iL® m® ®irm TT \^ m\\) El's ^111 P®E¥^1J ■S) w iS, I lA m m w\Lm®ir (£ [^ Q iPH i L^ B E LP c, ^mm^ ^^m ^ iamy. THE POETS AND POETRY OF ENGLAND, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY EUFUS W. GRISWOLD. a dsanstless shower of light is poesy : 'tis the supkeme of power ; tib might half slumbering on its own right arm. John Keats. SECOND EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: CAREY & HART, CHESNUT STREET. MDCCCXLV. ^ - .4 ^\^' Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by CAREY & HART, in the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. stereotyped by L. Jolmson, Phlla. Printad by T. g. Sc V. d- CoUine. TO CHRIST OHUBCH, OXFORD, THE UNIVEBSALLT ESTEEMED REPRESENTATIVE OP HEB BKITANNIC MAJESTY IN WHO UNITES TO THE ATTAINMENTS OP A SCHOLAB THE FINEST SOCIAL QUALITIES, THIS VIEW THE MODERN POETRY OF HIS COUNTRT IS RESPECTFULLT INSCRIBED. PREFACE. The rise and progress of English poetry form one of the most delightful and instructive chapters in the intellectual history of the world. We trace its glim- mering dawn in the ballads of the early minstrels, its brilliant morning in the Canterbury Tales, and its rich and bold development in the literature of the age of Elizabeth, in which British genius reached an elevation unparalleled in the history of mankind. Bacon and Hobbes and Coke, Barrow and Taylor and Hooker, Raleigh and Selden and Sidney, Spenser and Shakspeare and Milton, breathed in the same generation the air of England, and though they did not all give a lyrical expression to thought and passion, they were nearly all poets, in the truest and highest sense of the word, and they formed with their contemporaries the most wonderful constellation of great men that ever adorned a nation or an age. It is a remark of Hume, that when arts come to perfection in a state they necessarily decline, and seldom or never revive there. In England the decline of poetry, was as rapid as had been its rise, and in the long interregnum which succeeded the Restoration, scarcely a work was produced which has an actual and enduring popularity. The artificial school introduced from the Continent by the followers of Charles the Second, attained its acme at last, however, in the polished numbers of Pope, and a gradual return to nature became visible in the productions of Thomson and Cowper and Burns, who ushered in the second great era of British literature, a general view of the poetical portion of which I have endeavoured to present in this volume. There is at the present time, it seems to me, great need of a work of this sort. The surveys and selections of English poetry from Chaucer to the close of the last century, are numerous, and some of them, especially those of Campbell and Hazlitt, are made with singular candour and discernment. But there has hitherto been no extensive review of the Poetry of the Nineteenth Century, more rich and varied than that of all other periods, excepting only the golden one of Shakspeare. From those w^hose entire works have been republished in this country, and of whom a knowledge may safely be presumed, I have deemed it in some instances PREFACE. unnecessary to quote very largely, while I have presented comparatively numerous selections from several poets who are less familiar to American readers. It is a singular fact that while, with the exception of Talfourd, Knowles and Bulwer, so few have recently added to the stock of standard acting plays, so many fine poems have appeared in the dramatic form. From some of these I have drawn with considerable freedom, though less largely than I should have done but for the difficulty of doing justice to authors in mere extracts from works of this descrip- tion. One of the most striking distinctions of the poetry of this century is un- doubtedly discoverable in the great number of deservedly popular lyrics which it embraces. In no other period have so many exquisite gems of feeling, thought and language been produced. To the best of my judgment I have brought together the most admirable of these, with the finest passages of longer poems which could not themselves be given entire. The merits of Byron and Wordsworth have been amply discussed by recent critics on both sides of the Atlantic, and the claims of Shelley begin to attract a share of the attention they deserve. If the author of Childe Harold excelled all others in the poetry of intense emotion, and the bard of Rydal in that of reflective sentiment, Shelley has contributed no less to what is purely imaginative in the divine art. The graphic power of Crabbe in dealing with actual and homely materials, the picturesque and romantic beauty of Scott, the wildness, sublimity and feeling of Coleridge, the gorgeous description and fine reflection of Southey, the voluptuous imagery and happy wit of Moore, the elegance and rhetorical energy of Campbell, have each in their degree influenced the popular taste ; while the classical imagery of Keats, the brilliance and tenderness of Proctor, the cheerfulness and humanity of Hunt, and the philosophic repose of Milnes, interest the warm sympathies of different readers. A taste for poetry is visibly increasing among us, especially for that poetry which celebrates the triumphs of humanity, the sacred claims of freedom, the holy associations of love, and all the scenes and sentiments which redeem life and make hallowed