace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A day of woe to all the pygmy-race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When dwarfs were doomed (but penitence was vain)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rue each broken egg, and chicken slain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For roused to vengeance by repeated wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From distant climes the long-billed legions throng:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Strymon’s lake, Cayster’s plashy meads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fens of Scythia green with rustling reeds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From where the Danube winds through many a land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Mareotis laves the Egyptian strand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rendezvous they waft on eager wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wait assembled the returning spring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile they trim their plumes for length of flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whet their keen beaks, and twisting claws, for fight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each crane the pygmy power in thought o’erturns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every bosom for the battle burns.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When genial gales the frozen air unbind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The screaming legions wheel, and mount the wind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far in the sky they form their long array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And land and ocean stretch’d immense survey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep, deep beneath; and triumphing in pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With clouds and winds commixed, innumerous ride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Tis wild obstreperous clangour all, and heaven<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whirls, in tempestuous undulation driven.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor less the alarm that shook the world below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where marched in pomp of war the embattled foe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where mannikins with haughty step advance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grasp the shield, and couch the quivering lance;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To right and left the lengthening lines they form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ranked in deep array await the storm.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">High in the midst the chieftain-dwarf was seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of giant stature, and imperial mien.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full twenty inches tall, he strode along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And viewed with lofty eye the wondering throng;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, while with many a scar his visage frowned,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bared his broad bosom, rough with many a wound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of beaks and claws, disclosing to their sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The glorious meed of high heroic might.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">For with insatiate vengeance, he pursued,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And never-ending hate, the feathery brood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unhappy they, confiding in the length<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of horny beak, or talon’s crooked strength,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who durst abide his rage; the blade descends,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the panting trunk the pinion rends.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid low in dust the pinion waves no more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The trunk, disfigured, stiffens in its gore.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What hosts of heroes fell beneath his force!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What heaps of chicken-carnage marked his course!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How oft, O Strymon, thy lone banks along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did wailing Echo waft the funeral song!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now from far the mingling clamours rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loud and more loud rebounding through the skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From skirt to skirt of heaven, with stormy sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A cloud rolls on, and darkens all the day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Near and more near descends the dreadful shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now in battleous array displayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On sounding wings, and screaming in their ire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cranes rush onward, and the fight require.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">The pygmy warriors eye, with fearless glare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The host thick swarming o’er the burthened air:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick swarming now, but to their native land<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doomed to return a scanty, straggling band.—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When sudden, darting down the depth of heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fierce on the expecting foe the cranes are driven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The kindling phrensy every bosom warms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The region echoes to the crash of arms:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loose feathers from the encountering armies fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in careering whirlwinds mount the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To breathe from toil upsprings the panting crane,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then with fresh vigour downward darts again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Success in equal balance hovering hangs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, on the sharp spear, mad with mortal pangs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bird transfixed in bloody vortex whirls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet fierce in death the threatening talon curls;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, while the life-blood bubbles from his wound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With little feet the pygmy beats the ground;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep from his breast the short, short sob he draws,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, dying, curses the keen-pointed claws.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trembles the thundering field, thick covered o’er<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With falchions, mangled wings, and streaming gore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pygmy arms, and beaks of ample size;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And here a claw, and there a finger lies.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Encompassed round with heaps of slaughtered foes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All grim in blood the pygmy champion glows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the assailing host impetuous springs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Careless of nibbling bills, and flapping wings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And midst the tumult wheresoe’er he turns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The battle with redoubled fury burns.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From every side the avenging cranes, amain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Throng, to o’erwhelm this terror of the plain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When suddenly (for such the will of Jove)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fowl enormous, sousing from above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The gallant chieftain clutched, and, soaring high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Sad chance of battle!) bore him up the sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cranes pursue, and, clustering in a ring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chatter triumphant round the captive king.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, ah! what pangs each pygmy bosom wrung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, now to cranes a prey, on talons hung,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">High in the clouds they saw their helpless lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His wriggling form still lessening as he soared!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lo! yet again, with unabated rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In mortal strife the mingling hosts engage.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crane with darted bill assaults the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hovering; then wheels aloft to scape the blow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dwarf in anguish aims the vengeful wound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But whirls in empty air the falchion round.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Such was the scene, when midst the loud alarms<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sublime the eternal Thunderer rose in arms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Briareus, by mad ambition driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaved Pelion huge, and hurled it high at heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jove rolled redoubling thunders from on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mountains and bolts encountered in the sky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till one stupendous ruin whelmed the crew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their vast limbs weltering wide in brimstone blue.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But now at length the pygmy legions yield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, winged with terror, fly the fatal field.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They raise a weak and melancholy wail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All in distraction scattering o’er the vale.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prone on their routed rear the cranes descend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their bills bite furious, and their talons rend:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With unrelenting ire they urge the chace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sworn to exterminate the hated race.