The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker Edited from the original manuscripts and annotated copies together with a prefatory notice and bibliography by Alfred Wallis |
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| INTRODUCTORY AND FAREWELL ADDRESSES. |
 | The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker |  |
INTRODUCTORY AND FAREWELL ADDRESSES.
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The following lines were written to be recited as Introductory and Farewell Addresses at the Public Examination of Mr. Tucker's Pupils, at Ham House, Charlton-Kings. The repetition of the latter depended, of course, on the success it anticipated.
Introductory Address.
“Concurritur.”—Hor.
Hard is the task, ill fit for youthful days,
To gain from judgment's voice the meed of of praise,
And deep the pain that youthful souls must feel,
When censure damps the glow of early zeal.
The flower that dies before the eastern gale,
Once promised fragrance to its native vale,
And many a bud that genius hailed her own,
Reproof hath blighted ere its tints were known.
Knew ye the joy your cherished smiles will give,
While life shall brighten or remembrance live;
Knew ye how valued, nay, how loved by youth,
Its first-gained laurel from the lip of truth:
Then would ye not withhold the approving smile,
The cheap-bought recompense of youthful toil.
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To welcome joy or sink beneath distress.
But school-boy pleasures and the much-loved spot
Where once they flourished, ne'er will be forgot;—
Should happiness be ours, or fortune bring
Life's dearest blessings on her welcome wing,
Proud shall we be to drop the gentle tear,
And midst our joys to own their birth-place, here!
Should sorrow haunt the evening dreams of life,
And tears be mingled with the cup of strife,
Still shall your smiles be traced on memory's page,
To gladden manhood, and to soothe old age!
As the young fledgling leaves its mother's breast,
And flies the covert of the sheltering nest,
To track with feeble wing the untried air,
And find its safety or destruction there:
Behold us now with anxious hearts draw near,
Hope in our souls, though not unmixed with fear.
Yet will we trust that not in vain we plead
That candour may prevail, and youth succeed;
And long 'twill be our first, our dearest pride,
Should praise await our toil where you preside.
Farewell Address.
“Victoria Lœta.”—Hor.
'Twere vain to whisper what we all must feel,
The joy of heart, the proud success of zeal;
And vain the gratitude our lips could pay
For the high triumph we have won to-day!
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Around each youthful heart shall memory bind,
The gentler feelings of that heart to share,
And long to bloom in fadeless beauty there.
Dear will our triumph be, and doubly dear,
Since we have won our first-born laurels here;
Well may applause like yours the heart beguile,
And Fear be mute, when Judgment deigns to smile:
Proud is the conquest when the victors gain
A prize so often sought and sought in vain!
Take with you, then, in fervency, in truth,
The cheerful gratitude of guileless youth.
Cloth'd in no glozing phrase, no practis'd art,
The pure unmingled incense of the heart.
The high-born boast, “we did not vainly sue”
The generous praise our feeble efforts drew,
Speak to the soul, and justly, deeply tell,
Vain is our gratitude, and thus, farewell!
| The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker | |