WALTHAM FOREST.

Land of soft showers and far-extending vales,And woodlands fanned by summer’s gentlest gales,And streams, that glisten as they steal, half hidThe tangled brake and waving sedge amid;Land!—where rich plenty with abounding flow,5Bids ’neath her smile the golden meadow glow,And from the juicy herbage—Nature’s wealth!Draws the pure stream of sustenance and health;Land—where, beneath Wealth’s hospitable dome,Refinement dwells, and Science finds a home,—10In whose sweet sylvan shades the classic MuseHer richer buds upon thy green lap strews;With thy soft breath her tuneful whisper blends,And to the Poet’s home her brightness lends,—Smiles at his hearth, dispels the gath’ring tear,15And—dating all from Heaven—makes onehere.Nor fears the power of her spell will cease,Breathed from the altar of domestic peace;[1]Land! where my pilgrim foot in peace hath strayed,And traced out many a fresh and grassy glade,20Smiling in sunlight, whilst, like former dreams,Dimly afar the mighty City gleams;Where o’er its lines the dancing sunbeams play,Gilding each roof with morning’s brilliant ray—I hail thee!—not mine own—but still dear clime!25Fair spread thy vales! and bright thy waters shine!Thy flowers,—thy glens, and health-restoring breezeFraught with the song of birds, the hum of bees,The low of kine, and voices clear and sweet,That link us to the world in our retreat,—30These, and the grateful spell—that magic zone—Of social pleasures o’er thy beauties thrown—Endear thy shades, and give thy forest bowersThe tranquil charm of gay and guiltless hours.Peaceful the day rolls here! and Friendship’s tongue—35That sweetest music!—breathes thy glades among,Charming life’s harsher discords into peace;Bidding anxiety’s sad warning cease,—Twining with wreaths of hope a falling shrine,Crowning with flowers the pale cold brow of Time.40I love thy calm! The storm-beat pinnace, drivenBefore the stern breath of the threat’ning heaven,Lies in some little bay, whose waters sleep,Cradled by rocks from the surrounding deep:And thus thy gentle shades seem formed to be45A quiet haven from a troubled sea.Here Nature walks in brightness, and each starIs as an altar, lit by her afar,To His great name who bound the radiant sphere.Each on its path foreknown, their song we hear50Hymning along the pure and cloudless skyThe awful story of their mystery;For the mind tracks them, as their course they take,E’en as with tongues of men their voices spake.Then,—Day!—with her bright chaplet’s rosy braid,55In all her living hues of light arrayed,Comes fresh o’er the green heath, and shakes the dewFrom her light sandall’d foot, whose blushing hueSeems as she trod on roses.—And, at eve,With ling’ring steps, as weary pilgrims leave60The shrine they love, calm sinks the sun’s last ray,And dovelike silence soothes the wearied day;And Time’s swift sand in noiseless current flows,There is nought here to break the still repose.—Nought of the stir—the strife—the mental war—65Of that vast Babylon, scarce seen afar;Where on the blue horizon’s distant verge,Its cloudy breath floats like a rolling surge;And in dim majesty its sacred dome,As it would rise to seek a purer home,70Soaring sublime above the denser sky—A type of Time and Immortality!—Beams through the yellow mist, and brings againThe dreams of splendour—affluence—pleasure—gain.And better visions:—for within thy walls,75London! the silent, secret blessing fallsPromised to those who, bowing not the kneeTo Baal, ’mid the land’s idolatry,The scoff of science, and the smile of pride,—The flash of wit, and talent misapplied,—80Blush not to own, to serve with humble zeal(Impressed with self-denial’s graven seal)The God who formed them! nor reject the handThat beckons onward t’wards the promised land;And, pierced for us,—sets the world’s captive free—85Hishardest service this—“believe on me.”Aye, there be many ’mid thy darkest cells,City, where ev’ry vice and sorrow dwells!Who bind the harvest in no pleasant field,Reaping with tears the increase it may yield!90Yet on the tablets of the age record—“I and my house will humbly serve the Lord!”Amid thy darkness bid Truth brightly shine,Strong to redeem the evil of the time.Vast City! from my dwelling’s quiet shade95I see thee in thy cloudy pomp arrayed,And scarce can deem thy rush of crowds so near,Whilst nought but Nature’s voice is stirring here!And bees, and birds, and forest glades are nigh,To soothe the ear and tempt the gladden’d eye.100Here the fawn looks from out the blossom’d brakes,—From dewy lawns the lark’s clear hymn awakes;The dimpling stream marks where the bright fish glide,And the fair lily clusters o’er its tide;The kine in scatter’d groups, with patient gaze,105Shine, golden-chestnut, in the sun’s glad rays;And the gale breathes as fresh, the sky as bright,As if no fane of Mammon met the sight!No city on the dimm’d horizon layA cloud, which but a breeze might waft away:110So faint the trace of yon stupendous mart,Where gold can buy—all!—genius—fame, and art!And yet, fair scenes! these charms so well thine own,Live to the many slandered or unknown;Capricious Fancy, with fantastic choice,115For distant beauties, gives her casting voice;To the remotest shores our isle suppliesTurns the faint gaze of her long dazzled eyes;Shuns the rich plenty of a daily feast,What most attainable, still valued least!120When from the thronged metropolis we roveTo seek the healthful gale, and bow’ry grove;By the far Lakes, or Caledonia’s shore,She bids our steps her mazy path explore;In Katrine’s mirror watch the mountains sleep,125And wander on Helvellyn’s mighty steep;Or where the belting Severn rolls sublimeHer copious stream, full as the tide of time,By rock and headland wander idly by;—Or trace thy bowers—my own romantic Wye!130Oh pardon!—no false renegade to thee,With well pleased eye these milder shades I see;—Their’s is the grace of Nature, deck’d by art,But thou art ever nearest to my heart!And I the well-remember’d past should wrong,135Neglecting thee, e’en in a transient song!Oh! who could silent pass a scene less fair,If life had dawned, and hope had blossom’d there!If youth’s bright flowers in gay varietyThy soil had nursed—no matterwhereto die,140If happiness—that gift of early years!Had marked each scene which contrast more endears;If long-loved voices seem to haunt the place,And formstherehover, which no hand may trace;If the dread seal of the all-silent grave,145Still uneffaced by Time’s slow-rolling wave,Had marked the lines of some one treasur’d spotOn memory’s tablet;—who that page would blot!No;—far from my fond hand to snatch one gemFrom thy soft beauty’s regal diadem:150Queen of the rock! nymph of the silent shade!Muse of the glen where my young feet have strayed;Though now, a pilgrim, from those paths I fly,’Mid all the goodly scenes that greet mine eye,Their rich variety of vale and hill—155Thy smile is brightest—purest—loveliest still!Away—thy banks I may not linger near;Sweet stream! whose murmurs yet are on my ear;—The scene around me, rich