PS 
 
 SONNETS, STANZAS, /7 ?? 
 
 #33 
 
 CRESCENDO COMPOSITION. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "MIRIAM". 
 
 A/4 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 REMINGTON & CO., 
 
 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1884. 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
 _
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 One generation, with its fleeting years, 
 
 And all its waning moons, is past and gone 
 (With the stream s tide, the human rolling on) 
 
 Since first, in Alma s circle of compeers, 
 
 I taught my harp to echo hopes and fears : 
 Too blest, if those on whom Hyperion shone 
 A genial ray like his bestowed anon, 
 
 The guerdon coveted of cordial cheers. 
 
 Ah me ! It was the darker side of life, 
 
 To which my thoughts and accents faint I gave,-
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Men by their toil consumed ; but more by strife ; 
 Race urging race with rage, and none to save : 
 Such themes I loved. To Comus and his kind 
 My youthful as my later Muse was less inclined.
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 Ut rcquiescam in die tribulationis ; ut asccndam ad populum accinc- 
 tum nostrum. Hatacnc j. 
 
 Who lived with me, in that gay season s prime, 
 
 When youth emitted its meridian beam 
 
 (Though crude that period and o er praised I deem) : 
 To such I dedicate my feeble rhyme, 
 And to the dearest of each earlier time. 
 
 Against the tide we sailed of pleasure s stream, 
 
 P^nticed by learning s lamp, and wisdom s gleam. 
 Congenial spirits, hail ! in many a clime.
 
 DEDICA TION 
 
 Some, now in bliss, once loved and helped my song ; 
 
 Instead of these I seek no audience new, 
 But with a new refrain I march along. 
 
 Hear it, and join me, ye surviving few. 
 " May I repose on tribulation s day, 
 And rise to our Bright Host in panoplied array."
 
 TO THE PUBLISHER. 
 
 If seated on their editorial throne 
 
 The lords of human kind should pass me by, 
 
 No favour to non-suppliants they deny ; 
 To canvass, watch and ward, be yours alone : 
 Take this deposit, as it were your own ; 
 
 Let your fine tact my want of skill supply ; 
 
 On me for birth, on you for growth rely 
 Children of thought, till they are trained and known. 
 
 Thus a testator leaves his only child, 
 
 Events forecasting, to some friend in trust ;
 
 TO THE PUBLISHER. 
 
 Pleads with parental care for treatment rnild 
 
 " Assaults repelling hostile and unjust, 
 See that he be not of his rights beguiled, 
 When I am gathered to my fathers dust ".
 
 TWO SONNETS. 
 
 ON THE PROLONGATION OF THE FOURTEENTH 
 VERSE. 
 
 Grave critic, who my Alexandrine line 
 
 With curling scornful lip would st scathe, beware ; 
 
 For, tis our privilege something new to dare, 
 
 Spake one, whose skill far greater was than thine, 
 
 Disclaiming limits * to an art divine. 
 
 Yet did I not investigation spare 
 
 * Disclaiming limits. 
 
 Mich halt kein Band, mich fesselt 
 Keine Schranke. 
 . . . Denn nichts beschrankt die freie Dichterkraft. 
 
 Schiller. Huldigung der Kiinste. 
 I
 
 TWO SONNETS. 
 
 For precedents in Coleridge,* Kirke,f and Clare, 
 After exploring the Miltonic mine : 
 
 Who when his subject was : " Our chief of men," 
 Or the expounder of the British laws, 
 Conceded no transgression to his pen ; 
 
 * Coleridge. 
 
 It was some spirit, Sheridan. . . . 
 V. 14. As erst that elder fiend beneath great Michael s sword, 
 
 O what a loud and fearful shriek. . . . 
 V. 14. In the mere wilfulness, and sick despair of soul. 
 
 As when far off. . . . 
 VV. 13, 14. For lo the morning struggles into day, 
 
 And Slavery s spectres shriek, and vanish from the ray. 
 
 tKirke White. 
 
 Ye unseen spirits. . . . 
 VV. 13, 14. Till the full tear would quiver in his eye, 
 
 And his big heart would heave with mournful ecstacy. 
 
 Clare " To the glow-worm," last four verses. 
 
 Thy pale-faced glimmering light I love to see 
 Gilding and glistering in the dew-drop near : 
 O still-hour s mate ! my easing heart sobs free, 
 While tiny bents low bend with many an added tear. 
 
 Expounder of the British laws. Lord Coke, ancestor on the mother s 
 side of his friend Cyriac Skinner.
 
 TWO SONNETS. 
 
 But Henry s measures * hailing with applause, 
 
 One syllable he added to the ten, 
 
 And made my twelve a semi-advocated cause. 
 
 Part advocated by one lord of song, 
 And all by my first master of the lute, 
 A word from whom, his peers remaining mute, 
 A doubtful cause would render safe and strong : 
 To sonnet-builders nothing can be wrong, 
 Which the imperial Spenser f made to suit 
 Their superstructure, ending all dispute. 
 Hail to the verse protracted, grave and long ! 
 
 * Henry Lawes, whose 
 
 " . . . well measured song 
 
 First taught our English music how to span 
 
 Words with just note and accent." 
 It was this gentleman, who dedicated Milton s Comus to Lord Brackly. 
 
 + Live, Lord, for ever in this lasting verse, 
 That afl posterity thy honour may rehearse. 
 
 For his, and for your own especial sake, 
 
 Vouchsafe from him this token, in good worth to take.
 
 TWO SONNETS. 
 
 Ne cast the word Imperial to blame, 
 
 Which to this prince of poets I apply. 
 
 If poets glory in a princely name, 
 
 And he is sovereign in this council high, 
 
 What is the Solve, * when him the critics call 
 
 The poets poet, most poetical of all ? f 
 
 " Solve," as a substantative, used by Shakespeare. 
 
 After this justification, I shall make a liberal use of the Alexandrine.
 
 MEMOR Y. 
 SERVING AS PREFACE TO THE FOLLOWING POEM. 
 
 What Saint will aid me, hearing me repine, 
 My manuscript of " Blindness " to regain ? 
 " Lost to the eye it is, and must remain ; " 
 A voice replied : " But trace it line by line 
 Down in the deep abyss of Memory s mine. 
 And should you touch some rich poetic vein, 
 Embellish with a bolder loftier strain 
 Those earlier thoughts on which you now refine." 
 
 Blindness, depicted thus in verses few, 
 Has for " Obscurity" exchanged its name ;
 
 MEMOR Y. 
 
 And while my theme dilates in stanzas new, 
 The old, in word and flow, are still the same. 
 Of Memory this is not the force but freak ; 
 The lost companions of my " Eve " in vain I seek.
 
 OBSCURITY: A POEM. 
 
 i. 
 
 She dwells in the garden of Paradise blind, 
 
 The first of the lovely and fair ; 
 Tranquillity reigns, as a Queen, in her mind ; 
 And each sound, that is borne on the whispering wind, 
 
 Speaks exemption from sorrow and care. 
 
 2. 
 
 The music and murmur of birds, and of rills, 
 
 Falls so soft and so sweet on her ear ; 
 And the delicate lily its perfume distils, 
 And spices are blown from the tops of the hills : 
 It is sunshine and spring, all the year.
 
 8 OBSCURITY. 
 
 3- 
 O for ever continue, increasing for aye 
 
 That peace and that joy of the heart ; 
 May light from above be still spread on thy way 
 No disaster arise to imbitter thy day ; 
 
 No grim spectre, to brandish his dart. 
 
 4- 
 But look you, there lurks on the branch of a tree, 
 
 Where pomegranates luxuriant grow, 
 A serpent, all writhing in anguish, to see 
 Like supernals, from guilt and from misery free, 
 
 The pride of creation below. 
 
 5- 
 
 Near he draws, with what sinister aim, but to try 
 If the fair one an apple will taste ?
 
 OBSCURITY. 
 
 I dare not," she said, " if I eat I shall die." 
 You ll be like unto gods," was the fearless reply ; 
 " And your eyes will be opened in haste." 
 
 6. 
 
 She is lost, for she doubts ; and dispelling her fears 
 Of the thieats and the anger of God, 
 
 She tastes, and she sees, and she naked appears ; 
 
 And a voice from the clouds, as of thunder, she hears ; 
 And an Ansel descends with a rod. 
 
 7- 
 From Paradise quickly she wanders, forlorn, 
 
 O er a tract that is rugged and wild ; 
 Her footstep is careless, she treads on a thorn ; 
 Tis the first, but with many her heel shall be torn ; 
 
 For she was by the serpent beguiled.
 
 io OBSCURITY. 
 
 8. 
 
 And haply she murmurs some sorrowful lay, 
 
 Upbraiding her heart, all the while, 
 For neglecting to ponder, on trial s short day, 
 The wages of those who in doubt disobey, 
 While they listen to counsels of guile. 
 
 9- 
 
 Upbraiding her heart for the tale she believed. 
 
 When she doubted the word of her God, 
 In tears she goes forth to her toil, half-relieved 
 By confessing her guilt, as undone and deceived, 
 
 And by kissing the punishing rod. 
 
 io. 
 
 To her wide opened eyes all is glaring and bright ; 
 But her heart ! It is choked with dismay.
 
 OBSCURITY. II 
 
 I can see, she exclaims ; but I would that the light 
 Again were exchanged for the darkness of night, 
 Which is free from the sorrow of day. 
 
 ii. 
 
 The knowledge of good, by possession, was mine ; 
 
 Now the knowledge of evil I learn : 
 Instead of the functions and essence divine, 
 And all that is God s, which (he said) " shall be thine," 
 
 With reproach and vexation I burn. 
 
 The sense, and the thought, and the force which aspires, 
 
 Deep, down to the root are defiled ; 
 The till now soaring soul with unlawful desires 
 Is impaired, and consumed with devouring fires 
 
 From the moment the serpent beguiled.
 
 OBSCURITY. 
 
 God s command stringent is, as His promise is sooth ; 
 
 And He threatened transgression with death ! 
 But that vilest of reptiles, with venemous tooth, 
 Polluted my hearing, and robbed me of truth, 
 
 When he poisoned the air with his breath. 
 
 14. 
 O ye who shall spread over every clime, 
 
 When the world shall be filled with my race, 
 Remember proclaim to the limits of time, 
 That falsehood alone is the deadliest crime ; 
 
 Lying lips you shall brand with disgrace. 
 
 But with Truth, the fair-visaged for ever abide 
 An attribute worthy of God ;
 
 OBSCURITY. 13. 
 
 With this best of all gifts your infallible guide, 
 You shall march to perfection, while here you are tried, 
 And in hope shall sleep under the sod. 
 
 16. 
 
 For proof of God s truth : I evaded and live ; 
 
 But the wasting of life has begun ; 
 The years that my judge in indulgence may give 
 I must use them to suffer, to toil, and to grieve 
 
 Till the work of his hands is undone. 
 
 17- 
 
 O audacious temerity ; horrid and wild ! 
 
 He dared, when I said : " I shall die," 
 (That spirit with multiplied malice defiled, 
 That abyss, by whose falsehood my heart was beguiled) 
 
 Unimpeachable truth to deny.
 
 14 OBSCURITY. 
 
 18. 
 
 T\vas in hell s deepest pit, where the plot had been laid, 
 
 Both the soul and the body to kill ; 
 Where the haters of truth and of God were arrayed 
 Against man, against all that for good had been made 
 By a wise and benevolent will. 
 
 19. 
 
 O credulity, worse than the pain and the fear 
 
 Which fret my faint spirit away ! 
 To lend to infernal suggestions an ear 
 Though the hand, which chastises the guilty, was near,- 
 
 And the voice which all creatures obey. 
 
 20. 
 
 Alas for the garden ! The dark promenade 
 Where at noon I delighted to rove :
 
 OBSCURITY. 1 5 
 
 And the lake its deep dyes and broad surface displayed ; 
 And calm was the air, and refreshing the shade : 
 Aromatic and balmy the grove. 
 
 21. 
 
 Alas for a garden, more beautiful still, 
 
 With its fountain and streams of delight; 
 
 The gifts unassailed by the spirit of ill ; 
 
 The virtues and graces, which perfect the will ; 
 And with God and the Angels in sight. 
 
 22. 
 
