THE GOLDEN TREASURY

OF THE BEST SONGS AND LYRICAL PIECES

IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

BY

VARIOUS AUTHORS

SELECTED BY FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE

1861

The Golden Treasury By Various Authors.

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CONTENTS

Dedication To Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate

Preface

First Book

Second Book

Third Book

Fourth Book

Palgrave's Notes

DEDICATION TO ALFRED TENNYSON, POET LAUREATE

This book in its progress has recalled often to my memory a man with whose friendship we were once honoured, to whom no region of English literature was unfamiliar, and who, whilst rich in all the noble gifts of nature, was most eminently distinguished by the noblest and the rarest,—just judgment and high-hearted patriotism. It would have been hence a peculiar pleasure and pride to dedicate what I have endeavoured to make a true national Anthology of three centuries to Henry Hallam. But he is beyond the reach of any human tokens of love and reverence; and I desire therefore to place before it a name united with his by associations which, whilst Poetry retains her hold on the minds of Englishmen, are not likely to be forgotten.

Your encouragement, given while traversing the wild scenery of Treryn Dinas, led me to begin the work; and it has been completed under your advice and assistance. For the favour now asked I have thus a second reason: and to this I may add, the homage which is your right as Poet, and the gratitude due to a Friend, whose regard I rate at no common value.

Permit me then to inscribe to yourself a book which, I hope, may be found by many a lifelong fountain of innocent and exalted pleasure; a source of animation to friends when they meet; and able to sweeten solitude itself with best society,—with the companionship of the wise and the good, with the beauty which the eye cannot see, and the music only heard in silence. If this Collection proves a store-house of delight to Labour and to Poverty,—if it teaches those indifferent to the Poets to love them, and those who love them to love them more, the aim and the desire entertained in framing it will be fully accomplished.

F.T.P. May, 1861.

PREFACE

This little Collection differs, it is believed, from others in the attempt made to include in it all the best original Lyrical pieces and Songs in our language, by writers not living,—and none beside the best. Many familiar verses will hence be met with; many also which should be familiar:—the Editor will regard as his fittest readers those who love Poetry so well, that he can offer them nothing not already known and valued. For those who take up the book in a serious and scholarly spirit, the following remarks on the plan and the execution are added.

The Editor is acquainted with no strict and exhaustive definition of Lyrical Poetry; but he has found the task of practical decision increase in clearness and in facility as he advanced with the work, whilst keeping in view a few simple principles. Lyrical has been here held essentially to imply that each Poem shall turn on some single thought, feeling, or situation. In accordance with this, narrative, descriptive, and didactic poems,—unless accompanied by rapidity of movement, brevity, and the colouring of human passion,—have been excluded. Humorous poetry, except in the very unfrequent instances where a truly poetical tone pervades the whole, with what is strictly personal, occasional, and religious, has been considered foreign to the idea of the book. Blank verse and the ten-syllable couplet, with all pieces markedly dramatic, have been rejected as alien from what is commonly understood by Song, and rarely conforming to Lyrical conditions in treatment. But it is not anticipated, nor is it possible, that all readers shall think the line accurately drawn. Some poems, as Gray's Elegy, the Allegro and Penseroso, Wordsworth's Ruth or Campbell's Lord Ullin, might be claimed with perhaps equal justice for a narrative or descriptive selection: whilst with reference especially to Ballads and Sonnets, the Editor can only state that he has taken his utmost pains to decide without caprice or partiality.

This also is all he can plead in regard to a point even more liable to question;—what degree of merit should give rank among the Best. That a Poem shall be worthy of the writer's genius,—that it shall reach a perfection commensurate with its aim,—that we should require finish in proportion to brevity,—that passion, colour, and originality cannot atone for serious imperfections in clearness, unity, or truth,—that a few good lines do not make a good poem,—that popular estimate is serviceable as a guidepost more than as a compass,—above all, that Excellence should be looked for rather in the Whole than in the Parts,—such and other such canons have been always steadily regarded. He may however add that the pieces chosen, and a far larger number rejected, have been carefully and repeatedly considered; and that he has been aided throughout by two friends of independent and exercised judgment, besides the distinguished person addressed in the Dedication. It is hoped that by this procedure the volume has been freed from that one-sidedness which must beset individual decisions:—but for the final choice the Editor is alone responsible.

Chalmers' vast collection, with the whole works of all accessible poets not contained in it, and the best Anthologies of different periods, have been twice systematically read through: and it is hence improbable that any omissions which may be regretted are due to oversight. The poems are printed entire, except in a very few instances (specified in the notes) where a stanza has been omitted. The omissions have been risked only when the piece could be thus brought to a closer lyrical unity: and, as essentially opposed to this unity, extracts, obviously such, are excluded. In regard to the text, the purpose of the book has appeared to justify the choice of the most poetical version, wherever more than one exists: and much labour has been given to present each poem, in disposition, spelling, and punctuation, to the greatest advantage.

In the arrangement, the most poetically effective order has been attempted. The English mind has passed through phases of thought and cultivation so various and so opposed during these three centuries of Poetry, that a rapid passage between Old and New, like rapid alteration of the eye's focus in looking at the landscape, will always be wearisome and hurtful to the sense of Beauty. The poems have been therefore distributed into Books corresponding, I. to the ninety years closing about 1616, II. thence to 1700, III. to 1800, IV. to the half century just ended. Or, looking at the Poets who more or less give each portion its distinctive character, they might be called the Books of Shakespeare, Milton, Gray, and Wordsworth. The volume, in this respect, so far as the limitations of its range allow, accurately reflects the natural growth and evolution of our Poetry. A rigidly chronological sequence, however, rather fits a collection aiming at instruction than at pleasure, and the Wisdom which comes through Pleasure:—within each book the pieces have therefore been arranged in gradations of feeling or subject. The development of the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven has been here thought of as a model, and nothing placed without careful consideration. And it is hoped that the contents of this Anthology will thus be found to present a certain unity, "as episodes," in the noble language of Shelley, "to that great Poem which all poets, like the co-operating thoughts of one great mind, have built up since the beginning of the world."

As he closes his long survey, the Editor trusts he may add without egotism, that he has found the vague general verdict of popular Fame more just than those have thought, who, with too severe a criticism, would confine judgments on Poetry to "the selected few of many generations." Not many appear to have gained reputation without some gift or performance that, in due degree, deserved it: and if no verses by certain writers who show less strength than sweetness, or more thought than mastery in expression, are printed in this volume, it should not be imagined that they have been excluded without much hesitation and regret,—far less that they have been slighted. Throughout this vast and pathetic array of Singers now silent, few have been honoured with the name Poet, and have not possessed a skill in words, a sympathy with beauty, a tenderness of feeling, or seriousness in reflection, which render their works, although never perhaps attaining that loftier and finer excellence here required,—better worth reading than much of what fills the scanty hours that most men spare for self-improvement, or for pleasure in any of its more elevated and permanent forms.

And if this be true of even mediocre poetry, for how much more are we indebted to the best! Like the fabled fountain of the Azores, but with a more various power, the magic of this Art can confer on each period of life its appropriate blessing: on early years Experience, on maturity Calm, on age Youthfulness. Poetry gives treasures "more golden than gold," leading us in higher and healthier ways than those of the world, and interpreting to us the lessons of Nature. But she speaks best for herself. Her true accents, if the plan has been executed with success, may be heard throughout the following pages:-wherever the Poets of England are honoured, wherever the dominant language of the world is spoken, it is hoped that they will find fit audience.

F. T. PALGRAVE.

FIRST BOOK

Summary

The Elizabethan Poetry, as it is rather vaguely termed, forms the substance of this Book, which contains pieces from Wyat under Henry VIII. to Shakespeare midway through the reign of James I., and Drummond who carried on the early manner to a still later period. There is here a wide range of style;—from simplicity expressed in a language hardly yet broken in to verse,—through the pastoral fancies and Italian conceits of the strictly Elizabethan time,—to the passionate reality of Shakespeare: yet a general uniformity of tone prevails. Few readers can fail to observe the natural sweetness of the verse, the single-hearted straightforwardness of the thoughts:—nor less, the limitation of subject to the many phases of one passion, which then characterised our lyrical poetry,—unless when, as with Drummond and Shakespeare, the "purple light of Love" is tempered by a spirit of sterner reflection.

It should be observed that this and the following Summaries apply in the main to the Collection here presented, in which (besides its restriction to Lyrical Poetry) a strictly representative or historical Anthology has not been aimed at. Great Excellence, in human art as in human character, has from the beginning of things been even more uniform than Mediocrity, by virtue of the closeness of its approach to Nature:—and so far as the standard of Excellence kept in view has been attained in this volume, a comparative absence of extreme or temporary phases in style, a similarity of tone and manner, will be found throughout:—something neither modern nor ancient but true in all ages, and like the works of Creation perfect as on the first day.

1. SPRING.

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

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

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,

And we hear aye birds tune their merry lay,

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,

In every street these tunes our ears do greet,

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

Spring, the sweet Spring!

T. NASH.

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2. SUMMONS TO LOVE.

Phoebus, arise!

And paint the sable skies

With azure, white, and red:

Rouse Memnon's mother from her Tithon's bed

That she may thy career with roses spread:

The nightingales thy coming eachwhere sing:

Make an eternal spring!

Give life to this dark world which lieth dead;

Spread forth thy golden hair

In larger locks than thou wast wont before,

And emperor-like decore

With diadem of pearl thy temples fair:

Chase hence the ugly night

Which serves but to make dear thy glorious light.

—This is that happy morn,

That day, long wishéd day

Of all my life so dark,

(If cruel stars have not my ruin sworn

And fates not hope betray),

Which, purely white, deserves

An everlasting diamond should it mark.

This is the morn should bring unto this grove

My Love, to hear and recompense my love.

Fair King, who all preserves,

But show thy blushing beams,

And thou two sweeter eyes

Shalt see than those which by Penéus' streams

Did once thy heart surprize.

Now, Flora, deck thyself in fairest guise:

If that ye winds would hear

A voice surpassing far Amphion's lyre,

Your furious chiding stay;

Let Zephyr only breathe

And with her tresses play.

—The winds all silent are,

And Phoebus in his chair

Ensaffroning sea and air

Makes vanish every star:

Night like a drunkard reels

Beyond the hills, to shun his flaming wheels:

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

The clouds with orient gold spangle their blue;

Here is the pleasant place—

And nothing wanting is, save She, alas.

WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN.

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3. TIME AND LOVE.

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced

The rich proud cost of out-worn buried age;

When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,

And brass eternal slave to mortal rage.

When I have seen the hungry ocean gain

Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,

And the firm soil win of the watery main,

Increasing store with loss, and loss with store.

When I have seen such interchange of state,

Or state itself confounded to decay,

Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate—

That Time will come and take my Love away.

—This thought is as a death, which cannot choose

But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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4.

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

But sad mortality o'ersways their power,

How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,

Whose action is no stronger than a flower?

O how shall summer's honey breath hold out,

Against the wreckful siege of battering days,

When rocks impregnable are not so stout,

Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays?

O fearful meditation, where, alack!

Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?

Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,

Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?

O! none, unless this miracle have might,

That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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5. THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.

Come live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dale and field,

And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks

And see the shepherds feed their flocks

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool,

Which from our pretty lambs we pull,

Fair-lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy-buds

With coral clasps and amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat

As precious as the gods do eat,

Shall on an ivory table be

Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my Love.

C. MARLOWE.

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6. A MADRIGAL.

Crabbed Age and Youth

Cannot live together:

Youth is full of pleasance,

Age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn,

Age like winter weather;

Youth like summer brave,

Age like winter bare:

Youth is full of sport,

Age's breath is short,

Youth is nimble, Age is lame:

Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold;

Youth is wild, and Age is tame:—

Age, I do abhor thee,

Youth, I do adore thee;

O! my Love, my Love is young!

Age, I do defy thee—

O, sweet shepherd, hie thee,

For methinks thou stay'st too long.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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7.

Under the greenwood tree

Who loves to lie with me,

And tune his merry note

Unto the sweet bird's throat—

Come hither, come hither, come hither!

Here shall we see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun

And loves to live i' the sun,

Seeking the food he eats

And pleased with what he gets—

Come hither, come hither, come hither!

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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8.

It was a lover and his lass

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonino!

That o'er the green cornfield did pass,

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing hey ding a ding:

Sweet lovers love the Spring.

Between the acres of the rye

These pretty country folks would lie:

This carol they began that hour,

How that life was but a flower:

And therefore take the present time

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonino!

For love is crownéd with the prime

In spring time, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding;

Sweet lovers love the Spring.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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9. PRESENT IN ABSENCE.

Absence, hear thou my protestation

Against thy strength,

Distance, and length:

Do what thou canst for alteration:

For hearts of truest mettle

Absence doth join, and Time doth settle.

Who loves a mistress of such quality,

He soon hath found

Affection's ground

Beyond time, place, and all mortality.

To hearts that cannot vary

Absence is Presence, Time doth tarry.

By absence this good means I gain,

That I can catch her,

Where none can watch her,

In some close corner of my brain:

There I embrace and kiss her,

And so I both enjoy and miss her.

ANON.

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10. ABSENCE.

Being your slave what should I do but tend

Upon the hours and times of your desire?

I have no precious time at all to spend,

Nor services to do, till you require:

Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour

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

Nor think the bitterness of absence sour

When you have bid your servant once adieu:

Nor dare I question with my jealous thought

Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,

But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought

Save where you are, how happy you make those;—

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

Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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11.

How like a winter hath my absence been

From Thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,

What old December's bareness everywhere!

And yet this time removed was summer's time:

The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,

Bearing the wanton burden of the prime

Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:

Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me

But hope of orphans, and unfather'd fruit;

For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And, thou away, the very birds are mute;

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

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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12. A CONSOLATION.

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate;

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possest,

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

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,

Haply I think on Thee—and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

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

For thy sweet love remember'd, such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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13. THE UNCHANGEABLE.

O never say that I was false of heart,

Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify:

As easy might I from my self depart

As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie;

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

Like him that travels, I return again,

Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,

So that myself bring water for my stain.

Never believe, though in my nature reign'd

All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,

That it could so preposterously be stain'd

To leave for nothing all thy sum of good:

For nothing this wide universe I call,

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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14.

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

For as you were when first your eye I eyed

Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold

Have from the forests shook three summers' pride;

Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd,

In process of the seasons have I seen,

Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,

Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green.

Ah! yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,

Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;

So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,

Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:

For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred,—

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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15. DIAPHENIA.

Diaphenia like the daffadowndilly,

White as the sun, fair as the lily,

Heigh ho, how do I love thee!

I do love thee as my lambs

Are belovéd of their dams;

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

Diaphenia like the spreading roses,

That in thy sweets all sweets encloses,

Fair sweet, how do I love thee!

I do love thee as each flower

Loves the sun's life-giving power;

For dead, thy breath to life might move me.

Diaphenia like to all things blesséd

When all thy praises are expresséd,

Dear joy, how do I love thee!

As the birds do love the spring,

Or the bees their careful king:

Then in requite, sweet virgin, love me!

H. CONSTABLE.

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16. ROSALINE.

Like to the clear in highest sphere

Where all imperial glory shines,

Of selfsame colour is her hair

Whether unfolded, or in twines:

Heigh ho, fair Rosaline!

Her eyes are sapphires set in snow,

Resembling heaven by every wink;

The Gods do fear whenas they glow,

And I do tremble when I think

Heigh ho, would she were mine!

Her cheeks are like the blushing cloud

That beautifies Aurora's face,

Or like the silver crimson shroud

That Phoebus' smiling looks doth grace;

Heigh ho, fair Rosaline!

Her lips are like two budded roses

Whom ranks of lilies neighbour nigh,

Within which bounds she balm encloses

Apt to entice a deity:

Heigh ho, would she were mine!

Her neck like to a stately tower

Where Love himself imprison'd lies,

To watch for glances every hour

From her divine and sacred eyes:

Heigh ho, fair Rosaline!

Her paps are centres of delight,

Her breasts are orbs of heavenly frame,

Where Nature moulds the dew of light

To feed perfection with the same:

Heigh ho, would she were mine!

With orient pearl, with ruby red,

With marble white, with sapphire blue,

Her body every way is fed,

Yet soft in touch and sweet in view:

Heigh ho, fair Rosaline!

Nature herself her shape admires;

The Gods are wounded in her sight;

And Love forsakes his heavenly fires

And at her eyes his brand doth light:

Heigh ho, would she were mine!

Then muse not, Nymphs, though I bemoan

The absence of fair Rosaline,

Since for a fair there's fairer none,

Nor for her virtues so divine:

Heigh ho, fair Rosaline!

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

T. LODGE.

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17. COLIN.

Beauty sat bathing by a spring

Where fairest shades did hide her;

The winds blew calm, the birds did sing,

The cool streams ran beside her.

My wanton thoughts enticed mine eye

To see what was forbidden:

But better memory said, fie!

So vain desire was chidden:—

Hey nonny nonny O!

Hey nonny nonny!

Into a slumber then I fell,

When fond imagination

Seeméd to see, but could not tell

Her feature or her fashion.

But ev'n as babes in dreams do smile,

And sometimes fall a-weeping,

So I awaked as wise this while

As when I fell a-sleeping:—

Hey nonny nonny O!

Hey nonny nonny!

THE SHEPHERD TONIE.

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18. TO HIS LOVE.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

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

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

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

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest.

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

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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19. TO HIS LOVE.

When in the chronicle of wasted time

I see descriptions of the fairest wights,

And beauty making beautiful old rhyme

In praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights;

Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best

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

I see their antique pen would have exprest

Ev'n such a beauty as you master now.

So all their praises are but prophecies

Of this our time, all, you prefiguring;

And for they look'd but with divining eyes,

They had not skill enough your worth to sing:

For we, which now behold these present days,

Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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20. LOVE'S PERJURIES.

On a day, alack the day!

Love, whose month is ever May,

Spied a blossom passing fair

Playing in the wanton air:

Through the velvet leaves the wind

All unseen 'gan passage find;

That the lover, sick to death,

Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.

Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;

Air, would I might triumph so!

But, alack, my hand is sworn

Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:

Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;

Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.

Do not call it sin in me

That I am forsworn for thee:

Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear

Juno but an Ethiope were,

And deny himself for Jove,

Turning mortal for thy love.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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21. A SUPPLICATION.

Forget not yet the tried intent

Of such a truth as I have meant;

My great travail so gladly spent,

Forget not yet!

Forget not yet when first began

The weary life ye know, since whan

The suit, the service, none tell can;

Forget not yet!

Forget not yet the great assays,

The cruel wrong, the scornful ways,

The painful patience in delays,

Forget not yet!

Forget not! O, forget not this,

How long ago hath been, and is

The mind that never meant amiss—

Forget not yet!

Forget not then thine own approved

The which so long hath thee so loved,

Whose steadfast faith yet never moved—

Forget not this!

SIR T. WYAT.

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22. TO AURORA.

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

And dost prejudge thy bliss, and spoil thy rest;

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

And thy relenting heart would kindly warm.

O if thy pride did not our joys controul,

What world of loving wonders should'st thou see!

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

Then in thy bosom I would pour my soul;

Then all my thoughts should in thy visage shine,

And if that aught mischanced thou should'st not moan

Nor bear the burthen of thy griefs alone;

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

And whilst we thus should make our sorrows one,

This happy harmony would make them none.

W. ALEXANDER, EARL OF STERLINE.

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23. TRUE LOVE.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:—

O no! it is an ever-fixéd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark

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

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

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

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

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

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24. A DITTY.

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

By just exchange one to the other given:

I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,

There never was a better bargain driven:

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

His heart in me keeps him and me in one,

My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:

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

I cherish his because in me it bides:

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

SIR P. SIDNEY.

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25. LOVE'S OMNIPRESENCE.

Were I as base as is the lowly plain,

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

Yet should the thoughts of me your humble swain

Ascend to heaven, in honour of my Love.

Were I as high as heaven above the plain,

And you, my Love, as humble and as low

As are the deepest bottoms of the main,

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

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

My love should shine on you like to the sun,

And look upon you with ten thousand eyes

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

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

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

J. SYLVESTER.

***************************

26. CARPE DIEM.

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?

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

That can sing both high and low;

Trip no further, pretty sweeting,

Journeys end in lovers' meeting—

Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure:

In delay there lies no plenty,—

Then come kiss me, Sweet-and-twenty,

Youth's a stuff will not endure.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

27. WINTER.

When icicles hang by the wall

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,

And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail;

When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,

Then nightly sings the staring owl

Tuwhoo!

Tuwhit! Tuwhoo! A merry note!

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all around the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson's saw,

And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw:

When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl—

Then nightly sings the staring owl

Tuwhoo!

Tuwhit! Tuwhoo! A merry note!

While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

28.

That time of year thou may'st in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

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

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

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

In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

—This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

29. REMEMBRANCE.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

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

Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,

For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,

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

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

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,

And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er

The sad account of fore-bemoanéd moan,

Which I new pay as if not paid before:

—But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restored, and sorrows end.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

30. REVOLUTIONS.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore

So do our minutes hasten to their end;

Each changing place with that which goes before,

In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

Nativity once in the main of light

Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,

Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,

And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound.

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,

And delves the parallels in beauty's brow;

Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,

And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.

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

Praising Thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

31.

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,

And like enough thou know'st thy estimate:

The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing,

My bonds in thee are all determinate.

For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?

And for that riches where is my deserving?

The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,

And so my patent back again is swerving.

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

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

So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,

Comes home again, on better judgement making.

Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter;

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

32. THE LIFE WITHOUT PASSION.

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

That do not do the thing they most do show,

Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,

Unmovéd, cold, and to temptation slow,—

They rightly do inherit Heaven's graces,

And husband nature's riches from expense;

They are the lords and owners of their faces,

Others, but stewards of their excellence.

The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,

Though to itself it only live and die;

But if that flower with base infection meet,

The basest weed outbraves his dignity:

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

33. THE LOVER'S APPEAL.

And wilt thou leave me thus?

Say nay! say nay! for shame,

To save thee from the blame

Of all my grief and grame.

And wilt thou leave me thus?

Say nay! say nay!

And wilt thou leave me thus,

That hath loved thee so long

In wealth and woe among:

And is thy heart so strong

As for to leave me thus?

Say nay! say nay!

And wilt thou leave me thus,

That hath given thee my heart

Never for to depart

Neither for pain nor smart:

And wilt thou leave me thus?

Say nay! say nay!

And wilt thou leave me thus,

And have no more pity

Of him that loveth thee?

Alas! thy cruelty!

And wilt thou leave me thus?

Say nay! say nay!

SIR T. WYAT.

***************************

34. THE NIGHTINGALE.

As it fell upon a day

In the merry month of May,

Sitting in a pleasant shade

Which a grove of myrtles made,

Beasts did leap and birds did sing,

Trees did grow and plants did spring,

Every thing did banish moan

Save the Nightingale alone.

She, poor bird, as all forlorn,

Lean'd her breast against a thorn,

And there sung the dolefullest ditty,

That to hear it was great pity.

Fie, fie, fie, now would she cry;

Tereu, tereu, by and by:

That to hear her so complain

Scarce I could from tears refrain;

For her griefs so lively shown

Made me think upon mine own.

—Ah! thought I, thou mourn'st in vain,

None takes pity on thy pain:

Senseless trees, they cannot hear thee,

Ruthless beasts, they will not cheer thee;

King Pandion, he is dead,

All thy friends are lapp'd in lead:

All thy fellow birds do sing

Careless of thy sorrowing:

Even so, poor bird, like thee,

None alive will pity me.

R. BARNEFIELD.

***************************

35.

Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,

Brother to Death, in silent darkness born,

Relieve my anguish, and restore the light;

With dark forgetting of my care return.

And let the day be time enough to mourn

The shipwreck of my ill adventured youth:

Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn,

Without the torment of the night's untruth.

Cease, dreams, the images of day-desires,

To model forth the passions of the morrow;

Never let rising Sun approve you liars

To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow:

Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain,

And never wake to feel the day's disdain.

S. DANIEL.

***************************

36. MADRIGAL.

Take O take those lips away

That so sweetly were forsworn,

And those eyes, the break of day,

Lights that do mislead the morn:

But my kisses bring again,

Bring again—

Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,

Seal'd in vain!

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

37. LOVE'S FAREWELL.

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

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

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

That thus so cleanly I myself can free;

Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,

And when we meet at any time again,

Be it not seen in either of our brows

That we one jot of former love retain.

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

When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,

When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,

And innocence is closing up his eyes,

—Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,

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

M. DRAYTON.

***************************

38. TO HIS LUTE.

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

With thy green mother in some shady grove,

When immelodious winds but made thee move,

And birds their ramage did on thee bestow.

Since that dear Voice which did thy sounds approve,

Which wont in such harmonious strains to flow,

Is reft from Earth to tune those spheres above,

What art thou but a harbinger of woe?

Thy pleasing notes be pleasing notes no more,

But orphan's wailings to the fainting ear;

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

For which be silent as in woods before:

Or if that any hand to touch thee deign,

Like widow'd turtle still her loss complain.

W. DRUMMOND.

***************************

39. BLIND LOVE.

O me! what eyes hath love put in my head

Which have no correspondence with true sight:

Or if they have, where is my judgment fled

That censures falsely what they see aright?

If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,

What means the world to say it is not so?

If it be not, then love doth well denote,

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

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

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

No marvel then though I mistake my view:

The sun itself sees not till heaven clears.

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

Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find!

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

40. THE UNFAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS.

While that the sun with his beams hot

Scorchéd the fruits in vale and mountain,

Philon the shepherd, late forgot,

Sitting beside a crystal fountain,

In shadow of a green oak tree

Upon his pipe this song play'd he:

Adieu Love, adieu Love, untrue Love,

Untrue Love, untrue Love, adieu Love;

Your mind is light, soon lost for new love.

So long as I was in your sight

I was your heart, your soul, and treasure;

And evermore you sobb'd and sigh'd

Burning in flames beyond all measure:

—Three days endured your love to me,

And it was lost in other three!

Adieu Love, adieu Love, untrue Love,

Untrue Love, untrue Love, adieu Love;

Your mind is light, soon lost for new love.

Another Shepherd you did see

To whom your heart was soon enchainéd;

Full soon your love was leapt from me,

Full soon my place he had obtainéd.

Soon came a third, your love to win,

And we were out and he was in.

Adieu Love, adieu Love, untrue Love,

Untrue Love, untrue Love, adieu Love;

Your mind is light, soon lost for new love.

Sure you have made me passing glad

That you your mind so soon removéd,

Before that I the leisure had

To choose you for my best belovéd:

For all your love was past and done

Two days before it was begun:—

Adieu Love, adieu Love, untrue Love,

Untrue Love, untrue Love, adieu Love;

Your mind is light, soon lost for new love.

ANON.

***************************

41. A RENUNCIATION.

If women could be fair, and yet not fond,

Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,

I would not marvel that they make men bond

By service long to purchase their good will;

But when I see how frail those creatures are,

I muse that men forget themselves so far.

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

How oft from Phoebus they do flee to Pan;

Unsettled still, like haggards wild they range,

These gentle birds that fly from man to man;

Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist,

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

Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,

To pass the time when nothing else can please,

And train them to our lure with subtle oath,

Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease;

And then we say when we their fancy try,

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

E. VERE, EARL OF OXFORD.

***************************

42.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

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

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then, heigh ho! the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,

Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remember'd not.

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

Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

43. MADRIGAL.

My thoughts hold mortal strife;

I do detest my life,

And with lamenting cries

Peace to my soul to bring

Oft call that prince which here doth monarchise:

—But he, grim grinning King,

Who caitiffs scorns, and doth the blest surprise,

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

Disdains to crop a weed, and will not come.

W. DRUMMOND.

***************************

44. DIRGE OF LOVE.

Come away, come away, Death,

And in sad cypres let me be laid;

Fly away, fly away, breath;

I am slain by a fair cruel maid.

My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,

O prepare it!

My part of death no one so true

Did share it.

Not a flower, not a flower sweet,

On my black coffin let there be strown;

Not a friend, not a friend greet

My poor corpse, where my bones shall thrown:

A thousand thousand sighs to save,

Lay me, O where

Sad true lover never find my grave,

To weep there.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

45. FIDELE.

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,

Nor the furious winter's rages:

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Fear no more the frown o' the great,

Thou art past the tyrant's stroke;

Care no more to clothe and eat;

To thee the reed is as the oak:

The sceptre, learning, physic, must

All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning flash

Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;

Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finish'd joy and moan:

All lovers young, all lovers must

Consign to thee, and come to dust.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

46. A SEA DIRGE.

Full fathom five thy father lies:

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange;

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

Hark! now I hear them,—

Ding, dong, Bell.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

47. A LAND DIRGE.

Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,

Since o'er shady groves they hover

And with leaves and flowers do cover

The friendless bodies of unburied men.

Call unto his funeral dole

The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole

To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm

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

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

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

J. WEBSTER.

***************************

48. POST MORTEM.

If Thou survive my well-contented day

When that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover,

And shalt by fortune once more re-survey

These poor rude lines of thy deceaséd lover:

Compare them with the bettering of the time,

And though they be outstripp'd by every pen,

Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme

Exceeded by the height of happier men.

O then vouchsafe me but this loving thought—

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

A dearer birth than this his love had brought,

To march in ranks of better equipage:

But since he died, and poets better prove,

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

49. THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH.

No longer mourn for me when I am dead

Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell

Give warning to the world, that I am fled

From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell;

Nay, if you read this line, remember not

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

That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot

If thinking on me then should make you woe.

O if, I say, you look upon this verse

When I perhaps compounded am with clay

Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,

But let your love even with my life decay;

Lest the wise world should look into your moan,

And mock you with me after I am gone.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

50. MADRIGAL.

Tell me where is Fancy bred,

Or in the heart or in the head?

How begot, how nourishéd?

Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes,

With gazing fed; and Fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies:

Let us all ring fancy's knell;

I'll begin it,—Ding, dong, bell.

—Ding, dong, bell.

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

51. CUPID AND CAMPASPE.

Cupid and my Campaspe play'd

At cards for kisses; Cupid paid:

He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows,

His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;

Loses them too; then down he throws

The coral of his lip, the rose

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

With these, the crystal of his brow,

And then the dimple on his chin;

All these did my Campaspe win:

At last he set her both his eyes—

She won, and Cupid blind did rise.

O Love! has she done this to thee?

What shall, alas! become of me?

J. LYLYE.

***************************

52.

Pack, clouds, away, and welcome day,

With night we banish sorrow;

Sweet air blow soft, mount larks aloft

To give my Love good-morrow!

Wings from the wind to please her mind,

Notes from the lark I'll borrow;

Bird, prune thy wing, nightingale sing,

To give my Love good-morrow;

To give my Love good-morrow

Notes from them both I'll borrow.

Wake from thy nest, Robin-redbreast!

Sing, birds, in every furrow;

And from each hill, let music shrill

Give my fair Love good-morrow!

Blackbird and thrush in every bush,

Stare, linnet, and cock-sparrow!

You pretty elves, amongst yourselves

Sing my fair Love good-morrow;

To give my Love good-morrow

Sing birds, in every furrow!

T. HEYWOOD.

***************************

53. PROTHALAMION.

Calm was the day, and through the trembling air

Sweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play—

A gentle spirit, that lightly did delay

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

When I, (whom sullen care,

Through discontent of my long fruitless stay

In princes' court, and expectation vain

Of idle hopes, which still do fly away

Like empty shadows, did afflict my brain)

Walk'd forth to ease my pain

Along the shore of silver-streaming Thames;

Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems,

Was painted all with variable flowers,

And all the meads adorn'd with dainty gems

Fit to deck maidens' bowers,

And crown their paramours

Against the bridal day, which is not long:

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

There in a meadow by the river's side,

A flock of nymphs I chancéd to espy,

All lovely daughters of the flood thereby,

With goodly greenish locks all loose untied

As each had been a bride;

And each one had a little wicker basket

Made of fine twigs, entrailéd curiously,

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

And with fine fingers cropt full feateously

The tender stalks on high.

Of every sort which in that meadow grew

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

The little daisy that at evening closes,

The virgin lily and the primrose true:

With store of vermeil roses,

To deck their bridegrooms' posies

Against the bridal day, which was not long:

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

With that I saw two swans of goodly hue

Come softly swimming down along the lee;

Two fairer birds I yet did never see;

The snow which doth the top of Pindus strow,

Did never whiter show,

Nor Jove himself, when he a swan would be

For love of Leda, whiter did appear;

Yet Leda was (they say) as white as he,

Yet not so white as these, nor nothing near;

So purely white they were,

That even the gentle stream, the which them bare,

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

To wet their silken feathers, lest they might

Soil their fair plumes with water not so fair,

And mar their beauties bright

That shone as Heaven's light

Against their bridal day, which was not long:

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

Eftsoons the nymphs, which now had flowers their fill,

Ran all in haste to see that silver brood

As they came floating on the crystal flood;

Whom when they saw, they stood amazéd still

Their wondering eyes to fill;

Them seem'd they never saw a sight so fair

Of fowls, so lovely, that they sure did deem

Them heavenly born, or to be that same pair

Which through the sky draw Venus' silver team;

For sure they did not seem

To be begot of any earthly seed,

But rather angels, or of angels' breed;

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

In sweetest season, when each flower and weed

The earth did fresh array;

So fresh they seem'd as day,

Even as their bridal day, which was not long:

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

Then forth they all out of their baskets drew

Great store of flowers, the honour of the field,

That to the sense did fragrant odours yield,

All which upon those goodly birds they threw

And all the waves did strew,

That like old Peneus' waters they did seem

When down along by pleasant Tempe's shore

Scatter'd with flowers, through Thessaly they stream,

That they appear, through lilies' plenteous store,

Like a bride's chamber-floor.

Two of those nymphs meanwhile two garlands bound

Of freshest flowers which in that mead they found,

The which presenting all in trim array,

Their snowy foreheads therewithal they crown'd

Whilst one did sing this lay

Prepar'd against that day,

Against their bridal day, which was not long:

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

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

And Heaven's glory, whom this happy hour

Doth lead unto your lovers' blissful bower,

Joy may you have, and gentle hearts content

Of your loves complement;

And let fair Venus, that is queen of love,

With her heart-quelling son upon you smile,

Whose smile, they say, hath virtue to remove

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

For ever to assoil.

Let endless peace your steadfast hearts accord,

And blesséd plenty wait upon your board;

And let your bed with pleasures chaste abound,

That fruitful issue may to you afford

Which may your foes confound,

And make your joys redound

Upon your bridal day, which is not long:

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

So ended she; and all the rest around

To her redoubled that her undersong,

Which said their bridal day should not be long:

And gentle Echo from the neighbour ground

Their accents did resound.

So forth those joyous birds did pass along

Adown the lee that to them murmur'd low,

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

Yet did by signs his glad affection show,

Making his stream run slow.

And all the fowl which in his flood did dwell

'Gan flock about these twain, that did excel

The rest, so far as Cynthia doth shend

The lesser stars. So they, enrangéd well,

Did on those two attend,

And their best service lend

Against their wedding day, which was not long:

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

At length they all to merry London came,

To merry London, my most kindly nurse,

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

Though from another place I take my name,

An house of ancient fame:

There when they came whereas those bricky towers

The which on Thames' broad agéd back do ride,

Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers,

There whilome wont the Templar-knights to bide,

Till they decay'd through pride:

Next whereunto there stands a stately place,

Where oft I gainéd gifts and goodly grace

Of that great lord, which therein wont to dwell,

Whose want too well now feels my friendless case;

But ah! here fits not well

Old woes, but joys to tell

Against the bridal day, which is not long:

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

Yet therein now doth lodge a noble peer,

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

Whose dreadful name late thro' all Spain did thunder,

And Hercules' two pillars standing near

Did make to quake and fear:

Fair branch of honour, flower of chivalry!

That fillest England with thy triumphs' fame

Joy have thou of thy noble victory,

And endless happiness of thine own name

That promiseth the same;

That through thy prowess and victorious arms,

Thy country may be freed from foreign harms,

And great Eliza's glorious name may ring

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

Which some brave Muse may sing

To ages following,

Upon the bridal day, which is not long:

Sweet Thames! run softly till I end my song.

From those high towers this noble lord issúing,

Like radiant Hesper, when his golden hair

In th' ocean billows he hath bathéd fair,

Descended to the river's open viewing

With a great train ensuing.

Above the rest were goodly to be seen

Two gentle knights of lovely face and feature,

Beseeming well the bower of any queen,

With gifts of wit and ornaments of nature,

Fit for so goodly stature,

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

Which deck the baldric of the Heavens bright;

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

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

Which, at th' appointed tide,

Each one did make his bride

Against their bridal day, which is not long:

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

E. SPENSER.

***************************

54. THE HAPPY HEART.

Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?

O sweet content!

Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexéd?

O punishment!

Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexéd

To add to golden numbers, golden numbers?

O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!

Work apace, apace, apace, apace;

Honest labour bears a lovely face;

Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny!

Canst drink the waters of the crispéd spring?

O sweet content!

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

O punishment!

Then he that patiently want's burden bears,

No burden bears, but is a king, a king!

O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!

Work apace, apace, apace, apace;

Honest labour bears a lovely face;

Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny!

T. DEKKER.

***************************

55.

This Life, which seems so fair,

Is like a bubble blown up in the air

By sporting children's breath,

Who chase it everywhere

And strive who can most motion it bequeath.

And though it sometimes seem of its own might

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

And firm to hover in that empty height,

That only is because it is so light.

—But in that pomp it doth not long appear;

For when 'tis most admiréd, in a thought,

Because it erst was nought, it turns to nought.

W. DRUMMOND.

***************************

56. SOUL AND BODY.

Poor Soul, the centre of my sinful earth,

Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array,

Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth,

Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?

Why so large cost, having so short a lease,

Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?

Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,

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

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

And let that pine to aggravate thy store;

Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;

Within be fed, without be rich no more:—

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

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

57. LIFE.

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

Less than a span:

In his conception wretched, from the womb

So to the tomb;

Curst from his cradle, and brought up to years

With cares and fears.

Who then to frail mortality shall trust,

But limns on water, or but writes in dust.

Yet whilst with sorrow here we live opprest,

What life is best?

Courts are but only superficial schools

To dandle fools:

The rural parts are turn'd into a den

Of savage men:

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

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

Domestic cares afflict the husband's bed,

Or pains his head:

Those that live single, take it for a curse,

Or do things worse:

Some would have children: those that have them, moan

Or wish them gone:

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

But single thraldom, or a double strife?

Our own affections still at home to please

Is a disease:

To cross the seas to any foreign soil,

Peril and toil:

Wars with their noise affright us; when they cease,

We are worse in peace;—

What then remains, but that we still should cry

For being born, or, being born, to die

LORD BACON

***************************

58. THE LESSONS OF NATURE.

Of this fair volume which we World do name

If we the sheets and leaves could turn with care,

Of Him who it corrects, and did it frame,

We clear might read the art and wisdom rare:

Find out His power which wildest powers doth tame,

His providence extending everywhere,

His justice which proud rebels doth not spare,

In every page, no period of the same.

But silly we, like foolish children, rest

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

Fair dangling ribbands, leaving what is best,

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

Or if by chance we stay our minds on aught,

It is some picture on the margin wrought.

W. DRUMMOND.

***************************

59.

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

Is this the justice which on Earth we find?

Is this that firm decree which all doth bind?

Are these your influences, Powers above?

Those souls which vice's moody mists most blind,

Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove;

And they who thee, poor idle Virtue! love,

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

Ah! if a Providence doth sway this all,

Why should best minds groan under most distress?

Or why should pride humility make thrall,

And injuries the innocent oppress?

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

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

W. DRUMMOND.

***************************

60. THE WORLD'S WAY.

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry—

As, to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,

And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,

And strength by limping sway disabléd

And art made tongue-tied by authority,

And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive Good attending captain Ill:—

—Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,

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

W. SHAKESPEARE.

***************************

61. SAINT JOHN BAPTIST.

The last and greatest Herald of Heaven's King

Girt with rough skins, hies to the deserts wild,

Among that savage brood the woods forth bring,

Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.

His food was locusts, and what there doth spring

With honey that from virgin hives distill'd;

Parch'd body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing

Made him appear, long since from earth exiled.

There burst he forth: All ye whose hopes rely

On God, with me amidst these deserts mourn,

Repent, repent, and from old errors turn!

