A COMPARISON.1

THE lapse of time and rivers is the same,
Both speed their journey with a restless stream:
The silent pace with which they steal away,
No wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay:
Alike irrevocable both when past,

And a wide ocean swallows both at last.
Though each resembles each in every part,

A difference strikes, at length, the musing heart:
Streams never flow in vain; where streams abound,
How laughs the land with various plenty crowned!
But time, that should enrich the nobler mind,2
Neglected, leaves a dreary waste behind.

Cowper.

THE MESSIAH.3

A SACRED ECLOGUE.

YE nymphs of Solyma! begin the song:
To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong.
The mossy fountains and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus, and the Aonian maids,
Delight no more— -O Thou my voice inspire,
Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!

(1) A similar thought is found in the piece entitled the "Thames" (see p. 9), but there it is merely suggested, here it is amply developed.

(2) Nobler mind-the soil of the mind, which is far nobler and more important than that of the land.

(3) "The idea of uniting the sacred prophecies and grand imagery of Isaiah with the mysterious visions and pomp of numbers in the Pollio of Virgil, thereby combining both sacred truth and heathen mythology, in predicting the coming of the Messiah, is one of the happiest subjects for producing emotions of sublimity that ever occurred to the mind of a poet."-Roscoe.

(4) Solyma-same as Salem, supposed to be the ancient name of Jerusalem. (5) Sublimer-i.e. than those required by common subjects. A comparative sometimes, in English as well as in Latin, has the force of an emphatic positive; "sublimer" therefore means, truly sublime.

(6) Mount Pindus, in Thessaly, and Aonia, a district of Boeotia, are celebrated as "haunts of the muses." This fanciful designation thus arises: the lovely scenery of many parts of Greece suggested beautiful conceptions to the minds of the poets, who, in their turn, personified the influences which thus affected themselves, and gave them the name of muses. Hence, the muses are said to inspire the poet-that is, to sing his song to him--while he merely wrote it down.

(7) O Thou, &c.-i. e. the classic muses of Greece are unequal to such a subject, and, therefore, do Thou, &c.

On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles,1 and the bulrush2 nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn,
The spiry fir and stately box adorn;

To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed,
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed.

The lambs with wolves shall grace the verdant mead,
And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead.*
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake;
Pleased, the green lustre of their scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.

Rise, crowned with light, Imperial Salem rise !7
Exalt thy towerys head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn;"
See future sons, and daughters, yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,10
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings,
And heaped with products of Sabæan" springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.

(1) Isaiah xxxv. 1, 7.

(2) Bulrush-The prefix bul, for bull, is augmentative-a bulrush is a large rush. "Horse" is used in the same manner, see note 3, page 76. It may be remarked that the Greeks employed the corresponding words, Bouc and πо, in a similar way; thus the epithet Bowπic, ox-eyed, applied by Homer to Juno and others, means, having large and beautiful eyes.

(4) Isaiah xi. 6, 7, 8.

(3) Isaiah xli. 19; lv. 13. (5) Isaiah lxv. 25. (6) Basilisk-from the Greek Baoiλiokoç, a little king-a serpent with a crest, which was fancifully thought like a crown. Some think the spectaclesnake of India is the species intended. A glance from the basilisk's eyes was vulgarly said to be fatal. (7) Isaiah lx. 1.

(8) Towery-may either mean literally fortified with towers, or figuratively, rising like a tower; lofty.

(9) Isaiah Ix. 4.

(10) Isaiah Ix. 3.

(11) Sabaan-Sabaa was a district of Arabia Felix, noted for its frankincense, myrrh, balsam, &c. It is supposed to be the Sheba of Scripture.

See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn ;
But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze,
O'erflow thy courts: the LIGHT HIMSELF shall shine
Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine!

The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fixed his word, his saving power remains;
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns!1

Pope.

SONNET;

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER.2

MUCH have I travelled 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-browed Homer ruled as his demesne:
Yet never did I 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.

(1) Isaiah li. 6; liv. 10.

(2) The pleased surprise of one, who, after exploring many fields of literature, discovered Homer, is here described with much felicity both of conception and phraseology-but Chapman after all is only a dim reflection of the noble features of the original.

THE MEMORY OF THE BRAVE.'
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 hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod3
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 grey,s
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
And dwell, a weeping hermit, there.

Collins.

HOHENLINDEN.7

ON Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

(1) Montgomery has said, perhaps with some degree of pardonable exaggeration, that these stanzas "are almost unrivalled in the association of poetry with picture, pathos with fancy, grandeur with simplicity, and romance with reality." See "Lectures on Poetry," p. 200.

(2) How sleep, &c.-" Not," says Montgomery, "how sweetly, soundly, happily; for all these are included in the simple apostrophe, How sleep the brave!"" (3) Sweeter sod--Why sweeter? Because of the moral interest associated with it, as the grave of those who died for their country.

(4) Fairy hands, forms unseen―These expressions, as well as the personifications of Honour and Freedom, refer to the influence which the memory of brave patriots diffuses over both the present and the future. The "fairy hands" and "forms unseen," are the feelings of gratitude, admiration, and pity, which affect the heart as mournful music does the ear.

(5) A pilgrim grey-A "pilgrim," because Honour comes from far-from other countries to visit the shrine; "grey,' ," because in distant years to come their memory shall still survive.

(6) Freedom, &c.-Freedom repairs thither-to weep alone ("a weeping hermit") because they are his children; "awhile" only, because he has other children still alive, and because time heals sorrow.

(7) Hohenlinden-A village of Germany, about twenty miles from Munich, where General Moreau completely defeated the combined army of Austrians and Bavarians, on the 3rd of December, 1800.

(8) Iser, or Isar-a tributary of the Danube.

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 stained 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.

YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND;2

A NAVAL ODE.

YE Mariners of England!

That guard our native seas;

Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,

The battle and the breeze!

(1) Hun-the Austrian force.

Campbell.

(2) This spirited lyric well deserves to take rank with "Rule Britannia" (see p. 190). The main blemish in both is the want of a specific recognition of Almighty power as the only source of our own.