ページの画像
PDF
ePub

pronounced at that day. I think you told us you could recollect when the name in this country was generally called Sension.

T.-Heroic verse, it has been said, is composed of five Iambs; or a continued succession of the unaccented and accented syllable: are there any exceptions to be found in the lines read by Master G. ?

H.-Yes, Sir, the first foot on the tenth, the first and the third foot in the thirteenth, and the first in the fifteenth line, have, on each syllable, a strong accent: and the fourth foot in the first line, and the second in the fifth are nearly similar.

T-Are any of the words contracted to form the regular foot?

H.-Yes; expatiate, in the fifth, and flowers and promiscuous, in the seventh line.

T-Point out in each line where the poet has indicated the cæsural pause.

I. In the first line, after the fifth syllable; in the 2d-the 5th; the 3d-the 2d; the 4th-the 7th; the 5th-the 4th; the 6th-the 4th; the 7th-the 2d; the 8th-the 3d; the 9th-the 6th; the 10th-the 5th; the 11th-the 4th; the 12th-the 6th; the 13th-the 4th ; the 14th-the 7th ; and the 15th and 16th, the 4th.

T-Every one of the changes noticed in these sixteen lines, adds something to heighten the pleasing effect of the whole. And all can see, that the reading which gives out the sense the best, gives the fullest gratification to the ear: and that mode which resolves the whole into "divisions of sense," as the book has taught us, serves best to secure all which sense and melody demand.

LESSON XVII.

1. THE ORDER OF NATURE.-Pope.

[ocr errors]

All are but parts of one stupendous whóle,
Whose body nàture is, and Gód the sòul;

That, changed through áll, and yet in áll the same,
Great in the earth, as in the ethèreal' fràme, |
Warms in the sún, refréshes in the breeze,
Glóws in the stárs, and blossoms in the trèes, |
Lives through all life, extends
Spreads undivided, óperates
Breathes in our soul, infórms

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

through all extént,

unspènt ;

[ocr errors]

our mortal párt, As fúll, as perfect, in a háir as hèart; As fúll, as pérfect, in vile mán that mourns, As the rapt sèraph | that adóres and bùrns. To Hím, no high, no lów, no gréat, no small; He fills, He bounds, connects, and equals ' àll. Cease, thén, nor Order Impérfection ' náme,— Our proper bliss | depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: This kind, this dúe degree Of blindness, weákness, Heaven bestows on thee. Submit ;-in this, or any other sphére, Secure to be as blést | as thou canst beár,Safe in the hand of one Disposing Power, Or in the nátal, or the mòrtal hour. All Nature | is but Art, unknown' to thee;

[ocr errors]

All Chánce, Direction, which thou canst not sée ;

d;

All Discord, Harmony | not understood
All pártial ' Evil, univèrsal Good:
And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spìte,
One truth is cléar: whatever ís, is right.

2. THE DAISY.-John Mason Good. B. 1764, d. 1828.

Not worlds on worlds | in phalanx déep,
Néed we to prove | a Gód is hére,
The daísy, fresh from Nature's sleep,
Tells of his name in lines as clear:

[ocr errors]

For who but Hê, who arched the skies,
And pours the dayspring's living flóod,
Wondrous alike in all he triés,
Could raise the daisy's purple bùd ?
Mould its green cùp, its wiry stèm,
Its fringed border nicely spìn,
And cút the gold-embossed gém,
That, set in silver, gleams within ?

And fling it, unrestrained and frèe, |
O'er hill, and dále, and désert sód,
That man whereè'er he walks may sée,
In every step, the stamp of Gòd.

3. THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL-Pope.

Vital spark of heavenly fláme,
Quit, O, quit this mortal fràme!
Trémbling, hóping, lingering, flyìng, |
O, the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife, |
And let me lánguish into life!

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Hark! they whisper; angels sáy,
Sister spírit, come away;

What is this absorbs me quite,-
Steáls my senses, shúts my sight, |
Drówns my spirits,-dráws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

The world recèdes,―ít disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes! my éars
With sounds seráphic ring.

Lènd, lénd your wings! I móunt, I fly !
O Gráve whére is thy victory?

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

4. THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB.-Lord Byron. B. 1788, d. 1824.

The Assyrian came down | like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in púrple and gòld;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the séa,
When the blue wáve rolls nightly on deep Galilée.

[ocr errors]

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is gréen, That host, with their bánners, at sunset were seèn; Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host, on the morrow, lay withered and stròwn.

[ocr errors]

For the Angel of Death | spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed déadly and

chill,

And their hearts but once heáved, and for ever
I

[ocr errors][merged small]

still!

And there lay the stèed with his nostrils all wide, But through them there rolled not the breath of his

príde ;

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the túrf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating sùrf.

And there lay the rider | distorted and pàle, |
With the dew on his brów, and the rúst on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alóne,
I
The lances unlífted, the trumpets unblown.

|

And the widows of Ashúr are loud in their wáil,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Bàal;
And the might of the Géntile, unsmóte by the sword,
Hath melted like snów | in the glance of the Lòrd!

5. CONJUGAL FELICITY.-Thomson.

I

But happy they! the happiest of their kínd!

Whom gentler stars uníte, and in one fáte

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings' blènd.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

Meántime, a smiling offspring rises róund,
And mingles both their gràces. By degrees,
The human blossom blóws; and every day,
Sóft as it rolls along, shows some new charm,
The father's lústre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant réason grows apáce, and calls '
For the kind hand of an assiduous càre.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,

[ocr errors]

To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enlivening spírit, and to fix

« 前へ次へ »