No More Learning

While Balderdash vends the vilest of compounds,
And, for all his good friends, brews his dear poison,
No wonder they can never get him to dine :--
He's afraid they'll oblige him to drink his own wine.
770
From my brother the post hasjust brought a letter;
And, to write him another, I am seated here.
Wo'n't it be very clever, if I can do't in rhime ?
And I could for ever scribble, I'm so fond of rhime.
771
She pass'd still fearless o'er weed-cover'd fragments,
And at last arriv'd at the innermost ruin,. . . .
When, on her ear, the sound of a voice seem'd to
All eager to hear, she listen'd, and she paus'd. [rise.
772
Prostrate is laid the elm, beneath whose broad shade
I have play'd and gatnbol'd iu childhood's blithe day.
The gay thrushes shall no more sing on its boughs,
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Nor goldfinches hail the commencement of spring.
The musical choir, depriv'd of their shelter,
Retire to the shade of the thickets, with regret.
773. -- Woman.
'Tis woman, whose charms impart ev'ry rapture,
And to the pulse of the heart add a soft spring.
Her sway is so supreme--the miser himself
Resigns her his key, aud to love grows a convert.
Sorrow lifts up his head, at the sound of her voice,
And, from his shed, Poverty, well pleas'd, listens. '
Even Age, hobbling along, in an ecstasy,
Beats time to the tune of her song, with his crutch.
774
We cheerfully hope to find in our cottage
The solace of mind, and the transport of life.
Nature may shine there with unborrow'd beauty,
And read some divine lecture through all seasons ;
Excite the ambition pursu'd by wisdom,
And point to the giver of good, from his gifts.
Friends, ever welcome, shall pay glad visits there,
And books shall display the science of ages.
775. -- To a Daughter, with a Chaplet of Flozcers,
A more beauteous garland may adorn thy breast,
Than courts the soft dew-drops of May's lucid morn,
Tf, kind and obliging, good-bum on r'd and mild,
The fruits of the heart aid the blossoms of mind.
If love and duty join with ease and spirit,
The dear chaplet they form, that will ever please.
In thy bosom, my sweet little Jane, wear these ;
And unfaded will remain the flow'rs that we prize.
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776
Oh ! burn the tall heath which waves in the gale now :
Let nought prevail but the war-songs of Erin*.
The prows of the strangers swell the green wave now:
Unsheath then the sword of the brave, ye heroes.
Far from the shore, far, chase the deer of black Mor-
Till the banquet of Odin and of Death is o'er, [vern,
Of our fathers of old sing the deeds, ye bards,
And rouse the bold and the brave to new glory. . . .
From the heath-cover'd dell shall start the heroes,
Determin'd to fall as fell their forefathers.
Ye bold hunters of Colna's dark plain ! bend the bow:
Rejoice again In the Strength of your arrows.
Now the spears of tbe strangers darken the sky :
Dread Odin is nigh, and the eagle has shriek'd thrice.
Anapastics of four feet and three alternately -- with
alternate rhime.
777
The beauties, so rare, that adorn my Phyllis,
To those of her mind are inferior.
The forlorn orphan, and aged, she succours,
And is kind to all the afflicted.
778
A slave to passion, of Fancy a vot'ry,
With a heart that of guile's unconscious,
Of each plodding mean knave e'er shall I be the dupe,
And of each villain's dark wile the prey.
? Erin, the Gaelic name of Ireland.
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779
A maiden cried, Ah me! aii! where can I fly,
For aid, from so wild a tempest ?
Can you now, my rigid stern sire, mock the sigh
Of your wandering, houseless, poor child ?
780
Ev'ry care and sorrow I sooth tenderly :
I toil, unwearied, to ease thee.
I ensnare, by ray wiles, the fish of the stream,
Despoil of their flowers the meads
781-
When our forefathers stray'd wide o'er the woodlands,
As rude as the rocks of cur isle,
Along the deep glade wanton'd fair Liberty,
And with a smile deck'd ev'ry face.
7se
The wide world is a desolate waste to me,
Where to roam Fortune has doom'd me,
Expos'd to the blast, a care-haunted pilgrim,
And denied a home or companion.
783
* Fond visions of joy ! vain illusions ! hence! hence!
In my breast no more shall you reign.
The frown of my Phyllis can annoy no more:
Her smile can make me blest no more"
Resolv'd to shake off the soft chain, young Strephon,
Among the gay shepherds, sang thus.
But his triumph is short: for, o'er the plain, see!
Lightly trips along his Phyllis.