ground of the earth. There is much in the following pages fitted to promote and refine such a taste, and that they may essentially contribute to so desirable a result is the earnest hope of the editor. Fliiladelphia, October 20, 1844. CONTENTS. GEORGE CRABBE 17 Slanz.s— "Let me not have Ibis gloomy view" 17 Recnnciliatiou IS VVom.in 18 The Wretched Mind 19 The Dream of the Condemned 19 A Sea Fog 19 The Sudden Death and Funeral 20 The Death of Ruth 20 A Group of Gipsies 20^ The Poor-House 21 Newspapers 21 WILLIAM SOTllEBY 22 Rome 22 Tivnli 23 The Grotio of Rgeiia 23 WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES 24 Discove'V of Madeira 24 Dreams of Youth 26 To Time 26 Retrospection 26 Funeral of Cliarles the First 27 Remembrance 27 On Ihe Rhine 27 Wrifeo at Os'end 27 Matilda 27 SAMUEL ROGERS 2S .An Epis'le toa Friend 29 On 'hs Dea:h of a Sister 30 The Pleasures of Memory 31 Loch-Lnng 32 Ginevra 33 The Four Eras 33 Don Garzia 34 The Fountain 34 Venice 35 SIR EGERTON BRYDGES 36 Echo and Silence 37 The Approach of Cold Weather 37 The Winds 37 Tn Evening 37 To a Lady in Illness 37* To Autumn, near her Departure 37 To Mary 38 Hastings' Sonnets 38 Sonnet on Moor Park 39 Written August 20, 1807 39 Written at Paris, May 10, 1825 39 Written at Paris, May 11, 1827 39 Written at Lee Priory, August 10, 1826 ...".... 39 JOANNA BAILLIE 40 Birthday Lines to Agnes Biillie 41 To a Child 41 Christnpher Columbus 42 Patriotism and Freedom 42 From " The Traveller by Night" 43 Constancy 43 Song — " The morning air plays on my face" 43 ROBERT BI.OOMFIELD 44 The BrdEoy 44 Address to his Native Vale 45 Harvest Hrme 45 The Widow lo her Hour-GbbS 45 JOHN H. FRERE 46 Proem to a National Work, by William and Robert Whisllecraft . 46 SirGawiin 47 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 48 Inscription for a Seat in the Groves of Coleorton 50 A youthful Poet contemplating Nature 50 Evening in the Mountains 50 Skalhig 50 3u Revisiting the Wye 51 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Clouds after a Storm 51 Man never to be Scorned 52 Obedience and Humility 52 A Deserted VVife 52 Chatierton 52 Picture of a Beggar 52 A Lover 52 Longing for Reunion with the Dead .' 52 A Child wiih a Shell 63 Apostrophe to the Deity 53 Communion with Nature 53 From a Poem on the Power of Sound 53 Dion 54 Character of the Happy Warrior 65 The Power of Virtue . . . > 55 Intimations of Immortality, from Recollections of Early Childhood 66 Evening by the Thames ' 57 Scorn not the Sonnet 58 Great Men 58 Milton 58 Toussaint L'Ouverture 58 " The World is too much with us" 68 A Nation's Power not in Armies 58 A Vision 58 Childhood 58 Elegiac Stanzas 69 Presentiments 60 To the Daisy 60 *• She Dwelt among the Untrodden VVays" 61 OletoDuly 61 WeareSe\en 62 Au Incident at Bruges 62 The Solitary Reaper 63 Autumn 63 " She was a Phantom of Delight" 63 A Mountain Solitude 63 SIR WALTER SCOTT 64 The Trial of Constance 66 Hunting Song 68 The Cypress Wreath 63 Lochinvar 6S Fitz-James and Roderick Dhu 69 A Brid,al 69 The Last Minstrel 70 'J he Teviot 70 Hellvellyn 71 A Scene in Branksome Tower 72 Farewell to the Muse - 72 Melrose Abbey 72 JAMES MONTGOMERY 73 . The Grave 74 The Pillow 75 Friends 76 Discovery and Conquest of America 76 Youth Renewel 77 The Common Lot 77 The Stranger and His Friend 77 Incognita 78 Speed the Prow 79 Recluse 79 The Field of the World 79 JA.MES HOGG 80 Kilmeny 81 The Broken Heart 82 The Sk\ lark 82 Queen Mary's Return to Scotland 82 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 83 Dejection 84 Youth and Age 86 Rime of the Ancient Mariner 86 Love 91 7 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. The Fains of Sleep P2 CoucealnieDt 92 ROBERT SOUTHEY 93 Ode, written during the Negoti-itions with Bonaparte, in Jan. 1S14 . 95 The Holly-Tree 9ij The Dead Friend 96 The Battle of Blenheim 97 Remembrance 97 Roderick in Battle 98 Night 98 Alaodin's Paradise 99 Listening to Storms 99 The Childhood of Joan of Arc - 99 Epitaph 99 A Sub-Marine City 99 An Eastern Evening 99 The Locust Cloud 100 Evening 100 Immortality of Love 100 Stanzas — '* My days among the dead are pass'd" 100 WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 101 Tamar Relates to Gebir his First Encounter with the Nymph . . 102 Passage from Count Julian 102 Faesulan Idyl 103 To lamhe 103 To Corinth 103 Stanzas — " Say ye, that years roll on and ne'er return ?" 104 Worship God only, from Inez de Castro 104 The Tamed Dormouse 104 To a Di-ad Child . . " 104 On the Death of Robert Southey 104 Sixteen 104 Repen'ance of King Roderigo 105 Morning 105 Clifton 105 Passage from Ippolito di Este . . * 105 A Calhedr.il Scene 105 Epitaph on a Poet in a Welsh Churchyard 1C5 The Maid's Lament 106 The Brier 106 The Dragon-Fly 106 An Arab to his Mistress 106 JOHN LEYDEN 107 Ode to Jehovah 103 Ode to an Indian Gold Coin IDS Portuguese Hymn to the Virgin 109 The Memory of the Past 109 A Morning Scene 109 Changes of Home 110 Tevioldale 110 Serenity of Childhood 110 CHARLES LAMB Ill Farewell to Tobacco 112 Hester 113 The Old Familiar Faces 113 The Family Name 113 Sonnet — " We were two pretty habes^* 113 THOMAS CAMPBELL 114 Lochiel's Warning 115 The Last Man IIB "Ye Mariners of England" • . 116 Battle of the Baltic 117 Exile of Erin 117 Valedictory Stanzas to J. P. Kemble, Esq 118 The Soldier's Dream IIS Description of Wyoming 119 Dirge of Outalissi 119 The Fall of Poland 120 Hohenlinden 120 Caroline 120 O'Connor's Child 121 The Last Scene in Gertrude of Wyoming 123 The Beech tree's Petition 123 WILLIAM HERBERT 124 The Phantom Fight 125 The Descent to Hela 126 Solitude 129 Futurity , 129 Jealousy 129 The Mother's Plea 130 The Battle Field 131 WII.t.IAM HERBERT Hi mil to Death 132 Aelius the Unbeliever 133 Woman 133 Fareivell 133 Washington 134 SIR HUMPHRY DAVY 135 The Tempest 135 Fontainebleau 136 Written after Recovery from a Dangerous Illness 136 On the Dealh of Lord Byron 137 Mont Blanc 137 The Sybil's Temple 137 A Fragment 138 The Eagles 138 The Fire Flies 138 Life 138 Thought 138 JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE 139 Ode on the Deliverance of Europe, 1814 139 From Rufinus 140 The Pursuit of Learning 140 Answer to a Charge of Inconstancy 140 HORACE SMITH .141 Hymn to the Flowers 141 The Head of Meuinon 142 Moral Ruins 143 Address to an Egyptian Mummy 143 To the Alabaster Sarcophagus 144 Moral Alchemy 145 THOMAS MOORE 146 The Fire- Worshippers 147 " The Harp that once through Tara's Halls" 165 Eveleen's Bower 165 " All that's bright must fade" 165 "Oft, in the stilly nighf 166 Sacred Song 166 " Has sorrow thy young days shaded ?" 166 "Oh, no! — not even when first we loved" 166 CALEB C. COLTON 167 The Conflagration of Moscow 168 Life 170 Irregular Ode, on the Death of Lord Byron 171 JOHN KENYON 172 To the Moon 172 * The Broken Appointment 173 EEENEZER ELLIOTT 174 Bothwell —A Dramatic Poem 175 On Seeing Audubon's " Birds of America" 179 The Press '79 The Dyins Boy to the Sloe Blossom 180 Come and Gone 180 Forest Worship 181 Ribbledin, or the Christening 182 The Wonders of the Lane 183 Hymn—" Nurse of the Pilgrim sires, who sought" 183 Thomas 184 Sleep 184 The Pilgrim Fathers 185 A Ghost at Noon 185 Corn Law Hymn 185 Flowers for the Heart 185 REGINALD HEBER 186 Christmas Hymn 187 The Widow of Nain 187 " Thou art gone to the grave" 187 Snng — " There is, they say, a secret well" 187 Farewell 187 Mii^sionary Hymn 1^8 The British Bow 188 Verses to Mrs. Heber . . ' 188 ALLAN CUNNINGHAM 189 " A wet sheet and a flowing sea" 190 Gentle Hugh Herries 190 The Poet's Bridal-day Song 190 "Ii's Hame and it's Hame" 191 " The shepherd seeks his glowing hearth" 191 " Awake, my love !" 191 '' My ain counlree" 191 BERNARD BARTON 192 Spiritual Worship 192 CONTENTS. BERNARD BARTON. To the Skylark 192 Children of Light 193 To Mary 193 ToaProBle 193 Farewell 193 LEIGH HUNT 194 Exlracls from the Legend of Florence 195 Agnlinti and his Lady 195 A Domestic Scene 195 Fancy 196 To Lord Byron, on hia Departure for Italy and Greece 197 The Fatal Passion 198 Kosciusko 202 Ariadne 202 Mahmoud 203 Power and Gentleness 203 The Glove and Ihe Lions 204 An Angel in the House 204 A Heaven upon Earth 204 The Ravenna Pine Forest 204 The Nile 205 Abou Ben Adhem an 1 the Angel 205 Spring in Ravenna 205 To a Child, during Sickness 205 BRYAN W. PROCTOR 206 The Rising of the North 207 Stanzas — ** That was not a barren time" 207 The Return of the Admiral 208 Forbidden Love 208 A Repose 208 A Storm 209 " I die for thy sweet love" 209 A Petition to Time 209 A Chamber Scene 209 The Lake has Burst 210 The VVeaver's Song . 210 A Prayer in Sickness 210 The Stormy Petrel 210 The Sea 211 " Softly woo away her breath" 21 ! " A deep and a mighty shadow" 211 TheQuatroon 211 An Epitaph 211 To the South Wind - 212 Mu 212 Flowers 212 Remembered Love 212 Kings 212 Night Thoughts 212 Happiness 212 To the Singer Pasta 213 Address to the Ocean 213 HENRY KIRKE WHITE 214 The Savoyard's Return 214 Canzonet 214 " I'm pleased, and yet I'm sad" 215 To Consumption 215 The Star of Bethlehem 215 To an Early Primrose 215 LORD BYRON 216 The Lament of Tasso 218 The Dream 220 The Prisoner of Chillon 221 Waterloo 225 Monody on the Death of the Right Hon. R. B. Sheridan .... 225 The Isles of Greece 226 Soliloquy of Manfred 227 Cecilia Metella 228 The Ocean 228 To Thyrza 229 Stanzas—" Away, away, ye notes of wo" 229 To Thyrza 230 " Adieu, adieu ! my native shore" 230 The EiecutioD of Hujo 231 Death of Lara 232 The Destruction of Sennacherib 234 Evening 234 The Fate of Beauty 235 " She walks in beauty" 235 To Mary 235 "Oh! snatched away in beauty's bloom" 236 Manfred lo Ihe Sorceress 236 "On this day I complete my thirty-sixth year" 236 2 THOMAS PRINGLE i . 237 " Afar in Ihe Desert" 237 The Bechuana Boy 238 WILLIAM PETER 240 Damon and Pythias 240 Theckla 241 The Ideal 242 Christian Love 242 The Penitent 243 On a Dear Child 243 Twydee 243 RANN KENNEDY 244 Domestic Bliss 244 The Merry Bells of England 244 Ambition 244 JOHN WILSON 245 To a Sleeping Child 246 The Three Seasons of Love 247 The Hunter 247 Signs of the Plague 248 The Plague lu the City 248 The Ship 248 Lines written in a Lonely Burial Ground 249 Address to a Wild Deer 250 Lines written in a Highland Glen 250 JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES 251 Love's Artifice 251 Last Scene in John di Procida 252 The Growth of Love 253 Artifice Disowned by Love 254 Pride of Rank 254 Tell among the Mountains 254 Lost Freedom of Switzerland 254 Virginius in the Forum 254 MRS. SOUTHEY 255 The Welcome Home 256 Angling 256 Autumn Flowers 257 The Pa-.ipcr's Death-be 1 257 The Mariner's Hymn 257 HENRY HART MILMAN 258 Rowena 259 Lamentation over Jeru'alem 259 Hymn by the Euphrates 260 Jewish Hymn in Babylon 260 Ode, to the Saviour 261 The Merry Heart •. 