Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

But Oscar's breast is cold as clay
His locks are lifted by the gale;
And Allan's barbed arrow lay

With him in dark Glentanar's vale.

And whence the dreadful stranger came
Or who, no mortal wight can tell;
But no one doubts the form of flame,
Eor Alva's sons knew Oscar well.

Ambition nerved young Allan's hand,

Exulting demons wing'd his dart; While Envy waved her burning brand, And pour'd her venom round his heart.

Swift is the shaft of Allan's bow:

Whose streaming life-blood stains his side Dark Oscar's sable crest is low,

The dart has drunk his vital tide.

And Mora's eye could Allan move,

She bade his wounded pride rebel: Alas! that eyes which beamed with love, Should urge the soul to deeds of hell!

Lo! seest thou not a lonely tomb,
Which rises o'er a warrior dead?

It glimmers through the twilight gloom;
Oh! that is Allan's nuptial bed.

Far, distant far, the noble grave

Which held his clan's great ashes stood; And o'er his corse no banners wave, For they were stain'd with kindred blood.

What minstrel gray, what hoary bard,
Shall Allan's deeds on harp-strings raise?
The song is glory's chief reward,

But who can strike a murderer's praise?

Unstrung, untouch'd, the harp must stand,
No minstrel dare the theme awake;
Guilt would benumb his palsied hand,
His harp in shuddering chords would break

No lyre of fame, no hallow'd verse,

Shall sound his glories high in air; A dying father's bitter curse,

A brother's death groan echoes there.

TO THE DUKE OF DORSET.

In looking over my papers to select a few additional poems for this socou edition, I found the following lines, which I had totally forgotten, composed in the summer of 1803, a short time previous to my departure from Hagron They were addressed to a young schoolfellow of high rank, who had been my frequent companion in some runbles through the neighboring country; however, he never saw the lines, and most probably never will. As, 30 re-perusal, I found them not worse than some other pieces in the collection have now published them, for the first time, after a slight revision.

DORSET! whose early steps with mine have stray'd,
Exploring every path of Ida's glade,
Whom still affection taught me to defend,
And made me less a tyrant than a friend;

Though the harsh custom of our youthful band
Bade thee obey, and gave me to command ;*
Thee on whose head a few short years will shower
The gifts of riches and the pride of power;
E'en now a name illustrious is thine own,
denown'd in rank, not far beneath the throne.
Yet Dorset, let not this seduce thy soul
To shun fair science, or evade control;
Though passive tutors,† fearful to dispraise
The titled child, whose future breath may raise,
View ducal errors with indulgent eyes,
And wink at faults they tremble to chastise.

When youthful parasites, who bend the knee
To wealth, their golden idol, not to thee,-
And even in simple boyhood's opening dawn
Some slaves are found to flatter and to fawn,-
When these declare, "that pomp alone should wait
On one by birth predestined to be great;
That books were only meant for drudging fools,
That gallant spirits scorn the common rules,"
Believe them not,-they point the path to shame,
And seek to blast the honors of thy name.
Turn to the few in Ida's early throng,
Whose souls disdain not to condemn the wrong;
Or if, amidst the comrades of thy youth,
None dare to raise the sterner voice of truth,
Ask thine own heart; 'twill bid thee, boy, forbear;
For well I know that virtue lingers there.

Yes! I have mark'd thee many a passing day,
But now new scenes invite me far away;
Yen I have mark'd within that generous mind
A soul, if well matured, to bless mankind.
Ah! though myself by nature haughty, wild,
Whom indescretion hail'd her favorite child;
Though every error stamps me for her own,
And dooms my fall, I fain would fall alone;
Though my proud heart no precept now can tame,
I love the virtues which I cannot claim.

