Firm in their pace, an I slow, they form a horrid front,
As still as the breeze, but as terrible as the tempest.
As still as the breeze, but as terrible as the tempest.
Carey - Practice English Prosody Exercises
net/2027/hvd.
hxg8hz Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 203 Versification.
655
The unfortunate \ maid strays, in profound despair,
Through tangled paths, and roads | not frequented,
While cold vapors shroud the moon's pale ray,
As she roams, wild, by the murmuring stream.
656 {ship,
Wicked men, professing the hallowed name of friend-
Form a covenant of shame instead of it,
A dark confederation Hgainst tlie laws
Of virtue, and the glorious cause of religion.
637 {Iter,
Extended ] upon thut bier in death's last heavy slum-
Lies, cold and motionless, the friend for whom I
shed tears.
658. -- The Picture of Venus.
When first the RhodianV imitative art arrayed
Venus in the shade of Cyprus,
The happy master mixed in his picture
Each look that delighted him in the beautiful women
of Greece. '
Faithful to nature free from fault, he borrowed a
grace
From every more beautiful form, and sweeter coun-
tenance.
659
Luminous as the pillar rose at the command of heaven,
When the Israelites \ travelled along the wilderness,
Blazed, during the night, on solitary wilds, afar,
And told the path -- a star, that never set:
So, celestial Genius! in thy divine career,
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Hope is thy star: her light ever is thine.
660
Babylon ! to grace the feast, thy daughters
Weave the flowing robe, and paint the vest ornamented
with flowers:
They braid the glossy hair with wreaths of roses;
They color the cheek, which Nature formed so beau-
tiful,
Learn the delicate step, the glance which subdues the
soul,
Swim adown the dance, and melt in the song.
' 661
Mild Peace, come from realms of everlasting | repose!
Bid the troubled earth be happy, like thy own heaven.
Bid destructive war cease iiis mad ravage,
And Plenty gladden the earth with new increase.
Oh ! bid deploring nations cease to lament,
And convert guilty swords into smiling ploughshares.
662
Ah ! of what use is it, if the fire of the Muse
Must die, like the meteor's transitory flash ?
Alas! what does it boot ? since the hero's fate
Is Death's obscure | cave, and the oblivious grave--
Since not Fame's loud trumpet can bestow | durable
praise ;
And neither bfiys nor laurels live in the grave.
663
Retired from the noisy court and loud camp,
In rural diversion and honorable ease
He securely | spent the remainder of his days,
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And did notfind they flew too fast, or lagged too slowly.
He made his desire comply with his estate,
Glad to live, yet not afraid of dying.
664
The adventurous boy, who asks for his little portion,
And hies from home with the prayer of many a gossip,
Turns upon the neighbouring hill, to behold once again
The beloved | residence of privacy and peace;
And, as he turns, the thatched roof among the trees,
The smoke's blue wreaths, mounting with the breeze.
All rouse reflexion's mournfully pleasing train ;
And he often looks, and sheds tears, and again looks.
665
Oh ! at the hour of moonlight, let me roam
To some silent bovver, or private grove,
When the songs of the plumy multitude cease,
And the nightingale her plaintive song commences.
Sweet bird of evening, I delight in thy liquid note,
That, from thy quivering throat, floweth mellifluous.
0 Zephyr! fleeting Zephyr ! delay longer,
And do not bear away that lovely musical sound.
666
When the western gale breathes upon the blue waves,
My panting bosom | defies the peaceful sea,
Glows with the scene, inhales those more soft \ delights
Dropped from the balmy wings of the breezes.
But, when the curled \ wave \ lifts up its form,
And silent horror broods on the tempest,
1 direct my steps to yon sheltering zeood,
The retreat of love, the refuge of misfortune.
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667-- The Carrier Pigeon.
Guided by what chart, transports the timid pigeon
The wreaths of victory, or the professions of love ?
Say, what compass <&Yec<sher flight through the clouds?
Kings have gazed, and nations have blessed the sight.
Heap up rocks on rocks: bid mountains and fo-
rests | arise:
Hide from view her native skies, her native shades:
It is to no purpose: she proceeds through aether's
wilds where there is no path,
And at last alights where all her cares m(.
668
Where should we discover (those consolations at an end,
Which Scripture affords) or hope to discover a friend ?
Grief might then muse herself into madness,
And, seeking banishment from the sight of mankind,
Bury herself in deep solitude,
Grow mad with her pangs, and bite the earth.
Thus frequently unbelief, become weary of living,
Flies to the felon knife, or inviting pool.
669
And shall I be afraid to wander at this dark hour
In the solemn stillness of the wood,
Or where rise the battlements worn by time,
Or the haughty turret lieth low in ruin ?
I disdain the idea -- being assured that sovereign power
llules the noontide or the nightly hour alike:
And I roam, as free from groundless alarm, here
In the midst of these shades, as in the blaze of sun-
shine,
s
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? QOG Versification.
While to thy attention, O thou almighty protector,
I commend my spirit, by night or day.
670
Friend of my bosom, companion of my early age,
As renowned for learning, as respected for truth,
Combined in whom we admire equally
The wisdom of the philosopher and the fire of the pott,
A generous disposition and an elevated mind,
Unlimited genius, and undamped warmth;
Equally skilful to raise the sublime song,
Or sport playfully among the flowery meadows;
The smiling Muse has taught thee all her skill,
To catch the imagination, and to take possession of
the heart.
671. --Tobacco.
Noxious weed ! whose odor | molests the ladies,
Unfriendly to society's greatest | pleasures!
Thy most mischievous effect is driving away for hours
The sex whose society civilises ours.
Thou art indeed the drug, of which a gardener stands
in need,
To destroy vermin that infest his plants. .
But are we so blinded to beauty and genius,
As to set no value upon the glory of our species,
And show to the fairest and softest forms
As little lenity as to worms and grubs ?
