Selections from Five English Poets Part 3

And though the rocky crested summits frown, 85 These rocks by custom turn to beds of down.

From Art more various are the blessings sent; Wealth, commerce, honor, liberty, content.

Yet these each other's power so strong contest, That either seems destructive of the rest.[10] 90 Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails And honor sinks where commerce long prevails.[11]

Hence every state, to one loved blessing p.r.o.ne, Conforms and models life to that alone.

Each to the favorite happiness attends, 95 And spurns the plan that aims at other ends: Till carried to excess in each domain, This fav'rite good begets peculiar pain.

But let us try these truths with closer eyes, And trace them through the prospect as it lies: 100 Here for a while my proper cares[12] resigned, Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind; Like yon neglected shrub at random cast, That shades the steep, and sighs at every blast.

Far to the right, where Apennine ascends, 105 Bright as the summer, Italy extends: Its uplands sloping deck the mountain's side, Woods over woods in gay theatric pride; While oft some temple's mould'ring tops between With venerable grandeur mark the scene, 110

Could Nature's bounty satisfy the breast, The sons of Italy were surely blest.

Whatever fruits in different climes were found, That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground; Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear, 115 Whose bright succession decks the varied year; Whatever sweets salute the northern sky With vernal lives, that blossom but to die; These, here disporting, own the kindred soil, Nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil; 120 While sea-born gales their gelid[13] wings expand To winnow[14] fragrance round the smiling land.

But small the bliss that sense alone bestows, And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.[15]

In florid beauty groves and fields appear; 125 Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.

Contrasted faults through all his manners reign: Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain; Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue; And ev'n in penance planning sins anew. 130 All evils here contaminate the mind That opulence departed leaves behind; For wealth was theirs,[16] not far removed the date When commerce proudly nourished through the state, At her command the palace learnt to rise,[17] 135 Again the long-fallen column sought the skies,[18]

The canvas glowed, beyond e'en nature warm,[19]

The pregnant quarry teemed with human form; Till, more unsteady than the southern gale, Commerce on other sh.o.r.es displayed her sail;[20] 140 While nought remained of all that riches gave, But towns unmanned, and lords without a slave: And late the nation found with fruitless skill Its former strength was but plethoric ill.[21]

Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied 145 By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride; From these the feeble heart and long-fall'n mind An easy compensation seem to find.

Here may be seen, in bloodless pomp arrayed, The paste-board triumph and the cavalcade, 150 Processions formed for piety and love, A mistress or a saint in every grove.

By sports like these are all their cares beguiled; The sports of children satisfy the child.

Each n.o.bler aim, repressed by long control, 155 Now sinks at last, or feebly mans the soul; While low delights, succeeding fast behind, In happier meanness occupy the mind: As in those domes where Caesars[22] once bore sway, Defaced by time and tottering in decay, 160 There in the ruin, heedless of the dead, The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed; And, wond'ring man could want the larger pile, Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile.

My soul, turn from them, turn we to survey, 165 Where rougher climes a n.o.bler race display; Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansions tread, And force a churlish soil[23] for scanty bread.

No product here the barren hills afford, But man and steel, the soldier and his sword:[24] 170 No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array, But winter ling'ring chills the lap of May: No Zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast, But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.

Yet, still, even here content can spread a charm, 175 Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm.

Though poor the peasant's hut, his feasts tho' small, He sees his little lot the lot of all; Sees no contiguous palace[25] rear its head To shame the meanness of his humble shed; 180 No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal To make him loath his vegetable meal; But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil,[26]

Each wish contracting fits him to the soil.

Cheerful at morn he wakes from short repose, 185 Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes; With patient angle trolls the finny deep; Or drives his venturous plowshare to the steep; Or seeks the den where snow-tracks mark the way, And drags the struggling savage[27] into day. 190 At night returning, every labor sped, He sits him down the monarch of a shed; Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze; While his loved partner, boastful of her h.o.a.rd, 195 Displays her cleanly platter on the board: And haply too some pilgrim, thither led, With many a tale repays the nightly bed.[28]

Thus every good his native wilds impart Imprints the patriot pa.s.sion on his heart; 200 And ev'n those ills that round his mansion rise Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies.

Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms; And as a child, when scaring sounds molest, 205 Clings close and closer to the mother's breast, So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar But bind him to his native mountains more.

