 | Minor Poems, including Napoleon |  |
DUNWICH.
That what we are, and have been, may be known.”
I
In Britain's earlier annals thou wert setAmong the cities of our sea-girt isle:
Of what thou wert — some tokens linger yet
In yonder ruins; and this roofless pile,
Whose walls are worshipless, whose tower — a mark,
Left but to guide the seaman's wand'ring bark!
II
Yet where those ruins gray are scatter'd round,The din of commerce fill'd the echoing air;
From these now crumbling walls arose the sound
Of hallow'd music, and the voice of prayer:
And this was unto some, whose names have ceas'd,
The wall'd and gated city of the east!
III
Thus time, and circumstance, and change, betrayThe transient tenure of the worldly wise!
Thus “Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay,”
And leaves no splendid wreck for Fame to prize:
While Nature her magnificence retains,
And from the contrast added glory gains.
IV
Still, in its billowy boundlessness out-spread,Yon mighty deep smiles to the orb of day,
Whose brightness o'er this shatter'd pile is shed
In quiet beauty. — Nature's early sway
Is audible in winds that whisper round, —
The soaring sky-lark's song, the breaker's hollow sound.
Note. — To those who may think my epithet of “The wall'd and gated city of the East,” — somewhat hyperbolical as applied to Dunwich, I must submit an extract from Gardner's History of Dunwich, as containing at least traditional authority; though I fear little more.
“The oldest inhabitants of this neighbourhood report, that Dun- “wich, (in ancient time,) was a city surrounded with a stone wall, “and brazen gates, had fifty-two churches, chapels, religious houses, “and hospitals, a king's palace, a bishop's seat, a mayor's mansion, “and a mint.” — He further states, in a following paragraph of his preface, his endeavours “to preserve the fate of that renowned “city, now almost swallowed up by the sea, from sinking into “oblivion, by collecting such occurrences dependent thereon, as “may perpetuate the memorial thereof to posterity.” — But, after all, Tradition has done more for the past glories of Dunwich than History, “Time's slavish Scribe,” has ever condescended to do.
| Minor Poems, including Napoleon | |