The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Volume I Part 7

Home returning from our toils, Thou shalt bear the tiger's spoils; And we will sing our loudest strain O'er the forest-tyrant slain!

Sometimes thou shalt pause to hear The beauteous cardinal sing clear; 20 Where h.o.a.ry oaks, by time decayed, Nod in the deep wood's pathless glade; And the sun, with bursting ray, Quivers on the branches gray.

By the river's craggy banks, O'erhung with stately cypress-ranks, Where the bush-bee[38] hums his song, Thy trim canoe shall glance along.

To-night at least, in this retreat, Stranger! rest thy wandering feet; 30 To-morrow, with unerring bow, To the deep thickets fearless we will go.

[36] The Indians believe some of their high mountains to be inhabited by supernatural beings.

[37] The alligator.

[38] The bush-bee lives on shrubs and low trees.

MONODY, WRITTEN AT MATLOCK.

Matlock! amid thy h.o.a.ry-hanging views, Thy glens that smile sequestered, and thy nooks Which yon forsaken crag all dark o'erlooks; Once more I court the long neglected Muse, As erst when by the mossy brink and falls Of solitary Wainsbeck, or the side Of Clysdale's cliffs, where first her voice she tried, I strayed a pensive boy. Since then, the thralls That wait life's upland road have chilled her breast, And much, as much they might, her wing depressed. 10 Wan Indolence, resigned, her deadening hand Laid on her heart, and Fancy her cold wand Dropped at the frown of fortune; yet once more I call her, and once more her converse sweet, 'Mid the still limits of this wild retreat, I woo;--if yet delightful as of yore My heart she may revisit, nor deny The soothing aid of some sweet melody!

I hail the rugged scene that bursts around; I mark the wreathed roots, the saplings gray, 20 That bend o'er the dark Derwent's wandering way; I mark its stream with peace-persuading sound, That steals beneath the fading foliage pale, Or, at the foot of frowning crags upreared, Complains like one forsaken and unheard.

To me, it seems to tell the pensive tale Of spring-time, and the summer days all flown; And while sad autumn's voice ev'n now I hear Along the umbrage of the high-wood moan, At intervals, whose s.h.i.+vering leaves fall sere; 30 Whilst o'er the group of pendant groves I view The slowly-spreading tints of pining hue, I think of poor Humanity's brief day, How fast its blossoms fade, its summers speed away!

When first young Hope, a golden-tressed boy,[39]

Most musical his early madrigal Sings to the whispering waters as they fall, Breathing fresh airs of fragrance and of joy, The wild woods gently wave, the morning sheds Her rising radiance on the mountain heads, 40 Strewed with green isles appears old ocean's reign, And seen at distance rays of resting light Silver the farthest promontory's height: Then hushed is the long murmur of the main, Whilst silent o'er the slowly-crisping tides, Bound to some beaming spot, the bark of pleasure glides.

Alas! the scenes that smile in light arrayed But catch the sense, and then in darkness fade.

We, poor adventurers, of peace bereft, Look back on the green hills that late we left, 50 Or turn, with beating breast and anxious eye, To some faint hope that glimmering meets our sight (Like the lone watch-tower in the storm of night), Then on the dismal waste are driv'n despairing by!

Meantime, amid the landscape cold and mute, Hope, sweet enchanter, sighing drops his lute: So sad decay and mortal change succeeds, And o'er the silent scene Time, like a giant, speeds!

Yet the bleak cliffs that lift their heads so high (Around whose beetling crags, with ceaseless coil, 60 And still-returning flight, the ravens toil) Heed not the changeful seasons as they fly, Nor spring, nor autumn: they their h.o.a.ry brow Uprear, and ages past, as in this now, The same deep trenches unsubdued have worn, The same majestic frown, and looks of lofty scorn.

So Fort.i.tude, a mailed warrior old, Appears; he lifts his scar-intrenched crest; The tempest gathers round his dauntless breast; He hears far off the storm of havoc rolled; 70 The feeble fall around: their sound is past; Their sun is set, their place no more is known; Like the wan leaves before the winter's blast They perish:--He, unshaken and alone Remains, his brow a sterner shade a.s.sumes, By age enn.o.bled, whilst the hurricane, That raves resistless o'er the ravaged plain, But shakes unfelt his helmet's quivering plume.

And so yon sovereign of the scene[40] I mark Above the woods rear his majestic head, 80 That soon all shattered at his feet shall shed Their short-lived beauties: he the winter dark Regardless, and the wasteful time that flies, Rejoicing in his lonely might, defies.

