w JOSEPH pU=iYN PCSB; LIMA Cz/ STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY 1 Poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation " BACON STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY WITH SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND NOTES as a &e*t-^0ok far % Pigjjw Classes in Skljools BY JOSEPH PAYNE EDITOR OF "SELECT POETRY FOR CHILDREN" SEVENTH EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED LONDON LOCKWOOD & CO., 7 STATIONERS'-HALL COURT LUDGATE HILL I8 74 LONDON : PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET PKEFACE. IN compiling "Select Poetry for Children," the Editor's aim was to assist in laying the foundation of a pure and just taste, by interesting the mind, at an early age, in poetry of a superior order high-toned, beautiful, simple, but not childish. The success which that little volume has met with induces him to believe that the object was, in some degree, appreciated. The present work is intended to supply materials, in the specimens themselves, for the higher cultivation of the youthful taste ; and by brief explanatory and critical annotations on particular passages, to develop their spirit and beauty, and to make the learning of poetry in schools what it has hitherto but rarely been a valuable auxiliary to the study of our mother tongue. Such a study as ip here indicated involves, however, not merely an acquaintance with the general meaning of words and their grammatical relations, but a nice investigation into their origin and history the vicissitudes they have undergone, and their present significance and power. In- quiries of this kind cannot, of course, be extensively pursued at school, but it is well to arouse the pupil to a sense of their importance, and thus prepare his mind for that sympathy with noble thoughts displayed in exquisite language, which is pro- ductive of some of our purest enjoyments. The more general diffusion, moreover, of good taste by means of early cultivation, would probably so elevate the public standard as to suppress entirely such offences as are now frequently committed against it. VI PREFACE. The work now offered to the candid consideration of parents and teachers is divided into two parts : the first consisting of miscellaneous poems and extracts ; the second, of poems and extracts from the highest class of English poets, chronologically arranged from Chaucer to Burns, showing the progress of the language, and accompanied by short biographical notices and remarks on the spirit and style of each author. The specimens given in the second part will be found ample and characteristic. Those from Chaucer and Spenser occupy nearly forty pages, and are printed in the original spelling, in order to give a genuine impression of their style. The appended notes will remove every difficulty arising from the obsoleteness of much of the diction. It is only necessary to add, that the extracts from the works of Campbell, Shelley, and Wordsworth, are inserted by the obliging permission of the proprietors of the respective copyrights. THE MANSION GRAMMAR SCHOOL, Lethfirhead, Surrey. JAN. 30TH, 1815. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. The present Edition has been carefully revised and corrected. A few pieces have been withdrawn, and others of a superior cha- racter substituted. J. P. DEC. 1858. INDEX, ADA.M and Eve in Paradise . Address to an Egyptian Mummy Address to the Sun, Satan's . Address to Winter . Advantages of a Cultivated Taste Alexander Selkirk's Soliloquy Alps at Daybreak, the Ancient Britain . . . Antony's Funeral Oration Athens Banquet, the, in Paradise Regained Milton Horace Smith Milton . Cowper . Akenside . Cowper . Rogers Cowper Shakspere . Milton . id. PAGF 335 19 330 455 418 68 22 208 278 350 345 429 276 192 O Bower of Bliss, the . . . Burial of Sir John Moore, the . . Spenser . Wolfe 262 90 73 Butterfly, the 265 Calendar of Flora, the . . . Calm Winter's Night, a . . Charlotte Smith . Shelley . 23 119 178 Cataract and the Streamlet, the Castle of Indolence, the . . . Barton . . Thomson . 103 391 164 Character of Shaf tesbury, the . Character of a Good Parson, the . . Dryden . id. 356 360 39 135 143 157 10 Comparison, a Conclusion of Paradise Lost Cottager, the . Cotter's Saturday Night, the Cruelty to Animals, against Crusade, the Cowper Milton , Cowper . Burns Cowper T. Warton 80 343 111 461 179 73 18 id. 118 Till INDEX. Death-bed, the Hood Death of an Infant . . . Mrs. Sigourney Death's Final Conquest . /* . . Shirley Dirge over Fidele's Tomb . . . Collins . Dover Cliffs Shakspere . Dying Boy, the Mrs. Sigourney Dying Gladiator, the .... Byron Dying Mother and her Babe, the . . Pollok Early Rising and Prayer . . . Vaughan . Elegy written in a Country Churchyard -~ Gray . Emigrants, the Marvell . End of all Earthly Glories . . . Shakspere . England, to Coleridge . English Rivers Milton . Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. . . . Cowper . Epitaphs : 1. On a Young Lady B. Jonson . 2. On the Countess of Pembroke . id. . 3. Intended for Sir Isaac Newton . Pope . 4. For the Tomb of Mr. Hamilton . Cowper . Evening in Paradise .... Milton . Eve of the Battle, the .... Byron . Excelsior Longfellow Exordium of Paradise Lost, the . . Milton . Faculties of Man, the .... Pope . Female Names Lamb Firmament, the Habington Flight of Xerxes MissJewsbury Flowers of the Field, the ... Keble Friend, to a Hartley Colerid e Friends . . . . . . . Montgomery Gathering, the ..... Chaucer "Ginevra . Rogers . Glory ....... Milton . Glory of God in Creation, the . . Addison . God's Watchful Care .... Cunningham God, the only Comforter ,. . . Moore God, the Source of Excellence . . Akenside . Good Counsail ..... Chaucer . Greece Byron Grongar Hill Dyer Happiness ...... Pope Happy Man, the Sir H. Wotton - Haunted House, the .... Hood Helvellyn Walter Scott Hermit, the Beattie Hohenlinden Campbell . Holy Scriptures, the .... Dryden Home Montgomery Homeric Hexameter exemplified . . Coleridge . Horologe of Flora, the . . . . . . Hour of Death, the .... Mrs. Hemans . Human Frailty . Hymn before Sunrise Hymn of the Seasons Hymn on the Nativity Hymn to Adversity Idea of a State, the INDEX. IX PAGE Cowper ... 56 Coleridge . . .149 Thomson . . . 387 Milton . . .294 "Gray . . . 422 Sir W. Jones . .164 II Penseroso Milton . . . 310 Imagination Shakspere . . . 288 Impediments to the attainment of Just Taste Pope . . .371 Inscriptions : 1. For the Entrance to a Wood . . Bryant . . . 127 2. For a Column at Truxillo . . Southey . . . 129 3. For a Column at Eunnimede . . Akenside . . . 129 4. For a Fountain on a Heath . . Coleridge . . . 130 5. For a Statue of Chaucer at Wood- stock Akenside . . . 130 6. For a Natural Grotto 131 7. For a Natural Spring T. Warton . . 131 Isaac Ashford Crabbe . . . 155 Ivry, the Battle of Macaulay . .116 Jerusalem before the Siege . . . Milman . . . 221 King's College Chapel, Cambridge . . Wordsworth . . 185 Knight, the Chaucer . . . 238 L'Allegro Milton . . .304 Lady with a Kose, to a . . . . Waller . . .115 Landscape, a Cowper . . . 452 Late Massacre in Piedmont, on the . Milton . . . 159 Lavinia Thomson ... 96 Life and Death Shakspere . . .276 -Lion Hunt, the Pringle ... 12 .Lodore. the Cataract of . . . . Southey . . .211 Lord Bacon Cowley . . . 131 Lucy . Wordsworth . . 109 -Lycfdas Milton . . .299 Lyrics from the Older Writers : 1. The Songs of Birds . . . Lyly . . .170 __ 2. The Fairy's Song .... Shakspere. . . 170 3. Winter id. ... 171 4. Ingratitude id. ... 171 5. The ReveillcS id. ... 172 6. Ariel's Song id. ... 172 7. Amiens' Song ..... id. ... 172 8. Hymn to Diana ..... Jonson . . .173 9. To Fancy, at Night ... id. . . . 173 10. To Blossoms Herrick . . . 174 11. To Daffodils id. ... 174 Man of Ross, the Pope . . .216 Man the Care of Angels .... Spense* . . . 262 Man's Ignorance Pope . . . 376 Man whose Thoughts are not of this World, the Young . . . 411 INDKX. P/OE March Cornelius Wtl.be . 119 Martyrs, the Cowper , . . 203 Masque of the Seasons .... Spenser . . . 264 May, to Wordsworth . . 225 May Morning Milton ... 95 Medal, the Pope . . .220 Memory of the Brave, to the . . . Collins ... 85 Memory of Thomson, to the . . . Burns . . . 154 Mercy Shakspere . . . 286 Messiah, the Pope ... 80 Metrical Feet Coleridge . . . 177 Millennium, the ..... Cowper ... . 457 Mitherless Bairn, the .... Thorn . . . 145 Monarch of Dulness, the . . . Drydxn, . . . 358 Moonlight Might, a ..... Southey . . . 181 Moral Beauty . ... . . . Akenside . . . 417 Moral Maxims, Epigrams, &c 228 Morning Hymn in Paradise . . . Milton . . . 338 Mother's Sacrifice, the .... Mrs. Siyourney . 88 Mountain Daisy, to a . . . . Hums ... 76 Mouse, to a id. ... 78 Music . . . . . . Shakspere . . . 287 Music on the Waters ..... ... 99 Nature the Basis of Art . . . . Pope . . .367 New Moon, the Bryant . . . 165 Night Montgomery , . 161 Nightingale, to the .... Drummond . . 223 Ocean, the ...... Byron ... 54 Otis on a distant Prospect of Eton Col- lege - Gray . . . 123 Ode on the Spring id. ... 70 Ode to Evening Collins ... 152 Ode to Fear id'. 397 Old Age Waller ... 90 Omnipresence of God, the . . . Moore ... 137 On the Poetical Character . . . Collins . . . 400 " On the Keceipt of my Mother's Pic- ture" Cowptr . . .. 120 One Friend upbraiding Another . . Shakspere . , . 286 Othello's Courtship .... id. ... 281 Ovidian Elegiac Metre exemplified . Coleridc/e . . . 178 Palace of Ice, the Coipper . . . 191 Pnndeinonium Milton . . . 324 Paradise id. ... 331 Passions, the Collins . . . 402 Past, to the Bryant . . . 195 Patriotism Walter Scott . . 213 Persone, the Chaucer . . . 241 Picture of a Village Life . . . Goldsmith . . . 446 Pleasure arising from Vicissitude, the . Gray . . . 204 Pleasures of Retirement, the . . . Drummoni . . 224 Poet, the . . .. . Cowper . . 227 INDEX. XI PAGE Poet, on his Blindness, the . . . Milton . . . 204 Poet's Plea, the id. ... 114 Poplars Cowper ... 35 Power of Steam, the . . . . Darwin . . . 207 Prayer for Divine Aid .... Merrick ... 1 Pride and Humility .... Cowper . . . Ill Prioresse, the Chaucer . . . 240 Procession of Rivers, the . . . Spenser . . . 209 Procrastination Young . . . 410 Progress of Poetry, the . . . . T Gray . . 424 Providence From Filicaja . . 149 Psalm of Life, a ..... Longfellow . . 51 Queen Mab Shakspere . . . 285 Rainbow, to the Campbell ... 7 Rival Statesmen, the .... Walter Scott . . 156 Rome . . Milton . . . 'MS Rome, the Ruins of .... Spenser . . . 268 Rule Britannia Thomson . . . 190 Rural Sounds Cowper . . . 453 Samson's Lament Milton . . . 218 Satan mustering the Rebel Angels . . id. ... 317 Satan's Meeting with Uriel ... id. ... 328 School Days Cowper ... 15 Sennacherib's Army, the Destruction of .. Byrnn . . .113 Sentence of Expulsion from Paradise . Milton . . . 340 Seven Ages of Man, the .... Shakspere . . . 283 Skylark, to a Wordsworth . . 102 Slavery Cowper . . . 454 Sleep, the House of .... Spenser . . . 259 Sleep, to Shakspere . . .186 Sleeping Babe, the .... Hinds ... 6 Solemn Music, at a . . . . Milton . . . 158 Solitude Byron . . .181 <- Solitude Mrs. Sigourncy . . 13 Solitude and Adversity .... Shakspere . . 284 Song for the Wandering Jew . . . Wordsworth . . 89 Sonnet on Chapman's Homer . . Keats ... 84 Soul's Sympathy with Greatness . . Akenside . . . 415 South African Desert, the . . . Prinyle . . . 180 Spanish Armada, the .... Macaulay . . . 183 Spanish Bull-light, a .... Byron ... 27 Spanish Champion, the .... Mrs. Hemans . . 16 Spring T. Warton . . 30 Squier, the Chaucer . . . 239 Star of Bethlehem, the . . . . Kirke White . .177 Startled Stag, the Walter Scott . . 3 Stonehenge T. Warton . . 97 Summer Morning, the .... Tiiomson . . . 383 Swimming id. ... 49 Tale of the Enchanted Steed . . . Chaucer . . .243 Tear, on a Rogers ... 50 Thames, the Denham ... 9 Thunderstorm, the ..... Milton Time's Song .... Toilet, the .... Tranquillity of Nature, the Traveller, the . Traveller lost in the Snow Traveller's Hymn, the . Twilight ". . . . Una and the Red Cross Knight Pope . Wordsworth Goldsmith . Thomson . A ddison . Wordsworth Spenser Xll INDEX. PAGE Thames and its Tributaries, the . Pope . . 147 Thermopylae Byron . . 102 352 207 375 222 436 385 217 223 256 260 105 34 465 198 199 66 36 456 273 274 275 55 197 408 86 Una and the Lion id. Vanity of Human Wishes, the . . Dr. Johnson Voni Creator Dryden Verses left at a Friend's House . . Burns Victoria's Tears ..... Elizabeth Browning War Porteus Waterfowl, to a Bryant -Weathercock, to the .... Greene Winter Walk at Noon .... Cowper . . Wolsey's Fall . . . . Shakspere . . Wolsey's Death id. . . Wolsey's Character .... id. . . Woman Mrs. Barlauld . "Woman Wordsworth Wondrous Nature of Man ... Young Ye Mariners of England . . . Campbell . . A PPENBIX 467 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. PART L fjffflits an& Extracts. PRAYER EOR DIVINE AID. AUTHOR of Good ! to thee I turn : Thy ever-wakeful eye Alone can all my wants discern, Thy hand alone supply. Oh let thy fear within me dwell, Thy love 1 my footsteps guide ! That love shall meaner loves expel, That fear all fears beside. 2 And oh ! by Error's force subdued, Since oft my stubborn will, 3 Preposterous, shuns the latent good, And grasps the specious ill ; 4 Not to my wish, but to my want, Do thou thy gifts apply ; Unasked, what good thou knowest, grant ; What ill, though asked, deny. Merriok. (1) Thy lace, S;c. let my love towards thee (not thy love towards me) guide my footsteps, i. e. influence my actions. (2) The line in Racine's " Athalie" in -which Joad says, " Je crams Dieu, cher Abner, et n'ai point d'autre crainte," has been deservedly admired, but the above expression conveys the same sentiment with at least equal force. (3) And oh.' 4'c. i. e. and oh! s nee my stubborn will, subdued by the force of error, often preposterously shuns, c. (4) Specious from the Latin species, an appearance ; hence specious ill is evil which has the appearance of good. B (\ STUDIES IN EN8LISH POETRY. BOADICEA. WHEN the British warrior queen, Bleeding from the Roman rods, Sought, with an indignant mien, Counsel of her country's gods ; Sage, beneath the spreading oak, Sat the Druid, hoary chief! Every burning word he spoke Full of rage, and full of grief: " Princess ! if our aged eyes Weep upon thy matchless wrongs, 'Tis because resentment ties All the terrors of our tongues. 1 " Rome shall perish write that word In the blood that she has spilt ; 2 Perish, hopeless and abhorred, Deep in ruin as in guilt. " Rome, for empire far renowned, Tramples on a thousand states ; Soon her pride shall kiss the ground Hark ! the Gaul 3 is at her gates ! " Other Romans shall arise, Heedless of a soldier's name ; (1) This passage is somewhat obscure. The Druid's " burning words " which follow seem inconsistent with the assertion that the " terrors of his tongue " were " tied " or restrained. The meaning may perhaps be thus represented : Princess, if you find us weeping over your wrongs in private, instead of denouncing the perpetrators in public, blame us not, for our silence hitherto has arisen from the very intensity of our indignation. Your personal appeal, however, demands that we should now give utterance to it : Home shall perish, &c. This interpretation is based on the conjecture that "ties " is used for "has hitherto tied." Another explanation may be found in the Appendix, Note A. (2) In the b'ood that is, with the blood, as we say, to write in ink. (3) Gaul It does not appear that the Gauls were among the nations that swept over the Roman empire in the fifth century. Perhaps '' Goth " should be read for ' Gaul." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize ; Harmony the path to fame. 1 " Then the progeny that springs Prom the forests of our land, 2 Armed with thunder, clad with wings, Shall a wider world command. " Regions Csesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway ; Where his eagles never flew None invincible as they." 3 Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending, as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre. She, with all a monarch's pride, Felt them in her bosom glow; Rushed to battle, fought, and died ; 4 Dying, hurled them at the foe : " Ruffians ! pitiless as proud, Heaven awards the vengeance due ; Empire is on us bestowed, Shame and ruin wait for you." Coicper. THE STARTLED STAG. THE stag at eve had drunk his fill, Where danced the moon on Monan's 5 rill, (1) In allusion to the love of the Italians for music. As a striking indication of the change in character above referred to, it may be mentioned that the word virtus, which among the ancient Romans meant " active courage," is used by the modern Romans in the softened form of virtu, to signify '' a taste for the flno arts." (2) Progeny, 8;c. the ships of England. (3) They the British, not the Romans. (4) According to Tacitus, Boadicea poisoned herself. (5) Monana, spring in the district of Menteith, Perthshire, Scotland. B 2 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRf. And deep his midnight lair 1 had made In lone Glenartuey's 2 hazel shade ; But, when the sun his beacon 3 red Had kindled on Benvoirlich's 4 head, The deep-monthed bloodhound's heavy bay Resounded up the rocky way, And faint, from farther distance borne, Were heard the clanging hoof and horn. As chief, 5 who hears his warder call, " To arms ! the foemen storm the wall ! " The autlered monarch of the waste Sprang from his heathery couch in haste. But, ere his fleet career he took, The dewdrops from his flanks he shook ; Like crested leader, proud and high, Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky ; A moment gazed adown the dale, A moment snuffed the tainted gale, A moment listened to the cry That thickened as the chase drew nigh ; Then, as the headmost foes appeared, With one brave bound the copse he cleared, And, stretching forward free and far, Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var. 6 Yelled on the view the opening pack, Rock, glen, and cavern, paid them back ; 7 (1) Lair derived from lay or lie the place where any one (deer or other animal) is laid. Cowper (see p. 69) uses the word in the well-known lines i " But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest, The beast is laid down in his lair. n (2) Glenartney a vale in Menteith. (3) Beacon from Anglo-Saxon bicn-ian, or becn-ian, to beck or beckon, to call by signs anything so placed as to give a signal or warning. The use of the word in the above passage is highly picturesque. (4) Benxairlich. one of the Grampian mountains. (5) As chief, Sfc. This description is full of animation. The stag awakening at the summons of his pursuers his proud survey of the scene his decisive action his escape ; the entrance of the hunting party the shouts and halloos which give " Benvoirlich's echoes no rest " and the deep silence which succeeds are all touched with the hand of a master. (6) Uam-Var a mountain in Menteith. (7) Paid them back echoed back me sound. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. To many a mingled sound at, once The awakened mountain gave response. A hundred dogs bayed deep and strong, Clattered a hundred steeds along, Their peal the merry horns rang out A hundred voices joined the shout ; With hark, and whoop, and wild halloo, No rest Benvoirlich's echoes knew. Far from the tumult fled the roe, Close in her covert cowered the doe, The falcon, from her cairn 1 on high, Cast on the rout a wondering eye, Till far beyond her piercing ken The hurricane had swept the glen. Faint, and more faint, its failing din Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn, 2 And silence settled wide and still, On the lone wood and mighty hilL Walter Scott. THE GLORY OF GOD IN CREATION, 8 THE spacious firmament on high, "With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. 4 (1) Cairn a heap of stones here, a crag or cliff. (2) Linna, waterfall, precipice. (3) This beautiful poem is a paraphrase of the first four verses of the 19th Psalm, with which it should be compared. (4) For some variations in the commencement, see Appendix, Note B. The words firmament, sky, and heaven, may be thus distinguished : Firmament (from firmare, to strengthen), that which is strong, and therefore solid ; the arch or vault of heaven. The old astronomers believed the sky to be a sort of solid frame, in which the stars were set. Sky (Greek cnc*a, a shadow ; Swed. sky, a cloud ; Anglo-Saxon, scua, the same), in old English, a cloud or shadow ; after- wards the region of clouds cloudland. Chaucer speaks of " not a skie " being left ' in all the welkin." Heaven that which is heaved or heaven up (according to Horne Tooke), comprehending the upper regions, as opposed to the earth. In accordance with these distinctions we may correctly speak of the spacious fir- mamentthe blue sky the spangled heavens, but scarcely of the firmament u-ith the sky and the heavens, as above. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. The unwearied sun from day to day Does his Creator's power display, And publishes to every land The work of an almighty hand. Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, 1 And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth ; While all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole. What, though in solemn silence all Move round this dark terrestrial ball ! What, though no real voice nor sound 2 Amid their radiant orbs be found ! In Reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice ; For ever singing as they shine, " The hand that made us is divine." Addison. THE SLEEPING BABE.3 " She is not dead, but sleepeth." Luke viii. 52. THE baby wept ; The mother took it from the nurse's arms, And soothed its grief, and stilled its vain alarms, And baby slept. (1) Tale The idea of the Creation declaring, as if in speech, the goodness and greatness of God is preserved throughout the poem, by the use of the words ' proclaim," " publish," " tell," " story," " tidings," &c. (2 ) What thuuyh, Sjc. Bishop Horsley translates the 3rd verse of the 19th Psalm thus : " There is no speech, no words, No voice of them is heard ; Yet their sound goes throughout the earth;" which is nearly the same rendering as Cranmer's in the Book of Common Prayer. (3) The simple beauty of these lines well deserves attention ; particularly the striking use made of the double meaning of the word sleep. The change in the tense from the past to present, heightens the climax, which is almost sublime. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKY. Again it weeps, And God dotli take it from the mother's arms, From present pain, and future unknown harms, Aad baby sleeps. Hinds. TO THE RAINBOW. THITTMPHAL arch,i that fill'st the sky When storms prepare to part, 1 * I ask not proud Philosophy To teach me what thou art ; Still seem, as to my childhood's sight, A midway station given For happy spirits to alight, Betwixt the earth and heaven. Can all that optics teach unfold Thy form to please me so, As when I dreamt of gems and gold Hid in thy radiant bow ? When Science from Creation's face Enchantment's veil withdraws, What lovely visions yield their place To cold material laws ! 3 And yet, 4 fair bow, no fabling dreams, But words of the Most High, Have told why thy first robe of beams Was woven in the sky. (1) Triumphal arch, There is something very fine in the conception of the rainbow being a triumphal arch, raised to celebrate the peace which follows the war of the elements. One copy of this poem in a popular collection reads " triumphant arch," to the utter confusion of the sense. (2) Part i, e. to depart. Gray, in his " Elegy " (see p. 60), writes : " The curfew tolls the knell of parting (i. e. departing or dying) day." (3) Akenside has expressed a very different opinion on this point. See Appendix, Note C. (4) And yet, $c. i. e. though fiction may be sometimes more agreeable than fact, yet here the fact itself is especially interesting. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. When o'er the green undeluged 1 earth, Heaven's covenant 2 thou didst shine, How came the world's grey fathers 3 forth, To watch thy sacred sign 1 And when its yellow lustre smiled O'er mountains yet untrod, Each mother held aloft her child To bless the bow of God. Methinks, thy jubilee to keep, The first-made anthem* rang On earth, delivered from the deep, And the first poet sang. Nor ever shall the Muse's eye, Unraptured greet thy beam : Theme of primeval prophecy, Be still the poet's theme ! 5 The earth to tliee her incense yields, The lark thy welcome sings, When glittering in the freshened fields, The snowy mushroom springs. How glorious is thy girdle, cast O'er mountain, tower, and town! Or mirrored in tiie ocean vast, A thousand fathoms down ! As fresh as yon horizon dark, As young thy beauties seem, As when the eagle from the ark, First sported in thy beam. (1) Undeluged -no longer overwhelmed by the deluge. The prefix un in this word does not fully convey the meaning of the writer ; un is simply not, without that reference to a previous state which is implied by the prefix dis. (2) Heaven's covenant strictly speaking, the rainbow is not the covenant, but the sign or token of it. See Gen. ix. 13. (3) The world's grey fathers This beautiful expression is borrowed from Henry Vaughan, a poet of the 17th century. See Appendix, Note D. (4) Anthem literally anti-hymn & piece of music arranged to be sung in parts, answering to each other music for a cathedral choir. (5) In the ordinary copies we have "poet's theme," as above ; the reading, how- ever, in the standard edition of Campbell's poems is "prophet's theme," a less appropriate expression, though not inconsistent with the first-named ; inasmuch as the original idea of a poet included that of a prophet, or one who was, as it were, inspired to sing of tilings eternally true ol tilings past, present, and future. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. For, faithful to its sacred page, Heaven still rebuilds thy span ; Nor lets the type grow pale with age, That first spoke peace to man. Campbell. THE THAMES.i MY eye descending from the Hill, 2 surveys Where Thames among the wanton valleys strays : Thames ! the most loved of all the ocean's sons By his old sire, to his embraces runs, Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea, Like mortal life to meet eternity ; 3 Though with those streams he no resemblance hold, Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold. 4 His genuine and less guilty wealth to explore, Search not his bottom, but survey his shore, O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing, And hatches plenty for the ensuing spring : Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay, Like mothers which their infants overlay. Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave, Like profuse kings, resumes the wealth he gave.5 No unexpected inundations spoil The mower's hopes, nor mock the ploughman's toil ; But godlike his unwearied bounty flows, First loves to do, 6 then loves the good he does. Nor are his blessings to his banks confined, But free and common as the sea or wind ; (1) The poem entitled " Cooper's Hill," from which this extract is made, was written in 1643. The date may account in part for the quaintness of the style. (2) The hill- Cooper's Kill, near Windsor. (3) This idea is beautifully amplified by Cowper (see p. 80), in the lines beginning, " The lapse of time and rivers is the same." (4) The rivers Pactolus and Hermus, in Asia Minor, were said by the ancient poets to roll down sand mingled with gold. (5) Resumes, $c. i. e. does not first by his overflow create abundance, and then by a second inundation destroy his own creation. The figures in the last few lines display more ingenuity than tas'e ; they are incongruous and unnecessarily multiplied. (6) Loves to do f. e. loves to do good. The allusion here seems to be to Gen. i. 31. 