Egeria, or, The Spirit of Nature and Other Poems By Charles Mackay |
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 | THOUGHTS AMID REVOLUTIONS. |
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
 | Egeria, or, The Spirit of Nature and Other Poems |  |
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THOUGHTS AMID REVOLUTIONS.
I.—THE BATTLE OF CHANGE.
I
Great thoughts are heaving in the world's wide breast;The Time is labouring with a mighty birth;
The old ideas fall.
Men wander up and down in wild unrest;
A sense of change preparing for the Earth
Broods over all.
There lies a gloom on all things under Heaven—
A gloom portentous to the quiet men,
Who see no joy in being driven
Onwards from change, ever to change again;
Who never walk but on the beaten ways,
And love the breath of yesterdays;—
Men who would rather sit and sleep
Where sunbeams through the ivies creep,
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Heedless of near or distant wars,
Then wake and listen to the moan
Of storm-vexed forests, nodding to the stars—
Or hear, far off, the melancholy roar
Of billows, white with wrath, battling against the shore.
II
Deep on their troubled souls the shadow lies;And in that shadow come and go—
While fitful lightnings write upon the skies,
And mystic voices chant the coming woe—
Titanic phantoms swathed in mist and flame,
The mighty ghosts of things without a name,
Mingling with forms more palpably defined,
That whirl and dance like leaves upon the wind;
Who marshal in array their arrowy hosts,
And rush to battle in a cloud-like land;
Thick phalanxed on those far aërial coasts,
As swarms of locusts plaguing Samarcand.
“Oh, who would live,” they cry, “in time like this!
A time of conflict fierce, and trouble strange;
When Old and New, over a dark abyss,
Fight the great battle of relentless Change?”
And still before their eyes discrowned kings,
Desolate chiefs, and aged priests forlorn,
Flit by—confused—with all incongruous things,
Swooping in rise and fall on ponderous wings;
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Angelic faces, sweet as summer morn,
Gleam for an instant ere extinguished quite,
Or change to stony skulls, and spectres livid white.
III
But not to me—oh! not to me appearEternal glooms. I see a brighter sky,
I feel the healthful motion of the sphere;
And, lying down upon the grass, I hear
Far, far away, yet drawing near,
A low sweet sound of ringing melody:
I see the swift-winged arrows fly;
I see the battle and the combatants;
I know the cause for which their weapons flash;
I hear the martial music and the chants,
The shock of hosts, the armour clash
As Thought meets Thought;—but far beyond I see,
Adown the abysses of the time to be,
The well-won victory of Right;
The laying down of useless swords and spears;
The reconcilement ardently desired
Of Universal Truth with Micht,—
Whose long estrangement, filling earth with tears,
Gave every manly heart, divinely fired,
A lingering love, a hope inspired,
To reconcile them, never more to sunder.
Far, far away above the rumbling thunder,
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Ever since infant Time began
There has been darkness over man:
It rolls and shrivels up! It melts away!
II.—THE PROSPECTS OF THE FUTURE.
I
“Friend of the People—if thy soul can seeThe dawning splendours of futurity;
If to thy finer sense the truths are clear
Which we behold not, let their light appear.
Show us their outline; manifest to men
The far-off glories hidden from their ken:
Draw back the curtain, that our hearts may know
What gloom we quit, and to what light we go!”
II
“Man of the People—Truth abides its time,And rolls for ever in a track sublime;
There is no mist or darkness on its way
But of man's placing; an eternal day
Surrounds and follows it; and if mine eyes
Can bear its blaze, and trace its symmetries,
Measure its distance, and its advent wait,
I am no prophet—I but calculate.”
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III
“Friend of the People—when I look around,I see but sorrows cumbering the ground:
I see the poor made poorer by the law,
And rulers ruling not by love but awe.
I see the many, ignorant and bad,
Wretched and reckless, and my heart is sad.
The people suffer, self-degraded long:
Where is the remedy to right the wrong?”
IV
“Man of the People—sorrow makes thee blind.Look up through tears; be hopeful for mankind.
I weep not, nor deplore, for I behold
Of the new dawn the purple and the gold;—
Error is mortal—even while I look
Its basements crumble; knowledge opes a book
In which the child may read the social plan,
And how to remedy the wrongs of man.”
V
“Friend of the People—truth is slow to castIts lustre on us. Falsehood shrouds the past
And dims the present. Lo! we fight and slay
While preaching peace. We hate, yet daily say,
‘Blessed is Love.’ We are a fearful crowd:
We scorn ourselves, we pander to the proud,
More in our Might than in our Right we trust.
When shall such evils pass, and men be just?”
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VI
“Man of the People—they shall surely pass.Be faith in right thy telescopic glass,
And thou shalt see, e'en as I see, this hour,
War and oppression, hate and lust of power,
Dwindling and dying on the wiser earth,
Which learns to blush that e'er it gave them birth,
And Love and Labour pouring from their hands
Incessant plenty o'er the happy lands.”
VII
“Friend of the People—I would fain believe.Doubt is a pang: but when I look, I grieve
At vast impediments. How shall we smite
The armies of the Wrong, that war with Right?
How shall we share, among the sons of toil,
That none may lack—the corn, the wine, the oil?
Must war ride rampant o'er the world again,
Ere love be law and misery cease to reign?”
VIII
“Man of the People—not on swords and spearsIs the reliance of the coming years:
Not by the cannon's throat shall Truth proclaim
Her mighty mission—not with blood and flame
Inscribe her lessons in the book of Time;
Her strongest weapons shall be words sublime;
Her armies, thoughts; her banners, printed sheets;
Her captains, voices crying in the streets.
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IX
“The Earth is good, and bountiful, and fair:Her choicest blessings are the destined share
Of all her children, who in love combine
Wisely to labour; this the law divine
Of the new era. Mighty thoughts have sprung
From the world's throbbing heart upon its tongue—
I see their triumph, and I join the cry.
Man of the People—watch! the hour is nigh.”
III.—A WARNING VOICE TO THE PARISIANS.
(APRIL, 1848.)
I
Beware, O France! to-day,Of the dangers in thy way.
In thy majesty and might,
In the splendour of thy Right,
Thou may'st look, with unconcern,
Upon despots, fain to turn
Their swords upon thy bosom free and fair—
Thou may'st view, without alarms,
Hostile monarchies in arms,
And with Justice for thy captain thou may'st dare
All the hate of foreign foes;
Yet, for dangers worse than those
Look around thee, young Republic, and beware!
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II
Thou hast overturned a throneThat was based on fraud alone;
Thou hast swept in sudden wrath
All its panders from thy path;
Thou hast done a glorious deed,
And immortal be thy meed—
May thy garlands ever flourish green and fair!
But take heed, and ponder well,
Lest the tyranny that fell
Have not left a worse to follow as its heir.
Unhappy is the land
Where a mob is head and hand:
Thou hast known the peril once—oh, beware!
III
Of the fool of good intent,With his schemes impertinent;
Of the stubborn theorist;
And the dense philosophist,
Who would mould the world afresh,
And make men of wood—not flesh,
Mathematically modelled on the square;
Of the false and glib-tongued knave;
Of the sycophantic slave,
Who would lick the wild beast's feet in his lair;
Of the frenzied zealot, blind
In his love of human-kind—
Oh, beware, for Freedom's sake—oh, beware!
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IV
Though you say that we bow downTo the sceptre and the crown—
That we bend the fawning knee
To a titled luxury;
More wretched far than this
Is to see a people kiss
The mire-bedraggled tatters hanging bare
Of the rabble in the street;
And sit slavering at the feet
Of the ignorant and hungry proletaire,
As if virtue fled the breast
That could boast a decent vest;—
Oh, beware of mob-idolatry—beware!
V
In the universal heartThrobs a pulse that takes thy part;
Through the nations, far and near,
Runs a sympathy sincere,
Burns a hope that thou wilt be
An example to the free—
A people that can think as well as dare;—
Thou can'st mar, but thou shouldst make,
Thou shouldst build as well as break,
And raise a noble structure firm and fair.
Mighty hopes pervade the earth;
It was thou that gav'st them birth:
Beware lest thou destroy them,—oh beware!
188
IV.—PULLING THE WIRES;
OR THE CROWD AT A PUPPET-SHOW
(March, 1848.)
