On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    4o THE LEADER. C SATPB ^Ii_

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Recent Poems Mnpedoclcs On Etna And Othe...

    of the poem is intensely modern . The very scene-painting is modern , and occasionally in tke best descriptive style , as this : — " A thousand times have I been here alone Or with the revellers from the mountain towns , But never on so fair a morn : —the sun Is shining on the brilliant mountain crests , And on the highest pines : but further down Here in the valley is in shade ; the sward Is dark , and on the stream the mist still hangs : One sees one ' s foot-prints crush'd in the wet grass , One ' s breath curls in the air ; and on these pines That climb from the stream ' s edge , the long grey tufts , Which the goats love , are J ewell'd thick with dew . " That species of versified meditation which Wordsworth has made fashionable , but which forgets that Poetry is Song , is well suited to minds like that of the present writer . Here is a sample taken from the monologue of Empedocles : — " We mortals are no kings For each of whom to sway A new-made world up-springs Meant merely for his play . N " o , we are strangers here : the world is from of old . In vain our pent wills fret And would the world subdue Limits we did not set Condition all we do . Born into life we are , and life must be our mould . Born into life : who lists May what is false maintain , And for himself make mists Through which to see less plain : The world is what it is , for all our dust and din . Born into life : in vain , Opinions , those or these , Unalter ' d to retain The obstinate mind decrees . Experience , like a sea , soaks all-effacing in . Born into life : 'tis we , And not the world , are new . Our cry for bliss , our plea , Others have urg'd it too . Our wants have all been felt , our errors made before . No eye could be too sound To observe a world so vast : No patience too profound To sort what ' s here aumss'd . How man may here best live no care too great to explore . Hut we , —as some rude guest Would change , where ' er he roam , The miumers there profess'd To those he brings from home;—We mark not the world ' s ways , but would have it learn ours . The world proclaims the terms Oh which man wins content . Reason its voice confirms . We spurn them : and invent False weakness in the world , and in ourselves false powers . Riches we wish to get , Vet remain spendthrifts still ; We would have health , and yet Still use our bodies ill : Bnfllers of our own prayers from youth to life'H last scenes . We would have inward peace , Yet will not look within : Wo would have misery cense , Vet will not cease from win : We want nil pleasant ends , but will use no harsh means ; We do not what we ought ; What we ought not , we do ; And lean upon the thought That Chance- will bring us through . But our own acts , for good or ill , are mightier power . s . Vet , even when man forsakes All sin , —is just , i . s pure ; Abandons nil that makes His welfare insecure ; Other existences there are , which clash with oui \ s . Like us , the lightning fires x Love to lutve scope and pliiy . The stream , like us , desires An unimpeded way . Like uh , the Libyan wind delights to roam at large . Streams will not curb their pride The just man not to entunib , Nor lightnings go aside To leave his virtues room , Nor in the wind less rough that blows a good mini ' s barge . ' . Nature , with equal mind , Sees all bet sons at play , Sees man control the wind , The wind sweep man away ; Allow h the proudly-tiding iuul tho Ibundcr'd bark . "

    man , and not as the stars or flowers : — , " SELF-DEPENDENCE . " Weary of myself , and sick of asking What lam , and what I ought to be , At the vessel ' s prow I-stand , which bears me Forwards , forwards , o ' er the star-lit sea . And a look of passionate desire O ' er the sea and to the stars I send : ' Ye who from my childhood tip have calm d me , Calm me , ah , compose me to the end . < Ah , once more , ' I cried , < ye Stars , ye Waters , On my heart y our mighty charm renew : Still , still let me , as I gaze upon you , ^ Feel my soul becoming vast like you / From the intense , clear , star-sown vault of heaven , Over the lit sea ' s unquiet way , In the rustling night-air came the answer—< Wouldst thou be as these are ? Live as they . ' Unaffrighted by the silence round them , Undistracted by the sights they see , These demand not that the things without them Yield them love , amusement , sympathy . ' And with joy the stars perform their shining , And the sea its long moon-silvered roll . For alone they live , nor pine with noting All the fever of some differing soul . ' Bounded by themselves , and unobservant In what state God ' s other works may be , In their own tasks all their powers pouring , These attain the mighty life you see . ' 0 air-born Voice ! long since , severely clear , A cry like thine in my own heart I hear . « Kesolve to be thyself : and know , that he Who finds himself , loses his misery . ' " From " A Summer Night" we take two extracts : — " In the deserted moon-blanched street How lonely rings the echo of my feet ! Those windows , which I gaze at , frown , Silent and white , tmopening down , llepellent as the world : —but see ! A break between the housetops shows The moon , and , lost behind her , fading dim Into the dewy dark obscurity Down at the far horizon ' s rim , Doth a whole tract of heaven disclose . And to my mind the thought Is on a sudden brought Of a past night , and a far different scene . Headlands stood out into the moon-lit deep As clearly as at noon ; The spring-tide ' s brimming flow Heav'd dsizzlingly between ; Houses with long white sweep Girdled the glistening bay : Behind , through the soft air , The blue haze-cradled mountains spread away . That night was far more fair ; But the same restless pacings to and fro , And the same agitated heart was there , And the same bright culm moon . And the calm moonlight , seems to nay —¦ - ¦ - ' I last thou then still the old unquiet breast That neither deadens into rest Nor ever feels the fiery glow " That whirls the spirit from itself away , But fluctuates to and fro , Never by passion quite ponsess'd , And never quite benunth'd by the world ' s sway ?'And . 1 , I know not if to pray , ? Still to be what I am , or yield , and bo . Like all the other men I see . * * # * . Plainness and clearness without shadow of stain , Clearness divine ! Ye Heavens , whose pure dark regions have no si ^ n Of languor , though ho calm , and though so great , Are yet untroubled and unpuHsioniifc : Who , though so noble , share in the world ' s toil , And though mi tasked , keep free from dust and noil 1 will not say that your mild deeps retain A tinge , it may be , of their silent pain , ' Wlio have Inng'd deeply once , and long'd in vain - But , 1 will rather say that you remain A world above man ' s head , to let him wee How boundless might his sou I ' m horizons he , How vast , yet of what clear transparency . How it were good to sink there , and breathe free . I low high a lot . to fill Ih left to each man still . " Wo might quote much more , lnit enough ] uw \ HHm ^ Ivim to iiuHcato tho lone . The volume , we have nlrendy H « i < l , eannol , ho read without admiration ; but , aa poetry , it wanla individuality , and that choice felicity oi

    4o The Leader. C Satpb ^Ii_

    4 THE LEADER . C SATPB ^ Ii _

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 42, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011853/page/18/