Some fairer, better sport prefer;
TO .....1

And feel for us, if not for her.
Ah ! little thought she, when, with wild delight, For this presumption, soon or late,
By many a torrent's shining track she flew,

Know thine shall be a kindred fate.
When mountain-glens and caverns full of night Another shall in vengeance rise-
O’er her young mind divine enchantment threw, Sing Harriets cheeks, and Harriet’s eyes ;
That in her veins a secret horror slept,

And, echoing back her wood-notes wild,

-Trace all the mother in the child !
That her light footsteps should be heard no more,
That she should die—nor watched, alas ! nor wept
By thee, unconscious of the pangs she bore.

THE ALPS AT DAY-BREAK.
Yet round her couch indulgent Fancy drew
The kindred forms her closing eye required.

The sun-beams streak the azure skies,
There didst thou stand—there, with the smile she

And line with light the mountain's brow: knew ;

With hounds and horns the hunters rise,

And chase the roebuck thro’ the snow.
She moved her lips to bless thee, and expired.
And now to thee she comes ; still, still the same

From rock to rock, with giant-bound,
As in the hours gone unregarded by!

High on their iron poles they pass ; To thee, how changed, comes as she ever came ;

Mute, lest the air, convulsed by sound,

Rend from above a frozen mass.
Health on her cheek, and pleasure in her eye !
Nor less, less oft, as on that day, appears,

The goats wind slow their wonted way,
When lingering, as prophetic of the truth,

Up craggy steeps and ridges rude; By the way-side she shed her parting tears

Marked by the wild wolf for his prey,
For ever lovely in the light of Youth !

From desert cave or hanging wood.
And while the torrent thunders loud,
And as the echoing cliffs reply,

The huts peep o'er the morning-cloud,
TO A FRIEND ON HIS MARRIAGE.

Perched, like an eagle's nest, on high.
1798.
On thee, blest youth, a father's hand confers
The maid thy earliest, fondest wishes knew.'

TO
Each soft enchantment of the soul is hers;

Go-you may call it madness, folly ; Thine be the joys to firm attachment due.

You shall not chase my gloom away! As on she moves with hesitating grace,

There's such a charm in melancholy, She wins assurance from his soothing voice;

I would not, if I could, be gay. And, with a look the pencil could not trace,

Oh, if you knew the pensive pleasure Smiles thro' her blushes, and confirms the choice.

That fills my bosom when I sigh, Spare the fine tremors of her feeling frame !

You would not rob me of a treasure To thee she turns—forgive a virgin's fears !

Monarchs are too poor to buy. To thee she turns with surest, tenderest claim; Weakness that charms, reluctance that endears; At each response the sacred rite requires, From her full bosom bursts the unbidden sigh. THE FRAGMENT OF A STATUE OF HERCULES, A strange mysterious awe the scene inspires ; And on her lips the trembling accents die.

And dost thou still, thou mass of breathing stone, O’er her fair face what wild emotions play! (Thy giant limbs to night and chaos hurled) What lights and shades in sweet confusion blend! Still sit as on the fragment of a world ; Soon shall they fly, glad harbingers of day, Surviving all, majestic and alone ? And settled sunshine on her soul descend !

What tho’ the Spirits of the North, that swept

Rome from the earth, when in her pomp she slept, Ah soon, thine own confest, ecstatic thought ! That hand shallstrew thy summer-path with flowers; Deep in the dust ’mid tower and temple sunk ;

Smote thee with fury, and thy headless trunk And those blue eyes, with mildest lustre fraught,

Soon to subdue mankind 'twas thine to rise,
Gild the calm current of domestic hours !

Still, still unquelled thy glorious energies !
Aspiring minds, with thee conversing, caught 3
Bright revelations of the Good they sought;

By thee that long-lost spell in secret given,
TO THE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF LADY * *.

To draw down Gods, and lift the soul to Heaven! Ah! why with tell-tale tongue reveal a What most her blushes would conceal?

3 In the gardens of the Vatican, where it was placed by Why lift that modest veil to trace

Julius II., it was long the favourite study of those great The seraph-sweetness of her face?

men to whom we owe the revival of the arts, Michael

Angelo, Raphael, and the Caracci. 1 On the death of her sister.

4 Once in the possession of Praxiteles, if we may believe 2 Alluding to some verses which she had written on an an ancient epigram on the Gnidian Venus.-Analecta Vet. elder sister.

Poetarum, III. 200.

TO

COMMONLY CALLED THE TORSO.

a

IN THE CRIMEA.