10 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. When 1 he, to boast or to disperse his stores, Full of the tributes of his grateful shores, Visits the world, aud in his flying towers Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours ; Finds wealth where 'tis, bestows it where it wants, Cities in deserts, woods in cities plants ; So that to us no thing, no place is strange, While his fair bosom is the world's exchange. Oh, could I flow like thee ! and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme : Though deep, yet clear ; though gentle, yet not dull ; Strong, without rage ; without o'erflowing, full. 2 Denham. THE COMMON LOT. ONCE in the flight of ages past There lived a man and who was he ? Mortal ! howe er thy lot be cast, That man resembled thee ! Unknown the region of his birth, The land in which he lived unknown ; His name hath perished from the earth ; This truth survives alone : That joy 4 and grief, 4 and hope and fear, Alternate triumphed in his breast ; His bliss and woe, a smile, a tear ! Oblivion hides the rest. (1) When seems here to mean inasmuch, seeing that; and the sense of the passage to be, that the blessings of the Thames are unlimited, inasmuch as, through the agency of the ships "his flying towers," that he sends forth laden with English produce and manufacture lie visits the world, and brings home both Indies to us, by making their produce and wealth ours. (2) The last two lines have been much admired for the exquisite taste displayed in tho choice of words. They embody, with happy brevity, the main character- istics of a finished literary style, which should be, "though deep, yet clear," &c. " Strong, u-ithout rage," means strong without the ostentatious display of strength. (3) The lot or condition which is common to all mankind with its hopes and fears, its pleasures and pains. (4) Joy, delight, and bliss, may be thus distinguished : Joy is vivid and t jj ere fore transient, pleasure. Delight absorbing Bliss complete and abiding happiness. A similar distinction holds between grief and woe: STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 11 The bounding pulse, the languid limb, Tlie changing spirits' rise and fall, We know that these were felt by him, For these are felt by all. lie suffered but his pangs are o'er ; Enjoyed but his delights are fled; Had friends his friends are now no more ; And foes his foes are dead. He loved but whom he loved the grave tiatli lost in its unconscious womb ; Oil ! she was fair, but nought could save Her beauty from the tomb. The rolling seasons, day and night, Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main, Erewhile 1 his portion, life and light, To him 2 exist in vain. He saw whatever thou hast seen; Encountered all that troubles thee ; He was whatever thou hast been; He is what thou shalt be. The clouds and sunbeams o'er his eye That once their shade and glory threw, Have left, in yonder silent sky, No vestige 3 where they flew ! The annals 4 of the human race, Their ruins since the world began, Of him afford no other trace Than this THEKE LIVED A MAN. Montgomery, Grief is intense and overwhelming, but brief, sorrow. Woe complete, absorbing, and abiding misery. Hence we may speak of '' transports of joy or grief," " ecstacies of delight," " perfect bliss," '' speechless woe." In the above poem, " joy " and " grief " are correctly said to " triumph,' 1 &c., " delights " to be ' fled," but " bliss" and " woe" are less correctly employed, inasmuch as bliss properly belongs only to heaven, and woe " lies too deep for tears." (1) Ereichile a while before some time ago. (2) To him for him, as far as he is concerned. (3) Vestige from the Latin vestigium, a footmark hence track, trace. (4) Annals, S,x. neither the written history of mankind, nor the ruins tlwy have left behind them, afford any other trace, &c. 12 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. THE LION HUNT.i MOUNT mount for the hunting with musket and spear ! Call our friends to the field for the liou is near ! Call Arend 2 and Ekhard and Groepe to the spoor ; 3 Call Muller and Coetzer and Lucas Van Vuur. Ride up Eildon-Cleugh, and blow loudly the bugle : Call Slinger and Allie and Dikkop and Dugal ; And George with the elephant-gun on his shoulder In a perilous pinch none is better or bolder. In the gorge 4 of the glen lie the bones of my steed, And the hoofs of a heifer of fatherland's 5 breed : But mount, my brave boys ! if our rifles prove true, We'll soon make the spoiler his ravages rue. Ho ! the Hottentot lads have discovered the track To his den in the desert we'll follow him back ; But tighten your girths, and look well to your flints, For heavy and fresh are the villain's foot-prints. Through the rough rocky kloof 6 into Grey Huntley-Glen, Past the wild olive clump where the wolf has his den, By the black eagle's rock at the foot of the fell,? We have tracked him at length to the buffalo's well. Now mark yonder brake where the bloodhounds are howling; And hark that hoarse sound like the deep thunder growling ; 'Tis his lair 'tis his voice ! from your saddles alight ; He's at bay in the brushwood, preparing for fight. (1) The circumstances described in this very spirited poem, came under the personal observation of the writer, Mr. Pringle, and may be read in detail in the 8th chapter of his interesting " Narrative of a Residence in South Africa." (2) The names in this piece are with the exception of " the Kennies," who were Scottish friends of the author those of Mulatto farmers, and Hottentot and Dutch servants, residing in the neighbourhood. (3) Spoor a Dutch word track, the lion's track. (4) Gorge the throat or narrow passage at the opening of a defile. (5) Fatherland here means Scotland, which was the native country of the emigrants. (6) Kloof & Dutch word a small valley opening into a larger one. (7) Fell a Scandinavian word a rocky hill. STL'UIJtS IN ENGLISH TOET11Y. 13 Leave the horses behind and be still every man : Let the Mailers and Kennies advance in the van : Keep fast in your ranks ; by tlie yell of yon hound, The savage, 1 guess, will be out with a bound. He conies ! the tall jungle before him loud crashing, His inane bristled fiercely, his fiery eyes flashing ; With a roar of disdain, he leaps forth in his wrath, To challenge the foe that dare 'leaguer 1 his path. He couches ay, now we'll see mischief, I dread : Quick level your rifles and aim at his head : Thrust forward the spears, and uusheath every knife St. George ! he's upon us ! Now fire, lads, for life ! He's wounded but ne'll draw blood ere he falls Ha ! under his paw see Bezuidenhout sprawls Now Diederik ! Christian ! right in tlie brain . Plant each man his bullet HURRA. ! helu's slain ! i& Bezuidenhout up, man ! 'tis only a scratch (You were always a scamp, and have met with your match !) What a glorious lion ! what sinews what claws And seveu-feet-teu from the rump to the jaws ! His hide, with the paws and the bones of his skull, And the spoils of the leopard and buffalo bull, We'll send to Sir Walter ! 2 Now boys, let us dine, And talk of our deeds o'er a flask of old tfiae. , Prin'gle. SOLITUDE. DEEP solitude I sought. There was a dell Where woven shades shut out the eye of day, While, towering near, tlie rugged mountains made Dark background 'gainst the sky. Thither I went, And bade my spirit taste that lonely 3 fount (1) Leaguer for beleaguer to besiege, beset. (2) Sir Walter Scott, a friend of the author. (3) Lonely synonymous with alone feeling alone, habitually without com- pany; alone by one's self, actually without company. Hence we may speuk of a '' lonely fount," and of " being alone." 34 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. For which it long had thirsted 'mid the strife And fever of the world. I thought to be There without witness. But the violet's eye 1 Looked up to greet me. The fresh wild-rose smiled, And the young pendant vine-flower kissed my cheek. There were glad voices too. The garrulous brook, Untiring, to the patient pebbles told Its history. Up came the singing breeze, And the broad leaves of the tall poplar spake llesponsive, every one. Even busy life Woke in that dell. The dextrous spider threw, From spray to spray, the silver-tissued snare ; The thrifty ant, whose curving piucers pierced The rifled grain, toiled towards her citadel ; 2 To her sweet hive went forth the loaded bee While from her wind-rocked nest, the mother bird Sang to her nurslings. Yet I strangely thought To be alone and silent in thy realm, Spirit of light and love ! it might not be ! There is no solitude in thy domains, 3 Save what man makes, when in his selfish breast He locks his joy, and shuts out others' grief. Thou hast not left thyself in this wide world . Without a witness. Even the desert place Speaketh thy name. The simple flowers and stream Are social and benevolent, and he Who holdeth converse in their language pure, Hoaming among theni at the cool of day, Shall find, like him who Eden's garden dress'd, His Maker there, to teach the listening* heart. Mrs. Sigourney . (1) The personification of the different inanimate objects is very delicately and gracefully managed. (2) Citadel an ingenious application of the term to the ant-hill, as being the insect's place of refuge, or stronghold. (3) Compare Byron's lines on Solitude, p. 181. (4) Listening synonymous with hearing endeavouring or being disposed to hear ; hearing simply catching a sound, whether voluntary or not. Hence we may listen without hearing, and hear without listening bnt we never listen without giving attention. The " listening heart " is disposed to hear the voire of God speaking from the midst of his works. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 15 SCHOOL-DAYS. BE it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days ; The scene is touching, and the heart is stone That feels not at that sight, and feels at none. 1 The wall on which we tried our graving 2 skill, The very name we carved 2 subsisting still ; The bench on which \ve sat while deep employed, Though mangled, hacked, 2 hewed, 2 not yet destroyed ; The little ones, unbuttoned, glowing hot, Playing our games, and on the very spot ; As happy as we once, to kneel and draw The chalky ring, and knuckle down at taw ; To pitch the ball into the grounded hat, Or drive it devious^ with a dextrous pat. The pleasing spectacle at once excites Such recollection of our own delights, That, viewing it, we seem almost to obtain, Our innocent, sweet, simple years again. This fond attachment to the well-known place, Whence first we started into life's long race, Maintains its hold with such unfailing sway, We feel it even in age, and at our latest day. Cowper. (1) The inversion of the style occasions some obscurity in this passage. The meaning is that the heart that feels not at that sight is stone, and feels, or can feel at no sight whatever. (2) Grave, carve, hack, hew, all different modes of cutting, may be thus distin- guished : To grave is to cut into, or hollow out, with a view to execute some design. To carve is to cut a thing so as to shape it into some new form. To hack is to cut for the purpose of injuring or destroying the existing form. To hew is to cut down, or off, for the purpose of removal. Hence, we may correctly say that the names were " graven " or " carved," and the bench " hacked," or notched and ' hewed." (3) Devious, from Latin cte and via, from or out of the way ; here, on one side, not straight forward. Dryden (see p. 359) wittily says : " The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, But Shadwell never deviates into sense." 16 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POET11Y. THE SPANISH CHAMPION. 1 THE warrior bowed his crested head, and tamed his heart of fire, And sued the haughty king to free his long imprisoned sire, 2 " I bring thee here my fortress keys, 3 I bring my captive train, I pledge the faith, my liege, my lord ! ok break my father's chain ! " " Rise, rise ! even now thy father comes, a ransomed man this day ; Mount thy good horse, and thou and I will meet him on his way." Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed, 4 And urged, as if with lance in rest, the charger's* foamy speed- And lo ! from far, as on they pressed, there came a glittering band, With one that 'midst them stately rode, as a leader in the land : " Now haste, Bernardo, haste ! for there, in very truth, is he, The father whom thy faithful heart hath yearned so long to see." His dark eye flashed, his proud breast heaved, his cheek's blood, came and went ; He reached that grey-haired chieftain's side, and there dismount- ing, bent ; A lowly knee to earth he bent his father's hand he took, What was there in his touch that all his fiery spirit shook ? That hand was cold a frozen thing it drooped from his like lead ; He looked up to the face above the face was of the dead ! A plume waved o'er the noble brow that brow was fixed and white ; He met at last his father's eyes but in them was no sight ! (1) The celebrated Spanish champion, Bernardo del Carpio, renowned for his exploits against the no less famous French hero Boland, as well as against the Moors in Spain, lived in the reign of Alonzo II., King of Leon. (2) Sire the count of Saldana, Bernardo's father, who had been imprisoned by the king for many years. (3) fortress keys Bernardo, after many ineffectual efforts to procure his father's release, had taken up arms in despair, but at length assented to the king's proposal to give up the person of his father in exchange for the Castle of Carpio. (4) Steed, charger a steed is a horse for the siud, of fine shape and high mettle ; a charger, a heavy war-horse, used for bearing down upon, or charging the enemy lu battle. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 17 Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed, but who could paint that gaze ? They hushed their very hearts that saw its horror and amaze ; They might have chained him, as before that stony form he stood, For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his lip the blood. " Father ! " at length he murmured low and wept like childhood then, Talk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike men ! He thought on all his glorious hopes, and all his young renown; He flung the falchion from his side, and in the dust sat down. Then covering with his steel-gloved hands his darkly-mournful brow " No more, there is no more," he said, " to lift the sword for now : My king is false, my hope betrayed, my father, oh ! the worth, The glory, and the loveliness, are passed away from earth ! " I thought to stand where banners waved, my sire ! beside thee yet; T would that there our kindred blood on Spain's free soil had met, Thou wouldst have known my spirit then, for thee my fields were won, And thou hast perished inthy chains, as though thou hadst no son ! " i Then, starting from the ground once more, he seized the monarch's rein, Amidst the pale and wildered looks of all the courtier train ; And with a fierce o'ermastering grasp, the rearing war-horse led, And sternly set them face to face, the king before the dead ! " Came I not forth upon thy pledge, my father's hand to kiss ? Be still ! and gaze thou on, false king ! and tell me what is this ? The voice, the glance, the heart I sought give answer, where are they ? If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, send life through this cold clay ! " Into these glassy eyes put light, be still! keep down thine ire Bid these white lips a blessing speak this earth is not my sire ! Give me back him for whom I strove, for whom my blood was shed, Thou canst not and a king? His dust be mountains on thy head!" 18 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. He loosed the steed ; his slack hand fell, upon the silent face He cast one long, deep, troubled look, then turned from that sad place ; His hope was crushed, his after-fate untold in martial strain, His banner led the spears no more amidst the hills of Spain. Mrs, Hemans. TO THE CUCKOO.i O BLITHE new-comer ! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice : Cuckoo ! shall I call thee bird, Or but a wandering voice ? While I am lying on the grass, Thy loud note smites my ear: It seems to fill the whole air's space ; At once far off and near ! 1 hear thee babbling 2 to the vale Of sunshine and of flowers ; But unto me thou bring'st 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. (1) Some elegant lines on the same subject, by the Scottish poet, Logan, may be found in " Select Poetry for Children," p. 7. The above poem is of a higher order than Logan's though scarcely superior in point of interest and execution because it is more suggestive, that is, awakens a less obvious train of thought, though when pointed out, not less natural and pleasing. Many hear the cuckoo and are pleased with that well-known note, which is so associated with the return of spring ; Wordsworth hears it, and is reminded, in addition, of " the golden time " the spring-tide of his youth when the bird was first an object of intense interest to the boy. (2) 'Babbling from Hebrew Babel, where confusion of tongues first arose ; hence, to babble is to talk confusedly and inarticulately. There is much beauty in the use of the word here. Thou babblest confusedly talkest to the vale, but to me thy language is distinct and definite, reminding me of my early years, which appear as it were in a vision, and are here called " visionary hours. 1 ' STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 19 The same whom in my school-boy days I listened 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 longed for, never seen ! And I can listen to thee yet ; Can lie upon the plain And listen till I do beget 1 That golden time again. blessed bird ! the earth we pace Again appears to be An unsubstantial, fairy place ; That is fit home tor thee ! 2 Wordsworth. ADDRESS TO AN EGYPTIAN MUMMY.3 AND thou hast walked about how strange a story ! In Thebes's streets three thousand years ago ; When the Menmonium 4 was in all its glory, And time had not begun to overthrow Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous, Of which the very ruins are tremendous. (1) Beget, 8fc. recall, and as it were create anew, the scenes of boyhood. This faculty, which the mind possesses of reviving a train of scenes and circumstances, long past, on the recollection of some one of them, is usually called the association of ideas the above poem is a pleasing illustration of the phenomenon. Akenside (in his " Pleasures of Imagination ") thus refers to it : " A song, a flower, a name, at once restore Those long-connected scenes where first they moved The attention." (2) Fit home, tyc. the vision of the "golden time" so fills the mind, that the earth seems to change into a fairy place, well suited to the mysterious and unreal character fancifully attributed to the cuckoo. (3) '' This poem has been deservedly admired for its picturesque vigour, com- bined with richness and felicity of historical allusion." Eticycloptedia Britannica. (4) Memnonium the name given to a temple now in ruins, supposed to have been dedicated to Memnon, an ancient king of Egypt. c 2 20 STUDIES IN_ ENGLISH POETRY. Speak ! for tliou long enough liast acted dummy ; Tliou bast a tongue, come, let us hear its tune ; Thou'rt standing on thy legs, above ground, Mummy ! Revisiting the glimpses of the moon ; Not like thin ghosts, or disembodied creatures, But with thy bones, and flesh, and limbs, and features. Tell us for doubtless thou canst recollect To whom should we assign the Sphinx's 1 fame ? Was Cheops, 2 or Cephrenes.S architect Of either pyramid that bears his name P Is Pompey's pillar 3 really a misnomer ? Had Thebes 4 a hundred gates, as sung by Homer ? Perhaps thou wert a mason, 5 and forbidden By oath to tell the mysteries of thy trade ; Then say what secret melody 6 was hidden In Memnon's statue which at sunrise played ? Perhaps thou wert a priest if so, my struggles Are vain Egyptian priests ne'er owned their juggles.? Perchance that very hand, now pinioned flat, Has hob-a-nobbed 8 with Pharaoh, glass to glass ; (1) Sphinx an Egyptian monster, with a virgin's face and a quadruped's body ; said to liave proposed riddles, and destroyed those who could not solve them. (2) Cheops, Cephrenes two ancient kings of Egypt, to whom. Herodotus attri- butes the building of the two largest pyramids. (3) Pompey's pillar the column at Alexandria, which is thus named, is supposed to have been erected long after Pompey's time in the reign of Diocletian. The name it bears is, therefore, a misnomer. (4) Ihebex in the Bible called No, or No Ammon was situated in Upper Egypt. Homer (Iliad ix. 381, &c.) calls it " the city with a hundred gates," each of which, he says, sent out two hundred men, with horses and chariots. (5) Mason i. e. a freemason ; one of a company or society of men calling them- selves by that name, and professing to maintain, as a condition of membership, some awful secrets, which they are sworn never to divulge. (6) Secret melody, f(C. It seems clear that at sunrise certain sounds did issue from a particular statue, called Memnon's head, but in what manner the Egyptian priests contrived this " juggle * for such it doubtless was is unknown. (7) Juggle probably from the Latin joeus, a joke or sport, whence jocular joculator, and the old Anglo-Norman jogelour (used by Chaucer), one who plays tricks or makes sport. (8) Hob-a-nob supposed to be the same as hnb or nab, i. e. have or not have ; formerly used in asking a person whether he would have a glass of wine or not, or, as above, applied to the fact of drinking together. Halliwell considers it the aft of touching glasses in pledging a health." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 21 Or dropt a halfpenny in Homer's hat, Or doffed 1 thine own to let Queen Dido pass, Or held, by Solomon's own invitation, A torch at the great Temple's dedication. I need not ask thee if that hand, when armed, Has any Roman soldier mauled 2 or knuckled ; For thou wert dead, and buried, and embalmed, Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled ! Antiquity appears to have begun Long after thy primeval race was run. Thou couldst develop, if that withered tongue Might tell us what those sightless orbs have seen, How the world looked when it was fresh and young, And the great Deluge still had left it green ; Or was it then so old, that History's pages Contained no record of its early ages ? Still silent, incommunicative elf? Art sworn to secrecy ? then keep thy vows ; But, prythee, tell us something of thyself, Reveal the secrets of thy prison-house ! Since in the world of spirits thou hast slumbered, What hast thou seen, what strange adventures numbered ? Since first thy form was in this box extended, We have, above-ground, seen some strange mutations ; 'Jhe Roman empire has begun and ended, New worlds have risen we have lost old nations ; And countless kings have into dust been humbled, While not a fragment of thy flesh has crumbled. Didst thou not hear the pother 3 o'er thy head, When the great Persian conqueror, Cambyses, (1) Doffio do off, or put off, as don is to do on, or put on, and dout, to do out, or put out. (2) Mauled to maul is to beat with a mall or large hammer, or in a secondary sense, to beat severely, so as to occasion bruises. (3) Pother same as pudder or powder, dust, as raised by a horse running swiftly. Shakspere (in " Lear ") writes : " Let the great gods. That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads, Rnd out their enemies now." 22 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Marched armies o'er thy tomb with thundering tread, O'erthrew Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis, 1 And shook the Pyramids with fear and wonder, When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder ? If the tomb's secrets may not be confessed, The nature of thy private life unfold : A heart has throbbed beneath that leathern breast, And tears adown that dusty cheek have rolled ; Have children climbed those knees, and kissed that face ? What was thy name, and station, age, and race ? Statue of flesh 3 Immortal of the dead ! Imperishable type of evanescence ! Posthumous man, who quitt'st thy narrow bed, And standest undecayed within our presence ! Thou wilt hear nothing till the judgment morning, When the great trump shall thrill thee with its warning ! Why should this worthless tenement endure, If its undying guest be lost for ever ? Oh ! let us keep the soul embalmed and pure In living virtue ; that, when both must sever, Although corruption may our frame consume, The immortal spirit in the skies may bloom ! Horace Smith. THE ALPS AT DAY-BREAK. THE sun-beams streak the azure skies, And line with light the mountain's brow : With hounds and horns the hunters rise, And chase the roebuck through the snow. From rock to rock with giant-bound, High on their iron poles they pass ; Mute, 3 lest the air convulsed by sound, Rend from -above the frozen mass. 4 (1) Osiris, fyc. names of Egyptian divinities, worshipped under various forms. (2) Statue ofjlesh, #c. this is a very striking passage. The opposition in the terms excites and interests the mind. Statue of what? Marble? No flesh. Immortal undying of the dead. Imperishable undecaying type of decay. (3) Mute t. e. at purticuliir spots, where danger was to be apprehended. (4) Frozen mass an avalanche or huge mass of suow. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 23 The goats wind slow their wonted way, 1 Up craggy steeps and ridges rude; Marked by the wild wolf for his prey, From desert cave or hanging wood. And while the torrent thunders loud, And as the echoing cliffs reply, The huts peep o'er the mountain cloud, Perched, like an eagle's nest, on high. Royers. THE CALENDAR OF FLORAE FAIR rising from her icy couch, Wan herald 3 of the floral year, The snow-drop marks the Spring's approach, Ere yet the primrose groups appear, Or peers the arum 4 from its spotted veil, Or odorous violets scent the cold capricious gale. Then thickly strewn in woodland bowers, Anemones 5 their stars unfold, There spring the sorrel's veined flowers, And rich in vegetable gold, 6 o O ' (1) Way this line, and that in the first stanza, " With hounds and horns the hunters rise," supply instances of what is called alliteration, or the frequent recurrence of the same initial letter. It is an artifice of composition which ought to be very judiciously employed to satisfy a cultivated taste though its occasional introduction is pleasing. The poet Churchill has at once ingeniously ridiculed and exemplified it in. the following line : " -<4nd apt alliteration's ortful aid." (2) In the " Calendar of Flora," the flowers, by their appearance at different parts of the year, serve as a sort of register, or calendar, of the seasons. (3) Herald synonymous with harbinger and messenger. All these words convey the idea of going before, but differ in the purpose. A herald is one who goes before to declare something. A harbinger is one who goes before to procure a harbour or lodging for some important personage. A messenger is one who goes before to take a^ message. (4) Arum maculatum spotted arum, or cuckoo-pint. (5) Anemones called also wind-flowers. The anemone nemorosa is here re- ferred to. (6) Vegetable gold an expression borrowed from Milton (Paradise Lost, iv. 218), and somewhat affectedly employed here to denote the golden colour of Uie cowslips. 24 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. From calyx pale the freckled cowslips born, Receive in jasper cups the fragrant dews of mom. Lo ! the green thorn her silver buds Expands to May's enlivening beam ; Hottonia 1 blushes on the floods ; And, where the slowly trickling stream Mid grass and spiry rushes stealing glides, Her lovely fringed flowers fair menyanthes 2 hides. In the lone copse, or shadowy dale, Wild clustered knots of harebells grow, And droops the lily of the vale O'er viuca's 3 matted leaves below. The orchis race with vailed beauty charm, And mock the exploring bee or fly's aerial form. Wound o'er the hedge-row's oaken boughs, The woodbine's tassels float in air, And, blushing, the uncultnred rose Hangs high her beauteous blossoms there ; Her fillets there the purple nightshade weaves, And pale bryonia 4 winds her broad and scalloped leaves. To later summer's fragrant breath Clematis' feathery garlands dance ; The hollow foxglove nods beneath ; While the tall mullein's yellow lance Dear to the mealy moth of evening towers ; And the weak galium 5 weaves its myriad fairy flowers. Sheltering the coot's or wild duck's nest, And where the timid halcyon 6 hides, The willow-herb, in crimson drest, Waves with arundo o'er the tides ; And there the bright nymphsea 7 loves to lave, Or spreads her golden orbs upon the dimpling wave. (1) Hottonia the water violet. (2) Menyanthes the buck-bean or bog-bean. (3) Vinca periwinkle. (4) Bryania bryony. (5) Galium the yellow bed-straw. (0) Halcyon the kinp-fisher. (7) Nymphaa the white water-lily ; the " golden orbs," in the next line, belong to the yellow species. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 25 And thon, by pain and sorrow blest, Papaver '.i that an opiate dew CouceaPst beneath thy scarlet vest, Contrasting with the corn-flower blue, Autumnal months behold thy gauzy leaves Bend in the rustling gale amid the tawny sheaves. From the first bud, whose venturous head The Winter's lingering tempest braves, To those which, 'midst the foliage dead, Sink latest to their annual graves, Are all for health, for use, for pleasure given, And speak, in various ways, the bounteous hand of Heaven. Charlotte Smith. THE HOROLOGE 2 OF FLORA. IN every copse and sheltered dell Unveiled to the observant eye, Are faithful monitors, who tell How pass the hours and seasons by. The green- robed children of the spring Will mark the periods as they pass, Mingle with leaves Time's feathered wing, And wreathe with flowers his silent glass. Mark where transparent waters glide, Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed, There, cradled on the dimpling tide, Kymphaea rests her lovely head. But, conscious of the earliest beam, She rises from her humid nest, And sees reflected on the stream, The virgin whiteness of her breast, (1) Papaver poppy. There seems to be an error here ; it is the white poppy, papaver somntferum, which produces opium the "opiate dew" of the text. (2) Horologe (from Lat. horologium, which is from ei'po, an hour, and \eye;f, to tell), that which tells the hour, a clock, a watch, &c. In the "Horologe of Flora," or, as it is sometimes called, "the dial of flowers," certain flowers, which open or shut at regular intervals, fancifully serve the purpose of a time-piece. 26 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Till the bright day-star to the west Declines, in ocean's surge to lave, Then, folded in her modest vest, She slumbers on the rocking wave. See hieracium's 1 various tribe Of plumy 2 seed and radiate 3 flowers, The course of time their bloom describe, And wake or sleep appointed hours. Broad o'er its imbricated 4 cup, The goatsbeard spreads its golden rays, But shuts its cautious petals up, Retreating from the noontide blaze. Pale as a pensive cloistered 5 nun, The bethlem-star her face unveils, When o'er the mountain peers the sun, But shades it from the vesper gales. Among the loose and arid sands, The humble arenaria^ creeps, Slowly the purple star expands, But soon within its calyx? sleeps. And those small bells so lightly rayed, With young Aurora's rosy hue, Are to the noontide sun displayed, But shut their plaits 8 against the dew. (1) Hieracium hawkweed. (2) Plumy feathery, from the Latin pluma, a feather. (3) Radiate from the Latin radius, the spoke of a wheel, or a line or ray of light emitted from a luminous body. As a botanical term, the adjective "radiate " signifies having florets set round a disk in the form of a star. (4) Imbricated from the Latin imbrex, a gutter-tile for carrying off rain cut or indented like a gutter-tile. (5) Cloistered shut up in a cloister; from the Latin claustrum, an enclosed place. (6) Arenaria from the Latin arena, sand, which is from arere, to be dry sandwort. (7) Calyx another form of the Latin cater, a cup the outer covering of a flower. (8) Plaits folds; from the Latin pticare, to fold, through the French plier. In old English the ward was plite. Chaucer writes : " to sewe (i. e. to sew) and plite." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKT. 27 On upland slopes the shepherds mark The hour, when, as the dial true, Chicorium 1 to the towering lark Lifts her soft eyes, serenely blue. And thou ! " Wee crimson-tipped flower," 2 Gatherest thy fringed mantle round Thy bosom, at the closing hour, When night-drops bathe the turfy ground ; Unlike silene, 3 who declines The garish 4 noontide's blazing light. But when the evening crescent shines, Gives all her sweetness to the night. Thus in each flower and simple bell That in our path untrodden lie, Are sweet remembrancers, who tell How fast the winged moments fly. A SPANISH BULL-EIGHT. THE lists 5 are oped, the spacious area cleared, Thousands on thousands piled are seated round; Long ere the first loud trumpet's note is heard, No vacant seat for lated 6 wight is found. Hushed is the din of tongues on gallant steeds, With milk-white crest, gold spur, and light-poised lance, Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds, And lowly bending to the lists advance ; The crowd's loud shout their prize, and ladies' lovely glance. (1) Chicorium chicory or succory. (2) The daisy. In allusion to the poem by Bums, beginning with the above words. (See p. 76.) (3) Silene noctiflara the night-flowering catch-fly. (4) Garish from old English gaure, or gare, to stare, used thus by Chaucer " Now gaureth all the people on her." Hence the adjective may mean, staringly, fine, gay, showy, oppressively bright. (5) Lists, from Anglo-Saxon lis-an, to collect together. List is Jie Anglicised past participle, and means primarily that which is collected together, i. e. a collec- tion, as in the expression ' a list of names ;" in a secondary sense, and in the plural number, it denotes the enclosure round which the company collected sit to behold a public spectacle, and also the barriers of rope, cloth, or boai'd, which serve as the boundary. (6) Lated for belated arriving too late. 2S STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. In costly sheen and gaudy cloak arrayed, But all afoot, the liglit-limbed Matadore 1 Stands in the centre, eager to invade The lord of lowing herds ; but not before The ground, witli cautious tread, is traversed o'er, Lest aught unseen should lurk to thwart his speed : His arms a dart, he fights aloof, 2 nor more 3 Can man achieve without his friendly steed Alas ! too oft condemned for him to bear and bleed. Thrice sounds the clarion ; lo 1 the signal falls, The den expands, and expectation mute 4 Gapes round the silent circle's 4 peopled walls. Bounds with one lashing spring 5 the mighty brute, And, wildly staring, spurns, with sounding foot, The sand, nor blindly rushes on his foe : Here, there, he points his threatening front, to suit His first attack, wide waving to and fro His angry tail ; red rolls his eye's dilated glow. Sudden he stops ; his eye is fixed : away, Away, thou heedless boy ! 