"NOW CAME THE SPRING, WHEN FREE-BORN LOVE CALLS UP NATURE IN FOREST AND GROVE, LEIGH HUNT)
TO ADMIRATION DEEP TH' AMAZEMENT TURNS,-(LEIGH HUNT)
Horne, hear a theme that should have had its dues
From thine own passionate and thoughtful muse.
HERE came a man, making his hasty moan
Before the Sultan Mahmoud on his throne,
And crying out, "My sorrow is my right;
And I will see the Sultan, and to-night."
"Sorrow," said Mahmoud, "is a reverend thing:
I recognize its right, as king with king.
Speak on." "A fiend has got into my house,"
Exclaimed the staring man, "and tortures us:
One of thine officers; he comes, the abhorred,
And takes possession of my house, my board,
My bed.
I have two daughters and a wife;
And the wild villain comes, and makes me mad
"Is he there now?" said Mahmoud.
The house when I did, of my wits bereft ;
And laughed me down the street, because I vowed
I'd bring the prince himself to lay him in his shroud.
I'm mad with want--I'm mad with misery;
And oh, thou Sultan Mahmoud, God cries out with
thee!"
The Sultan comforted the man, and said,
"Go home; and I will send thee wine and bread"
(For he was poor), "and other comforts.
And should the wretch return, let Sultan Mahmoud
know."
* The author of "Orion," and other poems.
THE DUMBNESS TO DISCOURSE, WHICH DEEPLY BURNS."-HUNT.
AND MAKES EACH THING LEAP FORTH, AND BE LOVING, AND LOVELY, AND BLITHE AS HE."-LEIGH HUNT.
"CUSTOM HAD MADE HIM NOT CARE FOR WEALTH,
LET ME BUT FEEL ME BUCKLED FOR THE RIGHT,-(HUNT)
In three days' time, with haggard eyes and beard,
And shaken voice, the suitor re-appeared,
And said, "He's come." Mahmoud said not a word,
But rose and took four slaves, each with a sword,
And went with the vexed man. They reach the place,
And hear a voice, and see a woman's face,
That to the window fluttered in affright.
"Go in," said Mahmoud, "and put out the light;
But tell the females first to leave the room:
And when the drunkard follows them, we come."
The man went in. There was a cry; and hark!
A table falls; the window is struck dark;
Forth rush the breathless women; and behind,
With curses, comes the fiend in desperate mind.
In vain the sabres soon cut short the strife,
And chop the shrieking wretch, and drink his bloody
life.
"Now light the light," the Sultan cried aloud.
'Twas done he took it in his hand, and bowed
Over the corpse, and looked upon the face;
Then turned, and knelt, and to the throne of grace
Put up a prayer, and from his lips there crept
Some gentle words of pleasure, and he wept.
In reverent silence the beholders wait,
Then bring him, at his call, both wine and meat;
And when he had refreshed his noble heart,
He bade his host be blessed, and rose up to depart.
The man amazed, all mildness now,
Fell at the Sultan's feet, with many prayers,
And begged him to vouchsafe to tell his slave
The reason, first, of that command he gave
AND COME A WORLD IN ARMS, I'M STILL A KNIGHT."-HUNT.
HE HAD YOUTH, AND STRENGTH, AND HEALTH, AND ENOUGH FOR ONE BESIDE."-HUNT.
TRUTH MAKES TRUE LOVE DOUBLY SWEET TO KNOW.
About the light; then, when he saw the face,
Why he knelt down; and, lastly, how it was
That fare so poor as his detained him in the place.
The Sultan said, with a benignant eye,—
"Since first I saw thee come, and heard thy cry,
I could not rid me of the dread, that one
By whom such daring villanies were done
Must be some lord of mine-ay, e'en, perhaps, a son.
Whoe'er he was, I knew my task; but feared
A father's heart, in case the worst appeared.
For this I had the light put out; but when
I saw the face, and found a stranger slain,
I knelt, and thanked the sovereign Arbiter,
Whose work I had performed through pain and fear;
And then I rose, and was refreshed with food,
The first time since thy voice had marred my solitude."
[From Leigh Hunt's "Miscellaneous Poems."]
"LESSONS RATHER, AND BROTHERLY PLEA; REVERENCE THE PAST, O BROTHERS, QUOTH HE;
REVERENCE THE STRUGGLE AND MYSTERY, AND FACES HUMAN, IN THEIR PAIN."-HUNT.
THE WARRIORS OF CAPTAIN PEN.
NDESTRUCTIBLE souls among men
Were the souls of the line of Captain Pen ;
Sages, patriots, martyrs mild,
Going to the stake, as child
Goeth with his prayer to bed;
Dungeon-beams from quenchless head;
Poets, making earth aware
Of its wealth in good and fair;
And the benders to their intent,
Of metal and of element;
Of fame the enlightener, beauteous;
And steam, that bursteth his iron house;
ALL' POTENT IS A CUSTOM EARLY TAUGHT."-LEIGH HUNT.
"GOOD IS AS HUNDREDS, EVIL AS ONE; ROUND ABOUT GOETH THE GOLDEN SUN!"-JAMES H. LEIGH HUNT.
TRUTH IS FOR EVER TRUTH, AND LOVE IS LOVE;-HUNT)
ON A LOCK OF MILTON'S HAIR.
And adamantine giants blind,
That, without master, have no mind.
Heir to these, and all their store,
Was Pen, the power unknown of yore;
And as their might still created might,
And each worked for him day and night,
In wealth and wondrous means he grew,
Fit to move the earth anew;
Till his fame began to speak.
Pause, as when the thunders wake,
Muttering, in the beds of heaven:
Then, to set the globe more even,
Water he called, and Fire, and Haste,
Which hath left old Time displaced;
And Iron, mightiest now for Pen,
Each of his steps like an army of men;
(Sword little knew what was leaving him then!)
And out of the witchcraft of their skill,
A creature he called to wait on his will-
Half iron, half vapour, a dread to behold—
Which evermore panted and evermore rolled,
And uttered his words a million fold.
Forth sprang they in air, down raining like dew,
And men fed upon them, and mighty they grew.
[From the poem of "Captain Pen and Captain Sword."]
ON A LOCK OF MILTON'S HAIR.
IT lies before me there, and my own breath
Stirs its thin outer threads, as though beside
The living head I stood in honoured pride,
Talking of lovely things that conquer death.
THE BIRD OF VENUS IS THE LIVING DOVE."-LEIGH HUNT.
"ALAS! TO PLEAD LOVE TO LOVING EYES, AND TO BEG FOR ITS LEAVE OF THE WORLDLY WISE."-HUNT.
OH, LITTLENESS GIVES HALF THEIR WORTH TO THE RAREST THINGS ON EARTH:
"4 THE LARK DWELLS LOWLY, 'READER,' ON THE GROUND;
Perhaps he pressed it once, or underneath
Ran his fine fingers, when he leant, blank-eyed,
And saw, in fancy, Adam and his bride
With their rich locks, or his own Delphic wreath.
There seems a love in hair, though it be dead.
It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread
Of our frail plant, -a blossom from the tree
PEARLS ARE OCEAN'S PRETTIEST BIRTH.
BUT THE BIG ARE ROCKS."-LEIGH HUNT.
TO THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET.
REEN little vaulter in the sunny grass,
Catching your heart up at the feel of June,
Sole voice that's heard amid the lazy noon,
When even the bees lag at the summoning brass ;†
And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
With those who think the candles come too soon,
Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune
Nick the glad silent moments as they pass;
* "When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead:
That is the grasshopper's."
This alludes to the swarming of bees, when, under the leadership of a
new queen, a part of the old hive set forth to found a new colony. For-
merly, the bees were supposed to be assisted in this task by the clanging of
cymbals or vessels of brass. To this custom Virgil refers in the Georgics.
book iv., 64-66:-
"Tinnitusque cie, et Matris quate cymbala circum.
..ipsae
Intima more suo sese in cunabula undent.'
AND YET HIS SONG WITHIN THE HEAVENS IS FOUND.
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