—Who listen'd to his voice, obey'd his cry?

Only the echoes, which he made relent,

Rung from their flinty caves, Repent! Repent!

W. DRUMMOND.

SECOND BOOK

SUMMARY.

This division, embracing the latter eighty years of the seventeenth century, contains the close of our Early poetical style and the commencement of the Modern. In Dryden we see the first master of the new: in Milton, whose genius dominates here as Shakespeare's in the former book,—the crown and consummation of the early period. Their splendid Odes are far in advance of any prior attempts, Spenser's excepted: they exhibit the wider and grander range which years and experience and the struggles of the time conferred on Poetry. Poetry now gave expression to political feeling, to religious thought, to a high philosophic statesmanship in writers such as Marvell, Herbert, and Wotton: whilst in Marvell and Milton, again, we find the first noble attempts at pure description of nature, destined in our own ages to be continued and equalled. Meanwhile the poetry of simple passion, although before 1660 often deformed by verbal fancies and conceits of thought, and afterward by levity and an artificial tone,—produced in Herrick and Waller some charming pieces of more finished art than the Elizabethan: until in the courtly compliments of Sedley it seems to exhaust itself, and lie almost dormant for the hundred years between the days of Wither and Suckling and the days of Burns and Cowper.—That the change from our early style to the modern brought with it at first a loss of nature and simplicity is undeniable: yet the far bolder and wider scope which Poetry took between 1620 and 1700, and the successful efforts then made to gain greater clearness in expression, in their results have been no slight compensation.

62. ODE ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY.

This is the month, and this the happy morn

Wherein the Son of Heaven's Eternal King

Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,

Our great redemption from above did bring;

For so the holy sages once did sing

That He our deadly forfeit should release,

And with His Father work us a perpetual peace.

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,

And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty

Wherewith He wont at Heaven's high council-table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid aside; and, here with us to be,

Forsook the courts of everlasting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

Say, heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein

Afford a present to the Infant God?

Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain

To welcome Him to this His new abode,

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

Hath took no print of the approaching light,

And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

See how from far, upon the eastern road,

The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet:

O run, prevent them with thy humble ode

And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;

Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet,

And join thy voice unto the angel quire

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

THE HYMN.

It was the Winter wild

While the heaven-born Child

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies

Nature in awe to Him

Had doff'd her gaudy trim,

With her great Master so to sympathise:

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.

Only with speeches fair

She woos the gentle air

To hide her guilty front with innocent snow;

And on her naked shame,

Pollute with sinful blame,

The saintly veil of maiden white to throw;

Confounded, that her Maker's eyes

Should look so near upon her foul deformities.

But He, her fears to cease,

Sent down the meek-eyed Peace,

She crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding

Down through the turning sphere

His ready harbinger,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing;

And waving wide her myrtle wand,

She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.

No war, or battle's sound

Was heard the world around:

The idle spear and shield were high up hung;

The hookéd Chariot stood

Unstain'd with hostile blood;

The trumpet spake not to the arméd throng;

And kings sat still with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

But peaceful was the night

Wherin the Prince of Light

His reign of peace upon the earth began:

The winds, with wonder whist,

Smoothly the waters kist

Whispering new joys to the mild oceán—

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,

While birds of calm sit brooding on the charméd wave.

The stars with deep amaze

Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze,

Bending one way their precious influence;

And will not take their flight

For all the morning light,

Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence;

But in their glimmering orbs did glow,

Until their Lord Himself bespake, and bid them go.

And though the shady gloom

Had given day her room,

The sun himself withheld his wonted speed,

And hid his head for shame,

As his inferior flame

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

He saw a greater Sun appear

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

The shepherds on the lawn

Or ere the point of dawn

Sate simply chatting in a rustic row;

Full little thought they then

That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them below;

Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep

Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.

When such music sweet

Their hearts and ears did greet

As never was by mortal finger strook—

Divinely-warbled voice

Answering the stringéd noise,

As all their souls in blissful rapture took:

The air, such pleasure loth to lose,

With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close.

Nature that heard such sound

Beneath the hollow round

Of Cynthia's seat the airy region thrilling,

Now was almost won

To think her part was done,

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling;

She knew such harmony alone

Could hold all heaven and earth in happier union.

At last surrounds their sight

A globe of circular light

That with long beams the shamefaced night array'd;

The helméd Cherubim

And sworded Seraphim,

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd,

Harping in loud and solemn quire

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

Such music (as 'tis said)

Before was never made

But when of old the sons of morning sung,

While the Creator great

His constellations set

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung;

And cast the dark foundations deep,

And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.

Ring out, ye crystal spheres!

Once bless our human ears,

If ye have power to touch our senses so;

And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time;

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

And with your ninefold harmony

Make up full concert to the angelic symphony.

For if such holy Song

Enwrap our fancy long,

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

And speckled vanity

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous sin will melt from earthly mould;

And Hell itself will pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.

Yea, Truth and Justice then

Will down return to men,

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

Mercy will sit between

Throned in celestial sheen,

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;

And Heaven, as at some festival,

Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.

But wisest Fate says No;

This must not yet be so;

The Babe yet lies in smiling infancy

That on the bitter cross

Must redeem our loss;

So both Himself and us to glorify:

Yet first to those ychain'd in sleep

The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep;

With such a horrid clang

As on mount Sinai rang

While the red fire and smouldering clouds outbrake:

The aged Earth agast

With terrour of that blast

Shall from the surface to the centre shake,

When at the worlds last sessión,

The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread His throne.

And then at last our bliss

Full and perfect is,

But now begins; for from this happy day

The old Dragon, under ground

In straiter limits bound,

Not half so far casts his usurpéd sway;

And, wroth to see his Kingdom fail,

Swinges the scaly horrour of his folded tail.

The oracles are dumb;

No voice or hideous hum

Runs through the archéd roof in words deceiving:

Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving:

No nightly trance or breathéd spell

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

The lonely mountains o'er

And the resounding shore

A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament;

From haunted spring, and dale

Edged with poplar pale

The parting Genius is with sighing sent;

With flower-inwoven tresses torn

The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.

In consecrated earth

And on the holy hearth,

The Lars and Lemurés moan with midnight plaint;

In urns, and altars round

A drear and dying sound

Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint;

And the chill marble seems to sweat,

While each peculiar Power forgoes his wonted seat.

Peor and Baalim

Forsake their temples dim,

With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine

And moonéd Ashtaroth

Heaven's queen and mother both,

Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine;

The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn,

In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn.

And sullen Moloch, fled,

Hath left in shadows dread

His burning idol all of blackest hue;

In vain with cymbals' ring

They call the grisly king,

In dismal dance about the furnace blue;

The brutish gods of Nile as fast

Isis and Orus, and the dog Anubis, haste.

Nor is Osiris seen

In Memphian grove, or green,

Trampling the unshower'd grass with lowings loud:

Nor can he be at rest

Within his sacred chest;

Naught but profoundest hell can be his shroud;

In vain with timbrell'd anthems dark

The sable stoléd sorcerers bear his worshipt ark.

He feels from Juda's land

The dreaded infant's hand;

The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;

Nor all the gods beside

Longer dare abide,

Nor Typhon huge ending in snaky twine:

Our Babe, to shew his Godhead true,

Can in his swaddling bands control the damnéd crew.

So, when the sun in bed

Curtain'd with cloudy red

Pillows his chin upon an orient wave,

The flocking shadows pale

Troop to the infernal jail,

Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several grave;

And the yellow-skirted fays

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

But see, the Virgin blest

Hath laid her Babe to rest;

Time is, our tedious song should here have ending:

Heavens youngest-teeméd star,

Hath fixed her polish'd car,

Her sleeping Lord with hand-maid lamp attending:

And all about the courtly stable

Bright-harness'd angels sit in order serviceable.

J. MILTON.

***************************

63. SONG FOR ST CECILIA'S DAY, 1687.

From Harmony, from heavenly Harmony

This universal frame began:

When nature underneath a heap

Of jarring atoms lay

And could not heave her head,

The tuneful voice was heard from high

Arise, ye more than dead!

Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry

In order to their stations leap,

And Music's power obey.

From harmony, from heavenly harmony

This universal frame began:

From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,

The diapason closing full in Man.

What passion cannot Music raise and quell?

When Jubal struck the chorded shell

His listening brethren stood around,

And, wondering, on their faces fell

To worship that celestial sound.

Less than a God they thought there could not dwell

Within the hollow of that shell,

That spoke so sweetly and so well.

What passion cannot Music raise and quell?

The trumpet's loud clangor

Excites us to arms,

With shrill notes of anger,

And mortal alarms.

The double double double beat

Of the thundering drum

Cries "Hark! the foes come;

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

The soft complaining flute

In dying notes discovers

The woes of hopeless lovers,

Whose dirge is whisper'd by the warbling lute.

Sharp violins proclaim

Their jealous pangs and desperation,

Fury, frantic indignation,

Depth of pains, and height of passion

For the fair, disdainful dame.

But oh! what art can teach,

What human voice can reach

The sacred organ's praise?

Notes inspiring holy love,

Notes that wing their heavenly ways

To mend the choirs above.

Orpheus could lead the savage race,

And trees uprooted left their place

Sequacious of the lyre:

But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher:

When to her Organ vocal breath was given

An angel heard, and straight appear'd—

Mistaking Earth for Heaven!

Grand Chorus:

As from the power of sacred lays

The spheres began to move,

And sung the great Creator's praise

To all the blest above;

So when the last and dreadful hour

This crumbling pageant shall devour,

The trumpet shall be heard on high,

The dead shall live, the living die,

And Music shall untune the sky.

J. DRYDEN.

***************************

64. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEMONT.

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

Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold;

Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old

When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones.

Forget not: In Thy book record their groans

Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold

Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that roll'd

Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they

To Heaven. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow

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

The triple tyrant, that from these may grow

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

Early may fly the Babylonian woe.

J. MILTON.

***************************

65. HORATIAN ODE UPON CROMWELL'S RETURN FROM IRELAND.

The forward youth that would appear,

Must now forsake his Muses dear,

Nor in the shadows sing

His numbers languishing.

'Tis time to leave the books in dust,

And oil the unused armour's rust,

Removing from the wall

The corslet of the hall.

So restless Cromwell could not cease

In the inglorious arts of peace,

But through adventurous war

Urgéd his active star:

And like the three-fork'd lightning first

Breaking the clouds where it was nurst,

Did thorough his own side

His fiery way divide:

For 'tis all one to courage high

The emulous, or enemy;

And with such, to enclose

Is more than to oppose;

Then burning through the air he went

And palaces and temples rent;

And Caesar's head at last

Did through his laurels blast.

'Tis madness to resist or blame

The face of angry heaven's flame;

And if we would speak true,

Much to the Man is due

Who, from his private gardens, where

He lived reservéd and austere

(As if he his highest plot

To plant the bergamot)

Could by industrious valour climb

To ruin the great work of time,

And cast the Kingdoms old

Into another mould.

Though Justice against Fate complain,

And plead the ancient Rights in vain—

But those do hold or break

As men are strong or weak;

Nature, that hateth emptiness,

Allows of penetration less,

And therefore must make room

Where greater spirits come.

What field of all the civil war

Where his were not the deepest scar?

And Hampton shows what part

He had of wiser art,

Where, twining subtle fears with hope,

He wove a net of such a scope

That Charles himself might chase

To Carisbrook's narrow case;

That thence the Royal actor borne

The tragic scaffold might adorn:

While round the arméd bands

Did clap their bloody hands;

He nothing common did or mean

Upon that memorable scene,

But with his keener eye

The axe's edge did try;

Nor call'd the Gods, with vulgar spite,

To vindicate his helpless right;

But bow'd his comely head

Down, as upon a bed.

—This was that memorable hour

Which first assured the forcéd power:

So when they did design

The Capitol's first line,

A Bleeding Head, where they begun,

Did fright the architects to run;

And yet in that the State

Foresaw its happy fate!

And now the Irish are ashamed

To see themselves in one year tamed:

So much one man can do

That does both act and know.

They can affirm his praises best,

And have, though overcome, confest

How good he is, how just

And fit for highest trust;

Nor yet grown stiffer with command,

But still in the Republic's hand—

How fit he is to sway

That can so well obey!

He to the Commons' feet presents

A Kingdom for his first year's rents,

And (what he may) forbears

His fame, to make it theirs:

And has his sword and spoils ungirt

To lay them at the Public's skirt.

So when the falcon high

Falls heavy from the sky,

She, having kill'd, no more doth search

But on the next green bough to perch,

Where, when he first does lure,

The falconer has her sure.

—What may not then our Isle presume

While victory his crest does plume?

What may not others fear

If thus he crowns each year!

As Caesar he, ere long, to Gaul,

To Italy an Hannibal,

And to all states not free

Shall climacteric be.

The Pict no shelter now shall find

Within his parti-colour'd mind,

But, from this valour, sad

Shrink underneath the plaid—

Happy, if in the tufted brake

The English hunter him mistake,

Nor lay his hounds in near

The Caledonian deer.

But Thou, the War's and Fortune's son,

March indefatigably on;

And for the last effect

Still keep the sword erect:

Besides the force it has to fright

The spirits of the shady night,

The same arts that did gain

A power, must it maintain.

A. MARVELL.

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66. LYCIDAS

Elegy on a Friend drowned in the Irish Channel.

Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,

And with forced fingers rude

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear

Compels me to disturb your season due:

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime,

Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer:

Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew

Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.

He must not float upon his watery bier

Unwept, and welter to the parching wind,

Without the meed of some melodious tear.

Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well

That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring;

Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string;

Hence with denial vain and coy excuse:

So may some gentle Muse

With lucky words favour my destined urn:

And as he passes, turn

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.

For we were nursed upon the self-same hill,

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

Together both, ere the high lawns appear'd

Under the opening eye-lids of the morn,

We drove a-field, and both together heard

What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,

Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night,

Oft till the star that rose at evening bright

Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel.

Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute;

Temper'd to the oaten flute,

Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel

From the glad sound would not be absent long;

And old Damoetas loved to hear our song.

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

Now thou art gone and never must return!

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

With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,

And all their echoes, mourn.

The willows and the hazel copses green

Shall now no more be seen

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays:—

As killing as the canker to the rose,

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze,

Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,

When first the white-thorn blows;

Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds' ear.

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep

Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas?

For neither were ye playing on the steep

Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie,

Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,

Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream.

Ay me! I fondly dream—

Had ye been there—for what could that have done?

What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore,

The Muse herself, for her enchanting son,

Whom universal nature did lament,

When by the rout that made the hideous roar

His gory visage down the stream was sent,

Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?

Alas! what boots it with incessant care

To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade

And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?

Were it not better done, as others use,

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,

Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair?

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise

(That last infirmity of noble mind)

To scorn delights and live laborious days;

But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,

And think to burst out into sudden blaze,

Comes the blind Fury with the abhorréd shears

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

Phoebus replied, and touch'd my trembling ears;

"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,

Nor in the glistering foil

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

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes

And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;

As he pronounces lastly on each deed,

Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed."

O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood

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

That strain I heard was of a higher mood:

But now my oat proceeds,

And listens to the herald of the sea

That came in Neptune's plea;

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

What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain?

And question'd every gust of rugged wings

That blows from off each beakéd promontory:

They knew not of his story;

And sage Hippotadés their answer brings,

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

The air was calm, and on the level brine

Sleek Panopé with all her sisters play'd.

It was that fatal and perfidious bark

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

That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.

Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow,

His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge

Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge

Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe:

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

Last came, and last did go

The pilot of the Galilean Lake;

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain

(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain);

He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake:

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

Enow of such, as for their bellies' sake

Creep and intrude and climb into the fold!

Of other care they little reckoning make

Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast,

And shove away the worthy bidden guest;

Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold

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

That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!

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

And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs

Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw;

The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,

But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw

Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:

Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw

Daily devours apace, and nothing said:

—But that two-handed engine at the door

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

Return, Alphéus; the dread voice is past

That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse,

And call the vales, and bid them hither cast

Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.

Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use

Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks

On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks;

Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes

That on the green turf suck the honey'd showers

And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.

Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,

The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,

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

The glowing violet,

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

With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,

And every flower that sad embroidery wears:

Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,

And daffodillies fill their cups with tears

To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.

For so to interpose a little ease,

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise;

Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas

Wash far away,—where'er thy bones are hurl'd;

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides

Where thou perhaps, under the whelming tide

Visitest the bottom of the monstrous world;

Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied,

Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,

Where the great Vision of the guarded mount

Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold,

—Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth:

—And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth!

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,

For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor;

So sinks the day-star in the ocean-bed,

And yet anon repairs his drooping head

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high

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

Where, other groves and other streams along,

With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,

And hears the unexpressive nuptial song

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.

There entertain him all the saints above

In solemn troops, and sweet societies,

That sing, and singing, in their glory move,

And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more;

Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore,

In thy large recompense, and shalt be good

To all that wander in that perilous flood.

Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills,

While the still morn went out with sandals gray;

He touch'd the tender stops of various quills,

With eager thought warbling his Doric lay:

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

And now was dropt into the western bay:

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

To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

J. MILTON.

***************************

67. THE TOMBS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Mortality, behold and fear

What a change of flesh is here!

Think how many royal bones

Sleep within these heaps of stones;

Here they lie, had realms and lands,

Who now want strength to stir their hands,

Where from their pulpits seal'd with dust

They preach, "In greatness is no trust."

Here's an acre sown indeed

With the richest royallest seed

That the earth did e'er suck in

Since the first man died for sin:

Here the bones of birth have cried

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

Here are sands, ignoble things,

Dropt from the ruin'd sides of kings

Here's a world of pomp and state

Buried in dust, once dead by fate.

F. BEAUMONT.

***************************

68. THE LAST CONQUEROR.

Victorious men of earth, no more

Proclaim how wide your empires are;

Though you bind-in every shore

And your triumphs reach as far

As night and day,

Yet you, proud monarchs, must obey

And mingle with forgotten ashes, when

Death calls ye to the crowd of common men.

Devouring Famine, Plague, and War,

Each able to undo mankind,

Death's servile emissaries are;

Nor to these alone confined,

He hath at will

More quaint and subtle ways to kill;

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

Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart.

J. SHIRLEY.

***************************

69. DEATH THE LEVELLER.

The glories of our blood and state

Are shadows, not substantial things;

There is no armour against fate;

Death lays his icy hand on kings:

Sceptre and Crown

Must tumble down,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field,

And plant fresh laurels where they kill:

But their strong nerves at last must yield;

They tame but one another still:

Early or late

They stoop to fate,

And must give up their murmuring breath

When they, pale captives, creep to death.

The garlands wither on your brow;

Then boast no more your mighty deeds;

Upon Death's purple altar now

See where the victor-victim bleeds:

Your heads must come

To the cold tomb;

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust.

J. SHIRLEY.

***************************

70. WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY.

Captain, or Colonel, or Knight in arms,

Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,

If deed of honour did thee ever please;

Guard them, and him within protect from harms.

He can requite thee; for he knows the charms

That call fame on such gentle acts as these.

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

Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms.

Lift not thy spear against the Muses' bower:

The great Emathian conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower

Went to the ground: and the repeated air

Of sad Electra's poet had the power

To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.

J. MILTON.

***************************

71. ON HIS BLINDNESS.

When I consider how my light is spent

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

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest He returning chide,—

Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?

I fondly ask:—But Patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies; God doth not need

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

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

Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:—

They also serve who only stand and wait.

J. MILTON.

***************************

72. CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE.

How happy is he born and taught

That serveth not another's will;

Whose armour is his honest thought

And simple truth his utmost skill!

Whose passions not his masters are,

Whose soul is still prepared for death,

Not tied unto the world by care

Of public fame, or private breath;

Who envies none that chance doth raise

Or vice; Who never understood

How deepest wounds are given by praise;

Nor rules of state, but rules of good:

Who hath his life from rumours freed,

Whose conscience is his strong retreat;

Whose state can neither flatterers feed,

Nor ruin make accusers great;

Who God doth late and early pray

More of His grace than gifts to lend;

And entertains the harmless day

With a well-chosen book or friend;

—This man is freed from servile bands

Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;

Lord of himself, though not of lands,

And having nothing, yet hath all.

SIR H. WOTTON.

***************************

73. THE NOBLE NATURE.

It is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make Man better be;

Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,

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

A lily of a day

Is fairer far in May,

Although it fall and die that night—

It was the plant and flower of Light.

In small proportions we just beauties see;

And in short measures life may perfect be.

B. JONSON

***************************

74. THE GIFTS OF GOD.

When God at first made Man,

Having a glass of blessings standing by;

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

Let the world's riches, which disperséd lie,

Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;

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

When almost all was out, God made a stay,

Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure,

Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should (said he)

Bestow this jewel also on my creature,

He would adore My gifts instead of Me,

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:

So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,

But keep them with repining restlessness:

Let him be rich and weary, that at least,

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast.

G. HERBERT.

***************************

75. THE RETREAT.

Happy those early days, when I

Shined in my Angel-infancy!

Before I understood this place

Appointed for my second race,

Or taught my soul to fancy aught

But a white, celestial thought;

When yet I had not walk'd above

A mile or two from my first Love,

And looking back, at that short space

Could see a glimpse of his bright face;

When on some gilded cloud or flower

My gazing soul would dwell an hour,

And in those weaker glories spy

Some shadows of eternity;

Before I taught my tongue to wound

My conscience with a sinful sound,

Or had the black art to dispense

A several sin to every sense,

But felt through all this fleshly dress

Bright shoots of everlastingness.

O how I long to travel back,

And tread again that ancient track!

That I might once more reach that plain,

Where first I left my glorious train;

From whence th' enlighten'd spirit sees

That shady City of Palm trees!

But ah! my soul with too much stay

Is drunk, and staggers in the way:—

Some men a forward motion love,

But I by backward steps would move;

And when this dust falls to the urn,

In that state I came, return.

H. VAUGHAN.

***************************

76. TO MR. LAWRENCE.

Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,

Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire,

Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire

Help waste a sullen day, what may be won

From the hard season gaining? Time will run

On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire

The frozen earth, and cloth in fresh attire

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

What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,

Of Attic taste, with wine, whence we may rise

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

Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air?

He who of those delights can judge, and spare

To interpose them oft, is not unwise.

J. MILTON.

***************************

77. TO CYRIACK SKINNER.

Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench

Of British Themis, with no mean applause

Pronounced, and in his volumes taught, our laws,

Which others at their bar so often wrench;

To-day deep thoughts resolve with me to drench

In mirth, that after no repenting draws;

Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause,

And what the Swede intends, and what the French.

To measure life learn thou betimes, and know

Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;

For other things mild Heaven a time ordains,

And disapproves that care, though wise in show,

That with superfluous burden loads the day,

And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

J. MILTON.

***************************

78. HYMN TO DIANA.

Queen and Huntress, chaste and fair,

Now the sun is laid to sleep,

Seated in thy silver chair

State in wonted manner keep:

Hesperus entreats thy light,

Goddess excellently bright.

Earth, let not thy envious shade

Dare itself to interpose;

Cynthia's shining orb was made

Heaven to clear when day did close;

Bless us then with wishéd sight,

Goddess excellently bright.

Lay thy bow of pearl apart

And thy crystal-shining quiver;

Give unto the flying hart

Space to breathe, how short soever;

Thou that mak'st a day of night,

Goddess excellently bright.

B. JONSON.

***************************

79. WISHES FOR THE SUPPOSED MISTRESS.

Whoe'er she be,

That not impossible She

That shall command my heart and me;

Where'er she lie,

Lock'd up from mortal eye

In shady leaves of destiny:

Till that ripe birth

Of studied Fate stand forth,

And teach her fair steps to our earth;

Till that divine

Idea take a shrine

Of crystal flesh, through which to shine:

—Meet you her, my Wishes,

Bespeak her to my blisses,

And be ye call'd, my absent kisses.

I wish her beauty,

That owes not all its duty

To gaudy tire, or glist'ring shoe-tie:

Something more than

Taffata or tissue can,

Or rampant feather, or rich fan.

A face that's best

By its own beauty drest,

And can alone command the rest:

A face made up

Out of no other shop

Than what Nature's white hand sets ope.

Sydneian showers

Of sweet discourse, whose powers

Can crown old Winter's head with flowers.

Whate'er delight

Can make day's forehead bright

Or give down to the wings of night.

Soft silken hours,

Open suns, shady bowers;

'Bove all, nothing within that lowers.

Days, that need borrow

No part of their good morrow

From a fore-spent night of sorrow:

Days, that in spite

Of darkness, by the light

Of a clear mind are day all night.

Life, that dares send

A challenge to his end,

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

I wish her store

Of worth may leave her poor

Of wishes; and I wish—no more.

—Now, if Time knows

That Her, whose radiant brows

Weave them a garland of my vows;

Her that dares be

What these lines wish to see;

I seek no further, it is She.

'Tis She, and here

Lo! I unclothe and clear

My wishes' cloudy character.

Such worth as this is

Shall fix my flying wishes,

And determine them to kisses.

Let her full glory,

My fancies, fly before ye;

Be ye my fictions:—but her story.

R. CRASHAW.

***************************

80. THE GREAT ADVENTURER.

Over the mountains

And over the waves,

Under the fountains

And under the graves;

Under floods that are deepest,

Which Neptune obey;

Over rocks that are steepest

Love will find out the way.

When there is no place

For the glow-worm to lie;

When there is no space

For receipt of a fly;

When the midge dares not venture

Lest herself fast she lay;

If Love come, he will enter

And will find out his way.

You may esteem him

A child for his might;

Or you may deem him

A coward from his flight;

But if she whom love doth honour

Be conceal'd from the day,

Set a thousand guards upon her,

Love will find out the way.

Some think to lose him

By having him confined;

And some do suppose him,

Poor thing, to be blind;

But if ne'er so close ye wall him,

Do the best that you may,

Blind love, if so ye call him,

Will find out his way.

You may train the eagle

To stoop to your fist;

Or you may inveigle

The phoenix of the east;

The lioness, ye may move her

To give o'er her prey;

But you'll ne'er stop a lover:

He will find out his way.

ANON.

***************************

81. CHILD AND MAIDEN.

Ah, Chloris! could I now but sit

As unconcern'd as when

Your infant beauty could beget

No happiness or pain!

When I the dawn used to admire,

And praised the coming day,

I little thought the rising fire

Would take my rest away.

Your charms in harmless childhood lay

Like metals in a mine;

Age from no face takes more away

Than youth conceal'd in thine.

But as your charms insensibly

To their perfection prest,

So love as unperceived did fly,

And center'd in my breast.

My passion with your beauty grew,

While Cupid at my heart

Still as his mother favour'd you,

Threw a new flaming dart:

Each gloried in their wanton part;

To make a lover, he

Employ'd the utmost of his art—

To make a beauty, she.

SIR C. SEDLEY.

***************************

82. COUNSEL TO GIRLS.

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day,

To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,

The higher he's a-getting

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer,

But being spent, the worse, and worst

Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;

And while ye may, go marry:

For having lost but once your prime,

You may for ever tarry.

R. HERRICK.

***************************

83. TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS.

Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind

That from the nunnery

Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,

To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase,

The first foe in the field;

And with a stronger faith embrace

A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such

As you too shalt adore;

I could not love thee, Dear, so much,

Loved I not Honour more.

COLONEL LOVELACE.

***************************

84. ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA.

You meaner beauties of the night,

Which poorly satisfy our eyes

More by your number than your light,

You common people of the skies,

What are you, when the Moon shall rise?

Ye violets that first appear,

By your pure purple mantles known

Like the proud virgins of the year

As if the spring were all your own,—

What are you, when the Rose is blown?

You curious chanters of the wood

That warble forth dame Nature's lays,

Thinking your passions understood

By your weak accents; what's your praise

When Philomel her voice doth raise?

So, when my Mistress shall be seen

In sweetness of her looks and mind,

By virtue first, then choice, a Queen,

Tell me, if she were not design'd

Th' eclipse and glory of her kind?

SIR H. WOTTON.

***************************

85. TO THE LADY MARGARET LEY.

Daughter to that good earl, once President

Of England's council and her treasury,

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

And left them both, more in himself content.

Till the sad breaking of that parliament

Broke him, as that dishonest victory

At Chaeronia, fatal to liberty,

Kill'd with report that old man eloquent;—

Though later born than to have known the days

Wherein your father flourish'd, yet by you,

Madam, methinks I see him living yet;

So well your words his noble virtues praise,

That all both judge you to relate them true,

And to possess them, honour'd Margaret.

J. MILTON.

***************************

86. THE LOVELINESS OF LOVE.

It is not Beauty I demand,

A crystal brow, the moon's despair,

Nor the snow's daughter, a white hand,

Nor mermaid's yellow pride of hair:

Tell me not of your starry eyes,

Your lips that seem on roses fed,

Your breasts, where Cupid tumbling lies,

Nor sleeps for kissing of his bed:—

A bloomy pair of vermeil cheeks

Like Hebe's in her ruddiest hours,

A breath that softer music speaks

Than summer winds a-wooing flowers,

These are but gauds: nay what are lips?

Coral beneath the ocean-stream,

Whose brink when your adventurer slips

Full oft he perisheth on them.

And what are cheeks, but ensigns oft

That wave hot youth to fields of blood?

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

Do Greece or Ilium any good?

Eyes can with baleful ardour burn;

Poison can breathe, that erst perfumed;

There's many a white hand holds an urn

With lovers hearts to dust consumed.

For crystal brows there's nought within;

They are but empty cells for pride;

He who the Syren's hair would win

Is mostly strangled in the tide.

Give me, instead of Beauty's bust,

A tender heart, a loyal mind

Which with temptation I would trust,

Yet never link'd with error find,—

One in whose gentle bosom I

Could pour my secret heart of woes,

Like the care-burthen'd honey-fly

That hides his murmurs in the rose,—

My earthly Comforter! whose love

So indefeasible might be

That, when my spirit wonn'd above,

Hers could not stay, for sympathy.

ANON.

***************************

87. THE TRUE BEAUTY.

He that loves a rosy cheek

Or a coral lip admires,

Or from star-like eyes doth seek

Fuel to maintain his fires;

As old Time makes these decay,

So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind,

Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,

Hearts with equal love combined,

Kindle never-dying fires:—

Where these are not, I despise

Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.

T. CAREW.

***************************

88. TO DIANEME.

Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes

Which starlike sparkle in their skies;

Nor be you proud, that you can see

All hearts your captives; yours yet free:

Be you not proud of that rich hair

Which wantons with the lovesick air;

Whenas that ruby which you wear,

Sunk from the tip of your soft ear,

Will last to be a precious stone,

When all your world of beauty's gone.

R. HERRICK.

***************************

89.

Go, lovely Rose!

Tell her, that wastes her time and me,

That now she knows,

When I resemble her to thee,

How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tell her that's young,

And shuns to have her graces spied,

That hadst thou sprung

In deserts, where no men abide,

Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth

Of beauty from the light retired:

Bid her come forth,

Suffer herself to be desired,

And not blush so to be admired.

Then die! that she

The common fate of all things rare

May read in thee:

How small a part of time they share

That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

E. WALLER.

***************************

90. TO CELIA.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine;

Or leave a kiss but in the cup

And I'll not look for wine.

The thirst that from the soul doth rise

Doth ask a drink divine;

But might I of Jove's nectar sup,

I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,

Not so much honouring thee

As giving it a hope that there

It could not wither'd be;

But thou thereon didst only breathe

And sent'st it back to me;

Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,

Not of itself but thee!

B. JONSON.

***************************

91. CHERRY-RIPE.

There is a garden in her face

Where roses and white lilies blow;

A heavenly paradise is that place,

Wherein all pleasant fruits do grow;

There cherries grow that none may buy,

Till Cherry-Ripe themselves do cry.

Those cherries fairly do enclose

Of orient pearl a double row,

Which when her lovely laughter shows,

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

Yet them no peer nor prince can buy

Till Cherry-Ripe themselves do cry.

Her eyes like angels watch them still;

Her brows like bended bows do stand,

Threat'ning with piercing frowns to kill

All that approach with eye or hand

These sacred cherries to come nigh,

—Till Cherry-Ripe themselves do cry!

ANON.

***************************

92. THE POETRY OF DRESS.

I.

A sweet disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness:—

A lawn about the shoulders thrown

Into a fine distractión,—

An erring lace, which here and there

Enthrals the crimson stomacher,—

A cuff neglectful, and thereby

Ribbands to flow confusedly,—

A winning wave, deserving note,

In the tempestuous petticoat,—

A careless shoe-string, in whose tie

I see a wild civility;—

Do more bewitch me, than when art

Is too precise in every part.

R. HERRICK.

***************************

93.—II.

Whenas in silks my Julia goes

Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows

That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see

That brave vibration each way free;

O how that glittering taketh me!

R. HERRICK.

***************************

94.—III.

My Love in her attire doth shew her wit,

It doth so well become her;

For every season she hath dressings fit,

For Winter, Spring, and Summer.

No beauty she doth miss

When all her robes are on

But Beauty's self she is

When all her robes are gone.

ANON.

***************************

95. ON A GIRDLE.

That which her slender waist confined

Shall now my joyful temples bind:

No monarch but would give his crown

His arms might do what this has done.

It was my Heaven's extremest sphere,

The pale which held that lovely deer:

My joy, my grief, my hope, my love

Did all within this circle move.

A narrow compass! and yet there

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

Give me but what this ribband bound,

Take all the rest the Sun goes round.

E. WALLER.

***************************

96. TO ANTHEA WHO MAY COMMAND HIM ANY THING.

Bid me to live, and I will live

Thy Protestant to be;

Or bid me love, and I will give

A loving heart to thee.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,

A heart as sound and free

As in the whole world thou canst find,

That heart I'll give to thee.

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,

To honour thy decree:

Or bid it languish quite away,

And 't shall do so for thee.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep,

While I have eyes to see:

And having none, yet I will keep

A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I'll despair,

Under that cypress tree:

Or bid me die, and I will dare

E'en Death, to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,

The very eyes of me,

And hast command of every part,

To live and die for thee.

R. HERRICK.

***************************

97.

Love not me for comely grace,

For my pleasing eye or face,

Nor for any outward part,

No, nor for a constant heart,—

For these may fail, or turn to ill,

So thou and I shall sever:

Keep, therefore, a true woman's eye,

And love me still, but know not why—

So hast thou the same reason still

To doat upon me ever!

ANON.

***************************

98.

Not, Celia, that I juster am

Or better than the rest;

For I would change each hour, like them,

Were not my heart at rest.

But I am tied to very thee

By every thought I have;

Thy face I only care to see,

Thy heart I only crave.

All that in woman is adored

In thy dear self I find—

For the whole sex can but afford

The handsome and the kind.

Why then should I seek further store,

And still make love anew?

When change itself can give no more,

'Tis easy to be true.

SIR C. SEDLEY.

***************************

99. TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON.

When Love with unconfinéd wings

Hovers within my gates,

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the grates;

When I lie tangled in her hair

And fetter'd to her eye,

The birds that wanton in the air

Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round

With no allaying Thames,

Our careless heads with roses crown'd,

Our hearts with loyal flames;

When thirsty grief in wine we steep,

When healths and draughts go free—

Fishes that tipple in the deep

Know no such liberty.

When, linnet-like confinéd, I

With shriller throat shall sing

The sweetness, mercy, majesty,

And glories of my King;

When I shall voice aloud how good

He is, how great should be,

Enlargéd winds, that curl the flood,

Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage:

If I have freedom in my love

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone, that soar above,

Enjoy such liberty.

COLONEL LOVELACE.

***************************

100. TO LUCASTA, ON GOING BEYOND THE SEAS.

If to be absent were to be

Away from thee;

Or that when I am gone

You or I were alone;

Then, my Lucasta, might I crave

Pity from blustering wind, or swallowing wave.

Though seas and land betwixt us both,

Our faith and troth,

Like separated souls,

All time and space controls:

Above the highest sphere we meet

Unseen, unknown; and greet as Angels greet.

So then we do anticipate

Our after-fate,

And are alive i' the skies,

If thus our lips and eyes

Can speak like spirits unconfined

In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.

COLONEL LOVELACE.

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101. ENCOURAGEMENTS TO A LOVER.

Why so pale and wan, fond lover?

Prythee, why so pale?

Will, if looking well can't move her,

Looking ill prevail?

Prythee, why so pale?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner?

Prythee, why so mute?

Will, when speaking well can't win her,

Saying nothing do't?

Prythee, why so mute?

Quit, quit for shame! This will not move,

This cannot take her;

If of herself she will not love,

Nothing can make her:

The D——l take her!

SIR J. SUCKLING.

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102. A SUPPLICATION.

Awake, awake, my Lyre!

And tell thy silent master's humble tale

In sounds that may prevail;

Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire:

Though so exalted she

And I so lowly be

Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony.

Hark! how the strings awake:

And, though the moving hand approach not near,

Themselves with awful fear

A kind of numerous trembling make.

Now all thy forces try;

Now all thy charms apply;

Revenge upon her ear the conquests of her eye.

Weak Lyre! thy virtue sure

Is useless here, since thou art only found

To cure, but not to wound,

And she to wound, but not to cure.

Too weak too wilt thou prove

My passion to remove;

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

Sleep, sleep again my Lyre!

For thou canst never tell my humble tale

In sounds that will prevail,

Nor gentle thoughts in her inspire;

All thy vain mirth lay by,

Bid thy strings silent lie,

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

A. COWLEY.

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103. THE MANLY HEART.

Shall I, wasting in despair,

Die because a woman's fair?

Or my cheeks make pale with care

'Cause another's rosy are?

Be she fairer than the day,

Or the flowery meads in May—

If she be not so to me,

What care I how fair she be?

Shall my foolish heart be pined

'Cause I see a woman kind;

Or a well disposéd nature

Joinéd with a lovely feature?

Be she meeker, kinder, than

Turtle-dove or pelican,

If she be not so to me,

What care I how kind she be?

Shall a woman's virtues move

Me to perish for her love?

Or her merit's value known

Make me quite forget my own?

Be she with that goodness blest

Which may gain her name of Best;

If she be not such to me,

What care I how good she be?

'Cause her fortune seems too high,

Shall I play the fool and die?

Those that bear a noble mind

Where they want of riches find,

Think what with them they would do

Who without them dare to woo;

And unless that mind I see,

What care I how great she be?

Great, or good, or kind, or fair,

I will ne'er the more despair;

If she love me, this believe,

I will die ere she shall grieve;

If she slight me when I woo,

I can scorn and let her go;

For if she be not for me,

What care I for whom she be?

G. WITHER.

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104. MELANCHOLY.

Hence, all you vain delights,

As short as are the nights

Wherein you spend your folly

There's naught in this life sweet

If men were wise to see't,

But only melancholy,

O sweetest Melancholy!

Welcome, folded arms and fixéd eyes,

A sigh that piercing mortifies,

A look that's fasten'd to the ground,

A tongue chain'd up without a sound!

Fountain-heads and pathless groves,

Places which pale passion loves!

Moonlight walks, when all the fowls

Are warmly housed save bats and owls!

A midnight bell, a parting groan!

These are the sounds we feed upon;

Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley;

Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.

J. FLETCHER.

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105. TO A LOCK OF HAIR.

Thy hue, dear pledge, is pure and bright

As in that well-remember'd night

When first thy mystic braid was wove,

And first my Agnes whisper'd love.

Since then how often hast thou prest

The torrid zone of this wild breast,

Whose wrath and hate have sworn to dwell

With the first sin that peopled hell;

A breast whose blood's a troubled ocean,

Each throb the earthquake's wild commotion!

O if such clime thou canst endure

Yet keep thy hue unstain'd and pure,

What conquest o'er each erring thought

Of that fierce realm had Agnes wrought!

I had not wander'd far and wide

With such an angel for my guide;

Nor heaven nor earth could then reprove me

If she had lived, and lived to love me.

Not then this world's wild joys had been

To me one savage hunting scene,

My sole delight the headlong race,

And frantic hurry of the chase;

To start, pursue, and bring to bay,

Rush in, drag down, and rend my prey,

Then—from the carcase turn away!

Mine ireful mood had sweetness tamed,

And soothed each wound which pride inflamed:—

Yes, God and man might now approve me

If thou hadst lived, and lived to love me!

SIR W. SCOTT.

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106. THE FORSAKEN BRIDE.

O waly waly, up the bank,

And waly waly down the brae,

And waly waly yon burn-side

Where I and my Love wont to gae!

