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XX.

OTHER INFLUENCES.

Aп, when the Body, round which in love we clung,
Is chilled by death, does mutual service fail ?
Is tender pity then of no avail ?

Are intercessions of the fervent tongue

A waste of hope?—From this sad source have sprung Rites that console the Spirit, under grief

Which ill can brook more rational relief:

Hence, prayers are shaped amiss, and dirges sung
For Souls whose doom is fixed! The way is smooth
For Power that travels with the human heart:
Confession ministers the pang to soothe

In him who at the ghost of guilt doth start.
Ye holy Men, so earnest in your care,

Of

your own mighty instruments beware!

XXI.

SECLUSION.

LANCE, shield, and sword relinquished, at his side
A bead-roll, in his hand a clasped book,

Or staff more harmless than a shepherd's crook,
The war-worn Chieftain quits the world—to hide

His thin autumnal locks where Monks abide
In cloistered privacy. But not to dwell
In soft repose he comes: within his cell,
Round the decaying trunk of human pride,
At morn, and eve, and midnight's silent hour,
Do penitential cogitations cling;

Like ivy, round some ancient elm, they twine
In grisly folds and strictures serpentine;

Yet, while they strangle, a fair growth they bring,
For recompence-their own perennial bower.

XXII.

CONTINUED.

METHINKS that to some vacant hermitage
My feet would rather turn-to some dry nook
Scooped out of living rock, and near a brook
Hurled down a mountain-cove from stage to stage,
Yet tempering, for my sight, its bustling rage
In the soft heaven of a translucent pool;
Thence creeping under sylvan arches cool,
Fit haunt of shapes whose glorious equipage
Would elevate my dreams.
A beechen bowl,
A maple dish, my furniture should be;

Crisp, yellow leaves my bed; the hooting howl
My night-watch: nor should e'er the crested fowl
From thorp or vill his matins sound for me,

Tired of the world and all its industry.

XXIII.

REPROOF.

BUT what if One, through grove or flowery mead,
Indulging thus at will the creeping feet
Of a voluptuous indolence, should meet
Thy hovering Shade, O venerable Bede!
The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed
Of toil stupendous, in a hallowed seat

Of learning, where thou heard'st the billows beat
On a wild coast, rough monitors to feed
Perpetual industry. Sublime Recluse !

The recreant soul, that dares to shun the debt
Imposed on human kind, must first forget
Thy diligence, thy unrelaxing use
Of a long life; and, in the hour of death,
The last dear service of thy passing breath*!

XXIV.

SAXON MONASTERIES, AND LIGHTS AND SHADES OF THE RELIGION

By such examples moved to unbought pains,
The people work like congregated bees;
Eager to build the quiet Fortresses

Where Piety, as they believe, obtains

*He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St. Johus Gospel.

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peace :

From Heaven a general blessing; timely rains
Or needful sunshine; prosperous enterprise,
Justice and :-bold faith! yet also rise
The sacred Structures for less doubtful gains.
The Sensual think with reverence of the palma
Which the chaste Votaries seek, beyond the grave
If penance be redeemable, thence alms

Flow to the poor, and freedom to the slave;

And if full oft the Sanctuary save

Lives black with guilt, ferocity it calms.

XXV.

MISSIONS AND TRAVELS.

Nor sedentary all: there are who roam
To scatter seeds of life on barbarous shores;
Or quit with zealous step their knee-worn floors
To seek the general mart of Christendom;
Whence they, like richly-laden merchants, come
To their belovèd cells:-
:—or shall we say

That, like the Red-cross Knight, they urge their way,
To lead in memorable triumph home

Truth, their immortal Una ? Babylon,
Learned and wise, hath perished utterly,

Nor leaves her Speech one word to aid the sigh
That would lament her;-Memphis, Tyre, are gone
With all their Arts,—but classic lore glides on
By these Religious saved for all posterity.

XXVI.

ALFRED.

BEHOLD a pupil of the monkish gown,
The pious ALFRED, King to Justice dear!
Lord of the harp and liberating spear;
Mirror of Princes! Indigent Renown
Might range the starry ether for a crown
Equal to his deserts, who, like the year,
Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth cheer,
And awes like night with mercy-tempered frown.
Ease from this noble miser of his time

No moment steals; pain narrows not his cares*.
Though small his kingdom as a spark or gem,
Of Alfred boasts remote Jerusalem,

And Christian India, through her wide-spread clime,
In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares.

XXVII.

HIS DESCENDANTS.

WHEN thy great soul was freed from mortal chains,
Darling of England! many a bitter shower
Fell on thy tomb; but emulative power
Flowed in thy line through undegenerate veins.

* See Note.

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