6 prepare the spear : Now is thy time, to perish, or display The skill that yet may check his mad career. (1) Matadore ham. the Spanish matador, a murderer, from the Latin mactator, which is from mactare, to kill. The office of the matadore is obvious from the context. (2) Aloof i. e. all off entirely separate. (3) Nor more, $c. i. e. nor more can a man, thus lightly armed, do than fight aloof, without his friendly steed. (4) Mute synonymous with silent and dumb. He is silent who does not speak ; dumb, who cannot speak ; and mute, who is compelled by circumstances to be silent. The epithet silent is often applied to things that admit no sound, as here, " the silent circle." (5) Lashing spring a peculiar use of the term " lashing." The noun " lash " is derived from the French lascher, to let loose, and signifies that which is cast loose or thrown. A lashing spring, therefore, may be a leap all abroad, free, unchecked, enormous or which, its it were, lashes the air. (6) Away, thou heedless boy, Sfc. There is great beauty in the sudden change ot the narrator into an actual sharer in the scene itself. He seems so intensely interested in the scene he is describing that he cannot refrain from calling out to warn the " heedless boy " of his danger, and the reader's sympathy is propor- tionately quickened. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 29 With well-timed croupe 1 tlie nimble coursers veer; On foams the bull, but not unscathed he goes ; Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear : He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes ; Dart follows dart ; lance, lance ; loud bellowings speak his woes. Again he comes ; nor lance nor darts avail, Nor the wild plunging of the tortured horse ; Though man and man's avenging arms assail, Vain are his weapons, vainer is his force. One gallant steed is stretched a mangled corse; Another, hideous sight ! unseamed appears, His gory chest unveils life's panting source ; Though death-struck, still his feeble frame he rears ; Staggering, but stemming all, his lord unarmed he bears. Foiled, 2 bleeding, breathless, furious to the last, Full in the centre stands the bull at bay, Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast, 3 And foes disabled in the brutal fray : And now the Matadores around him play, Shake the red cloak, and poise the ready brand: Once more through all he bursts his thundering way Vain rage ! the mantle quits the cunning hand, Wraps his fierce eye 'tis past he sinks npon the sand ! Where his vast neck just mingles with the spine, Sheathed in his form the deadly weapon lies. He stops he starts disdaining to decline : Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries, Without a groan, without a struggle dies. The decorated car appears on higli The corse is piled sweet sight for vulgar eyes ! Four steeds that spurn the rein, as swift as shy, Hurl the dark bulk along, scarce seen in dashing by. Such the ungentle sport that oft invites The Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain. (1) Croupe or craupade a particular leap, taught in the manege, or riding- school it is higher than that called the curvet. (2) Foiled to/ozV, is thus distinguished from to baffle ; to foil, signifies to defeat one's adversary by disabling him ; to baffle, to defeat him by perplexing or coun- teracting his plans. (3) Brast an old form of burst, from the Anglo-Saxon berst-an, to break out or forth, or generally, to break ; hence, " brast " is broken. 30 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Nurtured in blood betimes, his heart delights In vengeance, gloating 1 on another's pain. What private t'euds the troubled village stain ! Though now one phalanxed host 2 should meet the foe, .Enough, alas ! in humbler homes remain, To meditate 'gainst friends the secret blow, For some slight cause of wrath, whence life's warm stream must flow. Byron. SPRING. MINDFUL of disaster past, And shrinking at the northern blast, The sleety storm returning still, The morning hoar, the evening chill, Reluctant comes the timid Spring : Scarce a bee, with airy ring, Murmurs the blossomed boughs around That clothe the garden's southern bound : 3 Scarce the hardy primrose peeps* Prom the dark dell's entangled steeps : O'er the field of waving broom Slowly shoots 4 the golden bloom : And but by fits the furze-clad dale Tinctures the transitory gale. Scant along the ridgy land The beans their new-born ranks expand ; The fresh-turned soil, with tender blades, Thinly the sprouting barley shades ; Fringing the forest's devious 5 edge Half-robed appears the hawthorn hedge ; (1) Gloating connected with glowing looking at anything with ardent or eager eyes, that indicate pleasure in the sight. (2) Pluilanxed host an army drawn up in a phalanx or dense square body. (3) Southern bound it has been objected to this line, that the wall which has the southern aspect will be the northern, not the southern boundary. (4) Peeps, shoots these words serve well to show the animation that is given to language by the use of metaphors. It might have been said that the primrose could scarcely be " seen " or " found " in the dark dell, but this would have been tame and inexpressive ; whereas a sort of human interest is conferred upon the little flower by the word " peeps." Again, how vividly is the sudden effect of the blossoming broom on the eye painted by the word "shoots!" (5) Devious see note 3, p. 15. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 31 Or to the distant eye displays, Weakly green, 1 its budding sprays. The swallow, for a moment seen, Skims in haste the village green ; Prom the gray moor, on feeble wing, The screaming plovers idly spring; The butterfly, gay-painted, soon. Explores awhile the tepid noon ; And fondly 2 trusts its tender dyes To fickle suns and flattering skies. Fraught 3 with a transient frozen shower, If a cloud should haply lower, 4 Sailing o'er the landscape dark, Mute on a sudden is the lark ; But, when gleams the sun again O'er the pearl-besprinkled plain, And from behind his watery veil Looks through the thin descending hail, She mounts, and lessening to the sight, Salutes the blithe return of light, And high her tuneful track pursues Mid the dim rainbow's scattered hues. 5 Beneath a willow long forsook 6 The fisher seeks his 'ccustomed nook, And, bursting through the crackling sedge That crowns the current's caverned edge, Startles from the bordering wood The bashful wild-duck's early brood. His free-born vigour yet unbroke, By lordly man's usurping yoke, (1) Weakly green The poet Gray, in one of his letters, speaks of " that tender emerald green, which one usually sees only a fortnight in the opening of the spring " (2) Fondly foolishly this is the ancient meaning of the word. Chaucer says " The rich man full fond is, I wig, That weneth (fancies) that he loved is." (3) Fraught connected in derivation with freight laden, completely filled. (4) Lower, or lour from low to become low as if about to fall, hence to be heavy, dark, stormy, or threatening. (5) Hues A beautiful couplet; the lark, just "before mute, now tunefully pursues her flight amongst the very fragments, as it were, of the rainbow, floating about in the air. (6) Long forsook that is, only throughout the winter, for it waa the fisherman's acctisttmed nook. 32 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. The bounding colt forgets to play, Basking beneath the noon-tide ray, And stretched among the daisies pied 1 Of a green dingle's sloping side : While far beneath, where nature spreads Her boundless length of level meads, In loose luxuriance taught to stray, A thousand tumbling rills inlay 2 With silver veins the vale, or pass Redundant through the sparkling grass. Yet, in these presages rude, Midst her pensive solitude, Fancy,3 with prophetic glance, Sees the teeming* months advance ; The field, the forest, green and gay, The dappled 5 slope, the tedded hay; Sees the reddening orchard blow, The harvest wave, the vintage flow ; Sees June unfold his glossy robe Of thousand hues o'er all the globe ; Sees Ceres grasp her crown of corn, 6 And Plenty load her ample horn. 7 T. Warton. (1) Pied party-coloured or variegated like the pie, a bird so named. (2) Inlay a beautiful fancy ; the rills, like veins of silver, inlay the vale. The passage, however, is much marred by the sudden abandonment of the metaphor the expression " pass through," which follows, being purely literal. (3) Fancy, 4'c. t. e. fancy discovers the future in the present. She sees in the opening buds of spring the full-blown flowers of summer, and the ripe fruits of autumn. (4) Teeming from the Anglo-Saxon tym-an, to bring forth abundantly. (5) Dappled some derive this word from apple, as if streaked or spotted like an apple; but this etymology is doubtful. The word is more probably a diminutive of dab or daub, to spot or smear, as nibble of nip, and waddle of wade; hence, to dabble or dapple, is to spot or streak many times, or in many places. (6) Crown of corn Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, is usually represented with a chaplet of wheat around her temples. (7) Ample horn the horn of plenty, also called Cornucopise. The allusion is derived from ancient mythology, which informs us that Jupiter's nurse filled a goat's horn, which had been accidentally broken off, with fruits, and wreathing it with flowers, gave it to the babe, who, when he grew up and became powerful, made the horn the emblem of fertility. S*e Ovid, Fasti, lib. v. 115128. STUDIES IX ENGLISH POETttY. THE DYING MOTHER AND HER BABE.i THE room I well remember, and the bed On which she lay ; and all the faces, too, That crowded dark and mournfully around. Her father there, and mother, bending stood And down their aged cheeks fell many drops Of bitterness. Her husband too was there, And brothers, and they wept ; her sisters, too, Did weep and sorrow comfortless ; and all Within the house was dolorous and sad. This I remember well but better still I do remember, and will ne'er forget, The dying eye ! That eye alone was bright, And brighter grew, as nearer death approached ; As I have seen the gentle little flower Look fairest in the silver beam, which fell Reflected from the thunder-cloud, that soon Came down, and o'er the desert scattered far And wide its loveliness. 2 She made a sign To bring her babe ; 'twas brought, and by her placed. She looked upon its face, that neither smiled Nor wept, nor knew who gazed upon it ; arid laid Her hand upon its little breast, and sought For it with looks that seemed to penetrate The heavens unutterable blessings, such As God to dying parents only grants 1'or infants left behind them in the world. " God keep my child ! " we heard her say, and heard No more. The angel of the covenant "Was come, and faithful to his promise, stood Prepared to walk with her through death's dark vale. 3 And now her eyes grew bright, and brighter still Too bright for ours to look upon, suffused (1) This passage, though occasionally deformed by prosaic expressions and unmusical rhythm, depicts a deeply interesting scene in a very touching manner. (2) The interruption of the narrative at such a point, by a long simile, is in very questionable taste. The effect of the supernatural brightness of the " dying eye," upon the reader's mind, ought not to have been thus neutralized. (3) " Though I walk througli the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for thou art with me." Psalm xxiii 4. D 34- STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. With many tears and closed without a cloud. They set as sets the morning star, which goes Not down behind the darkened west, nor hides Obscured among the tempests of the sky, But melts away into the light of heaven. 1 Pollock, VENI CREATOR. 5 * CREATOR Spirit ! by whose aid The world's foundations first were laid, Corne visit every pious mind ; Come pour thy joys on human kind ; From sin and sorrow set us free, And make thy temples 3 worthy thee. source of uncreated light, The Father's promised Paraclete ! 4 Thrice holy fount, thrice holy fire, Our hearts with heavenly love inspire ; Come, and thy sacred unction bring, To sanctify us while we sing. Plenteous of grace descend from high, Rich in thy sevenfold energy ! Thou strength of his almighty hand, Whose power does heaven and earth command ! Proceeding Spirit, 5 our defence, Who dost the gift of tongues dispense, And crown'st thy gift with eloquence, (1) The comparison of the eye, whose brightness melted, as it were, into the light of an eternal day, to the morning star, is very beautiful, and it is clothed in most felicitous language. A similar thought occurs in Montgomery's poem entitled " Friends ; " speaking of friends as stars that pass away as the morning advances, he says (see p. 215) : " Nor sink those stars in empty night, They hide themselves in heaven's own light." Hide themselves in ligkt ! a very striking and picturesque expression. (2) Veni Creator '' Come, Creator," the first two words of a Latin hyran used in the Roman Catholic church. (3) Temples" Know ye not that ye are the temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? " 1 Cor. iii. 16. (4) Paraclete the Greek word for " Comforter.' (5) "The spirit of truth, which proceedutk from the father." John xv. 26. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 35 "Refine and purge our earthly parts ; But, oh ! inflame and fire our hearts ; Our frailties help, our vice control, Submit the senses to the soul ; And when -rebellious they are grown, Then lay thy hand, and hold them down. Chase from our minds the infernal foe, And peace, the fruit of love, bestow ; And lest our feet should step astray, Protect and guide us in the way. Make us eternal 1 truths receive, And practise all that we believe : Give us thyself, that we may see The Father, and the Son, by thee. Immortal 1 honour, endless 1 fame, Attend the Almighty Father's name : The Saviour Son be glorified, Who for lost man's redemption died : And equal adoration be, Eternal Paraclete, to thee ! Dryden. THE POPLARS. THE poplars are felled ; farewell to the shade, And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade ; 3 The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves, Nor Ouse 3 on its bosom their image receives. (1) Eternal, immortal, endless, everlasting, all convey the idea of perpetual existence they differ in the modification of that idea. That is eternal which always is, and cannot cease to be ; immortal, which always lives, which can never die ; endless, which hag no termination ; everlasting which has neither interruption nor termination. These words are very appropriately employed in the phrases " eternal truths," " immortal honour " (a figurative expression, since honour is not a living being), " endless fame," i. e. glory without end, "ever- lasting happiness." (2) Colonnade an architectural term designating a range of columns; here ingeniously applied to trees regularly disposed like pillars. (3) Ouse the Great Ouse in Buckinghamshire. D 2 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKY. 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 lieat ; And the scene where his melody charmed me before, Resounds with the sweet-flowing ditty no more. My fugitive years are all hasting away; And I must ere long lie as lowly as they, With a turf on my breast, and a stone at my head, Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead The change both my heart and my fancy employs ; I reflect on the frailty of man and his joys ; Short-lived as \re are, yet our pleasures, we see, Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we. Cowper, TO THE WEATHERCOCK.* THE dawn has broke, the morn is up, Another day begun, And there thy poised and gilded spear Is flashing in the sun, Upon that steep and lofty tower W T here thou thy watch 2 hast kept, A true and faithful sentinel, While all around thee slept. For years upon thee there has poured The summer's noon-day heat, And through the long, dark, starless night, The winter storms have beat ; (1) The good sense of these lines, and the originality with which a trite subject is treated, are more conspicuous than their strictly poetical merits. The style in some parts is almost prosaic, and the rhymes are occasionally incorrect, but the poem is nevertheless on the whole well worthy of preservation. It is the production of an American poet. (2) Watch originally identical with wake, as ditch with dike or dyke. In Wycliffe's Testament we have 'Wake ye and preie," &c., for " Watch ye and pray," &c. Mark xiv. 38. To watch, therefore, is to keep awake to observe ; hence the meaning of the noun is obvious. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 37 But yet tliy duty lias been done, By day and night the same ; Still thou hast watched and met the storm, Whichever way it came. No chilling blast in wrath has swept Along the distant heaven, But thou hast watch upon it kept, And instant warning given ; And when Midsummer's sultry beams Oppress all living things, Thou dost announce each breeze that comes With health upon its wings. How oft I've seen at early dawn, Or twilight's 1 quiet hour, The swallows, in their joyous glee, Come darting round thy tower, As if, with thee, to hail the sun, And catch his earliest light, And offer ye the morn's salute, Or bid ye both good night. And when around thee, or above, No breath of air has stirred, Thou seemst to watch the circling flight Of each free happy bird ; Till, after twittering round thy head, In many a mazy track, The whole delighted company Have settled on thy back. Then, if perchance amid their mirth A gentle breeze has sprung, And, prompt to mark its first approach, Thy eager form has swung, I've thought I almost heard thee say, As far aloft they flew, " Now all away ! here ends our play, For I have work to do ! " Men slander thee, my honest friend, And call thee, in their pride, An emblem of their fickleness, Thou ever faithful guide ! (1) Twilight from the Anglo-Saxon tweordM, doubtful light 38 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETBY. Each week, unstable human mind A " weathercock " they call : And thus, unthinkingly, mankind Abuse thee, one and all. They have no right to make thy name A by-word for their deeds : They change their friends, their principles, Their fashions and their creeds ; While thou hast ne'er, like them, been known Thus causelessly to range, But when thou changest sides, canst give Good reason for the change. Thou, like some lofty soul, whose course The thoughtless oft condemn, Art touched by many airs from heaven Which never breathe on them ; And moved by many impulses Which they can never know, Who, round their earth-bound circles, plod The dusty paths below. Through one more dark and cheerless night Thou well hast kept thy trust, And now in glory o'er thy head The morning light has burst : And unto earth's true watcher 1 thus, When his dark hours have passed, Will come the " day-spring 2 from on high," To cheer his path at last. Bright symbol of fidelity, Still may I think of thee ; And may the lesson thou dost teach Be never lost on me : But still in sunshine or in storm, Whatever task is mine, May I be faithful to my trust, As thou hast been to thine. A. G. Greene. (1) Earttfs true watcher one who faithfully watches on earth ; an allusion probably to the precept of our Saviour, " Watch ye, therefore : for ye know not when the master of the house cometh." Mark xiii. 35. (2) Day-spring the springing or rising of day the dawn ; figuratively em- ployed here to denote the dawn of a heavenly day, which, after the dark hours of his life, will burst on the view of the faithful watcher, i. r the true Christian. STUDIES IX ENGLISH POEXBT. 39 CHEVY CHACE.i GOD prosper long our noble king, Our lives and safeties all: A woeful hunting once there did la Chevy Chace 2 befal : To drive the deer with hound and horn Earl Percy took his way : The child may rue that is unborn, The hunting of that day. 3 The stout earl of Northumberland A vow to God did make, His pleasure in the Scottish woods Three summer days to take ; (1) This fine old ballad, which is in fact a modernised edition of a more ancient one, received its present form, it is thought, about the beginning of James the First's reign. The name of the author of the ancient song is Richard Sheale ; that of the moderniser is unknown. " The fine heroic song of Chevy Chace," writes Bishop Percy, " has ever been admired by competent j udg*>s. Those genuine strokes of natural and artless passion which have endeared it to the most simple readers, have recommended it to the most refined ; and it lias equally been the amusement of our childhood, and the favourite of our riper years." Sir Philip Sidney, in his " Defense of Poesy," writes thus respecting this ancient ballad : " I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet ; and yet is sung ( i. e. even when it is sung) but by some blind crowder (fiddler), with no rougher voice than rude style Addison, too, has eulogized the beauties of this poein the modern version in two numbers (70 and 74) of the " Spectator." As it may interest some readers to see a specimen of the ancient ballad, the following lines, which form the first stanza, are subjoined : |)CT 0fat off a bofae ia (Sob manb ty, rjt faolbf Jjuntc in fyt momxfagixs c. This stanza, the ." Doric delicacy" of which is praised by Mason, completes the poet's day, by supplying the evening. It is taken from Gray's first manuscript. (2) There scattered, 8jc. This exquisite stanza was printed in the earlier editions, bit afterwards omitted by the author "because lie thought it was too long a parenthesis in this place." The judgment is perhaps correct, but it is re-adiuitted here, notwithstanding, for the reason given in note 7, p. 61. 66 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Fair Science 1 frowned not on his humble birth, And Melancholy 2 marked him for her own. Large was his bounty, 3 and his soul sincere ; 4 Heaven did a recompense as largely send : He gave to misery all he had, a tear ; He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) a friend.5 No further seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, (There 6 they alike in trembling hope repose,) The bosom of his Father ana his God. Gray. TO A WATERFOWL. WHITHER, midst falling dew,' While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way ? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As darkly painted on the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. (1) Fair Science, fyc. i. e. the lowliness of his birth (not, however, that Gray's birth was actually humble) did not interfere with his successful pursuit of science and knowledge. (2) Gray was of a grave temperament, and yet, like Cowper, wrote some par- ticularly humorous poems. (3) Bounty The word usually refers to actual generosity, but here it seems to mean generosity of heart. (4) Sincere open and capable of friendship. (5) Friend probably the poet refers to his friend Mason. (6) There in their " dread abode," the bosom, i. e. the mercy of God, to whick he refers both his merits and his frailties. These notes may properly conclude with Dr. Johnson's judgment on the poem, that it " abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with senti- ments to which every bosom returns an echo." See " Life of Gray." (7) Falling dew This marks the time ; for the bird being high in the air, was not, of course, in the midst of " falling dew." STUDIES IN ENGLISH JOETRY. 67 Seek'st tliou the plashy 1 brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocky billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side ? There is a power 2 whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast 3 The desert and illimitable air Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fanned, At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near. And soon that toil shall end ; Soon shalt thou find a summer-home, and rest, And scream among thy fellows ; reeds shall bend, Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest. Thou'rt gone the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form ; yet, on my heart, Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart. He, who from zone to zone Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way, that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. Bryant. (1) Flashy from the noun plcuh. The termination *r,sft, according to Dr. Wallis, denotes a sharp, sudden motion, gradually subsiding, as in crash, Jlash, plash, ffc, See Ills " Grammatica Linguse Anglicanae," p. 160. (2) There is a power, Sfc. i. e. the inquiries in the last stanza seein to impute vagueness and indeci-ion to thy movements, but such is not their character ; There is a power that teaches thee thy way, &c. (3) Coast A. peculiar but striking use of the word, as if the bird were skirting the very vault of the sky. 68 STUDIES LN ENGLISH POETRY. ALEXANDER SELKIRK'S SOLILOQUY. 1 I AM monarch 2 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. solitude ! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face P Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place. 1 am out of humanity's 3 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 4 bestowed upon man, Oh ! 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 cheered by the sallies of youth. Religion ! what treasure untold Resides in that heavenly word ! More precious than silver and gold, Or all that this earth can afford. (1) Alexander Selkirk was a sailor, who having quarrelled with his captnin, was set on shore by him, in the year 1704, on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernan- dez, and remained there more than four years. (2) Monarch, sovereign The former word from the Greek ^dvos, alone, and apxos, a governor signifies one who has sole authority ; sovereign- from the Ixitin supremus (through the old English, sovran), highest one who has the highest authority. As there was no question of rank in Selkirk's case, the aptness of the word " monarch " is obvious. (:>) Humanity humim nature, mankind. (4) DivMeLytoi, the Latin divinitus, by divine providence, from heaven. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 69 But the sound of the church-going bell 1 These valleys and rocks never heard ; Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared. Ye winds ! that have made me your sport, 2 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 ? Oh ! 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-wiiiged arrows of light When 1 think of my own native land, la a moment I seem to be there ; But, alas ! recollection at hand, Soon hurries me back to despair. But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest, The beast is laid down in his lair ; 3 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. Cowper. THE HAPPY MAN.* How happy is he born and taught 5 That serveth not another's will ; Whose armour is his honest thought, 6 And simple truth his highest skill ; (1) The church-going bell This expression ought by analogy to mean the bell that goes to church, and is therefore censured by Wordsworth in the Appendix to his " Lyrical Ballads." (2) Sport This implies that the author supposed that Selkirk had been ship- wrecked, which, as just explained, waa not the fact. (3) Lair See note 1, p. 4. (4) Sir Henry Wotton, the author of this quaint and excellent poem, was a friend and contemporary of Milton. (5) Born and taught i. e. both by birth and education. (6) Honest tfioug/itbonesiy of purpose. 70 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. Whose soul is still 1 prepared for death ; Whose passions not his masters are ; Untied 2 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 with praise ; 8 Nor 4 rules of state, but rules of good : Who hath his life from rumours freed ; 6 Whose conscience is his strong retreat ; Whose state can neither flatterers feed, Nor ruin make oppressors great ; Who God doth late and early pray More of his grace than gifts to lend ; And entertains the harmless day With a religious book or friend : This man is freed 6 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. Walton. ODE ON THE SPRING.' Lo ! where the rosy-bosomed Hours,8 Fair Venus' train, appear, (1) Still always. (See note 2, p. 64.) (2) Untied, fyc. not connected with the world by anxiety about either public or private applause. (3) Praise flattery. (4) Nor, $c. i. e. who never understood rules of policy, but rules of right. (5) Rumours freed free from cares and anxieties. The remaining lines of this stanza are at once simple and vigorous. (6) Freed, fyc. from the slavish bonds both of hope and fear, for hope is no less enthralling than fear. (7) " The ' Ode on the Spring' is an epitome of everything beautiful upon this subject." Gilbert Wakefield. (8) Hours These fair damsels are represented in Homer and Hesiod, with the epithets " golden-armed " and " fair-haired," as forming the train of Venus. Their office here opening the flowers and waking the year, as messengers of the Queen of Beauty is most tastefully conceived. " Rosy-bosomed," says Wake- field, means, " with bosoms full of roses," perhaps rather, beautiful-bosomed. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 71 Disclose the long-expecting! flowers, And wake the purple 2 year ! The Attic warbler 3 pours her throat Responsive to the cuckoo's note, The untaught harmony 4 of spring ; While, whispering pleasures as they fly, Cool zephyrs through the clear blue sky Their gathered fragrance fling. "Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch A broader, browner shade ; Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech O'er-cauopies the glade, Beside some water's rushy brink With rile the muse shall sit, and think (At ease reclined in rustic state) How vain the ardour of the crowd, 5 How low, 6 how little are the proud, How indigent? the great ! Still is the toiling hand of care ; The panting 8 herds repose (1) Expecting In some editions " expected " is found ; obviously arery inferior reading. (2) Purple Virgil uses the expression " ver purpureum," meaning nothing more than the ' bright and beautiful spring," and this is probably the sense in which the word '' purple " is often employed by poets of the 18th century. (3) Attic warbler the nightingale. We find in Milton (" Paradise Kegatned," iv. 245): " The Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long." It is called the " Attic bird " because Philomela, who was changed, as the fables say, into a nightingale, was an Athenian maiden. (4) Harmony, melody The difference between these words is that the latter denotes a succession, the former a combination, of musical notes. (5) Ardour of the crowd equivalent to the " madding crowd's ignoble strife." See the " lilegy," note 4, p. 63. (6) How low, Sfc. These lines appeared thus in the first edition : " How low, how indigent the proud, How little are the great ! " but were subsequently altered " to avoid the sort of pun upon ' little ' and ' great.' " (7) Indigent because they lack the pure pleasures of nature. (8) Panting It may perhaps be objected to this epithet, and to parts of the last stanza, ' at ease reclined," &c., that they are more suitable to summer than to ppring. 