Volume Iii Part 25 (2/2)
Like him, our task is to be strong; Unlike him, claiming not by might To s.n.a.t.c.h an envied treasure as a right.
So may a stouter brotherhood At home be signalled over sea For righteous, and be understood, Nay, welcomed, when 'tis shown that we All duties have embraced in being free.
This Britain slumbering, she is rich; Lies placid as a cradled child; At times with an uneasy twitch, That tells of dreams unduly wild.
Shall she be with a foreign drug defiled?
The grandeur of her deeds recall; Look on her face so kindly fair: This Britain! and were she to fall, Mankind would breathe a harsher air, The nations miss a light of leading rare.
ON COMO
A rainless darkness drew o'er the lake As we lay in our boat with oars uns.h.i.+pped.
It seemed neither cloud nor water awake, And forth of the low black curtain slipped Thunderless lightning. Scoff no more At angels imagined in downward flight For the daughters of earth as fabled of yore: Here was beauty might well invite Dark heavens to gleam with the fire of a sun Resurgent; here the exchanged embrace Worthy of heaven and earth made one.
And witness it, ye of the privileged s.p.a.ce, Said the flash; and the mountains, as from an abyss For quivering seconds leaped up to attest That given, received, renewed was the kiss; The lips to lips and the breast to breast; All in a glory of ecstasy, swift As an eagle at prey, and pure as the prayer Of an infant bidden joined hands uplift To be guarded through darkness by spirits of air, Ere setting the sails of sleep till day.
Slowly the low cloud swung, and far It panted along its mirrored way; Above loose threads one sanctioning star, The wonder of what had been witnessed, sealed, And with me still as in crystal gla.s.sed Are the depths alight, the heavens revealed, Where on to the Alps the muteness pa.s.sed.
MILTON--DECEMBER 9, 1608: DECEMBER 9, 1908
What splendour of imperial station man, The Tree of Life, may reach when, rooted fast, His branching stem points way to upper air And skyward still aspires, we see in him Who sang for us the Archangelical host, Made Morning, by old Darkness urged to the abyss; A voice that down three centuries onward rolls; Onward will roll while lives our English tongue, In the devout of music unsurpa.s.sed Since Piety won Heaven's ear on Israel's harp.
The face of Earth, the soul of Earth, her charm, Her dread austerity; the quavering fate Of mortals with blind hope by pa.s.sion swayed, His mind embraced, the while on trodden soil, Defender of the Commonwealth, he joined Our temporal fray, whereof is vital fruit, And, choosing armoury of the Scholar, stood Beside his peers to raise the voice for Freedom: Nor has fair Liberty a champion armed To meet on heights or plains the Sophister Throughout the ages, equal to this man, Whose spirit breathed high Heaven, and drew thence The ethereal sword to smite.
Were England sunk Beneath the s.h.i.+fting tides, her heart, her brain, The smile she wears, the faith she holds, her best, Would live full-toned in the grand delivery Of his cathedral speech: an utterance Almost divine, and such as h.e.l.lespont, Cras.h.i.+ng its breakers under Ida's frown, Inspired: yet worthier he, whose instrument Was by comparison the coa.r.s.e reed-pipe; Whereof have come the marvellous harmonies, Which, with his lofty theme, of infinite range, Abash, entrance, exalt.
We need him now, This latest Age in repet.i.tion cries: For Belial, the adroit, is in our midst; Mammon, more swoln to squeeze the slavish sweat From hopeless toil: and overshadowingly (Aggrandized, monstrous in his grinning mask Of hypocritical Peace,) inveterate Moloch Remains the great example.
Homage to him His debtor band, innumerable as waves Running all golden from an eastern sun, Joyfully render, in deep reverence Subscribe, and as they speak their Milton's name, Rays of his glory on their foreheads bear.
IRELAND
Fire in her ashes Ireland feels And in her veins a glow of heat.
To her the lost old time, appeals For resurrection, good to greet: Not as a shape with spectral eyes, But humanly maternal, young In all that quickens pride, and wise To speak the best her bards have sung.
You read her as a land distraught, Where bitterest rebel pa.s.sions seethe.
Look with a core of heart in thought, For so is known the truth beneath.
She came to you a loathing bride, And it has been no happy bed.
Believe in her as friend, allied By bonds as close as those who wed.
Her speech is held for hatred's cry; Her silence tells of treason hid: Were it her aim to burst the tie, She sees what iron laws forbid.
Excess of heart obscures from view A head as keen as yours to count.
Trust her, that she may prove her true In links whereof is love the fount.
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