in autumn’s glow,Untrack’d by path, unbroken by the plough,160Where all unseen the pensive foot may roam,Is best befitting a recluse’s home.It is a place of trees; their sweeping boughsClash in the autumn’s gusts, their crowned browsRise upon ev’ry steep, and throng the glade165With a rich mass of varied light and shade.I love the wildness of the far spread scene:Now lost, now caught the golden checquer’d beam,Dancing the mossy trunks and boughs amid,And now in depths of thicker verdure hid;170Whilst the far rolling of the laden wain,Rich in its autumn store of golden grain,Or the faint sound of the revolving wheelThrough the low-sighing branches seems to stealBroken and fitful, o’er the extatic song175Of the free lark, his summer clouds among.I love thee, Land! and where such beauties shine,Ask not, in niggard phrase, if thou art mine?That here the eye is pleased—the foot is free—And the pulse healthful, is enough for me!180Yet art thou wrong’d—the pen, that seal of fameWhose magic impress gilds or blights a name,Hath striken thee;[2]—a base and coward dart!I fain would pluck the arrow from thy heart;Erase th’ accusing blot with just applause,185Nor spare a lance to skirmish in thy cause!Oh! say not health avoids this balmy gale,Or flies the pathway down that dewy vale!Skim o’er the plain! thread the wide mazy heath,Bright with her smile, and fragrant with her breath!190Doubt the dry slander of the technic sage,And, closing his, read Nature’s gentler page!Come with me where, o’er blythe and fertile meads,My step untired the mould’ring abbey[3]leads;Shorn of its beams, still o’er its woods it tow’rs,195A wreck, which yet recals its prouder hours.Gaze on the sculptur’d arch, the massive aisle,The niche where saint or martyr seemed to smile;(Dwellers in heaven, and only called belowOur faith to strengthen, or to soothe our woe;)200The plunder’d altar in its fall behold,Once heaped with far-sought relics, gems, and gold;Where a king knelt,[4]the penance vow to pay,And the mailed warrior came his spoils to lay;Where the doomed Saxon, zealous for his race,205Deemed he endowed their last proud dwelling-place;With wealth—and lands—enriched the holy shrineWhere he should sleep—the latest of his line!Come to that vacant shrine—though—such the doomOf greatness—here we trace note’en his tomb!210All that this pile so changed can now record,Is that, bowed down before the Norman’s sword,Here the pale mother, with vain fondness, gaveHer murder’d Harold that sad boon—a grave!Or, turning from the deeds of other days,215Towards yon deep groves direct the pensive gaze.Come with me where, from many a foreign clime,The varied marbles rise, the gildings shine;To the free sky and laughing summer’s beam,The paintings glow, the costly frescoes gleam;220And, by the idle winds of heaven laid bare,Pomp’s gaudy pageant smiles in mock’ry there.Wanstead!—thou spell to stay mirth’s flowing tide,Warning!—to daunt the regal brow of pride,Ruin!—which sunk in premature decay,225From ev’ry levell’d column seems to say:“Thus human wisdom plans for endless time,“Thus vice and folly mar the proud design;”’Tis good to wander through thy palace bowers,And tread the site of thy once stately towers!230From thy thick shades what mournful thoughts arise!Through thy far groves the sounding axe replies;Down sinks the pile! and ruin spreads o’er allThe silence of its dark funereal pall.Dower of woe! a rich but fatal boon,235The “gilding fretted from the toy too soon;”Is this thy wreck, a beacon, raised to tellHow vain the wealth—the pomp—we love so well?Hownothingall the splendour and the taste,Once redolent upon this mournful waste!240Turn to your humbler roofs! and bless your lot,Ye, who can claim the bliss-ennobled cot!If, ’neath the russet thatch and lowly dome,Peace—and her sister virtue, make their home;Lament not thou thy board of frugal fare,245But with full heart ask heaven’s blessing there!Thy prayer as free will come, as pure will rise,As if through column’d roofs it sought the skies.It is not marble—sculpture—painting—gold—Can deck the page of life by time unrolled!250And grandeur moulders—levelled with the mean,To warn us of the reed on which we lean.Alas!herbreast who owned this wide domainSighed for the calm of cottage homes in vain!She dwelt within this master-piece of art255With blighted visions—and a breaking heart.Turned on its pomps a faint accusing eye,And asked—and vainly asked—in peace to die.Come, from this scene so desolately fair,Where through “the Grove”[5]soft plays the summer air;260And wooingly the sun with ev’ry breezeKisses the glad leaves of the whisp’ring trees;Gilding their trunks, and on each dewy sprayHanging a gem that sparkles in his ray.There the magnolia’s snowy blossoms gleam,265Amid their glossy leaves’ umbrageous screen;There the pale orange scents the languid gales,And starry jasmine its sweet breath exhales;There the rich tribes of far Columbia’s plain,In clustering bloom awake to life again;270Glow the acacia’s trembling shade beneath,Or through the crimson sumach’s palm-like leaf;On the bright turf a gem-like radiance throw,And glisten on the tranquil wave below.Trace thou that bowery vista’s green alcove!275Through the long avenue in silence rove—Look through the woven boughs’ fine tracery,On the clear, blue, and joy-inspiring sky!Oh, lovely face of Nature!—who can viewThy smile rejoicing, nor be happy too?280What heart can thy enduring wonder scan,And see unrolled thy wide and glorious plan;Bask in thy glow, drink in thy living hues,Yet the deep homage of the heart refuse,To Him, who in such loveliness arrayed285Those charms of thine, which guilt alone could fade;And, e’er thy sin-bought doom of change began,Saw thou wert good, and gave the boon to man!By the green margin of that fairy lake,List!—for the lark’s wild music is awake,290And the low murmur of the ring-dove’s noteSteals musically, from her shade remote;The willow-spray upon the calm wave sleeps,The gilded trout from its still mirror leaps;Bright wings are glancing the free boughs among,295And bills of happy birds make one glad song!It is the home of Taste; her wand has laidA gentler beauty o’er the sylvan shade;Bade the fair trees in richer masses grow,With brighter hues the painted flowers glow;300No gilding strikes, no marbles court the eye,But, rich alone in Nature’s symmetry,To this retreat the fabled Nymphs repair,And deem they find their long-lost Tempe there;Hang o’er the brink of the transparent waves,305Sleep where the pendant rose its garland laves;Or idly on the velvet margin stray,And watch the gentle waters glide away.Not here the pomp of Grandeur’s cumbrous state,Here gentle Peace and polished Taste await.310Hismind who planned this smiling solitudeWith that pure feeling that directs the good;On Nature’s brow the votive chaplet placed,And loved the spot by her soft beauty graced;Turned from the stately dome—the busy crowd—315And to a simpler shrine in homage bowed;With true ambition earned a purer fame,Whilst the poor bless their