A PARSONAGE IN OXFORD

SHIRE

1820. 1822

This Parsonage was the residence of my friend Jones, and is particularly described in another note.

WHERE holy ground begins, unhallowed ends,

Is marked by no distinguishable line;
The turf unites, the pathways intertwine;
And, wheresoe'er the stealing footstep
tends,

Garden, and that domain where kindred, friends,

And neighbours rest together, here confound

Their several features, mingled like the sound

Of many waters, or as evening blends With shady night. Soft airs, from shrub and flower,

Waft fragrant greetings to each silent

KEEP for the Young the impassioned smile Shed from thy countenance, as I see thee stand

High on that chalky cliff of Britain's Isle,
A slender volume grasping in thy hand -
(Perchance the pages that relate
The various turns of Crusoe's fate) —
Ah, spare the exulting smile,
And drop thy pointing finger bright
As the first flash of beacon light;

But neither veil thy head in shadows dim, 10
Nor turn thy face away

From One who, in the evening of his day, To thee would offer no presumptuous hymn!

I

Bold Spirit! who art free to rove Among the starry courts of Jove,

And oft in splendour dost appear
Embodied to poetic eyes,

While traversing this nether sphere,
Where Mortals call thee ENTERPRISE.
Daughter of Hope! her favourite Child,
Whom she to young Ambition bore,
When hunter's arrow first defiled
The grove, and stained the turf with gore;
Thee winged Fancy took, and nursed
On broad Euphrates' palmy shore,
And where the mightier Waters burst
From caves of Indian mountains hoar!
She wrapped thee in a panther's skin;
And Thou, thy favourite food to win,
The flame-eyed eagle oft wouldst scare
From her rock-fortress in mid air,
With infant shout; and often sweep,
Paired with the ostrich, o'er the plain;
Or, tired with sport, wouldst sink asleep
Upon the couchant lion's mane !
With rolling years thy strength increased
And, far beyond thy native East,
To thee, by varying titles known
As variously thy power was shown,
Did incense-bearing altars rise,
Which caught the blaze of sacrifice,
From suppliants panting for the skies!

II

What though this ancient Earth be trod
No more by step of Demi-god
Mounting from glorious deed to deed
As thou from clime to clime didst lead;
Yet still, the bosom beating high,
And the hushed farewell of an eye
Where no procrastinating gaze
A last infirmity betrays,

Prove that thy heaven-descended sway
Shall ne'er submit to cold decay.
By thy divinity impelled,

The Stripling seeks the tented field;
The aspiring Virgin kneels; and, pale
With awe, receives the hallowed veil,
A soft and tender Heroine
Vowed to severer discipline;
Inflamed by thee, the blooming Boy
Makes of the whistling shrouds a toy,
And of the ocean's dismal breast
A play-ground, or a couch of rest;
'Mid the blank world of snow and ice,
Thou to his dangers dost enchain
The Chamois-chaser awed in vain
By chasm or dizzy precipice;

And hast Thou not with triumph seen
How soaring Mortals glide between

70

Or through the clouds, and brave the light
With bolder than Icarian flight?
How they, in bells of crystal, dive –
Where winds and waters cease to strive -
For no unholy visitings,
Among the monsters of the Deep;
And all the sad and precious things
Which there in ghastly silence sleep?
Or, adverse tides and currents headed,
And breathless calms no longer dreaded,
In never-slackening voyage go
Straight as an arrow from the bow;
And, slighting sails and scorning oars,
Keep faith with Time on distant shores?
Within our fearless reach are placed
The secrets of the burning Waste;
Egyptian tombs unlock their dead,
Nile trembles at his fountain head;
Thou speak'st- and lo! the polar Seas
Unbosom their last mysteries.

80

II

CONJECTURES

1821. 1822

here be prophets on whose spirits rest s things, revealed like future, they can tell

at Powers, presiding o'er the sacred well Christian Faith, this savage Island blessed

h its first bounty. Wandering through the west,

holy Paul a while in Britain dwell, call the Fountain forth by miracle, with dread signs the nascent Stream invest?

He, whose bonds dropped off, whose prison doors

open, by an Angel's voice unbarred ? some of humbler name, to these wild shores

m-driven; who, having seen the cup

woe

of

IV

DRUIDICAL EXCOMMUNICATION

1821. 1822

MERCY and Love have met thee on thy road, Thou wretched Outcast, from the gift of fire

And food cut off by sacerdotal ire,

From every sympathy that Man bestowed!
Yet shall it claim our reverence, that to God,
Ancient of days! that to the eternal Sire,
These jealous Ministers of law aspire,
As to the one sole fount whence wisdom
flowed,

Justice, and order. Tremblingly escaped,
As if with prescience of the coming storm,
That intimation when the stars were shaped;
And still, 'mid yon thick woods, the primal
truth

Glimmers through many a superstitious form

That fills the Soul with unavailing ruth.

VII

RECOVERY

1821. 1822

As, when a storm hath ceased, the birds

regain

Their cheerfulness, and busily retrim
Their nests, or chant a gratulating hymn
To the blue ether and bespangled plain;
Even so, in many a re-constructed fane,
Have the survivors of this Storm renewed
Their holy rites with vocal gratitude:
And solemn ceremonials they ordain
To celebrate their great deliverance;
Most feelingly instructed 'mid their fear-
That persecution, blind with rage extreme,
May not the less, through Heaven's mild
countenance,

Even in her own despite, both feed and cheer;

For all things are less dreadful than they

seem.

VIII

TEMPTATIONS FROM ROMAN REFINEMENTS 1821. 1822

WATCH, and be firm! for, soul-subduing vice,

Heart-killing luxury, on your steps await. Fair houses, baths, and banquets delicate, And temples flashing, bright as polar ice,

IX

DISSENSIONS

1821. 1822

THAT heresies should strike (if truth be scanned

Presumptuously) their roots both wide and deep,

Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep.
Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand
Uplifting toward high Heaven her fiery
brand,

A cherished Priestess of the new-baptized! But chastisement shall follow peace de spised.

The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land By Rome abandoned; vain are suppliant: cries,

And prayers that would undo her forced farewell;

For she returns not.-Awed by her out knell,

She casts the Britons upon strange Allies Soon to become more dreaded enemies Than heartless misery called them to repel

X

STRUGGLE OF THE BRITONS AGAINST THE BARBARIANS 1821. 1822

RISE! - they have risen: of brave Aneuri ask

How they have scourged old foes, perfidios friends:

The Spirit of Caractacus descends
Upon the Patriots, animates their task;—