I
Gaze, ye crowd of happy idlers,Gaze upon it, girls and boys;
Here is life to charm your fancy,
Mimic show of griefs and joys.
Paper queens and tinsel princes,
Pasteboard monarchs play their part;
While you laugh, admire, or pity,
Seeing Nature, and not art.
Little think you as ye wonder,
As each enters, struts, retires,
That they are but wooden playthings,
Senseless puppets, moved by wires.
II
Screened from sight, behind the curtain,Cunning fingers work the show;
At whose touch the unconscious figures
Stand or tumble—come or go.
When hereafter, men and women,
Ye shall mingle in the strife,
Busy actors in the tumult
And perplexity of life—
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(Or be blinder than your sires)
'Twixt the puppets, great and little,
And the pullers of the wires.
III
When you see a fool acquiringName and station and respect,
And a supple-sinewed cringer
Walking stedfast and erect;
When you see a silly monarch
At an opera-dancer's feet,
And the opera-dancer braving
Mobs and factions in the street;
Ask yourselves behind what curtain
Stand the men whose high desires
Set the little dolls in motion,
And whose fingers pull the wires.
IV
When you see an able statesman,Trained to love and do the right,
Acting like a stubborn maniac—
Deaf to reason, blind to light;
When you see a hoary monarch,
Taught in Fortune's roughest school,
Scorning all his own experience,
And becoming knave or fool;
190
Shaping meaner men's desires,
Stand behind to play the showman
To these puppets of the wires.
V
When you see a greedy rabbleCrowding to the public way,
Scenting plunder in disorder,
As the raven scents his prey,
Moved at once by nobler motives,
Scorning pillage as a shame,
Overturning thrones and systems,
All for freedom, all for fame;—
Give not these the only credit,
Millions plod, while one aspires,
High ambitions work behind them,
Clever fingers pull the wires.
VI
When you see that daily drama,Goodness drawn into a snare,
Genius yoked to drudgery's waggon,
Virtue driven to despair,
Innocence betrayed to ruin,
Youth inveigled into vice,
And the blind man unsuspecting
Led, to stumble on the ice;
191
Cannot quench the base desires,
Cannot stay the ruthless fingers
Of the villains at the wires.
VII
Watch the show, and learn the lesson,That with men and mortal things
He alone is truly potent
Who can guide and work the springs.
Learn how great to curb the vicious,
Help the weak, the sinking save;
Learn how mean to be a puppet,
Misdirected by a knave.
Learn to look behind the curtain;—
Wisest he that still inquires,
When he acts for self or others,
Whose the hand that pulls the wires.
V.—THE COURTSHIP OF ANARCHY.
(JUNE, 1848.)
I
Said Anarchy to Liberty,“Divinest maid, whom all adore,
Great is the love I bear to thee,
Come to my arms for evermore;
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Smile by my side supremely sweet,
And all the world our sway shall own,
And lay their homage at our feet.”
II
Said Liberty to Anarchy,“With reeking gore thy fingers drip,
Through blood thou'st waded to the knee,
And curses quiver on thy lip;
Thy heart o'erflows with guile and wrath,
With wicked hate, with senseless fears,
And groans and misery track thy path;
Begone—and leave me to my tears.”
III
Said Anarchy to Liberty,“Reproach me not, O maiden fair;
If I have sinned, 't was love of thee
Impelled my spirit to despair,
And thou, of all the world, should'st look
Indulgent on such love sublime;
Thine eyes were inspiration's book—
Thy witchery drove me into crime.”
IV
Said Liberty to Anarchy,“I never looked upon thy face
Without a sense of misery,
Without a feeling of disgrace;
193
Or weep hot tears of grief and shame—
Nor thought of deeds which thou hast done,
Except to shudder at thy name.”
V
Said Anarchy to Liberty,“Thy heart is hard and insincere;
How often hast thou smiled on me,
And breathed love-speeches in my ear!
How often whispered me to smite,
How often prompted bloodiest deeds;
And all to give thy soul delight,
And stay thy sanguinary needs.”
VI
Said Liberty to Anarchy,“Thy heart is dull, thine eyes are blind;
I have a sister like to me
In form and features, not in mind.