I leant my back unto an aik,

I thought it was a trusty tree;

But first it bow'd, and syne it brak,

Sae my true Love did lichtly me.

O waly waly, but love be bonny

A little time while it is new;

But when 'tis auld, it waxeth cauld,

And fades awa' like morning dew.

O wherefore should I busk my head?

Or wherefore should I kame my hair?

For my true Love has me forsook,

And says he'll never loe me mair.

Now Arthur-seat sall be my bed;

The sheets sall ne'er be prest by me:

Saint Anton's well sall be my drink,

Since my true Love has forsaken me.

Marti'mas wind, when wilt thou blaw

And shake the green leaves aff the tree?

O gentle Death, when wilt thou come?

For of my life I am wearíe.

'Tis not the frost, that freezes fell,

Nor blawing snaw's inclemencie,

'Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry,

But my Love's heart grown cauld to me.

When we came in by Glasgow town

We were a comely sight to see;

My Love was clad in the black velvét,

And I mysell in cramasie.

But had I wist, before I kist,

That love had been sae ill to win,

I had lockt my heart in a case of gowd

And pinn'd it wi' a siller pin.

And O! if my young babe were born,

And set upon the nurse's knee,

And I mysell were dead and gane,

And the green grass growing over me!

ANON.

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107. FAIR HELEN.

I wish I were where Helen lies;

Night and day on me she cries;

O that I were where Helen lies

On fair Kirconnell lea.

Curst be the heart that thought the thought,

And curst the hand that fired the shot,

When in my arms burd Helen dropt,

And died to succour me!

O think na but my heart was sair,

When my Love dropt down and spak nae mair!

I laid her down wi' meikle care,

On fair Kirconnell lea.

As I went down the water side,

None but my foe to be my guide,

None but my foe to be my guide,

On fair Kirconnell lea;

I lighted down my sword to draw,

I hackéd him in pieces sma',

I hackéd him in pieces sma',

For her sake that died for me.

O Helen fair, beyond compare!

I'll make a garland of thy hair

Shall bind my heart for evermair

Until the day I die.

O that I were where Helen lies!

Night and day on me she cries;

Out of my bed she bids me rise,

Says, "Haste, and come to me!"

O Helen fair! O Helen chaste!

If I were with thee, I were blest,

Where thou lies low and takes thy rest

On fair Kirconnell lea.

I wish my grave were growing green,

A winding-sheet drawn ower my een,

And I in Helen's arms lying,

On fair Kirconnell lea.

I wish I were where Helen lies;

Night and day on me she cries;

And I am weary of the skies,

Since my Love died for me.

ANON.

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108. THE TWA CORBIES.

As I was walking all alane

I heard twa corbies making a mane;

The tane unto the t'other say,

"Where sall we gang and dine to-day?"

"—In behint yon auld fail dyke,

I wot there lies a new-slain Knight;

And naebody kens that he lies there,

But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.

"His hound is to the hunting gane,

His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,

His lady's ta'en another mate,

So we may mak our dinner sweet.

"Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,

And I'll pick out his bonny blue een:

Wi' ae lock o' his gowden hair

We'll theek our nest when it grows bare.

"Mony a one for him makes mane,

But nane sall ken where he is gane;

O'er his white banes, when they are bare,

The wind sall blaw for evermair."

ANON.

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109. TO BLOSSOMS.

Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,

Why do ye fall so fast?

Your date is not so past,

But you may stay yet here awhile

To blush and gently smile,

And go at last.

What, were ye born to be

An hour or half's delight;

And so to bid good-night?

'Twas pity Nature brought ye forth,

Merely to show your worth,

And lose you quite.

But you are lovely leaves, where we

May read how soon things have

Their end, though ne'er so brave:

And after they have shown their pride

Like you, awhile, they glide

Into the grave.

R. HERRICK.

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110. TO DAFFODILS.

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon

As yet the early-rising Sun

Has not attain'd his noon.

Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the even-song;

And, having pray'd together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,

We have as short a Spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay

As you, or any thing.

We die

As your hours do, and dry

Away

Like to the summer's rain;

Or as the pearls of morning's dew

Ne'er to be found again.

R. HERRICK.

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111. THOUGHTS IN A GARDEN.

How vainly men themselves amaze

To win the palm, the oak, or bays,

And their incessant labours see

Crown'd from some single herb or tree,

Whose short and narrow-vergéd shade

Does prudently their toils upbraid;

While all the flowers and trees do close

To weave the garlands of Repose.

Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,

And Innocence thy sister dear?

Mistaken long, I sought you then

In busy companies of men:

Your sacred plants, if here below,

Only among the plants will grow:

Society is all but rude

To this delicious solitude.

No white nor red was ever seen

So amorous as this lovely green.

Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,

Cut in these trees their mistress' name:

Little, alas! they know or heed

How far these beauties hers exceed!

Fair trees! where'er your barks I wound,

No name shall but your own be found.

When we have run our passions' heat,

Love hither makes his best retreat:

The gods, who mortal beauty chase,

Still in a tree did end their race:

Apollo hunted Daphne so

Only that she might laurel grow;

And Pan did after Syrinx speed

Not as a nymph, but for a reed.

What wondrous life in this I lead!

Ripe apples drop about my head;

The luscious clusters of the vine

Upon my mouth do crush their wine;

The nectarine and curious peach

Into my hands themselves do reach;

Stumbling on melons, as I pass,

Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less

Withdraws into its happiness;

The mind, that ocean where each kind

Does straight its own resemblance find;

Yet it creates, transcending these,

Far other worlds, and other seas;

Annihilating all that's made

To a green thought in a green shade.

Here at the fountain's sliding foot

Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,

Casting the body's vest aside

My soul into the boughs does glide;

There, like a bird, it sits and sings,

Then whets and claps its silver wings,

And, till prepared for longer flight,

Waves in its plumes the various light.

Such was that happy Garden-state

While man there walk'd without a mate:

After a place so pure and sweet,

What other help could yet be meet!

But 'twas beyond a mortal's share

To wander solitary there:

Two paradises are in one,

To live in Paradise alone.

How well the skilful gardener drew

Of flowers and herbs this dial new!

Where, from above, the milder sun

Does through a fragrant zodiac run:

And, as it works, th' industrious bee

Computes its time as well as we.

How could such sweet and wholesome hours

Be reckon'd, but with herbs and flowers!

A. MARVELL.

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112. L'ALLEGRO.

Hence, loathéd Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born

In Stygian cave forlorn

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy!

Find out some uncouth cell

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings

And the night-raven sings;

There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

But come, thou Goddess fair and free,

In heaven yclept Euphrosyne,

And by men, heart-easing Mirth,

Whom lovely Venus at a birth

With two sister Graces more

To ivy-crownéd Bacchus bore:

Or whether (as some sager sing)

The frolic wind that breathes the spring

Zephyr, with Aurora playing,

As he met her once a-Maying—

There, on beds of violets blue

And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew

Fill'd her with thee, a daughter fair,

So buxom, blithe, and debonair.

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee

Jest, and youthful jollity,

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,

Nods, and becks, and wreathéd smiles

Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,

And love to live in dimple sleek;

Sport that wrinkled Care derides,

And Laughter holding both his sides:—

Come, and trip it as you go

On the light fantastic toe;

And in thy right hand lead with thee

The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty;

And if I give thee honour due,

Mirth, admit me of thy crew,

To live with her, and live with thee,

In unreprovéd pleasures free;

To hear the lark begin his flight

And singing startle the dull night

From his watch-tower in the skies,

Till the dappled dawn doth rise:

Then to come, in spite of sorrow,

And at my window bid good-morrow,

Through the sweetbriar, or the vine,

Or the twisted eglantine:

While the cock with lively din,

Scatters the rear of darkness thin,

And to the stack, or the barn-door,

Stoutly struts his dames before:

Oft listening how the hounds and horn

Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,

From the side of some hoar hill,

Through the high wood echoing shrill:

Sometime walking, not unseen,

By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green,

Right against the eastern gate

Where the great Sun begins his state

Robed in flames and amber light,

The clouds in thousand liveries dight;

While the ploughman, near at hand,

Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,

And the milkmaid singeth blithe,

And the mower whets his scythe,

And every shepherd tells his tale

Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures

Whilst the landscape round it measures;

Russet lawns, and fallows gray,

Where the nibbling flocks do stray;

Mountains, on whose barren breast

The labouring clouds do often rest;

Meadows trim with daisies pied;

Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;

Towers and battlements it sees

Bosom'd high in tufted trees,

Where perhaps some Beauty lies,

The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes.

Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes

From betwixt two aged oaks,

Where Corydon and Thyrsis, met

Are at their savoury dinner set

Of herbs, and other country messes,

Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses;

And then in haste her bower she leaves

With Thestylis to bind the sheaves;

Or, if the earlier season lead,

To the tann'd haycock in the mead.

Sometimes with secure delight

The upland hamlets will invite,

When the merry bells ring round,

And the jocund rebecks sound

To many a youth and many a maid,

Dancing in the chequer'd shade;

And young and old come forth to play

On a sun-shine holy-day,

Till the live-long day-light fail:

Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,

With stories told of many a feat,

How faery Mab the junkets eat;

She was pinch'd and pull'd, she said;

And he, by friar's lantern led,

Tells how the drudging Goblin sweat

To earn his cream-bowl duly set,

When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,

His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn

That ten day-labourers could not end;

Then lies him down the lubber fiend,

And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length,

Basks at the fire his hairy strength;

And crop-full out of doors he flings,

Ere the first cock his matin rings.

Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,

By whispering winds soon lull'd asleep.

Tower'd cities please us then,

And the busy hum of men,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold,

In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,

With store of ladies, whose bright eyes

Rain influence, and judge the prize

Of wit or arms, while both contend

To win her grace whom all commend.

There let Hymen oft appear

In saffron robe, with taper clear,

And pomp, and feast, and revelry,

With mask, and antique pageantry;

Such sights as youthful poets dream

On summer eves by haunted stream.

Then to the well-trod stage anon,

If Jonson's learned sock be on,

Or sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child,

Warble his native wood-notes wild.

And ever against eating cares,

Lap me in soft Lydian airs

Married to immortal verse,

Such as the meeting soul may pierce

In notes, with many a winding bout

Of linkéd sweetness long drawn out,

With wanton heed and giddy cunning

The melting voice through mazes running,

Untwisting all the chains that tie

The hidden soul of harmony;

That Orpheus' self may heave his head

From golden slumber, on a bed

Of heap'd Elysian flowers, and hear

Such strains as would have won the ear

Of Pluto, to have quite set free

His half-regain'd Eurydice.

These delights if thou canst give,

Mirth, with thee I mean to live.

J. MILTON.

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113. IL PENSEROSO.

Hence, vain deluding Joys,

The brood of Folly without father bred!

How little you bestead

Or fill the fixéd mind with all your toys!

Dwell in some idle brain,

And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess

As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the sunbeams,

Or likest hovering dreams

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.

But hail, thou goddess sage and holy,

Hail, divinest Melancholy!

Whose saintly visage is too bright

To hit the sense of human sight,

And therefore to our weaker view

O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue;

Black, but such as in esteem

Prince Memnon's sister might beseem.

Or that starr'd Ethiop queen that strove

To set her beauty's praise above

The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended.

Yet thou art higher far descended:

Thee bright-hair'd Vesta, long of yore,

To solitary Saturn bore;

His daughter she; in Saturn's reign

Such mixture was not held a stain:

Oft in glimmering bowers and glades

He met her, and in secret shades

Of woody Ida's inmost grove,

Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove.

Come, pensive nun, devout and pure,

Sober, steadfast, and demure,

All in a robe of darkest grain

Flowing with majestic train,

And sable stole of cypres lawn

Over thy decent shoulders drawn:

Come, but keep thy wonted state,

With even step, and musing gait,

And looks commercing with the skies,

Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:

There, held in holy passion still,

Forget thyself to marble, till

With a sad leaden downward cast

Thou fix them on the earth as fast:

And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,

Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet,

And hears the Muses in a ring

Aye round about Jove's altar sing:

And add to these retired Leisure

That in trim gardens takes his pleasure:—

But first, and chiefest, with thee bring

Him that yon soars on golden wing,

Guiding the fiery-wheeléd throne,

The cherub Contemplatión;

And the mute Silence hist along,

'Less Philomel will deign a song,

In her sweetest saddest plight,

Smoothing the rugged brow of Night,

While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke

Gently o'er the accustom'd oak.

—Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,

Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among

I woo, to hear thy even-song;

And, missing thee, I walk unseen

On the dry smooth-shaven green,

To behold the wandering moon,

Riding near her highest noon,

Like one that had been led astray

Through the heaven's wide pathless way,

And oft, as if her head she bow'd,

Stooping through a fleecy cloud.

Oft, on a plat of rising ground

I hear the far-off curfeu sound,

Over some wide-water'd shore,

Swinging slow with sullen roar;

Or, if the air will not permit,

Some still removéd place will fit,

Where glowing embers through the room

Teach light to counterfeit a gloom;

Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,

Or the bellman's drowsy charm

To bless the doors from nightly harm.

Or let my lamp at midnight hour

Be seen in some high lonely tower,

Where I may oft out-watch the Bear,

With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere

The spirit of Plato, to unfold

What worlds or what vast regions hold

The immortal mind that hath forsook

Her mansion in this fleshy nook:

And of those demons that are found

In fire, air, flood, or under ground,

Whose power hath a true consent

With planet, or with element.

Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy

In sceptr'd pall come sweeping by

Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,

Or the tale of Troy divine;

Or what (though rare) of later age

Ennobled hath the buskin'd stage.

But, O sad Virgin, that thy power

Might raise Musaeus from his bower,

Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing

Such notes as, warbled to the string,

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek

And made Hell grant what Love did seek!

Or call up him that left half-told

The story of Cambuscan bold,

Of Camball, and of Algarsife,

And who had Canacé to wife

That own'd the virtuous ring and glass;

And of the wondrous horse of brass

On which the Tartar king did ride;

And if aught else great bards beside

In sage and solemn tunes have sung

Of tourneys, and of trophies hung,

Of forests, and enchantments drear,

Where more is meant than meets the ear.

Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career,

Till civil-suited Morn appear,

Not trick'd and frounced as she was wont

With the Attic Boy to hunt,

But kercheft in a comely cloud

While rocking winds are piping loud,

Or usher'd with a shower still,

When the gust hath blown his fill,

Ending on the rustling leaves

With minute drops from off the eaves.

And when the sun begins to fling

His flaring beams, me, goddess, bring

To archéd walks of twilight groves,

And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves,

Of pine, or monumental oak,

Where the rude axe, with heavéd stroke,

Was never heard the nymphs to daunt

Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt.

There in close covert by some brook

Where no profaner eye may look,

Hide me from day's garish eye,

While the bee with honey'd thigh,

That at her flowery work doth sing,

And the waters murmuring,

With such consort as they keep

Entice the dewy-feather'd Sleep.

And let some strange mysterious dream

Wave at his wings in aery stream

Of lively portraiture display'd,

Softly on my eyelids laid:

And, as I wake, sweet music breathe

Above, about, or underneath,

Sent by some spirit to mortals good,

Or the unseen Genius of the wood.

But let my due feet never fail

To walk the studious cloister's pale,

And love the high-embowéd roof,

With antique pillars massy proof,

And storied windows richly dight

Casting a dim religious light:

There let the pealing organ blow

To the full-voiced quire below

In service high and anthems clear,

As may with sweetness, through mine ear,

Dissolve me into ecstasies,

And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.

And may at last my weary age

Find out the peaceful hermitage,

The hairy gown and mossy cell,

Where I may sit and rightly spell

Of every star that heaven doth show,

And every herb that sips the dew;

Till old experience do attain

To something like prophetic strain.

These pleasures, Melancholy, give,

And I with thee will choose to live.

J. MILTON.

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114. SONG OF THE EMIGRANTS IN BERMUDA.

Where the remote Bermudas ride

In the ocean's bosom unespied,

From a small boat that row'd along

The listening woods received this song.

"What should we do but sing His praise

That led us through the watery maze

Where He the huge sea-monsters wracks,

That lift the deep upon their backs,

Unto an isle so long unknown,

And yet far kinder than our own?

He lands us on a grassy stage,

Safe from the storms, and prelate's rage:

He gave us this eternal spring

Which here enamels everything,

And sends the fowls to us in care

On daily visits through the air.

He hangs in shades the orange bright

Like golden lamps in a green night,

And does in the pomegranates close

Jewels more rich than Ormus shows:

He makes the figs our mouths to meet,

And throws the melons at our feet;

But apples plants of such a price,

No tree could ever bear them twice.

With cedars chosen by His hand

From Lebanon He stores the land;

And makes the hollow seas that roar

Proclaim the ambergris on shore.

He cast (of which we rather boast)

The Gospel's pearl upon our coast;

And in these rocks for us did frame

A temple where to sound His name.

O let our voice His praise exalt

Till it arrive at Heaven's vault,

Which then perhaps rebounding may

Echo beyond the Mexique bay!"

—Thus sung they in the English boat

A holy and a cheerful note:

And all the way, to guide their chime,

With falling oars they kept the time.

A. MARVELL.

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115. AT A SOLEMN MUSIC.

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy,

Sphere-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Verse,

Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ

Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce,

And to our high-raised phantasy present

That undisturbéd Song of pure concent,

Ay sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne

To Him that sits thereon,

With saintly shout and solemn jubilee;

Where the bright Seraphim in burning row

Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow;

And the Cherubic host in thousand quires

Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,

With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms

Hymns devout and holy psalms

Singing everlastingly:

That we on earth, with undiscording voice

May rightly answer that melodious noise;

As once we did, till disproportion'd sin

Jarr'd against nature's chime, and with harsh din

Broke the fair music that all creatures made

To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd

In perfect diapason, whilst they stood

In first obedience, and their state of good.

O may we soon again renew that Song,

And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long

To His celestial consort us unite,

To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light!

J. MILTON.

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116. ALEXANDER'S FEAST, OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC.

'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won

By Philip's warlike son—

Aloft in awful state

The godlike hero sate

On his imperial throne;

His valiant peers were placed around;

Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound

(So should desert in arms be crown'd).

The lovely Thais by his side

Sate like a blooming eastern bride

In flower of youth and beauty's pride:—

Happy, happy, happy pair!

None but the brave

None but the brave

None but the brave deserves the fair.

Timotheus placed on high

Amid the tuneful quire

With flying fingers touch'd the lyre:

The trembling notes ascend the sky

And heavenly joys inspire.

The song began from Jove

Who left his blissful seats above—

Such is the power of mighty love!

A dragon's fiery form belied the god;

Sublime on radiant spires he rode

When he to fair Olympia prest,

And while he sought her snowy breast;

Then round her slender waist he curl'd,

And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world.

—The listening crowd admire the lofty sound!

A present deity! they shout around:

A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound!

With ravish'd ears

The monarch hears,

Assumes the god;

Affects to nod

And seems to shake the spheres.

The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung:

Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young:

The jolly god in triumph comes!

Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!

Flush'd with a purple grace

He shows his honest face:

Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes!

Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain;

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure:

Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,

Sweet is pleasure after pain.

Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain;

Fought all his battles o'er again,

And thrice he routed all his foes; and thrice he slew the slain!

The master saw the madness rise,

His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;

And while he Heaven and Earth defied

Changed his hand and check'd his pride.

He chose a mournful Muse

Soft pity to infuse:

He sung Darius great and good,

By too severe a fate

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,

Fallen from his high estate,

And weltering in his blood;

Deserted, at his utmost need,

By those his former bounty fed;

On the bare earth exposed he lies

With not a friend to close his eyes.

—With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,

Revolving in his alter'd soul

The various turns of Chance below;

And now and then a sigh he stole;

And tears began to flow.

The mighty master smiled to see

That love was in the next degree;

'Twas but a kindred-sound to move,

For pity melts the mind to love.

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,

Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.

War, he sung, is toil and trouble,

Honour but an empty bubble,

Never ending, still beginning;

Fighting still, and still destroying;

If the world be worth thy winning,

Think, O think, it worth enjoying:

Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee!

—The many rend the skies with loud applause;

So Love was crown'd, but Music won the cause.

The prince, unable to conceal his pain,

Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd,

Sigh'd and look'd, and sigh'd again:

At length, with love and wine at once opprest

The vanquish'd victor sunk upon her breast.

Now strike the golden lyre again:

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain!

Break his bands of sleep asunder,

And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder.

Hark, hark! the horrid sound

Has raised up his head:

As awaked from the dead,

And amazed he stares around.

Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries,

See the Furies arise!

See the snakes that they rear

How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!

Behold a ghastly band

Each a torch in his hand!

Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain

And unburied remain

Inglorious on the plain:

Give the vengeance due

To the valiant crew!

Behold how they toss their torches on high,

How they point to the Persian abodes

And glittering temples of their hostile gods.

—The princes applaud with a furious joy:

And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;

Thais led the way,

To light him to his prey,

And like another Helen, fired another Troy!

—Thus, long ago,

Ere heaving bellows learn'd to blow,

While organs yet were mute,

Timotheus, to his breathing flute

And sounding lyre

Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.

At last divine Cecilia came,

Inventress of the vocal frame;

The sweet enthusiast from her sacred store

Enlarged the former narrow bounds,

And added length to solemn sounds,

With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before.

—Let old Timotheus yield the prize

Or both divide the crown;

He raised a mortal to the skies;

She drew an angel down!

J. DRYDEN.

THIRD BOOK

SUMMARY.

It is more difficult to characterise the English Poetry of the eighteenth century than that of any other. For it was an age not only of spontaneous transition, but of bold experiment: it includes not only such divergences of thought as distinguished the "Rape of the Lock" from the "Parish Register," but such vast contemporaneous differences as lie between Pope and Collins, Burns and Cowper. Yet we may clearly trace three leading moods or tendencies:—the aspects of courtly or educated life represented by Pope and carried to exhaustion by his followers; the poetry of Nature and of Man, viewed through a cultivated, and at the same time an impassioned frame of mind by Collins and Gray:—lastly, the study of vivid and simple narrative, including natural description, begun by Gay and Thomson, pursued by Burns and others in the north, and established in England by Goldsmith, Percy, Crabbe, and Cowper. Great varieties in style accompanied these diversities in aim: poets could not always distinguish the manner suitable for subjects so far apart; and the union of the language of courtly and of common life, exhibited most conspicuously by Burns, has given a tone to the poetry of that century which is better explained by reference to its historical origin than by naming it, in the common criticism of our day, artificial. There is again, a nobleness of thought, a courageous aim at high and, in a strict sense manly, excellence in many of the writers:—nor can that period be justly termed tame and wanting in originality, which produced poems such as Pope's Satires, Gray's Odes and Elegy, the ballads of Gay and Carey, the songs of Burns and Cowper. In truth Poetry at this as at all times was a more or less unconscious mirror of the genius of the age; and the brave and admirable spirit of Enquiry which made the eighteenth century the turning-time in European civilisation is reflected faithfully in its verse. An intelligent reader will find the influence of Newton as markedly in the poems of Pope, as of Elizabeth in the plays of Shakespeare. On this great subject, however, these indications must here be sufficient.

117. ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE.

Now the golden Morn aloft

Waves her dew-bespangled wing,

With vermeil cheek and whisper soft

She woos the tardy Spring:

Till April starts, and calls around

The sleeping fragrance from the ground,

And lightly o'er the living scene

Scatters his freshest, tenderest green.

New-born flocks, in rustic dance,

Frisking ply their feeble feet;

Forgetful of their wintry trance

The birds his presence greet:

But chief, the sky-lark warbles high

His trembling thrilling ecstasy;

And lessening from the dazzled sight,

Melts into air and liquid light.

Yesterday the sullen year

Saw the snowy whirlwind fly;

Mute was the music of the air,

The herd stood drooping by:

Their raptures now that wildly flow

No yesterday nor morrow know;

'Tis Man alone that joy descries

With forward and reverted eyes.

Smiles on past Misfortune's brow

Soft Reflection's hand can trace,

And o'er the cheek of Sorrow throw

A melancholy grace;

While Hope prolongs our happier hour,

Or deepest shades, that dimly lour

And blacken round our weary way,

Gilds with a gleam of distant day.

Still, where rosy Pleasure leads,

See a kindred Grief pursue;

Behind the steps that Misery treads

Approaching Comfort view:

The hues of bliss more brightly glow

Chastised by sabler tints of woe,

And blended form, with artful strife,

The strength and harmony of life.

See the wretch that long has tost

On the thorny bed of pain,

At length repair his vigour lost

And breathe and walk again:

The meanest floweret of the vale,

The simplest note that swells the gale,

The common sun, the air, the skies,

To him are opening Paradise.

T. GRAY.

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118. SOLITUDE.

Happy the man, whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air

In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

Whose flocks supply him with attire;

Whose trees in summer yield him shade

In winter, fire.

Blest, who can unconcern'dly find

Hours, days, and years, slide soft away

In health of body, peace of mind,

Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease

Together mix'd; sweet recreation,

And innocence, which most does please

With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

Thus unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie.

A. POPE.

***************************

119. THE BLIND BOY.

O say what is that thing call'd Light,

Which I must ne'er enjoy;

What are the blessings of the sight,

O tell your poor blind boy!

You talk of wondrous things you see,

You say the sun shines bright;

I feel him warm, but how can he

Or make it day or night?

My day or night myself I make

Whene'er I sleep or play;

And could I ever keep awake

With me 'twere always day.

With heavy sighs I often hear

You mourn my hapless woe;

But sure with patience I can bear

A loss I ne'er can know.

Then let not what I cannot have

My cheer of mind destroy:

Whilst thus I sing, I am a king,

Although a poor blind boy.

C. CIBBER.

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120. ON A FAVOURITE CAT, DROWNED IN A TUB OF GOLD FISHES.

'Twas on a lofty vase's side

Where China's gayest art had dyed

The azure flowers that blow,

Demurest of the tabby kind

The pensive Selima, reclined,

Gazed on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declared:

The fair round face, the snowy beard,

The velvet of her paws,

Her coat that with the tortoise vies,

Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes—

She saw, and purr'd applause.

Still had she gazed, but 'midst the tide

Two angel forms were seen to glide,

The Genii of the stream:

Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue

Through richest purple, to the view

Betray'd a golden gleam.

The hapless Nymph with wonder saw;

A whisker first, and then a claw

With many an ardent wish

She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize—

What female heart can gold despise?

What cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous maid! with looks intent

Again she stretch'd, again she bent,

Nor knew the gulf between—

Malignant Fate sat by and smiled—

The slippery verge her feet beguiled;

She tumbled headlong in!

Eight times emerging from the flood,

She mew'd to every watery God

Some speedy aid to send:—

No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd,

Nor cruel Tom nor Susan heard—

A favourite has no friend!

From hence, ye Beauties! undeceived

Know one false step is ne'er retrieved,

And be with caution bold:

Not all that tempts your wandering eyes

And heedless hearts, is lawful prize,

Nor all that glisters, gold!

T. GRAY.

***************************

121. TO CHARLOTTE PULTENEY.

Timely blossom, Infant fair,

Fondling of a happy pair,

Every morn and every night

Their solicitous delight,

Sleeping, waking, still at ease,

Pleasing, without skill to please

Little gossip, blithe and hale,

Tattling many a broken tale,

Singing many a tuneless song.

Lavish of a heedless tongue;

Simple maiden, void of art,

Babbling out the very heart,

Yet abandon'd to thy will,

Yet imagining no ill,

Yet too innocent to blush,

Like the linnet in the bush

To the mother-linnet's note

Moduling her slender throat;

Chirping forth thy petty joys,

Wanton in the change of toys,

Like the linnet green, in May

Flitting to each bloomy spray;

Wearied then and glad of rest,

Like the linnet in the nest:—

This thy present happy lot

This, in time will be forgot:

Other pleasures, other cares,

Ever-busy Time prepares;

And thou shalt in thy daughter see,

This picture, once, resembled thee.

A. PHILIPS.

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122. RULE BRITANNIA.

When Britain first at Heaven's command

Arose from out the azure main,

This was the charter of her land,

And guardian angels sung the strain:

Rule Brittania! Brittania rules the waves!

Britons never shall be slaves.

The nations not so blest as thee

Must in their turn to tyrants fall,

Whilst thou shalt flourish great and free

The dread and envy of them all.

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,

More dreadful from each foreign stroke;

As the loud blast that tears the skies

Serves but to root thy native oak.

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;

All their attempts to bend thee down

Will but arouse thy generous flame,

And work their woe and thy renown.

To thee belongs the rural reign;

Thy cities shall with commerce shine;

All thine shall be the subject main,

And every shore it circles thine!

The Muses, still with Freedom found,

Shall to thy happy coast repair;

Blest Isle, with matchless beauty crown'd,

And manly hearts to guard the fair:—

Rule Britannia! Brittania rules the waves!

Britons never shall be slaves!

J. THOMSON.

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123. THE BARD.

Pindaric Ode.

"Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!

Confusion on thy banners wait!

Tho' fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing

They mock the air with idle state.

Helm, nor hauberk's twisted mail

Nor e'en thy virtues, tyrant, shall avail

To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,

From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!"

—Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride

Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay,

As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side

He wound with toilsome march his long array:—

Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance;

"To arms!" cried Mortimer, and couch'd quivering lance.

On a rock, whose haughty brow

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,

Robed in the sable garb of woe

With haggard eyes the Poet stood;

(Loose his beard and hoary hair

Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air)

And with a master's hand and prophet's fire

Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre:

"Hark, how each giant oak and desert-cave

Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!

O'er thee, O King! their hundred arms they wave,

Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;

Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,

To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.

"Cold is Cadwallo's tongue

That hush'd the stormy main;

Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed:

Mountains, ye mourn in vain

Modred, whose magic song

Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head.

On dreary Arvon's shore they lie

Smear'd with gore and ghastly pale:

Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail;

The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by.

Dear lost companions of my tuneful art,

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes,

Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,

Ye died amidst your dying country's cries—

No more I weep; They do not sleep;

On yonder cliffs, a griesly band,

I see them sit; They linger yet,

Avengers of their native land:

With me in dreadful harmony they join,

And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.

"Weave the warp and weave the woof

The winding-sheet of Edward's race:

Give ample room and verge enough

The characters of hell to trace.

Mark the year and mark the night

When Severn shall re-echo with affright

The shrieks of death thro' Berkley's roof that ring,

Shrieks of an agonising king!

She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs

That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate,

From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs

The scourge of Heaven! What terrors round him wait!

Amazement in his van, with Flight combined,

And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.

"Mighty Victor, mighty lord,

Low on his funeral couch he lies!

No pitying heart, no eye, afford

A tear to grace his obsequies.

Is the sable warrior fled?

Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead.

The swarm that in thy noon-tide beam were born?

—Gone to salute the rising morn.

Fair laughs the Morn, and soft the zephyr blows,

While proudly riding o'er the azure realm

In gallant trim the gilded Vessel goes:

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm:

Regardless of the sweeping Whirlwind's sway,

That hush'd in grim repose expects his evening prey.

"Fill high the sparkling bowl,

The rich repast prepare;

Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast.

Close by the regal chair

Fell Thirst and Famine scowl

A baleful smile upon their baffled guest.

Heard ye the din of battle bray,

Lance to lance, and horse to horse?

Long years of havock urge their destined course,

And thro' the kindred squadrons mow their way.

Ye Towers of Julius! London's lasting shame,

With many a foul and midnight murder fed,

Revere his Consort's faith, his Father's fame,

And spare the meek usurper's holy head!

Above, below, the rose of snow,

Twined with her blushing foe, we spread:

The bristled boar in infant gore

Wallows beneath the thorny shade.

Now, brothers, bending o'er the accurséd loom,

Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.

"Edward, lo! to sudden fate

(Weave we the woof; the thread is spun;)

Half of thy heart we consecrate.

(The web is wove; the work is done;)

Stay, O stay! nor thus forlorn

Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn:

In yon bright track that fires the western skies

They melt, they vanish from my eyes.

But O! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height

Descending slow, their glittering skirts unroll?

Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,

Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!

No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail:—

All hail, ye genuine Kings! Britannia's issue, hail!

"Girt with many a baron bold,

Sublime their starry fronts they rear;

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old

In bearded majesty, appear.

In the midst a form divine!

Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-Line:

Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face

Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.

What strings symphonious tremble in the air,

What strains of vocal transport round her play?

Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear;

They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.

Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings,

Waves in the eye of Heaven her many-colour'd wings.

"The verse adorn again,

Fierce War and faithful Love,

And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.

In buskin'd measures move

Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,

With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.

A voice as of the cherub-choir

Gales from blooming Eden bear,

And distant warblings lessen on my ear

That lost in long futurity expire.

Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud

Raised by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day?

To-morrow he repairs the golden flood

And warms the nations with redoubled ray.

Enough for me: with joy I see

The different doom our fates assign:

Be thine Despair and sceptred Care;

To triumph and to die are mine."

He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height

Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.

T. GRAY.

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124. ODE WRITTEN IN MDCCXLVI.

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest

By all their Country's wishes blest!

When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,

Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,

She there shall dress a sweeter sod

Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

By fairy hands their knell is rung,

By forms unseen their dirge is sung:

There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,

To bless the turf that wraps their clay,

And Freedom shall awhile repair

To dwell a weeping hermit, there!

W. COLLINS.

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125. LAMENT FOR CULLODEN.

The lovely lass o' Inverness,

Nae joy nor pleasure can she see;

For e'en and morn she cries, Alas!

And aye the saut tear blink's her ee:

Drumossie moor—Drumossie day—

A waefu' day it was to me!

For there I lost my father dear,

My father dear, and brethren three.

Their winding-sheet the bluidy clay,

Their graves are growing green to see:

And by them lies the dearest lad

That ever blest a woman's ee!

Now wae to thee, thou cruel lord,

A bluidy man I trow thou be;

For mony a heart thou hast made sair

That ne'er did wrong to thine or thee.

R. BURNS.

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126. LAMENT FOR FLODDEN.

I've heard them lilting at our ewe-milking,

Lasses a' lilting before dawn o' day;

But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning—

The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.

At bughts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning,

Lasses are lonely and dowie and wae;

Nae daffin', nae gabbin', but sighing and sabbing,

Ilk ane lifts her leglin and hies her away.

In har'st, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering,

Bandsters are lyart, and runkled and gray;

At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching—

The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.

At e'en, in the gloaming, nae younkers are roaming

'Bout stacks wi' the lasses at bogle to play;

But ilk ane sits drearie, lamenting her dearie—

The Flowers of the Forest are weded away.

Dool and wae for the order, sent out lads to the border!

The English, for ance, by guile wan the day;

The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost,

The prime of our land, are cauld in the clay.

We'll hear nae mair lilting at the ewe-milking;

Women and bairns are heartless and wae;

Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning—

The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.

J. ELLIOTT.

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127. THE BRAES OF YARROW.

Thy braes were bonny, Yarrow stream,

When first on them I met my lover;

Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream,

When now thy waves his body cover!

For ever now, O Yarrow stream!

Thou art to me a stream of sorrow;

For never on thy banks shall I

Behold my Love, the flower of Yarrow!

He promised me a milk-white steed

To bear me to his father's bowers;

He promised me a little page

To squire me to his father's towers;

He promised me a wedding-ring,—

The wedding-day was fix'd to-morrow;—

Now he is wedded to his grave,

Alas, his watery grave, in Yarrow!

Sweet were his words when last we met;

My passion I as freely told him;

Clasp'd in his arms, I little thought

That I should never more behold him!

Scarce was he gone, I saw his ghost;

It vanish'd with a shriek of sorrow;

Thrice did the water-wraith ascend,

And gave a doleful groan thro' Yarrow.

His mother from the window look'd

With all the longing of a mother;

His little sister weeping walk'd

The green-wood path to meet her brother;

They sought him east, they sought him west,

They sought him all the forest thorough;

They only saw the cloud of night,

They only heard the roar of Yarrow.

No longer from thy window look—

Thou hast no son, thou tender mother!

No longer walk, thou lovely maid;

Alas, thou hast no more a brother!

No longer seek him east or west

And search no more the forest thorough;

For, wandering in the night so dark,

He fell a lifeless corpse in Yarrow.

The tear shall never leave my cheek,

No other youth shall be my marrow—

I'll seek thy body in the stream,

And then with thee I'll sleep in Yarrow.

—The tear did never leave her cheek,

No other youth became her marrow;

She found his body in the stream,

And now with him she sleeps in Yarrow.

J. LOGAN.

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128. WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW.

Down in yon garden sweet and gay

Where bonnie grows the lily,

I heard a fair maid sighing say

"My wish be wi' sweet Willie!

"Willie's rare, and Willie's fair,

And Willie's wondrous bonny;

And Willie hecht to marry me

Gin e'er he married ony.

"O gentle wind, that bloweth south,

From where my Love repaireth,

Convey a kiss frae his dear mouth

And tell me how he fareth!

"O tell sweet Willie to come doon

And hear the mavis singing,

And see the birds on ilka bush

And leaves around them hinging.

"The lav'rock there, wi' her white breast

And gentle throat sae narrow;

There's sport eneuch for gentlemen

On Leader haughs and Yarrow.

"O Leader haughs are wide and braid

And Yarrow haughs are bonny;

There Willie hecht to marry me

If e'er he married ony.

"But Willie's gone, whom I thought on,

And does not hear me weeping;

Draws many a tear frae true love's e'e

When other maids are sleeping.

"Yestreen I made my bed fu' braid,

The night I'll mak' it narrow,

For a' the live-lang winter night

I lie twined o' my marrow.

"O came ye by yon water-side?

Pou'd you the rose or lily?

Or came you by yon meadow green,

Or saw you my sweet Willie?"

She sought him up, she sought him down,

She sought him braid and narrow;

Syne, in the cleaving of a craig,

She found him drown'd in Yarrow!

ANON.

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129. LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE.

Toll for the Brave!

The brave that are no more!

All sunk beneath the wave

Fast by their native shore!

Eight hundred of the brave

Whose courage well was tried,

Had made the vessel heel

And laid her on her side.

A land-breeze shook the shrouds

And she was overset;

Down went the Royal George,

With all her crew complete.

Toll for the brave!

Brave Kempenfelt is gone:

His last sea-fight is fought,

His work of glory done.

It was not in the battle;

No tempest gave the shock;

She sprang no fatal leak,

She ran upon no rock.

His sword was in its sheath,

His fingers held the pen,

When Kempenfeld went down

With twice four hundred men.

Weigh the vessel up

Once dreaded by our foes!

And mingle with our cup

The tear that England owes.

Her timbers yet are sound,

And she may float again

Full charged with England's thunder,

And plough the distant main:

But Kempenfeld is gone,

His victories are o'er;

And he and his eight hundred

Shall plough the wave no more.

W. COWPER.

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130. BLACK-EYED SUSAN.

All in the Downs the fleet was moor'd,

The streamers waving in the wind,

When black-eyed Susan came aboard;

"O! where shall I my true-love find?

Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true

If my sweet William sails among the crew."

William, who high upon the yard

Rock'd with the billow to and fro,

Soon as her well-known voice he heard

He sigh'd, and cast his eyes below;

The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands,

And quick as lightning on the deck he stands.

So the sweet lark, high poised in air,

Shuts close his pinions to his breast

If chance his mate's shrill call he hear,

And drops at once into her nest:—

The noblest captain in the British fleet

Might envy William's lip those kisses sweet

"O Susan, Susan, lovely dear,

My vows shall ever true remain

Let me kiss off that falling tear;

We only part to meet again.

Change as ye list, ye winds; my heart shall be

The faithful compass that still points to thee.

"Believe not what the landmen say

Who tempt with doubts thy constant mind:

They'll tell thee, sailors, when away,

In every port a mistress find:

Yes, yes, believe them when they tell thee so,

For Thou art present wheresoe'er I go.

"If to fair India's coast we sail,

Thy eyes are seen in diamonds bright,

Thy breath is Afric's spicy gale,

Thy skin is ivory so white.

Thus every beauteous object that I view

Wakes in my soul some charm of lovely Sue.

"Though battle call me from thy arms

Let not my pretty Susan mourn;

Though cannons roar, yet safe from harms

William shall to his Dear return.

Love turns aside the balls that round me fly,

Lest precious tears should drop from Susan's eye."

The boatswain gave the dreadful word,

The sails their swelling bosom spread;

No longer must she stay aboard;

They kiss'd, she sigh'd, he hung his head.

