My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed? Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son,Wretch even then, life's journey just begun? Perhaps thou gavest me, though unfelt, a kiss; And, turning from my nursery window, drew But, though I less deplored thee, ne'er forgot. Where once we dwelt our name is heard no more; Children not thine have trod my nursery floor; And where the gardener Robin, day by day, Drew me to school along the public way, Delighted with my bauble coach, and wrapt In scarlet mantle warm, and velvet capped, 'Tis now become a history little known, That once we call'd the pastoral house3 our own. Shortlived possession! but the record fair, That memory keeps of all thy kindness there, Still outlives many a storm, that has effaced A thousand other themes less deeply traced. Thy nightly visits to my chamber made, That thou mightst know me safe and warmly laid; Thy morning bounties ere I left my home, man. 3. The pastoral house means the rectory, the home of the clergy The biscuit, or confectionery plum; All this, and more endearing still than all, Not scorn'd in Heaven, though little noticed here. I prick'd them into paper with a pin,' (And thou wast happier than myself the while— Wouldst softly speak, and stroke my head and smile,) Could those few pleasant days again appear, I would not trust my heart,—the dear delight 4. Humour here means temper. 5. Numbers is used for poetic measures; poetry. 6. Tissued is a poetic word for variegated. 7. He pricked into paper with a pin the outlines of the variegated forms of violets, pinks and jessamine that decorated his mother's dress. Thou as a gallant bark, from Albion's coast, (The storms all weathered and the ocean crossed,) Shoots into port at some well-havened isle, Where spices breathe and brighter seasons smile; There sits quiescent on the floods, that show Her beauteous form reflected clear below, While airs impregnated with incense play Around her, fanning light her streamers gay,So thou, with sails how swift! hast reached the shore "Where tempests never beat nor billows roar": And thy loved consort9 on the dangerous tide Of life long since has anchored by thy side. But me,1o scarce hoping to attain the rest, 10 10 Always from port withheld, always distressed,Me10 howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost;11 11 And day by day some current's thwarting force 8. England's. The old name Albion, which means white, is still used in poetry. Just how the name originated no one knows. Perhaps it alluded to the white chalk cliffs of England which the Gauls could see. 9. Cowper's father died in 1756; his mother in 1737. 10. Me is repeated for emphasis; it is the object of drive: "Howling blasts drive me out of the straight line," is what the lines mean. 11. Cowper was too strongly conscious of his weakness and his difference from other men. He wrote in a letter to a friend, "Certainly I am not an absolute fool, but I have more weaknesses than the greatest of all the fools I can recollect at present. In short, if I was as fit for the next world as I am unfit for this, and God forbid I should speak of it in vanity,—I would not change conditions with any saint in Christendom." 12. "That thou art safe, and that he is safe." 13. Cowper descended from ancient and high lineage on both sides. But higher far my proud pretensions rise,- And, while the wings of fancy still are free, TH THOSE EVENING BELLS By THOMAS MOORE HOSE evening bells! those evening bells. Of youth, and home, and that sweet time Those joyous hours are passed away; And so 'twill be when I am gone- 14. Unrevoked means not called back. |