261 Marriage Hymn 261 Evening Song of Maidens 262 Chorus — " King of kings ! and Lord of lords I" 262 Funeral Anthem 263 1 he Usurer 263 Eenina lo Belshazzar « 263 JOHN KEBLE 264 Advent Sunday 264 The Flowers of the Field 265 The Nightingale 265 Forest Leaves in Autumn 266 Dimness 266 Address to Poets 267 The United States 267 Champions of Ihe Truth 267 CHARLES WOLFE 268 The Burial of Sir John Moore 268 "Oh, my love has an eye of the softest blue" 269 "Oh, s.ay nut that my heart is cold" 269 "If I had thought thou couldsl have died" 269 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 270 The Sensitive Plant 272 Love 274 The Unattained 274 Dedication lo The Revolt of Islam 275 From Alastor, or the Spirit of Solilule 276 Alaslor and Ihe Swan 276 From The Revolt of Islam 277 Hymn to Intellectual Beauty 277 Song — Rarely, rarely, comest thou 278 Death and Sleep I . . 278 A Picture 279 Spring 279 From Adonais: An Elegy on Ihe Death of John Keats . . . . . 280 " The serpent is shut out from Paradise" « • . . 280 PERCY BVSSHE SHELLEY. Liberty 281 A Lamenl 28ii " The sun is "arm, the sky is clear" 2g2 The Hours, froni Prometheus 282 To a Skylarli 283 Love's Philosopliy 283 The Cloud 284 Stanzas, written in Dejection, near Naples 284 The Fugitives 285 To the Queen of my Heart 285 FELICIA HEMANS 286 Joan of Arc in Rheims 237 The American Forest Girl 2B7 The Stranger in Louisiana 288 " Leave me not yef 288 The Traveller at the Source of the Nile 2S9 The Palm-tree 289 The Bride's Farewell 290 The Homes of Ecgland , . 290 The Hour of Death 290 Mozart's Requiem 291 The Dyin? Improvisatore 291 The Childe's Destiny 292 The Landing of fne Pilgrim Fathers 292 Bernardo del Carpro 293 Attraction of the East 293 Kindred Hearts 294 Hymn of the Mountain Christian 294 Washington's Staiue 294 The Lost Pleiad 295 The Fountain of Oblivion 295 A Parting Song 295 Thoughts During Sickness 296 Intellectual Powers 296 Sickness like Night 296 Re zsch's Design, the Angel of Death 296 Reme.nbrance of Nature 296 Flight of the Spirit 296 Flowers 296 Recovery 296 To a Family Bible 296 SERJEANT TALFOURD 297 Verses to the Memory of a Child na^iied after Charles Lamb . . .298 Lines writlen at the Needles Hotel 298 Kindness 2P9 To the Memory of the Poets 299 Ion described by Agenor 300 Ion receiiing the Sacrificial Knife from Ctesiphou . . . . . .300 Ion at the Entrance of a Foie>t 3C0 Fame 300 To the Thames at Westminster 300 JOHN KEATS 301 The Eve of S'. Agnes 302 Hymn to Pan 305 Adonis 303 To Hope 3 6 Sovereignty of Love 307 Ole to a Nightingale 307 To Autumn 308 Ode on a Grecian Urn 308 Ou first Seeing Chapman's Homer 3 8 On the Grasshopper and Cricket 308 Regalities 309 Adonis Sleeping 309 A Fairy Scene from End) mion 309 Sleep 309 Scenes of Boyhood 309 The Moon 310 Robin Hood 310 Fancy 311 Lines on the Mermaid Tavern 311 THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY 312 The First Gray Hair 313 The Soldier's Tear 313 '• Wither Away" 313 "I'm saddest v» hen I sing" 314 " I never was a favoui lie" 314 *' She wore a wreath of roses" 314 " The rose that all are praising" 315 " She never blamed him" 315 " She would not know me" 315 The Old Kirk Yard 315 THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY. "Grief wai sent thee foi thy good" 315 " 1 turn to thee in time of need" . , , . « 316 '* Oh, no 1 we never mention her" 316 '' " Isle of Beauty, fare thee well" 316 " I'd be a butterfly" 316 GEORGE CROLY 317 The Aueel of the World 318 A Scene liom Catiline 323 Astrology 324 Jacob's Dream 325 An Aurori Borealis 325 Rebelliou 325 The Alhambra 326 A Lover's Oah 326 A Meeting of Magicians 326 The Stars 326 Pericles and Aspasia 327 Leonidas 327 A Dirge 327 A Parisian Fauxbourg _ . . 328 The Grievings of a Proud Spirit ' . . 328 ElTect of Oratory upon a Multitude 32S Love an Evil 328 Jewels 328 Mountaineers 328 WILLIAM MOTHERWELL 329 "My heid is like to rend, Willie" 329 " The via'er ! the water !" 330 Jeanie Morrison 330 Lines given to a Friend a day or two before the Decease of the Writer 331 "0 agony', keen agony '." 331 " They come ! the merry summer mouths" 332 " I am not sad" 332 " Beneath a placid brow" 333 The Cavalier's Song '. 333 "What is glory? What is fame J" 333 THOMAS HOOD 334 The Dream of Eugene Aram . . . • 334 The Sylvan Fairy 336 Ariel and the Suicide 336 Fair lues 337 " Sigh on, sa.l heart !" 337 The Song of the Shirt 338 Silence 338 Death 338 Ode — "Oh! well may poets make a fuss" 339 From an Ode to M.-lancholy 339 " 1 reniemt'er, 1 remember," 340 To a Cold Beauty . . 340 Lov 340 By .- Lover 340 ROBERT POLLOK 341 Byron 341 The Millennium S42 The Authors Account of Himself 443 Reputation 344 Rumour and Slander 344 Wisdom 344 THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 345 Horatius 345 The Baltic of Ivry 350 The Cavalier's March to London 351 The Spanish Armada 352 A Song of the Huguenots 353 D. M. MOIR 354 A Lover to Ins Betrothed 354 Wee Willie 335 Midnight 356 " Weep not for her" 366 Flodden Field 356 EDWARD MOXON 357 To the Muse 357 Love 358 A Dream 358 Life 358 Walton 358 Scenes of Childhood 358 Sidney 358 Solace derived from Books 359 To a Bird 359 A Mother Singing 359 Poesy 369 CONTENTS. 