Her lessening boat unwilling rows to land;

"Adieu!" she cries; and waved her lily hand.

J. GAY.

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131. SALLY IN OUR ALLEY.

Of all the girls that are so smart

There's none like pretty Sally;

She is the darling of my heart,

And she lives in our alley.

There is no lady in the land

Is half so sweet as Sally;

She is the darling of my heart,

And she lives in our alley.

Her father he makes cabbage-nets,

And through the streets does cry 'em;

Her mother she sells laces long

To such as please to buy 'em;

But sure such folks could ne'er beget

So sweet a girl as Sally!

She is the darling of my heart,

And she lives in our alley.

When she is by, I leave my work,

I love her so sincerely;

My master comes like any Turk,

And bangs me most severely—

But let him bang his bellyful,

I'll bear it all for Sally;

She is the darling of my heart,

And she lives in our alley.

Of all the days that's in the week

I dearly love but one day—

And that's the day that comes betwixt

A Saturday and Monday;

For then I'm drest all in my best

To walk abroad with Sally:

She is the darling of my heart,

And she lives in our alley.

My master carries me to church,

And often am I blamed

Because I leave him in the lurch

As soon as text is named;

I leave the church in sermon-time

And slink away to Sally;

She is the darling of my heart,

And she lives in our alley.

When Christmas comes about again,

O then I shall have money;

I'll hoard it up, and box it all,

I'll give it to my honey:

I would it were ten thousand pound,

I'd give it all to Sally;

She is the darling of my heart,

And she lives in our alley.

My master and the neighbours all

Make game of me and Sally,

And, but for her, I'd better be

A slave and row a galley;

But when my seven long years are out

O then I'll marry Sally,—

O then we'll wed, and then we'll bed,

But not in our alley!

H. CAREY.

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132. A FAREWELL.

Go fetch to me a pint o' wine,

And fill it in a silver tassie;

That I may drink before I go

A service to my bonnie lassie:

The boat rocks at the pier of Leith,

Fu' loud the wind blaws frae the Ferry,

The ship rides by the Berwick-law,

And I maun leave my bonnie Mary.

The trumpets sound, the banners fly,

The glittering spears are rankéd ready;

The shouts o' war are heard afar,

The battle closes thick and bloody;

But it's not the roar o' sea or shore

Wad make me langer wish to tarry;

Nor shouts o' war that's heard afar—

It's leaving thee, my bonnie Mary.

R. BURNS.

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133.

If doughty deeds my lady please

Right soon I'll mount my steed;

And strong his arm, and fast his seat

That bears frae me the meed.

I'll wear thy colours in my cap

Thy picture in my heart;

And he that bends not to thine eye

Shall rue it to his smart!

Then tell me how to woo thee, Love;

O tell me how to woo thee!

For thy dear sake, nae care I'll take

Tho' ne'er another trow me.

If gay attire delight thine eye

I'll dight me in array;

I'll tend thy chamber door all night,

And squire thee all the day.

If sweetest sounds can win thine ear,

These sounds I'll strive to catch;

Thy voice I'll steal to woo thysell,

That voice that nane can match.

But if fond love thy heart can gain,

I never broke a vow;

Nae maiden lays her skaith to me,

I never loved but you.

For you alone I ride the ring,

For you I wear the blue;

For you alone I strive to sing,

O tell me how to woo!

Then tell me how to woo thee, Love;

O tell me how to woo thee!

For thy dear sake, nae care I'll take,

Tho' ne'er another trow me.

GRAHAM OF GARTMORE.

***************************

134. TO A YOUNG LADY.

Sweet stream, that winds through yonder glade,

Apt emblem of a virtuous maid—

Silent and chaste she steals along,

Far from the world's gay busy throng:

With gentle yet prevailing force,

Intent upon her destined course;

Graceful and useful all she does,

Blessing and blest where'er she goes;

Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass,

And Heaven reflected in her face.

W. COWPER.

***************************

135. THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.

Sleep on, and dream of Heaven awhile—

Tho' shut so close thy laughing eyes,

Thy rosy lips still wear a smile

And move, and breathe delicious sighs!

Ah, now soft blushes tinge her cheeks

And mantle o'er her neck of snow:

Ah, now she murmurs, now she speaks

What most I wish—and fear to know!

She starts, she trembles, and she weeps!

Her fair hands folded on her breast:

—And now, how like a saint she sleeps!

A seraph in the realms of rest!

Sleep on secure! Above controul

Thy thoughts belong to Heaven and thee:

And may the secret of thy soul

Remain within its sanctuary!

S. ROGERS.

***************************

136.

For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove

An unrelenting foe to Love,

And when we meet a mutual heart

Come in between, and bid us part?

Bid us sigh on from day to day,

And wish and wish the soul away;

Till youth and genial years are flown,

And all the life of life is gone?

But busy, busy, still art thou,

To bind the loveless joyless vow,

The heart from pleasure to delude,

To join the gentle to the rude.

For once, O Fortune, hear my prayer,

And I absolve thy future care;

All other blessings I resign,

Make but the dear Amanda mine.

J. THOMSON.

***************************

137.

The merchant, to secure his treasure,

Conveys it in a borrow'd name:

Euphelia serves to grace my measure,

But Cloe is my real flame.

My softest verse, my darling lyre

Upon Euphelia's toilet lay—

When Cloe noted her desire

That I should sing, that I should play.

My lyre I tune, my voice I raise,

But with my numbers mix my sighs:

And whilst I sing Euphelia's praise,

I fix my soul on Cloe's eyes.

Fair Cloe blush'd: Euphelia frown'd:

I sung, and gazed; I play'd, and trembled:

And Venus to the Loves around

Remark'd how ill we all dissembled.

M. PRIOR.

***************************

138.

When lovely woman stoops to folly

And finds too late that men betray,—

What charm can soothe her melancholy,

What art can wash her guilt away?

The only art her guilt to cover,

To hide her shame from every eye,

To give repentance to her lover

And wring his bosom, is—to die.

O. GOLDSMITH.

***************************

139.

Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon

How can ye blume sae fair!

How can ye chant, ye little birds,

And I sae fu' o' care!

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird

That sings upon the bough;

Thou minds me o' the happy days

When my fause Luve was true.

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird

That sings beside thy mate;

For sae I sat, and sae I sang,

And wist na o' my fate.

Aft hae I roved by bonnie Doon

To see the woodbine twine,

And ilka bird sang o' its love;

And sae did I o' mine.

Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose,

Frae aff its thorny tree;

And my fause luver staw the rose,

But left the thorn wi' me.

R. BURNS.

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140. THE PROGRESS OF POESY.

A Pindaric Ode.

Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake,

And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.

From Helicon's harmonious springs

A thousand rills their mazy progress take:

The laughing flowers that round them blow

Drink life and fragrance as they flow.

Now the rich stream of Music winds along

Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,

Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign;

Now rolling down the steep amain

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour:

The rocks and nodding groves re-bellow to the roar.

O Sovereign of the willing soul,

Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,

Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares

And frantic Passions hear thy soft control.

On Thracia's hills the Lord of War

Has curb'd the fury of his car

And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command.

Perching on the sceptred hand

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king

With ruffled plumes, and flagging wing:

Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie

The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.

Thee the voice, the dance, obey,

Temper'd to thy warbled lay.

O'er Idalia's velvet-green

The rosy-crownéd Loves are seen

On Cytherea's day,

With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures,

Frisking light in frolic measures;

Now pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet:

To brisk notes in cadence beating

Glance their many-twinkling feet.

Slow-melting strains their Queen's approach declare:

Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay:

With arms sublime that float upon the air

In gliding state she wins her easy way:

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move

The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

Man's feeble race what ills await!

Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,

Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train,

And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate!

The fond complaint, my song, disprove,

And justify the laws of Jove.

Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse?

Night, and all her sickly dews,

Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry

He gives to range the dreary sky:

Till down the eastern cliffs afar

Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of war.

In climes beyond the solar road

Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam,

The Muse has broke the twilight gloom

To cheer the shivering native's dull abode.

And oft, beneath the odorous shade

Of Chili's boundless forests laid,

She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat

In loose numbers wildly sweet

Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves.

Her track, where'er the Goddess roves,

Glory pursue, and generous Shame,

Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame.

Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,

Isles, that crown th' Aegean deep,

Fields that cool Ilissus laves

Or where Maeander's amber waves

In lingering lab'rinths creep,

How do your tuneful echoes languish,

Mute, but to the voice of anguish!

Where each old poetic mountain

Inspiration breathed around;

Every shade and hallow'd fountain

Murmur'd deep a solemn sound:

Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour

Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.

Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power,

And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.

When Latium had her lofty spirit lost,

They sought, O Albion! next, thy sea-encircled coast.

Far from the sun and summer-gale

In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid,

What time, where lucid Avon stray'd,

To him the mighty Mother did unveil

Her awful face: the dauntless Child

Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled.

This pencil take (she said) whose colours clear

Richly paint the vernal year:

Thine, too, these golden keys, immortal Boy!

This can unlock the gates of Joy;

Of Horror that, and thrilling Fears,

Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.

Nor second He, that rode sublime

Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy

The secrets of the Abyss to spy:

He pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and Time:

The living Throne, the sapphire-blaze

Where Angels tremble while they gaze,

He saw; but blasted with excess of light,

Closed his eyes in endless night.

Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car

Wide o'er the fields of Glory bear

Two coursers of ethereal race

With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace.

Hark! his hands the lyre explore!

Bright-eyed Fancy, hovering o'er,

Scatters from her pictured urn

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

But ah! 'tis heard no more—

O! Lyre divine, what daring Spirit

Wakes thee now! Tho' he inherit

Nor the pride, nor ample pinion

That the Theban Eagle bear,

Sailing with supreme dominion

Thro' the azure deep of air:

Yet oft before his infant eyes would run

Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray

With orient hues, unborrow'd of the sun:

Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate:

Beneath the Good how far—but far above the Great.

T. GRAY.

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141. THE PASSIONS.

An Ode for Music.

When Music, heavenly maid, was young,

While yet in early Greece she sung,

The Passions oft, to hear her shell,

Throng'd around her magic cell

Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting,

Possest beyond the Muse's painting;

By turns they felt the glowing mind

Disturb'd, delighted, raised, refined:

'Till once, 'tis said, when all were fired,

Fill'd with fury, rapt, inspired,

From the supporting myrtles round

They snatch'd her instruments of sound,

And, as they oft had heard apart

Sweet lessons of her forceful art,

Each, for Madness ruled the hour,

Would prove his own expressive power.

First Fear his hand, its skill to try,

Amid the chords bewilder'd laid,

And back recoil'd, he knew not why,

E'en at the sound himself had made.

Next Anger rush'd, his eyes on fire,

In lightnings own'd his secret stings;

In one rude clash he struck the lyre

And swept with hurried hand the strings.

With woeful measures wan Despair—

Low sullen sounds his grief beguiled,

A solemn strange and mingled air,

'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.

But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,

What was thy delighted measure?

Still it whisper'd promised pleasure

And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!

Still would her touch the strain prolong;

And from the rocks, the woods, the vale

She call'd on Echo still through all the song;

And, where her sweetest theme she chose,

A soft responsive voice was heard at every close:

And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair;—

And longer had she sung:—but with a frown Revenge impatient rose:

He threw his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down;

And with a withering look

The war-denouncing trumpet took

And blew a blast so loud and dread,

Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe!

And ever and anon he beat

The doubling drum with furious heat;

And, though sometimes, each each dreary pause between,

Dejected Pity at his side

Her soul-subduing voice applied,

Yet still he kept his wild unalter'd mien,

While each strain'd ball of sight seem'd bursting from his head.

Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fix'd:

Sad proof of thy distressful state!

Of differing themes the veering song was mix'd;

And now it courted Love, now raving call'd on Hate.

With eyes up-raised, as one inspired,

Pale Melancholy sat retired;

And from her wild sequester'd seat,

In notes by distance made more sweet,

Pour'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul:

And dashing soft from rocks around

Bubbling runnels join'd the sound;

Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,

Or, o'er some haunted stream, with fond delay,

Round an holy calm diffusing,

Love of peace, and lonely musing,

In hollow murmurs died away.

But O! how alter'd was its sprightlier tone

When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,

Her bow across her shoulder flung,

Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew,

Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,

The hunter's call to Faun and Dryad known!

The oak-crown'd Sisters and their chaste-eyed Queen,

Satyrs and Sylvan Boys, were seen

Peeping from forth their alleys green:

Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear;

And Sport leap'd up, and seized his beechen spear.

Last came Joy's ecstatic trial:

He, with viny crown advancing,

First to the lively pipe his hand addrest:

But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol

Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best:

They would have thought who heard the strain

They saw, in Tempe's vale, her native maids

Amidst the festal-sounding shades

To some unwearied minstrel dancing;

While, as his flying fingers kiss'd the stings,

Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round:

Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;

And he, amidst his frolic play,

As if he would the charming air repay,

Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.

O Music! Sphere-descended maid,

Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!

Why, goddess, why, to us denied,

Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside?

As in that loved Athenian bower

You learn'd an all-commanding power,

Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear'd!

Can well recall what then it heard.

Where is thy native simple heart

Devote to Virtue, Fancy, Art?

Arise, as in that elder time,

Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime!

Thy wonders, in that god-like age,

Fill thy recording Sister's page;—

'Tis said and I believe the tale,

Thy humblest reed could more prevail

Had more of strength, diviner rage,

Than all which charms this laggard age,

E'en all at once together found

Cecilia's mingled world of sound:—

O bid our vain endeavours cease:

Revive the just designs of Greece:

Return in all thy simple state!

Confirm the tales her sons relate!

W. COLLINS.

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142. ODE ON THE SPRING.

Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours,

Fair Venus' train, appear,

Disclose the long-expecting flowers

And wake the purple year!

The Attic warbler pours her throat

Responsive to the cuckoo's note,

The untaught harmony of Spring:

While, whispering pleasure as they fly,

Cool Zephyrs through the clear blue sky

Their gather'd fragrance fling.

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch

A broader, browner shade,

Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech

O'er-canopies the glade,

Beside some water's rushy brink

With me the Muse shall sit, and think

(At ease reclined in rustic state)

How vain the ardour of the Crowd,

How low, how little, are the Proud,

How indigent the Great!

Still is the toiling hand of Care;

The panting herds repose:

Yet hark, how thro' the peopled air

The busy murmur glows!

The insect youth are on the wing,

Eager to taste the honied spring

And float amid the liquid noon:

Some lightly o'er the current skim,

Some show their gaily-gilded trim

Quick-glancing to the sun.

To Contemplation's sober eye

Such is the race of Man:

And they that creep, and they that fly,

Shall end where they began.

Alike the busy and the gay

But flutter thro' life's little day,

In Fortune's varying colours drest:

Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance,

Or chill'd by Age, their airy dance

They leave, in dust to rest.

Methinks I hear in accents low,

The sportive kind reply:

Poor moralist! and what art thou?

A solitary fly!

Thy joys no glittering female meets,

No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets,

No painted plumage to display:

On hasty wings thy youth is flown;

Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone—

We frolic while 'tis May.

T. GRAY.

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143. THE POPLAR FIELD.

The poplars are fell'd, farewell to the shade

And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade;

The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,

Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.

Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view

Of my favourite field, and the bank where they grew:

And now in the grass behold they are laid,

And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.

The blackbird has fled to another retreat

Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat;

And the scene where his melody charm'd me before

Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.

My fugitive years are all hasting away,

And I must ere long lie lowly as they,

With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head,

Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.

'Tis a sight to engage me, if anything can,

To muse on the perishing pleasures of man;

Short-lived as we are, our enjoyments, I see,

Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we.

W. COWPER.

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144. TO A FIELD-MOUSE.

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie,

O what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin and chase thee

Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion,

Has broken nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen icker in a thrave

'S a sma' request:

I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,

An' never miss't!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!

It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!

An' naething, now, to big a new ane,

O' foggage green!

And bleak December's winds ensuin'

Baith snell and keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,

And weary winter comin' fast,

And cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,

Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!

Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,

But house or hald,

To thole the winter's sleety dribble,

An' cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o' mice and men

Gang aft a-gley,

And lea'e us nought but grief and pain,

For promised joy.

Still thou art blest, compared wi' me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But, och! I backward cast my e'e.

On prospects drear!

An' forward, tho' I canna see,

I guess and fear.

R. BURNS.

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145. A WISH.

Mine be a cot beside the hill;

A bee-hive's hum shall sooth my ear;

A willowy brook that turns a mill,

With many a fall shall linger near.

The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch

Shall twitter from her clay-built nest;

Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch,

And share my meal, a welcome guest.

Around my ivied porch shall spring

Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew;

And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing

In russet-gown and apron blue.

The village-church among the trees,

Where first our marriage-vows were given,

With merry peals shall swell the breeze

And point with taper spire to Heaven.

S. ROGERS.

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146. TO EVENING.

If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song

May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear

Like thy own solemn springs,

Thy springs, and dying gales;

O Nymph reserved,—while now the bright-hair'd sun

Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts

With brede ethereal wove,

O'erhang his wavy bed,

Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat

With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,

Or where the beetle winds

His small but sullen horn,

As oft he rises midst the twilight path

Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum,—

Now teach me, maid composed,

To breathe some soften'd strain

Whose numbers, stealing through thy dark'ning vale,

May not unseemly with its stillness suit;

As musing slow I hail

Thy genial loved return.

For when thy folding-star arising shows

His paly circlet, at his warning lamp

The fragrant Hours, and Elves

Who slept in buds the day,

And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge

And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still

The pensive Pleasures sweet,

Prepare thy shadowy car.

Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene;

Or find some ruin midst its dreary dells,

Whose walls more awful nod

By thy religious gleams.

Or if chill blustering winds or driving rain

Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut

That, from the mountain's side

Views wilds and swelling floods,

And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires;

And hears their simple bell; and marks o'er all

Thy dewy fingers draw

The gradual dusky veil.

While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,

And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!

While Summer loves to sport

Beneath thy lingering light;

While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves;

Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,

Affrights thy shrinking train,

And rudely rends thy robes;

So long, regardful of thy quiet rule,

Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace,

Thy gentlest influence own,

And love thy favourite name!

W. COLLINS.

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147. ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,

And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds:

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower

The moping owl does to the moon complain

Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,

Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,

The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,

No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn

Or busy housewife ply her evening care:

No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;

How jocund did they drive their team afield!

How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;

Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

The short and simple annals of the Poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,

Await alike th' inevitable hour:—

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault

If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,

Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault,

The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

Can storied urn or animated bust

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?

Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,

Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;

Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,

Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page

Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;

Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,

And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast

The little tyrant of his fields withstood,

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood.

Th' applause of listening senates to command,

The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their history in a nation's eyes

Their lot forbad; nor circumscribed alone

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;

Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne,

And shut the gates of mercy on mankind;

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,

To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,

Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;

Along the cool sequester'd vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenour of their way.

Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect

Some frail memorial still erected nigh,

With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,

Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Their name, their years, spelt by the unletter'd Muse,

The place of fame and elegy supply:

And many a holy text around she strews,

That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,

Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,

Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,

Some pious drops the closing eye requires;

E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,

E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead,

Dost in those lines their artless tale relate;

If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,

Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,—

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,

Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn,

Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn;

There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech

That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,

His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch,

And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,

Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove;

Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn,

Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,

Along the heath, and near his favourite tree;

Another came; nor yet beside the rill,

Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

The next with dirges due in sad array,

Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne,—

Approach, and read (for thou canst read) the lay

Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.

THE EPITAPH.

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth

A Youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown;

Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,

And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;

Heaven did a recompense as largely send:

He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,

He gain'd from Heaven, 'twas all he wish'd, a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,

(There they alike in trembling hope repose),

The bosom of his Father and his God.

T. GRAY.

***************************

148. MARY MORISON.

O Mary, at thy window be,

It is the wish'd, the trysted hour!

Those smiles and glances let me see

That make the miser's treasure poor:

How blythely wad I bide the stoure,

A weary slave frae sun to sun,

Could I the rich reward secure,

The lovely Mary Morison.

Yestreen when to the trembling string

The dance gaed thro' the lighted ha',

To thee my fancy took its wing,—

I sat, but neither heard nor saw:

Tho' this was fair, and that was braw,

And yon the toast of a' the town,

I sigh'd, and said amang them a',

"Ye are na Mary Morison."

O Mary, canst thou wreck his peace

Wha for thy sake wad gladly dee?

Or canst thou break that heart of his,

Whase only faut is loving thee?

If love for love thou wilt na gie,

At least be pity to me shown;

A thought ungentle canna be

The thought o' Mary Morison.

R. BURNS.

***************************

149. BONNIE LESLEY.

O saw ye bonnie Lesley

As she gaed o'er the border?

She's gane, like Alexander,

To spread her conquests farther.

To see her is to love her,

And love but her for ever;

For nature made her what she is,

And ne'er made sic anither!

Thou art a queen, fair Lesley,

Thy subjects we, before thee;

Thou art divine, fair Lesley,

The hearts o' men adore thee.

The deil he could na scaith thee,

Or aught that wad belang thee;

He'd look into thy bonnie face,

And say "I canna wrang thee!"

The Powers aboon will tent thee,

Misfortune sha' na steer thee;

Thou'rt like themselves sae lovely

That ill they'll ne'er let near thee.

Return again, fair Lesley,

Return to Caledonie!

That we may brag we hae a lass

There's nane again sae bonnie.

R. BURNS.

***************************

150.

O my Luve's like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June:

O my Luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I:

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry:

Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun;

I will luve thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve!

And fare thee weel a while!

And I will come again, my Luve

Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

R. BURNS.

***************************

151. HIGHLAND MARY.

Ye banks and braes and streams around

The castle o' Montgomery,

Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,

Your waters never drumlie!

There simmer first unfauld her robes,

And there the langest tarry;

For there I took the last fareweel

O' my sweet Highland Mary.

How sweetly bloom'd the gay green birk,

How rich the hawthorn's blossom,

As underneath their fragrant shade

I clasp'd her to my bosom!

The golden hours on angel wings

Flew o'er me and my dearie;

For dear to me as light and life

Was my sweet Highland Mary.

Wi' mony a vow and lock'd embrace

Our parting was fu' tender;

And pledging aft to meet again,

We tore oursels asunder;

But O! fell Death's untimely frost,

That nipt my flower sae early!

Now green's the sod, and cauld's the clay,

That wraps my Highland Mary!

O pale, pale now, those rosy lips,

I aft hae kiss'd sae fondly!

And closed for aye the sparkling glance

That dwelt on me sae kindly;

And mouldering now in silent dust

That heart that lo'ed me dearly!

But still within my bosom's core

Shall live my Highland Mary.

R. BURNS.

***************************

152. AULD ROBIN GRAY.

When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame,

And a' the warld to rest are gane,

The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e,

While my gudeman lies sound by me.

Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride;

But saving a croun he had naething else beside:

To make the croun a pund, young Jamie gaed to sea;

And the croun and the pund were baith for me.

He hadna been awa' a week but only twa,

When my father brak his arm, and the cow was stown awa;

My mother she fell sick, and my Jamie at the sea—

And auld Robin Gray came a-courtin' me.

My father couldna work, and my mother couldna spin;

I toil'd day and night, but their bread I couldna win;

Auld Rob maintain'd them baith, and wi' tears in his e'e

Said, Jennie, for their sakes, O, marry me!

My heart it said nay; I look'd for Jamie back;

But the wind it blew high, and the ship it was a wrack;

His ship it was a wrack—Why didna Jamie dee?

Or why do I live to cry, Wae's me?

My father urgit sair: my mother didna speak;

But she look'd in my face till my heart was like to break:

They gi'ed him my hand, but my heart was at the sea;

Sae auld Robin Gray he was gudeman to me.

I hadna been a wife a week but only four,

When mournfu' as I sat on the stane at the door,

I saw my Jamie's wraith, for I couldna think it he—

Till he said, I'm come hame to marry thee.

O sair, sair did we greet, and muckle did we say;

We took but ae kiss, and I bad him gang away;

I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee;

And why was I born to say, Wae's me!

I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin;

I daurna think on Jamie, for that wad be a sin;

But I'll do my best a gude wife aye to be,

For auld Robin Gray he is kind unto me.

LADY A. LINDSAY.

***************************

153. DUNCAN GRAY.

Duncan Gray cam here to woo,

Ha, ha, the wooing o't,

On blythe Yule night when we were fou,

Ha, ha, the wooing o't,

Maggie coost her head fu' high,

Look'd asklent and unco skeigh,

Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh;

Ha, ha, the wooing o't.

Duncan fleech'd and Duncan pray'd;

Meg was deaf as Ailsa Craig;

Duncan sigh'd baith out and in,

Grat his een baith bleert and blin',

Spak o' lowpin' ower a linn!

Time and chance are but a tide,

Slighted love is sair to bide;

Shall I, like a fool, quoth he,

For a haughty hizzie dee?

She may gae to—France for me!

How it comes let doctors tell,

Meg grew sick—as he grew heal;

Something in her bosom wrings,

For relief a sigh she brings;

And O, her een, they spak sic things!

Duncan was a lad o' grace;

Maggie's was a piteous case;

Duncan could na be her death,

Swelling pity smoor'd his wrath;

Now they're crouse and canty baith:

Ha, ha, the wooing o't!

R. BURNS.

***************************

154. THE SAILOR'S WIFE.

And are ye sure the news is true?

And are ye sure he's weel?

Is this a time to think o' wark?

Ye jades, lay by your wheel;

Is this the time to spin a thread,

When Colin's at the door?

Reach down my cloak, I'll to the quay

And see him come ashore.

For there's nae luck about the house,

There's nae luck at a';

There's little pleasure in the house

When our gudeman's awa'.

And gie to me my bigonet,

My bishop's satin gown;

For I maun tell the baillie's wife

That Colin's in the town.

My Turkey slippers maun gae on,

My stockins pearly blue;

It's a' to pleasure our gudeman,

For he's baith leal and true.

Rise, lass, and mak a clean fireside,

Put on the muckle pot;

Gie little Kate her button gown

And Jock his Sunday coat;

And mak their shoon as black as slaes,

Their hose as white as snaw;

It's a' to please my ain gudeman,

For he's been long awa.

There's twa fat hens upo' the coop

Been fed this month and mair;

Mak haste and thraw their necks about,

That Colin weel may fare;

And spread the table neat and clean,

Gar ilka thing look braw,

For wha can tell how Colin fared

When he was far awa?

Sae true his heart, sae smooth his speech.

His breath like caller air;

His very foot has music in't

As he comes up the stair—

And will I see his face again?

And will I hear him speak?

I'm downright dizzy wi' the thought,

In troth I'm like to greet!

If Colin's weel, and weel content,

I hae nae mair to crave:

And gin I live to keep him sae,

I'm blest aboon the lave:

And will I see his face again,

And will I hear him speak?

I'm downright dizzy wi' the thought,

In troth I'm like to greet!

For there's nae luck about the house,

There's nae luck at a';

There's little pleasure in the house

When our gudeman's awa.

W. J. MICKLE.

***************************

155. JEAN.

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw

I dearly like the West,

For there the bonnie lassie lives,

The lassie I lo'e best:

There wild woods grow, and rivers row,

And mony a hill between;

But day and night my fancy's flight

Is ever wi' my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers,

I see her sweet and fair:

I hear her in the tunefu' birds,

I hear her charm the air:

There's not a bonnie flower that springs,

By fountain, shaw, or green;

There's not a bonnie bird that sings

But minds me o' my Jean.

O blaw ye westlin winds, blaw saft

Amang the leafy trees;

Wi' balmy gale, frae hill and dale

Bring hame the laden bees;

And bring the lassie back to me

That's aye sae neat and clean;

Ae smile o' her wad banish care,

Sae charming is my Jean.

What sighs and vows amang the knowes

Hae pass'd atween us twa!

How fond to meet, how wae to part

That night she gaed awa!

The Powers aboon can only ken

To whom the heart is seen,

That nane can be sae dear to me

As my sweet lovely Jean!

R. BURNS.

***************************

156. JOHN ANDERSON.

John Anderson my jo, John,

When we were first acquent

Your locks were like the raven,

Your bonnie brow was brent;

But now your brow is bald, John,

Your locks are like the snow;

But blessings on your frosty pow,

John Anderson my jo.

John Anderson my jo, John,

We clamb the hill thegither,

And mony a canty day, John,

We've had wi' ane anither:

Now we maun totter down, John,

But hand in hand we'll go,

And sleep thegither at the foot,

John Anderson my jo.

R. BURNS.

***************************

157. THE LAND O' THE LEAL.

I'm wearing awa', Jean

Like snaw when its thaw, Jean,

I'm wearing awa'

To the land o' the leal.

There's nae sorrow there, Jean,

There's neither cauld nor care, Jean,

The day is aye fair

In the land o' the leal.

Ye were aye leal and true, Jean,

Your task's ended noo, Jean,

And I'll welcome you

To the land o' the leal.

Our bonnie bairn's there, Jean,

She was baith guid and fair, Jean;

O we grudged her right sair

To the land o' the leal!

Then dry that tearfu' e'e, Jean,

My soul langs to be free, Jean,

And angels wait on me

To the land o' the leal.

Now fare ye weel, my ain Jean

This warld's care is vain, Jean;

We'll meet and aye be fain

In the land o' the leal.

LADY NAIRN.

***************************

158. ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE.

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers

That crown the wat'ry glade,

Where grateful Science still adores

Her Henry's holy shade;

And ye, that from the stately brow

Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below

Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,

Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among

Wanders the hoary Thames along

His silver-winding way:

Ah happy hills! ah pleasing shade!

Ah fields beloved in vain!

Where once my careless childhood stray'd,

A stranger yet to pain!

I feel the gales that from ye blow

A momentary bliss bestow,

As waving fresh their gladsome wing,

My weary soul they seem to soothe,

And, redolent of joy and youth,

To breathe a second spring.

Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen

Full many a sprightly race

Disporting on thy margent green

The paths of pleasure trace;

Who foremost now delight to cleave

With pliant arm, thy glassy wave?

The captive linnet which enthral?

What idle progeny succeed

To chase the rolling circle's speed

Or urge the flying ball?

While some, on earnest business bent

Their murmuring labours ply

'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint

To sweeten liberty:

Some bold adventurers disdain

The limits of their little reign

And unknown regions dare descry:

Still as they run they look behind,

They hear a voice in every wind

And snatch a fearful joy.

Gay Hope is theirs by fancy fed,

Less pleasing when possest;

The tear forgot as soon as shed,

The sunshine of the breast:

Theirs buxom Health, of rosy hue,

Wild Wit, Invention ever new,

And lively Cheer, of Vigour born;

The thoughtless day, the easy night,

The spirits pure, the slumbers light

That fly th' approach of morn.

Alas! regardless of their doom

The little victims play!

No sense have they of ills to come

Nor care beyond to-day:

Yet see how all around 'em wait

The ministers of human fate

And black Misfortune's baleful train!

Ah shew them where in ambush stand

To seize their prey, the murderous band!

Ah, tell them they are men!

These shall the fury Passions tear,

The vultures of the mind,

Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear,

And Shame that skulks behind;

Or pining Love shall waste their youth,

Or Jealousy with rankling tooth

That inly gnaws the secret heart,

And Envy wan, and faded Care,

Grim-visaged comfortless Despair,

And Sorrow's piercing dart.

Ambition this shall tempt to rise,

Then whirl the wretch from high

To bitter Scorn a sacrifice

And grinning Infamy.

The stings of Falsehood those shall try,

And hard Unkindness' alter'd eye,

That mocks the tear it forced to flow;

And keen Remorse with blood defiled,

And moody Madness laughing wild

Amid severest woe.

Lo, in the Vale of Years beneath

A griesly troop are seen,

The painful family of Death,

More hideous than their Queen:

This racks the joints, this fires the veins,

That every labouring sinew strains,

Those in the deeper vitals rage:

Lo, Poverty, to fill the band,

That numbs the soul with icy hand,

And slow-consuming Age.

To each his sufferings: all are men,

Condemn'd alike to groan;

The tender for another's pain,

Th' unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah! why should they know their fate,

Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies?

Thought would destroy their paradise!

No more;—where ignorance is bliss,

'Tis folly to be wise.

T. GRAY.

***************************

159. HYMN TO ADVERSITY.

Daughter of Jove, relentless power,

Thou tamer of the human breast,

Whose iron scourge and torturing hour

The bad affright, afflict the best!

Bound in thy adamantine chain

The proud are taught to taste of pain,

And purple tyrants vainly groan

With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.

When first thy Sire to send on earth

Virtue, his darling child, design'd,

To thee he gave the heavenly birth

And bade to form her infant mind.

Stern rugged Nurse! thy rigid lore

With patience many a year she bore:

What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know,

And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe.

Scared at thy frown terrific, fly

Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood,

Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy,

And leave us leisure to be good.

Light they disperse, and with them go

The summer Friend, the flattering Foe;

By vain Prosperity received

To her they vow their truth, and are again believed.

And Melancholy, silent maid,

With leaden eye, that loves the ground,

Still on thy solemn steps attend:

Warm Charity, the general friend,

With Justice, to herself severe,

And Pity dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear.

Oh, gently on thy suppliant's head,

Dread Goddess, lay thy chastening hand!

Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad,

Not circled with the vengeful band

(As by the impious thou art seen)

With thundering voice, and threatening mien,

With screaming Horror's funeral cry,

Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty:

Thy form benign, O Goddess, wear,

Thy milder influence impart,

Thy philosophic train be there

To soften, not to wound my heart.

The generous spark extinct revive,

Teach me to love and to forgive,

Exact my own defects to scan,

What others are to feel, and know myself a Man.

T. GRAY.

***************************

160. THE SOLITUDE OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK.

I am monarch of all I survey;

My right there is none to dispute;

From the centre all round to the sea

I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

O Solitude! Where are the charms

That sages have seen in thy face?

Better dwell in the midst of alarms

Than reign in this horrible place.

I am out of humanity's reach,

I must finish my journey alone,

Never hear the sweet music of speech;

I start at the sound of my own.

The beasts that roam over the plain

My form with indifference see;

They are so unacquainted with man,

Their tameness is shocking to me.

Society, Friendship, and Love

Divinely bestow'd upon man,

O had I the wings of a dove

How soon would I taste you again!

My sorrows I then might assuage

In the ways of religion and truth,

Might learn from the wisdom of age,

And be cheer'd by the sallies of youth.

Ye winds that have made me your sport,

Convey to this desolate shore

Some cordial endearing report

Of a land I shall visit no more:

My friends, do they now and then send

A wish or a thought after me?

O tell me I yet have a friend,

Though a friend I am never to see.

How fleet is a glance of the mind!

Compared with the speed of its flight,

The tempest itself lags behind,

And the swift-wingéd arrows of light.

When I think of my own native land

In a moment I seem to be there;

But alas! recollection at hand

Soon hurries me back to despair.

But the seafowl is gone to her nest,

The beast is laid down in his lair;

Even here is a season of rest,

And I to my cabin repair.

There's mercy in every place,

And mercy, encouraging thought!

Gives even affliction a grace

And reconciles man to his lot.

W. COWPER.

***************************

161. TO MARY UNWIN.

Mary! I want a lyre with other strings,

Such aid from heaven as some have feign'd they drew,

An eloquence scarce given to mortals, new

And undebased by praise of meaner things,

That ere through age or woe I shed my wings

I may record thy worth with honour due,

In verse as musical as thou art true

And that immortalizes whom it sings:—

But thou hast little need. There is a Book

By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light,

On which the eyes of God not rarely look,

A chronicle of actions just and bright—

There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine;

And since, thou own'st that praise, I spare thee mine.

W. COWPER.

***************************

162. TO MARY.

The twentieth year is well nigh past

Since first our sky was overcast;

Ah would that this might be the last!

My Mary!

Thy spirits have a fainter flow,

I see thee daily weaker grow—

'Twas my distress that brought thee low,

My Mary!

Thy needles, once a shining store,

For my sake restless heretofore,

Now rust disused, and shine no more;

My Mary!

For though thou gladly wouldst fulfil

The same kind office for me still,

Thy sight now seconds not thy will,

My Mary!

But well thou play'dst the housewife's part,

And all thy threads with magic art

Have wound themselves about this heart,

My Mary!

Thy indistinct expressions seem

Like language utter'd in a dream;

Yet me they charm, whate'er the theme,

My Mary!

Thy silver locks, once auburn bright

Are still more lovely in my sight

Than golden beams of orient light,

My Mary!

For could I view nor them nor thee,

What sight worth seeing could I see?

The sun would rise in vain for me,

My Mary!

Partakers of thy sad decline

Thy hands their little force resign;

Yet gently press'd, press gently mine,

My Mary!

Such feebleness of limbs thou prov'st

That now at every step thou mov'st

Upheld by two; yet still thou lov'st,

My Mary!

And still to love, though press'd with ill,

In wintry age to feel no chill,

With me is to be lovely still,

My Mary!

But ah! by constant heed I know

How oft the sadness that I show

Transforms thy smiles to looks of woe,

My Mary!

And should my future lot be cast

With much resemblance of the past

Thy worn-out heart will break at last—

My Mary!

W. COWPER.

***************************

163. THE DYING MAN IN HIS GARDEN.

Why, Damon, with the forward day

Dost thou thy little spot survey,

From tree to tree, with doubtful cheer,

Pursue the progress of the year,

What winds arise, what rains descend,

When thou before that year shalt end?

What do thy noontide walks avail,

To clear the leaf, and pick the snail,

Then wantonly to death decree

An insect usefuller than thee?

Thou and the worm are brother-kind,

As low, as earthy, and as blind.

Vain wretch! canst thou expect to see

The downy peach make court to thee?

Or that thy sense shall ever meet

The bean-flower's deep-embosom'd sweet

Exhaling with an evening blast?

Thy evenings then will all be past!

Thy narrow pride, thy fancied green

(For vanity's in little seen),

All must be left when Death appears,

In spite of wishes, groans, and tears;

Nor one of all thy plants that grow

But Rosemary will with thee go.

G. SEWELL.

***************************

164. TO-MORROW.

In the downhill of life, when I find I'm declining,

May my lot no less fortunate be

Than a snug elbow-chair can afford for reclining,

And a cot that o'erlooks the wide sea;

With an ambling pad-pony to pace o'er the lawn,

While I carol away idle sorrow,

And blithe as the lark that each day hails the dawn

Look forward with hope for to-morrow.

With a porch at my door, both for shelter and shade too,

As the sunshine or rain may prevail;

And a small spot of ground for the use of the spade too,

With a barn for the use of the flail:

A cow for my dairy, a dog for my game,

And a purse when a friend wants to borrow;

I'll envy no nabob his riches or fame,

Nor what honours await him to-morrow.

From the bleak northern blast may my cot be completely

Secured by a neighbouring hill;

And at night may repose steal upon me more sweetly

By the sound of a murmuring rill:

And while peace and plenty I find at my board,

With a heart free from sickness and sorrow,

With my friends may I share what to-day may afford,

And let them spread the table to-morrow.

And when I at last must throw off this frail covering

Which I've worn for three-score years and ten,

On the brink of the grave I'll not seek to keep hovering,

Nor my thread wish to spin o'er again:

But my face in the glass I'll serenely survey,

And with smiles count each wrinkle and furrow;

As this old worn-out stuff, which is threadbare to-day

May become everlasting to-morrow.

— COLLINS.

***************************

165.

Life! I know not what thou art,

But know that thou and I must part;

And when, or how, or where we met

I own to me's a secret yet.

Life! we've been long together

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;

'Tis hard to part when friends are dear—

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear;

—Then steal away, give little warning,

Choose thine own time;

Say not Good Night,—but in some brighter clime

Bid me Good Morning.

A L. BARBAULD.

FOURTH BOOK

SUMMARY.

