%. o /*>>.%^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 u M 2.2 2.0 11= 1-4 ill 1.6 <^% "^ > /.^ y ^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. 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SThis item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 25X 30X 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: Harold Campbell Vaughan Memorial Library Acadia University L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la gdndrositd de: Harold Campbell Vaughan Memorial Library Acadia University The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. 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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmds en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le aocument est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 5 6 1 A GARLAND OF SONNETS . ^•v? UL*t A GARLAND OF SONNETS BY CRAVEN LANGSTROTH BETTS In Praise of the Poets INGOMAR—Of what use are garlands? PARTHENIA— Their use is to be fair. Imprinted for and Published by M. F. MANSFIELD AND A. WESSELS, at 1135 Broadway, New York ANNO DOMINI, MDCCCXCIX. CS ..>^^S^ ' ^^'^'■'^^^.^ ft' Copyright, 1899, by M. P. Mansfield and A. Wessels New York ft PS -^So-i 1899, by Wessela !w York CONTENTS HOMER i SCHILLER . xviii CHAUCER ii GOETHE xix TASSO iii BERANGER XX SPENSER . iv HUGO . xxi MARLOWE V TENNYSON xxii SHAKESPERE vi BROWNING xxiii MILTON vii ARNOLD xxiv DRYDEN . viii BAYARD TAYLOR XXV POPE . ix EMERSON . xxvi BURNS X LONGFELLOW xxvii SCOTT xi LOWELL . . xxviii BYRON xii WHITTIER xxix KEATS xiii WHITMAN XXX SHELLEY . xiv MORRIS xxxi COLERIDGE XV KIPLING . xxxii WORDSWORTH xvi MISTRAL . xxxiii HOOD . . . . xvii L'ENVOI \ ■ \ I <2^5'73 / I To TITUS mUNSON COAN True poet fine critic, and genial friend. \ /l^ \ ! A a. 'A I I i FOREWORD Child of Petrarch and the lyric muse, thou wert born in the days of Chivalry and Romance, and all thy earliest youth was touched by Love. Angelo, the immortal, found for thee a deeper note, and the magnificent Lorenzo gave thee added grace. Next, those twins of English rhyme, Surrey and Wyatt, rescued thee from the neglect of Fame, and nourished thee on English ground. "The gentle Spenser loved thee," and the high-born Sydney was thy servitor. But thy crowning glory was to be the guest of Shakespere, the Prince of Song. He took from thee thy Italian mantle and decked thee in his own royal robes. No man shall henceforth do thee ampler honor. Under the hand of the mighty Milton thou obtained an organ tone — thy note of Reverence and Prayer. But the degenerate children of English Song abjured thee or gave but grudging habitation, until Wordsworth, Priest of Nature, ushered thee into his calm and stately cloisters. There thy plastic soul took on fresh harmonies and delights ; new aspirations, fair hopes, sweet consolations and confidings. In thy turn thou becamest a teacher of men ; and henceforth thou must remain the favored heir of the English Muse. It behooves not to tell of all the illustrious masters who have t \ \ ( r t f 1 n U hi th th taken thee to their hearts. The Old World still loves thy ordered walk, and the New has opened wide its doors and enriched thee. To each hast thou spoken in a different key, for thy nature is variant as the flowers of mountain and field, of garden and forest. Of all the children of Song, I, dwelling in the strict bonds of rhyme, love thee best, for, if thou demandest much, thy favors are bountiful to them who worthily seek thee. But for them not of the true Brotherhood, wilt thou dig a pit- fall and cover the pretender and the careless wooer with shame. Therefore, O Sonnet, may my feet tread reverently in thy service, and in the name of these Masters be all this my cherishing of thee —so Shalt thou obtain the larger honor and I perchance a favor more sweet. For my offering I bespeak the good-will of all true votaries of the Muse, and of all others who worship and love her but have been holden from bringing gifts to her shrine. In their hands I leave thee, beloved Sonnet, my companion and the solace of my heart ! C L B m The thinks of the Author are due to the "Outlook" {New«^.» » w %r» 1 1 sz I L T O N lor thrice ten years the paladin's hand and brain [pheld thine altar, Freedom, o'er thy land ! [hen Heaven those later lustres did command, [hat orb of song that set without a stain, [hen rose in power perpetual, doth remain fnshorn of glory, destined to expand [upreme o'er Heaven and Hell, voicing the grand Iceans of knowledge, sacred