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366

CAVE OF STAFFA.

Such to the tender-hearted maid
Even ere her joys begin to fade;
Such, haply, to the rugged chief
By fortune crushed, or tamed by grief;
Appears, on Morven's lonely shore,
Dim-gleaming through imperfect lore,
The Son of Fingal; such was blind
Mæonides of ampler mind; *
Such Milton, to the fountain head
Of glory by Urania led!

XXVIII.

CAVE OF STAFFA.†

WE saw, but surely, in the motley crowd,
Not One of us has felt the far-famed sight;
How could we feel it? each the other's blight,
Hurried and hurrying, volatile and loud.
O for those motions only that invite
The Ghost of Fingal to his tuneful Cave
By the breeze entered, and wave after wave
Softly embosoming the timid light!
And by one Votary who at will might stand
Gazing and take into his mind and heart,
With undistracted reverence, the effect
Of those proportions where the almighty Hand
That made the worlds, the sovereign Architect,
Has deigned to work as if with human Art!

Homer; so called from the fact that Mæonia in Lydia was, by some, claimed as his birth-place.-Ed.

The reader may be tempted to exclaim, "How came this and the two following sonnets to be written, after the dissatisfaction expressed in the preceding one?" In fact, at the risk of incurring the reasonable displeasure of the master of the steamboat, I returned to the cave, and explored it under circumstances more favourable to those imaginative impressions which it is so wonderfully fitted to make upon the mind.— W. W., 1835.

1

CAVE OF STAFFA.

367

XXIX.

CAVE OF STAFFA.

AFTER THE CROWD HAD DEPARTED.

THANKS for the lessons of this Spot-fit school
For the presumptuous thoughts that would assign
Mechanic laws to agency divine ;

And, measuring heaven by earth, would over-rule
Infinite Power. The pillared vestibule,

Expanding yet precise, the roof embowed,*
Might seem designed to humble man, when proud
Of his best workmanship by plan and tool.
Down-bearing with his whole Atlantic weight
Of tide and tempest on the Structure's base,
And flashing to that Structure's topmost height,1
Ocean has proved its strength, and of its grace
In calms is conscious,† finding for his freight
Of softest music some responsive place.

XXX.

CAVE OF STAFFA.

YE shadowy Beings, that have rights and claims
In every cell of Fingal's mystic Grot,

Where are ye? Driven or venturing to the spot,
Our fathers glimpses caught of your thin Frames,

1 1837.

And flashing upwards to its topmost height,

*Note the topographical accuracy of this description.-ED.
+ Compare, On a high part of the Coast of Cumberland, p. 328.
No; 'tis the earth-voice of the mighty sea
Whispering how meek and gentle he can be.

1832.

-ED.

368

CAVE OF STAFFA.

And, by your mien and bearing, knew your names;

And they could hear his ghostly song who trod

Earth, till the flesh lay on him like a load,

While he struck his desolate harp without hopes or aims.

Vanished ye are, but subject to recal;

Why keep we else the instincts whose dread law
Ruled here of yore, till what men felt they saw,

Not by black arts but magic natural!

If eyes be still sworn vassals of belief,

Yon light shapes forth a Bard, that shade a Chief.

XXXI.

FLOWERS ON THE TOP OF THE PILLARS AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE CAVE.

HOPE smiled when your nativity was cast,

*

Children of Summer! Ye fresh Flowers that brave

What Summer here escapes not, the fierce wave,

And whole artillery of the western blast,
Battering the Temple's front, its long-drawn nave
Smiting, as if each moment were their last.
But ye, bright Flowers, on frieze and architrave
Survive; † and once again the Pile stands fast;
Calm as the Universe, from specular towers.

Of heaven contemplated by Spirits pure

Upon the head of the columns which form the front of the cave, rests a body of decomposed basaltic matter, which was richly decorated with that large bright flower, the ox-eyed daisy. I had noticed the same flower growing with profusion among the bold rocks on the western coast of the Isle of Man; making a brilliant contrast with their black and gloomy surfaces.-W. W., 1835.

†They still survive, and flourish above the pillars.-Ed.

IONA.

With mute astonishment, it stands sustained
Through every part in symmetry, to endure,1
Unhurt, the assault of Time with all his hours,
As the supreme Artificer ordained.2

XXXII.

IONA.*

ON to Iona!-What can she afford

To us save matter for a thoughtful sigh,
Heaved over ruin with stability

In urgent contrast? To diffuse the WORD

(Thy Paramount, mighty Nature! and Time's Lord) †
Her Temples rose, 'mid pagan gloom; but why,
Even for a moment, has our verse deplored
Their wrongs, since they fulfilled their destiny?
And when, subjected to a common doom
Of mutability, those far-famed Piles
Shall disappear from both the sister Isles,
Iona's Saints, forgetting not past days,

Garlands shall wear of amaranthine bloom,

While heaven's vast sea of voices chants their praise.

1 1843.

Suns and their systems, diverse yet sustained
In symmetry, and fashioned to endure,

1835.

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369

As the Supreme Geometer ordained.

MS.

* The four last lines of this sonnet are adopted from a well-known sonnet of Russel,* as conveying my feeling better than any words of my own could do.-W. W., 1835.

+ St Columba took up his residence at Iona, in 563.-ED.

• Joshua Russel, Poems, 1819.-ED.

VII.

2 A

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Some ragged child holds up for sale a store 2
Of wave-worn pebbles, pleading on the shore 3
Where once came monk and nun with gentle stir,
Blessings to give, news ask, or suit prefer.

Yet is yon neat trim church * a grateful speck

Of novelty amid the sacred wreck

Strewn far and wide. Think, proud Philosopher! 5
Fallen though she be, this Glory of the West,
Still on her sons, the beams of mercy shine;

And hopes, perhaps more heavenly bright than thine,
A grace by thee unsought and unpossest,

A faith more fixed, a rapture more divine,

Shall gild their passage to eternal rest.'

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3 1835.

With outstretched hands, round every voyager
Press ragged children, each to supplicate
A price for wave-worn pebbles on his plate.

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MS.

1835.

this sacred wreck

Nay spare thy scorn, haughty Philosopher!

1835.

6 1935.

Fallen as she is, this Glory of the West,

MS.

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This refers to the Parish Church, not to St Oran's Chapel, or the Cathedral Church of St Mary.-ED.

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