Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Child Of The Islands - Spring</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">WHAT shalt THOU know of Spring? A verdant crown <br>Of young boughs waving o'er thy blooming head: <br>White tufted Guelder-roses, showering down <br>A fairy snow-path where thy footsteps tread: <br>Fragrance and balm,--which purple violets shed: <br>Wild-birds,--sweet warbling in commingled song: <br>Brooklets,--thin murmuring down their pebbly bed; <br>Or more abundant rivers,--swept along <br>With shoals of tiny fish, in many a silver throng! <br>II.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">To THEE shall be unknown that weary pain, <br>The feverish thirsting for a breath of air,-- <br>Which chokes the heart of those who sigh in vain <br>For respite, in their round of toil and care: <br>Who never gaze on Nature fresh and fair, <br>Nor in sweet leisure wile an hour away; <br>But, like caged creatures, sullenly despair, <br>As day monotonously follows day, <br>Till youth wears on to age, and strength to faint decay. <br>III.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A feeble girl sits working all alone! <br>A ruined Farmer's orphan; pale and weak; <br>Her early home to wealthier strangers gone, <br>No rural beauty lingers on her cheek; <br>Her woe-worn looks a woeful heart bespeak; <br>Though in her dull, and rarely lifted eye, <br>(Whose glances nothing hope, and nothing seek,) <br>Those who have time for pity, might descry <br>A thousand shattered gleams of merriment gone by! <br>IV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Her window-sill some sickly plants adorn, <br>(Poor links to memories sweet of Nature's green!) <br>There to the City's smoke-polluted morn <br>The primrose lifts its leaves, with buds between, <br>'Minished and faint, as though their life had been <br>Nipped by long pining and obscure regret; <br>Torn from the sunny bank where erst were seen <br>Lovely and meek companions, thickly set,-- <br>The cowslip, rich in scent, and humble violet! <br>V.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Too fanciful! the plant but pines, like her, <br>For purer air; for sunbeams warm and kind; <br>Th' enlivening joy of nature's busy stir, <br>The rural freedom, long since left behind! <br>For the fresh woodlands,--for the summer wind,-- <br>The open fields with perfumed clover spread;-- <br>The hazel copse,--whose branches intertwined <br>Made natural bow'rs and arches overhead, <br>With many a narrow path, where only two could tread. <br>VI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Never, oh! never more, shall these afford <br>Her stifled heart their innocent delight! <br>Never, oh! never more, the rich accord <br>Of feathered songsters make her morning bright! <br>Earning scant bread, that finds no appetite, <br>The sapless life she toils for, lingers on; <br>And when at length it sinks in dreary night, <br>A shallow, careless grave is dug,--where none <br>Come round to bless her rest, whose ceaseless tasks are done! <br>VII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And now, the devious threads her simple skill <br>Wove in a quaint device and flowery line, <br>Adorn some happier maid, whose wayward will <br>Was struck with wishing for the fair design: <br>Some 'curléd darling' of a lordly line, <br>Whose blooming cheek, through veils of texture rare, <br>Mantling with youth's warm blood is seen to shine; <br>While her light garments, draped with modest care, <br>Soft as a dove's white wings, float on the breezy air. <br>VIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Oh, there is need for permanent belief <br>In the All-Equal World of Joy to come! <br>Need for such solace to the restless grief <br>And heavy troubles of our earthly home! <br>Else might our wandering reason blindly roam, <br>And ask, with all a heathen's discontent, <br>Why Joy's bright cup for some should sparkling foam, <br>While others, not less worthy, still lament, <br>And find the cup of tears the only portion sent! <br>IX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But for the Christian's hope, how hard, how cold, <br>How bitterly unjust, our lot would seem! <br>How purposeless and sad, to young and old! <br>How like the struggles of a torturing dream, <br>When ghastly midnight bids us strive and scream! <br>All fades--all fleets--of which our hearts grow fond; <br>Pain presses on us to the last extreme,-- <br>When lo! the dawn upriseth, clear beyond, <br>And, radiant from the East, forbids us to despond. <br>X.