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">’Twas thus the Pygmy Name, once great in war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For spoils of conquered cranes renown’d afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perished. For, by the dread decree of Heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Short is the date to earthly grandeur given,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And vain are all attempts to roam beyond<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Fate has fixed the everlasting bound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fallen are the trophies of Assyrian power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Persia’s proud dominion is no more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, though to both superior far in fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine empire, Latium! is an empty name.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now, with lofty chiefs of antient time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pygmy heroes roam the Elysian clime.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, if belief to matron-tales be due,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full oft, in the belated shepherd’s view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their frisking forms, in gentle green arrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gambol secure along the moonlight glade.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Secure, for no alarming cranes molest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all their woes in long oblivion rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down the deep dale, and narrow winding way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They foot it featly, ranged in ringlets gay:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Tis joy and frolic all, where’er they rove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Fairy-people is the name they love.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>EPISTLE<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">TO</span><br /> +<small>THE HONOURABLE C. B.</small></h3> + +<hr /> + +<p style="padding-left: 30%"><small>PETERHEAD</small>, 1766.</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>W</big>hen</span> B* * * invites me, and inviting sings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Instant I’d fly, (had heaven vouchsafed me wings)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hail him in that calm sequestered seat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whence he looks down with pity on the great;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, midst the groves retired, at leisure wooes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Domestic love, contentment, and the Muse.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I wish for wings and winds to speed my course;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since B——t and the fates refuse a horse.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where now the Pegasus of antient time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Ippogrifo famed in modern rhime?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, where that wooden steed, whose every leg<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like lightning flew, obsequious to the peg;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The waxen wings by Dædalus designed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And China waggons wafted by the wind?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Spaniard reached the moon, upborn by geese;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Then first ’twas known that she was made of cheese.)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fidler on a fish through waves advanced,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He twanged his catgut, and the Dolphin danced.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hags rode on broom-sticks, heathen-gods on clouds;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ladies, on rams and bulls, have dared the floods.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Much famed the shoes Jack Giant-killer wore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Fortunatus’ hat is famed much more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such vehicles were common once, no doubt;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But modern versemen must even trudge on foot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or doze at home, expectants of the gout.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hard is the task, indeed ’tis wondrous hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To act the Hirer, yet preserve the Bard.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Next week, by ——, (but ’tis a sin to swear)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“I give my word, sir, you shall have my mare;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Sound wind and limb, as any ever was,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And rising only seven years old next grass.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Four miles an hour she goes, nor needs a spur;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“A pretty piece of flesh, upon my conscience, sir.”<br /></span> +<span class="i1">This speech was B——t’s; and, tho’ mean in phrase,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The nearest thing to prose, as Horace says,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Satire the fourth, and forty-second line)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Twill intimate that I propose to dine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next week with B* * *. Muse, lend thine aid a while;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For this great purpose claims a lofty style.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ere yonder sun, now glorious in the west,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has thrice three times reclined on Thetis’ breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere thrice three times, from old Tithonus’ bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her charms all glowing with celestial red,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The balmy morn shall rise to mortal view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from her bright locks shake the pearls of dew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These eyes, O B* * *, shall hail thy opening glades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These ears shall catch the music of thy shades;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This cherished frame shall drink the gladsome gales,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the fresh fragrance of thy flowery vales.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And (for I know the Muse will come along)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To B* * * I mean to meditate a song:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A song, adorned with every rural charm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trim as thy garden, ample as thy farm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet as thy milk, and brisk as bottled beer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wholesome as mutton, and as water clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In wildflowers fertile, as thy fields of corn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And frolicksome as lambs, or sheep new shorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I ask not ortolans, or Chian wine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fat of rams, or quintessence of swine.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her spicy stores let either India keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor El Dorado vend her golden sheep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the mansion house, or council hall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still on her black splay feet may the huge tortoise crawl.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not Parson’s butt my appetite can move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor, Bell, thy beer; nor even thy nectar, Jove.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If B* * * be happy, and in health, his guest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom wit and learning charm, can wish no better feast.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h2 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span><small>THE</small><br /> +HARES,<br /> + +<small>A FABLE.</small></h2> +<hr /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>Y</big>es</span>, yes, I grant the sons of earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are doomed to trouble from their birth:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We all of sorrow have our share;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But say, Is your’s without compare?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Look round the world; perhaps you’ll find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each individual of our kind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pressed with an equal load of ill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Equal at least. Look further still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And own your lamentable case<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is little short of happiness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In yonder hut, that stands alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Attend to Famine’s feeble moan;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or view the couch where Sickness lies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mark his pale cheek, and languid eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His frame by strong convulsion torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His struggling sighs, and looks forlorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or see, transfixed with keener pangs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where o’er his hoard the miser hangs;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whistles the wind; he starts, he stares,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Slumber’s balmy blessing shares;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Despair, Remorse, and Terror roll<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their tempests on his harassed soul.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But here, perhaps, it may avail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To enforce our reasoning with a tale.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mild was the morn, the sky serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The jolly hunting band convene;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The beagle’s breast with ardour burns;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bounding steed the champaign spurns;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fancy oft the game descries<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through the hound’s nose, and huntsman’s eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Just then, a council of the hares<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had met, on national affairs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The chiefs were set; while o’er their head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The furze its frizzled covering spread.