And now the grampus, half-descried,

AN INSCRIPTION
Black and huge above the tide ;

FOR A TEMPLE DEDICATED TO THE GRACES. 4
The cliffs and promontories there,
Front to front, and broad and bare ;

APPROACH with reverence. There are those within,
Each beyond each, with giant-feet

Whose dwelling place is Heaven. Daughters of Jove,
Advancing as in haste to meet ;

From them flow all the decencies of Life ;
The shattered fortress, whence the Dane

Without them nothing pleases, Virtue's self
Blew his shrill blast, nor rushed in vain,

Admired not loved: and those on whom They smile, Tyrant of the drear domain ;

Great though they be, and wise, and beautiful,
All into midnight-shadow sweep

Shine forth with double lustre,
When day springs upward from the deep !"
Kindling the waters in its flight,
The prow wakes splendour ; and the oar,

WRITTEN IN
That rose and fell unseen before,

1834.
Flashes in a sea of light !
Glad sign, and sure ! for now we hail

WELL, when her day is over, be it said
Thy flowers, Glenfinnart, in the gale ;

That, though a speck on the terrestrial globe,
And bright indeed the path should be,

Found with long search and in a moment lost,

She made herself a name-a name to live
That leads to Friendship and to Thee !
Oh blest retreat and sacred too !

While science, eloquence, and song divine,
Sacred as when the bell of

And wisdom, in self-government displayed,
prayer,
Tolled duly on the desert air,

And valour, such as only in the Free,
And crosses decked thy summits blue.

Shall among men be honoured.
Oft, like some loved romantic tale,

Every sea
Oft shall my weary mind recall,

Was covered with her sails ; in every port
Amid the hum and stir of men,

Her language spoken; and, where'er you went,
Thy beechen grove and waterfall,

Exploring, to the east or to the west,
Thy ferry with its gliding sail,

Even to the rising or the setting day,
And Her—the Lady of the Glen !

Her arts and laws and institutes were there,
Moving with silent and majestic march,
Onward and onward, where no pathway was ;
There her adventurous sons, like those of old,

Founding vast empires 5-empires in their turn
AN INSCRIPTION

Destined to shine thro' many a distant age
With sun-like splendour.

Wondrous was her wealth,
SHEPHERD, or Huntsman, or worn Mariner,

The world itself her willing tributary ;
Whate'er thou art, who wouldst allay thy thirst,
Drink and be glad. This cistern of white stone,

Yet, to accomplish what her soul desired,
Arched, and o’erwrought with many a sacred

All was as nothing ; and the mightiest kings,

Each in his hour of strife exhausted, fallen,
verse,

Drew strength from Her, their coffers from her own
This iron cup chained for the general use,
And these rude seats of earth within the grove,

Filled to o'erflowing. When her fleets of war
Were given by FATIMA. Borne hence a bride,

Had swept the main ; when not an adverse prow, 'Twas here she turned from her beloved sire,

From pole to pole, far as the sea-bird flies,

Rufiled the tide ; and they themselves were gone, To see his face no more. Oh, if thou canst,

Gone from the eyes and from the minds of men, ('Tis not far off) visit his tomb with flowers ;

Their dreadful errands so entirely done
And with a drop of this sweet water fill
The two small cells scooped in the marble there,

Up rose her armies ; on the land they stood,
That birds may come and drink upon his grave,

Fearless, erect; and in an instant smote

Him with his legions.
Making it holy 3

Yet ere long 'twas hers,

Great as her triumphs, to eclipse them all, 1 A phenomenon described by many navigators.

To do what none had done, none had conceived, 2 There is a beautiful story, delivered down to us from An act how glorious, making joy in Heaven! antiquity, which will here perhaps occur to the reader. When, such her prodigality, condemned

Icarius, when he gave Penelope in marriage to Ulysses,
endeavoured to persuade him to dwell in Lacedæmon; and, 4 At Woburn-Abbey.
when all he urged was to no purpose, he entreated his 5 North America speaks for itself; and so indeed may wo
daughter to remain with him. When Ulysses set out with say of India, when such a territory is ours in a region so
his bride for Ithaca, the old man followed the chariot, till, remote-"a territory larger and more populous than Great
overcome by his importunity, Ulysses consented that it Britain and France and Spain, and Germany and Italy
should be left with Penelope to decide whether she would together;" when a company of merchants, from such small
proceed with him or return with her father. It is related, beginnings, have established a dominion so absolute,“where
says Pausanias, that she made no reply, but that she | Trajan never penetratedandwhere the phalanx of Alexander
covered herself with her veil; and that Icarius, per- refused to proceed”—a dominion over a people for ages
ceiving at once by it that she inclined to Ulysses, sufferod civilized and cultivated, while we were yet in the woods.
her to depart with him.

