23 Yet on his way (no sign of grace, For folks in fear are apt to pray) To Phoebus he preferr'd his case, And begg'd his aid that dreadful day. 24 The godhead would have back'd his quarrel : Own'd that his quiver and his laurel 25 The court was set, the culprit there; Forth from their gloomy mansions creeping, 26 Such as in silence of the night Come sweep along some winding entry, (Styack has often seen the sight) 1 Or at the chapel-door stand sentry; 27 In peaked hoods and mantles tarnish'd, 28 The peeress comes: the audience stare, And doff their hats with due submission; 29 The Bard with many an artless fib And all that Grooms 3 could urge against him. 1'Styack:' the housekeeper. -2 Squib: the steward.'-Grooms: ' of the chamber. 30 But soon his rhetoric forsook him, When he the solemn hall had seen; A sudden fit of ague shook him; He stood as mute as poor Maclean.1 31 Yet something he was heard to mutter, 32 He once or twice had penn'd a sonnet, 33 The ghostly prudes, with hagged 2 face, 34 Jesu-Maria! Madam Bridget, Why, what can the Viscountess mean?' 35 'Decorum's turn'd to mere civility! Speak to a commoner and poet!' [Here 500 stanzas are lost.] 'Maclean:' a famous highwayman, hanged the week before.-2 ' Hagged:' i. e., the face of a witch or hag. 36 And so God save our noble king, And guard us from long-winded lubbers, And keep my lady from her rubbers. ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY 1 THE curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 2 Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 3 Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign. 4 Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. 5 The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn, 6 For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, 7 Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; 8 Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 9 The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 10 Nor you, ye Proud! impute to these the fault, Where, through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, 11 Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? 12 Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 13 But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Rich with the spoils of Time, did ne'er unroll; Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul. 14 Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: 15 Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of his fields withstood, Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood. 16 The applause of listening senates to command, And read their history in a nation's eyes, 17 Their lot forbade; nor circumscribed alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of Mercy on mankind, 18 The struggling pangs of conscious Truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous Shame, Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 19 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,' Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; 1 This part of the elegy differs from the first copy. The following stanza was excluded with the other alterations : : Hark! how the sacred calm, that breathes around, Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease, In still small accents whispering from the ground |