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long lists of grievances were heard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And general discontent appeared.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Our harmless race shall every savage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Both quadruped and biped, ravage?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Shall horses, hounds, and hunters still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Unite their wits to work us ill?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The youth, his parent’s sole delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Whose tooth the dewy lawns invite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Whose pulse in every vein beats strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Whose limbs leap light the vales along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“May yet e’er noontide meet his death,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And lie dismembered on the heath:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“For youth, alas! nor cautious age,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Nor strength, nor speed, eludes their rage.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“In every field we meet the foe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Each gale comes fraught with sounds of woe:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The morning but awakes our fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The evening sees us bathed in tears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">“But must we ever idly grieve,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Nor strive our fortunes to relieve?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Small is each individual force,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“To stratagem be our recourse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And then, from all our tribes combined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The murderer to his cost may find,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“No foe is weak, whom Justice arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Whom Concord leads, and Hatred warms.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Be roused; or liberty acquire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Or in the great attempt expire.”—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He said no more, for in his breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conflicting thoughts the voice suppressed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fire of vengeance seemed to stream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From his swoln eyeball’s yellow gleam.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And now the tumults of the war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mingling confusedly from afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swell in the wind. Now louder cries,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Distinct, of hounds and men arise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth from the brake, with beating heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Th’ assembled hares tumultuous start,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, every straining nerve on wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Away precipitately spring.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hunting band, a signal given,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thick thundering o’er the plain are driven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O’er cliff abrupt, and shrubby mound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And river broad, impetuous bound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now plunge amid the forest shades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glance through the openings of the glades;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now o’er the level valley sweep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now with short steps strain up the steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While backward from the hunter’s eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The landscape like a torrent flies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last an ancient wood they gained,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By pruner’s axe yet unprofaned.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">High o’er the rest, by Nature reared,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The oak’s majestic boughs appeared;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath, a copse of various hue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In barbarous luxuriance grew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No knife had curbed the rambling sprays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No hand had wove th’ implicit maze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flowering thorn, self-taught to wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hazle’s stubborn stem intwined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bramble twigs were wreathed around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And rough furze crept along the ground.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here sheltering, from the sons of murther,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hares drag their tired limbs no further.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But, lo! the western wind erelong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was loud, and roared the woods among:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From rustling leaves, and crashing boughs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of woe and war arose.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hares, distracted, scour the grove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As terror and amazement drove;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But danger, wheresoe’er they fled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still seemed impending o’er their head.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now crowded in a grotto’s gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All hope extinct, they wait their doom:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dire was the silence, till, at length,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even from despair deriving strength,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bloody eye, and furious look,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A daring youth arose, and spoke.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">“O wretched race, the scorn of Fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Whom ills of every sort await!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“O, cursed with keenest sense to feel<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The sharpest sting of every ill!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Say ye, who, fraught with mighty scheme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Of liberty and vengeance dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“What now remains? To what recess<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Shall we our weary steps address,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Since Fate is evermore pursuing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“All ways and means to work our ruin?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Are we alone, of all beneath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Condemned to misery worse than death!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Must we, with fruitless labour, strive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“In misery worse than death to live!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“No. Be the smaller ill our choice:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“So dictates Nature’s powerful voice.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Death’s pang will in a moment cease;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And then, All hail, eternal peace!”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus while he spoke, his words impart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dire resolve to every heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">A distant lake in prospect lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, glittering in the solar ray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gleamed through the dusky trees, and shot<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A trembling light along the grot.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thither with one consent they bend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their sorrows with their lives to end;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While each, in thought, already hears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The water hissing in his ears,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fast by the margin of the lake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Concealed within a thorny brake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A linnet sate, whose careless lay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amused the solitary day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Careless he sung, for on his breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sorrow no lasting trace impressed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When suddenly he heard a sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of swift feet traversing the ground.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quick to the neighbouring tree he flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence, trembling, casts around his eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No foe appeared, his fears were vain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pleased, he renews the sprightly strain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">The hares, whose noise had caused his fright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw, with surprise, the linnet’s flight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is there on earth a wretch, they said,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom our approach can strike with dread?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An instantaneous change of thought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tumult every bosom wrought.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fares the system-building sage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, plodding on from youth to age,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At last, on some foundation-dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has reared aloft his goodly scheme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And proved his predecessors fools,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bound all nature by his rules;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fares he, in that dreadful hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When injured truth exerts her power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some new phenomenon to raise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, bursting on his frighted gaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From its proud summit to the ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proves the whole edifice unsound.