Who prop, thou ask’st, in these bad days, my mind?– He much, the old man, who, clearest-soul’d of men, Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,[1] And Tmolus hill, and Smyrna bay, though blind. Much he, whose friendship I not long since won, That halting slave, who in Nicopolis Taught Arrian, when Vespasian’s brutal […]

One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee, One lesson which in every wind is blown, One lesson of two duties kept at one Though the loud world proclaim their enmity– Of toil unsever’d from tranquillity! Of labour, that in lasting fruit outgrows Far noisier schemes, accomplish’d in repose, Too great for haste, too high […]

Affections, Instincts, Principles, and Powers, Impulse and Reason, Freedom and Control– So men, unravelling God’s harmonious whole, Rend in a thousand shreds this life of ours. Vain labour! Deep and broad, where none may see, Spring the foundations of that shadowy throne Where man’s one nature, queen-like, sits alone, Centred in a majestic unity; And […]

“O monstrous, dead, unprofitable world, That thou canst hear, and hearing, hold thy way! A voice oracular hath peal’d to-day, To-day a hero’s banner is unfurl’d; Hast thou no lip for welcome?”–So I said. Man after man, the world smiled and pass’d by; A smile of wistful incredulity As though one spake of life unto […]

TO A PREACHER “In harmony with Nature?” Restless fool, Who with such heat dost preach what were to thee, When true, the last impossibility– To be like Nature strong, like Nature cool! Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more, And in that more lie all his hopes of good. Nature is cruel, man […]

ON HEARING HIM MISPRAISED Because thou hast believed, the wheels of life Stand never idle, but go always round; Not by their hands, who vex the patient ground, Moved only; but by genius, in the strife Of all its chafing torrents after thaw, Urged; and to feed whose movement, spinning sand, The feeble sons of […]

God knows it, I am with you. If to prize Those virtues, prized and practised by too few, But prized, but loved, but eminent in you, Man’s fundamental life; if to despise The barren optimistic sophistries Of comfortable moles, whom what they do Teaches the limit of the just and true (And for such doing […]

ON SEEING, IN THE COUNTRY, HIS PICTURE OF “THE BOTTLE” Artist, whose hand, with horror wing’d, hath torn From the rank life of towns this leaf! and flung The prodigy of full-blown crime among Valleys and men to middle fortune born, Not innocent, indeed, yet not forlorn– Say, what shall calm us when such guests […]

Mycerinus[2] “Not by the justice that my father spurn’d, Not for the thousands whom my father slew, Altars unfed and temples overturn’d, Cold hearts and thankless tongues, where thanks are due; Fell this dread voice from lips that cannot lie, Stern sentence of the Powers of Destiny. “I will unfold my sentence and my crime. […]

TO THE SAME FRIEND Children (as such forgive them) have I known, Ever in their own eager pastime bent To make the incurious bystander, intent On his own swarming thoughts, an interest own– Too fearful or too fond to play alone. Do thou, whom light in thine own inmost soul (Not less thy boast) illuminates, […]

Yet, when I muse on what life is, I seem Rather to patience prompted, than that proud Prospect of hope which France proclaims so loud– France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme; Seeing this vale, this earth, whereon we dream, Is on all sides o’ershadow’d by the high Uno’erleap’d Mountains of Necessity, Sparing […]

I The Castle Down the Savoy valleys sounding, Echoing round this castle old, ‘Mid the distant mountain-chalets Hark! what bell for church is toll’d? In the bright October morning Savoy’s Duke had left his bride. From the castle, past the drawbridge, Flow’d the hunters’ merry tide. Steeds are neighing, gallants glittering; Gay, her smiling lord […]

‘Tis death! and peace, indeed, is here, And ease from shame, and rest from fear There’s nothing can dismarble now The smoothness of that limpid brow. But is a calm like this, in truth, The crowning end of life and youth, And when this boon rewards the dead, Are all debts paid, has all been […]

They are gone–all is still! Foolish heart, dost thou quiver? Nothing stirs on the lawn but the quick lilac-shade. Far up shines the house, and beneath flows the river– Here lean, my head, on this cold balustrade! Ere he come–ere the boat by the shining-branch’d border Of dark elms shoot round, dropping down the proud […]

In the cedarn shadow sleeping, Where cool grass and fragrant glooms Forth at noon had lured me, creeping From your darken’d palace rooms– I, who in your train at morning Stroll’d and sang with joyful mind, Heard, in slumber, sounds of warning; Heard the hoarse boughs labour in the wind. Who are they, O pensive […]

Laugh, my friends, and without blame Lightly quit what lightly came; Rich to-morrow as to-day, Spend as madly as you may! I, with little land to stir, Am the exacter labourer. Ere the parting hour go by, Quick, thy tablets, Memory! Once I said: “A face is gone If too hotly mused upon; And our […]

When I shall be divorced, some ten years hence, From this poor present self which I am now; When youth has done its tedious vain expense Of passions that for ever ebb and flow; Shall I not joy youth’s heats are left behind, And breathe more happy in an even clime?– Ah no, for then […]

As the kindling glances, Queen-like and clear, Which the bright moon lances From her tranquil sphere At the sleepless waters Of a lonely mere, On the wild whirling waves, mournfully, mournfully, Shiver and die. As the tears of sorrow Mothers have shed– Prayers that to-morrow Shall in vain be sped When the flower they flow […]

Stagirius[3] Thou, who dost dwell alone– Thou, who dost know thine own– Thou, to whom all are known From the cradle to the grave– Save, oh! save. From the world’s temptations, From tribulations, From that fierce anguish Wherein we languish, From that torpor deep Wherein we lie asleep, Heavy as death, cold as the grave, […]

So far as I conceive the world’s rebuke To him address’d who would recast her new, Not from herself her fame of strength she took, But from their weakness who would work her rue. “Behold,” she cries, “so many rages lull’d, So many fiery spirits quite cool’d down; Look how so many valours, long undull’d, […]