"There happy pairs, in union sweet,
Enraptured, hail eternal day;
There in each bush a friend we meet,
A kindred soul on every spray.
"Fair maid in those sequestered shades,
Where calm security presides,
No net the cruel sportsman spreads,
No deadly thundering tube he guides.
"And, mark me well, no thoughtless hand
Rashly invades the downy nest,
Rudely divides the kindred band,
And wrings with woe a parent's breast.
"My errand's done-the pearly tear
That trembling, glistens in thine eye,
Forbids my longer lingering here,
And speeds me to the Elysian sky."
INSCRIPTION,
FROM THE GREEK OF SIMONIDES.
O'ER the sad tomb where Sophocles is laid,
Spread, gentle ivy, spread thy pious shade:
Mid clustering vines, that solemn branches wave,
Ye roses! deck with hallow'd flowers his grave:
For when your bard, with sacred rapture fir'd,
To all the magic powers of song aspir'd,
Around him oft the listening Muses smil'd,
And the glad Graces bail'd their darling child.
RECOMMENDATION OF THE STUDY
ANCIENT GRECIAN AND ROMAN
Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting; A Prize Poem,
RECITED IN THE THEATRE, OXFORD,
IN THE YEAR MDCCCVI.
[This composition was originally restricted to fifty lines;-a few relative to painting have been since added.]
THOUGH oft in Britain's isle the breathing bust
To fame consign the patriot-hero's dust,
And conquerors waked to mimic life again
In imaged triumph thunder o'er the main;
Though speaks each mould by Flaxman's genius wrought,
The glow of fancy, or the stretch of thought;
And grace obeys fair Damer's soft controul
Through many a varied lineament of soul;
Yet, oh! unlike each nobler Grecian form,
With strength majestic or with beauty warm,
Where all her mingling charms Expression poured,
Admired by Valour, or by Love adored!
Lo! where retiring Venus shuns the eye,
And beauty vies with bashful majesty !
There mortal charms in loveliest union shine,
And all the Goddess crowns the bright design.
Thou, too, half-hid beneath thy dripping veil
Of many a moistened tress, Urania, hail!
To thee that dubious mien the sculptor gave,
Fearing the shore, though shrinking from the wave.
Or see, where, graceful bending o'er his bow,
The quivered God's exulting features glow,
As, trusting to his arm's unerring might,
His look pursues the distant arrow's flight.
But shut, oh! shut the eye, where mid yon fold
Of crested snakes Laocoon writhes enrolled,
And drinks with tortured ear his childrens' cries,
Embittering death's convulsive agonies!
Rise, slumbering Genius, and with throbbing heart Adore these trophies of unrivalled art;
Till each fine grace that gifted Masters knew
In fairy vision floating o'er thy view,
Perfection crown once more the living stone,
And Britain claim a Phidias of her own.
Not such the hopes that bless th' enthusiast's dream,
While sad it wanders o'er each faded gleam,
That dimly shews to Painting's Muse was given
The sevenfold radiance of refulgent heaven,
When Genius stole the colours of the sun,
And poured them o'er the wreath that Valour won!
Then turn the eye, where, spurning Time's controul,
Art stamps on stone the triumphs of the soul:
With trembling awe survey each hallowed fane
Eunobling Greece mid Desolation's reign;
Each pillared portico and swelling dome,
Proud o'er the prostrate majesty of Rome!
While o'er the scene each mouldering temple throws,
Sacred to genius, undisturbed repose;
Thro' twilight's doubtful gloom his eye shall trace
The column's height enwreathed with clustering grace;
The light-arched roof, the portal stretching wide,
Triumphal monuments in armed pride;
Til bold conceptions bursting on his heart,
His skill shall grasp the inmost soul of art;
And Fame's green isle her cloud-capt towers display,
Where grace and grandeur rule with equal sway.
JOHN WILSON, MAGDALEN COLLEGE.
THOU hateful mammon, leave my loathing sight!
I view in thee the murderer of those joys
That fill the heart; clenching, with hard lean hand,
The bloody steel, which severs lastingly
Humanity's best ties. Self-centering fiend!
Thou sealest every eye, lest any more
It catch the charms of nature, or perceive
The vivid movements of the human soul
Pourtrayed in fleshy characters; thou numb'st
The nerve that throbbed so finely to the grasp
Of generous friendship, or of witching love
The more intense embrace; quenchest the glow
Of wide benevolence, mock'st her holy schemes
Of amplest bliss, and on her very lip
Freezest the mellow sigh, just risen to soothe
The passing wretched one.
I hate thee Mammon:
I hate thy servants; hate them Heaven, as those
Who counteract thy plans!
"Twere well to humanize the heart, to expand The active soul, to embrace with one wide wish, . The universe, and move (uncentered here)
As he that travels to a better world!
One infinite, benevolent, and wise,
Works through extended space, and we but live
Living in Him! Learn then, my soul, to look
With indefatigable gaze to God;
And struggle (aye, annihilating self)
To view the bearings of the complex whole,
From Him and with Him-this is the best aim,
The perfect triumph of Redeemed Man!
PAST my childhood's home, and lo! 'twas dark!
The night winds whistled mid its leafless trees!
No taper twinkled cheerily to tell
That SHE the friend, had heaped the social fire,
Spread the trim board, and with an anxious heart,
Expected me, her " dearest boy," to pass
With her the evening hour! oh, no! 'twas gone
The friendly taper, and the warm fire's glow,
Trembling athwart the gloom! I listened long,
Nor heard, save the unfeeling blast of night,
That chilled my frame, or the sear ice-glazed twig
That hoarsely rustled! 'twas too much I wept !
Then I bethought me, she was coffined far
Away-laid on the earth's cold lap!
I looked again-such thoughts were too, too true,
For no ray glimmered !-I did pass along,
Shivering, and bowed to earth with heaviness.
|