 | Rhymes |  |
1
PROLOGUE.
A monitory voice may cry 'tis time,Crawling towards a grave, to abandon rhyme.
I think the warning well and wisely said;
Whether pronounced by death's or by fool's head,
But I have hope (to speak in Petrarch's vein)
For pity, if not pardon, for my strain:
Since no delight is left to me beside;
And I rhyme but to cheer a lonely ride;
As it is said of old ‘by such as have
Swam in a gondola' on Adria's wave,
2
Was used to cheat his wonted labour, ere
Upon the masquing city, like a spell,
The moody Austrian's leaden sceptre fell;
To snatches of traditionary tune,
Oaring his sable barque by broad lagoon,
Or rio, silvered by Italian moon.
Or (fitter symbol!) as our ploughboy whistles,
Who plods his way through greasy clods and thistles,
Timing his tread to what he thinks a fife;
So I to my own music limp through life.
But mimic not the gondoleer or carle,
If music, such as over burning marle
Guided the feet of fallen angel, sound;
Or such is heard, as on enchanted ground,
When Ariel blows his pipe and beats his tabor,
And, tasked by Prospero with welcome labour,
Witches the monster and the maudlin two
Foul-mantled pool, toothed furze, and bramble through.
3
And dismal, saving when ‘the isle is full
Of pleasant noises,’ you may take your pleasure,
—If it be such;—up! sound a merry measure.
Sing—well or ill—sing boldly like a bird;
Sing for yourself: but why not sing unheard?
Let him of ‘high arched elms and hedgerows green’
Say why he joys to wander ‘not unseen,’
And I will answer, by what motive stirred,
On down and dell I would not sing unheard.
| Rhymes | |