Tis not enough, with other sons of power,
To gleam the lambent meteor of an hour.
To swell some peerage page in feeble pride,
With long-drawn names that grace no page beside;
Then share with titled crowds the common lot-
In life just gazed at, in the grave forgot;
While nought divides thee from the vulgar dead,
Except the dull, cold stone that hides thy head,
The mouldering 'scutcheon, or the herald's roll,
That well-emblazon'd but neglected scroll,
Where lords, unhonor'd, in the tomb may find
Cne spot, to leave a worthless name behind :
There sleep, unnoticed as the gloomy vaults

That veil their dust, their follies, and their faults, A race with old armorial lists o'erspread,

In records destined never to be read.
Fain would I view thee, with prophetic eyes,
Exalted more among the good and wise,

A glorious and a long career pursue,
As first in rank, the first in talent too:
Spurn every vice, each little meanness shun;
Not Fortune's minion, but her noblest son.

At every public school the junior boys are completely subservient to the apper forms till they attain a seat in the higher classes. From this state of protuation, very properly, no rank is exempt; but after a certain period they

xommand in turn those who succeed.

Turn to the annals of a former day,

Bright are the deeds thine earlier sires display.
One, though a courtier, lived a man of worth,
And call'd, proud boast! the British drama forth"
Another view, not less renown'd for wit;
Alike for courts, and camps, or senates fit;
Bold in the field, and favor'd by the Nine;
In every splendid part ordain'd to shine;
Far, far distinguish'd from the glittering throng,
The pride of princes, and the boast of song.t
Such were thy fathers; thus preserve their name;
Not heir to titles only, but to fame.

The hours draw nigh, a few brief days will close,
To me, this little scene of joys and woes;
Each knell of Time now warns me to resign
Shades where Hope, Peace and Friendship all were

mine:

Hope, that could vary like the rainbow's hue,
And gild their pinions as the moments flew;
Peace, that reflection never frown'd away,
By dreams of ill to cloud some future day;
Friendship, whose truth let childhood only tell
Alas! they love not long who love so well.
To these adieu! nor let me linger o'er
Scenes hail'd as exiles hail their native shore,
Receding slowly through the dark-blue deep,
Beheld by eyes that mourn, yet cannot weep.
Dorset, farewell! I will not ask one part
Of sad remembrance in so young a heart;
The coming morrow from thy youthful mind
Will sweep my name, nor leave a trace behind.
And yet, perhaps, in some maturer year,
Since chance has thrown us in the self-same sphere
Since the same senate, nay the same debate
May one day claim our suffrage for the state,
We hence may meet, and pass each other by
With faint regard, or cold and distant ey
For me,
in future, neither friend nor foe,
A stranger to thyself, thy weal or wo,
With thee no more again I hope to trace
The recollection of our early race:
No more, as once, in social hours rejoice,
Or hear, unless in crowds, thy well-known voice.
Still, if the wishes of a heart untaught

To veil those feelings which perchance it ought,
If these-but let me cease the lengthen'd strain-
Oh! if these wishes are not breathed in vain,
The guardian seraph who directs thy fate,
Will leave thee glorious as he found thee great.

ADRIAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL WHEN DYING.

ANIMULA! vagula, blandula,
Hospes, comesque, corporis,
Quæ nunc abibis in loca?
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos,

Thomas Sackville, Lord Backhurst, created Earl cf Dorset, by Jame the First, was one of the earliest and brightest ornaments to the poetry of hig country, and the first who produced a regular drama.-Anderson's British Poeta.

↑ Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset, esteemed the most accomplised mas of his day, was alike distinguished in the voluptuous court of Charles I, and the gloomy one of William III. He behaved with great gallantry in the sea

↑ Allow me to disclaim any personal allusions, even the most distant; I Sght with the Dutch in 1665, on the day previous to which he composed has merely inention generally what is too often the weakness' preceptors.

1 Sve ih same line in Lara, stanza 11.

celebrated song. His character has been drawn in the highest colors by Dryden Pope, Prior, and Congreve.-Anderson's British Poets.

[ocr errors]

TRANSLATION.

AH! gentle, fleeting, wav'ring sprite, Friend and associate of this clay!