 Here Intelligence brightened, and opened to view- 
 
 A prospect as broad as the day 
 The knowledge and love of the good and the true. 
 And each moment I felt that some faculty new 
 
 From slumber was called into play.
 
 1 6 OBSCURITY. 
 
 23- 
 Two gifts were entwined in my dowry of light, 
 
 Domination within and around ; 
 I was queen of whatever fell under my sight, 
 Serving God and one man, who apportioned my right ; 
 
 With whose fortune my fortune was bound. 
 
 24. 
 
 One office, the chief, I regarded as small 
 
 Which belongs to dominion and sway ; 
 At the bidding of Conscience, of Reason the call, 
 To restrain Inclination, and keep it in thrall : 
 To live under control and obey. 
 
 Too late have I learned, ah ! disastrous the hour, 
 What had brought me a lasting renown,
 
 OBSCURITY. 17 
 
 That to govern the heart is the summit of power : 
 The most delicate, rarest, and loveliest flower, 
 With which queens can embellish a crown. 
 
 26. 
 
 Hence my glory is lost ; but the issue begun 
 
 Must lead me still further from grace ; 
 In the cope of the sky, while I follow the sun, 
 From the East, till his glorious circuit is run, 
 I still bask in the smile of his face. 
 
 27. 
 
 Though afflicted by accents unwelcome and foul, 
 
 I am cheered by the song of the birds ; 
 And the ears, which are scared by the shriek of the owl, 
 And by all that is dismal in howl and in growl, 
 Are regaled by articulate words. 
 
 2
 
 i8 OBSCURITY. 
 
 28. 
 
 Though the thorn-thick-set earth, and the wide spreading sea, 
 
 Neither menace nor injury spare ; 
 Yet in these, for a time, and in shrub, and in tree, 
 The first blessing remains, by the Maker s decree, 
 
 And in heat, and the ambient air. 
 
 29. 
 
 For a time ? Until death shall transfix with a dart, 
 
 As the serpent transpierced with a lie ; 
 Prolongation * wraps up in chill terror the heart ; 
 For a dread apprehension will never depart, 
 
 Till to fear is exchanged for to die. 
 
 Thus all the night long she lamented her plight, 
 And but few were her moments of rest, 
 
 * St. Gregory calls the present life quajdam prolixitas mortis.
 
 OBSCURITY. 19 
 
 Till the morning arose, and creation was bright ; 
 
 But the strife of emotions the shadows of night 
 
 Were as strong as before in her breast. 
 
 3 1 - 
 
 To disburden her heart of the cares which oppressed 
 
 Her one effort by night and by day ; 
 Could her hand have recorded the sin she confessed, 
 In the saddest and sweetest of rhymes she had dressed, 
 
 For her children s instruction her lay. 
 
 32- 
 
 O daughters of Eve, on the day of your pride, 
 
 Remember the nearness of grief ; 
 For the cherubs, that high in the atmosphere ride, 
 Are demons that drag to the pit deep and wide : 
 Refuse them the boon of belief.
 
 20 OBSCURITY. 
 
 33- 
 
 Learn of those, who when voices are struggling within 
 To the voice of the passions give ear, 
 
 Which, with clamour, extol the enchantment of sin ; 
 
 They consent, and the pangs of compunction begin, 
 And remorse, and the giant of fear. 
 
 34- 
 The serpent is still the great tyrant on earth, 
 
 Terrific to beast and to man ; 
 
 And its indwelling spright, from the day of our birth, 
 Is prime prompter and plotter of sin and of dearth, 
 
 To the end, as when ages began. 
 
 35- 
 
 From the seed of the serpent on earth set us free,- 
 From the haters of law and restraint ;
 
 OBSCURITY. 
 
 They promise unbridled indulgence : but see, 
 Tis the fruit of that fatal prohibited tree, 
 Which poisons all bliss with its taint. 
 
 36. 
 From the seed of the serpent, deliver thy flock, 
 
 From the haters of social control ; 
 For the twofold authority, built on a rock, 
 Which no arm can destroy, they impair with a shock, - 
 
 To the ruin of body and soul. 
 
 37- 
 From fraud and from violence rescue mankind, 
 
 From the homicide s blood-reeking knife ; 
 From the band, for his work, by the demon combined : 
 They track the doomed victim, and strike from behind : 
 
 Fiercest hate is the law of their life.
 
 22 OBSCURITY. 
 
 38. 
 From the tongue of blasphemers tis thine to protect, 
 
 With whose seed we reluctantly dwell 
 While they stride o er the earth, and their crest is erect 
 Till touched by the fiend, with no time to reflect, 
 
 Unrepenting they sink into hell. 
 
 39- 
 
 For the tongue and the lips that blaspheme are our dread,- 
 
 And their hearts the most dreadful of all : 
 To the serpent allied, in his den they are bred, 
 With falsehood and venom like him they are fed ; 
 To gehenna, in silence, they fall. 
 
 40. 
 
 Not created for man, though a fallible race, 
 Was that penal and rigorous flame ;
 
 OBSCURU Y. 23 
 
 But for spirits and rebels, who turned from the face, 
 Which had made them the brightest of mirrors of grace, 
 And in madness, who slandered his Name. 
 
 41. 
 
 They fall ; but we rise, for the pride we forego 
 Thy just anger which merits, and scorn : 
 We obey, while we wander as pilgrims below 
 Thy justice, and truth, and perfection to know 
 Is our care ; for, for this we were born. 
 
 42. 
 
 From the serpent protect this our banishment place : 
 
 Let the tiger be wrapt in its coil ; 
 Or bloodthirsty men, undeserving of grace, 
 The obdurate alone, and the curse of their race, 
 Whose heart is the flintiest soil.
 
 24 OBSCURITY. 
 
 43- 
 To God gainst each snake-like and venemous thing, 
 
 That creepeth and biteth the dust ; 
 The dragon against and its brood on the wing, 
 Gainst the sight and the fright, and the hiss and the sting, 
 
 Our lives we deliver in trust. 
 
 44- 
 How happy is he, who conceals for a while 
 
 All his skill, like a spray in the bud ; 
 Safe guarded against the seductions of guile, 
 When the season is come to burst forth with a smile, 
 
 He shall flourish in Bli ss, with the good. 
 
