The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch Part 102

His n.o.ble soul was all alive to fame, Yet holy friends.h.i.+p mix'd her softer claim, Which in his bosom fix'd her lasting throne, With Charity, that makes the wants of all her own.

BOYD.

PART III.

_Io non sapea da tal vista levarme._

Still on the warrior band I fix'd my view, But now a different troop my notice drew: The sage Palladian tribe, a n.o.bler train, Whose toils deserve a more exalted strain.

Plato majestic in the front appear'd, Where wisdom's sacred hand her ensign rear'd.

Celestial blazonry! by heaven bestow'd, Which, waving high, before the vaward glow'd: Then came the Stagyrite, whose mental ray Pierced through all nature like the shafts of day; And he that, by the unambitious name, Lover of wisdom, chose to bound his fame.

Then Socrates and Xenophon were seen; With them a bard of more than earthly mien, Whom every muse of Jove's immortal choir Bless'd with a portion of celestial fire: From ancient Argos to the Phrygian bound His never-dying strains were borne around On inspiration's wing, and hill and dale Echoed the notes of Ilion's mournful tale.

The woes of Thetis, and Ulysses' toils, His mighty mind recover'd from the spoils Of envious time, and placed in lasting light The trophies ransom'd from oblivion's night The Mantuan bard, responsive to his song, Co-rival of his glory, walk'd along.

The next with new surprise my notice drew, Where'er he pa.s.s'd spontaneous flowerets grew, Fit emblems of his style; and close behind The great Athenian at his lot repined; Which doom'd him, like a secondary star, To yield precedence in the wordy war; Though like the bolts of Jove that shake the spheres, He lighten'd in their eyes, and thunder'd in their ears.

The a.s.sembly felt the shock, the immortal sound, His Attic rival's fainter accents drown'd.

But now so many candidates for fame In countless crowds and gay confusion came, That Memory seem'd her province to resign, Perplex'd and lost amid the lengthen'd line.

Yet Solon there I spied, for laws renown'd, Salubrious plants in clean and cultured ground; But noxious, if malignant hands infuse In their trans.m.u.ted stems a baneful juice Amongst the Romans, Varro next I spied, The light of linguists, and our country's pride; Still nearer as he moved, the eye could trace A new attraction and a nameless grace.

Livy I saw, with dark invidious frown Listening with pain to Sall.u.s.t's loud renown; And Pliny there, profuse of life I found, Whom love of knowledge to the burning bound Led unawares; and there Plotinus' shade, Who dark Platonic truths in fuller light display'd: He, flying far to 'scape the coming pest, Was, when he seem'd secure, by death oppressed; That, fix'd by fate, before he saw the sun, The careful sophist strove in vain to shun.

Hortensius, Cra.s.sus, Galba, next appear'd, Calvus and Antony, by Rome revered, The first with Pollio join'd, whose tongue profane a.s.sail'd the fame of Cicero in vain.

Thucydides, who mark'd distinct and clear The tardy round of many a b.l.o.o.d.y year, And, with a master's graphic skill, pourtray'd The fields, "whose summer dust with blood was laid;"

And near Herodotus his ninefold roll display'd, Father of history; and Euclid's vest The heaven-taught symbols of that art express'd That measures matter, form, and empty s.p.a.ce, And calculates the planets' heavenly race; And Porphyry, whose proud obdurate heart Was proof to mighty Truth's celestial dart; With sophistry a.s.sail'd the cause of G.o.d, And stood in arms against the heavenly code.

Hippocrates, for healing arts renown'd, And half obscured within the dark profound; The pair, whom ignorance in ancient days Adorn'd like deities, with borrow'd rays.

Galen was near, of Pergamus the boast, Whose skill retrieved the art so nearly lost.

Then Anaxarchus came, who conquer'd pain; And he, whom pleasures strove to lure in vain From duty's path. And first in mournful mood The mighty soul of Archimedes stood; And sage Democritus I there beheld, Whose daring hand the light of vision quell'd, To shun the soul-seducing forms, that play On the rapt fancy in the beam of day: The gifts of fortune, too, he flung aside, By wisdom's wealth, a n.o.bler store, supplied.

There Hippias, too, I saw, who dared to claim For general science an unequall'd name.

And him, whose doubtful mind and roving eye No certainty in truth itself could spy; With him who in a deep mysterious guise Her heavenly charms conceal'd from vulgar eyes.

The frontless cynic next in rank I saw, Sworn foe to decency and nature's modest law.

With him the sage, that mark'd, with dark disdain, His wealth consumed by rapine's lawless train; And glad that nothing now remain'd behind, To foster envy in a rival's mind, That treasure bought, which nothing can destroy, "The soul's calm suns.h.i.+ne, and the heart-felt joy."

Then curious Dicaearchus met my view, Who studied nature with sagacious view.

Quintilian next, and Seneca were seen, And Chaeronea's sage, of placid mien; All various in their taste and studious toils, But each adorn'd with Learning's splendid spoils.

There, too, I saw, in universal jar, The tribes that spend their time in wordy war; And o'er the vast interminable deep Of knowledge, like conflicting tempests, sweep.

