By which heaven moves in pardoning guilty man;
And he that shows none, being ripe in years,
And conscious of the outrage he commits,
Shall seek it, and not find it in his turn.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN DESERT.'
AFAR in the desert I love to ride,
With the silent bush-boy alone by my side:
Away-away from the dwellings of men,
By the wild deer's haunt, by the buffalo's glen;
By valleys remote, where the oribi2 plays,
Where the gnu, the gazelle, and the hartebeest graze,
And the kudu and eland, unhunted recline
By the skirts of grey forests o'erhung with wild vine ;
Where the elephant browses at peace in his wood,
And the river-horse gambols unscared in the flood,
And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will
In the fen where the wild ass is drinking his fill.
There is rapture to vault on the champing steed,
And to bound away with the eagle's speed,
With the death-fraught firelock in my hand-
The only law of the desert land.
Afar in the desert I love to ride
With the silent bush-boy alone by my side:
O'er the brown Karroo, where the bleating cry
Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively;
Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane
As he scours with his troop o'er the desolate plain;.
And the timorous quagga's shrill whistling neigh
Is heard by the fountain at twilight grey;
And the fleet-footed ostrich over the waste
Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste,
Hieing away to the home of her rest,
Where she and her mate have scooped their nest,
Far hid from the pitiless plunderer's view,
In the pathless depths of the parched Karroo.
(1) The Desert in South Africa referred to in these spirited lines is the great
(2) Oribi, &c.-The animals named in this and the next two lines are all species of antelopes.
And here while the night-winds around me sigh,
And the stars burn bright in the midnight sky,
As I sit apart by the desert stone,
Like Elijah at Horeb's cave alone,
"A still small voice" comes through the wild-
Like a father consoling his fretful child-
Which banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear,
Saying " MAN IS DISTANT, BUT GOD IS NEAR!"
How calmly gliding through the dark blue sky
The midnight moon ascends! her placid beams
Through thinly scattered leaves, and boughs grotesque,
Mottle with mazy shades the orchard slope;
Here, o'er the chestnut's fretted foliage grey
And massy, motionless they spread; here, shine
Upon the crags, deepening with blacker night
Their chasms; and there the glittering argentry1
Ripples and glances on the confluent streams.
A lovelier, purer light than that of day
Rests on the hills; and oh, how awfully
Into that deep and tranquil firmament
The summits of Auseva rise serene!
The watchman on the battlements partakes
The stillness of the solemn hour; he feels
The silence of the earth, the endless sound
Of flowing water soothes him; and the stars,
Which, in that brightest moonlight well-nigh quenched,
Scarce visible, as in the utmost depth
Of yonder sapphire infinite, are seen,
Draw on with everlasting influence
Towards eternity the attempered mind.
To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
(1) Argentry-from the Latin argentum, silver-the silvery radiance.
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;-
This is not solitude-'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.
But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,'
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the world's tired denizen,"
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour, shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less,
Of all that flattered, followed, sought, and sued;—
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!
THE FLOWERS OF THE FIELD.
SWEET nurslings of the vernal skies,
Bathed in soft airs, and fed with dew,
What more than magic in you lies,
To fill the heart's fond view!
In childhood's sports, companions gay,
In sorrow, on life's downward way,
How soothing! in our last decay
Memorials prompt and true.
Relics ye are of Eden's bowers,
As pure, as fragrant, and as fair,
As when ye crowned the sunshine hours
Of happy wanderers there.
Fallen all beside the world of life
How is it stained with fear and strife!
In reason's world what storms are rife,
What passions rage and glare!
(1) "For," says Lord Bacon," a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures;" and he quotes in confirmation the Latin adage, "Magna civitas, magna solitudo." See" Essay on Friendship."
(2) Denizen-supposed to be connected with the French donaison, a gift or present-one who has obtained enfranchisement, a stranger made free. The "world's denizen " is one admitted to the rights and privileges of the world, but still feeling that he is an alien, and not a native.
Ye fearless in your nests abide―
Nor may we scorn, too proudly wise,
Your silent lessons, undescried
By all but lowly eyes:
For ye could draw the admiring gaze1
Of Him who worlds and hearts surveys;
Your order wild, your fragrant maze,
He taught us how to prize.
Alas! of thousand bosoms kind
That daily court you and caress,
How few the happy secret find
Of your calm loveliness!
"Live for to-day; to-morrow's light
To-morrow's cares shall bring to sight,
Go sleep like closing flowers at night,
And heaven thy morn will bless."
ATTEND, all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise;
I tell of the thrice-famous deeds she wrought in ancient days,
When that great Fleet Invincible against her bore in vain
The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain.
It was about the lovely close of a warm summer day,
There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth bay;
Her crew hath seen Castille's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle,3
At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile;
At sunrise she escaped their van, by God's especial grace,
And the tall Pinta, till the noon, had held her close in chace.
Forthwith a guard at every gun was placed along the wall,
The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecumbe's lofty hall;
Many a light fishing-bark put out to pry along the coast;
And with loose rain and bloody spur rode inland many a post.
(1) Admiring gaze, &c.-See Matt. vi. 28-30.
(2) It is needless to point out the life and spirit that pervade these lines, and which soon draw the reader under their spell. The poet's imagination-like the alarm-fire he depicts-lights up tower after tower, and hill after hill, until night becomes "as bright and busy as the day."
(3) Aurigny's isle-the isle of Alderney.
(4) Pinta-a Spanish vessel of war built for fast sailing.
With his white hair unbonneted the stout old sheriff comes;
Behind him march the halberdiers,1 before him sound the drums :
His
round the market-cross make clear an ample space,
yeomen
For there behoves him to set up the standard of Her Grace.
And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily dance the bells,
As slow upon the labouring wind the royal blazon swells.
Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up his ancient crown,
And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay lilies down!
So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that famed Picard field,*
Bohemia's plume, and Genoa's bow, and Cæsar's eagle shield;
So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay,
And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay.
Ho! strike the flagstaff deep, sir knight: ho scatter flowers, fair
maids :
Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute: ho! gallants, draw your blades:
Thou sun shine on her joyously-ye breezes waft her wide;
Our glorious SEMPER EADEM the banner of our pride.
The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's
The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold;
Night sunk upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea-
Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be.
From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay,
That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day;
For swift to east and swift to west the warning radiance spread;
High on St. Michael's Mount it shone, it shone on Beachy Head.
Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire,
Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire.
The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's glittering waves;
The rugged miners poured to war from Mendip's sunless caves:
O'er Longleat's towers, o'er Cranbourne's oaks, the fiery herald
flew :
He roused the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu. Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out from Bristol town,
And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton down;
The sentinel on Whitehall Gate looked forth into the night,
And saw o'erhanging Richmond Hill the streak of blood-red light.
Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the death-like silence broke,
And with one start, and with one cry the royal city woke.
(1) Halberdier-one who carried a halberd, which in early times was a long pole, terminating in a battle-axe. This word is thought by some to be a corruption of helm-barte or helm-axe, so called from its original use.
(2) Picard field-Crecy is in the province of Picardy.
(3) Semper Eadem "Always the same"-Queen Elizabeth's motto.
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