The Works of Alexander Pope Part 66

[Footnote 18: Pope to Caryll, May 1, 1714.]

[Footnote 19: Essay on the Genius of Pope, 5th ed. vol. i. p. 29.]

[Footnote 20: Spectator, No. 523.]

[Footnote 21: Pope to Caryll, Nov. 29, 1712.]

[Footnote 22: Spectator, No. 523, Oct. 30, 1712.]

[Footnote 23: Wordsworth's Works, ed. 1836, vol. iii. p. 316.]

[Footnote 24: Epilogue to the Satires; Dialog. 2, ver. 182.]

[Footnote 25: Essay on Criticism, ver. 418.]

[Footnote 26: Pope to Lord Lansdowne, Jan. 10, 1712 [13].]

[Footnote 27: Imitations of Horace, bk. ii. ep. 1, ver. 75.]

[Footnote 28: Oldham's Elegies.]

[Footnote 29: Imitations of Horace, bk. ii. ep. 1, ver. 213.]

[Footnote 30: A Version of the Psalms: Preface.]

[Footnote 31: Evelyn's Diary, vol. ii. p. 27; Pepys's Diary, 4th ed., vol. iii. p. 219.]

[Footnote 32: Account of the Life of Cowley, prefixed to his works, ed.

1688]

[Footnote 33: Wordsworth's Works, vol. iii. p. 333.]

[Footnote 34: Prior's Preface to Solomon.]

[Footnote 35: Lives of the Poets, vol. i. p. 77.]

[Footnote 36: Dryden maintains, in his Dedication to the aeneis, that the triplet, conjoined with the Alexandrine, is "the _magna charta_ of heroic poetry." "Besides," he says, "the majesty which it gives, it confines the sense within the barriers of three lines, which would languish if it were lengthened into four." Johnson, while granting that the variety arising from triplets was desirable, wished that there should "be some stated mode of admitting them," in order to prevent their coming upon the reader by surprise, and to keep up the constancy of metrical laws. Such a rule would introduce a new species of monotony, and do away with the benefit which princ.i.p.ally recommended triplets to Dryden. Ideas which were not enough for four lines, and over-much for two, would not recur at stages fixed beforehand. Swift thought triplets and Alexandrines "a corruption," and boasted that he had "banished them"

by a triplet in his City Shower. "I absolutely," he adds, "did prevail with Mr. Pope, and Gay, and Dr. Young, and one or two more to reject them. Mr. Pope never used them till he translated Homer, which was too long a work to be so very exact in; and I think in one or two of his last poems he has, out of laziness, done the same thing, though very seldom." Swift was mistaken in his a.s.sertion that Pope never used triplets till he translated the Iliad. They occur in the Essay on Criticism, the Temple of Fame, and other pieces, and not only did these works appear before the Homer, but they appeared after the triplet in the City Shower, which Swift flattered himself had banished all triplets from poetry. Nor had he any need to persuade Young and Gay to reject them if they had been exploded by his triplet of 1710, for it was two or three years later before either Young or Gray printed their first rhymes. They contained, however, triplets in spite of his City Shower, which had none of the effect he imagined. It merely proved, what no one doubted, that a metre proper to serious subjects was ludicrous in a burlesque. Swift's dislike to triplets and Alexandrines was a prejudice, and he did not pretend to offer any reason for his decree.]

WINDSOR FOREST.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

GEORGE LORD LANSDOWN.[1]

Thy forest, Windsor! and thy green retreats, At once the monarch's and the muse's seats,[2]

Invite my lays. Be present, sylvan maids!

Unlock your springs, and open all your shades.[3]

Granville commands; your aid, O muses, bring! 5 What muse for Granville can refuse to sing?[4]

The groves of Eden, vanished now so long, Live in description,[5] and look green in song: These, were my breast inspired with equal flame,[6]

Like them in beauty, should be like in fame.[7] 10 Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain, Here earth and water, seem to strive again; Not chaos-like together crushed and bruised, But, as the world, harmoniously confused:[8]

Where order in variety we see, 15 And where, though all things differ, all agree.[9]

Here waving groves a chequered scene display, And part admit, and part exclude the day; As some coy nymph her lover's warm address Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress.[10] 20 There, interspersed in lawns and opening glades, Thin trees arise that shun each other's shades.

Here in full light the russet plains extend: There wrapt in clouds the blueish hills ascend.

Ev'n the wild heath displays her purple dyes,[11] 25 And 'midst the desert fruitful fields arise, That crowned with tufted trees[12] and springing corn, Like verdant isles the sable waste adorn.

