Though absent, thine; and if a sigh will rise, And tears, unbidden, at the thought steal down, Sure hope will cheer thee, and the happy hour Of meeting soon all sorrow overpay.
NEAR SETUBAL, MARCH 22, 1796.
HAPPY the dwellers in this holy house; For surely never worldly thoughts intrude On this retreat, this sacred solitude, Where Quiet with Religion makes her home. And ye who tenant such a goodly scene, How should ye be but good, where all is fair, And where the mirror of the mind reflects Serenest beauty? O'er these mountain wilds The insatiate eye with ever-new delight Roams raptured, marking now where to the wind The tall tree bends its many-tinted boughs With soft, accordant sound; and now the sport Of joyous sea-birds o'er the tranquil deep, And now the long-extending stream of light Where the broad orb of day refulgent sinks Beneath old Ocean's line. To have no cares That cat the heart no wants that to the earth Chain the reluctant spirit, to be freed From forced communion with the selfish tribe Who worship Mammon,—yea, emancipate From this world's bondage, even while the soul Inhabits still its corruptible clay,— Almost, ye dwellers in this holy house, Almost I envy you. You never see Pale Misery's asking eye, nor roam about
Those huge and hateful haunts of crowded men, Where Wealth and Power have built their palaces, Fraud spreads his snares secure, man preys on man, Iniquity abounds, and rampant Vice,
With an infection worse than mortal, taints The herd of human-kind.
I too could love, Ye tenants of this sacred solitude, Here to abide, and when the sun rides high, Seek some sequestered dingle's coolest shade; And at the breezy hour, along the beach Stray with slow step, and gaze upon the deep, And while the breath of evening fann'd my brow, And the wild waves with their continuous sound Soothed my accustom'd ear, think thankfully That I had from the crowd withdrawn in time, And found a harbor Yet may yonder deep Suggest a less unprofitable thought, Monastic brethren. Would the mariner, Though storms may sometimes swell the mighty
And o'er the reeling bark with thundering crash Impel the mountainous surge, quit yonder deep, And rather float upon some tranquil sea, Whose moveless waters never feel the gale, In safe stagnation? Rouse thyself, my soul! No season this for self-deluding dreams;
It is thy spring-time; sow, if thou wouldst reap; Then, after honest labor, welcome rest, In full contentment not to be enjoy'd Unless when duly earn'd. Oh, happy then To know that we have walked among mankind More sinn'd against than sinning! Happy then To muse on many a sorrow overpast, And think the business of the day is done, And as the evening of our lives shall close, The peaceful evening, with a Christian's hope Expect the dawn of everlasting day. Lisbon, 1796.
ON MY OWN MINIATURE PICTURE,
TAKEN AT TWO YEARS OF AGE.
AND I was once like this! that glowing cheek Was mine, those pleasure-sparkling eyes; that brow Smooth as the level lake, when not a breeze Dies o'er the sleeping surface!-twenty years Have wrought strange alteration! Of the friends Who once so dearly prized this miniature, And loved it for its likeness, some are gone To their last home; and some, estranged in heart, Beholding me, with quick-averted glance Pass on the other side. But still these hues Remain unalter'd, and these features wear The look of Infancy and Innocence.
I search myself in vain, and find no trace Of what I was: those lightly-arching lines Dark and o'erchanging now; and that sweet face Settled in these strong lineaments! - There were Who form'd high hopes and flattering ones of thee, Young Robert! for thine eye was quick to speak Each opening feeling: should they not have known, If the rich rainbow on a morning cloud Reflects its radiant dyes, the husbandman Beholds the ominous glory, and foresees Impending storms! They argued happily, That thou didst love each wild and wondrous tale Of faery fiction, and thine infant tongue Lisp'd with delight the godlike deeds of Greece And rising Rome; therefore they deem'd, forsooth, That thou shouldst tread Preferment's pleasant path. Ill-judging ones! they let thy little feet Stray in the pleasant paths of Poesy, And when thou shouldst have press'd amid the There didst thou love to linger out the day, Loitering beneath the laurel's barren shade. SPIRIT OF SPENSER! was the wanderer wrong? Bristol, 1796.