For truth they never toil, but feed their pride With fuel by eternal strife supplied: No dragon of the wild with equal rage, Nor lions in nocturnal war, engage With hate so deadly, as the learn'd and wise, Who scan their own desert with partial eyes.

Carneades, renown'd for logic skill, Who right or wrong, and true and false, at will Could turn and change, employ'd his fruitless pain To reconcile the fierce, contending train: But, ever as he toil'd, the raging pest Of pride, as knowledge grew, with equal speed increased.

Then Epicurus, of sinister fame, Rebellious to the lord of nature, came; Who studied to deprive the soaring soul Of her bright world of hope beyond the pole; A mole-ey'd race their hapless guide pursued, And blindly still the vain a.s.sault renew'd.

Dark Metrodorus next sustain'd the cause, With Aristippus, true to Pleasure's laws.

Chrysippus next his subtle web disposed: Zeno alternate spread his hand, and closed; To show how eloquence expands the soul, And logic boasts a close and nervous whole.

And there Cleanthes drew the mighty line That led his pupils on, with heart divine, Through time's fallacious joys, by Virtue's road, To the bright palace of the sovereign good.-- But here the weary Muse forsakes the throng, Too numerous for the bounds of mortal song.

BOYD.

THE TRIUMPH OF TIME.

_Dell' aureo albergo con l' Aurora innanzi._

Behind Aurora's wheels the rising sun His voyage from his golden shrine begun, With such ethereal speed, as if the Hours Had caught him slumb'ring in her rosy bowers.

With lordly eye, that reach'd the world's extreme, Methought he look'd, when, gliding on his beam, That winged power approach'd that wheels his car In its wide annual range from star to star, Measuring vicissitude; till, now more near, Methought these thrilling accents met my ear:-- "New laws must be observed if mortals claim, Spite of the lapse of time, eternal fame.

Those laws have lost their force that Heaven decreed, And I my circle run with fruitless speed; If fame's loud breath the slumb'ring dust inspire, And bid to live with never-dying fire, My power, that measures mortal things, is cross'd, And my long glories in oblivion lost.

If mortals on yon planet's shadowy face, Can match the tenor of my heavenly race, I strive with fruitless speed from year to year To keep precedence o'er a lower sphere.

In vain yon flaming coursers I prepare, In vain the watery world and ambient air Their vigour feeds, if thus, with angels' flight A mortal can o'ertake the race of light!

Were you a lesser planet, doom'd to run A shorter journey round a n.o.bler sun; Ranging among yon dusky orbs below, A more degrading doom I could not know: Now spread your swiftest wings, my steeds of flame, We must not yield to man's ambitious aim.

With emulation's n.o.blest fires I glow, And soon that reptile race that boast below Bright Fame's conducting lamp, that seems to vie With my incessant journeys round the sky, And gains, or seems to gain, increasing light, Yet shall its glories sink in gradual night.

But I am still the same; my course began Before that dusky orb, the seat of man, Was built in ambient air: with constant sway I lead the grateful change of night and day, To one ethereal track for ever bound, And ever treading one eternal round."-- And now, methought, with more than mortal ire, He seem'd to lash along his steeds of fire; And shot along the air with glancing ray, Swift as a falcon darting on its prey; No planet's swift career could match his speed, That seem'd the power of fancy to exceed.

The courier of the sky I mark'd with dread, As by degrees the baseless fabric fled That human power had built, while high disdain I felt within to see the toiling train Striving to seize each transitory thing That fleets away on dissolution's wing; And soonest from the firmest grasp recede, Like airy forms, with tantalizing speed.

O mortals! ere the vital powers decay, Or palsied eld obscures the mental ray, Raise your affections to the things above, Which time or fickle chance can never move.

Had you but seen what I despair to sing, How fast his courser plied the flaming wing With unremitted speed, the soaring mind Had left his low terrestrial cares behind.

But what an awful change of earth and sky All in a moment pa.s.s'd before my eye!

Now rigid winter stretch'd her brumal reign With frown Gorgonean over land and main; And Flora now her gaudy mantle spread, And many a blus.h.i.+ng rose adorn'd her bed: The momentary seasons seem'd to fleet From bright solst.i.tial dews to winter's driving sleet.

In circle multiform, and swift career: A wondrous tale, untold to mortal ear Before: yet reason's calm unbia.s.s'd view Must soon p.r.o.nounce the seeming fable true, When deep remorse for many a wasted spring Still haunts the frighted soul on demon wing.

Fond hope allured me on with meteor flight, And Love my fancy fed with vain delight, Chasing through fairy fields her pageants gay.

But now, at last, a clear and steady ray, From reason's mirror sent, my folly shows, And on my sight the hideous image throws Of what I am--a mind eclipsed and lost, By vice degraded from its n.o.ble post But yet, e'en yet, the mind's elastic spring Buoys up my powers on resolution's wing, While on the flight of time, with rueful gaze Intent, I try to thread the backward maze, And husband what remains, a scanty s.p.a.ce.