benefactor’s name!And here the gentle smile of CourtesyStill holds the spell-bound step and gladden’d eye.320Taste, which with never-sated eye exploresThe changeful loveliness of distant shores;Yet, like the bee, how far soe’er it roam,Treasures their varied spoils to deck its home;Taste and refinement give the rosy hours325A winged speed in these delightful bowers!Here gentle converse in soft witchery blends;Here rank with graceful suavity descends;Nor, with the jealousy of meanness, deemsIts splendour lessened by the smile it beams!330With true nobility of mind, unknownTo pride, notfirmlyseated on its throne,With its warm smile the less distinguished cheers,Exacting, claiming naught, the more endears;And with real dignity’s resistless sway,335Deservesthe homage that we gladly pay.Here in the social circle gaily meetThe polished ease that makes the hours so fleet;Wit’s harmless play, and music’s tuneful spell,That whisper’d magic the heart knows so well!340And the sweet pencil’s ever-pleasing trace,Which makes eternal, beauty’s transient grace,Here bids the flower in fresher bloom and hue,On the fair page its flush of life renew;Whilst many an alpine height and distant plain,345Touched by the hand of genius, smiles again.Here too, on walls bright with the ev’ning rays,Thy magic wand of classic fancy playsAngelica![6]whose pencil’s graceful lineGives life and tint to sculpture’s chaste design;350Here thine Arcadian groups and attic scenesSeem the Elysium of a poet’s dreams,The fair embodied forms which fancy shews,When the pleased mind luxuriates in repose,When bright romance the ’witching harp has strung355And o’er the bard her robe of glamour flung.But now—’tis not from fiction’s flow’ry urnThe cup I fill! To truth’s pure stream I turn;ForWanstead! thy embowering shades amid,’Wake dearer feelings, deeper thoughts lie hid!360It may be from my chosen theme I stray,On friendship’s shrine a votive wreath to lay;A wreath unworthy of a shrine so dear,And placed, perhaps, with failing courage here.For what have the soul’s treasured thoughts to do365With the calm page that meets the stranger’s view?But could I pass that spot unnoted by,Dear to my heart, and welcome to mine eye;And when with honoured names the lay I twine,Refuse to gem the braid—loved friend—with thine!370My friend of many years! when yet a child,To me life’s far perspective only smiled;When (all my paradise of being, metIn that maternal love which sooths me yet;That cherished parent’s dear and tender care,375Which then, as now, my ev’ry hope would share)No tongue of change, and altered feelings, told,No lip smiled proudly, and no eye glanced cold;When with glad hand I loosed the silken sail,And launched my bark on pleasure’s sportive gale;380Fearing no coming gloom on wave or sky,No blasts unkind my fairy pinnance nigh.’Twas thine to point the doom of all below,The sentence—e’en when writ on flowers—of “woe;”—That fatal word, howe’er we hide the smart,385So deeply graven on the human heart;That cull each bud! joy’s sparkling goblet fillIn vain! for there we read the legend still.’Twas thine who, as the child in stature grew,Held truth’s clear mirror to my dazzled view;390Warned me of fancy’s too prevailing sway,Whispered how evanescent youth’s bright day!And told me that the scene I deemed so fair,Had many a thorn of trial lurking there.Instructress! from whose lips improvement came,395And study lost the rigour of its name,Friend! still by time and circumstance untried,Forgive the homage of a filial pride!Forgive, if from the brief excursive layI pause, love’s light and willing debt to pay.400My minstrel harp in vain would ask my care,If memory’s were a chord forbidden there;And little worth, that heartless verse, I deem,Unconsecrate by friendship’s steady beam.No! vain the varied wreath of tuneful song405If the heart’s language speak not with the tongue!Without true feeling, bright the page may be,But ’tis a cold and fickle brilliancy,The dazzling light of the sun’s glancing rays,When on the glacier’s arrowy point it plays;410Oh! fairer far that sun’s refulgent lines,Where on the cotter’s roof its brightness shines,Gilding the village green, the ivied tower,Tipping with light each blade and dewy flower;Smiling in sweet repose, his glad adieu,415All nature radiant with his glowing hue.Thus cheering, bright’ning o’er earth’s darker soil,Affection’s sunbeam gilds our daily toil;That arduous post we all are called to fill,In the set battle betwixt good and ill!420Vaintherethe subtlest panoply of proof,Take thou nor spear, nor buckler, save the truth.What are thy vaunted saws—Philosophy!Summed up and brought before the Christian’s eye?What all the comeliness of human schemes425For living, dying tranquilly?—what!—dreams!Impostors! swallowed by the Aaron’s rodOf that one simple axiom—“trust in God.”InHispure worship even sorrow heals,And the heart lightens with the pang it feels;430Unlike the trifles that our minds employ,Ending in sorrow, though begun in joy,Religion pours a balm with ev’ry tear,And reaps her golden harvest even here!Give me one hour in holy converse spent,435For a whole age of indolent content!Give me the friend who guides my steps aright,Nor fears to bring my errors to my sight:With tenderness the heart’s fond guile unrobes,But to the core with steady courage probes,440Points, as my path, not that Iwishto see,But the unbendingright, as thou to me,My long-loved friend! whose roof, a second home,More welcome smiles than wealth’s most costly dome.Full long the pilgrim’s sandall’d foot would tread,445Thy wood-paths,Wanstead, by affection led;But hark! yon deep and silent woods among,Wakes the low music of the poet’s song;The breath of his sweet lyre, on breezes borne,Floats, where of old the hunter’s stirring horn[7]450Called to the echoes, that through dell and gladeSpake in their jocund tongues, from every shade.Whilst knight and damsel, in their vests of green,Throng’d, gay and graceful, round their huntress-queen;And the proud stag caught from afar the strain,455Tossed his broad brow, and sought his woods again.There now the hind, in fern-clad hollows hid,Couches the pendant weeds and flowers amid,Or tripping light, her velvets gemmed with dew,With a shy wildness glances on the view,460Turns her fair neck with momentary gaze,Then plunges in the covert’s verdant maze;There now the pheasant’s shrilly note is heard,There in blest freedom lives each happy bird;The partridge brings in peace her covey there,465And fears no danger but the fox’s lair;No thundering gun the startled echoes know,And e’en the timid lev’ret dreads no foe.Come! when the moon in silvery lustre sleeps,And climb with me the forest’s mossy steeps;470There, o’er the dewy turf, all bathed in light,The playful hare scuds from the stranger’s sight,Or calmly pastures on the glist’ning blade,Whilst the lone owl hoots from his ivied shade.’Neath yon wide oak the deep’ning shadows dwell,475And darkly glance upon the “brocket well,”That from the twisted roots its stream distils,Nursed in the bosom of the shelt’ring hills;Whilst on that brow the beeches’ lofty height,Waves in the clearness of the azure night;480And in wild murmurs sigh the fresh’ning gales,Through the deep arches of their leafy aisles.Come to the poet’s study! no proud domeRich in the polish’d lore of Greece and Rome,And painting’s wonders, sculpture’s magic grace,485Which bids the rock a god’s bright features trace.No, here, beneath the “branching elms star-proof,”Rises in peace the low and simple roof;Birds sing above, and flowers blossom nigh,And the blue glimpses of the cloudless sky490Through woven boughs and russet thatch look forth,Like thoughts of heav’n amid the cares of earth!And here pure thoughts and holiest visions come,And find within this grot their tranquil home;Here not the fever of excited minds495Its baleful food in headlong passion finds,To poison turns the flower’d chalice, givenTo the bard’s hand by an all-bounteous heaven,Changing that magic, that might heal the soul,To Comus’ mocking rod and Circe’s bowl.500Oh! better far! here o’er the poet’s lyre,Hovers a ray of purer, brighter, fire;And lips that glow with genius’ heaven-sprung flame,Breathe back the sacred incense whence it came!But ye! who with my lay have wandered on,505That lay is spent, the pilgrim’s shrine is won.Not now, not now, beside Castalia’s streams,I ask a fabled muse to aid my dreams,Or spread on poesy’s too frolic galeThe varied woof of fancy’s tissued sail,515Or bid the star-led bark of fairy land,Glide in wild music, from the lonely strand.In Nature’s praise I frame the simple lay,Through her delightful paths in freedom stray;Weaving my garland, in whose braid I twine520Names, that might blush to gem a wreath of mine,Did not true fame shun the pretender’s boast,Exacting least where it might claim the most.Let such forgive, that on their native plainA stranger’s lute takes up the votive strain!525Not mine to wake the poet’s golden lyre,Its thrilling chords, and soul-ennobling fire;Or its sweet sorrow, like the ev’ning’s breath,Or dew, upon the light and glossy leaf;Not mine the power to weave the tuneful spell,530And draw a spirit from the sounding shell;No! to my trembling fingers give insteadThe oaten stop and simple shepherd’s reed!I have no muse but Truth;—I ask no artTo write her lessons on the gentle heart;535Simple and plain in her own strength she stands,Nor needs the weak support of human hands.A granite column, firm and unadorned,As if the pomp of ornament she scorned;Truth borrows not the glare of gems or gold,540Her name, a charm that needs but to be told!And with her,—inmates of the humble cell,Where, linked in love, the Christian graces dwell;—That best and loveliest, whose welcome feetThe mountain tops in rays of gladness greet,545As o’er the earth her noiseless step is stayed,Healing each bitter wound that sin has made,Comes;—like the rainbow o’er the stormy cloud!Or pardon to the wretch in fetters bowed;Or the sweet dash of waters on the ear,550Gladd’ning the desert-pilgrim’s path of fear.—Whilst earth rejoices, smiles the bright’ning skyBeneath thy step—benignant Charity!Can’stthouwant advocates?—Did not the voiceWhich bade fall’n nature in her bonds rejoice,555And, graven on her page of trial, see“Health to the stricken!—set the pris’ner free!”Did not that voice, which sin’s fast bondage brake,And bade, from death’s deep rest, the slumb’rer wake,Withoutthis chiefestall our gifts declare560As tinkling metal, or as tinsel’s glare?Is there a duty, nearer than the rest,Whose links are twined so close about the breast?In the fair structure of creation’s plan,Uniting all, and binding man to man?565’Tis this!—By this to us our God has givenA portion of the privilege of heaven,The joy of blessing!—He, who wipes the tearFrom every mourner’s brow who sorrows here,Intrusts the sceptre to his creature’s hand,570“Go and do likewise!” His benign command,In fellowship with man, his task partakesWherever Charity’s pure zeal awakes;How poor soe’er the votive cup, its brimO’erflows with wine, if poured from love to Him;575And He is with us in the humblest deedThat serves mankind,Hissmile our golden meed!If strong, this fairest virtue’s earnest claim,Ah—let nothereher cause be urged in vain!Shall we the less her soft’ning influence feel,580Because the weak are objects of our zeal?Because the poor—the sick—the suffering, pleadThrough her, to us, in this their hour of need?Ye!—in whose softer bosoms ought to moveThe tranquil whispers of a purer love;585Ye!—to whose gentler fost’ring hand ’tis givenTo shield the plant whose native clime is heaven;Its tender shoots to bind with sweet control,And for its future Eden fit the soul;Upon whose bosom its soft form reclines,590Sheltered from gathering clouds, and rending winds.Ye!—who hang o’er these blossoms of your love,And trust to see them perfected above,Say—can ye gaze upon your happy home,A mother’s hopes, and quiet pleasures own;595From infancy’s soft lips that dear name hear,Its half-formed accents blessed to your ear!And sweet its cares implied, nor turn to thoseWho bear—in poverty—a mother’s woes?Daughter of wealth!—whose breast hath never known600Want’s bitter pang, misfortune’s stifled groan;If,—in the fountain of thy woman’s heartPity and sympathising love have part,—When such a claim we proffer—pass not byOr turn away with cold averted eye!605Go—open Nature’s book, and she will tellHow potent is Compassion’s silent spell;Making worth nobler,—loveliness more fair,And talent brighter for the tear they spare.Or in a richer volume, humbly read610The blessing promised to one kindly deed;Not unrequited, for the master’s sakeWe give the cup, his pilgrim’s thirst to slake.And when Benevolence, with accents bland,Endears the largess of the ready hand,615The off’ring on no barren shrine is laid,The vow to no ungracious master paid;But the Redeemer’s mild approving smileBeams on the sacrifice and lights the pile.And infancy is sacred, for it drew620A blessing down—in the assembled viewOf those first gleaners in the promised land,His true disciples’ firm united bandThe Saviour stood—with brow serene and mild,And held amid the crowd, “a little child.”625And as upon his tranquil breast it layWith dimpled lip and eye of placid ray,Confiding, fearless, in his tender care,Thus spake,—“Behold! the Christian’s model there!Be as this babe in gentleness and love,630For such shall form my heritage above;And whosoe’er with pitying eye shall seeBut one—the least of these—receiveth me!And from the Father’s hand, with blessing stored,May claim the faithful servant’s rich reward.”635Go then—when charity and mercy pleadBe the heart strong to prompt the bounteous deed!Fear not to trust its inmost whispers there,But all its energy and fervour share;Happy!—one bosom flower to cull at last640O’er which the blight of sin hath never passed!Happy—that from this fount of pain and woeA stainless stream may still in brightness flow;Happy!—in memory’s wreath one bud to setOn which the bloom of Eden lingers yet!645