Her name is Licence; 't was for her
The passion bubbled in thy veins;
'T was she that was thy worshipper;
She clings to thee while life remains.”
VII
Said Anarchy to Liberty,“I know thee well, I've known thee long—
Thy face, thy form, thy symmetry
Have filled my heart with yearnings strong;
194
Still gave the aspiration birth,
That from our union should arise
A new Millennium for the Earth.”
VIII
Said Liberty to Anarchy,“I dwell with Law and Peace divine,
I have no bond of sympathy
With Hate or Murder—thee or thine:
To me thou art a fiend accursed—
Let Licence love thee if she will;
Deep in my soul my scorn is nursed—
I fly thee, and abhor thee still.”
VI.—A CALL FOR TRUE LIBERTY.
(JUNE, 1848.)
I
O Liberty, serene and fair,Chief blessing of the nations,
The dearest object of our care,
Our best of aspirations,
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The world has learned to doubt thee;
Come forth—shed light upon our place;
We cannot live without thee!
II
A brazen-browed and vulgar jade,Not like thee in a feature,
In thy white robes and wreath arrayed—
A coarse-tongued, shameless creature—
Struts o'er the earth, and takes thy name,
Sows hatred and dissension,
And sanctions deeds of guilt and shame,
Which thou wouldst blush to mention.
III
Not like thyself—an angel sweet,Whose lips would scorn to utter
The filthy language of the street,
Or bywords of the gutter—
She mingles with the vilest crowd,
She shouts, and roars, and curses,
Shakes hands with thieves—she is not proud—
And gambols with cut-purses.
IV
She calls herself a goddess bright,The suffering people's saviour,
Who shows the nations truth and right
And teaches kings behaviour;
196
And signs it to her papers;
And when she lacks the needful pence,
She plays dishonest capers.
V
Come forth and shame this counterfeit,Oh, maiden fair and holy;
Oh, Liberty! divinely sweet,
Beloved of high and lowly!
Come forth, thy heavenly charms unfold,
And teach mankind their duty;
And let the adoring world behold
Thine intellectual beauty.
VI
Though blinded mobs might seek to slay,And tyrant monarchs hate thee;
Yet all true hearts thine advent pray,
And all the realms await thee.
So fair thou art, so full of grace,
The nations will adore thee;
And mobs, when they behold thy face,
Will bend their knees before thee.
VII
Come forth; the world expects thou wilt—Long has it waited sadly—
Come forth, and shame this thing of guilt,
That plays thy part so badly.
197
Th' expectant earth adorning;
And all the cheats shall disappear
Like torchlight in the morning.
VII.—ROME. 1848-9.
I
Rome imperial! Rome majestic!Shade of greatness, vanished all—
Looking down th' abyss of ages
To behold thy rise and fall,
We can trace upon thy forehead,
Queen and wonder of thy day,
Broadly marked the awful sentence,
“Pass Away.”
II
Great, but wicked—fair, but cruel,Sceptered mischief, worshipped long.
Never yet did men or nations
Prosper finally in wrong.
Justice did her work upon thee,
Mightier than thine her sway,
'T was her voice pronounced thy judgment—
“Pass Away!”
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III
Modern Rome! thou mitred Phœnix!Risen from those embers cold;—
Looking dimly through the future,
The same shadow we behold—
Shadow of a power departing,
Spectre of a great decay,
Bearing on its front the motto,
“Pass Away.”
IV
Whither went the ancient CæsarsWith the pomp of peace or war,
Thither go the modern pontiffs
With dominion grander far.
Papal stole and regal purple
Fall in ripeness of the day,
Cæsar's crown and Pope's tiara,
“Pass Away!”
V
Priestly Rome! thy cup is filling;In our era, dauntless Truth
Feels her life and struggles upwards
With the energy of youth.
Thou shalt bind her wings no longer,
Never more her progress stay;
Thou hast lived thy generation—
“Pass Away!”
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VI
If hereafter from thy ashesA new Phœnix shall ascend,
May she learn to dwell with Virtue,
And take Freedom for her friend.
If as thou she clogs the spirit,
And denies the truth of day,
On her head thy doom be spoken—
“Pass Away!”
VIII.—THE BROTHERHOOD OF NATIONS.
