VOTIVE TABLETS
What the God taught me—what, through life, my friend
And aid hath been,
With pious hand, and grateful, I suspend
The temple walls within.
THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
Foster the Good, and thou shalt tend the Flower
Already sown on earth;—
Foster the Beautiful, and every hour
Thou call'st new flowers to birth!
TO ——
Give me that which thou know'st—I'll receive and attend;—
But thou giv'st me thyself—pri'thee spare me, my friend.
GENIUS
That which hath been can INTELLECT declare,
What Nature built—it imitates or gilds—
And REASON builds o'er Nature—but in air—
Genius alone in Nature—Nature builds.
CORRECTNESS—(Free translation.)
The calm correctness where no fault we see
Attests Art's loftiest—or its least degree;
Alike the smoothness of the surface shows
The Pool's dull stagnor—the great Sea's repose!
THE IMITATOR
Good out of good—that art is known to all—
But Genius from the bad the good can call—
Thou, mimic, not from leading strings escaped,
Work'st but the matter that's already shaped!
The already shaped a nobler hand awaits—
All matter asks a spirit that creates.
THE MASTER
The herd of Scribes by what they tell us
Show all in which their wits excel us;
But the true Master we behold
In what his art leaves—just untold!
TO THE MYSTIC
That is the real mystery which around
All life, is found;—
Which still before all eyes for aye has been,
Nor eye hath seen!
ASTRONOMICAL WORKS
All measureless, all infinite in awe,
Heaven to great souls is given—
And yet the sprite of littleness can draw
Down to its inch—the Heaven!
THE DIVISION OF RANKS
Yes, there's a patent of nobility
Above the meanness of our common state;
With what they do the vulgar natures buy
Its titles—and with what they are, the great!
THEOPHANY
When draw the Prosperous near me, I forget
The gods of heaven; but where
Sorrow and suffering in my sight are set,
The gods, I feel, are there!
THE CHIEF END OF MAN
What the chief end of Man?—Behold yon tree,
And let it teach thee, Friend!
Will what that will-less yearns for;—and for thee
Is compass'd Man's chief end!
ULYSSES
To gain his home all oceans he explored—
Here Scylla frown'd—and there Charybdis roar'd;
Horror on sea—and horror on the land—
In hell's dark boat he sought the spectre land,
Till borne—a slumberer—to his native spot
He woke—and sorrowing, knew his country not!
JOVE TO HERCULES
'Twas not my nectar made thy strength divine,
But 'twas thy strength which made my nectar thine!
THE SOWER
See, full of hope, thou trustest to the earth
The golden seed, and waitest till the spring
Summons the buried to a happier birth;
But in Time's furrow duly scattering,
Think'st thou, how deeds by wisdom sown may be,
Silently ripen'd for Eternity?
THE MERCHANT
Where sails the ship?—It leads the Tyrian forth
For the rich amber of the liberal North.
Be kind ye seas—winds lend your gentlest wing,
May in each creek, sweet wells restoring spring!—
To you, ye gods, belong the Merchant!—o'er
The waves, his sails the wide world's goods explore;
And, all the while, wherever waft the gales,
The