Part 14 (1/2)

Blest, who can forget a while; The world before them, and above The light of universal love.

Go, then, let the young be gay; From their heart as from their dress Let darkness and let mourning pa.s.s away, While we the staid and worn look on and bless.

Health to courage firm and high!

Health to Granta's chivalry!

Wisely finding, day by day, Play in toil, and toil in play.

Granta greets them, gliding down On by park and spire and town; Humming mills and golden meadows, Barred with elm and poplar shadows; Giant groves, and learned halls; Holy fanes and pictured walls.

Yet she bides not here; around Lies the Muses' sacred ground.

Most she lingers, where below Gliding wherries come and go; Stalwart footsteps shake the sh.o.r.es; Rolls the pulse of stalwart oars; Rings aloft the exultant cry For the bloodless victory.

There she greets the sports, which breed Valiant lads for England's need; Wisely finding, day by day, Play in toil, and toil in play.

Health to courage, firm and high!

Health to Granta's chivalry!

Yet stay a while, severer Muses, stay, For you, too, have your rightful parts to-day.

Known long to you, and known through you to fame, Are Chatsworth's halls, and Cavendish's name.

You too, then, Alma Mater calls to greet A worthy patron for your ancient seat; And bid her sons from him example take, Of learning purely sought for learning's sake, Of worth unboastful, power in duty spent; And see, fulfilled in him, her high intent.

Come, Euterpe, wake thy choir; Fit thy notes to our desire.

Long may he sit the chiefest here, Meet us and greet us, year by year; Long inherit, sire and son, All that their race has wrought and won, Since that great Cavendish came again, Round the world and over the main, Breasting the Thames with his mariners bold, Past good Queen Bess's palace of old; With jewel and ingot packed in his hold, And sails of damask and cloth of gold; While never a sailor-boy on board But was decked as brave as a Spanish lord, With the spoils he had won In the Isles of the Sun, And the sh.o.r.es of Fairy-land, And yet held for the crown of the goodly show, That queenly smile from the Palace window, And that wave of a queenly hand.

Yes, let the young be gay, And sun themselves to-day;-- And from their hearts, as from their dress, Let mourning pa.s.s away.

But not from us, who watch our years fast fleeing, And s.n.a.t.c.hing as they flee, fresh fragments of our being.

Can we forget one friend, Can we forget one face, Which cheered us toward our end, Which nerved us for our race?

Oh sad to toil, and yet forego One presence which has made us know To G.o.dlike souls how deep our debt!

We would not, if we could, forget.

Severer Muses, linger yet; Speak out for us one pure and rich regret.

Thou, Clio, who, with awful pen, Gravest great names upon the hearts of men, Speak of a fate beyond our ken; A gem late found and lost too soon; {306} A sun gone down at highest noon; A tree from Odin's ancient root, Which bore for men the ancient fruit, Counsel, and faith and scorn of wrong, And cunning lore, and soothing song, Snapt in mid-growth, and leaving unaware The flock unsheltered and the pasture bare Nay, let us take what G.o.d shall send, Trusting bounty without end.

G.o.d ever lives; and Nature, Beneath His high dictature, Hale and teeming, can replace Strength by strength, and grace by grace, Hope by hope, and friend by friend: Trust; and take what G.o.d shall send.

So shall Alma Mater see Daughters fair and wise Train new lands of liberty Under stranger skies; Spreading round the teeming earth English science, manhood, worth.

1862.

SONGS FROM 'THE WATER-BABIES'

THE TIDE RIVER

Clear and cool, clear and cool, By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool; Cool and clear, cool and clear, By s.h.i.+ning s.h.i.+ngle, and foaming wear; Under the crag where the ouzel sings, And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings, Undefiled, for the undefiled; Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child.