ON THE DEATH OF A FAVORITE OLD SPANIEL.
AND they have drown'd thee, then, at last! poor Phillis!
The burden of old age was heavy on thee,
And yet thou shouldst have lived! What though | And tread in fancy once again the road,
Was dim, and watch'd no more with eager joy The wonted call that on thy dull sense sunk With fruitless repetition? The warm Sun Might still have cheer'd thy slumbers; thou didst love
To lick the hand that fed thee, and though past Youth's active season, even Life itself Was comfort. Poor old friend, how earnestly Would I have pleaded for thee! thou hadst been Still the companion of my boyish sports; And as I roam'd o'er Avon's woody cliffs, From many a day-dream has thy short, quick bark Recall'd my wandering soul. I have beguiled Often the melancholy hours at school, Sour'd by some little tyrant, with the thought Of distant home, and I remember'd then Thy faithful fondness; for not mean the joy, Returning at the happy holidays,
I felt from thy dumb welcome. Pensively Sometimes have I remark'd thy slow decay, Feeling myself changed too, and musing much On many a sad vicissitude of Life.
Ah, poor companion! when thou followedst last Thy master's parting footsteps to the gate Which closed forever on him, thou didst lose Thy truest friend, and none was left to plead For the old age of brute fidelity.
But fare thee well! Mine is no narrow creed; And He who gave thee being did not frame The mystery of life to be the sport Of merciless Man. There is another world For all that live and move -a better one!
Where the proud bipeds, who would fain confine INFINITE GOODNESS to the little bounds Of their own charity, may envy thee.
Nor less delighted do I call to mind, Land of Romance, thy wild and lovely scenes, Than I beheld them first. Pleased I retrace With memory's eye the placid Minho's course, And catch its winding waters gleaming bright Amid the broken distance. I review Leon's wide wastes, and heights precipitous, Seen with a pleasure not unmix'd with dread, As the sagacious mules along the brink Wound patiently and slow their way secure; And rude Galicia's hovels, and huge rocks And mountains, where, when all beside was dim, Dark and broad-headed the tall pines erect Rose on the farthest eminence distinct, Cresting the evening sky.
Rain now falls thick, And damp and heavy is the unwholesome air; I by this friendly hearth remember Spain,
Where twelve months since I held my way, and
Of England, and of all my heart held dear, And wish'd this day were come.
The morning mist, Well I remember, hovered o'er the heath, When with the earliest dawn of day we left The solitary Venta.* Soon the Sun Rose in his glory; scatter'd by the breeze The thin fog roll'd away, and now emerged We saw where Oropesa's castled hill Tower'd dark, and dimly seen; and now we pass'd Torvalva's quiet huts, and on our way Paused frequently, look'd back, and gazed around; Then journey'd on, yet turn'd and gazed again, So lovely was the scene. That ducal pile Of the Toledos now with all its towers Shone in the sunlight. Half way up the hill, Embower'd in olives, like the abode of Peace, Lay Lagartina; and the cool, fresh gale, Bending the young corn on the gradual slope, Play'd o'er its varying verdure. I beheld A convent near, and could almost have thought The dwellers there must needs be holy men, For as they look'd around them, all they saw Was good.
But when the purple eve came on, How did the lovely landscape fill my heart! Trees scatter'd among peering rocks adorn'd The near ascent; the vale was overspread With ilex in its wintry foliage gay,
Old cork-trees through their soft and swelling
Bursting, and glaucous olives, underneath Whose fertilizing influence the green herb Grows greener, and with heavier ears enrich'd The healthful harvest bends. Pellucid streams Through many a vocal channel from the hills Wound through the valley their melodious way; And o'er the intermediate woods descried, Naval-Moral's church tower announced to us Our resting-place that night, -a welcome mark; Though willingly we loiter'd to behold
In long expanse Plasencia's fertile plain, And the high mountain range which bounded it, Now losing fast the roseate hue that eve Shed o'er its summit and its snowy breast; For eve was closing now. Faint and more faint The murmurs of the goatherd's scattered flock Were borne upon the air, and sailing slow
The broad-wing'd stork sought on the church tower
His consecrated nest. O lovely scenes! I gazed upon you with intense delight, And yet with thoughts that weigh the spirit down. I was a stranger in a foreign land,
And knowing that these eyes should never more Behold that glorious prospect, Earth itself Appear'd the place of pilgrimage it is.
Bristol, January 15, 1797.
WRITTEN FROM LONDON. 1798.
Like my old friend the Pilgrim, this huge pack So heavy on my shoulders, I and mine Right pleasantly will end our pilgrimage. If not, if I should never get beyond
This Vanity-town, there is another world Where friends will meet. And often, Margaret, I gaze at night into the boundless sky,
MARGARET! my Cousin, -nay, you must not smile, And think that I shall there be born again,
I love the homely and familiar phrase:
And I will call thee Cousin Margaret, However quaint amid the measured line The good old term appears. Oh! it looks ill When delicate tongues disclaim old terms of kin, Sir-ing and Madam-ing as civilly
As if the road between the heart and lips Were such a weary and Laplandish way, That the poor travellers came to the red gates Half frozen. Trust me, Cousin Margaret, For many a day my memory hath play'd The creditor with me on your account,
And made me shame to think that I should owe So long the debt of kindness. But in truth, Like Christian on his pilgrimage, I bear So heavy a pack of business, that albeit
I toil on mainly, in our twelve hours' race Time leaves me distanced. Loath indeed were I That for a moment you should lay to me Unkind neglect; mine, Margaret, is a heart That smokes not; yet methinks there should be some Who know its genuine warmth. I am not one Who can play off my smiles and courtesies To every Lady of her lap-dog tired
Who wants a plaything; I am no sworn friend Of half-an-hour, as apt to leave as love; Mine are no mushroom feelings, which spring up At once without a seed, and take no root, Wiseliest distrusted. In a narrow sphere, The little circle of domestic life,
I would be known and loved: the world beyond Is not for me. But, Margaret, sure I think That you should know me well; for you and I Grew up together, and when we look back Upon old times, our recollections paint The same familiar faces. Did I wield The wand of Merlin's magic, I would make Brave witchcraft. We would have a faery ship, Ay, a new Ark, as in that other flood Which swept the sons of Anak from the earth; The Sylphs should waft us to some goodly isle Like that where whilom old Apollidon, Retiring wisely from the troublous world, Built up his blameless spell; and I would bid The Sea-Nymphs pile around their coral bowers, That we might stand upon the beach, and mark The far-off breakers shower their silver spray, And hear the eternal roar, whose pleasant sound Told us that never mariner should reach Our quiet coast. In such a blessed isle We might renew the days of infancy, And life, like a long childhood, pass away, Without one care. It may be, Margaret, That I shall yet be gather'd to my friends; For I am not of those who live estranged Of choice, till at the last they join their race In the family vault. If so, if I should lose,
The exalted native of some better star; And, like the untaught American, I look
To find in Heaven the things I loved on earth.
NAY, William, nay, not so! the changeful year, In all its due successions, to my sight Presents but varied beauties, transient all, All in their season good. These fading leaves, That with their rich variety of hues Make yonder forest in the slanting sun So beautiful, in you awake the thought Of winter, cold, drear winter, when the trees Each like a fleshless skeleton shall stretch Its bare, brown boughs; when not a flower shall spread
Its colors to the day, and not a bird Carol its joyance, but all nature wear One sullen aspect, bleak and desolate, To eye, ear, feeling, comfortless alike. To me their many-color'd beauties speak Of times of merriment and festival, The year's best holiday: I call to mind The school-boy days, when in the falling leaves I saw with eager hope the pleasant sign Of coming Christmas; when at morn I took My wooden calendar, and counting up Once more its often-told account, smoothed off Each day with more delight the daily notch. To you the beauties of the autumnal year Make mournful emblems, and you think of man Doom'd to the grave's long winter, spirit-broken, Bending beneath the burden of his years, Sense-dull'd and fretful, "full of aches and pains," Yet clinging still to life. To me they show The calm decay of nature when the mind Retains its strength, and in the languid eye Religion's holy hopes kindle a joy
That makes old age look lovely. All to you Is dark and cheerless; you in this fair world See some destroying principle abroad, Air, earth, and water full of living things, Each on the other preying; and the ways Of man, a strange, perplexing labyrinth, Where crimes and miseries, each producing each, Render life loathsome, and destroy the hope That should in death bring comfort. Oh, my friend, That thy faith were as mine! that thou couldst see Death still producing life, and evil still Working its own destruction; couldst behold The strifes and troubles of this troubled world With the strong eye that sees the promised day
HARK-how the church-bells, with redoubling Sate a calm anger. Go, young man, she cried,
There was one who died In that day's glory, whose obscurer name No proud historian's page will chronicle. Peace to his honest soul! I read his name, 'Twas in the list of slaughter, and thank'd God The sound was not familiar to mine ear. But it was told me after, that this man Was one whom lawful violence had forced From his own home, and wife, and little ones, Who by his labor lived; that he was one Whose uncorrupted heart could keenly feel A husband's love, a father's anxiousness; That from the wages of his toil he fed The distant dear ones, and would talk of them At midnight when he trod the silent deck With him he valued, — talk of them, of joys Which he had known,- oh God! and of the hour When they should meet again, till his full heart, His manly heart, at times would overflow, Even like a child's, with very tenderness. Peace to his honest spirit! suddenly It came, and merciful the ball of death, That it came suddenly and shatter'd him, Nor left a moment's agonizing thought On those he loved so well.
He ocean-deep Now lies at rest. Be Thou her comforter, Who art the widow's friend! Man does not know What a cold sickness made her blood run back When first she heard the tidings of the fight! Man does not know with what a dreadful hope She listened to the names of those who died; Man does not know, or knowing will not heed, With what an agony of tenderness She gazed upon her children, and beheld His image who was gone. O God! be Thou, Who art the widow's friend, her comforter !
Sigh among myrtle bowers, and let thy soul Effuse itself in strains so sorrowful sweet, That love-sick Maids may weep upon thy page, Soothed with delicious sorrow. Oh shame! shame! Was it for this I waken'd thy young mind? Was it for this I made thy swelling heart Throb at the deeds of Greece, and thy boy's eye So kindle when that glorious Spartan died? Boy! boy! deceive me not! — What if the tale Of murder'd millions strike a chilling pang; What if Tiberius in his island stews, And Philip at his beads, alike inspire Strong anger and contempt; hast thou not risen With nobler feelings, — with a deeper love For freedom? Yes; if righteously thy soul Loathes the black history of human crimes And human misery, let that spirit fill Thy song, and it shall teach thee, boy! to raise Strains such as Cato might have deign'd to hear, As Sidney in his hall of bliss may love. Westbury, 1798.
No withering curse hath dried my spirit up, That I should now be silent,- that my soul Should from the stirring inspiration shrink, Now when it shakes her, and withhold her voice,
These were the words in his speech: "Let there be no inscription upon my tomb. Let no man write my epitaph. No man can write my epitaph. I am here ready to die. I am not allowed to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare to calumLet my character and my motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice. Then shall my character be vindicated; then may my epitaph be written. I HAVE DONE."
Of that divinest impulse never more Worthy, if impious I withheld it now,
That takes away the sting of death, to die, By all the good and all the wise forgiven!