It proves sufficiently the lavish wealth of our own age in Poetry, that the pieces which, without conscious departure from the standard of Excellence, render this Book by far the longest, were with very few exceptions composed during the first thirty years the nineteenth century. Exhaustive reasons can hardly be given for the strangely sudden appearance of individual genius: but none, in the Editor's judgment, can be less adequate than that which assigns the splendid national achievements of our recent poetry, to an impulse from the frantic follies and criminal wars that at the time disgraced the least essentially civilised of our foreign neighbours. The first French Revolution was rather, in his opinion, one result, and in itself by no means the most important, of that far wider and greater spirit which through enquiry and doubt, through pain and triumph, sweeps mankind round the circles of its gradual development: and it is to this that we must trace the literature of modern Europe. But, without more detailed discussion on the motive causes of Scott, Wordsworth, Campbell, Keats, and Shelley, we may observe that these Poets, with others, carried to further perfection the later tendencies of the Century preceding, in simplicity of narrative, reverence for human Passion and Character in every sphere, and impassioned love of Nature:—that, whilst maintaining on the whole the advances in art made since the Restoration, they renewed the half-forgotten melody and depth of tone which marked the best Elizabethan writers:—that, lastly, to what was thus inherited they added a richness in language and a variety in metre, a force and fire in narrative, a tenderness and bloom in feeling, an insight into the finer passages of the Soul and the inner meanings of the landscape, a larger and wiser Humanity,—hitherto hardly attained, and perhaps unattainable even by predecessors of not inferior individual genius. In a word, the Nation which, after the Greeks in their glory, has been the most gifted of all nations for Poetry, expressed in these men the highest strength and prodigality of its nature. They interpreted the age to itself—hence the many phases of thought and style they present:—to sympathise with each, fervently and impartially, without fear and without fancifulness, is no doubtful step in the higher education of the Soul. For, as with the Affections and the Conscience, Purity in Taste is absolutely proportionate to Strength:—and when once the mind has raised itself to grasp and to delight in Excellence, those who love most will be found to love most wisely.

166. ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER.

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

—Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes

He stared at the Pacific—and all his men

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

J. KEATS.

***************************

167. ODE ON THE POETS.

Bards of Passion and of Mirth

Ye have left your souls on earth!

Have ye souls in heaven too,

Doubled-lived in regions new?

—Yes, and those of heaven commune

With the spheres of sun and moon;

With the noise of fountains wonderous

And the parle of voices thunderous;

With the whisper of heaven's trees

And one another, in soft ease

Seated on Elysian lawns

Browsed by none but Dian's fawns;

Underneath large blue-bells tented,

Where the daisies are rose-scented,

And the rose herself has got

Perfume which on earth is not;

Where the nightingale doth sing

Not a senseless, trancéd thing,

But divine melodious truth;

Philosophic numbers smooth;

Tales and golden histories

Of heaven and its mysteries.

Thus ye live on high, and then

On the earth ye live again;

And the souls ye left behind you

Teach us, here, the way to find you

Where your other souls are joying,

Never slumber'd, never cloying.

Here, your earth-born souls still speak

To mortals, of their little week;

Of their sorrows and delights;

Of their passions and their spites;

Of their glory and their shame;

What doth strengthen and what maim:—

Thus ye teach us, every day,

Wisdom, though fled far away.

Bards of Passion and of Mirth

Ye have left your souls on earth!

Ye have souls in heaven too,

Double-lived in regions new!

J. KEATS.

***************************

168. LOVE.

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

Whatever stirs this mortal frame,

All are but ministers of Love,

And feed his sacred flame.

Oft in my waking dreams do I

Live o'er again that happy hour,

When midway on the mount I lay

Beside the ruin'd tower.

The moonshine stealing o'er the scene

Had blended with the lights of eve;

And she was there, my hope, my joy,

My own dear Genevieve!

She lean'd against the arméd man,

The statue of the arméd knight;

She stood and listen'd to my lay,

Amid the lingering light.

Few sorrows hath she of her own

My hope! my joy! my Genevieve!

She loves me best, whene'er I sing

The songs that make her grieve.

I play'd a soft and doleful air,

I sang an old and moving story—

An old rude song, that suited well

That ruin wild and hoary.

She listen'd with a flitting blush,

With downcast eyes and modest grace;

For well she knew, I could not choose

But gaze upon her face.

I told her of the Knight that wore

Upon his shield a burning brand;

And that for ten long years he woo'd

The Lady of the Land.

I told her how he pined: and ah!

The deep, the low, the pleading tone

With which I sang another's love,

Interpreted my own.

She listen'd with a flitting blush,

With downcast eyes, and modest grace;

And she forgave me, that I gazed

Too fondly on her face.

But when I told the cruel scorn

That crazed that bold and lovely Knight,

And that he cross'd the mountain-woods,

Nor rested day nor night;

That sometimes from the savage den,

And sometimes from the darksome shade,

And sometimes starting up at once

In green and sunny glade.

There came and look'd him in the face

An angel beautiful and bright;

And that he knew it was a Fiend,

This miserable Knight!

And that unknowing what he did,

He leap'd amid a murderous band,

And saved from outrage worse than death

The Lady of the Land;

And how she wept, and clasp'd his knees;

And how she tended him in vain;

And ever strove to expiate

The scorn that crazed his brain;

And that she nursed him in a cave,

And how his madness went away,

When on the yellow forest-leaves

A dying man he lay;

—His dying words—but when I reach'd

That tenderest strain of all the ditty,

My faltering voice and pausing harp

Disturb'd her soul with pity!

All impulses of soul and sense

Had thrill'd my guileless Genevieve;

The music and the doleful tale,

The rich and balmy eve;

And hopes, and fears that kindle hope,

An undistinguishable throng,

And gentle wishes long subdued,

Subdued and cherish'd long!

She wept with pity and delight,

She blush'd with love, and virgin shame;

And like the murmur of a dream,

I heard her breathe my name.

Her bosom heaved—she stepp'd aside,

As conscious of my look she stept—

Then suddenly, with timorous eye

She fled to me and wept.

She half enclosed me with her arms,

She press'd me with a meek embrace;

And bending back her head, look'd up,

And gazed upon my face.

'Twas partly love, and partly fear,

And partly 'twas a bashful art,

That I might rather feel, than see.

The swelling of her heart.

I calm'd her fears, and she was calm,

And told her love with virgin pride;

And so I won my Genevieve,

My bright and beauteous Bride.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

***************************

169. ALL FOR LOVE.

O talk not to me of a name great in story;

The days of our youth are the days of our glory;

And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty

Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.

What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled?

'Tis but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled:

Then away with all such from the head that is hoary—

What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory?

O Fame!—if I e'er took delight in thy praises,

'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases,

Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover

She thought that I was not unworthy to love her.

There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee;

Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee;

When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my story,

I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory.

LORD BYRON.

***************************

170. THE OUTLAW.

O Brignall banks are wild and fair,

And Greta woods are green,

And you may gather garlands there

Would grace a summer-queen.

And as I rode by Dalton-Hall

Beneath the turrets high,

A Maiden on the castle-wall

Was singing merrily:

"O, Brignall banks are fresh and fair,

And Greta woods are green;

I'd rather rove with Edmund there

Than reign our English queen."

"If, Maiden, thou wouldst wend with me,

To leave both tower and town,

Thou first must guess what life lead we

That dwell by dale and down.

And if thou canst that riddle read,

As read full well you may,

Then to the greenwood shalt thou speed

As blithe as Queen of May."

Yet sung she "Brignall banks are fair,

And Greta woods are green;

I'd rather rove with Edmund there

Than reign our English queen.

"I read you by your bugle-horn

And by your palfrey good,

I read you for a ranger sworn

To keep the King's greenwood."

"A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn,

And 'tis at peep of light;

His blast is heard at merry morn,

And mine at dead of night."

Yet sung she, "Brignall banks are fair,

And Greta woods are gay;

I would I were with Edmund there

To reign his Queen of May!

"With burnish'd brand and musketoon

So gallantly you come,

I read you for a bold Dragoon,

That lists the tuck of drum."

"I list no more the tuck of drum,

No more the trumpet hear;

But when the beetle sounds his hum

My comrades take the spear.

And O! though Brignall banks be fair,

And Greta woods be gay,

Yet mickle must the maiden dare,

Would reign my Queen of May!

"Maiden! a nameless life I lead,

A nameless death I'll die;

The fiend whose lantern lights the mead

Were better mate than I!

And when I'm with my comrades met

Beneath the greenwood bough,

What once we were we all forget,

Nor think what we are now.

Chorus.

Yet Brignall banks are fresh and fair,

And Greta woods are green,

And you may gather flowers there

Would grace a summer-queen.

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

171.

There be none of Beauty's daughters

With a magic like Thee;

And like music on the waters

Is thy sweet voice to me:

When, as if its sound were causing

The charméd ocean's pausing,

The waves lie still and gleaming,

And the lull'd winds seem dreaming

And the midnight moon is weaving

Her bright chain o'er the deep,

Whose breast is gently heaving,

As an infant's asleep:

So the spirit bows before thee

To listen and adore thee;

With a full but soft emotion,

Like the swell of Summer's ocean.

LORD BYRON.

***************************

172. LINES TO AN INDIAN AIR.

I arise from dreams of Thee

In the first sweet sleep of night,

When the winds are breathing low

And the stars are shining bright:

I arise from dreams of thee,

And a spirit in my feet

Hath led me—who knows how?

To thy chamber-window, Sweet!

The wandering airs they faint

On the dark, the silent stream—

The champak odours fail

Like sweet thoughts in a dream;

The nightingale's complaint,

It dies upon her heart,

As I must on thine,

Oh, belovéd as thou art!

Oh lift me from the grass!

I die! I faint, I fail!

Let thy love in kisses rain

On my lips and eyelids pale.

My cheek is cold and white, alas!

My heart beats loud and fast;

O! press it to thine own again

Where it will break at last.

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

173.

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies,

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meets in her aspect and her eyes,

Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impair'd the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress

Or softly lightens o'er her face,

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow

But tell of days in goodness spent,—

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent.

LORD BYRON.

***************************

174.

She was a phantom of delight

When first she gleam'd upon my sight;

A lovely apparition, sent

To be a moment's ornament;

Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;

Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;

But all things else about her drawn

From May-time and the cheerful dawn;

A dancing shape, an image gay,

To haunt, to startle, and waylay.

I saw her upon nearer view,

A spirit, yet a woman too!

Her household motions light and free,

And steps of virgin-liberty;

A countenance in which did meet

Sweet records, promises as sweet;

A creature not too bright or good

For human nature's daily food,

For transient sorrows, simple wiles,

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

And now I see with eye serene

The very pulse of the machine;

A being breathing thoughtful breath,

A traveller between life and death:

The reason firm, the temperate will,

Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;

A perfect woman, nobly plann'd,

To warn, to comfort, and command;

And yet a Spirit still, and bright

With something of an angel-light.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

175.

She is not fair to outward view

As many maidens be;

Her loveliness I never knew

Until she smiled on me.

O then I saw her eye was bright,

A well of love, a spring of light.

But now her looks are coy and cold,

To mine they ne'er reply,

And yet I cease not to behold

The love-light in her eye:

Her very frowns are fairer far

Than smiles of other maidens are.

H. COLERIDGE.

***************************

176.

I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden;

Thou needest not fear mine;

My spirit is too deeply laden

Ever to burthen thine.

I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion;

Thou needest not fear mine;

Innocent is the heart's devotion

With which I worship thine.

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

177. THE LOST LOVE.

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove;

A maid whom there were none to praise,

And very few to love.

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

—Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and O!

The difference to me!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

178.

I travell'd among unknown men

In lands beyond the sea;

Nor, England! did I know till then

What love I bore to thee.

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!

Nor will I quit thy shore

A second time, for still I seem

To love thee more and more.

Among thy mountains did I feel

The joy of my desire;

And she I cherish'd turn'd her wheel

Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights conceal'd,

The bowers where Lucy play'd;

And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes survey'd.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

179. THE EDUCATION OF NATURE.

Three years she grew in sun and shower;

Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower

On earth was never sown;

This child I to myself will take;

She shall be mine, and I will make

A lady of my own.

"Myself will to my darling be

Both law and impulse: and with me

The girl, in rock and plain,

In earth and heaven, in glade and bower

Shall feel an overseeing power

To kindle or restrain.

"She shall be sportive as the fawn

That wild with glee across the lawn

Or up the mountain springs;

And her's shall be the breathing balm,

And her's the silence and the calm

Of mute insensate things.

"The floating clouds their state shall lend

To her; for her the willow bend;

Nor shall she fail to see

E'en in the motions of the storm

Grace that shall mould the maiden's form

By silent sympathy.

"The stars of midnight shall be dear

To her; and she shall lean her ear

In many a secret place

Where rivulets dance their wayward round,

And beauty born of murmuring sound

Shall pass into her face.

"And vital feelings of delight

Shall rear her form to stately height,

Her virgin bosom swell;

Such thoughts to Lucy I will give

While she and I together live

Here in this happy dell."

Thus Nature spake—The work was done—

How soon my Lucy's race was run!

She died, and left to me

This heath, this calm and quiet scene;

The memory of what has been,

And never more will be.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

180.

A slumber did my spirit seal;

I had no human fears:

She seem'd a thing that could not feel

The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;

She neither hears nor sees;

Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course

With rocks, and stones, and trees!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

181. LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER.

A Chieftain to the Highlands bound

Cries "Boatman, do not tarry!

And I'll give thee a silver pound

To row us o'er the ferry!"

"Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle

This dark and stormy water?"

"O I'm the chief of Ulva's isle,

And this, Lord Ullin's daughter.

"And fast before her father's men

Three days we've fled together,

For should he find us in the glen,

My blood would stain the heather.

"His horsemen hard behind us ride—

Should they our steps discover,

Then who will cheer my bonny bride

When they have slain her lover?"

Out spoke the hardy Highland wight

"I'll go, my chief, I'm ready:

It is not for your silver bright,

But for your winsome lady:—

"And by my word! the bonny bird

In danger not shall tarry;

So though the waves are raging white

I'll row you o'er the ferry."

By this the storm grew loud apace,

The water-wraith was shrieking;

And in the scowl of heaven each face

Grew dark as they were speaking.

But still as wilder blew the wind

And as the night grew drearer,

Adown the glen rode arméd men,

Their trampling sounded nearer.

"O haste thee, haste!" the lady cries,

"Though tempests round us gather;

I'll meet the raging of the skies,

But not an angry father."

The boat has left a stormy land,

A stormy sea before her,—

When O! too strong for human hand

The tempest gather'd o'er her.

And still they row'd amidst the roar

Of waters fast prevailing:

Lord Ullin reach'd that fatal shore,—

His wrath was changed to wailing.

For, sore dismay'd, through storm and shade

His child he did discover:—

One lovely hand she stretch'd for aid,

And one was round her lover.

"Come back! come back!" he cried in grief,

"Across this stormy water:

And I'll forgive your Highland chief,

My daughter!—O my daughter!"

'Twas vain: the loud waves lash'd the shore,

Return or aid preventing:

The waters wild went o'er his child,

And he was left lamenting.

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

182. JOCK O' HAZELDEAN.

"Why weep ye by the tide, ladie?

Why weep ye by the tide?

I'll wed ye to my youngest son,

And ye sall be his bride:

And ye sall be his bride, ladie,

Sae comely to be seen"—

But aye she loot the tears doon fa'

For Jock o' Hazeldean.

"Now let this wilfu' grief be done,

And dry that cheek so pale;

Young Frank is chief of Errington

And lord of Langley-dale;

His step is first in peaceful ha',

His sword in battle keen"—

But aye she loot the tears down fa'

For Jock o' Hazeldean.

"A chain of gold ye shall not lack,

Nor braid to bind your hair,

Nor mettled hound, nor managed hawk

Nor palfrey fresh and fair;

And you the foremost o' them a'

Shall ride our forest queen"—

But aye she loot the tears down fa'

For Jock o' Hazeldean.

The kirk was deck'd at morning-tide,

The tapers glimmer'd fair;

The priest and bridegroom wait the bride,

And dame and knight are there:

They sought her baith by bower and ha';

The ladie was not seen!

She's o'er the Border, and awa'

Wi' Jock o' Hazeldean.

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

183. FREEDOM AND LOVE.

How delicious is the winning

Of a kiss at love's beginning,

When two mutual hearts are sighing

For the knot there's no untying!

Yet remember, 'midst your wooing,

Love has bliss, but Love has ruing;

Other smiles may make you fickle,

Tears for other charms may trickle.

Love he comes, and Love he tarries,

Just as fate or fancy carries;

Longest stays, when sorest chidden;

Laughs and flies, when press'd and bidden.

Bind the sea to slumber stilly,

Bind its odour to the lily,

Bind the aspen ne'er to quiver,

Then bind Love to last for ever.

Love's a fire that needs renewal

Of fresh beauty for its fuel:

Love's wing moults when caged and captured,

Only free, he soars enraptured.

Can you keep the bee from ranging

Or the ringdove's neck from changing?

No! nor fetter'd Love from dying

In the knot there's no untying.

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

184. LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY.

The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single,

All things by a law divine

In one another's being mingle—

Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven

And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdain'd its brother:

And the sunlight clasps the earth,

And the moonbeams kiss the sea—

What are all these kissings worth,

If thou kiss not me?

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

185. ECHOES.

How sweet the answer Echo makes

To Music at night

When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes,

And far away o'er lawns and lakes

Goes answering light!

Yet Love hath echoes truer far

And far more sweet

Than e'er, beneath the moonlight's star,

Of horn or lute or soft guitar

The songs repeat.

'Tis when the sigh,—in youth sincere

And only then,

The sigh that's breathed for one to hear—

Is by that one, that only Dear

Breathed back again.

T. MOORE.

***************************

186. A SERENADE.

Ah! County Guy, the hour is nigh,

The sun has left the lea,

The orange-flower perfumes the bower,

The breeze is on the sea.

The lark, his lay who trill'd all day,

Sits hush'd his partner nigh;

Breeze, bird, and flower confess the hour,

But where is County Guy?

The village maid steals through the shade

Her shepherd's suit to hear;

To Beauty shy, by lattice high,

Sings high-born Cavalier.

The star of Love, all stars above,

Now reigns o'er earth and sky,

And high and low the influence know—

But where is County Guy?

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

187. TO THE EVENING STAR.

Gem of the crimson-colour'd Even,

Companion of retiring day,

Why at the closing gates of heaven,

Beloved Star, dost thou delay?

So fair thy pensile beauty burns

When soft the tear of twilight flows;

So due thy plighted love returns

To chambers brighter than the rose;

To Peace, to Pleasure, and to love

So kind a star thou seem'st to be,

Sure some enamour'd orb above

Descends and burns to meet with thee.

Thine is the breathing, blushing hour

When all unheavenly passions fly,

Chased by the soul-subduing power

Of Love's delicious witchery.

O! sacred to the fall of day

Queen of propitious stars, appear,

And early rise, and long delay

When Caroline herself is here!

Shine on her chosen green resort

Whose trees the sunward summit crown,

And wanton flowers, that well may court

An angel's feet to tread them down:—

Shine on her sweetly scented road

Thou star of evening's purple dome,

That lead'st the nightingale abroad,

And guid'st the pilgrim to his home.

Shine where my charmer's sweeter breath

Embalms the soft exhaling dew,

Where dying winds a sigh bequeath

To kiss the cheek of rosy hue:—

Where, winnow'd by the gentle air,

Her silken tresses darkly flow

And fall upon her brow so fair,

Like shadows on the mountain snow.

Thus, ever thus, at day's decline

In converse sweet to wander far—

O bring with thee my Caroline,

And thou shalt be my Ruling Star!

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

188. TO THE NIGHT.

Swiftly walk over the western wave,

Spirit of Night!

Out of the misty eastern cave

Where all the long and lone daylight

Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear

Which make thee terrible and dear,—

Swift be thy flight!

Wrap thy form in a mantle gray,

Star-inwrought!

Blind with thine hair the eyes of day,

Kiss her until she be wearied out,

Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land,

Touching all with thine opiate wand—

Come, long-sought!

When I arose and saw the dawn,

I sigh'd for thee;

When light rode high, and the dew was gone,

And noon lay heavy on flower and tree,

And the weary Day turn'd to his rest,

Lingering like an unloved guest,

I sigh'd for thee.

Thy brother Death came, and cried,

Wouldst thou me?

Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed,

Murmur'd like a noon-tide bee

Shall I nestle near thy side?

Wouldst thou me?—And I replied

No, not thee!

Death will come when thou art dead,

Soon, too soon—

Sleep will come when thou art fled;

Of neither would I ask the boon

I ask of thee, belovéd Night—

Swift be thine approaching flight,

Come soon, soon!

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

189. TO A DISTANT FRIEND.

Why art thou silent! Is thy love a plant

Of such weak fibre that the treacherous air

Of absence withers what was once so fair?

Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant?

Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant,

Bound to thy service with unceasing care—

The mind's least generous wish a mendicant

For nought but what thy happiness could spare.

Speak!—though this soft warm heart, once free to hold

A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,

Be left more desolate, more dreary cold

Than a forsaken bird's-nest fill'd with snow

'Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine—

Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

190.

When we two parted

In silence and tears,

Half broken-hearted

To sever for years,

Pale grew thy cheek and cold,

Colder thy kiss;

Truly that hour foretold

Sorrow to this!

The dew of the morning

Sunk chill on my brow;

It felt like the warning

Of what I feel now.

Thy vows are all broken,

And light is thy fame:

I hear thy name spoken,

And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,

A knell to mine ear;

A shudder comes o'er me—

Why wert thou so dear?

They know not I knew thee,

Who knew thee too well:

Long, long shall I rue thee

Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met:

In silence I grieve

That thy heart could forget,

Thy spirit deceive.

If I should meet thee

After long years,

How should I greet thee?—

With silence and tears.

LORD BYRON.

***************************

191. HAPPY INSENSIBILITY.

In a drear-nighted December,

Too happy, happy Tree

Thy branches ne'er remember

Their green felicity:

The north cannot undo them

With a sleety whistle through them,

Nor frozen thawings glue them

From budding at the prime.

In a drear-nighted December

Too happy, happy Brook

Thy bubblings ne'er remember

Apollo's summer look;

But with a sweet forgetting

They stay their crystal fretting,

Never, never petting

About the frozen time.

Ah! would 'twere so with many

A gentle girl and boy!

But were there ever any

Writhed not at passéd joy?

To know the change and feel it,

When there is none to heal it

Nor numbéd sense to steal it—

Was never said in rhyme.

J. KEATS.

***************************

192.

Where shall the lover rest

Whom the fates sever

From his true maiden's breast

Parted for ever?

Where, through groves deep and high

Sounds the far billow,

Where early violets die

Under the willow.

Eleu loro

Soft shall be his pillow.

There, through the summer day

Cool streams are laving:

There, while the tempests sway,

Scarce are boughs waving;

There thy rest shalt thou take,

Parted for ever,

Never again to wake

Never, O never!

Eleu loro

Never, O never!

Where shall the traitor rest,

He, the deceiver,

Who would win maiden's breast,

Ruin, and leave her?

In the lost battle,

Borne down by the flying,

Where mingles war's rattle

With groans of the dying;

Eleu loro

There shall he be lying.

Her wing shall the eagle flap

O'er the falsehearted;

His warm blood the wolf shall lap

Ere life be parted:

Shame and dishonour sit

By his grave ever;

Blessing shall hallow it

Never, O never!

Eleu loro

Never, O never!

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

193. LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI.

"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has wither'd from the lake,

And no birds sing.

"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel's granary is full,

And the harvest's done.

"I see a lily on thy brow

With anguish moist and fever-dew,

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

Fast withereth too."

"I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful—a faery's child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light,

And her eyes were wild.

"I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She look'd at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan.

"I set her on my pacing steed

And nothing else saw all day long,

For sidelong would she bend, and sing

A faery's song.

"She found me roots of relish sweet,

And honey wild and manna-dew,

And sure in language strange she said,

'I love thee true.'

"She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she wept, and sigh'd full sore,

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

With kisses four.

"And there she lulléd me asleep,

And there I dream'd—Ah! woe betide!

The latest dream I ever dream'd

On the cold hill's side.

"I saw pale kings and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

They cried—'La belle Dame sans Merci

Hath thee in thrall!'

"I saw their starved lips in the gloam

With horrid warning gapéd wide,

And I awoke and found me here,

On the cold hill's side.

"And this is why I sojourn here

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,

And no birds sing."

J. KEATS.

***************************

194. THE ROVER.

"A weary lot is thine, fair maid,

A weary lot is thine!

To pull the thorn thy brow to braid,

And press the rue for wine.

A lightsome eye, a soldier's mien,

A feather of the blue,

A doublet of the Lincoln green—

No more of me you knew,

My Love!

No more of me you knew.

"The morn is merry June, I trow,

The rose is budding fain;

But she shall bloom in winter snow

Ere we two meet again."

He turn'd his charger as he spake

Upon the river shore,

He gave the bridle-reins a shake,

Said "Adieu for evermore,

My Love!

And adieu for evermore."

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

195. THE FLIGHT OF LOVE.

When the lamp is shatter'd,

The light in the dust lies dead—

When the cloud is scatter'd,

The rainbow's glory is shed.

When the lute is broken,

Sweet tones are remember'd not;

When the lips have spoken,

Loved accents are soon forgot.

As music and splendour

Survive not the lamp and the lute,

The heart's echoes render

No song when the spirit is mute—

No song but sad dirges,

Like the wind through a ruin'd cell,

Or the mournful surges

That ring the dead seaman's knell.

When hearts have once mingled,

Love first leaves the well-built nest;

The weak one is singled

To endure what it once possest.

O Love! who bewailest

The frailty of all things here,

Why choose you the frailest

For your cradle, your home, and your bier?

Its passions will rock thee

As the storms rock the ravens on high;

Bright reason will mock thee

Like the sun from a wintry sky.

From thy nest every rafter

Will rot, and thine eagle home

Leave thee naked to laughter,

When leaves fall and cold winds come.

P. B. SHELLEY.

***************************

196. THE MAID OF NEIDPATH.

O lovers' eyes are sharp to see,

And lovers' ears in hearing;

And love, in life's extremity

Can lend an hour of cheering.

Disease had been in Mary's bower

And slow decay from mourning,

Though now she sits on Neidpath's tower

To watch her Love's returning.

All sunk and dim her eyes so bright,

Her form decay'd by pining,

Till through her wasted hand, at night,

You saw the taper shining.

By fits a sultry hectic hue

Across her cheek was flying;

By fits so ashy pale she grew

Her maidens thought her dying.

Yet keenest powers to see and hear

Seem'd in her frame residing;

Before the watch-dog prick'd his ear

She heard her lover's riding;

Ere scarce a distant form was kenn'd

She knew and waved to greet him,

And o'er the battlement did bend

As on the wing to meet him.

He came—he pass'd—an heedless gaze

As o'er some stranger glancing;

Her welcome, spoke in faltering phrase,

Lost in his courser's prancing—

The castle-arch, whose hollow tone

Returns each whisper spoken,

Could scarcely catch the feeble moan

Which told her heart was broken.

SIR W. SCOTT

***************************

197. THE MAID OF NEIDPATH.

Earl March look'd on his dying child,

And smit with grief to view her—

The youth, he cried, whom I exiled

Shall be restored to woo her.

She's at the window many an hour

His coming to discover:

And he look'd up to Ellen's bower

And she look'd on her lover—

But ah! so pale, he knew her not,

Though her smile on him was dwelling—

And am I then forgot—forgot?

It broke the heart of Ellen.

In vain he weeps, in vain he sighs,

Her cheek is cold as ashes;

Nor love's own kiss shall wake those eyes

To lift their silken lashes.

T. CAMPBELL

***************************

198.

Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art—

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors:—

No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow'd upon my fair Love's ripening breast

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest;

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever,—or else swoon to death.

J. KEATS.

***************************

199. THE TERROR OF DEATH.

When I have fears that I may cease to be

Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high-piléd books, in charact'ry,

Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;

When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I may never live to trace

Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair Creature of an hour!

That I shall never look upon thee more,

Never have relish in the fairy power

Of unreflecting love—then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,

Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

J. KEATS.

***************************

200. DESIDERIA.

Surprized by joy—impatient as the wind—

I turn'd to share the transport—Oh, with whom

But Thee—deep buried in the silent tomb,

That spot which no vicissitude can find?

Love, faithful love recall'd thee to my mind—

But how could I forget thee? Through what power

Even for the least division of an hour

Have I been so beguiled as to be blind

To my most grievous loss?—That thought's return

Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore

Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,

Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;

That neither present time, nor years unborn

Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

201.

At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping,

I fly

To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in

thine eye;

And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions

of air

To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to

me there

And tell me our love is remember'd even in the sky!

Then I sing the wild song it once was rapture to hear

When our voices, commingling, breathed like one on

the ear;

And as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison

rolls,

I think, O my love! 'tis thy voice, from the Kingdom

of Souls

Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.

T. MOORE.

***************************

202. ELEGY ON THYRZA.

And thou art dead, as young and fair

As aught of mortal birth;

And forms so soft and charms so rare

Too soon return'd to Earth!

Though Earth received them in her bed,

And o'er the spot the crowd may tread

In carelessness or mirth,

There is an eye which could not brook

A moment on that grave to look.

I will not ask where thou liest low

Nor gaze upon the spot;

There flowers and weeds at will may grow

So I behold them not:

It is enough for me to prove

That what I loved and long must love

Like common earth can rot;

To me there needs no stone to tell

'Tis Nothing that I loved so well.

Yet did I love thee to the last,

As fervently as thou

Who didst not change through all the past

And canst not alter now.

The love where Death has set his seal

Nor age can chill, nor rival steal,

Nor falsehood disavow:

And, what were worse, thou canst not see

Or wrong, or change, or fault in me.

The better days of life were ours;

The worst can be but mine:

The sun that cheers, the storm that lours

Shall never more be thine.

The silence of that dreamless sleep

I envy now too much to weep;

Nor need I to repine

That all those charms have pass'd away

I might have watch'd through long decay.

The flower in ripen'd bloom unmatch'd

Must fall the earliest prey;

Though by no hand untimely snatch'd,

The leaves must drop away.

And yet it were a greater grief

To watch it withering, leaf by leaf,

Than see it pluck'd to-day;

Since earthly eye but ill can bear

To trace the change from foul to fair.

I know not if I could have borne

To see thy beauties fade;

The night that follow'd such a morn

Had worn a deeper shade:

Thy day without a cloud hath past,

And thou wert lovely to the last,

Extinguish'd, not decay'd;

As stars that shoot along the sky

Shine brightest as they fall from high.

As once I wept if I could weep,

My tears might well be shed

To think I was not near, to keep

One vigil o'er thy bed:

To gaze, how fondly! on thy face,

To fold thee in a faint embrace,

Uphold thy drooping head;

And show that love, however vain,

Nor thou nor I can feel again.

Yet how much less it were to gain,

Though thou hast left me free,

The loveliest things that still remain

Than thus remember thee!

The all of thine that cannot die

Through dark and dread Eternity

Returns again to me,

And more thy buried love endears

Than aught except its living years.

LORD BYRON.

***************************

203.

One word is too often profaned

For me to profane it,

One feeling too falsely disdain'd

For thee to disdain it.

One hope is too like despair

For prudence to smother,

And Pity from thee more dear

Than that from another.

I can give not what men call love;

But wilt thou accept not

The worship the heart lifts above

And the Heavens reject not:

The desire of the moth for the star,

Of the night for the morrow,

The devotion to something afar

From the sphere of our sorrow?

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

204. GATHERING SONG OF DONALD THE BLACK.

Pibroch of Donuil Dhu

Pibroch of Donuil

Wake thy wild voice anew,

Summon Clan Conuil.

Come away, come away,

Hark to the summons!

Come in your war-array,

Gentles and commons.

Come from deep glen, and

From mountain so rocky;

The war-pipe and pennon

Are at Inverlochy.

Come every hill-plaid, and

True heart that wears one,

Come every steel blade, and

Strong hand that bears one.

Leave untended the herd,

The flock without shelter;

Leave the corpse uninterr'd,

The bride at the altar;

Leave the deer, leave the steer,

Leave nets and barges:

Come with your fighting gear,

Broadswords and targes.

Come as the winds come, when

Forests are rended,

Come as the waves come, when

Navies are stranded:

Faster come, faster come,

Faster and faster,

Chief, vassal, page and groom,

Tenant and master.

Fast they come, fast they come;

See how they gather!

Wide waves the eagle plume

Blended with heather.

Cast your plaids, draw your blades,

Forward each man set!

Pibroch of Donuil Dhu

Knell for the onset!

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

205.

A wet sheet and a flowing sea,

A wind that follows fast

And fills the white and rustling sail

And bends the gallant mast;

And bends the gallant mast, my boys,

While like the eagle free

Away the good ship flies, and leaves

Old England on the lee.

O for a soft and gentle wind!

I heard a fair one cry;

But give to me the snoring breeze

And white waves heaving high;

And white waves heaving high, my lads,

The good ship tight and free—

The world of waters is our home,

And merry men are we.

There's tempest in yon hornéd moon,

And lightning in yon cloud;

But hark the music, mariners!

The wind is piping loud;

The wind is piping loud, my boys,

The lightning flashes free—

While the hollow oak our palace is,

Our heritage the sea.

A. CUNNINGHAM.

***************************

206.

Ye Mariners of England

That guard our native seas!

Whose flag has braved, a thousand years

The battle and the breeze!

Your glorious standard launch again

To match another foe:

And sweep through the deep,

While the stormy winds do blow;

While the battle rages loud and long

And the stormy winds do blow.

The spirits of your fathers

Shall start from every wave—

For the deck it was their field of fame,

And Ocean was their grave:

Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell

Your manly hearts shall glow,

As ye sweep through the deep,

While the stormy winds do blow;

While the battle rages loud and long

And the stormy winds do blow.

Britannia needs no bulwarks,

No towers along the steep;

Her march is o'er the mountain waves,

Her home is on the deep.

With thunders from her native oak

She quells the floods below—

As they roar on the shore,

When the stormy winds do blow;

When the battle rages loud and long

And the stormy winds do blow.

The meteor flag of England

Shall yet terrific burn;

Till danger's troubled night depart

And the star of peace return.

Then, then, ye ocean-warriors!

Our song and feast shall flow

To the fame of your name,

When the storm has ceased to blow;

When the fiery fight is heard no more,

And the storm has ceased to blow.

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

207. BATTLE OF THE BALTIC.

Of Nelson and the North

Sing the glorious day's renown,

When to battle fierce came forth

All the might of Denmark's crown,

And her arms along the deep proudly shone;

By each gun the lighted brand

In a bold determined hand,

And the Prince of all the land

Led them on.

Like leviathans afloat

Lay their bulwarks on the brine;

While the sign of battle flew

On the lofty British line:

It was ten of April morn by the chime:

As they drifted on their path

There was silence deep as death;

And the boldest held his breath

For a time.

But the might of England flush'd

To anticipate the scene;

And her van the fleeter rush'd

O'er the deadly space between.

"Hearts of oak!" our captains cried, when each gun

From its adamantine lips

Spread a death-shade round the ships,

Like the hurricane eclipse

Of the sun.

Again! again! again!

And the havoc did not slack,

Till a feeble cheer the Dane

To our cheering sent us back;—

Their shots along the deep slowly boom:—

Then ceased—and all is wail,

As they strike the shatter'd sail,

Or in conflagration pale

Light the gloom.

Out spoke the victor then

As he hail'd them o'er the wave,

"Ye are brothers! ye are men!

And we conquer but to save:—

So peace instead of death let us bring:

But yield, proud foe, thy fleet

With the crews, at England's feet,

And make submission meet

To our King."

Then Denmark blest our chief

That he gave her wounds repose;

And the sounds of joy and grief

From her people wildly rose,

As death withdrew his shades from the day:

While the sun look'd smiling bright

O'er a wide and woeful sight,

Where the fires of funeral light

Died away.

Now joy, old England, raise!

For the tidings of thy might,

By the festal cities' blaze,

Whilst the wine-cup shines in light;

And yet amidst that joy and uproar,

Let us think of them that sleep

Full many a fathom deep

By thy wild and stormy steep,

Elsinore!

Brave hearts! to Britain's pride

Once so faithful and so true,

On the deck of fame that died

With the gallant good Riou:

Soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave!

While the billow mournful rolls

And the mermaid's song condoles

Singing glory to the souls

Of the brave!

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

208. ODE TO DUTY

Stern Daughter of the voice of God!

O Duty! if that name thou love

Who art a light to guide, a rod

To check the erring, and reprove;

Thou who art victory and law

When empty terrors overawe;

From vain temptations dost set free,

And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!

There are who ask not if thine eye

Be on them; who, in love and truth

Where no misgiving is, rely

Upon the genial sense of youth:

Glad hearts! without reproach or blot,

Who do thy work, and know it not:

Oh! if through confidence misplaced

They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast.

Serene will be our days and bright

And happy will our nature be

When love is an unerring light,

And joy its own security.

And they a blissful course may hold

Ev'n now who, not unwisely bold,

Live in the spirit of this creed;

Yet find that other strength, according to their need.

I, loving freedom, and untried;

No sport of every random gust,

Yet being to myself a guide,

Too blindly have reposed my trust:

And oft, when in my heart was heard

Thy timely mandate, I deferr'd

The task, in smoother walks to stray;

But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul

Or strong compunction in me wrought,

I supplicate for thy controul,

But in the quietness of thought:

Me this uncharter'd freedom tires;

I feel the weight of chance desires;

My hopes no more must change their name;

I long for a repose which ever is the same.

Stern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear

The Godhead's most benignant grace;

Nor know we anything so fair

As is the smile upon thy face:

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,

And fragrance in thy footing treads;

Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;

And the most ancient Heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.

To humbler functions, awful Power!

I call thee: I myself commend

Unto thy guidance from this hour;

O let my weakness have an end!

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spirit of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of Truth thy bondman let me live.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

209. ON THE CASTLE OF CHILLON.

Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind!

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty, thou art—

For there thy habitation is the heart—

The heart which love of Thee alone can bind;

And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd,

To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,

Their country conquers with their martyrdom

And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.

Chillon! thy prison is a holy place

And thy sad floor an altar, for 'twas trod

Until his very steps have left a trace

Worn as if thy cold pavement were a sod,

By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface!

For they appeal from tyranny to God.

LORD BYRON.

***************************

210. ENGLAND AND SWITZERLAND.

1802.

Two Voices are there; one is of the Sea,

One of the Mountains; each a mighty voice:

In both from age to age thou didst rejoice,

They were thy chosen music, Liberty!

There came a tyrant, and with holy glee

Thou fought'st against him,—but hast vainly striven:

Thou from thy Alpine holds at length are driven

Where not a torrent murmurs heard by thee.

—Of one deep bliss thine ear hath been bereft;

Then cleave, O cleave to that which still is left—

For, high-soul'd Maid, what sorrow would it be

That Mountain floods should thunder as before,

And Ocean bellow from his rocky shore,

And neither awful Voice be heard by Thee!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

211. ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC.

Once did She hold the gorgeous East in fee

And was the safeguard of the West; the worth

Of Venice did not fall below her birth,

Venice, the eldest child of liberty.

She was a maiden city, bright and free;

No guile seduced, no force could violate;

And when she took unto herself a mate,

She must espouse the everlasting Sea.

And what if she had seen those glories fade,

Those titles vanish, and that strength decay,—

Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid

When her long life hath reach'd its final day:

Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade

Of that which once was great has pass'd away.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

212. LONDON, MDCCCII.

O Friend! I know not which way I must look

For comfort, being, as I am, opprest

To think that now our life is only drest

For show; mean handiwork of craftsman, cook,

Or groom!—We must run glittering like a brook

In the open sunshine, or we are unblest;

The wealthiest man among us is the best:

No grandeur now in Nature or in book

Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense,

This is idolatry; and these we adore:

Plain living and high thinking are no more:

The homely beauty of the good old cause

Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,

And pure religion breathing household laws.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

213. THE SAME.

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dower

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men

O! raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea,

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free;

So didst thou travel on life's common way

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

214.

When I have borne in memory what has tamed

Great nations; how ennobling thoughts depart

When men change swords for ledgers, and desert

The student's bower for gold,—some fears unnamed

I had, my Country!—am I to be blamed?

Now, when I think of thee, and what thou art,

Verily, in the bottom of my heart

Of those unfilial fears I am ashamed.

For dearly must we prize thee; we who find

In thee a bulwark of the cause of men;

And I by my affection was beguiled:

What wonder if a Poet now and then,

Among the many movements of his mind,

Felt for thee as a lover or a child!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

215. HOHENLINDEN.

On Linden, when the sun was low,

All bloodless lay the untrodden snow;

And dark as winter was the flow

Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

But Linden saw another sight,

When the drum beat at dead of night

Commanding fires of death to light

The darkness of her scenery.