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And many a crippled child, and aged man, <br>And withered crone, who once saw 'better days,' <br>With just enough of intellect to scan <br>This gracious truth; uncheered by human praise, <br>Patient plods through the thorn-encumbered ways: <br>Oh, trust God counts the hours through which they sigh, <br>While His green Spring eludes their suffering gaze, <br>And flowers along Earth's spangled bosom lie, <br>Whose barren bloom, for them, must unenjoyed pass by! <br>XI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So lives the little Trapper underground; <br>No glittering sunshine streaks the oozy wall; <br>Not e'en a lamp's cold glimmer shineth round <br>Where he must sit (through summer days and all, <br>While in warm upper air the cuckoos call,) <br>For ever listening at the weary gate <br>Where echoes of the unseen footsteps fall. <br>Early he comes, and lingers long and late, <br>With savage men, whose blows his misery aggravate. <br>XII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yet sometimes, (for the heart of childhood is <br>A thing so pregnant with joy's blessed sun, <br>That all the dismal gloom that round him lies <br>Can scarce suffice to bid its rays begone) <br>In lieu of vain complaint, or peevish moan, <br>A feeble SONG the passing hour will mark! <br>Poor little nightingale! that sing'st alone, <br>Thy cage is very low, and bitter dark; <br>But God hears thee, who hears the glad upsoaring lark. <br>XIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">God seeth thee, who sees the prosperous proud <br>Into the sunshine of their joy go forth: <br>God marks thee, weak one, in the human crowd, <br>And judgeth all thy grief, (as all their mirth,) <br>Bird with the broken wing that trails on earth! <br>His angels watch thee, if none watch beside, <br>As faithfully--despite thy lowly birth-- <br>As the child-royal of the queenly bride, <br>Or our belief is vain in Christ the Crucified! <br>XIV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">In Christ! who made young children's guileless lives <br>The cherished objects of His love and care; <br>Who bade each sinner that for pardon strives, <br>Low, at Heaven's feet, a child-like heart lay bare; <br>Opening the world's great universal prayer <br>With these meek words: 'Our Father!' Strange, that we <br>The common blessings of His earth and air <br>Deny to those who, circling round His knee, <br>Embraced, in mortal life, His immortality! <br>XV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Those 'common blessings!' In this chequered scene <br>How scant the gratitude we shew to God! <br>Is it, in truth, a privilege so mean <br>To wander with free footsteps o'er the sod, <br>See various blossoms paint the valley clod, <br>And all things into teeming beauty burst? <br>A miracle as great as Aaron's rod, <br>But that our senses, into dulness nurst, <br>Recurring Custom still with Apathy hath curst. <br>XVI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They who have rarest joy, know Joy's true measure; <br>They who most suffer, value Suffering's pause; <br>They who but seldom taste the simplest pleasure, <br>Kneel oftenest to the Giver and the Cause. <br>Heavy the curtains feasting Luxury draws, <br>To hide the sunset and the silver night; <br>While humbler hearts, when Care no longer gnaws, <br>And some rare holiday permits delight, <br>Lingering, with love would watch that earth-enchanting sight. <br>XVII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So sits the pallid weaver at his loom, <br>Copying the wreaths the artist-pencil drew; <br>In the dull confines of his cheerless room <br>Glisten those tints of rich and living hue. <br>The air is sweet, the grass is fresh with dew, <br>And feverish aches are throbbing in his veins, <br>But his are work-day Springs, and Summers too; <br>And if he quit his loom, he leaves his gains-- <br>That gorgeous, glistering silk, designed with so much pains! <br>XVIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">It shall be purchased as a robe of state <br>By some great lady, when his toil is done; <br>While on her will obsequious shopmen wait, <br>To shift its radiance in the flattering sun: <br>And as she, listless, eyes its beauty, none <br>Her brow shall darken, or her smile shall shade, <br>By a strange story--yet a common one-- <br>Of tears that fell (but not on her brocade,) <br>And misery weakly borne while it was slowly made. <br>XIX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For while that silk the weaver's time beguiled, <br>His wife lay groaning on her narrow bed, <br>The suffering mother of a new-born child, <br>Without a cradle for its weakly head, <br>Or future certainty of coarsest bread; <br>Not, in that hour of Nature's sore affright, <br>A fire, or meal that either might be fed; <br>So, through the pauses of the dreadful night, <br>Patient they lay, and longed for morning's blessed light. <br>XX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Not patient--no; I over-rate his strength <br>Who listened to the infant's wailing cry, <br>And mother's weary moan, until at length <br>He gave them echo with a broken sigh! <br>Daylight was dawning, and the loom stood nigh: <br>He looked on it, as though he would discern <br>If there was light enough to labour by. <br>What made his heart's-blood leap, and sink, in turn? <br>What, in that cold gloom caused his pallid cheek to