MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820
XXXVII. DESULTORY STANZAS
UPON RECEIVING THE PRECEDING SHEETS FROM THE PRESS
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT, 1820
XXXVII. DESULTORY STANZAS
IS then the final page before me spread, Nor further outlet left to mind or heart? Presumptuous Book! too forward to be read, How can I give thee licence to depart? One tribute more: unbidden feelings start Forth from their coverts; slighted objects rise; My spirit is the scene of such wild art As on Parnassus rules, when lightning flies, Visibly leading on the thunder’s harmonies. All that I saw returns upon my view, 10 All that I heard comes back upon my ear, All that I felt this moment doth renew; And where the foot with no unmanly fear Recoiled–and wings alone could travel–there I move at ease; and meet contending themes That press upon me, crossing the career Of recollections vivid as the dreams Of midnight,–cities, plains, forests, and mighty streams. Where Mortal never breathed I dare to sit Among the interior Alps, gigantic crew, 20 Who triumphed o’er diluvian power!–and yet What are they but a wreck and residue, Whose only business is to perish?–true To which sad course, these wrinkled Sons of Time Labour their proper greatness to subdue; Speaking of death alone, beneath a clime Where life and rapture flow in plenitude sublime. Fancy hath flung for me an airy bridge Across thy long deep Valley, furious Rhone! Arch that ‘here’ rests upon the granite ridge 30 Of Monte Rosa–‘there’ on frailer stone Of secondary birth, the Jung-frau’s cone; And, from that arch, down-looking on the Vale The aspect I behold of every zone; A sea of foliage, tossing with the gale, Blithe Autumn’s purple crown, and Winter’s icy mail! Far as ST. MAURICE, from yon eastern FORKS, Down the main avenue my sight can range: And all its branchy vales, and all that lurks Within them, church, and town, and hut, and grange, 40 For my enjoyment meet in vision strange; Snows, torrents;–to the region’s utmost bound, Life, Death, in amicable interchange;– But list! the avalanche–the hush profound That follows–yet more awful than that awful sound! Is not the chamois suited to his place? The eagle worthy of her ancestry? –Let Empires fall; but ne’er shall Ye disgrace Your noble birthright, ye that occupy Your council-seats beneath the open sky, 50 On Sarnen’s Mount, there judge of fit and right, In simple democratic majesty; Soft breezes fanning your rough brows–the might And purity of nature spread before your sight! From this appropriate Court, renowned LUCERNE Calls me to pace her honoured Bridge–that cheers The Patriot’s heart with pictures rude and stern, An uncouth Chronicle of glorious years. Like portraiture, from loftier source, endears That work of kindred frame, which spans the lake 60 Just at the point of issue, where it fears The form and motion of a stream to take; Where it begins to stir, ‘yet’ voiceless as a snake. Volumes of sound, from the Cathedral rolled, This long-roofed Vista penetrate–but see, One after one, its tablets, that unfold The whole design of Scripture history; From the first tasting of the fatal Tree, Till the bright Star appeared in eastern skies, Announcing, ONE was born mankind to free; 70 His acts, his wrongs, his final sacrifice; Lessons for every heart, a Bible for all eyes. ‘Our’ pride misleads, our timid likings kill. –Long may these homely Works devised of old, These simple efforts of Helvetian skill, Aid, with congenial influence, to uphold The State,–the Country’s destiny to mould; Turning, for them who pass, the common dust Of servile opportunity to gold; Filling the soul with sentiments august– 80 The beautiful, the brave, the holy, and the just! No more; Time halts not in his noiseless march– Nor turns, nor winds, as doth the liquid flood; Life slips from underneath us, like that arch Of airy workmanship whereon we stood, Earth stretched below, heaven in our neighbourhood. Go forth, my little Book! pursue thy way; Go forth, and please the gentle and the good; Nor be a whisper stifled, if it say That treasures, yet untouched, may grace some future Lay. 90