But now, when every sharp-edged blast
Is quiet in its sheath,
His mother leaves him free to taste
Earth's sweetness in thy breath.
Lo! streams that April could not check
Are patient of thy rule;
Gurgling1 in foamy water-break,
Loitering in glassy pool:
By thee, thee only, could be sent
Such gentle mists as glide,
Curling with unconfirmed intent,
On that green mountain's side.
How delicate the leafy veil
Through which yon House of God
Gleams 'mid the peace of this deep dale,
By few but shepherds trod!
And lowly huts, near beaten ways,
No sooner stand attired
In thy fresh wreaths, than they for praise
Peep forth and are admired.
Season of fancy and of hope,
Permit not for one hour
A blossom from thy crown to drop,
Nor add to it a flower!
Keep, lovely May,3 as if by touch
Of self restraining art,
This modest charm of not too much,
Part seen, imagined part!
1 Gurgling, &c.-In one line of this couplet, we may almost hear the "gurgling," and in the other almost feel the stillness, of the water.
2 Curling, &c.-One of those "felicities" of phrase, alluded to in the first
3 Keep, lovely May, &c.-The most satisfactory test of superlative excellence, in point of composition, of such lines as this and the following, would be afforded by the attempt to improve them by the alteration or addition of even a single word. The success of Horace himself in such an endeavour would have been extremely doubtful.
AGES elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,
And ages ere the Mantuan swan1 was heard.
Το carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, asked ages more.
Thus genius rose and set at ordered times,
And shot a day-spring into distant climes,
Ennobling every region that he chose;
He sank in Greece, in Italy he rose ;
And, tedious years of Gothic darkness past,
Emerged all splendour in our isle at last :
Thus lovely halcyons dive into the main,
Then show far off their shining plumes again.
Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower;
Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads
The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads:
She fills profuse ten thousand little throats
With music, modulating all their notes ;
And charms the woodland scenes, and wilds unknown,
With artless airs and concerts of her own;
But seldom (as if fearful of expense)
Vouchsafes to man a poet's just pretence-
Fervency, freedom, fluency of thought,
Harmony, strength, words exquisitely sought;
Fancy, that from the bow that spans the sky,
Brings colours dipt in heaven,2 that never die;
A soul exalted above earth; a mind
Skilled in the characters that form mankind;
And, as the sun in rising beauty drest,
Looks to the westward from the dappled east,
And marks, whatever clouds may interpose,
Ere yet his race begins, its glorious close;
An eye like his to catch the distant goal;
Or, ere the wheels of verse begin to roll,
Like his to shed illuminating rays
On every scene and subject it surveys:
Thus graced, the man asserts a poet's name,
And the world cheerfully admits the claim.
Mantuan swan-Virgil, so called because he was born at Mantua, in Italy.
A particular species of swans had the reputation among the ancients of singing very beautifully-hence poets were figuratively styled swans.
2 "Colours dipt in heaven"-an expression borrowed from "Paradise Lost."
MORAL MAXIMS, EPIGRAMS, &c.
I. LIVE WHILE YOU LIVE.1
"LIVE while you live," the epicure would say,
"And seize the pleasures of the present day."
"Live while you live," the sacred preacher cries,
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
Lord! in my views let both united be;
I live in pleasure when I live to Thee.
II. LINES UNDER MILTON'S PORTRAIT.
THREE poets in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England, did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed;
The next in majesty; in both the last.
The force of nature could no further go,
To make a third, she joined the former two.
THE wretch, condemned with life to part,
Still, still on hope relies;
And every pang that rends the heart
Bids expectation2 rise.
Hope, like the3 glimmering taper's light,
Adorns and cheers the way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.
IV. LINES WRITTEN BY LORD BYRON IN HIS BIBLE.
WITHIN this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
1 Dr. Johnson has pronounced this epigram the finest in the language.
2 Expectation-is here employed in precisely the same sense as hope; for the distinction between them, see note 1, p. 201.
3 Like the, &c.-It is scarcely necessary to point out the singular beauty of this stanza, "which" as Mr. Montgomery has remarked, "like the taper itself, grows clearer and brighter the more it is contemplated."
4 These lines may be found in one of Sir Walter Scott's tales; their application to a worthier subject is said to be originally due to Lord Byron, as above stated.
Happiest they of human race,
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch-to force the way;
But better had they ne'er been born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
THE wise and active conquer difficulties
By daring to attempt them: sloth and folly
Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazard,
And make the impossibility they fear.
O'ER crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound,
With nimble glide the skaters play;
O'er treacherous pleasure's flowery ground,
Thus lightly skim and haste away.
VII. GUARD THE TONGUE.
Ir thou wishest to be wise,
Keep these words before thine eyes,
What thou speak'st, and how, beware!
Of whom-to whom-when-and where.
VIII. THE SAME SUBJECT.
From the Persian of Hafiz.
Two ears and but a single tongue
By nature's law to man belong!
The lesson she would teach is clear-
Repeat but half of what you hear."
IX. CONQUER BY KINDNESS.
SAFER to reconcile a foe, than make
A conquest of him, for the conquest's sake,
This tames the power of doing present ill,
But that disarms him of the very will.
WHAT stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
XI. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR.
From the German of Wernicke.
FRIEND, do not crouch to those above,
And do not tread on those below;
Love those, they're worthy of thy love;
Love these, and thou wilt make them so.
XII. SUNSET AND SUNRISE.
From the Latin of Milton.
CONTEMPLATE when the sun declines
Thy death, with deep reflection;
And when again he rising shines,
Thy day of resurrection!
XIII. THE WORLD'S WEALTH.
THE swelling of an outward fortune can
Create a prosperous, not a happy man;
A peaceful Conscience is the true Content,
And Wealth is but her golden ornament.
XIV. CARPE DIEM.
From the Latin of Martial.
"To morrow I will live," the fool doth
To day itself's too late, the wise lived yesterday.
XV. LET TRUE WORTH BE SEEN.
To hide true worth from public view,
Is burying diamonds in their mine:-
All is not gold that shines, 'tis true;
But all that is gold-ought to shine!
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