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Anapmstics of four feel, with alternate rfdme.
784
From the blush of young Morn the trees borrow tints,
As to the gale they expand their beautiful bloom,
Where they adoru the cottage, and shadow the path,
Of Emma, the pride of the vale, sweet Emma.
785
Stern winter has stripp'd the trees of their honors,
And strew'd blighted beauties around in ruin:
Now by the breeze the pride of the woodlands is toss'd,
And the still streamlet is bound in strong icy chains.
786
I have, as I pass'd, seen how the rose, gay blushing,
Display'd her bosom to the gale of the morning:
I return'd : but away had her beauties faded;
And, ere the ev'ning, was the pride of the morn dead.
787
The look was gone, that spoke gladness and welcome:
The blaze was no more, that in the hall shone bright.
A stranger, with a bosom of stone, was there;
And, as I euter'd his door, his look was cold.
788
A strange contest arose between nose and eyes:
Unhappily the spectacles set tbein wrong.
As ev'ry one knows, the point in dispute was,
To which ought to belong the said spectacles
So his lordship decreed, with a solemn, grave tone,
Clear and decisive, without one but or if,
That, whenever the nose put on his spectacles,
By candle-light or day-light, eyes should be shut.
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The first and third lines with double rhime.
789
How sweet is the thought of to-morrow to the heart,
When Hope's fairy pictures display bright colors'.
How sweet, when we can borrow from futurity
A balm for the griefs that to-day afflict us!
790
The last torrent was streaming from his bosom that
heav'd;
And his visage, deep mark'd with a scar, was pale:
And dim was that eye, once beaming expressively,
That kindled in war, and thai melted in love.
Jlnapaslics of three feet: -- rhime alternate.
791
I was cast upon the wide world,
A little boy, fatherless, poor:
But, at last, Fortune, kind Fortune,
Has turn'd to joy all my sorrow.
Anapastics of four feet: -- each couplet to rhime.
792. --Diana.
While she follows the. chase, Taygetus* sounds
With the cry of the hounds, and the notes of the horn.
* Taygetus. --In ancient . Greek names, the Y nt<<ver unites
with a preceding vowel 10 form a diphthong, but always makrs
a separate syllable, as in Ce-yx, Ca-ystcr, he. though (strange
as it may appear to the English reader) THYIis hut one syllable
in llitltyia and Orithyia, which, in Greek and Latin poeiry, con-
tain only four syllables each, as I have shown in my Latin
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793
Let order preside throughout your whole household. ;
I/or order is ever allied with prudence.
794
For departed moments, ah ! ne'er to return--
For scenes of past bliss,- we mourn, un-availing;
"When, blooming with health, our little ones and our-
selves
To indolent Wealth were objects of envy;
Prosody;" the YI being, in the original, a diphthong (Ul),
sounded, probably, by the ancient Greeks, as it is by the modern
French in Lui, Nuit, Puis, though difficult of pronunciation to
an English tongue, as observed in my note on the word Puis-
sance," under the head of " Diaresis," in page 10. --With respect
to THygetus, agreeably to the practice of Virgil, Homer, and other
ancient writers, it contains four syllables--the third, short; and
the accent falls on the second--Ta-y-getus. In my edition of
Jiryden's Virgil (Geo. 3, 74), I chose rather to presume that
our English bard had intended a synsope, however harsh, in the
third syllable, than that he could have been so grossly ignorant
of the classical quantity and pronunciation, as to make Tay a
single syllable, and to lengthen the ge. Accordingly, I thus
printed the line--
Thy hounds, T'dyg'tus, open, and pursue their prey.
Such of my readers, however, as prefer dactyls and anapaests to
the use of the syncope, may avoid the harsh elison, by making
the third foot an anapaest, thus--
Thy hounds, | Tdy- j -getus, o- | -pen, and pursue their prey--
though neither that nor any other management in the reading
can ever render it a pleasing line, destitute, as it is, of the middle
ceswa, which is indispensable in the Alexandrine metre.
X
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When, at the close of each day, innocent sports
Could banish away our sorrows and our cares.
Ah ! when will sweet pastime the plain revisit,
And content and joy smile again around us?
Alternate rhime.
795 [man,
When, in the vale, had ceas'd the stroke of the wood-
And night's lonely warbler* her sweet song com-
menc'd,
Her tale a heart-broken maiden repeated,
And to the stream, as along it murmur'd, sigh'd.
Blank Verse.
Ten-syllable Iambics, in which some of the Italic
words are to have epithets added--some are to be al-
tered as directed in page ]<)6 -- and some are both to be
altered and to have epithets.
