 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
WORDSWORTH.
A thought the universe in worth outweighs
View'd as dead Matter, meaningless and dumb:
Hence, on some Form where intellect is shrined,
And genius dwells, in purity of power
To God and wisdom dedicate, we gaze
With no cold glance, by common love inspired.
And thus, on Him, that venerable Bard!
A laurell'd Priest of poetry and truth,
August with years, by mournful calm subdued,
With filial reverence my spirit look'd
When first I heard him, in his mountain-home,
My entrance welcome. Boyhood's pensive dawn
Ideal magic from his mental springs
So oft had drunk, that when their breathing Source
Before me stood embodied, all the spells
His numbers wielded seem'd in one combined
And round my soul in high remembrance drawn,
Till like a Seer, or Hierarch of mind
And melody, immortal Wordsworth thrill'd
My heart, and made it vibrate into tears!
For tones there are in his creative verse
By childhood not unecho'd: but when age
Deepens the character, and powers awake
To more majestic strains attuned, his thoughts
The hidden lyre of consciousness within
Electrically move, and mental chords
By him are touch'd, which prove the soul divine.
View'd as dead Matter, meaningless and dumb:
Hence, on some Form where intellect is shrined,
And genius dwells, in purity of power
To God and wisdom dedicate, we gaze
With no cold glance, by common love inspired.
And thus, on Him, that venerable Bard!
A laurell'd Priest of poetry and truth,
August with years, by mournful calm subdued,
With filial reverence my spirit look'd
When first I heard him, in his mountain-home,
My entrance welcome. Boyhood's pensive dawn
Ideal magic from his mental springs
So oft had drunk, that when their breathing Source
Before me stood embodied, all the spells
His numbers wielded seem'd in one combined
And round my soul in high remembrance drawn,
Till like a Seer, or Hierarch of mind
And melody, immortal Wordsworth thrill'd
My heart, and made it vibrate into tears!
For tones there are in his creative verse
By childhood not unecho'd: but when age
Deepens the character, and powers awake
To more majestic strains attuned, his thoughts
The hidden lyre of consciousness within
Electrically move, and mental chords
By him are touch'd, which prove the soul divine.
When thus indebted to his wealth of mind,
How could I gaze on that capacious brow
Open and high, and like an arch of thought
O'er eyes of intellectual blandness curved,
Or scan the lines, or view those silver'd locks
Which o'er his countenance a hoary grace
Suffused, and not ennobling homage pay.
What! shall mere Nature's majesty of forms
The eye entrance, where admiration glows,
Because, though mute, those forms to fancy hint
A soul in matter and a speech in things,—
And earth's own laureates be unreverenced
By mind? The human Race their debtor is;
Sea, air, and mountain, lake and lonely shore,
Forests and woods, and fields where freshness blooms
All are immortalised by radiance cast
From their high meanings, who the world transform,
And cast a beauty round the common lot
By making loveliness more lovely still.
How could I gaze on that capacious brow
Open and high, and like an arch of thought
589
Or scan the lines, or view those silver'd locks
Which o'er his countenance a hoary grace
Suffused, and not ennobling homage pay.
What! shall mere Nature's majesty of forms
The eye entrance, where admiration glows,
Because, though mute, those forms to fancy hint
A soul in matter and a speech in things,—
And earth's own laureates be unreverenced
By mind? The human Race their debtor is;
Sea, air, and mountain, lake and lonely shore,
Forests and woods, and fields where freshness blooms
All are immortalised by radiance cast
From their high meanings, who the world transform,
And cast a beauty round the common lot
By making loveliness more lovely still.
A mental prophet and a priest of song
The bard of Rydal is to Souls who see
How heaven-born genius, like a mouth of God,
Opens some new apocalypse of Power
Which faith reveres, and meditation loves.
For have not Nature, Providence, and Man
Of both the centre, from his thoughtful muse
A sympathy of mild and mournful tone
Partaken, till Association's law
Have each invested with a beauteous charm?
Thus, mountain-grandeur and the grace of hills
Like thine, Helvellyn! in their hollow sweep;
Or forked Skiddaw with his famous brow;
Parnassean groves and glades of blissful calm
Where trees their twilight cast,—to him were dear
And with his being half incorporate grew.
The thorn had meanings; and a thistle spoke
Its own stern language; while each meadow-flower
A glow of beauty on creation's brow
In blooming radiance, seem'd by Angels dropt:
Nature to him was one almighty Speech
Significant, and deep, and full of God.
Nothing was lost, but all to love appeal'd,
The linnet's chaunt, a homeless cuckoo-song,
An eagle's majesty, or insect-mirth
To him were welcome, and some feeling touch'd.
All voices, visions, all of sense and sound
Home to his heart a deep impression sent
Which gave him partnership in nature's All,
As though 'twere conscious. Hence the landscapes were
An outward-token of the inward mind,
Loved in his life, and from the Spirit's lyre
Drew melodies of thought, which shall not die
While throbs the heart with poetry or prayer!
The bard of Rydal is to Souls who see
How heaven-born genius, like a mouth of God,
Opens some new apocalypse of Power
Which faith reveres, and meditation loves.