Thee, wandering in the deep and craggy dell, Sequestered stream, with other thoughts I view: Thou dost in solitude thy course pursue, As thou hadst bid life's busy scenes farewell, Yet making still such music as might cheer The weary pa.s.senger that journeys near. 90 Such are the songs of Peace in Virtue's shade; Unheard of Folly, or the vacant train That pipe and dance upon the noontide plain, Till in the dust together they are laid!

But not unheard of Him, who sits sublime Above the clouds of this tempestuous clime, Its stir and strife; to whom more grateful rise The humble incense, and the still small voice Of those that on their pensive way rejoice, Than shouts of thousands echoing to the skies; 100 Than songs of conquest pealing round the car Of hard Ambition, or the Fiend of War, Sated with slaughter. Nor may I, sweet stream, From thy wild banks and still retreats depart, Where now I meditate my casual theme, Without some mild improvement on my heart Poured sad, yet pleasing! so may I forget The crosses and the cares that sometimes fret Life's smoothest channel, and each wish prevent 109 That mars the silent current of content!

In such a spot, amidst these rugged views, The pensive poet in his drooping age Might wish to place his reed-roofed hermitage; Where much on life's vain shadows he might muse.

If fortune smiled not on his early way, If he were doomed to mourn a faithless friend, Here he might rest, and when his hairs were gray, Behold in peace the parting day descend.

If a hard world his errors scanned severe, When late the earth received his mouldering clay, 120 Perhaps some loved companion, wandering near, Plucking the gray moss from the stone, might say: Him I remember, in our careless days, Vacant and glad, till many a loss severe First hung his placid eyelids with a tear; Yet on such visions ardent would he gaze, As the Muse loved, that oft would smile and die, Like the faint bow that leaves the weeping sky; His heart unguarded, yet it proudly beat Against hard wrong, or coward cold deceit;-- 130 Nor pa.s.sed he e'er without a sigh the cell Where wretchedness and her pale children dwell.

He never wished to win the world's cold ear, Nor, prized by those he loved, its blame could fear; Its praise he left to those who, at their will, The ingenious strain of torturing art could trill!

Content, as random fancies might inspire, If his weak reed, at times, or plaintive lyre, He touched with desultory hand, and drew Some softened tones, to Nature not untrue. 140 The leaves, O Derwent! on thy bosom still Oft with the gust now fall--the season pale Hath smote with hand unseen the silent vale, And slowly steals the verdure from the hill; So the fair scene departs, yet wears a while The lingering traces of its beauteous smile: But we who by thy margin stray, or climb The cliff's aerial height, or join the song Of hope and gladness amidst yonder throng, Losing the brief and fleeting hours of time, 150 Reck not how age, even thus, with icy hand, Hangs o'er us;--how, as with a wizard's wand, Youth blooming like the spring, and roseate mirth, To slow and sere consumption he shall change, And with invisible mutation strange, Withered and wasted send them to the earth; Whilst hushed, and by the mace of ruin rent, Sinks the forsaken hall of merriment!

Bright bursts the sun upon the s.h.a.ggy scene!

The aged rocks their glittering summits gray 160 Hang beautiful amid the beams of day; And all the woods, with slowly-fading green, Yet smiling wave:--severer thoughts, away!

The night is distant, and the lovely day Looks on us yet;--the sound of mirthful cheer From yonder dome comes pleasant to mine ear.

From rock to rock reverberated swells, Hark,--the glad music of the village bells!

On the crag's naked point the heifer lows, And wide below the brightening landscape glows! 170 Though brief the time and short our course to run, Derwent! amid the scenes that deck thy side, Ere yet the parting paths of life divide, Let us rejoice, seeking what may be won From the laborious day, or fortune's frown: Here may we, ere the sun of life goes down, A while regardless of the morrow, dwell; 177 Then to our destined roads, and speed us well!

[39] I have ventured in this place to make Hope a boy.

[40] Matlock High Tor.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDMUND BURKE.

Why mourns the ingenuous Moralist, whose mind Science has stored, and Piety refined, That fading Chivalry displays no more Her pomp and stately tournaments of yore!

Lo! when Philosophy and Truth advance, Scared at their frown, she drops her glittering lance; Round her reft castles the pale ivy crawls, And sunk and silent are her bannered halls!

As when far off the golden evening sails, And slowly sink the fancy-painted vales, 10 With rich pavilions spread in long array; So rolls the enchanter's radiant realm away; So on the sight the parting glories fade, The gorgeous vision sets in endless shade.

But shall the musing mind for this lament, Or mourn the wizard's Gothic fabric rent!