72 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Yet hark, how through the peopled air The busy murmur glows I 1 The insect youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honeyed 2 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 3 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 through life's little day, In fortune's varying colours drest ; Brushed by the hand of rough mischanco, Or chilled by age, their airy dance They leave, in dust to rest. Methinks I hear, in accents low, The sportive kind 4 reply ; . "Poor moralist ! and what art thouP A solitary fly ! Thy joys no glittering female 5 meets, No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets, No painted 6 plumage to display ; On hasty wings thy youth is flown ; Thy sun is set, thy spring? is gone- We frolic while 'tis May." Gray. (1) Glows a daring, not to say audacious, word ; a murmur glows ! (2) Honeyed Dr. Johnson has censured the use of adjectives of this class, which look like participles, but are really derived from nouns. Such forms are, howevei, congenial to the spirit of our language ; thus we find " slippered pantaloon, 1 ' " tapestried hall," " spiced cup," " daisied bank," &c. (3) To Contemplation's, fyc. " This stanza furnishes the most curious specimen of a continued metaphor the happiest intermixture of the simile and the subject that the whole compass of poetry, ancient and modern, can produce.' 1 Gilbert Wakefield. (4) Sportive kind i. e. the sportive insects ; an awkward expression. (5) Glittering female In allusion, perhaps, to the glow-worm, the female of which is a wingless insect, and emits its light, it is thought, to attract the winged male. (6) Painted Phsedrus has " picta plumte" painted feathers. (7) Thy sun is let, thy spring, $c. It is a very common metaphor to repiesent life as a day or a year. Thus we speak of the dawn, morning, noon, suusut STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. TO THE BUTTERFLY.! CHILD of the sun ! pursue thy rapturous flight, Mingling with her thou lovesf. in fields of light, And where the flowers of Paradise unfold, Quaff fragrant nectar from their cups of gold : There shall thy wings, rich as an evening sky,2 Expand and shut with silent ecstasy : Yet wert thou once a worm a thing that crept On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb and slept. And such is man soon from his cell of clay To burst a seraph in the blaze of day. Rogers. THE CRUSADE." BOUND for holy Palestine, Nimbly we brushed the level brine, All in azure steel arrayed ; O'er tiie waves 4 our banners played, And made the dancing billows glow ; High upon the trophied 5 prow, Many a warrior-minstrel swung His sounding harp, and boldly sung. (as here), evening, and night of life ; as well as of its spring (as here), summer, autumn, and winter. This ode must, notwithstanding its many beauties, be regarded as unfini*hed, inasmuch as it omits all consideration of those " glorious hopes " which raise man beyond the reach of any comparison with the brutes that perish. How different the close of the next piece ! (1) The thought and diction of these lines are equally rich and beautiful. They are alive with a light that warms while it illumines. (2) Rich as an evening sky Happily descriptive an expression far transcending the " painted plumage " of Gray. See preceding page. (3) "The 'Crusade,'" says Campbell, A has a genuine air of martial and minstrel enthusiasm." (4) Waves, billows A wave (from the Anglo-Saxon wag, which is connected, perhaps, with wey-an, to weigh or balance), " may be defined," says Taylor, " a ridge of water in a state of oscillation." A billow (from the Anglo-Saxon bilig, a bulge or belly) is a wave that swells or bulges out more than others. (5) Trophied Adorned with trophies or memorials of victory. 71 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. " Syrian virgins, wail and weep, English Richard ploughs the deep ! Tremble, watchmen, as ye spy, From distant towers, with anxious eye, The radiant range of shield and lance Down Damascus' hills advance ; From Zion's turrets, as afar Ye keui the march of Europe's war !2 Saladin, thou paynim 3 king, From Albion's isle revenge we bring: On Acco's 4 spiry citadel, Though to the gale thy banners swell, Pictured with the silver moon, 5 England shall end thy glory soon In vain to break our firm array, Thy brazen drums 6 hoarse discord bray; Those sounds our rising fury fan; English Richard in the van, On to victory we go, A vaunting infidel the foe." Blondel led the tuneful band, And swept the wire with glowing hand. Cyprus, from her rocky mound, And Crete, with piny verdure crowned, Far along the smiling? main Echoed the prophetic strain. (1) Km from the Anglo-Saxon cenn-an, to know by the senses, especially sight, to descry; lo know generally. The word also means, to be able; thus implying the affirmation that " knowledge is power." (2) War put here for " forces," as in Milton's '' Paradise Lost," xii. 213 : " dli their embattled ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war." (3) Paynim from the Latin paganus, through the French payen. The word originally meant merely a countryman, then one who, as living remote from the civilising influence of towns, clung to old superstitions and errors, hence an unbeliever. It was also applied as a term of contempt by the Crusaders to the Mahometans. (4) Acco the ancient Ptolemais and the modern Acra (5) Silver moon The Turkish crescent. (6) Brazen drums To increase the din, Saladin had brass kettle-drums beaten during one of the battles. (7) Smiling i.e. sparkling in the sun. JEschylus. in the "Prometheus Viuctufl," beautifully refers to " the ocean-waves' unnumbered smiles." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 75 Soon we kissed the sacred earth That gave the suffering Saviour birth: Then with ardour fresh endued Thus the solemn song renewed : " Lo, the toilsome voyage past, Heaven's favoured hills appear at last 1 Object of our holy 1 vow, We tread the Syrian valleys now. From Carmel's almond-shielded steep We feel the cheering fragrance creep : O'er Engaddi's 2 shrubs of balm Waves the date-empurpled 3 palm. See Lebanon's aspiring head Wide his immortal umbrage 4 spread ! " Hail, Calvary, thou mountains hoar, Where sin's dread load the Saviour borej Ye trampled tombs, ye fanes forlorn, Ye stones, by tears of pilgrims worn ; Your ravished honours to restore, Fearless we climb the hostile shore. And thou, the sepulchre of God !* By mocking pagans rudely trod, Bereft of every awful rite, And quenched thy lamps that beamed so bright ; For thee, from Britain's distant coast, Lo. Richard leads his faithful host ! Aloft in his heroic hand, Blazing like the beacon's brand, (1) Holy a very much abused word when employed with reference to the Crusades generally. (2) Engaddian ancient city which stood on the western coast of the Dead Sea. We learn from Josephus that it was once famous for palm-trees and balsams, or balm-shrubs, but " at present," says Dr. Kobinson, who visited the spot in 1838, " not a palm-tree exists there." (3) Ditte-empurpLed adorned with dates. A very artificial epithet (See note 2, p. 71.) (4) Immortal umbrage in allusion to the remarkable longevity of the cediirs of Lebanon. The natives, and some travellers, believe the most ancient of these trees to be the survivors of those cut down by Solomon for the building of the Temple. (5) Mountain It is difficult to understand how Calvary got the name of " mountain." The word means a " skull," and seems to have been given to a small hillock of that shape. Nothing that deserves the name of mountain can be found, and there is no scriptural authority for the term. (6) Sepulchre of God the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, originally built by Constantine. That referred to in the text was built by the first Crusaders. 76 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY, O'er the far-affrighted fields, llesistless Kaliburn 1 he wields. Proud Saracen, pollute no more The shrines by martyrs built of yore ! From each wild mountain's trackless crown In view thy gloomy castles frown : Thy battering-engines,2 huge and high, In vain our steel-clad steeds defy ; And, rolling in terrific state, On giant-wheels 3 harsh thunders grate. " Salem, 4 in ancient majesty Arise, and lift thee to the sky ! Soon on thy battlements divine Shall wave the badge of Constantine. 5 Ye barons, to the sun unfold Our cross with crimson wove and gold." T. Warton, TO A MOUNTAIN DAISY, ON TUKNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH.6 WEE, 7 modest, crimson- tipped flower, Thou's met me in an evil hour ; For I maun crush amang the stoure 8 Thy slender stem ; To spare thee now is past my power, Thou bonnie 9 gem. (1) Kaliburn the sword of King Arthur, which, according to the monki.sU historians, came into the possession of Kichard. See an account of the wondertul performances of Kaliburn in Geoffrey of Monmouth's " British History," book ix. (2) Battering-engines battering-rams. (3) Giant-wheels The word " giant " is used in some compounds in the sense iif " very large." (See " giant-bound," p. 22.) " Horse " seems to bear the same in- terpretation, in horse-chestnut, horse-leech, horse-laugh, &c. (4) Sulem the ancient name of Jerusalem. It signifies " peace." (5) Badge of Constantine This refers to the " labarum," as the magnificent banner was called, which Constantine, after his conversion, adopted as the im- perial standard. It bore a cross woven in gold upon purple cloth ; not crimson, as implied in the text. (6) " The verses to the ' Mouse ' and ' Mountain Daisy ' were composed," saye the poet's brother, " on the occasions mentioned, and while the autlior was holding the plough." (7) Wee little. (8) Stoure dust. (9) Bonnie -beautiful. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 77 Alas ! it's no thy neebor 1 sweet, The bonnie lark, 2 companion meet, Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet, 3 Wi' speckled breast, When upward springing, blithe, to greet The purpling east. Cauld blew the bitter-biting north Upon thy early, humble birth ; Yet cheerfully thou glinted 4 forth Amid the storm, Scarce reared above the parent earth Thy tender form. The flaunting flowers our garden yields High sheltering woods and wa's 5 maun shield ; But thou, beneatli the random bield 6 O' clod or stane, Adorns 7 the histie stibble-field, 8 Unseen, alane. There, in thy scanty mantle clad, Thy snawie bosom sunward spread, Thou lifts thy unassuming head In humble guise : But now the share uptears thy bed, And low thou lies ! Such fate to suffering worth is given, Who long with wants and woes has striven, By human pride or cunning driven To misery's brink, Till, wrenched of every stay but Heaven, He, ruined, sink ! (1) fieebar neighbour. (2) Lark " I have seldom," says Mackenzie, " met with an image more truly pastoral, than that of the lark m the second stanza." (3) Woof rain, wetness. (4) Glinted peeped. '5) W^s walls. It is a characteristic of the lowland Scotch to elide the / in many words, thus, tea' for wall, a' for all, &c. (6) Random bield casual shelter. (7) Thou adorns In the northern dialect of the English language, to which the lowland Scotch is akin, all the persons, both singular and plural, of the present tense, are alike, and all end in s ; thus I adorns, thou adorns, he adorns, we adorns, /fcc. So in the second line, "thou's met," for, thou hast met. (8) Uistie stibUle-fielddiiy stubble-field. 78 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETIIY. Even thou who mourn'st the daisy's fate, That fate, is thine no distant date ; Stern Ruin's ploughshare 1 drives elate 2 Full on thy bloom, Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight, Shall be thy doom ! Burns. TO A MOUSE, ON TURNING HER TJP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOU&H.3 WEE, sleekit, 4 cowerin', timorous beastie, 5 Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie ! Thou needna start awa sae hasty, Wi' bickering brattle \ e I wad be laith 7 to rin an' chase thee, Wi' murdering pattle ! 8 I'm truly sorry man's dominion Has broken nature's social union, An' justifies that ill opinion, Which maks thee startle At me, thy poor earth-born companion, An' fellow mortal! I doubt na whyles,9 but thou may thieve ; What then ? poor beastie, thou maun live ! A daimen-icker 10 in a thrave 11 'S a sma' request : I'll get a blessin' wi' the lave, 13 And never niiss't ! (1) , .Eton's ploughshare a bold figure and strikingly in keeping with the sub- ject. It is borrowed from Young's " Night Thoughts " (see p. 408). (2) Elate triumphantly. (S) "The charm," says Lord Jeffrey, "of these fine lines will be found to con- sist in the simple tenderness of the delineation ;" and also, it may be added, in the hearty human sympathies which are interwoven with it. The words " fellow mortal," touch this chord with powerful effect. (4) Sleekit sleek, sly. (5) Beastie little beast. The termination ie mrfrks the diminutive. (6) Bickering brattle hasty run. (7) Laith loth ; as baith, both, (8) Pattle a small spade to clean the plough. (9) Whyles sometimes. (10) Daimen-icker an ear of corn met with occasionally. (11) Thrave shock of corn. (12) Lave leaving, the rest. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 79 Thy wee bit housie,! too, in ruin ! Its silly wa's the win's 3 are strewin' ! An' naething now, to big 3 a new ane, 0' foggage 4 green ! An' bleak December's wind ensuin', Baith suell 5 an' keen ! Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, An' weary winter coniiu' fast, An' 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 turned out for a' thy trouble, But6 house or bald, 7 To thole 8 the winter's sleety dribble And cranreuch9 cauld ! But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane, 10 In proving foresight may be vain : The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley, 11 An' lea'e us nought but grief and pain, JFor promised joy. Still thou art blest, compared wi' me ! The present only touches thee : But, och ! I backward cast my e'e On prospects drear ! An' forward, tho' I canna see, I guess an' fear. Burns. (1) Wee bit housie little bit of a house. (2) Win's -winds. The final consonant is often omitted, as an' for and, o' for of, &c. (3) Big build. (4) Foggage long grass. (5) Snellr bitter. (6) But without. (7) Hold abiding place, home. (8) Thole endure. (9) Cranreuch- hoar-frost (10) No thy lane not alone. (11) Gang ajt a-gley often go wrong. 80 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. A COMPARISON. i 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 enricli the nobler mind, a Neglected, leaves a dreary waste behind. Cowper. THE MESSIAH. 3 A SACRED ECLOGUE. YE nymphs of Solyma ! 4 begin the song : To heavenly themes sublimer 5 strains belong. The mossy fountains and the sylvan shades, The dreams of Pindus, 6 and the Aonian maids, Delight no more Thou' my voice inspire, Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire ! (1) A similar thought is found in the piece entitled " Thames " (see p. 9), but there it is merely suggested, here it is amply developed. (2) Nobler mind the Boil 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 coining 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) Subhmer 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. ',5; Mount Pindus, in Thessaly, and Aonia, a district of Bceotia, 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 them- selves, 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 Thau, fyc. t. e. the classic muses of Greece are unequal to such a subject, and. therefore, do Thou, &c. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 81 Rapt into future times, the bard 1 begun : A Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a son ! Prom Jesse's 2 root behold a branch arise, "Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies; The etherial Spirit o'er its leaves shall move, And on its top descend the mystic Dove. Ye heavens ! 3 from high the dewy nectar pour, And in soft silence shed the kindly shower ! The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid,* Prom storms a shelter, and from heat a shade. All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail ; Returning Justice 5 lift aloft her scale ; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend. Swift fly the years, and rise the expected morn ! Oh, spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born ! See nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring, With all the incense of the breathing spring : See lofty Lebanon his head advance, See nodding forests on the mountains dance : See spicy clouds from lowly Sharon rise, And Carmel's flowery top 6 perfume the skies ! Hark ! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers ; "Prepare the way !? a God, a God appears ! " "A God, a God ! " the vocal hills reply, The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity. Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies ! Sink down, ye mountains ! and ye valleys, rise ! With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay ; Be smooth, ye rocks ! ye rapid floods, give way ! The Saviour comes ! by ancient bards foretold : Hear him, ye deaf ! and all ye blind, behold ! 8 (1) The bard t. e. Isaiah, or the poet supposed to be endowed from above with the same inspiration. (2) Isaiah xi. 1. (3) Isaiah xlv. 8. (4) Isaiah xxv. 4. (5) Returning Justice Astrea, the goddess of justice, according to the fable, left the earth in the iron age, being unable to endure the sinfulness of mankind ; in this new golden age she will return. See also Isaiah ix. 7. (6) Carmefs flowery top " The good qualities of the soil of Carmel," says a modern traveller, "are apparent from the fact that many odoriferous plants and flowers, as hyacinths, jonquils, tazettos, anemones, &c., grow wild upon the mountain." (7) Isaiah xl. 3, 4. (8) Hear him, $c. so striking an expression that it were to be wished that the next four lines had been omitted, as they only tamely repeat the same idea. (i 82 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETBY. He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, And on the sightless eyeball pour the day : 'Tis he the obstructed paths of sound shall clear, And bid new mnsic charm the unfolding ear : The dumb 1 shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, And leap exulting, like the bounding roe : No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear, From every face he wipes off every tear : In adamantine 2 chains shall death be bound, And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound. As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air, Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs, By day o'ersees them, and by night protects ; The tender lambs he raises in his arms, Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms : Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, The promised father 3 of the future age. No more shall nation 4 against nation rise, Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes : Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er, The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more ; But useless lances into scythes shall bend, And the broad falchion 5 in a ploughshare end. Then palaces shall rise : the joyful son 6 Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun ; Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield, And the same hand that sowed, shall reap the field. The swain in barren deserts with surprise Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise ; And starts amid the thirsty winds to hear New falls of water murmuring in his ear. (1) Isaiah xxxv. 5, 6. (2) Adamantine from the Greek aSduas (in old Greek, steel), which is from a, not, and Sa/j-aia, to tame or subdue that which cannot be overpowered or broken, indissolubly strong. (3) Isaiah ix. 6. (4) Isaiah ii. 4. (5) Falchion from the Latin fall, a reaping-hook or sickle a hooked or arched sword. (6) Isaiah Ixv. 21, 22. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETB.T. 83 On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes, The green reed trembles, 1 and the bulrush^ nods. Waste sandy valleys, 3 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. 4 The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. 5 The smiling infant in his hand shall take The crested basilisk 6 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 towery 8 head, and lift thy eyes ! See a long race thy spacious courts adorn ; 8 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 Sabsean 11 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 but, for bull, is augmentative a bulrush is a large rush. '' Horse " is used in the same manner, see note 3. p. 76. It may be remarked that the Greeks employed the corresponding words, /Sovs and I'THTOS, in a similar way : thus the epithet /Soums, ex-eyed, applied by Homer to Juno and others, means, having large and beautiful eyes (3) Isaiah xli. 19 ; lv. 13. (4) Isaiah xi. 6, 7, 8. (5) Isaiah Ixv. 25. (6) Basifakiiom the Greek /WiXioxos, a little king a serpent with a crest which was fancifully thought like a crown. Some think the spectacle- snake of India is the species intended. A glance from the basilisk's eyes was vulgarly said to be fatal. (7) Isaiah Ix. 1. (8) Towery may either mean literally fortified with towers, or figaratively, rising like a tower ; lofty. (9) Isaiah Ix. 4. (10) Isaiah Ix. 3. (11) Sabaan Sabsea was a district of Arabia Felix, noted for Its frankincense, myrrh, balsam, &c. It is supposed to be the Sheba of Scripture. G 2 84 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 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 hlaze, O'erflow thy courts : the LIGHT HIMSELF shall shine Revealed, and God's eternal day be tliine ! 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 I 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 have I been told That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne : Yet never did 1 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. Keats. (1) Isaiahli. 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 ot conception and phraseology ; but Chapman, after btU, is only a dim reflection of the noble features of the original. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. 65 THE MEMORY OF THE BRAVE. 1 How sleep 2 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 sod 3 Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. By fairy hands 4 their knell is rung ; By forms unseen 4 their dirge is sung : There Honour comes, a pilgrim grey, 5 To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; And Freedom 6 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, 8 rolling rapidly. (1) Montgomery has said, perhaps with some degree of pardonable exag- geration, 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, S;c. " Not," says Montgomery, " how sweetly, soundly, happily, for all these are included La 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 greyA. " 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, fyc. 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, 1SOO. (8; her, or Isar a tributary of the Danube. 86 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 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, 1 Shout in their sulphurous canopy. The combat deepens. On, ye brave, Who rusli 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. Campbell. IE 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. (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. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKY. 87 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. CamfbeU* 83 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. THE MOTHER'S SACRIFICE. " WHAT shall I render Thee, Father Supreme, For thy rich gifts, and this the best of all?" Said a young mother, as she fondly watched Her sleeping babe. There was an answering voice That night in dreams : " Thou hast a little bud Wrapt in thy breast, and fed with dews of love : Give me that bud. 'Twill be a flower in heaven." 1 But there was silence. Yea, a hush so deep, Breathless, and terror-stricken, that the lip Blanched in its trance. " Thou hast a little harp How sweetly would it swell the angel's hymn : Give me that harp." There burst a shuddering sob, As if the bosom by some hidden sword Were cleft in twain. Morn came. A blight had struck The crimson velvet of the unfolding bud ; The harp-strings rang a thrilling strain and broke And that young mother lay upon the earth, In childless agony. Again the voice That stirred her vision : " He who asked of thee Loveth a cheerful giver." So she raised Her gushing eyes, and, ere the tear-drop dried Upon its fringes, smiled and that meek smile, Like Abraham's faith, was counted righteousness. Mrs. Sigourney. (1) This beautiful metaphor is also found in Coleridge's "Epitaph on an Infant : " " Ere sin could blight and sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care, The opening bud to heaven conveyed, And bade it blossom there." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 89 SONG FOR THE WANDERING JEW.i THOUGH the torrents from their fountains Roar down many a craggy steep, Yet they find among the mountains Resting-places calm and deep. Clouds that love through air to hasten Ere the storm its fury stills, Helmet-like themselves will fasten On the heads of towering hills. What, if through the frozen centre Of the Alps the chamois bound, Yet he has a home to enter Jn some nook of chosen ground. And the sea-horse, though the ocean Yield him no domestic cave, Slumbers, without sense of motion, Couched upon the rocking wave. If on windy days the raven Gambol like a dancing skiff, Not the less she loves her haven In the bosom of the cliff. The fleet ostrich till day close Vagrant over desert sands, Brooding on her eggs reposes When chill night that care demands. Day and night my toils redouble, Never nearer to the goal ; Night and day I feel the trouble Of the Wanderer in mv soul. Wordsworth. (1) The legend of the Wandering Jew is of great, but unknown, antiquity. He was, the fable informs us, Pilate's porter, and when the soldiers were dragging the Saviour out of the judgment-hall, struck him on the back, saying, " Go faster, Jesus, go faster; why dost thou linger?" upon which Christ said to him, "I indeed am going, but thou shalt tarry till I come." He was soon after converted, but the doom rested upon him, and even so lately as 1228, an Armenian bishop visiting England, professed with all sincent3 r to have dined recently with the man. See Percy's ' Reliaues of Ancient English Poetry," vol iii. p. 133. 90 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. OLD AGE. THE seas are quiet 1 when the winds give o'er ; So calm 1 are we when passions are no more. For then we know how vain it was to boast Of fleeting things so certain to be lost. Clouds of affection 2 from our younger eyes Conceal that emptiness which age descries, The soul's dark cottage, 3 battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made. Stronger by weakness,* wiser, men become, As they draw near to their eternal home : Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new. Waller. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE NOT a drum was heard,) not a funeral note, As his corse Ito the rampart we hurried ; Not a soldier'discliarged his farewell shot O'er the grave\ where our hero we buried. (11 Quiet, calm That is quiet which is made so by circumstances, and is, therefore, superficially at rest; that is calm which is quiet by constitution or which is altogether at rest. An angry man may be quiet externally, but certainly not calm. (2) Affection -t. e. love for the "fleeting things" of the world. (3) Soul's dark cottage i. e. the body, called in Job iv. 19, ' a house of clay," and in 2 Cor. v. 1, " our earthly house of this tabernable ;" or, more correctly, " this earthly house, this tabernacle." (4) Stronger by weakness because the soul's strength increases as the body's decays. Milton, in his u Prose Works," employs a very fine expression, some- thing like this of Waller's, when he speaks of " the martyrs, with the unresistable might of weakness, shaking the powers of darkness." (5) This poem is doubtless one of the most affecting of its kind ever written. The conceptions, the language, the rhythm, all unite in forcibly impressing the reader with the reality of the scene, and making him not a spectator merely, but a sharer in the mournful ceremony. Sir John Moore died January 16th, 1809, nt Corunna. of a wound which he received in the battle which took place there between the English under his command, and the French headed by Marshal Soult. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 91 "We buried him darkly)at dead of night, The sodlwith our bayonets turning, By the struggling moonbeam's} misty light, And the lantern) dimly burning. No useless coffin/ enclosed his breast, Nor in sheet nor in shroudjwe wound him; But he laid like a warrior) taking his rest, With his martial cloak |around him. 1 Pew and short (were the prayers we said, And we spoke not] a word of sorrow ; But we steadfastly gazed] on the face of the dead, 2 And we bitterly thought] of the morrow. 3 We thought, as we hollowedfhis narrow bed, 4 And smoothed downjhis lonely pillow, That the foe and the stranger Kvould tread o'er his head, And we fur away Ion the billow ! Lightly they'll talklbf the spirit that's gone, And o'er his cold asiiesfupbraid him ; But little he'll reckj^if they let him sleep on In the grave where a Britonjhas laid him. But half of our heavy taskjwas done > When the clock struck (the hour for retiring ; And we heard the distant fend random gun Of the enemyjsullenly firing. 5 (1) Lord Byron, who considered this poem one of the finest in our language, pronounced this stanza perfect, particularly the last two lines. The art with which the writer, under the semblance of a figure, displays the actual circum- stances, is very striking. It reminds one of the Grecian artist's picture of a curtain, which was taken for the curtain itself. (2) frace of the dead some copies read " face that wasdead," which is discarded from the text, first, because we can scarcely with propriety speak of " a dead lace," and secondly, if we could, the meaning is unnecessarily restricted by con- fining the triumph of death to a part only of the once active frame. (3) The morrow because the British troops were to embark the next morning. (4) Narrow bed the conception of the bed and pillow gracefully harmonizes with that of the warrior " taking his rest." (5) Sullenly firing As if in spite, because they had been defeated. One of the readings of these two lines is : " And we heard by the distant and random gun That the foe were suddenly firing." That is, we heard by the firing that the enemy was suddenly firing, which is either i redundant expression, or else implies that the report of the guns notified a sudden, that is, a new attack, which, however, is inconsistent with the facts. 