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">“Children,” thus spake a hare sedate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who oft had known the extremes of Fate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">“In slight events the attentive mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“May hints of good instruction find.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“That our condition is the worst,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And we with such misfortunes cursed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“As all comparison defy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Was late the universal cry.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“When, lo! an accident so slight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“As yonder little linnet’s flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Has made your stubborn hearts confess<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“(So your amazement bids me guess)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“That all our load of woes and fears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Is but a part of what he bears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Where can he rest secure from harms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Whom even a helpless hare alarms?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Yet he repines not at his lot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“When past, his dangers are forgot:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“On yonder bough he trims his wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And with unusual rapture sings;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“While we, less wretched, sink beneath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Our lighter ills, and rush to death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">“No more of this unmeaning rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“But hear, my friends, the word of age:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">“When, by the winds of autumn driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The scattered clouds fly cross the heaven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Oft have we, from some mountain’s head,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Beheld the alternate light and shade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Sweep the long vale. Here, hovering, lowers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The shadowy cloud; there, downward pours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Streaming direct, a flood of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Which from the view flies swift away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“It flies, while other shades advance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And other streaks of sunshine glance.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Thus chequered is the life below<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“With gleams of joy, and clouds of woe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Then hope not, while we journey on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Still to be basking in the sun;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Nor fear, though now in shades ye mourn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“That sunshine will no more return.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“If, by your terrors overcome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Ye fly before the approaching gloom,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The rapid clouds your flight pursue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And darkness still o’ercasts your view.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Who longs to reach the radiant plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Must onward urge his course amain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“For doubly swift the shadow flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“When ’gainst the gale the pilgrim plies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“At least be firm, and undismayed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Maintain your ground; the fleeting shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Erelong, spontaneous glides away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And gives you back the enlivening ray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Lo! while I speak, our danger past!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“No more the shrill horn’s angry blast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Howls in our ear; the savage roar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Of war and murder is no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Then snatch the hour that Fate allows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Nor think of past and future woes.”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He spoke; and hope revives; the lake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That instant, one and all forsake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In sweet amusement to employ<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The present sprightly hour of joy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now, from the western mountain’s brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Compassed with clouds of various glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sun a broader orb displays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shoots aslope his ruddy rays.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lawn assumes a fresher green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dew-drops spangle all the scene.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The balmy zephyr breathes along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shepherd sings his tender song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all their lays the groves resound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And falling waters murmur round;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Discord and care were put to flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all was peace, and calm delight.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>EPITAPH:<br /><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">BEING PART OF AN INSCRIPTION FOR A MONUMENT TO BE</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">ERECTED BY A GENTLEMAN TO THE MEMORY OF HIS LADY.</span></h3> + +<hr /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>F</big>arewell</span>, my best beloved! whose heavenly mind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Genius with virtue, strength with softness, joined;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Devotion, undebased by pride or art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With meek simplicity, and joy of heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though sprightly, gentle; though polite, sincere;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And only of thyself a judge severe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unblamed, unequalled, in each sphere of life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tenderest Daughter, Sister, Parent, Wife.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thee their patroness the afflicted lost;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy friends, their pattern, ornament, and boast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I——but, ah! can words my loss declare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or paint the extremes of transport and despair?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Thou, beyond what verse or speech can tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My guide, my friend, my best-beloved, farewell!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>ODE<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">ON</span><br /> +<small>LORD HAY’S BIRTH-DAY.</small></h3> + +<h4>13<small>TH MAY</small>, 1767.</h4> + +<hr /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>A</big> muse</span>, unskilled in venal praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unstained with flattery’s art;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who loves simplicity of lays<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breathed ardent from the heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While gratitude and joy inspire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resumes the long-unpractised lyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hail, <span class="smcap">O Hay</span>, thy natal Morn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No gaudy wreath of flowers she weaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But twines with oak the laurel leaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy cradle to adorn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, not on beds of gaudy flowers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thine ancestors reclined,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sloth dissolves, and spleen devours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All energy of mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hurl the dart, to ride the car,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stem the deluges of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And snatch from Fate a sinking land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trample the invader’s lofty crest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from his grasp the dagger wrest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And desolating brand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’Twas this that raised the illustrious line,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To match the first in fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand years have seen it shine<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With unabated flame:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have seen thy mighty sires appear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foremost in Glory’s high career,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pride and pattern of the brave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet, pure from lust of blood their fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from Ambition’s wild desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They triumphed but to save.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Muse with joy attends their way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The vales of peace along;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There, to its Lord the village gay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Renews the grateful song.