796
Oh ! if I had but the envied power of choosing
My residence, no sound of city bell should come to
My ear -- not even the cannon's roar.
797
Agreeable to see the laborer hasten homeward,
Light-hearted, as he supposes his steps [family.
Will soon be welcomed by the smile of his young
798
Ah! who can describe the mother's joy,
When first her infant leaps, quivering,
With extended arms, to meet her embrace f
The nightingale.
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799
Now the sun, from the burning heaven, [ness
Has driven away each cloud: with universal bright-
lilazing, the earth repels the eye.
800
Amid the nocturnal prowlers of thy wild commons,
Britannia, man walks safe; in all their tribes, [aim
None calculated to bid him shake with fear, none to
Claw or fang against their master.
801
Thus, when his army over the Alps, to no purpose
opposed,
Hannibal led, the last ascent, [now trod,
Laboriously proceeding over ice-built rocks, as they
Gasping for breath, the myriads | halted.
802
Far from being'the same, wisdom and knowledge
Frequentfif have no connexion. Knowledge resides
In heads stored with other men's thoughts,
Wisdom in minds that attend to their own.
803
One spring evening, as, rapt in solitary thought,
Be traced his confines, from the bordering common
An old man came forth : his steps
A young woman watch'd, with looks of filial affection.
804
Hypocrisy, hate her as we may,
May still lay claim to this merit, that she acknowledges
The value of what she imitates with such care,
And thus gives virtue praise \ indirectiyt
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805
But, ray friend, before we separate, kt us ascend
Yon mountain, and trace back our journey.
Easy the ascent, and many an agreeable herb
Has Nature lavishly J strewed round.
806 [feet
There are, whom more humble walks please: their
Can visit the close cottage, ] in which Poverty
Patiently sits, and in which Industry, retired
From daily labor, | breathes the poisoned air;
807 {soundly,
Charming | baby! oh! mayest thou ever sleep as
Smile as softly, while over thy little bed
Thy mother sits, with enraptured gaze
Catching each feature's sweet expression.
808
How rapid the falcon's wing in pursuing!
Less rapid the linnet's flight. Alas! unfortunate bird!
Weak and weary is now thy wing,
While the foe draws close and closer.
809. -- Spring.
Whep the waking flowers and imprisoned leaves now
Burst from their tombs, the birds, that lurked, without
being seen, N
In the midst of the hybernal shade, in busy tribes
Pour their forgotten crowds, and derive,
From the smile of Spring, new rapture, new life.
810 [scene,
Thou mayest then peacefully | endure the passing
Sure of more noble life beyond the tomb,
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Where vice, pain, and error, shall no longer | exist,
But untainted happiness, and consummate wisdom,
Fill the capacious soul, and crown the everlasting
811 [scene.
The pure stream now, from the shoxeers of April
Refined, shows each pebble, that ornaments
Its bottom, and each scaly inhabitant
Glancing quick in the shallow parts, or, in pursuit
Of prey, sailing slowly in the deep.
812
How soft the harmony of the bells of the tillage
Falling upon the ear at intervals
In pleasing cadence, now all dying away,
Now again loudly pealing, and still more loudly,
Clear and sounding, as the gale approaches!
813
The moon rides high in the clouds,
That glisten, as they are wafted athwart her disk.
Charming is the glimpse, that, for a little while, plays
Among these mouldering pinnacles. But, listen!
That dismal sound! it is the owl.
814. -- Young Birds stolen from the Nest.
In the mean time, the younger victims, one after
another,
Drop off, destroyed by attention, and improper food.
One perhaps, more hardy than the others, survives,
And, 'tween the bars with weeds
Entwined, suspended at some high window, hops
From one stick to another, his unvaried little round,
x3
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815. -- To Fancy,.
Friend of my solitary hours! thou conductest me
To such peaceful \ pleasures, as Nature, wise and
good,
Vainly proffers to all her miserable sons --
Her miserable sons, who pine with want, in the midst of
The abundant earth, and blindly prostrate themselves
Before the Moloch altars of riches and power.
816
Do summer suns load the mehdow v/\th grass,
And color the ripening year * i With sudden fury
The thunder-storm descends: the river rises,
Impatiently leaps the mound; and, while'the waves
Devour the crop, calls on thee,
0 man, to b&Ailarmed for thy daily sustenance.
817
Come, pensive Sadness, thou, who avoidest
The haunts of mankind: it is thee I woo.
Come, appease the tumults of an agitated mind.
