Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

"LET THERE BE THISTLES, THERE ARE GRAPES; IF OLD THINGS, THERE ARE NEW;

[ocr errors]

SELF-REVERENCE, SELF-KNOWLEDGE, SELF-CONTROL,-(TENNYSON)

BREAK, BREAK, BREAK.

And the stately ships go on

To their haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

469

TEN THOUSAND BROKEN LIGHTS AND SHAPES, YET GLIMPSES OF THE TRUE."-TENNYSON.

[graphic][merged small]

["In this lyric the sea stands for nothing specific, but by its perpetual murmur on the shore attunes the soul to the key-notes of sorrow, and preaches the relation of suffering to the infinite. Self-will and lowness cannot live in this contact, and the soul is soothed to calmness and resignation by the lullaby of the great mother."-E. C. TAINSH, A Study of Tennyson, p. 53.]

[ocr errors]

THESE THREE ALONE LEAD LIFE TO SOVEREIGN POWER."-TENNYSON.

"AND OTHERS' FOLLIES TEACH US NOT, NOR MUCH THEIR WISDOM TEACHES-TENNYSON)

470

66

PASSIONLESS BRIDE, DIVINE TRANQUILLITY, TENNYSON)

ALFRED TENNYSON.

S

THE SHELL.

EE what a lovely shell,
Small and pure as a pearl,

Lying close to my foot;
Frail, but a work divine,
Made so fairily well

With delicate spire and whorl,
How exquisitely minute,
A miracle of design!

What is it? A learned man
Could give it a clumsy name.
Let him name it who can,
The beauty would be the same.
The tiny cell is forlorn,
Void of the little living will
That made it stir on the shore.
Did he stand at the rainbow door
Of his house in a rainbow frill?
Did he push, when he was uncurled,
A golden foot or a fairy horn
Through his dim water-world?
Slight, to be crushed with a tap
Of my finger-nail on the sand,
Small, but a work divine,
Frail, but of force to withstand,
Year upon year, the shock
Of cataract seas that snap
The three-decker's oaken spine
Athwart the ledges of rock,
Here on the Breton strand!

[From "Maud," Part ii., 2.]

YEARNED AFTER BY THE WISEST OF THE WISE."-TENNYSON.

AND MOST, OF STERLING WORTH, IS WHAT OUR OWN EXPERIENCE PREACHES."-TENNYSON.

NO FABLED WORLD, IMAGINED ISLES BEYOND

HYMN TO OCEAN.

Richard Chenevix French.

[RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin, was born in 1807; graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1829; took orders, and accepted the incumbency of Cambridge in Hampshire; was promoted, in 1845, to the rectory of Itchin Stoke; in 1845 and 1846, officiated at Cambridge as Hulsean Lecturer; became Professor of Theology at King's College, London, in 1847; was appointed Dean of Westminster in 1856; and Archbishop of Dublin in 1864. His devotional and theological works are very numerous: the most important are, "Notes on the Parables," Notes on the Miracles," and "Studies from the Gospels." As a philologist he has also obtained distinction, and his treatises on "The Study of Words" and "English Past and Present" are deservedly popular.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

He first appeared as a poet, in 1838, with two volumes of poetry, entitled,
'Sabbation, Honor Neale, and Other Poems." These have been followed
by the
Story of Justin Martyr," "Genoveva," "Elegiac Poems," and

"Poems from Eastern Sources.

When we gaze into a clear translucent pool, says Dr. Moir, and observe distinctly the sand, shells, and pebbles at the bottom, we are apt to form a very erroneous estimate of its depth. It is often so with Trench's poetry, where the profound seems to assume the disguise of the simple and unadorned. That he is something of a mannerist is not to be disputed, but seldom disagreeably so, from a classical eagerness, an over-fastidious anxiety to give his phrases their highest polish; so from his earliest poems down to his latest, his course towards compositional excellence has been steady and evident.]

HAVE BEEN BUT IN THE LONGING OF MAN'S HEART, NOT THESE NOW OCCUPY OUR HEARTS AND HOPES;

471

BUT EDEN AND THE NEW JERUSALEM, THE GARDEN AND THE CITY OF OUR GOD."-RICHARD C. TRENCH.

HYMN TO OCEAN.

FROM THE GERMAN OF RÜCKert.

CRADLE, whence the suns ascend, old Ocean divine;
O grave, whereto the suns descend, old Ocean divine:

O! spreading in the calm of night thy mirror, wherein
The Moon her countenance doth bend, old Ocean divine.

O thou that dost in midnights still thy chorus of waves
With dances of the planets blend, old Ocean divine :

THE LIMITARY OCEAN, SUCH AS NEVER- -(TRENCH)

"A GENIAL MOMENT OFT HAS GIVEN WHAT YEARS OF TOIL AND PAIN,-(TRENCH)

472

66

THOUGH WE CANNOT CEASE TO YEARN OR GRIEVE,-(TRENCH)

RICHARD CHENE VIX TRENCH.

[graphic][merged small]

The morning and the evening blooms are roses of thine,
Two roses that for thine are kenned, old Ocean divine.

O Amphitrite's panting breast, whose breathing doth make
The waves to fall and ascend, old Ocean divine.

O womb of Amphitrite, hear thy beautiful child,
Abroad thy glory to commend, old Ocean divine.

YET WE HAVE LEARNED IN PATIENCE TO ABIDE."-TRENCH.

OF LONG INDUSTRIOUS TOIL, HAVE STRIVEN TO WIN, AND ALL IN VAIN."-TRENCH.

66

JOY IS OF GOD, BUT HEAVINESS AND CARE (RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH)

[blocks in formation]

O! sprinkle thou with pearly dew Earth's garland of spring,
For only thou hast pearls to spend, old Ocean divine.

All Naiads that from thee had sprung, commanded by thee,
Back to thy Nereid-dances tend, old Ocean divine.

What ships of thought sail forth on thee! Atlantis doth sleep
In silence at thine utmost end, old Ocean divine.

The goblets of the gods, from high Olympus that fall,
Thou dost on coral boughs suspend, old Ocean divine.

A diver in the sea of love my song is, that fain
Thy glory would to all commend, old Ocean divine.

I, like the Moon, beneath thy waves with yearning would
plunge;

Thence might I like the sun ascend, old Ocean divine.

[From "Poems, Collected and Arranged Anew," ed. 1865.]

"IF THAT IN SIGHT OF GOD IS GREAT WHICH COUNTS ITSELF FOR SMALL,

WE, BY THAT LAW, HUMILITY THE CHIEFEST GRACE MUST CALL."-TRENCH.

TO THE EVENING STAR.

JOLE star that glitterest in the crimson west,
Fair child of beauty, glorious lamp of love,
How cheerfully thou lookest from above,
With what unblinking eye and jocund crest,
Yet grief from thee hast past into my breast,

For all surpassing glory needs must be

Full unto us of sad perplexity,

Seen from this place of sin and sin's unrest.

Yea, all things which such perfect beauty own
As this of thine is, tempt us into tears;

OF OUR OWN HEARTS, AND WHAT HAS HARBOURED THERE."-TRENCH.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »