Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

66 They tell us, Sir, that we are weak, — unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?"-Patrick Henry.

"Of love that never found his earthly close,

What sequel? Streaming eyes and breaking hearts?
Or all the same as if he had not been?

Not so.

Shall Error in the round of time

Still father Truth? O, shall the braggart shout
For some blind glimpse of freedom work itself
Through madness, hated by the wise, to law
System and empire? Sin itself be found
The cloudy porch oft opening on the Sun?
And only he, this wonder, dead, become
Mere highway dust? or year by year alone
Sit brooding in the ruins of a life,
Nightmare of youth, the spectre of himself?

If this were thus, if this, indeed, were all,
Better the narrow brain, the stony heart,
The staring eye glared o'er with sapless days,
The long mechanic pacings to and fro,

The set gray life, and apathetic end.

But am I not the nobler through thy love?

O three times less unworthy! likewise thou

Art more through Love, and greater than thy years.
The Sun will run his orbit, and the Moon
Her circle. Wait, and Love himself will bring
The drooping flower of Knowledge changed to fruit
Of wisdom. Wait: my faith is large in Time,
And that which shapes it to some perfect end.

Will some one say, then why not ill for good?
Why took ye not your pastime? To that man
My works shall answer, since I knew the right
And did it for a man is not as God,

But then most Godlike being most a man."

LOVE AND DUTY. - Tennyson

"When the great Ship of Life,

Surviving, though shattered, the tumult and strife
Of earth's angry element, -masts broken short,
Decks drench'd, bulwarks beaten- drives safe into port;
When the Pilot of Galilee, seen on the strand,
Stretches over the waters a welcoming hand;
When, heeding no longer the sea's baffled roar,
The mariner turns to his rest evermore;

What will then be the answer the helmsman must give?
Will it be. . . . 'Lo our log book! Thus once did we live
In the zones of the South; thus we traversed the seas
Of the Orient; there dwelt in the Hesperides:

Thence followed the west wind; here, eastward we turned;
The stars failed us there; just here land we discerned

On our lea; there the storm overtook us at last;
That day went the bowsprit, the next day the mast;
There the mermen came round us, and there we saw bask
A syren?' The Captain of Port will he ask

Any one of such questions? I cannot think so!

[ocr errors]

But.. 'what is the last Bill of Health you can show?'
How fared the soul through the trials she pass'd?

Not

But,

- What is the state of that soul at the last?"

LUCILE. Owen Meredith.

The Rising Third is also used for interrogative expression and for emphasis; but its degree in both these cases is less than the fifth. It is the sign of interrogation in its most moderate form, and carries with it none of those sentiments, which, jointly with the question, were allotted to the Fifth and Octave.

Examples.

"What would'st thou have a great good man obtain?

Wealth, title, dignity, a golden chain,

Or heap of corses which his sword hath slain?

Goodness and greatness are not means, but ends.
Hath he not always treasures, always friends,

The good great man? Three treasures-love, and light,

And calm thoughts, equable as infant's breath;

And three fast friends, more sure than day or night-
Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death."

THE GOOD GREAT MAN. - Coleridge.

"Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel, writing in a book of gold:
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said,
'What writest thou?' The vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered-The names of those who love the Lord.'
'And is mine one?' said Abou; Nay, not so,'
Replied the angel.-Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'

"The angel wrote, and vanish'd.

The next night

It came again, with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had bless'd
And, lo!
Ben Adhem's name led all the rest."

ABOU BEN ADHEM. - Leigh Hunt

"Passion is blind, not love; her wondrous might
Informs with threefold power man's inward sight;
To her deep glance, the soul, at large displayed,
Shows all its mingled mass of light and shade:
Men call her blind when she but turns her head,
Nor scans the fault for which her tears are shed.
Can dull Indifference or Hate's troubled gaze
See through the secret heart's mysterious maze?
Can Scorn and Envy pierce that 'dread abode '
Where true faults rest beneath the eye of God?
Not theirs, 'mid inward darkness, to discern
The spiritual splendors, how they shine and burn.
All bright endowments of a noble mind
They, who with joy behold them, soonest find;
And better none its stains of frailty know
Than they who fain would see it white as snow.'

"And is there care in Heaven?

[ocr errors]

Coleridge

And is there love

In heavenly spirits to these creatures bace,

That may compassion of their evils move?

There is: else much more wretched were the cace

Of men than beasts: But O! th' exceeding grace

Of Highest God that loves his creatures so,
And all his workes with mercy doth embrace,

That blessed angels he sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe!

"How oft do they their silver bowers leave

To come to succour us that succour want!
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skyes, like flying pursuivant
Against foule fiends, to ayd us militant!

They for us fight, they watch and dewly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant;
And all for love and nothing for reward:

O, why should Hevenly God to men have such regard!"
FAERIE QUEENE. -Spenser.

The Downward Octave expresses the highest degree of admiration, astonishment, and positive command, either alone or united with other sentiments. Its expression is marked by a quaint sentiment of familiarity, or an excessive degree of violence.

Examples.

"I give you six hours and a half to consider of this; if you then agree, without any condition, to do everything on earth that I choose, why, confound you! I may in time forgive you. If not, don't enter the same hemisphere with me! don't dare to breathe the same air, or use the same light with me; but get an atmosphere and sun of your own: I'll strip you of your commission: I'll lodge a five-and-three-pence in the hands of your trustees, and you shall live on the interest. I'll disown you; I'll disinherit you; and nang me, if ever I call you Jack again!"

THE RIVALS. - Knowles.

"Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart
Too great for what contains it. Boy! O slave!
Pardon me, lords, 't is the first time that ever

I was forced to scold."- CORIOLANUS. — Shakespeare.

"Boy! false hound!

If you have writ your annals true, 't is there

That like an eagle in a dove-cote, I
Flutter'd your Volces in Corioli:
Alone I did it. — Boy!"— Ibid.

66

Come, consecrated lictors, from your thrones;
Fling down your sceptres; take the rod and axe,

And make the murder as you make the law!

Banished from Rome! What's banished, but set free
From daily contact of the things I loathe ?

Tried and convicted traitor! Who says this?

Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head?

Banished! I thank you for 't. It breaks my chain!
I held some slack allegiance till this hour;

But now my sword's my own.

Smile on, my lords!
I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes,
Strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs,
I have within my heart's hot cells shut up,

To leave you in your lazy dignities.

But here I stand and scoff you! here, I fling
Hatred and defiance in your face!

Your consul's merciful.- For this, all thanks,
He dares not touch a hair of Catiline!"

Catiline to the Senate. - Croly.

The Downward Fifth has in many respects a meaning, similar to the octave, but it clothes its sentiments of smiling surprise, admiration, and command with greater dignity. Its concrete, like that of the octave, may be modified in meaning by different applications of stress.

66

Examples.

"A thousand hearts are great within my bosom:
Advance our standards, set upon our foes!
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!

Upon them! Victory sits on our helms."

King, in RICHARD THIRD.

Begone! run to your houses, fall upon your knees,

Pray to the gods to intermit the plagues

That needs must light on this ingratitude!"

Marcellus, in JULIUS CAESAR.

« AnteriorContinuar »