Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

A harvest of barren regrets. And the worm

That crawls on in the dust to the definite term

Of its creeping existence, and sees nothing more

Than the path it pursues till its creeping be o'er,

In its limited vision, is happier far Than the Half-Sage, whose course, fix'd no friendly star

Is by each star distracted in turn, and who knows

Each will still be as distant wherever he goes.

[From Lucile.]

A CHARACTER.

THE banker, well known As wearing the longest philacteried gown

Of all the rich Pharisees England can boast of;

A shrewd Puritan Scot, whose sharp wits made the most of This world and the next; having largely invested

Not only where treasure is never molested

By thieves, moth, or rust; but on this earthly ball

Where interest was high, and security small,

Of mankind there was never a theory yet

Not by some individual instance up

set:

And so to that sorrowful verse of the Psalm

[blocks in formation]

Alas, friend! what boots it, a stone at his head

Which declares that the wicked ex- And a brass on his breast,

pand like the palm

In a world where the righteous are stunted and pent,

A cheering exception did Ridley pre

sent.

Like the. worthy of Uz, Heaven pros

pered his piety.

The leader of every religious society, Christian knowledge he labored through life to promote With personal profit, and knew how to quote

- when a

man is once dead? Ay! were fame the sole guerdon, poor guerdon were then

Theirs who, stripping life bare, stand forth models for men. The reformer's?-a creed by posterity learnt

A century after its author is burnt! The poet's?—a laurel that hides the bald brow

It hath blighted! The painters? ask Raphael now

The

Which Madonna's authentic! statesman's-a name For parties to blacken, or boys to declaim!

The soldier's?-three lines on the cold Abbey pavement!

Were this all the life of the wise and the brave meant,

All it ends in, thrice better, Neæra, it were Unregarded to sport with thine odorous hair, Ishade Untroubled to lie at thy feet in the And be loved, while the roses yet bloom overhead,

Than to sit by the lone hearth, and think the long thought,

A severe, sad, blind schoolmaster, envied for naught

Save the name of John Milton! For all men, indeed,

Who in some choice edition may graciously read, [note, With fair illustration, and erudite The song which the poet in bitterness wrote,

Beat the poet, and notably beat him, in this

The joy of the genius is theirs, whilst they miss

The grief of the man: Tasso's songnot his madness!

[blocks in formation]

CHARLES MACKAY.

TO A FRIEND AFRAID OF CRITICS. Of him who cast it. Take the wise

[blocks in formation]

man's praise,

And love thyself the more that thou couldst earn

Meed so exalted; but the blame of fools,

Let it blow over like an idle whiff
Of poisonous tobacco in the streets,
Invasive of thy unoffending nose:-
Their praise no better, only more per-
fumed.

The critics let me paint them as they are.

Some few I know, and love them from my soul;

[blocks in formation]

One, if thou'rt great, will cite from thy new book

The tames: passage,-something that thy soul

Revolts at, now the inspiration's o'er,

And sink into oblivion; - and will

vaunt

The thing as beautiful, transcendent,

rare

The best thing thou hast done! Another friend,

With finer sense, will praise thy greatest thought,

Yet cavil at it; putting in his "buts" And "yets," and little obvious hints, That though 'tis good, the critic could have made

A work superior in its every part.

Another, in a pert and savage mood, Without a reason, will condemn thee quite,

And strive to quench thee in a paragraph.

Another, with dishonest waggery, Will twist, misquote, and utterly per

vert

Thy thoughts and words; and hug himself meanwhile

In the delusion, pleasant to his soul, That thou art crushed, and he a gentleman.

Another, with a specious fair pre

tence,

Immaculately wise, will skim thy book,

And, self-sufficient, from his desk look down

With undisguised contempt on thee and thine;

And sneer and snarl thee, from his weekly court,

From an idea, spawn of his conceit, That the best means to gain a great

renown

For wisdom is to sneer at all the world,

With strong denial that a good exists;

That all is bad, imperfect, feeble, stale,

Except this critic, who outshines mankind.

Another, with a foolish zeal, will prate

And would give all thou hast to blot Of thy great excellence, and on thy

from print.

head

[blocks in formation]

Another, calmer, with laudations thin,

Unsavory and weak, will make it

seem

That his good-nature, not thy merit, prompts

The baseless adulation of his pen. Another, with a bulldog's bark, will bay

Foul names against thee for some fancied slight

[blocks in formation]

Our heads grow bare

Of the bonnie brown hair,
Our teeth grow shaky in our gums.
Gone are the joys that once we knew,
Over the green, and under the blue,
Our blood runs calm, as calm can be,
And we're old fogies-fogies three.
Yet if we be
Old fogies three

Which thou ne'er dream'dst of, and The life still pulses in our veins;

will damn thy work

For spite against the worker; while the next,

Who thinks thy faith or politics a crime,

Will bray displeasure from his month

ly stall,

And prove thee dunce, that disagre'st

with him.

[blocks in formation]

And if the heart

Be dulled in part,

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

To mingle in the world's affairs,
And vex our souls with public cares;

[blocks in formation]

And have our motives misconstrued, Are better comrades than a Kaiser.
Reviled, maligned, misunderstood.
Jolly companions! three times three,
Let us confess what fools we be!

[blocks in formation]
« ElőzőTovább »