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yon castle’s glittering towers contain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No pit of woe, nor clanking chain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor to the suppliant’s wail resound:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The open doors the needy bless.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The unfriended hail their calm recess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gladness smiles around.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There, to the sympathetic heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life’s best delights belong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To mitigate the mourner’s smart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To guard the weak from wrong.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye sons of luxury, be wise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Know, happiness for ever flies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cold and solitary breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then let the social instinct glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And learn to feel another’s woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in his joy be blessed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O yet, ere Pleasure plant her snare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For unsuspecting youth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere Flattery her song prepare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To check the voice of Truth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O may his country’s guardian power<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Attend the slumbering Infant’s bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bright, inspiring dreams impart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rouse the hereditary fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To kindle each sublime desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exalt, and warm the heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Swift to reward a parent’s fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A parent’s hopes to crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roll on in peace, ye blooming years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That rear him to renown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When, in his finished form and face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Admiring multitudes shall trace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each patrimonial charm combined;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The courteous yet majestic mien,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The liberal smile, the look serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The great and gentle mind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, though thou draw a nation’s eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And win a nation’s love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let not thy towering mind despise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The village and the grove.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No slander there shall wound thy fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No ruffian take his deadly aim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No rival weave the secret snare:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Innocence, with angel smile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Simplicity, that knows not guile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Love and Peace are there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When winds the mountain oak assail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lay its glories waste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Content may slumber in the vale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unconscious of the blast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through scenes of tumult while we roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart, alas! is ne’er at home;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It hopes in time to roam no more:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mariner, not vainly brave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Combats the storm, and rides the wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To rest, at last, on shore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye proud, ye selfish, ye severe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How vain your mask of state!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The good alone have joy sincere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The good alone are great:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Great, when, amid the vale of peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They bid the plaint of sorrow cease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hear the voice of artless praise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As, when along the trophied plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sublime they lead the victor train,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While shouting nations gaze.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span><span style="font-size: 70%">TO</span><br /> +<small>THE RIGHT HONOURABLE</small><br /> +LADY CHARLOTTE GORDON,<br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">DRESSED IN A TARTAN SCOTCH BONNET,</span><br /> +<span style="font-size: 70%">WITH FEATHERS, &c.</span></h3> + +<hr /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>W</big>hy</span>, Lady, wilt thou bind thy lovely brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the dread semblance of that warlike helm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That nodding plume, and wreath of various glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That graced the chiefs of Scotia’s antient realm?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest that virtue is of power the source,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all her magic to thy eyes is given;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We own their empire, while we feel their force,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beaming with the benignity of heaven.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The plumy helmet, and the martial mien,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Might dignify Minerva’s awful charms;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But more resistless far the Idalian queen—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smiles, graces, gentleness, her only arms.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span><span style="font-size: 70%">THE</span><br /> +HERMIT.</h3> + +<hr /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>A</big>t</span> the close of the day, when the hamlet is still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When nought but the torrent is heard on the hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nought but the nightingale’s song in the grove:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">’Twas then, by the cave of the mountain afar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Hermit his song of the night thus began;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more with himself, or with nature, at war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He thought as a sage, while he felt as a man:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Ah! why thus abandoned to darkness and woe?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Why thus, lonely Philomel, flows thy sad strain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“For spring shall return, and a lover bestow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“And thy bosom no trace of misfortune retain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Yet, if pity inspire thee, ah! cease not thy lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Mourn, sweetest complainer! man calls thee to mourn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“O sooth him, whose pleasures like thine pass away—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Full quickly they pass—but they never return.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Now gliding remote on the verge of the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The moon, half-extinguished, her crescent displays:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“But lately I marked, when majestic on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“She shone, and the planets were lost in her blaze.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Roll on, thou fair orb, and with gladness pursue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“The path that conducts thee to splendour again:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“But man’s faded glory no change shall renew—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Ah fool! to exult in a glory so vain!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“I mourn, but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for you;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“For morn is approaching, your charms to restore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Kind Nature the embryo blossom will save.—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“But when shall Spring visit the mouldering urn?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“O, when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">’Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That leads, to bewilder, and dazzles, to blind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My thoughts wont to roam, from shade onward to shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Destruction before me, and sorrow behind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“O pity, great Father of light,” then I cried,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Thy creature, who fain would not wander from Thee!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“Lo! humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">“From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And darkness and doubt are now flying away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So breaks on the traveller, faint, and astray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Nature all glowing in Eden’s first bloom!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the cold cheek of Death smiles and roses are blending,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Beauty immortal awakes from the tomb!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3>ODE TO PEACE.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></h3> + +<h4>WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1756.</h4> +<hr /> + + +<p class="stanzano">I. 1.