 45- 
 
 Who, sequestered, from life s early dawn has been taught 
 To moderate all his desires ;
 
 OBSCURITY. 25 
 
 Inflating, vain knowledge is far from his thought : 
 Like "the perishing food" he abandons, as nought, 
 The praise, which is breathed and expires. 
 
 46. 
 
 How blest, who regard that insidious tree 
 
 As the cause of their heaviest loss ; 
 And in bitterness weep for the evils they see, 
 From evils unseen while they strive to be free, 
 By embracing the life-giving cross. 
 
 47- 
 These, these are the few, by that heavenly strain 
 
 Who are soothed : " Fear ye not little flock 
 For the kingdom is yours, is recovered again : 
 And your structure of hope, while your trials remain, 
 
 Is built on the steadiest rock.
 
 26 OBSCURITY. 
 
 48. 
 Who follow this ever victorious sign, 
 
 Who allay, at this fountain their thirst, 
 Shall have Wisdom to read the Creator s design, 
 Shall possess, in their patience, the life they resign, 
 
 And be prosperous more than at first. 
 
 49- 
 Thou, Mother and Virgin, reversing the name 
 
 And the choice and the fortunes of Eve ; 
 At the foot of the Cross we can hear thee proclaim : 
 Tis the glory of man, and his pride and his fame, 
 
 To obey and abstain and believe ; 
 And for those who repair an erroneous aim, 
 
 To obey and abstain and to grieve. 
 
 For the Sinless, the only-begotten, the Heir 
 Resigned, in obeying, His breath
 
 OBSCURITY. 27 
 
 Nor declined, when impeached, for the guilty to bear, 
 Of their penance the largest and bitterest share, 
 On the tree, in the garden, in death.
 
 THE JOHNSONIANS. 
 
 FIRST SERIES.
 
 I 7 8 4 . 
 
 Intemperate, clamorous, and licentious joys 
 As all unworthy of mankind, I blame. 
 Reproof faint hearted, hesitating, tame 
 Where half dissent seems half consent to poise, 
 My strong aversion more than half annoys. 
 Yet pleasures brand I with no evil name, 
 When prolongation leaves them still the same, 
 When deed nor word the heart s best feast destroys. 
 
 Be our enjoyments of the soaring kind 
 Exchange of thought, outpouring of the heart,
 
 3 2 1784. 
 
 And that elastic restless state of mind, 
 Which bids each energy to action start. 
 Leaving the burden of his years behind, 
 Here the great " Clubbable " performs his part.
 
 33 
 
 GEORGE THE THIRD. 
 
 There was a time, when kings could do no wrong 
 (Provision of our venerable laws) 
 But now a lawless race has gained the cause, 
 
 For which it struggled vigorously and long 
 
 To render weak for good what once was strong : 
 Vet would it profit, to take thought and pause, 
 Before the march of rude events withdraws 
 
 The veil embroidered, hiding throne from throng 
 
 Let all from harsh discussion rest awhile, 
 To hail no alien, but a Briton born
 
 34 GEORGE THE THIRD. 
 
 For learning who reserves his blandest smile, 
 
 And deprecates contention, pride, and scorn, 
 To-day his words are truthful, grave, and wise ; 
 Scarce could a subject speak in better guise.
 
 35 
 
 FIELDING AND RICHARDSON. 
 
 Where the grave censor teaches me to mourn 
 In sorrow s house, which all the scriptures praise, 
 I rather would consume my dwindling days 
 
 Than with the flatterer gay, whose muse was born 
 
 To brighten vice, hold virtue up to scorn, 
 Dazzling a laughing world with glittering rays 
 E en to the end, when all his strength decays : 
 
 Both from the scene of life have long been torn. 
 
 Their rivalry has ceased, their race is run ; 
 Is ended their dominion of a day :
 
 36 FIELDING AND RICHARDSON. 
 
 The glory of their bright meridian sun, 
 
 To midnight yielding, quickly passed away. 
 But one has left behind a burning lamp, 
 To guide me to the Bridegroom s blissful camp.
 
 37 
 
 WARBURTON, GARRICK, BEATTIE, AND 
 OTHERS. 
 
 If my young friend will purchase Kilda s isle, 
 We will depart for that remotest shore : 
 Some books, a few dried fish, we need no more, 
 
 In a strong boat strong Orkney arms shall pile. 
 
 On London men, St. Kilda s sun shall smile : 
 Till for return again we ply the oar, 
 Let Warburton enrich us with his lore, 
 
 And Garrick our long leisure hours beguile. 
 
 But on the holy learned solitude, 
 
 Which we enjoy upon this distant strand,
 
 38 WAR BURTON, GARRICK, BEATTIE, AND OTHERS. 
 
 The merriment of Foote shall not intrude, 
 
 Nor Churchill with his noisy ribald band. 
 Beattie shall here obtain an honoured place 
 And to the Kildites preach the law of grace.
 
 39 
 
 BURKE. 
 
 By nature great, at first the dazzling rays 
 
 Of speculation lighted up his mind : 
 
 Withdrawn from cares, which vex and warp our kind, 
 To the Sublime he gave his thoughtful days, 
 And of the Beautiful pursued the ways, 
 
 Which two he later never left behind, 
 
 When to a rougher, ruder scene confined, 
 His task was to condemn, exhort, or praise. 
 
 Ambition s shadowy phantom and her flight 
 To this intrepid statesman were unknown :
 
 40 BURKE. 
 
 One sword he had for every contest Right ; 
 
 Against oppressive rulers this alone. 
 Times changed. The lawless triumphed over kings : 
 Twas then he showed the source, whence all dominion 
 springs.
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 AN ORTHOGRAPHICAL DISCUSSION; OR, A PLEA FOR 
 HE TEROGRAPHY. 
 
 . . . . The race 
 
 Of Shakespeare s mind and manners brightly shines, 
 In his well turned, and true filed lines ; 
 In each of which he seems to shake a lance, 
 As brandished at the eyes of ignorance. 
 
 Benjamin. 
 
 Dark was the age, when our great author s name, 
 In both its syllables was written long. 
 Twas that insidious fatal, e, and wrong, 
 Detracting from the glorious poet s fame, 
 And rendering all his bold conceptions tame, 
 Which has excited indignation strong,
 
 42 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 In all the lovers of Shakesperian song. 
 One word I crave to mitigate the blame. 
 
 To break a spear, to shake a glittering lance, 
 Ere learning spread, of knighthood was the boast ; 
 
 And brandished in the eyes of ignorance 
 The lance of one defied an ignorant host : 
 
 Let then the critic make the shaking short ; 
 
 By other canons is the poet taught.
 
 43 
 
 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Not quite untrained in what presents to view 
 That glorious art, in which thou didst excel, 
 (As those who once have seen can witness well) 
 
 When first to thy bright world, my steps I drew, 
 
 Of forms familiar and of prospects new, 
 To my enchanted mind there seemed a spell, 
 Spread o er thy canvas, in thy touch to dwell 
 
 Spell of a magic beauty, known to few. 
 
 Could I in that proud art, which bards obey, 
 Reach the perfection which I trace in thine
 
 44 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 Hues fresh as morn, and brightening with the day, 
 
 The countless graces of thy flowing line ; 
 I then might emulate the page of Gray, 
 " And Dryden s harmony would yield to mine ".
 
 45 
 
 OLIVER GOLDSMITH, 
 
 Author of the Vicar of Wakefidd to which allusion is here made and 
 of numerous other works, in prose and verse. 
 
 I care not whether on the mountain top 
 I spend my days, or in the cultured plain ; 
 No charm has heat for me, and cold no pain : 
 
 Where the loose sleet and sparkling snow-flakes drop, 
 
 I fain would live, and on a scanty crop ; 
 From all that wealth imparts I can refrain : 
 This I esteem my greatest, only gain 
 
 The tide of fraud and violence to stop.
 
 46 OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 
 
 Confounding prosperous and unblushing sin, 
 Goldsmith to thee my warmest thanks I pay ; 
 
 I see the wages of dead works begin, 
 While worth is led through trial s night to day 
 Hence welcome is thy prison to my lay, 
 
 As is another poet s village inn.
 
 47 
 
 COURTENAY. 
 
 Supernal spirits now inspire my lays, 
 Not from the storied Heliconian hill ; 
 But aid from Sion my relaxing skill, 
 
 To sing, from early times to Co urtenay s days, 
 
 A lofty theme, the swelling couplet s praise. 
 Rapid and slow by turns, and trained at will 
 With the sonorous scale the ear to fill, 
 
 That loves to trace it out through all its ways. 
 
 Long since it knew, to light the ethic page, 
 Truth to impart " in splendid fiction drest " * 
 
 * The quotations are from this Author s Poetical Review.
 
 48 COURTENAY. 
 
 To point the satire, rouse and then assuage 
 
 Conflicting passions in the human breast. 
 But now by Courtenay s " culture, art, and toil," 
 E en for the critic s plant, it "yields a fostering soil "
 
 49 
 
 JAMES BO SWELL. 
 
 Ye bairns, be glad of heart : it is your meed, 
 Careless of what will come, in after days : 
 We who pursue our more laborious ways ; 
 
 We who pursue our homeward course with speed, - 
 
 To your loud, laughing wildness little heed 
 Can spare to give, save in our studied lays, 
 When we of the light-hearted sing the praise : 
 
 Our task to follow ; your delight to lead. 
 
 Yet some there are, who tarry and enjoy, 
 
 Fondly, unwisely, in this world of strife ; 
 4
 
 So JAMES^BOSWELL. 
 
 Unthrifts, who late like early days employ, 
 
 Though warned to tread the rugged path of life. 
 Take heed, who for this failing Boswell chide, 
 Lest malice you, and pride, in Wisdom s garment hide.
 
 DEPARTED FRIENDS. 
 
 On my first return to my native country, after some years of absence, 
 I was told of a vast number of my acquaintance, who were all gone to the 
 land of forgetfulness. May, 1766. 
 
 The author presumes to dedicate this Sonnet to Mr. Tracy Turnerelli. 
 December /, f88j. 
 
 Too arduous the task ; we toil in vain 
 To rescue from forgetfulness the dead : 
 Before the earth has o er their bones been spread, 
 
 They cease in hearts and memories to reign : 
 
 This let surviving magnates note with pain. 
 
 To-morrow s sun shines on their drooping head, 
 To greet whose rays the fickle crowd is fled : 
 
 Ungainly law, to some the cause of gain.
 
 52 DEPARTED FRIENDS. 
 
 For, early, when their fresh career began, 
 
 A caution from unerring lips they heard : 
 Place no reliance on the reed of man ; 
 
 But on the words of Him, Who is the Word. 
 Yet these are not accusers of their race, 
 Which shall be loved, and loving when confirmed in grace.
 
 FATIGUE, 
 
 A SONNET, SERVING AS A PREFACE TO THE NEXT POEM. 
 
 POVERTY, 
 
 A CRESCENDO COMPOSITION BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 "MIRIAM".
 
 55 
 
 FATIGUE, 
 
 SERVING AS A PREFACE TO THE NEXT POEM. 
 
 To Poverty, soul-piercing with its dart, 
 Fatigue is the companion and ally \ 
 Both waste our living strength, until we die : 
 
 Each in the scheme of Penance bears its part ; 
 
 Each is a healing for the other s smart : 
 Fatigue and labour nourishment supply, 
 And all the gifts, which sweeten poverty ; 
 
 From these Privation timely weans the heart. 
 He who Redemption from all evils brought, 
 
 Who suffered from the wounds He came to heal,
 
 56 FA TIGUE. 
 
 To the Samaritan this lesson taught, 
 Inflaming her cold heart of sin to zeal : 
 
 Fasting, fatigued, athirst, He turned her thought 
 To the pure fountain of eternal weal.
 
 57 
 
 PO VERTY, 
 
 A CRESCENDO COMPOSITION, BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 "MIRIAM". 
 
 Now this I know right well, and always will proclaim : 
 Hard is the poor man s lot, as humble is his aim, 
 When toiling on and on to gain a pittance bare, 
 He scarce can save his soul from want and from despair ; 
 Yet unmolested by the troubles of the great, 
 He feels not the keen sting of rivalry and hate : 
 Whose life is daily fanned by every softer breeze, 
 A ready victim falls to premature disease ;
 
 58 POVERTY. 
 
 Whom fortune s sterner law forbids luxurious days, 
 
 With blessings more refined that sterner law repays. 
 