1 will cherish thee as an acceptable \ visitor,
And, in someplace of retirement, indulge in freedom
The gloom of sorrow, unknown and unnoticed.
818
The heart is hard in nature, and not calculated
For human society, as being devoid
Of fellow-feeling, and therefore equally dead
Both to affection and friendship, that is not delighted
'. r~
* In the original, it is " Tear" which, if not a typographic
erro)T for Ear [of corn], seems intended by the author as a
metonymy-- the year, for the produce of the year.
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With sight of living creatures enjoying existence,
And does not feel their happiness augment his.
819
While, wiih their heads under their ruffled feathers
Concealed, the birds, that pursued their sport during
the day time,
Repose in those bushes, at the roots of which
The vivid worm illumes her spark that shines in the
night,
. And, couching in that brake, the deer
Sleeps, | forgetting each past alarm,
The evening tribes come out of their cells.
820
And what is the life of man1? a day's short journey,
Fraught with vicissitudes. Now up the wonderful
height
Hope ascends, and views wistfully, and again views
The prospect which extends in length -- calls the pro-
spect beautiful --
Now, like the kid, over the lawn
She springs; then, in the midst if the waste,
Cheerfully sings, though she does not hear any voice
around.
821. -- Children employed in Manufactories.
Behold! the poor elves, with pale faces, in torn |
garments,
Motley with half-spun threads, and fakes of cotton,
Trudge, drooping, to the lofty | building,
In which, thousand spindles whirling deafen the ear,
Confused. There, closely \ imprisoned, they moil,
wretched.
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Charming age! perverted from its proper end!
When childhood labors, the field ought to be the
scene.
822 [solitary wilds,
Full of thought* | without a companion, I walk the
Pacing the earth with sluggish and lingering steps,
Vigilantly avoiding all haunts of human kind;
Intently watchful to shun with speed
The impertinent stare and prying eyes of the world:
For, long bereft of cheerful and gay thought, [me.
My appearance betrays the internal fire that consumes
823
Fresh from his lurking place, yon hollow trunk, see
The wild-cat, the most deadly of the savage tribes
That wander in British woods, \ accustomed on high
To seise the squirrel, or by stratagem
Pluck the dove from her nest,
Or, coming down to the ground, thin the race
That bores the sandy warren. ******
824. -- Home.
In that little expression, there is an enchantment:
It is a mystical circle, that encompasses
Comforts and virtues which are never known beyond
The hallowed boundary. My heart has frequently
Asked for that peaceable haven : at present havened,
* The reader may compare these lines with the first eight of
No. 697; both being translations from the twenty-eighth sonnet
of Petrarch. The former was first published; the latter gi>>en
afterwards by a different hand, as a literal translation.
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I reflect, on those, in the wilderness of this world
Who stray on, and do not find any home of rest.
825
In the mean time, the little songsters, eager to cheer
Their partners \ closely brooding in the brake under-
neath,
Strain their throats, or, with the attention of parents,
Conduct their offspring from twig to twig;
Instruct them to seise the gnat, to balance
Their wings in short flights, to* make trial of their
strength,
And venturously \ commit themselves to the bosom >>f
the air. ^
826
Whither shall I turn myself? whither shall I direct
My weary way ? thus exhausted with labor, and faint,
How, through the mazes of this forest,
Reach my dwelling? That deep cry,
That echoes along the wood, | appears to sound
My knell: it is the midnight howling
Of monsters prowling for their prey.
827. - Civilised Society. [multitude
Happy | the man, though undistinguished from the
By riches or dignity, who securely | resides
Where man, naturally fierce, has put off
His fierce disposition, having learned, though tar-
. , dy | in learning,
The arts and the manners of civilised life.
His necessities indeed are numerous: but supply -
Is obvious, being placed within the reach
Of industrious hands and temperate desires.
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828
O ye, who court the silent peaceful retreats
Of contemplation, and who above all prefer
The lonely walk--as being best suited to [haunts
The views of those who sigh to penetrate the secret
Of Nat ure, observing her vagaries,
And, as bold and free from restraint as she, to muse
The free, the rapturous lay -- continue to pace along
Your solitary way ; and delightful be your musings.
829. -- Parental Authority.
See your friend, your best, your most sincere friend,
A parent, whose authority, in appearance
When severest, and collecting all its force,
Is only the graver countenance of affection,
Whose favor may lour, like the spring clouds,
And sometimes utter a tremendous voice,
But has a blessing in the darkest of its frowns,
At the same moment threatening and feeding the plant.