For have not Nature, Providence, and Man
Of both the centre, from his thoughtful muse
A sympathy of mild and mournful tone
Partaken, till Association's law
Have each invested with a beauteous charm?
Thus, mountain-grandeur and the grace of hills
Like thine, Helvellyn! in their hollow sweep;
Or forked Skiddaw with his famous brow;
Parnassean groves and glades of blissful calm
Where trees their twilight cast,—to him were dear
And with his being half incorporate grew.
The thorn had meanings; and a thistle spoke
Its own stern language; while each meadow-flower
A glow of beauty on creation's brow
In blooming radiance, seem'd by Angels dropt:
Nature to him was one almighty Speech
Significant, and deep, and full of God.
Nothing was lost, but all to love appeal'd,
The linnet's chaunt, a homeless cuckoo-song,
An eagle's majesty, or insect-mirth
To him were welcome, and some feeling touch'd.
All voices, visions, all of sense and sound
Home to his heart a deep impression sent
Which gave him partnership in nature's All,
As though 'twere conscious. Hence the landscapes were
An outward-token of the inward mind,
Loved in his life, and from the Spirit's lyre
Drew melodies of thought, which shall not die
While throbs the heart with poetry or prayer!
Not mere description, pensive, deep or grand,
His verse unfolds: but he the Mind has taught
How nature's sacraments and symbols speak
To mental reverence with a language mute
But mighty; how Her moods and motions are
Responsively to Man's more hidden world
With such accordance shaped, that heaven-born minds
See God and Angels, where a sensuous heart
Is charm'd by nothing but material show.
His verse unfolds: but he the Mind has taught
How nature's sacraments and symbols speak
To mental reverence with a language mute
But mighty; how Her moods and motions are
Responsively to Man's more hidden world
With such accordance shaped, that heaven-born minds
See God and Angels, where a sensuous heart
Is charm'd by nothing but material show.
And human Life, and Providential love
To man reveal'd by Omnipresent acts
Of watching tenderness, from heaven at work,
His numbers prove with philosophic grace
And wisdom most benign. To him the scene
Of dark Existence was divinely touch'd
With sacredness and awe; whence prayer and praise
Were due, and godless Pride should learn to think,
And none seem orphan'd from the Father-God!
For as in nature, nothing is by Heaven
Forgotten, from the vaster forms of Life
And Being, down to each minutest speck,
But in the beam of God's parental eye
Remains for ever,—so that social World
Where Mind and Will their awfulness unfold
And character is moulded, to his gaze
An order'd scene of theocratic Law
Presented, where enthroned, the Godhead reign'd
And all were precious, who His cause maintain,—
Possible Angels, whom The Christ redeem'd.
To man reveal'd by Omnipresent acts
Of watching tenderness, from heaven at work,
His numbers prove with philosophic grace
And wisdom most benign. To him the scene
Of dark Existence was divinely touch'd
With sacredness and awe; whence prayer and praise
Were due, and godless Pride should learn to think,
And none seem orphan'd from the Father-God!
For as in nature, nothing is by Heaven
Forgotten, from the vaster forms of Life
And Being, down to each minutest speck,
But in the beam of God's parental eye
Remains for ever,—so that social World
Where Mind and Will their awfulness unfold
And character is moulded, to his gaze
An order'd scene of theocratic Law
Presented, where enthroned, the Godhead reign'd
And all were precious, who His cause maintain,—
Possible Angels, whom The Christ redeem'd.
All Nature thus made spiritually deep
By her significance of conscious life
To Soul responsive, and the moral World,
Where Providence to human will conjoins
Each plan and purpose, being hence enlink'd
With Glories uncreate,—no wonder Man
A true schekinah of transcendant powers
To Wordsworth seem'd; a Soul of priceless cost,
Whose incarnation, in its meanest guise,
Involves more grandeur than the “Worlds” contain!
Earth, space, and time, and all which tinsell'd pride
Amid the pageantries of wealth pursues
Or mere Convention by dull creed exacts
Before it vanish'd!—Individual mind
To him became the summit of his song:
And, how he trembled into wordless prayer
And grew religious, when unfathom'd depths
Of man's capacity for bliss or woe
Were open'd, and on Faith's predictive eye
The soul's hereafter like a vision rose
Self-realised, for heaven, or hell prepared!
By her significance of conscious life
To Soul responsive, and the moral World,
Where Providence to human will conjoins
Each plan and purpose, being hence enlink'd
With Glories uncreate,—no wonder Man
A true schekinah of transcendant powers
To Wordsworth seem'd; a Soul of priceless cost,
Whose incarnation, in its meanest guise,
Involves more grandeur than the “Worlds” contain!
Earth, space, and time, and all which tinsell'd pride
Amid the pageantries of wealth pursues
Or mere Convention by dull creed exacts
Before it vanish'd!—Individual mind
590
And, how he trembled into wordless prayer
And grew religious, when unfathom'd depths
Of man's capacity for bliss or woe
Were open'd, and on Faith's predictive eye
The soul's hereafter like a vision rose
Self-realised, for heaven, or hell prepared!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |