The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside Part 19

5 Yet think betimes, ye gentle train Whom love, and hope, and fancy sway, Who every harsher care disdain, Who by the morning judge the day, Think that, in April's fairest hours, To warbling shades and painted flowers The cuckoo joins his lay.

ODE IV.

TO THE HONOURABLE CHARLES TOWNSHEND; IN THE COUNTRY. 1750.

I.--1.

How oft shall I survey This humble roof, the lawn, the greenwood shade, The vale with sheaves o'erspread, The gla.s.sy brook, the flocks which round thee stray?

When will thy cheerful mind Of these have utter'd all her dear esteem?

Or, tell me, dost thou deem No more to join in glory's toilsome race, But here content embrace That happy leisure which thou hadst resign'd?

I.--2.

Alas, ye happy hours, When books and youthful sport the soul could share, Ere one ambitious care Of civil life had awed her simpler powers; Oft as your winged, train Revisit here my friend in white array, Oh, fail not to display Each fairer scene where I perchance had part, That so his generous heart The abode of even friends.h.i.+p may remain.

I.--3.

For not imprudent of my loss to come, I saw from Contemplation's quiet cell His feet ascending to another home, Where public praise and envied greatness dwell.

But shall we therefore, O my lyre, Reprove ambition's best desire,-- Extinguish glory's flame?

Far other was the task enjoin'd When to my hand thy strings were first a.s.sign'd: Far other faith belongs to friends.h.i.+p's honour'd name.

II.--1.

Thee, Townshend, not the arms Of slumbering Ease, nor Pleasure's rosy chain, Were destined to detain; No, nor bright Science, nor the Muse's charms.

For them high heaven prepares Their proper votaries, an humbler band: And ne'er would Spenser's hand Have deign'd to strike the warbling Tuscan sh.e.l.l, Nor Harrington to tell What habit an immortal city wears;

II.--2.

Had this been born to s.h.i.+eld The cause which Cromwell's impious hand betray'd, Or that, like Vere, display'd His redcross banner o'er the Belgian field; Yet where the will divine Hath shut those loftiest paths, it next remains, With reason clad in strains Of harmony, selected minds to inspire, And virtue's living fire To feed and eternise in hearts like thine.

II.--3.

For never shall the herd, whom envy sways, So quell my purpose or my tongue control, That I should fear ill.u.s.trious worth to praise, Because its master's friends.h.i.+p moved my soul.

Yet, if this undissembling strain Should now perhaps thine ear detain With any pleasing sound, Remember thou that righteous Fame From h.o.a.ry age a strict account will claim Of each auspicious palm with which thy youth was crown'd.

III.--1.

Nor obvious is the way Where heaven expects thee nor the traveller leads; Through flowers or fragrant meads, Or groves that hark to Philomela's lay.

The impartial laws of fate To n.o.bler virtues wed severer cares.

Is there a man who shares The summit next where heavenly natures dwell?

Ask him (for he can tell) What storms beat round that rough laborious height.

III.--2.

Ye heroes, who of old Did generous England Freedom's throne ordain; From Alfred's parent reign To Na.s.sau, great deliverer, wise and bold; I know your perils hard, Your wounds, your painful marches, wintry seas, The night estranged from ease, The day by cowardice and falsehood vex'd, The head with doubt perplex'd, The indignant heart disdaining the reward,

III.--3.

Which envy hardly grants. But, O renown, O praise from judging heaven and virtuous men, If thus they purchased thy divinest crown, Say, who shall hesitate, or who complain?

And now they sit on thrones above: And when among the G.o.ds they move Before the Sovereign Mind, 'Lo, these,' he saith, 'lo, these are they Who to the laws of mine eternal sway From violence and fear a.s.serted human kind.'

IV.--1.

Thus honour'd while the train Of legislators in his presence dwell; If I may aught foretell, The statesman shall the second palm obtain.

For dreadful deeds of arms Let vulgar bards, with undiscerning praise, More glittering trophies raise: But wisest Heaven what deeds may chiefly move To favour and to love?

What, save wide blessings, or averted harms?

IV.--2.

Nor to the embattled field Shall these achievements of the peaceful gown, The green immortal crown Of valour, or the songs of conquest, yield.

Not Fairfax wildly bold, While bare of crest he hew'd his fatal way Through Naseby's firm array, To heavier dangers did his breast oppose Than Pym's free virtue chose, When the proud force of Strafford he controll'd.

IV.--3.

But what is man at enmity with truth?

What were the fruits of Wentworth's copious mind, When (blighted all the promise of his youth) The patriot in a tyrant's league had join'd?

Let Ireland's loud-lamenting plains, Let Tyne's and Humber's trampled swains, Let menaced London tell How impious guile made wisdom base; How generous zeal to cruel rage gave place; And how unbless'd he lived and how dishonour'd fell.

V.--1.

Thence never hath the Muse Around his tomb Pierian roses flung: Nor shall one poet's tongue His name for music's pleasing labour choose.

And sure, when Nature kind Hath deck'd some favour'd breast above the throng, That man with grievous wrong Affronts and wounds his genius, if he bends To guilt's ign.o.ble ends The functions of his ill-submitting mind.

V.--2.

For worthy of the wise Nothing can seem but virtue; nor earth yield Their fame an equal field, Save where impartial freedom gives the prize.

There Somers fix'd his name, Enroll'd the next to William. There shall Time To every wondering clime Point out that Somers, who from faction's crowd, The slanderous and the loud, Could fair a.s.sent and modest reverence claim.

V.--3.