and profane. (eside the laureled Tuscan doth he rest I'erlooking all the worlds, and on his brow 'he amaranth of God, the poet's vow, md the deep love for England in his breast. ), Sampson of our Israel, would that thou ''ert living still to strike for earth's oppressed ! I i I if 'iit il ^ D R Y D E N There sits he with the wits around his chair, Sipping his cordial or his cup of tea ; Fair primed with aphorisms choice or free, The " glorious John," who trimmed to every air ! The biggest brawn on the arena there. He shook the town with vauntings, then on knee Bartered his birthright for a huckster's fee, And thrust his muse aneath a lordling's care. Still he wrought valiant service ; none that day Might bide the baited gladiator's blows ; His ponderous truncheon crushed the foe at bay ; How grand to watch him on McFlecnoe close ! The drums resound, the trumpets loudly bray I As down the age that lordly galleon goes ! VIII :i« ^ POPE Behold the foe of Grub Street's rival schools, The Richard Crookback of the kings of rhyme, Forging firm couplets of heroic chime, And routing all his masters at their rules ! How full an arsenal of shining tools He brought to shape his fanciful sublime. Spurning each proud Mecaenas of the time, And shoving all th i dunces from their stools ! And you deny him greatness ? Would to-day Your acrobatic bards could fill his place ! His art and range were bounded ? Who can sway More forceful measures in a narrow space ? Yield him, O Fame, thy brightest three-leaved bay. Mind, manners, modes — the Horace of his race ! IX I? He Th BURNS He was my earliest, nearest, sweetest friend ! His songs starred all my firmament of dreams ; Through them I caught the first auroral gleams Of Her whose smile will haunt me to the end. There was my gold, the gold I might not spend ; There was my heaven, a heaven of earthly beams ; I heard that rapture flowing like the streams ; I heard the Loves their rhythmic voices blend. Ye banks of Ayr, how happy "should ye be Whereon the feet of your dear minstrel trod ! For even the sun, methinks, more tenderly Than other turf must kiss your lowly sod. O happy Scotland, earth doth envy thee Thy kingly ploughman, thy disguised God ! X SCOTT Those broad bright Marches, Ballad and Romance, Never were ruled by baron bold like thee ! No knight to Throne or Beauty bent the knee With more proud-souled devotion in his glance. All stately as the Lillies of Old France The banner of thy Fancy floated free. O'er damsels, gallants, clansmen, monkish glee. Pageants and courts, and tourney's crash of lance. It gathered brilliance from auroral skies ; It pictured Love, his dole and holiday ; Widely it blazed dread deeds of high emprise, Or flung forth wassail, feud, and gramarye ; Or caught the gleam and glint of targe and glaive, Andble^v to Border gales and v^atchedthe tartans v^ave! XI ' ■- ^fc*--- I BYRON O Fame, thy laurels graced a blighted pall ! 'Twas Death's and Fortune's pact with envious Time. The vine-wreathed Titan, clothed with power sublime. Almost accomplished Heaven ; defying all. He braved the levin and the thunder-brawl Scaling the cliffs of Song ; his rebel prime Pelion on Ossa planted ; then with rhyme Transcendent on his lips reeled down the wall. He fell, hard-fighting ; dire the clash and clang Earth heard through all her limits — then sleek jays Piped chattering funeral, and the charnel kites Fed on the warm, proud heart ; but wide outrang. Sweet Poesy, thy plaint along the ways, Nor, Time, shalt thou withhold him tribute rites 1 XII ; i L j '^ k J i^- KEATS Just as the earliest flowers began to blow, (He felt the daisies growing o'er his grave) His fevered heart found rest ; those grasses wave Unconscious o'er the form that sleeps below ; Yet there the •' rathe primroses " surely know, And tender violets (howsoever rave The rude winds o'er his slumber) that he gave Them human love in human hearts to grow. His " name was writ in water ? " still 'tis called By every dryad's ghost that mournful fleets! That name through earth and heaven hath been extolled; That name the Summer's requiem repeats ; But he, with charms of Faery deep enthralled, Hears no dull earth-tones echoing «* where is Keats ! '* XIII M I g 'IW^ H I L ■.! ' . >;u.l>*i4^:^. SHELLEY To shore the sea-nymphs buoyed their captive dead, Touched by a human grief; yes, there lay hand, Heart, lip, and brain of that august command. All — save the soul that Heaven to music wed. Clung curling yet the pale locks round the head ; Silent and