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Northern Star (1837-1852), 27th November 1852, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, he Ins Poetical Works of James Russell L...

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  • Departments (2)
    • LITERATUKE.
    • WAIFS AND STRAYS.
  • Text (6)
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      I ^Ember 27 -J _^__ ^ The Sta1 Of Iheedo...

      i ^ ember 27 -J _^__ ^ THE STA 1 OF IHEEDOM , 253

      Literatuke.

      LITERATUKE .

      He Ins Poetical Works Of James Russell L...

      he Ins Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell . London : ^ Routledge and Go . The The name of James llussell Lowell deservedl y ranks hio-h amonone pfie poets of America . His imaginative powers are very oreat and 33 sift sings the praise of universal freedom with extraordinary beauty and iigotfgour . There runs through his verses , too , a sweet and womanly "ndenderness , which render them very loveable . His writings are in liliemlieniselves a sufficient disprovenient of the oft repeated fallacy that rrue rue poetry is dying out from amongst us . How can poetry perish shall shine brihtl

      ffhUvhUc the sun as gy , and the spring be as green and < ovoovous as in the olden time ? When the earth is " bathed Tn golden ; i ; un § unshine , when mountain and dale are clad in a garb of beautious Mowers , and the blue sky above is spangled with the countless worlds mf ( of M ' s boundless universe , - while with her thousand voices nature is jpoupouring into men ' s souls her songs of love and beaut y , it is not possi-Ibieble for poetry to perish . But for the exercise of his poetic genius , ILo'Loffell lias chosen a sphere still wider than the material beauties of Ithethe world . In humanity itself—in the freedom and happiness of man-Ikhkind , he has found subjects far worthier of his pen . What a nob' ; e spispirit of universal brotherhood is expressed in the following stanzas :-

      —THE FATHERLAND . Where is the true man ' s fatherland ? Is it where he by chance was born ? Doth not the yearning spirit scorn In such scant borders to be spanned 1 Oh , yes ! his fatherland must be , As the blue heaven , wide and free 1 Is it alone where freedom is , "Where God is God , and man is man 1

      Doth he not claim a broader span For the soul ' s love of home than this 1 Oh , yes ! his fatherland must be , As the blue heaven , wide and free ! "Where ' er the human heart doth wear Joy's myrtle-wreath or sorrows gyves , "Where ' er a human spirit strives After a life more true and fair There is the true man ' s birth-place grand , His world-wide fatherland !

      Where e'er a single slave doth pine , Wkeree ' er one man may help another , Thank God for such a birth-right brother , That spot of earth is thine and mine , There is the true mans birth-place grand , His world-wide fatherland ! Here is-a noble appeal for freedom : — STANZAS ON FREEDOM .

      Hen 1 whose boast it is that ye Come of fathers brave and free , II there breathe on earth a slave Are ye truly ftee and brave 1 If ye do not feel the chain , "When it works a brothers pain , Are ye not base slaves indeed—Slaves unworthy to be freed 1

      w omen ! who shall one day bear Sons to breathe Xew England air , If ye hear , without a bluhs , Deeds to make the roused Wood rush Like red lava through your veins , For your sisters now in chains—Answer ! are ye fit to be Mothers of the brave and free ? Is true freedom but to break Fetters for our own dear sake , And , with leathern hearts , forget That we owe mankind a debt :

      Jfo ! true freedom is to share All the chains our brothers wear , And with heart and hand to be Earnest to make others free ! They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak ; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred , scoffing , and abuse , Bather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think ; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three .

      The long martyrdom of Bight and triumph of Wrong—the ignorant and brutalized multitude crucyfying their benefactors , afterwards to look upon them as martyrs—the long struggle between freedom and oppression , with its termination—g lorious for liberty—in the future , is finely p ictured in the following : —

      THE PRESENT CRISES . When a deed is done for Freedom , through the earth ' s aching breast Euns a thrill of joy prop hetic , trembling on from east to west , And the slave where ' er he cowers , feels his soul within hitn climb , To the awful verge of manhood , as the energy sublime Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time . Tlnwh the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe When the travail of the Ages swings earths systems to and fro ; At the birth ofgeach net ? Era with a recognizing start Xation wildly looks at nation with mute lips apart And -lad Truth ' s yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Futures hear *

      Bo the Evil ' s triump h sendeth , with a terror and a chill , Under continent to continent , the sense of coming ill , And the slave , where ' er he cower ,, feels h ^ sympath . es with God In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward , to be drunk up by ^ the sod , Till a corpse crawls round unburied , delving in the nobler clod . For mankind are one in spirit , and an instinct bears « taj Konnd the earth ' s electric circle , the swift flash of right or wrong , "Whether conscious or unconscious , yet Humanity s _ vast fiame Through its ocean-sundered fibres feel , the gush of joy or shame-In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal chum .

      Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide . In the strife of Truth with Falsehood , for the good or eviUide , £££££ * , God ' s new Messiah , offering each the hmom or bhght , Parts The goats upon the left hand , and the sheep upon the ght And the cfioice goes by for ever 'twist that darkness and that hght . Hast thou chosen , 0 my people , on whose party thou shalt stand Ere the Doom from Us worn sandals shakes the dust aga » st our land . Though the cause of Evil prosper , yet 'tis truth alone is stiong , And , albeit she wander outcast now , I « ™ f Jf « f " £ Troops of beautiful , tall angels , to enslueld her from all wiona .

      Backward look across the ages and the h ™™ ' ™™^ *« ° > , _ . That , like peaks of some sunk continent , jut through Oblmon s sea , Not an ear in court or market for the low « W Of those Crises , God ' s stern wiuuowers , from whose feet earth , chaff mu . t Ne JLwS th , choice momentous till the judgment bath passed by .

      He Ins Poetical Works Of James Russell L...

      Careless seems the great Avenger ; history ' s pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word : Truth for ever on the scaffold , Wrong for ever on the throne—Standeth God within the shadow , keeping watch above his own . We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great , Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate , Dutthe soul is still oracular ; amid the markets din , List the omnious stern whisper from the Delphic cave within" They enslave their children ' s children who make compromise with sin . " Slavery , the earthborn Cyclops , fellest ofthe giant brood , Sons of brutis h Force and Darkness , who have drenched the earth with blood .

      Famished in his self-made desert , blinded by our purer day , Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey;—Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play 1 Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust , Ere her cause bring fame and profit , and 'tis prosperous to be just ; Then it is the brave man chooses , while , the coward stands aside , Doubting in his abject spirit , till his Lord is crucified , And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied .

      Count me o ' er Earth ' s chosen heroes—they were souls that stood alone While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone , Stood serene and down the future saw the golden beam incline To the side of perfect justice , mastered by their faith divine , By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God ' s supreme design . By the light of burning heretics Christ ' s bleeding feet I track , Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back , And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts hath burned Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven unturned

      For Humanity sweeps onward : where to-day the martyr stands , On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands ; Far ia front the cross stands ready and the ctackling fagots burn , While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn . 'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves ; Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime : — Was the Mayflower launched hy cowards , steered by men behind their time ? Turn those tracks toward Past or Future , that make Plymouth rock sublime ?

      They were men of present valonr , stalwart old iconoclats , Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past's ; But we make their truth our falsehood , thinking that hath made us free , Hoarding it in mouldy parchments , while our tender spirits flee The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them across the sea . They have rights who dare maintain them ; we are traitors to our sires , Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom ' s new-lit altar fires ; Shall we make their creed our jailer 1 Shall we , in our haste to slay , From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to day 1

      New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; They mnst upward still , and onward , who would keep abreast of Truth ; Lo , before us gleam her camp-fires I we ourselves must pilgrims be , Launch our Mayflower , and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea , Nor attempt the Future ' s portal with the Past ' s blood-rusted key . What a lesson for the " Democrats" of America is contained in the above ! They might easily be heroes , but they prefer to he the slaves of a " legendary virtue ''—that of their fathers . But there is hope for America , when a voice like Lowell ' s is raised to thunder in the ears of the upholders and abettors of slavery :

      "They enslave their children ' s children , who make compromise with sin . ' The best piece in' this collection is , undoubtedly , that entitled * Prometheus . " pur space will enable us to extract only one or two passages : —

      PROMETHEUS . Thy hated name is tossed once more in scorn From off my lips , for I will tell thy doom . And are these tears ? Nay , do not triumph , Jove I They are wrung from me but by the agonies Of prophecy , like those sparse drops which fall From clouds in travail of fhe lightning , when The great wave of the storm high-curled and black Rolls steadily onward to its thunderous break . Why art thou made a god o ' . ' » thou poor type

      Of anger , and revenge , and cunning for ; -e ? True Power was never horn of brutish Strength , Nor sweet Truth suckled at the shaggy dugs Of that old she-wolf . Are thy thunderbolts , That quell the darkness for a space , so strong As the prevailing patience of meek Light , Who , with the invincible tenderness of peace , Wins it to be a portion of herself ? Why art thou made a sod of , thou , who hast

      The never-sleeping terror at thy heart , That birthright of all tyrants worse to hear Than this thy ravening bird on which I smile ? Thou Kwear ' st to free to free me , if I will unfold What kind of doom it is whose omen flits Across thy heart , as o ' er a troop of doves The fearful shadow of the kite . What need To know the truth whose knowledge cannot save Evil its errand hath , as well as Good ; When thine is finished , thou art known no more

      * - * * * * * ¦ The pipings of glad shepherds on the hills :, Tending the flocks no more to bleed for thee , —' The songs of maidens pressing with white feet The vintage oh thine altars poured no more , — The murmurous bliss of lovers , underneath Dim grape-vine bowers , whose rosy bunches pvesa Hot half so close as their warm cheeks , unchecked By thoughts of thy brute lust—the hive-like hum Of peaceful commonwealths ; where sunburnt Toil

      Reaps for itself the rich earth made its own By its own labour , lightened with glad hymns To an omnipotence which thy mad bolts Would cope with as a spark with the vast sea—Even the spirit of free love and peace . Duty ' s sure recom pense through life and death—These are such harvests as all master-spirits Reap , haply not on earth , but reap no less Because the sheaves are bound by hands not theirs ; These are the Woodless daggers wherewithal

      They stab fallen tyrants , this their high revenge ; For their best part of life on earth is when , Long after death , prisoned and pent no more , Their thoughts , their wild dreams even , have become Part of the necessary air men breathe ; When , like the moon , brrself behind a cloud , They shed down light before us on life ' s sea , That cheers us to steer onward still in hope .

      Earth with her twining memories ivies o er Their holy sepulchres ; the chainless sea , In tempest or wide calm , repeats their thoughts j The lightening and the thunder , all free things , Have legends of them for the ears of men . All other glories are as falling stars , But universal Nature watches theirs : Such strength is won by love of human kind .

      The Curse Of Mouthing Mountebankism. (Fr...

      THE CURSE OF MOUTHING MOUNTEBANKISM . ( From Carlyle ' s Stump Orator . ) Given a general insincerity of mind for several generations , you will certain 1 find the Talker established in the place of honour ; and the Doer , hidden in the obscure crowd , with activity lamed , or working sorrowfully forward on paths unworthy of him . All men are devoutly prostrate , worshipping the eloquent talker ; and no man knows what a scandalous idol he is . Out of whom in the mildest manner , like comfortable natural rest , comes mere asphyxia and death

      everlasting ! Probably there is not in Nature a move distracted phantasm than your commonplace eloquent speaker , as he is found on platforms , in parliaments , on Kentucky stumps , at tavern-dinners , in windy , empty , insincere times like ours . The excellent * Stutap-Oratov / as our admiring Yankee friends define him , he who in any occurrent set of circumstances can start forth , mount upon his ' stump , ' his rostrum , tribune , place in parliament , or other ready elevation , and pour forth from him his appropriate ' excellent speech , ' Ms interpretation of

      the said circumstances , in such manner as poor windy mortals round him shall cry bravo to , —lie is not an artist I can much admire , as matters go I Alas , he is in general the windiest mortal of them all * , and is admired for being so , into the bargain . A mouthpiece of Chaos to poor benighted mortals that lend ear to him as a voice from Cosmos , this excellent stump-orator fills me wilh amazement . Not empty , these musical wind-uttevances of his ? they are big with pro * phecy ; they announce , too audibly to me , that the end of many things are drawing nigh !

      He who well considers , will find this same ' art of speech , ' as we moderns have it , to be a truly astonishing product of the Ages ; and the longer he considers it , the more astonishing and alarming . I reckon it the saddest of all the curses that now lie heavy on us . Words will not express what mischiefs the misuse of words has done , and is doing , in these heavyladen generations . Do you want a man not to practise what he believes , then encourage him to keep often speaking it in words . Every time he speaks it , the tendency to do it will grow less . His empty speech of what he believes , will be a weariness and an affliction to the wise man . But do you wish his empty spe , ech of what he believes , to become further an insincere speech of what he does not believe ? Celebrate to him his gift of speech ; assure him that he shall rise in Parliament by means of it , and achieve great things without any performance ; that eloquent

      speech , whether performed or not , is admirable . My friends , eloquent unperformed speech , in Parliament or elsewhere , is horrible ! The eloquent man that delivers , in Parliament or elsewhere , a beautiful speech , and will perform nothing of it , but leaves it as if already performed , —what can you make of that man 1 He has enrolled himself among the Itjnes Fuiui and Children of the Wind ; means to serve , as a beautifully illuminated Chinese Lantern , in that corps henceforth . I think , the most serviceable thing you could do to that man , if permissible , would be a severe one : To clip off a bit of his eloquent tongue , by way of penance and warning ; another bit , if he again spoke without performing ; and so again , till you had dipt the whole tongue away from him , —and were delivered , you and he . from at least one miserable mockery : " There , eloqiien t friend , see now " in silence if there be any redeeming deed in thee ; of blasphemous wind-eloquence , at least , we shall have no more !"