To what unknown region borne, Wilt thou now wing thy distant flight? No more with wonted humor gay, But pallid, cheerless, and forlorn.

TRANSLATION FROM. CATULLUS.

AD LESBIAM.

EQUAL to Jove that youth must be-
Greater than Jove he seems to me-
Who, free from jealousy's alarms,
Securely views thy matchless charms.

That cheek which ever dimpling glows,
That mouth from whence such music flows,
To him, alike, are always known,
Reserved for him, and him alone.
Ah! Lesbia! though 'tis death to me,
I cannot choose but look on thee;
But, at the sight, my senses fly:

I needs must gaze, but, gazing, die;
Whilst trembling with a thousand fears,
Parch'd to the throat my tongue adheres,

My pulse beats quick, my breath heaves short,
My limbs deny their slight support,
Cold dews my pallid face o'erspread,

With deadly languor droops my head,
My ears with tingling echoes ring,
And life itself is on the wing;
My eyes refuse the cheering light,
Their orbs are veil'd in starless night:
Such pangs my nature sinks beneath,
And feels a temporary death.

TRANSLATION OF THE EPITAPH ON VIRGIL AND TIBULLUS.

BY DOMITIUS MARSUS.

HE who sublime in epic numbers roll'd,

And he who struck the softer lyre of love, By Death's unequal hand alike controll'd, Fit comrades in Elysian regions move!

TRANSLATION FROM CATULLUS.

"LUCTUS DE MORTE PASSERIA "

YE Cupids, droop each little head,
Nor let your wings with joy be spread;
My Lesbia's favorite bird is dead,
Whom dearer than her eyes she loved
For he was gentle, and so true,
Obedient to her call he flew,
No fear, no wild alarm he knew,
But lightly o'er her bosom moved:

And softly fluttering here and there,
He never sought to clear the air,
But chirupp'd oft, and, free from care,

Tuned to her ear his grateful strain.
Now having passed the gloomy bourne
From whence he never can return,
His death and Lesbia's grief I mourn,

Who sighs, alas! but sighs in vain.

Oh! curst be thou, devouring grave! Whose jaws eternal victims crave, From whom no earthly power can save

For thou hast ta'en the bird away: From thee my Lesbia's eyes o'erflow, Her swollen cheeks with weeping glow; Thou art the cause of all her wo, Receptacle of life's decay.

IMITATED FROM CATULLUS.

TO ELLEN.

OH! might I kiss those eyes of fire,
A million scarce would quench desire:
Still would I steep my lips in bliss,
And dwell an age on every kiss;
Nor then my soul should sated be;
Still would I kiss and cling to thee:
Naught should my kiss from thine dissever,
Still would we kiss, and kiss for ever;
E'en though the numbers did exceed
The yellow harvest's countless seed.
To part would be a vain endeavor:
Could I desist ?-ah! never-never.

IMITATION OF TIBULLUS.+

"Sulpicia ad Cerinthum."-Lib. Quart.

CRUEI Cerinthus! does the fell disease
Which racks my breast your fickle bosom please?
Alas! I wish'd but to o'ercome the pain,
That I might live for love and you again;
But now I scarcely shall bewail my fate:
By death alone I can avoid your hate.

• The hand of Death is said to be unjust or unequal, as Virgil was con iderably older than Tibullus at his decease,

From the pri ate volare.

TRANSLATION FROM HORACE.
ODE 3, LIB. 3

THE man of firm and noble soul
No factions clamors can control;
No threat'ning tyrant's darkling brow
Can swerve him from his just intent;
Gales the warring waves which plough,
By Auster on the billows spent,

To curb the Adriatic main,
Would awe his fix'd determined mind in vain

Only printed in the private volume.

Ay, and the red right arm of Jove,
Hurtling his lightnings from above,
With all his terrors then unfurl'd,

He would unmoved, unawed behold:
The flames of an expiring world,
Again in crashing chaos roll'd,
In vast promiscuous ruin hurled,
Might light his glorious funeral pile:

Still dauntless, midst the wreck of earth he'd smile

TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON.*

TO HIS LYRE.