prone upon the drifted sand. He clasped her still, his loved Italian land. The foster-mother to whose breast he fled. We raised him on the pyre — in one great shine The body reached the beckoning shade — 'twas meet. That which had given the flaming soul a shrine Should incorrupt as that bright soul retreat ; Yet, heart of proof, thy substance still divine, Lingering in earthly love, lay at our feet ! XIV I i Ui • "•filSSSS SB i COLERIDGE Thy mind and heart — the dome of Kubla Khan ! These twain were wed, like mountain joined to sea, In lofty, broad, cloud-merged sublimity, With toneo that awe yet soothe the soul of man. From Earth to Heaven thy circling vision ran, Yet, free in thought, thyself thou could' st not free ; The Knight of Poesy, enchained in thee. Slept on his arms and dreamed his daring plan. Yet Truth, divined in dreams, blooms best in Art ; One dream, O mystic, blown within thy mind. Thy Mariner's tale, of Love's own life a part, This fadeless bay- wreath doth thy temples bind ; This magic banner floats to every wind — One cross of service blazoned on thy heart ! XV I' ■•^ I WORDSWORTH The presences of woods informed his soul ; His Muse was taught of winds and murmuring streams; Across his vision broke Love's rarest gleams, And English faith held o'er him proud control. He was Truth's eremite with beechen bowl ; The wayside life and legend shaped his themes, Borne softly through his mountain realm of dreams. But round those heights rang Freedom's trumpet-roll. Prophet and priest and bard— the humble throng He loved and voiced, from the great Mother drew His litanies and choruses ; the blue Of Heaven and green of Earth illumed his song. The Joshua, he, of Israel's chosen few. And of his peers the Godfrey chaste and strong. XVI H fi ! M I ! HOOD There, midst his children's noisy, prattling play, Hard by the dusty city's iron clang, Like Theseus shod with wings, from earth he sprang And soared untrammeled through the azure day. That plumed Fancy oared its joyous way O'er magic oceans where the mermaids sang ; Then veered once more whc: e human voices rang Of Love, Want, Crime, and Boyhood's happy day. Alas, again the pack-horbe of the Press, He folded close his pinions' glistering pride. And to the mill of jesting Rhyme was tied. To strain his heart-strings in that vile duress ; Yet still the ignoble task he glorified — Through that sad mirth still flashed his loveliness ! XVII ' I 1 B A F( -i^^m a \ r SCHILLER Both lyric wreath and Thespian crown were thine, And thine the Germans' pledge from mount to sea; For thy first thought, to make the people free, Was for those hungering souls Love's corn and wine. The hapless Mary's hope illumes thy line. While Wallenstein's dark form abides with me Since, when a lad, I laid upon my knee Thy heart, all throbbing through its leathern shrine. The nations' tocsin thine ! Thy Bell is heard On distant shores scarce known to thee by name ; The deathless cadence of Tell's dauntless word. Hath wed the Switzer's Fatherland to fame ; While Swabian youths, by thy bold measures stirred, Their proud old Eberhard's liberties proclaim ! XVIII I I 1 in i GOETHE The great Age crowns thee— then no chaplet may Enrich thy brow, much less this wreath I twine, O Liberator Soul ! Thou dost define And hold life's secrets in wise-guarded sway; And yet thy art looms amplest, and thy lay Pours forth enlightening flame ; and as the Rhine Ripples to sea, thy human-pulsing line Speeds world round, broadening its imperial way. Goetz, Wilhelm Meister, Faust— no haughtier themes By wizard genius e'er conceived or penned ! These will not cease •• to feed our lake of dreams," Nor will churl Time outbrave them at the end. Thought — Love— inwoven thus thy laurel gleams ; Poet and Seer — yea, wisest, truest Friend ! XIX T I V ii 1 ^, &■ '\^ %, ^^1%%^..% yi ^ /a ^l y //a IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 !ri- IIM ^ S r III 2.2 I.I lis IF iU a,^. ^ ■tt u u 2.0 1.8 1.25 U ill 1.6 & i^:'' V' P t HUGO Though banished, Prospero, to thy mid-sea isle, Power thou retaind'st most ample ; thou could'st call Thy choiring Ariel, or sea-monsters haul From sounding caves by magic's strenuous wile. Or storms unchain, or make the ocean smile, Holding the hearts and minds of men in thrall ; Yet Jeanne, Miranda, dearer far than all Thy art, could aye thy darkest hour beguile. Beyond the surge thy natal dukedom lay, Dominion of brave hearts ; thy dreaming eye Watched with paternal longing day by day, Its outline, where pale shadows