92 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field or his fame|resh and gory; We carved not a line,] and we raised not a stone- But we left him alone Kvith his glory ! Wolff. THE HAUNTED HOUSE.i A ROMANCE. SOME dreams we have are nothing else but dreams, Unnatural, and full of contradictions ; Yet others of our most romantic schemes Are something more than fictions. It might be only on enchanted ground ; It might be merely by a thought's expansion ; But, in the spirit or the flesh, I found An old deserted mansion ; A residence for woman, child, and man, A dwelling-place and yet no habitation ; A house but under some prodigious ban Of excommunication. Unhinged, the iron gates half open hung, J arred by the gusty gales of many winters, That from its crumbled pedestals had flung One marble globe in splinters. No dog was at the threshold, great or small ; No pigeon on the roof no household creature No cat demurely dozing on the wall Not one domestic feature. No human figure stirr'd, to go or come, No face looked forth from shut or open casement; No chimney smoked there was no sign of home Erom parapet to basement. (1) The extract here given is a portion only of a poem of Hood's with the above title, but it gives a good idea of the author's skill in the choice of details which, by accumulation, make up a striking picture. The aptness, too, of the epithets, which give tone and colour to the picture, and the musical flow of the verse, evince a high degree of artistical ingenuity. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 93 With shatter' d panes the grassy court was starr'd ; The time-worn coping stone Jiad tumbled after ; And through the ragged roof the sky shone, barr'd With naked beam aud rafter. O'er all there hung a shadow and a fear ; A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, The place is haunted ! The flower grew wild and rankly as the weed, Hoses with thistles struggled for espial, 1 And vagrant plants of a parasitic breed Had overgrown the dial. But gay or gloomy, steadfast or infirm, No heart was there to heed t.lie hour's duration; All times and tides were lost in one long term Of stagnant desolation. The wren had built within the porch she found Its quiet loneliness so sure and thorough ; And on the lawn, within its turfy mound, The rabbit made his burrow : The rabbit wild and grey, that flitted through The shrubby clumps, and frisked, and sat, aud vanished ; But leisurely and bold, as if he knew His enemy was banished. The weary crow, the pheasant from the woods, Lulled by the still and everlasting sameness, Close to the mansion, like domestic broods, Fed with a " shocking tameiiess." The coot was swimming in the reedy pond, Beside the water-hen, so soon affrighted ; And in the weedy moat the heron, fond Of solitude, alighted; The moping heron, motionless and stiff, That on a stone, as silently and stilly, Stood, an apparent sentinel, as if To guard the water-lily. (1) i. e. to try which could look over the other. 94 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETBT. No sound was heard, except, from far away, The ringing of the whitwall's shrilly laughter, Or now and then the chatter of the jay, That echo murmur'd after. But echo never niock'd the human tongue ; Some mighty crime, that heaven could not pardon, A secret curse on that old building hung, And its deserted garden. The beds were all untouch'd by hand or tool ; No footstep marked the damp and mossy gravel; Each walk was green as is the mantled pool, For want of human travel. The vine unpruned, and the neglected peach, Droop'd from the wall with which they used to grapple ; And on the canker'd tree, in easy reach, Rotted the golden apple. But awfully the truant shunn'd the ground, The vagrant kept aloof, and daring poacher ; In spite of gaps, that through the fences round Invited the encroacher. For over all there hung a cloud of fear, A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, And said as plain as whisper in the ear, The place is haunted ! The pear and quince lay squandered on the grass ; The mound was purpled with unheeded showers Of bloomy plums a wilderness it was Of fruits, and weeds, and flowers. The marigold amidst the nettles blew, The gourd embraced the rose-bush in its ramble, The thistle and the stock together grew, The hollyhock and bramble. The bear-bine with the lilac interlaced, The sturdy bur-dock choked its slender neighbour, The spicy pink. All tokens were effaced Of human care and labour. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 95 The very yew formality had train'd To such a rigid pyramidal stature, For want of trimming had almost regained The raggedness of nature. The fountain was a-dry neglect and time Had marr'd the work of artizan and mason, And efts and croaking frogs, begot of slime, Sprawl'd in the ruiii'd bason. The statue, fallen from its marble base, Amidst the refuse leaves, and herbage rotten, Lay like the idol of some bygone race, Its name and rites forgotten. On every side the aspect was the same, All ruin'd, desolate, forlorn, and savage ; No hand or foot within the precinct came To rectify or ravage. For over all there hung a cloud of fear, A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, And said as plain as whisper in the ear, The place is haunted ! ***** Hood. MAY HORNING.* Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap 2 throws The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire; Woods and groves^ are of thy dressing, Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long. Milton. (1) Not the least charm of this graceful salutation to May morning is the sudden change of the metre in the fifth line, which seems as it were to introduce us at once into the presence of the fair vision, whose approach is indicated by the previous passage. (2) Green lap Spenser describes " faire May " as " throwing flowers out of her lap around." (3) Woods and graves, Sfc.i. e. thou deckest them with verdure. 96 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POKTJil. LAVINIA. THE lovely young Lavinia once had friends; And fortune smiled deceitful on her birth : For, in her helpless years deprived of all, Of every stay, save innocence and Heaven, She, with her widowed mother, feeble, old, And poor, lived in a cottage, far retired Among the windings of a woody vale ; By solitude and deep surrounding shades, But more by bashful modesty, concealed. Together thus they shunned the cruel scorn Which virtue, sunk to poverty, would meet From giddy passion, and low-minded pride ; Almost on Nature's bounty fed, Like the gay birds that sung them to repose, Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare. Her form was fresher than the morning rose, When the dew wets its leaves ; unstained and pure, As is the lily or the mountain snow. The modest virtues mingled in her eyes, Still on the ground dejected, 1 darting all Their humid beams into the blooming flowers ; Or when the mournful tale her mother told, Of what, her faithless fortune promised once, Thrilled in her thought, they, like the dewy star Of evening, shone in tears. A native grace Sat fair-proportioned on her polished 2 limbs, Veiled in a simple robe, their best attire, Beyond the pomp of dress ; for loveliness Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, But is, when unadorned, adorned the most. Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self, Recluse amidst the close-embowering woods : (1) Dejected cast down, referring to the eyes, not to the feelings a very peculiar application of the term. (2) Polished Dr. Johnson has proposed a critical canon, which though not universally true, may perhaps be considered as applicable here : it is, that " an epithet or metaphor drawn from nature ennobles art ; an epithet or metaphor drawn from art degrades nature." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POEXRY. 97 As ini the hollow breast of Apennine, Beneath the shelter of encircling hills, A myrtle rises, far from human eye, And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild ; So flourished, blooming, and unseen by all, The sweet Lavinia. Thomson. STONEHENGE.2 THOTJ noblest monument of Albion's isle ! Whether by Merlin's3 aid from Scythia's shore, To Amber's fatal plain 4 Pendragori 5 bore, Huge frame of giant-hands, the mighty pile, To entomb his Britons slain by Hengist's guile ; , Or Druid priests, sprinkled with human gore, Taught mid thy massy maze their mystic lore ; Or Danish chiefs, enriched with savage spoil, To victory's idol vast, an unhewn shrine, Reared the rude heap ; or, in thy hallowed round, Repose the kings of Brutus' 6 genuine line ; Or here those kings in solemn state were crowned : Studious to trace thy wondrous origin, We muse on many an ancient tale reuowned.7 Thomas Warton. (1) As in, $c. Compare this beautiful passage with Gray's lines, beginning " Full many a gem," p. 62. (2) This word, though the name of an ancient British memorial, seems to be Anglo-Saxon, and signifies hanging or hung up stones See Philological Society's Journal, No. 130. (3) Merlin a renowned enchanter, as he was called, who lived in the times of King Arthur, and who is fabulously said to have transported these stones from Africa, first to Ireland, and thence to Salisbury Plain. (4) Amber's fatal plain so called from Ambrose, the uncle of King Arthur ; styled "fatal" from the massacre of the Britons, which is said to have taken place here. (5) Pendragon Dragon's head a name of ofiice ; here probably meant for Uther Pendragon, the father of Arthur. (6) Brutus The great-grandson of .SDneas, who is fabulously said to have landed at Totnes, in Devonshire, and made himself king of the island, giving it the name of Britain from his own. See Milton's " History of Britain." (7) " Nothing can be more admirable than the learning here displayed, or the inference from it, that it is of no use but as it leads to interesting thought and reflection." Hazliit. H 98 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. THE FIRMAMENT.* WHEN I survey the bright Celestial sphere, So rich with jewels hung, that night Doth like an Ethiop bride appear, My soul her wings doth spread, And heavenward flies, The Almighty's mysteries to read In the large volumes of the skies. For the bright firmament Shoots forth no flame So silent, but is eloquent In speaking the Creator's name. No unregarded star Contracts its light Into so small a character, Eemoved far from our human sight, But if we steadfast look, We shall discern In it, as iii some holy book, How man may heavenly knowledge learn. Ralington, BEES.3 YE musical hounds of the fairy king, Who hunt for the golden dew, Who track for your game the green coverts of spring, Till the echoes, that lurk in the flower-bells, ring With the peal of your elfin 3 crew ! (1) These fine lines and the first four especially deserve the epitaph were written in the early part of the seventeenth century. (2) This little poem presents a new and graceful handling of a trite subject. The first and last stanzas are original and striking. (3) Elfin from the Anglo-Saxon eelf, an elf, fairy. The Anglo-Saxons hart their dun, or mountain elves, wood elves, water elves, &c. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 99 How joyous your life, if its pleasures ye knew, Singing ever from bloom to bloom ! Ye wander the summer year's paradise through, The souls of the flowers are the viands for you, And the air that you breathe, perfume. But unenvied your joys, while the richest you miss, And before you no brighter life lies : Who would part with his cares for enjoyment like this, When the tears 1 that embitter the pure spirit's bliss May be pearls in the crown of the skies ! MUSIC ON THE WATERS. 2 THE foot of music is on the waters, Hark ! how fairily, sweetly it treads, As in the dance of Orestes' daughters, 3 Now it advances and now recedes ; Now it lingers among the billows, Where some one fonder than the rest, Clasps the rover in passing, and pillows Her softly upon its heaving breast. Oft she flies, and her steps, though light, Make the green waves all tremble beneath her ; Now the quick ear cannot follow her flight, And the flood is unstirred as the calm blue ether. (1) The tears, Sfc, i. e. the sorrows of earth may be appointed by God as the very means of fixing the affections on heaven. (2) The measure of these lines very aptly illustrates their subject; this is effected by an artful and ingenious intermingling of various metrical feet. The following scheme of the first stanza will exemplify the remark. The points out the accented syllables. I- The advancing and receding in the last line are most skilfully represented. (3) Orestes' daughters It is difficult to say who Orestes' daughters vrero; probably the Oreades or mountain nymphs are meant. H 2 100 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRI. GREECE.i HE who hath bent him o'er the dead, Ere the first day of deatli is fled, Before decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers ; And marked the mild angelic air, The rapture of repose that's there, The fixed yet tender traits that streak The languor of the placid cheek ; And but for that sad shrouded eye, That fires not wins not weeps hot now; And but for that chill, changeless brow, Where cold obstruction's 2 apathy Appals the gazing mourner's heart, As if to him it could impart The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon ; Yes, but for these, and these alone, Some moments, aye, one treacherous hour, He still might doubt the tyrant's power : So fair, so calm, so softly sealed, The first last look by death revealed ! Such is the aspect of this shore ; Tis Greece but living Greece no more '.3 So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, We start for soul is wanting there. Hers is the loveliness in deatli, That parts not quite with parting breath, But beauty with that fearful bloom, Tliat hue which haunts it to the tomb (1) There is, perhaps.no instance in our poetical literature in which & continued simile is so beautifully sustained, as that which runs through these lines. The affecting picture nf the lovely form, no longer animated by the living spirit, deeply vouching in itself, derives a new interest from its exquisite adaptation to the subject which suggested it. The music of the rhythm too so soft, so delicately modulated floats like a requiem over the whole, and leaves nothing to be desired in consummating the effect. (2) Cold obstruction This expression is taken from Shakspere, who speaks of the dead as " lying in cold obstruction," in allusion to the stoppage of the animal functions. (3) The following passage, from Gillies' "History of Greece," is thought to have suggested the above comparison : " The present state of Greece, compared to the ancient, is the silent obscurity of the grave contrasted with the vivid lustre of active life." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 10] Expression's last receding ray, A gilded halo hovering round decay, The farewell beam of feeling past away ! Spark of that flame that flame of heavenly birth Which gleams but warms no more its cherished earth ! Clime of the unforgotten brave! 1 Whose land from plain to mountain-cave Was freedom's home or glory's grave ! Shrine of the mighty ! can it be, That this is all remains of thee ? Approach, thou craven crouching slave, Say, is not this Thermopylae ?* These waters blue that round you lave, Oh, servile offspring of the free, Pronounce what sea, what shore is this ? The gulf, the rock of Salamis ! 2 These scenes, their story not unknown, Arise, and make again your own ; Snatch from the ashes of your sires The embers of their former fires ; And he who in the strife expires Will add to theirs a name of fear That tyranny shall quake to hear, And leave his sons a hope, a fame, They too will rather die than shame : For freedom's battle once begun, Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled ofD is ever won. Bear witness, Greece, thy living page, Attest it many a deathless age ! While kings, in dusty darkness hid, Have left a nameless pyramid, Thy heroes, though the general doom Hath swept the column from their tomb, A mightier monument command, The mountains of their native land ! (1) The transition here to another variation of the same theme, by a change of key, as it were, is very striking. The energy of these lines is as remarkable as the pathos of the preceding. 2) Thermopylae, Salamis An instance of the suggestive power of a name. Xo description is given of the deeds for which these places were remarkable the simple mention of them is enough. , 102 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. There points thy Muse to stranger's eye, The graves of those (hat cannot die ! 'Twere long to tell, and sad to trace Each step from splendour to disgrace ; Enough no foreign foe could quell Thy soul, till from itself it fell ; Yes ! self-abasement, paved the way To villain- bonds and despot sway. THERMOPYLAE. THEY fell devoted, but undying ; The very gale their name seemed sighing; The waters murmured of their name, The woods were peopled with their fame ; The silent pillar, lone and grey, Claimed kindred with their sacred clay ; Their spirits wrapped the dusky mountain, Their memory sparkled o'er the fountain ; The meanest rill, the mightiest river, Rolls mingling with their fame for ever. Byron. TO A SKYLARK. 1 ETHEREAL minstrel ! pilgrim of the sky ! Dost thou despise the earth, where cares abound ? Or, while tlie wings aspire, are heart and eye JBoth with thy nest upon the dewy ground ? The 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's! thou seem, 2 proud privilege ! to sing All independent of the leafy spring. (1) It is difficult to conceive anything more exquisitely graceful than these lines ; the last two especially, and that beginning, ' A. privacy of,' 1 &c., may be characterized as perfect. (2) Yet mighfst thou seem, 8fC.i. e. yet you mount so high, that you might seem to have lost all connection with earth, and not to be inspired by the genial in- fluences of spring, which prompt the songs of other birds. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 103 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 ! Wordsworth. THE CATARACT AND THE STREAMLET,* OR POWER AND GENTLENESS. NOBLE the mountain stream, Bursting in grandeur from its 'vantage ground ; 2 Glory is in its gleam Of brightness thunder in its deafening sound : Mark, how its foamy spray, Tinged by the sunbeams with reflected dyes, Mimics the bow of day, Arching in majesty the vaulted skies ; Thence, in a summer shower, Steeping the rocks around ; Oh ! tell me where Could majesty and power Be clothed in forms more beautifully fair ? Yet lovelier, in my view, The Streamlet, flowing silently serene ; Traced by the brighter hue, And livelier growth^ it gives ; itself unseen ! It flows through flowery meads, Gladdening the herds which on its margin browse ; Its quiet beauty feeds The alders that o'ershade it with their boughs. (1) The excellent moral of this piece is recommended by its tasteful style and 1 versification. The closing stanza is finely expressed: (2) ' Vantage ground 'vantage is a contraction of advantage, and the expression is equivalent to, position of advantage, i. e. an elevated and commanding position. (3) Livelier growth Cowper speaks of the rills that " Lose themselves at length In matted grass, that with a livelier green Betrays the secret of their silent course." 104- STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Gently it murmurs, by The village churchyard, in low plaintive tone, A dirge-like melody For worth and beauty modest as its own. More gaily now it sweeps By the small school-house, in the sunshine bright ; And o'er the pebbles leaps, Like happy hearts by holiday made light. May not its course express, In characters which they who run may read, The charms of gentleness, Were but its still small voice allowed to plead ? What are the trophies gained By power, alone, with all its noise and strife, To that meek wreath, unstained, Won by the charities 1 that gladden life ? Niagara's streams might fail, And human happiness be undisturbed : But Egypt would turn pale, Were her still Nile's o'erflowing bounty curbed ! Bernard Barton. GOD'S WATCHFUL CARE. THE insect, that with puny wing Just shoots along one summer ray, The floweret which the breath of spring Wakes into life for half a day, The smallest mote, the tenderest hair, All feel a heavenly Father's care. E'en from the glories of his throne He bends to view this earthly ball ; Sees all as if that all were one, Loves one as if that one were all ; Rolls the swift planets in their spheres, And counts the sinner's lonely tears. (1) Charities from the Greek xP l s. favour, love the domestic affections. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETET. 105 THE VANITY OE HUMAN WISHES i ABRIDGED. LET observation, with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru ; 2 Remark eacli anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life ; Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate, O'erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate, Where wayering man, betrayed by venturous pride To tread the dreary paths without a guide, As treacherous phantoms in the midst delude, Shuns fancied ills, or chases airy good. How rarely reason guides the stubborn choice, Kules the bold hand, or prompts the suppliant voice ! How nations sink, by darling schemes opprest, When vengeance listens to the fool's request ! Eate wings with every wish the afflictive dart, Each gilt of nature, and each grace of art ; With fatal heat impetuous courage glows, With fatal sweetness elocution flows, Impeachment 3 stops the speaker's powerful breath, And restless fire precipitates on death. The needy traveller, serene and gay, Walks the wild heath, and sings his toil away. Does envy seize thee? crush the upbraiding joy Increase his riches, and his peace destroy : Now fears in dire vicissitude invade, The rustling brake alarms, and quivering shade, Nor light nor darkness brings his pain relief, One shows the plunder and one hides the thief. In full-blown dignity, see Wolsey stand, Law in his voice, and fortune in his hand : (1) " The Vanity of Human "Wishes " is an imitation not a translation of the 10th Satire of Juvenal, and notwithstanding occasional tautology and needless pomposity of stj-le, is a nervous and energetic poem. Sir Walter Scott praises its deep and pathetic morality ;" and Lord Byron calls it tl a grand poem," though he does not " much admire the opening." (2) On this couplet Coleridge justly remarks, that it is as much as to say, a let observation with extensive observation observe mankind." (3) Impeachment from the French empecher, to hinder, arrest a charge of grave importance brought against a public character. 106 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. To him the church, the realm, their powers consign, Through him the rays of regal bounty shine, Turned by his nod the stream of honour Hows, His smile alone security bestows. Still to new heights his restless wishes tower ; Claim leads to claim, and power advances power ; Till conquest, unresisted, ceased to please, And rights submitted left him none to seize : At length his Sovereign frowns the train of state Mark the keen glance, and watch the sign to hate : Where'er he turns he meets a stranger's eye,, His suppliants scorn him. and his followers fly ; Now drops at once the pride of awful state The golden canopy, the glittering plate, The regal palace, the luxurious board. The liveried army, and the menial lord. 1 With age, with cares, with maladies opprest, He seeks the refuge of monastic rest. Grief aids disease, remembered folly stings, And his last sighs reproach the faith of kings. Speak, thou whose thoughts at humble peace repine, Shall Wolsey's wealth with Wolsey's end be thine ? Or livest thou now, with safer pride content, The wisest justice on the banks of Trent ? For why did Wolsey, near the steeps of fate, On weak foundations raise the enormous weight P Why but to sink beneath misfortune's blow. With louder ruin to the gulfs below. On what foundation stands the warrior's pride, How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles decide. A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers friglit him, and no labours tire ; O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain, Unconquered lord of pleasure and of pain ; No joys to him pacific sceptres yield, War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field ; Behold surrounding kings their power combine, And one capitulate, 2 and one resign ; (1) Menial lord the lord of the menials, the steward of the household. (2) And one capitulate, S;c. Charles XII. compelled tlie King of Denmark to BUG for peace, and the King of Poland to resign his crown. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 107 Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain ; " Think nothing gained," he cries, " till nought remain : On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly, And all be mine beneath the polar sky." The march begins in military state, And nations on his eye suspended wait ; Stern famine guards the solitary coast, And winter barricades the realms of frost ; He comes nor want, nor cold, his course delay ; Hide, blushing glory, hide Pultowa's 1 day : The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands, And shows his miseries in distant lands : 2 Condemned a needy supplicant to wait, While ladies interpose, and slaves debate. But did not chance at length her error mend P Did no subverted empire mark his end ? Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound P Or hostile millions press him to the ground P His fall was destined to a barren strand, A petty fortress, 3 and a dubious hand ; He left the name at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale. In gay hostility and barbarous pride, With half mankind embattled at his side, Great Xerxes came to seize the certain prey, And starves exhausted regions 4 in his way ; Attendant flattery counts his myriads o'er, Till counted myriads soothe his pride no more ; Fresh praise is tried till madness fires his mind, The waves he lashes, and enchains the wind ; New powers are claimed, new powers are still bestowed, Till rude resistance lops the spreading god ; The daring Greeks deride the martial show, And heap their valleys with the gaudy foe ; (1) Pultowa At the battle of Pultowa, a town in Russia, Charles was com- pletely defeated by his rival, Peter the Great. (2) Distant lands He retired into the Turkish territory, to Bender, on the Dniester, where he was liberally entertained, notwithstanding the absurdity of his behaviour there. S'ee Voltaire's " Histoire de Charles XII." (3) Petty fortress Charles was struck dead by a shot from an unknown hand, while besieging Friedrichshall, in Norway. (4) Starves exhausted regions This is a Latinism, like " captum interfecit," he took and killed him ; so here, he exhausts and starves the regions. 108 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. The insulted sea with humbler thoughts he gains, A single skiff to speed his flight remains ; The encumbered oar 1 scarce leaves the dreaded coast Through purple billows and a floating host. But grant, 2 the virtues of a temperate prime Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crime ; An age that melts with unperceived decay, And glides with modest innocence away ; Whose peaceful day benevolence endears, "Whose night congratulating conscience cheers; The general favourite as the general friend ; Such age there is, and who shall wish its end ? Yet even on this her load misfortune flings, To press the weary minutes' flagging wings ; New sorrow rises as the day returns, A sister sickens, or a daughter mourns ; Now kindred merit fills the sable bier, Now lacerated friendship claims a tear ; Year chases year, decay pursues decay, Still drops some joy from withering life away ; New forms arise, and different views engage, Superfluous 3 lags the veteran on the stage, Till pitying nature signs the last release, And bids afflicted worth retire to peace. But few there are whom hours like these await, Who set unclouded in the gulfs of fate. From Lydia's monarch 4 should the search descend, By Solon cautioned to regard his end, In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Pears of the brave and follies of the wise ! .From Marlborough'sS eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift 6 expires a driveller and a show. (1) The encumbered oar, <5-c. Though extravagant, the language of this couplet presents a very striking picture of the scene. (2) But grant i. e. but suppose that, &c. (3) Superfluous, $c. A striking metaphor, ingenious, clear, and admirably expressed. (4) Lydia's monarch Croesus. (5) Marlboraugh's, tyc. He was afflicted with paralysis : " but," says a writer in the ' Penny Cyclopsedia,' " without at all seriously impairing his faculties ;" so that the above line is, at least, a poetical exaggeration. (6) Swift For some time before his death Swift's mind gave way, and he nt length died in a state of quiet idiotcy. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. J09 Where then shall hope and fear their objects find ? Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind ? Must helpless man in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate ? Must no dislike alarm, nor wishes rise, No cries invoke the mercies of the skies P Inquirer, cease ! petitions yet remain, Which heaven may hear, nor deem religion vain. Still raise for good the supplicating voice, But leave to heaven the measure and the choice. Safe in His power, whose eyes discern afar The secret ambush of a specious 1 prayer. Implore His aid, in His decisions rest, Secure whate'er He gives, He gives the best. Yet when the sense of sacred presence fires, And strong devotion to the skies aspires, Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind, Obedient passions, and a will resigned ; For love, which scarce collective man2 can fill ; For patience, sovereign o'er transmuted ill ; 3 For faith, that, panting for a happier seat, Counts death kind nature's signal of retreat : These goods for man the laws of heaven ordain, These goods He grants, who grants the power to gain ; With these celestial wisdom calms the mind, And makes the happiness she does not find. Johnson. LUCY. 4 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. (1) Secret ambush, r>j, a sound making one sound, accordant ; the harp sounded at the same time with the voice. (4) Philomela See note 3, p. 71. STUDIES IN EXGLISU POETRT. 