      No grand Doer in this world can be a copious speaker about his doings William the Silent spoke himself best in a country liberated ; Oliver Cromwell i d not shine in rhetoric ; Goethe , when he had but a book , in view , found that e must say nothing even of that , if it was to succeed with him . * # * * - « And would you learn how to get a mendacious thought , there is no surer recipe than carrying a loose tongue . The lying thought , you already either have it , or will soon get it by that method . He who lies with his very tongue , lie clearly enough has ceased to think truly in his mind . How can the thought of such a man , what he calls thought , be other than false ? Alas , the palpable liar with his tongue does at least know that he is lying , and

      has or might have some faint veslige of remorse and chance of amendment ; but the impalpable liar , whose tongue articulates mere accepted commonplaces , cants and babblement , which means only " Admire me , call me an excellent stump-orator !"—of him what hope is there ? His thought , what thought he had , nes dormant , inspired only to invent vocables and plausibilities ; while the tong e goes so glib , the thought is absent , gone a-woolgathering ; getting itself dru ^ ged with the applausive ' Hear , hear !'—what will become of such a man ? His hije thought has run all to seed , and grown false and the giver of falsities ; the inner light of his mind is gone out ; all his light is mere putridity and phospho rescence henceforth . Whosoever is in quest of ruin , let him with assurance follow that man ; he is one , or is on the tight road to it .

      Be not a Public Orator , thou brave young British man , thou art now growing to be something : not a Stump-Orator , if thou canst help it . There where thou art , work , work ; whatsoever thy hand findeth to do , do it , — -with the hand of a man , not of a phantasm ; be that thy unnoticed blessedness and exceeding great reward . Thy words , let them be few , and well ordered . Love silence rather than speech in these tragic days , when for very speaking , the voice of man has fallen inarticulate to man ; and hearts , in this loud babbling , sit dark and dumb towards one another . The old are what they are , and will not alter ; our hope is in you . England ' s hope , and the world ' s , is that there may once more be millions such , instead of units a * now . ilfacte ; ifausto pede . And many future generations , acquainted again with the silences , and once more cognisant of what is noble and faitl / ful and divine , look back on us with pity and incredulous astonishment {

      Waifs And Strays.

      WAIFS AND STRAYS .

      Subject For A Statue. (To Be Placed In T...

      Subject for a Statue . ( To be placed in the House of Commons ]— ¦ Disraeli , like Niobe , all Thiers . —Punch . " Peace and Plenty "—oe Noise . —Many members of the Peace j Society advocate their cause in such a noisy manner—agitatino- away $ ¦ as if they were going to move heaven and earth to enforce their ° pacific c principles—that we think it would only be just to change the name of > f these Friends of Peace—but not Quietness—and to call them , for theie future , " Earth-Quakers . " --Punch .

      The French Schoolmaster . —The Minister of Public Instructional has been received at Lille with all the honours of war . It is quite ; e right that Louis Napoleon ' s schoolmaster should teach the young idea la how to shoot . The Lancastrian plan gives writing-lessons in sand ; ; the schoolmaster at Lille improves on this—turning the sand into to gunpowder . —Punch . A New Foum op Hero-Worship . —The robbery committed uponom a French author by our Chancellor of the Exchequer , when he wasasi expatiating on the virtues of Wellington , was intended after all as % ai compliment , for Disraeli thought he could not pay the memory of tkthr departed hero a greater honour than b y taking something more fronon the Irench . —Punch . & '

      In a barber s shop in North Shields there is a bill recommending c « certain patent medicine , with the very dubious headincr— « try oiion box ; no other medicine need ever be taken afterwards . " A man whom Dr . Johnson once reproved for following a useless anan demoralising business , said in excuse , " You know , doctor , that f musnr * live . " This brave old hater of everything mean and hateful coolly re- re ' plied , that " he did not see the least necessity for that " A couple of pedestrians , " gents from town , " passing through a tolJtolJ ] bar , attempted a joke at the expense of a young woman who stood ad - the door , by asking what the charge was for passing throuo-h ihe ba ' ba " « If you are gentlemen nothing ; if you are donkeys , a penny eachachi replied the damsel , much to their discomfiture .

      An Indian chief once went to the office of the American Commi . imiT : sioner at Chicago , to whom he introduced himself as a very o-ov < wt Indian , a great iriend' to the Americans , and concluded by askinoT % ffi a g lass of whiskey . The commissioner gravely told him that % iC never gave whiskey to good Indians , who never wished for such tkindhina that it was only used by bad Indians , « Then" replied the Indiaidiai quickly , " me one internal rascal !" A poetical auctioneer , well known in the county of Durham for Ifor II literary powers , concluded a recent announcement of a furniture s-e swith the following sublime comparison : — « And a host of domestic afcic ai preciables , m some degree countless as the glittering jewels whiwhii bestrid the lacteal turnpike of the blue ethereal . "

      Trai Aciiilli Trial-A rule to obtain a new trial of this case was gran gram m the Court of Queen ' s Bench-on Monday , on the ground that the verdic diet 7 against evidence .

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 27, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_27111852/page/13/