Sonnets and Canzonets

Exile, misapprehension, cold disdain,
For my loved cloud-rapt dream, supremacy;
To bright reality transformed romance,
Crowning with smiles the hard-earned victory.

“The hills were reared, the valleys scooped in vain,
If Learning’s altars vanish from the plain.”

    Channing.

XXII

Calm vale of comfort, peace, and industry,
Well doth thy name thy homebred traits express! —
Considerate people, neighborly and free,
Proud of their monuments, their ancestry,
Their circling river’s quiet loveliness,
Their noble townsmen’s fame and history.
Nor less I glory in each goodly trait,
Child of another creed, a stricter State;
I chose thee for my haunt in troublous time,
My home in days of late prosperity,
And laud thee now in this familiar rhyme;
Here on thy bosom the last summons wait
To scenes, if lovelier, still reflecting thee,
Resplendent both in hope and memory.

PART II.

SONNETS

“In sundry moods, ’t was pastime to be bound
Within the sonnet’s scanty plot of groud.”

    Wordsworth.

“I like that friendship which, by soft gentle pauses, steals upon the affections and grows mellow with time, by reciprocal offices and trials of love; that friendship is like to last long, and never shrink in the wetting.”

    Howel.

I

In Youth’s glad morning, when the rising East
Glows golden with assurance of success,
And life itself ’s a rare continual feast,
Enjoyed the more if meditated less,
’T is then that friendship’s pleasures chiefly bless,
As if without beginning, – ne’er to end, —
So rich the season and so dear the friend,
When thou and I went wandering hand in hand;
Mine wert thou in our years of earliest prime,
Studious at home, or to the southern land
Adventuring bold; again in later time,
Thy kindly service, always at command
Of calm discretion, and abounding sense,
Prompted and showed the path to excellence.

“Power above powers! O heavenly eloquence!
That, with the strong rein of commanding words,
Dost manage, guide, and master the eminence
Of man’s affections more than all their swords;
Shall we not offer to thy excellence
The richest treasure that our wit affords?
Or should we careless come behind the rest
In power of words that go before in worth;
When all that ever hotter spirits exprest
Comes bettered by the patience of the North?”

    Daniel.

II

My thought revives at utterance of thy name, —
Doth high behavior, sweet discourse recall,
Lit with emotion’s quick and quenchless flame,
Imagination interfused through all;
Then peals thy voice melodious on mine ear,
As when grave anthems thou didst well recite, —
Laodamia’s vision sad and dear,
Or “Thanatopsis,” or “Hail, Holy Light!”
Thou true Professor, gifted to dispense
New pathos e’en to Channing’s eloquence;
If mother tongue they fail to speak or write,
Nor Greek nor Latin draw thy pupils thence;
Such culture, taught by the far Northern sea,
This scholar brings, New England, home to thee.

“Ascending soul, sing Pæan.”

    Oracle.

III

Christian beloved! devoid of art and wile, —
Who lovest thy Lord so well, with heart so true,
That neither mist nor mote of worldly guile
May clog thy vision, nor confuse the view
Of that transcendent and commanding style
Of god-like manhood; which had dazed long while
Each purblind brother’s idol-loving eye.