 This world made for the rich, the rich alone enjoy ; 
 
 This world disasters has, which all its gifts alloy 
 
 Which cannot reach the poor, their quiet to destroy. 
 
 Here Envy s fretful form stands, prompting to repine 
 
 At sight of dainty fare, soft robes, and costly wine. 
 
 Soft robes, alas, can soften not a single care 
 
 Of all the thousands, which the envied classes tear ; 
 
 Nor can the high-crowned sparkling goblet quench the thirst, 
 
 With which the good are blest, with which the bad are curst. 
 
 There sat an aged widow lamenting all the day, 
 
 For she had but fuel scant to drive the cold away : 
 
 Nor skill, nor strength was left for recompense to toil ; 
 
 Twas rather Pity s grant, from which the proud recoil, 
 
 That dropping slowly down supplied her daily bread ; 
 
 And hard the pillow was, where at night she laid her head, 
 
 There in her dreams perchance of affluence to partake, 
 
 Which, waking undeceived, she for ever must forsake.
 
 POVERTY. 59 
 
 O repine not, honest eld ; for not so sharp thy pain, 
 As the pain which struggling men not far from thee sustain : 
 One for his freighted vessel on the wide ocean fears, 
 And one for a departed friend will never dry his tears. 
 There are perils on the land, and on the yawning deep, 
 Heart-burnings and regrets, which break off the truce of 
 
 sleep. 
 
 A prince, a valiant hero, borne high on favour s tide, 
 A statesman whose renown is extended far and wide, 
 A Croesus, by whose wealth a state, a tottering fabric, 
 
 stands, 
 
 A bold intrepid mariner, explorer of new lands, 
 A sage, the leech whose science checks the progress of 
 
 disease, 
 
 And he. whose art is lavished to embellish and to please 
 The envied and the blest by men, and they who know 
 
 remorse : 
 These are, who trace the stream of tears up to its bitter 
 
 source :
 
 60 POVERTY. 
 
 Abroad, though envied and renowned, if their heart-guest 
 be remorse, 
 
 At home they taste of bitterness, in its never-failing source, 
 
 And if their judge, stern conscience, no witness against 
 them bear, 
 
 The weight and toil of greatness is itself the greatest care. 
 
 A straitened life, a constant strife against an open foe, 
 
 And a hidden life of deep research, above, around, 
 below 
 
 Present, in multifarious form, one state akin to woe. 
 
 There are who fight against the great for justice and for 
 right, 
 
 Bid tyrants, in a higher name, refrain from lawless might ; 
 
 Against obscure antagonists some wage a constant war, 
 
 And some at self-repression aim : of pride to heal the sore. 
 
 In hatred, daily, with their hearts they struggle more and 
 more. 
 
 Nay, do not doubt, and do not scorn, nor murmur supersti 
 tion s name
 
 POVERTY. 6 1 
 
 Saint Michael fought with Lucifer ; there are whose combat 
 
 is the same : 
 There are who, with Saint Michael, and his glorious host of 
 
 angels true, 
 With the great Archangel, prince of heaven, who the fell 
 
 dragon slew, 
 
 Cease not to fight for God and right : 
 Cease not to fight for truth and light, 
 Against the prince of darkness, against the camp of false 
 hood and of wrong ; 
 Against the gates of hell ; against all who to the hellish host 
 
 belong, 
 To save the trembling spirit, and make it strong when nearest 
 
 to despair : 
 To cherish and to heal the flesh, which demons with their 
 
 harpy-clutches tear : 
 
 And if they gain the victory, and a glorious crown above, 
 Keen is the contest here below ; but they bear it for God s 
 
 love :
 
 62 POVERTY. 
 
 And if they crush the serpent s head (and in this they have 
 
 their weal), 
 Yet are they not exempt from woe, for the serpent wounds 
 
 their heel. 
 Then let not those whose craving is of the earth, for 
 
 earthly bread, 
 Though hard their lot, believe that they alone are sparely 
 
 fed, 
 
 By some resistless arm are far from the road of plenty led. 
 The food of earth, which tasted once is to destruction given, 
 Is not the goal of our research ; we seek the food of heaven. 
 We seek no bread that perishes ; but all free from ancient 
 
 leaven, 
 We seek the strength, the nourishment, the sweetness of the 
 
 bread of heaven. 
 And the hunger for this bread, oh, what a sharp and 
 
 piercing smart ! 
 And when the body is at rest, oh, how it wounds and tears 
 
 the heart !
 
 POVERTY. 63 
 
 We raise our eyes, and see the fields, and think upon the 
 
 ripened grain ; 
 But yet the harvest is not come, and we must bear our want 
 
 again ; 
 We see the harvest ripening, stretch out our aching arms 
 
 in vain, 
 
 And looking wistfully behind, go fasting to our homes again, 
 We are waiting for the golden harvest, waiting for the 
 
 ripened grain ; 
 But the birds are born for flight, and we are born for patience 
 
 and for pain : 
 The birds are born for lofty flight, and to solace with their 
 
 song; 
 And we to float beyond the sky, on the waves of grief 
 
 along, 
 Consuming all our earthly part by the strength of our 
 
 desires, 
 
 As incense strewed o er living coals in a fragrant cloud ex 
 pires,
 
 64 POVERTY. 
 
 Its sweetest sweetness all pierced out by the fiercest of the fires; 
 
 Consuming our celestial part, as a swan about to die 
 
 Pours out the bleeding soul of song in a loud and lengthened 
 
 cry, 
 
 With life dissolving all its pain in a stream of melody. 
 O poverty, the keenest, the destitution of the mind ! 
 In wretchedness how far dost thou all the wretched leave 
 
 behind ! 
 
 O wasting hunger of the soul, and ever raging thirst 
 By which tormented, and by hope deferred, our blessings 
 
 seem a curse ! 
 We see the bright clear fountain shoot up its sparkling 
 
 column high : 
 We hear the bubbling well-spring, the new-born river gurgling 
 
 by: 
 We see the sparkling fountain, and listen to the murmuring 
 
 stream ; 
 But when we think to quench our thirst they vanish like an 
 
 empty dream.
 