Shall he, with Fancy's poor and pensive child, Gaze on his shadowy vales, and prospects wild, With lingering love, and sighing bid farewell To the dim pictures of his parting spell! 20 No, BURKE! thy heart, by juster feelings led, Mourns for the spirit of high Honour fled; Mourns that Philosophy, abstract and cold, Withering should smite life's fancy-flowered mould; And many a smiling sympathy depart, That graced the sternness of the manly heart.

Nor shall the wise and virtuous scan severe These fair illusions, ev'n to nature dear.

Though now no more proud Chivalry recalls Her tourneys bright, and pealing festivals; 30 Though now on high her idle spear is hung, Though Time her mouldering harp has half unstrung; Her milder influence shall she still impart, To decorate, but not disguise, the heart; To nurse the tender sympathies that play In the short suns.h.i.+ne of life's early way; For female worth and meekness to inspire Homage and love, and temper rude desire; Nor seldom with sweet dreams sad thoughts to cheer, And half beguile affliction of her tear! 40 Lo! this her boast; and still, O BURKE! be thine Her glowing hues that warm, yet tempered s.h.i.+ne; Whilst whispers bland, and fairest dreams, attend Thy evening path, till the last shade descend!

So may she soothe, with loftier wisdom's aid, Thy musing leisure in the silent shade, And bid poor Fancy, her cold pinions wet, Life's cloudy skies and beating showers forget.

But can her fairest form, her sweetest song, Soothe thee, a.s.sailed by calumny and wrong! 50 Ev'n now thy foes with louder accents cry: Champion of unrelenting tyranny, At Freedom hast thou aimed the deadly blow, And striven with impious arm to lay her altars low!

No, BURKE! indignant at the voice we start: We trust thy liberal views, thy generous heart; We think of those who, naked, pale, and poor, Relieved and blessed, have wandered from thy door; We see thee with unwearied step explore Each track of bloodshed on the farthest sh.o.r.e 60 Of injured Asia, and thy swelling breast Harrowing the oppressor, mourning for the oppressed, No, BURKE! where'er Injustice rears her head, Where'er with blood her idol grim is fed; Where'er fell Cruelty, at her command, With crimson banner marches through the land, And striding, like a giant, onward hies, Whilst man, a trodden worm, looks up, and dies; Where'er pale Murder in her train appears, With reeking axe, and garments wet with tears; 70 Or, lowering Jealousy, unmoved as Fate, Bars fast the prison-cage's iron gate Upon the buried sorrows and the cries Of him who there, lost and forgotten, lies;-- When ministers like these, in fearful state, Upon a b.l.o.o.d.y tyrant's bidding wait, Thou too shalt own (and Justice lift her rod) The cause of Freedom is the cause of G.o.d!

Fair spirit, who dost rise in beauteous pride, Where proud Oppression hath thine arm defied! 80 When led by Virtue thou dost firm advance, And bathe in Guilt's warm blood thy burning lance; When all thy form its awful port a.s.sumes, And in the tempest shake thy crimson plumes, I mark thy lofty mien, thy steady eye, So fall thy foes! with tears of joy I cry.

But ne'er may Anarchy, with eyes a-flame, And mien distract, a.s.sume thy awful name; Her pale torch sheds afar its hideous glare, And shows the blood-drops in her dabbled hair; 90 The fiends of discord hear her hollow voice, The spirits of the deathful storm rejoice: As when the rising blast with muttering sweep Sounds 'mid the branches of the forest deep, The sad horizon lowers, the parting sun Is hid, strange murmurs through the high wood run, The falcon wheels away his mournful flight, And leaves the glens to solitude and night; Till soon the hurricane, in dismal shroud, Comes fearful forth, and sounds her conch aloud; 100 The oak majestic bows his h.o.a.ry head, And ruin round his ancient reign is spread: So the dark fiend, rejoicing in her might, Pours desolation and the storm of night; Before her dread career the good and just Fly far, or sink expiring in the dust; Wide wastes and mighty wrecks around her lie, And the earth trembles at her impious cry!

Whether her temple, wet with human gore, She thus may raise on Gallia's ravaged sh.o.r.e, 110 Belongs to HIM alone, and His high will, Who bids the tempests of the world be still.[41]

With joy we turn to Albion's happier plain, Where ancient Freedom holds her temperate reign; Where Justice sits majestic on her throne; Where Mercy turns her ear to every groan.

O Albion! fairest isle, whose verdant plain Springs beauteous from the blue and billowy main; In peaceful pomp whose glittering cities rise, And lift their crowded temples to the skies; 120 Whose navy on the broad brine awful rolls; Whose commerce glows beneath the distant poles; Whose streams reflect full many an Attic pile; Whose velvet lawns in long luxuriance smile; Amid whose winding coombs contentment dwells, Whose vales rejoice to hear the Sabbath bells; Whose humblest shed, that steady laws protect, The villager with woodbine bowers hath decked!