6 Alluding to the battle of Waterloo. The illustrious Man A statue was afterwards placed by her father as a me- who commanded there on our side, and who, in his anxiety morial in that part of the road where she had covered to do justice to others, never fails to forget himself, said herself with her veil. It was still standing there in the many years afterwards to the Author with some agitation, days of Pausanias, and was called the statue of Modesty. when relating an ocuurrence of that day, “ It was a battle 3 A Turkish superstition.

of giants !"

6

3

To toil and toil, alas, how hopelessly,

Say, must he know remorse ? must Passion come, Herself in bonds, for ages unredeemed

Passion in all or any of its shapes,
As with a god-like energy

she
sprung,

To cloud and sully what is now so pure ?
All else forgot, and, burdened as she was,

Yes, come it must. For who, alas ! has lived, Ransomed the African.

Nor in the watches of the night recalled
Words he has wished unsaid and deeds undone ?
Yes, come it must. But if, as we may hope,

He learns ere long to discipline his mind,
AN INSCRIPTION.

And onward goes, humbly and cheerfully,
18**.

Assisting them that faint, weak though he be, THESE are the groves a grateful people gave

And in his trying hours trusting in God
For noblest service ; and from age to age,
;

Fair as he is, he shall be fairer still ;
May they, to such as come with listening ear, For what was Innocence will then be Virtue.
Relate the story ! Sacred is their shade;
Sacred the calm they breathe-oh, how unlike

Oh, if the selfish knew how much they lost,
What in the field 'twas his so long to know ;

What would they not endeavour, not endure,
Where many a mournful, many an anxious thought, To imitate, as far as in them lay,
Troubling, perplexing, on his weary mind

Him who his wisdom and his power employs
Preyed, ere to arms the morning-trumpet called ;

In making others happy!
Where, till the work was done and darkness fell,
Blood ran like water, and, go where thou wouldst,
Death in thy path-way met thee, face to face.

WRITTEN AT DROPMORE.
For on, regardless of himself, He went ;

July, 1831.
And, by no change elated or depressed,
Fought, till he won the imperishable wreath,

GRENVILLE, to thee my gratitude is due
Leading the conquerors captive ; on he went,

For many an hour of studious musing here, Bating nor heart nor hope, whoe'er opposed ;

For many a day-dream, such as hovered round The greatest warriors, in their turn, appearing ;

Hafiz, or Sadi; thro' the golden East, The last that came, the greatest of them all —

Search where we would, no fairer bowers than these, One scattering fear, as born but to subdue,

Thine own creation ; where, called forth by thee, And, even in rout, in ruin, scattering fear;

“« Flowers worthy of Paradise, with rich inlay, So long, till warred on by the elements,

Broider the ground,” and every mountain-pine Invincible ; the mightiest of the earth!

Elsewhere unseen (his birth-place in the clouds, When such the service, what the recompense ?

His kindred sweeping with majestic march

From cliff to cliff along the snowy ridge
What was not due to him if he survived ?
Yet, if I err not, a renown as fair,

Of Caucasus, nearer yet the Moon)
And fairer still,'awaited him at home ;

Breathes heavenly music.—Yet much more I owe When in his place, day after day, he stood,

For what so few, alas! can hope to share, The party-zeal, that round him raged, restraining; or in thy

garden-chair that wheels its course

Thy converse ; when, among thy books reclined, -His not to rest, while his the strength to serve.

Slowly and silently thro' sun and shade,
Thou speak’st, as ever thou art wont to do,

In the calm temper of philosophy ;
REFLECTIONS.

-Still to delight, instruct, whate'er the theme.
Man to the last is but a froward child ;
So eager for the future, come what may,
And to the present so insensible !

WRITTEN IN JULY, Oh, if he could in all things as he would,

1834. Y rs would as days and hours as moments be ;

GREY, thou hast served, and well, the sacred Cause He would, so restless is his spirit here,

That Hampden, Sydney died for. Thou hast stood, Give wings to Time, and wish his life away!

Scorning all thought of Self, from first to last,

Among the foremost in that glorious field ; The heart, they say, is wiser than the schools ; From first to last; and, ardent as thou art, And well they may. All that is great in thought, Held on with equal step as best became That strikes at once as with electric fire,

A lofty mind, loftiest when most assailed ; And lifts us, as it were, from earth to heaven, Never, though galled by many a barbed shaft, Comes from the heart ; and who confesses not By many a bitter taunt from friend and foe, Its voice as sacred, nay almost divine,

Swerving, nor shrinking. Happy in thy Youth, When inly it declares on what we do,

Thy Youth the dawn of a long summer-day ; Blaming, approving ? Let an erring world But in thy Age still happier; thine to earn Judge as it will, we care not while we stand The gratitude of millions yet unborn; Acquitted there ; and oft, when clouds on clouds Thine to conduct, through ways how difficult, Compass us round and not a track appears, A mighty people in their march sublime Oft is an upright heart the surest guide,

From Good to Better. Great thy recompence, Surer and better than the subtlest head;

When in their eyes thou read'st what thou hast done; Still with its silent counsels thro’ the dark

And may'st thou long enjoy it ; may’st thou long Onward and onward leading.

