Minor Poems, including Napoleon :: :: University of Virginia Library

Minor Poems, including Napoleon

By Bernard Barton. Second Edition, with Additions

Barton, Bernard (1784-1849)

MINOR POEMS, INCLUDING NAPOLEON.

TO JOHN BOWRING, ESQ. ON HIS TRANSLATION OF THE RUSSIAN ANTHOLOGY.

TO C. B. T.

TO C. H. TOWNSEND, ON HIS VERSES TO THE SETTING SUN, INCLUDED IN THE VOLUME OF HIS POEMS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

STANZAS ON THE APPROACH OF WINTER.

SONNET, WRITTEN ON THE FIRST LEAF OF A VOLUME OF CHARLES LLOYD'S POETRY.

BENHALL.

SONNET.

TO --- ---, ESQ.

TO THE AUTHOR OF “MAY YOU LIKE IT.”

VERSES ON THE GATEWAY

THE CONTRAST.

STANZAS.

THE RECANTATION; TO --- ---.

VERSES TO A CHILD TWO YEARS OLD.

DAYS OF DARKNESS.

THE POOL OF BETHESDA.

TO THE MEMORY OF EMMA FULLER.

EARLY RISING AND PRAYER.

THE TWELVE MONTHS OF HUMAN LIFE.

TO A DILATORY CORRESPONDENT.

LOWESTOFT.

TO A FRIEND, ON HIS DEPARTURE FOR ROME.

THE WALL-FLOWER.

ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

TO THE CLOUDS.

DUNWICH.

TO THE MEMORY OF THE AUTHOR'S FATHER.

A PORTRAIT.

TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM HEY.

WHAT IS LIFE?

ON THE RETURN OF SUMMER BIRDS.

ON A PORTRAIT OF BEATRICE CENCI:

A BIRTH-DAY.

TO A BUTTERFLY.

SMILES AND TEARS.

THE CONCLUSION.

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SMILES AND TEARS.

I

Speechless interpreters of thought,
And feeling's hidden dower;
With eloquence resistless fraught,
How touching is your power!

II

In Joy's ecstatic mood, what tone
To gladness can beguile,
With fascination of its own,
Like rapture's silent smile?

III

In anguish — what can more reveal
Than all that meets the ear?
What but the eloquent appeal
Of Sorrow's silent tear!

277

IV

In Love, — to those who truly know
What smiles and tears can say,
More of the hidden heart they show
Than language can convey.

V

And in that purer element,
Ethereal and divine,
Which thought and feeling represent
As Worship's purest shrine;

VI

Far far beyond the influence
That rhetoric most reveres,
The spirit's holier eloquence
Of silent smiles and tears.

VII

The patient suff'rer's smile, when born
Of Faith, to God is dear;
Nor will His mercy ever scorn
Contrition's voiceless tear!