 | Sonnets and Other Poems |  |
83
A FILIAL TRIBUTE.
I
If I have heard with wonder and delightThe verse of Homer, with triumphant chime
Breaking for ever on the shores of Time;
Have eyed, well pleased, the Theban eagle's flight;
Have watch'd the scenic vision of the blight
That vengeful track'd the Thyestéan crime;
Have dwelt, deep-rapt, on Plato's dreams sublime,
Or soberer wisdom of the Stagirite;
And listen'd, other music fallen mute,
To Thyrsis piping in the summer shade
By Arethusa's springs on oaten flute—
My mother! thy laborious widow'd days
Have won for me these boons—ah! ill repaid
By this my heartfelt, but too tardy, praise.
84
II
To have look'd on these Greek splendours—what a gain!And scarcely less that I have learn'd to prize
The imperial Roman spirit, strong and wise,
Nor wanting in a pure poetic vein—
As in the sympathetic Mantuan swain,
Whose Muse ‘walks highest,’ if she seldom ‘flies’
Or him whose logic-web of closest grain
Is shot with fancy's rich embroideries—;
The pregnant phrase of Tacitus to know,
And Tully's amplitude and liberal flow;
All this I owe to thee; and, better still,
The pattern of a life for others spent.
Oh! had I earlier tamed my stubborn will,
And my proud heart to humble service bent.
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