"AFTER STRIFE FOR COMMON ENDS, AFter title of old frienDS,' AFTER PASSIONS FIERce and tender,(HOUGHTON)

204

"OH! THE BITTER THOUGHT TO SCAN-(LORD HOUGHTON)

LORD HOUGHTON.

A

FOR EVER.

LL things once are things for ever;
Soul, once living, lives for ever;
Blame not what is only once,

When that once endures for ever;
Love once felt, though soon forgot,
Moulds the heart to good for ever;
Once betrayed from childly faith,
Man is conscious man for ever;
Once the void of life revealed,
It must deepen on for ever,
Unless God fill up the heart

With himself for once and ever;
Once made God and man at once,
God and man are one for ever.

[From "Poems of Many Years."]

AFTER DREEful self-surrender, pEARTS MAY BEAT AND EYES BE MET, AND THE SOULS BE STRANGERS.-LORD HOUGHTON.

"SEE! THE HEAVEN-ENFRANCHISHED POET MUST HAVE NO EXCLUSIVE HOME,-(LORD HOUGHTON)

"TEACHING HOW VAIN IS EACH EXHAUSTED HOUR-(Lord HOUGHTON)

THAT DOES NOT RAISE OR PURIFY THE SOUL."-LORD HOUGHTON.

HE MUST FEEL, AND FREELY SHOW IT, PHANTASY IS MADE TO ROAM."-LORD HOUGHTON.

"SO UPWARD STILL, FROM HOPE TO HOPE, FROM FAITH TO FAITH, THE SOUL ASCENDS;-(LORD HOUGHTON)

206

66

DESIRE OF HEAVEN ITSELF IS HEAVEN-(LORD HOUGHTON)

LORD HOUGHTON.

And what if Nature's fearful wound

They did not probe and bare,
For that their spirits never swooned

To watch the misery there,—

For that their love but flowed more fast,

Their charities more free,

Not conscious what mere drops they cast
Into the evil sea.

A man's best things are nearest him,

Lie close about his feet;
It is the distant and the dim

That we are sick to greet:

For flowers that grow our hands beneath
We struggle and aspire,-

Our hearts must die, except they breathe
The air of fresh Desire.

Yet, Brothers, who up Reason's hill
Advance with hopeful cheer,-
O! loiter not, those heights are chill,
As chill as they are clear;

And still restrain your haughty gaze
The loftier that ye go,

Remembering distance leaves a haze

On all that lies below.

[From "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection," in "Selections," ed. 1863.]

бери

UNLESS THE PASSION FAINT AND TIRE."-LORD HOUGHTON.

AND WHO HAS SCALED THE ETHEREAL COPE, WHERE THAT SUBLIME SUCCESSION ENDS?"-LORD HOUGHTON.

"SORROW, THEY SAY, TO ONE WITH TRUE-TOUCHED EAR, IS BUT THE DISCORD OF A WARBLING SPHERE,-(HUNT)

GOOD COMES BEST FROM MANY A TEAR. -JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT.

[JAMES HENRY LEIGH the 19th of October 1784.

Leigh Hunt.

HUNT was born at Southgate, near London, on He received his education at Christ's Hospital; and at an early age cultivated his literary bias. In 1805 his brother started a paper called The News, to which Leigh Hunt contributed the dramatic criticisms. Three years later, the two brothers commenced The Examiner, which they conducted with great ability, but with a liberalism of opinion and a freedom of satire which brought down upon them the wrath of the Government. For calling the Prince Regent "a fat Adonis of fifty," Leigh Hunt was sentenced to pay a fine of £500, and to suffer two years' imprisonment. On his release, he published “The Story of Rimini," an Italian tale, in verse, full of tender fancies and delightful passages, which at once secured its author the "poet's meed." He afterwards conducted The Indicator, The Companion, and The Seer-three periodical series of essays on men, books, and manners. In conjunction with Lord Byron he started The Liberal, an unfortunate speculation, which was little relished by the poet, and did no good to the projectors. His principal works, published during a long and, on the whole, a successful literary career, were: Captain Sword and Captain Pen," a poetical invective against war (1835); "The Legend of Florence," a poetical drama (1840); "Sir Ralph Esher," a novel (1844); "Imagination and Fancy" (1844); "Wit and Humour "(1846); "The Palfrey," a light and melodiously versified narrative poem (1842); "Men, Women, and Books" (1847); "A Jar of Honey from Mount Hybla" (1848); his "Autobiography" (1850); "The Religion of the Heart" (1853); and "The Old Court Suburb" (1855). In 1847 the Crown rewarded his labours with a pension of £200. He died at Highgate on the 28th August 1859. Despite some occasional affectation, Leigh Hunt's poems are of a high order of merit, and contain many sparkling passages, many touches of true pathos, and constant gleams of a romantic fancy.

A LURKING CONTRAST, WHICH, THOUGH HARSH IT BE, DISTILS THE NEXT NOTE MOST DELICIOUSLY."-HUNT.

*

A DAY IN SPRING.

IS morn, and never did a lovelier day
Salute Ravenna from its leafy bay ;*

For a warm eve, and gentle rains at night,
Have left a sparkling welcome for the light,

Originally printed,

"The sun is up, and 'tis a morn of May,

Round old Ravenna's clear-shown towers and bay."

"" SILENCE-A SORT OF TALK WHERE FRIENDS ARE MATCHED."-HUNT.

"THE RURAL FEELING, AND THE CHARM THAT STILLNESS HAS FOR A WORLD-FRETTED EAR."-LEIGH HUNT.

208

་་

OUR SMALL FEUDS ARE BUT IMPATIENCES (LEIGH HUNT)

LEIGH HUNT.

"FRIENDSHIP, FRANK ENTERING WITH CORDIAL HAND, AND LOVE DOMESTIC, SMILING EQUABLY."-LEIGH HUNT.

["The far ships, lifting their sails of white."]
And April, with his white hands wet with flowers,
Dazzles the bride-maids, looking from the towers:
Green vineyards and fair orchards, far and near,
Glitter with drops; and heaven is sapphire clear,
And the lark rings it, and the pine-trees glow,
And odours from the citrons come and go,
And all the landscape-earth, and sky, and sea-
Breathes like a bright-eyed face that laughs out openly.
'Tis Nature, full of spirits, waked and loved.
E'en sloth, to-day, goes quick and unreproved;
For where's the living soul, priest, minstrel, clown,
Merchant, or lord, that speeds not to the town?
Hence, happy faces, striking through the green
Of leafy roads, at every turn are seen;

AT SEEING THE DEAR TRUTH ILL UNDERSTOOD."-HUNT.