 | Lays and ballads |  |
118
MANHOOD.
Man, like his Eden sire, walks fresh from God,
In panoply of majesty and power;
And stands upon his mount of strength supreme,
Firm footed as the oak. The earth is his,
For he has forced the king of beasts to crouch, and brought
The eagle from his eyried crag, and made
A traffic of the seas leviathan;
And from the mountain's stubborn breast hath torn
Its iron heart, or traced the rich red ore
Along its shining veins. The vales, where erst
Free Nature held her sabbath all the year,
He fills with week-day turmoil; and the woods
Are bowed before him, while the quiet trees
Are moulded into temples broad and high,
Or hewn to build the ocean's wingèd arks,
That link together far ends of the earth
With chains of commerce over dangerous seas.
Man spreads the sail, and with his strong right arm
He holds the helm against the tempest's wrath;
Or when the treacherous reef is struck, he clasps
The fainting form and struggles to the shore.
He wears his country's arms, and faces death
To plant above the bulwarks of the foe
The standard of his native land.
In panoply of majesty and power;
And stands upon his mount of strength supreme,
Firm footed as the oak. The earth is his,
For he has forced the king of beasts to crouch, and brought
The eagle from his eyried crag, and made
A traffic of the seas leviathan;
And from the mountain's stubborn breast hath torn
Its iron heart, or traced the rich red ore
Along its shining veins. The vales, where erst
Free Nature held her sabbath all the year,
119
Are bowed before him, while the quiet trees
Are moulded into temples broad and high,
Or hewn to build the ocean's wingèd arks,
That link together far ends of the earth
With chains of commerce over dangerous seas.
Man spreads the sail, and with his strong right arm
He holds the helm against the tempest's wrath;
Or when the treacherous reef is struck, he clasps
The fainting form and struggles to the shore.
He wears his country's arms, and faces death
To plant above the bulwarks of the foe
The standard of his native land.
Than this
A faculty diviner still is his;
For he hath on the walls of science stood,
Gray walls, whose towering turrets well nigh reach
The prophet's dome of inspiration;—there
With all the book of space before him spread,
Hath read its starry pages, and transcribed
Its wonders for the waiting world below!
But man, endowed with all the powers of earth,
The form majestic, and the strong right arm,
With intellect to penetrate the skies,
To unriddle the enigma of the stars,—
Must cast aside his dusty strength, and lay
His little knowledge humbly by, and take
The tender innocence which childhood wears,
And he shall be invested with the power,
The majesty, and wisdom of the immortals.
A faculty diviner still is his;
For he hath on the walls of science stood,
Gray walls, whose towering turrets well nigh reach
The prophet's dome of inspiration;—there
With all the book of space before him spread,
Hath read its starry pages, and transcribed
Its wonders for the waiting world below!
But man, endowed with all the powers of earth,
The form majestic, and the strong right arm,
120
To unriddle the enigma of the stars,—
Must cast aside his dusty strength, and lay
His little knowledge humbly by, and take
The tender innocence which childhood wears,
And he shall be invested with the power,
The majesty, and wisdom of the immortals.
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