rise and die, 'Till fell the usurper ; then resumed thy sway, And freed thy passionate slaves of sea and sky. XXI. ■ 1 i i; I TENNYSON Thy fame stands wide as England's ! If I lay One song-wreath at thy feet, 'tis not to grace So much thy triumphs, or thy high-throned place Amongst the minstrels of the modern day. As to confess thy erstwhile sovereign sway O'er my affections ; thine was once a space Near Shakespere ; if thy lushness cloy apace. Thy charm may change but cannot pass away. Thou art our own King Arthur — I, a knight Unscutcheoned, speeding for the lists of fame ; Content to win, when proved, some slight acclaim From lips like thine ; unwilling most to fail In service and in vigil ; armor bright Besumeth him who quests the Holy Grail. XXII. 1^ 1 ! li (V \ BROWNING The tangled currents of the rhythmic seas Stream through thy song with many a swirl and sweep ; With storm and cloud and sunshine o'er the deep, And bright waves lapping to the variant breeze. Thou hast conned secrets 'tween Jove's mighty knees, And kenned the vision of life's toiling steep, And heard the strong men groan, the women weep, And drank earth's gloom and glory to the lees. What though thy careless hand hath jarred the strings. Thy harp still rings to Thought and Beauty true ; Though from Italian earth thy phoenix springs, Her gaze strikes over to the English blue. 0, teacher, brave and wise, the proudest things Of Faith and Love, through fire have come from you ! XXIII. 5 ARNOLD The World denied thee gold — Heaven gave thee verse; A burst of morn on Learning's peaks of snow ! Under sweeps ever Emotion's tidal flow Where Love her luminous chalice doth immerse. Nature and Art, these twain, thy mother and nurse. Formed thee to live, through thy grand age to grow ; Sonorous, pure, their mingled clarions blow, Unchecked by Time or Change, above thy hearse. Sohrab and Rustem, Tristram, Marguerite* - The t-wain of Homer's large, authentic breed; The third, Love's Knight, faithful in word and deed ; The last, Love's perfect flower — a kindred sweet ! These for thy fame, O royal palmer, plead, And lay their chaplets blooming at thy feet ! XXIV. I \'-> ■t •< t I i ^ fr"! »ii 1 BAYARD TAYLOR Here find the poet's scrip, -his ready pen, The staff of service on his pilgrim round, Now laid aside ; for he in sleep is bound, No more to wander through the ways of men ; But ''hese his furnishings, ingathered when He traveled all Arcadia's laurelled ground. The cheer and nurture of his journey found. He hath bequeathed them to the world again. Herein note Love, his crust of daily bread, Romance, his flask of wine, and Reverie sweet. The rich-chased missal brought from Orient clime ; Here also Hope, his belt, and from his head His scallop-shell of Fancy; from his feet The rythmic sandals of his passion. Rhyme ! XXV. (1 fll AiiiHMiifaMteMiuUlKiiataAiditt *l^ /"( / L h^^S MillMiiiMiayiiikiiiMbMi EMERSON Voice of the deeps thou art ! But not the wild, Ungoverned mouthing of the wind-lashed waves ; Nor yet the dirge of billows over graves, But crooning, like a mother o'er her child. Through thee gross earth with heaven is reconciled, Thy songs, like anthems through cathedral naves Dispel confusing passion ; never raves The storm along thy cloisters undefiled. Light of the deeps thou art ! as forth I glide, From rock and whirlpool far, and tempest's roar, Sudden there looms an ever verdurous shore. Whose towers in the still wave stand glorified, Where thou, the Virgil, who hast been my guide, Lead'st me and leiv'st me rapt, at Heaven's door! XXVI. VLX ^1\ f !;l 1 1 I ' ^Bl! I i Ml .-'•^^N, ^t^J^ LONGFELLOW The New- World's sweetest singer! Time may lay Rude touch on some, thy betters, yet for thee. Thy seat is where the throned immortals be, The chaste affections answering to thy sway. As fair, as fresh as children of the May, Thy verse springs up from wood and sun-bathed lea. Yet oft the rhythmic cadence of the sea Rolls 'neath thy song and speeds its shining way. Thy borrowed robes, even, thou wear'st with grace ; Such grace our English buckram seldom yields ; Through thee the grave Italian takes his place Among us ; but across Acadian fields Who is it moves with rapt and pensive face ? Evangeline, his heart thy love reveals ! XXVII. ! i 'i i f / LOWELL Poet, who bore thy crown of seventy years As greenly as the chaplet of thy lays, Who from thy throne of thought o'erlooked the maze Of human life, high lifting midst thy peers Heaven-lighted minstrel brows, no envious shears Of fate may clip thy laurels, but the bays Fame will twine with them, grow through winter days. Sunned in our smiles and watered v^ith our tears. Not to the craftsman merely, nor the calm. Keen-sighted critic, nor the patriot stirred With passion, do our grateful hearts belong — But to the new Crusader with his palm And cross of valiant service, viewed and heard Through the long, vow-knit vigil of his song. XXVIII. 