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The Christian Scholar

By the Author of "The Cathedral" [i.e. Isaac Williams]

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TIBULLUS.
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303

TIBULLUS.

[_]

(Left sick at Corcyra by the army of Messala.)

[_]

Lib. i. Eleg. iii. 35.

“How blest they lived in that Saturnian reign,
Ere through long roads the earth was open laid,
Ere yet the pine-tree mock'd the dark blue main,
And its full bosom to the winds display'd.
“To distant shores no wandering mariner
With foreign freight loaded th' adventurous keel;
Beneath the yoke there groan'd no sturdy steer;
No steed champ'd in his mouth the mast'ring steel.
“No house had doors, no limit in the field
Or stony witness did its bounds divide;
Oaks of their own accord sweet honey yield;
And sheep to men at ease their milk supplied.
“No battle-line, no wrath, no warlike sound,
No cruel smith the unpitying sword to mould;
Now 'neath Jove's reign slaughters and wounds abound,
The sea, and ways of death a thousand fold.

304

“Spare, Father, for I have no conscious fears
For perjured oaths or words of blasphemy;
But if I have fulfill'd my destin'd years,
Let these words mark the grave wherein I lie,
“Here lies Tibullus, seized by death's could hand,
Following Messala over sea and land.
“But me, so pliant found to tender Love,
Into Elysian bowers shall Venus bring,
Where choirs and dances bloom, and as they rove
Melodious birds for ever sweetly sing.
“Wild shrubs sweet cassia bear, through all the leas
With fragrant roses teems the genial ground,
Boys intermix'd with maidens sport at ease,
And no contentions but of love are found.
“There is the lover whom death snatch'd away,
The myrtle wreaths his honour'd locks adorn;
But guilty seats, in night profound, from day
Lie hid, black sounding streams around them borne.”

ON THE FOREGOING.

The sensual mind, as pleasures fleet away,
Looks back and longs again to be a boy,
Thence pictures the world's childhood and first day,
Where it might drink delights without annoy.

305

And when it hears of an Elysian youth
Something within acknowledges the theme,
It catches at the shadow of high truth,
Itself delighting in the golden dream.
For deeper than it knew the soul within
Found the great witness of that ancient tale,
Of happy days ere yet the world knew sin,
Which yet shall be restor'd and never fail,—
But that this mingled web of good and ill
Must be unravell'd first, the light and shade
Be parted, which together travail, till
That final separation shall be made.
And this too well they deem'd, that nought but Love
Can lay its hand upon the golden key,
Which shall admit her to those realms above,
And lead her to those bowers which Sorrows flee.
Yet not that Love which is allied to sense
Which fain would bribe e'en Conscience on its throne,
But Love whose light burns pure with innocence,
And binds to God in endless union.

306

“Love hath the keys of Heaven, and Love of Hell,”
So Orpheus spake of old, who all things drew
By his sweet music;—these words ponder well,
And think which Love thine own thoughts now pursue.