Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over

Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

15

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
-Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

HOME THOUGHTS FROM THE SEA1 (From the same)

Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the northwest died away;

Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;

Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;

In the dimmest northeast distance dawned Gibraltar grand and gray;

"Here and here did England help me; how can I help England?"-say,

5

Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray,

While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa.

THE GUARDIAN-ANGEL:1

A PICTURE AT FANO

(From Men and Women, 1855)

I

Dear and great Angel, wouldst thou only leave That child, when thou hast done with him, for me!

The poet, near the scene of some of England's greatest naval victories, is stirred to even more than patriotic gratitude. Off Cape St. Vincent, at the southern extremity of Portugal, an English fleet of 15 ships defeated a Spanish fleet of 27 ships, in 1797; off Cape Trafalgar, on the Spanish coast, and south-east of the Gulf of Cadiz and of Cape St. Vincent, Nelson won death and victory in 1805; while distant Gibraltar, triumphantly held for three years (1797-82) against the combined powers of France and Spain, stands as a monument to England's naval supremacy.

L'Angelo Custode, the picture which inspired this

[blocks in formation]

Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead!

Sit and watch by her side an hour. poem, is in the Church of St. Augustine at Fano, a town on the Adriatic. It was painted by Guercino and "represented an angel standing with outstretched wings by a little child. The child is half kneeling on a kind of pedestal, while the angel joins its hands in prayer; its gaze is directed upwards towards the sky, from which cherubs are looking down." I have omitted the last three verses, which are on a less exalted level and seem to add little to the poem.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
« FöregåendeFortsätt »