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>P</big>eace</span>, heaven-descended maid! whose powerful voice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From antient darkness called the morn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hushed of jarring elements the noise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Chaos, from his old dominion torn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all his bellowing throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far, far was hurled the void abyss along;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the bright angelic choir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Striking, through all their ranks, the eternal lyre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Poured, in loud symphony, the impetuous strain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And every fiery orb and planet sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wide, through Night’s dark solitary reign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rebounding long and deep, the lays triumphant rung!<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">I. 2.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, whither art thou fled, Saturnian Age!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Roll round again, majestic years!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To break the sceptre of tyrannic Rage;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Woe’s wan cheek to wipe the bitter tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye years, again roll round!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hark! from afar what desolating sound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While echoes load the sighing gales,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With dire presage the throbbing heart assails!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Murder, deep-roused, with all the whirlwind’s haste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And roar of tempest, from her cavern springs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her tangled serpents girds around her waist,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smiles ghastly fierce, and shakes her gore-distilling wings.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">I. 3.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shouts, redoubling, rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thunder to the skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The nymphs, disordered, dart along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet powers of solitude and song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stunned with the horrors of discordant sound;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all is listening, trembling round.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Torrents, far heard amid the waste of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That oft have led the wanderer right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are silent at the noise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mighty Ocean’s more majestic voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drowned in superior din, is heard no more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The surge in silence seems to sweep the foamy shore.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II. 1.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The bloody banner, streaming in the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seen on yon sky-mixt mountain’s brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mingling multitudes, the madding car,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Driven in confusion to the plain below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">War’s dreadful Lord proclaim.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bursts out, by frequent fits, the expansive flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Snatched in tempestuous eddies, flies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The surging smoke o’er all the darkened skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The chearful face of heaven no more is seen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bloom of morning fades to deadly pale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bat flies transient o’er the dusky green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Night’s foul birds along the sullen twilight sail.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II. 2.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Involved in fire-streaked gloom, the car comes on.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rushing steeds grim Terror guides.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His forehead writhed to a relentless frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aloft the angry Power of Battles rides.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grasped in his mighty hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mace, tremendous, desolates the land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tower rolls headlong down the steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mountain shrinks before its wasteful sweep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chill horror the dissolving limbs invades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smit by the blasting lightning of his eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A deeper gloom invests the howling shades;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stripped is the shattered grove, and every verdure dies.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">II. 3.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How startled Phrenzy stares,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bristling her ragged hairs!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Revenge the gory fragment gnaws;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See, with her griping vulture claws<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Imprinted deep, she rends the mangled wound!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hate whirls her torch sulphureous round.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shrieks of agony, and clang of arms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Re-echo to the hoarse alarms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her trump terrific blows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Disparting from behind, the clouds disclose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of kingly gesture, a gigantic form,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That with his scourge sublime rules the careering storm.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III. 1.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ambition, outside fair! within as foul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As fiends of fiercest heart below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who ride the hurricanes of fire, that roll<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their thundering vortex o’er the realms of woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yon naked waste survey;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where late was heard the flute’s mellifluous lay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where late the rosy-bosomed hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In loose array, danced lightly o’er the flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where late the shepherd told his tender tale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, wakened by the murmuring breeze of morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The voice of chearful Labour filled the dale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And dove-eyed Plenty smiled, and waved her liberal horn.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III. 2.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yon ruins, sable from the wasting flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But mark the once resplendent dome;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The frequent corse obstructs the sullen stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ghosts glare horrid from the sylvan gloom.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How sadly silent all!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save where, outstretched beneath yon hanging wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale Famine moans with feeble breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Anguish yells, and grinds his bloody teeth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though vain the Muse, and every melting lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To touch thy heart, unconscious of remorse!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Know, monster, know, thy hour is on the way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see, I see the years begin their mighty course.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">III. 3.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What scenes of glory rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before my dazzled eyes!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Young zephyrs wave their wanton wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And melody celestial rings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All blooming on the lawn the nymphs advance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And touch the lute, and range the dance:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the blithe shepherds, on the mountain’s side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arrayed in all their rural pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exalt the festive note,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inviting Echo from her inmost grot——<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But ah! the landscape glows with fainter light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It darkens, swims, and flies for ever from my sight.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">IV. 1.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Illusions vain! Can sacred <span class="smcap">Peace</span> reside<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where sordid gold the breast alarms,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Cruelty inflames the eye of Pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Grandeur wantons in soft Pleasure’s arms?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ambition, these are thine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">These from the soul erase the form divine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And quench the animating fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That warms the bosom with sublime desire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence the relentless heart forgets to feel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Hatred triumphs on the o’erwhelming brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And midnight Rancour grasps the cruel steel;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blaze the blue flames of death, and sound the shrieks of woe.<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">IV. 2.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From Albion fled, thy once beloved retreat,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What regions brighten in thy smile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Creative <span class="smcap">Peace!</span> and underneath thy feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See sudden flowers adorn the rugged soil?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In bleak Siberia blows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waked by thy genial breath, the balmy rose?