830 --Profusion.
It is a hungry vice. It devours | every thing
Thatgj'res to society its strength, beauty,
Security, and convenience, and utility;
Converts men into mere vermin, deserving to be trapped,
And hanged on gibbets, as fast as catchpole claws
Can lay hold on the slippery prey ; loosens the knot
Of union, and changes the band,
That holds the human kind together, into a scourge.
831. --The Owl.
She mourns during the whole night, J being perch'd
in some vacant niche,
Or time-rent crevice. To the forests sometimes
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She bends her silent wing, zehich moves slowly,
And on some tree, dead of old age,
Sits on the watch for her prey. But, should the foot
Of man force its way into her shades,
He, being startled, hears the decayed breaking brauch
Crash, as she rises:--further in the obscurity,
She wings her way to deeper solitudes.
832. --The Swallows.
A long time before the gusts of winter, with chilly
sweep,
Sigh through the groves, the swallow tribes,
Warned by heaven, | assemble in airy bevies,
Or sit in clusters, as if in deep consultation
When to launch: but they linger and wait,
Until the weak of the last broods
Have collected strength to venture on the seaward path.
At last, the twitter of adieu, spreading, sounds:
They fly up, and melt in the air at a distance.
833. --Death.
Death! where the magic in that name,
That freezes my inmost heart ? At the idea, why
Starts, on every limb, the dew of fear ?
There are no terrors to environ the grave,
When the mind, collected within itself,
Views that narrow habitation. The ghastly train,
That haunt the midnight of Guilt,
Then disappear. --In that home of everlasting \ repose,
All sorrows cease. ****
834. --A January Night in Town.
Folly and Vice run their rounds there:
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There multitudes are hastily going to the sight
Of'fictitious distress, yet have not leisure to hear .
Theprayer of the shivering orphan. The flaring lamps
Of chariots, drawn by pampered horses,
Illuminate the snowy street: the wheels, foiling with-
out noise,
Steal, unperceived, on incautious passenger,
Conveying the fair to flutter round
Amid the labyrinths of the dance.
^35. --A February Night in a Village.
While the night continues long, and dreary, and chilly,
As soon as the oblique sun has sunk from view,
The sound of the anvil cheerily invites
The fatigued | rustic to leave his [own*] fire,
And bask himself before the glare of the furnace;
Where the rustic circle, blest with merriment | which
costs them nothing,
(While their faces are tinted with the yellow blaze)
Beguile the hours, and do not envy rooms of state.
83(i. --April.
The western gale now sweeps lightly over the plain ;
It gently waves the cascade of the rivulet:
It gently divides the lock on the brow of Beauty,
And raises the tresses from the white neck,
And bends the fiawers, and causes the lily to stoop,
As if to kiss its image in the water,
Or curls the pool, with softest breath. [sparkles,
Conduct, where, through the glade, yon spring
Over whose brink the narcissus bends,
* The word, " own," is 10 be omitted.
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That delights to trace in the wave its beauty ;
"Where the western breeze, whispering through the
Dips his wings in the current, [leaves,
And sprinkles freshness over theflowers.
83? . --May. --Birds' Nesis.
The little bird, from the bank of wildflowers, now
Picks the moss, and flies to the thicket,
And returns repeatedly, and renews the work repeatedly,
Till all thefabric hangs complete;
Ah ! but ill hidden from the rye of the school-boy,
"Who, regardless of the bird's saddest plaint,
Snatches from the bush the labor of many an hour.
838. -- June.
Unfortunate is the man, who, in this season, pent
Within the gloom of city lane,
Pines for the flowery paths, and shades of the woods,
From which the desire of gain or of power
Enticed his youthful steps. He un-\-availingly turns
The rich descriptive pages of Thomson's pom,
And endeavours to persuade himself that the lovely
scenes
Are before his eyes. | In the same manner the hand of
childhood tries
To grasp the bunch of fruit or flowers represented in
a picture,
Bitf, being disappointed, feels the canvas smooth.
839. -- September.
At hour of noon, the reaper band
Repose from their labor*. Around their simple fare,
? See the note in the following page.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 12:11 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hxg8hz Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 254 Versification.
Spread upon the stubble, they blithesomely form
A circling groupe, while behind humbly waits
The dog, and, with significant look
And pawing foot, begs his little portion.
The short meal, seasoned with mirth,
And not without singing, gives place to sleep.
With sheaf under his head, the young rustic
Enjoys sweet sleep, while the young woman he loves
Steals to his side, and shelters him from the sun.
840.