I WISH to tune my quivering lyre
To deeds of fame and notes of fire;
To echo, from its rising swell,
How heroes fought and nations fell,
When Atreus' sons advanced to war,
Or Tyrian Cadmus roved afar;
But still, to martial strains unknown,
My lyre recurs to love alone.
Fired with the hope of future fame,
I seek some nobler hero's name:
The dying chords are strung anew,
To war, to war, my harp is due:
With glowing strings, the epic strain
To Jove's great son I raise again;
Alcides and his glorious deeds,
Beneath whose arm the Hydra bleeds,
All, all in vain; my wayward lyre
Wakes silver notes of soft desire.
Adieu, ye chiefs renown'd in arms!
Adieu the clang of war's alarms!
To other deeds my soul is strung,
And sweeter notes shall now be sung;
My harp shall all its powers reveal,
To tell the tale my heart must feel;
Love, love alone, my lyre shall claim,
In songs of bliss and sighs of flame.

[blocks in formation]

No prowling robber lingers here,
A wandering baby who can fear?"
I heard his seeming artless tale,
I heard his sighs upon the gale:
My breast was never pity's foe,
Rut felt for all the baby's wo.

I drew the bar, and by the light
Young Love, the infant, met my sight,
His bow across his shoulders flung,
And thence his fatal quiver hung,
(Ah! little did I think the dart
Would rankle soon within my heart.)
With care I tend my weary guest,
His little fingers chill my breast;
His glossy curls, his azure wing,
Which droop with nightly showers, I wring:
His shivering limbs the embers warm;
And now reviving from the storm,
Scarce had he felt his wonted glow,
Than swift he seized his slender bow:
"I fain would know, my gentle host,
He cried, "if this its strength has lost;
I fear, relax'd with midnight dews,
The strings their former aid refuse."
With poison tipt, his arrow flies,
Deep in my tortured heart it lies;
Then loud the joyous urchin laugh'd:-
"My bow can still impel the shaft:
'Tis firmly fix'd, thy sighs reveal it;
Say, courteous host, canst thou not feel it ""

[blocks in formation]

From Ida torn, he left his sylvan cave,
And sought a foreign home, a distant grave.
To watch the movements of the Daunian host,
With him Euryalus sustains the post;
No lovelier mien adorn'd the ranks of Troy,
And beardless bloom yet graced the gallant boy;
Though few the seasons of his youthful life,
As yet a novice in the martial strife,
'Twas his, with beauty, valor's gifts to share-
A soul heroic, as his form was fair:

These burn with one pure flame of generous love;
In peace, in war, united still they move;
Friendship and glory form their joint reward;
And now combined they hold their nightly guard.

"What god," exclaim'd the first, "instils this fire! Or, in itself a god, what great desire?

My laboring soul, with anxious thought oppress'd, Abhors this station of inglorious rest; The love of fame with this can ill accord, Be 't mine to seek for glory with my sword. Seest thou yon camp, with torches twinkling dim, Where drunken slumbers wrap each lazy limb? Where confidence and ease the watch disdain, And drowsy Silence holds her sable reign? Then hear my thought:-In deep and sullen grief Our troops and leaders mourn their absent chief: Now could the gifts and promised prize be thine, (The deed, the danger and the fame be mine,) Were this decreed, beneath yon rising mound, Methinks, an easy path perchance were found; Which past, I speed my way to Pallas' walls, And lead Æneas from Evander's halls." With equal ardor fired, and warlike joy, His glowing friend address'd the Dardan boy :"These deeds, my Nisus, shalt thou dare alone? Must all the fame, the peril, be thine own? Am I by thee despised, and left afar, As one unfit to share the toils of war? Not thus his son the great Opheltes taught; Not thus my sire in Argive combats fought; Not thus, when Ilion fell by heavenly hate, I track'd Æneas through the walks of fate: Thou know'st my deeds, my breast devoid of fear, And hostile life-drops dim my gory spear. Here is a soul with hope immortal burns, And life, ignoble life, for glory spurns. Fame, fame is cheaply earn'd by fleeting breath. The price of honor is the sleep of death." Then Nisus,-"Calm thy bosom's fond alarms: Thy heart beats fiercely to the din of arms. More dear thy worth and valor than my own, I swear by him who fills Olympus' throne! So may I triumph, as I speak the truth, And clasp again the comrade of my youth! But should I fall,-and he who dares advance Through hostile regions, must abide by chance,

