But mark how gladly, through their own domains, The Monks relax or break these iron chains; While Mercy, uttering, through their voice, a sound Echoed in Heaven, cries out, "Ye Chiefs, abate These legalized oppressions! Man-whose name And nature God disdained not; Man-whose soul Christ died for-cannot forfeit his high claim To live and move exempt from all controul Which fellow-feeling doth not mitigate!"
RECORD we too, with just and faithful pen, That many hooded Cenobites * there are, Who in their private cells have yet a care Of public quiet; unambitious Men, Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken; Whose fervent exhortations from afar Move Princes to their duty, peace or war; † And oft-times in the most forbidding den Of solitude, with love of science strong, How patiently the yoke of thought they bear! How subtly glide its finest threads along! Spirits that crowd the intellectual sphere With mazy boundaries, as the astronomer With orb and cycle girds the starry throng.
* Cenobites (kowóßio), monks who live in common, as distinguished from hermits or anchorites, who live alone.-ED.
Counts, kings, bishops," says F. D. Maurice, "in the fulness of their wealth and barbaric splendour, may be bowing before a monk, who writes them letters from a cell in which he is living upon vegetables and water." (Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy (Edition 1873), vol. i., Mediæval Philosophy, chap. iv. p. 534.)--ED.
te.g. Anselm (1033-1109); Albertus Magnus (1193-1280); Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274); Duns Scotus (1265-1308).-ED.
AND, not in vain embodied to the sight, Religion finds even in the stern retreat Of feudal sway her own appropriate seat; From the collegiate pomps on Windsor's height Down to the humbler 1 altar, which the Knight And his Retainers of the embattled hall Seek in domestic oratory small,
For prayer in stillness, or the chanted rite; Then chiefly dear, when foes are planted round, Who teach the intrepid guardians of the place- Hourly exposed to death, with famine worn, And suffering under many a perilous wound- 2 How sad would be their durance, if forlorn Of offices dispensing heavenly grace!
AND what melodious sounds at times prevail ! And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream! What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale
St. George's Chapel, Windsor, begun by Henry III. and finished by Edward III., rebuilt by Henry VII., and enlarged by Cardinal Wolsey.— ED.
That swells the bosom of our passing sail! For where, but on this River's margin, blow Those flowers of chivalry, to bind the brow Of hardihood with wreaths that shall not fail?- Fair Court of Edward! wonder of the world! * I see a matchless blazonry unfurled Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love;
And meekness tempering honourable pride; The lamb is couching by the lion's side, And near the flame-eyed eagle sits the dove.
FURL we the sails, and pass with tardy oars Through these bright regions, casting many a glance Upon the dream-like issues- -the romance 1 Of many-coloured life that 2 Fortune pours Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores Their labours end; or they return to lie, The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy, Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors. Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chanted
Nor can Imagination quit the shores
Of these bright scenes without a farewell glance Given to those dream-like Issues-that Romance Given to the dream-like Issues-that Romance
*Edward the Third (1336-1360). See The Wonderful Deeds of Edward the Third, by Robert of Avesbury; and Longman's History of Edward the Third.-ED.
By voices never mute when Heaven unties Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies; Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted, When she would tell how Brave, and Good, and Wise,1 For their high guerdon not in vain have panted!
"AS FAITH THUS SANCTIFIED THE WARRIOR'S CREST"
Composed 1842.-Published 1845
As faith thus sanctified the warrior's crest While from the Papal Unity there came, What feebler means had fail'd to give, one aim Diffused thro' all the regions of the West;
So does her Unity its power attest
By works of Art, that shed, on the outward frame Of worship, glory and grace, which who shall blame That ever looked to heaven for final rest? Hail countless Temples! that so well befit Your ministry; that, as ye rise and take Form spirit and character from holy writ, Give to devotion, wheresoe'er awake, Pinions of high and higher sweep, and make The unconverted soul with awe submit.*
Good, and Brave, and Wise,
In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, Philadelphia, September 4, 1842, Wordsworth writes: "To the second part of the Series" (the "Ecclesiastical Sonnets") "I have also added two, in order to do more justice to the Papal Church for the services which she did actually render to Christianity and humanity in the Middle Ages."-ED.
"WHERE LONG AND DEEPLY HATH BEEN FIXED THE ROOT"
Composed 1842.-Published 1845
WHERE long and deeply hath been fixed the root In the blest soil of gospel truth, the Tree, (Blighted or scathed tho' many branches be, Put forth to wither, many a hopeful shoot) Can never cease to bear celestial fruit. Witness the Church that oft-times, with effect Dear to the saints, strives earnestly to eject 1 Her bane, her vital energies recruit. Lamenting, do not hopelessly repine When such good work is doomed to be undone,2 The conquests lost that were so hardly won :- All promises vouchsafed by Heaven will shine 3 In light confirmed while years their course shall run, Confirmed alike in 4 progress and decline.
Blighted and scathed tho' many branches be, Can never cease to bear and ripen fruit Worthy of Heaven. This law is absolute. Behold the Church that often with effect Dear to the Saints doth labouring to eject
The Church not seldom surely with effect Dear to the Saints doth labour to eject
Her bane, her vital energy recruit.
So Providence ordains and why repine
If this good work is doomed to be undone,
Trust that the promises vouchsafed will shine
« AnteriorContinuar » |