113 Iloll on, tliou fair orb, and with gladness pursue The path that conducts thee to splendour again ; But man's faded glory what change shall renew ? Ah, fool ! to exult in a glory so vain ! " 'Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more : I mourn ; but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for yt>u ; For morn is approaching, your charms to restore, Perfumed witii fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew : Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn ; Kind nature the embryo blossom shall save : But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn ? Oh when shall it dawn on the night of the grave ? " 'Twas thus, by the light of false science betrayed, That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind, My thoughts wonU to roam from shade onward to shade, Destruction before me, and sorrow behind ; Oh pity, great Father of light, then I cried, Thy creature, that fain would not wander from thee ; Lo, humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride : From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free. " And darkness and doubt are now flying away ; No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn ; So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray, The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn. See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending, And nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom ! On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb." Beattie. THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB'S ARMi". THE Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, And his cohorts 2 were gleaming in purple and gold ; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. (1) Wont i. e. were once wont. (2) Cohort* A. cohort is strictly a troop of Roman soldiers only; it is here employed in a general sense, like the Greek word phalanx. I STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKT. Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, 1 That host with their banners at sunset were seen ; Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he past ; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved and for ever grew still. And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride, And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. And there lay the rider, distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail ; And the tents were all silent the banners alone The lances unlifted the trumpets unblown. And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail, Anci the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ; And the might of the Gentile, 2 unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord ! Byron. THE POET'S PLEA, "WHEN LONDON WAS THREATENED WITH ASSAULT. 3 CAPTAIN, or Colonel, or Knight in arms, Whose chance on these defenceless doors 4 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 5 (1) The comparison of the living and dead host respectively to the spring and autumn leaves is very apt and impressive. (2) And the mir.'ht, $c. This couplet forms a splendid close to the poem. (3) This exquisite sonnet was written in 1642, when the King's army, by Its near approach, alarmed the citizens of London. (4) Milton was then living in Aldersgate Street, London. (5) Chirms that call, $c. The poet's power is like that attributed to the charms and spells of the magician he can make thee famous spread thy name, &c. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 115 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 1 bid spare The house of Pindarus, 2 when temple and tower Went to the ground : and the repeated 3 air Of sad Electra's poet had the power To save the Athenian walls 4 from ruin bare. Milton. TO A LADY, WITH A EjOSE .5 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 uucommended 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. (1) Emathian conqueror Alexander the Great, so called from Emathia, the original name of Macedonia. (2) Pindarus When Alexander took Thebes Pindar's native city he ordered the poet's family to be respected, and his house to be left untouched. (3) Kepeatcd recited. Plutarch relates that when Lysander had taken Athens, and was meditating its total destruction, the recitation, at a banquet, of some fine verses from the " Electra " of Euripides, induced him and his officers to forego their resolution. (4) Walls i. e. the houses and buildings of the city; for the external walls and fortifications were destroyed by Lysander's order. (5) These lines furnish a favourable specimen of the flattering sentimental poetry of Waller, in much of which the result gained is singularly dispropor- tionate to the pains taken. I 2 116 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Then die ! that she The common fate of all tilings rare May read in thee : How small a part of time they share, That are so wondrous sweet and fair ! [Yet thoughi thou fade, From thy dead leaves let fragrance rise ; And teach the maid That goodness time's rude hand defies, That virtue lives when beauty dies.] Waller. THE BATTLE OF Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are ! A nd glory to our sovereign liege, King Henry of Navarre ! Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance, Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, oh pleasant land of France ! And thou, Rochelle ! our own Rochelle ! proud city of the waters, Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daughters ; As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy, For cold, and stiff, and still, are they, who wrought thy walls annoy. 3 Hurrah ! hurrah ! a single field hath turned the chance of war, Hurrah ! hurrah ! for Ivry, and Henry of Navarre ! Oil ! how our hearts were beating, when, at the dawn of day, We saw the armyf of the League jdrawn out in long array ; With all its priest-led citizens and all its rebel peers, And Appenzel's stout infantry, and Egmont's Flemish spears ! There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses/of our land ; And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand :x And as we looked on them, we thought of Seine's empurpled flood, And good Coligni's hoary hair, all dabbled with his blood ; And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of war, To fight for his own holy name, and Henry of Navarre. (1) This last stanza was acHed by KirUe White, in a copy of Waller's poems. (2) Ivry A town of Normandy, near which Henry IV., at the head of the Huguenot army, defeated the forces of the League or Catholic party. Henry was " Henry of Navarre " by virtue of his mother's right. (3) Annoy In allusion to the severe siege sustained by the Huguenots in that city, in which, after the awful massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, 1572, the sur- vivors had taken refuge. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 117 The King is come to marshal us] in all liis armour drest, And he has bound a snow-white plumejupon his gallant crest. He looked upon his people,|and a tear was in his eye ; He looked upon the traitorsJand his glance was stern and high. Right graciously he smiled on usj as rolled from wing to wing, All down our linela deafening shout^' God save our lord, the King !" " And if my standard-bearer fall,|as fall full well he may, for never saw 1 promise yetjof such a bloody fray, Press where ye see my white plume shine) amidst the ranks of war, And be your oriflamme 1 to-day, the helmet of Navarre." Hurrah ! the foes are moving. Harkjto the mingled din Of fife, and steed, the trump, and drum,land roaring culverin. 2 The fiery duke is pricking fast across Saint Andre's plain, With all the hireling chivalryjof Guelders and Almayne. 3 Now by the lips of those ye love,j fair gentlemen of France, Chargejfor the golden lilies| upon them with the lance ! A thousand spurs are striking deep.ta thousand spears in rest, A thousand knights are pressing closejbehind the snow-white crest ; And iu they burst,! and on they rushed, VsvhileJ like a guiding star, Amidst the thickest carnage [blazed the helmet of Navarre. / I Now God be praised Jthe day isours'.IMayenne hath turned his rein ; D'Aumale hath cried for quarter J the Flemish count is slain ; Their ranks are breaking! like thin clouds( before a Biscay gale ; The field is heaped with bleeding steedsj and flags, and cloven mail ; And then! we thought on vengeance^ and all along our van, " Remember Saint Bartholomew ! "("was passed from man to man. But out spake gentle Henry J " No Frenchman is my foe ; Down, downjwith every foreigner^ but let your brethren go." Oh! was there ever such a knight,|in friendship or in war, As our sovereign lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre ? Ho ! maidens of Vienna ; ho ! matrons of Lucerne ; Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall return. Ho ! Philip, send for charity thy Mexican pistoles, That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen's souls. (1) Oriflamme from, the Latin aurea flamma, golden flame ; the name given to the great standard of France, reputed to have been brought from heaven by an angel, and given to the monks of St. Denis. It was a blazing flag of blue cloth, besprinkled over -with golden fleurs-de-lis, and quartered with a cross of scarlet cloth. (2) Culverin f rom the Latin coluber, a serpent, through the French coulecrine, a piece of ordnance long and thin, like the body of a serpent. (3) Almayne Allemagne, Germany ; Austria in particularly indicated. 118 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Ho ! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright ; Ho ! burghers of Saint Gene vie ve, keep watch and ward to-night : For our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave, And mocked the counsel of the wise, and the valour of the brave. Then glory|to His holy name,) from whom all glories are; And glory to our sovereign lord, King Henry of Navarre ! Macaulay. THE DAFFODILS.i I WANDERED 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 a lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky-way, They stretched 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 Outdid the sparkling waves in glee : A poet could not but be gay In sucli 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 2 the bliss of solitude ; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. Wordsworth. (1) The leading idea suggested by these simple, yet philosophical lines, is also conveyed in the " Lines on revisiting the Wye," by the same author, in which the following passage occurs : " Here I stand, not only with the sense Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts That in this moment there is life and food For future years." (3) Which is, Sfc. which makes or furnishes, &c. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRr. 119 A CALM WINTER'S NIGHT. How beautiful this night ! the balmiest sigh, Which vernal zephyrs breathe in evening's ear, Were discord to the speaking quietude 1 That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault, Studded with stars unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, Seems like a canopy which love has spread To curtain her sleeping world. Yon gentle hills, Robed in a garment of untrodden snow Yon darksome rocks, whence icicles depend, So stainless that their white and glittering spires Tinge not the moon's pure beam yon castled steep, Whose banner 2 hangeth o'er the time-worn tower So idly, that rapt fancy deemeth it A metaphor of peace, all form a scene Where musing solitude might love to lift Her soul above this sphere of earthliness ; Where silence undisturbed might watch alone, So cold, so bright, so still. Shelley. MARCH. LIKE as that lion through the green woods came, With roar which startled the hushed solitude, Yet soon as he saw Una, 3 that fair dame To virtue wedded, quieted his rude And savage heart, and at her feet sank tame As a pet lamb so March, though his first mood Was boisterous and wild, feeling that shame Would follow his fell steps, if Spring's young brood (1) Speaking quietude This metaphor is by no means new, but its fitness to illustrate the subject renders it particularly striking here. (2) Whose banner, fyc. An exquisite fancy. The poet's touch converts the emblem of war into a symbol of peace, and thus blends it into harmony with the other features of this calm, still, beautiful scene. (3) Una See the extracts from Spenser's " Faerie Queene," in the second part of this work. 120 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Of buds and blossoms withered where he trod Calmed his fierce ire. And now blue violets Wake to new life ; the yellow primrose sits Smiling demurely from the wayside clod ; And early bees are all day on the wiug, And work like labour, yet like pleasure sing. Cornelius Weble. "ON THE RECEIPT OF MY MOTHER'S PICTURE." 1 Oil that those lips had language ! Life has past With me but roughly since I heard thee last. 2 Those lips are thine thine own sweet smile I see, The same that oft in childhood solaced me ; Voice only fails, else how distinct they say, " Grieve not, my child, chase all thy fears away ! " The meek intelligence of those dear eyes Blessed be the art that can immortalize, The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim To quench it 3 here shines on me still the same. Faithful remembrancer of one so dear, welcome guest, though unexpected here ! Who bidd'st me honour with an artless song, Affectionate, a mother lost so long. 1 will obey, not willingly alone, But gladly, as the precept were her own : And, while that face renews my filial grief, Fancy shall weave a charm for my relief, Shall steep me in Elysian reverie, A momentary dream, that thou art she. (1) The tenderness and pathos of these lines have never been surpassed. The " charm," which the poet's fancy " weaves for his relief," cannot but entangle and hold every reader of refined feeling and taste. The picture was sent him by his cousin, Mrs. Bodham. In his letter acknow- ledging the receipt of it he says : " The world could not have furnished you with a present so acceptable as the picture which you have so kindly sent inc. I kissed it, and hung it where it is the last object that I see at night, and, of course, the first on which I open my eyes in the morning." (2) Heard thee last These lines were written by Cowper more than fifty years after his mother's death, which occurred when he was about six years old. (3) Iti. e. the meek intelligence, &c. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. 121 My mother ! when I learned that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious^ of the tears I shed ? Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, Wretch even then, life's journey just begun? Perhaps thou gavest me, though unfelt, a kiss ; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss. Ah, that maternal smile! it answers Yes. I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away ; And turning from my nursery window, drew A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu ! But was it such ? It was. Where thou art gone, Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. May I but meet thee on that peaceful shore, The parting word shall pass my lips no more ! Thy maidens, grieved themselves at my concern, Oft gave me promise of thy quick return. What ardently I wished, I long believed, And, disappointed still, was still deceived : By expectation every day beguiled, Dupe of to-morrow even from a child ! Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went, Till all my stock of infant sorrow spent J learned at last submission to my lot, But, though I less deplore thee, ne'er forgot. Where once we dwelt, our name is heard no more. Children not thine have trod my nursery floor ; And where the gardener, Robin, day by day, Drew me to school along the public way, Delighted with my bauble coach, and wrapt In scarlet mantle warm, and velvet-capt, 'Tis now become a history little known, That once we called the pastoral house 2 our own. Short-lived possession ! but the record fair, That memory keeps of all thy kindness there, Still outlives many a storm that has effaced A thousand other themes less deeply traced. (1) Conscious from the Latin con, together, and scio, I know knowing within oneself. The word is incorrectly used in this passage. We may be aware of the thoughts and actions of others, but we can be conscious only of our own. (2) Pastoral, house The parsonage house of Great Berkhampstead, in Hertford- shire, of which place Cowper's father was rector, and where he himself was born in the year 1731. 122 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Thy nightly visits to ray chamber made That thou mightst know me safe and warmly laid; Thy morning bounties ere I left my home, The buiscuit, or confectionary plum ; The fragrant waters on my cheeks bestowed By thy own hand, till fresh they shone and glowed; All this, and more endearing still than all, Thy constant flow of love, that knew no fall, Ne'er roughened by those cataracts and breaks, That humour interposed too often makes ; - All this still legible in memory's page, And still to be so to my latest age, Adds joy to duty, makes me glad to pay Such honours to thee as my numbers may ; Perhaps a frail memorial, but sincere, Hot scorned in heaven, though little noticed here Could time, his flight reversed, restore the hours, When, playing with tliy vesture's tissued flowers, The violet, the pink, and jessamine, I pricked them into paper with a pin, (And thou wast happier than myself the while, Wouldst softly speak, and stroke my head, and smile,) Could those few pleasant days again appear, Might one wish bring them, would I wish them here ? I would not trust my heart the dear delight Seems so to be desired, perhaps I might But no what here we call our life is such, So little to be loved, and thou so much, That I should ill requite thee to constrain Thy unbound spirit into bonds again. Thou, as a gallant bark from Albion's coast (The storms all weathered and the ocean crossed) Shoots into port at some well-havened isle, Where spices breathe, and brighter seasons smile, There sits quiescent on the floods, that show Her beauteous form reflected clear below, While airs impregnated with incense play Around her, fanning light her streamers gay ; So thou, with sails how swift ! hast reached the shore " Where tempests never beat, nor billows roar," 1 (1) Where tempests, 8fc. This line is taken (Cowper himself tells us In a note) from a poem by Dr. Garth. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. 123 And thy loved consort on the dangerous tide Of life, long since, has anchored by thy side. But me, scarce hoping to attain that rest, Always from port withheld, always distrest Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tost, Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost, And day by day some current's thwarting force Sets me more distant from a prosperous course. But oh ! the thought, that thou art safe, and he ! That thought is joy, arrive 1 what may to me. My boast is not that 1 deduce my birth From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth ; But higher far my proud pretensions rise The son of parents past into the skies ! And now, farewell ! time unrevoked has run His wonted course, yet what 1 wished is doue. By contemplation's help, not sought in vain, I seem to have lived my childhood o'er again ; To have renewed the joys that once were mine, Without the sin of violating thine ; And while the wings of fancy still are free, And I can view the mimic show of thee, Time has but half succeeded in his theft Thyself removed, thy power to soothe ine left. Cotcper. ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OI ETON COLLEGE. YE 2 distant spires ! ye antique towers ! That crown the watery glade, Where grateful Science still adores Her Henry's 3 holy shade; And ye 4 that from the stately brow Of Windsor's heights the expanse below ^1) Arrive a Gallicism, from the French arriver, to happen. (2) Te, $c. The first fourteen lines form a sort of complicated vocative case, the grammatical construction remaining incomplete until we reach the line, " I feel the gales," &c. (3) Henry's holy shade Henry VI. founded Eton College, in 1441. u Holy shade," on account of the saintliness of character attributed to him. (4) Ye i. e. ye towers of Windsor Castle. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, 1 whose shade, whose flowers among Wanders the hoary Thames along His silver-winding 2 way ; Ah, happy hills ! ah, pleasing shade ! Ah, fields beloved in vain ! 3 Where once my careless childhood strayed, A stranger yet to pain ! I feel the gales that from you blow A momentary bliss bestow, As waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to soothe, And, redolent 4 of joy and youth, To breathe a second spring. Say, father Thames ! 5 for thou hast seen Full many a sprightly race, Disporting on thy rnargent green, The paths of pleasure trace, Who foremost now delight to cleave With pliant arm thy glassy wave ? The captive linnet 6 which enthral P What idle progeny succeed To chase the rolling circle's speed, Or urge the flying ball ? (1) Whose turf, fyc, These nouns pair with those in the previous line, thus : the turf of whose lawn, the shade of whose grove, the flowers of whose mead. In a similar style Shakspere writes : " The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword." (2) Silver-winding literally, winding like silver, which would be absurd. The word means shining like silver as it winds along. (3) In vain to no purpose, since he was obliged to leave them (4) Redolent from the Latin redolens, emitting a smell smelling sweetly. The word is here used metaphorically, and means, in connection with " of joy and youth," fraught with the influences of, &o. A beautiful expression. (5) Father Thames Dr. Johnson pettishly says that "this supplication is useless and puerile. Father Thames has no belter means of knowing than himself." The great critic, however, in his own " Basselas," makes one of the characters thus address the Nile : " Great father of waters ! tell me," &c. (6) The captive, Ac. Some think this expression tautologous, but it may perhaps be thus explained : Who imprison the captive (or captured) linnet P t. e. who catch and cage the linnet P A somewhat similar idiom is pointed out in note 4, p. 107. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 12c 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. 1 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 2 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 the approach of morn. Alas ! regardless of their doom, The little victims play ! No sense have they of ills to come, No care beyond to-day ; Yet see how all around them wait The ministers 3 of human fate, And black Misfortune's baleful train! Ah, show them where in ambush stand, To seize their prey, the murderous baud ! Ah ! tell them 4 they are men. (1) Snatch a fearful joy A happy combination of words. A fearful joy! (2) Buxom in Old English, boughsome; i. e. easily bent or bowed to one's will: hence, obedient, pliant, easily moved, elastic, merry. (3) Ministei from the Latin minister, an attendant an official servant. " The ministers of human fate" are the dangers of human life, appointed by the Supreme Power, who is here, somewhat heath enishly, called fate. (4) Ah! tell them, $c. The conception of the grim ministers of fate the murderous band awaiting in ambush the approach of their heedless victim, is very striking, whatever opinion may be formed of the view of life which it suggests. -126 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKT. These 1 shall the fury passions 2 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. 3 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' altered eye, That mocks the tear it forced to flow ; And keen Remorse, with blood defiled, And moody Madness, 4 laughing wild, Amid severest woe. Lo ! in the vale of years beneath A grisly troop are seen, The painful family of Death, 6 More hideous than their queen : 6 This racks the joints, this fires the veins, That every labouring sinew strains, (1) These some of these in contrast with "this" and "those" in the next stanza. (2) Fury passions This stanza presents, in a short compass, a graphic sketch of the passions those " vultures of the mind." They are mostly characterized by their effects, as " pallid Fear," f. e. fear that makes pale ; " faded Care," i. e. care that makes the cheek fade, &c. (3) Sorrow's piercing dart An instance of anti-climax, or bathos. A climax to an ascending series of thoughts or illustrations, rising in interest from one step to another. An anti-climax, on the contrary, is a descending series. In the present case, " sorrow " is tame after the bold personification of " Grim-visaged, comfortless Despair." (4) Moody Madness, Sfc. In contrast with the close of the hist stanza, this may be characterized as a very striking climax. (5) Family of Death diseases. (6) Queen There is a fault here in making Death feminine ; and it is believe STUDILS IN ENGLISH POETRY. 127 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, Condemned alike to groan, The tender for another's pain, The 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. Gray. INSCRIPTIONS, I. FOR THE ENTRANCE TO A WOOD. 1 STRANGER, if thou hast learned a truth which needs No school of long experience, that the world Is full of guilt and misery ; and hast known Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares, To tire thee of it enter this wild wood, And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze, That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men, that no other such instance occurs in our literature. One cannot but be reminded of Milton's grand conception of Death in the " Paradise Lost," bookii. : " The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb ; Or substance might be call'd that shadow seemed. For each seem'd either : black it stood as Night, Fierce aa ten Furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart ; what seem'd his head. The likeness of a kingly crown had on." (1) An inscription should be simple, short, and eminently suggestive. That given above is simple and suggestive, but its length is somewhat inconsistent with the imaginary purpose for which such a composition is written, and yet we could hardly wish to lose any part of what is so graceful aud beautiful. 128 STUDIES IN EKGLISH POETKY. And made thee loathe their life. The primal curse Fell, it is true, upon the unsinning earth, But not iu vengeance. God hath yoked to guilt 1 Her pale tormentor, misery. Hence, 2 these shades Are still the abodes of gladness ; the thick roof Of green and stirring branches is alive And musical with birds, that sing and sport In wantonness of spirit; while below, The squirrel, witli raised paws and form erect, Chirps merrily. Throngs of insects in the shade 8 Try their thin wings, and dance in the warm beam That waked them into life. Even the green trees Partake the deep contentment; as they bend To the soft winds, the sun from the blue sky Looks in, and sheds a blessing on the scene. Scarce less the cleft-born 4 wild-flower seems to enjoy Existence, than the winged plunderer That sucks its sweets. The massy rocks themselves, And the old and ponderous trunks of prostrate trees, That lead from knoll 5 to knoll a causey 6 rude, Or bridge the sunken brook, and their dark roots With all their earth upon them twisting high, Breathe fixed tranquillity. The rivulet Sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed Of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks, Seems, with continuous laughter, to rejoice In its own being. Softly tread the marge, Lest from her midway perch thou scare the wren, That dips her bill in water. The cool wind, That stirs the stream in play, shall come to thee, Like one that loves thee, nor will let thee pass Uugreeted, and shall give its light embrace. (1) To guilt t. e. to guilt only. The inseparable connection between guilt and misery is vividly denoted by the imagery of the text. (2) Hence i. e. because guilt haunts not these shades, they are still, &c. (3) Shade t. e. not among the branches, but below; a somewhat unfortunate word, since, if taken strictly, it contradicts the next line. (4) Cleft-born springing from a cleft, or fissure in the rock. (5) Knoll from the Anglo-Saxon cnoll, a head or top a little round hill. (6) Causey or causeway -from the French chaussee, which is either from the Latin cnlcata, trodden down, or cnlceata, shod or protected by a hard covering of wood or stone. See Philological Society s Journal, vol. v. p. 29. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POE1BY. 129 n. FOR A COLUMN AT TRUXILLO. 1 PIZARRO here was bom : a greater name The list of glory boasts not. Toil and pain, Famine and hostile elements, and hosts Embattled, failed to check him in his course ; Not to be wearied, not to be deterred, Not to be overcome. A mighty realm , He overran, and with relentless arm Slew or enslaved its unoffending sons, And wealth, and power, and fame, were his rewards. There is another world beyond the grave, According to their deeds where men are judged. O reader ! if thy daily bread be earned By daily labour yea, however low, However wretched be thy lot assigned, Thank thou, with deepest gratitude, the God Who made thee, that thou art not such as he. III. FOR A COLUMN AT RUNNIMEDE. 2 THOU who the verdant plain dost traverse here, While Thames among his willows from thy view Retires, O stranger, stay thou, and the scene Around contemplate well. This is the place Where England's ancient barons, clad in arms, And stern with conquest, from their tyrant king Then rendered tame did challenge and secure The charter of thy freedom. Pass not on Till thou hast blest their memory, and paid Those thanks which God appointed the reward Of public virtue. And if 'chance thy home Salute thee with a father's honoured name, Go call thy sons, instruct them what a debt They owe their ancestors, and make them swear To pay it, by transmitting down entire Those sacred rights to which themselves were bom. Akenside. (1) A town of Estramadura, in Spain. (2) The pure, classical, aiid severely simple tone of these lines is admirable. K 130 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETR*. IV. FOR A FOUNTAIN ON A HEATH. 