burn? <br>XXI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">What made him rise, with wild and sudden start? <br>Alas! the poor are weak, when they are tried! <br>(Can the rich say, that they, with steadfast heart, <br>Have all temptations constantly defied?) <br>He counts the value of that robe of pride; <br>And while the dawn clears up, that ushers in <br>His child's first morn on life's uncertain tide, <br>He keeps its birthday with a deed of sin, <br>And pawns his master's silk, bread for his wife to win. <br>XXII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Let none excuse the deed, for it was wrong:-- <br>And since 'twas ruin to the wretch employed, <br>No doubt the hour's despair was wild and strong <br>Which left that loom of silken splendours void: <br>Let Virtue trust their meal was unenjoyed, <br>Eaten in trembling, drenched with bitterness,-- <br>And that the faint uncertain hope which buoyed <br>His heart awhile, to hide his guilt's excess, <br>And get that silk redeemed, was vain, from his distress: <br>XXIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So that true Justice might pursue her course; <br>And the silk, finished by 'a different hand,' <br>Might in good time (delayed awhile perforce) <br>Be brought to clothe that lady of the land <br>Whom I behold as in a vision stand. <br>Lo! in my vision, on its folds are laid <br>The turquoise-circled fingers of her hand; <br>While by herself, and her attendant maid, <br>Its texture, soft and rich, is smiled on and surveyed. <br>XXIV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Indifferent to her, the heavy cost <br>Of that rich robe, first pawned for one poor meal; <br>She that now wears it, and her lord, may boast <br>No payment made,--yet none dare say THEY steal! <br>No, not if future reckoning-hours reveal <br>Debts the encumbered heir can never pay; <br>But whose dishonest weight his heart shall feel <br>Through many a restless night and bitter day, <br>Hearing what cheated men of the bad dead will say. <br>XXV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Onward she moves, in Fashion's magic glass, <br>Half-strut, half-swim, she slowly saunters by: <br>A self-delighting, delicate, pampered mass <br>Of flesh indulged in every luxury <br>Folly can crave, or riches can supply: <br>Spangled with diamonds--head, and breast, and zone, <br>Scorn lighting up her else most vacant eye, <br>Careless of all conditions but her own, <br>She sweeps that stuff along, to curtsey to the throne. <br>XXVI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">That dumb woof tells no story! Silent droops <br>The gorgeous train, voluminously wide; <br>And while the lady's knee a moment stoops <br>(Mocking her secret heart, which swells with pride,) <br>No ragged shadow follows at her side <br>Into that royal presence, where her claim <br>To be admitted, is to be allied <br>To wealth, and station, and a titled name,-- <br>No warning voice is heard to supplicate or blame. <br>XXVII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Nor,--since by giving working hands employ, <br>Her very vanity must help their need <br>Whom, in her life of cold ungenerous joy, <br>She never learned to pity or to heed,-- <br>Would sentence harsh from thoughtful minds proceed; <br>But that the poor man, dazzled, sees encroach <br>False lights upon his pathway, which mislead <br>Those who the subject of his wrongs would broach, <br>Till Rank a bye-word seems,--and Riches a reproach. <br>XXVIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">How oft some friendly voice shall vainly speak <br>The sound true lessons of Life's holier school;-- <br>How much of wholesome influence prove weak, <br>Because one tinselled, gaudy, selfish fool, <br>Hath made the exception seem the practiced rule! <br>In Luxury, so prodigal of show,-- <br>In Charity, so wary and so cool,-- <br>That wealth appeared the poor man's open foe, <br>And all, of high estate, this language to avow:-- <br>XXIX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'A life of self-indulgence is for Us, <br>'A life of self-denial is for them; <br>'For Us the streets, broad-built and populous, <br>'For them, unhealthy corners, garrets dim, <br>'And cellars where the water-rat may swim! <br>'For Us, green paths refreshed by frequent rain, <br>'For them, dark alleys where the dust lies grim! <br>'Not doomed by Us to this appointed pain,-- <br>'God made us, Rich and Poor--of what do these complain?' <br>XXX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Of what? Oh! not of Heaven's great law of old, <br>That brightest light must fall by deepest shade; <br>Not that they wander hungry, gaunt, and cold, <br>While others in smooth splendours are arrayed; <br>Not that from gardens where they would have strayed <br>You shut them out, as though a miser's gem <br>Lay in the crystal stream or emerald glade, <br>Which they would filch from Nature's diadem; <br>But that you keep no thought, no memory of THEM. <br>XXXI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">That, being