1 ,: W H I T T I E R Thy call was Freedom's loudest-'neath that blast (Down crashed the walls of Slavery's Jericho ! (Beware, ye proud, the fighting Quaker's blow, When once he strikes ye well may stand aghast ! ) Now all those storms are far forspent and past. Thy martial trumpet forth intuned to peace, While still to bring the courts of Heaven increase. Those olive blooms of song abroad were cast. O, strong and faithful watchman-may this state In memory long that lifted warning keep ! Thy strenuous voice hath given us bonds to fate ; We dread no harm while we thy blessing reap ; Old age, 'twas never thine-a warm, sedate, A mellow sunset brooded o'er thy sleep ! XXIX. I K If *«•*>«•* i^iMnM^i *c^ .-.«:?5>^ .^ WHITMAN In him, prophetic mind and cosmic heart With common human speech were rt conciled, Heed not the jargon tongue, the phrase defiled, The roughened hand, ignonng forms of art. Nay, from his breast what yearning sighs depart ! Hark how those vibrant tones grow pure and mild ! While with the boundless impulse of the Child His Earth-song rises and the echoes start. What sentient wind makes answer ? 'Tis thy breath Borne round these shores, O Queen Democracy ! Such of those souls who throned thee, kept thee free ; Of such their faith more potent far than death : Ay, not in vain ! whate'er the Preacher saith. The horn of Odin blows and men are free ! XXX. J' tf> Ill LI WKBaammmm' MORRIS Chaucer and Spenser, gather him to your heart, The burly Radical of dreamy rhyme ! And crown him with the Trouvere's bay sublime, That ne'er till now had graced the British mart ; For even to him the story-teller's art Came glamorous out of Fancy's buoyant clime. The mintage of that golden ore of time From the world's childhood ; for he voiced in part Your mid-sea swaying melodies, the breath Of pastoral lands, of flowery meads, and meres. And your pale, poignant picturing of death. And your dear, tender ruth for love in tears. No idle singer, he, whate'er he saith; His pilgrim torch relumes the shadowed years ! XXXI. '\ R I) KIPLING The East hath reared her Viking ! lo. he comes Laurelled with victory to the purpled West, Voicing the proud, vexed century's unrest. With fifes, harps, sackbuts, psalteries, and drums. His galley, pitched with rare and odorous gums, Floats far the Dragon o'er the billow's crest ; 'Neath bellying sail his round world keel is pressed ; The Empire trade-wind through its cordage hums. No vassal laureate he ! he wears the crown Of English hearts, the roses never sere ; The rooted loves that bloom in bold renown ; Those sheaves of promise ripening in the ear ; The pledge of birthright nations ! 'gainst the frown Of Fate herself, stands England's faith writ clear ! XXXII. ).J.. 1 t': .( '■ I ii 'i^i ^ I.. I i 1 i MISTRAL O fair Provence, thou land of corn and wine ! } Provence, thou sweet, sweet home of Love and Song! In arts, in arms, in princely feeling strong. Once more the dream of Poesy is thine ! Thine is the latest Troubadour whose line From Ronsard runs in honor ; of that throng King gleeman, who still wind their pipes along From towered Avignon to Camargue's blue brine. Mereio, of Death the dearest bride, Thy love and grief for aye, for aye are sung ! The Homer of his cherished vineyard side. His heart still tender, bountiful, and young, Swells bold with song, with more than Roman pride— The brave Horatius of his native tongue ! XXXIII. (7 ,M I a n w w In An An Ifi cAn Th Iki Con Wit \ I L 'ENVOI To Sha.ktspere. If I ha'be earned some fa'vour of good men. Or if my song hold aught of just or true. This happy fortune to thy grace is due. Who things unseen hast brought within my ken ; Who hast redeemed my shallom) courses %hen Iivould run glittering on the public vie^iu. And led'st me into quiet fields ane^. And turned' st me safe from many a noisome fen, I fly to thee ivhen ivounded, m>orn, and faint, cAnd thou upholdest me against thy knee ; Thy 'bolume is my rubric ; no attaint Dwells in its page, nor no absurd decree. Companion, guide, then friend— 'habile Love's acquaint With Life, thy %ords sustain me, make me free I L