1 THIS sycamore, oft musical with bees Such tents the patriarchs loved ! oh long unharmed May all its aged boughs o'er-canopy The small round basin, which this jutting stone Keeps pure from falling leaves ! Long may this spring, Quietly as a sleeping infant's breath, Send up cold waters to the traveller With soft and even pulse ! Nor ever cease Yon tiny cone of sand 2 its soundless dance, Which at the bottom, like a fairy's page As merry and no taller dances still, Nor wrinkles the smooth surface of the fount. Here twilight is and coolness ; here is moss, A soft seat, and a deep and ample shade ; Thou may'st toil far and find no second tree. Drink, pilgrim, here ; here rest ; and if thy heart Be innocent, here too shalt t.hou refresh Thy spirit, listening to some gentle sound, Or passing gale, or hum of murmuring bees. Coleridge. V. FOR A STATUE OS CHAUCER AT WOODSTOCK. SUCH was old Chaucer, such the placid mien Of him who first with harmony informeds The language of our fathers. Here he dwelt For many a cheerful day. These ancient walls Have often heard him while his legends blithe He sang of love and knighthood, or the wiles Of homely life, through each estate and age, The fashions and the follies of the world With cunning hand portraying. Though, perchance, Trom Blenheim's towers, O stranger ! thou art come, Glowing with Churchill's 4 trophies ; yet in vain Dost thou applaud them, if thy breast be cold To him this other hero, who, in times Dark and untaught, began with charming verse To tame the rudeness of his native land. Akenside. (1) This inscription, compared with the last, is as a painting to a statue it him colour as well as form ; but both are very beautiful. (2) The reference to this minute nd characteristic circumstance shows that the picture was drawn from close observation of nature. (8) Informed from the Latin iafornwre, to give form to any thing to mould, shape, animate ; it is much used in this sense by our older writers. (4) Churchill the family name of the Duke of Martborough. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 131 VI. FOR A NATURAL GROTTO NEAR A DEEP STREAM. HEALTH, rose-lipped cherub, haunts this spot : She slumbers oft in yonder nook ; If in the shade you trace her not, Plunge and you'll find her in the brook ! Anonymous. VII. FOR A NATURAL SPRING. HERE quench your thirst, and mark in me An emblem of true charity ; Who, while my bounty I bestow, Am neither heard nor seen to flow. T. Wartorh LORD BACON. 1 PHILOSOPHY, the great and only heir Of all that human knowledge, which has been Unforfeited by man's rebellious sin, Though full of years he do appear, Has still been kept in nonage till of late, Nor managed or enjoyed his vast estate : Instead of carrying him to see The riches which do hoarded for him lie In Nature's endless treasury, They chose his eye to entertain With painted scenes, and pageants of the brain. 2 BACON at last, a mighty man ! arose, TV horn a wise King 3 and Nature chose Lord Chancellor of both their laws, And boldly undertook the injured pupil's 4 cause. (1) Lord Bacon flourished just before Cowley's time. These lines are extracted from a poem of Cowley's, addressed " To the Royal Society." (2) One of the main principles of Lord Bacon's philosophy was, that science ought to be based on the firm ground of experiment, and not, as had been too much the case previously, on fanciful surmises and conjectures. (3) Wise King James I. (4) Injured pupil. $c. i e. Philosophy, who was before spoken of as wrongfully kept in nonage. A pupil from the Latin pupitlus, a child is one under guardianship, a ward. K 2 132 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Authority, which did a body boast, Though 'twas but air condensed, and stalked about Like some old giant's more gigantic ghost, To terrify the learned rout, 1 With the plain magic of true Reason's light, 2 He chased out of our sight, Nor suffered men to be misled By the vain shadows of the dead ; To graves, from whence it rose, the conquered phantom fled. Erom words, which are but pictures of the thought Though we our thoughts from them perversely drew To things, the mind's right object, he it brought ; Like foolish birds to painted grapes we flew He sought and gathered for our use the true. From these, and all long errors of the way In which our wandering predecessors went, And, like the old Hebrews, many years did stray In deserts but of small extent, Bacon, like Moses, led us forth at last; The barren wilderness he passed, Did on the very border stand Of the blest promised land, And from the mountain top of his exalted wit, Saw it himself, and showed us it. THE EVE OF THE BATTLE.* THERE was a sound of revelry by night, 4 And Belgium's capital had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ; A thousand hearts beat happily ; and when (1) Rout from the Latin rota, -wheel or circle a circle or body of men ; used here, and in the early writers, in a grave sense. (2) Reason's light, $c. i. e. the simple mHgic of true Reason's light dissipated the misty phantom of Authority ; the thought is here very boldly and vividly developed. ( 3) The battle of Quatre Bras is here referred to, not that of Waterloo, which took place two days after. (4) On the night previous to the action, a ball was given at Brussels, by the Duchess of Richmond. Most of the English officers were present, but retired- pursuant to directions previously received from the Duke of Wellington at ten o'clock, to take the posts assigned them. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 133 Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell ; But hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell ! Did ye not hear it ? No ; 'twas but the wind, Or the car rattling o'er the stony street ; Ou with the dance ! let joy be unconfined ; No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet. But hark ! that heavy sound breaks in once more, As if the clouds its echo would repeat ; And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before ! Arm ! arm ! it is it is the camion's opening roar ! Within a windowed niche of that high hall Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain ; he did hear That sound the first amidst the festival, And caught its tone with death's prophetic ear ; And when they smiled because he deemed it near, His heart more truly knew that peal too well Which stretched his father on a bloody bier,i And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell : He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. Ah ! then and there was hurrying to and fro, And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness ; And there were sudden partings, such as press The life from out young hearts ; and choking sighs, Which ne'er might be repeated : who could guess If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise ! And there was mounting in hot haste ; the steed, The mustering squadron and the clattering car, Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, And swiftly forming in the ranks of war ; And the deep thunder, peal on peal, afar ; And, near, the beat of the alarming drum Housed up the soldier ere the morning star ; (1) The Duke of Brunswick's lather received his death-wound at the battle of Jena. 134 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, Or whispering with white lips " The foe ! They come ! they come !" And wild and high the " Camerons' gathering " rose ; The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's 1 hills Have heard and heard, too, have her Saxon foes : How in the noon of night that pibroch 2 thrills, Savage and shrill ! But, with the breath which fills Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers With the fierce native daring which instils The stirring memory of a thousand years ; And Evan's, Donald's 3 fame, rings in each clansman's ears. And Ardennes 4 waves above them her green leaves, Dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass, Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, Over the unreturning brave alas ! Ere evening to be trodden like the grass, Which now beneath them, but above shall grow In its next verdure, when this fiery mass Of living valour, rolling on the foe And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low. Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, Last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay, The midnight brought the signal sound of strife, The morn, the marshalling in arms the day, Battle's magnificently stern array ! The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which, when rent, The earth is covered thick with other clay, Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, Rider, and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial blent. 5 Byron. (1) ATtryn an ancient name of the Scottish Highlands. (2) Piiirochihe bagpipe sometimes the music played upon it. (3) Sir Evan Cameron and his descendant Donald, who were conspicuous in the rebellion of the year 1745. (4) Ardennes put here for the wood of Soignies, which was thought to have anciently formed part of the Sylva Arduenna, afterwards called the Forest of Ardennes. (5) " Childe Harold, though he shuns to celebrate the victory of Waterloo, gives us here a most beautiful description of the evening which preceded the battle of Quntre Bras, the alarm which called out the troops, and the hurry and confusion which preceded their march. I am not sure that any verses in our language sur- pass, in vigour and in feeling, this most beautiful description." Sir Walter Scott, STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKT. 135 CHRISTMAS. HEAP on more wood ! the wind is chill ; But let it whistle as it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still. Each age lias deemed the new-born year The fittest time for festal cheer ; Even, heathen yet, the savage Dane At lol 1 more deep the mead did drain ; High on the beach his galleys drew, And feasted all his pirate crew ; Then in his low and pine-built hall, Where shields and axes decked the wall, They gorged upon the half-dressed steer, Caroused in seas of sable beer ; While round, in brutal jest, were thrown The half-gnawed rib, and marrow-bone; Or listened all, in grim delight, While Scalds 2 yelled out the joys of fight. Then fortli in frenzy would they hie, While wildly loose their red locks fly, And, dancing round the blazing pile, They make such barbarous mirth the while, As best might to the mind recall The boisterous joys of Odin's 3 halL And well our Christian sires of old Loved when the year its course had rolled, And brought blithe Christmas back again, With all its hospitable train. Domestic and religious rite Gave honour to the holy night : On Christmas-eve the bells were rung ; On Christmas-eve the mass was sung : (1) lol, or Jul hence our Yule, the old word for Christmas. It is a Scandi- navian word, and means time of festivity, and specially of the festivities in honour of the god Frey, or the sun. (2) Scalds bards, poets. (3) Odin the Jupiter of the North, called Woden by the Anglo-Saxons. We have traces of the name in Wednesday, Wednesbury, Wanborougn, &c. See Dr. Leo's treatise " On Anglo-Saxon Names," p. 4. 136 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. That only night in all the year, Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear. The damsel donned her kirtle sheen ;i The hall was dressed with holly green; Forth to, the wood did merry men go, To gather in the mistletoe. Then open wide the Baron's hall To vassal, tenant, serf, 2 and all ; Power laid his rod of rule aside, , And Ceremony doffed his pride. The heir, with roses in his shoes, 3 That night might village partner choose ; The lord, underogating, 4 share The vulgar game of " post and pair." 5 All hailed with uncontrolled delight, And general voice, the happy night, That to the cottage, as the crown, Brought tidings of salvation down. The fire, with well-dried logs supplied, Went roaring up the chimney wide ; The huge hall-table's oaken face Scrubbed till it shone, the day to grace Bore then upon its massive board No mark to part the squire and lord. Then was brought in the lusty brawn, By old blue-coated serving man; Then the grim boar's head frowned on high, Crested with bays and rosemary. Well can the green-garbed ranger tell, How, when, and where, the monster fell ; What dogs before his death he tore, And all the baiting of the boar. (1) Donned her kirtle sheen -put on her gay holiday gown. Kirtle, from the Anglo-Saxon cyrtel, is connected with gird, and denotes a flowing garment for man or woman, requiring to be restrained by a belt or girdle. (2) Vassal tenant serf A vassal is a dependent upon a superior lord, and owes service ; a tenant holds land or houses of another, and owes rent; a serf is a slave, and owes himself and all he has. (3) Roses in his shoes The roses were decorations made of ribbon, like what are now called rosettes. (4) Underogating without derogating from, or lessening, his dignity (5) Post and pail a game at cards, common in early times. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 137 The wassail 1 round, in good brown bowls, Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls ; 2 There the huge sirloin reeked ; hard by Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie : Nor failed old Scotland to produce, At such high tide, her savoury goose. Then came the merry masquers in, And carols roared with blithesome din ; If unmelodious was the song, It was a hearty note, and strong. Who lists may in their mumming 3 see Traces of ancient mystery ; 4 White shirts supplied the masquerade, And smutted cheeks the visors 5 made ; But oh ! what masquers, richly dight, 6 Can boast of bosoms half so light ! England was merry England, when Old Christmas brought his sports again. 'Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale ; 'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale ; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man's heart through half the year. Falter Scott* THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. THOU art, God ! the life and light Of all this wondrous world we see ; Its glow by day, its smile by night, Are but reflections caught from thee : Where'er we turn thy glories shine, And all things fair and bright are thine. (1) Wassail according to Webster, from the Anglo-Saxon wiss heel, health- liquor a beverage formerly much used at feasts. (2) Trowls or trolls moves about, goes round. (3) Mumming from the German mumme, a mask masking, or performing in masks. (4) Ancient mystery A mystery was a sort of dramatic performance, on some religious subject, common in the middle ages. (5) Visor from the Latin visits, through the French visi&re& mask to protect the face, forming part of the helmet : also the upper part of the same, which was perforated to see throwjh hence the name. (6) Dight from the Anglo-Saxon gediht, set in order dressed, decked. 138 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. When day, with farewell beam, delays Among the opening shades of even, And we can almost think we gaze Through golden vistas 1 into heaven ; Those hues, that mark the sun's decline, So soft, so radiant, Lord ! are thine. When night, with wings of starry gloom, O'ershadows all the earth and skies, Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes ; That sacred gloom, those fires divine, So grand, so countless, Lord ! are thine. When youthful spring around us breathes, Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh ; And every flower the summer wreathes, Is born beneath that kindling eye : Where'er we turn thy glories shine, And all things fair and bright are thine. Moore. GBONGAR HILL. 2 SILENT Nymph ! 3 with curious eye, Who, the purple evening, lie 4 On the mountain's lonely van, Beyond the noise of busy man, Painting fair the form of tilings, While the yellow linnet sings ; Or the tuneful nightingale Charms the forest with her tale ; (I), Vista from the Italian vistd, a sight a view or prospect seen through an opening. (2) Grongar HOI claims a high place among descriptive poems. It is vivid, clear, and picturesque : which qualities may in part be due to the writer's profession, which was, in early youth, that of a painter. Dr. Johnson says of this popular poem : " The scenes which it displays are so pleasing, the images which they raise so welcome to the mind, and the reflections of the writer so consonant to the general sense and experience of mankind, that when it is once read, it will be read again." (3) Silent nymph..' The poet here calls in painting to aid poetry her " sister muse " in depicting the landscape. It may be, however, remarked that there is no classical muse of Painting. (4) The grammar halts here; it should be"liest" to be consistent with the phrase ' tky various hues " which follows. STUDIES IX ENGLISH POETRY. Come, with all thy various hues, Come, and aid thy sister muse ; Now, while Phoebus, riding high, Gives lustre to the land and sky ! Grougar HilU invites my song, Draw the landscape bright and strong ; Grongar ! in whose mossy cells, Sweetly musing, Quiet dwells ; Grongar ! in whose silent shade, For the modest muses made. So oft I have, the evening still, At the fountain of a rill, Sat upon a flowery bed, With my hand beneath my head, While strayed my eyes o'er Towy's flood, Over mead and over wood, Prom house to house, from hill to hill, Till Contemplation had her fill. About his chequered sides I wind, And leave his brooks and meads behind, And groves and grottoes, where 1 lay, And vistas shooting beams of day. Wide and wider spreads the vale, As circles on 2 a smooth canal : The mountains round unhappy fate, Sooner or later, of all height Withdraw their summits from the skies, And lessen as the others 3 rise. Still the prospect wider spreads, Still it widens, widens still, And sinks the newly risen hill. Now I gain the mountain's brow : What a landscape lies below ! No clouds, no vapours intervene ; But the gay, the open scene, Does the face of nature show In. all the hues of heaven's bow ; (1) Grongar Hill an eminence in Caermarthenshire, near the banks of the Towy. (2) Wide and wider, $e.i. e. as the traveller mounts the hill the limits of his prospect extend as circles, &c. (3) The others the others which lie beyond, and which come into view as \ ou iiscend. the hill. 140 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. And, swelling to embrace the light, Spreads around beneath the sight. Old castles on the cliffs arise, Proudly towering in the skies ; Rushing from the woods, the spires Seem from hence ascending fires ; Half his beams Apollo sheds On the yellow mountain-heads, Gilds the fleeces of the flocks, And glitters on the broken rocks. Below me trees unnumbered rise, Beautiful in various dyes : The gloomy pine, the poplar blue, The yellow beech, the sable yew : The slender fir that taper grows, The sturdy oak with broad-spread boughs ; And, beyond the purple grove, Haunt of Phillis, queen of love ! Gaudy as the opening dawn, Lies a long and level lawn, On which a dark hill, steep and high, Holds and charms the wandering eye. Deep are his feet 1 in Towy's flood ; His sides are clothed in waving wood, And ancient towers crown his brow, That cast an awful look below ! Whose ragged walls the ivy creeps, And with hei arms from falling keeps : So both a safety from the wind In mutual dependence find. 'Tis now the raven's bleak abode, 'Tis now the apartment of the toad ; And there the fox securely feeds, And there the poisonous adder breeds, Concealed in ruins, moss, and weeds ; While, ever and anon, there falls, Huge heaps2 of hoary, mouldered walls. Yet time has seen, that lifts the low, And level lays the lofty brow, (1) Deep of e his feet Though this ia a common-place metaphor in itself, yet its use here in pointing out the precise situation of the hill is very effective. (2) There falls huge heaps This is a very anomalous, but perhiips not an entirely nngrammatical, form ; at least, Shakspere writes, " there is tears for his love," which has met with defenders. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 141 Has seen this broken pile complete, Big with the vanity of state : But transient is the smile of fate ! A little rule, a little sway, A sunbeam in a winter's day, Is all the proud and mighty have Between the cradle and the grave. And see the rivers, how they run Through woods and meads, in shade and suuji Sometimes swift, sometimes slow, Wave succeeding wave, they go A various journey to the deep, Like human life, to endless sleep '. Thus is nature's vesture wrought, To instruct our wandering thought ; Thus she dresses green and gay, To disperse our cares away. Ever charming, ever new, When will the landscape tire the view? The fountain's fall, the river's flow, The woody valleys, warm and low, The windy summit, wild and high, Roughly rushing on the sky ! The pleasant seat, the ruined tower, The naked rock, the shady bower ; The town and village, dome and farm, Each gives each a double charm, As pearls 1 upon an Ethiop's arm. See on the mountain's southern side, Where the prospect opens wide, Where the evening gilds the tide, How close and small the hedges lie ! What streaks of meadows cross the eye ! A step, methinks, may pass the stream, So little distant dangers seem : So we mistake the future's face, 2 Eyed through Hope's deluding glass ; (1) As pearls, 8fc. One of the happiest similes to be met with in poetry terse, brief, and particularly ingenious. (2) It has been both asserted and denied that this passage suggested the well- known lines near the beginning of Campbell's " Pleasures of Hope :" " 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue." 142 STUDIES IN EUGIJBH POETRY. As yon summits, soft and fair, Clad in colours of the air, Which, to those who journey near, Barren, brown, and rough appear ; Still we tread the same coarse way ; The present's still a cloudy day. Oh may I with myself agree, And never covet what I see ! Content me with an humble shade, My passions tamed, my wishes laid : For while our wishes wildly roll, We banish quiet from the soul : 'Tis thus the busy beat the air, And misers gather wealth and care. Now, e'en now, my joys run high, As on the mountain turf I lie ; While the wanton zephyr sings, And in the vale perfumes his wings ; While the waters murmur deep ; While the shepherd charms 1 his sheep ; While the birds unbounded fly, And with music fill the sky ; Now, e'en now, my joys run high. Be full, ye courts ! be great who will ; Search for peace with all your skill ; Open wide the lofty door, Seek her on the marble floor : In vain ye search, she is not there : In vain ye search the domes of Care ! Grass and flowers Quiet treads, On the meads and mountain-heads, Along with Pleasure close allied, Ever by each other's side ; And often, by the murmuring rill, Hears the thrush, while all is still. Within the groves of Grongar Hill. Dyer. (1) Charms sings to. The word charm, from the Latin carmen, a song, was once naed specifically for a song or singing ; thus Milton writes, "with charm of earliest birds." STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETHY. 143 THE CLOUD.i I BEING fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams ; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noon-day dreams. From my wings are shaken the dews that waken The sweet birds every one, When rocked to rest on their mother's 2 breast, As she dances about the sun. I wield the flail of the lashing hail, And whiten the green plains under ; And then, again, I dissolve it in rain, And laugh as I pass in thunder. i sift the snow on the mountains below, And their great piues groan aghast ; And all the night, 'tis my pillow white While I sleep in the arms of the blast. Sublime on the towers of my skyey bowers Lightning, my pilot,3 sits ; In a cavern under is fettered the thunder, It struggles and howls by fits ; Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion, This pilot is guiding me, Lured by the love of the genii that move In the depths of the purple sea ; Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills, Over the lakes and the plains, Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream, The spirit he loves, remains ; And I all the while bask in heaven's blue smile, Whilst he is dissolving in rains. (1) The fanciful conceptions of which this poem consists are embodied in richly coloured and most musical language. The obscurity, however, of some passages is a material drawback on the reader's pleasure. (3f Their mother, Ac. i.e. the earth's breast, as she rapidly revolves ''dances" around the sun. (3) Lightning, my pilot, ^-c. There seems to be here an allusion, which ia carried on to the end of the stanza, to the formation of clouds by the absorption of moisture from the earth, and, perhaps, also to the influence of electricity in occasioning the movement of the clouds and producing rain. 144 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Tlie 1 sanguines sunrise, '-with his meteor eyes, And bis burning plumes outspread, Leaps on the back of my sailing racks When the morning star shines dead ; 4 As on the jag of a mountain crag, Which an earthquake rocks and swings, An eagle alit one moment may sit In the light of its golden wings. And when sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath, Its ardours 5 of rest and love, And the crimson pall of eve may fall From the depth of heaven above, With wings folded I rest on mine airy nest, As still as a brooding dove. That orbed maiden, with white fire laden, Whom mortals call the moon, Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor, By the midnight breezes strewn ; And wherever the beat of her unseen feet, Which only the angels hear, May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof, The stars peep behind her and peer : And I laugh to see them whirl and flee, Like a swarm of golden bees, When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, Till the calm river, lakes, and seas, Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high, Are each paved with the moon and these. I bind 6 the sun's throne with a burning zone, And the moon's with a girdle of pearl : (1) The, 4'c. The first eight lines of the stanza represent the cloud in motion in the morning; the last six represent it when motionless in the evening. (2) Sanguine from the Latin sanguis, blood of a blood-red colour. (3) Rack from the Anglo-Saxon, rec-an, to snioke, to east forth vapours a vapour, mist, exhalation; sometimes, as here, a body of vapours forming a large cloud. Shakspere's expression, - Leave not a rack behind," is well known. (See p. 2S4.) (4) Shines deadi. e. waxes dim or faint ; a singular expression. (5) Its ardoura of, fye. its warm sympathies with. Sic. (6) 1 bind, $c. The whirlwinds unfurling the banner of the clouds the clouds forming a bridge from mountain to mountain the triumphal procession beneulli the rainbow's arch are U conceptions of remarkable beuuty. STUDIES IN ENGLISH PCETKY. 145 The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim, When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl. From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape, Over a torrent sea, Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof, The mountains its columns be. The triumphal arch through which I march, With hurricane, fire, and snow, When the powers of the air are chained to my chair, Is the million-coloured bow ; The sphere-fire 1 above its soft colours wove, While the moist earth was laughing below. I am the daughter of the earth and water, And the nursling of the sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores ; I change, but I cannot die. Tor after the rain, when, with never a stain, The pavilion of heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams, with their convex gleams, Build up the blue dome of air I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,2 And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I rise and unbuild it again. Shelley. THE MITHERLESS BAIRN.3 WHEN a' ither bairnies 4 are hushed to their hame By aunty, or cousin, or frecky 5 grand-dame, Wha stands last an' lanely, an' sairly forfairn ? 6 'Tis the puir dowie 7 laddie the mitherless bairn ! (1) Sphere-fire t. e. a, light from the spheres, not earthly light. (2) Cenotaph from the Greek KCVO?, empty, raos, tomb a tomb erected in honour of some one buried elsewhere. In this passage the sky the proper region of the clouds being, after the rain, empty of them, seems to be called on this account their cenotaph. (3) This pathetic ballad was written by a poor weaver named Thorn, still living at Inverury, in Aberdeenshire. The words not explained here will be found in pp. 76 79. (4) Bairnie diminutive of bairn, a child. '5) Frecky eager, ready. (6) Sairly forfairn sorely distressed, destitute. (7) Dowie worn out with grief. L 146 STUDIES IN ENGLISH JOETBY. The mitherless bairnie creeps to his lane bed, Nane covers his cauld back, or haps 1 his bare head ; His wee hackit heelies 2 are hard as the airn, 3 An' litheless 4 the lair o' the mitherless bairn ! Aneath his cauld brow, siccan 6 dreams hover there, 0' hands that wont kindly to kaim his dark hair ! But morning brings clutches^ a' reckless an' stern, That lo'e 7 na the locks o' the mitherless bairn! The sister wha sang o'er his saftly rocked bed, Now rests in the mools 8 where their mammie is laid ; While the father toils sair his wee bannocks to earn, An' kens na the wrangs o' his mitherless bairn ! Her spirit, that passed in yon hour of his birth Still watches his lone lorn wanderings on earth, Recording in heaven the blessings they earn, Wha couthilie 10 deal wi' the mitherless bairn ! Oh ! speak him na harshly he trembles the while, He bends to your bidding, and blesses your smile : In their dark hour o' anguish the heartless shall learn, That God deals the blow for the mitherless bairn ! Thorn. ENGLISH RIVERS. 11 RIVERS, arise ! whether thou be the son Of utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or gulfy Dun, Or Trent, who, like some earth-born giant, spreads His thirty arms 12 along the indented meads ; (I) Haps wraps, covers up. (2) Hackit heelies heels chapped with the cold, (3) Airn iron (4) Litheless comfortless. (5) Siccan such. (6) Clutches i. e. pulls at his hair. (7) Life love. (8) Mools dust. (9) Bannock barley-cake. (10) Couthilie kindly. (II) On comparing Milton's lines with Pope's, which follow, it will be observed that all the epithets employed by the former individualise the rivers, while Pope's, where they are his own, are frequently vague and general. (12) Thirty arms The word Trent is here, according to an old tradition, con- sidered as derived from the Latin triginta, thirty, and on this fancy several con- ceits respecting it were based. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETEY. 147 Or sullen Mole 1 that runneth underneath ; Or Severn swift, guilty of maiden's death ; 2 Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lea, Or coaly Tyne, or ancient hallowed Dee ;3 Or Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name ; 4 Or Medway smooth, or royal-towered Thanie. 