AN ANTICIPATION.
“Peuples! formez une sainte alliance.
Et donnez—vous la main.”
De Beranger.
Et donnez—vous la main.”
De Beranger.
I
The wars had ceased: the weary nations furledTheir tattered flags, and sheathed their blunted swords;
And, sick of blood, the decimated world
Counted its scars, its glories, and rewards.
A little whisper, raised in doubt and fear,
Made an appeal to all the suffering lands—
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.
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II
Old men left childless and disconsolate;Widows forlorn, and maidens sorrow-crowned;
The children loitering at the cottage gate;
The young men mournful, gazing on the ground,
Joined in the cry, lamenting, yet of cheer—
Repeating ever, Oh, ye ruined lands,
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.
III
The ploughman singing at the early morn,Stopped in his song, and shuddered to behold,
Through the long furrows for the future corn,
Half buried skulls projecting from the mould—
Bones of his brethren, scattered far and near;
And sadly gazing sighed, Unhappy lands,
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.
IV
The whisper spread—it gathered as it went;From crowd to crowd the aspiration flew;
Distracted Europe stanched the wounds that rent
Her bleeding bosom, healed at Waterloo;
Her wisest sons with voices loud and clear
Took up the words and bore them o'er the lands—
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.
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V
“Why should ye drag,” said they, “the furious carOf blind ambition? why with sweat and moil
Follow the panting demi-gods of war,
And with your blood make runnels through the soil?
Long have ye suffered—long in mad career
Borne fire and sword and sorrow through the lands—
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.
VI
“Sheathed be the sword for ever—let the drumBe schoolboy's pastime—let your battles cease,
And be the cannon's voice for ever dumb,
Except to celebrate the joys of peace.
Are ye not brothers? God, whom we revere,
Is he not Father of all climes and lands?—
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.”
VII
The words grew oracles; from mouth to mouthRapid as light the truthful accents ran,
From the cold Norland to the sunny South—
From East to West; they warmed the heart of man;
The prosperous people with a sound of cheer
Passed the glad watchword through the smiling lands—
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.
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VIII
They spread, they flew, they fructified apace;The spear and sword hung rusting on the walls,
Preserved as relics of a bygone race,
When men went mad, and gloried in their brawls.
Peace, the fair mother of each bounteous year,
Dropped corn and wine on the prolific lands.—
Form an alliance holy and sincere,
And join, join hands.
IX
England forgot her deeds of battle done,France blushed at “glory” gained in fields of gore,
German, Italian, Spaniard, Pole, and Hun
Taught kings a lesson and were foes no more—
Knowledge achieved the circuit of our sphere,
And Love became the gospel of the lands—
When that alliance, holy and sincere,
Had joined all hands.
IX.—FRATERNITY.
(May, 1848.)
I
What though the crowds who shout the wordPervert the meaning it should bear,
And feel their hearts with hatred stirred
Even while their plaudits load the air;—
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Despair thy triumph yet to see,
Or doubt the good that shall be wrought
In thy great name, Fraternity.
II
By prophets told, by psalmists sung,Preached on the Mount by lips sublime,
The theme of every sage's tongue
For twice a thousand years of time;
What happy progress hast thou made?
What bliss to man has flowed from thee?
What war and bloodshed hast thou stayed?
What peace affirmed, Fraternity?
III
Alas! the years have failed to teachThe obvious lesson to mankind,
A myriad preachers failed to preach
Conviction to the deaf and blind.
Still do we rush to furious War,
Still to the slayer bend the knee,
And still, most Christian as we are,
Forget thy name, Fraternity.
IV
And shall we, crammed with mutual hates,Despise our neighbour for a flaw?
And sneer, because he promulgates,
Before he understands, thy law?
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Breathed by a nation of the free;—
Thy recognition is a light—
Thy name a faith, Fraternity.
V
The preacher may belie his creed,But still the truth preserves its flame:
The sage may do a foolish deed,
Yet wisdom shares not in the shame.
Be scorning hushed—be cavil dumb—
Whatever ills the world may see,
We'll look for blessings yet to come
In thy great name, Fraternity.
| Egeria, or, The Spirit of Nature and Other Poems | |