11 EDWARD MOXON To- Rouen 359 Piely 359 MRS. NORTON 360 Dedication o' 'he Hreani to the Duchess of Sulherland 361 Extract froDi the Dream 361 To my Books 361 Twilight 362 The Blind Man to his Bride 363 The Sense of Beauty 364 The Mother's Heart 365 The Child of Earth 365 Alarixia 366 The Widow to her Son's Betrothed 367 " Weep not for him that dieth" 367 The Arab's Farewell to his Horse 368 " We have been friends together" 368 Recollections 369 " Be frank with me, and I accept my lot" 369 The Fallen Leaves 369 The Careless Word 37O The Mourners 37O " Like an enfranchised bird" 370 JOHN STERLING 371 To a Child 37I Prose and Song 37I Aphrodite 372 Hymns of a Hermit 375 The Dearest 37S Joan D'Arc 379 Alfred the Harper 382 The Poet's Home 383 Mirabeau 384 L0U19 XV 384 Daedalus 385 The Ages 385 The Husbandmaa 386 The Penitent 366 The Moss Rose 367 The Song of Eve to Cain 387 MRS. MACLEAN (L. E. L.) 388 The factory 389 The Minstrel's Monitor 390 The Feast of Life 390 Experience 390 The Carrier-PtgeoQ Returned 391 Success alone seen 391 " Oh, no I my heart can never be" 392 Necessity 392 Memory 393 Resolves 393 '• We might have been !" 393 " A long while ago" 394 "Can you forget me?" 394 The Farewell 394 Calypso watching the Ocean 395 Despon lency 395 The Wrongs of Love 396 The old Times 396 Crescentius 396 " I pray thee let me weep to-night" 397 Weakness ends with Love 397 Affection 397 Age and Youth ' 397 Bilter Experience 397 The Poet's First Essay 397 CHARLES SWAIN 398 The Lyre 398 " The kind old friendly feelings" 393 Recollections 399 " Forgive and forget" 399 •* Let us love one another" 399 "If thou hast lost a friend" 400 The first Prayer 400 The Chamois Hunters 400 The Bird of Hope 400 SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON 401 Cromwell's Soliloquy overthe Dead Body of Charles 402 Cromwell's Reflections OD "Killing no Murder" 402 Richelieu's Soliloquy 403 Ambition and Glory 403 Last Days of Queen Elizabeth 404 Tlie Language of the Eyes 405 Euripides 406 A Spendthrift 406 Patience and Hope 406 Love and Fame 405 The Last Crusader 407 The Sabbath 407 HENRY TAYLOR 408 The Lay of Elena 409 From Philip Van Artevelde 412 Repose of the Heart 412 Approach of Morning 412 Artevelde's Love for Adriana 413 Greatness and Success 413 Two Characters 413 Repentance and Improvement 4J3 Artevelde's Character of his Wife 413 Artevelde's Vision of his Wife, the Night before his Death . . 414 Character of Artevelde by the Duke of Burgundy 414 Famine in a besieged City 414 From Edwin the Fair 414 The Voice of the Wind 414 Dunslan's Account of his Temptations 415 Calmness and Retrospection 415 A Soliloquy of Leolf 415 A Scholar 415 Dunstau on the Death of his Mother 415 r. K. HERVEY 416 I-o's 416 Ctopatra embarking on the Cydnu 416 The Grotto of Egeria 417 The Temple of Jupiter Olympus, at Athens 417 "Slumber lie soft on thy beautiful eye," 4I8 To Myra 4,9 Stauzas to a Lady 41s Hope 419 Homes and Graves 419 A Vision of the Stars 430 The Convict Ship 421 " I'm all alone," 421 To Mary 421 ELIZABETH B. BARRF, TT 422 Cowper's Grave 423 Napoleon's Return 424 The Cry nf the Children 1 425 Seraph and Poet 426 The Lay of the Rose 427 My Doves 428 Romaunl of Margret 429 The Deserted Garden 431 " Loved once" , 432 The Sleep 433 Earth 433 The Student 434 The Cry of the Human 434 The Child and the Watcher 435 Caterina to Camoens 436 Despair 437 The Departed 437 " What are we set on earth for ?" 437 The Spinning-wheel 437 The Soul's Expression 437 WINTHROP MACKWORTH FRAED 433 The Red Fisherman 435 Tlie Vicar 440 School and School-fellows 441 Memory , , , - 442 Josephine 442 " I know that it must be" 443 Time's Changes 443 The Belle of the Ball 444 ALFRED TENNYSON 445 Locksley Hall 446 Godiva 449 Recollections of the Arabian Nights 450 . 451 Mariana . . Sir Galahad 452 The Ballad of Oriana 452 The Talking Oak 453 The Lady of Shalott 456 Dora. 457 Circumstance 4&g GEORGE DARLEY 459 A Scene from Ethelstan . > 459 A Song from Ethelstan 460 Song of the Summer Winds 461 The Gambols of Children 461 A Village Blacksmith 461 Suicide 461 The Fairies 461 A Rural Retreat 462 THOMAS WADE 463 A Prophecy 463 Volition 463 The Bride 463 The Poetry of Earth 463 The Sere Oak Leaves 463 The Swan Aviary 463 ROBERT BROWNING 464 ExIracI from Paracelsus 464 Extrac s from Sordello 463 Caryatides by Sunset 465 Egl'amor 465 All Incident at Ralisbon 465 RICHARn HENRY HORNE 466 Extracts from Orioa 466 The First Appearance of Orion 466 Morning 466 Simimer Noon 467 Building of the Palace of Poseidon 467 Orion's Extirpation of the Beasts from Chios 467 Restoration of Orion 467 FRANCES KEMBLE BUTLER 469 The Prayer of a Lonely Heart 469 On a Forget-me-not, brought from Switzerland 469 Oil a Musicil Box 470 A Wish 470 Lilies written in London 470 Fragment 470 The Vision of Life 471 A Promise 471 To the Nightingale 471 Lines written after leaving West Point 472 To a Picture 472 " Tliere's not a fibre in my trembling frame" 472 Ambition 472 To 472 Venice 472 RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES 473 Lonely Maturity 473 The Lay of the Humble 474 On 475 Prayer 473 Not wholly just 476 The Palsy of the Heart 476 A Prayer 476 Youth and Manhood 477 Fast Friendship 477 Delphi, an Ele?y ' 477 The Patience of the Poor 478 The Tragedy of the Lac de Gaube, in the Pyrenees 478 The Voice of the People 479 Alms-giving » 480 RICHAHD MONCKTON MILNES. Labour .... 