Sweet native land, whose every haunt is dear, Whose every gale is music to mine ear; 130 Amidst whose hills one poor retreat I sought, Where I might sometimes hide a saddening thought, And having wandered far, and marked mankind In their vain mask, might rest and safety find: Oh! still may Freedom, with majestic mien, Pacing thy rocks and the green vales, be seen; Around thy cliffs, that glitter o'er the main, May smiling Order wind her silver chain; Whilst from thy calm abodes, and azure skies, Far off the fiend of Discord murmuring flies! 140 To him who firm thy injured cause has fought, This humble offering, lo! the Muse has brought; Nor heed thou, BURKE, if, with averted eye, Scowling, cold Envy may thy worth decry!

It is the lot of man:--the best oft mourn, As sad they journey through this cloudy bourne: If conscious Genius stamp their chosen breast, And on the forehead show her seal impressed, Perhaps they mourn, in bleak Misfortune's shade, Their age and cares with penury repaid; 150 Their errors deeply scanned, their worth forgot, Or marked by hard injustice with a blot.

If high they soar, and keep their distant way, And spread their ample pinions to the day, Malignant Faction hears with hate their name, And all her tongues are busy with their fame.

But 'tis enough to hold, as best we may, Our destined track, till sets the closing day; Whether with living l.u.s.tre we adorn Our high sphere, like the radiance of the morn; 160 Or whether silent in the shade we move, Cheered by the lonely star of pensive love; Or whether wild opposing storms we stem, Panting for Virtue's distant diadem; 'Tis the unshaken mind, the conscience pure, That bids us firmly act, meekly endure; 'Tis this may s.h.i.+eld us when the storm beats hard, Content, though poor, had we no other guard![42]

[41] These lines were written before the murder of the late King of France, and many of the events of horror which have since taken place in that miserable country.

[42] Milton.

ON LEAVING A PLACE OF RESIDENCE.

If I could bid thee, pleasant shade, farewell Without a sigh, amidst whose circling bowers My stripling prime was pa.s.sed, and happiest hours, Dead were I to the sympathies that swell The human breast! These woods, that whispering wave, My father reared and nursed, now to the grave Gone down; he loved their peaceful shades, and said, Perhaps, as here he mused: Live, laurels green; Ye pines that shade the solitary scene, Live blooming and rejoice! When I am dead 10 My son shall guard you, and amid your bowers, Like me, find shelter from life's beating showers.

These thoughts, my father, every spot endear; And whilst I think, with self-accusing pain, A stranger shall possess the loved domain, In each low wind I seem thy voice to hear.

But these are shadows of the shaping brain That now my heart, alas! can ill sustain: We must forget--the world is wide--the abode Of peace may still be found, nor hard the road. 20 It boots not, so, to every chance resigned, Where'er the spot, we bear the unaltered mind.

Yet, oh! poor cottage, and thou sylvan shade, Remember, ere I left your coverts green, Where in my youth I mused, in childhood played, I gazed, I paused, I dropped a tear unseen, That bitter from the font of memory fell, Thinking on him who reared you; now, farewell!

ELEGIAC STANZAS.

WRITTEN DURING SICKNESS AT BATH.

When I lie musing on my bed alone, 1 And listen to the wintry waterfall;[43]

And many moments that are past and gone, Moments of suns.h.i.+ne and of joy, recall;

Though the long night is dark and damp around, 2 And no still star hangs out its friendly flame; And the winds sweep the sash with sullen sound, And freezing palsy creeps o'er all my frame;

I catch consoling phantasies that spring 3 From the thick gloom, and as the night airs beat, They touch my heart, like wind-swift wires[44] that ring In mournful modulations, strange and sweet.

Was it the voice of thee, my buried friend? 4 Was it the whispered vow of faithful love?

Do I in Knoyle's green shades thy steps attend, And hear the high pines murmur thus above?

'Twas not thy voice, my buried friend!--Oh, no: 5 'Twas not, O Knoyle! the murmur of thy trees; But at the thought I feel my bosom glow, And woo the dream whose air-drawn shadows please.

And I can think I see the groves again, 6 The larches that yon peaceful roof embower; The airy down, the cattle-speckled plain, And the slant suns.h.i.+ne on the village tower.

And I can think I hear its Sabbath chime 7 Come smoothly softened down the woody vale; Or mark on yon lone eminence sublime, Fast whirling in the wind, the white mill's sail.

Phantom, that by my bed dost beckoning glide, 8 Spectre of Death, to the damp charnel hie!

Thy dim pale hand, thy festering visage hide; Thou com'st to say, I with thy worms shall lie!