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waved over by thy magic wand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Does life inform fell Lybia’s burning sand?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or does some isle thy parting flight detain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where roves the Indian through primæval shades;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Haunts the pure pleasures of the sylvan reign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, led by Reason’s light, the path of Nature treads?<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="stanzano">IV. 3.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On Cuba’s utmost steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far leaning o’er the deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Goddess’ pensive form was seen:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her robe, of Nature’s varied green,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Waved on the gale; grief dimmed her radiant eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her bosom heaved with boding sighs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">She eyed the main; where, gaining on the view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Emerging from the ethereal blue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Midst the dread pomp of war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blazed the Iberian streamer from afar:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She saw; and, on refulgent pinions borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Slow winged her way sublime, and mingled with the morn.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3 style="line-height: 200%"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span><span style="font-size: 70%">THE</span><br /> +TRIUMPH OF MELANCHOLY.</h3> +<hr /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap"><big>M</big>emory</span>, be still! why throng upon the thought<br /></span> +<span class="i1">These scenes so deeply stained with sorrow’s dye?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is there in all thy stores no cheerful draught,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To brighten yet once more in Fancy’s eye?<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yes—from afar a landscape seems to rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Embellished by the lavish hand of spring;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thin gilded clouds float lightly through the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And laughing loves disport on fluttering wing.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How blest the youth in yonder valley laid!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">What smiles in every conscious feature play!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While, to the murmurs of the breezy glade,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">His merry pipe attunes the rural lay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hail, Innocence! whose bosom all serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Feels not, as yet, the internal tempest roll.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, ne’er may care distract thy placid mein!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ne’er may the shades of doubt o’erwhelm thy soul!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Vain wish! for lo, in gay attire concealed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Yonder she comes! the heart-inflaming fiend!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Will no kind power the helpless stripling shield!)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Swift to her destined prey see Passion bend!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O smile accurst, to hide the worst designs!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Now with blithe eye she wooes him to be blest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While round her arm, unseen, a serpent twines——<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And lo, she hurls it hissing at his breast!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And, instant, lo, his dizzy eyeball swims<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ghastly, and reddening darts a frantic glare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pain, with strong grasp, distorts his writhing limbs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Fear’s cold hand erects his frozen hair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is this, O life, is this thy boasted prime!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And does thy spring no happier prospect yield!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should the sunbeam paint thy glittering clime,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When the keen mildew desolates the field!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How memory pains! Let some gay theme beguile<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The musing mind, and sooth to soft delight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye images of woe, no more recoil!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Be life’s past scenes wrapt in oblivious night.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now when fierce Winter, armed with wasteful power,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Heaves the wild deep that thunders from afar;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How sweet to sit in this sequestered bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To hear, and but to hear, the mingling war!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ambition here displays no gilded toy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That tempts on desperate wing the soul to rise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor Pleasure’s paths to wilds of woe decoy,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor Anguish lurks in Grandeur’s proud disguise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oft has Contentment cheered this lone abode,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the mild languish of her smiling eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here Health in rosy bloom has often glowed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While loose-robed Quiet stood enamoured by.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Even the storm lulls to more profound repose;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The storm these humble walls assails in vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The shrub is sheltered, when the whirlwind blows,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While the oak’s mighty ruin strows the plain.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blow on, ye winds! Thine, Winter, be the skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And toss the infuriate surge, and vales lay waste.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nature thy temporary rage defies;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To her relief the gentler Seasons haste.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Throned in her emerald car, see Spring appear!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">(As Fancy wills, the landscape starts to view.)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her emerald car the youthful Zephyrs bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fanning her bosom with their pinions blue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Around the jocund Hours are fluttering seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And lo, her rod the rose-lip’d Power extends!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo, the lawns are decked in living green,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Beauty’s bright-eyed train from Heaven descends!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Haste, happy days, and make all Nature glad——<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But will all Nature joy at your return?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O, can ye cheer pale Sickness’ gloomy bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or dry the tears that bathe the untimely urn?<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Will ye one transient ray of gladness dart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Where groans the dungeon to the captive’s wail?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To ease tired Disappointment’s bleeding heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Will all your stores of softening balm avail!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When stern Oppression, in his harpy fangs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From Want’s weak grasp the last sad morsel bears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can ye allay the dying parent’s pangs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose infant craves relief with fruitless tears?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For ah! thy reign, Oppression, is not past.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Who from the shivering limbs the vestment rends?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lays the once rejoicing village waste,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Bursting the ties of lovers and of friends!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But hope not, Muse, vain-glorious as thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With the weak impulse of thy humble strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hope not to soften Pride’s obdurate heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When <span class="smcap">Errol</span>’s bright example shines in vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then cease the theme. Turn, Fancy, turn thine eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy weeping eye, nor further urge thy flight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy haunts, alas! no gleams of joy supply,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or transient gleams, that flash and sink in night.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet fain the mind its anguish would forego:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Spread, then, Historic Muse, thy pictured scroll;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bid the great scenes in all their splendour glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And rouse to thought sublime the exulting soul.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What mingling pomps rush on the enraptured gaze!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lo, where the gallant navy rides the deep!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here, glittering towns their spiry turrets raise,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">There, bulwarks overhang the shaggy steep.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bristling with spears, and bright with burnished shields,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The embattled legions stretch their long array;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Discord’s red torch, as fierce she scours the fields,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With bloody tincture stains the face of day.