Land of soft showers and far-extending vales,

And woodlands fanned by summer’s gentlest gales,

And streams, that glisten as they steal, half hid

The tangled brake and waving sedge amid;

Land!—where rich plenty with abounding flow,5

Bids ’neath her smile the golden meadow glow,

And from the juicy herbage—Nature’s wealth!

Draws the pure stream of sustenance and health;

Land—where, beneath Wealth’s hospitable dome,

Refinement dwells, and Science finds a home,—10

In whose sweet sylvan shades the classic Muse

Her richer buds upon thy green lap strews;

With thy soft breath her tuneful whisper blends,

And to the Poet’s home her brightness lends,—

Smiles at his hearth, dispels the gath’ring tear,15

And—dating all from Heaven—makes onehere.

Nor fears the power of her spell will cease,

Breathed from the altar of domestic peace;[1]

Land! where my pilgrim foot in peace hath strayed,

And traced out many a fresh and grassy glade,20

Smiling in sunlight, whilst, like former dreams,

Dimly afar the mighty City gleams;

Where o’er its lines the dancing sunbeams play,

Gilding each roof with morning’s brilliant ray—

I hail thee!—not mine own—but still dear clime!25

Fair spread thy vales! and bright thy waters shine!

Thy flowers,—thy glens, and health-restoring breeze

Fraught with the song of birds, the hum of bees,

The low of kine, and voices clear and sweet,

That link us to the world in our retreat,—30

These, and the grateful spell—that magic zone—

Of social pleasures o’er thy beauties thrown—

Endear thy shades, and give thy forest bowers

The tranquil charm of gay and guiltless hours.

Peaceful the day rolls here! and Friendship’s tongue—35

That sweetest music!—breathes thy glades among,

Charming life’s harsher discords into peace;

Bidding anxiety’s sad warning cease,—

Twining with wreaths of hope a falling shrine,

Crowning with flowers the pale cold brow of Time.40

I love thy calm! The storm-beat pinnace, driven

Before the stern breath of the threat’ning heaven,

Lies in some little bay, whose waters sleep,

Cradled by rocks from the surrounding deep:

And thus thy gentle shades seem formed to be45

A quiet haven from a troubled sea.

Here Nature walks in brightness, and each star

Is as an altar, lit by her afar,

To His great name who bound the radiant sphere.

Each on its path foreknown, their song we hear50

Hymning along the pure and cloudless sky

The awful story of their mystery;

For the mind tracks them, as their course they take,

E’en as with tongues of men their voices spake.

Then,—Day!—with her bright chaplet’s rosy braid,55

In all her living hues of light arrayed,

Comes fresh o’er the green heath, and shakes the dew

From her light sandall’d foot, whose blushing hue

Seems as she trod on roses.—And, at eve,

With ling’ring steps, as weary pilgrims leave60

The shrine they love, calm sinks the sun’s last ray,

And dovelike silence soothes the wearied day;

And Time’s swift sand in noiseless current flows,

There is nought here to break the still repose.—

Nought of the stir—the strife—the mental war—65

Of that vast Babylon, scarce seen afar;

Where on the blue horizon’s distant verge,

Its cloudy breath floats like a rolling surge;

And in dim majesty its sacred dome,

As it would rise to seek a purer home,70

Soaring sublime above the denser sky—

A type of Time and Immortality!—

Beams through the yellow mist, and brings again

The dreams of splendour—affluence—pleasure—gain.

And better visions:—for within thy walls,75

London! the silent, secret blessing falls

Promised to those who, bowing not the knee

To Baal, ’mid the land’s idolatry,

The scoff of science, and the smile of pride,—

The flash of wit, and talent misapplied,—80

Blush not to own, to serve with humble zeal

(Impressed with self-denial’s graven seal)

The God who formed them! nor reject the hand

That beckons onward t’wards the promised land;

And, pierced for us,—sets the world’s captive free—85

Hishardest service this—“believe on me.”

Aye, there be many ’mid thy darkest cells,

City, where ev’ry vice and sorrow dwells!

Who bind the harvest in no pleasant field,

Reaping with tears the increase it may yield!90

Yet on the tablets of the age record—

“I and my house will humbly serve the Lord!”

Amid thy darkness bid Truth brightly shine,

Strong to redeem the evil of the time.

Vast City! from my dwelling’s quiet shade95

I see thee in thy cloudy pomp arrayed,

And scarce can deem thy rush of crowds so near,

Whilst nought but Nature’s voice is stirring here!

And bees, and birds, and forest glades are nigh,

To soothe the ear and tempt the gladden’d eye.100

Here the fawn looks from out the blossom’d brakes,—

From dewy lawns the lark’s clear hymn awakes;

The dimpling stream marks where the bright fish glide,

And the fair lily clusters o’er its tide;

The kine in scatter’d groups, with patient gaze,105

Shine, golden-chestnut, in the sun’s glad rays;

And the gale breathes as fresh, the sky as bright,

As if no fane of Mammon met the sight!

No city on the dimm’d horizon lay

A cloud, which but a breeze might waft away:110

So faint the trace of yon stupendous mart,

Where gold can buy—all!—genius—fame, and art!

And yet, fair scenes! these charms so well thine own,

Live to the many slandered or unknown;

Capricious Fancy, with fantastic choice,115

For distant beauties, gives her casting voice;

To the remotest shores our isle supplies

Turns the faint gaze of her long dazzled eyes;

Shuns the rich plenty of a daily feast,

What most attainable, still valued least!120

When from the thronged metropolis we rove

To seek the healthful gale, and bow’ry grove;

By the far Lakes, or Caledonia’s shore,

She bids our steps her mazy path explore;

In Katrine’s mirror watch the mountains sleep,125

And wander on Helvellyn’s mighty steep;

Or where the belting Severn rolls sublime

Her copious stream, full as the tide of time,

By rock and headland wander idly by;—

Or trace thy bowers—my own romantic Wye!130

Oh pardon!—no false renegade to thee,

With well pleased eye these milder shades I see;—

Their’s is the grace of Nature, deck’d by art,

But thou art ever nearest to my heart!

And I the well-remember’d past should wrong,135

Neglecting thee, e’en in a transient song!

Oh! who could silent pass a scene less fair,

If life had dawned, and hope had blossom’d there!

If youth’s bright flowers in gay variety

Thy soil had nursed—no matterwhereto die,140

If happiness—that gift of early years!

Had marked each scene which contrast more endears;

If long-loved voices seem to haunt the place,

And formstherehover, which no hand may trace;

If the dread seal of the all-silent grave,145

Still uneffaced by Time’s slow-rolling wave,

Had marked the lines of some one treasur’d spot

On memory’s tablet;—who that page would blot!

No;—far from my fond hand to snatch one gem

From thy soft beauty’s regal diadem:150

Queen of the rock! nymph of the silent shade!

Muse of the glen where my young feet have strayed;

Though now, a pilgrim, from those paths I fly,

’Mid all the goodly scenes that greet mine eye,

Their rich variety of vale and hill—155

Thy smile is brightest—purest—loveliest still!

Away—thy banks I may not linger near;

Sweet stream! whose murmurs yet are on my ear;—

The scene around me, rich in autumn’s glow,

Untrack’d by path, unbroken by the plough,160

Where all unseen the pensive foot may roam,

Is best befitting a recluse’s home.

It is a place of trees; their sweeping boughs

Clash in the autumn’s gusts, their crowned brows

Rise upon ev’ry steep, and throng the glade165

With a rich mass of varied light and shade.

I love the wildness of the far spread scene:

Now lost, now caught the golden checquer’d beam,

Dancing the mossy trunks and boughs amid,

And now in depths of thicker verdure hid;170

Whilst the far rolling of the laden wain,

Rich in its autumn store of golden grain,

Or the faint sound of the revolving wheel

Through the low-sighing branches seems to steal

Broken and fitful, o’er the extatic song175

Of the free lark, his summer clouds among.

I love thee, Land! and where such beauties shine,

Ask not, in niggard phrase, if thou art mine?

That here the eye is pleased—the foot is free—

And the pulse healthful, is enough for me!180

Yet art thou wrong’d—the pen, that seal of fame

Whose magic impress gilds or blights a name,

Hath striken thee;[2]—a base and coward dart!

I fain would pluck the arrow from thy heart;

Erase th’ accusing blot with just applause,185

Nor spare a lance to skirmish in thy cause!

Oh! say not health avoids this balmy gale,

Or flies the pathway down that dewy vale!

Skim o’er the plain! thread the wide mazy heath,

Bright with her smile, and fragrant with her breath!190

Doubt the dry slander of the technic sage,

And, closing his, read Nature’s gentler page!

Come with me where, o’er blythe and fertile meads,

My step untired the mould’ring abbey[3]leads;

Shorn of its beams, still o’er its woods it tow’rs,195

A wreck, which yet recals its prouder hours.

Gaze on the sculptur’d arch, the massive aisle,

The niche where saint or martyr seemed to smile;

(Dwellers in heaven, and only called below

Our faith to strengthen, or to soothe our woe;)200

The plunder’d altar in its fall behold,

Once heaped with far-sought relics, gems, and gold;

Where a king knelt,[4]the penance vow to pay,

And the mailed warrior came his spoils to lay;

Where the doomed Saxon, zealous for his race,205

Deemed he endowed their last proud dwelling-place;

With wealth—and lands—enriched the holy shrine

Where he should sleep—the latest of his line!

Come to that vacant shrine—though—such the doom

Of greatness—here we trace note’en his tomb!210

All that this pile so changed can now record,

Is that, bowed down before the Norman’s sword,

Here the pale mother, with vain fondness, gave

Her murder’d Harold that sad boon—a grave!

Or, turning from the deeds of other days,215

Towards yon deep groves direct the pensive gaze.

Come with me where, from many a foreign clime,

The varied marbles rise, the gildings shine;

To the free sky and laughing summer’s beam,

The paintings glow, the costly frescoes gleam;220

And, by the idle winds of heaven laid bare,

Pomp’s gaudy pageant smiles in mock’ry there.

Wanstead!—thou spell to stay mirth’s flowing tide,

Warning!—to daunt the regal brow of pride,

Ruin!—which sunk in premature decay,225

From ev’ry levell’d column seems to say:

“Thus human wisdom plans for endless time,

“Thus vice and folly mar the proud design;”

’Tis good to wander through thy palace bowers,

And tread the site of thy once stately towers!230

From thy thick shades what mournful thoughts arise!

Through thy far groves the sounding axe replies;

Down sinks the pile! and ruin spreads o’er all

The silence of its dark funereal pall.

Dower of woe! a rich but fatal boon,235

The “gilding fretted from the toy too soon;”

Is this thy wreck, a beacon, raised to tell

How vain the wealth—the pomp—we love so well?

Hownothingall the splendour and the taste,

Once redolent upon this mournful waste!240

Turn to your humbler roofs! and bless your lot,

Ye, who can claim the bliss-ennobled cot!

If, ’neath the russet thatch and lowly dome,

Peace—and her sister virtue, make their home;

Lament not thou thy board of frugal fare,245

But with full heart ask heaven’s blessing there!

Thy prayer as free will come, as pure will rise,

As if through column’d roofs it sought the skies.

It is not marble—sculpture—painting—gold—

Can deck the page of life by time unrolled!250

And grandeur moulders—levelled with the mean,

To warn us of the reed on which we lean.

Alas!herbreast who owned this wide domain

Sighed for the calm of cottage homes in vain!

She dwelt within this master-piece of art255

With blighted visions—and a breaking heart.

Turned on its pomps a faint accusing eye,

And asked—and vainly asked—in peace to die.

Come, from this scene so desolately fair,

Where through “the Grove”[5]soft plays the summer air;260

And wooingly the sun with ev’ry breeze

Kisses the glad leaves of the whisp’ring trees;

Gilding their trunks, and on each dewy spray

Hanging a gem that sparkles in his ray.

There the magnolia’s snowy blossoms gleam,265

Amid their glossy leaves’ umbrageous screen;

There the pale orange scents the languid gales,

And starry jasmine its sweet breath exhales;

There the rich tribes of far Columbia’s plain,

In clustering bloom awake to life again;270

Glow the acacia’s trembling shade beneath,

Or through the crimson sumach’s palm-like leaf;

On the bright turf a gem-like radiance throw,

And glisten on the tranquil wave below.

Trace thou that bowery vista’s green alcove!275

Through the long avenue in silence rove—

Look through the woven boughs’ fine tracery,

On the clear, blue, and joy-inspiring sky!

Oh, lovely face of Nature!—who can view

Thy smile rejoicing, nor be happy too?280

What heart can thy enduring wonder scan,

And see unrolled thy wide and glorious plan;

Bask in thy glow, drink in thy living hues,

Yet the deep homage of the heart refuse,

To Him, who in such loveliness arrayed285

Those charms of thine, which guilt alone could fade;

And, e’er thy sin-bought doom of change began,

Saw thou wert good, and gave the boon to man!

By the green margin of that fairy lake,

List!—for the lark’s wild music is awake,290

And the low murmur of the ring-dove’s note

Steals musically, from her shade remote;

The willow-spray upon the calm wave sleeps,

The gilded trout from its still mirror leaps;

Bright wings are glancing the free boughs among,295

And bills of happy birds make one glad song!

It is the home of Taste; her wand has laid

A gentler beauty o’er the sylvan shade;

Bade the fair trees in richer masses grow,

With brighter hues the painted flowers glow;300

No gilding strikes, no marbles court the eye,

But, rich alone in Nature’s symmetry,

To this retreat the fabled Nymphs repair,

And deem they find their long-lost Tempe there;

Hang o’er the brink of the transparent waves,305

Sleep where the pendant rose its garland laves;

Or idly on the velvet margin stray,

And watch the gentle waters glide away.

Not here the pomp of Grandeur’s cumbrous state,

Here gentle Peace and polished Taste await.310

Hismind who planned this smiling solitude

With that pure feeling that directs the good;

On Nature’s brow the votive chaplet placed,

And loved the spot by her soft beauty graced;

Turned from the stately dome—the busy crowd—315

And to a simpler shrine in homage bowed;

With true ambition earned a purer fame,

Whilst the poor bless their benefactor’s name!

And here the gentle smile of Courtesy

Still holds the spell-bound step and gladden’d eye.320

Taste, which with never-sated eye explores

The changeful loveliness of distant shores;

Yet, like the bee, how far soe’er it roam,

Treasures their varied spoils to deck its home;

Taste and refinement give the rosy hours325

A winged speed in these delightful bowers!

