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The poems of Owen Meredith (Honble Robert Lytton.)

Selected and revised by the author. Copyright edition. In two volumes
Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (1831-1891)

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VOL. I.
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THE WANDERER.
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BOOK I.
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BOOK II.
  
THE MESSAGE.
  
A FOOTSTEP.
  
DIVIDED LIVES.
  
SEA-SIDE ELEGIACS.
  
THE SHORE.
  
THE PEDLAR.
  
THE VAMPIRE.
  
A REPROACH.
  
A REMONSTRANCE.
  
ONE MORNING.
  
SORCERY.
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BOOK III.
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BOOK IV.
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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
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VOL. II.

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102

A REPROACH.

I.

Fierce the sea is, and fickle if fair.
So they say of it. So let it be!
But did ever the landsman's languor check
The seaman's pride in his dancing deck?
Or did ever the helmsman, whose home is there,
In place of his own true hand and eye
Trust the ploughman's skill, when the sea ran high,
And submit to a landsman's usurpature?
No! for the seaman loveth the sea,
And knoweth its nature.

II.

Peril there is on the mountain peak,
When headlong tumble the turbulent rills.
But did ever the lowland shepherd's fear
Daunt the heart of the mountaineer?
Or did ever the hillborn hunter seek,
When the snowdrift, sweeping the mountain side,
Flew fast and fierce, for a lowland guide
To track the path of a mountain creature?
No! for the huntsman loveth the hills,
And knoweth their nature.
103

III.

Then to whom shall the sailor for counsel go,
Thro' the violent waters his bark to steer?
Or what thro' the ice and the falling snow
May guide the foot of the mountaineer?
Hath the huntsman heed of the pastoral quills
Which the shepherd pipes to his flocks on the lea?
Or the seaman faith in the fear that fills
The babbling landsman's prate? Not he!
For the heighths and the depths have their ways and wills,
Which they must learn who their lords would be.
And the highlander studies and trusts the hills,
As the mariner studies and trusts the sea.

IV.

But, O my love, I am thine in vain,
If thou trustest me not! and oh why hast thou ta'en
Counsel, not of my nature nor thine,
How a woman should deal with this heart of mine?
The seaman the sea doth trust,
And the huntsman the hills. But thou,
Thou, that hast known me, do'st
Trust those that I scorn to know
For the knowledge of me;
Who have been thine own
In vain, if by thee
I be still unknown.
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