672 [new,
Nobody sends his arrow to the mark which he has in
Whose nim is false, or whose hand weak.
For, although, ( before the arrow is yet on the wing,
?
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? Versification. 207
Or when it first quits the elastic cord,
It deviate but little from the hue intended,
In the end it falls far wide of his intent. . [heaven,
In like manner^ | the person who seeks an abode in
Must with a steadfast eye watch his design.
That prize belongs to the sincere alone:
The smallest obliquity is here fatal.
673. --The Maniac.
Listen t the distracted maniac sings, to chide the wind,
That wafts her lover's disiant ship so slowly.
She, melancholy spectatress! on the bleak shore
Watch'd the rude billow, that bore his body, | desti-
tute of a shroud,
Recognis'd the pale form, and, shrieking in amaze-
ment,
Locked together her cold hands, and fixed her mad-
dening stare. [tears,
Poor widowed creature! it was there she vainly \ shed
Until memory Jiedfrom her ag wising brain.
But, to charm the sensation ot misery, Mercy bestowed
Ideal peace, that truth could never give.
The pleasures of imagination beam warm on her heart;
And liojie, without an aim | charms her darkest dream.
674-- To Hope.
Favoring power! when rankling cares disturb
The saertd home of connubial joy,
Where, condemned to poverty's remote dell,
The wedded pair of affection and virtue live,
Meeting no pity from the world, not knozvn to fame,
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? ? 08 Versification.
Their sorrows, their desires, and their hearts the same--
Oh! in that spot, | prophesyingHope, bestow thy smile,
And drive away the. pangs that worth should never
experience.
There, as the parent distributes his insufficient store
To young children \ bereft of friends, a,nd weeps to
bestow no more,
Announce, that his manly offspring shall yet alleviate
Their father's wrongs, and protect his advanced age.
675
At ere in summer, when the aerial bow of heaven
Spans with brilliant arch the glittering hills beneath,
Why does the musing eye turn to yonder mountain,
Whose top, | bright with sun-shine, mingles with the
sky ? - -
Why do those cliffs of shadowy coloring \ seem
More sweet than the entire landscape | which smiles
near ?
It is distance, lends enchantment to the prospect,
And arrays the mountain in its blue | coloring.
In the same manner, we linger witli pleasme, to xkte
The promis'd delights of life's unmeasur'd road:
Thus, from a distance, each scene dimly discovered
Appears more captivating than all the past has been;
And every form, that imagination can repair
from dark forgetfulness, glows there divinely.
Ten-syllable Iambics, in which some of the Italk
words are to have epithets added -- some are to be al-
tered--some are both to be altered and to have epithets;
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*-- each particular case to be distinguished by the pupil's
oxen sagacity.
676. --Botany Bay.
Here we arc secure: on tliispeaceful shore,
No lions roar, no tigers prowl:
N o wolf is heard : no brake
Hides the venom of the coifing serpent.
The summers smile as mildly here as in England;
As mild winters terminate the year. [this country;
Nor is the breath of the autumnal whirlwind heard in
Nor spring \ storms breathe the blast of death.
Without a single | regret to call my tears,
Or awake one desire, 1 feel myself satisfied here.
And we shall yet enjoy happiness: yonder beam,
The mild radiance of departing day light,
As gaily gilds over this humble habitation,
As the superb | edifices on England's remote shore.
677. --The Slave-Trade.
The ties of friend, husband, father,
- All bonds of nature, cease in that moment.
And each suffers, while he yet breathes,
A stroke not less fatal than , Dtath's scythe.
The black warrior, mad with regret {remembrance,
Of the woman he loves, and never can lose from his
Loses in his tears the shore retiring to a distance,
But not the idea that they must never again meet.
Robbed, at a blow, of her and liberty,
What has he remaining, that lie yet san forego ?
Yes, sullenly resigned-to melancholy,
He feels in his mind the bondage of his body,
So
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? 210 ? Versification.
Divests himself of his generous disposition, and, to suit
His manners with his destiny, puts on the brute.
678 A.
Ye spirits, who dwell in unknown worlds,
Formidable spectres ! to what place are you flown ?
I have often heard, you delight, at this awful hour,
To resort lo the moss-grown tower, or aisle lying in
To flit along the glade in shadowy figures, [ruins;
Or stalk giant-like 'midst the shade.
Yet here, un-accompanied, I walk with silent steps,
Where broken walls spread their ruins-;
Where the remains of the great and fair
Rest in awful state, vainly enshrined;
Where the dark ivy embraces the embattled tower,
And lengthens out its last hour for a time:
But every thing is quiet; no ghost appears;
No phantom uprears its huge figure;
No spirit, robed in white, glides through the darkness;
No groan | lowly mutters from the grave.
678 B.
As when a criminal, whom the lares of his country
Have with just reason | sentenced for some atrocious
cause,
Expects, in darkness and terrors,
The ignominious \ termination of all his years which
he has spent amiss;
If, chance, slowly borne on heavy wings,
- A storm | introduce the dreaded morning,
The lightnuig plays upon the walls of his dungeon,
The thunder appears to call him away ;
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? Versification. . >> 2J \
The warder applies his key at. the door,
Shoots the bolt backward, and all his fortitude dies.
If, at that moment, just at that moment, all thought
of mercy being lost,
When hope, long lingering, at last gives up the ghost,
The sound of pardon penetrate his startled ear,
He drops at the same moment his chains and his terror;
In every thing that he speaks and looks, a transport
glows;
And the first tears of gratitude | wet his cheeks.
679--- Cosciusko.
Warsaw's last champion viewed, from her summit,
A waste of destruction laid widely over the field.
He exclaimed, " Oh! Heaven! preserve my bleeding
country! [valiant?
Is there no hand in the regions above, to protect the
Nevertheless, though ruin sweep these lovely plains,
Arise, fellow men ! our country remains yet.
By that awful name we brandish the sword on high,
And swear to live for her, to perish with her. "
Thus he spoke, and, on the heights of the ramparts,
arrayed
His warrion, few, but undaunted.
Firm in their pace, an I slow, they form a horrid front,
As still as the breeze, but as terrible as the tempest.
Sounds lowly murmuring fly along. their banners:
The watchword and reply, " Revenge or death ! "
To no purpose, alas! to no purpose, ye brave few,
Your volleyed thunders flew from rank to rank
For a time, Hope bade farewell to the world?
And Liberty \ uttered a shriek as Cosciusko fell.
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? 212
Versification.
680. --Beauty's Eclipse.
The storm of a winter's night howled loudly,
And lamps | gave a rfi/n liglit.
No star illuminated the vault of heaven
But clouds were wildly driven over its face.
In each street, I silence \ prevailed*, -)
Except where the blast, or sleet, <'
Was heard to whistle, or to beat rudely.
It was then, that, leaning on a step,
Resigned to all the power of wretchedness,
With famine in her eve, and with grief on her cheek,
A child of misfortune was observed to lie.
The wind blew roughly \ round her shivering frame:
Her sighs were lost in the storm.
Exposed was her bosom, once so beautiful,
Now the abode of despair.
Her hair lay loose down her back--
Those locks, once dressed in shozey colors.
Her temples were damp with the dews of death,
And her struggling and thick respiration slowly drawn.
Life's taper hastened to an end:
She invokes Death -- an acceptable friend to her.
1 observed the termination of her tempestuous day :
I saw her, lingering graces gradually vanish --
Heard the last sounds tremble on her lips,
While nature heaved a sigh at the eclipse of Beauty.
--- 1 r
* Here is a triplet--three verses rhiming together.
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Iambics of eight and six syllables, with alternate
rhime; the Italic words subject to alteration and addi-
tion, as in the preceding examples.
681
Do not inquire of me the essential form
That highly-prized beauty weareth.
Ah! who is able to paint ihe magical charm,
That ensnares each | bosom?
Search for the reply in your breast;
For the secret is discovered there.
It is your own taste that points me arrow,
And causes our beauty to wound.
Iambics of eight syllables, with alttrnate rhime; the
Italics, as above.
682
I am pleased with the tear, the pearl of sorrow,
_ That adorns the e)e affected by sympathy --
To behold the stream of grief \Jiowing,
To hear deeply-heaving sighs.
683
Yes, let the miser reckon his money,
Aud labor and scrape to increase the heap:
Say, can the heart, that is cold and hard,
Enjoy the fruitful pleasures of riches?
634
I delight to hear the woodlark singing,
As, rising from her nest,
She makes the valleys and woods resound.
And pleasingly sooths my soul to peace.
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? 214 Versification.
685
Tortured by the hand of disease,
See, our favorite bard lies ;
While every object, calculated to give pleasure,
Ungratefully flies to a distance from his couch.
Iambics of ten syllables, with alternate rhime; tht
Italics, as above.
686
No wisdom of man can foresee the injury:
No prudence of man can turn aside its force.
L'. ke the whirlwind, \ behold! it rushes along*
And nothing but heaven can check its career.
687
Come, Sleeu! iuirt assuage this sickuess of soul:
Come, Sleep ! and clasp me to thy bosom.
Offspring of oblivion! roll over my imagination,
And grant "Be repose in some long, long slumber.
688
Not affected by care, the whistling hind goes
To yon bank, where hig;h the poplar moves
Its limbs: as he makes ready his repast,
His dog craves the morsel which he expects.
68y
Ah ! of what advantage is it, that the face of day
Wears the verdure of returning spring?
Alas! it does not shed any genial beam on me:
Its approaches do not bring any soft feelings.
690
Though pearls enrich the depths of the sea,
No eye sees the beauty of their ray.
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They sleep in deep caves under the waters,
And from the gaze of day conceal their brilliancy.
691. --To a Red-breast.
Wanderer! to this shed thou art welcome:
For thou hast endured the cold pitiless tempest,
Felt the blast on thy undefended head,
And heard destruction threaten thy gentle frame,
69^
Perking in my face, and perching upon my book,
The Robin, void of guile \ appears to watch my
Ah! he is not acquainted with man's race, [thoughts,
By whose allurement birds are taken.
Even man to man is but rarely true:
The love, which he professes, is art.
Though heaven's image appear on his forehead,
Yet Robin boasts a heart of greater purity.
693
OU! she was as beautiful as lilies of the valley:
Her voice was divine: on her cheek,
Pale with pain and long sickness,
Sat patience ever mild, and calm-eyed faith.
Family \ affection would watch the whole day,
Smoothing her pillow: | in the mean time, she
Passed the hours in thankful silence,
Reviving hope wjth many a smile.
694. --To the Violet. [are past,
Now winter's gloomy and uncomfortable \ mornings
And the sun's renovating warm beams prevail.
Now wandering over the waste of the common,
To breathe the scents | conveyed on the wind
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? 216 Versification.
From the pale primrose or gold-colored furze-broom,
I discover thy blue gems, spread so lowly
Beneath some solitary thorn adown the valley,
Hardly rearing thy head from the ground.
695
Delightful Hope, that with fond delusive dreams still
Cheerest the melancholy heart, surcharged with
sorrow and care,
My mind longs for those healing streams [fison.
Which flow from thee, arrd delight beyond compa-
Oh ! vouchsafe \ therefore to visit my solitary cell,
And breathe thy influence on my fatigued soul:
Pleasing flatterer, come, and, with a smile, | declare
That my hours shall yet pass infelicity;
That the tide of Fortune shall flow again,
That foes shall relent, and friends smile;
That I shall increase in wisdom, as in years,
And find all my moments crowned with sweet con-
696 [tentment.
Where woods extend their shade, [night,
And give additional horrors to the obscurity of
If, chance, the swain bend his steps,
In fear pausing for some light; [the glade,
How joyously | does his heart; beat, when, through
He perceives the moon's ray \ penetrating the clouds!
With vigorous and light step he springs onward,
And salutes the empress of the fainter day.
Thus, while I ramble through life's paths,
Should despondence spread the gathering darkness,
May Hope's lustre, streaming from on High,
Dispel the bodings of a sad | destiny.
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? Versification. 217
097
Solitary* and full of thought, near some unfrequented
shore,
At a distance from the resorts of men, I love to
wander,
And with caution | explore my path at a distance,
W here the step of man never marked the way.
1 endeavour to fly far from the gaze of the public,
And communicatt my sorrows to the winds alone,
While, in my eye and cheek,
The fire, that consumes my inmost heart, appears.
But, alas! I fruitlessly go to scenes ^/ar removed:
No solitude allays ray thoughts.
Methinks, even lifeless things must know
The flame that secretly preys on my soul.
698
Farewell, autumn ! I feel the breath
And influence of winter's reign.
How extensively the empire of death spreads round,
Usurping pleasure's | domain.
The sun now ascends slowly over eastern hills,
WhWefogs besiege the vale:
His oblique beams now shine faintly at mid day,
And the valley is only half illuminated.
Clouds sail through the shy in rapid sue'eession,
And obscure all the solemn view round :
The wood murmurs to the gale :
The storm \ rapidly rushes along the ground.
* Compare this piece with No. 822.
T
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? 218 Versification.
699. --To a Candle.
Hail, luminous companion of my solitary hours,
My midnight sun with light faintly glimmering!
Thy master now pours a sonnet to thee: ,
Accept the poetry: it is all the poet can pay.
When darkness veils the earth,
And Night with black sceptre exercises her dominion
over the plain,
When \ Fear gives spectres birth,
And imaged horrors fill the. brain of the vulgar;
Then I withdraw to my chamber,
Where books and solitude invite;
Trim my fire with secret satisfaction,
And light my taper from its flame.
More pleasing to me thy little quivering rays,
Which hardly \ enlighten my study round,
Than the glare, where thousand torches burn,
And Folly and Mirth pour their united sound.
700
Inconstantly seen through dust driven in whirlwinds,
The swords thickly flash : the frequent Yictim^ies;
While, over his mutilated trunk, and ghastly visage,
Armies rush trampling, where fury calte.
Tell me, soldier, grim spectacle of pain, tell me,
What Siren decoyed thee from thy home,
To abandon thy poor, thy small domestic train,
To wander over billowy deeps for labors of arms?
Ho beams of glory cheer thy unfortunate \ destiny;
Thy name does nut descend to future ages--
Forced to fight for thou knowest not what,
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? Versification. 219
And impelled to butchery by the rage of anothtr
person.
Thy widow, thy children weep,
And beg their subsistence from door to door,
While thy limbs, mangled with wounds, sleep with-
out honor,
And waste and rot on the shore of a strange country.
Thefirst line to rhime with thefourth--the 'idwith the 3d.
701
At a distance from the disturbance of the busy multi-
tude,
I court the grove's \ shdde;
And, as I behold the tints of the sun | fading,
1 perceive the hours dragging along heavily.
I ramble onward, and, rapt* in pensive gloom,
Meditate on the various evils of wayward life,
On falsehood's wiles, ambition's contention,
And virtue rapidly going to an early grave.
702
Ah! dear pleasures of youth, forever gone!
Ah! were I once again a child here,
Again this strand, these wood-walks,
And dells, I would trend witti careless step.
The wanderings of more mature years
Would then present no unpleasant retrospect;
Nor regret for time imprudently | muted
Would fill my foreboding \ bosom witn jears.
* See. the nofe en Rapt, No. 651, page 199.
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? 220 Versification.
70S--To a Red-breast.
In autumn's decline, thy lay which sweetly sooths,
Thy querulous warblings, idled ray cares to peace:
When vyinter came, arrayed in horrors,
I beheld thee silent on the spray.
The trees again dressed in gay leaves,
While reflected rays streak the west,
Thy cadence again sooths my uneasy | bosom,
And trills the requiem of day-light departing.
Thefirst and third lines to rhime -- second andfourth --
fifth and eighth -- sixth and seventh.
704
The transitory \ little flower is no sooner born*,
Than, quickly ripening, it hastily proceeds to decay:
Nursed by the beams of morning,
Its little year is terminated at evening.
* Born. -- Although many persons confine this word to the
birth of living creatures, and some even exclusively restrict it
to the human species, there is no impropriety -- none in poetry
at least'--in applying it to irrational creatures, or to inanimate
productions. As a cow bears a calf, and the' earth bean
flowers, the calf is born of the cow, and the flowers born of tilt
earth; which, in reality, means nothiug else than borne by At
cow or the earth; born and borne having been originally the
same identical participle from Bear, though they now happen to
be differently pronounced. But that difference of sound is purely
accidental, and such as we may every day observe in Tom,
Shorn, and Forlorn; some speakers making them to rhime with
Horn, others with Sworn; which latter prounciation, by the way,
is more agreeable to etymology; those words being formed by
syncope from the antique Tdren, Shbren, Forloren, as Born and
Sworn from Bor'en and Sxeorhi; whereas the other sound (rhim-
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? Versification. 281
And thus man's life: -- the child
Speedily enters into youth's spring;
Theu remains a while, 'till Time, with quick wing,
Drive$ him on to Age's dreary wilderness.
The first and fourth lines to rhime --second and third
--fifth and eighth -- sixth and seventh--ninth and
eleventh -- tenth and twelfth.
? 203 Versification.
655
The unfortunate \ maid strays, in profound despair,
Through tangled paths, and roads | not frequented,
While cold vapors shroud the moon's pale ray,
As she roams, wild, by the murmuring stream.
656 {ship,
Wicked men, professing the hallowed name of friend-
Form a covenant of shame instead of it,
A dark confederation Hgainst tlie laws
Of virtue, and the glorious cause of religion.
637 {Iter,
Extended ] upon thut bier in death's last heavy slum-
Lies, cold and motionless, the friend for whom I
shed tears.
658. -- The Picture of Venus.
When first the RhodianV imitative art arrayed
Venus in the shade of Cyprus,
The happy master mixed in his picture
Each look that delighted him in the beautiful women
of Greece. '
Faithful to nature free from fault, he borrowed a
grace
From every more beautiful form, and sweeter coun-
tenance.
659
Luminous as the pillar rose at the command of heaven,
When the Israelites \ travelled along the wilderness,
Blazed, during the night, on solitary wilds, afar,
And told the path -- a star, that never set:
So, celestial Genius! in thy divine career,
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Hope is thy star: her light ever is thine.
660
Babylon ! to grace the feast, thy daughters
Weave the flowing robe, and paint the vest ornamented
with flowers:
They braid the glossy hair with wreaths of roses;
They color the cheek, which Nature formed so beau-
tiful,
Learn the delicate step, the glance which subdues the
soul,
Swim adown the dance, and melt in the song.
' 661
Mild Peace, come from realms of everlasting | repose!
Bid the troubled earth be happy, like thy own heaven.
Bid destructive war cease iiis mad ravage,
And Plenty gladden the earth with new increase.
Oh ! bid deploring nations cease to lament,
And convert guilty swords into smiling ploughshares.
662
Ah ! of what use is it, if the fire of the Muse
Must die, like the meteor's transitory flash ?
Alas! what does it boot ? since the hero's fate
Is Death's obscure | cave, and the oblivious grave--
Since not Fame's loud trumpet can bestow | durable
praise ;
And neither bfiys nor laurels live in the grave.
663
Retired from the noisy court and loud camp,
In rural diversion and honorable ease
He securely | spent the remainder of his days,
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? 204 Versification.
And did notfind they flew too fast, or lagged too slowly.
He made his desire comply with his estate,
Glad to live, yet not afraid of dying.
664
The adventurous boy, who asks for his little portion,
And hies from home with the prayer of many a gossip,
Turns upon the neighbouring hill, to behold once again
The beloved | residence of privacy and peace;
And, as he turns, the thatched roof among the trees,
The smoke's blue wreaths, mounting with the breeze.
All rouse reflexion's mournfully pleasing train ;
And he often looks, and sheds tears, and again looks.
665
Oh ! at the hour of moonlight, let me roam
To some silent bovver, or private grove,
When the songs of the plumy multitude cease,
And the nightingale her plaintive song commences.
Sweet bird of evening, I delight in thy liquid note,
That, from thy quivering throat, floweth mellifluous.
0 Zephyr! fleeting Zephyr ! delay longer,
And do not bear away that lovely musical sound.
666
When the western gale breathes upon the blue waves,
My panting bosom | defies the peaceful sea,
Glows with the scene, inhales those more soft \ delights
Dropped from the balmy wings of the breezes.
But, when the curled \ wave \ lifts up its form,
And silent horror broods on the tempest,
1 direct my steps to yon sheltering zeood,
The retreat of love, the refuge of misfortune.
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667-- The Carrier Pigeon.
Guided by what chart, transports the timid pigeon
The wreaths of victory, or the professions of love ?
Say, what compass <&Yec<sher flight through the clouds?
Kings have gazed, and nations have blessed the sight.
Heap up rocks on rocks: bid mountains and fo-
rests | arise:
Hide from view her native skies, her native shades:
It is to no purpose: she proceeds through aether's
wilds where there is no path,
And at last alights where all her cares m(.
668
Where should we discover (those consolations at an end,
Which Scripture affords) or hope to discover a friend ?
Grief might then muse herself into madness,
And, seeking banishment from the sight of mankind,
Bury herself in deep solitude,
Grow mad with her pangs, and bite the earth.
Thus frequently unbelief, become weary of living,
Flies to the felon knife, or inviting pool.
669
And shall I be afraid to wander at this dark hour
In the solemn stillness of the wood,
Or where rise the battlements worn by time,
Or the haughty turret lieth low in ruin ?
I disdain the idea -- being assured that sovereign power
llules the noontide or the nightly hour alike:
And I roam, as free from groundless alarm, here
In the midst of these shades, as in the blaze of sun-
shine,
s
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? QOG Versification.
While to thy attention, O thou almighty protector,
I commend my spirit, by night or day.
670
Friend of my bosom, companion of my early age,
As renowned for learning, as respected for truth,
Combined in whom we admire equally
The wisdom of the philosopher and the fire of the pott,
A generous disposition and an elevated mind,
Unlimited genius, and undamped warmth;
Equally skilful to raise the sublime song,
Or sport playfully among the flowery meadows;
The smiling Muse has taught thee all her skill,
To catch the imagination, and to take possession of
the heart.
671. --Tobacco.
Noxious weed ! whose odor | molests the ladies,
Unfriendly to society's greatest | pleasures!
Thy most mischievous effect is driving away for hours
The sex whose society civilises ours.
Thou art indeed the drug, of which a gardener stands
in need,
To destroy vermin that infest his plants. .
But are we so blinded to beauty and genius,
As to set no value upon the glory of our species,
And show to the fairest and softest forms
As little lenity as to worms and grubs ?
672 [new,
Nobody sends his arrow to the mark which he has in
Whose nim is false, or whose hand weak.