480 The Voices of History 481 Naples and Venice 482 ^ Pastoral Song 483 Song of Thoughts 483 Rich and Poor 4S3 " Because, from all that round thee move" 484 The Friendship Flower 484 The Men of Old 484 On I^dy C , in declining Health 485 The Long-Ago 485 Prince Emilius of Hesse-Darmstadt 486 P. J. BAILEY 487 Festus describes his Friend 487 Ans^ela 488 Calmness of the Sublime . 488 Faith 489 Great Tlioughts 489 A Letter ' 489 Truth and Sorrow 4S9 The Ends of Life 489 The Poet 489 HENRY ALFORD 490 A Churchyard Colloquy 490 Academe 491 A Memory 491 A Funeral 491 " The Master is come, and calleth for thee" 491 Beauty of Nature 491 A Spiritual and well-ordered Mind 492 Morning Hymn for All-Saints' Day 492 A Doubt 492 ELIZA COOK 493 The Mourners 493 The Wreaths 494 " He led her to the altar" 494 A Love Song 494 The Free 495 The Old Arm-chair 495 My Grave 495 " There's a star in the west" 496 " Mourn not the dead" 496 "The loved one was not there" 496 The Quiet Eye 496 Song of the Hempseed 497 Washington 498 Our Native Song 498 B, SIMMONS 499 The Disinterment 499 View on the Hudson SCO Death-chant for the Sultan Mahmoud 501 F. W. FABER 602 King's Bridge 602 Childhood 503 The Glimpse 503 The Perplexity 503 To a Little Boy 504 The After-Slate 504 The Wheels 604 The Signs of the Times 501 ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAIT OF LORD BYRON . . . . Engraved by G. H. Cushman . . .Frontispiece. STAMBOUL G. H. Cushman . . Vignette title. INCOGNITA J. Cheney 78 EARLY DAYS OF WASHINGTON W. Humphreys 134 THE ANGEL VISITOR . J. Cheney 204 FAIR INEZ J. Cheney 337 VIOLA , J. Cheney 371 13 GEORGE CRABBE This poet was born on the twenty-fourth of December, 1754, at Aldborough, in Suffolk, where his father and grandfather were officers of the customs. At the school where he re- ceived his education he gained a prize for one of his poems ; and on leaving it he became an apprentice to a surgeon and apothecary in his native village. On the completion of his ap- prenticeship, abandoning all hope of success in his profession, he went to London to com- mence a life of authorship. Unknown and unfriended, he endeavoured in vain to induce the booksellers to publish his writings. At length, in 1780, two years after his arrival in the great metropolis, he ventured to print at his own expense a poem entitled " The Can- didate," which was favourably received. He was soon after introduced to Edmund Burke, who became his friend and patron, and pre- sented him to Fox and other eminent con- temporaries. In 1781 he published "The Library," and was ordained a deacon. In the following year he became curate of Ald- borough, and in 1783 he entered his name at Trinity Hall, Cambridge ; but left the Uni- versity without graduating, though he was subsequently presented with the degree of B. C. L. After residing for a considerable period at Belvoir Castle, as chaplain to tlie Duke of Rutland, he was introduced to the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, who bestowed upon him successively the living of Frome St. Quintin, in Dorsetshire, and the rectories of Muston and West Allington in the diocese of Lincoln. In 1807 he published a com- plete edition of his works then written, which was received with general applause. Three years afterward appeared "The Borough;" in 1812, his "Tales;" and in 1819, his "Tales of the Hall." He died at Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, in February, 1832. As a man, Crabbe was admired and loved by all who knew him. Lockhart, in describing his person, says "his noble forehead, his bright beaming eye — without any thing of old age about it, though he was then above seventy — his sweet and innocent smile, and the calm, mellow tones of his voice, all are repro- duced the moment I open any page of his poet- ry." A perfect edition of his poetical writings, with a graceful and sensible memoir by his son, has been issued by Murray, since his death. The lovers of homely truth may appeal to Crabbe in proof that its sternest utterance is dramatic. No poet has ventured to rely more entirely on fact. He paints without delicacy, but his touches are so very literal as to be striking and effective. The poor have found in him their ablest annalist. The most gloomy phases of life are described in his tales with an integrity that has rendered them almost as imposing as a tragedy. The interest awaken- ed by his pictures is often fearful, merely from their appalling truth and touching mi- nuteness. He was a manwrisf, and some of the features of his mannerism — his monoto- nous versification, and minute portraitures of worthless characters, with their rude jests and familiar moralizing — are unpleasing ; but his powerful and graphic delineations of humble life, his occasional touches of deepest tender- ness, and the profoundness of his wisdom, mark not less strongly than these blemishes, all that he wrote, nnd will keep green his reputation while the world we live in is the scene of sin and suffering. STANZAS. Let me not have this gloomy view About my room, around my bed ; But morning roses, wet with dew, To cool my burning brows instead. As flowers that once in Eden grew. Let them their fragrant spirits shed; And every day the sweets renew, Till I, a fading flower, am dead. 3 Oh ! let the herbs I loved to rear Give to my sense their perfumed breath ; Let them be placed about my bier, And grace the gloomy house of death. I '11 have my grave beneath a hill, Where only I^ucy's self shall know ; Where runs the pure pellucid rill Upon its gravelly bed below : There violets on the borders blow. And insects their soft light display, — B2 17 18 GEORGE CRABBE. 