Here gentle converse in soft witchery blends;

Here rank with graceful suavity descends;

Nor, with the jealousy of meanness, deems

Its splendour lessened by the smile it beams!330

With true nobility of mind, unknown

To pride, notfirmlyseated on its throne,

With its warm smile the less distinguished cheers,

Exacting, claiming naught, the more endears;

And with real dignity’s resistless sway,335

Deservesthe homage that we gladly pay.

Here in the social circle gaily meet

The polished ease that makes the hours so fleet;

Wit’s harmless play, and music’s tuneful spell,

That whisper’d magic the heart knows so well!340

And the sweet pencil’s ever-pleasing trace,

Which makes eternal, beauty’s transient grace,

Here bids the flower in fresher bloom and hue,

On the fair page its flush of life renew;

Whilst many an alpine height and distant plain,345

Touched by the hand of genius, smiles again.

Here too, on walls bright with the ev’ning rays,

Thy magic wand of classic fancy plays

Angelica![6]whose pencil’s graceful line

Gives life and tint to sculpture’s chaste design;350

Here thine Arcadian groups and attic scenes

Seem the Elysium of a poet’s dreams,

The fair embodied forms which fancy shews,

When the pleased mind luxuriates in repose,

When bright romance the ’witching harp has strung355

And o’er the bard her robe of glamour flung.

But now—’tis not from fiction’s flow’ry urn

The cup I fill! To truth’s pure stream I turn;

ForWanstead! thy embowering shades amid,

’Wake dearer feelings, deeper thoughts lie hid!360

It may be from my chosen theme I stray,

On friendship’s shrine a votive wreath to lay;

A wreath unworthy of a shrine so dear,

And placed, perhaps, with failing courage here.

For what have the soul’s treasured thoughts to do365

With the calm page that meets the stranger’s view?

But could I pass that spot unnoted by,

Dear to my heart, and welcome to mine eye;

And when with honoured names the lay I twine,

Refuse to gem the braid—loved friend—with thine!370

My friend of many years! when yet a child,

To me life’s far perspective only smiled;

When (all my paradise of being, met

In that maternal love which sooths me yet;

That cherished parent’s dear and tender care,375

Which then, as now, my ev’ry hope would share)

No tongue of change, and altered feelings, told,

No lip smiled proudly, and no eye glanced cold;

When with glad hand I loosed the silken sail,

And launched my bark on pleasure’s sportive gale;380

Fearing no coming gloom on wave or sky,

No blasts unkind my fairy pinnance nigh.

’Twas thine to point the doom of all below,

The sentence—e’en when writ on flowers—of “woe;”—

That fatal word, howe’er we hide the smart,385

So deeply graven on the human heart;

That cull each bud! joy’s sparkling goblet fill

In vain! for there we read the legend still.

’Twas thine who, as the child in stature grew,

Held truth’s clear mirror to my dazzled view;390

Warned me of fancy’s too prevailing sway,

Whispered how evanescent youth’s bright day!

And told me that the scene I deemed so fair,

Had many a thorn of trial lurking there.

Instructress! from whose lips improvement came,395

And study lost the rigour of its name,

Friend! still by time and circumstance untried,

Forgive the homage of a filial pride!

Forgive, if from the brief excursive lay

I pause, love’s light and willing debt to pay.400

My minstrel harp in vain would ask my care,

If memory’s were a chord forbidden there;

And little worth, that heartless verse, I deem,

Unconsecrate by friendship’s steady beam.

No! vain the varied wreath of tuneful song405

If the heart’s language speak not with the tongue!

Without true feeling, bright the page may be,

But ’tis a cold and fickle brilliancy,

The dazzling light of the sun’s glancing rays,

When on the glacier’s arrowy point it plays;410

Oh! fairer far that sun’s refulgent lines,

Where on the cotter’s roof its brightness shines,

Gilding the village green, the ivied tower,

Tipping with light each blade and dewy flower;

Smiling in sweet repose, his glad adieu,415

All nature radiant with his glowing hue.

Thus cheering, bright’ning o’er earth’s darker soil,

Affection’s sunbeam gilds our daily toil;

That arduous post we all are called to fill,

In the set battle betwixt good and ill!420

Vaintherethe subtlest panoply of proof,

Take thou nor spear, nor buckler, save the truth.

What are thy vaunted saws—Philosophy!

Summed up and brought before the Christian’s eye?

What all the comeliness of human schemes425

For living, dying tranquilly?—what!—dreams!

Impostors! swallowed by the Aaron’s rod

Of that one simple axiom—“trust in God.”

InHispure worship even sorrow heals,

And the heart lightens with the pang it feels;430

Unlike the trifles that our minds employ,

Ending in sorrow, though begun in joy,

Religion pours a balm with ev’ry tear,

And reaps her golden harvest even here!

Give me one hour in holy converse spent,435

For a whole age of indolent content!

Give me the friend who guides my steps aright,

Nor fears to bring my errors to my sight:

With tenderness the heart’s fond guile unrobes,

But to the core with steady courage probes,440

Points, as my path, not that Iwishto see,

But the unbendingright, as thou to me,

My long-loved friend! whose roof, a second home,

More welcome smiles than wealth’s most costly dome.

Full long the pilgrim’s sandall’d foot would tread,445

Thy wood-paths,Wanstead, by affection led;

But hark! yon deep and silent woods among,

Wakes the low music of the poet’s song;

The breath of his sweet lyre, on breezes borne,

Floats, where of old the hunter’s stirring horn[7]450

Called to the echoes, that through dell and glade

Spake in their jocund tongues, from every shade.

Whilst knight and damsel, in their vests of green,

Throng’d, gay and graceful, round their huntress-queen;

And the proud stag caught from afar the strain,455

Tossed his broad brow, and sought his woods again.

There now the hind, in fern-clad hollows hid,

Couches the pendant weeds and flowers amid,

Or tripping light, her velvets gemmed with dew,

With a shy wildness glances on the view,460

Turns her fair neck with momentary gaze,

Then plunges in the covert’s verdant maze;

There now the pheasant’s shrilly note is heard,

There in blest freedom lives each happy bird;

The partridge brings in peace her covey there,465

And fears no danger but the fox’s lair;

No thundering gun the startled echoes know,

And e’en the timid lev’ret dreads no foe.

Come! when the moon in silvery lustre sleeps,

And climb with me the forest’s mossy steeps;470

There, o’er the dewy turf, all bathed in light,

The playful hare scuds from the stranger’s sight,

Or calmly pastures on the glist’ning blade,

Whilst the lone owl hoots from his ivied shade.

’Neath yon wide oak the deep’ning shadows dwell,475

And darkly glance upon the “brocket well,”

That from the twisted roots its stream distils,

Nursed in the bosom of the shelt’ring hills;

Whilst on that brow the beeches’ lofty height,

Waves in the clearness of the azure night;480

And in wild murmurs sigh the fresh’ning gales,

Through the deep arches of their leafy aisles.

