The lake of Geneva, a poem, 1. köide

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Page xvi - Me, let the tender office long engage, To rock the cradle of reposing age, With lenient arts extend a mother's breath, Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death, Explore the thought, explain the asking eye, And keep a while one parent from the sky!
Page xvi - And only dwells where Wortley casts her eyes. What are the gay parterre, the chequer'd shade, The morning bower, the evening colonnade, But soft recesses of uneasy minds, To sigh unheard in to the passing winds ? So the struck deer, in some sequester'd part, Lies down to die, the arrow at his heart ; He, stretch'd unseen in coverts hid from day, Bleeds drop by drop, and pants his life away.
Page 73 - Thus ended, the proud maid A golden tribute to the palm applied. Then smiling came a comrade, on the arm Of the fair damsel leaning ; from the stock, And of the name, who from the town below The castle, came that day upon a visit. " And thou too pretty one, went on the Gipsey, " Wilt hear thy fortune !— well ; it shall be told ;
Page 73 - Thou art a young anthusiast, and thou lovest Glory ; and dost delight to make the future Over the present rule ! Then let the flame Of hope upon that swelling bosom play I For of those little ones, who by thy side Will weeping hang, and, when the stormy howl Of billows o'er thy rolling vessel breaks, Will shriek, and clasp thee, and for help from thee Uselessly call, shall come a future race, Whose sway shall o'er the northern Continent, Thy destiny, be mighty...
Page 67 - How have I trac'd them in the parish records With a fond microscopic industry, Which fools and half-philosophers call dull ! There the great grandsire of the younger stock Whence sprung th' Historian, planted his young offset From an old root, as antiquaries tell us Of credit in cotemporary days. The poem then goes on to give an account of the author's visit, in his early days, to the old manor-house in Westcliffe, and...
Page 71 - Crusades Drew its third Monarch. Another long digression follows giving traces of the Gibbon family, and then bringing together different branches of it at an imaginary meeting in the manor-house as follows : Meantime Westcliffe's old Hall receiv'd at intervals The congregated branches : to the cliffs They wander'd, and in half-regretful memory Heard the waves beat beneath them, and beheld The white cliffs and the glittering towers of Calais Across the tumbling tides in beautiful And heart-arousing...
Page 68 - ... then goes on to give an account of the author's visit, in his early days, to the old manor-house in Westcliffe, and extends the history of its ancient occupants, tracing their descent from The first royalty of proud Plantagenet : And its source e'en higher than that name Of glorious feudal splendor I For the searcher Of genealogical sagacity Will trace it as a lineal male descendant Of the first race of Merovingian kings ! And hence Jerusalem in the first Crusades Drew its third Monarch. Another...
Page 66 - ... it ought to bring with it the constant recollection that the possessor's posterity may thus inherit the disposition to pursue glory rather than selfish gains ! " — Gnomica, p. 44. The part of the poem referred to, commences with Book HI. Over thine Eastern head, O Lake, how grand Lausanne, her ancient holy spires erects ! I need not trace her history : but Britons Ever associate it with Gibbon's name...
Page 72 - Yet infus'd Into thy cup shall also be much joy I E'en here upon thy natal spot shalt thou Know some few years of pleasure in a love Not unbecoming thee 1 But yet it shall Be mix'd with cares, and terrors, and distractions, And much thy thoughtless, but good-natur'd husband Shall waste ; and shall at last exhaust the patience Of friends as well as foes ; and then shall Ruin Come irrecoverable ; and sweep all I And then again with weeping and convuls'd Embraces shalt thou be withdrawn away, With all...
Page 72 - And in dim vision they beheld the glories That after on their proud posterity Should fall ! And here the fortune-teller came, And taking an unmarried damsel's hand, And archly looking in her timid eye, Said : " Fair one, there is gloom upon thy countenance Mix'd with those streaks of glowing light, which laugh Rosily through the clouds ! I do not say these streaks of light shall conquer, And keep off evil from thy future fate : — Much shall thou have to suffer...

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