69 Till, as the morning fsunbeams glow, The cold phosphoric fires decay. That is the grave to Lucy shown, — The soil a pure and silver sand, The green, cold moss above it grown, Unpluck'd of all but maiden hand : In virgin earth, till then unturn'd, There let my maiden form be laid, Nor let my changed clay be spurn'd. Nor for new guest that bed be made. There will the lark, — the lamb, in sport, In air, — on earth, — securely play, And Lucy to my grave resort, As innocent, — but not so gay. I will not have the churchyard ground. With bones all black and ugly grown, To press my shivering body round, Or on my wasted limbs be thrown. With ribs and skulls I wilt not sleep. In clammy beds of cold blue clay. Through which the ringed earth-worms creep ; And on the shrouded bosom prey ; I will not have the bell proclaim When those sad marriage rites begin, — And boys, without regard or shame. Press the vile mouldering masses in. Say not, it is beneath my care ; I cannot these cold truths allow: — These thoughts may not afflict me there. But, oh ! they vex and tease me now. Raise not a turf, nor set a stone. That man a maiden's grave may trace ; But thou, my Lucy, come alone, And let affection find the place. Oh ! take me from a world I hate, — Men cruel, selfish, sensual, cold ; And, in some pure and blessed state, I-et me my sister minds behold : From gross and sordid views refined. Our heaven of spotless love to share, — For only generous souls dcsign'd, And not a man to meet us there. RECONCILIATION. Mr Damon was the first to wake The gentle flame that caimot die ; My Damon is the last to take The faithful bosom's softest sigh : The life between is nothing worth, Oh ! cast it from my thought away ; Think of the day that gave it birth. And this, its sweet returning day. Buried be all that has been done. Or say that naught is done amiss ; For who the dangerous path can shun In such bewildering v\'orld as this? But love can every fault forgive. Or with a tender look reprove; And now let naught in memory live. But that we meet, and that we love. WOMAN. Place the white man on Afric's coast. Whose swarthy sons in blood delight, Who of their scorn to Europe boast. And paint their very demons white: There, while the sterner sex disdains To soothe the woes they cannot feel. Woman will strive to heal his pains, And weep for those she cannot heal. Hers is warm pity's sacred glow, — From all her stores she bears a part ; And bids the spring of hope reflow. That languished in the fainting heart. " What though so pale his haggard face. So sunk and sad his looks," — she cries : " And far unlike our nobler race, With crisped locks and rolling eyes; Yet misery marks him of our kind, — We see him lost, alone, afraid ! And pangs of body, griefs in mind, Pronounce him man, and ask our aid. « Perhaps in some far distant shore There are who in these forms delight; Whose milky features please them more Than ours of jet, thus burnish'd bright ; Of such may be his weeping wife. Such children for their sire may call ; And if we spare his ebbing life, Our kindness may preserve them all." Thus her compassion woman shows ; Beneath the line her acts are these ; Nor the wide waste of Lapland snows Can her warm flow of pity freeze ; — " From some sad land the stranger comes, Where joys like ours are never found ; Let 's soothe him in our happy homes. Where freedom sits, with plenty crown'd. "'Tis good the fainting soul to cheer. To see the famish'd stranger fed ; To milk for him the mother-deer. To smooth for him the furry bed. The powers above our Lapland bless With good no other people know ; T' enlarge the joys that we possess. By feeling those that we bestow !" Thus, in extremes of cold and heat, Where wandering man may trace his kind ; Wherever grief and want retreat, In woman they compassion find : She makes the female breast her seat. And dictates mercy to the mind. Man may the sterner virtues know, Determined justice, truth severe ; But female hearts with pity glow, And woman holds affliction dear : For guiltless woes her sorrows flow. And suffering vice compels her tear, — 'Tis hers to soothe the ills below. And bid life's fairer views appear. To woman's gentle kind we owe What comforts and delights us here ; They its gay hopes on youth bestow. And care they soothe — and age they cheer. GEORGE CRABBE. 19 THE WRETCHED MIND. Til' unhay)py man was found, The spirit settled, but the reason drown'd ; And all the dreadful tempest died away, To the dull stillness of the misty day ! And now his freedom he attain'd — if free The lost to reason, truth, and hope, can be ; The pliyful children of the ])lace he meets ; Playful with them he rambles through the streets; In all they need, his stronger arm he lends, And his lost mind to these ajiprovina; friends. That gentle maid, vvhom once the youth had Is now with mild religious pity moved ; [loved, Kindly she chides his boyish flights, while he Will for a moment fix'd and pensive be ; And as she trembling speaks, his lively eyes Explore her looks, he listens to her sighs; [vade Charm'd by her voice, the harmonious sounds in- His clouded mind, and for a time persuade : liike a i)lca3ed infant, who has newly caught. From the maternal glance, a gleam of thought ; He stands enrapt, the half-known voice to hear. And