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now the hosts in silence wait the sign.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Keen are their looks whom Liberty inspires!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quick as the goddess darts along the line,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each breast impatient burns with noble fires.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Her form how graceful! In her lofty mien<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The smiles of love stern Wisdom’s frown controul;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her fearless eye, determined though serene,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Speaks the great purpose, and the unconquered soul.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mark, where Ambition leads the adverse band,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Each feature fierce and hagard, as with pain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With menace loud he cries, while from his hand<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He vainly strives to wipe the crimson stain.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo, at his call, impetuous as the storms,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Headlong to deeds of death the hosts are driven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hatred, to madness wrought, each face deforms,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Mounts the black whirlwind, and involves the heaven.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now, Virtue, now thy powerful succour lend,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Shield them, for Liberty who dare to die——<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, Liberty! will none thy cause befriend!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Are those thy sons, thy generous sons, that fly!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not Virtue’s self, when Heaven its aid denies,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Can brace the loosened nerves, or warm the heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not Virtue’s self can still the burst of sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">When festers in the soul misfortune’s dart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">See, where by terror and despair dismayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The scattering legions pour along the plain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ambition’s car, in bloody spoils arrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Hews its broad way, as Vengeance guides the rein.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But who is He, that, by yon lonely brook,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With woods o’erhung, and precipices rude,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lies all abandoned, yet, with dauntless look,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sees streaming from his breast the purple flood?<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, <span class="smcap">Brutus</span>! ever thine be Virtue’s tear!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Lo, his dim eyes to Liberty he turns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As, scarce supported on her broken spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">O’er her expiring son the goddess mourns.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Loose to the wind her azure mantle flies;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">From her dishevelled locks she rends the plume;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No lustre lightens in her weeping eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And on her tear-stained cheek no roses bloom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Meanwhile the world, Ambition, owns thy sway;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Fame’s loudest trumpet labours with thy name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thee the Muse awakes her sweetest lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And Flattery bids for thee her altars flame.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor in life’s lofty bustling sphere alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The sphere where monarchs and where heroes toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sink Virtue’s sons beneath Misfortune’s frown,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">While Guilt’s thrilled bosom leaps at Pleasure’s smile:<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Full oft, where Solitude and Silence dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Far, far remote, amid the lowly plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resounds the voice of Woe from Virtue’s cell:<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Such is man’s doom; and Pity weeps in vain.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Still grief recoils—How vainly have I strove,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thy power, O Melancholy, to withstand!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tired I submit; but yet, O yet remove,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or ease the pressure of thy heavy hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet, for a while, let the bewildered soul<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Find in society relief from woe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O yield, a while, to Friendship’s soft controul;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Some respite, Friendship, wilt thou not bestow?<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come then, <span class="smcap">Philander</span>! whose exalted mind<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Looks down from far on all that charms the great;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thou canst bear, unshaken and resigned,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The brightest smiles, the blackest frowns of Fate!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come thou, whose love unlimited, sincere,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor faction cools, nor injury destroys;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who lend’st to Misery’s moan a pitying ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And feel’st with ecstasy another’s joys:<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who know’st man’s frailty, with a favouring eye<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And melting heart, behold’st a brother’s fall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, unenslaved by Fashion’s narrow tye,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With manly freedom follow’st Nature’s call.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And bring thy <span class="smcap">Delia</span>, sweetly-smiling fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whose spotless soul no rankling thoughts deform;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her gentle accents calm each throbbing care,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">And harmonize the thunder of the storm.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though blest with wisdom, and with wit refined,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">She courts no homage, nor desires to shine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In her each sentiment sublime is joined<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To female softness, and a form divine.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Come, and disperse the involving shadows drear;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Let chastened mirth the social hours employ.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O catch the swift-winged moment while ’tis near—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">On swiftest wing the moment flies of joy.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Even while the careless disencumbered soul<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Sinks, all dissolving, into pleasure’s dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even then to time’s tremendous verge we roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With headlong haste, along life’s surgey stream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Can gaiety the vanished years restore,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or on the withering limbs fresh beauty shed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or soothe the sad <small>INEVITABLE HOUR</small>,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Or cheer the dark, dark mansions of the dead?<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Still sounds the solemn knell, in Fancy’s ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">That called <span class="smcap">Eliza</span> to the silent tomb;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With her how jocund rolled the sprightly year!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How shone the nymph in beauty’s brightest bloom!<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah! Beauty’s bloom avails not in the grave!<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Youth’s lofty mien, nor Age’s awful grace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moulder alike unknown the prince and slave,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whelmed in the enormous wreck of human race.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The thought-fixed portraiture, the breathing bust,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The arch with proud memorials arrayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The long-lived pyramid shall sink in dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">To dumb Oblivion’s ever desert shade.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fancy from joy still wanders far astray.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Ah Melancholy, how I feel thy power!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long have I laboured to elude thy sway—<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But ’tis enough, for I resist no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i1"> <br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The traveller thus, that o’er the midnight waste,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Through many a lonesome path is doomed to roam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wildered and weary sits him down at last;<br /></span> +<span class="i1">For long the night, and distant far his home.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p class="center" style="padding-top: 4em; font-size: 80%">FINIS.</p> + +<p class="center" style="padding-top: 2em; font-size: 80%">EDINBURGH:<br /> + +Printed by <span class="smcap">James Ballantyne</span>.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Minstrel; or the Progress of Genius, by +James Beattie + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINSTREL; PROGRESS OF GENIUS *** + +***** This file should be named 27221-h.htm or 27221-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/2/2/27221/ + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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