The Reliquary By Bernard and Lucy Barton. With A Prefatory Appeal for Poetry and Poets |
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“KNOW THINE OWN WORTH, AND REVERENCE THE LYRE
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“KNOW THINE OWN WORTH, AND REVERENCE THE LYRE .”
Ungrateful man! to error prone;
Why thus thy Maker's goodness wrong;
And deem a luxury alone,
His great and noble gift of song?
Why thus thy Maker's goodness wrong;
And deem a luxury alone,
His great and noble gift of song?
Hast thou not known, or felt, or heard,
How oft the poet's heaven-born art,
Feeling and thought afresh have stirr'd,
To touch and purify the heart?
How oft the poet's heaven-born art,
Feeling and thought afresh have stirr'd,
To touch and purify the heart?
How, like that angel from on high,
Once wont to bless Bethesda's springs,
The flight of genuine poesy
Sheds healing virtue from her wings?
Once wont to bless Bethesda's springs,
The flight of genuine poesy
Sheds healing virtue from her wings?
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E'en in a barbarous pagan age,
When darkness wrapt the world in night,
Alike the warrior and the sage
Confessed her altar, and its rite.
When darkness wrapt the world in night,
Alike the warrior and the sage
Confessed her altar, and its rite.
And holier far the kindling fire
Which fed devotion's sacred flame,
When David's harp, Isaiah's lyre
Were vocal to Jehovah's name!
Which fed devotion's sacred flame,
When David's harp, Isaiah's lyre
Were vocal to Jehovah's name!
Nor hath the Gospel's purer lore
Taught us this gift of heaven to spurn,
But hung its wreath of amaranth o'er
The Christian muse's votive urn.
Taught us this gift of heaven to spurn,
But hung its wreath of amaranth o'er
The Christian muse's votive urn.
Bear witness e'en the humblest aim
Of Watts, whose unpretending verse,
Bade childhood glorify God's name,
Nor less a Saviour's love rehearse.
Of Watts, whose unpretending verse,
Bade childhood glorify God's name,
Nor less a Saviour's love rehearse.
Bear witness Milton's loftier strain
Of Eden's bright and blissful bowers;
Or Paradise restored again,
By our Redeemer's conquering powers.
Of Eden's bright and blissful bowers;
Or Paradise restored again,
By our Redeemer's conquering powers.
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Bear witness Cowper's later page,
Whose feeling and whose thought sublime,
Can still the mourner's grief assuage
With hopes that scorn the bounds of time.
Whose feeling and whose thought sublime,
Can still the mourner's grief assuage
With hopes that scorn the bounds of time.
These, and a host un-named have spread
A banquet for the immortal mind,
On which man's purer thoughts have fed,
With passions curb'd, and taste refined.
A banquet for the immortal mind,
On which man's purer thoughts have fed,
With passions curb'd, and taste refined.
Such gifts of genius who shall rate,
At criticism's chill control,
With lux'ries that but enervate
The tone and temper of the soul?
At criticism's chill control,
With lux'ries that but enervate
The tone and temper of the soul?
Not I:—ev'n in this selfish day,
When worldly wisdom meanly bows
The knee to Mammon, I would pay
To poesy my grateful vows.
When worldly wisdom meanly bows
The knee to Mammon, I would pay
To poesy my grateful vows.
Her lore to childhood's willing ear
Unearthly music could impart,
Her melodies to youth were dear,
And manhood honours still her art.
Unearthly music could impart,
Her melodies to youth were dear,
And manhood honours still her art.
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The brightest spots which memory's eye
Most loves to trace to her belong;
And hopes which build their home on high
Are link'd to never-dying song.
Most loves to trace to her belong;
And hopes which build their home on high
Are link'd to never-dying song.
To that “New Song” for ever pour'd
From Seraph harps in joyful strain,
“Worthy of all to be adored,
The Lamb, who for our sins was slain!”
From Seraph harps in joyful strain,
“Worthy of all to be adored,
The Lamb, who for our sins was slain!”
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