For, although, ( before the arrow is yet on the wing,
?
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? Versification. 207
Or when it first quits the elastic cord,
It deviate but little from the hue intended,
In the end it falls far wide of his intent. . [heaven,
In like manner^ | the person who seeks an abode in
Must with a steadfast eye watch his design.
That prize belongs to the sincere alone:
The smallest obliquity is here fatal.
673. --The Maniac.
Listen t the distracted maniac sings, to chide the wind,
That wafts her lover's disiant ship so slowly.
She, melancholy spectatress! on the bleak shore
Watch'd the rude billow, that bore his body, | desti-
tute of a shroud,
Recognis'd the pale form, and, shrieking in amaze-
ment,
Locked together her cold hands, and fixed her mad-
dening stare. [tears,
Poor widowed creature! it was there she vainly \ shed
Until memory Jiedfrom her ag wising brain.
But, to charm the sensation ot misery, Mercy bestowed
Ideal peace, that truth could never give.
The pleasures of imagination beam warm on her heart;
And liojie, without an aim | charms her darkest dream.
674-- To Hope.
Favoring power! when rankling cares disturb
The saertd home of connubial joy,
Where, condemned to poverty's remote dell,
The wedded pair of affection and virtue live,
Meeting no pity from the world, not knozvn to fame,
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? ? 08 Versification.
Their sorrows, their desires, and their hearts the same--
Oh! in that spot, | prophesyingHope, bestow thy smile,
And drive away the. pangs that worth should never
experience.
There, as the parent distributes his insufficient store
To young children \ bereft of friends, a,nd weeps to
bestow no more,
Announce, that his manly offspring shall yet alleviate
Their father's wrongs, and protect his advanced age.
675
At ere in summer, when the aerial bow of heaven
Spans with brilliant arch the glittering hills beneath,
Why does the musing eye turn to yonder mountain,
Whose top, | bright with sun-shine, mingles with the
sky ? - -
Why do those cliffs of shadowy coloring \ seem
More sweet than the entire landscape | which smiles
near ?
It is distance, lends enchantment to the prospect,
And arrays the mountain in its blue | coloring.
In the same manner, we linger witli pleasme, to xkte
The promis'd delights of life's unmeasur'd road:
Thus, from a distance, each scene dimly discovered
Appears more captivating than all the past has been;
And every form, that imagination can repair
from dark forgetfulness, glows there divinely.
Ten-syllable Iambics, in which some of the Italk
words are to have epithets added -- some are to be al-
tered--some are both to be altered and to have epithets;
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? Versification. 209
*-- each particular case to be distinguished by the pupil's
oxen sagacity.
676. --Botany Bay.
Here we arc secure: on tliispeaceful shore,
No lions roar, no tigers prowl:
N o wolf is heard : no brake
Hides the venom of the coifing serpent.
The summers smile as mildly here as in England;
As mild winters terminate the year. [this country;
Nor is the breath of the autumnal whirlwind heard in
Nor spring \ storms breathe the blast of death.
Without a single | regret to call my tears,
Or awake one desire, 1 feel myself satisfied here.
And we shall yet enjoy happiness: yonder beam,
The mild radiance of departing day light,
As gaily gilds over this humble habitation,
As the superb | edifices on England's remote shore.
677. --The Slave-Trade.
The ties of friend, husband, father,
- All bonds of nature, cease in that moment.
And each suffers, while he yet breathes,
A stroke not less fatal than , Dtath's scythe.
The black warrior, mad with regret {remembrance,
Of the woman he loves, and never can lose from his
Loses in his tears the shore retiring to a distance,
But not the idea that they must never again meet.
Robbed, at a blow, of her and liberty,
What has he remaining, that lie yet san forego ?
Yes, sullenly resigned-to melancholy,
He feels in his mind the bondage of his body,
So
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? 210 ? Versification.
Divests himself of his generous disposition, and, to suit
His manners with his destiny, puts on the brute.
678 A.
Ye spirits, who dwell in unknown worlds,
Formidable spectres ! to what place are you flown ?
I have often heard, you delight, at this awful hour,
To resort lo the moss-grown tower, or aisle lying in
To flit along the glade in shadowy figures, [ruins;
Or stalk giant-like 'midst the shade.
Yet here, un-accompanied, I walk with silent steps,
Where broken walls spread their ruins-;
Where the remains of the great and fair
Rest in awful state, vainly enshrined;
Where the dark ivy embraces the embattled tower,
And lengthens out its last hour for a time:
But every thing is quiet; no ghost appears;
No phantom uprears its huge figure;
No spirit, robed in white, glides through the darkness;
No groan | lowly mutters from the grave.
678 B.
As when a criminal, whom the lares of his country
Have with just reason | sentenced for some atrocious
cause,
Expects, in darkness and terrors,
The ignominious \ termination of all his years which
he has spent amiss;
If, chance, slowly borne on heavy wings,
- A storm | introduce the dreaded morning,
The lightnuig plays upon the walls of his dungeon,
The thunder appears to call him away ;
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? Versification. . >> 2J \
The warder applies his key at. the door,
Shoots the bolt backward, and all his fortitude dies.
If, at that moment, just at that moment, all thought
of mercy being lost,
When hope, long lingering, at last gives up the ghost,
The sound of pardon penetrate his startled ear,
He drops at the same moment his chains and his terror;
In every thing that he speaks and looks, a transport
glows;
And the first tears of gratitude | wet his cheeks.
679--- Cosciusko.
Warsaw's last champion viewed, from her summit,
A waste of destruction laid widely over the field.
He exclaimed, " Oh! Heaven! preserve my bleeding
country! [valiant?
Is there no hand in the regions above, to protect the
Nevertheless, though ruin sweep these lovely plains,
Arise, fellow men ! our country remains yet.