 POVERTY. 65 
 
 O Bethlehem, thou place of bread, the store-house of the 
 
 Christian heart ! 
 The nations thou hast well supplied, and we are pining for 
 
 our part. 
 Hail, mountain torrent, spotless stream ; to thee I come my 
 
 limbs to lave : 
 
 Hail, river of eternal life, I languish till I drink thy wave 
 And quench my unremitting parching thirst, as they have 
 
 done before, 
 Who at the fountain-head have drunk, and drink large 
 
 draughts for evermore.
 
 STATIONS OF THE CROSS.
 
 6 9 
 
 SONNET, 
 
 SERVING AS INTRODUCTION TO THE FOLLOWING 
 GR UP OF FO UR TEEN. 
 
 In order to keep this group distinct, and complete in itself, the metre 
 of these preliminary verses is slightly varied. 
 
 When of that daring deed I heard, I stood aghast, 
 Committed by the men who grind the poor of France, 
 And come of that bad stock who led the ribald dance, 
 
 What time from their fair land all holy things they cast : 
 
 I clamoured for requital, vehement and fast, 
 When from the stupor I recovered of my trance ; 
 But looking inward, soon, with sorrow s piercing glance, 
 
 With the sharp edge of hate, e en there, I smote the past.
 
 70 SONNET. 
 
 O crime that makes the earth from her foundation start ! 
 
 To banish and defile the cross, the holy tree, 
 Dear sign of Him, who took the burdened to His heart, 
 
 And healed the wounds of all, and made the servile free. 
 And bade those overwhelmed with guilt in peace depart, 
 And spake: " I go before, come, take the Cross with Me",
 
 STATION I. 
 
 Though dead to all ambitious thoughts on earth, 
 Yet does one craving agitate my heart, 
 (O be it granted ere I hence depart) 
 
 That the unjust may suffer speedy dearth : 
 
 The proud oppressor s image (from my birth), 
 Stabbing fair justice with a poisoned dart, 
 And bidding wrong upon her throne to start, 
 
 Has blighted all my peace, and stifled mirth. 
 
 Cease fondly to deplore each lesser wrong, 
 Nor seek, below, the prevalence of right ;
 
 72 STA TION I. 
 
 Near Pilate s seat, the lawless and the strong 
 With the tongue s sword, Incarnate Justice smite 
 
 Yet even He, my Theme, shall hurl ere long 
 All men of blood, in chains, from upper light.
 
 STATION II. 
 
 The times approach, which long decreed had been, 
 When countless pilgrims, drawn from every shore, 
 The wood shall kiss, till now a curse which bore ; 
 
 And doubt it not, though silent and unseen, 
 
 The angels, too, beneath their heavenly screen ; 
 E en from this moment is the cross no more 
 An ignominious symbol, as before. 
 
 This wood was dry; one touch has made it green. 
 
 A mighty conqueror saw the mystic spell, 
 
 Before whose flame the sun grew pale on high ;
 
 74 STA TION II. 
 
 Forthwith the God of battles taught him well 
 To make his own, that emblem in the sky ; 
 
 To vanquish pagan foes and vanquish hell, 
 
 Henceforth no other sign is known to chivalry.
 
 75 
 
 STATION III, 
 
 When on the waves of bold ambition tost 
 The fallen one, aspiring to be God, 
 To his rebellious standard, at his nod, 
 
 From fealty drew one third of heaven s host ; 
 
 Lo ! instantaneous death ; and all was lost ; 
 Who spurned the golden feel the iron rod, 
 And rue the false and fatal path they trod : 
 
 O er their wide gulf no bridge can e er be crossed. 
 
 Less rude the shock, despairing less the fall, 
 Down to the deepest of the deeps below,
 
 76 STATION III. 
 
 If to repenting grace one single call 
 
 Had deigned the injured Godhead to bestow : 
 
 Favour for us reserved ; and we may all 
 
 Rise with our prostrate Lord, and to His manhood grow.
 
 77 
 
 STATION IV. 
 
 The Lion s heart, in the nocturnal sky, 
 
 Burns, ere the dawn, with faint diminished fire ,- 
 Quenched are the lamps of Wega in the Lyre, 
 
 And the soft rays of Taurus sparkling eye, 
 
 Soon as the super-radiant sun is nigh : 
 
 But there are stars whose lustres ne er expire, 
 Whose light is love resplendent with desire : 
 
 And if their sun should vanish they would die. 
 
 Brightest of all, and beauteous as the moon, 
 When on her chariot of the clouds she rides ;
 
 78 STA TION IV. 
 
 And ardent as the glorious sun at noon, 
 
 Behold my Queen, with whom the Lord abides : 
 
 But He will drink the wayside torrent soon, 
 
 And her fond heart is pierced, while He His Godhead hides.
 
 79 
 
 STATION V. 
 
 That word, belike, thou didst not, Simon, hear : 
 
 " Resist not the strong stranger s lawless might ; 
 
 Thy sinews lend, regardless of thy right ". 
 Yet shall to thee, of all mankind, appear 
 This counsel, soon, best suited and most dear. 
 
 Toil on, one mile, through sorrow s darkest night ; 
 
 The second leads thee to the gates of light : 
 Coercion brings thee to redemption near. 
 
 Ennobled suddenly, and raised to fame, 
 By seeming injury with real reward,
 
 8o STATION V. 
 
 Simon transmits to sons, an honoured name, 
 Who to the infant church shall aid afford : 
 Rufus is dear to all the saints in Rome ; 
 And Alexander known in every Christian home.
 
 g[ 
 
 STATION VI. 
 
 Earth had become a Babylonian mart, 
 
 Where the abortions foul of pagan thought, 
 With all the promptings of corruption fraught, 
 
 Obliterating man s diviner part, 
 
 Found constant transfer, through the demon s art. 
 What this fair world of its Creator taught, 
 Was, like the message spurned, which prophets brought 
 
 And last of all compassion left the heart. 
 
 For tender pity lingered long behind 
 
 A virtue more tenacious than the rest, 
 6
 
 82 STATION VI. 
 
 Till man, obdurate, heedless of his kind, 
 A tiger s spirit harboured in his breast : 
 E en such as these now lacerate their Lord, 
 Whose image Pity takes, disfigured, but adored.
 