starts, half-conscious, at the falling tear ! Rarely from town, nor then unwatcli'd^ he goes, In darker mood, as if to hide his woes ; But, soorr returning, with impatience seeks [speaks; His youthful friends, and shouts, and sings, and Speaks a wild speech, with action all as wild — The children's leader, and himself a child ; He spins their top, or, at their bidding, bends His bark, while o'er it leap his laughing friends ; Simple and weak, he acts the boy once more. And heedless children call him Silly Shore. THE DREAM OF THE CONDEMNED. When first I came Within his view, I fancied there was shame, I judged resentment ; I mistook the air — These fainter passions live not witli despair ; Or but exist and die : — Hope, fear, and love, Joy, doubt, and hate, may other spirits move, But touch not his, who every waking hour Has one fix'd dread, and always feels its power. He takes his tasteless food; and, when 'tis done, Counts up his meals, now lessen'd by that one ; For expectation is on time intent. Whether he brings us joy or punishment. Yes i e'en in sleep th' impressions all remain ; He hears the sentence, and he feels the chain ; He seems the place for that sad act to see. And dreams the very thirst which then will be ! A priest attends — it seems the one he knew In his best days, beneath whose care he grew. At this his terrors take a sudden flight — He sees his native village v^'ith delight; The house, the chamber, where he once array'd His youthful person ; where he knelt and pray'd : Then too the comforts he enjoy'd at home. The days of joy ; the joys themselves are come ; — The hours of innocence; the timid look Of his loved maid, when first her hand he took And told his hope; her trembling joy appears, Her forced reserve, and his retreating fears. " Yes ! all are with him now, and all the while Life's early prospects and his Fanny smile : Then come his .sister and his village friend. And he will now the sweetest moments spend Life has to yitlcf: — No ! never will he find Again on earth such pleasure in his mind. He goes through shrubby walks these friends among, Love in their looks and pleasure on their tongue. Pierced by no crime, and urged by no desire For more than true and honest hearts require, They feel the calm delight, and thus proceed' Through the green lane, — then lingerin the mead, — Stray o'er the heath in all its purple bloom, And pluck the blossom where the wild bees hum; Then through the broomy liound with ease they pass, And press the sandy sheep-walk's slender grass. Where dwarfish flowers among the gorse are spread. And the lamb browses hy the llnnefs bed! [way Then 'cross the bounding brook they make their O'er its rough iiridge — and there behold the bay ! — The ocean smiling to the fervid sun — The waves that fiintly fall and slowly run — The ships at distance, and the boats at hand : And now they walk upon the sea-side sand. Counting the number, and what kind they be, Ships softly sinking in the sleepy sea; Now arm in arm, now parted, they behold The glittering waters on the shingles roll'd : The timid girls, half-dreading their design. Dip the small foot in the retarded brine, [flow, And search for crimson weeds, which spreading Or lie like pictures on the sand below ; With all those bright red pebbles, that the sun Through the small waves so softly shines upon ; And those live-lucid jellies which the eye Delights to trace as they swim glittering by : Pearl-shells and rubied star-fish they admire, And will arrange above the parlour fire — Tokens of bliss !'' A SEA FOG. When all you see through densest foar is seen ; When you can hear the fishers near at hand Distinctly speak, yet see not where they stand ; Or sometimes them and not their boat discern, Or, half-conceal'd, some figure at the stern ; Boys who, on shore, to sea the pebble cast, Will hear it strike against the vievsdess mast; While the stern boatman growls bis fierce disdain. At whom he knows not, whom he threats in vain. 'T is pleasant then to view the nets float past, Net after net, till you have seen the last ; And as you wait till all beyond you slip, A boat comes gliding from an anchor'd ship, Breaking the silence with the dipping oar, And their own tones, as labouring for the shore; Those measured tones with which the scene agree, And give a sadness to serenity. 20 GEORGE CRABBE, THE SUDDEN DEATH AND FUNERAL. Thes (lied lamented, in the strength of life, A valued mother and a faithful wife, Call'd not away, when time had loosed each hold On the fond heart, and each desire grew cold; But when, to all that knit us to our kind, She felt fast bound as charity can bind ; — Not when the ills of age, its pain, its care, The drooriino spirit for its fate prepare ; And, each atiection failing, leaves the heart Loosed from life's charm, and willing to depart ; — But all her ties the strong invader broke, In all their strength, by one tremendous stroke ! Sudden and swift the eager pest came on, And terror grew, till every hope was gone : Still those around appeared for hope to seek ! But view'd the sick, and were afraid to speak. — Slowly they bore, with solemn step, the dead. When grief grew loud and bitter tears were shed : My part began ; a crovs'd drew near the place, Awe in each eye, alarm in every face; So swift the ill, and of so fierce a kind. That fear with pity mingled in each mind ; Friends with the husl