By that awful name we brandish the sword on high,
And swear to live for her, to perish with her. "
Thus he spoke, and, on the heights of the ramparts,
arrayed
His warrion, few, but undaunted.
Firm in their pace, an I slow, they form a horrid front,
As still as the breeze, but as terrible as the tempest.
Sounds lowly murmuring fly along. their banners:
The watchword and reply, " Revenge or death ! "
To no purpose, alas! to no purpose, ye brave few,
Your volleyed thunders flew from rank to rank
For a time, Hope bade farewell to the world?
And Liberty \ uttered a shriek as Cosciusko fell.
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? 212
Versification.
680. --Beauty's Eclipse.
The storm of a winter's night howled loudly,
And lamps | gave a rfi/n liglit.
No star illuminated the vault of heaven
But clouds were wildly driven over its face.
In each street, I silence \ prevailed*, -)
Except where the blast, or sleet, <'
Was heard to whistle, or to beat rudely.
It was then, that, leaning on a step,
Resigned to all the power of wretchedness,
With famine in her eve, and with grief on her cheek,
A child of misfortune was observed to lie.
The wind blew roughly \ round her shivering frame:
Her sighs were lost in the storm.
Exposed was her bosom, once so beautiful,
Now the abode of despair.
Her hair lay loose down her back--
Those locks, once dressed in shozey colors.
Her temples were damp with the dews of death,
And her struggling and thick respiration slowly drawn.
Life's taper hastened to an end:
She invokes Death -- an acceptable friend to her.
1 observed the termination of her tempestuous day :
I saw her, lingering graces gradually vanish --
Heard the last sounds tremble on her lips,
While nature heaved a sigh at the eclipse of Beauty.
--- 1 r
* Here is a triplet--three verses rhiming together.
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? Versification. 213
Iambics of eight and six syllables, with alternate
rhime; the Italic words subject to alteration and addi-
tion, as in the preceding examples.
681
Do not inquire of me the essential form
That highly-prized beauty weareth.
Ah! who is able to paint ihe magical charm,
That ensnares each | bosom?
Search for the reply in your breast;
For the secret is discovered there.
It is your own taste that points me arrow,
And causes our beauty to wound.
Iambics of eight syllables, with alttrnate rhime; the
Italics, as above.
682
I am pleased with the tear, the pearl of sorrow,
_ That adorns the e)e affected by sympathy --
To behold the stream of grief \Jiowing,
To hear deeply-heaving sighs.
683
Yes, let the miser reckon his money,
Aud labor and scrape to increase the heap:
Say, can the heart, that is cold and hard,
Enjoy the fruitful pleasures of riches?
634
I delight to hear the woodlark singing,
As, rising from her nest,
She makes the valleys and woods resound.
And pleasingly sooths my soul to peace.
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? 214 Versification.
685
Tortured by the hand of disease,
See, our favorite bard lies ;
While every object, calculated to give pleasure,
Ungratefully flies to a distance from his couch.
Iambics of ten syllables, with alternate rhime; tht
Italics, as above.
686
No wisdom of man can foresee the injury:
No prudence of man can turn aside its force.
L'. ke the whirlwind, \ behold! it rushes along*
And nothing but heaven can check its career.
687
Come, Sleeu! iuirt assuage this sickuess of soul:
Come, Sleep ! and clasp me to thy bosom.
Offspring of oblivion! roll over my imagination,
And grant "Be repose in some long, long slumber.
688
Not affected by care, the whistling hind goes
To yon bank, where hig;h the poplar moves
Its limbs: as he makes ready his repast,
His dog craves the morsel which he expects.
68y
Ah ! of what advantage is it, that the face of day
Wears the verdure of returning spring?
Alas! it does not shed any genial beam on me:
Its approaches do not bring any soft feelings.
690
Though pearls enrich the depths of the sea,
No eye sees the beauty of their ray.
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? Versification 21 -,
They sleep in deep caves under the waters,
And from the gaze of day conceal their brilliancy.
691. --To a Red-breast.
Wanderer! to this shed thou art welcome:
For thou hast endured the cold pitiless tempest,
Felt the blast on thy undefended head,
And heard destruction threaten thy gentle frame,
69^
Perking in my face, and perching upon my book,
The Robin, void of guile \ appears to watch my
Ah! he is not acquainted with man's race, [thoughts,
By whose allurement birds are taken.
Even man to man is but rarely true:
The love, which he professes, is art.
Though heaven's image appear on his forehead,
Yet Robin boasts a heart of greater purity.
693
OU! she was as beautiful as lilies of the valley:
Her voice was divine: on her cheek,
Pale with pain and long sickness,
Sat patience ever mild, and calm-eyed faith.
Family \ affection would watch the whole day,
Smoothing her pillow: | in the mean time, she
Passed the hours in thankful silence,
Reviving hope wjth many a smile.
694. --To the Violet. [are past,
Now winter's gloomy and uncomfortable \ mornings
And the sun's renovating warm beams prevail.
Now wandering over the waste of the common,
To breathe the scents | conveyed on the wind
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? 216 Versification.
From the pale primrose or gold-colored furze-broom,
I discover thy blue gems, spread so lowly
Beneath some solitary thorn adown the valley,
Hardly rearing thy head from the ground.
695
Delightful Hope, that with fond delusive dreams still
Cheerest the melancholy heart, surcharged with
sorrow and care,
My mind longs for those healing streams [fison.
Which flow from thee, arrd delight beyond compa-
Oh ! vouchsafe \ therefore to visit my solitary cell,
And breathe thy influence on my fatigued soul:
Pleasing flatterer, come, and, with a smile, | declare
That my hours shall yet pass infelicity;
That the tide of Fortune shall flow again,
That foes shall relent, and friends smile;
That I shall increase in wisdom, as in years,
And find all my moments crowned with sweet con-
696 [tentment.