 STATION VII. 
 
 A law, which never stops new strength to gain, 
 Which warps the sense, has made the body prone 
 Not the Creator s will ; but sin alone 
 
 Debased the stature, which was made to reign. 
 
 First daily toil, and then consuming pain, 
 Under whose burden we are born to groan, 
 Have curved the frame erect ; until its own 
 
 Claims back again the verdant flowery plain. 
 
 Thus in primeval days a forest tree, 
 
 Long time the pride of all the trunks around,
 
 84 STATION VII. 
 
 Was tossed by winds and storms, which raging free- 
 Hurled it at length, with sudden crash, to ground 
 
 But Thou, blest root of Jesse, Thou shalt see 
 A second bloom, because thy trunk is sound.
 
 STATION VIII. 
 
 A goodly plant, the garden s chief delight, 
 Its foliage spreads of everlasting green ; 
 Nor palm nor cedar has creation seen 
 
 Of growth so stately, or with fruit so bright, 
 
 Whose peerless beauty charms the dainty sight : 
 Let not the axe, with arching edge and keen, 
 Hew down its trunk or mutilate its sheen. 
 
 Taste all its fruit ; but let it stand upright. 
 
 The Gardener, who dwells beyond the skies, 
 Gave to a sapless thorn a moment s sway,
 
 86 STATION VIII. 
 
 To tear the goodly plant, in rueful guise, 
 
 And spit out fire, to mar each lovely spray. 
 You weep, to see the Peerless rent and torn ? 
 Weep more that flames consume the sapless thorn.
 
 STATION IX. 
 
 The just, to God the nearest, yet may fall, 
 
 Or by a grave offence, or slighter sin ; 
 
 Forgiven both, when contrite they begin 
 To lend a docile hearing to the call 
 Of Him Whose falling is the rise of all : 
 
 Who knows, the pit how near ; its veil how thin. 
 
 One hand alone holds back from falling in : 
 One hand, tis His, draws out, with damage small. 
 
 Thus Aaron, by the golden calf defiled, 
 
 His pardon found, like Moses striking twice ;
 
 88 STA TWN IX. 
 
 And Paul, too, fierce till grace upon him smiled, 
 
 And his compeer too mild, denying thrice. 
 Rise, rise with these ; and know the law above 
 The promptest pardon to the greatest love.
 
 STATION X. 
 
 I clothe the meadows with the softest green, 
 And the rich harvests with a golden hue ; 
 I paint the ruby red, the violet blue ; 
 
 The mountain tops and all the vales between 
 
 Are bright and fragrant, where My breath has been : 
 I bathe the flowers in opalescent dew, 
 And crown with beauty all that meets the view, 
 
 The eye expanding to drink up the sheen : 
 
 Souls I enrobe in all the rays of light, 
 That from the Image of My Father flow ;
 
 90 STATION X. 
 
 But Jacob s sons are dearest in My sight, 
 
 Against whose enemies I in anger glow : 
 But they have cast Me naked from mankind, 
 My fresh and burning wounds exposing to the wind.
 
 STATION XL 
 
 When forty days had passed of that divine 
 And reconciling life, which brought us peace 
 (So angel choirs in hymns that never cease) 
 
 Spake Simeon : " A contradicted sign 
 
 This Child shall be, till He His breath resign ; 
 By sorrow He our forfeit shall release : 
 Thy sorrows too, O Mother, shall increase, 
 
 While I obtain the bliss for which I pine ". 
 Twas then the Infant hailed and wooed the cross, 
 
 As Adam, sinless, hailed the tree of life.
 
 92 STATION XI. 
 
 " By this I will repair My brethren s loss, 
 By this destroy the reign of sin and strife." 
 The cross from then was His affianced bride ; 
 The nuptial feast is now, but not in worldly pride.
 
 93 
 
 STATION XII. 
 
 Exalted high upon this scornful tree, 
 
 Now every creature to Myself I call 
 
 By love. These wounds proclaim, it is not small : 
 From climes which stretch beyond the widest sea, 
 My army of redeemed shall bend the knee ; 
 
 Raised, with My cross, from their profoundest fall, 
 
 Open they see the gates of life to all 
 This guerdon, O My God, I gain from Thee. 
 
 Manasses and the eastern tribes are Mine ; 
 I conquer Ephraim, on the western coast,
 
 94 STA TION XII. 
 
 And those who dwell beyond the Jordan line, 
 And Moab s sons, and Edom s recreant host. 
 I read the text, that I should do Thy will ; 
 Which I accomplish, while My blood I spill.
 
 95 
 
 STATION XIII. 
 
 We bring not Gilead s balm to heal thy sore, 
 
 Nor prop thy failing strength with fruits and wine, 
 Like that fair bride, whose love a type of thine 
 
 Was sung by Solomon in days of yore : 
 
 Thy grief is like an ocean without shore. 
 
 Yet if our loyal vows can cause, and mine, 
 A ray of solace in thy heart to shine, 
 
 Know this : God s peace we seal for evermore 
 We here asseverate : by us, His death 
 
 And what He bore shall not be rendered vain.
 
 96 STA TION XIII. 
 
 We, millions, gladly yield our mortal breath- 
 Hoping through Him a better life to gain ; 
 
 This promise made, our dear-bought souls to save 
 We go, with the three Maries, to the Saviour s grave.
 
 97 
 
 STATION XIV. 
 
 Peace crowned the mansion, where Zachaeus dwelt, 
 When deigned the living Lord to enter in : 
 His goods, the inmate fourfold purged from sin, 
 
 Abroad, in fourfold restitution, dealt. 
 
 Now boundless joy compels his heart to melt ; 
 Now, like a fountain, soaring thoughts begin 
 For God the inborn energies to win, 
 
 With all the yearning sealed, which prophets felt. 
 
 Spotless the sepulchre, which held in death 
 
 Our Life, involved in many a perfumed fold ; 
 7
 
 98 STA TION T 
 
 Who on the cross had scarce resigned his breath, 
 
 When Joseph claimed the treasure, leal and bold. 
 Of its best spoils the Body robbed the grave, 
 While all the prophets hailed the Soul which came to save.