EDMUND PEEL. I. TO THE RIVER TEES. TEES! if the wells we draw from shed no light, Wind out, and reach, and murmur down the vale; Strike the deep caves of thunder, black as night, Whose walls stand fast forever! What am I Thy depths to fathom, or to wield thy force, Or of thy shoals to babble, Various One? We came alike from yonder equal sky. Could I but run thy clear and sonorous course, Rejoicing thousands, disappointing none ! II. ZEAL WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE. To save the soul, to purchase Paradise, The wheels of Juggernaut crush out the cries Of hideous unavailing sacrifice, As when to Moloch reeked the bloody plain! As when the fire-devoted shrieked amain ! As when lean agony, in lowly guise, Groaned on the lofty pillar! - Better pray For light, than hold a taper unapproved, Than give a wrong direction to the blind! Elijah laughed to scorn the frantic bray And the red gashes, which to frenzy moved Zeal without knowledge, plaguing human kind. III. TO WINTER. THOU of the snowy vest and frosted hair, Rather shall praises in my song prevail, So long, O Winter! to my soul be dear. SIR AUBREY DE VERE. I. TIME MISSPENT.* THERE is no remedy for time misspent ; Heavier than active souls can feel or guess. Not now to be redeemed! ye sting not less, To walk, adorning earth, with hope of heaven. * From "A Song of Faith, Devout Exercises, and Sonnets, by Sir Aubrey de Vere, Bart., 1842." II. ORIGIN OF THE SOUL. IT cannot be that by traduction come Our souls, like growth of the corporeal frame : But spirit is of heaven, from whence it came, But meet no phantom risen from the tomb. Called forth? or as our flesh demands? The night Of childhood, and man's meditative morn, Thrill with vague memories; and blind impulse brings Shadows perplexed of pre-existing things! |