By torch and trumpet fast array'd

Each horseman drew his battle-blade,

And furious every charger neigh'd

To join the dreadful revelry.

Then shook the hills with thunder riven;

Then rush'd the steed, to battle driven;

And louder than the bolts of Heaven

Far flash'd the red artillery.

But redder yet that light shall glow

On Linden's hills of stainéd snow;

And bloodier yet the torrent flow

Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

'Tis morn; but scarce yon level sun

Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun,

Where furious Frank and fiery Hun

Shout in their sulphurous canopy.

The combat deepens. On, ye Brave

Who rush to glory, or the grave!

Wave, Munich all thy banners wave,

And charge with all thy chivalry!

Few, few shall part, where many meet!

The snow shall be their winding-sheet,

And every turf beneath their feet

Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

216. AFTER BLENHEIM.

It was a summer evening,

Old Kaspar's work was done,

And he before his cottage door

Was sitting in the sun;

And by him sported on the green

His little grandchild Wilhelmine.

She saw her brother Peterkin

Roll something large and round

Which he beside the rivulet

In playing there had found

He came to ask what he had found

That was so large and smooth and round.

Old Kaspar took it from the boy

Who stood expectant by;

And then the old man shook his head,

And with a natural sigh

"'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,

"Who fell in the great victory.

"I find then in the garden,

For there's many here about;

And often when I go to plough

The ploughshare turns them out.

For many thousand men," said he,

"Were slain in that great victory."

"Now tell us what 'twas all about,"

Young Peterkin he cries;

And little Wilhelmine looks up

With wonder-waiting eyes;

"Now tell us all about the war,

And what they fought each other for."

"It was the English," Kaspar cried,

"Who put the French to rout;

But what they fought each other for

I could not well make out.

But every body said," quoth he,

"That 'twas a famous victory.

"My father lived at Blenheim then,

Yon little stream hard by;

They burnt his dwelling to the ground,

And he was forced to fly:

So with his wife and child he fled,

Nor had he where to rest his head.

"With fire and sword the country round

Was wasted far and wide,

And many a childing mother then

And newborn baby died:

But things like that, you know, must be

At every famous victory.

"They say it was a shocking sight

After the field was won;

For many thousand bodies here

Lay rotting in the sun:

But things like that, you know, must be

After a famous victory.

"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won

And our good Prince Eugene";

"Why 'twas a very wicked thing!"

Said little Wilhelmine;

"Nay—nay—my little girl," quoth he,

"It was a famous victory.

And every body praised the Duke

Who this great fight did win."

"But what good came of it at last?"

Quoth little Peterkin:—

"Why that I cannot tell," said he,

"But 'twas a famous victory."

R. SOUTHEY.

***************************

217. PRO PATRIA MORI.

When he who adores thee has left but the name

Of his fault and his sorrows behind,

O! say wilt thou weep, when they darken the fame

Of a life that for thee was resign'd!

Yes, weep, and however my foes may condemn,

Thy tears shall efface their decree;

For, Heaven can witness, though guilty to them,

I have been but too faithful to thee.

With thee were the dreams of my earliest love;

Every thought of my reason was thine;

In my last humble prayer to the Spirit above

Thy name shall be mingled with mine!

O! blest are the lovers and friends who shall live

The days of thy glory to see;

But the next dearest blessing that Heaven can give

Is the pride of thus dying for thee.

T. MOORE.

***************************

218. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE AT CORUNNA.

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corpse to the rampart we hurried;

Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot

O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

We buried him darkly at dead of night,

The sods with our bayonets turning;

By the struggling moonbeam's misty light

And the lantern dimly burning.

No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him:

But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,

With his martial cloak around him.

Few and short were the prayers we said

And we spoke not a word of sorrow,

But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,

And we bitterly thought of the morrow.

We thought, as we hollow'd his narrow bed

And smooth'd down his lonely pillow,

That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,

And we far away on the billow!

Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,

And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him—

But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on

In the grave where a Briton has laid him.

But half of our heavy task was done

When the clock struck the hour for retiring;

And we heard the distant and random gun

That the foe was sullenly firing.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory;

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,

But we left him alone with his glory.

C. WOLFE.

***************************

219. SIMON LEE THE OLD HUNTSMAN.

In the sweet shire of Cardigan,

Not far from pleasant Ivor Hall,

An old man dwells, a little man,

I've heard he once was tall.

Full five-and-thirty years he lived

A running huntsman merry;

And still the centre of his cheek

Is red as a ripe cherry.

No man like him the horn could sound,

And hill and valley rang with glee,

When Echo bandied round and round

The halloo of Simon Lee.

In those proud days he little cared

For husbandry or tillage;

To blither tasks did Simon rouse

The sleepers of the village.

He all the country could outrun,

Could leave both man and horse behind;

And often, ere the chase was done,

He reel'd and was stone-blind.

And still there's something in the world

At which his heart rejoices;

For when the chiming hounds are out,

He dearly loves their voices.

But O the heavy change!—bereft

Of health, strength, friends, and kindred, see

Old Simon to the world is left

In liveried poverty:

His master's dead, and no one now

Dwells in the Hall of Ivor;

Men, dogs, and horses, all are dead;

He is the sole survivor.

And he is lean and he is sick,

His body dwindled and awry

Rests upon ankles swoln and thick;

His legs are thin and dry.

He has no son, he has no child;

His wife, an aged woman,

Lives with him, near the waterfall,

Upon the village common.

Beside their moss-grown hut of clay,

Not twenty paces from the door,

A scrap of land they have, but they

Are poorest of the poor.

This scrap of land he from the heath

Enclosed when he was stronger;

But what avails the land to them

Which he can till no longer?

Oft, working by her husband's side,

Ruth does what Simon cannot do;

For she, with scanty cause for pride,

Is stouter of the two.

And, though you with your utmost skill

From labour could not wean them,

'Tis little, very little, all

That they can do between them.

Few months of life has he in store

As he to you will tell,

For still, the more he works, the more

Do his weak ankles swell.

My gentle reader, I perceive

How patiently you've waited,

And now I fear that you expect

Some tale will be related.

O reader! had you in your mind

Such stores as silent thought can bring,

O gentle reader! you would find

A tale in everything.

What more I have to say is short,

And you must kindly take it;

It is no tale; but, should you think,

Perhaps a tale you'll make it.

One summer-day I chanced to see

This old man doing all he could

To unearth the root of an old tree,

A stump of rotten wood.

The mattock totter'd in his hand

So vain was his endeavour

That at the root of the old tree

He might have work'd for ever.

"You're overtask'd, good Simon Lee,

Give me your tool," to him I said;

And at the word right gladly he

Received my proffer'd aid.

I struck, and with a single blow

The tangled root I sever'd,

At which the poor old man so long

And vainly had endeavour'd.

The tears into his eyes were brought,

And thanks and praises seem'd to run

So fast out of his heart, I thought

They never would have done.

—I've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds

With coldness still returning;

Alas! the gratitude of men

Has oftener left me mourning.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

220. THE OLD FAMILIAR FACES.

I have had playmates, I have had companions

In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days;

All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have been laughing, I have been carousing,

Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies;

All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I loved a Love once, fairest among women:

Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her—

All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man:

Like an ingrate, I left my friend abruptly;

Left him, to muse on the old familiar faces.

Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood,

Earth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse,

Seeking to find the old familiar faces.

Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother,

Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling?

So might we talk of the old familiar faces,

How some they have died, and some they have left me,

And some are taken from me; all are departed;

All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

C. LAMB.

***************************

221. THE JOURNEY ONWARDS.

As slow our ship her foamy track

Against the wind was cleaving,

Her trembling pennant still look'd back

To that dear isle 'twas leaving.

So loth we part from all we love,

From all the links that bind us;

So turn our hearts, as on we rove,

To those we've left behind us!

When, round the bowl, of vanish'd years

We talk with joyous seeming—

With smiles that might as well be tears,

So faint, so sad their beaming;

While memory brings us back again

Each early tie that twined us,

Oh, sweet's the cup that circles then

To those we've left behind us!

And when in other climes, we meet

Some isle or vale enchanting,

Where all looks flowery wild and sweet,

And nought but love is wanting;

We think how great had been our bliss

If Heaven had but assign'd us

To live and die in scenes like this,

With some we've left behind us!

As travellers oft look back at eve

When eastward darkly going,

To gaze upon that light they leave

Still faint behind them glowing,—

So, when the close of pleasure's day

To gloom hath near consign'd us,

We turn to catch our fading ray

Of joy that's left behind us.

T. MOORE.

***************************

222. YOUTH AND AGE.

There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away

When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay;

'Tis not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone which fades so fast,

But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth itself be past.

Then the few whose spirits float above the wreck of happiness

Are driven o'er the shoals of guilt or ocean of excess:

The magnet of their course is gone, or only points in vain

The shore to which their shiver'd sail shall never stretch again.

Then the mortal coldness of the soul like death itself comes down;

It cannot feel for others' woes, it dare not dream its own;

That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain of our tears,

And though the eye may sparkle still, 'tis where the ice appears.

Though wit may flash from fluent lips, and mirth distract the breast,

Through midnight hours that yield no more their former hope of rest;

'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreathe,

All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and gray beneath.

O could I feel as I have felt, or be what I have been,

Or weep as I could once have wept o'er many a vanish'd scene,—

As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though they be,

So midst the wither'd waste of life, those tears would flow to me!

LORD BYRON.

***************************

223. A LESSON.

There is a flower, the Lesser Celandine,

That shrinks like many more from cold and rain,

And the first moment that the sun may shine,

Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,

Or blasts the green field and the trees distrest,

Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm

In close self-shelter, like a thing at rest.

But lately, one rough day, this flower I past,

And recognised it, though an alter'd form,

Now standing forth an offering to the blast,

And buffeted at will by rain and storm.

I stopp'd and said with inly-mutter'd voice,

"It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold;

This neither is its courage nor its choice,

But its necessity in being old.

"The sunshine may not cheer it, nor the dew;

It cannot help itself in its decay;

Stiff in its members, wither'd, changed of hue."

And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was gray.

To be a prodigal's favourite—then, worse truth,

A miser's pensioner—behold our lot!

O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth

Age might but take the things Youth needed not!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

224. PAST AND PRESENT.

I remember, I remember

The house where I was born,

The little window where the sun

Came peeping in at morn;

He never came a wink too soon

Nor brought too long a day;

But now, I often wish the night

Had borne my breath away.

I remember, I remember

The roses, red and white,

The violets, and the lily-cups—

Those flowers made of light!

The lilacs where the robin built,

And where my brother set

The laburnum on his birthday,—

The tree is living yet!

I remember, I remember

Where I was used to swing,

And thought the air must rush as fresh

To swallows on the wing;

My spirit flew in feathers then

That is so heavy now,

And summer pools could hardly cool

The fever on my brow.

I remember, I remember

The fir trees dark and high;

I used to think their slender tops

Were close against the sky:

It was a childish ignorance,

But now 'tis little joy

To know I'm farther off from Heaven

Than when I was a boy.

T. HOOD.

***************************

225. THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS.

Oft, in the stilly night,

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,

Fond Memory brings the light

Of other days around me:

The smiles, the tears

Of boyhood's years,

The words of love then spoken;

The eyes that shone,

Now dimm'd and gone,

The cheerful hearts now broken!

Thus in the stilly night,

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,

Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

When I remember all

The friends, so link'd together,

I've seen around me fall

Like leaves in wintry weather,

I feel like one

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted,

Whose lights are fled,

Whose garlands dead,

And all but he departed!

Thus in the stilly night,

Ere slumber's chain has bound me,

Sad Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

T. MOORE.

***************************

226. INVOCATION.

Rarely, rarely, comest thou,

Spirit of Delight!

Wherefore hast thou left me now

Many a day and night?

Many a weary night and day

'Tis since thou art fled away.

How shall ever one like me

Win thee back again?

With the joyous and the free

Thou wilt scoff at pain.

Spirit false! thou hast forgot

All but those who need thee not.

As a lizard with the shade

Of a trembling leaf,

Thou with sorrow art dismay'd;

Even the sighs of grief

Reproach thee, that thou art not near,

And reproach thou wilt not hear.

Let me set my mournful ditty

To a merry measure;—

Thou wilt never come for pity,

Thou wilt come for pleasure;—

Pity then will cut away

Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay.

I love all that thou lovest,

Spirit of Delight!

The fresh Earth in new leaves drest

And the starry night;

Autumn evening, and the morn

When the golden mists are born.

I love snow, and all the forms

Of the radiant frost;

I love waves, and winds, and storms,

Everything almost

Which is Nature's, and may be

Untainted by man's misery.

I love tranquil solitude,

And such society

As is quiet, wise, and good;

Between thee and me

What diff'rence? but thou dost possess

The things I seek, not love them less.

I love Love—though he has wings,

And like light can flee,

But above all other things,

Spirit, I love thee—

Thou art love and life! O come!

Make once more my heart thy home!

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

227. STANZAS WRITTEN IN DEJECTION NEAR NAPLES.

The sun is warm, the sky is clear,

The waves are dancing fast and bright,

Blue isles and snowy mountains wear

The purple noon's transparent light:

The breath of the moist air is light

Around its unexpanded buds;

Like many a voice of one delight—

The winds', the birds', the ocean-floods'—

The City's voice itself is soft like Solitude's.

I see the Deep's untrampled floor

With green and purple sea-weeds strown;

I see the waves upon the shore

Like light dissolved in star-showers thrown;

I sit upon the sands alone;

The lightning of the noon-tide ocean

Is flashing round me, and a tone

Arises from its measured motion—

How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.

Alas! I have nor hope nor health,

Nor peace within nor calm around,

Nor that Content, surpassing wealth,

The sage in meditation found,

And walked with inward glory crown'd—

Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure;

Others I see whom these surround—

Smiling they live, and call life pleasure;

To me that cup has been dealt in another measure.

Yet now despair itself is mild

Even as the winds and waters are;

I could lie down like a tired child,

And weep away the life of care

Which I have borne, and yet must bear,

Till death like sleep might steal on me,

And I might feel in the warm air

My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea

Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony.

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

228. THE SCHOLAR.

My days among the Dead are past;

Around me I behold,

Where'er these casual eyes are cast,

The mighty minds of old:

My never-failing friends are they,

With whom I converse day by day.

With them I take delight in weal

And seek relief in woe;

And while I understand and feel

How much to them I owe,

My cheeks have often been bedew'd

With tears of thoughtful gratitude.

My thoughts are with the Dead; with them

I live in long-past years,

Their virtues love, their faults condemn,

Partake their hopes and fears,

And from their lessons seek and find

Instruction with an humble mind.

My hopes are with the Dead; anon

My place with them will be,

And I with them shall travel on

Through all Futurity;

Yet leaving here a name, I trust,

That will not perish in the dust.

R. SOUTHEY.

***************************

229. THE MERMAID TAVERN.

Souls of Poets dead and gone

What Elysium have ye known,

Happy field or mossy cavern,

Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?

Have ye tippled drink more fine

Than mine host's Canary wine?

Or are fruits of Paradise

Sweeter than those dainty pies

Of Venison? O generous food!

Drest as though bold Robin Hood

Would, with his Maid Marian,

Sup and browse from horn and can.

I have heard that on a day

Mine host's signboard flew away

Nobody knew whither, till

An astrologer's old quill

To a sheepskin gave the story—

Said he saw you in your glory

Underneath a new-old Sign

Sipping beverage divine,

And pledging with contented smack

The Mermaid in the Zodiac!

Souls of poets dead and gone

What Elysium have ye known—

Happy field or mossy cavern—

Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?

J. KEATS.

***************************

230. THE PRIDE OF YOUTH.

Proud Maisie is in the wood,

Walking so early;

Sweet Robin sits on the bush,

Singing so rarely.

"Tell me, thou bonny bird,

When shall I marry me?"

—"When six braw gentlemen

Kirkward shall carry ye."

"Who makes the bridal bed,

Birdie, say truly?"

—"The gray-headed sexton

That delves the grave duly.

"The glowworm o'er grave and stone

Shall light thee steady;

The owl from the steeple sing

Welcome, proud lady!"

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

231. THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS.

One more Unfortunate

Weary of breath

Rashly importunate,

Gone to her death!

Take her up tenderly,

Lift her with care;

Fashion'd so slenderly

Young, and so fair!

Look at her garments

Clinging like cerements;

Whilst the wave constantly

Drips from her clothing;

Take her up instantly,

Loving, not loathing.

Touch her not scornfully;

Think of her mournfully,

Gently and humanly;

Not of the stains of her—

All that remains of her

Now is pure womanly.

Make no deep scrutiny

Into her mutiny

Rash and undutiful:

Past all dishonour,

Death has left on her

Only the beautiful.

Still, for all slips of hers,

One of Eve's family—

Wipe those poor lips of hers

Oozing so clammily.

Loop up her tresses

Escaped from the comb,

Her fair auburn tresses;

Whilst wonderment guesses

Where was her home?

Who was her father?

Who was her mother?

Had she a sister?

Had she a brother?

Or was there a dearer one

Still, and a nearer one

Yet, than all other?

Alas! for the rarity

Of Christian charity

Under the sun!

O! it was pitiful!

Near a whole city full,

Home she had none.

Sisterly, brotherly,

Fatherly, motherly

Feelings had changed:

Love, by harsh evidence,

Thrown from its eminence;

Even God's providence

Seeming estranged.

Where the lamps quiver

So far in the river,

With many a light

From window and casement,

From garret to basement,

She stood, with amazement,

Houseless by night.

The bleak wind of March

Made her tremble and shiver;

But not the dark arch,

Or the black flowing river:

Mad from life's history,

Glad to death's mystery,

Swift to be hurl'd—

Any where, any where

Out of the world!

In she plunged boldly,

No matter how coldly

The rough river ran,

Over the brink of it,—

Picture it, think of it,

Dissolute Man!

Lave in it, drink of it,

Then, if you can!

Take her up tenderly,

Lift her with care;

Fashion'd so slenderly,

Young, and so fair!

Ere her limbs frigidly

Stiffen too rigidly,

Decently, kindly,

Smooth and compose them;

And her eyes, close them,

Staring so blindly!

Dreadfully staring

Thro' muddy impurity,

As when with the daring

Last look of despairing

Fix'd on futurity.

Perishing gloomily,

Spurr'd by contumely,

Cold inhumanity,

Burning insanity,

Into her rest.

—Cross her hands humbly

As if praying dumbly,

Over her breast!

Owning her weakness,

Her evil behaviour,

And leaving, with meekness,

Her sins to her Saviour!

T. HOOD.

***************************

232. ELEGY.

O snatch'd away in beauty's bloom!

On thee shall press no ponderous tomb;

But on thy turf shall roses rear

Their leaves, the earliest of the year,

And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom:

And oft by yon blue gushing stream

Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head,

And feed deep thought with many a dream,

And lingering pause and lightly tread;

Fond wretch! as if her step disturb'd the dead!

Away! we know that tears are vain,

That Death nor heeds nor hears distress:

Will this unteach us to complain?

Or make one mourner weep the less?

And thou, who tell'st me to forget,

Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet.

LORD BYRON.

***************************

233. HESTER.

When maidens such as Hester die

Their place ye may not well supply,

Though ye among a thousand try

With vain endeavour.

A month or more hath she been dead,

Yet cannot I by force be led

To think upon the wormy bed

And her together.

A springy motion in her gait,

A rising step, did indicate

Of pride and joy no common rate,

That flush'd her spirit:

I know not by what name beside

I shall it call: if 'twas not pride,

It was a joy to that allied,

She did inherit.

Her parents held the Quaker rule

Which doth the human feeling cool;

But she was train'd in Nature's school;

Nature had blest her.

A waking eye, a prying mind;

A heart that stirs, is hard to bind;

A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind;

Ye could not Hester.

My sprightly neighbour! gone before

To that unknown and silent shore,

Shall we not meet, as heretofore

Some summer morning—

When from thy cheerful eyes a ray

Hath struck a bliss upon the day,

A bliss that would not go away,

A sweet fore-warning?

C. LAMB.

***************************

234. CORONACH.

He is gone on the mountain,

He is lost to the forest

Like a summer-dried fountain,

When our need was the sorest.

The fount reappearing

From the raindrops shall borrow,

But to us comes no cheering,

To Duncan no morrow!

The hand of the reaper

Take the ears that are hoary,

But the voice of the weeper

Wails manhood in glory.

The autumn winds rushing

Waft the leaves that are serest,

But our flower was in flushing

When blighting was nearest.

Fleet foot on the correi,

Sage counsel in cumber,

Red hand in the foray,

How sound is thy slumber!

Like the dew on the mountain,

Like the foam on the river,

Like the bubble on the fountain,

Thou art gone, and for ever!

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

235. THE DEATH BED.

We watch'd her breathing thro' the night,

Her breathing soft and low,

As in her breast the wave of life

Kept heaving to and fro.

But when the morn came dim and sad

And chill with early showers,

Her quiet eyelids closed—she had

Another morn than ours.

T. HOOD.

***************************

236. ROSABELLE.

O listen, listen, ladies gay!

No haughty feat of arms I tell;

Soft is the note, and sad the lay

That mourns the lovely Rosabelle.

"Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew,

And, gentle lady, deign to stay!

Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch,

Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day.

"The blackening wave is edged with white;

To inch and rock the sea-mews fly;

The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite,

Whose screams forbode that wreck is nigh.

"Last night the gifted Seer did view

A wet shroud swathed round lady gay;

Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch;

Why cross the gloomy firth to-day?

"'Tis not because Lord Lindesay's heir

To-night at Roslin leads the ball,

But that my lady-mother there

Sits lonely in her castle-hall.

"'Tis not because the ring they ride,

And Lindesay at the ring rides well,

But that my sire the wine will chide

If 'tis not fill'd by Rosabelle."

—O'er Roslin all that dreary night

A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam;

'Twas broader than the watch-fire's light,

And redder than the bright moonbeam.

It glared on Roslin's castled rock,

It ruddied all the copse-wood glen;

'Twas seen from Dryden's grove of oak,

And seen from cavern'd Hawthornden.

Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud

Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffin'd lie,

Each baron, for a sabled shroud,

Sheathed in his iron panoply.

Seem'd all on fire within, around,

Deep sacristy and altar's pale;

Shone every pillar foliage-bound,

And glimmer'd all the dead men's mail.

Blazed battlement and pinnet high,

Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair—

So still they blaze, when fate is nigh

The lordly line of high Saint Clair.

There are twenty of Roslin's baron's bold

Lie buried within that proud chapelle;

Each one the holy vault doth hold,

But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!

And each Saint Clair was buried there

With candle, with book, and with knell;

But the sea-caves rung, and the wild winds sung

The dirge of lovely Rosabelle.

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

237. ON AN INFANT DYING AS SOON AS BORN.

I saw where in the shroud did lurk

A curious frame of Nature's work;

A flow'ret crushéd in the bud,

A nameless piece of Babyhood

Was in her cradle-coffin lying;

Extinct, with scarce the sense of dying:

So soon to exchange the imprisoning womb

For darker closets of the tomb!

She did but ope an eye, and put

A clear beam forth, then straight up shut

For the long dark: ne'er more to see

Through glasses of mortality.

Riddle of destiny, who can show

What thy short visit meant, or know

What thy errand here below?

Shall we say, that Nature blind

Check'd her hand, and changed her mind

Just when she had exactly wrought

A finish'd pattern without fault?

Could she flag, or could she tire,

Or lack'd she the Promethean fire

(With her nine moons' long workings sicken'd)

That should thy little limbs have quicken'd?

Limbs so firm, they seem'd to assure

Life of health, and days mature:

Woman's self in miniature!

Limbs so fair, they might supply

(Themselves now but cold imagery)

The sculptor to make Beauty by.

Or did the stern-eyed Fate descry

That babe or mother, one must die;

So in mercy left the stock

And cut the branch; to save the shock

Of young years widow'd, and the pain

When Single State comes back again

To the lone man who, reft of wife,

Thenceforward drags a maiméd life?

The economy of Heaven is dark,

And wisest clerks have miss'd the mark

Why human buds, like this, should fall,

More brief than fly ephemeral

That has his day; while shrivell'd crones

Stiffen with age to stocks and stones;

And crabbéd use the conscience sears

In sinners of an hundred years.

—Mother's prattle, mother's kiss,

Baby fond, thou ne'er wilt miss:

Rites, which custom does impose,

Silver bells, and baby clothes;

Coral redder than those lips

Which pale death did late eclipse;

Music framed for infants' glee,

Whistle never tuned for thee;

Though thou want'st not, thou shalt have them,

Loving hearts were they which gave them.

Let not one be missing; nurse,

See them laid upon the hearse

Of infant slain by doom perverse.

Why should kings and nobles have

Pictured trophies to their grave,

And we, churls, to thee deny

Thy pretty toys with thee to lie—

A more harmless vanity?

C. LAMB.

***************************

238. THE AFFLICTION OF MARGARET.

Where art thou, my beloved Son,

Where art thou, worse to me than dead!

Oh find me, prosperous or undone!

Or if the grave be now thy bed,

Why am I ignorant of the same

That I may rest; and neither blame

Nor sorrow may attend thy name?

Seven years, alas! to have received

No tidings of an only child—

To have despair'd, have hoped, believed,

And be for evermore beguiled,—

Sometimes with thoughts of very bliss!

I catch at them, and then I miss;

Was ever darkness like to this?

He was among the prime in worth,

An object beauteous to behold;

Well born, well bred; I sent him forth

Ingenuous, innocent, and bold:

If things ensued that wanted grace,

As hath been said, they were not base;

And never blush was on my face.

Ah! little doth the young-one dream,

When full of play and childish cares,

What power is in his wildest scream,

Heard by his mother unawares!

He knows it not, he cannot guess:

Years to a mother bring distress;

But do not make her love the less.

Neglect me! no, I suffer'd long

From that ill thought; and being blind

Said, "Pride shall help me in my wrong:

Kind mother have I been, as kind

As ever breathed": and that is true;

I've wet my path with tears like dew,

Weeping for him when no one knew.

My Son, if thou be humbled, poor,

Hopeless of honour and of gain,

O! do not dread thy mother's door,

Think not of me with grief and pain:

I now can see with better eyes;

And worldly grandeur I despise

And fortune with her gifts and lies.

Alas! the fowls of heaven have wings

And blasts of heaven will aid their flight;

They mount—how short a voyage brings

The wanderers back to their delight!

Chains tie us down by land and sea;

And wishes, vain as mine, may be

All that is left to comfort thee.

Perhaps some dungeon hears thee groan

Maim'd, mangled by inhuman men;

Or thou upon a desert thrown

Inheritest the lion's den;

Or hast been summoned to the deep,

Thou, thou, and all thy mates, to keep

An incommunicable sleep.

I look for ghosts: but none will force

Their way to me; 'tis falsely said

That there was ever intercourse

Between the living and the dead;

For surely then I should have sight

Of him I wait for day and night

With love and longings infinite.

My apprehensions come in crowds;

I dread the rustling of the grass;

The very shadows of the clouds

Have power to shake me as they pass;

I question things, and do not find

One that will answer to my mind;

And all the world appears unkind.

Beyond participation lie

My troubles, and beyond relief:

If any chance to heave a sigh

They pity me, and not my grief.

Then come to me, my Son, or send

Some tidings that my woes may end!

I have no other earthly friend.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

239. HUNTING SONG.

Waken, lords and ladies gay,

On the mountain dawns the day;

All the jolly chase is here

With hawk and horse and hunting-spear;

Hounds are in their couples yelling,

Hawks are whistling, horns are knelling,

Merrily merrily mingle they,

"Waken, lords and ladies gay."

Waken, lords and ladies gay,

The mist has left the mountains gray,

Springlets in the dawn are streaming,

Diamonds on the brake are gleaming,

And foresters have busy been

To track the buck in thicket green;

Now we come to chant our lay

"Waken, lords and ladies gay."

Waken, lords and ladies gay,

To the greenwood haste away;

We can show you where he lies,

Fleet of foot and tall of size;

We can show the marks he made

When 'gainst the oak his antlers fray'd;

You shall see him brought to bay;

"Waken, lords and ladies gay."

Louder, louder chant the lay

Waken, lords and ladies gay!

Tell them youth and mirth and glee

Run a course as well as we;

Time, stern huntsman! who can baulk,

Staunch as hound and fleet as hawk;

Think of this, and rise with day

Gentle lords and ladies gay!

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

240. TO THE SKYLARK.

Ethereal Minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!

Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?

Or while the wings aspire, are heart and eye

Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?

Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will,

Those quivering wings composed, that music still!

To the last point of vision, and beyond,

Mount, daring warbler!—that love-prompted strain

—'Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond—

Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain:

Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing

All independent of the leafy Spring.

Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;

A privacy of glorious light is thine;

Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood

Of harmony, with instinct more divine;

Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam—

True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

241. TO A SKYLARK.

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

Bird thou never wert,

That from heaven, or near it

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest,

Like a cloud of fire;

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

In the golden lightning

Of the sunken sun

O'er which clouds are brightening,

Thou dost float and run,

Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight;

Like a star of heaven

In the broad daylight

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight:

Keen as are the arrows

Of that silver sphere,

Whose intense lamp narrows

In the white dawn clear

Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.

All the earth and air

With thy voice is loud,

As, when night is bare,

From one lonely cloud

The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow'd.

What thou art we know not;

What is most like thee?

From rainbow clouds there flow not

Drops so bright to see

As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.

Like a poet hidden

In the light of thought,

Singing hymns unbidden

Till the world is wrought

To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:

Like a high-born maiden

In a palace tower,

Soothing her love-laden

Soul in secret hour

With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower:

Like a glow-worm golden

In a dell of dew,

Scattering unbeholden

Its aerial hue

Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:

Like a rose embower'd

In its own green leaves,

By warm winds deflower'd,

Till the scent it gives

Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-wingéd thieves.

Sound of vernal showers

On the twinkling grass,

Rain-awaken'd flowers,

All that ever was

Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass.

Teach us, sprite or bird,

What sweet thoughts are thine:

I have never heard

Praise of love or wine

That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.

Chorus hymeneal

Or triumphal chaunt

Match'd with thine, would be all

But an empty vaunt—

A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.

What objects are the fountains

Of thy happy strain?

What fields, or waves, or mountains?

What shapes of sky or plain?

What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?

With thy clear keen joyance

Languor cannot be:

Shadow of annoyance

Never came near thee:

Thou lovest; but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.

Waking or asleep

Thou of death must deem

Things more true and deep

Than we mortals dream,

Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?

We look before and after,

And pine for what is not:

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Yet if we could scorn

Hate, and pride, and fear;

If we were things born

Not to shed a tear,

I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.

Better than all measures

Of delightful sound,

Better than all treasures

That in books are found,

Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!

Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,

Such harmonious madness

From my lips would flow

The world should listen then, as I am listening now!

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

242. THE GREEN LINNET.

Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed

Their snow white blossoms on my head,

With brightest sunshine round me spread

Of Spring's unclouded weather,

In this sequester'd nook how sweet

To sit upon my orchard-seat!

And birds and flowers once more to greet,

My last year's friends together.

One have I mark'd, the happiest guest

In all this covert of the blest:

Hail to Thee, far above the rest

In joy of voice and pinion!

Thou, Linnet! in thy green array,

Presiding Spirit here to-day

Dost lead the revels of the May,

And this is thy dominion.

While birds, and butterflies, and flowers

Make all one band of paramours,

Thou, ranging up and down the bowers

Art sole in thy employment;

A Life, a Presence like the air,

Scattering thy gladness without care,

Too blest with any one to pair;

Thyself thy own enjoyment.

Amid yon tuft of hazel trees,

That twinkle to the gusty breeze,

Behold him perch'd in ecstasies,

Yet seeming still to hover;

There, where the flutter of his wings

Upon his back and body flings

Shadows and sunny glimmerings,

That cover him all over.

My dazzled sight he oft deceives—

A brother of the dancing leaves;

Then flits, and from the cottage-eaves

Pours forth his song in gushes,

As if by that exulting strain

He mock'd and treated with disdain

The voiceless Form he chose to feign

While fluttering in the bushes.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

243. TO THE CUCKOO.

O blithe new-comer! I have heard,

I hear thee and rejoice:

O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,

Or but a wandering Voice?

While I am lying on the grass

Thy twofold shout I hear;

From hill to hill it seems to pass,

At once far off and near.

Though babbling only to the vale

Of sunshine and of flowers,

Thou bringest unto me a tale

Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!

Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my school-boy days

I listen'd to; that Cry

Which made me look a thousand ways

In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove

Through woods and on the green;

And thou wert still a hope, a love;

Still long'd for, never seen!

And I can listen to thee yet;

Can lie upon the plain

And listen, till I do beget

That golden time again.

O blesséd bird! the earth we pace

Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, fairy place;

That is fit home for Thee!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

244. ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE.

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains

One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

But being too happy in thine happiness,—

That thou, light-wingéd Dryad of the trees,

In some melodious plot

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

O for a draught of vintage, that hath been

Cool'd a long age in the deep-delvéd earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country-green,

Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!

O for a beaker full of the warm South,

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim

And purple-stainéd mouth;

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret

Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow

And leaden-eyed despairs;

Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,

Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,

Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,

But on the viewless wings of Poesy,

Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:

Already with thee! tender is the night,

And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,

Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;

But here there is no light

Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown

Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,

But, in embalméd darkness, guess each sweet

Wherewith the seasonable month endows

The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;

White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;

Fast-fading violets cover'd up in leaves;

And mid-May's eldest child,

The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

Darkling I listen; and for many a time

I have been half in love with easeful Death,

Call'd him soft names in many a muséd rhyme,

To take into the air my quiet breath;

Now more than ever seems it rich to die,

To cease upon the midnight with no pain,

While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad

In such an ecstasy!

Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—

To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!

No hungry generations tread thee down;

The voice I hear this passing night was heard

In ancient days by emperor and clown:

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path

Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,

She stood in tears amid the alien corn;

The same that oft-times hath

Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam

Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell

To toll me back from thee to my sole self!

Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well

As she is famed to do, deceiving elf.

Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades

Past the near meadows, over the still stream,

Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep

In the next valley-glades:

Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

Fled is that music:—do I wake or sleep?

J. KEATS.

***************************

245. UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.

Sept. 3, 1802.

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth like a garment wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

246. OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT.

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand

Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,

The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

247. COMPOSED AT NEIDPATH CASTLE, THE PROPERTY OF LORD QUEENSBERRY,

1803.

Degenerate Douglas! O the unworthy lord!

Whom mere despite of heart could so far please

And love of havoc (for with such disease

Fame taxes him) that he could send forth word

To level with the dust a noble horde,

A brotherhood of venerable trees,

Leaving an ancient dome, and towers like these

Beggar'd and outraged!—Many hearts deplored

The fate of those old trees; and oft with pain

The traveller at this day will stop and gaze

On wrongs, which Nature scarcely seems to heed:

For shelter'd places, bosoms, nooks, and bays,

And the pure mountains, and the gentle Tweed,

And the green silent pastures, yet remain.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

248. ADMONITION TO A TRAVELLER.

Yes, there is holy pleasure in thine eye!

—The lovely cottage in the guardian nook

Hath stirr'd thee deeply; with its own dear brook,

Its own small pasture, almost its own sky!

But covet not the abode—O do not sigh

As many do, repining while they look;

Intruders who would tear from Nature's book

This precious leaf with harsh impiety:

—Think what the home would be if it were thine,

Even thine, though few thy wants!—Roof, window, door,

The very flowers are sacred to the Poor,

The roses to the porch which they entwine:

Yea, all that now enchants thee, from the day

On which it should be touch'd would melt away!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

249. TO THE HIGHLAND GIRL OF INVERSNEYDE.

Sweet Highland Girl, a very shower

Of beauty is thy earthly dower!

Twice seven consenting years have shed

Their utmost bounty on thy head:

And these grey rocks, this household lawn,

These trees—a veil just half withdrawn,

This fall of water that doth make

A murmur near the silent lake,

This little bay, a quiet road

That holds in shelter thy abode;

In truth together ye do seem

Like something fashion'd in a dream;

Such forms as from their covert peep

When earthly cares are laid asleep!

But, O fair Creature! in the light

Of common day, so heavenly bright,

I bless Thee, Vision as thou art,

I bless thee with a human heart;

God shield thee to thy latest years!

I neither know thee nor thy peers:

And yet my eyes are fill'd with tears.

With earnest feeling I shall pray

For thee when I am far away;

For never saw I mien or face

In which more plainly I could trace

Benignity and home-bred sense

Ripening in perfect innocence.

Here scatter'd like a random seed,

Remote from men, Thou dost not need

The embarrass'd look of shy distress,

And maidenly shamefacedness:

Thou wear'st upon thy forehead clear

The freedom of a mountaineer:

A face with gladness overspread,

Soft smiles, by human kindness bred;

And seemliness complete, that sways

Thy courtesies, about thee plays;

With no restraint, but such as springs

From quick and eager visitings

Of thoughts that lie beyond the reach

Of thy few words of English speech:

A bondage sweetly brook'd, a strife

That gives thy gestures grace and life!

So have I, not unmoved in mind,

Seen birds of tempest-loving kind,

Thus beating up against the wind.

What hand but would a garland cull

For thee who art so beautiful?

O happy pleasure! here to dwell

Beside thee in some heathy dell;

Adopt your homely ways and dress,

A shepherd, thou a shepherdess!

But I could frame a wish for thee

More like a grave reality:

Thou art to me but as a wave

Of the wild sea: and I would have

Some claim upon thee, if I could,

Though but of common neighbourhood.

What joy to hear thee, and to see!

Thy elder brother I would be,

Thy father, anything to thee.

Now thanks to Heaven! that of its grace

Hath led me to this lonely place.

Joy have I had; and going hence

I bear away my recompense.

In spots like these it is we prize

Our memory, feel that she hath eyes:

Then why should I be loth to stir?

I feel this place was made for her;

To give new pleasure like the past,

Continued long as life shall last.

Nor am I loth, though pleased at heart,

Sweet Highland Girl! from thee to part;

For I, methinks, till I grow old

As fair before me shall behold

As I do now, the cabin small,

The lake, the bay, the waterfall;

And Thee, the spirit of them all!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

250. THE REAPER.

Behold her, single in the field,

Yon solitary Highland Lass!

Reaping and singing by herself;

Stop here, or gently pass!

Alone she cuts and binds the grain,

And sings a melancholy strain;

O listen! for the vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound.

No nightingale did ever chaunt

More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:

No sweeter voice was ever heard

In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird,

Breaking the silence of the seas

Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?

Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow

For old, unhappy, far-off things,

And battles long ago:

Or is it some more humble lay,

Familiar matter of to-day?

Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,

That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang

As if her song could have no ending;

I saw her singing at her work,

And o'er the sickle bending;

I listen'd till I had my fill;

And, as I mounted up the hill,

The music in my heart I bore

Long after it was heard no more.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

251. THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN.

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears

Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:

Poor Susan has pass'd by the spot, and has heard

In the silence of morning the song of the bird.

'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees

A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;

Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,

And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.

Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale

Down which she so often has tripp'd with her pail;

And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's,

The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.

She looks, and her heart is in heaven: but they fade

The mist and the river, the hill and the shade;

The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise,

And the colours have all pass'd away from her eyes!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

252. TO A LADY, WITH A GUITAR.

Ariel to Miranda:—Take

This slave of music, for the sake

Of him who is the slave of thee;

And teach it all the harmony

In which thou canst, and only thou,

Make the delighted spirit glow,

Till joy denies itself again

And, too intense, is turn'd to pain;

For by permission and command

Of thine own Prince Ferdinand,

Poor Ariel sends this silent token

Of more than ever can be spoken;

Your guardian spirit, Ariel, who

From life to life, must still pursue

Your happiness, for thus alone

Can Ariel ever find his own;

From Prospero's enchanted cell,

As the mighty verses tell,

To the throne of Naples he

Lit you o'er the trackless sea,

Flitting on, your prow before,

Like a living meteor.

When you die, the silent Moon,

In her interlunar swoon

Is not sadder in her cell

Than deserted Ariel;

When you live again on earth,

Like an unseen Star of birth

Ariel guides you o'er the sea

Of life from your nativity:—

Many changes have been run

Since Ferdinand and you begun

Your course of love, and Ariel still

Has track'd your steps and served your will.