Come to the poet’s study! no proud dome

Rich in the polish’d lore of Greece and Rome,

And painting’s wonders, sculpture’s magic grace,485

Which bids the rock a god’s bright features trace.

No, here, beneath the “branching elms star-proof,”

Rises in peace the low and simple roof;

Birds sing above, and flowers blossom nigh,

And the blue glimpses of the cloudless sky490

Through woven boughs and russet thatch look forth,

Like thoughts of heav’n amid the cares of earth!

And here pure thoughts and holiest visions come,

And find within this grot their tranquil home;

Here not the fever of excited minds495

Its baleful food in headlong passion finds,

To poison turns the flower’d chalice, given

To the bard’s hand by an all-bounteous heaven,

Changing that magic, that might heal the soul,

To Comus’ mocking rod and Circe’s bowl.500

Oh! better far! here o’er the poet’s lyre,

Hovers a ray of purer, brighter, fire;

And lips that glow with genius’ heaven-sprung flame,

Breathe back the sacred incense whence it came!

But ye! who with my lay have wandered on,505

That lay is spent, the pilgrim’s shrine is won.

Not now, not now, beside Castalia’s streams,

I ask a fabled muse to aid my dreams,

Or spread on poesy’s too frolic gale

The varied woof of fancy’s tissued sail,515

Or bid the star-led bark of fairy land,

Glide in wild music, from the lonely strand.

In Nature’s praise I frame the simple lay,

Through her delightful paths in freedom stray;

Weaving my garland, in whose braid I twine520

Names, that might blush to gem a wreath of mine,

Did not true fame shun the pretender’s boast,

Exacting least where it might claim the most.

Let such forgive, that on their native plain

A stranger’s lute takes up the votive strain!525

Not mine to wake the poet’s golden lyre,

Its thrilling chords, and soul-ennobling fire;

Or its sweet sorrow, like the ev’ning’s breath,

Or dew, upon the light and glossy leaf;

Not mine the power to weave the tuneful spell,530

And draw a spirit from the sounding shell;

No! to my trembling fingers give instead

The oaten stop and simple shepherd’s reed!

I have no muse but Truth;—I ask no art

To write her lessons on the gentle heart;535

Simple and plain in her own strength she stands,

Nor needs the weak support of human hands.

A granite column, firm and unadorned,

As if the pomp of ornament she scorned;

Truth borrows not the glare of gems or gold,540

Her name, a charm that needs but to be told!

And with her,—inmates of the humble cell,

Where, linked in love, the Christian graces dwell;—

That best and loveliest, whose welcome feet

The mountain tops in rays of gladness greet,545

As o’er the earth her noiseless step is stayed,

Healing each bitter wound that sin has made,

Comes;—like the rainbow o’er the stormy cloud!

Or pardon to the wretch in fetters bowed;

Or the sweet dash of waters on the ear,550

Gladd’ning the desert-pilgrim’s path of fear.—

Whilst earth rejoices, smiles the bright’ning sky

Beneath thy step—benignant Charity!

Can’stthouwant advocates?—Did not the voice

Which bade fall’n nature in her bonds rejoice,555

And, graven on her page of trial, see

“Health to the stricken!—set the pris’ner free!”

Did not that voice, which sin’s fast bondage brake,

And bade, from death’s deep rest, the slumb’rer wake,

Withoutthis chiefestall our gifts declare560

As tinkling metal, or as tinsel’s glare?

Is there a duty, nearer than the rest,

Whose links are twined so close about the breast?

In the fair structure of creation’s plan,

Uniting all, and binding man to man?565

’Tis this!—By this to us our God has given

A portion of the privilege of heaven,

The joy of blessing!—He, who wipes the tear

From every mourner’s brow who sorrows here,

Intrusts the sceptre to his creature’s hand,570

“Go and do likewise!” His benign command,

In fellowship with man, his task partakes

Wherever Charity’s pure zeal awakes;

How poor soe’er the votive cup, its brim

O’erflows with wine, if poured from love to Him;575

And He is with us in the humblest deed

That serves mankind,Hissmile our golden meed!

If strong, this fairest virtue’s earnest claim,

Ah—let nothereher cause be urged in vain!

Shall we the less her soft’ning influence feel,580

Because the weak are objects of our zeal?

Because the poor—the sick—the suffering, plead

Through her, to us, in this their hour of need?

Ye!—in whose softer bosoms ought to move

The tranquil whispers of a purer love;585

Ye!—to whose gentler fost’ring hand ’tis given

To shield the plant whose native clime is heaven;

Its tender shoots to bind with sweet control,

And for its future Eden fit the soul;

Upon whose bosom its soft form reclines,590

Sheltered from gathering clouds, and rending winds.

Ye!—who hang o’er these blossoms of your love,

And trust to see them perfected above,

Say—can ye gaze upon your happy home,

A mother’s hopes, and quiet pleasures own;595

From infancy’s soft lips that dear name hear,

Its half-formed accents blessed to your ear!

And sweet its cares implied, nor turn to those

Who bear—in poverty—a mother’s woes?

Daughter of wealth!—whose breast hath never known600

Want’s bitter pang, misfortune’s stifled groan;

If,—in the fountain of thy woman’s heart

Pity and sympathising love have part,—

When such a claim we proffer—pass not by

Or turn away with cold averted eye!605

Go—open Nature’s book, and she will tell

How potent is Compassion’s silent spell;

Making worth nobler,—loveliness more fair,

And talent brighter for the tear they spare.

Or in a richer volume, humbly read610

The blessing promised to one kindly deed;

Not unrequited, for the master’s sake

We give the cup, his pilgrim’s thirst to slake.

And when Benevolence, with accents bland,

Endears the largess of the ready hand,615

The off’ring on no barren shrine is laid,

The vow to no ungracious master paid;

But the Redeemer’s mild approving smile

Beams on the sacrifice and lights the pile.

And infancy is sacred, for it drew620

A blessing down—in the assembled view

Of those first gleaners in the promised land,

His true disciples’ firm united band

The Saviour stood—with brow serene and mild,

And held amid the crowd, “a little child.”625

And as upon his tranquil breast it lay

With dimpled lip and eye of placid ray,

Confiding, fearless, in his tender care,

Thus spake,—“Behold! the Christian’s model there!

Be as this babe in gentleness and love,630

For such shall form my heritage above;

And whosoe’er with pitying eye shall see

But one—the least of these—receiveth me!

And from the Father’s hand, with blessing stored,

May claim the faithful servant’s rich reward.”635

Go then—when charity and mercy plead

Be the heart strong to prompt the bounteous deed!

Fear not to trust its inmost whispers there,

But all its energy and fervour share;

Happy!—one bosom flower to cull at last640

O’er which the blight of sin hath never passed!

Happy—that from this fount of pain and woe

A stainless stream may still in brightness flow;

Happy!—in memory’s wreath one bud to set

On which the bloom of Eden lingers yet!645

Back to Index Next