Hardening my heart. Here, here in this free Isle, Yea, in all ages by the wise and good
To which in thy young virtue's erring zeal Thou wert so perilous an enemy,
Here in free England shall an English hand Build thy imperishable monument;
Oh, to thine own misfortune and to ours, By thine own deadly error so beguiled,
Here in free England shall an English voice
Raise up thy mourning-song. For thou hast paid The bitter penalty of that misdeed; Justice hath done her unrelenting part, If she in truth be Justice who drives on, Bloody and blind, the chariot wheels of death.
So young, so glowing for the general good, Oh, what a lovely manhood had been thine, When all the violent workings of thy youth
To be remember'd. mourn'd, and honor 'd still.
THANKSGIVING FOR VICTORY.
[Written for Music, and composed by Shield.] GLORY to thee in thine omnipotence,
O Lord, who art our shield and our defence, And dost dispense,
As seemeth best to thine unerring will, (Which passeth mortal sense,)
The lot of Victory still;
Had passed away, hadst thou been wisely spared, Edging sometimes with might the sword unjust; Left to the slow and certain influences
Of silent feeling and maturing thought!
How had that heart, - that noble heart of thine, Which even now had snapp'd one spell, which beat With such brave indignation at the shame And guilt of France, and of her miscreant Lord, — How had it clung to England! With what love, What pure and perfect love, return'd to her, Now worthy of thy love, the champion now For freedom, yea, the only champion now, And soon to be the Avenger. But the blow Hath fallen, the indiscriminating blow, That for its portion to the Grave consign'd Youth, Genius, generous Virtue. Oh, grief, grief! Oh, sorrow and reproach! Have ye to learn, Deaf to the past, and to the future blind, Ye who thus irremissibly exact The forfeit life, how lightly life is staked, When in distempered times the feverish mind To strong delusion yields? Have ye to learn With what a deep and spirit-stirring voice Pity doth call Revenge? Have ye no hearts To feel and understand how Mercy tames The rebel nature, madden'd by old wrongs, And binds it in the gentle bands of love, When steel and adamant were weak to hold That Samson-strength subdued!
Let no man write Thy epitaph! Emmet, nay; thou shalt not go Without thy funeral strain! Oh, young, and good, And wise, though erring here, thou shalt not go Unhonor'd nor unsung. And better thus Beneath that indiscriminating stroke, Better to fall, than to have lived to mourn, As sure thou wouldst, in misery and remorse, Thine own disastrous triumph; to have seen, If the Almighty at that awful hour
Had turn'd away his face, wild Ignorance Let loose, and frantic Vengeance, and dark Zeal, And all bad passions tyrannous, and the fires Of Persecution once again ablaze. How had it sunk into thy soul to see, Last curse of all, the ruffian slaves of France In thy dear native country lording it! How happier thus, in that heroic mood
And bowing to the dust
The rightful cause, that so such seeming ill May thine appointed purposes fulfil; Sometimes, as in this late auspicious hour For which our hymns we raise, Making the wicked feel thy present power; Glory to thee and praise,
Almighty God, by whom our strength was given! Glory to thee, O Lord of Earth and Heaven! Keswick, 1815.
WRITTEN IN LADY LONSDALE'S ALBUM, AT LOWTHER CASTLE, OCTOBER 13, 1821.
SOMETIMES, in youthful years,
When in some ancient ruin I have stood, Alone and musing, till with quiet tears I felt my cheeks bedew'd, A melancholy thought hath made me grieve For this our age, and humbled me in mind, That it should pass away and leave No monuments behind.
Not for themselves alone
Our fathers lived; nor with a niggard hand Raised they the fabrics of enduring stone,
Which yet adorn the land; Their piles, memorials of the mighty dead, Survive them still, majestic in decay;
But ours are like ourselves, I said, The creatures of a day.
With other feelings now, Lowther! have I beheld thy stately walls, Thy pinnacles, and broad, embattled brow, And hospitable halls.
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