Now in humbler, happier lot,

This is all remember'd not;

And now, alas! the poor sprite is

Imprison'd for some fault of his

In a body like a grave—

From you he only dares to crave

For his service and his sorrow

A smile to-day, a song to-morrow.

The artist who this viol wrought

To echo all harmonious thought,

Fell'd a tree, while on the steep

The woods were in their winter sleep,

Rock'd in that repose divine

On the wind-swept Apennine;

And dreaming, some of autumn past,

And some of spring approaching fast,

And some of April buds and showers,

And some of songs in July bowers,

And all of love; and so this tree,—

O that such our death may be!—

Died in sleep, and felt no pain,

To live in happier form again:

From which, beneath Heaven's fairest star,

The artist wrought this loved Guitar;

And taught it justly to reply

To all who question skilfully

In language gentle as thine own;

Whispering in enamour'd tone

Sweet oracles of woods and dells,

And summer winds in sylvan cells;

—For it had learnt all harmonies

Of the plains and of the skies,

Of the forests and the mountains,

And the many-voicéd fountains;

The clearest echoes of the hills,

The softest notes of falling rills,

The melodies of birds and bees,

The murmuring of summer seas,

And pattering rain, and breathing dew,

And airs of evening; and it knew

That seldom-heard mysterious sound

Which, driven on its diurnal round,

As it floats through boundless day,

Our world enkindles on its way:

—All this it knows, but will not tell

To those who cannot question well

The spirit that inhabits it;

It talks according to the wit

Of its companions; and no more

Is heard than has been felt before

By those who tempt it to betray

These secrets of an elder day:

But, sweetly as its answers will

Flatter hands of perfect skill,

It keeps its highest holiest tone

For one beloved Friend alone.

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

253. THE DAFFODILS.

I wander'd lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils,

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:—

A Poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund company!

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought;

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

254. TO THE DAISY.

With little here to do or see

Of things that in the great world be,

Sweet Daisy! oft I talk to thee

For thou art worthy,

Thou unassuming commonplace

Of Nature, with that homely face,

And yet with something of a grace,

Which love makes for thee!

Oft on the dappled turf at ease

I sit and play with similes,

Loose types of things through all degrees,

Thoughts of thy raising;

And many a fond and idle name

I give to thee, for praise or blame,

As is the humour of the game,

While I am gazing.

A nun demure, of lowly port;

Or sprightly maiden, of Love's court,

In thy simplicity the sport

Of all temptations;

A queen in crown of rubies drest;

A starveling in a scanty vest;

Are all, as seem to suit thee best,

Thy appellations.

A little Cyclops, with one eye

Staring to threaten and defy,

That thought comes next—and instantly

The freak is over,

The shape will vanish, and behold!

A silver shield with boss of gold

That spreads itself, some fairy bold

In fight to cover.

I see thee glittering from afar—

And then thou art a pretty star,

Not quite so fair as many are

In heaven above thee!

Yet like a star, with glittering crest,

Self-poised in air thou seem'st to rest;—

May peace come never to his nest,

Who shall reprove thee!

Sweet Flower! for by that name at last

When all my reveries are past

I call thee and to that cleave fast,

Sweet silent Creature!

That breath'st with me in sun and air,

Do thou, as thou art wont, repair

My heart with gladness, and a share

Of thy meek nature!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

255. ODE TO AUTUMN.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease;

For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen Thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twinéd flowers;

And sometime like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them,—thou hast thy music too,

While barréd clouds bloom the soft-dying day

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

J. KEATS.

***************************

256. ODE TO WINTER.

Germany, December, 1800.

When first the fiery mantled Sun

His heavenly race began to run,

Round the earth and ocean blue

His children four the Seasons flew:—

First, in green apparel dancing,

The young Spring smiled with angel-grace;

Rosy Summer next advancing,

Rush'd into her sire's embrace—

Her bright-hair'd sire, who bade her keep

For ever nearest to his smiles,

On Calpe's olive-shaded steep

Or India's citron-cover'd isles.

More remote and buxom-brown,

The Queen of vintage bow'd before his throne;

A rich pomegranate gemm'd her crown,

A ripe sheaf bound her zone.

But howling Winter fled afar

To hills that prop the polar star;

And loves on deer-borne car to ride

With barren darkness at his side

Round the shore where loud Lofoden

Whirls to death the roaring whale,

Round the hall where Runic Odin

Howls his war-song to the gale—

Save when adown the ravaged globe

He travels on his native storm,

Deflowering Nature's grassy robe

And trampling on her faded form;

Till light's returning Lord assume

The shaft that drives him to his northern fields,

Of power to pierce his raven plume

And crystal-cover'd shield.

O sire of storms! whose savage ear

The Lapland drum delights to hear,

When Frenzy with her bloodshot eye

Implores thy dreadful deity—

Archangel! Power of desolation!

Fast descending as thou art,

Say, hath mortal invocation

Spells to touch thy stony heart:

Then, sullen Winter! hear my prayer,

And gently rule the ruin'd year;

Nor chill the wanderer's bosom bare

Nor freeze the wretch's falling tear:

To shuddering Want's unmantled bed

Thy horror-breathing agues cease to lend,

And gently on the orphan head

Of Innocence descend.

But chiefly spare, O king of clouds!

The sailor on his airy shrouds,

When wrecks and beacons strew the deep

And spectres walk along the deep.

Milder yet thy snowy breezes

Pour on yonder tented shores,

Where the Rhine's broad billow freezes,

Or the dark-brown Danube roars.

O winds of Winter! list ye there

To many a deep and dying groan?

Or start, ye demons of the midnight air,

At shrieks and thunders louder than your own?

Alas! e'en your unhallow'd breath

May spare the victim fallen low;

But Man will ask no truce to death,

No bounds to human woe.

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

257. YARROW UNVISITED.

1803.

From Stirling castle we had seen

The mazy Forth unravell'd,

Had trod the banks of Clyde and Tay,

And with the Tweed had travell'd;

And when we came to Clovenford,

Then said my "winsome Marrow."

"Whate'er betide, we'll turn aside,

And see the Braes of Yarrow."

"Let Yarrow folk, frae Selkirk town,

Who have been buying, selling,

Go back to Yarrow, 'tis their own,

Each maiden to her dwelling!

On Yarrow's banks let herons feed,

Hares couch, and rabbits burrow,

But we will downward with the Tweed,

Nor turn aside to Yarrow.

"There's Galla Water, Leader Haughs,

Both lying right before us;

And Dryburgh, where with chiming Tweed

The lintwhites sing in chorus;

There's pleasant Tiviotdale, a land

Made blythe with plough and harrow:

Why throw away a needful day

To go in search of Yarrow?

"What's Yarrow but a river bare

That glides the dark hills under?

There are a thousand such elsewhere

As worthy of your wonder."

—Strange words they seem'd of slight and scorn;

My true-love sighed for sorrow,

And look'd me in the face, to think

I thus could speak of Yarrow!

"O green," said I, "are Yarrow's holms,

And sweet is Yarrow flowing!

Fair hangs the apple frae the rock,

But we will leave it growing.

O'er hilly path, and open strath,

We'll wander Scotland thorough;

But, though so near, we will not turn

Into the dale of Yarrow.

"Let beeves and home-bred kine partake

The sweets of Burn-mill meadow;

The swan on still Saint Mary's Lake

Float double, swan and shadow!

We will not see them; will not go

To-day, nor yet to-morrow;

Enough if in our hearts we know

There's such a place as Yarrow.

"Be Yarrow stream unseen, unknown;

It must, or we shall rue it:

We have a vision of our own;

Ah! why should we undo it?

The treasured dreams of times long past,

We'll keep them, winsome Marrow!

For when we're there, although 'tis fair,

'Twill be another Yarrow.

"If care with freezing years should come

And wandering seem but folly,—

Should we be loth to stir from home,

And yet be melancholy;

Should life be dull, and spirits low,

'Twill soothe us in our sorrow

That earth has something yet to show,

The bonny Holms of Yarrow!"

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

258. YARROW VISITED.

September, 1814.

And is this—Yarrow?—This is the Stream

Of which my fancy cherish'd

So faithfully, a waking dream,

An image that hath perish'd?

O that some minstrel's harp were near

To utter notes of gladness

And chase this silence from the air,

That fills my heart with sadness!

Yet why?—a silvery current flows

With uncontroll'd meanderings;

Nor have these eyes by greener hills

Been soothed, in all my wanderings.

And, through her depths, Saint Mary's Lake

Is visibly delighted;

For not a feature of those hills

Is in the mirror slighted.

A blue sky bends o'er Yarrow Vale,

Save where that pearly whiteness

Is round the rising sun diffused,

A tender hazy brightness;

Mild dawn of promise! that excludes

All profitless dejection;

Though not unwilling here to admit

A pensive recollection.

Where was it that the famous Flower

Of Yarrow Vale lay bleeding?

His bed perchance was yon smooth mound

On which the herd is feeding:

And haply from this crystal pool,

Now peaceful as the morning,

The water-Wraith ascended thrice,

And gave his doleful warning.

Delicious is the Lay that sings

The haunts of happy lovers,

The path that leads them to the grove,

The leafy grove that covers:

And pity sanctifies the verse

That paints, by strength of sorrow,

The unconquerable strength of love;

Bear witness, rueful Yarrow!

But thou that didst appear so fair

To fond imagination

Dost rival in the light of day

Her delicate creation:

Meek loveliness is round thee spread,

A softness still and holy:

The grace of forest charms decay'd,

And pastoral melancholy.

That region left, the vale unfolds

Rich groves of lofty stature,

With Yarrow winding through the pomp

Of cultivated Nature;

And rising from those lofty groves

Behold a ruin hoary,

The shatter'd front of Newark's Towers,

Renown'd in Border story.

Fair scenes for childhood's opening bloom,

For sportive youth to stray in,

For manhood to enjoy his strength,

And age to wear away in!

Yon cottage seems a bower of bliss,

A covert for protection

Of studious ease and generous cares,

And every chaste affection!

How sweet on this autumnal day

The wild-wood fruits to gather,

And on my true-love's forehead plant

A crest of blooming heather!

And what if I enwreathed my own?

'Twere no offence to reason;

The sober hills thus deck their brows

To meet the wintry season.

I see—but not by sight alone

Loved Yarrow, have I won thee;

A ray of Fancy still survives—

Her sunshine plays upon thee!

Thy ever-youthful waters keep

A course of lively pleasure;

And gladsome notes my lips can breathe

Accordant to the measure.

The vapours linger round the heights,

They melt, and soon must vanish;

One hour is theirs, nor more is mine—

Sad thought! which I would banish,

But that I know, where'er I go,

Thy genuine image, Yarrow!

Will dwell with me, to heighten joy

And cheer my mind in sorrow.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

259. THE INVITATION.

Best and Brightest, come away,

Fairer far than this fair day,

Which, like thee, to those in sorrow

Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow

To the rough year just awake

In its cradle on the brake.

The brightest hour of unborn Spring

Through the winter wandering,

Found, it seems, the halcyon morn

To hoar February born;

Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth,

It kiss'd the forehead of the earth,

And smiled upon the silent sea,

And bade the frozen streams be free,

And waked to music all their fountains,

And breathed upon the frozen mountains,

And like a prophetess of May

Strew'd flowers upon the barren way,

Making the wintry world appear

Like one on whom thou smilest, Dear.

Away, away, from men and towns,

To the wild wood and the downs—

To the silent wilderness

Where the soul need not repress

Its music, lest it should not find

An echo in another's mind,

While the touch of Nature's art

Harmonises heart to heart.

Radiant Sister of the Day

Awake! arise! and come away!

To the wild woods and the plains,

And the pools where winter rains

Image all their roof of leaves,

Where the pine its garland weaves

Of sapless green, and ivy dun,

Round stems that never kiss the sun,

Where the lawns and pastures be

And the sandhills of the sea,

Where the melting hoar-frost wets

The daisy-star that never sets,

And wind-flowers and violets

Which yet join not scent to hue

Crown the pale year weak and new;

When the night is left behind

In the deep east, dim and blind,

And the blue noon is over us,

And the multitudinous

Billows murmur at our feet,

Where the earth and ocean meet,

And all things seem only one

In the universal Sun.

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

260. THE RECOLLECTION.

Now the last day of many days

All beautiful and bright as thou,

The loveliest and the last, is dead,

Rise, Memory, and write its praise!

Up, do thy wonted work! come, trace

The epitaph of glory fled,

For now the Earth has changed its face,

A frown is on the Heaven's brow.

We wander'd to the Pine Forest

That skirts the Ocean's foam;

The lightest wind was in its nest,

The tempest in its home.

The whispering waves were half asleep,

The clouds were gone to play,

And on the bosom of the deep

The smile of Heaven lay;

It seem'd as if the hour were one

Sent from beyond the skies

Which scatter'd from above the sun

A light of Paradise!

We paused amid the pines that stood

The giants of the waste,

Tortured by storms to shapes as rude

As serpents interlaced,—

And soothed by every azure breath

That under heaven is blown

To harmonies and hues beneath,

As tender as its own:

Now all the tree-tops lay asleep

Like green waves on the sea,

As still as in the silent deep

The ocean-woods may be.

How calm it was!—the silence there

By such a chain was bound,

That even the busy woodpecker

Made stiller by her sound

The inviolable quietness;

The breath of peace we drew

With its soft motion made not less

The calm that round us grew.

There seem'd from the remotest seat

Of the wide mountain waste

To the soft flower beneath our feet

A magic circle traced

A spirit interfused around,

A thrilling silent life;

To momentary peace it bound

Our mortal nature's strife;—

And still I felt the centre of

The magic circle there

Was one fair Form that fill'd with love

The lifeless atmosphere.

We paused beside the pools that lie

Under the forest bough;

Each seemed as 'twere a little sky

Gulf'd in a world below;

A firmament of purple light

Which in the dark earth lay,

More boundless than the depth of night

And purer than the day—

In which the lovely forests grew

As in the upper air,

More perfect both in shape and hue

Than any spreading there.

There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn,

And through the dark green wood

The white sun twinkling like the dawn

Out of a speckled cloud.

Sweet views which in our world above

Can never well be seen

Were imaged by the water's love

Of that fair forest green:

And all was interfused beneath

With an Elysian glow,

An atmosphere without a breath,

A softer day below.

Like one beloved the scene had lent

To the dark water's breast

Its very leaf and lineament

With more than truth exprest;

Until an envious wind crept by,

Like an unwelcome thought

Which from the mind's too faithful eye

Blots one dear image out.

—Though Thou art ever fair and kind,

The forests ever green,

Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind,

Than calm in waters seen!

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

261. BY THE SEA.

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free;

The holy time is quiet as a nun

Breathless with adoration; the broad sun

Is sinking down in its tranquillity;

The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea:

Listen! the mighty being is awake,

And doth with his eternal motion make

A sound like thunder—everlastingly.

Dear child! dear girl! that walkest with me here,

If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought

Thy nature is not therefore less divine:

Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;

And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,

God being with thee when we know it not.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

262. TO THE EVENING STAR.

Star that bringest home the bee,

And sett'st the weary labourer free!

If any star shed peace, 'tis Thou

That send'st it from above,

Appearing when Heaven's breath and brow

Are sweet as hers we love.

Come to the luxuriant skies,

Whilst the landscape's odours rise,

Whilst far-off lowing herds are heard

And songs when toil is done,

From cottages whose smoke unstirr'd

Curls yellow in the sun.

Star of love's soft interviews,

Parted lovers on thee muse;

Their remembrancer in Heaven

Of thrilling vows thou art,

Too delicious to be riven

By absence from the heart.

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

263. DATUR HORA QUIETI.

The sun upon the lake is low,

The wild birds hush their song,

The hills have evening's deepest glow,

Yet Leonard tarries long.

Now all whom varied toil and care

From home and love divide,

In the calm sunset may repair

Each to the loved one's side.

The noble dame on turret high,

Who waits her gallant knight,

Looks to the western beam to spy

The flash of armour bright.

The village maid, with hand on brow

The level ray to shade,

Upon the footpath watches now

For Colin's darkening plaid.

Now to their mates the wild swans row,

By day they swam apart,

And to the thicket wanders slow

The hind beside the hart.

The woodlark at his partner's side

Twitters his closing song—

All meet whom day and care divide,

But Leonard tarries long!

SIR W. SCOTT.

***************************

264. TO THE MOON.

Art thou pale for weariness

Of climbing heaven, and gazing on the earth,

Wandering companionless

Among the stars that have a different birth,—

And ever-changing, like a joyless eye

That finds no object worth its constancy?

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

265.

A widow bird sate mourning for her Love

Upon a wintry bough;

The frozen wind crept on above,

The freezing stream below.

There was no leaf upon the forest bare,

No flower upon the ground,

And little motion in the air

Except the mill-wheel's sound.

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

266. TO SLEEP.

A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by

One after one; the sound of rain, and bees

Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,

Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky;—

I've thought of all by turns, and still I lie

Sleepless; and soon the small birds' melodies

Must hear, first utter'd from my orchard trees,

And the first cuckoo's melancholy cry.

Even thus last night, and two nights more I lay,

And could not win thee, Sleep! by any stealth:

So do not let me wear to-night away:

Without Thee what is all the morning's wealth?

Come, blesséd barrier between day and day,

Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

267. THE SOLDIERS DREAM.

Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lower'd,

And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;

And thousands had sunk on the ground overpower'd,

The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.

When reposing that night on my pallet of straw

By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain,

At the dead of the night a sweet Vision I saw;

And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again.

Methought from the battle-field's dreadful array

Far, far, I had roam'd on a desolate track:

'Twas Autumn,—and sunshine arose on the way

To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back.

I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft

In life's morning march, when my bosom was young;

I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft,

And knew the sweet strain that the corn-reapers sung.

Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore

From my home and my weeping friends never to part;

My little ones kiss'd me a thousand times o'er,

And my wife sobb'd aloud in her fulness of heart.

"Stay—stay with us!—rest!—thou art weary and worn!"—

And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay;—

But sorrow return'd with the dawning of morn,

And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

T. CAMPBELL.

***************************

268. A DREAM OF THE UNKNOWN.

I dream'd that, as I wander'd by the way

Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,

And gentle odours led my steps astray,

Mix'd with a sound of waters murmuring

Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay

Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling

Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,

But kiss'd it and then fled, as Thou mightest in dream.

There grew pied wind-flowers and violets,

Daisies, those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth,

The constellated flower that never sets;

Faint oxlips; tender blue-bells, at whose birth

The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets

Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears,

When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.

And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,

Green cow-bind and the moonlight-colour'd May,

And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine

Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day;

And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,

With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray;

And flowers azure, black, and streak'd with gold,

Fairer than any waken'd eyes behold.

And nearer to the rivers trembling edge

There grew broad flag-flowers, purple prankt with white,

And starry river-buds among the sedge,

And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,

Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge

With moonlight beams of their own watery light;

And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green

As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.

Methought that of these visionary flowers

I made a nosegay, bound in such a way

That the same hues, which in their natural bowers

Were mingled or opposed, the like array

Kept these imprison'd children of the Hours

Within my hand;—and then, elate and gay,

I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come

That I might there present it—O! to Whom?

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

269. THE INNER VISION.

Most sweet it is with unuplifted eyes

To pace the ground, if path there be or none,

While a fair region round the Traveller lies

Which he forbears again to look upon;

Pleased rather with some soft ideal scene

The work of Fancy, or some happy tone

Of meditation, slipping in between

The beauty coming and the beauty gone.

—If Thought and Love desert us, from that day

Let us break off all commerce with the Muse:

With Thought and Love companions of our way—

Whate'er the senses take or may refuse,—

The Mind's internal heaven shall shed her dews

Of inspiration on the humblest lay.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

270. THE REALM OF FANCY.

Ever let the Fancy roam!

Pleasure never is at home:

At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,

Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;

Then let wingéd Fancy wander

Through the thought still spread beyond her:

Open wide the mind's cage-door,

She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.

O sweet Fancy! let her loose;

Summer's joys are spoilt by use,

And the enjoying of the Spring

Fades as does its blossoming:

Autumn's red-lipp'd fruitage too

Blushing through the mist and dew

Cloys with tasting: What do then?

Sit thee by the ingle, when

The sear faggot blazes bright,

Spirit of a winter's night;

When the soundless earth is muffled,

And the cakéd snow is shuffled

From the ploughboy's heavy shoon;

When the Night doth meet the Noon

In dark conspiracy

To banish Even from her sky.

—Sit thee there, and send abroad

With a mind self-overawed

Fancy, high-commission'd:—send her!

She has vassals to attend her;

She will bring, in spite of frost,

Beauties that the earth hath lost;

She will bring thee, all together,

All delights of summer weather;

All the buds and bells of May,

From dewy sward or thorny spray;

All the heapéd Autumn's wealth,

With a still, mysterious stealth:

She will mix these pleasures up

Like three fit wines in a cup,

And thou shalt quaff it;—thou shalt hear

Distant harvest-carols clear;

Rustle of the reapéd corn;

Sweet birds antheming the morn:

And in the same moment—hark!

'Tis the early April lark,

Or the rooks, with busy caw,

Foraging for sticks and straw.

Thou shalt, at one glance, behold

The daisy and the marigold;

White-plumed lilies, and the first

Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst;

Shaded hyacinth, alway

Sapphire queen of the mid-May;

And every leaf, and every flower

Pearléd with the self-same shower.

Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep

Meagre from its celléd sleep;

And the snake all winter-thin

Cast on sunny bank its skin;

Freckled nest eggs thou shalt see

Hatching in the hawthorn-tree,

When the hen-bird's wing doth rest

Quiet on her mossy nest;

Then the hurry and alarm

When the bee-hive casts its swarm;

Acorns ripe down-pattering

While the autumn breezes sing.

O sweet Fancy! let her loose;

Everything is spoilt by use:

Where's the cheek that doth not fade,

Too much gazed at? Where's the maid

Whose lip mature is ever new?

Where's the eye, however blue,

Doth not weary? Where's the face

One would meet in every place?

Where's the voice, however soft,

One would hear so very oft?

At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth

Like to bubbles when rain pelteth.

Let then wingéd Fancy find

Thee a mistress to thy mind:

Dulcet-eyed as Ceres' daughter,

Ere the God of Torment taught her

How to frown and how to chide;

With a waist and with a side

White as Hebe's, when her zone

Slipt its golden clasp, and down

Fell her kirtle to her feet,

While she held the goblet sweet,

And Jove grew languid.—Break the mesh

Of the Fancy's silken leash;

Quickly break her prison-string,

And such joys as these she'll bring:

—Let the wingéd Fancy roam!

Pleasure never is at home.

J. KEATS.

***************************

271. HYMN TO THE SPIRIT OF NATURE.

Life of Life! Thy lips enkindle

With their love the breath between them;

And thy smiles before they dwindle

Make the cold air fire; then screen them

In those locks, where whoso gazes

Faints, entangled in their mazes.

Child of Light! Thy limbs are burning

Through the veil which seems to hide them,

As the radiant lines of morning

Through thin clouds, ere they divide them;

And this atmosphere divinest

Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest.

Fair are others; none beholds Thee;

But thy voice sounds low and tender

Like the fairest, for it folds thee

From the sight, that liquid splendour;

And all feel, yet see thee never,—

As I feel now, lost for ever!

Lamp of Earth! Where'er thou movest

Its dim shapes are clad with brightness,

And the souls of whom thou lovest

Walk upon the winds with lightness

Till they fail, as I am failing,

Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing!

P. B. SHELLEY.

***************************

272. WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING.

I heard a thousand blended notes

While in a grove I sat reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What Man has made of Man.

Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower,

The periwinkle trail'd its wreaths;

And 'tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopp'd and play'd,

Their thoughts I cannot measure—

But the least motion which they made

It seem'd a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan

To catch the breezy air;

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature's holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What Man has made of Man?

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

273. RUTH: OR THE INFLUENCES OF NATURE.

When Ruth was left half desolate,

Her father took another mate;

And Ruth, not seven years old,

A slighted child, at her own will

Went wandering over dale and hill,

In thoughtless freedom bold.

And she had made a pipe of straw,

And music from that pipe could draw

Like sounds of winds and floods;

Had built a bower upon the green,

As if she from her birth had been

An infant of the woods.

Beneath her father's roof, alone

She seem'd to live; her thoughts her own;

Herself her own delight:

Pleased with herself, nor sad nor gay,

She pass'd her time; and in this way

Grew up to woman's height.

There came a youth from Georgia's shore—

A military casque he wore

With splendid feathers drest;

He brought them from the Cherokees;

The feathers nodded in the breeze

And made a gallant crest.

From Indian blood you deem him sprung:

But no! he spake the English tongue

And bore a soldier's name;

And, when America was free

From battle and from jeopardy,

He 'cross the ocean came.

With hues of genius on his cheek,

In finest tones the youth could speak:

—While he was yet a boy

The moon, the glory of the sun,

And streams that murmur as they run

Had been his dearest joy.

He was a lovely youth! I guess

The panther in the wilderness

Was not so fair as he;

And when he chose to sport and play,

No dolphin ever was so gay

Upon the tropic sea.

Among the Indians he had fought,

And with him many tales he brought

Of pleasure and of fear;

Such tales as, told to any maid

By such a youth, in the green shade,

Were perilous to hear.

He told of girls, a happy rout!

Who quit their fold with dance and shout,

Their pleasant Indian town,

To gather strawberries all day long;

Returning with a choral song

When daylight is gone down.

He spake of plants that hourly change

Their blossoms, through a boundless range

Of intermingling hues;

With budding, fading, faded flowers,

They stand the wonder of the bowers

From morn to evening dews,

He told of the Magnolia, spread

High as a cloud, high over head!

The cypress and her spire;

—Of flowers that with one scarlet gleam

Cover a hundred leagues, and seem

To set the hills on fire.

The youth of green savannahs spake,

And many an endless, endless lake,

With all its fairy crowds

Of islands, that together lie

As quietly as spots of sky

Among the evening clouds.

And then he said, "How sweet it were

A fisher or a hunter there,

In sunshine or in shade

To wander with an easy mind,

And build a household fire, and find

A home in every glade!

"What days and what bright years! Ah me!

Our life were life indeed, with Thee

So pass'd in quiet bliss;

And all the while," said he, "to know

That we were in a world of woe,

On such an earth as this!"

And then he sometimes interwove

Fond thoughts about a father's love,

"For there," said he, "are spun

Around the heart such tender ties,

That our own children to our eyes

Are dearer than the sun.

"Sweet Ruth! and could you go with me

My helpmate in the woods to be,

Our shed at night to rear;

Or run, my own adopted bride,

A sylvan huntress at my side,

And drive the flying deer!

"Beloved Ruth!"—No more he said.

The wakeful Ruth at midnight shed

A solitary tear:

She thought again—and did agree

With him to sail across the sea,

And drive the flying deer.

"And now, as fitting is and right,

We in the church our faith will plight,

A husband and a wife."

Even so they did; and I may say

That to sweet Ruth that happy day

Was more than human life.

Through dream and vision did she sink,

Delighted all the while to think

That, on those lonesome floods,

And green savannahs, she should share

His board with lawful joy, and bear

His name in the wild woods.

But, as you have before been told,

This Stripling, sportive, gay, and bold,

And with his dancing crest

So beautiful, through savage lands

Had roam'd about, with vagrant bands

Of Indians in the West.

The wind, the tempest roaring high,

The tumult of a tropic sky

Might well be dangerous food

For him, a youth to whom was given

So much of earth—so much of heaven,

And such impetuous blood.

Whatever in those climes he found

Irregular in sight or sound

Did to his mind impart

A kindred impulse, seem'd allied

To his own powers, and justified

The workings of his heart.

Nor less, to feed voluptuous thought,

The beauteous forms of Nature wrought,—

Fair trees and gorgeous flowers;

The breezes their own languor lent;

The stars had feelings, which they sent

Into those favour'd bowers.

Yet, in his worst pursuits, I ween

That sometimes there did intervene

Pure hopes of high intent:

For passions link'd to forms so fair

And stately, needs must have their share

Of noble sentiment.

But ill he lived, much evil saw,

With men to whom no better law

Nor better life was known;

Deliberately and undeceived,

Those wild men's vices he received,

And gave them back his own.

His genius and his moral frame

Were thus impair'd, and he became

The slave of low desires:

A man who without self-control

Would seek what the degraded soul

Unworthily admires.

And yet he with no feign'd delight

Had woo'd the maiden, day and night

Had loved her, night and morn:

What could he less than love a maid

Whose heart with so much nature play'd—

So kind and so forlorn?

Sometimes most earnestly he said,

"O Ruth! I have been worse than dead;

False thoughts, thoughts bold and vain

Encompass'd me on every side

When I, in confidence and pride,

Had cross'd the Atlantic main.

"Before me shone a glorious world

Fresh as a banner bright, unfurl'd

To music suddenly:

I look'd upon those hills and plains,

And seem'd as if let loose from chains

To live at liberty!

"No more of this—for now, by thee,

Dear Ruth! more happily set free

With nobler zeal I burn;

My soul from darkness is released

Like the whole sky when to the east

The morning doth return."

Full soon that better mind was gone;

No hope, no wish remain'd, not one,—

They stirr'd him now no more;

New objects did new pleasure give,

And once again he wish'd to live

As lawless as before.

Meanwhile, as thus with him it fared,

They for the voyage were prepared,

And went to the sea-shore,

But, when they thither came, the youth

Deserted his poor bride, and Ruth

Could never find him more.

God help thee, Ruth!—Such pains she had

That she in half a year was mad

And in a prison housed;

And there, exulting in her wrongs,

Among the music of her songs

She fearfully caroused.

Yet sometimes milder hours she knew,

Nor wanted sun, nor rain, nor dew,

Nor pastimes of the May;

—They all were with her in her cell;

And a clear brook with cheerful knell

Did o'er the pebbles play.

When Ruth three seasons thus had lain,

There came a respite to her pain;

She from her prison fled;

But of the vagrant none took thought;

And where it liked her best she sought

Her shelter and her bread.

Among the fields she breathed again:

The master-current of her brain

Ran permanent and free;

And, coming to the banks of Tone,

There did she rest; and dwell alone

Under the greenwood tree.

The engines of her pain, the tools

That shaped her sorrow, rocks and pools,

And airs that gently stir

The vernal leaves—she loved them still,

Nor ever tax'd them with the ill

Which had been done to her.

A barn her Winter bed supplies;

But, till the warmth of Summer skies

And Summer days is gone,

(And all do in this tale agree)

She sleeps beneath the greenwood tree,

And other home hath none.

An innocent life, yet far astray!

And Ruth will, long before her day,

Be broken down and old:

Sore aches she needs must have! but less

Of mind, than body's wretchedness,

From damp, and rain, and cold.

If she is prest by want of food

She from her dwelling in the wood

Repairs to a road-side;

And there she begs at one steep place

Where up and down with easy pace

The horsemen-travellers ride.

That oaten pipe of hers is mute

Or thrown away; but with a flute

Her loneliness she cheers;

This flute, made of a hemlock stalk,

At evening in his homeward walk

The Quantock woodman hears.

I, too, have pass'd her on the hills

Setting her little water-mills

By spouts and fountains wild—

Such small machinery as she turn'd

Ere she had wept, ere she had mourn'd,

A young and happy child!

Farewell! and when thy days are told,

Ill-fated Ruth! in hallow'd mould

Thy corpse shall buried be;

For thee a funeral bell shall ring,

And all the congregation sing

A Christian psalm for thee.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

274. WRITTEN IN THE EUGANEAN HILLS, NORTH ITALY.

Many a green isle needs must be

In the deep wide sea of misery,

Or the mariner, worn and wan,

Never thus could voyage on

Day and night, and night and day,

Drifting on his dreary way,

With the solid darkness black

Closing round his vessel's track;

Whilst above, the sunless sky

Big with clouds, hangs heavily,

And behind the tempest fleet

Hurries on with lightning feet,

Riving sail, and cord, and plank,

Till the ship has almost drank

Death from the o'er-brimming deep;

And sinks down, down, like that sleep

When the dreamer seems to be

Weltering through eternity;

And the dim low line before

Of a dark and distant shore

Still recedes, as ever still

Longing with divided will,

But no power to seek or shun,

He is ever drifted on

O'er the unreposing wave,

To the haven of the grave.

Ah, many flowering islands lie

In the waters of wide agony:

To such a one this morn was led

My bark, by soft winds piloted.

—'Mid the mountains Euganean

I stood listening to the paean

With which the legion'd rooks did hail

The Sun's uprise majestical:

Gathering round with wings all hoar,

Through the dewy mist they soar

Like gray shades, till the eastern heaven

Bursts, and then,—as clouds of even

Fleck'd with fire and azure, lie

In the unfathomable sky,—

So their plumes of purple grain

Starr'd with drops of golden rain

Gleam above the sunlight woods,

As in silent multitudes

On the morning's fitful gale

Through the broken mist they sail;

And the vapours cloven and gleaming

Follow down the dark steep streaming,

Till all is bright, and clear, and still

Round the solitary hill.

Beneath is spread like a green sea

The waveless plain of Lombardy,

Bounded by the vaporous air,

Islanded by cities fair;

Underneath day's azure eyes,

Ocean's nursling, Venice lies,—

A peopled labyrinth of walls,

Amphitrite's destined halls,

Which her hoary sire now paves

With his blue and beaming waves.

Lo! the sun upsprings behind,

Broad, red, radiant, half-reclined

On the level quivering line

Of the waters crystalline;

And before that chasm of light,

As within a furnace bright,

Column, tower, and dome, and spire,

Shine like obelisks of fire,

Pointing with inconstant motion

From the altar of dark ocean

To the sapphire-tinted skies;

As the flames of sacrifice

From the marble shrines did rise

As to pierce the dome of gold

Where Apollo spoke of old.

Sun-girt City! thou hast been

Ocean's child, and then his queen;

Now is come a darker day,

And thou soon must be his prey,

If the power that raised thee here

Hallow so thy watery bier.

A less drear ruin then than now

With thy conquest-branded brow

Stooping to the slave of slaves

From thy throne among the waves,

Wilt thou be,—when the sea-mew

Flies, as once before it flew,

O'er thine isles depopulate,

And all is in its ancient state,

Save where many a palace-gate

With green sea-flowers overgrown

Like a rock of ocean's own,

Topples o'er the abandon'd sea

As the tides change sullenly.

The fisher on his watery way

Wandering at the close of day,

Will spread his sail and seize his oar

Till he pass the gloomy shore,

Lest thy dead should, from their sleep

Bursting o'er the starlight deep,

Lead a rapid masque of death

O'er the waters of his path.

Noon descends around me now:

'Tis the noon of autumn's glow,

When a soft and purple mist

Like a vaporous amethyst,

Or an air-dissolvéd star

Mingling light and fragrance, far

From the curved horizon's bound

To the point of heaven's profound,

Fills the overflowing sky:

And the plains that silent lie

Underneath; the leaves unsodden

Where the infant frost has trodden

With his morning-wingéd feet

Whose bright print is gleaming yet;

And the red and golden vines

Piercing with their trellised lines

The rough, dark-skirted wilderness;

The dun and bladed grass no less,

Pointing from this hoary tower

In the windless air; the flower

Glimmering at my feet; the line

Of the olive-sandall'd Apennine

In the south dimly islanded;

And the Alps, whose snows are spread

High between the clouds and sun;

And of living things each one;

And my spirit, which so long

Darken'd this swift stream of song,—

Interpenetrated lie

By the glory of the sky;

Be it love, light, harmony,

Odour, or the soul of all

Which from Heaven like dew doth fall,

Or the mind which feeds this verse

Peopling the lone universe.

Noon descends, and after noon

Autumn's evening meets me soon,

Leading the infantine moon

And that one star, which to her

Almost seems to minister

Half the crimson light she brings

From the sunset's radiant springs:

And the soft dreams of the morn

(Which like wingéd winds had borne

To that silent isle, which lies

'Mid remember'd agonies,

The frail bark of this lone being),

Pass, to other sufferers fleeing,

And its ancient pilot, Pain,

Sits beside the helm again.

Other flowering isles must be

In the sea of life and agony:

Other spirits float and flee

O'er that gulf: ev'n now, perhaps,

On some rock the wild wave wraps,

With folding wings they waiting sit

For my bark, to pilot it

To some calm and blooming cove,

Where for me, and those I love,

May a windless bower be built,

Far from passion, pain, and guilt,

In a dell 'mid lawny hills

Which the wild sea-murmur fills,

And soft sunshine, and the sound

Of old forests echoing round,

And the light and smell divine

Of all flowers that breathe and shine.

—We may live so happy there,

That the spirits of the air,

Envying us, may even entice

To our healing paradise

The polluting multitude;

But their rage would be subdued

By that clime divine and calm,

And the winds whose wings rain balm

On the uplifted soul, and leaves

Under which the bright sea heaves;

While each breathless interval

In their whisperings musical

The inspired soul supplies

With its own deep melodies;

And the Love which heals all strife

Circling, like the breath of life,

All things in that sweet abode

With its own mild brotherhood.

They, not it, would change; and soon

Every sprite beneath the moon

Would repent its envy vain,

And the Earth grow young again!

P.B. SHELLEY.

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275. ODE TO THE WEST WIND.

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wingéd seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; Hear, O hear!

Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,

Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed

Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning; there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, ev'n from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height—

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,

Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O hear!

Thou who didst waken from his summer-dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay

Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave's intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers

So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou

For whose path the Atlantic's level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear

And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;

If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;

A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less free

Than Thou, O uncontrollable! If even

I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,

As then, when to outstrip the skyey speed

Scarce seem'd a vision, I would ne'er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

O lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

Make me thy lyre, ev'n as the forest is:

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,

Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,

My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

P.B. SHELLEY.

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276. NATURE AND THE POET.

Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, painted by

Sir George Beaumont.

I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile!

Four summer weeks I dwelt in sight of thee:

I saw thee every day; and all the while

Thy form was sleeping on a glassy sea.

So pure the sky, so quiet was the air!

So like, so very like, was day to day!

Whene'er I look'd, thy image still was there;

It trembled, but it never pass'd away.

How perfect was the calm! It seem'd no sleep,

No mood, which season takes away, or brings:

I could have fancied that the mighty Deep

Was even the gentlest of all gentle things.

Ah! then if mine had been the painter's hand

To express what then I saw; and add the gleam,

The light that never was on sea or land,

The consecration, and the Poet's dream,—

I would have planted thee, thou hoary pile,

Amid a world how different from this!

Beside a sea that could not cease to smile;

On tranquil land, beneath a sky of bliss.

A picture had it been of lasting ease,

Elysian quiet, without toil or strife;

No motion but the moving tide, a breeze,

Or merely silent Nature's breathing life.

Such, in the fond illusion of my heart,

Such picture would I at that time have made;

And seen the soul of truth in every part,

A steadfast peace that might not be betray'd.

So once it would have been,—'tis so no more

I have submitted to a new control:

A power is gone, which nothing can restore;

A deep distress hath humanised my soul.

Not for a moment could I now behold

A smiling sea, and be what I have been:

The feeling of my loss will ne'er be old;

This, which I know, I speak with mind serene.

Then, Beaumont, Friend! who would have been the friend

If he had lived, of him whom I deplore,

This work of thine I blame not, but commend;

This sea in anger, and that dismal shore.

O 'tis a passionate work!—yet wise and well,

Well chosen is the spirit that is here;

That hulk which labours in the deadly swell,

This rueful sky, this pageantry of fear!

And this huge Castle, standing here sublime,

I love to see the look with which it braves,

—Cased in the unfeeling armour of old time—

The lightning, the fierce wind, and trampling waves.

Farewell, farewell the heart that lives alone,

Housed in a dream, at distance from the Kind!

Such happiness, wherever it be known,

Is to be pitied; for 'tis surely blind.

But welcome fortitude, and patient cheer,

And frequent sights of what is to be borne!

Such sights, or worse, as are before me here:

Not without hope we suffer and we mourn.

W. WORDSWORTH.

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277. THE POET'S DREAM.

On a Poet's lips I slept

Dreaming like a love-adept

In the sound his breathing kept;

Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses,

But feeds on the aerial kisses

Of shapes that haunt Thought's wildernesses.

He will watch from dawn to gloom

The lake-reflected sun illume

The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom,

Nor heed nor see, what things they be—

But from these create he can

Forms more real than living Man,

Nurslings of immortality!

P.B. SHELLEY.

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278.

The World is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours

And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,—

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

W. WORDSWORTH.

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279. WITHIN KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE.

Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense,

With ill-match'd aims the Architect who plann'd

(Albeit labouring for a scanty band

Of white-robed Scholars only) this immense

And glorious work of fine intelligence!

—Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore

Of nicely-calculated less or more:—

So deem'd the man who fashion'd for the sense

These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof

Self-poised, and scoop'd into ten thousand cells

Where light and shade repose, where music dwells

Lingering and wandering on as loth to die—

Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof

That they were born for immortality.

W. WORDSWORTH.

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280. YOUTH AND AGE.

Verse, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying,

Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee—

Both were mine! Life went a-maying

With Nature, Hope, and Poesy,

When I was young!

When I was young?—Ah, woeful when!

Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then!

This breathing house not built with hands,

This body that does me grievous wrong,

O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands

How lightly then it flash'd along:

Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,

On winding lakes and rivers wide,

That ask no aid of sail or oar,

That fear no spite of wind or tide!

Nought cared this body for wind or weather

When Youth and I lived in't together.

Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like;

Friendship is a sheltering tree;

O! the joys, that came down shower-like,

Of Friendship, Love, and Liberty,

Ere I was old!

Ere I was old? Ah woeful Ere,

Which tells me, Youth's no longer here!

O Youth! for years so many and sweet

'Tis known that Thou and I were one,

I'll think it but a fond conceit—

It cannot be, that Thou art gone!

Thy vesper-bell hath not yet toll'd:—

And thou wert aye a masker bold!

What strange disguise hast now put on

To make believe that thou art gone?

I see these locks in silvery slips,

This drooping gait, this alter'd size:

But Springtide blossoms on thy lips,

And tears take sunshine from thine eyes!

Life is but Thought: so think I will

That Youth and I are housemates still.

Dew-drops are the gems of morning,

But the tears of mournful eve!

Where no hope is, life's a warning

That only serves to make us grieve

When we are old:

—That only serves to make us grieve

With oft and tedious taking-leave,

Like some poor nigh-related guest

That may not rudely be dismist,

Yet hath out-stay'd his welcome while,

And tells the jest without a smile.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

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281. THE TWO APRIL MORNINGS.

We walk'd along, while bright and red

Uprose the morning sun;

And Matthew stopp'd, he looked, and said,

"The will of God be done!"

A village schoolmaster was he,

With hair of glittering gray;

As blithe a man as you could see

On a spring holiday.

And on that morning, through the grass,

And by the steaming rills

We travel'd merrily, to pass

A day among the hills.

"Our work," said I, "was well begun;

Then, from thy breast what thought,

Beneath so beautiful a sun,

So sad a sigh has brought?"

A second time did Matthew stop;

And fixing still his eye

Upon the eastern mountain-top,

To me he made reply:

"Yon cloud with that long purple cleft

Brings fresh into my mind

A day like this, which I have left

Full thirty years behind.

"And just above yon slope of corn

Such colours, and no other,

Were in the sky, that April morn

Of this the very brother.

"With rod and line I sued the sport

Which that sweet season gave,

And, to the church-yard come, stopp'd short

Beside my daughter's grave.

"Nine summers had she scarcely seen,

The pride of all the vale;

And then she sang:—she would have been

A very nightingale.

"Six feet in earth my Emma lay;

And yet I loved her more—

For so it seem'd,—than till that day

I e'er had loved before.

"And, turning from her grave, I met,

Beside the church-yard yew,

A blooming Girl, whose hair was wet

With points of morning dew.

"A basket on her head she bare;

Her brow was smooth and white:

To see a child so very fair,

It was a pure delight!

"No fountain from its rocky cave

E'er tripped with foot so free;

She seem'd as happy as a wave

That dances on the sea.

"There came from me a sigh of pain

Which I could ill confine;

I looked at her, and looked again

And did not wish her mine!"

—Matthew is in his grave, yet now,

Methinks I see him stand

As at that moment, with a bough

Of wilding in his hand.

W. WORDSWORTH.

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282. THE FOUNTAIN.

A Conversation.

We talk'd with open heart, and tongue

Affectionate and true,

A pair of friends, though I was young,

And Matthew seventy-two.

We lay beneath a spreading oak,

Beside a mossy seat;

And from the turf a fountain broke

And gurgled at our feet.

"Now, Matthew!" said I "let us match

This water's pleasant tune

With some old border song, or catch

That suits a summer's noon.

"Or of the church-clock and the chimes

Sing here beneath the shade

That half-mad thing of witty rhymes

Which you last April made!"

In silence Matthew lay, and eyed

The spring beneath the tree;

And thus the dear old man replied,

The gray-hair'd man of glee:

"No check, no stay, this Streamlet fears,

How merrily it goes!

'Twill murmur on a thousand years

And flow as now it flows.

"And here, on this delightful day

I cannot choose but think

How oft, a vigorous man, I lay

Beside this fountain's brink.

"My eyes are dim with childish tears,

My heart is idly stirr'd,

For the same sound is in my ears

Which in those days I heard.

"Thus fares it still in our decay:

And yet the wiser mind

Mourns less for what Age takes away,

Than what it leaves behind.

"The blackbird amid leafy trees—

The lark above the hill,

Let loose their carols when they please,

Are quiet when they will.

"With Nature never do they wage

A foolish strife; they see

A happy youth, and their old age

Is beautiful and free:

"But we are press'd by heavy laws;

And often, glad no more,

We wear a face of joy, because

We have been glad of yore.

"If there be one who need bemoan

His kindred laid in earth,

The household hearts that were his own,—

It is the man of mirth.

"My days, my friend, are almost gone,

My life has been approved,

And many love me; but by none

Am I enough beloved."

"Now both himself and me he wrongs,

The man who thus complains!

I live and sing my idle songs

Upon these happy plains:

"And Matthew, for thy children dead

I'll be a son to thee!"

At this he grasp'd my hand and said,

"Alas! that cannot be."

We rose up from the fountain-side;

And down the smooth descent

Of the green sheep-track did we glide

And through the wood we went;

And, ere we came to Leonard's Rock,

He sang those witty rhymes

About the crazy old church-clock,

And the bewilder'd chimes.

W. WORDSWORTH.

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283. THE RIVER OF LIFE.

The more we live, more brief appear

Our life's succeeding stages:

A day to childhood seems a year,

And years like passing ages.

The gladsome current of our youth

Ere passion yet disorders,

Steals lingering like a river smooth

Along its grassy borders.

But as the careworn cheek grows wan,

And sorrow's shafts fly thicker,

Ye Stars, that measure life to man,

Why seem your courses quicker?

When joys have lost their bloom and breath

And life itself is vapid,

Why, as we reach the Falls of Death,

Feel we its tide more rapid?

It may be strange—yet who would change

Time's course to lower speeding,

When one by one our friends have gone

And left our bosoms bleeding?

Heaven gives our years of fading strength

Indemnifying fleetness;

And those of youth, a seeming length,

Proportion'd to their sweetness.

T. CAMPBELL.

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284. THE HUMAN SEASONS.

Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;

There are four seasons in the mind of Man:

He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear

Takes in all beauty with an easy span:

He has his summer, when luxuriously

Spring's honey'd cud of youthful thought he loves

To ruminate, and by such dreaming high

Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves

His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings

He furleth close; contented so to look

On mists in idleness—to let fair things

Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook:—

He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,

Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

J. KEATS.

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285. A LAMENT.

O World! O Life! O Time!

On whose last steps I climb,

Trembling at that where I had stood before;

When will return the glory of your prime?

No more—O never more!

Out of the day and night

A joy has taken flight:

Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar

Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight

No more—O never more!

P.B. SHELLEY.

***************************

286.

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began,

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old

Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man:

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

W. WORDSWORTH.

***************************

287. ODE ON INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF

EARLY CHILDHOOD.

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight

To me did seem

Apparell'd in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;—

Turn wheresoe'er I may,

By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more!

The rainbow comes and goes,

And lovely is the rose;

The moon doth with delight

Look round her when the heavens are bare;

Waters on a starry night

Are beautiful and fair;

The sunshine is a glorious birth;

But yet I know, where'er I go,

That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth.

Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,

And while the young lambs bound

As to the tabor's sound,

To me alone there came a thought of grief:

A timely utterance gave that thought relief,

And I again am strong.

The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep,—

No more shall grief of mine the season wrong:

I hear the echoes through the mountains throng,

The winds come to me from the fields of sleep,

And all the earth is gay;

Land and sea

Give themselves up to jollity,

And with the heart of May

Doth every beast keep holiday;—

Thou child of joy,

Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy

Shepherd boy!

Ye blesséd creatures, I have heard the call

Ye to each other make; I see

The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;

My heart is at your festival,

My head hath its coronal,

The fulness of your bliss, I feel—I feel it all.

O evil day! if I were sullen

While Earth herself is adorning

This sweet May morning,

And the children are pulling

On every side

In a thousand valleys far and wide

Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,

And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm:—

I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!

—But there's a tree, of many, one,

A single field which I have look'd upon,

Both of them speak of something that is gone:

The pansy at my feet

Doth the same tale repeat:

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting

And cometh from afar;

Not in entire forgetfulness

And not in utter nakedness

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Shades of the prison-house begin to close

Upon the growing boy,

But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,

He sees it in his joy,

The youth, who daily farther from the east

Must travel, still is Nature's priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended;

At length the man perceives it die away,

And fade into the light of common day.

Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;

Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,

And, even with something of a mother's mind,

And no unworthy aim,

The homely nurse doth all she can

To make her foster-child, her inmate, Man,

Forget the glories he hath known

And that imperial palace whence he came.

Behold the Child among his new-born blisses,

A six years' darling of a pigmy size!

See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies,

Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,

With light upon him from his father's eyes!

See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,

Some fragment from his dream of human life,

Shaped by himself with newly-learnéd art;

A wedding or a festival,

A mourning or a funeral;

And this hath now his heart,

And unto this he frames his song:

Then will he fit his tongue

To dialogues of business, love, or strife;

But it will not be long

Ere this be thrown aside,

And with new joy and pride

The little actor cons another part;

Filling from time to time his "humorous stage"

With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,

That life brings with her in her equipage;

As if his whole vocation

Were endless imitation.

Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie

Thy soul's immensity;

Thou best philosopher, who yet dost keep

Thy heritage, thou eye among the blind,

That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep,

Haunted for ever by the eternal mind,—

Mighty prophet! Seer blest!

On whom those truths do rest

Which we are toiling all our lives to find;

In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;

Thou, over whom thy immortality

Broods like the day, a master o'er a slave,

A presence which is not to be put by;

Thou little child, yet glorious in the might

Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,

Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke

The years to bring the inevitable yoke,

Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?

Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight,

And custom lie upon thee with a weight

Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!

O joy! that in our embers

Is something that doth live,

That nature yet remembers

What was so fugitive!

The thought of our past years in me doth breed

Perpetual benediction: not indeed

For that which is most worthy to be blest,

Delight and liberty, the simple creed

Of childhood, whether busy or at rest,

With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:

—Not for these I raise

The song of thanks and praise;

But for those obstinate questionings

Of sense and outward things,

Fallings from us, vanishings,

Blank misgivings of a creature

Moving about in worlds not realised,

High instincts, before which our mortal nature

Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:

But for those first affections,

Those shadowy recollections,

Which, be they what they may,

Are yet the fountain-light of all our day,

Are yet a master-light of all our seeing;

Uphold us—cherish—and have power to make

Our noisy years seem moments in the being

Of the eternal silence: truths that wake,

To perish never;

Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour

Nor man nor boy

Nor all that is at enmity with joy,

Can utterly abolish or destroy!

Hence, in a season of calm weather

Though inland far we be,

Our souls have sight of that immortal sea

Which brought us hither;

Can in a moment travel thither—

And see the children sport upon the shore,

And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!

And let the young lambs bound

As to the tabor's sound!

We, in thought, will join your throng

Ye that pipe and ye that play,

Ye that through your hearts to-day

Feel the gladness of the May!

What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind,

In the primal sympathy

Which having been must ever be,

In the soothing thoughts that spring

Out of human suffering,

In the faith that looks through death,

In years that bring the philosophic mind.

And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,

Forebode not any severing of our loves!

Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;

I only have relinquish'd one delight

To live beneath your more habitual sway;

I love the brooks which down their channels fret

Even more than when I tripp'd lightly as they;

The innocent brightness of a new-born day

Is lovely yet;

The clouds that gather round the setting sun

Do take a sober colouring from an eye

That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;

Another race hath been, and other palms are won.

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

W. WORDSWORTH.

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288.

Music, when soft voices die,

Vibrates in the memory—

Odours, when sweet violets sicken,

Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,

Are heap'd for the beloved's bed;

And so thy thoughts, when Thou art gone,

Love itself shall slumber on.

P.B. SHELLEY.

PALGRAVE'S NOTES

Poem 2. Rouse Memnon's mother: Awaken the Dawn from the dark Earth and the clouds where she is resting. Aurora in the old mythology is mother of Memnon (the East), and wife of Tithonus (the appearances of Earth and Sky during the last hours of Night). She leaves him every morning in renewed youth, to prepare the way for Phoebus (the Sun), whilst Tithonus remains in perpetual old age and grayness.

by Peneus' streams: Phoebus loved the Nymph Daphne whom he met by the river Peneus in the vale of Tempe. This legend expressed the attachment of the Laurel (Daphne) to the Sun, under whose heat the tree both fades and flourishes. It has been thought worth while to explain these allusions, because they illustrate the character of the Grecian Mythology, which arose in the Personification of natural phenomena, and was totally free from those debasing and ludicrous ideas with which, through Roman and later misunderstanding or perversion, it has been associated.

Amphion's lyre: He was said to have built the walls of Thebes to the sound of his music.

Night like a drunkard reels: Compare Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Scene 3: "The gray-eyed morn smiles," etc.—It should be added that three lines, which appeared hopelessly misprinted, have been omitted in this Poem.

Poem 4.

Time's chest: in which he is figuratively supposed to lay up past treasures. So in Troilus, Act III. Scene 3, "Time hath a wallet at his back," etc.

Poem 5.

A fine example of the high-wrought and conventional Elizabethan Pastoralism, which it would be ludicrous to criticise on the ground of the unshepherdlike or unreal character of some images suggested. Stanza 6 was probably inserted by Izaak Walton.

Poem 9. This Poem, with 25 and 94, is taken from Davison's "Rhapsody," first published in 1602. One stanza has been here omitted, in accordance with the principle noticed in the Preface. Similar omissions occur in 45, 87, 100, 128, 160, 165, 227, 235. The more serious abbreviation by which it has been attempted to bring Crashaw's "Wishes" and Shelley's "Euganean Hills" within the limits of lyrical unity, is commended with much diffidence to the judgment of readers acquainted with the original pieces.

Presence in line 12 is here conjecturally printed for present. A very few similar corrections of (it is presumed) misprints have been made:—as thy for my, 22, line 9: men for me, 41, line 3: viol for idol, 252, line 43, and one for our, line 90: locks for looks, 271, line 5: dome for doom, 275, line 25:—with two or three more less important.

Poem 15.

This charming little poem, truly "old and plain, and dallying with the innocence of love" like that spoken of in Twelfth Night, is taken with 5, 17, 20, 34, and 40, from the most characteristic collection of Elizabeth's reign, "England's Helicon," first published in 1600.

Poem 16.

Readers who have visited Italy will be reminded of more than one picture by this gorgeous Vision of Beauty, equally sublime and pure in its Paradisaical naturalness. Lodge wrote it on a voyage to "the Islands of Terceras and the Canaries"; and he seems to have caught, in those southern seas, no small portion of the qualities which marked the almost contemporary Art of Venice,—the glory and the glow of Veronese, or Titian, or Tintoret, when he most resembles Titian, and all but surpasses him.

The clear: is the crystalline or outermost heaven of the old cosmography. For resembling other copies give refining: the correct reading is perhaps revealing.

For a fair there's fairer none: If you desire a Beauty, there is none more beautiful than Rosaline.

Poem 18.

that fair thou owest: that beauty thou ownest.

Poem 23.

the star Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken: apparently, Whose stellar influence is uncalculated, although his angular altitude from the plane of the astrolabe or artificial horizon used by astrologers has been determined.

Poem 27.

keel: skim.

Poem 29.

expense: waste.

Poem 30.

Nativity once in the main of light: when a star has risen and entered on the full stream of light;—another of the astrological phrases no longer familiar.

Crooked eclipses: as coming athwart the Sun's apparent course.

Wordsworth, thinking probably of the "Venus" and the "Lucrece," said finely of Shakespeare "Shakespeare could not have written an Epic; he would have died of plethora of thought." This prodigality of nature is exemplified equally in his Sonnets. The copious selection here given (which from the wealth of the material, required greater consideration than any other portion of the Editor's task) contains many that will not be fully felt and understood without some earnestness of thought on the reader's part. But he is not likely to regret the labour.

Poem 31.

upon misprision growing: either, granted in error, or, on the growth of contempt.

Poem 32.

With the tone of this Sonnet compare Hamlet's "Give me that man That is not passion's slave," etc. Shakespeare's writings show the deepest sensitiveness to passion:—hence the attraction he felt in the contrasting effects of apathy.

Poem 33.

grame: sorrow. It was long before English Poetry returned to the charming simplicity of this and a few other poems by Wyat.

Poem 34.

Pandion in the ancient fable was father to Philomela.

Poem 38.

ramage: confused noise.

Poem 39.

censures: judges.

Poem 40.

By its style this beautiful example of old simplicity and feeling may be referred to the early years of Elizabeth. Late forgot: lately.

Poem 41.

haggards: the least tameable hawks.

Poem 44.

cypres or cyprus,—used by the old writers for crape: whether from the French crespe or from the Island whence it was imported. Its accidental similarity in spelling to cypress has, here and in Milton's Penseroso, probably confused readers.

Poems 46, 47.

"I never saw anything like this funeral dirge," says Charles Lamb, "except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in the Tempest. As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve itself into the element which it contemplates."

Poem 51.

crystal: fairness.

Poem 53.

This "Spousal Verse" was written in honour of the Ladies Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset. Although beautiful, it is inferior to the "Epithalamion" on Spenser's own marriage,—omitted with great reluctance as not in harmony with modern manners.

feateously: elegantly.

shend: put out.

a noble peer: Robert Devereux, second Lord Essex, then at the height of his brief triumph after taking Cadiz: hence the allusion following to the Pillars of Hercules, placed near Gades by ancient legend.

Eliza: Elizabeth; twins of Jove: the stars Castor and Pollux; baldric: belt, the zodiac.

Poem 57.

A fine example of a peculiar class of Poetry;—that written by thoughtful men who practised this Art but little. Wotton's, 72, is another. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Berkeley, Dr. Johnson, Lord Macaulay, have left similar specimens.

Poem 62.

whist: hushed; Pan: used here for the Lord of all; Lars and Lemures: household Gods and spirits of relations dead; Flamens: Roman priests; That twice-batter'd god: Dagon.

Osiris, the Egyptian god of Agriculture (here, perhaps by confusion with Apis, figured as a Bull), was torn to pieces by Typho and embalmed after death in a sacred chest. This myth, reproduced in Syria and Greece in the legends of Thammuz, Adonis, and perhaps Absyrtus, represents the annual death of the Sun or the Year under the influences of the winter darkness. Horus, the son of Osiris, as the New Year, in his turn overcomes Typho.—It suited the genius of Milton's time to regard this primaeval poetry and philosophy of the seasons, which has a further reference to the contest of Good and Evil in Creation, as a malignant idolatry. Shelley's Chorus in Hellas, "Worlds on worlds," treats the subject in a larger and sweeter spirit.

unshower'd grass: as watered by the Nile only.

Poem 64.

The Late Massacre: the Vaudois persecution, carried on in 1655 by the Duke of Savoy. This "collect in verse," as it has been justly named, is the most mighty Sonnet in any language known to the Editor. Readers should observe that, unlike our sonnets of the sixteenth century, it is constructed , on the original Italian or Provençal model,—unquestionably far superior to the imperfect form employed by Shakespeare and Drummond.

Poem 65.

Cromwell returned from Ireland in 1650. Hence the prophecies, not strictly fulfilled, of his deference to the Parliament, in stanzas 21-24.

This Ode, beyond doubt one of the finest in our language, and more in Milton's style than has been reached by any other poet, is occasionally obscure from imitation of the condensed Latin syntax. The meaning of st. 5 is "rivalry or hostility are the same to a lofty spirit, and limitation more hateful than opposition." The allusion in st. 11 is to the old physical doctrines of the non-existence of a vacuum and the impenetrability of matter:—in st. 17 to the omen traditionally connected with the foundation of the Capitol at Rome. The ancient belief that certain years in life complete natural periods and are hence peculiarly exposed to death, is introduced in stanza 26 by the word climacteric.

Poem 66.

Lycidas. The person lamented is Milton's college friend Edward King, drowned in 1637 whilst crossing from Chester to Ireland.

Strict Pastoral Poetry was first written or perfected by the Dorian Greeks settled in Sicily: but the conventional use of it, exhibited more magnificently in Lycidas than in any other pastoral, is apparently of Roman origin. Milton, employing the noble freedom of a great artist, has here united ancient mythology, with what may be called the modern mythology of Camus and Saint Peter,—to direct Christian images.—The metrical structure of this glorious poem is partly derived from Italian models.

Sisters of the sacred well: the Muses, said to frequent the fountain Helicon on Mount Parnassus.

Mona: Anglesea, called by the Welsh Inis Dowil or the Dark Island, from its dense forests.

Deva: the Dee: a river which probably derived its magical character from Celtic traditions: it was long the boundary of Briton and Saxon.—These places are introduced, as being near the scene of the shipwreck.

Orpheus was torn to pieces by Thracian women; Amaryllis and Neaera names used here for the love idols of poets: as Damoetas previously for a shepherd.

the blind Fury: Atropos, fabled to cut the thread of life.

Arethuse and Mincius: Sicilian and Italian waters here alluded to as synonymous with the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil.

oat: pipe, used here like Collins' oaten stop, No. 146, for Song.

Hippotades: Aeolus, god of the Winds. Panope a Nereid. The names of local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared with a limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or Asia Minor.

Camus: the Cam; put for King's University.

The sanguine flower: the Hyacinth of the ancients; probably our Iris.

The pilot: Saint Peter, figuratively introduced as the head of the Church on earth, to foretell "the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their heighth" under Laud's primacy.

the wolf: Popery.

Alpheus: a stream in Southern Greece, supposed to flow underseas to meet the Arethuse.

Swart star: the Dogstar, called swarthy because its heliacal rising in ancient times occurred soon after mid-summer.

moist vows: either tearful prayers, or prayers for one at sea.

Bellerus: a giant, apparently created here by Milton to personify Bellerium, the ancient title of the Land's End.

The great Vision:—The story was that the Archangel Michael had appeared on the rock by Marazion in Mount's Bay which bears his name. Milton calls on him to turn his eyes from the south homeward, and to pity Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled waters of the Land's End. Finisterre being the land due south of Marazion, two places in that district (then by our trade with Corunna probably less unfamiliar to English ears), are named,—Namancos now Mujio in Galicia, Bayona north of the Minho, or, perhaps a fortified rock (one of the Cies Islands) not unlike St. Michael's Mount, at the entrance of Vigo Bay.

ore: rays of golden light. Doric lay: Sicilian, pastoral.

Poem 70.

The assault: was an attack on London expected in 1642, when the troops of Charles I. reached Brentford. "Written on his door" was in the original title of this sonnet. Milton was then living in Aldersgate Street.

Emathian Conqueror: When Thebes was destroyed (B.C. 335) and the citizens massacred by thousands, Alexander ordered the house of Pindar to be spared. He was as incapable of appreciating the Poet as Lewis XIV. of appreciating Racine: but even the narrow and barbarian mind of Alexander could understand the advantage of a showy act of homage to Poetry.

the repeated air \Of sad Electra's poet: Amongst Plutarch's vague stories, he says that when the Spartan confederacy in 404 B.C. took Athens, a proposal to demolish it was rejected through the effect produced on the commanders by hearing part of a chorus from the Electra of Euripides sung at a feast. There is however no apparent congruity between the lines quoted (167, 8 Ed. Dindorf) and the result ascribed to them.

Poem 73.

This high-toned and lovely Madrigal is quite in the style, and worthy of, the "pure Simonides."

Poem 75.

Vaughan's beautiful though quaint verses should be compared with Wordsworth's great Ode, No. 287.

Poem 76.

Favonius: the spring wind.

Poem 77.

Themis: the goddess of justice. Skinner was grandson by his mother to Sir E. Coke;—hence, as pointed out by Mr. Keightley, Milton's allusion to the bench.

what the Swede intends, and what the French: Sweden was then at war with Poland, and France with the Spanish Netherlands.

Poem 79.

Sydneian showers: either in allusion to the conversations in the "Arcadia," or to Sidney himself as a model of "gentleness" in spirit and demeanour.

Poem 84.

Elizabeth of Bohemia: Daughter to James I., and ancestor to Sophia of Hanover. These lines are a fine specimen of gallant and courtly compliment.

Poem 85.

Lady M. Ley was daughter to Sir J. Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough, who died March, 1628-9, coincidently with the dissolution of the third Parliament of Charles's reign. Hence Milton poetically compares his death to that of the Orator Isocrates of Athens, after Philip's victory in 328 B.C.

Poems 92, 93.

These are quite a Painter's poems.

Poem 99.

From Prison: to which his active support of Charles I. twice brought the high-spirited writer.

Poem 105.

Inserted in Book II. as written in the character of a Soldier of Fortune in the Seventeenth Century.

Poem 106.

Waly waly: an exclamation of sorrow, the root and the pronunciation of which are preserved in the word caterwaul. Brae: hillside; burn: brook; busk: adorn. Saint Anton's Well: at the foot of Arthur's Seat by Edinburgh. Cramasie: crimson.

Poem 107.

burd: maiden.

Poem 108.

corbies: crows; fail: turf; hause: neck; theek: thatch.

If not in their origin, in their present form this and the two preceding poems appear due to the Seventeenth Century, and have therefore been placed in Book II.

Poem 111.

The remark quoted in the note to No. 47 applies equally to these truly wonderful verses, which, like "Lycidas," may be regarded as a test of any reader's insight into the most poetical aspects of Poetry. The general differences between them are vast: but in imaginative intensity Marvell and Shelley are closely related. This poem is printed as a translation in Marvell's works: but the original Latin is obviously his own. The most striking verses in it, here quoted as the book is rare, answer more or less to stanzas 2 and 6:

Alma Quies, teneo te! et te, germana Quietis, Simplicitas! vos ergo diu per templa, per urbes Quaesivi, regum perque alta palatia, frustra: Sed vos hortorum per opaca silentia, longe Celarunt plantae virides, et concolor umbra.

Poems 112&113.

L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. It is a striking proof of Milton's astonishing power, that these, the earliest pure Descriptive Lyrics in our language, should still remain the best in a style which so many great poets have since attempted. The Bright and the Thoughtful aspects of Nature are their subjects: but each is preceded by a mythological introduction in a mixed Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius.

112: Perverse ingenuity has conjectured that for Cerberus we should read Erebus, who in the Mythology is brother at once and husband of Night. But the issue of this union is not Sadness, but Day and Aether:—completing the circle of primary creation, as the parents are both children of Chaos, the first-begotten of all things. (Hesiod.)

the mountain nymph: compare Wordsworth's Sonnet, No. 210.

The clouds in thousand liveries dight: is in apposition to the preceding, by a grammatical license not uncommon with Milton.

tells his tale: counts his flock; Cynosure: the Pole Star; Corydon, Thyrsis, etc.: Shepherd names from the old Idylls; Jonson's learned sock: the gaiety of our age would find little pleasure in his elaborate comedies; Lydian airs: a light and festive style of ancient music.

113: bestead: avail.

starr'd Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and thence translated amongst the constellations.

Cynthia: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient representations.

Hermes: called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist school; Thebes, etc.: subjects of Athenian Tragedy; Buskin'd: tragic; Musaeus: a poet in Mythology.

him that left half told: Chaucer, in his incomplete "Squire's Tale."

great bards: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, are here intended.

frounced: curled; The Attic Boy: Cephalus.

Poem 114.

Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of Charles I.

But apples, etc.: A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole.

Poem 115.

concent: harmony.

Poem 123.

The Bard.: This Ode is founded on a fable that Edward I., after conquering Wales, put the native Poets to death. After lamenting his comrades (st. 2, 3) the Bard prophesies the fate of Edward II. and the conquests of Edward III. (4); his death and that of the Black Prince (5): of Richard II, with the wars of York and Lancaster, the murder of Henry VI. (the meek usurper), and of Edward V. and his brother (6). He turns to the glory and prosperity following the accession of the Tudors (7), through Elizabeth's reign (8): and concludes with a vision of the poetry of Shakespeare and Milton.

Glo'ster: Gilbert de Clare, son-in-law to Edward; Mortimer: one of the Lords Marchers of Wales.

Arvon: the shores of Carnarvonshire opposite Anglesey.

She-wolf: Isabel of France, adulterous Queen of Edward II.; Towers of Julius: the Tower of London, built in part, according to tradition, by Julius Caesar.

bristled boar: the badge of Richard III.

Half of thy heart: Queen Eleanor died soon after the conquest of Wales.

Arthur: Henry VII. named his eldest son thus, in deference to British feeling and legend.

Poem 125.

The Highlanders called the battle of Culloden, Drumossie.

Poem 126.

lilting: singing blithely; loaning: broad lane; bughts: pens; scorning: rallying; dowie: dreary; daffin' and gabbin': joking and chatting; leglin: milkpail; shearing: reaping; bandsters: sheaf-binders; lyart: grizzled; runkled: wrinkled; fleeching: coaxing; gloaming: twilight; bogle: ghost; dool: sorrow.

Poem 128.

The Editor has found no authoritative text of this poem, in his judgment superior to any other of its class in melody and pathos. Part is probably not later than the seventeenth century: in other stanzas a more modern hand, much resembling Scott's, is traceable. Logan's poem (127) exhibits a knowledge rather of the old legend than of the old verses.

Hecht: promised, the obsolete hight; mavis: thrush; ilka: every; lav'rock: lark; haughs: valley-meadows; twined: parted from; marrow: mate; syne then.

Poem 129.

The Royal George, of 108 guns, whilst undergoing a partial careening in Portsmouth Harbour, was overset about 10 A.M. Aug. 29, 1782. The total loss was believed to be near 1000 souls.

Poem 131.

A little masterpiece in a very difficult style: Catullus himself could hardly have bettered it. In grace, tenderness, simplicity, and humour it is worthy of the Ancients; and even more so, from the completeness and unity of the picture presented.

Poem 136.

Perhaps no writer who has given such strong proofs of the poetic nature has left less satisfactory poetry than Thomson. Yet he touched little which he did not beautify: and this song, with "Rule Britannia" and a few others, must make us regret that he did not more seriously apply himself to lyrical writing.

Poem 140.

Aeolian lyre: the Greeks ascribed the origin of their Lyrical Poetry to the colonies of Aeolis in Asia Minor.

Thracia's hills supposed a favourite resort of Mars.

Feather'd king the Eagle of Jupiter, admirably described by Pindar in a passage here imitated by Gray.

Idalia: in Cyprus, where Cytherea (Venus) was especially worshipped.

Hyperion: the Sun. St. 6-8 allude to the Poets of the Islands and Mainland of Greece, to those of Rome and of England.

Theban Eagle: Pindar.

Poem 141.

chaste-eyed Queen: Diana.

Poem 142.

Attic warbler: the nightingale.

Poem 144.

sleekit: sleek; bickering brattle: flittering flight; laith: loth; pattle: ploughstaff; whyles: at times; a daimen icker: a corn-ear now and then; thrave: shock; lave: rest; foggage: aftergrass; snell: biting; but hald: without dwelling-place; thole: bear; cranreuch: hoarfrost; thy lane: alone; a-gley: off the right line, awry.

Poem 147.

Perhaps the noblest stanzas in our language.

Poem 148.

stoure: dust-storm; braw: smart.

Poem 149.

scaith: hurt; tent: guard; steer: molest.

Poem 151.

drumlie: muddy; birk: birch.

Poem 152.

greet: cry; daurna: dare not.—There can hardly exist a poem more truly tragic in the highest sense than this: nor, except Sappho, has any Poetess known to the Editor equalled it in excellence.

Poem 153.

fou: merry with drink; coost: carried; unco skeigh: very proud; gart: forced; abeigh: aside; Ailsa craig: a rock in the Firth of Clyde; grat his een bleert: cried till his eyes were bleared; lowpin: leaping; linn: waterfall; sair: sore; smoor'd: smothered; crouse and canty: blythe and gay.

Poem 154.

Burns justly named this "one of the most beautiful songs in the Scots or any other language." One verse, interpolated by Beattie, is here omitted:—it contains two good lines, but is quite out of harmony with the original poem.

Bigonet: little cap, probably altered from beguinette; thraw: twist; caller: fresh.

Poem 155.

airts: quarters; row: roll; shaw: small wood in a hollow, spinney; knowes: knolls.

Poem 156.

jo: sweetheart; brent: smooth; pow: head.

Poem 157.

leal: faithful; fain: happy.

Poem 158.

Henry VI. founded Eton.

Poem 161.

The Editor knows no Sonnet more remarkable than this, which, with 162, records Cowper's gratitude to the Lady whose affectionate care for many years gave what sweetness he could enjoy to a life radically wretched. Petrarch's sonnets have a more ethereal grace and a more perfect finish; Shakespeare's more passion; Milton's stand supreme in stateliness, Wordsworth's in depth and delicacy. But Cowper's unites with an exquisiteness in the turn of thought which the ancients would have called Irony, an intensity of pathetic tenderness peculiar to his loving and ingenuous nature. There is much mannerism, much that is unimportant or of now exhausted interest in his poems: but where he is great, it is with that elementary greatness which rests on the most universal human feelings. Cowper is our highest master in simple pathos.

Poem 163.

fancied green: cherished garden.

Poem 164.

Nothing except his surname appears recoverable with regard to the author of this truly noble poem: It should be noted as exhibiting a rare excellence,—the climax of simple sublimity.

It is a lesson of high instructiveness to examine the essential qualities which give first-rate poetical rank to lyrics such as "To-morrow" or "Sally in our Alley," when compared with poems written (if the phrase may be allowed) in keys so different as the subtle sweetness of Shelley, the grandeur of Gray and Milton, or the delightful Pastoralism of the Elizabethan verse. Intelligent readers will gain hence a clear understanding of the vast imaginative, range of Poetry;—through what wide oscillations the mind and the taste of a nation may pass;—how many are the roads which Truth and Nature open to Excellence.

Poem 166.

stout Cortez: History requires here Balbóa: (A.T.) It may be noticed, that to find in Chapman's Homer the "pure serene" of the original, the reader must bring with him the imagination of the youthful poet;—he must be "a Greek himself," as Shelley finely said of Keats.

Poem 169.

The most tender and true of Byron's smaller poems.

Poem 170.

This poem, with 236, exemplifies the peculiar skill with which Scott employs proper names: nor is there a surer sign of high poetical genius.

Poem 191.

The Editor in this and in other instances has risked the addition (or the change) of a Title, that the aim of the verses following may be grasped more clearly and immediately.

Poem 198.

Nature's Eremite: refers to the fable of the Wandering Jew.—This beautiful sonnet was the last word of a poet deserving the title "marvellous boy" in a much higher sense than Chatterton. If the fulfilment may ever safely be prophesied from the promise, England appears to have lost in Keats one whose gifts in Poetry have rarely been surpassed. Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, had their lives been closed at twenty-five, would (so far as we know) have left poems of less excellence and hope than the youth who, from the petty school and the London surgery, passed at once to a place with them of "high collateral glory."

Poem 201.

It is impossible not to regret that Moore has written so little in this sweet and genuinely national style.

Poem 202.

A masterly example of Byron's command of strong thought and close reasoning in verse:—as the next is equally characteristic of Shelley's wayward intensity, and 204 of the dramatic power, the vital identification of the poet with other times and characters, in which Scott is second only to Shakespeare.

Poem 209.

Bonnivard, a Genevese, was imprisoned by the Duke of Savoy in Chillon on the lake of Geneva for his courageous defence of his country against the tyranny with which Piedmont threatened it during the first half of the seventeenth century. This noble Sonnet is worthy to stand near Milton's on the Vaudois massacre.

Poem 210.

Switzerland was usurped by the French under Napoleon in 1800: Venice in 1797 (211).

Poem 215.

This battle was fought Dec. 2, 1800, between the Austrians under Archduke John and the French under Moreau, in a forest near Munich. Hohen Linden means High Limetrees.

Poem 218.

After the capture of Madrid by Napoleon, Sir J. Moore retreated before Soult and Ney to Corunna, and was killed whilst covering the embarcation of his troops. His tomb, built by Ney, bears this inscription—"John Moore, leader of the English armies, slain in battle, 1809."

Poem 229.

The Mermaid was the club-house of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other choice spirits of that age.

Poem 230.

Maisie: Mary. Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a wild-wood music of the rarest quality. No moral is drawn, far less any conscious analysis of feeling attempted:—the pathetic meaning is left to be suggested by the mere presentiment of the situation. Inexperienced critics have often named this, which may be called the Homeric manner, superficial, from its apparent simple facility: but first-rate excellence in it (as shown here, in 196, 156, and 129) is in truth one of the least common triumphs of Poetry.—This style should be compared with what is not less perfect in its way, the searching out of inner feeling, the expression of hidden meanings, the revelation of the heart of Nature and of the Soul within the Soul,—the analytical method, in short,—most completely represented by Wordsworth and by Shelley.

Poem 234.

correi: covert on a hillside; Cumber: trouble.

Poem 235.

Two intermediate stanzas have been here omitted. They are very ingenious, but, of all poetical qualities, ingenuity is least in accordance with pathos.

Poem 243.

This poem has an exaltation and a glory, joined with an exquisiteness of expression, which place it in the highest rank amongst the many masterpieces of its illustrious Author.

Poem 252.

interlunar swoon: interval of the Moon's invisibility.

Poem 256.

Calpe: Gibraltar; Lofoden: the Maelstrom whirlpool off the N.-W. coast of Norway.

Poem 257.

This lovely poem refers here and there to a ballad by Hamilton on the subject better treated in 127 and 128.

Poem 268.

Arcturi: seemingly used for northern stars.

And wild roses, etc. Our language has no line modulated with more subtle sweetness. A good poet might have written And roses wild:—yet this slight change would disenchant the verse of its peculiar beauty.

Poem 270.

Ceres' daughter: Proserpine; God of Torment: Pluto.

Poem 271.

This impassioned address expresses Shelley's most rapt imaginations, and is the direct modern representative of the feeling which led the Greeks to the worship of Nature.

Poem 274.

The leading idea of this beautiful description of a day's landscape in Italy is expressed with an obscurity not unfrequent with its author. It appears to be,—On the voyage of life are many moments of pleasure, given by the sight of Nature, who has power to heal even the worldliness and the uncharity of man.

Amphitrite was daughter to Ocean.

Sun-girt City: It is difficult not to believe that the correct reading is Seagirt. Many of Shelley's poems appear to have been printed in England during his residence abroad: others were printed from his manuscripts after his death. Hence probably the text of no English Poet after 1660 contains so many errors. See the Note on No. 9.

Poem 275.

Maenad: a frenzied Nymph, attendant on Dionysus in the Greek mythology.

The sea-blooms, etc.: Plants under water sympathise with the seasons of the laud, and hence with the winds which affect them.

Poem 276.

Written soon after the death, by shipwreck, of Wordsworth's brother John. This Poem should be compared with Shelley's following it. Each is the most complete expression of the innermost spirit of his art given by these great Poets:—of that Idea which, as in the case of the true Painter (to quote the words of Reynolds), "subsists only in the mind: The sight never beheld it, nor has the hand expressed it; it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist, which he is always labouring to impart, and which he dies at last without imparting."

Poem 278.

Proteus represented the everlasting changes united with ever-recurrent sameness, of the Sea.

Poem 279.

the Royal Saint: Henry VI.

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Table of Contents

Dedication To Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate

Preface

First Book

Second Book

Third Book

Fourth Book

Palgrave's Notes