Where woods extend their shade, [night,
And give additional horrors to the obscurity of
If, chance, the swain bend his steps,
In fear pausing for some light; [the glade,
How joyously | does his heart; beat, when, through
He perceives the moon's ray \ penetrating the clouds!
With vigorous and light step he springs onward,
And salutes the empress of the fainter day.
Thus, while I ramble through life's paths,
Should despondence spread the gathering darkness,
May Hope's lustre, streaming from on High,
Dispel the bodings of a sad | destiny.
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? Versification. 217
097
Solitary* and full of thought, near some unfrequented
shore,
At a distance from the resorts of men, I love to
wander,
And with caution | explore my path at a distance,
W here the step of man never marked the way.
1 endeavour to fly far from the gaze of the public,
And communicatt my sorrows to the winds alone,
While, in my eye and cheek,
The fire, that consumes my inmost heart, appears.
But, alas! I fruitlessly go to scenes ^/ar removed:
No solitude allays ray thoughts.
Methinks, even lifeless things must know
The flame that secretly preys on my soul.
698
Farewell, autumn ! I feel the breath
And influence of winter's reign.
How extensively the empire of death spreads round,
Usurping pleasure's | domain.
The sun now ascends slowly over eastern hills,
WhWefogs besiege the vale:
His oblique beams now shine faintly at mid day,
And the valley is only half illuminated.
Clouds sail through the shy in rapid sue'eession,
And obscure all the solemn view round :
The wood murmurs to the gale :
The storm \ rapidly rushes along the ground.
* Compare this piece with No. 822.
T
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? 218 Versification.
699. --To a Candle.
Hail, luminous companion of my solitary hours,
My midnight sun with light faintly glimmering!
Thy master now pours a sonnet to thee: ,
Accept the poetry: it is all the poet can pay.
When darkness veils the earth,
And Night with black sceptre exercises her dominion
over the plain,
When \ Fear gives spectres birth,
And imaged horrors fill the. brain of the vulgar;
Then I withdraw to my chamber,
Where books and solitude invite;
Trim my fire with secret satisfaction,
And light my taper from its flame.
More pleasing to me thy little quivering rays,
Which hardly \ enlighten my study round,
Than the glare, where thousand torches burn,
And Folly and Mirth pour their united sound.
700
Inconstantly seen through dust driven in whirlwinds,
The swords thickly flash : the frequent Yictim^ies;
While, over his mutilated trunk, and ghastly visage,
Armies rush trampling, where fury calte.
Tell me, soldier, grim spectacle of pain, tell me,
What Siren decoyed thee from thy home,
To abandon thy poor, thy small domestic train,
To wander over billowy deeps for labors of arms?
Ho beams of glory cheer thy unfortunate \ destiny;
Thy name does nut descend to future ages--
Forced to fight for thou knowest not what,
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? Versification. 219
And impelled to butchery by the rage of anothtr
person.
Thy widow, thy children weep,
And beg their subsistence from door to door,
While thy limbs, mangled with wounds, sleep with-
out honor,
And waste and rot on the shore of a strange country.
Thefirst line to rhime with thefourth--the 'idwith the 3d.
701
At a distance from the disturbance of the busy multi-
tude,
I court the grove's \ shdde;
And, as I behold the tints of the sun | fading,
1 perceive the hours dragging along heavily.
I ramble onward, and, rapt* in pensive gloom,
Meditate on the various evils of wayward life,
On falsehood's wiles, ambition's contention,
And virtue rapidly going to an early grave.
702
Ah! dear pleasures of youth, forever gone!
Ah! were I once again a child here,
Again this strand, these wood-walks,
And dells, I would trend witti careless step.
The wanderings of more mature years
Would then present no unpleasant retrospect;
Nor regret for time imprudently | muted
Would fill my foreboding \ bosom witn jears.
* See. the nofe en Rapt, No. 651, page 199.
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? 220 Versification.
70S--To a Red-breast.
In autumn's decline, thy lay which sweetly sooths,
Thy querulous warblings, idled ray cares to peace:
When vyinter came, arrayed in horrors,
I beheld thee silent on the spray.
The trees again dressed in gay leaves,
While reflected rays streak the west,
Thy cadence again sooths my uneasy | bosom,
And trills the requiem of day-light departing.
Thefirst and third lines to rhime -- second andfourth --
fifth and eighth -- sixth and seventh.
704
The transitory \ little flower is no sooner born*,
Than, quickly ripening, it hastily proceeds to decay:
Nursed by the beams of morning,
Its little year is terminated at evening.
* Born. -- Although many persons confine this word to the
birth of living creatures, and some even exclusively restrict it
to the human species, there is no impropriety -- none in poetry
at least'--in applying it to irrational creatures, or to inanimate
productions. As a cow bears a calf, and the' earth bean
flowers, the calf is born of the cow, and the flowers born of tilt
earth; which, in reality, means nothiug else than borne by At
cow or the earth; born and borne having been originally the
same identical participle from Bear, though they now happen to
be differently pronounced. But that difference of sound is purely
accidental, and such as we may every day observe in Tom,
Shorn, and Forlorn; some speakers making them to rhime with
Horn, others with Sworn; which latter prounciation, by the way,
is more agreeable to etymology; those words being formed by
syncope from the antique Tdren, Shbren, Forloren, as Born and
Sworn from Bor'en and Sxeorhi; whereas the other sound (rhim-
? ? 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
? Versification. 281
And thus man's life: -- the child
Speedily enters into youth's spring;
Theu remains a while, 'till Time, with quick wing,
Drive$ him on to Age's dreary wilderness.
The first and fourth lines to rhime --second and third
--fifth and eighth -- sixth and seventh--ninth and
eleventh -- tenth and twelfth.