Few fleeting hours, alas! have pa.s.s'd away, Since a weak infant in the lap I lay; For what is human life but one uncertain day!

Now hid by flying vapours, dark and cold, And brighten'd now with gleams of sunny gold, That mock the gazer's eye with gaudy show, And leave the victim to substantial woe: Yet hope can live beneath the stormy sky, And empty pleasures have their pinions ply; And frantic pride exalts the lofty brow, Nor marks the snares of death that lurk below.

Uncertain, whether now the shaft of fate Sings on the wind, or heaven prolongs my date.

I see my hours run on with cruel speed, And in my doom the fate of all I read; A certain doom, which nature's self must feel When the dread sentence checks the mundane wheel.

Go! court the smiles of Hope, ye thoughtless crew!

Her fairy scenes disclose an ample view To brainless men. But Wisdom o'er the field Casts her keen glance, and lifts her beamy s.h.i.+eld To meet the point of Fate, that flies afar, And with stern vigilance expects the war.

Perhaps in vain my admonitions fall, Yet still the Muse repeats the solemn call; Nor can she see unmoved your senses drown'd By Circe's deadly spells in sleep profound.

She cannot see the flying seasons roll In dread succession to the final goal, And sweep the tribes of men so fast away, To Stygian darkness or eternal day, With unconcern.--Oh! yet the doom repeal Before your callous hearts forget to feel; E'er Penitence foregoes her fruitless toil, Or h.e.l.l's black regent claims his human spoil Oh, haste! before the fatal arrows fly That send you headlong to the nether sky When down the gulf the sons of folly go In sad procession to the seat of woe!

Thus deeply musing on the rapid round Of planetary speed, in thought profound I stood, and long bewail'd my wasted hours, My vain afflictions, and my squander'd powers: When, in deliberate march, a train was seen In silent order moving o'er the green; A band that seem'd to hold in high disdain The desolating power of Time's resistless reign: Their names were hallow'd in the Muse's song, Wafted by fame from age to age along, High o'er oblivion's deep, devouring wave, Where millions find an unrefunding grave.

With envious glance the changeful power beheld The glorious phalanx which his power repell'd, And faster now the fiery chariot flew, While Fame appear'd the rapid flight to rue, And labour'd some to save. But, close behind, I heard a voice, which, like the western wind, That whispers softly through the summer shade, These solemn accents to mine ear convey'd:-- "Man is a falling flower; and Fame in vain Strives to protract his momentaneous reign Beyond his bounds, to match the rolling tide, On whose dread waves the long olympiads ride, Till, fed by time, the deep procession grows, And in long centuries continuous flows; For what the power of ages can oppose?

Though Tempe's rolling flood, or Hebrus claim Renown, they soon shall live an empty name.

Where are their heroes now, and those who led The files of war by Xanthus' gory bed?

Or Tuscan Tyber's more ill.u.s.trious band, Whose conquering eagles flew o'er sea and land?

What is renown?--a gleam of transient light, That soon an envious cloud involves in night, While pa.s.sing Time's malignant hands diffuse On many a n.o.ble name pernicious dews.

Thus our terrestrial glories fade away, Our triumphs pa.s.s the pageants of a day; Our fields exchange their lords, our kingdoms fall, And thrones are wrapt in Hades' funeral pall Yet virtue seldom gains what vice had lost, And oft the hopes of good desert are cross'd.

Not wealth alone, but mental stores decay, And, like the gifts of Mammon, pa.s.s away; Nor wisdom, wealth, nor fortune can withstand His desolating march by sea and land; Nor prayers, nor regal power his wheels restrain, Till he has ground us down to dust again.

Though various are the t.i.tles men can plead, Some for a time enjoy the glorious meed That merit claims; yet unrelenting fate On all the doom p.r.o.nounces soon or late; And whatsoe'er the vulgar think or say, Were not your lives thus shorten'd to a day, Your eyes would see the consummating power His countless millions at a meal devour."

And reason's voice my stubborn mind subdued; Conviction soon the solemn words pursued; I saw all mortal glory pa.s.s away, Like vernal snows beneath the rising ray; And wealth, and power, and honour, strive in vain To 'scape the laws of Time's despotic reign.

Though still to vulgar eyes they seem to claim A lot conspicuous in the lists of Fame, Transient as human joys; to feeble age They love to linger on this earthly stage, And think it cruel to be call'd away On the faint morn of life's disastrous day.

Yet ah! how many infants on the breast By Heaven's indulgence sink to endless rest!

And oft decrepid age his lot bewails, Whom every ill of lengthen'd life a.s.sails.

Hence sick despondence thinks the human lot A gift of fleeting breath too dearly bought: But should the voice of Fame's obstreperous blast From ages on to future ages last, E'en to the trump of doom,--how poor the prize Whose worth depends upon the changing skies!

What time bestows and claims (the fleeting breath Of Fame) is but, at best, a second death-- A death that none of mortal race can shun, That wastes the brood of time, and triumphs o'er the sun.

BOYD.

THE TRIUMPH OF ETERNITY.

_Da poi che sotto 'l ciel cosa non vidi._