Such are the charms to barren states a.s.signed;[29]

Their wants but few, their wishes all confined. 210 Yet let them only share the praises due: If few their wants, their pleasures are but few; For every want that stimulates the breast Becomes a source of pleasure when redressed; Whence from such lands each pleasing science flies 215 That first excites desire, and then supplies; Unknown to them, when sensual pleasures cloy, To fill the languid pause with finer joy; Unknown those powers that raise the soul to flame, Catch every nerve, and vibrate 'through the frame. 220 Their level life is but a smould'ring fire, Unquenched by want, unfanned by strong desire; Unfit for raptures, or, if raptures cheer On some high festival of once a year, In wild excess the vulgar breast takes fire, 225 Till, buried in debauch, the bliss expire.

But not their joys alone thus coa.r.s.ely flow: Their morals, like their pleasures, are but low; For, as refinement stops, from sire to son Unaltered, unimproved, the manners run, 230 And love's and friendship's finely-pointed dart Fall blunted from each indurated heart.

Some sterner virtues o'er the mountain's breast May sit, like falcons, cow'ring on the nest; But all the gentler morals, such as play 235 Thro' life's more cultured walks, and charm the way, These, far dispersed, on timorous pinions fly, To sport and flutter in a kinder sky.

To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, I turn; and France displays her bright domain. 240 Gay, sprightly land of mirth and social ease, Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please, How often have I led thy sportive choir, With tuneless pipe, beside the murmuring Loire?

Where shading elms along the margin grew, 245 And freshened from the wave the Zephyr flew; And haply, though my harsh touch, faltering still, But mocked all tune, and marred the dancer's skill, Yet would the village praise my wonderous power, And dance, forgetful of the noontide hour. 250 Alike all ages. Dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gay grandsire, skilled in gestic lore,[30]

Has frisked beneath the burthen of threescore.

So blest a life these thoughtless realms display; 255 Thus idly busy rolls their world away;[31]

Theirs are those arts that mind to mind endear, For honor forms the social temper here.

Honor, that praise which real merit gains, Or even imaginary worth obtains, 260 Here pa.s.ses current: paid from hand to hand, It shifts in splendid traffic round the land; From courts to camps, to cottages, it strays, And all are taught an avarice of praise.

They please, are pleased; they give to get esteem; 265 Till, seeming blest, they grow to what they seem.

But while this softer art their bliss supplies, It gives their follies also room to rise; For praise too dearly loved, or warmly sought, Enfeebles all internal strength of thought, 270 And the weak soul, within itself unblest, Leans for all pleasure on another's breast.

Hence ostentation here, with tawdry art, Pants for the vulgar praise which fools impart; Here vanity a.s.sumes her pert grimace, 275 And trims her robes of frieze[32] with copper lace; Here beggar pride defrauds her daily cheer, To boast one splendid banquet once a year; The mind still turns where shifting fashion draws, Nor weighs the solid worth of self-applause. 280

To men of other minds my fancy flies, Embosomed in the deep where Holland[33] lies.

Methinks her patient sons before me stand, Where the broad ocean leans against the land, And, sedulous to stop the coming tide, 285 Lift the tall rampire's[34] artificial pride.

Onward methinks, and diligently slow, The firm connected bulwark seems to grow; Spreads its long arms amidst the wat'ry roar, Scoops out an empire, and usurps the sh.o.r.e. 290 While the pent ocean, rising o'er the pile, Sees an amphibious world beneath him smile: The slow ca.n.a.l, the yellow blossomed vale, The willow tufted bank, the gliding sail, The crowded mart, the cultivated plain,-- 295 A new creation rescued from his reign.

Thus while around the wave-subjected soil Impels the native to repeated toil, Industrious habits in each bosom reign, And industry begets a love of gain. 300 Hence all the good from opulence that springs,[35]

With all those ills superfluous treasure brings, Are here displayed. Their much-loved wealth imparts Convenience, plenty, elegance, and arts: But view them closer, craft and fraud appear; 305 E'en liberty itself is bartered here.

At gold's superior charms all freedom flies; The needy sell it, and the rich man buys; A land of tyrants and a den of slaves, Here wretches seek dishonorable graves, 310 And calmly bent, to servitude conform, Dull as their lakes that slumber in the storm.[36]

Heavens! how unlike their Belgic sires[37] of old, Rough, poor, content, ungovernably bold; War in each breast, and freedom on each brow; 315 How much unlike the sons of Britain now!

Fired at the sound, my genius spreads her wing, And flies where Britain courts the western spring; Where lawns[38] extend that scorn Arcadian pride,[39]

And brighter streams than famed Hydaspis[40] glide. 320 There all around the gentlest breezes stray; There gentle music melts on every spray; Creation's mildest charms are there combined, Extremes are only in the master's mind!

Stern o'er each bosom Reason holds her state, 325 With daring aims irregularly great; Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, I see the lords of human kind pa.s.s by; Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band, By forms unfashioned, fresh from Nature's hand, 330 Fierce in their native hardiness of soul, True to imagined right, above control, While even the peasant boasts these rights to scan, And learns to venerate himself as man.

Thine, Freedom, thine the blessings pictured here; 335 Thine are those charms that dazzle and endear: Too blest indeed, were such without alloy: But fostered even by Freedom ills annoy: That independence Britons prize too high Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; 340 The self-dependent lordlings[41] stand alone, All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown.

Here, by the bonds of nature feebly held, Minds combat minds, repelling and repelled;[42]

Ferments arise, imprisoned factions roar, 345 Repressed ambition struggles round her sh.o.r.e, Till, over-wrought, the general system feels Its motions stop, or frenzy fire the wheels.

Nor this the worst. As nature's ties decay, As duty, love, and honor fail to sway, 350 Fict.i.tious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law, Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe.

Hence all obedience bows to these alone, And talent sinks, and merit weeps unknown: Till time may come, when, stripped of all her charms, 355 The land of scholars and the nurse of arms, Where n.o.ble stems transmit the patriot flame, Where kings have toiled and poets wrote for fame, One sink of level avarice[43] shall lie, And scholars, soldiers, kings, unhonored die. 360

Yet think not, thus when Freedom's ills I state, I mean to flatter kings, or court the great: Ye powers of truth that bid my soul aspire, Far from my bosom drive the low desire.

And thou, fair Freedom, taught alike to feel 365 The rabble's rage and tyrant's angry steel; Thou transitory flower, alike undone By proud contempt or favor's fostering sun, Still may thy blooms the changeful clime endure!

I only would repress them to secure: 370 For just experience tells, in every soil, That those who think must govern those that toil;[44]

And all that Freedom's highest aims can reach Is but to lay proportioned loads on each.

Hence, should one order disproportioned grow, 375 Its double weight must ruin all below.

O then how blind to all that truth requires, Who think it freedom when a part aspires!

Calm is my soul, nor apt to rise in arms, Except when fast approaching danger warms; 380 But when contending chiefs blockade the throne, Contracting regal power to stretch their own, When I behold a factious band agree To call it freedom when themselves are free, Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw, 385 Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law,[45]

The wealth of climes where savage nations roam[46]

Pillaged from slaves to purchase slaves at home, Fear, pity, justice, indignation start, Tear off reserve, and bare my swelling heart; 390 Till half a patriot, half a coward grown, I fly from petty tyrants to the throne.

Yes, brother, curse with me that baleful hour When first ambition struck at regal power; And thus polluting honor in its source, 395 Gave wealth to sway the mind with double force.

Have we not seen, round Britain's peopled sh.o.r.e, Her useful sons exchanged for useless ore,[47]

Seen all her triumphs but destruction haste, Like flaring tapers brightening as they waste? 400 Seen opulence, her grandeur to maintain, Lead stern depopulation in her train, And over fields where scattered hamlets rose In barren solitary pomp repose?

Have we not seen at pleasure's lordly call 405 The smiling long-frequented village fall?

Beheld the duteous son, the sire decayed,[48]

The modest matron, and the blushing maid, Forced from their homes, a melancholy train,[49]

To traverse climes beyond the western main; 410 Where wild Oswego[50] spreads her swamps around, And Niagara[50] stuns with thund'ring sound?

Even now, perhaps, as there some pilgrim strays Through tangled forests and through dangerous ways, Where beasts with man divided empire claim, 415 And the brown Indian marks with murderous aim; There, while above the giddy tempest flies, And all around distressful yells arise, The pensive exile, bending with his woe, To stop too fearful, and too faint to go, 420 Casts a long look where England's glories shine, And bids his bosom sympathize with mine.

Vain, very vain, my weary search to find That bliss which only centers in the mind: Why have I strayed from pleasure and repose, 425 To seek a good each government bestows?[51]

In every government, though terrors reign, Though tyrant kings or tyrant laws restrain, How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure; 430 Still to ourselves in every place consigned, Our own felicity we make or find: With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.

The lifted ax, the agonizing wheel, 435 Luke's iron crown,[52] and Damiens' bed of steel,[53]

To men remote from power but rarely known, Leave reason, faith, and conscience all our own.