Let India boast her plants, nor envy we The weeping amber, or the balmy tree,[13] 30 While by our oaks the precious loads are borne, And realms commanded which those trees adorn.

Not proud Olympus yields a n.o.bler sight, Though G.o.ds a.s.sembled grace his tow'ring height,[14]

Than what more humble mountains offer here, 35 Where, in their blessings, all those G.o.ds appear.[15]

See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crowned,[16]

Here blus.h.i.+ng Flora paints th' enamelled ground, Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand, And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand; 40 Rich Industry sits smiling on the plains, And peace and plenty tell, a STUART reigns.

Not thus the land appeared in ages past, A dreary desert and a gloomy waste,[17]

To savage beasts and savage laws a prey,[18] 45 And kings more furious and severe than they;[19]

Who claimed the skies, dispeopled air and floods, The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods:[20]

Cities laid waste, they stormed the dens and caves, (For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.)[21] 50 What could be free, when lawless beasts obeyed,[22]

And ev'n the elements[23] a tyrant swayed?

In vain kind seasons swelled the teeming grain, Soft show'rs distilled, and suns grew warm in vain; The swain with tears his frustrate labour yields,[24] 55 And famished dies amidst his ripened fields.[25]

What wonder then, a beast or subject slain[26]

Were equal crimes in a despotic reign?

Both doomed alike, for sportive tyrants bled, But while the subject starved, the beast was fed. 60 Proud Nimrod first the b.l.o.o.d.y chace began, A mighty hunter, and his prey was man: Our haughty Norman boasts that barb'rous name, And makes his trembling slaves the royal game.

The fields are ravished from th' industrious swains, 65 From men their cities, and from G.o.ds their fanes:[27]

The levelled towns[28] with weeds lie covered o'er;[29]

The hollow winds through naked temples roar;[30]

Round broken columns clasping ivy twined; O'er heaps of ruin stalked the stately hind;[31] 70 The fox obscene to gaping tombs retires, And savage howlings[32] fill the sacred choirs.[33]

Awed by his n.o.bles, by his commons curst, Th' oppressor ruled tyrannic where he durst,[34]

Stretched o'er the poor and church his iron rod, 75 And served alike his va.s.sals and his G.o.d.[35]

Whom ev'n the Saxon spared, and b.l.o.o.d.y Dane, The wanton victims of his sport remain.

But see, the man, who s.p.a.cious regions gave A waste for beasts, himself denied a grave![36] 80 Stretched on the lawn[37] his second hope survey,[38]

At once the chaser, and at once the prey:[39]

Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart, Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart.[40]

Succeeding monarchs heard the subject's cries, 85 Nor saw displeased the peaceful cottage rise.[41]

Then gath'ring flocks on unknown[42] mountains fed, O'er sandy wilds were yellow harvests spread, The forest wondered at th' unusual grain,[43]

And secret transport touched the conscious swain.[44] 90 Fair Liberty, Britannia's G.o.ddess, rears Her cheerful head, and leads the golden years.[45]

Ye vig'rous swains! while youth ferments your blood, And purer spirits swell the sprightly flood,[46] 95 Now range the hills, the gameful[47] woods beset, Wind the shrill horn, or spread the waving net.

When milder autumn summer's heat succeeds,[48]

And in the new-shorn field the partridge feeds, Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds, Panting with hope, he tries the furrowed grounds; 100 But when the tainted gales the game betray, Couched close he lies, and meditates the prey;[49]

Secure they trust th' unfaithful field beset, Till hov'ring o'er them sweeps the swelling net.

Thus (if small things we may with great compare)[50] 105 When Albion sends her eager sons to war, Some thoughtless town, with ease and plenty blest,[51]

Near, and more near, the closing lines invest; Sudden they seize th' amazed, defenceless prize, And high in air Britannia's standard flies. 110 See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings:[52]

Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.

Ah! what avail his glossy, varying dyes,[53] 115 His purple crest, and scarlet-circled eyes, The vivid green his s.h.i.+ning plumes unfold, His painted wings,[54] and breast that flames with gold?

Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky, The woods and fields their pleasing toils deny.[55] 120 To plains with well-breathed beagles we repair, And trace the mazes of the circling hare: Beasts, urged by us, their fellow-beasts pursue, And learn of man each other to undo.[56]

With slaught'ring guns th' unwearied fowler roves, 125 When frosts have whitened all the naked groves;[57]

Where doves in flocks the leafless trees o'ershade,[58]

And lonely woodc.o.c.ks haunt the wat'ry glade.

He lifts the tube, and levels with his eye;[59]