gleaners in the world's large field <br>(And knowing well they never can be more,) <br>Those unto whom the fertile earth must yield <br>Her increase, will not stand like him of yore, <br>Large-hearted Boaz, on his threshing-floor, <br>Watching that weak ones starve not on their ground. <br>How many sills might frame a beggar's door, <br>For any love, or help, or pity found, <br>In rich men's hearts and homes, to help the needy round! <br>XXXII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Meanwhile, enjoy your Walks, your Parks, your Drives, <br>Heirs of Creation's fruits, this world's select! <br>Bask in the sunshine of your idle lives, <br>And teach your poorer brother to expect <br>Nor share, nor help! Rouse up the fierce-toned sect <br>To grudge him e'en the breeze that once a-week <br>Might make him feel less weary and deject; <br>And stand, untouched, to see how thankful-meek <br>He walks that day, his child close nestling at his cheek. <br>XXXIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Compel him to your creed; force him to think; <br>Cut down his Sabbath to a day of rest <br>Such as the beasts enjoy,--to eat, and drink, <br>And drone away his time, by sleep opprest:-- <br>But let 'My lady' send, at her behest, <br>A dozen different servants to prepare, <br>Grooms, coachmen, footmen, in her livery drest, <br>And shining horses, fed with punctual care, <br>To whirl her to Hyde Park, that she may 'take the air.' <br>XXXIV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yet, even with her, we well might moralise; <br>(No place too gay, if so the heart incline!) <br>For dark the Seal of Death and Judgment lies <br>Upon thy rippling waters, Serpentine! <br>Day after day, drawn up in linkèd line, <br>Your lounging beauties smile on idle men, <br>Where Suicides have braved the Will Divine, <br>Watched the calm flood that lay beneath their ken, <br>Dashed into seeming peace, and never rose again! <br>XXXV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">There, on the pathway where the well-groomed steed <br>Restlessly paws the earth, alarmed and shy; <br>While his enamoured rider nought can heed <br>Save the soft glance of some love-lighted eye; <br>There, they dragged out the wretch who came to die <br>There was he laid--stiff, stark, and motionless, <br>And searched for written signs to notify <br>What pang had driv'n him to such sore excess, <br>And who should weep his loss, and pity his distress! <br>XXXVI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Cross from that death-pond to the farther side, <br>Where fewer loiterers wander to and fro, <br>There,--buried under London's modern pride, <br>And ranges of white buildings,--long ago <br>Stood Tyburn Gate and gallows! Scenes of woe, <br>Bitter, heart-rending, have been acted here; <br>While, as he swung in stifling horrid throe, <br>Hoarse echoes smote the dying felon's ear, <br>Of yells from fellow-men, triumphant in his fear! <br>XXXVII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Not always thus. At times a Mother knelt, <br>And blest the wretch who perished for his crime; <br>Or a young wife bowed down her head, and felt <br>Her little son an orphan from that time; <br>Or some poor frantic girl, whose love sublime <br>In the coarse highway robber could but see <br>Her heart's ideal, heard Death's sullen chime <br>Shivering and weeping on her fainting knee, <br>And mourned for him who hung high on the gallows-tree. <br>XXXVIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Nowhere more deeply stamped the trace of gloom <br>Than in this light haunt of the herding town; <br>Marks of the world's Forgotten Ones, on whom <br>The eye of God for ever looketh down, <br>Still pitiful, above the human frown, <br>As Glory o'er the Dark! Earth's mercy tires! <br>But Heaven hath stored a mercy of its own, <br>Watching the feet that tread among the briars, <br>And guiding fearful eyes, when fainter light expires. <br>XXXIX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yet no such serious thoughts their minds employ, <br>Who lounge and wander 'neath the sunshine bright, <br>But how to turn their idleness to joy, <br>Their weariness to pleasure and delight; <br>How best with the ennui of life to fight <br>With operas, plays, assemblies, routs, and balls-- <br>The morning passed in planning for the night <br>Feastings and dancings in their lighted halls; <br>And still, as old ones fade, some newer pleasure calls. <br>XL.