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136

EPISTOLA AD PATREM SUUM.

Anglia! dum pietas et honos, dum nota per orbem
Sit tibi in intacto pectore prisca fides;
Dum pia cura tibi, magnos meruisse triumphos,
Justaque per populos jura tulisse feros ;
Longinquas teneat tua vasta potentia terras,
Et maneat Calpe gloria magna Tibi!
Insula Atlantaeis assurgit ab aequoris undis,
Insula flammigero semper amata Deo,
Seu teneat celsi flagrantia signo Leonis,

Seu gyro Pisces interiora petat.

"Hic ver assiduum atque alienis mensibus aestas,"
Flavus et autumnus frugibus usque tumet.
Non jacet Ionio felicior Insula ponto,

Ulla, nec Eoi fluctibus oceani.

Vix, Madeira! tuum nunc refert dicere nomen,
Floribus, et Bacchi munere pingue solum.
Te vetus haud vanis cumulavit laudibus aetas,
O fortunato conspicienda choro !

Haec nunc terra sinu nos detinet alma, proculque
A Patriae curis, anxietate domi.

Sic cepisse ferunt humanae oblivia curae

Quisquis Lethaeae pocula sumpsit aquae :
Sic semota sequi studiisque odiisque docebas
Otia discipulos, docte Epicure, tuos.

Sed non ulla dies grato sine sole, nec ullo

Fruge carens hortus tempore,* fronde nemus ; +

Nec levis ignotis oneratus odoribus aer,

Quales doctus equum flectere novit Arabs ;

Nec caecae quacunque jacent sub rupe cavernae, ‡
Quefs nunquam radiis Phoebus adire potest;
Nec currentis aquae strepitus, § nec saxa, petensque
Mons || excelsa suis sidera culminibus ;

Nec tranquilla quies, rerumque oblivia, ponti
Suadebunt iterum solicitare vias!

Rideat at quamvis haec vultu terra sereno,

Tabescit pravo gens malefida jugo :
Dum sedet heu! tristis morborum pallor in ore,
Crebraque anhelanti pectore tussis inest.
Ambitus et luxus, totoque accersita mundo,

Queis omnis populus quoque sub axe perit;

Sunt hibernis mensibus aurea mala.

+ Laureae sylvae sunt.

Antris abundat Insula.

§ Multos rivos naturâ, mirâque humani ingenii arte constructos continet Madeira.

Pace Lusitanorum Insula nil nisi mons est, rectis culminibus mari conspicua.

THE CONTRAST.

Famae dira sitis, rerumque onerosa cupido.
Raptaque ab irato templa diesque Deo,
Supplicium non lene suum, poenasque tulerunt;
Saepè petis proprio, vir miser, ense latus!
Uxor adhuc aegros dilecta resuscitat artus;
Anxia cura suis, anxia cura mihi.

Altera quodque dies jam roboris attulit, illud
Altera dura suis febribus abstulerit.

Aurea mens illi, mollique in pectore corda,

Et clarum longâ nobilitate genus.

Quanquàm saepe trahunt Libycum non * aera sanum,
(Gratia magna Dei), frignora nostra vigent.
Iamque vale grandaeve Pater, grandaevaque Mater,
Tuque O dilecto conjuge laeta soror !

Quaeque pias nobis partes cognata ferebas

Nomina vana cadunt, Tu mihi Mater eras;
Ingenioque mari, pietate ornata fideque

Sanguine nulla domûs, semper amore, soror;
Tu quoque, care, vale, Frater, quamvis procul absis,
Per virides campos, quà petit aequor Eden.
Denique tota domus, cunctique valete propinqui,
Carmina plura mihi, musa manusque negat.
MADEIRAE, MARTIIS CALENDIS,

1844.

137

See also the Carmen Maiis calendis compositum, the Carmen ad Maium mensem, and the Somnivaga,-evidently by the same writer,— in the appendix to the second edition of Yarrow Revisited, 1836.-Ed.

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[The Parrot belonged to Mrs Luff while living at Fox-Ghyll. The wren was one that haunted for many years the summer-house between the two terraces at Rydal Mount.]

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138

THE CONTRAST.

Like beads of glossy jet her eyes;
And, smoothed by Nature's skill,
With pearl or gleaming agate vies
Her finely-curvèd bill.

Her plumy mantle's living hues,
In mass opposed to mass,

Outshine the splendour that imbues
The robes of pictured glass.

And, sooth to say, an apter Mate
Did never tempt the choice

Of feathered Thing most delicate

In figure and in voice.

But, exiled from Australian bowers,

And singleness her lot,

She trills her song with tutored powers,

Or mocks each casual note,

No more of pity for regrets

With which she may have striven!

Now but in wantonness she frets,

Or spite, if cause be given;

Arch, volatile, a sportive bird
By social glee inspired;

Ambitious to be seen or heard,

And pleased to be admired!

II.

THIS moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry,
Harbours a self-contented Wren,

Not shunning man's abode, though shy,
Almost as thought itself, of human ken.

TO A SKYLARK.

Strange places, coverts unendeared,

She never tried; the very nest

In which this Child of Spring was reared,

Is warmed, thro' winter, by her feathery breast.

To the bleak winds she sometimes gives

A slender unexpected strain;

Proof that the hermitess still lives,

Though she appear not, and be sought in vain.

Say, Dora tell me, by yon placid moon,
If called to choose between the favourite pair,
Which would you be, the bird of the saloon,
By lady-fingers tended with nice care,
Caressed, applauded, upon dainties fed,

Or Nature's DARKLING of this mossy shed?

139

The "moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry," still remains at Rydal Mount, as it was in the poet's time.-ED.

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[Written at Rydal Mount.]

ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!

Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?
Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will,
Those quivering wings composed, that music still!
Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;

A privacy of glorious light is thine:

1 1836.

That tells.

1827.

140 ERE WITH COLD BEADS OF MIDNIGHT DEW.

Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood

1

Of harmony, with instinct more divine:

Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;

True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home! 2

Compare this with the earlier poem To a Syklark, written in 1805, and both poems with Shelley's still finer lyric to the same bird, written in 1820. See also the Morning Exercise (1828), stanzas 5-10.—ED.

1826.

The poems composed in 1826 were four. They include two referring to the month of May, and two descriptive of places near Rydal Mount. -ED.

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[Written at Rydal Mount. Suggested by the condition of a friend.]

ERE with cold beads of midnight dew

Had mingled tears of thine,

I grieved, fond Youth! that thou shouldst sue
To haughty Geraldine.

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Mount, daring warbler! that love-prompted strain,
("Twixt thee and thine an ever failing bond)

Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain :

Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing
All independent of the leafy spring

(Second Stanza,)
(Second Stanza,) 1827-43.

a Skylark. See p. 177.

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