Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

Above and below,

Here and there I can go,

All action, and never at rest."

The horse, who heard the strange address,

Look'd scornfully aside,

Then paused, and listen'd to his speech,
And gravely thus replied:
"Your vaultings in air,
Your bounds here and there,
I pray you, my friend,
In what do they end,

The use of all this let me know?

"It is not in vain

That I move o'er the plain,
I speed to fulfil

My governor's will,
And in this my ability show."
Some certain writers, squirrel-like,
The steed's advice may fit,
Who, when by Nature gifted well,
In trifles waste their wit.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Whose mountain mass darkens the hollow

vale!

Yet there it falls not, for the eternal wind
That sweeps with force compress'd the
winding straits,

Scatters the midway stream, and borne afar,
The heavy mist descends, a ceaseless shower.
Methinks that Eolus here forms his clouds,
As Vulcan, amid Etna's cavern'd fires,
Shapes the red bolts of Jove. Sure if some

sage

Of elder times had journey'd here, his art
With many a mystic fable shadowing truth,
Had sanctified this spot, where Man might
learn

From L. LEONARDO. I. 73. 11.
THOU art determined to be beautiful,
Lysis! and, Lysis, either thou art mad
Or hast no looking-glass. Dost thou not
know

Thy paint-beplaster'd forehead, broad and
bare,

With not a grey lock left, thy mouth so black,
And that invincible breath. Rightly we
deem

That with a random hand blind Fortune deals
The lots of life. To thee she gave a boon,
That crowds so anxiously and vainly wish,
Old age, and left in thee no trace of youth,

Wisdom from Nature, marking how the Save all its folly and its ignorance.

[blocks in formation]

Jan. 2, 98.

[blocks in formation]

Our fate in our own hands, or evil or good,
Even as we make it. Tell me, Fabius,
Ar't not a king thyself, when envying not
The lot of kings, no idle wish disturbs
Thy quiet life, when, a self-governed man,
No laws exist to thee; and when no change
With which the will of Heaven may visit
thee

Can break the even calmness of thy soul.
31st Dec. 97.

12, Lamb's Conduit Street.

Futura.

January 13, 1803. WHO is it that so prefers cities that he will not live in the country, and loves London best of all, for the sake of man the philoso- | pher?-yet even in London lives retired, delighting in shade, and quiet, and retirement-in solitude? oh no! but his acts of love are so secretly bestowed that they are not felt at the time, though keenly felt and long remembered afterwards-a good Methodist? The king is afraid of him, and has by his own authority ordered him to be destroyed. Oh, a Jacobin; away with him to Mr. Aris!-no, not by law and a trialnot against law by confinement-not by a court-martial, but by Mr. Tiffin.

Sir W. Yeo and the Soldier. The Soldier had gone into the field to do what? Are you a classic reader-have you had the benefit of a liberal education ?-to do what' As in præsenti had done in the entry.' Not what goeth into the mouth defileth, but this did. The soldier swore when he got

the bayonet; but the recording angel put that oath down among his good things. So, Sir, with reverence be his title spoken.

Keswick, Saturday Evening,

June 11, 1808.

Portugal Delivered.

THE Siege of Lisbon; the election at Coimbra; the battle of Aljubarrota.

One of the finest incidents would be the

[ocr errors]

disappearance of Nuno after the battle, when he went to save his brother.

For a poetical hero, there is Vasco Lobeira, and his Oriana may supply that female interest to the story which is all it wants.

26 Nov. 1814.

I HAVE this day made up my mind to take the subject.

23 March, 1819! THE weight of this poem will depend upon two characters. Nuno Alvarez, who is the ideal of chivalry, full of joy, hope, enthusiastic patriotism, and enthusiastic devotion; and his brother, twenty years older than himself, who had been a father to him, and is, from a deep sense of duty, with the Spaniards: satisfied that their cause is just; utterly dissatisfied with their conduct-the perfect example of a good and wise man in such circumstances. Hated by the populace of his own country; hated by most of the Spaniards, but respected by Juan and Joam, though disliked by one, and feared by the other; and loved and reverenced by Nuno, and by all who know him well. Before the battle he takes leave of Juan, and while the event is doubtful, executes his long meditated purpose of hiding himself from the world. His daughter is Lobeira's love.

If this character can be developed as it is conceived, I think it will be the best delineation that I shall ever have made.

[blocks in formation]

I wish I were as young as thee, my own dear Margaret—

For some things I full fain would learn, and some full fain forget.

Ramiro.1

Mr old folios; why do you for ever read them? a song of songs to come, and the burden Barbara! Barbara!

THE Man in the Moon is dead, and who shall succeed him? Some say Mr. Garnerin is set out to take possession; others that the planets are to elect** then thinks he has a fair chance, being sure of Mercury and Venus; others say Lord Melville, because a brass face is the best complexion; or Lord *, because he wants a place, and this would be conspicuous enough to suit him. Mr. Addington, for he who is so excellent a Chancellor of the Exchequer, would make a most excellent Man in the Moon. Bonaparte; but he is afraid of the Crescent. Or the Duke of York-because in Holland he so often shifted his quarters. I dreamt this this morning July 3, 1804.

www

Ideas, &c.

How the Bishop of Bremen went to Hell by water.

The Dominican dipping for gold in a volcano.

The sepulchre that fits every body; he who has measured himself thereby never more feels fatigue.

The babe born in the grave.
Inspiration of Hafiz.

The Mistress of Don Manuel Ponce de Leon let fall her glove into the circus where there were lions; the knight, though unarmed, leaped down and picked it up; but as she stooped to receive it, he dashed the glove in her face.

St. Endeus, King of Ireland.
Escape of Ferran Gonzalez from Leon.

See Poems, p. 442.-J. W. W.

But these conjectures all are all false,
And I'll tell you the true one to end them;
The Devil had torn his blue pantaloons,
And he sent for a taylor to mend them.
OWEN PARFIT.?

A. D. 988. Vladimar sent to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, to demand baptism, and the Emperor's sister, Helena, in marriage— else he threatened to march on from Theodosia, which he had just taken. Constantine sent priests and the lady. The Russian then restored his conquests, made his people be baptized by thousands in the Dnieper, and threw Peroun into the river with the rest of the idols.

Ballad from Count Stolberg's story of the foundation of Rapperschweil; a traveller admiring the town; and a burgher telling him what a chance it was whether there should be a town there or a gibbet; making it the scene of the wife's adultery. end that the town makes the place the better, and the story no whit the worse.

The

A good monodrama may be made of Himilcon, the Carthaginian general, who, after losing a victorious army in Sicily by pestilence, returned alone, related to the people what he had done, what suffered, accused the Gods, and then retiring into his apartment slew himself.

The Dew that falls on St. John's night is supposed to have the virtue to stop the plague.-Bruce.-Connect this with the Witch and the Well of Rogoes.

Give me the May-green of hope, or the healthy June appearance of the trees in their full life-beauty; not Autumn-hectic colours that foretell the fall.

[blocks in formation]
« НазадПродовжити »