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Betwixt the deathly stream and Tyburn Gate <br>Stand withered trees, whose sapless boughs have seen <br>Beauties whose memory now is out of date, <br>And lovers, on whose graves the moss is green! <br>While Spring, for ever fresh, with smile serene, <br>Woke up grey Time, and drest his scythe with flowers, <br>And flashed sweet light the tender leaves between, <br>And bid the wild-bird carol in the bowers, <br>Year after year the same, with glad returning hours. <br>XLI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Oh, those old trees! what see they when the beam <br>Falls on blue waters from the bluer sky? <br>When young Hope whispers low, with smiles that seem <br>Too joyous to be answered with a sigh? <br>The scene is then of prosperous gaiety, <br>Thick-swarming crowds on summer pleasure bent, <br>And equipages formed for luxury; <br>While rosy children, young and innocent, <br>Dance in the onward path, and frolic with content. <br>XLII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But when the scattered leaves on those wan boughs <br>Quiver beneath the night wind's rustling breath; <br>When jocund merriment, and whispered vows, <br>And children's shouts, are hushed; and still as Death <br>Lies all in heaven above and earth beneath; <br>When clear and distant shine the steadfast stars <br>O'er lake and river, mountain, brake, and heath,-- <br>And smile, unconscious of the woe that mars <br>The beauty of earth's face, deformed by Misery's scars; <br>XLIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">What see the old trees THEN? Gaunt, pallid forms <br>Come, creeping sadly to their hollow hearts, <br>Seeking frail shelter from the winds and storms, <br>In broken rest, disturbed by fitful starts; <br>There, when the chill rain falls, or lightning darts, <br>Or balmy summer nights are stealing on, <br>Houseless they slumber, close to wealthy marts <br>And gilded homes:--there, where the morning sun <br>That tide of wasteful joy and splendour looked upon! <br>XLIV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">There the man hides, whose 'better days' are dropped <br>Round his starvation, like a veil of shame; <br>Who, till the fluttering pulse of life hath stopped, <br>Suffers in silence, and conceals his name:-- <br>There the lost victim, on whose tarnished fame <br>A double taint of Death and Sin must rest, <br>Dreams of her village home and Parents' blame, <br>And in her sleep by pain and cold opprest, <br>Draws close her tattered shawl across her shivering breast. <br>XLV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Her history is written in her face; <br>The bloom hath left her cheek, but not from age; <br>Youth, without innocence, or love, or grace, <br>Blotted with tears, still lingers on that page! <br>Smooth brow, soft hair, dark eyelash, seem to wage <br>With furrowed lines a contradiction strong; <br>Till the wild witchcraft stories, which engage <br>Our childish thoughts, of magic change and wrong, <br>Seem realised in her--so old, and yet so young! <br>XLVI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And many a wretch forlorn, and huddled group <br>Of strangers met in brotherhood of woe, <br>Heads that beneath their burden weakly stoop,-- <br>Youth's tangled curls, and Age's locks of snow,-- <br>Rest on those wooden pillows, till the glow <br>Of morning o'er the brightening earth shall pass, <br>And these depart, none asking where they go; <br>Lost in the World's confused and gathering mass,-- <br>While a new slide fills up Life's magic-lantern glass. <br>XLVII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">CHILD OF THE ISLANDS! in thy royal bowers, <br>Calm THOU shalt slumber, set apart from pain; <br>Thy spring-day spent in weaving pendent flowers, <br>Or watching sun-bows glitter through the rain, <br>Spanning with glorious arch the distant plain; <br>Or listening to the wood-bird's merry call; <br>Or gathering sea-shells by the surging main; <br>And, wheresoe'er thy joyous glances fall, <br>The wise shall train thy mind, to glean delight from all. <br>XLVIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But most thou'lt love all young and tender things, <br>And open wide and bright, in pleased surprise, <br>When the soft nestling spreads its half-fledged wings, <br>Thy innocent and wonder-loving eyes, <br>To see him thus attempt the sunny skies! <br>Thou shalt enjoy the kitten's frolic mood, <br>Pursue in vain gay-painted butterflies, <br>Watch the sleek puppy lap its milky food, <br>And fright the clucking hen, with all her restless brood. <br>XLIX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Eager thou'lt gaze, where, down the river's tide, <br>The proud swan glides, and guards its lonely nest; <br>Or where the white lambs spot the mountain's side, <br>Where late the lingering sunshine loves to rest; <br>Midst whom, in frock of blue and coloured vest, <br>Lies the young shepherd boy, who little heeds <br>(The livelong day by drowsy dreams opprest) <br>The nibbling, bleating flock that round him feeds, <br>But to his faithful dog leaves all the care it needs. <br>L.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">In time, less simple sights and sounds of Earth <br>Shall yield thy mind a pleasure not less pure: <br>Mighty beginnings--schemes of glorious birth-- <br>In which th' Enthusiast deems he may secure, <br>By rapid labour, Fame that shall endure; <br>Complex machines to lessen human toil, <br>Fair artist-dreams, which Beauty's forms allure, <br>New methods planned to till the fertile soil, <br>And marble graven works, which time forbears to spoil. <br>LI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For, like the Spring, Man's heart hath buds and leaves, <br>Which, sunned upon, put forth immortal bloom; <br>Gifts, that from Heaven his nascent soul receives, <br>Which, being heavenly, shall survive the tomb. <br>In its blank silence, in its narrow gloom, <br>The clay may rest which wrapped his human birth; <br>But, all unconquered by that bounded doom, <br>The Spirit of his Thought shall walk the earth, <br>In glory and in light, midst life, and joy, and mirth. <br>LII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thou'rt dead, oh, Sculptor--dead! but not the less <br>(Wrapped in pale glory from th' illumined shrine) <br>Thy sweet St. Mary stands in her recess, <br>Worshipped and wept to, as a thing divine: <br>Thou'rt dead, oh, Poet!--dead, oh, brother mine! <br>But not the less the curbèd hearts stoop low <br>Beneath the passion of thy fervent line: <br>And thou art dead, oh, Painter! but not so <br>Thy Inspiration's work, still fresh in living glow. <br>LIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">These are the rulers of the earth! to them <br>The better spirits due allegiance own; <br>Vain is the might of rank's proud diadem, <br>The golden sceptre, or the jewelled crown; <br>Beyond the shadow of a mortal frown <br>Lofty they soar! O'er these, pre-eminent, <br>God only, Sovran regnant, looketh down, <br>God! who to their intense perception lent <br>All that is chiefest good and fairest excellent. <br>LIV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Wilt thou take measure of such minds as these, <br>Or sound, with plummet-line, the Artist-Heart? <br>Look where he meditates among the trees-- <br>His eyelids full of love, his lips apart <br>With restless smiles; while keen his glances dart, <br>Above--around--below--as though to seek <br>Some dear companion, whom, with eager start, <br>He will advance to welcome, and then speak <br>The burning thoughts for which all eloquence is weak. <br>LV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">How glad he looks! Whom goeth he to meet? <br>Whom? God:--there is no solitude for him. <br>Lies the earth lonely round his wandering feet? <br>The birds are singing in the branches dim, <br>The water ripples to the fountains' brim, <br>The young lambs in the distant meadows bleat; <br>And he himself beguiles fatigue of limb <br>With broken lines, and snatches various sweet, <br>Of ballads old, quaint hymns for Nature's beauty meet! <br>LVI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Love is too earthly-sensual for his dream; <br>He looks beyond it, with his spirit-eyes! <br>His passionate gaze is for the sunset-beam, <br>And to that fainting glory, as it dies, <br>Belongs the echo of his swelling sighs. <br>Pale wingèd Thoughts, the children of his Mind, <br>Hover around him as he onward hies; <br>They murmur to him 'Hope!' with every wind, <br>Though to their lovely Shapes our grosser sight is blind. <br>LVII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But who shall tell, when want and pain have crost <br>The clouded light of some forsaken day, <br>What germs of Beauty have been crushed and lost, <br>What flashing thoughts have gleamed to fade away? <br>Oh! since rare flowers must yet take root in clay, <br>And perish if due culture be denied; <br>Let it be held a Royal boast to say, <br>For lack of aid, no heaven-born genius died; <br>Nor dwindled withering down, in desert-sands of Pride! <br>LVIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The lily-wand is theirs! the Angel-gift! <br>And, if the Earthly one with failing hand <br>Hold the high glory, do Thou gently lift, <br>And give him room in better light to stand. <br>For round THEE, like a garden, lies the land <br>His pilgrim feet must tread through choking dust; <br>And Thou wert born to this world's high command, <br>And he was born to keep a Heavenly Trust; <br>And both account to ONE, the Merciful and Just. <br>LIX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353996" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Youth is the spring-time of untarnished life! <br>Spring, the green youth of the unfaded year! <br>We watch their promise, midst the changeful strife <br>Of storms that threaten and of skies that clear, <br>And wait, until the harvest-time appear. <br>CHILD OF THE ISLANDS, may those springs which shed <br>Their blossoms round thee, give no cause for fear; <br>And may'st thou gently bend, and meekly tread, <br>Thy garlanded glad path, till summer light be fled!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Caroline+Elizabeth+Sarah+Norton">Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton</a></strong></div>

solid border dashed border dotted border double border groove border ridge border inset border outset border no border blue green red purple cyan gold silver black