 | The poems (1969) |  |
17 The Manners.
An Ode
470
Farewell, for clearer ken designed,
The dim-discovered tracts of mind:
Truths which, from action's paths retired,
My silent search in vain required!
No more my sail that deep explores,
No more I search those magic shores,
What regions part the world of soul,
Or whence thy streams, Opinion, roll:
If e'er I round such fairy field,
Some power impart the spear and shield
At which the wizard Passions fly,
By which the giant Follies die!
The dim-discovered tracts of mind:
Truths which, from action's paths retired,
My silent search in vain required!
471
No more I search those magic shores,
What regions part the world of soul,
Or whence thy streams, Opinion, roll:
If e'er I round such fairy field,
Some power impart the spear and shield
At which the wizard Passions fly,
By which the giant Follies die!
Farewell the porch, whose roof is seen
Arched with the enlivening olive's green:
Where Science, pranked in tissued vest,
By Reason, Pride, and Fancy dressed,
Comes like a bride so trim arrayed,
To wed with Doubt in Plato's shade!
Arched with the enlivening olive's green:
Where Science, pranked in tissued vest,
By Reason, Pride, and Fancy dressed,
472
To wed with Doubt in Plato's shade!
Youth of the quick uncheated sight,
Thy walks, Observance, more invite!
O thou, who lov'st that ampler range,
Where life's wide prospects round thee change,
And with her mingling sons allied,
Throw'st the prattling page aside:
To me in converse sweet impart
To read in man the native heart,
To learn, where science sure is found,
From Nature as she lives around:
And gazing oft her mirror true,
By turns each shifting image view!
Till meddling Art's officious lore
Reverse the lessons taught before,
Alluring from a safer rule
To dream in her enchanted school;
Thou Heaven, whate'er of great we boast,
Hast blest this social science most.
Thy walks, Observance, more invite!
O thou, who lov'st that ampler range,
Where life's wide prospects round thee change,
And with her mingling sons allied,
Throw'st the prattling page aside:
To me in converse sweet impart
To read in man the native heart,
To learn, where science sure is found,
From Nature as she lives around:
And gazing oft her mirror true,
By turns each shifting image view!
Till meddling Art's officious lore
Reverse the lessons taught before,
Alluring from a safer rule
To dream in her enchanted school;
Thou Heaven, whate'er of great we boast,
473
Retiring hence to thoughtful cell,
As Fancy breathes her potent spell,
Not vain she finds the charmful task;
In pageant quaint, in motley mask,
Behold before her musing eyes
The countless Manners round her rise;
While ever varying as they pass,
To some Contempt applies her glass:
With these the white-robed Maids combine,
And those the laughing Satyrs join!
But who is he whom now she views,
In robe of wild contending hues?
Thou by the Passions nursed, I greet
The comic sock that binds thy feet!
O Humour, thou whose name is known
To Britain's favoured isle alone:
Me too amidst thy band admit,
There where the young-eyed healthful Wit,
(Whose jewels in his crispèd hair
Are placed each other's beams to share,
Whom no delights from thee divide)
In laughter loosed attends thy side!
As Fancy breathes her potent spell,
Not vain she finds the charmful task;
In pageant quaint, in motley mask,
Behold before her musing eyes
The countless Manners round her rise;
While ever varying as they pass,
To some Contempt applies her glass:
With these the white-robed Maids combine,
And those the laughing Satyrs join!
But who is he whom now she views,
In robe of wild contending hues?
474
The comic sock that binds thy feet!
O Humour, thou whose name is known
To Britain's favoured isle alone:
Me too amidst thy band admit,
There where the young-eyed healthful Wit,
(Whose jewels in his crispèd hair
475
Whom no delights from thee divide)
In laughter loosed attends thy side!
By old Miletus who so long
Has ceased his love-inwoven song;
By all you taught the Tuscan maids,
In changed Italia's modern shades;
By him, whose Knight's distinguished name
Refined a nation's lust of fame,
Whose tales even now, with echoes sweet,
Castilia's Moorish hills repeat;
Or him, whom Seine's blue nymphs deplore,
In watchet weeds on Gallia's shore,
Who drew the sad Sicilian maid,
By virtues in her sire betrayed:
Has ceased his love-inwoven song;
By all you taught the Tuscan maids,
In changed Italia's modern shades;
By him, whose Knight's distinguished name
Refined a nation's lust of fame,
Whose tales even now, with echoes sweet,
476
Or him, whom Seine's blue nymphs deplore,
In watchet weeds on Gallia's shore,
Who drew the sad Sicilian maid,
By virtues in her sire betrayed:
O Nature boon, from whom proceed
Each forceful thought, each prompted deed;
If but from thee I hope to feel,
On all my heart imprint thy seal!
Let some retreating Cynic find
Those oft-turned scrolls I leave behind:
The Sports and I this hour agree
To rove thy scene-full world with thee!
477
If but from thee I hope to feel,
On all my heart imprint thy seal!
Let some retreating Cynic find
Those oft-turned scrolls I leave behind:
The Sports and I this hour agree
To rove thy scene-full world with thee!
| The poems (1969) | |