• Him Ida sent, a hunter now no more,
To combat foes upon a foreign shore.
Near him, the loveliest of the Trojan band,
Did fair Euryalus, his comrade, stand:
Few are the seasons of his youthful life,
As yet a novice in the martial strife:

The gods to hin unwonted gifts impart,

A female's beauty, with a hero's heart.

These burn with one pure flame of generous love,
In peace, in war, united still they move;
Friendship and glory form their joint reward,
And now combined, the massy gate they guard.

Bich was the original version of this passage, as given in de private e, where no more than the above fraginent was printed.

If some Rutulian arm, with adverse blow,
Should lay the friend who ever loved thee low,
Live thou-such beauties I would fain preserve→
Thy budding years a lengthen'd term deserve
When humbled in the dust, let some one be,
Whose gentle eyes will shed one tear for me;
Whose manly arm may snatch me back by force,
Or wealth redeem from foes my captive corse;
Or, if my destiny these last deny,

If in the spoiler's power my ashes lie,
Thy pious care may raise a simple tomb,
To mark thy love, and signalize my doom.
Why should thy doting wretched mother weep
Her only boy, reclined in endless sleep?
Who, for thy sake, the tempest's fury dared,
Who, for thy sake, war's deadly peril shared;
Who braved what woman never braved before,
And left her native for the Latian shore."
"In vain you damp the ardor of my soul,"
Replied Euryalus; "it scorns control!
Hence, let us haste!"-their brother guards arose
Roused by their call, nor court again repose;
The pair, buoy'd up on Hope's exulting wing,
Their stations leave, and speed to seek the king.

Now o'er the earth a solemn stillness ran,
And lull'd alike the cares of brute and man;
Save where the Dardan leaders nightly hold
Alternate converse, and their plans unfold.
On one great point the council are agreed,
An instant message to their prince decreed;
Each lean'd upon the lance he well could wield,
And poised with easy arm his ancient shield;
When Nisus and his friend their leave request
To offer something to their high bequest.
With anxious tremors, yet unawed by fear,
The faithful pair before the throne appear:
Iulus greets them; at his kind command,
The elder first address'd the hoary band.

"With patience" (thus Hyrtacides began)
"Attend, nor judge from youth our humble plan.
Where yonder beacons half expiring beam,
Our slumbering foes of future conquest dream,
Nor heed that we a secret path have traced,
Between the ocean and the portal placed.
Beneath the covert of the blackening smoke,
Whose shade securely our design will cloak!
If you, ye chiefs, and fortune, will allow,
We'll bend our course to yonder mountain's brow
Where Pallas' walls at distance meet the sight,
Seen o'er the glade, when not obscured by night:
Then shall Eneas in his pride return,
While hostile matrons raise their offspring's urn:
And Latian spoils and purpled heaps of dead,
Shall mark the havoc of our hero's tread.
Such is our purpose, not unknown the way;
Where yonder torrent's devious waters stray,
Oft have we seen, when hunting by the stream,
The distant spires above the valleys gleam."

Mature in years, for sober wisdom famed,
Moved by the speech, Alethes here exclaim'd,
"Ye parent gods! who rule the fate of Troy,
Still dwells the Dardan spirit in the boy;
When minds like these in striplings thus ye raise
Yours is the godlike act, be yours the praise;
In gallant youth, my fainting hopes revive,
And Ilion's wonted glories still survive."

« AnteriorContinuar »