6 Milton. THE THAMES AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. FROM his oozy bed, Old Father Thames advanced his reverend head : Around his throne the sea-borne brothers stood, Who swell with tributary urns his flood. First the famed authors of his ancient name, The winding Isis and the fruitful Thame ; The Kennet swift, for silver eels renowned ; The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crowned ; Colne, whose dark streams his flowery islands lave ; And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave : The blue, transparent Vandalis 6 appears ; The gulfy Lea his sedgy tresses rears ; And sullen Mole, that hides his diving flood ; And silent Darent, stained with Danish blood. Pope. HOME. THERE is a land, of every land the pride, Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside ; Where brighter suns disperse serener light, And milder moons emparadise the night ; (1) Mole This river sinks in the summer time into a " subterraneous and in- visible channel," between Dorking and Letherhead, in Surrey. For a discussion of the causes of this phenomenon see Brayley's " History of Surrey," vol. i. pp. 175185. (2) Maiderfs death. In allusion to the legend of Sabrina, referred to in " Comus," and detailed in Milton's " History of Britain," book i. (3) Hallowed Dee so called from its being fabulously considered the haunt of magicians, &c. (See extract from Milton's " Lycidas," p. 299.) (4) Scythian's name Humber is said to have been the name of a Scythian kin#, who was drowned in the river. (5) Royal-towered Thame in allusion to the royal towers of Windsor. (6) Vandalis the Wandle, a river in Surrey. / L 2 148 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. A land of beauty, virtue, valour, truth, Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth. The wandering mariner, whose eye explores The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, Views not a realm so bountiful and fair, Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air ; In every clime the magnet of his soul, Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole ; For in this land of Heaven's peculiar grace, The heritage of nature's noblest race, There is a spot of earth supremely blest A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest, Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside His sword and sceptre, pageantry and pride, While in his softened looks benignly blend The sire, 1 the son, the husband, brother, friend. Here woman reigns ; the mother, daughter, wife, Strews with fresh flowers the narrow way of life ! In the clear heaven of her delightful eye, An angel-guard 2 of loves and graces lie ; Around her knees domestic duties meet, And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet. Where shall that laud, that spot of eartli be found ? A.rt thou a man ? a patriot ? look around ! Oh thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam, That land THY COUNTRY, and that spot THY HOME ! O'er China's garden- fields and peopled floods ; In California's pathless world of woods ; Round Andes' heights, where Winter, from his throne, Looks down in scorn upon the summer zone; By the gay borders of Bermuda's isles, Where Spring, with everlasting verdure, smiles , On pure Madeira's vine-robed hills of health ; In Java's swamps of pestilence and wealth ; Where Babel stood, where wolves and jackals drink, Midst weeping willows on Euphrates' brink ; (1) Sire, husband The sire from the Latin senior, elder, through the French sievr is the head of the family, the master of the house ; husband from the Anglo-Saxon hus, house, and band, bond though its meaning is now restricted, had originally the same signification, the bond or support of the house. A man, therefore, as in the above line, may be called a sire in relation to his house and family, and a husband in relation to his wife. (2) An angel-yunrd, ffc. The reference here to woman in her domestic circle is particularly elegant. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 149 On CarmePs crest ; by Jordan's reverend stream, Where Canaan's glories vanished like a dream ; Where Greece, a spectre, haunts her heroes' graves, And Rome's vast ruins darken Tiber's waves ; Where broken-hearted Switzerland bewails Her subject mountains and dishonoured vales ; Where Albion's rocks exult amidst the sea, Around the beauteous isle of Liberty ; Man, through all ages of revolving time, Unchanging man, in every varying clime, Deems his own land of every land the pride, Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside ; His home the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. Montgomery. PROVIDENCE. 1 FROM THE ITALIAN OP FILICAJA. EVEN as a mother o'er her children bending Yearns with maternal love her fond embraces, And gentle kiss to each in turn extending, One at her feet, one on her knees she places, And from their eyes, and voice, and speaking faces, Their varying wants and wishes comprehending, To one a look, to one a word addresses, Even with her frowns a mother's fondness blending ; So o'er us watches Providence on high, And hope to some, and help to others lends, And yields alike to all an open ear, And when she seems her favours to deny, She for our prayers 2 alone the boon suspends, Or, seeming to deny, she grants the prayer. HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE OP CHAMOUNI.3 HAST thou a charm to stay the morning-star In his steep course ? so long he seems to pause (1) This sonnet is extracted from the "Edinburgh Beview," January, 1835. (2) For our prayers on account of the wrong spirit of our prayers. (3) This noble composition, which is said to be, for the most part, a translation from the German, is a suitable companion for Milton's " Morning Hyinn " (see p. 338) and Thomson's "Hymn of the Seasons " (see p. 387). 150 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. On thy bald awful head, O sovran Blanc ! The Arve" and Arveiron at thy base Have ceaselessly ; but thou, most awful form ! Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines How silently ! Around thee and above Deep is the air, and dark, substantial, black, An ebon mass : methinks thou piercest it, As with a wedge ! but when I look again, It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, Thy habitation from eternity ! dread and silent mount ! I gazed upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my thought : entranced in prayer 1 worshipped the invisible alone. Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody, So sweet, we know not we are listening to it, Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thoughts, Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy : Till the dilating soul, 1 enrapt, transfused, Into the mighty vision passing there, As in her natural form, swelled vast to heaven ! Awake, my soul ! not only passive praise Thou owest ! not alone these swelling tears, Mute thanks and secret ecstasy ! Awake, Voice of sweet song ! Awake, my heart, awake ! Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn. Thou first and chief, sole sovran of the vale ! struggling with the darkness all the night, And visited all night by troops of stars, Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink; Companion of the morning-star at dawn, Thyself earth's rosy star, 2 and of the dawn (1) The dilating svul, &c.i. e. the soul expanding, as it were, with the concep- tions suggested by the sublime scene, to its natural dimensions, swelled even to heaven. A similar thought occurs in " Chllde Harold " (canto iv. 155), in refer- ence to the effect produced on the mind by the view of St. Peter'.-i at Home : " Thy mind, Expanded by the genius of the spot, Has grown colossal." (2) 'Uiyself eartKs rosy star Mont Blanc is here spoken of as a star, because of the height of its summit above the Vale a rosy star because its peak is flushed at dawn witli the rosy tints rertected from the clouds, so that it becomes in thi^ way co-herald of the dawn, with tte morning-star. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. 151 Co-herald .' wake, O wake, and utter praise ! Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth ? Who filled thy countenance with rosy light ? Who made thee parent of perpetual streams ? And you, ye five wild torrents, 1 fiercely glad ! Who called you forth from night and utter death, Prom dark and icy caverns called you forth, Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, For ever shattered and the same for ever ? Who gave you your invulnerable life, 3 Your strength, your speed, your fury and your joy, "Unceasing thunder and eternal foam ? And who commanded and the silence came " Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest ?" Ye ice-falls ! ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous ravines slope amain Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge ! Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts ! Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven, Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun Clothe you with rainbows ? Who, with living flowers 3 Of loveliest blue, spread garments at your feet ? God ! let the torrents, like a shout of nations. Answer ; and let the ice-plains echo, God ! God ! sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice ! Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds ! 4 And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow, And in their perilous fall shall thunder GOD ! Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost ! Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest ! Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm ! Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds ! (1) " Besides the rivers Arve and Arveiron, which have their sources In the foot of Mont Blanc, five conspicuous torrents rush down its sides." Coleridge. (2) Invulnerable life The conception of some of the torrents as endued with "invulnerable life," and exhibiting all the attributes of human power, passion, and joy, is finely contrasted with that below of others " stopped at once," and con- verted into Motionle83 torrents ! silent cataracts ! (3) Living flowers, 8>c. The Gentiana major, with its lovely blue corolla, is one of the flowers found in countless myriads " skirting the eternal frost " like a garland. (4) Soul-like sounds i. e. such aerial sounds as might be fancifully attributed to invisible spirits. 152 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRT. Ye signs and wonders of the elements ! Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise ! Thou too, hoar mount ! with thy sky-pointing peaks, Oft from whose feet, the avalanche, unheard,! Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene Into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast Thou too again, stupendous mountain ! thou That as I raise my head, awhile bowed low In adoration, upward from thy base Slow-travelling, with dim eyes suffused with tears, Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud, To rise before me rise, ever rise, Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth ! Thou kingly spirit, throned among the hills, Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven, Great hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky, And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God ! Coleridge. ODE TO EVENING.a IF aught of oaten stop, 3 or pastoral song, May hope, pensive Eve, to soothe thine ear, Like thy own brawling springs, Thy springs, and dying gales, nymph reserved ! while now the bright-haired sun Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts, With brede 4 ethereal wove, O'erhang his wavy bed ; (1) Unheard from its great height. (2) Sir Egerton Brydges says of this ode : " Such a scene of enchanting repose was never exhibited by Claude, or any other among the happiest of painters. It ia vain to attempt to analyse the charm of this ode ; it is so subtle, that it escapes analysis. Its harmony is so perfect, that it requires no rhyme. The objects are so happily chosen, and the simple epithets convey ideas and feelings BO congenial to each other, as to throw the reader into the very mood over which the personified being so beautifully designed presides. No other poem on the same subject has the same magic." (3) Oaten stop The ancient shepherd's pipe was sometimes made of oat-straw. (4) Rrede (or braid) ethereal wove The clouds, woven into a sort of airy fringe, hang like a curtain over the sea the sun's " wavy bed ; " an exquisite concep- tion. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 153 Now air is hushed, 1 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 softened strain, Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale, May not unseemly with its stillness suit, As, musing slow, I hail Thy genial, loved return ! For 2 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 healthy scene, Or find some ruin 'midst its dreary dells, Whose walls more awful nod By thy religious gleams. Or, if chili blustering winds, or driving rain, Prevent my willing feet, be mine the liut, That, from 3 the mountain's side, Views wilds and swelling floods, And hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires ; And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all Thy dewy fingers draw The gradual dusky veil. (1) Now air, SfC. t. e. and now while, &c., teach me, maid composed, &c. (2) For, Sfc. i. e. let me aid by some "softened strain " to celebrate thy loved return, for inasmuch as other votaries of thine the hours, elves, &c. are now preparing to greet thee too. (3) That, from, &c. " In what short and simple terms does he (Collins) open a wide and majestic landscape to the mind, such as we might view from Benlomond or Snowdon, when he speaks of ' the hut that, from,' &c." Campbell. 154 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETHY. While Spring 1 shall pour his showers, as oft lie wont, And bathe thy breathing 2 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. Collins. TO THE MEMORY OF THOMSON. 3 WHILE virgin Spring, by Eden's flood, Unfolds her tender mantle green, Or pranks the sod in frolic mood, Or tunes .ZEolian strains 4 between ; While Summer, with a matron grace, Retreats to Dryburgh's cooling shade, Yet oft, delighted, stops to trace The progress of the spiky blade ; While Autumn, benefactor kind, By Tweed erects his aged head, And sees, with self-approving mind, Each creature on his bounty fed ; While maniac Winter rages o'er The hills whence classic 5 Yarrow flows, Rousing the turbid torrent's roar, Or sweeping, wild, a waste of snows ; (1) While Spring, SfC. It has been remarked that to these three last verses Burns was indebted for the leading idea contained in the next poem. He had been read- ing Collins at the time he wrote it. (2) Breathing i. e. breathing perfume ; in allusion perhaps to the fragrance ex- haled in the evening from trees, shrubs, and flowers (the "tresses"), after a shower. (3) These lines were written on occasion of the crowning of the bust of Thom- son, at Ednam, Roxburghshire, the place of his birth. The rivers named in the poem are in the same district. (4) jEolian strains strains like those of the JEolian harp. (5) Classic because the Yarrow has been much celebrated in poetry. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 155 So long, sweet Poet of the year, Shall bloom that wreath thou well hast won : While Scotia, with exulting tear, Proclaims that THOMSON was her son. Burns. ISAAC ASHFOBD, THE ENGLISH PEASANT.! To pomp and pageantry in nought allied, A noble peasant, Isaac Asford died. Noble he was, contemning all things mean ; His truth unquestioned, and his soul serene : Of no man's presence Isaac felt afraid, At no man's question Isaac looked dismayed : Shame knew him not, he dreaded no disgrace ; Truth, simple truth, was written in his face : Yet while the, serious thought his soul approved, Cheerful he seemed, and gentleness he loved: To bliss domestic he his heart resigned, And, with the firmest, had the fondest, mind. Were others joyful, he looked smiling on, And gave allowance, where he needed none ; Good he refused with future ill to buy, Nor knew a joy that caused reflection's sigh : A friend to virtue, his unclouded breast No envy stung, no jealousy distrest ; Yet was he far from stoic pride removed: He felt humanely, and he warmly loved: I marked his action when his infant died, And his old neighbour for offence was tried : The still tears, stealing down that furrowed cheek, Spoke pity plainer than the tongue can speak. If pride were his, 'twas not their vulgar pride, W T ho, in their base contempt, the great deride ; Nor pride in learning, though my clerk agreed, If fate should call him, Ashford might succeed ; Nor pride in rustic skill, although he knew None his superior, and his equals few ; (1) The power of Crabbe's delineations of character depends much on accumu- lation. The respective traits are often tame and uninteresting, while their combined effect is bold and striking. The passage here given will illustrate this remark. 156 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. But if that spirit in his soul had place, It was the jealous pride that shuns disgrace : A pride iii honest fame, by virtue gained, In sturdy boys to virtuous labours trained ; Pride iu the power that guards his country's coast, And all that Englishmen enjoy and boast ; Pride in a life that slander's tongue defied, In fact, a noble passion, misnamed pride. In times severe, when many a sturdy swain Felt it his pride, his comfort, to complain ; Isaac their wants would soothe, his own would hide, And feel in that his comfort and his pride. I feel his absence in the hours of prayer, And view his seat arid sigh for Isaac there ; I see no more those white locks, thinly spread Round the bald polish of that honoured head : No more that awful glance on playful wight, Compelled to kneel and tremble at the sight, To fold his fingers, all in dread the while, Till " Mister Ashford " softened to a smile ; No more that meek and suppliant look in prayer, Nor the pure faith, to give it force, are there ; But he is blest, and I lament no more, A wise, good man contented to be poor. Cralbe. THE RIVAL STATESMEN.* To mute and to material things New life revolving summer brings ; The vernal sun new life bestows E'en on the meanest flower that blows ; But vainly, vainly may he shine Where glory weeps o'er Fox's shrine; And vainly pierce the solemn gloom That shrouds, Pitt, thy hallowed tomb ! For ne'er held marble in its trust Of two such wondrous men the dust, With more than mortal powers endowed, How high they soared above the crowd ! (1) This extract is taken from the introduction to the tirst canto of ''Marmion. 1 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POET11Y. 157 Theirs was no common party race, Jostling by dark intrigue for place ; Like fabled gods, their mighty war Shook realms and nations in its jar ; Beneath each banner proud to stand, Looked up the noblest of the land, Till through the British world were known The names of Pitt and Pox alone. Now taming thought to human pride ! The mighty chiefs sleep side by side.i Drop upon Fox's grave the tear, 'Twill trickle to his rival's bier : O'er Pitt's the mornful requiem sqund, And Fox's shall the notes rebound. The solemn echo seems to cry, " Here let their discord with them die: Speak not for those a separate doom, "Whom Fate made brothers in the tomb ; But search the land of living men, Where wilt thou find their like again ? " Walter Scott. CLOUDLAND ; OR, FANCY IN NUBIBUS. OH ! it is pleasant with a heart at ease, Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies, To make the shifting clouds be what you please, Or let the easily persuaded eyes Own each quaint likeness, issuing from the mould Of a friend's fancy ; or, with head bent low, And cheek aslant, see rivers flow of gold 'Twixt crimson banks ; and then, a traveller, go From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land ! Or listening to the tide, with closed sight, Be that blind bard, who, on the Chian strand, 2 By those" deep sounds possessed with inward light, Beheld 3 the Iliad and Odysse Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea. Coleridge. (1) Side by side in Westminster Abbey. (2) Chian strand It was an ancient tradition that Homer was born at Chios. (3) Beheld i. e. with his mental eye conceived the plan of the famous poems above mentioned. 158 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. AT A SOLEMN MUSIC. 1 BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges2 of heaven's joy, Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse, Wed your 3 divine sounds, and mixed power* employ, Dead things with imbreathed sense able to pierce ^ And to our high-raised phantasys present* That undisturbed song of pure conceut,6 Aye 7 sung before the sapphire-coloured 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 ; 8 As once we did. till disproportioned 9 sin Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair music that all creatures made To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed In perfect diapason, 10 whilst they stood In first obedience, and their state of good. (1) At a solemn music f. e. lines written at, or on, a sacred concert or oratorio. (2) Pledges t. e. earnests or foretastes of the joys of heaven. (3) Wed your, Sfc. Milton speaks in his " L' Allegro." of airs " married to im- mortal verse." (See p. 309.) (4) Mixed power, $c. i. e. employ your united power, which is able to penetrate and breathe life even into dead things, and to our, &c. (5) Phantasy the old spelling for fancy. (6) Concent from the Latin con, together, and centus (for cuntus), singing, harmony in allusion to Plato's conceit of the music of the spheres. (7) Aye always, ever. (8) Noise music. So the word used to be sometimes employed in prose. See Psalm xlvii. 5 : " God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet." Crannier's version. (9) Disproportioned mismatched, disorderly. (10) Diapason from the Greek 810, through, and nanrtav, of all "the interval of the octave, so called because it includes all admitted musical sounds" here, metaphorically, full hirmony. STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. 159 Ob ! may we soon again renew that song 1 , And keep in tune with heaven, till God ere long ' To his celestial concert us unite, To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light ! Milton. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT. 1 AVENGE, Lord ! thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, 2 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, Forget not : in thy book record their groans Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans3 The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway The triple tyrant ; 4 that from these may grow A hundred-fold, who, having learned thy way, Early may fly the Babylonian woe. 5 Milton.. TO A FRIEND. WHEN we were idlers with the loitering rills The need of human love we little noted : Our love was nature, and the peace that floated On the white mist, and dwelt upon the hills, (1) This sublime prayer, as it may truly be called, was written on occasion of the barbaious massacre in 1665, inflicted by the Duke of Savoy on his Protestant subjects, the Vaudoig. (2) So pure of old The Vaudois appear to have kept themselves separate from the church of Rome from time immemorial. (3) Their moans, $c. The simplicity of the expression, the fulness of meaning, and the fine movement of the verse, make this sentence truly sublime. (4) The triple tyrant the Pope. So designated, probably, from his wearing the triple crown. (5) Babylonian woe the woe denounced on the spiritual Babylon, which is by many considered to be the Roman Catholic church. 100 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETKY. To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills : One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted, That, wisely doting, 1 asked not why it doted, And ours the unknown joy, which knowing kills. 2 But now I find how dear thou wert to me ; That man is more than half of nature's treasure, Of that fair beauty, which no eye can see, Of that sweet music which no eye can measure ; And now the streams may sing for others' pleasure, The hills sleep on in their eternity ! Hartley Coleridge. THE DEATH-BED. WE watched her breathing through the night, Her breathing soft and low, As iu her breast the wave of life Kept heaving to and fro. So silently we seemed to speak, So slowly moved about, As we had lent her half our powera To eke her living out. Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied We thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died. For when the morn came, dim and sad, And chill with early showers, Her quiet eyelids closed she had Another morn than ours. Hood. (1) Wisely doting to dote, connected with the Dutch dutten, and the French doter, radoter, probably meant originally to sleep, or dream, then to rave, to talk cr act foolishly : hence the pointed antithesis, in the above phrase. (2) This beautiful line reminds us of Gray's expression (see p. 127) " "Where ignorance is bliss Tis folly to be wise ;" and also of the exquisite story of Cupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius (book iv. 28). Psyche was perfectly happy in the love of Cupid, or Eros, until her curiosity prompted her to try to ascertain who he was and then he vanished forever! STUDIES IN ENGLISH POSTKr. 101 NIGHT. >JiGHT is the time for rest ; How sweet ! when labours close, To gather round an aching breast The curtain of repose ; Stretch the tired limbs and lay the head Upon our own delightful bed ! Night is the time for dreams; The gay romance of life ; When truth that is, and truth that seems, Blend in fantastic strife ; Ah ! visions less beguiling far Than waking dreams by daylight are I Night is the time for toil ; To plough the classic field, Intent to find the buried spoil Its wealthy furrows yield ; Till all is ours that sages taught, That poets sang, or heroes wrought. Night is the time to weep ; To wet with unseen tears Those graves of memory where sleep The joys of other years ; Hopes that were angels in their birth, But perished young, like things of earth. Night is the time for care ; Brooding on hours misspent, To see the spectre of despair Come to our lonely tent ; Like Brutus, 1 'midst his slumbering host, Startled by Caesar's stalworth 2 ghost. (1) Like Brutus In allusion to the phantom of Caesar, which is said to have appeared to Brutus before the battle of Philippi. (2) Stdlworth. from the Anglo-Saxon statl-iceorth, worth stealing or taking, and therefore (says Richardson), by inference brave, strong, daring. Jainiesoii derives its equivalent stalwart from the Anglo-Saxon stalferh.th+ steel mind or Bpirit a much more probable derivation. M 1I)Z STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. Night is the time to pray ; Our Saviour oft withdrew To desert mountains far away ; So will his followers do ; Steal from the throng to haunts untrod, And hold communion there with God. Night is the time for death ; When all around is peace, Calmly to yield the weary breath, From sin and suffering cease ; Think of heaven's bliss and give the sign To parting friends such death be mine ! Montgomery. DEATH OF AN INFANT.i DEATH found strange beauty on that infant brow, And dashed it out. There was a tint of rose On cheek and lip. He touched the veins with ice, And the rose faded. Forth from those blue eyes There spake a wishful tenderness, a doubt Whether to grieve or sleep, which innocence Alone may wear. With ruthless haste lie bound The silken fringes of those curtaining lids For ever. There had been a murmuring sound With which the babe would claim its mother's ear, Charming her even to tears. The spoiler set His seal of silence. But there beamed a smile So fixed, so holy, from that cherub brow, Death gazed and left it there ; he dared not steal The signet ring of heaven. ^ Sigourney. EARLY RISING AND PRAYER.2 WHEN first thine eyes unveil, give thy soul leave To do the like ; our bodies but forerun The spirit's duty ; true hearts spread and heave Unto their God, as flower* do to the sun ; (1) This subject has not often been more gracefully and tenderly handled than in the above lines. The picture here presented matches with that by the same elegant hand hi p. 88. (2) The author of these sfriking lines was a "Welsh private gentleman who lived in the 17th century. It is rare to find so much meaning in so few words. STUDIES IS EXGLISH POETRY. 163 Give Him thy first thoughts then, so shalt thou keep Him company all day, and iu him sleep. "Yet never sleep the sun up ; l prayer should Dawn with the day ; there are set awful hours 'Twixt heaven and us ; the manna was not good After sun-rising ; fair day sullies flowers. Rise to prevent 2 the sun : sleep doth sins glut, And heaven's gate 3 opens when this world's is shut. "Walk with thy fellow-creatures : 4 note the hush And whisperings amongst them. Not a spring Or leaf but hath this morning hymn ; each bush A nd oak doth know I AM. S Canst thou not sing ? Oh leave thy cares and follies ! go this way, 6 And thou art bure to prosper all the day. Serve God before the world ; let him not go Until thou hast a blessing ; then resign The whole unto him, and remember who Prevailed 7 by wrestling ere the sun did shine ; Pour oil upon the stones, weep for thy sin, Then journey on, and have an eye to heaven. 8 Mornings are mysteries : the first world's youth, Man's resurrection, and the future's bud, Shroud in 9 their births ; the crown of life, light, truth, Is styled their star ; the store and hidden food -. Three blessings wait upon them ; one of which Should move : they make us holy, happy, rich. (1) The sun up i. e. when the sun is up. (2) Prevent from the Latin prte. before, and venire, to come or go to go before. Tills is the primitive signification of the word, and was common in the 17th cen- tury and earlier, aa is evident from the Liturgy : " Prevent us, O Lord, by thy continual grace." (3) Heaven's gate, 8;e. It is difficult to conceive of a more beautiful mode of suggesting the charms and benefits of early rising. Many a long poem on the subject ie less eloquent than this one line. (4) Fellow-creatures t. e. the trees, flowers, birds, &c., created by the same hand. (5) 1 AmSee Exodus iii. 14. (6) Go this way i. e do as they do praise God early in the morning. (7) Who prevailed. $c. See Genesis xxxii. 26. (S) Heaven- rhymes here, by a most extraordinary licence, with sin. (9) Shroud in, fyc. are wrapt in, or symbolized by ; as when we speak of the morning of the world, of the resurrection, &c. M 2 164 STUDIES IN ENGLISH POETRY. When the world's up, and every swain abroad, Keep well thy temper, mix not with each clay ; Despatch necessities j life hath a load Which must be carried on and safely may ; Yet keep those cares without thee ; let the heart Be God's alone, and choose the better part. Vaughan. CHANGES.i THE lopped tree in time may grow again, The naked plants renew both leaf and flower ; The sorriest wight may find release of pain, The driest soil suck in some moistening shower. Times go by turns, and changes come by course, .From foul to fair, from better hap to worse. Not always fall of leaf, nor always spring, Not endless night, yet not eternal day : The saddest birds a season find to sing, The roughest storm a calm may soon allay. * Thus, with succeeding turns, God tempereth all, That man may hope to rise, yet fear to fall. A chance may win that 2 by mischance was lost, The net that holds no great, takes little fish ; In some things all, in all things none are crost ; Few all they need, but none have all they wish ! Unmingled joys here to no man befal : Who least, hath some, who most, hath never all Southwell. THE IDEA. OF A STATE. IN IMITATION OF ALGOUS. WHAT constitutes a State ? Not high-raised battlement or laboured mound, Thick wall, or moated gate ; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned ; Not bays and broad-armed ports, "Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; (1) The pithiness of these lines countenances Pope's assertion that poetry Is emphatically the language of brevity. They are of the same date as the last. (2) 2%