Preserve for them what still they claim as theirs,

That generous fervour and pure eloquence, This Child, so lovely and so cherub-like,

Thine from thy birth and Nature's noblest gifts, (No fairer spirit in the heaven of heavens)

To guard what They have gained !

WRITTEN IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.1

(Such as He shed on Nelson's closing grave;

How soon to claim the sympathy He gave :)
October 10, 1806.

In Him, resentful of another's wrong,
Whoe'er thou art, approach, and, with a sigh, The dumb were eloquent, the feeble strong.
Mark where the small remains of Greatness lie.?

Truth from his lips a charm celestial drewThere sleeps the dust of FOX for ever gone; Ah, who so mighty and so gentle too ? How near the Place where late his glory shone ! What tho' with War the madding Nations rung, And, tho' no more ascends the voice of Prayer, “ Peace,” when He spoke, was ever on his tongue! Tho' the last footsteps cease to linger there, Amid the frowns of Power, the tricks of State, Still, like an awful Dream that comes again, Fearless, resolved, and negligently great! Alas, at best, as transient and as vain,

In vain malignant vapours gathered round;
Still do I see (while thro' the vaults of night He walked, erect, on consecrated ground.
The funeral-song once more proclaims the rite) The clouds, that rise to quench the Orb of day,
The moving Pomp along the shadowy aisle, Reflect its splendour, and dissolve away!
That, like a Darkness, filled the solemn Pile ; When in retreat He laid his thunder by,
The illustrious line, that in long order led, For lettered ease and calm Philosophy,
Of those that loved Him living, mourned Him dead; Blest were his hours within the silent grove,
Of those the Few, that for their Country stood Where still his god-like Spirit deigns to rove;
Round Him who dared be singularly good; Blest by the orphan's smile, the widow's prayer,
All, of all ranks, that claimed him for their own; For many a deed, long done in secret there.
And nothing wanting - but Himself alone ! 3 There shone his lamp on Homer's hallowed page,

Oh say, of Him now rests there but a name ; There, listening, sate the hero and the sage ;
Wont, as He was, to breathe ethereal flame? And they, by virtue and by blood allied,
Friend of the Absent, Guardian of the Dead ! Whom most He loved, and in whose arms He
Who but would here their sacred sorrows shed ? died.

Friend of all Human-kind! not here alone 1 After the funeral of the Right Hon. CHARLES JAMES (The voice, that speaks, was not to Thee unknown) Fox. 2 Venez voir le peu qui nous reste de tant de grandeur, &c. Long, long shall England be revered in Thee !

Wilt Thou be missed.-0'er every land and sea Bossuet, Oraison funèbre de Louis de Bourbon. 3 Et rien enfin ne manque dans tous ces honneurs, que

And, when the Storm is hushed_indistant years, celui à qui on les rend.-Ibid.

Foes on thy grave shall meet, and mingle tears!

THE VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS.

CHI SE' TU, CHE VIENI-?
VA ME STESSO NON VEGNO. DANTE,

PREFACE.

Many of the incidents will now be thought extraThe following Poem (or, to speak more properly, vagant ; yet they were once perhaps received with what remains of it 4) has here and there a lyrical something more than indulgence. It was an age turn of thought and expression. It is sudden in of miracles ; and who can say that among the its transitions, and full of historical allusions ; venerable legends in the library of the Escurial, leaving much to be imagined by the reader.

or the more authentic records which fill the great The subject is a voyage the most memorable in chamber in the Archivo of Simancas, and which the annals of mankind. Columbus was a person of relate entirely to the deep tragedy of America, . extraordinary virtue and piety, acting under the there are no volumes that mention the marvellous sense of a Divine impulse ; and his achievement the things here described ? Indeed the story, as already discovery of a New World, the inhabitants of told throughout Europe, admits of no heightening. which were shut out from the light of Revelation, Such was the religious enthusiasm of the early and given up, as they believed, to the dominion of writers, that the Author had only to transfuse it malignant spirits.

into his verse; and he appears to have done little

more ; though some of the circumstances, which 4 The Original in the Castilian language, according to

he alludes to as well-known, have long ceased to the Inscription that follows, was found among other MSS. in an old religious house near Palos, situated on an island

be so. By using the language of that day, he has formed by the river Tinto, and dedicated to our Lady of La

called up Columbus “in his habit as he lived;" Rábida. The Writer describes himself as having sailed and the authorities, such as exist, are carefully wi th Columbus; but his style and manner are evidently given by the Translator. of an after-time.